Week 1

Magsandang hapon po everyone! (good afternoon)


I have officially survived more than 3 days in the MTC. Everything about the MTC is absolutely wonderful, except for the food... Everyone in the MTC is the most friendly person I have ever met in my life. My companion is Sister Whitehead and she is a doll. She is from Pleasant Grove and has been at Utah State the past year. She is pretty chill and kinda lets me boss her around which I sort of like... Sister Whitehead is always pushing me to get out of my comfort zone though. She encourages me to say companion prayer in Tagalog and is very patient when I am "umm-ing" and peaking at my paper, and she even got me to play a game of kickball with the Zone, which is something I would never do.

Tagalog is going okay. I guess I assumed that I would be essentially fluent by now, but that is not the case. It is really frustrating to have thought and feeling about what you want to say, but not being able to express that. Yesterday, we taught our first investigator and let me tell you, IT WAS ROUGH. I have never been so embarrassed in my life. The investigator spoke such fast Tagalog, Sister Whitehead and I looked at each other and looked through our notes the whole time trying to understand. we just kept saying "Pasensya" (sorry) the whole time. Finally we kinda gave up and asked if we could pray. the investigator said "yes" obviously and Sister Whitehead gave a powerful prayer. She said it in Tagalog so it was limited and simple, but the spirit was felt and in a lesson that is all you can ask for. After the lesson I felt discouraged about the language, but not about the teaching. We prayed to have the Spirit present during our lesson and our prayers were answered. I think I assumed it would be in the form of us knowing how to speak and understand, but rather it came another way. My teacher told us that we could have spoken perfect tagalog, but if the spirit was not felt, then it wasn't a successful lesson. The spirit was felt and even though our tagalog was deplorable, our lesson was successful.

It is really amazing the spirit that can be felt her. There are TONS of missionaries here, all who are in constant prayer and have that missionary light about them. The other day at lunch, while I was walking back to my table with my food, an Elder started having a seizure in the middle of the cafeteria. He was immediately given a blessing and medical help, but as I looked around I noticed that just about every missionary in sight was praying that the Elder would be okay. There was an undeniable spirit in the room and the Elder taken care of and okay. Little things like that kind of happen everyday here where I can just feel that Heavenly Father is watching over his missionaries and he is right there answering our prayers.

I have thankfully been so at peace here in the MTC. Although I have missed my family and my home, I have not felt homesick. I have not cried (YET) and I have been ready for the day ahead every night, even on days where Tagalog has made be want to DIE. btw, "Mabuti saski" is pronounced Ma-Boo-Tee Saks-ee. It means Good witness, but Sister Whitehead and I say it all the time because it sounds like "my booty sexy" and also because it is essentially the only Tagalog we now. (sorry. I am probably not supposed to be saying sexy in my emails).

My district is so wonderful. The elders are really great, really nice guys who are very encouraging. The other two sisters in my district are the sweetest girls ever. Sister Strohn is from Woods Cross so we talk about B-town all the time, and Sister Tanielu is from Kalabass???? I have never heard of it, so i dont know how to spell it, but it is a country by Fiji. So she just learned english to come to the MTC and now has to learn Tagalog. AMAZING. She only brought one medium sized suitcase with her and she is just such an example. she is so humble and so sweet, and her testimony is POWERFUL. I talk to her a lot and I am pretty sure she has no idea what I am saying. I am so so so grateful for my district!! My teacher is really sweet but we just got a new one. His name is brother kaka and he is from New Zealand and he is kinda strict, and he keeps calling me Sister Gentry, with a hard "G." He always is calling on me very first and every time he has told me my answer is wrong. He has definitely helped me get over being ashamed of making mistakes. I have grown to like him more, but I was not his biggest fan the first day.

Listen. Everyone in my district has received a letter or a package already. Now i am not asking for letters or packages, but I am actually asking for letters and packages!!! :))))) I will be expecting one everyday this week. Thx. xoxo

I love all of you! Mahal po ang Diyos kayo (God loves you)!

Sister Gentry



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