Ba Babababa Baba

Okay dokey. How yall doin? It is snowing here... again. its snowed or rained every PDay so far. haha. oh well. I think that I am ready for the weather in the Philippines. And good news! I am half way done with the MTC!!!! Can you belelive it? Its pretty much awesome. The district that came before us got their travel plans last week. They leave next monday. And then we are next! Wooo Whooo!!

Sometimes I forget that I am actually going to be in the philippines. It can seem like I am just learning Tagalog to use here in the MTC. I guess I dont really know how to explain it. Point is, i really am going to the Philippines. Its nuts.

Okay. This week has been a great week. We started off a little dissapointed with how last week went. Not that it was bad- just that we could have worked harder. (I had no idea how easy it is to get sidetracted in the MTC) The thing is, as missionaries, (and just as children of  God) we litereally have unlimited potential. I found myseld always wondering if I was doing enough. Most of the time my answer was probably not- but this week was much better!

On wednesday we had our first TRC. Im not sure what it stands for (there are tooooo many acronyms  (it probablt stands for Tagalogs Really Cool or something)). Anywasy... for TRC a volunteer who speaks tagalog comes to the MTC and we teach them as themselves (memebers of the church) and just give them a 20 minute lesson. I am used to teaching our teachers over and over so it was a good chance to teach people with different persopnalities. Really differnt personalities. hjahah.

Okay, after all that talk about trying to work harder let me show you something I learnd this week. Its a song. Whoever recognizes it first wins. (wins what, im not sure, but none the less)

Halika terra na,

Lahat tera na,

Halika gaggawin natin to.

Alam ko po kayo natin to.

We still have some fun in the MTC. Speaking of fun actually, Sister Marcucci and I had a game of marshmellow basketball. Dont worry i dominated. (not really actually- she beat me). but it was really fun. Ill try to find pictures :) But dont worry. That was in personal time right befiore we went to bed. haha.

Thank you for sending letters to the elders. They loved them. Even the dear john dad. It was really funny. Lwashanda? hahaha. nice choice.

This week kasama and I had our best lesson yet. we taught about the great apostasy and the restoration. Here are some good things about the lesson.

1. it was a full lesson (meaning it was like 35/40 minutes long (it probably would have only been 5 minutes long if it was in english haha but... yeah)

2. we only used maybe 2-3 english words. Aint you proud of us? We might have slightly changed some of the doctrine in order to explain it using the vocab we know but... still. we were impressed. haha

3. The sprirt was so strong. this is really cool to me beacuase sometimes it can be hard to feel the spirit when you are only communicating in a forgein lanugauge, trying to teach your guro posing as an investigator but who already knowseverythign you are going to say. longest run on. sorry. anyways. It was a really good expereince. Definitely proof that when you do all you can God will anwer your prayers. I am sure that I will learn that lesson over and over on within the next 17 months or so.

bad news- 7 of the 9 memebers of my district are sick. The MTC is honestly an incubator for disease. Kinda gross. haha. But this comes with some good news. because my kasama was sick with a nassssty cold, we got to walk.... OFF CAMPUS!!! wooo whooo!!! we walked all the way to the student health center. (For those of who who dont know provo to well, the SHC is probably a 3 minute walk from the MTC. if you are walking slowly. haha) But it was still really fun. It was interesting to be the only missionaires there. I am so used to being surrounded by thousands of missionaries ALL DAY LONG. but it was good. gave us a little itty itty itty  bitty taste of what it might feel like to be missionaries in the real world.  But at the health center everyone was white, had my kind of hair and my height (relitively). That will change for sure. haha.

Okay i am running out of time.... so. much. more. to. say.....

ILl try a quick bullet point list.

1. During church I met a couple who is  preparing to serve their 9th mission togeter. So cool. I would looove to do that.

2. I saw Sister Shallenberger!! it was so good to see her. closet person to family i have seen.  She said Heather you're not throwing up anymore?

3. Laurel and B thanks for updating me- i loove your quick little letters :) jman and hb? i know you love me, right? www.dearelder.com haha. mahal kita.

4. I got white chocolate covered popcorn from my roomie liv. bomb.com. nough said. thanks liv!!!!!! dont worry, im writing you back :)

5. devotional was about advertising mormon.org in NYC and London. Check it out. Waayyyyy cool stuff going on. I love it!!

6. The alyssums in that package were my favorite. thank you!!! oh and the stickers! Mom- send me all the stickers you can- just little cheep ones. they say thats is how you make friends with the kids in the philippines.

7. We had a remarkable lesson about the Aklat ni Mormon. I want to share more about it though so ill save it til next time.

8. I love my family.

9. I love being in the MTC.

10. I cannnnnnnt WAIT, til i get to go serve the Filipinos in Angeles!!

11. Tagalog is a crazy language.

12. God is on my side.

13. This church is true.

14. I love it.

15. I looove you.

Love,

Sister Evans

ps. look up "ba bababa baba." Its a real sentence in tagalog. haha

Hoy! (that's like me yelling "hey!" at you.)

Magandag hapon pamilya!

i cant believe that it is pday again. in so many ways it feels like pday was yesterday but... then again it feels like it was 129094 days ago. I know... thats what everyone says, but just in case you were wondering. They are right. But I love it here. Being able to focus on preparing for the philippines all day every day is wonderful! Especially since there is so much to do! i hope that by the time May 6th roles around I will be ready. You better pray for me though just in case.

This week was great! I am trying to think back to what happend. My kasama and I were joking about what we would tell our families that we did this week. We decided that this would be accurate: We wake up. We eat. We sit. We eat. We sit. We eat again. We sit one last time. We go to bed.

haha. In reality thats about how it goes- just going from class to class seperated by some kind of meal. But class is wonderful and it never seems very long because we always have sooo much to cover! We started learning grammar this week and let me tell you something. You remember how I thought Tagalog was hard last week? Well, i had no idea what I was talking about. Let me see if I can help yall understand. You know how there is 1 way to say "you" in english (maybe 2 if youre from the south and you count "yall") well- there are 6 ways to say you in Tagalog. SIX!! 6 ways to say you, 5 ways to say I, 6 ways to say we, 4 ways to say them, and 4 ways to say he/she. its nuts. Also, they speak/structure their sentences like this: Making the food me fat in the MTC. translation: the food in the MTC is making me fat. haha. (yes that is true.) Even though i think that the language is crazy mirhap I know I can do it because God is on my side. And that is exciting to me.

Okay what other things...Mom asked me if other people in my district are getting mail. Some of them are (the sisters in the tatlo) but the rest are getting very few if any. Yall should write them/draw them pictures! Send them to the same mailbox but address them to:

Elder Paz (Australia)

Elder Bigelow (Arizona/DL)

Elder Vunibola (Fugi- He just broke his foot plaving volleyball. Also he is on of my favorites (if Im allowed to have favorites)

Elder Masame (Australia- Other favorite. Also just broke his toe playing volleyball.)

you should also write my kasama Sister Reddish. Thanks Laurel and Julia for writing her- she loved it!

Those elders have amazing stories. Paz, Vunibola, and Masame are all converts. Paz and Vunibolas familes arent memebrs. We have a great district. And also, dont worry I play basketball not volleyball. i will not break anything here at the MTC. thats a promise.

Now would be a good time to thank yall for all the letters you have sent me! so salamat, salamat, salamat!! I am so blessed to have family and friends to support me. Thank you all. Mom thanks for the package with all the healthy stuff (and the rice krispies :)) That is just what we need here. Also- I got to enjoy my eater package some more. Those white chocolate m&ms are divine. Di-vine. and my favorite sees. oh delcious.

We had general conference this weekend (sorry, i guess that obvious). i loved the phrase, "Catch the wave." have yall caught it?? laurel??? Jman?? I also loved Eyrings talk. I wonder if they give us an ensign so we can read through them again. huh. Did yall notice how many of the talks seemed to be talking about finding refuge and joy in "ever darkening times?" Even the hymns. Im probably reading into it and probably shouldnt say anythign thats not doctrine since im a missionary but, I at least, kept thinking about the second coming. But thats enough about that.

Brooke- my teacher is brother nuttle. Does that ring a bell? he said that he was "ward prayer co-coordinator" with you your freshman year. Hes a remarkable teacher. Also do you know Briana Hall? Her sister Lindsey Hall is in my distict. She said that Briana knows you somehow...??

Mom- Do you know andrea miller (now hall). She grew up in palo alto and is your age. she is that same sister halls mama.

It looked like yall had a good time in the desert! i loove the pictures and movie clip! Yall should keep sendign the video clips :)  Actually can you print some pictures of the fam/ any of mis amigos (from my computer laurel) and send them to me? It would be nice to hang up a couple by my desk.

Heather- have you told everyone yet?? How are you feeling??

Dev- ready for finals? You are almost done with BYU. Kind of crazy.

I love that Lanes familiy got to spend time with yall. i also love that it was cold and cloudy when they came. Typical. haha. They letters they sent were so fun to get- ill write them back if youll send me their address mama.

Okay I better wrap it up.

Remeber that I love being here and that I love being a missionary. Thank you for all of your prayers. This is the Lords work and I am just trying to do my part. We all can- "catch the wave" ya know?

Love you.

Sister Lyss

Update from the MTC

Magandang Umaga Po Pamilya!

Mama mia. Its PDay. I cant believe it. It feels weird to be at a computer. Especially writting an email. Im trying to figure out what to say. So much has happend. haha

Okay. Ill try to get it all out. Starting from thursday. Also there isnt spell check and im trying to type super fast so please ignore the many typos :)

Thursday: So mama and laurel dropped me off in the morning. It was fun having them be able to actually come into the MTC. We said our paalams and they left. Shortly after they left the girls in my district came to pick me up and I met my companion. Dad was talking about how he and the other elders had to make an effort to tell their compaions that they love them- well dad, the first thing my companions said to me was, "Oooh, sister! I am so glad you are here, I love you!" haha. I guess sisters are a little different. Random crazy fact. This past wednesday they were 6 sisters short of having the new missionaries be 50% elders and 50% sisters. The sisters are definitely taking over here, I love it! Okay anyways, that first day was great! I dropped off my stuff and went to a class about the impact we can have as missionaries. Loved it. The only other things sticking out about that day are..... uh, how busy it was (but yall already know that) and how crazy my first language class was! So. For all yall that dont know. We have at least 4hours of language study a day. This particular class was 3 hours long. No english at all. MY MIND WAS BLOWN. Imagine hearing: Chinese, arabic, spanish, english, and japanese combained. And then 40 million times faster. Congratualtions. You have just imagined me speaking tagalog. Okay well not me, but my teacher. I am muuuuch muuuuuuuch slower. Also, yall remeber how before I came into the MTC i knew 2 words in tagalog? well turns out they were both wrong. haha.  But i am happy to tell you that I have taught our "investigator" three lessons in tagalog. I can pray, bare my testimony, introduce myself, ask tons of questions, count, and sing Tagalog. the singing is important because before I couldnt even pronuce the "Aklat ni Mormon" which is the book of mormon. So if I can sing in tagalog i can prounce tagalog. I hope yall followd that. haha. There isnt enough time to go back and read over that. haha. So thats language. I am so grateful that I am learning a language. it is really hard but in order to teach the people that need me, I need to speak tagalog. So somweday soon i will. prya for me though. haha.

My district is wonderful. There are 5 sisters and 4 elders. 2 of the elders are form australia and 1 is from fugi. All the sisters are from the states. Vegas, SLC, San Diego and Orlando.  it seems like more than half my zone is either from Australia or New Zeland. Quite intersting it. (Thats how the setence would be worded in tagalog. there are no "to be" verbs). All of the sisters are 20 except one who is just barely 19. So many of them have boyfriends waiting for them. Kind of weird. Dont worry my heart is locked.

mmm... okay. okay. Have you ever written an email with a timer at the top telling you how little time you have left? Its a lot of pressure.

I dont have time to go through all the rest of the days (i havent really been doing that anyways) so ill just give you the highlights.

-The first time my teacher spoke english. Huge rush of relief. Definitely high light.

-Going to the temple today at 550am.

-When I finally ate something other than fruit yesterday. I still didnt feel very well until then.

-Easter sacrament meeting with 3000 missionaries. woah. it was awesome. Also, it only took 8.5 min or so to psas the sacrament. things are done at an amazing speed here at the MTC

-Easter devotinal. SHERI DEW came! it was sooo good! She was a remarkable speaker. She talked baout how we can access the atonement, the importance of knpowing who you are, and the importance of understanding the language of the spirit. I loved it all.

-April fools day. haha. Pretty funny. My kasama tricked everyone into thinking she was switched into the lima peru mission.pretty hard to do but she pulled it off. Dont worry, she didnt fool me.

-All of the personal and companionship study time. So much. I love it. I am learning how little I know. Okay i have to go. We can only write letters on Monday so ill try to hand write a couple while I do laundry but I know yall are at palm desert anyways. te amo. I mean mahl kito!

-Sister Evans

ps. salamat po for the letters and the packages! It was a great easter and I looooooove hearing from you! love you!

Palaam