Last PDay in the MTC

Here is Sister Huguely's letter from yesterday, Saturday, July 18th.

Hello loves! 

Loved seeing all the pictures and reading all the emails this past week. Congratulations Maggie and Dave on your darling little girl! I love seeing baby pictures, especially since I won't be allowed to hold babies for the next 18 months! I will do my best to respond to all your emails as I always do.

I can't believe that this is my last PDay in the MTC. I leave Thursday morning and it is all starting to feel so real. I am so excited to actually be teaching real investigators and be out serving the Lord. The MTC is great but all of our investigators are just our teachers as someone else. So even though we get to teach the lessons, we aren't actually teaching investigators. Although it is crazy how even though we know it is just role play, Sister Livermore and I have really gotten to love them.

I will get to email again on Wednesday for a little bit so there should be another update pretty soon. You'll be hearing a lot from me family with my email today, my email on Wednesday, and my calls from the airport. I miss you guys tons and I am so excited to talk to you. Sometimes I forget how much I miss you and then it is PDay and I see all of the pictures and read all the emails and I remember. But I love seeing them and your inspiring words of encouragement always inspire me to refocus on my purpose and work harder than I had the week before. 

This week has been super fun! On Thursday we got to Skype TRC which is when we Skype real Filipino members and get to share a message with them. We spoke to a woman named Sister Kirstie and she was super sweet! Speaking with her made me so excited for the Philippines. Sister Livermore and I were just able to connect with her and it just reignited my belief that I am supposed to serve there. I have been foreordained to serve my 18 month mission in the Philippines. I don't need to worry because I have been called by a Prophet of God and set apart for the work. As long as I work hard and obey with exactness, the Lord will bless me. I am so excited to just get out there and start serving! 

Yesterday we had what was called In-Field orientation. It is basically a giant training meeting that lasts from 8am until 5:30pm. It sounded super boring but it was actually pretty fun! The trainer who led it was Elder Christiansen from the District 2. We got to do a lot of activities and learned a lot of super useful information. Like the best way to street contact, and how to set goals. We spent most of our time on how important it is to use members in missionary work. I now have such a greater appreciation for the missionaries and feel bad at all the times they asked me to invite someone to church and I didn't! Family please give the missionaries as many referrals as possible! Also go on out teaching with them as much as possible too! Member missionaries are so much better naturally at bringing others to Christ than us full-timers are. Investigators relate to you so much more because you are normal people like them. We are weird. It is hard to relate to someone who has given up 18months to 24months of their life in order to just spread the gospel. So please do all you can to give referrals and to go out teaching as well. Sorry I am done preaching now! 

Something funny that happened in infield was that Sister Livermore and I got to be in a play. The trainers put on a funny show for us about the importance of members and missionaries working together and Sister Livermore and I had little parts as members of the ward council. I was the Relief Society President and when they introduced me I went around giving hugs because I was full of charity and love. Then when I got to the trainers playing missionaries I was supposed to go up and try and hug him and then he jumped back and his companion said "The Charity stops there Sister." It was pretty funny and everyone laughed. We only volunteered to be in it because no other sisters wanted to do it but it was fun and I am glad we did. 

I am always so busy here that by Saturday and Sunday I am so tired! I usually try and nap on Saturday and then sometimes I fall asleep again on Sundays when we sit on temple grounds! Whoops! There is a picture of me after I fell asleep on Sunday. It is pretty funny. The temple is open again and I am so excited to go again! 

I miss you all! Keep emailing and writing!

Mahal kita,

Sister Huguely 

Sister Huguely standing next to her cousin, Elder Rolapp. So happy to see them together and smiling!

Sister Huguely napping on the temple grounds on Sister Livermore's knees.  She is definitely a Huguely if she can nap like that!

Sister Huguely captioned this one: "Hindi ko alam (I don't know lol)"

One PDAY left in the MTC

Latest letter from Sister Huguely.  She received her itinerary to fly to the Philippines and she leaves the MTC on July 23rd.  Hard to believe it is already time for her to travel so far away.  The best part is that she gets to call us from the airport.

Hi my loves,

I love getting all your emails! It is kind of fun being the Sister whose family and friends love her the most! Haha just kidding....sort of....I am sorry if I am not able to respond to all of them. I only have 60 minutes of emailing here and so I may not be able to get to everyone! But I can write so if you want to get letters from me just email me your home address and I'll write to you! 

This week has actually been my hardest so far. I was out with the stomach flu Wednesday and Thursday. Missing two days here is like missing two weeks of school and so I feel very behind. But I am working hard to make the days up and Sister Livermore is being very helpful and teaching me what I missed. I am so grateful to her! I am also freaking out because I feel like I know absolutely zero Tagalog and I am leaving for Manila in 12 days so that is terrifying! Yesterday I just felt like I am going to get to the Manila MTC and everyone is going to be speaking Tagalog and I am not going to know anything they are saying. 

So kasama ko (my companion) and I have decided to do an English Fast today. We are trying to speak no English and only communicate in Tagalog. It was supposed to make us feel better about our Tagalog and show that we can somewhat speak it; however we haven't been very good at it and so far it has only made me realize how little I know. It is okay though because at least I am trying. I just have to remember that there is no way I am going to learn this language without the Lord's help and I just keep praying ferociously for the Gift of Tongues. I really need to remember to trust in Him and that through my hard work coupled with the Spirit I will be able to speak it. Uncle Brian wrote me a letter this week and in it he said that the FBI, CIA, and State Department have all come to see how so many missionaries learn languages so quickly, but they can never copy what the MTC does because they don't have the Spirit. That is so perfectly said! When I read that I just felt so comforted! I need to remember that I am not going to be able to learn this language quickly enough by myself, but through the Spirit all things are possible. 

We had an amazing Fourth of July celebration last week. The speaker spoke about how America was foreordained to be a free nation so that the Restoration could go forth. I am so grateful for that! He also talked about how Wilford Woodruff had the work done for many famous people who asked him to do it for them. One of them was Jane Austen so as you can imagine I was pretty happy about that. We then were able to watch a pretty awesome fireworks display and it was absolutely beautiful. I feel so blessed to be able to live in this great nation and to have been in the MTC for one of the Fourth of July's on my mission. 

Nothing too much else to report. I am doing well and am excited and scared to leave for Manila.

Mahal Kita,

Sister Huguely 

Sister Huguely and the other sisters in her district at the 4th of July celebration.

A note from Sister Huguely's teacher who left to teach new incoming missionaries.  We tried to translate with google translator but we didn't have much luck.  

Happy 4th of July!

Letter from Sister Huguely on Independence Day!

Hi my loves!

How is it possible that I am already halfway through being here in Provo?  I literally can't believe that coming this Wednesday I will have been out for a month! Everyone says that the MTC drags on and that the field flies by. Well if the MTC is passing by this quickly I can't imagine how quickly time will go by once I am out in the Philippines! 

Thank you for all your kind emails and pictures! It is the highlight of my week when I am able to see what you all have been up to and to hear from you! It is a nice reminder that there is life outside of the bubble. Haha.

Happy Fourth of July! I feel so blessed that I was born into a country as great as this one. I am so grateful to all the men and women who have laid down their lives in preservation of my freedom. I don't care what anyone says, the United States is truly the greatest country in the world! Haha. (But really though we all know it is true) We are having a Fourth of July celebration later with Fireworks and I am so excited! I really hope that there is some barbecue!! Hahaha! 

I am doing well. The language is hard of course but it is coming slowly but surely. I just have to keep up the faith. Sometimes when I am in class and I learn a new word I just think to myself that can't be a real language. Like no way. Like the word for remembered is naaalaala (I think that is how you spell it). But like seriously how does one even say a word like that? Haha. But all jokes aside I know that Tagalog isn't as bad as like Chinese or Japanese. At least I can identify the letters.

There have been times when we have said some very wrong things! For instance once my kasama said that she was the church of Christ! Hahah whoops!! It wasn't as bad as mine though. We were with an investigator and teaching him about the apostasy, and I tried to say that the people killed the apostles and I accidentally said that the apostles killed the people! My investigator was just like "ano?" (which means what) and I was like oh my gosh I am so sorry and corrected myself! Haha. Sometimes you just have to laugh about stuff like that! It was a good learning mistake and I will definitely not make it again!

Our investigators are progressing really nicely. One of our investigators is named Laila and she is so in tune with the Spirit! We were teaching her about the Book of Mormon and how it can give her solace in a life of turmoil (because she has had a really hard life). I felt impressed to share Helaman 5:12 with her, which is my favorite scripture in the Book of Mormon, and while she was reading it the Spirit was so strong. She then prayed at the end of the lesson for help with her trials and to know the Book of Mormon was true. It was just such a heartfelt and honest prayer and the Spirit was so strong that by the end of it my kasama and I were both on the brink of tears! It is amazing what the Spirit can do! 

Computer isn't working so I can't send any pictures sorry! I miss you all tons and love you lots! 

Mahal Kita (Love you)

Sister Huguely