Friday, April 13, 2012

"I Love This Work!"

MTC Week 5 – “I Love This Work!”

Mangandang araw! That means, "Good day!"

Thank you everyone who sent me happy birthday wishes! Thanks especially to Dad, Ben, Kira, Julia, Grandpa Bell, Mom, and whoever else sent Dear Elders! And thanks to Kalenn and the Ben King family for the cards! Kalenn, I love the pictures! Livia's hair is getting adorable!

I hope everyone had a good Passover and/or Easter! We celebrated by having a morning sacrament meeting/devotional with guest speakers President Boyd K. Packer of the 12, and his son, Elder Packer of the 70! They were quite good. In church later I bore my testimony about the Atonement, and it was very spiritual and good. The day before, I received a package filled with Easter treats from the Easter bunny! Sister Arnold got several packages, the largest from her mother, and she had/has so much candy, oh my gosh. Sunday afternoon we walked to the temple, and oh boy, it was so beautiful! Warm, flowers out. It was a perfect Easter.

I got my birthday package from Mom a day early, but Sister Arnold insisted that I wait to open it. So I did. I opened it right when I woke up. I loved the pens and the treats, and the squishy Shipley football stressball? (thanks, Dad) and all the other things! I always need more stationary. And Brian, I got the cupcakes, but a day late! They spelled my name "Keil" on it. Ano bay an??? That's the Tagalog equivalent for "what the heck."

My birthday was a good day for many reasons. Mostly it was really emotional and spiritual. Not because it was my birthday, but because I was reflecting on all of my blessings. The tears started when I wrote my Mom a thank you note for giving birth to me. She did all the work, you know. Moms should always be celebrated on birthdays. Anyway, I wrote Mom a note, and I started crying, and getting a little homesick thinking about my family.

Later on my birthday, I went to LDS.org, and I started watching some of the Mormon Messages videos. I highly recommend those to anyone and everyone. They come in so many topics, and oh my gosh, the tears just kept coming. They weren't sad, missing home tears anymore. In fact, the first tears weren't sad tears. They were "I am so filled with love and thankfulness" tears. Cheesy, right? It's so true though. I am so lucky so have born into such a loving family who taught me the importance of Christlike attributes. I feel so loved by my Heavenly Father, and I just want to share that love with everyone!

The next day, one of my new roommates, Sister Tivalu (Samoan, but from Brisbane, Australia) got out from teaching a lesson. From our classroom we could hear her loudly exclaiming, "I LOVE THIS WORK!" Well, that is exactly how I feel right now. I am so ready for this.

Well, I wish I were ready for this. That same day, before the Sister Tivalu incident, I had a little breakdown. It was triggered by something little. I couldn't find a very important mission word in any of the dictionaries, and I didn't know where to look for it in the Preach My Gospel book. It annoyed me, and I just started getting mad, I guess. I wasn't really frustrated, but I was. It's like I started feeling all these feelings all at once, and I didn't know what to do with them. I was torn between punching something, throwing baseballs, running a mile, and screaming. It ended in (any guesses?)... crying. My inner turmoil was this: I have so much love and desire to teach, but at the present time, I really can't teach in Tagalog very efficiently. I knew there was no point in complaining about it, or getting mad about it. The only solution is to, you know, just keep learning Tagalog. So instead of punching things and screaming, I prayed. I just turned right around in my desk, knelt against my chair, and I prayed my best for comfort and calm. My companions and the teacher tried to comfort me, but at that point nothing they said really helped. My problem isn't really a problem. I just have too many "feelz." I feel like a walking internet meme. But I shall survive. I keep learning new things every day, and eventually I will be able to say what I want to say to the Filipinos.

Yesterday (Thursday) we got out TRAVEL PLANS! Here's how it goes!

On the evening of Monday April 23, we fly from Salt Lake to San Francisco. Then we leave SanFran at about 1 a.m. (April 24). We fly and fly and fly until we land in Hong Kong at 6 a.m. of the following day (April 25). Then that morning we fly to Manila, Philippines, and then that afternoon we fly to Bacolod. This is going to be a very long trip.

When we got the travel plans, I was a bit concerned for Sister Tioti, because she didn't get any. So we went to the doctor to tell him that we want the thumbs up for her to be able to go with us, if not sooner. We had physical therapy again today, and then we went to the MTC doctor who said she was fine, and that he'd already talked to the District Presidents about getting her travel plans in order. We went to talk to the District President, and he said that Sister Tioti's mission president in Olangapo, Philippines wants her ASAP! The District President was like, "We can have her flying by Monday April 16th!" Sister Tioti really doesn't want to fly alone (she's afraid) but she'll do it if there's no other way. We're seeing if they can delay her flight plans until next week when my group flies out.

For the last 2 days in gym I've been going yoga. It's fun, and my shoulders are sore. I always drip with sweat, ugh, it's gross, but good for me!

Tagalog lesson. Uhhh...

If you want to say that something is the best, or the most something, you say "pinaka" (same emphasis as the word "pinacle"). For example, to say "best" you say "pinakamabuti" literally "most good." "Pinkakamamahal" is "most loved." This is the word used when the Father says "This is my Beloved Son." When Joseph Smith said that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book, in Tagalog he said "pinakatama" which is a perfect translation, because 'tama' means 'right' or 'correct.'

I hope that this has been fun. I have only another 9 days or so here, so bring on the DearElders and letters and love! DearElder will still be available when I go to the Philippines, but I just won't get all the letters right away. It takes a little longer, but I think it's still free (Mom, check on that).

I love you all! Maha kita! (I love you!)

Mahal ko (my love),
Sister Kelli King

Notes:

Julia: I got your DearElder, I loved it! Did you get my postcard back? We need to keep in touch! Doug's parents are in my prayers!

Dad: Will you accept the mighty task of compiling information about Kirabati from Wikipedia and pasting it in a Dear Elder for me? I'm so curious about this place where my companion is from! She's specifically from Gilbert, Kiribati.

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