MOMMEEYYYY

UNINTENTIONAL MATCH I SWEAR!!

MOM ITS MY LAST P DAY!! WHAT THE HECK! WHO AM I!? WHERE AM I GOING! WHAT WHAT WHAT!!!! 

Oh my goodness so we had infield orientation yesterday- which was an 8-5 day of technical how to be a missionary stuff. like how to work with members, how to fill out our weekly goals and standard of excellence stuff, how to talk to everyone, etc. it got me so pumped to be a real live missionary!!

i cant believe my next emails will be from the actual philippines!!!!! AHHH! I've gotten so comfortable here it just makes sense. it seems like whenever you settle in somewhere its time to get out of your comfort zone again and stretch. So this is it. here we go. i'm flying to some islands. where i can hardly hardly speak words. :''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''()()()() this means sad and happy tears. Sis F and T are coming with me to Naga the whole way, as well as 2 eldas from our district. we are meeting up with the other three in japan. but the Naga people are together the whole time THANK GOODNESSSSS. also i have no idea where I'm going once i get there, like the manila MTC or straight to Naga. i have no clue and probably wont till Thursday morning, so i guess i can tell you when i call you in the airport!! I'm so nervous and mostly excited!!!! I'm going to bring all my books on the plane and try to cram cram and understand how this language works on the crazy long flight. also it will be like the first time in public where I have a nametag, and the majority of other people don't! i cant wait to talk to people in the airport! and the plane! YAY missionary work!!

Ok so i did bad this week of recording what i did, also with pics, sorreeyyyyy. Ok so on wednesday i got to host!! it was so fun! it was my job to be the escort when a missionary pulled up to the curb, get their luggage, RIP THEM AWAY FROM THEIR CRYING MOTHERS, and take them to their room and to get books and stuff. oh my it was so hard when the family was all teary. I had to take control though and say things like "I promise i will take good care of her! don't worry this isn't goodbye! she can email you soon! she's gonna be fine! I'm sorry we've really got to go now!" whoow i got all teary too. anyways it was so fun all the rest of it, that day is like the worst and it was awesome to try and comfort and help out a newbie.

What else. Oh ya! we skyped another real filippino in trc! he was actually skyping from his phone in Singapore, because he was there for work. he was on a train. Anyways we talked to him about the holy ghost and it was a cool conversation.

Um ok you asked when was a time i felt the spirit this week. WELL on tuesday it was a great day. but in the afternoon, we had this lady teacher woman who thought it would be good for our mental attitudes to say that we didn't know that much, oops mistake mistake mistake, its like this etc. she was just really discouraging. anyways it started me thinking "wait, i cant do this! i cant speak this language! i DO know nothing! oh my gosh i leave next week! i cant do it! ahh!" but smart little ol' me recognized this as a time to go pray. so i went to the CR (the potty in tagalog) and kneeled on the unsanitary floor and prayed and cried for more faith and more trust, and comfort, and support that i can do this- because really i'm not doing it anyways, the Lord is, anyways then i was all good and went to the rest of the day fine. then BAM alllllll of devotional was written FO ME. Also everything the choir director said before. it was like, exactly what i needed to hear. There was so much and i wrote it all down but i don't have my journal now....anyways the choir director said that all we have to do as missionaries is present the message, and have them know if its true on their own. we should have no weight on our shoulders, we're not trying to convince people because that's the spirits job. then the devo speaker said SO MUCH. he talked about having enough faith as a mustard seed. it made me think of peter walking on water. he talked about miracles, and that we should expect them. so much other stuff i cant all explain. It was all things i've heard before, its just when i heard it right then it was the only thing i needed to hear. anyways i felt the spirit so strong during the whole thing and in devo review with our district i cried and told them about how it was an answer to my prayer. whoow how emotional. but the good news is the next day i was like on fire! whoow lets do this thing!

Uhh mom i don't know what else to sayyyy! it feels so weird to just be going so far away without being able to text you, or get a blessing before, i don't know. it just feels strange. I know i can call you in the airport and i got a blessing before the mtc, i just want more :) ill prob get one from my elders. I miss you all so much! but not all the time. I cant wait to call you in the airport!!

OH ALSO SISTER WHITE!! Oh my goodness your letter scared me so much!!! seriously it was so scary! I got it last night and opened it after class, and i started reading the first part and i was so scared for her and the babies that i started crying! so hard that i couldn't read the rest of it!!!! it was the hardest thing of my life! i didn't know if they were ok or not and my mind was going in a million directions! finally i sort of made it to the bottom. they are ok right!?!?!? I'm fasting for them anyways right now. SO SCARY.

Oh grammy- Thanks so much for the package!! it was so yummy! and so kind!! Your letters were so nice as well! sorry i don't have enough time to respond back to all the stories. But it all sounds so cool! have fun at the sleepover with the kids- wish i was there! OH YA this week i wanted some of your pancakes SO BAD. I'm sure i will miss them even more in the field. word is you get rice and hot dogs for breakfast. ill try to re-wire my stomach

Haney i will email you in a bit and send a couple more things instead of lunch, so ill be back

my face is weird because I'm eating a Peruvian cookie that wasn't that delish

YO ERYONE GET YOURSELF SOME LUDENS

brushing my teeth

FAWND A TEMPLE KATT!!! ADOPTID IT. LUFFD IT. MIS IT. KISSD IT.

ALSO FOWND A CHAYLD. TAKENG HEM WIF ME. 

Its that time of week again!!!!

YO YO FAMILY!! Ok so here's the scoop of what went down this week. Lets see:

FIRST OF ALL!! WE GOT OUR TRAVEL PLANS!!!!! FOR REAL! ITS HAPPENING! WE ARE GOING TO THE PPNES!! SO 5 of us Naga people are together the whole time till we get there and we meet up with the other 3 Legaspi people in Japan. So we are going from SLC to Seattle, then to JAPAN, then to Manila, then by bus to Naga. We leave early on the 4th of Sept and will get there at 10 on the 5th. I'm losing a day of my life in travel. crayzeeeyyy. i should have taken a pic of the paper but i didn't. Well ya, in not next Friday but 2 I WILL BE IN THE PPINES!!!

Saturday after I emailed you guys: temple!! Afterwards guess what BURRITOZZZ FOR DIN DIN!!!! Not any burritos, but deep fried, crunchy, smothered in cheese sauce burritos. Me and Sis Lyles were soooo happy we were hyperventilating and jumping and crying. my prayer was "ama po namin, nagpapasalamat para sa THIS HERE BURRITO amen" I was so happy I couldn't see straight. Really the world went blurry and it was just me and him. That toasty little fellow. I loved it and it was an answer to my prays.

Sunday: so we played in churchey, it went good! also for devo that night Jenny Oaks Baker played! With all 4 of her kids. It was like a talk talk talk play a song talk talk another song thing. They played a lot of stuff and DANG those kids are talented!! seriously!! One was 11 accompanying her on the piano, one older than that on the violin, a little girl on the cello, and her youngest son doing classical guitar. It was unreal. Those poor kids must only practice. It was really cool to hear though.

Monday: So this whole week ive been sick. sicky sick sick. I got an upper respiratory infection from an elder in my district, and the whole district got sick. It is this nasty cough and I felt like I couldn't breathe deeply without hacking out a lung. Also a really sore throat. Ao ya, not fun espesh because no meds were working and the essential oils smelled like they were working but didn't heal me all da way.

gotsta be healthy

will i ever recover?

Tuesday: I killed my vocal chords in choir today. Like I couldn't talk afterwards and my throat hurt so bad.  Not to mention my musical range was like 2 notes, bass notes. I could sing all the phantom parts really well my voice was so deep! Oh ya for gym I took a blanket and language study materials and went upstairs and sat in the windowsill of the track HA

me and sis L take working out seriously

Wednesday: So the elders in the district right above us left!! It was so sad!! They were so so nice and so funny and we were all great friends. Me and Sis L are going through withdrawals. It's not the same without them :( I also taught a lesson with Sis. L this day, I'm going to be her companion for one of her investigators since shes solo. I'm also still teaching with sis T and sis F.

Thursday: Oh ya i cut off all my hair. like, all. they braided it in this thick braid and donated it to make wigs it was that much. HAHA cant stop me!

Before...

 

AFTER!!!!

Also we talked to a real live Filipino woman via skype!!! she was in her tiny little filipino house!! skyping us! we could kind of talk to her too! we gave a lesson about prayer. Oh ya this day I also went to the clinic because at this point I was dying. good thing I did, because the doc prescribed me with 4 different meds!! 4!!! I'm a druggie!! But ya he said I have a deep respitory infection and he gave me an antibiotic, really strong cough syrup, alleve, and another blue pill thing. I'm so glad and I feel so much better. The worst part of it all was when I would try to sleep this week. when I laid down my cough got super agitated and I felt like there was a ton of pressure on my chest. So I have to lay in this strange position with a pillow over my head. And I had to have my water bottle pemanently in my mouth and swallow after every breath cough. I couldn't sleep for hours so I decided to play imagination. I pretended I was a wounded solider in the civil war, and like, my legs were shot and so I was just a little stump on the ground, but I was STILL ALIVE. Every breath was so hard and rhaspy because of all the gunpowder and smoke. I pretended my water bottle was my bayonet and I was clutching it for dear life. The water that spilled out of my mouth and all over my neck (because I was drinking wilst laying down) I prentended was blood. I didnt know how many more breaths I had to live before it all went dark. It worked I guess because I woke up the next day which must have meant I fell asleep eventually. An active imagination is very important and I believe everyone should posses one.

Friday:  So I ate my meds this day! yay! I also got a blessing from the elders in our district. It was really neat because Elder Winkler who I asked to give my blessing, I think it was one of his first ones. He spoke with the Spirit and said some cool stuff about how I was going to bring many people to the truth. He also said that I was going to be so loved by the Filipinos and especially the children. SWEET! also that i would get better and not even remember this sickness. Anyways after he was like "woahh I need to sit down" and I was so happy that he could experience listening to the spirit during a priesthood blessing. I'm so grateful for the priesthood.

So yep, that's the week! I was super sick, I got super meds, and now I'm recovering! Funny story the cough syrup makes you reallly drowsy and I have to take it every 12 hours, so I took it at 8 in the morning and I totally zonked out for personal study. I felt like I was in a cloud and that my limbs were stuffed with cotton balls. I had such a good nap that day. Anyways dont worry about me, I'm getting better, I had a blessing, and I'm on 4 different meds!!

Mom: Your new calling sounds so fun! I love primary! Also the kitchen sounds good, I like the idea of layered whites. Send me pics! Sundays are with all the zone, so yes we are all going to the Philippines. But there's a couple zones of Philippine peeps, they are just speaking the other language, not Tagalog. So its in English but the hymns are Tagalog (what a challenge when you're up there conducting) and the sacrament prayers and stuff are Tagalog sometimes. just whatever we can say

Ab & Liv: Vball sounds fun SPIKE SPIKE SPIKE

Matt: running sounds fun GO GO GO

Hannah: DUDE that was a hilar story. HAHA he played his part perfectly for the theme of your date. Hey I cut my hair this week too! We're on the same wavelength. Tell B its just hair, it will grow back, and it doesn't matter what you look like anyways :) Good job eating lots of food, keep up the good work! and yes I remember the Wyoming reunion. HAHA oh man, that swim!

g2g peace out family i luv you
-SISTA MICGEEEEE

got a whole 2 packages of junk from sis welchey!!!!! AHHHH~! IT WAS SO GOOD! I practically chugged that cheese sauce. its all gone now. shes the best

YO YO IM ON DA INTANETTT

HEYYY!!!! Its that magical time of week again! I'm going to give you a highlight of each day then tell you some happenings, then reply to your wonderful cards.

Sunday: So I spoke in church. Our branch pres doesn't tell who is speaking till 2 min before. Like after the Sacrament he gets up and announces the speakers. We all know the topic and are supposed to be prepare a talk just in case. SURPRISE it was me! I had a feeling a couple of days before though. The topic was enduring to the end. So I just took up my scrips and read 2 Nephi 31 "press forward..." and talked about it. I told some stories, it was a great ol' time. Also I got called to be the music chairwoman so I walked down and conducted, walked back up, walked down etc. Then later that day me and Sis. F taught the "Sunday school" class for our district about the same topic. HA I was so involved. It was good, I drew a picture of the Pantheon and talked about how it relates to endure to the end, it was grand. Later that day we had devotional, RS, lots of good stuff.  For movie night we watched The Testaments. Lemme just say, people are starved for love here. whenever there was ANY interaction towards the bronzed beauty who lived in Korihor's house and the main dude people were "OOOOOHHHHH!!!" you know. The kiss was almost unbearable. Also the line where he says "it would much please me.....if you would take my hand in marriage" or something like that. I felt like I was watching, I don't know what, but from the crowd it was like they've never seen a boy and a girl together ever. So that was distracting, but it was fun to watch a "real" movie :)

Monday: cleaned the potties, ran around the track (uh), taught "Veronica" about repentance and being clean again. It was so cool and I felt the spirit and I cant wait till they are real Filipinos!!

Tuesday: taught REAL volunteers at the TRC! We shared a message with an older Filipino lady who was worried about her daughter never getting married. She is her only child and she thinks she's the greatest and she was mad that no boys were picking up on that ;) we taught her about faith and how it means faith in God's timing too. sups cool

Wed: leaned and studied language like a mad woman. Watched a clip of general conf in Tagalog! crazy! It was so fast! But after 20 times and with the help of our dictionaries, our district could piece it together. so cool

TH: so this day I went to bkfast and got this thing called "blueberry pancakes on a stick" cool right? I thought so, so I took a huge bite. WHADAYAKNOW there is a sausage hiding in there. He was so cozy in his little blueberry blanket. At first I was repulsed, but then once the shock wore off I ate it all and it was quite good. I just never expect meat to be hidden inside other foods. Oh ya I also had onion rings this day.  And at night for midnight snack I had a bread stick with cheese in the micro <3 hearts forever 

FRI: I learned (again) that my job is to help someone see the relevance of the gospel to their lives. Our teacher explained it like this. She taught us some things about her film class at BYU, about different types of sound in a scene, or sound you add in later. She talked to us a lot about it and we were all like, ok sure. She asked us questions and we answered them but were like, ya ok so?? She said it's like the gospel. If you just ramble about the correct authority of baptism and priesthood and what the Holy Ghost is they will be like, ok ya so why? so I drew this little pic because this is how I see it in my mind (refer to picture now)

Ok the happs:
-GUESS WHAAT. Me and Sis F just realized this week that for the past 3 weeks, the whole time we've been here.....we've been....we've been...(brace yourself) washing our clothes with fabric softener. Or really, not washing our clothes at all. Just getting them wet and putting a scent on them. why.

-The other day I was putting ranch on my food and the ladle was being difficult and I poured a whole ladles worth of ranch on my cookie and Doritos. Why do bad things happen to good people. (Don't worry I had fries and sponged that mess right up!)

-THE OTHA DAY i walked into the classroom and saw a package slip on my desk!!!!! I was so excited I was dancing around! In the act of which, one of my shoes fell off.  So I decided to kick the other off too. WELL of all the places it could have gone, it HITS THE PICTURE OF JESUS ABOVE THE WHITEBOARD. It smacked so loud. Oh my goodness. Everyone gasped and i quickly thrusted myself onto the nearest horizontal surface and buried my head in shame. I can't believe I did that.  Now everyone is like "well you kicked Jesus so......" and now all my comments are invalid. UGHHHH I feel so bad.

-So in better news, me and sister W decided to share our talents and we checked out a cello and piano duet and now will be playing tomorrow and then auditioning for devotional musical number next week maybe. It's quite grand to be playing again, the song is so purty.  We got "Our Savior's Love" and "The Spirit of God" and they sound so cool.  My fingers are cruisin for a bruisin though (ya i just made that ref. Hannah stop laughing)

-My table of my zone was so curious to what I eat at home and i told them burritos. Then we got talking, I told them about my obsession, my private dealer, how I got fresh tortillas from a taco bus on my bday, how I got a case of 56 burros for Christmas and the following transport to Idaho via carry on bag, etc. I was laughing so hard rice krispies were flying out of my trap.  They were all "GET ME MY FIX" and making jokes about my shady dealings. I won't tell them about how I get them in case they want some too. So now I'm like the shady figure I guess. I have an underground dealer and kicked Jesus. It's like I don't even know who I am anymore.

Ok to people:
Hannah: omgee remember when we decided to run from one pier to another on the beach? and we were running in our swimsuits? HAHA i thought about that in the dressing room of the temple and laughed so hard. and also i missed you so hard :'''''''''( PS how many laffy taffies did you read to get those jokes? I thought I might try one out and so when someone came in our room I said "close the door I'm dressing!" Ha turns out that only works when the speaker is an actual bottle of salad dressing. For me it wasn't a joke, it was just a peeping tom. PPS the new home? all i can think of THE GRAVE (you know what I mean) OH WAIT oh my goodness i was DYING bout the story of Livi and the recording and the mooning. HAHSAHSHSHSHEUHTHQROHFADHQTAJL that is so fuunyyyy I wish I could have been there!! Trader Joe's and Brio sounds yum, yyum yumm.  And no I love your emails I print them as I eat bfast so I have time to read them all. So keep telling me funny things!!

Livi: thanks for the card!! I sure hope they will be lucky to get me as their missionary, I'm trying! I'm glad school is going good! Sorry about your incident with Hannah :)))))))

AB: your ipod case sounds DA BEST! every stuffed animal should get holes in their backs for their ipods! YA! OK! Han and the scorp on her back GAH! that reminds me, last Sunday I watched in horror as a spider literally ran so fast up an elders back AND INTO HIS BACK COLLAR!!!! I was gasping and shrieking in horror and couldn't make words, only point. SWHTEOIHJS;H i just got the chills I HATE THEMEMMMMMMM
ps i like warm bodies. (ha!) it has a great soundtrack, the movie is kinda weird but I'm drawn to it in some way. idk. don't hate, 'ppreciate!

Matt: Yo, bro. I'm sorry I can't eat all the el pato or punch you for the last pizza slice.  As far as the el pato comes you'll have to take the reigns for me. chug dat thang. ps all the elders are telling me about mario kart 10 or whatever and i so wish i wouldn't have thought it was weird to go over to your friend's house with you and play it. hhh.. anyways love you! stay sweet XO

MOM: 1. Tagalog. I know! its crazy how much i know but i really don't know that much, I need/should know a lot more by now.
2. I know its so crazy I'm HALFWAY DONE!! WHUTTT. Also we get our travel plans next Friday!!!!!!!!!!!!! like plane tickets and itinerary etc!!! ps i leave Sept 4th
3. My comps are great! sis L is going to Cauyan so I will prob never see her again. this week we became good friends, turns out she's crazy inside of that sweet outer shell! not crazy but we say things like "HAYY GRRL DANG YOU BE LOOKIN FINE~!!" and things like that. Today we were singing "I want it that way" by the bstreet boys. We treated ourselves because it was PDAY! "cuuuzz I want it thaaaaat way!!"
4. Our first investigator was a lady, we taught her 4 times, thought it was real, then BAM she's our teacher. Should have known. now we have 2 progressing investigators that are 2 of our other teachers. we teach them and they go so deep into character. It's so they can know what to teach us better and so we can practice.
5. PUMPED bout the no news about spiders. I hate them. Refer to Abby's reply. And sponging down in the CR (comfort room, you say CR in Tagalog) sounds OK to me. NBD mom.
6. No crock pot. don't send one. i will survive
7. Megan--what a mom already.
8. Gym time? we either A. walk outside, out by the field by the Provo temple. I love Utah grass. B. go to the gym and run around the track. C. sleep D. play cello E. study, write letters, misc
9. Nooooooo problem sleeping, I'm so tired at the end of the day and it feels like when I wake up I've only been asleep for 15 mins. I just didn't get sleep because some sisters were moving out and were packing but its ok I'm doing good.
10. The package was GRRREATT! loved it. the cards were so cute. I'm eating the chocolate all the time. The cookies were smushed but delish. the shoes work, the shorts work, I'm so stylin ;)

Dad: Cool story about the callings in the ward. this week i heard from someone who works close with Pres. Monson that when things are getting rough in the church and people ask him what he's going to do, or how he's going to handle it he just says "I don't know it's not my church, the Lord will take care of it". It's so true, the Lord will do his work. We are just the delivery system and should try to be as unbiased and translucent as possible. Alma 26:22 is great! I need to do that! the ppines is the 2nd highest baptizing mission in the WORLD says Pres. Howard. The people are so ready to hear the gospel. Eventually with enough generations it will be a thousand! "you can count the seeds in the apple but you cant count the apples in a seed"

Ok sorry if you all want to hear more spiritual things. I don't know. I will do that when i get to the ppines ok? Anyways i love you!! Have a good week!!
Love love love love sis mcgrath