Week Four. Area: MTC. Companion: Hermana Otte

Hola otro vez!! (Hello again!!)

Hermana Atendido here giving another weekly update on my days in the MTC since last Pday Friday!!

Saturday: So nothing much happened on Saturday other than more Spanish lessons, Teaching lessons, and teaching our 'investigators'. One thing that I guess I would like to mention is that after me and Hermana Otte (mi companera) had taught 'Areli' we were preparing for our next lesson on Monday, but we couldn't get the song Creeo en Cristo (I Believe In Christ) out of our heads. Seriously, because of one of the Elders in our district, even the mention of it gets it stuck in our heads. So, in order to be able to concentrate and get the song out of our heads (We really do like the song, but it just won't get out) we started to sing other songs in Spanish. It was really fun. Hermana Otte sings really high and I can only sing... not so high. But we at least sounded decent X'D

Okay, so I curled, yet not curled my hair. Hermana Otte told me to twist my hair after washing it and sleep on it. So, this is what it looked like, sort of, that morning. I know you're happy, mom XD

Sunday: On Sunday was me and me companera's first time as Greeters! That was our calling, and we got really into it. So, of course we greeted everyone that was in our zone to welcome them. I was a little hyper, for some odd reason, and hugged the other Hermanas or shook everyone else's hands, even though they briefly went out to go to the bathroom or something and when they'd come back it, we were like "Bienvenido otra vez!! (welcome again!!). After Sacrament, we had Relief Society, where we all saw a poor bat flying around the gym. We thought it was a bird, but when it got a little close, we saw that it was really a bat. Not only did it get close, but we saw it climbing up the wall and Hermana Otte was like "Birds don't climb walls, that is definitely a bat." Then the Elders had their meeting, and afterwards we went on our temple walk and it was such a great day! Loved it XD Then we had our Sunday Devo. OmiG, every devotional, Sunday and Tuesday, are always great. I of course am a bit guilty of nearly falling asleep every now and  then, but I've been taking notes and paying attention. And then every Sunday after Devo, we have a church movie night. The Sunday before we watched Meet the Mormons (finally) and on this sunday we watched The Testaments. I never got to fully watch it till then.

A forest cliff drawing (not yet finished)

Monday: I don't know why, but I agree with my zone that Mondays and sometimes Tuesdays feel like extremely long days. But we started off the morning good with Spanish lessons and teaching our investigator Areli (who is played by our teacher as a single mom with two kids, working at a hotel, and not having much faith in Heavenly Father cause she hasn't seen any kind of blessings in her life) about the Restoration and a bit of prayer on the side. I love monday's schedule cause we get to have gym first before lunch, and oh is gym fun. I've been playing volleyball with my companion and a few other sisters and elders from other zones and districts. And I've got to say, I'm quite the teacher! Chiste, HotaKa (joke/kidding, JK) It's just that there are these adorable Sisters, one Mongolian speaking and one Chinese speaking, are always playing with us and in the first few days when were were playing with them, they have been getting better at playing since I've been helping them XD Then we taught 'Maribel', another one of our 'investigators' Hm, I sort of forgot what we taught her that day, but I know that we've been making awesome progress with her. She wants help with trying to get her daughter to 'at least believe in something, even if it's a dog' (those were her words) and we have been teaching her about the Plan of Salvation (which we taught first cause she was curious about it), then recently the Restoration, but I'm skipping ahead XD ... Though, I did make another Spanish mistake with her. So instead of saying "After Jesus Christ's death and the apostles were dead, pieces of truth was scattered throughout the world..." la di da di. Of course, all in Spanish. When I tried to remember 'pieces' in Spanish (cause I had just learned the word like 15 minutes before we taught), I instead said 'farts'. Maribel is such a great 'investigator', but her eyes went wide and she laughed so hard for a few minutes and explained what I had said. Oh well, at least my mistakes are funny and not awkward... yet. 

Finished

Tuesday: Now, Tuesday was a whirlwind of teaching. In the morning we taught 'Marcos' (another one of our teachers who is playing as a guy who was on the fence whether or not God existed and totally lost faith when his parents divorced and is living with his active member grandparents. It's also kinda hard to get to know him cause he's usually closed off.) Hm, we sort of had a bad experience last week with him, but we were able to teach a little more better. It's just sometimes hard to answer his questions cause he asks a lot of... interesting questions that we don't have much of the vocab to answer :P But we're improving. Oh, and today was very interesting as well because... Okay, so as I said, every Sunday and Tuesday we have devotional at night. On Tuesday devos our choir sings (consisting of anyone who wants to join). Hermana Otte wanted to sing in the choir so I had to go with her. What we didn't know until we went to practice was that night's devo was going to be broadcasted to every MTC and I was like "O_O Ohmysweetgoodness!! What?!" But it was fine... I guess. Unfortunately... or fortunately, depending on perspective it cannot be viewed by any other way than in the MTC's. I don't know why, but that day Quentin L. Cook and his wife Mary Cook gave talks :) It was soo good. They talked about missionary work, to not underestimate ourselves, not doubt our calling, and even told us the process of how missionaries are assigned. It was so spiritual and very amazing to hear.

A drawing I drew while waiting for devotional to start when we had a break from choir practice. It's supposed to be Nessie

Wednesday: So lately Hermana Otte, mostly on Wednesday, Hermana Otte started feeling sick, but not so bad. Nothing much different happened, just the usual teaching schedule and lessons and classes that are always amazing and randomness that happens in the classroom when we're too tired to concentrate but have finished our work. Though, what I did find a little more amusing was that one of the teachers, Hermano Ostler, for the other district, and who often came over to our district to help us out with our spanish, was that he asked me in spanish when I was going to teach him French, cause he'd herd me say that I had taken French when I was in highschool and that all these various languages where getting in my way of learning several spanish words. I seriously could not remember almost anything about French, I accidentally told him a line in French that meant something totally different than what I was thinking, but I don't feel like mentioning it cause it... just weird XD

Thursday: Yesterday was a bad day for mi companera. She was feeling a lot worse and so later on when me and the other Hermanas in my district thought that she really not looking so good, I took her to the clinic and we ended up not being able to teach Maribel today. We at least told our zone leader that we weren't going to be available. But what was even more funny and odd but an interesting experience was that because I was in a trio companionship with Hermanas Hoth and Wilson, we had to teach for an hour, 30 minutes each for our own lessons. So, we all saw how different each of our 'Areli''s acted depending on the progress we've gotten on our lessons. 

Friday (today): Pday!! Awesome Pday! So unfortunately Hermana Otte was not able to come to the temple with our zone today and had to stay with another sister in our zone who is recovering from back surgery. Of the nearly four weeks that I've been here, I have now seen every single temple video. It was very interesting to see them all and how different they all are. The first time I went to the temple as a missionary was the curly brown-haired Eve (The other hermanas in my zone differentiate the videos by what the Eve's look like), then the second week was the straight, brown haired Eve that I saw in my own endowment, then last week was the blonde Eve, and then today I saw the older version. Muy interesante XD

So, that has been my last week :) So many amazing experiences and so many wonderful and spiritual experiences. I've had to rely so much on Heavenly Father and the Spirit and I'm not really even in my mission field yet. But I know that all these practices are truly helping me to be prepared for my mission... in spanish!

Hermana Otte working on her spanish flash cards and drawing on them

Okay, so this last paragraph is dedicated to my MTC Companera. Mostly cause my mom sent me a message saying I should at least talk about my companion and explain why we're so similar to each other and just what she's like in general. So Hermana Otte is from Fort Worth, Texas. She likes a lot of things that I love like reading, writing, & drawing, though she did like wolves when she was little, but she likes a lot of animals now. We've both made our own alphabets XD Though hers look more... ancient squiggles while she said mines look like Egyptian-like runes. We've had to deal with friends with very similar personalities. So her friends and my friends can get along well. Oh, and one of the Elders was in a 'what is your animal' phase and named her an owl, which she said that a lot of people say that's what she looks like... and then she called me a small black happy hyper Shitzu puppy. Though the others did agree with the puppy part, but more wolfy ^_^ chiste. Hm, what else... She also likes horseback riding, our investigator Maribel knows her YW's leader back in Texas, and when we play volleyball she has a lot of power, like me XD, though, for some reason, she bruises easily. So it looks like she has some purple leopard spots on her arm.

Well, that's it for today, hope you enjoyed learning of my adventures! Til next time!! :D

OH, P.S

So we have four wardrobes, one for each of us. One of the days, I forgot when... yesterday, I was talking to Hermana Wilson and I looked up randomly at my closet door and in one of the pics you will see that the wood mark looks like a wolf XD I love my closet door now!!!!!

Week Three. Area: MTC. Companion: Hermana Otte

Hello Everyone!! :D

Another eventful week at the MTC for me, though, personally not as eventful as last week. Hope that you are all doing well :) 

my zone

So, the older district, the ones that were there when my district first came to the MTC, has now left and we are the new... older district. Don't know how else to say it other than that, and we're also looking after the new district, and then a new one that should be coming next week. So excited for new faces.

So, one great highlight that I just want to say is that it has been snowing here every now and then, on and off, and I've been loving it. At the same time not so much cause I obviously can't play in it XP

It snowed!

One of the sisters in my zone was drawing a heart in the snow and I just decided to take a pic of her drawing it. And with her red jacket against the white snow, the pic looks awesome XD

A lot of things happening. Lots. But still enjoying myself. Me and my companion had felt a little down because of how badly a lesson went and then the feelings continued on to the next day, but we felt more better when we managed to have a small lesson plan and some how end up not doing it and teaching about something different and it working out. With my companion, Hermana Otte, I've been learning so much, spiritually and spanish-ly. The language, I guess, is getting a little more easier to understand from our teachers, but I know that it's going to be much more harder to understand when I actually talk to first-language-spanish-speaking people out in the field. Really trying to learn and understand. 

Drew this before devotional

Hm, can't remember if I said this before, but I again found out that my name is a conjugation of the spanish word atender - meaning to help - and so Atendido means Helped XD loved it. My teacher had said the word and my head just shot up like 'si?? Did you call me??'

Also, lately, every gym time now, me and my companion has been doing a lot of volleyball. Pobre (poor) Hermana Otte, she gets so easily bruised she has spots on her arm and wrist where she keeps returning my serves that are kind hard. 

Seriously, my few weeks (feels like months) here at the MTC has been so spiritual and uplifting and so very enlightening. Learning so many new things at once that I'll even remember it like 3 days later. I've always known that the Lord will always help us and will sometimes do so after some time if now immediately. My testimony in Him has grown so much and have been able to recognize the spirit even more in a lot of the things that I do. I'm so happy to have this opportunity to serve and have such an amazing experience. 

Well, that's it for my weekly update. Hope you enjoyed it all :3

Week Two. Area: MTC. Companion: Hermana Otte

Hola everyone!! Hermana Atendido here :D

Just another weekly update on my Pday as I'm doing laundry. I have so much to say because so many fun things has happened ^_^

So since my first Pday, many amazing things has happened.

For the past week we have been teaching our 'investigators' in spanish: one called Enrique, another called Maribel later on in the week. Enrique, we found out yesterday, was our teacher ( I guess it was kinda obvious) and mi compenera y mi had some funny and awkward yet spiritual times with teaching. What made it awkward was that Hermano Ralphs/Enrique was playing dumb whenever we were forced to say something in English because we didn't know how to say it and he'd just stare at us. As we learned more Spanish, our lessons got a little better, but still lacking in... sounding natural :P When he became our new teacher, Hermano Ralphs said that he was impressed at how my district's planning advanced with each lesson. So... we did good for our level XD

Oh, and random fun fact: On the wall near the Information Desk, where you can find the pictures of mission presidents all around the world, I found the picture of my Auntie & Uncle who are mission presidents in the Philippine, Ilo-Ilo mission!!

my auntie and uncle as mission presidents!!

Okay, back on subject.

On Sunday, we got to do the Temple walk, were we could walk around the temple grounds of the Provo Temple :) It was really awesome and got some good pics

On Monday was when we started teaching Maribel, another 'investigator' but of course we took it seriously. Well, as we were talking with her in Spanish, then she Spanglish, and then English (she started it, just FYI), and then back to spanish... She started to say some saddening things, and then me and my companion said things, and we all ended up crying. I never cry... well, not like how we did, but me, Maribel, and my companion Hermana Otte were all crying... and then laughing. She was just great to talk to.

On Tuesday we had an awesome devotional! Mi companera was in the choir and the other Hermana, Hermana Hoth, was also in the choir, so me and Hermana Wilson did a temporary split since we didn't feel like singing much. 

Another funny fact: Our Branch President is called President Price... So now I keep messing up and saying Bish- President Price XD And every time I hear their names I just think of Bishop Price and his family back home X3

*****Wednesday was a mui funny day. Seriously. So it was our last day to teach Hermano Ralphs as Enrique (we didn't know it at the time) and I did a very funny spanish mess up. So when I knocked on the door, mi compenera said 'How are you?' (In spanish). He said 'Bien.' Hermana Otte said 'bien' ... Now, this is where I can't stop laughing or giggling about. I was about to say 'estupendo!' great, but instead I said 'estupido!' Surprisingly, we were still able to get through the lesson, but I canNot stop laughing at the thought of what I said. It was mui funny XD

Oh, and it was also the day that we got new missoinaries, so we weren't the newbies anymore :) *****

Thursday happened to be another day full of spanish mess ups. Hermano Ralphs had us stand up and introduce ourselves since he began to teach us that day. When it was my turn I said that I liked reading, writing, drawing, and wolves. He spoke Spanish kind of fast so I didn't catch him say 'So, you like writing, drawing, and eating wolves?' I seriously didn't know where that joke came from, but I didn't catch him say 'comer' or 'eat' in Spanish, so I turned to my companion and asked her 'How do you say 'all three'?' My class were like '?!?!' I obviously didn't get it and then they explained it to me and I was like 'noo!! nonono' .OmiG. And then another one with Maribel. I was trying to say ring in Spanish, cause I was trying to say 'ring on finger' or something, and I ended up saying 'butt' instead. She gave me such a funny face when I said that. She also taught me and mi companera how to say a few other things in Spanish. One, she taught me how to sing 'it's a small world after all' in Spanish, and she even told me what my last name really meant in Spanish. So, apparently 'Atendido' means something like 'have you been helped'. We thought that it was perfect for me being a missionary XD

Spanish is coming slowly, but I'm able to at least get about half the things that my teachers are saying... just takes a bit of time to translate then formulate an answer. 

Oh, another cool thing: So my companion had learned some spanish before so she's the once who's usually saving me often in lessons with 'Enrique' and Maribel cause I can't say anything yet or even say the words that I needed. On Thursday night our district and the older district paired off companionships with them and we had to practice teaching each other like missionaries-investigators. Me and my companion were paired up with the zone leader Elder Shipmen and his companion Elder Scaggs. They taught us like missionaries first and then it was our turn. We were trying to follow a certain order, but we hadn't gone over it much, just once, and didn't know much of it either. They helped us out by asking us questions that would help us lead to asking questions and saying the things that we could say. My companion, for some reason wasn't able to think much or say much, but somehow, with the little spanish that I had, probably conjugated incorrectly in some points, I was able to get us to probably about half or a little more than half from where we could've stopped. I was so happy with myself. 

Over the days in the MTC, each day almost felt like several days in one. One week felt like a month. But other than the crammed schedule, I am truly having fun and enjoying so many spiritual experiences it's hard to name some because there're just so many! I love it. Though, never before have I cried because of the spirit. It's not bad, of course, it's just I usually get goosebumps instead of wanting to cry. :P

Well, hope you enjoyed my weekly report at the MTC. I'm happy that we're starting to get into better grammar lessons... Though, it is also sort of a funny thing how I keep getting mixed up with spanish, french, and Tagalog. There are several little similarities that it sometimes takes a while to really remember some words mean something different in each language.

Well, hasta luego!!

-Hermana Atendido

The other Hermanas. Picturception