Snail Mail

I forgot to tell you about our 4th of July celebrations. We got to watch the stadium of fire fireworks from the mtc grounds!! I was so happy. And before that we had a cool fireside about how the reformers and founding fathers were led by God and paved the way for the restoration of the gospel. It was great.

A couple "whoops" moments-- We were standing in line for dinner, and we had only our trays anone empty glass each. We had gotten some water to drink while we waited. Then before I knew what was happening, my glass was tumbling off my tray, and little pieces of glass shattered halfway across the dining hall. Okay, not really, but it was pretty bad because we were standing next to a fruit line with about 5 different bins, and they had to throw them all away because of the glass. Then somebody came out to sweep up my mess, and I looked around for a dunce cap I could put on.

Whoops #2 - There I was, turning the faucet off and gust getting ready to towel off from my shower when I noticed there was not towel. Whoops. I had forgotten my towel. Should I call out "help" to the sisters in the bathroom and tell them where to locate my towel? Hmmm...it could take some time to drip dry. Well, I voted out having the sisters fetch my towel, so I just dried off half way with my PJ t-shirt and put my clothes on. It worked.
Last Sunday we got 16 contacts at the temple. That means basically we just bore our testimony to other missionaries in tagalog, and introduced ourselves, found out who they were, etc. We only knew about five different phrases for testimony, but we would switch it up, and people were so impressed because we'd only been at the mtc 3 days. Then yesterday, a week later, we feel like we can't say much more than those five phrases we knew a week ago, and we just have noire to contact. We know how to say a lot more now, but the sentence structures are a little more comoplex, and it takes about five minutes for each of us to get one sentence out.

We could spit it out a lot faster if we each memorized one or two phrases in tagalog, but if we do that, we don't think about what each word means and how to put it together, so it's no good, we don't learn.

So we're just trying to be humble and still do our contacting even though it's awkward, and it takes time. I know that speaking the language as much as possible is the key to really getting it down, so I'll struggle through! It is very easy to understand, putting it into practice is a little trickier. Speaking of language - awesome quote I read in PMG this week. "When you are struggling to express yourself as clearly as you would like, remember that the spirit is able to speak to the hearts of all God's children." Pres. Monson

You wanna know something strange? I'm kinda the leader. It seems like my companions always look to me to talk first whenever we start things, and I'm making a lot of the decisions because nobody really speaks up. It's different for me. I mean I wouldn't have considered myself a follower before, but it's different being a leader in this way. They have recently started to speak up a lot more, and that has been good. I still love my companions. They are awesome!

So one last funny story. We get to watch a movie every Sunday night, and last night it was "Legacy". Well I wasn't even watching it because I took that opportunity to write in my journal, but all of a sudden, I har this "oohing" and cheering and cat-calling, so I look up and that one guy had just kissed Eliza. It was just funny because normally a little kiss like that wouldn't have gotten such a dramatic reaction, but in the mtc it almost feels like we're breaking some rule, and we feel guilty watching. Sister Tillmann said, "We need to get out more," after the gasps and cheering died down. Hee Hee.

Mandy has written me almost every day. She is AMAZING! And she has the best advice too! Love her. So grateful for her.

Well, I must say adieu. Sure love you. Yours, Sister Webre