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.
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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