Die Laughing, I Would

Week 3, Provo MTC

 Elder Pincock, definitely related.

Megan's MTC District Peeps. 

So this week we have been learning about describer/subject and the proper way to use that in Tagalog grammar, so in our attempts to be all Loaogian outside of class, my kasama and I were talking, in English, the way that the sentence would be structured in Tagalog. So we were sitting on a bench, under this massive tree, and we see a mouse. I immediately thoght of Ali Barnes and what her reaction would have been. But then my Sis. Smith and I were talking about where we thought the mouse lived, because we couldnt see it in the bushes, and then I said maybe it lives in the tree and maybe it will fall out of the tree and land in my lap. I looked at her and asked what she would do about it and her response was "die laughing I would." well good to know that my kasama has my back.

 

In other news, I was reading some of the family history that Ma sent me with, the testimony of Silas Clements, and holy moly, bomb dropped on page 12. SILAS CLEMENTS MET JOHN THE REVELATOR?!?!?! How did I not know that? It was so cool to read about that. So now I want to know what other cool things have happend to our family, so if you have (Gma) any other sweet family history tidbits send them my way! Also in the realm of family, I finally talked to Elder Pincock, and we are totes deffs related. He is also a hilarious young man and we get along famously. Just goes to show that family is always family. He watches Doctor Who and Adventure Time, so enough said.

 

Um, shout out to Tyler and Stu! Happy birthday yall. I hope you could imagine what it would have been like if I called and sang happy birthday to you. Because I deffinately did it in my mind.

 

Also, thanks for all the love! After dinner is my favorite part of the day because it is when I get my DearElders. There is kind of a joke in the district that Sister Hagee and I get all the mail, because we do. And I also got two packages this week? What? I dont think there is a luckier Sister in all the land. That is accompanied with a whistful arm wave, just so you can have the whole picture in your mind. Well done on the pranking/Ute supplies. I also laughed way hard at the "Chuck Webb" mints. If I only had pockets I would be doing him proud, but it is a little awkward just walking around with a handful of mints all the time. Ill figure something out though as a method of spreading the love.

 

Also in the way of pranking, the Elders have finally struck back. I accidentally left my cardiagan in the classroom, like and idiot, I should have seen this coming. And the Elders took it back to their residance and tried it on then took pictures of themselves wearing it. They obviously wont let us have said pictures, because, lets face it, its almost as if they pranked themselves with that one. However, we did get Elder Jones to try it on in the classroom when they finally brought it back for me, I bribed him with a cinnamon bear and Sister Hagee was up and ready with some sneaky camera action, so hopefully I will be able to send those pictures later. He looks like Mr. Rogers and it is pretty amazing.

 

Other funny story, we got a new teacher this week and in the first lesson, while we were singing the opening hymn it was pretty aparant that he is pretty talented when it comes to singing. We found out that he is an acting major at the Y, so it makes sense. BUT, in the next lesson the Elders were running late, as usual, so the Sister and and Brother. Nicholes decided to just start and sing without them. So I got kind of self concious because Bro. N is a good singer and Sis. Hagee is a good singer and I am just that weird girl who sings lound, but off key. So I was expressing this quietly to my kasama and all of a sudden Bro. N is right next to me and he just says "God created your voice Sister" and I blushed seven different shades of red. So needless to say I tried extra hard to sing well that round.

 

I also had the most amazing dream last night, George Takei (not spelled right, I dont think) came to play Settlers of Catan with us. Yeah. It was pretty amazing. I was telling my district about it this morning, but none of them knew who George was. So that was disappoining to realize I am the only real nerd in the herd. Oh well, life goes on.

 

So, Tagalog is hard. Freakin' verb tenses and emphases and vocabulary. Holy moly. There is so much to take in. But I keep realizing that I have learned more Tagalog at the MTC in two weeks and a half weeks than I ever did in four years of French in high school. The Spirit is an amazing thing. Kaloob ng mga wika. Sis. Smith and I now have two investigators, who are actually our guros, things are going as well as can be hoped I suppose. It is just super intimidatin to teach Bro. Roxas because he is so strict and his investigator character is so...you can just tell that it is someone super close to him who desperately wants to help his family, but is just not sure how to do that and how The Church can help with that. Our first lesson with him was way rough to say the least. But things have gotten better. Teaching Bro. N is much easier because he is so open and charismatic. We committed him to baptism last night and he said he was not sure yet, but it was not a straight up no, so I am choosing to look on the bright side.

 

I am feeling all the love and support, keep sending those DearElders my way. Also feel free to send pictures of your lives, I'm looking at you Molly Jones.

 

Love,

 

Meggsie

Pananampalataya Is Not A Five Letter Word

WEEK #2 - PROVO MTC 

See that? In the subject line? That is the word for faith. In Tagalog. I think that is is just a little excessive, dont you?

 

Ummm, shout out to my fave Macktilyons! Happy one year you two! Seriously love the ish outta the both of you. Check your pants.

 

So this week, good things. Good things. First off: the Sisters in my district are friggin' hilarious. We are all such good friends and I feel like I have known them for years, dont worry, we estabished that we are all liberals and my life became complete. We spend most of our time laughing at dumb quotes from movies we all know or mildly pranking the Elders. So on Tuesdaywe were going to try out what we were calling "Sister Service Day" where we take our own dirty trays from meals to the tray return and open doors for the Elders and just do things for ourselves to give the Elders a break.  The Elders, beeing the sweet young men that they are, were not having any of it, which really just made us fight them even harder on the issue.  We eventually gave up and when we were back in our residence hall we came up with plan B. Tuesdays are now "Sister Surpise Day" wherein we prank the Elders. MTC appropriate pranks of course.  But you know that box of glow-in-the-dark moustaches that Linda gave me? Well those came in really handy, let me tell you. So we grab these bad boys (the moustaches) and head over to our classroom a little early to head the Elders off at the pass, we get there, don our moustaches, turn out the lights and end up waiting for about 10 minutes in the darkest dark I have ever experienced, watitng for our Elders. They finally get there, open the door and we scare the bageezies out of them. It was so priceless. They keep trying to get us back for our little pranks, but they are just not as sneaky as we are. We will switch their scriptures around, or draw little things in thier notebooks, like cows and cats, they are just too trusting with their stuff. Maybe by week six they will ocme up with something good, but until then, Sister Surprise Day is going to be pretty amazing.

 

Oh! I saw Brant yesterday. I was finishing up lunch with my kasama, I am the slowest eater in my entire zone, dont worry about it, and he comes up, slams his hands down on the table and just shouts "Sister Bettilyon!!!" I drop my cookie into the salad I had been eating and nearly had a heart attack. It was so great to see him and to talk to him, but not great that I couldnt hug him. But it was so nice to see a familiar face.  Speaking of such, I saw Sister Yenchik yesterday too! Or maybeThursday. But that was so great! We hugged and chatted, I asked her how her first few days have been, she is only there for 12 days. Color me jealous. Oh well, Tagalog away!

 

So my kasama and I just keep teaching lesson after lesson. We had our last lesson with our first investigator and now he is one of our teachers, he is so stoked on life all the time, which is good because he teaches in the evenings and it is kind of hard to stay awake after a full day of studying and studying and studying to do more studying.  But now Sis Smith and I have two more investigators that we need to teach, and can I just say that the Spirit is amazing? I do not know Tagalog, like, at all, but when I am teaching and in tune with the Spirit, it is incredible how much more easily the language comes to me. We were teaching in class, just to one of our Elders, and we were supposed to be teaching the first lesson, but it was clear that was not what his investigator self wanted to talk about.  Once Sis Smith and I abandoned our original plan and just started talking to him about his concerns, it was like the Tagalog, really more like Taglsih, just flowed out of our mouths. It was a really cool experience.

 

The last two nights my kasama and I have been doing our planning under this tree at a table right outside our residence and this tree rains little yellow flowers on our heads so we look like fairy missionaries and for the last two nights, at twilight, we have sat under this magical tree and have had strapping young lads come and speak Italian to us. You think I am making this up or embelishing, but Im not and ladies, you know life does not get any better than that. But these Elders are all going to, thats right, MILAN on their missions and so far, three kasamahans have come and born their testimonies to us and I have sent them all with a little note to my dear Katie telling her all about it. I am praying that they all make it to her somehow, dont tell her, I want them to be a surprise.

 

I dont know if you know this, but Tuesdays are kind of a big deal around here, not just because of SSD, but also because of devotional. All the missionaries in the MTC just flood out and stream towards the Marriott Center, I hate that I am in Provo, and it is just kind of cool to see all of them.  I was not blown away by the speakers this week, but when we went back and had a devo. breakdown with our district, things got pretty real. One Elder, Elder Payne, shared a story about his Gpa when he was in the hospital after having this third heartattack.  The doctors came out and told his Gma that her husband was dead and that there was nothing else they could do, so all of the family at the hospital called the rest of their family members and had them stop what they were doing to pray for their Gpa.  When they were done praying, the doctors came out and said that their Gpa was alive and that it was a miracle. When he was telling the story, I just kept thinking about Gpa, and how much I miss him and how much I wish that he could have been here to give me advice and just, ya know, be Gpa.  And I started to feel jealous of the Payne family and the miracle that happend for them and the second I started to question why God did not do this for our family I felt Gpa.  I knew that he was there with me and I was just over come with the feeling that, just like I am where I need to be right now, he is where he needs to be right now too. It was so amazing, I felt so loved in that moment.

 

I love you, Jesus loves you, go UTES!    

 

 

Sis Bet

 

 

Three Days? Don't You Mean Three Weeks?

MEGAN'S FIRST LETTER FROM THE PROVO MTC, RECEIVED JUNE 6, 2013:

Okay, seriously. It is a time warp here, I have been here for three days and it feels like I have been gone for three weeks.  I never knew you could pack so much into one day, but when you have no real life, there is a lot of time to learn Tagalog, read your scrippy scrips and learn more Tagalog.

 

So yesterday, I had been here for two days and me and my kasama Sister Smith had to teach a lesson completely in Tagalog. I talked to Marlee about this before I left and she told me not to worry about it too much, but I still worried because that is what I do, I stress about things.  But Sis Smith and I went in with as much enthusiasm and confidence as possible and as soon as it was my turn to talk, I forgot all my words. But our investigator was really friendly and he talked a lot to fill in the blank spaces where Sis Smith and I were like "uh....shoot....we know this, right?" but I think most of the lesson was just us nodding and saying "opo" (yes) and "salamat" (thank you) when he would talk to us. But I think I relatively successfully bore my testimony and prayed in Tagalog.  The phrase I am most confidant with it "totoo po ang Aklat ni Mormon" or "The Book of Mormon is true" and really, isn't that what is most important?

 

A couple of cool things already happened this week, on the Fourth, we got to watch the movie 17 Miracles and I about lost my ish when one of the actresses came on the screen, it was Natalie Blackman! Or which ever Blackman sister was the actress person. It was funny to me how she is way not LDS and she is playing one of the pioneers in the Martin-Willie handcart company. She made a good performance, but there are some super cheesy scenes in that movie with her and her fiance and I was laughing way hard. The other cool thing was at the end of the movie, it goes back and says what happened to some of the people after the arc of the movie ended and one of the pioneer women saw a man in her dreams while she was trekking, and it turned out that he was one of the rescue party members, they got married, shocker. But the cool part was that it was Thomas E. Ricks! I freaked out again, so I think my district just thinks I am a freak/easily excited, but it was way cool! I didn't know he helped the M-W handcart peeps, family history, bam.  This leads into the other super cool thing that happened, there is an Elder Pincock in my ZONE!!!! The first night we went around and introduced ourselves in a Zone Meeting and he got up and said his name and that he was from Idaho and I got all excited (again) and flailed and was whispering to my kasama "I am probably that Elder's cousin, NBD" I asked him who his parents are and they are George and Dorthy Pincock. So get Gma on that and find out how related we are.

 

Speaking of relatives, I saw Brock Thursday night at dinner! I had been praying all day that I would see him, and when I got up to get a banana, there he was! I got all excited again and was jumping up and down and saying "I cant hug you! I want to hug you!" it was pretty hilarious, but I think he flies out on Tuesday night, so I hope I get to see him again before he goes and that I have my camera with me so I can take a picture with him. No cameras allowed in the cafeteria Ma, so I am not just shirking my picture taking responsibilities. Ill take lots, don't you worry. But Brock looked so good, just like the missionary he is, I love that kid. I also got to see Elder Childs at lunch yesterday, that was neat, he also looks good and he was making fun of me a little bit because he is only here for a week, and I am here for six. I get the feeling like the first part is going to drag like nobody's business.

 

Um, so my district is great, my kasama and I get along so far and I don't see any warning signes in the distance, so that is good. My district is six Elders and four sisters and we are shoved in the little tic tack classroom that everyone else used to use as a study room. After we were all done teaching our lessons yesterday, we just devolved into chatty-bonding time and we feng shued (that's how that is spelled, right?) our room so that is seems bigger. Lets hope it works and was not one of those good-at-night-bad-in-the-morning type ideas. Most of the people in my district are from Utah, but Sister Hagee is from Texas, Elder Liefi is from American Samoa and Elder Lloyd just graduated from Highland. I don't know him, but that is kind of cool, he knows Sam and Cole and Cooper, so we made that connection. But Elder Liefi is so sweet, he is so quite and so is his kasama Elder Glover (they are both wearing lavalavas today and it is so funny to see quiet, white, awkward Elder Glover rocking this bright, floral pink lavalava, so cute) so since he is not from the States, there are little things everyday that we will do and he is like
"I don't know what that is" or "I have never eaten that before" or "I have never seen that before" like on the Fourth, he had never seen fireworks! And he was pretty disappointed because all of the trees on the MTC campus were blocking the view from Stadium of FIRE!!!!!! so as Sis Smith and I were walking back to our room (we don't love fireworks) we happened upon this great, clear view of the fireworks so we RAN back to Elder Liefi to tell him, but he already found a good spot. So we went to bed. He has also never had pizza before. So interesting (as Sandy/Deon would say)

 

I love you as big as the sky times 7 1/2!!!!

 

Meggsie

Putting on my Big Girl Pants

Below is a copy of the talk Megan delivered in church during her meeting formerly known as a farewell on Sunday, JUNE 30, 2013. She did a fabulous job!!

"I am leaving for the Philippines Laoag mission on Wednesday. Yikes. Well here are some fun facts about Laoag, it is currently 90 degrees, there is a 70% chance of precipitation, humidity is at 71% and there is a 100% chance that I will have an afro once I get there. My mission president and his wife are both Filipino and they look adorable in their picture, but other than that, I am really going into the unknown. But Jesus will protect me, right?

So when I was growing up the question of my faith was never something I thought about.  Every Sunday I went to church, and I didn’t really think too much about it. It was not until I was in high school that I really started to question my belief in the gospel.

I was barely fourteen when I realized I first wanted to serve a mission.  It was my first time at EFY and I was sitting in a lecture when the instructor asked “who of you, girls included, want to serve missions?” I had honestly never thought about it before, but I heard a voice in my head say “raise your hand, you’re going to do that” so I raised my hand and was like “I’m gonna do that.”  That was the first time that I had had a prompting from The Lord, and I had understood what he wanted for ME specifically and I have treasured that moment ever since.

For a long time, I was worried that I would fall away from the church. Retrospectively, my worrying about becoming inactive was what kept me from becoming inactive. I was worried and I was stubborn, so I decided to go to church, and go to seminary and keep a current temple recommend because I was going to BE MORMON DANGGIT.

I didn’t necessarily have the testimony to back up my resolution to be a part of this church, but I believed that if I really tried I could gain the strong testimony that I desired. Alma 34:27 gives some great words of wisdom to that effect.

“But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.”

I had the desire to believe and I exercised the small amount of faith that it took to follow the commandments, go to church, actively attend seminary and do the little things The Lord asks us to. As I held onto that small amount of faith, it grew and The Lord has blessed me with a larger portion of understanding.

I wouldn’t deign to compare the trials of my life to those of Joseph Smith, but I think he and I made the same decision to believe in and desire the truth.  It was his desire to pursue the truth that lead him to that grove of trees, and it was his determination to exercise faith that lead to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ to appear to him. Joseph’s resolve to pursue the truth that was revealed to him that day in his first vision and in all the days of his life after is a great example to me in the exercise of faith.

Joseph did not have all the pieces to the puzzle, and neither do we.  And while seeing deity face to face would be a testimony boost of unfathomable proportions, we can still gain full conversion to the gospel by acting on the idea of faith because true conversion does not come through passive contact, it must be something that is truly desired and pursued.  Sometimes it is hard to have this desire, life becomes difficult and the resolve to do the work of The Lord can waiver.

I had already decided to serve a mission when I was 14.  I told people, and it was always on the list of things to do that I kept in the back of my head.  I even made a deal with my best friend Katie when we were still in high school that we would put our papers in at the same time so we would be apart for as little time as possible.  Then we graduated from high school and went to college, and a mission was still lingering in the back of my mind, but it was later, in the future, I didn’t have to worry about that yet.

Then October Conference happened and the possibility became extremely real. Katie started to panic in the good way, the way that leads to prayer and the changing of plans and timing according to the idea of The Lord.  I panicked in the bad way that leads to self absorbed fear.  So Katie put in her mission papers, and I decided that I was probably not going to serve a mission.  My resolve to do the things that were right waivered because I was scared and I was too busy thinking of myself to exercise faith and really ask The Lord what I should do.

About a week after I had told my family that I was not going to do the whole mission thing anymore, I went to a fireside that was held in my Grandma’s ward.  It was the old mission president from the Rome mission and since my aunt and uncle both served there, we all went to hear him speak.  It was a great talk about the miracles that helped in the building of the Rome temple.  Near the end of his talk, I had the feeling of “you are going to be there, helping these people” and my stomach dropped and my heart started to pound.  Then, not one second after the person saying the closing prayer said “amen” I heard a voice say lovingly, but firmly “YOU’RE GOING ON A MISSION” and I was like “Okay!”

I turned to my aunt and said, with tears streaming down my face, “Debbie, I’m going to serve a mission” and as the news traveled down the pew, my mom popped her head out from the end and looked at me with these wide eyes and said “you’re going on a mission!?”

I didn’t know it then, but once I finally put on my big-girl pants and followed the promptings of The Lord I felt like the Lamanites in Third Nephi chapter 6.  There were so many different factions of the church and there were people rebelling against the church, but in spite of it all, they decided to remain true.

 “the church was broken up in all the land save it were among a few of the Lamanites who were converted unto the true faith; and they would not depart from it, for they were firm, and steadfast, and immovable, willing with all diligence to keep the commandments of the Lord.”

I love the vocabulary of this verse, “they would NOT depart,” they were FIRM, steadfast, immovable and diligent in the face of adversity and fear.  Similarly, in spite of my fears, I did what The Lord asked and I put in my mission papers only a couple months after Katie.

Often I get the “oh holy crap what am I getting myself into” feeling, but I just have to power through those feelings to when I can feel the safety and comfort that comes with following God’s plan for me and when those moments of comfort arrive, I am a little more converted to the truth.

I have a testimony that this gospel is true.  It is one of my prized possessions because The Lord and I have worked so hard to put it all together. There are three things that I think hold my testimony together. First is the atonement, it is so real and I know that through its power, anything is possible. Joseph Smith really did see Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in the Sacred Grove, and the Book of Mormon is true. With a testimony of these three things, there is really no going back for me. I made my decision, and Heavenly Father is helping me stay true to my choice.

I would like to share my favorite scripture with you as a wrap up and it is Doctrine and Covenants 68:6 and it reads:

“wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord and with you, and will stand by you; and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus Christ, that I am the Son of the living God, that I was, that I am, and that I am to come.”

I know that The Lord has stood by me at all times in my life, and that because of this, I do not have need to fear.  I have also been fortunate enough to have so many family and friends who have stood by me and supported me, not just in this upcoming adventure, but in all the ones past and yet to come. Many of you are here today, and that is just more testament to how hard my friends and family rock.  I cannot wait to share the cheerful gospel message with the people of Laoag, they just have no idea how great life can be and I am so pumped to let them know.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."