Sunday, September 14, 2014

There Is Nothing Else I'd Rather Be Doing Right Now

Hello Family, 

Sorry it's been a while since I've been able to email you!  We were at the manila mtc for a couple days and so we missed out on a p day last week.  Haha there's so much to tell you I don't even know where to start! I finally made it to my first area: Hinunangan!! Its pretty far from the mission home and is a BIG area, so I haven't seen a lot of it yet.  My companion is Sis Kalua-Santiago! She just finished her own training, so has only been here 3 months. She's Hawaiian and is super fun and works hard, I'm excited to be with her for a while!  And guess what. We speak cebuano-j here! So what I learned in the mtc, just with some j's instead of y's.  The rest of my district here all got waray, so somehow I lucked out :).  It's still hard for me though.  I can understand my companion almost always, but native speakers are harder for me.  It's just a different accent than I'm used to, and they speak FAST.  But it's all good! I'm just gonna keep trying, and rely on the spirit to get the gist of what's going on :).

Friday after transfers we traveled about 5 hours to our area and got back pretty late, so we didn't get to go out at all.  Saturday there was supposed to be a primary and a relief society activity, but it rained! So they cancelled them.  It's pretty crazy, I guess they hate the rain here and all stay inside if it starts to rain.  You'd think they would get used to it, since it rains so much, but nope.  So that was a bummer.  We walked to the church (its pretty close to us) and met a couple of members, but not a whole lot showed up.  We went home to eat, and it started POURING.  Ever since Yolanda, we have to stay inside if it rains too hard, so we were stuck in the apartment for most of the day. That evening we went to teach the D--, a recent convert family, but the wife wasn't home so we just visited for a minute then had to go.  

Sunday was so good!! We went early to church and I got to meet most of the members of the branch, and they are wonderful!  A lot of them help out the missionaries a bunch, so Sis kalua-santiago knows them pretty well.  And then we both gave talks in sacrament (my favorite :) haha) that went alright! I hope they understood it haha.  They really are some wonderful people, I'm SO excited to serve here.  

Well I better get going, but just know that I love you guys and that I LOVE being a missionary here :).  And it is so beautiful here!! I definitely forgot my card adapter thingie, so no pictures this week.  Haha sorry, next for sure.  I've learned so much already and still have a BUNCH to learn, of course.  But there is nothing else I'd rather be doing right now :).

LOVE, Sis Mortensen

A few more words from Sister Mortensen:

I am very happy! The apartment is just fine, it's pretty clean and we have a shower (which is pretty rare for missionary apartments here) so that's nice.  The beds are just fine! I've slept straight through the night since I've been here.  No major bug problems or anything like that.  I haven't even seen a giant spider yet! There are a couple little lizards living with us, but its all good :)  Yep, we wash our clothes by hand  :)  The food is good!  I actually really like most of it  :).  We might go try balut tonight though, so I'm not sure about that yet!  I really am doing great, don't worry about me :)  Our area is very close to the ocean!  We can't see it from where we are, but it is close.  And SO pretty.  Not a lot of pictures yet, but I will :).  I did see Sister Estes!!  It was so fun (and kinda weird ha ha) to see a familiar face.  She is so sweet.  She was at the transfer meeting.  I think she did get transferred or maybe her companion.    Love you all!!




Brianne didn't send any pictures, but Lindsey did.  Thanks Heidi for sharing this!  Lindsey said, "I saw Brianne! She looks great and she is awesome at the language!"     I am so happy that they got to see each other!  

Brianne and Lindsey

No comments:

Post a Comment