First Week in the Philippine​s

Shout out to my sister Solana who just got her mission call!!!!! To the Adriatic South Mission! Albanian speaking, reporting to the MTC April 10th! That is pretty much the coolest thing I've ever heard (besides getting called to the Philippines that is) Love you Solana, I'm so excited for you!!!

 

I don't even know where to start...

I am really here in the Philippines!!

I'm serving in the Conception Ward, in the Tarlac zone.

 

My kasama is Sister Calinisan from here in the Philippines. She claims she is not good in English, but she actually is really good. I've had no problem talking to her in English... only Tagalog :) She is short (she barley comes up to my shoulder) but she is funny and we find lots to laugh about. She is a hard worker and I love it.

 

So what have I done so far since I've been here? I walked through rice fields and corn fields. I ridden on trikes, jeepnies and a bus. I've spoken during Sacrament meeting, I've sung during Sacrament meeting. And most importantly, I've taught people about Jesus Christ.

 

Here in the Philippines missionaries have a little bit of a different focus. We focus a lot on strengthening people who are already members of the church. We don't just want more people on the ward rosters, we want more people in the chapels. A lot of our visits are to recent converts and less actives. But we also teach investigators. There is a boy named Allen that we are teaching that is going to be baptized on Feb. 16th. It is exciting!!

 

Most of the people here in the Philippines live in poverty by American standards. But it is the most beautiful poverty I have ever seen. They live in plywood houses, or concrete houses, or bamboo houses. They are small and simple. They effectively use all the space they have. Sometimes when we visit them we have a chair or something to sit on, but a lot of times we just sit on their floor.

 

We teach several times a day and we begin each lesson with a song, I love it. My companion had me actively participating in lessons right away. It's been hard, but I've already improved so much. Heavenly Father is truly blessing me.

We have a goal to OYM (Open Your Mouth, and share about the gospel) so many times a day. I OYM more animals (dogs, chickens, water buffaloes, goats, etc.) than humans, but it's good practice. :)

 

I kinda feel like a celebrity here. Because I am a foreigner (tall and white), people are constantly staring at me. I'm not really sure how to handle it. I just smile. Little kids are my favorite. One day as we were walking, my companion told me that the two girls behind us were arguing whether I was a foreigner or if I had just used a lot of whiting soap. They have that here. It's opposite from America, because here it is considered more attractive to be pale and white.

 

So the address that I had for sending letters to me was wrong. The mission home has moved so below is the new address. If you've already sent something to the old address it will still get to me I think, it will just take longer. Use this one instead:

 

Philippines Angeles Mission

F. Tanedo Street

Tarlac, Tarlac 2300

Philippines

 

Sorry that this letter is so scattered and random. There is just so much to write about and I didn't even get to half of it. This is an experience like none other I've ever had in my life. It's hard. There have been moments when I just want to give up. When I wonder what in the world I'm doing here. But then I remember that I have been called by a prophet of God to serve the people here in the Philippines. I remember that God has promised to help me, and I know that I can do this with his help. I have received so many tender mercies that help me get through the day. I love being here in the Philippines. I love the gospel. I love being a missionary. I won't trade this experience for anything. I know God lives and loves me. I know this is God's work. I know He given no commandment, except he prepares a way for us to accomplish it.

 

Thank you for your love and your prayers. I love you all!

 

Sister "Foreigner" Curtis

 

The End of the Beginning

I just passed my two month mark!! That means I only have 16 months left. Time goes so fast.

This is my last week in the MTC. I'm so excited to go! I'm ready to go, but unfortunately my language is not. I have almost a whole week left and you better believe I'm going to work hard.

So I have my flight plans!! I leave the MTC Monday January 21st at 5:30 (that means your last chance to write me a DearElder is Monday before noon). We fly to Los Angeles, and then to Hong Kong and then to THE PHILIPPINES!!!! I'm so excited!!

Just a heads up, I won't have Preparation Day next week so it will be two weeks before you hear from me again. Sorry. I'll miss you.

This morning we went to the temple like we do every Tuesday morning. It was probably the last time I'll get to go to the temple for the next year and a half. I'm pretty sure I won't get to go to the one in Manila until the very last week of my mission. It's pretty sad. I love the temple. I am so grateful I've been able to make regular temple attendance an important part of my life. I love the peace and the spirit that is at that Holy Place. I am grateful that the covenants I've made and the promised blessings I've received in the temple will be there to guide and protect me throughout my whole mission. It will be a while before I am in the temple again, but the temple will always be in me.

I have a challenge for you. The next time you go to the temple, imagine that it is the last time you will get to go for a year and a half. It makes things a lot more meaningful.     And if you haven't been to the temple yet, do all you can to get there.

Sorry this is so short, but I'm going to try to send pictures. Love you!!

Sister Abish "Goodbye America" Curtis

Listen to Your Cat... I mean heart

So I thought of a funny language mistake that I forgot to include last time. Something that I like to say a lot in English is "Listen to your heart." Back at the beginning of my MTC stay I learned the word for heart: puso. I would often tell people to "listen to your puso."  Well, after a while I accidentally started saying pusa instead of puso. Pusa means cat. Yep. I kept telling people to listen to their cat.

When we first got here we were told that we would be leaving January 21st. But this last week we've heard some rumors that we might be leaving a week early. We don't know for sure. Some days I am pretty sure we are leaving early. Some days I am pretty sure we are not. Today is one of those days I'm pretty confident we are still staying until the 21st. But it has really made us start thinking pretty seriously about how close we are to going to the Philippines. I have gotten pretty used to life here at the MTC, and I feel like leaving to the Philippines is going to be an even bigger life change than just coming to the MTC was. Life is about to get pretty intense.

When we had only been here for about 3-4 weeks (we still felt very new) all the disticts in our zone that were older than us left. We were suddenly supposed to be the old and experienced ones. It was pretty crazy, but it helped us grow up quick. Usually whenever old disticts leave a couple days later they are replaced by a new district. Well, when the old two districts left they were replaced by one small district of five Elders. As Sisters we were pretty sad, because we loved the old Sisters with all our little hearts, and we couldn't wait for more Sisters to come. We have been waiting for a long time. Things have been pretty crazy around here lately as the MTC is preparing for the income of so many new missionaries. The missionaries that come in tomorrow are the first ones that will be effected by the shorter MTC time. And for our incoming Philippino missionaries it doesn't mean that get to leave the MTC three weeks early, it means the day they arrive at the MTC was delayed by three weeks. We thought we were going to get new missionaries a couple weeks ago, but turns out they are not coming till next week. (If we leave early that means we won't even get to meet them!)

 I don't know if you really wanted to know all that... but that was kind of a long intro to explain the next thing that I will say. You see our Zone is pretty small now. And it just so happens that I am the only one that plays piano. The thing is, I don't really play piano all that well. But using my simplified Hymn book I manage to get through all the songs in Sacrament meeting (making plenty of mistakes along the way). But I am grateful. The whole reason I started to learn piano, was so that I could be of use at such a time as this. I hear that in the Philippines there are not a lot of piano players. I wish I was better at piano, but I'm glad I've developed enough skill that it is at least better than singing with no piano at all. The Lord has prepared me for years for this mission.

Like I said earlier, things are getting pretty exciting here at the MTC.  A couple weeks ago they asked all the 18 year old Elders and 19 year old Sisters to stand. At the time there was maybe a dozen of them. We gave them a standing applause (I don't remember if we actually stood, but in my heart I was for sure standing) But now there are more and more of them. Last Wednesday I got to be a Host (meaning I helped the brand new missionaries bring their luggage to their residence, and bring them to class) The three Sisters that I hosted were all 20 years old. I am so excited for them, and for the hastening of the work!!

I know that the church is true and that the message I have for the world is real!!! I see evidence of it everywhere.

Love you all!!!

Sister Abish "I'm a 22 year old missionary and I love it" Curtis

Happy New Year!!!

So someone told me today that I am in the Church News :) I sang in the choir for the Christmas program when Elder Nelson came and they got a picture of us. Someone should find a copy of the Church News and tell me if I look good :) I wrote you halfway through Christmas day, and just so you know the second half of the day was great!!!

Thank you family for the stockings. My companions/roommates were very grateful! Sister Latimer had presents that she let us help open. But for me, Sister Tuia and Sister Tupua the stockings were the only thing we had to open on Christmas that were for us. But Christmas isn't about the things you get. We all had a wonderful holiday.

So I realize that I haven't really talked much about learning the language. It's hard, that’s for sure. But we also have lots of fun. Here at the MTC they have you practice teaching lessons in your new language right away. I love my companion Sister Tuia. We have some of the best teaching experiences. But we also have something to laugh at after almost every lesson. Here are some mistakes I have made. "It is important to read your scriptures every spouse." (instead of every day) "If you pay tithing you will get many repentance" (instead of blessings). I told someone just yesterday that there are 20 apostles instead of 12. One time I was trying to complement someone's hat, but I said shoes instead. My companion was explaining about fasting; She explained that we fast one Sunday every month. But "lingo" the word for Sunday, also means week. So our investigator thought that we fasted for one week every month. Fun stuff. Also, when I don't know how to say something in Tagalog, I just act it out. Usually with sound effects. I may not be able to speak the language very well, but I can still communicate. Right now we are teaching six different "investigators". It's pretty intense because of how much preparation has to go into each lesson. But one of our "investigators" is getting baptized this week, so that's pretty exciting. Two of my favorite teaching experiences are as follows: We have this investigator who we haven't had the chance to teach very much, and honesty we didn't really look forward to it because he just was not very receptive. But this last time we focused not on teaching a lesson, but teaching HIM. What exactly did he need. We laid it down for him. We straight up asked him if he was even interested in learning. We bore testimony to him of how important the gospel is to us (I almost cried) and told him how important it was to him. Then we told him that he wants to find out for himself, it requires action. We committed him to read (he hasn't been keeping that commitment) pray and go to church. I'm excited to go back and teach him again.

My other favorite was right before Christmas. We were going in to teach a new referral: someone we had never taught before and didn't know much about. We had prepared a Christmas lesson for him, but when we got in there we were lead to teach someone else. He just opened up to use and we were able to see his needs and help him. As my companion was bearing testimony I turned to a scripture. Right after I got there he asked a question that my scripture answered perfectly. When he admitted he didn't really know how to pray we taught him how, then knelt down with him right there and had him pray. It was so sweet! He was so prepared for the gospel!

I know that most of our teaching experiences here are just role plays, but the spirit is still there to lead, help and testify. I can't wait to go teach real people!!

Okay so I said I would talk about the language... but I only talked about teaching. So here goes... Tagalog is a mix between piglatin and the sentence structure that Yoda from Star Wars uses. There are some words that are so ridiculous that you just have to love them. Here are some examples:

Pananamalitaya- faith

Pagpapakumbaba- humility

Pinikamakapangyarihan - most powerful

Kapayapaan- peace

Mahal Kita!!!

Ingat po!!!

Piliin ang Tama araw-araw!!!

Sister Abish "Pinikamalakas" Curtis

P.S. Happy New Year!! You should make lots of great New Year's resolutions. Here is a good halimbawa (example) of one: Write more missionary letters!!

 

A Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas!!!

I hope your Christmas has been magical. Not Harry Potter magical. Or even Santa Clause magical. But magical because of our Savior Jesus Christ, and because you get to spend Christmas with friends and loved ones.

I used to think that being a missionary was the best gift I could give to Heavenly Father for Christmas. After all I am giving literally my whole life for the purpose of serving Him and His children. But I'm beginning to see that being a missionary is not a gift that I give, rather it is the greatest gift I have ever received. I feel so blessed to be able to wear this name tag every day that not only says my name, but also says the name of Jesus Christ. This incredible holiday is all about our Savior. How humbling it is to literally be a representative of Him.

For a missionary every day is like Christmas, because every day we get to give the greatest gift. We are a link for other people to eternal life. The message that we have for the world is that the Heavens are open still. God still talks to His children on the earth. Christ's church has been restored in it's fullness, with everything that we need to return to live with our Heavenly Father. The gospel blesses us in this life and also in the next. The true message of the restoration is that we now have complete access to the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The gates are open for us to use the Atonement in it's fullness. We need to be good receivers of this precious gift.

Christmas/Christmas Eve here at the MTC is a lot like it was during Thanksgiving time. They do a lot to make things special. Last night we had a special Christmas Fireside, and then we got to watch "A Christmas Carol" (The one with George C. Scott). This Christmas morning we got to hear from no other than Elder Russell M. Nelson. It was magical. Tonight we have a Christmas Talent Show/Program and then we get to watch "It's A Wonderful Life." And we get lots of neat stuff in between. Unfortunately they don't let missionaries call home on Christmas here at the MTC, but they do let us all email home. My thoughts are defiantly on my family, I miss you guys terribly. But I'm also happy to be where I am.

I'm excited about the gospel of Jesus Christ!!!

Love, 


Sister Abish "I'll be home for Christmas, but only in my dreams" Curtis

A Typical Day

No day in the MTC is typical so my title my subject line is a little misleading, but I just wanted you to know what I do all day. So here goes:

All missionaries everywhere are to be up and awake by 6:30. But since we have to be to class by 7:00, we usually wake up closer to 6:00 so we have enough time to get ready. There are 4 sisters to a room, and 11 rooms in a hallway. There are two bathrooms in a hall, but still that's a lot of Sisters with a limited amount of showers so sometimes it's crazy.

We are supposed to be in our class by 7:00. There is no teacher, just us missionaries with our district leader in charge. We have an opening song and prayer (in Tagalog) and start planning as companions for the day. There is some time to fit some studying in before breakfast at 7:45.

All meals at the MTC are great. They make the best food and you can eat as much as you want, so that's great. The cafeteria is also a great place to see all the missionaries that you know. I see my friends from before the mission there a lot and I love that so much! Me and my companion either sit with our district, or with the other sisters in the zone. I love it.

Then every morning we have three hours of class time with a teacher. During that time we teach our "investigators" or have companionship study. We have language instruction and also English parts were we learn how to teach and just be awesome missionaries.

Then the teacher is gone and we are left by ourselves for an hour of Personal Study time. I study The Book of Mormon, Preach My Gospel, or I prepare for lessons I will soon be teaching.

Then what do you know, it's lunch time!

Not every day is the same, but every other day we have gym right after lunch. Not the best timing, but still pretty great. There is a track upstairs for running, and workout machines and stuff. Not my cup of tea. I prefer the lower level where missionaries play volleyball, basketball of four square. I must admit I still have not tried four square, I'll occasionally play volleyball, but the majority of the time you will find me with a basketball in my hand. Me and Sister Latimer will sometimes play in the three-on-three games, but lately we have been playing a lot of knock-out (speed, lightning, bum... it has a lot of names). I actually gotten way good at shooting those free-throws, and all the Elders are afraid to be in front of me because I keep getting everybody out :) It's lots of fun and I've made good friends.

Everyday we have an hour set aside for language study. No teacher. Just us studying it on our own. We also have an hour almost everyday to go to the computer lab and use the language program they have here.

There is some additional study time stuck in here and there between other scheduled things. Again, most of the time there is no teacher.

Before you know it, it’s dinner time. I love chocolate milk. I just thought you should know that. They have it here and I have it probably more than I should :)

In the evening we have another three hours with a different teacher. Class time is separated similarly as in the morning. It's pretty great.

9:30 is when we head back to our residences. Quite times starts at 10:15 and then lights out at 10:30. This time always goes by way too fast!

Okay I know this was not the best description of a day because I gave you the general outline, but there is so much that happens during that time I could not possible have enough time to write it in the super short time I have to write each week.

Highlights of the week include: Preparation Day- our "weekend" kind of. We don't have any classes. Instead we get to walk up the hill to the temple, do laundry, write letters and email and just kinda chill. It's way nice, but goes by too fast.

Every Tuesday night is a devotional. They are always soooo good!

Sundays are a favorite of mine. For Relief Society all the Sisters in the MTC gather and have cool speakers. This week it was Linda Reeves (General Relief Society 2nd Counselor). We have District meeting (like Sunday school), Sacrament meeting. We get to walk to the temple and take pictures and stuff. There is also a fireside every Sunday with awesome speakers. We are so lucky here at the MTC!

Have a Merry Christmas! Remember Jesus, He is the most important part of this great season.

I wish I had more time, but I don't. Love you all!!! Write me please!

Sister Abish "Mahal ko kayo" Curtis

 

Climbing a Mountain

I can't believe I've already been here three weeks. Time is so funny here at the MTC.

I don't feel like I've learned three weeks worth of Tagalog. How am I supposed to learn an entire language in 9 weeks?!?! When I compare myself to where I was yesterday (when it come to language and also just personal growth) it's hard to see the difference. But that is where my title comes in: It's like climbing a mountain. Most of the time you are just so busy concentrating on climbing, focusing on the things right in front of you. But then, you turn around and suddenly realize how high you have gotten and how much more you can see. It's hard to see the difference from where I was yesterday, but when I look at where I was and who I was when I first started I can defiantly see the change.

It's true compared to the missionaries who are about to leave to the Philippines, I am more illiterate than a two year old. But even two year olds more than infants. I am slowly learning the language. Because teaching about the gospel in Tagalog is so important, they already have us doing it. We have 'investigators' that we are working with now. Me and my companion can successfully get to know someone and teach them basic principles. We both feel pretty inadequate, but that is perfect because then we turn to the Lord.

The MTC is just the best. We have so many opportunities to feel the spirit so strong!!! Also I love having fun and that is also something that you can do at the MTC. I am so grateful for all the people who act as angels in my life.

Love you all!!!!

Sister Abish "Hiker" Curtis

 

This is the sign that a lot of Filipinos do in their pictures.  It means guapo good looking