Holy Baptism By Fire, Batman!

KUMUSTA FROM THE MTC!!! Kumusta means hello and how are you at the same time, so it's a little confusing walking down the Tagalog hall when people talk to you. I never know when they're just saying hi and when they actually want me to respond! haha, mildly awkward.

Well, I'll tell you a little about my district.

• Sister Taufa and Sister Doucette. Goodness, they are the sweetest people on this planet. They are total opposites visually- Sister Taufa's Tongan (though she was born in UT), and Sister Doucette is short and very caucasian. But really, they are the examples of how to be a companionship. So loving and spiritually focused.
• Sister Morrell and Sister Milsom. Ay, are they crazy. Sister Morrell is the one that I met in Salt Lake, and she is very much a girl. She always looks so good, and so tan, and just GORGEOUS. She's not ditzy, but just very... California girl. Sister Milsom is from Australia. Wow, she's a handful. She loves talking about how much she dislikes Americans and America, and how our cheese is too plastic-y and how our fruit is bland and how our money doesn't make sense. She's funny, but I've learned that Australians are VERY sarcastic and can be a little rude without thinking about it. I've gotten to know her though, and it's fun to dish it right back to her. From her I've learned that the public toilets in Australia have lids, there IS a difference between a tomato and a tom-ah-to, and that koalas and kangaroos are not cute and cuddly but could scratch your face off or kick you to death quite easily.
• Elder Hall, Elder Simeona and Elder Simiti. There could not be a more different group of mga kasama. Elder Hall grew up in West Valley (He knows Jameson Woolf, actually), is very American, and is just naive but in a good way. Elder Simeona is 1/4 Japanese, 1/4 Hawaiian, and 1/2 something else exotic. He's a bigger guy, but he's the youngest. He is kind of quiet, but just sits in the corner and listens. Elder Simiti is from Samoa, and is so awesome! He's 22, and always talks about how blessed he is for being called to learn 2 languages instead of just one (his English isn't very good). He loves to talk about his country, and I told him about the Saniatu ward and how I know a little Samoan. Actually, there are about 7-8 Elders in our area that are Samoan, so it can be hard when they're talking/singing to know what's Tagalog and what's Samoan! They call all of us sisters their pepe's, which is Samoan for butterfly. It's pretty funny. They're just so loving and touchy-feely that it's hard for their mga kasama, especially Elder Hall. But it's so fun!

So, the language. Oy! It's not too bad, but since our teachers raretly teach in English it's a bit rough. I'm getting it though. I can pray, bear testimony, and I know enough to kind of answer questions from our investigator. We also just started working on grammar, and it's so simple! They don't have the verb "to be" though, so that took some getting used to. For example, the sentence "The missionary is emailing her family" would be structured "Emailing missionary family". Pretty basic. The words are just a little crazy though. We've taught our investigator (Kevin) three times already! The first time was day 3. Mostly we're still pretty scripted, but this last time, he interupted Sister Hansen and asked us how we know it's true. We tried to improv and talk about the Spirit, and we threw in Moses 1:39 and Moroni's promise and such. It went well! He said if he gets an answer to his prayer he'll be baptized. We're not really sure what to do after that though! But I suppose I'm here to learn, or something..

So, I was a little worried about Gym Time since I don't really exercise, but I LOVE IT SO MUCH. I play volleyball every time! But not on the Samoan's Court. YIKES, you've gotta be good if you're going to venture over there. Elder Simiti told us that we should play with him, and I just told him in really simple English that he is so strong he'd kill me. He just laughed. So I play on the "just for fun" court with Sister Milsom. Wow, we laugh so much, especially when she does her American accent. SO funny!

So, here are the things that have happened so far that  are an integral part of who I am but my district is still learning is part of just being me.

• I have almost fallen over multiple times. One elder even offered me his crutches.
• At the temple this morning, I was shaking my umbrella out the front door, and I didn't realize that it was an automatic door that was shutting. It definitely shut on my hand while my umbrella was still open outside. It was kind of Mrs. Incredible style.
• The TALL program- learning the language on the computer. I logged on at first, and the program was all in Spanish. Apparently they had me in the computer as a native Spanish speaker. So.. we went and got it "fixed" but then I was an English speaker learning how to speak English. SO FRUSTRATING. But hey, it's me. We knew something like that was bound to happen!

Hmmm... what else. The food is decent, but it's just too... too. If that makes sense. It's good, but wow, after an hour or two you just don't feel like doing anything. Oh, mga kasama and I are the only ones in our room! Very unheard of. We'll probably get some more roommates tomorrow, since it's a six person room. Scratch that. it's a four person room with an extra bunk bed. But hey, it's cozy! Plus, we've discovered that there are Narnia holes everywhere. Anywhere stuff can be hidden, there is usually something there. We just found a giant drawer chock full of candy, and I found a temple recommend holder behind an outlet cover on my desk. Yay free stuff! Ah, I wish I could remember everything!

Oh, I'll write my testimony in Tagalog. :) (totally memorized!)

Alam ko po na totoo po ang Simbahan ni Jesucristo ng mga Banal sa mga Huling Araw. Alam ko po na mahalaga po ang Aklat ni Mormon, at totoo po ag Aklat ni Mormon. Alam ko po na buhay po si Jesucristo, at mahalaga po ang pagbabayad-sala ni Jesucristo. Sa pangalan ni Jesucristo, amen.

Well it's not much, but it's a start, right? haha. I love you all! And please tell people to write!

Sincerely brain-dead,

Sister Amy Porter

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