Maligayang Pagdating sa Pilipinas!

KUMUSTA PAMILYA!!

I have one million things to write and if I don't get it all down, be expecting a letter from me. My P-Day is Tuesday, by the way.

FIRST OFF:

DEAR FAMILY AND FRIENDS,
please please please please please SEND ONE MILLION DEAR ELDERS TO MY COMPANION. Same mission as me, Sister Lily Stephanie Ram. She doesn't get any letters from her family or anyone and she is so sad about it. Just write her a quick hello, an inspirational thought or story, a scripture, ANYTHING. But please do it. Write to her instead of me if you only have time for one letter. Please. Thank you.

Now, on to the letter.

So this last week was crazy, man. Our investigator Daniel Cook accepted our baptismal invitation which was AWESOME. And yes, that means I learned how to ask him to be baptized. But then we found out that Daniel Cook is actually Brother Long and he will now be our other teacher. Awkward. He seriously saw us at our very worst so we were all so nervous for our first lesson from him last night. But then, it turns out he is hilarious and so nice so we're good. He's actually from Alpine. His brother is Jason Long who went to Lone Peak and passed away a few years ago.

So we got a new investigator named Toni. He is played by our other teacher, Brother Langer. Brother Langer is a convert and used to be Catholic. So that means that Toni is Catholic and that's serious business because he knows his stuff. Sister Ram and I were so nervous to teach him. But listen, I memorized so many things and was more prepared for that lesson than any lesson I ever taught to Daniel Cook. So we get to the door and he lets us in but tells us that he only has a few minutes. So that's fine, we'll only share a quick message, we say. So we sit down and ask him about himself and everything is going well and then we say, "May we start with a prayer" and BAM. He says, "No, I'm sorry I don't have time I have to go. Just tell me your message really quick." So I look at Sister Ram, "Is this a joke? Are we ever supposed to teach without praying first? Should we pray even though he said no??" So that totally threw us off and Sister Ram goes completely silent. So it's all me and I try to get out as much as I can about how much God loves him and wants him to be happy. Then he interrupts me and says, "I have to go. Right now. I'm going to be late." "Can we close with a prayer?" "Nope." Alright, see ya. Ingat po. That was it. It lasted like five minutes and we totally failed. So we get back to class and Sister Ram bursts into tears and is so upset. Brother Langer felt so bad. She's fine now. BUT SEND HER A LETTER.

Speaking of Sister Ram. My goal to improve our relationship this week was to get her to work out/play a sport with me at gym time. And guess what, I DID IT. We totally did a hardcore workout. She loves the eliptical (sp?) so it looks like that's what we'll be doing the remainder of the time. I'll probably sneak off to volley ball a few times, though. But it totally is helping our relationship. I love the Sister.

So I want to give a big THANK YOU to Bishop Wheadon for calling me to be the Gospel Doctrine Teacher. I'll tell you why. My DL asked me to teach the District Meeting on Sunday and it went REALLY WELL. And our Branch President, President Anderson and his wife were there which was nervous-making. But it went really well. That's it.

Linda K. Burton spoke in relief society here on Sunday which was AWESOME. And I got to talk with her for a few minutes after. She is amazing.

Stories:

1. One evening we were getting ready for bed when the smoke alarm goes off in our building. Of course half the sisters were in the show and the other half were not dressed appropriately but the fire marshal came in anyway and shewed us into 1M. We had to spend the precious hour that we need to get ready to bed doing nothing - waiting. BUT me and my roommates starting singing, "The Spirit of God like a fire is burning...." which was appropriate, hilarious, and led to more hymns. So that was fun. Turns out some sisters burnt popcorn and there was black smoke everywhere from it. All was well.

2. While Brother Long was Daniel Cook, he would always do the hand-shoulder-head thing when we prayed (sorry, I don't know what it's actually called. Hopefully that was not disrespectful...) So we asked him about it while we were all kneeling in a circle about to say our bedtime prayer. With Brother Long at the head of the circle, he does the hand-shoulder-head thing again right as one of the head teachers walks by. He comes in and yells, 'WHAT IS HE TEACHING YOU.' It was hilarious, but maybe one of those you-had-to-be-there moments. Which is probably all my stories, so bear with me.

3. Sister Taliaivao, by roommate, is from Australia. Which means she doesn't really understand how heavy 1 lb is. She LOVES pizza hot pockets, "pizza pockets". One day she comes up to me and says, "Sister Mecham, there is a 12 lb pizza pocket in the vending machine!!!!!" I tried to explain to her that that was not possible at all. I told her that that was the size of a very large infant. She later found out that it actually said 1/2 lb. So that was funny. But then in class, Brother Long says, "I currently hold the record for the biggest baby born in Oregan (?).... 12 LBS" We never stopped laughing after that.

4. So this is how I made the elders in my district going to my mission become obedient through a small falsehood. Brother Long told us that in Manila, only the VERY obedient missionaries get to go to the island and leave the city because the mission president can't be there very often to check on them. So the manila elders start talking about how they will be so obedient when then get to the field. Then I told them that the talk to your MTC Branch President to see how obedient you were in the MTC. Which might be true.... needless to say, there is so much obedience going on here from the elders now.

That's all there is time for. Thank you everyone SO SO MUCH for all the letters and love I've gotten. I feel so blessed to have you all in my life.

The Church is true and I love spending all my time learning about it. Missions are MABUTI.
 (Also, sorry that my grammar and punctuation is sub-par. I have so little time to write these)