October 28, 2011

 

Kumusta!

Wow, this week went by so much faster than all the other weeks. We are half way and I cannot believe it!!! This week has been really great. We had two new sisters come into our zone, so we're not the newbies anymore. It's been so fun having them here and it's a blessing to be able to realize how far we have come in four weeks. I feel like I am so close to having everything start to click with the language. It's really exciting and I am so excited for when all the things I have learned will start to click together.

This week was uneventful for the most part. I am feeling much better and am so grateful for blessings. They really do work and I am grateful for all the worthy Elders in my district. They are so great and always so willing to help Sister Allen and I.

Well I am already out of time. Sorry this is so short, never enough time to get all the emails done.

Alam ko po na totoo po ang Simbihan ni Jesucristo. Nagpapasalamat po ako para sa ebanghelyo at pakakataon magmissionero. Alam ko po na natatanggap po ko ang pahahayag sa pamamagitan ng panalangin na sa pamamagitan ng pagbabasa ng Aklat ni Mormon. Salamat po kayo para sa pagiibig. Mahal Kita!!!

Sister Morton

(I know that the Church of Jesus Christ is true. I am thankful for the gospel and the opportunity to be a missionary. I know that I am able to receive revelation through prayer and through reading the Book of Mormon. Thank you for all you love! I love you!!!)

PS- this is my companions blog if you want a more detailed description about our week- www.lifeeverclear.blogspot.com don't judge she is the fastest typer I have ever seen and she just writes one email :)

Oct 21, 2011

 

Kumusta!

I cannot believe it has been another week already. Everyone that told me the days felt like weeks in the mtc and the weeks felt like days was right. It is so crazy how time works here! I am almost half way through my MTC stay- CRAZY!!!! This week was really great. Elder Richard G.Scott came to talk to us on Tuesday, I love having Sister Allen as a companion and the language is coming along more and more each day. I'm finally starting to feel better too. (It feels like I have been sick forever when each day feels like a week :)

Elder Scott is my FAVORITE! He was the speaker at our devotional on Tuesday night and it was so great. He talked a lot about prayer and it was just what I needed to hear. He also talked a lot about how we are called to exactly where we need to be. I know that I am supposed to be going to the Philippines. I am so excited! It is really interesting getting to know all the other missionaries who are also going to the Philippines. We all seem to have similar personalities- fun loving and kinda laid back, and all of us tend to goof off probably a little more than we should. Don't worry though- since I'm the grandma I'm pretty good at keeping our elders in line :) Elder Scott talked about what our goals should be when return home from our missions as well. He said, talking to the sisters, that we will all be blessed for serving missions and our future families will be blessed more than we can know because of our missions. It was so sweet and so great to hear. He also gave all the missionaries an apostolic blessing over the pulpit- so amazing.

Sister Allen is the best! I love having her as a companion. We are on the same page and it's so nice having someone with me all the time that has the same goals. We are getting the hang of teaching together. Yesterday was great. We taught our "investigator" and it went well and then to the TRC last night and it was amazing! We are finally able to (kinda) put sentences together, and even though it is in really choppy, horribly pronounced Tagalog it is coming! We were excited to say the least and our feed back from all the volunteers was really encouraging.

Thanks for all the letters and packages I received this week. I feel so loved and all the Elders are jealous that I get so many packages. They love it too though because I all was share, because we all know that's what grandmas do :) Well I'm out of time, but I love you all thanks for all your love and support!!!!!

MAHAL KITA!

Sister Morton

**I just did spell check and WOW my spelling is getting worse and I'm blaming it on the Tagalog!

October 14, 2011

 

Hello!!!

As usual I don't have much time to write, but I wanted to let you all know that I am still doing great! I started feeling sick yesterday, but with an awesome blessing from 8 elders yesterday and some extra sleep (the power was shut off for some construction going on so they "made" us go to bed an hour early :) I am feeling a little better today. I am loving it here. It is so nice to just be focused on one thing- becoming the best missionary I can so I can help those in th Philippines! I am learning so much! It really is amazing how much we are able to learn here in such a short amount of time.

The language is coming along. I feel like I am getting worse at teaching, but I figured out why. We have had to teach in Tagalog every time we have taught, which started on day 3, so the first few lessons we would plan everything out, find where we could read it out loud in tagalog from preach my gospel and some of our other language books and then try our best to not butcher the pronouniation. Well it seemed to be going great and we felt like we were getting better. This week we have 2 new "investigators" to teach and started the TRC (where volunteers who speak the language come in to have us teach a lesson to them- kinda scary :) This week I felt like I was a thousand times worse. I realized it's because I am now able to understand what the investigators are saying to me but I usually have no idea how to say what I need to say back in Tagalog, other than scrambling some words together. So the first lessons went so well because they probably would say "how can this help me?" or some other question I would just smile and say "mabuti" (good) and move on like an idiot :) Oh well, it's really funny and really cool that I am starting to understand. The sentence structre is crazy but I'm able to write the lessons down in my own words with help from the books and dictionary. One step closer :) I am so excited to be able to express the things I feel in Tagalog. We have learned to say simple prayers and testimonies and that is really cool as well.

Another big thing happened this week- I have a new companion! Starting today Sister Allen is my companion!!! I am so excited! I love Sister Funaki and we were finally starting to get on the same page, but President Stott (our branch president) was worried about Sister Maiava (Sister Allens comp) She is from Samoa and doesn't speak english and it is hard enough to learn Tagalog from your own language. Sister Funaki is able to communicate with Sister Maiava, ao President Stott thought it would be best to switch us up. I am so excited because I know the Sister Allen and myself will push each other to be better and really get the most out of our last 7 weeks here- I cannot believe it's only seven weeks til we are in the PHILIPPINES!!!!

Time is up but I will try to get some letters and pictures out today. We are not able to email pics from the MTC :(

MAHAL KAYO!!!! (I love you all!!!)

Sister Morton

PS-Thanks to everyone who has sent letters and packages!!!! You have know idea how much it means to get them!!!!

October 7, 2011

 

Kumusta!

Wow! I cannot believe how fast the days go by here! So so busy. I'm sorry if my spelling is hideous. It seems to be getting worse and worse as I learn more Tagalog. It is crazy how fast we are all learning it. I sometimes feel like I am not learning as quick as I should be but then I realize it has been nine days and I am praying and bearing my testimony in Tagalog and starting to learn how to form senteces- so that's actually pretty amazing. They changed the ciriculum so we actually never teach a lesson in english. We have had an "investegator" since our third day and we have taught him four times. It hasn't gone too bad, but it is really hard not being able to understand 90% of what he says. I have learned a lot about how important it is to just focus on building relationships in order to help others the best way possible. This is coming from all aspects of the MTC though, not just the classroom. I have learned so many valuable life changing things so far and I haven't even been here for two weeks. I can't imagine what it's going to be like after 18 months!

The schedule here is really tight and it was so nice to finally have our first preperation day today. Unfourtunately I poped a rib out of place yesterday schooling the elders at basketball so I had to go to the chiroprator off campus and it took three hours, so sorry if my other letters home are short. But other than that today has been nice to get things done. Speaking of elders- I love my district! It's like I have ten little brothers. I was worried that they were all going to drive me crazy, but they have been so much fun to be around. Every once and a while they will call me Sister Lola (grandma in tagalog) it's kinda cute actually and I can tell that some of them real value my opinion. I love to see how spiritual they can be one moment and then how funny they are the next. A few of the other sister in my zone have played college sports as well and it's so fun to hear the elders brag about how cool their sisters are to other people. We were playing softball this week and I kinda dove to catch a ball and all the elders jaws hit the field when I caught it. So funny.

Sister Allen is still my bestie here. We have to help each other be patient :) I am so grateful for the relationships I have been able to build here so far. My companion and I are still getting to know each other (she is so so quiet!) but I think it is getting better. My roommates sister sharp and sister ycmat are great! We crack up every single night. We all have so many inside jokes that I can't keep them all straight. I'm glad that all of the sisters, and most of the elders too are so laid back and fun loving. I think it is a quality that must be common in the philippino people. I'm excited to find out even though it is going to be so sad when I leave the MTC and all my new friends. I am the only sister here that will be going to San Pablo.

Well I don't have any time left. :( I love you all! and miss you a ton!

Mahal Kita!!!!

Sister Morton

KUMUSTA!!!!

I actually just sent you a letter yesterday because I thought we wouldn't be able to email until next Friday (which will be our preparation days will be on from now on) But SURPRISE I can email you today! I am doing good, really tired and my brain is overloaded, but really good. I cannot believe how fast the language is coming. We had to teach our first investigator yesterday in TAGALOG! Yup day 2 and a half and we had to try to teach in Tagalog. It was really rough but we were able to get through it, and if you ask me I think we did a pretty good job at it. So we is myself and my companion (kamasa) Sister Funaki. She is from Tonga! There are a few cultural differences that are taking some getting used to, but she is so sweet and very caring. We are trying to get used to the schedule, which is proving to be difficult :) I feel like I am rushing around everywhere and we have so many books and papers I am always misplacing things. But things are really good and I'm so happy to be here! The sisters in my zone are so fun and I have already made some good friends. The Elders are great too! We will have really spiritual meetings and it's only later in the cafeteria when I hear them talking about Star Wars and Top Gear that I remember how much younger they really are. For the most part everyone in my zone has a strong desire to serve the Lord and strive to do their best. It is great!!!

We have had so many am zing opportunities to feel the Spirit. I have never felt the Spirit so strong and it is so comforting to know that I am where I am supposed to be. I am so so so grateful that I am one of the oldest here. I've realized that my experiences have, and will be able to help others I meet along the way. Because I am older and it has taken me so long to get to this point it is so much easier for me to be obedient and have a positive attitude because I realize just how precious this gift of being able to be a missionary really is. I am so grateful for my Savior and the love I feel from Him. I didn't realize that when I put on my name tag, I would be instantly receiving the extra blessings of discernment and guidance. It really is incredible to feel myself being guided by the Spirit. The first full day I met Sister Allen. She is the only other Sister in our zone with an international companion but her companion is Samoan and doesn't speak English and she is from Cedar Hills! I could tell that she was struggling and so I gave her a hug and she just started crying. She is doing better now and she so great! Our companions can communicate with each other so we have spent a lot of time together and she is becoming a great friend and her first name is Kimberly ha ha :) I guess it was meant to be. I've just wanted to be able to call everyone I love and tell them how amazing it is and how that the Spirit is so strong! I have to go but I love you so so so so much!!!! Thanks for all your love and support!!

MAHAL KITA! (LOVE YOU)

Sister Morton