Sister Brown in the Philippines: Kamusta?!

My Kasamas (companions), Sister Kerr and Sister Smith. I LOVE them!

Kamusta?! So I've survived 4 days in the MTC! My first day? CRUSHED IT. I mean I'm basically fluent in Tagalog now. Okay maybe not. Literally 5 minutes after I got here, my host missionary dropped me off in my classroom and the teacher immediately started asking me questions. In Tagalog. Not one word of English. I probably should have felt overwhelmed but I just felt so happy and excited I didn't even care! My district has 6 Elders and 3 Sisters. Elder Milligan, Elder Toro, Elder Hammer, Elder Adamson, Elder Shaw, Elder Richards, Sister Kerr, and Sister Smith. Us 3 sisters are in a trio because Sister Kerr's kasama (companion) didn't show up. I LOVE them! They are so much fun and such hard workers! They keep me focused and working hard. I actually met Sister Smith before the MTC and I talked to Sister Kerr on FB. Our Elders are all 18 and they're just adorable! Our zone has a rule that the Sisters are not to take their trays back after any meal. How cute is that? And you never walk through a door that isn't opened for you. I think all guys need to go through MTC training, the world would just be a better place :) We have absolutely zero free time. It's go, go, go all the time from 6:30am to 10:00pm. I never thought I would look forward to going to sleep at 10:30 so much!

The food is pretty good, definitely better than the HC! But it makes you sick the first few days. Also the sheets feel a little like sandpaper and our room smells like something died in there. No worries, we bought some Glade today! There are 2 showers I was advised not to use, one that was just a trickle and one that was like a fire hose blasting at you. I experienced them both within 3 days. So glad that's out of the way :) The sisters in our zone are super nice and our Sister Training Leaders come in to give us hugs every night, which is really nice. I have yet to cry (except when we watched 17 Miracles, but that doesn't count). Me and Elder Milligan are having a competition to see who can go the longest without crying haha :)

For the 4th of July we had a devotional, watched 17 Miracles, got ice cream, and got to stay up late and watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks! It was awesome! All the sisters dressed up in red, white, and blue and it was adorable! All the sisters have the cutest clothes and I'm just like "Bakit? BAKIT?" But whatevs, I'm rocking the sister missionary look.

It's day 4 and I know how to pray and bear my testimony in Tagalog and also how to say "Go take a bath" which is the equivalent to saying "Bless you" when someone sneezes. Weird, huh? We also already taught our first lesson to a fake investigator named Nico. In Tagalog. No notes or anything. 2 1/2 days after I said my first few words in Tagalog and we're teaching a whole lesson. How amazing is that?! I mean, our lesson consister mostly of things like "God, Plan, Happy," and "HIndi ko Alam" meaning I don't know. It was really frustrating because even though we knew he was just an actor, we had prayed and prepared all day that we would be able to teach him what he needed to hear and we really wanted that for him. But we couldn't understand hardly anything he said and we couldn't address his concerns or answer his questions because we just didn't know what he had said. It can be discouraging at times but I just have to remind myself that it's only day 4 and the fact that in only 4 days I've learned this much. It's crazy how even though half the time we're just reading things out of our booklet you can feel the spirit, Oh, #HG *cough cough Jeska* I kind of struggle with praying in Tagalog so I usually just do it in Taglish. But when I really try to do it in Tagalog, I just feel so much closer to Heavenly Father.

Okay I had a lot more but we have to teach again tonight and I'm out of time!

Mahal kita!

Sister Brown