Friday, May 31, 2013

MTC week 3

Hey Family!
How are you doing? I love you all!! Thank you for the notes and dearelder. Thanks for the packages mom. The cardigans and pants are perfect. You are the best! Thanks for saying "The Lord is fluent in Hiligaynon." That was awesome! I love it and I needed that.
How is the stake float coming? You should send me pictures (in the mail), that sounds like fun.  When is the last day of school? What are you all planning to do in the summer? Tell me all about the end of year dance, okay? :) Sorry I can't come see your dances! 

Happy Birthday Mommy!!! Happy Birthday Daddy!!! Happy Birthday Grandpa Winward!!!

It has been a great week! I can't believe how fast it went by. So, big things are happening. Our whole zone except for our district is leaving for the field next Monday, so we will be the only district left and then 54 new missionaries are going to be coming into our zone on Wednesday. Crazy right? That doesn't mean a ton for our day-to-day stuff. Two of the elders in my zone were called as Zone Leaders and my companion was called as a Sister Training Leader. Mostly we just have to help the new ones with some orientation kind of things and help them get adjusted. I will probably be tagging along with Sister Foster while she does STL things until another STL gets called. It is exciting, but weird that some of the familiar faces will be leaving.
My enthusiasm for the work is growing. The language is good, we are all struggling together so it is fine. haha. I memorized the purpose in Hiligaynon, so that is good, and it helped me learn some new words and sentence structure. :)
My district is so great! I love all of them so much. It's kind of sad that they are all going to Bacolod though, Sister Foster and I won't get to see them in the field.
On Sunday night, the devotional was by the managing director of the missionary department. Stephen B. Allen. It was really cool because he got up and said that he had prepared this great talk that was going to be really funny, but then he heard that we were going to watch Sister Monson's funeral for our Sunday night film he realized that we probably needed to hear something else. So he totally threw out his notes and spoke entirely by the Spirit at it was wonderful. He said exactly what we needed to hear to encourage us and set a reverent mood for watching the funeral. He was involved in the creation of Preach my Gospel, so he shared some about that and the revelation that went into it. Sundays are my favorite. We watch Music and the Spoken word in the morning then we have a massive relief society meeting (there are 1200+ Sisters now). Music brings the Spirit so well.
Tuesday night we had a devotional review like we always do, and it was wonderful. basically like a district testimony meeting and we talk about what we learned from the general authority devotional. I'll share one neat thing from that. So, there is an elder in my district whose mom passed away when he was young. He has been praying to feel nearer to her. On Sunday, during Bro. Allen's talk he showed a video clip called "Splash" about a special needs little girl that finished every race she entered (it's cute, look it up). Elder S said that during that clip for some reason his heart was burning and he just started bawling. Then on Tuesday, Elder W. Craig Zwick and his wife spoke and they shared a story about their special needs son and his participation in Special Olympics, and Elder S said that the same thing happened. He just felt something so strong during their story. So then, during Devo review I mentioned how I have worked with Special needs kids so I really connected with that story and went on to bear my testimony, etc. When Elder S got up, he said that since I mentioned special needs kids, he was finally able to make a connection and understand why he had felt the Spirit so strong during both of the devotionals. His mom had been a Special Ed teacher when she was alive. He was able to feel closer to her. Isn't that so neat? The Spirit is undeniable here. I am slowly learning what it really means to teach and speak and act by the Spirit. I am learning to better recognize and act on promptings.
I am really so excited to go to the Philippines. It will be so amazing. Brother Hong tells us about some of the Filipino traditions and quirks. It is going to be so different. And I am excited to get immersed in the language. Both of our teachers learned Tagalog in the MTC, so I am super grateful that we are actually learning the language we will be using in the field. Even just having a Hiligaynon Book of Mormon is such a blessing because that didn't exist a few years ago.
I love you all so very much! I hope you have a great week. Write to me! I want to know how you are doing and what you are up to! Remember to keep building your faith every day. Pray always. I love you family!!!!
Love, Cassie

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