Sunday, September 29, 2013

Welcome to a new transfer!

Hello everyone!!

Sorry about not sending out an email last week... I'll admit I spent all of my allotted email time emailing back and forth with my family again.  :)
So we had our Mission Tour with our Area President, President Ardern, and his wife as well as with our mission president, President Revillo and his wife. While all of their talks were great as well as the food, I kind of left the tour feeling homesick again after seeing most of my MTC district brothers and sisters.  The following days were/week was tough emotionally, and then physically as I came down with a fever, and then mentally and emotionally again as I started panicking about learning to speak Tagalog again....
A few days ago, Sister Quinco and I showed a mormon.org video in one of our less-active member visits.  In it President Utchdorf talked about being at boot-camp and continually having to run, and run, and run.  He said that it became increasingly frustrating as he watched people who smoked and didn't follow the word of wisdom pass him while running time and time again.  He wondered where God's promised blessings were, because he knew that by following the word of wisdom he should be able to run and not be weary.  He said he learned a valuable lesson from this... be patient and endure to the end.  This video really touched both of the members we were teaching but I think it had the biggest impact on me.  It's been hard, feeling like I'm trying my best to be obedient and to learn the language and not having it come as quick as I want it to.  
Last Wednesday, Sister Suminguit had to say good-bye to her trainer, Sister I'loa, and hello to her trainee, Sister Tereke.  Sister Tereke is from Kirabati and fresh from the Provo MTC.  She know about as much Tagalog as I did when I arrived here six weeks ago and has a difficult time speaking English as well.  This has been a wake-up call for me, not only to realize how blessed I am to be able to communicate through English with so many people here, but also to notice how far I really have come.  While at times it's felt like my speaking skills have remained stagnant since I got here, I can understand what people are saying now and that feels like a huge step in the right direction.  I feel like I spent the first transfer trying to figure out what the heck was going on with everything around me - particularly what people were saying, everything about the culture, where everything is, and what being a missionary is really like.  It's been tough... every time somebody asks me how the language is coming I honestly want to cry, but I feel like now that I've got a better understanding of all the things I listed before, it's time to buckle down and learn how to speak this language!

My companion is helping me with my language study!  Already, just in the last few days she's been helping me, I've been learning so much better than I was before.
Sister Quinco and I have still had a really difficult time finding investigators.  We have a goal to go "finding" every day this week so next week I will let you now how it went and who we "found."  :)  Anyways... so my message from this week is to continue to endure to the end as well as enjoy to the end.  I was reminded by a good friend (*cough* Sister Umstead) of how important it is to enjoy as well as endure.  I admitted to her that I panicked a lot last week (okay, my red face and I'm guessing overall stressed-out look gave me away before I could admit anything), feeling like I needed to play "catch-up" with my language skills.  She gently reminded me that I can't play "catch-up" and that I need to be diligent but not freaking myself out. God sent us to earth for a lot of reasons, a big one being that we might have joy.  So just remember to endure and enjoy.  :)
Love you all!  Have a wonderful week!
Love, Sister Dickison

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