September 14, 2013

Pamilya and friends! Kumusta!
I still cannot believe that I'm finally here in the MTC! All I can say is that I love it so much! I had no idea what to expect when I first walked through those doors, but it has not been as hard and trying as I had thought. I mean it is a lot of work and no sleep, I am up and studying and going to classes from 5:45-10:30 each day, but it is so much fun and I love it so much already! Even though I've only been here for three days, I feel like it has been weeks haha. But it's amazing and I love it! Ok so to tell you a little bit about what's going on. I am in a district with 5 other girls and four boys. Four of us sisters are going to the Baguio mission. I am in a tri-companionship with mga kasama Sister Sawada from Hawaii, she went to BYU last year too and lived in Helaman halls, she's awesome and I love her! And then my other kasama is Sister Anien from the Marshall Islands, she is so sweet, and will be getting endowed in the temple today, so Sister Sawada and I will be her escorts! My district is really cool and everyone is so nice. Our language teacher told us that we are a very reverent class which I really like because you can tell that we all are trying very hard to study the language and be great missionaries. Most of the Elders in our district are 18, so it's kind of weird that I am one of the older ones haha but they are so mature spiritually, and are such great missionaries already! So far everything that we have done here has been about studying the language or practicing teaching by the spirit. On the very first night we were able to do this teaching experience where a big group of us went around and taught investigators about the church. It was an amazing experience and made me realize my purpose here as a missionary, and that is to bring others unto Christ. The only way we can do that is by helping others to feel the spirit, and I can truly say that the spirit it real and powerful!! This church is true and I can't wait to share it in Tagalog! We did have our first lesson in Tagalog last night, luckily though we could use our notes, so we kind of were banking off of that the whole time haha. It was super scary though because I literally didn't know anything our investigator Joan was saying to us. We had all of this stuff prepared, but we didn't plan on her asking us any questions back for some reason. So we had her read a scripture, and then she asked us a question about what the Espiritu Santo (holy Ghost) was. Yeah, we were not prepared for that at all, so I tried to explain in my Taglish haha and I could definitly feel the espiritu santo in that moment because I was able to remember some words in Tagalog, and she understood what I was trying to say. Then the same thing happened when we asked her to pray at the end, and she said no! Yeah again we didn't plan for that, so Sister Sawada explained to her in Taglish how to pray and then said a really good prayer in mostly Tagalog. Again we could feel the spirit and it ended up being an okey lang lesson haha. Tonight we have to teach her again with no notes, so I'm really scared for that one, pray for me please!!
So yeah, the MTC is an amazing place, and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. It's weird to see BYU and my old dorms, but everytime I walk outside and realize again that I'm finally inside the MTC, it just makes me so happy! I've also seen a lot of people from my BYU wards here, so it's really fun to see people that knew me as Stacey and not Sister Bangerter, that's still a weird one to me. It's also weird to be with my kasama all the time, especially when there's three of us, but we're getting better!
Thanks Brooklyn, Sara, Katie, and Elder Dunn for the letters, they seriously made my day! Everyone else, you're slacking so write me!!

Mahal Kita.
Sister Bangerter