Third Letter from the MTC

*****Here is the third letter we received from Adrienne! Brittany Carrasco, Brittany Lesser and Jenny Dickson, scroll down to the bottom for a special note to you!*****

Hey family!

So since i've been here i've heard more and more stories about the Philippines. my teacher had a cockroach bite her EYE while she was sleeping and it was swollen shut for 2 weeks! A cockroach!! Her husband got dangai fever and was in the hospital for 2 months! This other teacher got really sick and transferred to CA for the rest of his mission. i'm really scared that any number of things are going to happen to me while i'm over there but i really hope i don't get sent to the states halfway through. Well saturday night, and monday night i didn't get any mail and i was super bummed. I guess the dearelder was down for a while, but it was good, cause when i did get mail i appreciated it a ton more! I learned some new Mormon acronyms: BRT-build a relationship of trust, OYM-open your mouth. and SYL-speak your language. They have p90x in the gym and i did the core one for about 10 minutes the other day and i'm still sore! Anyway we are learning how to conjugate verbs-yay! now we can actually start making our own sentences that actually make sense. We had a competition on remembering the word markers ang, ng, and sa and I beat everyone in the class except the teacher!

I'm making more friends, but really struggling to include my companion. She's so fun and talkative with me and SO quiet to people in a big group. I'm working on including her more and helping her be herself. I saw Stephanie Hall in the cafeteria yesterday! She's going to California Spanish speaking. I gave her a big hug and we talked for a while. It's funny because i feel like i'm doing the best at everything than i've ever done before (not procrastinating, writing in my journal, exercising, etc. etc. ) but my many weaknesses are suddenly so apparent all the time! It's like when you start eating right and you notice how fat you've gotten! Haha. It's inspiring, humbling, and discouraging all at the same time.

Sunday was AWESOME! We had a great sacrament meeting- I didn't get called on to talk but Elder Aldred from my district did. He's this funny, sarcastic-loves to make fun of everything kind of guy that complains a lot about doing the work and learning the language. And then all of a sudden he gets up there and gives the most amazing, heartfelt testimony about his experience with faith. He started crying and the spirit was so strong-I cried too! i just wanted to run up and give him a big hug but all i could do was shake his hand. Then we went on the Sunday walk to the temple which was so much fun. For the Sunday fireside-M. RUSSELL BALLARD came! wow! it was amazing to hear him speak so close up. he said "We’re a bunch of old men but we're pretty cool" about the 12 apostles-haha! and he talked about always staying worthy of the spirit and my
favorite-"burdens will be lifted and lightened because of your love and affection for  the Lord Jesus Christ". AND David Archuleta sang " The Spirit of God" so beautifully! He is so talented. He left this week for his mission to Chile! Then we watched "the testaments" if you haven't seen
it-you have to! Man what a spiritually fulfilling day. I am loving life and this gospel and am beyond grateful for Christ's atoning sacrifice.

The books we got were a preach my gospel, a bunch of pamphlets all in both English and tagalong, a tagalog-english dictionary, tagalog triple, and 3 conversational tagalog textbooks. I felt like 'Arry Potter on his first trip to Diagon Alley! Mom. THANK YOU THANK YOU for the amazing candy package! it made my whole day especially after not getting mail for 3 days. I miss talking to you all the time too! i find myself looking for my phone a lot- I really miss just talking and laughing with ya'll all the time. Dad- that's so cool how involved you are with the missionaries and investigators. Our devotional on Tuesday was actually about how we need to focus on the members more and getting them more involved increases investigators. The weather IS perfect here! I only wish we were able to go outside and enjoy it more.

Workouts are going good. It was funny cause the other day i was on the stationary bike and reading "our search for happiness" by M. Russell Ballard and these elders beside me were like, " Sister, how do you read and workout at the same time? and why? after studying all day?" and i was like, " well I just get bored if i don't have anything in front of my while i work out. plus this book is really good!" so then the next day we went to the same place to workout and there are the same 4 elders, all on the stationary bike, ALL reading "our search for happiness"! hahaha!
Sundays are really busy for us but now i look forward to them because it means Sunday walks to the temple which means freedom! For a whole hour outside the MTC gates! Jokelang in tagalog means just kidding! haha.

Elena-
Thanks for taking care of all my fb/blog business! you're the best! wow the deals you're getting! i'm so impressed with your garage saleing buys. :) so did you decide on a final color scheme for the room? and is Jamie the official name for her? i've always wanted Sadie for my first daughter (don't steal it!) so if I have a girl first, we'll have Maddie, Jamie, and Sadie. so cute! now it has to be jamie. haha j/k. Last night we did TRC for the first time-yikes! it was scarier than teaching the teacher, but we were teaching people that were members and they just acted like themselves. that put a new spin on it cause we've only ever taught investigators before. that's so great about Ben's job opportunity! Ya'll are SO blessed! I will definitely pray for him to get it. What a cool
story about the car manual and the brake you are so gospel-minded and have so much faith. it is amazing that Heavenly Father really does care about the tiny things going our lives. Even when so much is going on all over the world.

Ben-i saw the french toast sticks! finally! they serve them on tues. I am definitely trying them next week. haha you're stories are so funny-keep em coming! My comp would KILL me if i poured cold water on her while she was showering haha. Do you remember teaching in the TRC? did you like it?

Brittany Carrasco- how did your dinner-pary-thingy go? i sent you 2 letters to your home address, so hopefully you'll get them soon!

Jenny and Britt-thanks so much for writing me! i screamed when i got your letters! there is mail coming your way soon!

Well I love you all so much! Thank you for your prayers, letters and love!! kita kitz! -Adrienne

Adrienne's Second Letter

For those of you who want to write Adrienne, she appreciates letters from DearElder.com. She gets them the same day that you write them! Her MTC box number is 251, and her departure date is 05 13. She sends her love to all of you. Sister Osorio, there's a special note for you at the bottom of the letter!

Hey family!

WOW $3000?!!! I can't believe the garage sale was so successful! That is astig! awesome! Yes, my testimony that young men need missions has definitely been strengthened this past week. My coworker Brittney from the Provo bakery sent me the package and sister gallup gave me some delicious candy and an inspiring letter with quotes and scriptures. i got the most letters and dearelders than anyone else in my district this past week-it made me feel very loved! they always joke when it's mail time," oh let's see and 500 letters for sister garcia!" hahaha.

Boyd K. Packer CAME! and his son! President Packer talked about faith verses fear, we had a fast and testimony meeting and an ice cream sundae bar-that was awesome. I AM tired of being "on" all the time, but i've gotten more relaxed now that I'm more used to everything here. I know, I miss my cooking too haha. I just miss homemade stuff really. Pday is on fridays and that’s the only time i get 30 mins for mail-the whole week! So we found out yesterday that our investigator "julito" is actually our TEACHER! we were so shocked. We had taught him about 4 times and were working on preparing a lesson for him on repentance when he walked into the room dressed in a suit and with a teacher badge on. I

was like "Julito?! you're a teacher!?" and then i saw his wedding ring and i was like "and you're married?!?" he laughed and was like "yes, yes, yes." and I said, " you lied to us?!" and he was like, "i'm so sorry! pasensya! the prophet made me do it!" so turns out he is only half filipino, he was born and raised in utah, he has been married for 9 months, and he is going to byu and working at the MTC! But then he was like, "ya i didn't know any tagalog until my mission to manila." we were all shocked. i mostly felt really dumb for all the effort we put into our lessons and our tagalog probably sounded so bad, and all the times we spoke english thinking he couldn't understand haha. AND we bought him a book of mormon and challenged him to read it. He gave it back to us and said, "i really appreciate this, but please give it to someone on your flight to the philippines." haha my comp and I were talking though and it really is good how the program makes you think he's real, because it really does make you put your whole heart into this

guy and his situation and it makes you want to be the best teacher you can be and try to hard to get all the words and phrases right in tagalog. And it's so rewarding when he says, "i prayed about the restoration and i believe in joseph smith" but it was also the best learning experience. if we had known he was our teacher we wouldn't have done the same amount of work.

So he taught us all in english last night and it was great, he said he loved us already because of being taught by us. So now Brother Lacanienta (that's julito) and sister winegar are going to be our new investigators and just act like they're real, which is cool. The more I learn about the language and the gospel and the Filipino people, the more and more excited i am about going out there are teaching.

I miss a lot of things about being home, but i'm getting more and more used to this place and making more friends. pretty soon i'm sure this place will be like home for me. Poor Ben having to study all the time! He's such a hard worker! and I’m glad he's still finding time to write me!

Sister Osorio, thank you so much for your dearelder! It's so great to hear from people I look forward to mail time everyday! I'm so super happy for Elise-she's so perfect for temple square because of her beautiful smile and personality. It is so comforting to hear that the Filipino people are so warm and loving. tagalog is actually a fun language to learn-i'm catching on pretty quick and the little i know of Spanish has helped a lot. Patience- i think that's the theme of the MTC. I'm working on it every day! thanks so much for your wonderful advice and update. Good luck with your upcoming wedding!

Well keep the dearelders coming, i love hearing from ya'll! Everyone thank you so much for your letters! They are always the highlight of my day! I miss all of you and love you so much! I pray that you'll be kept safe and happy every day! I love you! Till next week!

-Adrienne

Adrienne's First Letter!

Adrienne wrote us from the MTC! Here is her first letter:

Hello po!

Kumusta po kayo? I can't believe it was only 3 days ago that I was with ya'll. It feels seriously like its been 3 weeks. Mom- I MISS YOUR FOOD! The MTC food is okay-but I eat a salad or wrap every day for lunch and dinner because I don't like the other options. They sound good but it looks nasty and I haven't tried it-but probably tastes gross too. For breakfast I usually have cereal or a bagel and fruit. I'm never that hungry though because I'm not moving around much. Yesterday we were stuck in our classroom for TEN HOURS! It was tough.

I love my companion, Sister Winger from Utah. She is very sweet and laid back and has wanted to serve a mission her whole life. We have a ton in common and work really well together. We have four international sisters for roommates that are all very sweet and have beautiful loooong black hair and beautiful accents. Sister Seu is from New Zealand and she is always making fun of the American accent. She said ‘watermelon’ and ‘ice cream’ in an American accent and it sounded so funny. My district has 5 elders and 4 sisters in it. All of the elders are really fun and nice. Elder Christensen is our district leader, he's very loud and excited and enthusiastic about the gospel. He will randomly shout, "I'm so pumped! I wish we had 5 investigators!" or "Man we have the coolest sisters!" haha he's crazy but it helps the rest of us get excited. The other elders seem very young! Sometimes I feel like I'm hanging out with Grant and his friends!

Anyway, all the missionaries in my district are going to the Philippines-just different areas. Only 2 elders are going to Quezon city north with me and my comp. The language is so fun to learn! knowing some Spanish has helped me a ton! and my teacher is very patient and nice. She teaches by repeating words over and over and over and we repeat her every time. She has a tv screen with words on it and she writes on the chalkboard-that way we get visual, audio, and muscular (as we take notes) learning. plus there are oly 9 of us so we get a lot of special attention and help and can ask questions whenever we want. We also have very helpful workbooks and even a Tagalog preach my gospel. I can't believe how much we've already learned!

Yesterday we taught Julito in tagalog. He is from the Philippines, trying to get into BYU. His uncle is Mormon and told him to meet with us to know why his life is so blessed. He knows very little english and we know very little tagalog so he volunteered to meet with us. He is a very happy and humble guy. We taught him that keeping god's commandments will make you happy. I felt inspired to share Mosiah 2:41 (Mom-Your favorite!) with him when we were preparing. Most of the time we were looking at our notes, and sometimes he didn't get what we were saying, but we prayed with him and I sorta understood what he told us about his uncle. He read mosiah 2:41 in Ang Aklat ni Mormon and the spirit was definitely there. He seemed to get it and then I bore my testimony and Sister Winger bore hers. It was hard because he couldn't really ask us a question because we wouldn't understand but I think he got what we were trying to say. We are teaching him again today about the plan of salvation. We have to bear our testimonies to 10 people in tagalog and we all have to prepare a talk in tagalog each week. They the bishop randomly chooses 3 people to give talks after the sacrament is passed. AH! But it only has to be 5 minutes.

I saw Sister Kelly Rogers, she leaves next week for NY. I saw Elder David Archuleta in the cafeteria, but I didn't go up to him. He looked very determined not to make eye contact with anyone so I didn't want to bother him. He is very short and petite-much smaller than you would think! He doesn't really look like he does in magazine or even at Stadium of Fire. A lot of people are getting the flu so they told us not to shake hands or touch anyone.

I love gym time! It's an hour every day and the gym is really nice. It's full of all the equipment you need, they play church movies and there's a P90X area. Also every morning at 6 am they have classes just for the sisters. My comp and I are going and we've done yoga and kickboxing so far-so fun! It snowed really hard yesterday and I didn't have a coat! I am really glad I brought boots and some sweater-y tops. So far, surprisingly, it looks like i didn't forget anything at home! We are so busy from the second we wake up to the second we go to sleep. My eyes are red and have circles under them but when I'm going throughout my day I don't feel that tired. It hits me at about 8:30 every night. I'm so grateful for the clear confirmation I received that this is where i should be at this time. I'm grateful that I have that every day. it gives me strength and energy to try harder and be better.

I am SO happy i got the comp that i did. She is very obedient and works very hard. She always encourages me to work harder and stay focused. She is good by leading by example.

Well tell me more about everything! I love DearElder! Please everyone write me on Dearelder.com! I get the letter the day you send it and it means I can respond faster! Well, times up. but I love you and I miss all of you so much. I love the MTC and that we can pray and receive answers. KITA KITZ= (see ya!) -Sister Garcia

P.S.- if stuff is misspelled everywhere-sorry! i only have 30 minutes and i'm typing at lightning speed!