Saturday, October 12, 2013

Stories on Stories on Stories-October 12, 2013

Okay, I feel like I have a lot to say this week, or at least a lot of stories that will take some time to explain, so hopefully I can get it all in here in this hour! I apologize in advance Mary Claire if you have to type this email out again because it will probs be long haha!
Alright, so this past weekend was conference, and it was probably the best session of conference that I have ever watched! Even more than last year when they changed the mission age! Sobrang magandang! My favorite talks were Uchtdorf's come join with us talk, S. Gifford Nielson's talk about member missionaries and missionary work in general, Holland's of course (I especially loved how he talked about Stephanie Nielson, I was fangirling), and President Monson's on the Sunday Morning session. GO READ THESE TALKS! There are a lot of other great ones, but these ones stuck out to me the most. I definitely got a huge spiritual boost from Conference, and got reanimated about missionary work. Not that I wasn't before, but it just made me that much more excited to get out to the Philippines (which by the way is in 9 days!!). After conference, our Sunday devotional was by BYU's Vocal Point which I was super stoked about! They sang some hymns to us and talked about their missions and how important and hard missionary work is, but how rewarding and great it is that it can bless your life, your families lives, and those you teach. It was probably the best devotional we've had here. Then all this week, we've been listening to their CD since they performed for us haha thanks Katie for the CD and Tami for the ipod, I was so grateful for it this past week! Also, we got both of our investigators to accept baptism! I was super pumped because before these lessons, they were both kind of skeptical about our message, and especially baptism. In our lesson with Rose specifically, the spirit was so strong, and I knew that there was no way that she could turn down our invitation. It pumped me up so much for mission work, because even though these investigators are fake and I'm super excited, I can't wait to see how exciting it is when my investigators are real!
 So yes, general conference was grand as usual, but the most memorable part of conference weekend happened in between sessions. So we went up to Main Campus to watch Gen Con, and we were eating lunch there. A few of my kasamas and I got this fruit salad that was super yummy, but there were walnuts in it. One of the Sisters is allergic to walnuts, and didn't realize that they were in the salad until after she ate a piece of one. We all kind of panicked for a second because she ate a little bit of it, but she said that she would be fine and could just dilute the reaction with some water. So we just kept on eating thinking she was fine, but then she started coughing a lot and said that the water wasn't enough. All she needed was some benedryll, but since we live on West Campus, she didn't have any with her, and the bookstore was closed for conference. We decided to go to the front desk to ask if they could get her any medicine. We waited at the desk for about 5-10 minutes before anyone decided to pay attention to us and our coughing/dying kasama. When someone finally got off the phone to help us, we told them what happened and how she just needed some benedryll. They had her call the MTC doctor to see what she should do. Again, she talked to the doctor and asked for some benedryll. She shortly got off the phone, the front desk person walked away, then came back with a security guard holding an Epipen. Wait what? Yep an epipen. All she needed was some benedryll, but I guess it had come to this. We were all in shock, and as per usual, I was trying not to laugh just because I had no idea what was going on, and things just escalated super quickly. This was real life, she was about to get her first epipen shot and the reaction wasn't even that bad! At first, she thought about if she really needed it or not, but then she sat down, and the security guard gave her the shot right there in the middle of the MTC front lobby! The room was silent, there was so much adrenaline in all of us in just that 10 second period when she had to get the shot! So yeah I guess crazy things do still happen at the MTC!
Which leads me to another story! So last time I told ya'll about Elder Lauran and how he's a little bit scary. Well we were talking to his kasama, Elder Jarvis from Washington. Poor guy is just so sweet, and patient, no wonder he got the scary kasama! Well Elder Lauran used to be a knife fighter back in the day before he got converted, but he may or may not have some scary things here at the MTC. I'm still not sure about that haha but one night they were going to bed and it was time for lights out, so Elder Jarvis was going to turn the lights off. Elder Lauran wanted him to wait, and said that he would stab him (um what?) if he turned the lights off. Elder Jarvis just laughed it off and turned the lights off anyways. It's pitch black and silent in their room, and then all of a sudden, Elder Lauran is shining a flashlight in Elder Jarvis's eyes and rummaging through a draw "looking for his knife". Elder Jarvis is being blinded by the flashlight and so all he can hear is Lauran looking around for something. All of a sudden, the flashlight turns off and it's silent in the room again for a minute or two. Then Elder Lauran jumps on top of Elder Jarvis and pokes him with a hanger! Hahahaha Lauran was kidding the whole time, but Jarvis was freaking out for sure, I don't blame him!
All right, one last story and then I'll get to the important stuff. So here on West Campus, we are super close with the other districts in our classroom. By this I mean close in proximity, not friendships (but we are good friends). Anyways, we got the short end of the stick with our classroom. It's the size of a small bedroom, because it used to be a small bedroom, and there are 9 desks in here and then our teacher along with all of our books and stuff, so it gets really cramped. Not to mention that our AC doesn't work in our classroom, so we just bake in the room all day, and it's right next to the bathroom, so yeah we have a hot, cramped, and smelly room. Well one day, someone from another district decided to bomb the bathroom, and guess who were the lucky ones to smell it all day, yep that would be us. But don't worry, after two days of this, some janitors finally came with I kid you not, 6 plungers. I'm not making this stuff up people, this is all real life. Ok, that was probably way too much information, sorry, I'm done now haha.
Now on to more important stuff like the fact that we are officially the oldest district in our zone! It's such a weird feeling, but you can definitely tell the difference between someone who has been here for 5 weeks and someone on their first or second week. I feel so old and ready to leave, but at the same time I will really miss the MTC. Especailly my distrtict, they are my family now, and we have all gotten so close. We decided that it was rude of the MTC to put us together because we're not all going to the same missions (Sister Sawada, Tapusoa, and Lowham are going to Baguio with me, Sister Anien is going to Olongapo, Elders Waldern, Loitz, and Rasmussen are going to Cauyan, and Elder Ruiski is going to Naga) so now it's even harder to have to say goodbye! I will really miss our Elders, especially Elder Loitz! He is just so innocent and hilarious. I will never forget the other day when we were talking about Nagpapa verbs that we had learned for example, Nagpapatotoo. Out of no where, Loitz starts to sings Nagpapatotoo to the tune of Don't Drop That DunDaDun. Sister Sawada and I were dead! Just imagine this tall lanky star wars loving kid from Orem Utah singing that hahah best thing ever! But all of our Elders are so great! I'm sad because they aren't even going to be on our same flight either. So I leave at 3:30 AM October 21st from the SLC airport to Detroit Michagan, then striaght to Manilla from there. It will be about a 20 hour flight. But then all of our Elders are flying from SLC to Seattle, then Tokyo, and then Manilla, and they even get there almost an hour before we do. I really wanted to go to Tokyo or Hong Kong, but at least this way we only have one stop so that's pretty nice. But yeah, saying goodbye to our Elders is going to be rough. And then there's Sister Anien! She will be with us the whole way, but once we get to the Philippines, she will be in an entirely different mission! I can't imagine mission life without Sister Sawada and Sister Anien as my mga kasama! It makes me sad right now to think about it, but we will stay in touch for sure, and I will even go to the Marshall Islands if I have to! Oh and quick story about Sister Anien, so the other day, Elder Waldren's Mom sent him the best pumpkin chocolate chip cookies I've ever had. He left them in the room with Sisters Sawada, Anien, Tapusoa and me. In about a couple of hours, the whole bag was gone haha Waldren came in all upset that we ate his cookies, and we were all defending ourselves saying that we ate one or two, and then sister Anien goes,"I only ate 5!" hahahhaah again I was dead, so funny!
So yeah, this week was pretty great, and now I just have one more week to enjoy the MTC before I head out to the Philippines! I am so stoked, and I know the time will go by so fast. Especially since we are MOVING BACK TO MAIN CAMPUS!! Almost forgot that little detail. So we move back to Main Campus this Tuesday. My new address will be
Sister Stacey Bangerter
Oct 21 PHI-BAG
2011 N 900 E Unit 226
Provo, UT 84602
So if anyone wants to write me for this next week, send it to that address, but please don't send any packages because I probably won't get it in time. Speaking of packages, thanks Aunt Alice and Uncle Vyrl for the candy! I set the Reeses and Startbursts out, and they were literally gone in about 3 hours! But yeah, I'm excited to move back to Main Campus because I like it there a lot more compared to the West Campus. The people who came to the MTC speaking Tagalog on September 11 are the only ones in history who have ever moved to Main campus, then West campus, then back to Main campus before. They should put a picture of us up at the MTC for this haha!
I hope you're all doing well, thanks for all of your love and support! Remember to always put God and the gospel first and everything else will fall into place :)
Mahal Kita!
Sister Bangerter

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