Week 5: Love from Aunt Tori

Hey everyone!

I only have 13 more days here at the MTC then I leave on a plane to the Philippines! :)

This past week I learned more Ilonggo grammer andmore people are coming into the Missionary Training Center from BYU each week. It is fun to see so many people who I met at BYU and get to walk around and say "hi" to so many people again :)

Now for the Highlights of my week:

My incredible Aunt Tori sent me a "love package" as she called it with so much LOVE, I was spoiled. There is a picture of all the great goodies me and my companions have been sharing :) I am so grateful for the snacks and awesome things she sent me along with her testimony of this restored gospel and the SWEETEST card :). I did not deserve such a wonderful package, but I am so grateful for it.

I was at the Provo temple grounds on Sunday for a short walk and one of my most dear friends, Paige, ran and yelled my first name haha :) I was filled with so much JOY to see her and we both started crying and we were just embracing each other in a great hug for a solid minute or 2 until we had to slightly break for a picture. It was so happy and good to see my amazing, wonderful, beautiful friend :) Oh happy day!!

The vending machines here have my favorite icecream, Graham Canyon (from the BYu creamery) that me and my best friend Spencer always ate. The guys who fill the vending machines always forget to put spoons there so we have devised various strategies to consume the delicious ice cream. hence, the photos of us using the handles of our toothbrushes and sharpies to eat the ice cream. No shame. 

I have gotten better at helping my companions learn Ilonggo and I review with them grammer that we have learned in class and answer questions they have about Ilonggo. I love teaching so much. It helps keep me humble and keep progressing as I learn more about this language. I love being in a leadership position and experiences like this make me so excited to later get back and continue my path in Army ROTC at BYU and hopefully become an officer in the Army when I graduate. The Lord is paving a path for me and I'll even get to use Ilonggo and other dialects I learn in the Philippines in my future. I am so blessed. 

A lady told me there was an Elder Masters here at the MTC and asked if we were related. I said I didnt think so, but that I'd find him. I FOUND HIM (I'll get a photo with him before I leave to the Philippines). But he is from Spanish Fork Utah. He and I do not know anyone who is the same in our families, but we have decided we are cousins somehow even if that means we are fifth cousins twice removed haha :) He is super chill and we were instantly friends/cousins. (yo Dad, please tell me if you know how we could be related. that would be awesome).

One of our apostles (yes we have apostles today and even a prophet, Thomas S. Monson through the restoration of the priesthood here on earth), Elder Uchtdorf was here and my friend shook his hand, I didnt get to see him, but still cool.

i am also a Sister Training Leader for my tiny Zone we have made up of us 3 Ilonggo speakers and 15 Cebuano speakers. 

Also I can understand most Ilonggo and I can speak full, intricate sentences in Ilonggo... I am not fast, but the teachers say that will come. I love this language and I cant imagine missing out on all the lessons and things I have learned in just 1 month. JUST IMAGINE--I have 17 months left and what the Lord will teach me in those next 17 months!

In my personal studies of the scriptures this week, I learned more about the incredible gift the Book of Mormon is. In class we wrote out questions of the soul: "Where did I come from?" "Why am I here on earth?" "Where am I going after this life?" and "Is there a God?" (Look at every page of the Book of Mormon to know there is a God and he is a loving God so He sent His Son Jesus Christ). We then spent some time and found answers to all these questions in multiple areas of the Book of Mormon. It says in 2 Nephi 32:3 "...feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do". I wanted to let you know that the Book of Mormon can answer all you questions (even ones about every day struggles, and things like how do I deal with my struggles at work? or how do I deal with the problems in my family?). I am learning every day that we must not only read the Book of Mormon, but we must ask God to answer our questions with a broken heart (tamed heart or ready for answers) and a contrite spirit (ground down spirit or refined meaning more humble) and He will answer your questions. Our prophet today, Thomas S. Monson testifies that Christ lives and He is our Savior, Thomas S. Monson also reminded us in one of his recent talks that we must prayerfully study the Book of Mormon every day. I know that if you study them daily (I am learning this), you will not fall astray and you will be guided by the Holy Ghost from those dark parts of your life when you feel there is no hope back to the light and presence of the Lord through the Atonement of our Lord, Savior, Teacher, Leader, Brother, King and Redeemer Jesus Christ( which you can learn so much about every time you study the Book of Mormon). 

There is hope: here is my favorite quote about it by Samuel Smiles (found in the talk by James E. Faust "Hope, an Anchor of the Soul): 
"'Hope is like the sun, which as we journey towards it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us.'...Hope sweetens the memory of experiences well loved. It tempers our troubles to our growth and our strength. It befriends us in dark hours, excites us in bright ones. it lends promise to the future and purpose to the past. it turns discouragement to determination.'" 

I hope this touched your heart in some way. I love you all and thank you for the Dear Elder messages! I love yall! 
My address is : 
Sister Lydia Masters
JUL 05 PHI-ILO
2005 N 900 E Unit 11
provo, UT 84602

Love,
Sister Masters










Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 58: You are not American!

Image
Dear family and friends,  This week was a little busy with some things that made spirits and satan much more real to me. But on the bright side, I have learned that Christ's authority and power, the Priesthood, here on earth is a very real thing. I am so grateful for the Priesthood which has been restored through Prophet Joseph Smith. Worthy men who hold this Priesthood authority truly have the power to protect us from sickness, evil spirits, and bless us in unimaginable ways.  As a result we also have the 4 other sister missionaries sleeping in our apartment and it has been a blessing beyond measure for me personally.  As the sisters have been living in our apartment, they have talked about their childhood life, the punishments of being in rice sacks, kneeling on mongo beans, the time they worked in a sugarcane field, their aunt who build her own restaurant and how they learned to cook. Speaking of cooking, these sisters have added more recipes to my little ...
Read more

Week 52: 1 year mark and Newfound tip

Image
Maayong hapon sa tanan :)  (heres a picture so yall arent too bored with so much text) So this email has a great subject line for 2 reasons:  1) I have now been out on the mission for a FULL YEAR. Dang! That was fast. I only have 6 months left to serve the Lord and I feel that so much more of His work needs to be done, but what a blessing it has been to take part in His work for the past year.  I havent seen my parents in person for a whole year now, but WHAT A JOY it was to speak with them and video call for Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day lovely Mamma :)  2) Last night I learned a great tip for all those who will ever visit the Philippines. There's a bit of a back story so you get the full history of how I came to know this. It was very hot last night and the electricity came on and off so the fan was not much use. I got the grand idea to lie down on the tile and found myself happily asleep for about 10 minutes when I woke up to a feeling of som...
Read more

Week 54: First I met the pig, then I ate it

Image
Magandang hapon po sa lahat ulit :) Good afternoon again This week had many adventures as we proselyted just as being a missionary here in Kalibo.  I will share the spiritual first:  This week we were blessed to take part in preparing and seeing the baptism of: Sister Dialin (sounds like Jolleen) and her 3 children: John Ritch, Kate, and Christian Carl but better known as "Cano" (who I claim as my kapatid or brother because "Kano" sounds similar which means american and I am "kana" the female american haha) and a cute child of the Basarte family, Donald.  Donald and Cano were perhaps the cutest as they were wearing these massive baptismal clothes, but were oh so happy to be partaking in the sacred covenant of baptism. Sister Dialin was also such a delight to hear her testimony after her baptism and it is such a blessing and so happy to take part in their conversion.  As we went to the Vallejo home and other investigators, man...
Read more