Allyson's Mission to the Philippines Baguio Mission: August 2013

Saturday, August 31, 2013

August 31, 2013

I'm very happy that BYU football is starting. Every P-day I wear my “Loyal Strong and True” shirt and the guy at the breakfast place always tells me that I'm going to miss a great season of football.

I got my travel plans yesterday! I am flying with everyone in our district except for Elder Peck and Wetterstrand. Our flight is Monday at 6 pm. We fly from SLC to LAX and then I think we have a 5 hour layover. Then LAX to Hong Kong (2 hour layover or something) and Hong Kong to Manila. So we leave Sep 9 at 6 pm and get to Manila Sep 11 at 9 am or something. Weird.

Our devotional this week was Neil L. Anderson. Here's a funny story. Elder Wetterstrand was talking to this kid before the devotional in the cafeteria. "Why are you here?" "We're visiting our grandpa, Elder Anderson!" "Oh, I think you mean President Anderson! He's my branch president. Please tell him Elder John Wetterstrand would like to be zone leader" Then he got to the devotional and realized that that kids grandpa was Neil Anderson. Anyway, the devotional was pretty good. After the devotional, we had to stay in the Marriot Center and sing hymns for a long time because there was a huge thunderstorm. So Elder Anderson shook a few hands and we have not heard the end of it from Elder Eagar. "I'm never washing this hand! It has been touched by an apostle of the Lord!" Oh brother. Then they finally let us leave but it was still pouring rain. Good thing we had our crocs! They worked about perfectly. Also, Sister Titabu's cousin is in Manila right now. She sent a picture of them standing in flood water. They were next to a car and the water was almost up to the side mirror. Sister Ackerman's friend is in Quezon City right now and almost all of the missionaries’ apartments are flooded and they aren't allowed to leave their apartment and they ran out of food! Crazy.

Yes, I watched the mormon message. [featuring Allyson's mission president; see this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ogs4k7c_kY] We thought it was so cute! They seem very kind. Haha, President Balledos emailed Sister Ackerman and said that Sister Balledos would like her to please pick up some down east xs undershirts at the bookstore for her. I'm glad I can buy dr pepper!

Dad, remember how you told me that the sisters would always cause so much drama? Incorrect! We are totally fine. It is 100% the elders.

Please let me know who wins the US Open! I'm predicting Djokovic will play Murray in the finals and Djokovic will win.

So you asked what else we do at the MTC besides learn Tagalog... basically just eat, sleep, learn tagalog, learn how to teach, study, go to devotionals twice a week, plan every little thing. They are big into planning here at the MTC. And on P days we just scramble to email, do laundry, go to the temple, do an hour of personal study, breakfast, lunch, and write letters all before class starts at 5:55. I thought p day would be so relaxing and nice-- false!

I am getting so excited to go to the Philippines. I am going to miss my district a lot though, especially Sister Ackerman and Dial and Titabu! Hopefully we'll see each other in Baguio! I will also miss my teacher, Brother Ward! He is the wisest person I've ever met and he's a pro at Tagalog.

I am so ready to be rid of this food. I've started to basically just have little salad or cereal for my meals, because everything makes me feel like I'm going to throw up. Maybe I'll miss the yucky MTC food when I'm eating rice for days, though!

I can't believe I only have a little more than a week left! I feel like I just barely got here! I wish I knew a lot more Tagalog, but I'm really excited to go the Philippines! Thanks for everything! Love you all!

Love, Sister Mortell

Elder Marchant (Brazil) and Sister Mortell

The Trio

Drenched after running from the Marriott Center

Good thing we had our crocs!

Flight Plans!

The Original District

Tagalog CTR rings

Sunday, August 25, 2013

August 24, 2013

Kamusta pamilya!

It's weird to me that BYU fall semester is starting really soon. So close, yet so far away...

I love the MTC choir. We have choir practice before the Sunday devotional and before the Tuesday devotional then we sing at the Tuesday devotional. Last Sunday's devotional was [Editor’s note: name omitted but a former college and professional football player from Tonga who is now a prominent news anchor in Philadelphia]. Biggest brag fest I've ever witnessed in my life. Haha, it was so funny. He kept saying things like this "I was the star of the BYU football team, I did this and that, I wore a Packer's helmet, something about the miracle bowl, now I'm an incredibly successful news anchor, and I have been sent to Greece and Paris and whatever and I will continue to be sent to exotic places, but nothing compares to my mission in the SDRCM (South Dakota Rapid City Mission). It was hilarious. It was a good devotional, but he was basically just bragging about himself for an hour. [Editors note: Who knows where this general attitude of disrespect towards BYU football comes from??]

I have a Tagalog Book of Mormon. There are so many words in each verse compared to English. My Tagalog Book of Mormon is about the size of my English Bible. Tagalog is going pretty well. It's a little frustrating, but it's okay. It freaks me out that I am more than halfway done with the MTC. I definitely do not know half of Tagalog. Last Saturday in the TRC we taught someone that was from the Philippines, but now she lives in Orem. It actually went pretty well! Mostly because she just talked for pretty much the whole time, haha. Church is in Tagalog. We all have to prepare a five minute talk every Sunday then during Sacrament Meeting they call on two people to give it. Hasn't happened to me yet. Then the branch president or a counselor speaks. They just speak in English because they don't know Tagalog.

This week, we realized that when Elder R [full name omitted] eats an apple, he eats the entire apple. Core, seeds, everything (except the stem. Too stringy apparently). I asked him why. He said that the core of an apple has trace amounts of arsenic in it. He is determined to slowly build up his immunity to arsenic, in case someone poisons him. That's all I have to say about that.

My district loved seeing the pictures of that mission home they're renting! It's beautiful! I'm starting to feel like I'm a bit cooped up in the MTC, so I'm really excited to get to the Philippines, except I'm a bit scared because I don't know as much Tagalog as I would like. I'm going to miss my district though! Sadly Elder Wetterstrand and Elder Peck are not going to Baguio.

The choir director's last name is "Eggit" and he said someone named their baby after him on his mission. They thought it was a really cool American name, haha.

Thank you for everything! I love you all very much. Have a great week!

Love, Sister Mortell

Saturday, August 17, 2013

August 17, 2013

This week was really good. On Sunday the general primary president spoke at our "relief society" meeting with all the sisters at the MTC. It was really good. Then we had to have a meeting for the new sisters... We learned all about how to be ladylike. We had to practice bending over to pick something up (use your knees so your skirt won't fly up in the back, use your left hand on your chest to make sure your shirt doesn't fall down, and pick up the object with your right hand." It's a real ordeal. I felt like I was on the Princess Diaries. On Tuesday, Richard G. Scott spoke at the devotional. It was awesome. I was kind of frustrated that day with the language and he said exactly what I needed to hear. Also, I kept thinking in my head "If you have not eaten a reeses peanut butter cup, I plead with you, eat one now."

I've been doing the MTC choir... It's actually really great. Singing at the MTC has probably been one of my favorite things. Gym time is probably my favorite haha. This week I've been having super intense games of four square. I hadn't played it since 5th grade. It's usually with the boys in my district and I'm usually the only girl playing.

Yesterday we met this Sister from the Philippines who is going to New York. She was probably the smallest person I've ever seen. One of our teachers who is 4'11 towered over her. She was probably 4'5 and maybe 75 pounds. We were all so huge compared to her! She was very nice though, except when she was sort of laughing at our Tagalog.

We basically just spent this week cramming Tagalog into our heads! I really like both of our teachers-- Guro (Guro means teacher) Ward and Sister Cope. Here's some fun Tagalog words I learned yesterday. Keyk=cake, Tsip=chip, papkorn=popcorn. Mahal kita means I love you. So does pag-ibig. We always have to teach our teachers and they pretend to be investigators. Our lessons are improving a lot! My kasama saw this document on the computer that was a message between our two teachers about our lessons. It said "Sisters A and M did well." We felt very pleased. Guro is very into growing his own basil and making pesto. I told him that my mom loved that too. It is such a relief to email in English! We're supposed to speak our mission language all the time, and I'm getting really sick of translating everything into Tagalog.

Could you make sure and tell Bevy that I say thank you so much for the cupcakes! They were so delicious and we loved them. Also, can you tell Todd and Angie thanks for the notes and that it was very sweet and tell Mimi thanks for the note too? Thank you. Hahaha, I got the family newsletter from the John Grobergs... The people in my district saw who it was from and they were like "Elder John H. Groberg??? From the Other Side of Heaven???" They couldn't believe that I don't introduce myself as "Sister Mortell, I'm from Boise, Idaho, and my great uncle is John H. Groberg."

Thank you for everything! I love you all very much. I feel like my email was just random little things that popped into my head. Sorry. I'm going to the Provo temple in a couple hours. This week was really good! It's hard, but I'm learning a lot and having fun! I'm getting excited to go to the Philippines!

Love,

Sister Mortell

In this pictures of our district, from left to right Elder Wetterstrand, Peck, Manning, Eagar, and Rivera. Me, Sister Ackerman, Titabu, Dial.

Monday, August 12, 2013

August 10

Kamusta pamilya!

Thanks for the many packages and emails and such! You are the best. The girls in my room were very appreciative of my treats. Also, I love the modest girls rock chapstick. Thank you. All the people in my district always laugh when Elder Eagar hands me a slip to get another package. Nothing can beat my top bunk in my freezing room with the sticky stuff on the wall that my hair always gets stuck in though. I’m glad Maddy is having fun at efy! I looked for her when I walked to the Marriot Center, but no luck. I forgot to tell you that on the Wed I entered the MTC, there were 700 new missionaries.

Last Sunday, the devotional was Jenny Oaks Baker which was really cool! She played her songs which were amazing then she talked in between. She was really funny. She said "Whenever I’m with my dad, he’s willing to take pictures with people to build them up and whatever, and I’m willing to take pictures with people because I like feeling like I’m famous." I loved that devotional. Her music is so beautiful!

I’m really sorry this is the most scattered email ever. I’m going really fast because I don’t have very much time. I love the new game day shirt! Everyone was super jealous of me. I feel like I’ve been learning Tagalog like crazy! That’s basically all we ever do. Learn tagalog, eat, and sleep. Haha, that host that got my suitcases when I first got here was hilarious. "You'll love the MTC, the food is great!" Yes, that is the reason I came to the MTC--For the food. Some things are mildly disgusting but most of it is pretty decent. I’ve been playing the piano a lot. Somehow there are very few piano players in my zone so I play the hymns a lot. Good thing I practiced! I like our branch president a lot! He’s really nice. I really like our teacher. He’s from Boise--Boise High graduate. He’s very intense though and he moves a lot faster than the other teachers, but it’s good because we know way more tagalog than the other new district! So, Tagalog is kind of hard. I didn't even really think about learning Tagalog before the MTC. I was too busy worrying about public restrooms and gross things in the Philippines. I thought that it would be easy because tons of people come to the MTC and learn it, but I realized that you have to work really hard. For the most part, my experience has been really good so far! I love everyone in my district. We always just joke around and have lots of fun. My kasama and I were feeling sort of discouraged the other day though because we felt like we were trapped in this weird secluded world, and there was no time to relax and Tagalog is hard. We were talking about this and then two sisters came up to us and asked if they could talk to us about the Book of Mormon. They told us that the Book of Mormon helped them get through the hard times at the MTC, so that was pretty cool because there was no way they could have known that’s exactly what we needed to hear.

I´ve also realized that you can find out a lot about a person by playing volleyball with them. That’s what we usually play at gym time. It can be a little frightening. I got a letter from Ben a few days ago. He’s training an elder from Taiwan... He eats spaghetti with corn and lettuce and broccoli on top because he wants to be American and Ben can’t break it to him that that’s actually not how Americans eat it, haha.

We have been teaching lessons pretty much every day. We just got two new "investigators." I was sort of skeptical of that, because it is fake, so I thought that it was kind of dumb. I realized that it still makes a difference if you have the Spirit, though. Our lessons always went really well when we had the Spirit. I feel like I had a lot of other things to tell you, but I forgot. If you need to tell me something soon, then dear elder is probably the best way because they print those off every day. Thanks for everything! I love you all so much! Sorry for the typos, bad grammar, and wrong punctuation. Mahal Kita!

Love, Sister Mortell

Aug 3

Kamusta pamilya!

Thank you for the dear elder and the email! Saturdays are my P days. I like dear elders, because you can get those every day, but email is more reliable. I got a dear elder addressed to me and when I opened it, it was actually to "Elder T-Bone" and this sister in my district got one addressed to her and it was actually for "Sweet Sister Al Babe" haha. I think dear elders will get to me eventually, though.

Everything is going really well so far! It's really hard and I am exhausted by the end of the day, but it's still really good. My kasama is Sister Ackerman, from Sacramento. We get along really well and I love her a lot. There are three other sisters in my district-- Sister Ackerman, Sister Dial from Austin TX, and Sister Titubi (pronounced seetubi) from Cerabes (this is not the right spelling, but I don't know how to spell it). All four of us are in a room (there's six beds, but just four of us). We are all going to Baguio. Sister Titubi is awesome! She doesn’t always speak English that well, but she is hilarious and so happy and kind! While we were unpacking on the first day she just sang us songs that they use to welcome people on her island. Today, we had to teach her about dryers. She didn't believe that her clothes could actually be dry, haha. Sister Dial is great too-- she's really funny and has a great personality. I really love all the sisters in our district. There are five elders in our district-- three are going to Baguio and two are going to Alongo po (sp?). I actually really love all the other sisters I've met--lots of very friendly people.

The first day we got my books and card and key and whatnot, dropped off my bags, and went straight to class where we immediately started to have Tagalog thrown at us. It was a little frightening.

Today we woke up at 6:00 and went to a yoga class which was great! It felt really good to stretch because we are basically stuck in desks the whole day. Then we got ready, had breakfast with our district, studied, did laundry, had lunch, and now I'm emailing!

Yesterday, we had three hours of class, a million hours of language study, some other stuff that I can't remember right now, and we taught our first lesson to our "investigator", Ellen. That was basically the most embarrassing thing ever. We weren't allowed to have our phrases written down, just a few notes. We walked in and pretty much forgot everything we had ever learned. It was really awkward because we couldn't communicate really well. We were supposed to say a prayer at the beginning, but we forgot so we said one halfway though and there was a big difference after that. We could communicate a lot better after that so that was awesome. We are teaching her again tonight. Learning the language is really hard, but it is actually amazing how much Tagalog I have learned in the past few days!

I'm sorry this is very unorganized, I'm just saying everything I think of. I have this little countdown clock in the counter that is freaking me out. Our room is pretty good. It's probably a step up from heritage halls! It's nice that there are only four of us. We have plenty of space but it doesn't even matter because we're not allowed to be in there from 7:00 to 9:30 except for p day. The showers are a little gross because they are so clogged with everyone’s hair. Oh well, we're all just savoring our showers because we know they will be replaced with buckets very soon! Yesterday we had gym time for the first time. It was glorious. We went to the field and played volleyball with our shoes off. We had so much energy. We were all just diving and running and it felt so good. We played that if we messed up; we had to say a sentence in Tagalog.

The bookstore is so cheap here. It is wonderful. I got a water bottle for $2 and the washing machines are only $.25 and the dryers are $.10! Casa Dea was ripping me off! I have seen a lot of people I know. We just discovered that the computers we are on don't have ways to connect the camera, so I will send pictures next time. I only took one anyway. Provo is so pretty right now and the weather is perfect! There are definitely a lot of things to make fun of here, but it is awesome! There are a ton of more things I was going to say, but my time is almost up. Thank you for everything! I love you all so much. Btw, my departure date is now sep09. Apparently they decided we didn't need those two days.

Love, Sister Mortell