The Guy on the Victorian Bike's Got Swag

Dear friends and family,

This week's been great!  First, I'll start with the fun stuff. When Sister Ordiz and I went jogging the other day, we were just going along when suddenly a guy rolls by us on a HUGE VICTORIAN BIG WHEEL BIKE. Like, one of the ones from the 1800's with the huge wheel in the front and lil one in the back.  And he had his groceries all tied to it, totally casually.  It was obviously super old, and he was legitimately using it as his regular transport.  That pretty much made my whole life, and I may have seriously wished I had a bike like that.

Here's a funny saying I found in our Tagalog dictionary, "Love is like a fishbone stuck in the throat - the more you scratch at it, the more it feels deliciously itchy."  Hmmmm..... true, I think, hahah.

I saw those huge bats that live here.  They're awesome, and they are my friends cuz they eat mosquitoes.

 

[Marinda did not take this photo.  I, her mother, found it on the web because I wanted to freak everyone out.  It's a vampire!  But actually, it probably only eats fruit, nectar, etc..  No mosquitoes. No blood sucking.  I'm not even sure the photo is legit since Wikipedia says they only grow to be about 10 inches long. Still plenty big.]

 

My companion currently learns Tagalog from my "learn Tagalog" books because a lot of times they just use English words or there's not a super direct translation (or she doesn't know it.)  Apparently her original native language is Visayas, so she knows Tagalog but doesn't speak it all the time normally, haha.  I have not been confident that Tagalog speakers actually know their own language very well most of the time since it's such a complicated and mixed language, haha.

There's a bird here that has a call that goes "whoo whoo."  It sounds like a guy cat call whistling to a girl.  It throws me off every time I hear it, hahah.

I also got sick for a couple days this week - dizziness, nausea, weakness, which I caught from one of the other two Sisters living in our apartment now.  I'm fine now though, no worries.

I would send pictures, buuut... my camera cord got left in Manila.  Hopefully I'll be getting that soon.

The biggest and most important news - WE HAD OUR FIRST BAPTISM!! Sister Jeannic (here we call most people by their first names rather than last - don't really know why, but since we teach huge extended families, saying "Sister Dagot" wouldn't make sense since there's 300 Sister Dagot's we're teaching.)  Sister Jeannic is very special, and we taught about 5 lessons to her (she was found by Sister Ordiz and her previous companion.)  I am so happy for her,and she is such a nice person.  Her testimony is profound and beautiful.

My personal revelation scripture I received this week is Alma 26:37. "Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen."      It was hard, but I know that if I bear with patience my afflictions all will be well if I do my best.  I found great comfort from that.  Mayroon kapayapaan ay ang puso ko.  [Rough Translation-"Have peace in my heart"]  We, as missionaries, have afflictions, but it's okay.  It only makes us stronger, and I have noticed the Spirit coming into my life more and more as I've served.

The people here are AMAZINGLY receptive to us.  It kind of blows my mind.  Not a single person has flat out denied taking a pamphlet from us yet (everyone is willing to take one) and they all give us their address and numbers so we can teach them.  They are a happy people and a kind people here, and are ready and willing to listen to our message.  It is difficult for many of them to make it to Church sometimes, but we do our best to help them.  The work is progressing here at a rapid pace, and I am happy to be a part of it even though it can be difficult at times.  I am excited to learn more and more Tagalog so I can teach the people and most importantly help them more effectively as a missionary called by God to serve them with my whole heart.

I love you all, and I keep you in my prayers.  Stay strong in your faith and what you are doing and know that God loves you, no matter who you are or what you are doing.  God loves you. I can bear complete testimony of that.

Much love,

Sister Larsen

 

Note from Marinda's mom:  In answer to some questions I had asked, Marinda wrote, "[My apartment] is probably nicer than my apartment at [BYU] - they set the Sisters up nice."  

Guess Where I Am!

Dear friends and family,

If you're envisioning me as writing this from Manila city or somewhere around Manila on the main island of Luzon in the Philippines, I want you to wipe that out of your mind right now.  Because it's incorrect.

I was sent to the island of Palawan!  Yep, getting trained here and everything.  One plane flight over from Manila and here we are.  My trainer is Sister Ordiz, a very nice Filipino Sister who doesn't even clear my shoulder.  We get along well, and although there's somewhat of a language barrier we understand each other most of the time because she speaks pretty decent English. 

Palawan IS beautiful. It is also very - jungley.  It is very different from the U.S. here.  People live in bamboo huts, rarely have electricity, cook over fires, etc.    Everyone here is SO kind.  They are all fascinated with me as a foreigner, and so many people are willing and happy to listen to what we have to teach.  I love how happy they all are, and the people of Palawan are a delight to be with.

Now, my main struggle is that I understand Tagalog okay-lang (just okay) when it's Gospel related.  However, when it comes to regular conversations, I can't really do much of anything.  Which is really, surprisingly hard for me to just accept.  This has been a very humbling experience, because many of the things I take for granted being able to do I cannot do here.  Everything is different.  We hand wash our clothes, ride motocabs, and most of the time I have no idea where we are or where we're going becuase the layout super confuses me (no actual addresses here.)    For those of you familiar with Homestarrunner, I feel like "Lil Brudder" from that one Strong Bad email - the one legged dog.  Except more accurately with my Tagalog it would be like I had half a leg to stand on and was asked to run a race.  It was really really hard to accept at first, but I think I can already see the gift of tongues working.  

Being here is like being on trek every day, especially since it's the rainy season.  Mud everywhere, and lots of walking.  It is really pretty though, so I'm okay with it.  The people are happy and positive, and the members are willing to help us.  Our branch is small, but our numbers are growing as we are baptizing and reactivating people.  

I ate off of a banana leaf on a hut floor the other day at a member's house with my bare hands.  That was certainly an experience.  ALL THE SEAFOOD AND RICE.  I guess fish is okay, considering I strictly avoided it for 10 years. I am slowly adjusting to the culture, food, and other things here.

Well, that's all I've got for now.  I normally will e-mail on P-day, but due to some unavoidable circumstances I ended up emailing today.  I hope everyone remembers that Christ makes weak things become strong - like me.  I no longer have any faith in myself to do the things I need to do here, so I have to be strong in my faith in Christ and Heavenly Father and know that all things will be possible through them. 

Much love from Palawan,

Sister Larsen

How Many Sisters Can You Cram on One "Trike"?

Dear mga kaibigan at mga pamilya,

First and foremost news - I report to the Manila mission (and escape the MTC!) on July 3rd.  I'm a little unclear on what happens after that, but presumably soon thereafter we will meet our new missionary trainer companions and find out our assignments for where we'll be serving the next 6 weeks or more.  We couldn't be more excited!

One thing that I thought was super cool that our MTC President said at Sacrament meeting this week was that, "An Elder asked me what the most important thing I do every week is as the MTC president.  I thought about that, pondered it, and the answer I recieved from the Lord was that partaking of the sacrament is the most important thing I do every week."  That caused me to pause and re-think the importance of the sacrament.  Sometimes I catch myself taking it for granted, but it is so very important to truly value that renewing of baptismal covenants.

Even on my mission, I have a strobelight.  Yes, it's true.  Sort of.  I was using my mini camping - lamp light that we bought for me before I came to the Philippines because there's blackouts here a lot.  I turned it on, and as I was turning it off I realized there was an "SOS" setting on it which flashes on and off.  I had MoTab playing on my bed at the time and I was like, "AWWW YEAAAHHH MOTAB PARTYYY."  My companions and I had some dignified missionary fun with that, haha.

This is cliche, but we have "service projects" we do each Saturday where we help clean up the grounds of the MTC.  Some of the Elders were assigned to sweep up the grounds, and some were assigned to take chairs from outside of the gym inside of the gym.  The Sisters were cleaning windows, when some of the Elders walked up to us holding something in their hands.  One of them was holding an adorable tiny lizard (one of my companions was super scared of it) and the other opened his hand and there was  HUMONGOUS DEAD SPIDER.  It would have been the size of his palm or larger had its legs been out.  It was gross.  I said, "Send some Elders outside, and of course they'll find spiders and lizards."  Classic.  The spider bothered me less than I would have thought it would, though, but the Elder said it was alive on his arm when it fell out of one of the chairs he picked up.  I would not have handled that so well.

Apparently, fun fact, my sneeze is recognizable from down a whole hallway and through a closed door.  I sneezed one morning in our room and a Sister yelled from very far away, "BLESS YOU SISTER LARSEN!!"  We thought that was pretty funny.

So, here's some numbers that were given to us at a devotional from a member of the Asia Area Presidency.  They're legitimate.

There's 3,335 missionaries serving in the Philippines

96 million people living in the Philippines

So that means - 36,000 people that need to be taught per missionary.

We definitely have our work cut out for us, haha.  We'll make it happen.  We're excited to serve.

Proselyting was quite good.  I loved our in-field trainer missionary companion.  This time it was our whole trio plus her together.  She was very good and efficient at what she did, but let us teach most of the lesson which was pretty awesome (although scary, too, since it was hard to understand exactly what our investigator was saying since she spoke so softly and her accent was different.  I made out at least two words for every sentence, but that doesn't mean I knew the meaning of the whole sentence.)  So it went well, but we have our work cut out for us.  We then went tracting (3 of our appointments fell through) and handed out about 6 pamphlets which was cool (and got numbers and addresses from people.)   I hope my companion in the field is as efficient and awesome as the one we had; she spoke only mostly Tagalog to us (even though she speaks English) and I feel I could learn a lot from a kasama like that.

On the way back from the mission, we got a trike to take us.  A trike is  a motorcycle with a small side car attached.  We crammed three of us in the side car, and our in-field companion rode on the back of the motorcycle itself.  We had a super fun time even though it was very squished; people were waving to us and smiling the whole ride back, haha.

One of the missionaries here seriously hurt her knee in gym (tell EVERYONE on their missions/going on their missions to be careful!  It's not worth it to injure yourself and not be able to serve/have to go home!)

Next week I'll be in the field!  Our P-Day is probably on Monday, so I'll write to you then.  Stay malakas (strong) in panamnampalataya n'yo (your faith!)

Nagmamahal,

Sister Larsen

The MTC.  This is the view right out our bedroom window.  To the left more (not on camera) is a very large mountain that is probably a volcano.  When we walk outside of our room, there's a window facing the temple that is super beautiful but I won't send a picture of that now.

Myself with "Elder Cookie" from the area people get shots

Evil Cats and Entering the "Real World"

Dear friends and family,

 

This week has flown by.  We're finally getting to the point in the MTC where it's getting less tediously repetetive and more intense and varied.  I'll probably talk more about that later, but for now I'm going to talk about this in the order approximately I wrote stuff down again (so - it will once again make little connected sense.)

 

First off, people don't understand me when I speak to them.  You'd think I'm meaning when I speak Tagalog to people.  No, they understand that.  When I speak English to various people, including my companion from Utah, they don't understand what I'm saying soemtimes because I "use words and say things in old fashioned/very different" ways.  The other day I said, "We'll want to take our lesson at a good clip" and my Utah companion looked at me really weird and said, "Ano?"  (what?)  and I had to repeat it and she laughed.  They think I'm kind of weird here, but that's okay because I am weird, haha.  Thanks, English major Mom and Dad.  Another fun fact is that sarcasm doesn't exist here in the Philippines.  So, I haven't had too much trouble with that, but other people have, haha.  Gotta be careful joking around here, but sarcasm isn't very nice most of the time anyway so it's better to avoid as a missionary generally, I think can safely be assumed.

 

Intense Asian bug bites require intense Asian natural medicine.  The nurse here used this stuff called "Tiger Balm" on my bugbites before, so I bought some at the store and it's pretty much the most amazing stuff ever.  It says on the container it stops pain, itching, headaches, flatulence, and more.  Not making that up.  But seriously - Mom, you react as badly to mosquito bites as I do, so first check up and make sure that this magical balm isn't actually gonna kill me and if not go get some yourself from the Asian market.  I have never had something work so well on bugbites/itching in my life.  It supposedly just has a bunch of mint oils and camphor oil or something in it, but I call it my magical Asian medicine.

 

The saddest news of the week, quite possibly - the cats here are EVIL.  Or, at least, some are, and we're not allowed to get near any of them.  The ones I have seen look very diseased and kind of like zombies, which is frightening.  Then the MTC staff told us that one of the teachers was walking out to her car and two cats ran out from under her car and charged her and she got all scratched up and had to go to the hospital and have a bunch of tests done.  There's this thing called "feline fever" here which is pretty bad so unfortunately, for the next year and a half I will be avoiding all cats like the plague (because they are the plague here.)  The self restraint required for that is very, very large, but necessary.  I told my companions I wasn't too worried about it since I'm pretty sure I already have feline fever, but they neither understand my deep love of mga pusa (cats.)

 

Some funny things that happned - we were called down to have some of our district get immunizations and shots.  Elder Zou (from China) asked where we were going, and we said down to the infirmary so our companion could get some immunizations.  He looked at us and said, "So... we're going to get shot?"  Yep.  Pretty funny.  We're all way proud of him that he's learning Tagalog from English when he doesn't speak English very well as it is, but he has a great deal of faith and is very cheerful and able to look at his challenges with a smile on his face.  Good news - I've started speaking Tagalog in my sleep.  One night I woke up and I was saying "Paalam!" which is "goodbye."  That made me pretty happy if my brain is learning it and I don't even have to put in the effort at night, haha. 

 

Now for the big story - on Wednesday, we left the MTC and went into the real world.  We met up with missionaries who had already been out in the field for a while, then each of us were assigned to be temporary companions with one of them.  My companion had only been out in the field for 3 months, and was from Fiji.  We also had one of the teachers assigned to us (she's Filipino but served her mission in South Carolina - she's one of my favorite teachers here so I was very happy about that.)  So, we walked out into the street after briefly planning for the investigator we would teach.  As we walked, the streets were progressively more and more crowded.  I've never felt quite that out of place in my life, I don't think.  People were hollering things everywhere at each other, at me, staring at me, and I also felt very extremely tall along with very lost and overwhelmed.  The first 10 minutes in the city as we walked around trying to get on the right jeepney (large old army jeeps converted into public transport) felt like there were 10 thousand people around me and only 10 words said I actually knew (minus the people trying to speak English to me.)  I can't fully describe it, but it was super crazy feeling.  Once we got on a jeepney though, I was able to calm down and take some deep breaths.  Still got stared at on the jeepney.  The teacher who was with us said, "Get used to that, whiteness is considered very pretty here and there's not very many foreigners in the city."  I didn't see another palangi (white person) the entire 5 hours we were out in the city, but I'm cool with that, it just feels kind of weird to be so... watched.  I supposed I've learned now that I do not like being the center of attention, haha. 

 

The cool part is that the Sister I was with is a missionary in the Manila mission, and we were within Manila mission boundaries (although that might change when they split the mission soon and take Cavite City away from us, but I think we keep this area.)  We ended up riding and catching 3 jeepneys for about 50 minutes to get over near the airport, then we walked maybe 15 minutes through a muddy and rock filled area with a bajillion little tiny houses to get to the investigator's house.  It was VERY different from the U.S., and I will leave it at that.  I never felt unsafe, however. 

 

When we got to the investigator's house, she was just leaving for work, and scheduled another time to meet.  When we walked to where our back-up person to talk to was, the other Sister who was companions with the missionary I was with was already there with her MTC trainees.  So, we walked to another house.  There was an old man there who we ended up teaching.  The teacher and I had no idea what the missionaries had taught him before or anything because the Sister we were with didn't tell us before we went in, so that was a little confusing.  I ended up saying the opening prayer in Tagalog and asking him a few questions.  He asked the teacher how long I had been in the Philippines and when she answered "4 weeks" he was very impressed and said, "Your Tagalog is very good" although he said it in Tagalog.  However, the longer the appointment went on, the more we realized he was a very talkative man and that if we were going to get a word in edgewise it would be difficult (we were on a time crunch to get back to the chapel with the other missionaries too.)  I bore my testimony a few times, and I felt kind of upset that he cut me off a few times (I was speaking kind of slowly, but not THAT slowly - I think though that older people can do pretty much whatever they want here because there's so much respect for those who are aged, which is cool in many ways) and then the Sister we were with started teaching.  I understood the gist of about 35% of what the investigator said, so I was happy about that.  It was difficult though because every 5 minutes or so a plane would fly DIRECTLY above us (uncomfortably close) and we'd not be able to talk for about 10 seconds or more because it was so loud.  I was very glad the teacher was there with us though, because she was able to try and direct the situation back to the lesson we were trying to teach.  The walk and ride back were enjoyable, but we were quite late getting back.

 

We'll see what happens, but apparently there are about 36 missionaries in Palawan out of the 120ish missionaries in Manila.  And they DO send Sisters there.  Palawan, according to most of the Filipinos, is the most beautiful place in the world.

 

Yep, that's what I've got to say right now.  I hope everyone's having a really good week!  We're going out proselyting again on Wednesday.  I leave the MTC on July 3rd.  Time flies, but it also drags by too.  I'm learning a lot, and my perceptions of a lot of things are changing (about 99% of what I experienced in the city was totally different from anything I'd ever encountered in the U.S.)

 

Mahal kita everyone (love you!),

Sister Larsen

Designated Coachroach Dispatcher

Dear mga kaibigan at pamilya (friends and family),

 

Once again, this email will be all over the place since I've just been taking notes on what to say and there's not really organization to it.  For starters, we have a new batch of non-language training missionaries in.  This time, we have Indian missionaries, which is so cool!  they're all from India and will serve in India.  The first day they were here, though, I assumed they were Filipino even though they didn't really look like they were and started trying to speak Tagalog to them.  They looked at me weirdly and my companion said, "Sister Larsen, they're from India."  Hahaha.  I was asked to give a talk in Sacrament meeting on Sunday (they post up who's talking the night before and then you just give a 3 minute talk on a chosen subject they give.)  My subject was "God is Our Loving Heavenly Father."  I felt really good about that topic, and used Mosiah 2:41 and 2:34 and spoke about how we should always thank God for our blessings and recognize that we should always remember that Heavenly Father walks beside his missionaries even during (and especially during) their trials as they serve.  Also that we should look forward to and press forward steadfastly towards being able to return to live with God after this life.  I had only a couple of notes jotted down, true to form of how President Carter advises missionaries to give talks (essentially - kind of wing it while going by the Spirit.)

 

This will surprise people who know me, but I can honestly say that out of everyone (all the language training missionaries) who go to gym (about 60-70 of us), I work out the most out of anyone.  There aren't organized bball games here, only just shooting hoops, playing volleyball, or kickball in the gym.  So there's a bajillion people in the gym and a billion balls flying around and I quickly realized I wasn't a fan of that.  So I went to the small room off to the side where they have 2 ellipticals and 2 stationary bikes.  I started running on the elliptical.  And running and running.  Every time I go to gym now, I take my mp3 player, put on some MoTab and RUN.  The entire time (with a 5 minute break halfway through - but I'm slowly phasing that out too.)  So that's an hour of hardcore exercise.  I'm sweating a lot, but I feel really good when I go to bed and sleep really well/have more energy for the day.  Everyone else is doing stationary stuff, and I'm that crazy fit person in the corner getting all sweaty, but I dig it.  This mission is already making me more hardcore.

 

Part of the reason I want to get in shape NOW rather than later is that we go proselyting next week!  On Wednesday we'll go on splits with some of the missionaries already in the field and we're going to go out on the streets and tract with them (I think maybe go to appointments with them as well.)  I'm crazy scared of that but also super excited.  Our Tagalog (well, Taglish) doesn't seem anywhere near good enough for that, but I'm sure we'lll learn a LOT and I'm so thankful we have that opportunity here at this MTC!  I'm so very excited to go out into the field.

 

     People in my district.  I can't even... words can't even describe.  The people from places other than the U.S. (and even those in the U.S.) have had difficult lives and many trials.  My companion from Fiji and my teacher both grew up in homes where there was no electricity, they used fire to cook their meals,and they harvested coconots or papaya to try and make a living.  My companion walked 3 hours to school every morning so she could get an education.  My smiley and wonderful (completely wonderful) teacher was not supported by his family when he chose to serve a mission and before his mission would either do odd jobs on Saturdays for church members so he could afford to take a jeepney (Filipino bus) into town or if that wasn't an option he'd walk for 4 hours to get to church on Sunday.  He is a truly amazing person.  We met his wife and adorable little baby, and it is clear that the blessings of the Gospel are real and tangible.  Eternal families are amazing, and only possible through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  It may seem hard at times, but we can all overcome our challenges especially when we have the Lord to support us.  I can't even describe how much my heart is already being touched by these people, and how small and insignificant my challenges seem when I talk to them. 

 

Now for some funny things.  Elder Zou, one of the Elders in our district (from China), knows a little bit about American history but not much.  When he found out I'm from the South, he used the amount of English he knows to talk to me about it.  Then he said, "Did your family own slaves?"  We all had a really good laugh over that one and I blushed hardcore.  He thought he had offended me but I assured him he hadn't.  Another funny instance was when I said hello to two Filipino Elders.  One looked at me and with wide eyes said, "Sister - your skin is so white.... you look like a walking milk!"  The other Elder then nudged him hard and said, "He's just jealous."  We had a good laugh over that as well.  I seriously have gotten used to just being stared at on a regular basis because of my ultra whiteness.  It's going to be weird to go back to the U.S. after my mission and not cause such a sensation when I'm around people, haha.  This new batch of Elders has straight up started to call me "Sister Taylor Swift." They didn't have any contact with the other batch of missionaries, so I assume that I will probably get that comment throughout my mission. 

 

I am the designated cockroach killer.  There have been 3 we've found live in our room, and about 6 dead when we've woken up in the morning.  One day one was alive in the morning and crawling around on our bedposts.  We were all freaking out and I was hoping Sister Tilley (who'd seen/beena round them in Fiji) would kill it, but she didn't.  I knew it had to be done, so I grabbed a shoe and squished it.  That one was the size of my index finger.  The other one I killed was smaller but still big.  So, everyone else is too afraid to kill them now, but I know it must be done!  I can't imagine how many (or how big  ) they'll be out in the field since it's an ultra clean environment here in the MTC.

 

Sister Kelsey from Utah got sick this week so we ended up spending a day and a half up in our rooms. All the Americans (Sisters especially ) are sick with all kinds of ailments.  I'm glad for my health, but I hope I don't have an american companion for a while in the field because I want to do the work and not be laid up all the time with a sick companion (or be the one who is sick.)  I've had upset stomach on occasion, but nothing I couldn't power through.

 

One day, we were talking about the haka (polynesian war dance ) and I said I kind of knew it.  Some of the people from my district said I had to do it for them, so I did.  They all thought it was the funniest thing ever, some lil white girl doing some scary war dance.  They said I was scary though, and just like when I did it before I have bruises on my thighs from slapping them so hard.  Later that night, some of the Sisters from Kiribati (an island - 90% of the language training missionaries speak 2 languages at least) were doing some of their cultural dances.  So some of us Americans did the Cotton Eyed Joe and the Macarena (technically spanish, but oh well.)  they thought it was hilarious. 

 

It rains here hard almost every day, and there's a ton of thunderstorms.  I enjoy it though.  Very wet, but the climate is similar enough to Virginia I'm not having a problem with it so far.

 

Some funny Tagalog grammar - our grammar books have a lot of stuff wrong in them (doesn't inspire much comfort, I know.)  One was, "Magkano po ang asawa ninyo?"  That would say in our language "How much is your spouse?" As in - how many spouses do you have.  But in Tagalog, it means "How much (money) is your spouse?"  That may not make sense, but we all though it was pretty hilarious.  Clearly, if the grammar books are messed up because words are interchangable (they have about 5 words for each type of thing - and 3 words for rice, depending on what stage of harvest it is) it's gonna take us a while.  Our grammar is kind of non-existant right now, but we are getting more words as we teach and the trio is nice cuz we can pool our knowledge of the language as we teach.

 

This week I ate tiny little cooked birds eggs at lunch one day.  They taste like normal eggs, I like them.  I don't know what bird they're from, however.  I also have been eathing papaya, palm nuts in a drink (squishy clear things - super weird but awesome), and fried bananas.  The bananas here are not my enemies like the ones in the states are; these have a more mild flavor closer to potatoes or something.

 

That's what I've got for now.  We're progressing, and by next week I will have experienced a little bit of serving in the field.  Looking forward to it!  I'll send along some more pictures with this too, hopefully they work!

 

Nagmamahal,

Sister Larsen

 

Marinda's district plus Mongolian and Filipino districts

 

 

Marinda's district

 Marinda's trio companionship.  On a couch.

 A Dead Roach

Jet-lagged and standing in front of a sign on her first day in the Philippines.

Call Me Sister Swift--The Newest Russian Celebrity

Sige.  Okay.  Let's hope this thing works; the computers here are kind of... um... not always in the mood to work.

So, this email will be all over the place since I was just taking notes of what to say all week, but hopefully you enjoy it.

First off, I forgot to say last time - our investigators are our teachers.  Last week, our investigator "Gloria" who hardly spoke any english came in to the classroom and was like, "I'm your evening instructor!" and speaks perfect English.  That was kind of lame, but I suspected when we were teaching her she knew English juuust fine.  We're teaching our other teacher as well  now (Brother Rondillia) and his "investigator character" that he acts as is "Brother Gargabite."   I'll talk more about our two "investigators" AKA teachers later.

There are not even 200 misssionaries here, apparently, but they plan on having 200 by the end of June.  So, this is a pretty small MTC.  Which means that all of us Americans kind of stick out, a lot, haha.  Some quick notes - I've met about 3 other 21 year old Sisters here, so we're definitely kind of a dying breed (everyone else is younger.)  I'm also within the first 30 American missionaries to ever be at this MTC, too, cool story.  A large number of missionaries here are converts - probably about 60% or more.  It's pretty awesome; they all know how it feels to be taught by missionaries and gain a real testimony that the Church is true for themselves.  It also means that sometimes we have different ways of looking at things because of our cultures, upbringing etc, but I'm getting more used to it.

The temple here is awesome.  I also love how all the temple workers are these short little old Filipina ladies who literally don't even clear my shoulder.  They're adorable and I love them.  Most of the Filipinos here are significantly shorter than I am, or the Elders are my same height.  That's been taking some getting used to, haha.  I seriously enjoy Sundays here.  They're my favorite part of the week.  We don't get General Authorities here all the time (at all) like I would've at the Provo MTC, but I still like the chillness of Sundays and how I don't feel the pressure of teaching and learning the language as much. 

As could have been expected, as this was the case with Spanish, my pronunciation of Tagalog is probably significantly better than it has any right to be - I can read almost fluently, although some of the really really long words trip me up sometimes, and my accent or when I speak it is pretty spot on.  However, remembering the words is very difficult so far, but I'm getting there.

*****Now here's the hilarious part.  I officially feel famous here, all the time.  At least 15 different Elders on separate occasions came up to me and have said, "Sister!  Did you know you look JUST LIKE Taylor Swift??"  Yeah, that's a thing.  Then, on the Sunday before the non-Language learning missionaries left (AKA, the Filipinos and Mongolians), we had a picture taking time set aside for everyone to go take pictures.  That day, at least 20 different elders and about 5 Sisters all wanted to take an individual picture with me.  They were all, "I have a picture with an American!" hahah.  Also, today one of the bus drivers who bus people to the MTC came up to me and said, "Sister... Sister Larsen?  Where are you from again?  Russia, right?"  I looked at him and said, "Uhhh.. nope... U.S...."  He then said, "Oh, sorry, I forgot - your face, it just looks very Russian."  To be fair, I have had people say in the States before that I look like Taylor Swift and think that I was Russian.  Also, while shopping at the store, I saw multiple makeup products for "skin lightening."  They're hardcore about white skin being the ideal here.  It's super weird, since in the states everyone wants to be tan.

Mom, I have been whistling and singing ALL the time here.  My kasama isn't annoyed though, so that's good at least.  I just like having noise around me apparently, and when it's too quiet it weirds me out.

There are 700 affixes in Tagalog.  That meanst that... I'm still not even sure what that means.  but there's like 700 different ways to say one phrase then, or more than that.  It's crazy.  Here's some Tagalog grammar:

Strengthen will God families on Earth?
Verb Actor Object Location.

Yeah.  I'll probably say more about that later, but it's confusing.

To say, " Is this elevator going up?"  You say "Ba ba ba ba ba ba?"  And the response for yes is "ba ba ba ba."  I'm not making that up.  The word for "wall" is ding ding and the word for "ring" is sing sing.  Forreals.
"Suit Coat" is said Amerikana.  Not making that up either.

We have our first committed baptism!  Our teacher investigator "brother Gargabite" said he would be baptized.  And we committed him to obey the Word of Wisdom.  Yay!  We're very happy.

And by "we're" I mean we're.  I'm in a trio now, because a Sister from our ward had to go home because of health reasons.  So, now Sister Kelsey is in our companionship and there's three of us.  I like it though, and we're doing okay so far.

Just so you all know - Deb sent me a letter, and it took 15 days to get here.  So be aware of that!  Also, Deb, thank you for your letter!  I'll respond later to that.

The weirdest food I've had here so far is candied potatoes.  I liked them though - they had like caramel on them.  But it was delicious. 

Uhhhmmm.... that's all I've got for now and it's a lot.  Everyone at home or on missions, stay strong and stay solid!  God loves you, and is looking out for you.  Never forget that.  I pray for you all every night.  Things are gonig better here, and I'm in the swing of things.  I have confidence that we will learn and grow a great deal here in the MTC, even though it's hard to be cooped up for so long inside sometimes.  We're speaking Taglish to our investigators, and both of them are progressing!  We are getting noticably better, and we've invited the Spirit into our lessons multiple times.

I Can't Even Come Up With a Creative Title, But I Must Endure To the End

Dear Friends And Family,

 

Wow.  One week down, and it feels like it's been 6 already.  Seriously.  The first day I was de-wormed (given weird pills), a water bottle that will purify water throughout my mission (we're only allowed to drink water from the water fountains here, not from the tap), got my shots, and I have a companion (kasama.)  Her name is Sister Tilli and she's from Fiji.  My district is composed of two Sisters from New Zealand (one of Maori and one of Tongan descent), one Elder from China (Elder Zou - his mom was converted when she was outside the states and they had to have all their ordinances done in Hong Kong), one Elder from Utah, and two Sisters from Utah, two Sisters from Kiribas (an Island somewhere) and an Elder from Figi and another Elder from KIribas.  Yeah.  I am definitely in a minority here.  There's apparently about 40% Filipino missionaries, 40% "other" missionaries from various places around the Asia area, and about 20% Americans.  Our District is nice, I like them, and we've had some good experiences.  The food here is weird, - straight up, the first week was rice, some sort of mystery meat (I never asked what it was - generally for bfast it was some sort of weird sausage) and some weird vegetable side.  Needless to say, I doubt I'm going to gain weight in the MTC.  However, lately I think they've been trying to help us poor Americans who are getting super sick of rice cuz they served cereal one day (in metal containers - cereal is super expensive here) and hashbrowns this morning.  So, they're making a concerted effort to help us people who aren't so adjusted to this food yet, I think.

 

I'd say it's about 70% Elders here and 30% Sisters, too.  Our teacher, Elder Rondilla, is awesome.  However, we just got a new "evening teacher" yesterday.  Let me tell how this went down.

Saturday was the hardest day.  I was SUPER discouraged.  We flew in on Friday, had pretty full day, and then on Saturday when I was still severely jet lagged we were supposed to teach our first investigator.  Her name was Sister Gloria, and our teacher told us that we'd only need to speak about 15 percent Tagalog (because, after all, we'd only learned a few phrases anyway.)  My kasama and I planned our lesson in mostly English.  We walked in, and Sister Gloria did not understand ANY English.  Like, 5 words is what she understood.  There were several parts in the lesson where I just started to nervously laugh because I couldn't communicate ANYTHING to her and it seemed like a pretty hopeless situation, and so we were reading out of the Tagalog PMG without even knowing what we were saying.  It was bad.  That night, I went to bed super, super discouraged about ever being able to communicate or learn the language.  The next few lessons we taught her weren't much better, but at least a little better.  Tagalog is SO HARD.  If I was stateside, I could say just what I wanted to to the investigators.  Here... no.  I can barely even communicate "God loves you."  It's sad, because I can hardly even invite the Spirit because the language barrier is so prevalent.  Ah, ah.  The few things I do undertstna that she said were the spanish crossover words like "trabajo."  I keep wanting to speak Spanish to her, but I can't.  OUr first lesson I'm pretty sure I did start speaking Spanish to her.  There's aobut 20 moments in a day that I wish I was learning Spanish or speaking English, but I need to repent and accept that yes, one day, I will learn this.  Our wonderful smiley teacher (he's a filipino and he's the best) Elder Rondilla said that we can expect to be decently speaking the language in 6 months.  He also said that sometimes Filipinos don't even know how to speak their own language that well because there's like 20 different ways to say the exact same thing.  And I'm thinking... GREAAAAT. 

 

Two Filipinas in our room have told me they think I look like Anne Hathaway, and an Australian Elder said I look like some chick off of a Aussie TV show.  People are kind of fascinated by my whiteness over here, as could have been predicted.  Sister Tilley said one day, when I was acting super goofy and walking strangely on purpose that, "All the white people I've ever met are super boring and serious, but you're super crazy and funny!"  That made me feel good, hahah. 

 

Things are going better now.  Language is still saddening sometimes.  I think I'll havta send out pictures next week, cuz my time's almost up.  I'm going well.. the MTC is hard, and there's a lot of times I don't like it here, honestly - my favorite times of the day are showering and going to sleep (and the videos they show us of the district.)  I still always dread talking to my investigator.  But hopefully we will progress in time as a district and I personally will have a beter attitude.

 

Nagmamahal,

Sister Marinda Larsen