One Full Week!

Pamilya po ako!!!!!

Oh! Life is still fantastic! I'm sorry if I don't answer any of your questions from your emails yet because I only have 30 mins. So I have to cruise. So I printed off all your emails and will read them later and perhaps hand reply. :)

So! I am having a grand time. I have officially been in here for 1 week and I already feel like an oldie. We taught our investigator, Aiza, five times and then SURPRISE she became our other teacher. She is really great! In the fourth lesson she felt the Spirit and started tearing up!!!!!! AAAAAAAHHHHH! It is the teensiest taste of what the Spirit can do to change lives and I can't get enough of it. It's just a confirmation that we are doing something right, enough to get the Spirit there and teaching. If I have learned one thing this week, it is how humongously important the Spirit is in conversion. We, as missionaries, do probably 2% of the work and then we let the Holy Ghost do the remaining 98%. (I know you like percentages dadda:) It's seriously crazy how I can learn these things all my life but not even really know til I experience it. Now we can understand why we're here on Earth. We's gots to experience it if we're going to learn it right!

Tagalog is going well. At least as well as it can for being here a week. I just made a language study plan with a long term goal to learn lesson one, fully in Tagalog by the time I leave. WOOO! I can do it! I love the language though and can't wait to be able to say what I know. In our lessons with Aiza we learned just how frustrating it is to know how to answer her questions but no clue how to say it in her language. Man! I was close to tears so many times. But in our last lesson with her we asked her to be baptized and she said no. Surprise surprise. But I bore my testimony with tears and she said she would pray to know if it was true and if she should do it! Dad, mission prep has really helped me know how to not take no for an answer (as sis. Blake has learned, I'm very persistent) and how to let silences just be. ha ha I love it! Silence is my new best friend. Especially, akward silence. :) Well that's enough about me. How's everyone doing?!

How is my loovely family? How are the Wistisens? How is Kirin? Hey! Kirin! I saw Elder Tyler Bentely. Ha ha he called me Kirin (at the MTC, didn't think that one through ha) and I thus corrected him but it was fun. :)

AAAH! Well I got to go, but I love you all so much and can't wait to read the letters!

Thank you wistisens for the gorgeous package!

Tell Clay I love him muchos muchos and I loved seeing his face! So fun that we're doing this at the same time!

MWAH MWAH! Mahal Kita!

Love, Sister Tamang

"1st 3 days!"

KAMUSTA pamilya!!!!!

That means hello family! Yes, I am speaking Tagalog!!!!!!!! Vat ze heck!

Okay. So I am officially loving the MTC. It is unlike anything I've ever experienced befor. You can hear how fabulous it it and the amazing Spirit that is here, but you never truly understand until you're here! I am already starting to feel the intensified happiness and joy missionaries feel, as well as the overwhelming feeling of ..... just overwhelming feeling. :) So, let me walk you through what's been going on:

I got here and received my name tag (wahoo!), which is in English because apparently, it is the official language of the Philippines, government wise etc. It's still cool. I dropped my stuff off in my residency, got a hunkin bag of books and was off to my classroom where I currently reside. We live in our classrooms! It's not that bad cause we've only been here a couple of days but dad, it's true. We are so confined but it's totally fine! I can't wait to go to the temple next week.

So I met my district and teacher in my classroom and they are as follows:

My companion- Sister Blake. Originally from Texas but family moved to PG recently. She is fabulous. We get along no problem, our personalities just click. Wahooo! And she's a movie quoter, don't you fret Sabina. (she has yet to see white chicks of angus thongs but we'll work on that later.)

My district is Sister Blake and I and four ADORABLE Elders-

Elder Wells- from AF, Utah. Loves bananas and looks like one too. :)

Elder Coe- from charlotte, NC and totally has the accent. So cute!

Elder Ferner- from Castledale, UT which I've never heard of, is like 6'5" and a sweetheart.

Last but not least our district leader Elder Scanlan- Samoan from Anchorage, Alaska. Fun Samoan.

My teacher is Brother Mauzy and I could squeeze his head off! I think the urges to do so here are so much stronger because, not only are there so many cutesies around, but we can only hug girls!!! This handshaking thing ain't cuttin' it.

It's also hard remembering to call people Elders and Sisters and nothing else. He he .

So we started learning tagalog the day before yesterday and we taught our first investigator IN TAGALOG, YESTERDAY!!!! They literally throw you right in. One lesson in tagalog and we're already teaching in it! WHAT?! It was so so hard because we didn't even know how to come in, what she was saying or how to respond! Oh, it was terrible but also amazing. I said a whole prayer in Tagalog and can bear a small testimony in it too. Woo woo! It is such a cool language. Oh! And guess who all I've seen!

I have seen, loads of people from lone peak, Brother Fonbuena (he sat in on my class), Elder Pete Wilkinson! Who came in on the same day!, Elders Jon Krogue and Sam Morris who are companions! Crazy! I see them all the time. And lots more.

I have to tell you about my roommates too! So they are all going to Quezon city but we all are speaking tagalog. So there's Sister Shumway (Laura shumway- jill remember sis. Slamon telling us about her?), Sister Dickson and Sister Bowman. We are all from Utah and it is so fun living together. No problem!

So that's about all I have time for, but I want to end with a little testimony in tagalog. No notes. :)

Alam ko po na buhay po ang diyos. Alam ko po na tagapagligtas po si JesuCristo. Alam ko po na mahal sa tayo nog Diyos. Alam ko po na totoo po ang Aklat ni Mormon.

I love you all so much and am working on being the best missionary possible!

Love, Sister Tamang

P.s. Dad if you could forward this and let me know your emails, I almost didn't remember. MWAH!