Week 2

Hiya pamilya ako!!!!!

Kamusta po tayo? How is everybody?

Sister Tamang is doing quite well. Magandang actually! This week we have started using sentencesssssss!!!!!! We do so in hopes that we will be able to somewhat communicate with our investigators instead of ridiculously acting out our lessons!! ha ha it's great but super frustrating. Because as soon as you get what you want out and it actually makes sense, they respond!! In tagalog. At a rapid rate. Thus, we have no idea what they are saying. But I'm not going to lie, I don't think we are doing too shabby. With a buttload more patience and work we could totally do this. :) That's the language update.

For the people update I have some sad news. One of my beloved district leaders, Elder Wells, went home on Saturday. :( We had no idea until he just left in the middle of class and never came back. Our poor district leader had tears in his eyes when he told us and oh, it broke my heart. It still brings tears to my eyes but we love him and are hopeful that he will come back as soon as he has taken care of whatever it is he needs to. So our bitty district now consists of only five missionaries. Every other district in our zone has ten missionaries! it think, ha ha it's the greatest, 2 sisters, 3 elders. Woo woo!!! We're gonna be close. We had a bonding moment last night when we all, for some reason, had the giggles during our closing hymn and we were half singing- half crying to the tune of there is sunshine in my soul today! ha ha it was SO great! I don't laugh near as much here so I find as soon as I even giggle, it opens a damn of all the laughter being held back and I'm just a gonner. I've done it twice in class now and it's hilarious because my teacher, Bro. Mauzy- who is adorable, doesn't quite know what to do with me. :) So great! And there is always at least 2 echos of my laugh each time because everyone in the hall can here me and they looove to immitate me. :) The cuties.

As for the work- it is hard and frustrating and repetitive but it really is all worth it when we understand a sentence or are able to understand something our investigator says or needs. I feel like the good outways the bad like the laughs outways the screams in Monsters Inc. The laughs and the good are so much more powerful than the screams/bad that no matter how much "badness" or how much you scream, one laugh or one good moment blows it out of the water and you forget you even felt that way. :) I LOVE IT!!!!

I know that I am where I am meant to be and I have the capability to be an awesome instrument in the Lord's hand if I am but a humble servant. It's an interesting equation: humility+love+patience-pride-knowledge-strength= BEST TOOL EVER I love you all so much and so does the Lord!!!!! MWAH!

Love, Sister Tamang

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!

GGOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLL!!!!!!

Yes! Yes! Yes! I just got done peeing my pants after spending an hour biting my tongue and sweating profusely as I watched the U.S.A. team play what could've been their last game in the world cup. But no fretting. They scored in the last four minutes of stoppage time added!!!! I have never been so happy!! I easily used up half my life's store of nerves! If I bit my nails, they would be gone. That's all I'm saying. It was a ridiculous but awesome game. I was perched on a stool in a separate room from the rest of the Collins (who were watching the England game) watching on a laptop with my face like two inches from the screen. Humorous. :)

Anyway. Phewf. Just so much excitement to express to other Americans who will share my glee. Speaking of glee, I watched the whole first season of Glee a couple of weeks ago. I do love it! Such good music and drama. ;)

I get buttloads of crap for being American here. It's ridiculous. Anything bad or undesirable brought up in a conversation somehow gets turned to "That's because you/they are American", "That's because it's from America", "but that's expected from Americans", "all Americans complain", "oh look! A fat person! Must be American", "Oh look! An anorexic person. Must be American", "You BURN your flag if it touches the ground?! That's so stupid". It gets old. I know I am a strong person and I will never cry in front of these accusers, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt my feelings. It's like they're bashing my home and how I've grown up. I promise I think it is a teensy bit of what it must feel like to have racist comments made towards you. At the same time, I have never been more proud to be an American and no matter what people say, they just don't understand. "I Love America!" (said in Chinese accent).

Ha ha another interesting thing is that I am officially clumsy due to my mishaps with the dang cobblestone and brick. I'm always catching my feet on corners and tripping. I now appreciate the beauty of smooth cement. Something we don't think of everyday. :) I have also been stereotyped as a little eater because I hardly ate anything when I got here. I try to explain that it was because I was adjusting to all the change and that I'm well over it now but they just won't have it. So there's my interesting thought.

This week's been fun just hanging with Hayley 24/7. We've gone cycling, to the park, shopping, to lunch at Wagamamas and more and we are now working on a project for artsy fartsy fun, Hayley's forte. I'll keep you updated.

I'm kind of just cruising right now, trying to fill my time with cheap fun cause I have no money. It's proving to be quite a challenge though and Hayley and I are having fun tackling it.

I'm also aware of tender mercies Heavenly Father gives me just when I need them. I imagine Him just placing little presents on my way to school or something, in the form of little notes from home or comments from friends. I LOVE them.

That's my life. Good.

I love love love love love love love love my home and everyone in it or next door. ;)

Danielle. The American.

I Miss my Home

It's as simple as that.

D.E.H.

Okay! So it's been a while. My apologies. I guess I just find it easier and easier to live without such a short connection to my home now. I've been away so long, my life is here right now. It's really crazy. But don't worry, I think about my true home at least seven times a day. I miss it so! But in the meantime, I have been having some fun. Since Italy a lot has happened. We shall start with the weekend right after Italy.

Friday:

I worked and then later that night, Me, Ellie and Hayley (that's what D.E.H. stands for by the way, Danielle, Ellie, Hayley) headed to the chapel for an institute dance. This is the equivalent of a stake dance back home just with a bit dirtier music. :) I was so excited because I hadn't gotten my groove on in forever and you guys know how I have an innate need to move my body. :) Anyway, we get there and I start dancing. I go crazy right? But it's pretty normal for me but for these English blokes it's a bit out of control. They just stop dancing completely and watch me and laugh. They thought I was a hoot. It was really fun and I had a fabulous time getting drenched in sweat. Here's a picture:

We wore fabulous glasses. Naturally. You may notice that my specs are not like the others and that is because I left my bag which had my glasses and a newly purchased top in it on the bus! Never to be seen again! Rough.

Saturday:

I work and then come home early to prep for a youth water activity. It was so much fun! We went kayaking on this mini lake they have. It was loads of fun and we all fell in in the end. Into this nasty stagnant water. Great! After that D, E, H and others gathered for a friendly viewing of the U.S. vs. England football match! This was so much fun as well because, being American, I was the only one cheering for the U.S. and got plenty of mouth for doing so. Anytime I said anything it was immediately followed by "Shut up!" from a man named Peter. It was great! And it was even better when we scored and ended up drawing with England! HAH! It was perfect really. :)

This last week has been nice as well. I am starting to really miss home but I know I'm going to miss here once I leave. Especially since me, Ellie and Hayley have become such good friends. I love them both. We play everyday and do random things. For example, on Wednesday we went to Harborne to some charity shops and it was fantastic. Charity shops are the equivalent of mini D.I.s! Naturally i adore and had so much fun! Afterwards we got fake eyelashes and nasty nails and applied those while watching films. I also got my package that day that I had been looking forward to so very much. All those who contributed, thank you so so so so so so so much! I absolutely LOVED it! It was like someone sent me a little piece of home to help me with this last stretch here.

Me and Hayley are getting along really well and I can tell that she misses a sister. She's gets lonely because she is the only child at home and even her parents work all day sometimes so she's completely alone at home. I think me being here makes her happy. And it definitely makes me happy having a "sister" away from home. I have included some pictures of our most recent adventures for you all to see. :)

Ellie and nails.

Hayley and nails.

Me jumping on and waking Hayley and Ellie after their sleepover. They looked awesome!

Me and my beloved package!

Fake eyelashes do wonders for your eye size. :) oh how i miss mine.

Nasty nails!

Since then I have just been hanging out with Hayley, watching films, eating crap and working occasionally. If you haven't noticed, I work a lot less now because everyone's hours have been cut. I think the hotel is just not as busy as they thought. Which gives me lots more time to travel and explore but at the same time it takes away all the funds that I would make such trips with. Slight dilemma.

This weekend I watched another England game, horrible, and attended a ward EFY fundraiser. It was lots of fun! We painted our faces, had burgers and I bought these fabulous suitcases from the auction! Here are the beauties:

So naturally, old luggage must be photographed complete with old clothes, setting and color. :) But these suitcases are seventy years old! Brought over from Scotland by a lady in the ward when she was twenty! She also said that during the war she sat on the dark one for twenty six hours on a train because there were no seats! They have story! I love them!

Me and Ethan sporting our rivaling country's colors.

These are Moams. They are officially my favorite sweet here. They're pretty much exactly like Mambas but they come in all different forms and flavors. Mwah!

Other than that, my life is just full of decisions and my mind is crammed with so many thoughts that I can't seem to write them all down. It's just crazy how we live lives where on one hand we have the world and all worldly things and then we have spiritual and eternal perspectives. sometimes they conflict and it causes my head to spin. I'm so glad to have a spiritual life because otherwise I would be stuck completely in the world which, from what I've seen, could be terrible. Let's just say I THINK a lot in my spare time. Well, that's my life right now. It's good as always! I love you all and miss miss miss you!

Love, The next great thinker

Too Blessed?

Do you ever feel like the world is a gift? Like it's the best place ever? Like you are too blessed?

I do.

What makes me so deserving of happiness?

What makes me deserving of hugs and kisses? Purple skittles and laughter? High places and fresh air?

Who am I to be blessed with two sisters, two brothers, two parents?

How come I have best friends and the ability to walk?

Why do I get the green light when I'm in a hurry?

Who decided to give ME the confidence to be who I am no matter what?

Why was I born in a time where movies with happy endings that make you cry exist?

I'm not really sure.

I know it's because I have a dad in heaven that loves me more than all of these things.

But why?

I may never know.

I'll just have to live with the fact that I am far too blessed and maybe share my gifts with those who may not feel quite the same way.

I love life, knowledge and all of you! I see a happy ending at the end of my movie. :)