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.