Life is Good!

Dearest Family,
Wow! I can't believe I'm more than half done with the MTC! Seriously, it's like a time warp here - time goes by soooo fast! We're really getting a new church building?! Oh boy I'm really excited! But it's kinda melancholy knowing that I'll be coming home to a different ward. Wow. That is also cool about the new residence halls to replace DT. (Does that mean Wyview will switch back to married housing?? hehee). Wow, so much to say. Thank you Mommy dearest for the card in Tagalog! I acutlaly understood it! Yippee! I got a big packet of letters from the Everetts this week! Oh boy how exciting! Thank you all so much. That sure brightened up my day :)

Yesterday Elder Dallin H. Oaks' wife spoke to us in Relief Society! She gave each of us a "testimony glove" and spoke about the importance of having the basic foundations of testimony. One thing I love is that every Sunday, they have a sister missionary who is a convert share her conversion story in R.S. This week, a sweet sister from China spoke about the example of friends who encouraged her to come to Cambodia so that she could receive the gospel. Last night, Sheri Dew came to speak as well. She is amazing One of my favorite things that we do at the MTC is that we always sing 3-4 hymns all together in the big auditorium before every Fireside and Devotional. It really invites the spirit into the meeting and gives me a greater love for the lyrics of the "Hymns of Zion"!! I also love singing "Called to Serve" every Tuesday. Wow--what enthusiasm and energy and excitement we all have when we sing that song. I love going to Choir practice every Sunday and Tuesday. The directors are amazing and they always give us a special spiritual thought to go along with the song we are singing and to apply the lyrics to our missions. Last week we sang a beautiful song called "I marvel at the Miracle."

Guess what! On Saturday I got to chat with a 27 yr old girl from Leeds England, who was interested in the church and was looking for a place where she could have stronger relationships with her family and to find happiness. She really liked the idea of abstinence before marriage  It was so neat to be able to bear my testimony to her about the gospel. I arranged to have the missionaries visit her and gave her the directions to the nearest church building in her area. She also gave me her email address and so I may continue contact with her while at the MTC (the MTC allows us to do that through the RC email system). It was so neat! As a companionship, Sis. Young, Sis. Parks and I have been praying for Carrie to receive the gospel. I know that it will make her happy.

Want to know a funny story? Last week I taught at our teaching appointment and showed them a picture of my family and said "Ito ang pamilya mo!" (This is your family!) instead of "Ito ang pamilya ko!" (This is my family!) and the girl started giggling and said, "Tagala?" (Really??!) Sister Parks also told the girl (Brittany) that her mom is really sweet - but used the word that is only meant to describe food, and Brittany was like, "mmmm!" Hehe, it's fun to make mistakes sometimes--I'm just glad it's here and not out there! This week we've tried to speak all Tagalog. It's fun but sometimes hard to remember to speak it instead of English! My favorite thing to do in class is the Jeopardy review game. Learning is fun!

Last night was the most amazing night! We watched "Mountain of the Lord" about the building of the Salt Lake temple and it was amazing to think about the great sacrifices that went into that and how important temples are. Afterwards I felt so giddy and happy--me and my companions started skipping and singing back to our residence hall and expressing our excitement about the gospel. We are missionaries! The church is true! It is real! There is nothing more important. It's so amazing when you think about it.

I love you very much. Thanks for letting me be a missionary! It's so great. Gotta go!!!

Love, Rebecca

The shoes are comfy! but I think 1/2 size smaller would be better. is that possible? Thanks!!!!