Day 8 MTC on First P Day

Kamusta pamilya!

Sorry if i don't capitalize things. the shift key on this keyboard is hard, haha. my first week here was crazy! The first week has been super busy, but i finally feel like i belong here. i forgot what I already told you in my first letter, but I have two companions: Sister Malietoa and Sister Anderson. I love them both soo much! I'm senior companion (which surprised me since Sister Anderson is and 23 and is more of a leader) but it's really helping me to learn things quickly around here. Being in a trio is harder than i thought. It takes a lot more planning and we're learning how to use our time more effectively.

We have a lot of study time everyday: personal, companion, and language study time. Then we have class twice a day for like 3 hours or something. my teacher is Brother Elmer. he's incredible at Cebuano and teaching us spiritual insights. Everything we do here is focused on the investigators. Right now we're teaching a man from Cebu, Philippines named Cixto (not really--he's one of our teachers, but he's using a person he actually taught as his character). The first lesson was crazy hard. i thought it would be easier with two companions, but it's hard to give us each time to teach. Whenever he asks us questions, i can only answer in baby talk because we haven't really learned much grammar yet. in the first lesson, we taught him how to pray, read the Book of mormon, and we bore our testimonies, and gave him commitments and promises---all in Cebuano!!! And that was only Friday! it's seriously a MIRACLE that we are able to speak so much Cebuano. When we study the language, we're not just studying for ourselves or to learn a fun new language. we're studying so we can teach them the gospel and bring them closer to Christ.

900 missionaries came in the day I reported to the MTC. As a result, we are now having our Tuesday devotionals at the Marriott Center!!!!! WOOOO! it was super weird being back at BYU, especially on the walk over. It felt nice and normal though.

I'm doing the choir with Ryan Eggett!! There's about 2000 people in the choir! It used to only be about 600 before, haha. At our last choir practice, towards the end, Ryan grabbed the microphone and said in his deep voice, "Amanda Smith. Come down and say our closing prayer." I knew he was going to ask me to pray! (I ran into Rachel Leishman just that day and she told me how he always picks on old choir members to say the prayers). I said the prayer in Cebuano! I figure no  one would know what it was so it wouldn't matter if I could only say a few things in my baby talk.

I absolutely love my district! We all get along really well. there's 9 people: 4 sisters going to Cebu, 2 elders going to Tacloban, and then me and my mga kauban (companions). ;) We have soooo much fun together! I think we bond quicker than English speaking missionaries because we have cooperate to even understand what our teacher is saying, haha. I'm really loving the small classroom setting. i can participate a lot and have all my questions answered quickly.

Thanks for all the letters!!!! (especially Moo!--although a real letter would be nice, too ;))

As for the huge broadcast thingy, this is what Ryan told us: on the 23rd, there is going to be a Worldwide training thingy all about missionary work! The MTC choir is going to be singing with about 1400 other members in this compilation of video clips of missionaries around the world! So I get to be in a video that'll be posted on the church website! woot! All the apostles will be there as well as anyone involved in missionary work in anyway. i don't think you can come to it live, but you can watch for me in the sea of missionaries singing!

Believe it or not, the food here actually isn't that bad. But i think i'll get sick of it after 6 weeks of being here. And no, Dad, I'm not experiencing any "adversity," ;)

I love the scripture journal I got! I've taken so many notes already! I take it everywhere. Here's the spiritual thought of the week. It's from a talk we watch on Sunday from Elder Bednar! I don't know what it's called or if you can find it anywhere, but it talked about discerning between your thoughts and the Holy Ghost. He simply said: stop worrying about it! If you're doing what's right and pressing forward, your steps will be guided. If you are good, then every good thought you have is inspired by the holy Ghost, even if you do not recognize it as the Holy ghost at the time. God shouldn't have to smack us with the Holy Ghost to think what He would think and do what He would do.

All in all, i love it here! My brain may fried from studying flashcards in all my spare time, but the Spirit is soooo strong here! I'm always running into old friends everywhere I go. sorry this letter is so scatterbrained! Even my P-days are jam packed with stuff i need to get done--i still have to prepare my lesson for Cixto this evening. Um, lemme know if I left anything out that you had asked in your letters.

Peace out! Gugma,
Sister Smith ;)

P.S. My address has sort of changed: they moved up the date i leave to July 16, not the 18th, fyi. But i still get my mail either way. :)