The day I reported to the MTC was an adventure itself (a wonderful adventure). Lyndee Unsicker and her friend Ashley gave me a wonderful prep talk as we drove down to Salt Lake City. Megan Maxfield Hammond who was to pick me up at Temple Square was running a little late, but Lyndee and Ashley had to be on time for their Student Teaching so they had to leave me at the Temple Visitor Center. I was talking to a super nice temple worker while I waited, but that is when I realized that I had the wrong suitcase. So went the beautiful Megan came to pick me up, instead of going inside the temple like we planned, we went to the airport to try to figure things out. I dropped off the bag I had and could only trust that eventually my bag would get to me. (Luckily it did. That same night it was brought to the MTC. Tender mercy!!) Also I just want to say I loved every minute I spent with Megan. She is such an inspiring person. She dropped me off at Great Uncle Ray's house. I got to visit with him and his wife for a while, then he dropped me off at the MTC. Yahoo!!!
There are no new missionaries coming in this week because of thanksgiving. That means that last week when I came in, there were twice as many. 675 new missionaries!!! 111 of those were sisters. So many!!! Ours was the biggest group the MTC president had ever seen, but he says pretty soon we will be just the average size. They are expected so many more missionaries in January when all the younger ones will start coming. So exciting. I'll be here to see a little bit of that, since I'm not leaving till Jan. 21.
For the first few days our Tagalog teacher only spoke to us in Tagalog! Pretty crazy. But it was surprising how much we could learn still. It was pretty much like a big game of charades. The language is coming slowly, but I do pretty good compared to the rest of my class. On the second day we were already teaching an "investigator" who only spoke Tagalog. We taught him as an entire district and that kinda helped. Still it's super frustrating because I know if we could only speak English, we could teach so powerfully!! But in Tagalog we are so limited in what and how we teach him. I know that the lord will help us learn Tagalog, but it is hard to be humbled sometimes...
I have not told you about my Kasamas (companions)!!! My companion did not come until today, so for this whole week I have been companions with the other two sisters in my district (Sister Tupua from Fiji, and Sister Latimer from Washington) They are both great, I've loved being there companions! But at the same time I am so grateful to have a companion of my very own. Sister Tuia is from America Samoa. I've only spent a couple hours with her, but I love her so much already!! Life is good.
We spend most of our time with our district. They are a hoot. There are ten of us... well eleven now that my kasama is here. We have an Elder from Fiji, one from New Zealand and one from Hawaii. The rest of us are from America, though one looks Korean. We have so much fun together, sometimes too much fun. Sometimes things happen that I don't think are that great. But I think it is not because they are trying to be disobedient, they just don't really understand all the rules. (They thought we could email our family everyday.) But we are all learning and growing together.
The first couple of days they don't really give you a lot of instructions. They just kinda let you swim, and we feel lost sometimes. But turns out that is part of their plan. It has been good for us, and now that we are getting more help (our teacher will actually speak to us in English) it is getting a lot better.
I've seen my old roommate Kelsee Gates every day so far, though usally just for a second. But I love every second of it!!! She actually sleeps in the room exactly above me, and that is actually a huge comfort. I've seen lots of other friends. Tara Denkers, Breanne Drisel, Lucia Blasko and a couple others. It it just so happy to see them!!!!
I was going to attach pictures but this computer won't let me. I'll see if I can use another one next time.
I love you all!!! My family is just the best!! Thank you for all the DearElders, I ust love them!! I see if I can snail mail you, since I am literally out of time.
Love you soo much!!!!!
Sister Abish "Real Missionary" Curtis
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