I'm so glad so many of you got to see me during General Conference! The whole experience was insane, but I loved it. We drove up to Salt Lake in buses, and then stayed in a little theatre room on the backside of the Conference Center until an hour before show time. When they called "altos 5'8" or taller) I thought... "I'm not going to be in the back row. The back row never gets camera time. I don't care if I'm taller than everyone here, I'm going to slouch, and be lower." As we lined up, I bent my knees, and worked my way to end of the tall women line. When we got out to the big auditorium (truly a sight to see) I ended up being the second sister from the elders. Not bad. I was satisfied. Weirdly enough, the sister between me and the elders was like 2 inches shorter than me. SO THEY MOVED HER and had me scoot in right next to the elders. I was so excited. It's a great spot. I grinned like an idiot the first time I saw the choir on the monitor. I'M ON TV. I'M ON TV!!!!!! Right before the intermediate hymn, I asked the sister to my right "Do you think we'll be visible during the song? I'm not sure what the angle is..." I was about 90% sure I was on TV. When we were standing and singing I couldn't see any monitors, so I was never tempted to look at myself. Are you ready for some fun? Somewhere during the second half of "Called to Serve" I WINKED. It wasn't distinct. It was probably more like an eye twitch. But look for it. It happened. It was so fun to sing. Sister Arnold and Sister Tioti were in the choir too, along with many other friends of mine.
Last week I forgot to tell you that I got assigned to be our Branch's new Coordinating Sister! This is pretty much a District Leader and a Zone Leader for the sister missionaries of the zone. If they have any questions or concerns they can come to me. I report any problems to the Branch Presidency in meetings on Sundays. I was also responsible for teaching at the Branch Orientation meeting yesterday. The new Zone Leaders (Elder Knowles and Elder Partsch) taught with me, as we instructed the new missionaries who came in on Wednesday about mission protocol. It went quite well.
Here is an excerpt from a fantastic conversation I had in the bathroom the night I was asked to be Coordinating Sister.
Voice from somewhere in the big communal bathroom: Sister King?
Me (naked in the shower): ...Yeah?
Voice: This is Sister Folau. (Note: the Coordinating Sister before me)
Me (naked in the shower): ...Hi.
Sister Folau: If there's anything you need to ask me, you can, okay?
Me (naked in the shower): ...We can talk about this later.
Sister Folau: Okay. Oh by the way, if no one has said it yet, congratulations.
Me (naked in the shower): Thanks.
Good times.
I said goodbye to Sister Folau and many of the other good friends I've made. This was my first goodbye here, and it's amazing how emotional people (including me) can be over these people that they've only known a very short amount of time. In many cases, we may never see each other again in this lifetime, especially if the other missionaries are from another country, and/or are serving in a different mission than you.
Do you remember Sister Tioti from last week's letter? Get this, she's my new companion! Sister Tioti, Sister Arnold, and I are in a trio together, and I'll tell you why. Sister Tioti was supposed to leave this week, but a few weeks ago she lost some feeling in her foot. This week I took her to a place to get a foot brace, and the guy who fitted her for it called her condition "drop foot" or in other words neuro-palsy, or something like that. Sometimes an injury to the leg causes the foot to stop working properly. The weird thing is that Sister Tioti doesn't recall hurting her leg or foot. Anyway, the mission people decided to delay her departure date for 2 weeks or so, until she's showing more improvement. Sister Tioti's English isn't the best, so when we went out together, I spoke for her a lot. I also had to explain all the legal forms and wavers she had to sign (THAT was fun. Not really). She's been wearing the foot brace for only a few days, but she's already showing improvement! Every night I test her foot to see if her mobility is better. It is! I'm excited. Sister Tioti says to me that she wouldn't mind waiting a full 3 weeks to leave the MTC to leave with Sister Arnold and me. She hates flying, and she especially doesn't want to fly alone. We'll see what happens.
On Wednesday I started getting a little cough. I could feel gunk in my windpipe, but it wasn't too bad... until the next day. I had chills, I had a lost appetite, my cough was worse, I had fatigue. It was not fun. So I went to the doctor, and said I have a viral infection, and he prescribed some medicine to help with the symptoms. I'm a good healer, I'm sure I'll be fine in a few days. Until then, this afternoon we're taking Sister Tioti to a physical therapist to help with her leg, and next week, Sister Arnold is going to see a dermatologist about itchy scalp. We sort of live in doctor's offices right now, when we're not in class anyway.
Classes have been going fine. On Thursdays we get to teach volunteers discussions at the TRC (teaching resource center). Most of the Tagalog volunteers are people who have served missions in the Philippines. This week, we had a returned missionaries and REAL FILIPINOS! That's not intimidating at all... I'm sure Sister Arnold and sounded like idiots, but all the volunteers were very nice and courteous, and actually paid us some compliments about the Spirit they felt, and the sincerity and passion we had as we encouraged them to pray sincerely every day.
Tagalog lesson:
Unlike in English, French or Spanish, one doesn't need to conjugate words for each pronoun (For example in English, I am, you are, he is... etc.) It's the same word for every subject.
Tagalog also has a plethora of long words. This is one of my favorite discrepancies between English and Tagalog. The Tagalog word for 'faith' is 'pananampalataya.' Seven syllables.
I'm over half way done at the MTC, what the heck.
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