Sister Morgan the Pioneer

This week has been crazy in so many ways! The new mission president seminar is going on where they come to learn how to be in charge of a mission. The 12 Apostles all come to teach it, but I haven't seen any yet. Last Saturday, they finished renovating a building, so they had us pack up and move to it. Well, just a couple days ago they gathered all the sisters together for an emergency meeting. I was super excited, thinking that maybe one of the apostles would make a surprise visit. Nope! One of the men in charge announced that a bat had been found in one of the rooms and that we all need to pack up and move back to our original housing. Biggest letdown ever hahaha. I felt somewhat like the pioneers who were told to also pack up their belongings and move out west. At least I'm getting better at packing (or just throwing things in randomly and hope they stay put). The whole experience drove every one batty, but I just said to put your shoulder to the suitcase and push along. 

Last Tuesday devotional, Elder Nash of the 70 spoke! It was so cool to see the man that my mom's family knows. He spoke on the Plan of Salvation, which is basically God's plan for us to come to this Earth and follow His commandments and then return back to Him. I especially liked how he said when you have an eternal perspective, meaning that you think not only about your earthly life, but rather your potential in an infinite sense, lots of questions about your purpose on Earth and how you should live your life are answered.

My Tagalog is coming along great! It's so cool to see how when you put forth your best effort to learn, God makes up for the rest. I know that it is through divine help that I have been able to teach in Tagalog. I also had the opportunity to skype to church members who live in the Philippines! Sister McMillan and I taught a lesson about the importance of prayer to a woman named Danika who lives in Metro Manila. It was so cool to actually be able to communicate effectively with her and have her understand what I was saying. It made me even more excited to get on that plane and go. 2 more weeks!

Word of the Week: Karumal-dumal --- Filthiness (It's just so fun to say!)

The Rap Master

This week has been wonderful! I thought I'd combine my two superior skills of Tagalog and rapping and drafted a Tagalog rap all about missionary work in class. Everybody enjoyed it and it actually helped to remember grammar and other vocab words. I also memorized the entire first vision (Joseph Smith History 1: 16-17) sa Tagalog! It took a lot of brain power and pacing up and down the halls but I can do it! 

As part of our time here, we sometimes do service in the morning, which usually consists of cleaning the classroom buildings. This last week I got to vacuum the edges and use the backpack vacuum. I felt like I was staring in Ghostbusters the entire time. 

Lately, I've been reading the book, "Jesus the Christ" by James E. Talmage. I would highly recommend it to everyone who desires to learn more about the purpose and life of the Savior. Overall, life at the MTC is going well and I'm super excited to leave for the Philippines in just about 3 weeks!

Word of the Week: Magsisi - Repent 

I Became a Prefect!

This week has been very busy, mostly studying the language. My companion, Sister McMillan and I became Sister Trainer Leaders! This means we are in charge of all the sisters in our zone, which is about 20 people. It's the equivalent of being a zone leader, or being a prefect over a Hogwarts house. We had a teaching opportunity to meet with local members who speak Tagalog. One of the people was a guy whose name is Brother Josephson. Apparently, he went to UW for his undergrad and attended the Lake Forest Park ward and knows everybody there really well! On Wednesday, we said goodbye to the district ahead of us that was leaving for the Philippines. We also got two new districts of incoming missionaries, so now I'm not a newbie anymore! It's funny how smart they think we are haha. For the devotionals, we got to hear from President and Sister Tanner, the new president of BYU-Hawaii, and Sister Burton, the General Relief Society President. I enjoyed both of their talks immensely.

Word of the Week: Lumba lumba --- dolphin

Free email for MTC

There is a website called: www.dearelder.com . There you can enter in my name and write a message to me. The MTC will then print it out and deliver it to me! It's free and same day delivery. I won't be able to respond back until PDAY, but I like getting mail, so even if it's a report of what you guys had for dinner, write to me on that as well as email.

You set up a user and password then select "Write a Letter" and select "Provo MTC" 
Unit# is 92 Mission is PHI-OLO and Est MTC Departure is "JUL 15"

Give it a try!  But hurry--it only works for the MTC which I will be leaving July 15th.

10 Points to Ravenclaw!

So everyone here thinks that I'm really smart, but a bit quirky with my puns. I guess I am destined to be a Ravenclaw! My district and I got to attend the Provo temple. The grounds are super pretty and we got to take pictures together.

In the MTC, you get the opportunity to teach a fake investigator, a person who is interested in learning more about the Church. My companion and I taught Daryl (the investigator) all in Tagalog! It's crazy to think that I've only been here about a week, but I can already teach all the lessons in another language! Plot twist: Daryl is actually one of our teachers who'll teach us for the next 5 weeks!

Every Sunday and Tuesday the MTC holds a devotional, where a speaker will come to talk. On Sunday, we heard from Janice Kapp Perry, a famous composer who has written many hymns and children's songs. Her talk really showed to me the power that music has in bringing in the spirit. On Tuesday, we got to hear from D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles. It was really neat being super close to an apostle of the Lord. He answered basic missionary questions and one thing that stuck out to me was he said "Quitting doesn't make you feel any better." There are times where the language can be frustrating or waking up at 6:30 each morning is hard, but I know that if I put forth my best effort, the Lord will make up the rest. Word of the Week! Nox -- Wow! (Also a Harry Potter spell)

And I said hey....WHAT'S GOING ON!

Hello everyone! My P-Day here is on Saturdays, so that's when I can e-mail y'all! I've gotten to the MTC safely and now everyone here thinks I'm the master guru at Tagalog! I came here knowing only about 15 words and suddenly all the Sisters in my district (a group of about 10 missionaries) always ask me for what things mean. They each have the goal to try and beat Sis. Morgan, which I think is funny. All the Sisters (pronounced Seetors with a Tagalog accent) are wonderful! My kasama, or companion, is Sister McMillan. She is from Spanish Fork, UT (just 15 minutes north of Provo) and is the first person in her family to serve a mission. 

The language so far has been crazy! On the first day, within hours of getting to the MTC, they put us in class where the teachers (return RMs) only speak Tagalog. It's been only three days, but I can already say my prayers in Tagalog! It's been a lot harder to learn than German. In class, I have to resist the temptation to blurt out phrases in German and instead think in Tagalog. Some of the words are fun to say like pananampalataya which means faith. To prepare us for the mission field, they assign us a fake investigator (someone who is interested in learning more about the Church) and we teach them completely in Tagalog! My companion and I already taught a first lesson and we'll teach more this next week. It's amazing how when you put forth your effort to learn the language, the Lord makes up the rest. 

The food here is pretty good! They have pizza Friday each week where they order a bunch of pizzas from Papa Johns. I bet the local Papa Johns is happy about that arrangement :) Mostly all my time here has been a cycle of studying scriptures, studying language, teaching others, etc. Even though I miss everyone at home, I'm really happy here and excited to serve my Heavenly Father. 

Mahal kita,

Sister Morgan

Olongapo, here we go!

I received my call to the Philippines Olongapo Mission! I report to the Provo MTC on May 27^th 2015. I’ll be there for about 6 weeks and then fly out to the Philippines. Check back each week to see updates about my adventure! Also, please write to me as much as you’d like!