Familya!

March 4,2012

 

I can’t believe Megan chipped her tooth!  That is not fun.  Hearing about that blessing with the doctor bill really made my day.  I know that the Lord is blessing you.  It breaks my heart that Drew was sad he didn’t get to say goodbye.  Tell him that I love him so much.  Only 2 elders in my district are going to Iloilo.  Sefeti and Weight.  I can buy a pillow in the Phillipines cause I don’t have room for it in my suitcase.

My schedule goes something like this:  Breakfast at 7:10; Lunch at 11:40 and Dinner at 4:40.  Can you believe how early that is.  We eat SO early.  We have personal study like everyday multiple times a day, language study, class instruction.  Sunday we have morning music and the spoken word then Relief Society then lunch then Sacrament with our Branch, which is in Tagalog.  Then a fireside at night and a movie.  Tuesdays we study all day and have a Devotional, by really cool people like Apostles.  Friday is P-day where we go to the Temple in the morning and laundry and then class at night so its not a full day of free time.  The rest of the days are similar with classes, study time and teaching time where we teach people.  They finally are teaching us how to prepare lessons how to prepare to learn a language.  The type of goals we should have.  The language is hard.  I can kind of read it but when I hear the teachers speak to each other I realize there is a lot I don’t know.  The hard thing is we don’t know the verbs.  We’re learning grammar and how to ask questions and to teach lessons.  But trying to do that before learning vocab is kind of hard but they keep telling us it’s the best way to learn.

You can do the missionary site if you want.  I’ll eventually send you pictures once I get them printed and you can scan them hopefully to post if you can.  The Bookstore is cool cause we can engrave our names on all our books and I bought a MTC shirt and a photo album that holds 208 photos.  I can’t believe I only have a month left to try and learn this language.  And then when I get out there I’ll have to learn another one.  When I look at it It’s been a week and I already know how to pray, bare my testimony and hold a short conversation in Tagalog.

I still need to memorize a lot.  Its Sunday and we just heard a beautiful musical# Come Thou Font of Every Blessing with two sisters singing and two sisters were sign languaging the song.  It was so pretty, it was like they were dancing.

It was funny in class yesterday, we talked about stress management.  They had funny pictures of the stages of stress.  We all felt like the last drawing (picture).   They helped tell us ways we could relieve stress in our lives and to not feel so much anxiety.  I’m really doing ok I just get tired some days where I didn’t sleep well and need a nap.  Everyone says if you survive the 1^st week then you’ll be golden because they like to throw you into the fire.  It’s similar to like when you’re trying to drink from a Fire hydrant where you get only a little sip in your mouth and the rest hits you in the face. Ha ha.  Well here I am (:   I’ve survived and it really isn’t too bad.  I find each day I love it more and more.  I look at the friendships I’m making and these people I would have never met.  I do enjoy being here and I’m excited to grow into a better and great missionary.  I heard that the  mail to the Philippines takes 3 weeks to get there.  So if you wanted to mail me a letter you should send it now.  So it would get there at the same time I arrive Ha Ha.

Also if you wanted to send me valuables or anything that you should send it in the bottom of a pringles can or in a box of cheesits.  I heard from others that you should get a Dear Elder account and you can send me mail that way cause it will go through the pouch mail and it will reach me and that its free.  Dear Elder is whre you type a letter and when you send it they type it up for me and I receive it.

Anyways, I love you so much.  Sorry my handwriting is bad.  I think its this pen or the book I’m writing on. Or maybe it’s the language that is messing up my spelling ha ha

Love you so so so much

Know that I’m happy and I’m doing well.

Sister Fowles

Kumusta!Hi mom I love you and miss you. I decided to write a quick letter of the things I forgot to say in the email….I was able to go to the temple Fri morning and it was so nice. Us 4 girls went and it felt like the video was zoomed in and we were on the front row so it felt like we were in the movie. I miss you guys. It still hasn’t felt too weird that I won’t be seeing you for 18 months. Niko our investigator. We taught him like 4 more times. Each time got better and better. The last time we taught him he asked us a question which is really scary cause we don’t understand and I answered him! In Tagalog! I can’t even tell you what I said cause it just came to me what to say. It was pretty bad grammar and format but I told him the answer I wanted to say. It was a cool experience. My kasama told me I did amazing cause she didn’t know what to do. But then guess what. Last night guess who comes strolling into our classroom wearing a white shirt and tie… Niko. His is really Brother Pierce who is going to be our Tagalog teacher. He was a fake investigator. HA I am so embarrassed. The funny thing was he told us Elder Hamp said please bless Niko with women in his prayer instead of saying blessings. It was hilarious. Excited to learn more things. How to be better teachers etc. I love you so much Segi Mahal Kita

Hi mom I love you and miss you.  I decided to write a quick letter of the things I forgot to say in the email….I was able to go to the temple Fri morning and it was so nice.  Us 4 girls went and it felt like the video was zoomed in and we were on the front row so it felt like we were in the movie.  I miss you guys.  It still hasn’t felt too weird that I won’t be seeing you for 18 months.

Niko our investigator.  We taught him like 4 more times.  Each time got better and better.  The last time we taught him he asked us a question which is really scary cause we don’t understand and I answered him! In Tagalog!  I can’t even tell you what I said cause it just came to me what to say.  It was pretty bad grammar and format but I told him the answer I wanted to say.  It was a cool experience.  My kasama told me I did amazing cause she didn’t know what to do.

But then guess what.  Last night guess who comes strolling into our classroom wearing a white shirt and tie… Niko.  His is really Brother Pierce who is going to be our Tagalog teacher.  He was a fake investigator. HA I am so embarrassed.  The funny thing was he told us Elder Hamp said please bless Niko with women in his prayer instead of saying blessings.  It was hilarious.  Excited to learn more things.  How to be better teachers etc.

I love you so much

Segi   Mahal Kita

KUMUSTA PO KAYO?

Ok I don't have very much time so hopefully i can write everything I want to say.  I Can't believe I'm here already.  It's been very different then what I expected.  I love my Companion Sister Schocker. She is from Bountiful and she reminds me of Shelley.  She is so sweet natured and I love her.  We are both terrified.  My roomates are Sister Butler and Sister Harvey.  The four of us are the bomb. I really feel like we keep each other focused. And all FOUR of us are going to Iloilo! same with two other elders in our district.  The four elders are Elder Hamp Elder Weight Elder Fruean and Elder Sefeti.  Fruen is from New Zealand and sounds just like the people on that movie Whale Rider.  And Elder Sefeti is from Fiji and he is hilarious.  The language is crazy. We have learned how to pray and to bare a short testimony.  But the first day guess what they did. They stuck us in a room with our teacher and he only spoke Tagalog to us.  All of us have no idea. I feel like all we do is play charades the whole time trying to figure out what he is saying.  He has tought us some phrases but we haven't broken down the details of the language at all. which is frustrating because I wonder if that would help us communicate better.

The hardest thing I've had to do here was they had us teach a real investigator.  A REAL INVESTIGATOR. His name is Niko and he only speaks Tagalog.  So we went in there knowing nothing.  It was AWEFUL. I just looked at Sister Schocker and she looked like she was about to cry.  So I just moved on and had him read the inroduction page of the BOM in Tagalog.  I had him read the 1st paragraph and the 2nd to last paragraph and then I bore my short testimony and then we left.  I shouldn't tell you this but I cried really hard after because I felt like we did horrible.  It was the first time I cried since i've been here. But I realized that the purpose of them doing this to us was to understand that even if we don't understand the language there is one language we all can understand. that is the language of the spirit.  As long as we bring the spirit into the room then it doesn't matter if we can't understand each other. 

Sister Schocker is great and I feel like i've been helping her not feel so homesick.  She definitley is more timid then me and I know that we can help each other be better missionaries.

I saw Kenzee here and I saw Elder Jones who I worked with.  There are so many people here from different cultures and accents.  it's a really cool experience.  ELder Fruean from New Zealand taught this game that is similar to rock paper scissors and I started to dominate every one.  We started to play boys vs girls in our district and I was the number one player. It was so funny.  I love my district, we rely on eachother a lot to help destress our lives. 

So i have to go. I'll try to attach pictures.

Mahal kita.

Sister Fowles

Ingat po (bye)

I hope all is well at home

MTC Curbside Pictures

Dad!  you can't send me 5 emails.  I can't read them all in time. haha.  I love you all so much. I LOVE LETTERS MOM those cards you sent me were so beautiful and I love reading them. it's so nice to get letters because when you have a Kasama (companion) who gets like 2 letters every hour its nice to know who have people who love ya.  Cause we only have p day on friday to email and even then it's not enough time to read and write emails back.  So send me more letters!!!!  SO I can read them during the week. Once I get in the field it would be easier to rread emails. So I love sundays Tuesdays and Fridays.  They are my favorite. Sunday talks were so inspiring and relief socitey everyone was crying. Ha of course.  We were talking about the Love of Christ. At the end all of the sisters san "I feel my saviors love" and I just was over come by the spirit of the sweet angel voices. The fireside that night was about what kind of missionary do I want to be remembered as? I thought of a loving and inspired missionairy.
My Kasama Sister Schocker is so funny. We joke all the time. SHe made me laugh so hard the other day when she said she was feeling car sick in relief society becasue Sis. Butler wouldn't stop bouncing her leg! It was making her motion sick. Butler must have restless leg syndrom.

I love Tuesdays because we got to just study most of the day and the devotional was amazing!.  Guess who spoke to us... Drum Roll......... ELDER JEFFERY R HOLLAND! Thats right Elder Holland the amazing one.  It was so cool to see the respect flood the room.  We walked in while we were singing and the moment we all stood up everyone started to sing a whole lot louder. I was writing none stope during his talk because every sentance was so profound.  THis is just a list of stuff from my journal I copied.

We expect a lot from you and we dont apologize. We expect super human strength. That we don't have the right to compromise the tradition of this work. Strive everyday to measure up. the best symbol for the church if we had one would be a picture of 2 missionaries. Expect this message to change their lives so it isn't allowed for you to fall way after 2 years. You are not suppost to go back to teh way your were.  You need to convert yourself before you can convert others. You are a force to change the world. the BOM is a book of revelation. this is the church of the mighty God that will save their souls. We expect atleast one soul from each of you and that is your own.  I loved it so much.  How cool was it to hear Holland my first week at the MTC>\
Dad you need to send me those pictures you took at the MTC so I can have them in my PHoto album.  And send me more stamps!!! I'll be sending you pictures soon in the mail. And guess what mom.  Elder Fruean gave me New Zealand coins so I'll be sending those home to.

Also I am still the rock paper scissors shadow boxing champ.  Yesterday at lunch I beat like 10 people in a row on the 1st ROUND!  it was amazing!!!! All the Elders can't believe it.  They try so hard to beat me and i'm like "Come Back Tomorrow!""

PS the RING is Awesome.  I love it.  THank you for sending it in the mail mom.  Everyone is jealous that I have a PAM CTR ring for the philippines.  I'm so happy it came.

SOrry the punctuation is kind of crazy. I feel like i don't have time to capitalize or type punctuation because I only have time to spit the words out. So hopefully you can decipher this letter.  Happy Birthday Jessie!  I loved the letters you sent me.  Tell all the family to send me letters!
  I Love you All so much
Mahal Kita
Ingat po

Love Sister Fowles

KUMUSTA PO KAYO?

Ok I don't have very much time so hopefully i can write everything I want to say.  I Can't believe I'm here already.  It's been very different then what I expected.  I love my Companion Sister Schocker. She is from Bountiful and she reminds me of Shelley.  She is so sweet natured and I love her.  We are both terrified.  My roomates are Sister Butler and Sister Harvey.  The four of us are the bomb. I really feel like we keep each other focused. And all FOUR of us are going to Iloilo! same with two other elders in our district.  The four elders are Elder Hamp Elder Weight Elder Fruean and Elder Sefeti.  Fruen is from New Zealand and sounds just like the people on that movie Whale Rider.  And Elder Sefeti is from Fiji and he is hilarious.  The language is crazy. We have learned how to pray and to bare a short testimony.  But the first day guess what they did. They stuck us in a room with our teacher and he only spoke Tagalog to us.  All of us have no idea. I feel like all we do is play charades the whole time trying to figure out what he is saying.  He has tought us some phrases but we haven't broken down the details of the language at all. which is frustrating because I wonder if that would help us communicate better.

The hardest thing I've had to do here was they had us teach a real investigator.  A REAL INVESTIGATOR. His name is Niko and he only speaks Tagalog.  So we went in there knowing nothing.  It was AWEFUL. I just looked at Sister Schocker and she looked like she was about to cry.  So I just moved on and had him read the inroduction page of the BOM in Tagalog.  I had him read the 1st paragraph and the 2nd to last paragraph and then I bore my short testimony and then we left.  I shouldn't tell you this but I cried really hard after because I felt like we did horrible.  It was the first time I cried since i've been here. But I realized that the purpose of them doing this to us was to understand that even if we don't understand the language there is one language we all can understand. that is the language of the spirit.  As long as we bring the spirit into the room then it doesn't matter if we can't understand each other. 

Sister Schocker is great and I feel like i've been helping her not feel so homesick.  She definitley is more timid then me and I know that we can help each other be better missionaries.

I saw Kenzee here and I saw Elder Jones who I worked with.  There are so many people here from different cultures and accents.  it's a really cool experience.  ELder Fruean from New Zealand taught this game that is similar to rock paper scissors and I started to dominate every one.  We started to play boys vs girls in our district and I was the number one player. It was so funny.  I love my district, we rely on eachother a lot to help destress our lives. 

So i have to go. I'll try to attach pictures.

Mahal kita.

Sister Fowles

Ingat po (bye)

I hope all is well at home

Lots of love

So a little set back. My Stake President called me a few weeks ago and said that they have postpone the date we enter the MTC to the 22nd of Feb.  An entire 3 weeks later!  Apparently the MTC is doing an accelerated learning program where we learn the same amount of material in 6 weeks instead of 9.  I would be more than happy to have a few more weeks to try and learn the language but I figure that I'll be grateful not being in the MTC for so long. And they always say you learn the language better in the field anyway. So when February 1st rolled around I had such a weird feeling, I would have been at the MTC if it were not for the change.
So here I am. Less than a week away. My mind is going absolutely crazy with emotions.  I feel really scared and sad leaving but at the same time I know I should be so excited and happy. This is a new experience for me, one that will change my life dramatically. I'm so excited to meet new friends for life!  My best friend Kenzee just left last Wednesday. She is going to New Mexico. She left exactly one week before me and we'll be home around the same time too!
These last weeks have been so memorable. I love everyone who have been so supporting and that have talked about the Philippines mission with me. I want to thank Mike and Vangie Olmstead for going to the temple with me, My good friends: Whitney, Patrick, Lauren, Brenda, Sadie, Quinn, Kelsey, Lindsey, Shay, Albert, Nick and everyone else. Trent for always being there <3, Mike for teaching me some basic Tagalog, Rob and Jeff showing me pictures, the Cabatu's dinner, the Strombergs showing us the way, for CJ Roberts Testimony, my Dad for his words of wisdom, my loving Mother for all of her time and effort getting me ready, My entire family, I love you all so much! And there are so many others to thank.  I LOVE YOU.