10/31/2015 (1st Letter Home!)

Kumusta pamilya! Kumusta kayo??

This week has been the hardest, busiest, week of my life. I have never been so tired at the end of every day, or crammed so much information into my brain. Yet, I have never felt so blessed, happy, and like I had so much of a purpose. I am loving it! Ko mga kasama (my companions, there are 3 of us), are Sis Aquino at Sis Salunga. They are such a blessing to me, and I love them. Sis Aquino is 22 and already graduated from BYU. She has been a blessing because she has so much life experience, and that was something  was nervous for, since I just graduated. She is from California. Sis Salunga is from Hawaii, and she makes us laugh, which is much needed. We work together very well, we all want to be and work on exact obedience, and are pretty relaxed with each other.

 

Wednesday we went and grabbed our huge stack of language materials, dropped off our bags in our rooms, and went straight to class. We walked into class and our teacher, Sis. Tui-one, immediately started speaking Tagalog, and hasn't stopped since. After 3 hrs of that, we went to a workshop IN ENGLISH!!! It was for all new missionaries. We had to teach investigators in groups of 30. I learned so much from this activity. With this activity, and so many others this week, I learned that we have to listen to what the investigator is saying, and what the spirit is saying about them. We cant just teach lessons at them, but TO them. We have done a lot of activities about learning to listen to people and learn about them, and what Heavenly Father wants or feels for them. It sounds so easy, but it is actually a pretty hard to apply when teaching. 

My days are so long and filled with so much learning that they blend together, sometimes breakfast seems like it happened another day by the time we are to lunch. 

We have had a minimum of 4 hrs in language class each day. Friday (day 3 in the MTC), we actually had to teach an investigator in only Tagalog, as he only spoke Tagalog to us. It was a hard because Christofer really felt the spirit and related to how Joseph Smith felt, but we had a little bit of a language barrier. I know that we wouldn't have been able to speak as much as we did to him if it weren't for Diyos at Jesucristo, pero it was major motivation to study even harder. We have another lesson with him tonight, and we really have prepared and studied for it a lot. After our lesson we felt a little discouraged, and really tired because of all we were learning. We were having a hard time coming up with what to teach Christofer in his next lesson. We knelt to pray again and told Heavenly Father we were struggling, and then went back to our planning. We ended up planning a lesson that we really felt that he needed. I know that as we pray to Heavenly Father with a humble heart, that he is waiting to answer us. I know that exact obedience brings blessings, because without it, I would not be teaching lessons in Tagalog. Heavenly Father is key to all we do as missionaries. I have never prayed so much in my life, or needed guidance from our Father as much as now.  

Today is P-day. We woke up early and went to the temple. that was another blessing, because my mind feels refreshed and ready for more language classes. I am very happy here and learning SO much more than I thought was possible. My testimony is also growing more than I thought was possible, as well as my faith and reliance on God.  

We have goals to speak as much Tagalog as we can at all times. We speak what we know all day as a companionship, I'm sure it is funny to listen to our half English half Tagalog sentences. 

Missions are mahirap. Mahirap na Tagalog, pero masaya ako. Alam ko po na ebanhelyo na Diyos at Jesucristo. Pananampalataya na importante. Diyos at Jesucristo na mahal kita na tayo. 

I love and miss you all!

Sister Ashlyn Goodwin