Letter 1 (Isa)

Dearest Nanay (and everyone else who reads these)

Guess what happens when you get to the MTC on Wednesday and your P-day is Thursday? That's right, you have to wait and week and a day.

So, let's see how much I can write in an hour as I wait for my laundry to wash (That's right. I am now an adult doing my own laundry at a laundry mat!)


 

So the minute I walked away with my large orange luggage I went and got my nametags/room key/and other information. So they give you a PMG is your mission language. So when I'm at the book store and I say I'm speaking Hiligaynon they send me to the end of the long line of Preach My Gospels, and they hand me a large, yellow, plastic bag filled with a small hymn book (there's 30 hymns or so. I haven't counted them) Pamphlets (English) a dictionary, language objectives, an English Preach My Gospel, and Chapter 3 PMG in Ilonggo. And some other things. It's heavy.

 

So the minute I walked into class and sat down my Teacher (Brother Hong) spoke Hiligaynon at me. Now I may have been hearing it for the past three months every Monday from Brother Grunvig, but it was nearly impossible for me to understand that I was supposed to grab my ID card and follow him to the Computer Lab. Eventually I figured it out.

 

So there are 8 other Missionaries in my District. (we are district A for Awesome) There are the two elders: Elder Gang and Elder Neilsen. Sister Kumar (who is a riot, and from Fiji) and Sister Watkins. Sister Moser and Sister Leifson. Those six are headed to Bacolod.

 

 

Mga kaupod mo (My companions) are Sister Jenkins and Sister Quent. S. Quent is from T-ville, and is a 2012 Cottonwood HS Alumni. And to answer your question. No, we actually have never met before. Small world! We all get along wonderfully, and as a district we are rather mild and calm compared to the other districts in our zone who have islanders / All Elders. In three weeks when they all leave for Cebu/Cebu East We will be the Oldies in the zone.

 

Speaking of people from High school! I sometimes see Elder Hirst on the way to meals, and I've seen Sister Watts twice. Elder Duffy is still here! And I haven't had my camera on me when I've seen him. Hopefully I catch him at Choir on Sunday before he leaves (he has six days left here) Sister Harper is ON MY FLOOR. She's just down the Hall and to the right! How crazy is that?? I actually am scheduled to leave before her (by like, two days.)

 

Speaking of Departure dates (haha. these letters are going to have to get more organized, I can''t just let my mind jump from subject to subject.) My email from the MTC said I would be leaving the Third of December, but a paper I received with my nametag says the first. So. . . I don't know which it is! We'll just have to find out when I get my Travel Plans.)

 The food here is pretty great (never as good as home, but when is anything better than a home cooked meal?) The first few days I pretty much ate anything in front of me, because my old eating schedule was so different! I'm eating less now that my stomach is adjusting and no longer ruling my mind.

 

We had our first Gym day on Friday. I have never been so happy in my life to ever go to a gym! When all you do is sit and eat, running is a pretty fabulous thing. Sister Moser lead us through some core workouts, and I hurt for days afterward. So for now, I'm just going to stick to the step machine (I'm going 2.5 miles a day. I'm proud of me.)

 

I'm sure you want to know about the language! So the Gift of Tongues (Ang Reggalo sang mga Hinambalan) is a real thing! I now pray in Broken Hiligaynon (so it includes several phrases of English spread throughout my Ilonggo), make commitments, turn to scriptures, count, organize simple sentences (Verb, Actor, Object, Location/Receiver) and bare simple testimonies. So my English is just going to get worse and worse. When we say simple English sentences, usually someone from the district (myself included) will go "Now say that in Ilonggo order!" So instead of "The missionaries taught the people" we have to say "Taught Missionaraies people." Whenever we say something in terrible English (a normal slip of the tongue) I tend to say "You're English is getting worse! Congratulations!"

 

We're also teaching an investigator! We're terrible. We've taught her four times so far, and we are getting better. . .

The second day I was here they gave me a TD Shot. So if you were wondering what they insurance thing I send you was, that was it. But I can't complain, poor Sister Kumar had to get Five Shots.

When you're a newbie everyone just tells you, "Make it to Sunday!" Well I made it to Sunday! Guess what Relief Society does! They watch MUSIC AND THE SPOKEN WORD! I saw Tatay smiling, like, seven times! We also have choir, Sister Watkins does splits with me so that we can go (because the rest of my companionship didn't want to.)

Today I'm trying to figure out how to get pictures uploaded. . . and how big they can be, and how many I get up. I'm pretty sure that I can only do one per email. So this will take a while.

So Until Then!

Kabalo Ako nga Matuod Ang Ebanghelyo! (I know the Gospel is True!)

- Sister Smith



First Letter Home

Dear Sister Smith

It was Friday, July 12th, 2013. I had been going through my morning routine –Eating Breakfast, Unloading the Dishwasher, Watering the Garden, Watering the Flowers— as quickly as I could so that I could make my way to the library and exchange one large stack of books for another. I had placed my books in the car, and was getting ready to step inside the car myself, when I spotted the mail truck coming down the hill of my street. My thoughts went something along the line of, “What is the Mailman doing here at 10:30 in the morning?” Because I knew that the mailman NEVER came before 3:00, because I had been diligently waiting for him for Two Weeks, checking the mail at 3:00, and then every following half-hour to until it came.

My confusion was quickly changed to an unrealistic hope that he had stopped by just for me, but just after I quickly squashed the idea, the truck stopped, and then started coming back in reverse, then stopped in front of my driveway. I approached the vehicle cautiously, worried that if I might wake up from this dream, trying not to get my hopes up… But really, why else would the mailman stop in front of MY house?

Our conversation went along the lines of

Mailman: Are you Hannah Smith?
Me: That’s me!
Mailman: Then I believe this is yours.
Me: *Squeals and Jumps of Delight* oh ThankyouSOMUCH!!

I think I might have scared him a bit with my antics.

I waved goodbye and quickly ran back to the house, my trip to the library completely forgotten, and called parents, grandparents, siblings, and select friends.  They all confirmed that they would be there (except for two friends, one who had work, and another who was out of town. And Rachel, who couldn’t drive down, but who we were able to Skype. Yay Technology!!).

And then I had to take a picture of it and put it on Facebook telling everyone to make their guess.

The rest of the day consisted of finally going to the library, and cleaning the house. When out of the blue I got a call from BYU Freshmen Mentoring.

It turns out that when you don’t apply for classes for a month, they become concerned and want to know if you’re planning on attending in the Fall Semester. That concern was quickly demolished when I told the woman on the other end of the line that I had just gotten my call from the mailman two hours previously. She was disappointed that she didn’t get to hear where I was going, but was happy to learn that I already knew how to defer my enrollment. She gave her congratulations, and then I continued to clean the house and make cookies.

That evening we gathered in a circle and everyone gave their guesses (The favorite guess being my niece’s- Disney Land. We took that to mean Japan, California, or Florida).

 

Dear Sister Smith:

 

You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Philippines Iloilo Mission. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 18 months.

 

You should report to the Provo Missionary Training center on Wednesday, October 23, 2013. You will prepare to preach the gospel in the Hiligaynon language.

 

Awesome Guessing Points went to Becca and Keatley (Keatley had been saying Philippines the minute I started my papers, she must know something the rest of us don't!)

We had to look up how to say Iloilo (Pronounced EelOh-eeloh), and I didn't find out how to pronounce Hiligaynon until the next day when I found out that the Ward Young Women's President's Husband had served in my area! (I knew he'd served in the Philippines, but he also spoke Hiligaynon (Hee Lee Guy Non), also known as Ilonggo (EE long oh), and is now teaching it to me!)

So now It's time to prepare to serve the Lord!