Carissa's Email 4 Weeks in the MTC

Week Upat!

So here are a few of my adventures during week four of the MTC stay. If i had time i would write most of it in cebuano but i have 12 min so im sorry. I will tell more stories in the letters i write home later today that you can share with others! And ill write more personally in those!

1. Naghigugma ko ninyo! (I love you all!)
2. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are now just called food or meals... we dont decifer which is which cause its usually just a huge blur! We are content with that tho.
3. Im learning some cantonese... who woulda thought i would learn multiple languages here! SAWEET! I learned the most awesomest word yesterday... It the word for inactive member... I cant spell it but its increadibly long and i will record myself saying it and send it to you.
4. Our new sisters in the branch are wonderful! Very funny girls! They are all state side. There are 4 of them! But they will leave before we do...
5. I met janice kapp perry!!!! She spoke at relief society and sang this sunday. Then we got to meet her afterwards. I talked to her for a few min and it was awesome. It reminded me of when i was little listening and singing her songs with mom!! And at andrews baptism i think we sang one. So many sweet memories!
6. I get lots of exercise around the residency because we have a wheelchair that sits outside our room. My arms are getting BUFF! whoot whoot! ha... seriously, no joke!
7. Sis Phillips (who brings medicine) continues to amaze me... On sunday she brought us sisters camping toliet paper that i guess is really hard to find. She is going to stock us up for the Philippines. And her story to us last night was how she ran for bishop when they split her ward. SO FUNNY! She made posters and everything! What a hoot!
8. I learned how to be really effective at making study plans! Im really really excited about that! I feel like i can get so much more done and stay on task. What a blessing!
9. Tell mark and peggy i LOVED their dear elder! It made me laugh and feel so good. Im glad peggy was able to have fun learning about her graphing calculator! ha.
10. Tell grandma that her letter and story was so fun to get! I LOVE HER MORE!! Im glad you got to spend time with her mom. And its ok if you win cause as of now she is up on my by two!
11. Really cool scripture. 1 John 1:7. This explains how we can access the atonement. We must WALK by him. We do this through repenting. Look into it and read Alma 22. THat is one cool conversion story that i had our district read in book of mormon study yesterday!

I love you and am praying for you!
Love
Sister Carissa Jones

Carissa's Email 3 Weeks in the MTC

Well hey there everyone!

The weeks go by quickly and i forget just about everything i do so good thing i keep a journal!Where oh where to begin...

1. I get worse and worse at spelling in english every day.
2. I found out last night that wearing nylons is not a rule anymore. They just are coming out and saying it so there isnt a huge party over it. Yes, im not wearing nylons right now... whoot whoot.
3. i had the best and sadest day of my missing on monday!
4. i forgot my nametag one day and went 3 hours without knowing i didnt have it on... The moment i realize i felt increadibly naked!
5. Higugma ko sa ebanghelyo ni JesuKristo.

So if i havent told you...my mission script i think is mosiah 4:21... great scripture! My teacher Brother Morrey tells hilarious stories and this week told one about their pet rat splinter who sacraficed another rat for them (the missionaries).

This last week has been more of a struggled... i definitely have been tested. But i know that God is aware of me and my needs. I was called to give a 5 min talk on sunday on faith. Its literally on the spot in sacrament meeting. I needed to give it and God knew that. The church is true!

I love you all so very much!

Love Sister Jones

Letter on Feb. 3rd

MOM!

I was glad to hear from you on dear elder. Getting letters and packages is seriously like gold! My comp. Sister Blonquist gets so much everyday! All her friends write her on dear elder. She is from Chicago and such a fun girl. We already have sayings…sick. My other comp is Sister Farnsworth. She is from West Jordan. She is a hard worker and me and Blonquist are bringing her out of her shell a bit. Our entire district is great! Elder Nelson is from Bountiful and was called as our district leader. Elder Fisher is his comp and is from Hawaii. He is 25. Elders Teney from Arizona and Chastain from So. Cali are comps. Teney is a talkative, comical guy and Chastain is a convert of two years. He is very strong and knows a lot, I’m jealous. Then Elders Akina also from Hawaii and Straley are comps. Akina is the only one of his immediate family still a member. They got offended by something. But he has such a sweet heart but is way fun to joke with. Straley is quiet but quite the basketball player. He is from Murray, UT. He may be quiet but when he speaks you can feel his strong testimony. It is such a blessing to have a wonderful district where we all get along. Seriously from day two we were all like the closest family ever. Only by the help of God would that be possible.

I think about you every morning cause they have a special 6am workout class for sisters only. They are a lot like the classes we go to. Whenever I go I feel more energized for the LONG day. We stay very very busy. Breakfast at 7:30, class from 8-11:15. Lunch at 11:30, more class from 12:30-4:30. Dinner at 4:30 then more class till 9. One of the class periods is always for personal, companion, and language study without a teacher (1hr each thing). And then usually we have a couple hrs for MDT – which is when we get things done we don’t have time to do. We only have that a few times a week. We also get an hour for gym everyday except Sundays and Wed (P-Day). Our times for class, and study, gym and MDT are different everyday. The only thing the same are meal times. Which may I tell you, are way close together! Dinner is so early!

Somedays the food is good but others not so much. My fav has been the citrus salmon. I always get a wrap because they are fresh and its like Subway where you put whatever you want in it! That line is always the longest but its worth it and they have so many options! I miss being able to cook. Luckily I’ve learned to not be picky. At gym we run or play basketball with the elders from the other cebuano district. They are way nice to us and I think actually really enjoy us playing with them. The elders from our district never ask us to play with them and we like to give them crap.

I’m learning lots in our gospel classes. We are learning LOTS about loving the people you serve. I have insights and thoughts about concepts that I’ve never had before and I know its Heavenly Father speaking to me. I can already feel how being a disciple of Christ is changing me.

The language is hard but fun. And I’m really starting to understand it! In Tacloban we will learn waray waray when we get to the field. I guess its crazy! But much easier to pick up on if you know cebuano first. I’m so excited to learn this language. We worked on our testimonies yesterday and its amazing how we can already make these complex sentences in cebuano from what we’ve learned in a week. NO DOUBT the Lord is on our side!

Our Branch Presidency is awesome. Pres. Johnson and his counselors Bro Phillips and Bro Cole. Sis Phillips comes to our residence hall on Tues nights after devotional to bring us “medicine” which is not allowed and she tells us stories. She is such a crack up!

So check this awesome experience out! The day we got to the MTC, we were in class meeting our teacher and this guy walked by and we all looked at each other and was like ‘umm, was that Pres. Uchtdorf?!’ Its funny how we all felt it. Then later he walked by again and we saw his face and yep it was him. Then a swarm of elders were following him. Quite funny. Well I guess apostles never come to the MTC. This is the first in like 3 years. But what was even cooler was that he came into our welcoming meeting and welcomed us and gave his love. Oh, it was awesome mom!

This is some of her letter to me on Feb. 10^th

MOM! (inahan)

First off, I want you to know how much kalipay (joy) you brought by writing on dear elder. It’s the only letter I got this week so salamat (thank you)!

This week has been a good but crazy week. Lots of people left in our branch and the other cebuanos are leaving Monday! They have been so great to us.

This week our task is to make an appointment in cebuano then teach the restoration lesson in English. People come volunteer and act as investigators so there are no timeouts. It’s just like the real deal. And our teachers watch from a camera and give us feedback. We have a new task every week. Last week we didn’t do to init (hot) but it was sigi (okay). We were performing our cebuano task on Elder Huffman so I think it made us nervous since we know him. We are getting much better in the language. It seems like they talk all complicated when in reality we do and so it’s hard to simplify it down to translate to cebuano. They also take everything literally so sarcasm is wala (non-existent). That could be difficult. Our teacher Bro. Morrey gets funnier everyday. He reminds me of Andrew, which means he’s awesome! I’m learning tons about how to teach and use the espiritu (spirit). I’ve been reading in Alma and I gugma (love) the stories of those great missionaries! It gives me hope and faith. I know that the Lord is with me. Palihog (please) pray for my thoughts to be pure and uplifting.

Love, Carissa

Some highlights from a letter i got from CJ today:

Daddio!

I was glad to hear Grandpa is doing well. I've been praying for him. And a few days into the mission I said something about it to my companions so during companion prayer they prayed for him as well. I am in a trio companionship, which is extremely uncommon for our mission. And we are all serving in the same mission. We already have such a love for one another. Its great!

Our district has 9. 3 of the elders are going to the Cebu Mission and the rest of us are Tacloban. I love my district! All the elders are so strong but way fun at the same time. Its a blessing that we all get along so well. The other Philippine district in our branch/zone is way awesome as well. They have been here 7 weeks now. The two sisters in that district are going to Cebu but they are awesome and so good to us/ Their elders are so nice to us as well. At meals the elders stand up when we come to the table and the elders from the other district always take our trays.

We stay really really busy. Our two teachers are Sister Lilly White and Brother Morrey. Morrey is so funny! We love them both. Cebuano is going pretty well. I'm understanding the concepts, now I just need to work on words and putting it all together. I haven't gotten discouraged yet. Tomorrow we have to go practice with "investigators". We have to know how to get the know someone and testify in Cebuano. Then we teach the restoration lesson in English. Its gonna be crazy but I know that we can do it.

My two companions are Sister Farnsworth & Sister Blonquist. Farnsworth is from West Jordan, UT. Both her parents are deaf and she is a twin. She is so sweet. A little quiet at times but she is dedicated. Sister Blonquist is from Chicago! Its a town called Batavia, in the Naperville Stake. I thought that was cool! She is the senior comp. She is a silly jokester girl just like me. We both love "Baby Mama" so things are great! We all laugh tons together.

Sundays are the most relaxing, spiritual day. All the meetings are spaced out and its just much less stressful on the brain! This Sunday we had a musical devotional where everyone, well I should say anyone could get up and say their favorite hymn and why and then we sung it. It was very uplifting. And cool to see the music touch elders hearts. Our MTC President is awesome and very funny!

Last night (Tues) Richard G. Hinckley, Pres. Hinckley's son came and spoke to us. It was so wonderful, he sounds a bit like Pres. Hinckley, so it touched my heart. He is quite humorous. He told us how we can make our missions more meaningful... He said we should look back on our missions and say I'm glad I did and never, I wish I would have.

I am learning so much here and I can feel my Savior with me always. Its so different. I think of things before I do them, which things I would usually do without knowing. He is helping me to be more obedient. I am learning to love people as Christ does. I am blessed. I'm staying so busy and having so much fun that I don't have time to be homesick. I miss you guys but when I'm working hard and being obedient I feel close to you guys. I have a peace that things are being taken care of... I love you!

Nylons... not my friend!!... the end.

Well things are absolutely fantastic! Im loving every min of this. I havent had a minute to be homesick, not to be mistaken for me not missing you all! I hope things are going well.
I can only write letters on p-day which is wed (today). So my emails probably wont be the most fun things to read for awhile. I wrote you all today so expect them in a couple days. I only have 30 min to email as well and no more... it logs me off after the timer goes off... i have 22 min and counting right now cause time was ticking while i was registering. This whole timer is making me nervous! Please dont give anyone my email address. I am only allowed family and only have time for family on email. Thanks!
Anyways, the whole dear elder is great and quick so go ahead and use it please!... but remember actual letters are very nice to receive... they make you feel a little more special!
Ill be brief since i wrote you letters detailing things already... We stay very busy and its great! Food is ok but way to close together. Dinner is at 430... what is up with that! Im already used to going to sleep at 1030 and waking up at 6. Im in a trio companionship and we are all going to tacloban. This is very rare to even have two in a district speaking the same language! We are lucky but it is a little hard keeping track of 2 people rather than just 1! We always have a straggler... oops! My comps are absolutely amazing!! Our district is great as well. There are 9 total, 3 sisters, 6 elders. 3 of the elders are going to cebu and the rest of us are going to tacloban. The other cebuano district has been here for 7 weeks and they are great. They help us a lot and are way fun!
The language is coming along. I am staying confident and trying not to overwhelm myself. Its absolutely amazing what the Lord can do. No way could i know what i know in just a week if God didnt have my back!
Im learning lots about love, charity, and unity.

Today we get to go to the temple so im pretty stoked! Our whole district is going to walk over together so we can be in the same session. We are already like a giant family! I wrote more about the elders in the letters. And the pic printers are broken at the moment but as soon as they start working in going to print some pics of us so you know what everyone looks like when i talk about them.

I want you all to know that i love you so so so very much!

nagkuha ako ang pagpamatuod sa ebanhelyo. naghigugma ako akong ang Manluluwas ug and Amahan sa Langit...
That was a short testimony but i only have 8 min left!! In translation it says... i have a testimony of the gospel. I love my Savior and Heavenly Father. And i only had to look up two words! How cool is that!!

Love you and cant wait to hear from you!!

Love Carissa

Its been almost a full week and we haven't heard anything from CJ! We did get a text message from the MTC and her address there is:

Sister Carissa Leigh Jones

MTC Mailbox #315

PHI-TAC 0401

2005 N 900 E

Provo, UT 84604-1793

Let her know she is loved!!!