.: Week 2 Holy Cow, it's been two weeks!

Week 2

Dear Family and Friends,

Hello everyone! :) So glad I get to talk to you again. I would like to just give a shout out to my cute Dad :) HAPPY FATHERS DAY! I think you are the cutest dad and I am so grateful for all you do. Don't know how I was blessed with the best dad. THANK YOU dad ;) Okay I hope it is a good one and I am sad I won't be able to be there with you, but I am sending my love from the Philippines!

Okay so this week.The time in the MTC is weird. Some days are short, some days feel like 3 days, and it feels like the week has been long and short...haha. Let's just say that 16 hour days can get a little crazy. :) But anyway, I feel like so many things have happened since I emailed last. Can't wait to tell you ALL ABOUT IT.

Last Wednesday we were able to go to the temple and today as well. And the Manila temple is absolutely gorgeous. :) It is so nice to be able to go to the temple and just feel the spirit. Be able to get away from all the learning and studying we do all day. P-days are so fun! There is not a whole lot to do, we go to the store and sneak treats into our rooms...haha don't tell anyone ;)

P-day Temple Trip!

The MTC days seem to all blend together. We do a lot of studying, whether it has something to do with being a missionary or studying the language. A lot of you know the missionary purpose. "Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end." and I quoted it because is is what I learn about all day everyday. I hear the phrase, "Teach with the Espiritu Santo" almost 100 times a day. :) We learn how to better teach people about baptism, how we can personally teach people by the Holy Ghost, and how we always need to be thinking about our investigators. When people talk about losing yourself in the work, this is exactly what they are talking about.

Language study is a whole other story. I am sure this is how it is learning other languages too, but sometimes with Tagalog I just have to learn to not ask questions and tell myself, "Abby, that is just the way it, don't overthink it." And it really is so true. I really enjoy learning the language despite the slow progress in learning it. I really have to take baby steps and understand there is no way I can pick up a language in less than a week--but that won't stop me from trying haha.I am constantly reviewing, always speaking to the Filipinos--they laugh and teach us how to say things all the time, It is really such a fun environment here. :) I do feel like I am progressing little by little. I can pray in Tagalog, testify and very basic sentences. The MTC teaches us more on the gospel side of phrases and that really helps with teaching our investigators.

Which brings me to my next point. Investigators! In the MTC our teachers pretend to be investigators, a lot of them are portraying people from their missions. As a companionship we teach them. We spend a good part of the week preparing lessons and preparing ourselves to teach our investigators. We have been teaching 2 this week. We treat them like a normal investigator, and it really helps a lot with being a missionary, the language...everything. Sister Singer and I teach pretty well together. A lot of the times we will be talking to the investigator and we will say the exact same thing at the exact same time...espiritu santo is real people!

So many funny things happen in the MTC and honestly it's probably only funny because we sit in a classroom all day BUT I thought I would share a few things with you. I feel like the group of Elders and Sisters in my zone have been my friends forever, we all get along so well and just laugh all the time :) Here are some funny things:

-We belt Disney songs, we all prefer High School Musical. The Samoans get really into it. The other day they did an island version. Imagine like the haka-gotta go my own way kind of thing. ;)

-When we were supposed to be doing language study we pretend we are a call center because we all have matching headsets.

-We dare each other to eat weird foods that we are served. The other day I got dared to eat a fish head--eyes and all.

-One time me and Sister Singer were in a lesson. And it was just right before I was going to testify--the spirit in the room was awesome....And I am about to share my testimony and I called her by the wrong name. Yeah, the moment died and we all started laughing.

-My roommates are funny girls. In the Philippines it is really okay to say people look fat and they love to point out zits and everything like that. The Filipinos like to call me Sister Zombie--they think it is absolutely hilarious.

So there are just a few things that happen that are dumb, but I hope they make you laugh a little bit :)

To end on a spiritual note. My favorite days are Sundays and Tuesdays. Sunday we have to prepare a 3 minute talk and you are just assigned 20 minutes in advance if you are speaking. I was asked to speak and it was actually really awesome. I spoke on the power of prayer and prayer really is so awesome. I have found that I love my morning and late night prayers. Tuesday devotionals are so awesome. We had Elder Pajaro speak to us of the Seventy. And he talked about his conversion, and how special his missionaries are to him :) It made me so excited for missionary work and how much I love this gospel.

I hope you all have a great week. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers :)

Love

Sister Zarbock