What An Awesome Week!

Kumusta po kayo pamilya?! It's a beautiful day in Provo!

Funny story. So, we were passing by a girl in the residence hall and instead of saying hello to everyone, we say Kumusta to get in routine of the language using it as much as possible. Well, so she said hello and we responded with "Kumusta" and she looked at us and said, "I'm Korean!" I about died! It was the funniest thing to me that she thought we got her nationality wrong when we were just speaking her language. We told her "We're learning Tagalog" and then she said "Oh" and went in her room. I felt bad, but my companion and I laughed for forever!

So I also have a saying for Tyler, because he always says "What the heck!" Well, in Tagalog it's "Ano biyan". The spelling might be wrong, but I just know how it sounds, and have never seen it written. It's pronounced "ah-no buy-on". Just a funny side note :)

Well, like the subject said, you probably thought I was out of cool news. Well, wrong. This week was amazing! Grif, listen up. Well, Griffin and I were always joking that we would be in the MTC with David Archuleta, but I never thought it would be true...until, he arrived!!!!!!!! He's been like a foot away from me and when he walks into the lunch room each time, all the heads turn! (including mine) I loved his music and having seen him in concert, etc at BYU Idaho..but, he's so humble here and just wants to be known as a missionary. He's nothing more than each one of us. But, there are a ton of unhappy missionaries because he just got here Wed and we perform Sat. in conference, but they're letting him in and not all the others who still had like 2 years of experience, but it just wasn't enough. They feel alot of favoritism, and I personally don't think it's exactly fair, but I'm not going to make a big deal about it..the girls are excited to have him sing with us! He's awesome! So, that was my exciting news of the week! Elder Archuleta is going to Chile I believe, because rumor had it that it was Philippines or Chile and it's not Philippines..he's so tiny, too, especially when you're right next to him!

Anyway, we perform tomorrow. It's crazy that it's here already and I'm wearing the white shirt with bow on it. It was a nightmare with the RS pres trying to coordinate colors and all these things we COULDN'T wear and we can't even have our undershirt showing. I almost called JeNeal to see if she had something, but I got it all worked out! Tuesday we practiced for 4 hours in total and all the girls have asked me to do their hair and makeup tomorrow, so it'll be a busy morning for me!

Well, for those who asked (Grandma Jolene) It's Elder Saaid and Taukei. You can just send it to my same mailbox number, or Dear Elder it to the same place, but putting their names as the person it's going to, not mine. Thank you so much. It'll mean the world to them! They loved my companion's brother's letter to them, so I know they'll love yours! Speaking of Elders. There has been a particular elder in my district who thinks it's ok to break rules, check his email daily and more than once a day, go on FB hacking the computer to get on, etc. Well, Elder "X" see's him doing it and thinks it's okay. We had a devo on Tuesday night and in it he said that if we're not helping our companion/district, etc to be obedient, then maybe we should go home too. I have never really said anything because I didn't know how, but as soon as Elder "X" getting on to check the rugby stats, I told him no. He only had two days and he could do it then. He's already struggling and being disobedient isn't going to be in his favor. I said it was disrespectful to us sisters especially, but everyone around them who is witnessing it and he got off. He later pulled me aside and thanked me for telling him not to do it. He said that he's stubborn sometimes and he needed someone to keep in check and he really appreciated it. It made me feel good to know that he took it as me saying it because I loved him, not to be rude and he hasn't done it since. I've obviously been put in their district for a reason and i'm trying to do my best to have them raise the bar. They only have 2 years to act, and the rest of their life to think about it. I've learned the important message to NOT WASTE A MINUTE! It's so vital here, especially with the resources we have that we won't have in the field!

Well, we've had lessons with both our teachers as investigators. They are JunJun and Dennis. There are NO NOTES allowed in any of the lessons or prayers. After 2 weeks, it's all in Tagalog! crazy to think about! We have to memorize 30 words a day and sometimes more if we're feeling like over achievers . All the elders give me grief because of how I memorize. I have to think of an analogy for how to connect the word with the meaning and they all laugh because they are so dumb sometimes. They give me grief, but they always tell me when they're quizzed that they think about my analogies. haha. I also wanted to come up with a game to get everyone involved in learning in language study because they all goof off and so I came up with Spin the Bottle-Tagalog style! So someone starts and we spin the bottle. Whoever it points to, the person has to give them a word to say in Tagalog. They say it helps, so we do that a lot! I want them to be excited about learning and not slack off and just complain that they aren't getting it. We have to practice hard, to play hard.

Zone leaders are two elders in my district, Sis King is coordinating sister, and I am music coordinator for the zone and permanent pianist for each Sunday. oh boy! haha.

All the other districts leave Mon for the field, which puts us as senior missionaries..we're old! We get 25 new missionaries and 3 new sister roommates.

Funny story.

The other night in a demo for companionship study, we as companionship's were split up into two rooms-one in an actual room and the other room was the observatory room. It was not engaging, so we all were sort of bored. My companion especially. I was in the room w/ 4 elders, 1 other sister, and 3 teachers. All the sudden, I see a piece of paper put on the window sneakily that we could read in the observation window. It said "Maganda po ang kasama ko" which means my companion is beautiful! haha We all died laughing because it was so random and funny and it was obvious she wasn't paying attention. Then like 5 min later another paper folded in half read" Mahal Kita which is I love you and then because I was in the room with so many guys, she flipped up the flap and it said: "Not you, I'm talking to Sis Arnold." It was so funny and we were all laughing so hard and for forever. It's the simplest things in the MTC that are so funny! love her!

Also on Tues night, our speaker said not to worry about our families and they are doing just fine and being blessed because of our service. I love hearing that and then getting a dear elder from dad that said that same thing! I am glad the family is doing so great and seeing so many blessings! It's not all because of me, but the Lord knows each and everyone of us individually! We should constantly strive to keep Christ as the center of our lives in everything we do!

I encourage you all to prepare yourselves for conference to receive personal revelation and let the Lord communicate to you individually! He may be talking, but are we listening on the other end? Don't be afraid of offending Satan.

"If it's not fun, you're not doing it right!" I must be doing something right because as I center my life around Christ, I see miracles each day accompanied with fun! I love it here and am so thankful to be on a mission. I KNOW this church is true and that it was restored through Joseph Smith. I know that we have a prophet called on Earth today to lead and guide us and I am so excited to hear from him and his apostles this weekend! I can't wait to get out and serve the people in the Philippines! Here's to another week!

I love you all and tell everyone hi for me!

Mahal Kita