Mabuti Brings all the Boys to the Yard

Kumusta po kayo!? That means how are you!

Life at the MTC is like the movie "The Island." You wake up at the same time every day, wear the same clothes, follow the same schedule, and you have to follow the rules. The residents are regularly monitored for misbehavior, and males and females are allowed only limited physical contact with one another. We are of diverse backgrounds with a common element (though instead of being the clones of rich people, we're all Mormon missionaries). We refer to each other by code names. We are in a state of (somewhat) innocence, being told repeatedly that if we are good (and lucky?) we may be able to leave this place and go to The Island (which in our case is our mission, I guess). We are completely unaware of the outside world, though we constantly come into contact with people from the outside world who have been told explicitly not to talk to us about the outside world. We forever feel the desire to get out of this place. :)

Things I Miss Most:

-Communication of a virtual nature (email once a week. That's all I get. I'm dying)

-Hugs

-Music Variety

-Sleeping In

-Freedom

-Wearing pants

-The ability to be all by myself

-My nieces and nephews

-Being able to know if anything is going on in the world

-My family and friends of course

Commendable Mail Sending Awards go to...

Brian (thanks for the pics of Wesley! I'm so happy for you all!)

Liesel (she's sent me 2 drawings by mail so far!)

And to my DearElder people

Kira &

Ben

Thanks so much! I sent you all replies via mail!

Highlights about this week:

I started going to choir. Choir is held on Sundays and Tuesdays. On Tuesdays the choir performs a song for the special Devotional speaker that night.

This Tuesday our special speaker was Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles, and his wife. They were great. We sang "Consider the Lilies."

At choir we were given "surveys" (basically brag-about-yourself applications) for the chance to get to sing in a "special choir." I made myself as impressive sounding as possible (not hard to do. I am pretty awesome, you know) and I got in!  I will be performing in a choir on the afternoon of Saturday March 31, and I miiiiiiiiiight be broadcasted internationally and on the internet.

(The LDS church will be holding its semi-annual General Conference in Salt Lake City on March 31-April 1. Kelli will be participating in the Saturday afternoon session which will be broadcast live 2:00-4:00pm MDT on KSL-TV and KSL radio in Utah. Check http://bonneville.info/ for broadcasts in your area. The session will also be streamed live on the internet at lds.org and archived for later viewing at lds.org.) -Mom

At church on Sunday song of my district and I sang a musical number. I guess I've identified myself as the musical person in the district so much that the District leader Elder Knowles asked Sister Arnold and I to be the official Music Coordinators for the district. Basically we get to pick the songs we sing in Tagalog at the beginning and end of each class period. Since my Tagalog is still so bad, I can't read the hymn titles, so I always have to sight read the first few lines until I figure out what hymns they are!

In other denominations of religion it may be normal for only one preacher/priest/pastor/minister/whatever to give a talk/sermon during church. Well in the LDS faith people from the congregation are asked by the church leaders to give a talk on a topic. In our branch the Branch President (leader of our congregation) gives all the missionaries a topic to write a talk about. At the beginning of the church meeting he tells us all who will be speaking. That is NOT typical! So you better have something prepared! You might get asked to give a talk like a minute before you have to give it! It's only a five-minute talk though, so you could make it up if you really needed to. This week’s topic is "Faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ" and I have some good material for it.

Yesterday I was planning to teach a lesson about the restoration of the gospel. I really, really wanted to memorize at least a few of the sentences I had prepared to say. Memorizing is hard for me, and I was getting really frustrated with how slowly the words would leave my mouth, and how bad it sounded. I started to cry, but not out of frustration. Right at that moment, I had a sudden realization that I knew that these sentences that I was memorizing were true. There was a reason I was memorizing these stupid sentences, and it was because I have faith in them, and in the gospel and love of my Heavenly Father, and that I wanted to be able to share it. I wanted to be able to share it in Tagalog. Sister Arnold, the only other person in the room thought I was crying out of frustration (which I wasn't. I was having a spiritual experience) so I had to explain to her that they were tears of happiness, not sadness. Those tears came back off and on for the rest of the evening.

So that investigator we've been teaching's name is Lester. Last night (after ALL THE MEMORIZING) "Lester" revealed himself to be our teacher! I assumed he was a teacher, but I didn't know he was going to be OURS! It was a big surprise, and I was a little upset (because I memorized those sentences for him!!!), but I told him that he missed out, and that made me feel better. I'm glad it all happened though. It was all a good experience.

I went to the doctor on Monday because I had a dry spot of discolored skin by the corner of my right eye. The doc said it's because moisture gets stuck in the skin when I cry or something. I guess my tender heart/fangirl tears were going to catch up with me someday. His cure? Vaseline when I go to bed. I'm trying it. I'm fine.

Tagalog Lesson:

Unlike French or Spanish, Tagalog has almost no gender differentiation for nouns, even nouns that should have gender identifiers. For example, there are no Tagalog words for "brother" or "sister." Instead you say "Kapatid na lalaki" or "kapatid na babai" which basically mean "sibling who's a boy" and "sibling who's a girl."

Fun Facts:

-My mission tag does not say "kapatid na babai King" on it. I think that's too much, so they just say "Sister" on them. My whole tag is in English actually. I don't know if I'll get new tags when I get to the Philippines or not.

-I sleep on a bunk bed. Top bunk.

-One of those Marshallese roommates of mine is actually American Samoan.

-Elder Partsch in the district is of Samoan ancestry, but he was born in New Zealand.

We use ID Cards to get everywhere; Into secure places like buildings, to get our food, to do laundry. There's also a $8 allowance each week for little expenses or if you forget your money.

Send me:

Girl Scout Cookies (Thin Mints?)

Mary Kay eye makeup remover (get a good price! Tell them it's for a missionary!)

Write to the Elders in my District!

Elder Taukei (Fiji)

Elder Partsch (New Zealand)

Elder Saaid (Australia)

They're all far away from home, and they never get mail! Elder Partsch's family is inactive in the church, and Elder Saaid's family aren't members, so they don't get a lot of support! Send their stuff to:

MTC Mailbox # 111
PHI-LAO 0425
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

Use DearElder.com to write to me! They deliver all week and it's free! Just know my mailbox number, and it'll find me!

I love you all! Keep the letters coming!!!!

Love,

Sister Kelli King

Lunch at the MTC with Tagalog District E.

Sister Arnold and Sister King are going to the Philippines!

Some Like it Hot

Hello from the MTC! I'm alive and well!

After tears and hugs from my loving family on Wednesday, I was escorted to my living quarters (17M) where I was assigned a Host missionary to help me find my room and get to class on time. I had a little trouble finding my things on account of Mom ending up doing most of my final packing, but I'm finding everything in time. On that first day I couldn't even find my scriptures. Yep, I sure felt dumb.

I was lead to class where I met my district. My district is six people. We're all going to the Philippines on our missions, and we spend all day together in the classroom learning Tagalog. We're all in companion pairs too. My companion and only other female in our group is Sister Arnold. She's from Las Vegas. She is related to the Arnolds from Montgomery Village back in Maryland. They were actually my "parents" during the 2007 Youth Conference to Kirtland, Ohio. I also was a Youth Camp Leader to her cousin, Amanda. Small world. We also have Elder Taukei (Fijian), Elder Partsch (Samoan-born, but lives in New Zealand), Elder Saaid (Iraqi-born, Australian) and Elder Knowles (Layton, Utah). It's pretty diverse. I think sending Pacific Islanders to the Philippines is common. I guess this because of the six sister missionaries who live in my dorm, 3 of them are from the Marshall Islands, and we're all going to different parts of the Philippines.

Classes are kind of hard. My favorite day of learning so far was definitely yesterday (Friday). We learned to pray and bear our testimony in Tagalog. For those of you who don't know, Tagalog looks a lot like English or Spanish. No funky symbols. The vowells are all simple like in Spanish, but where the emphasis is in the words is the hardest thing to learn I thing. The word "ng" is a common word, and it's promounced like "nung." "Mga" is another word pronounced like "munga." Mga is how you make words plural. For example "anak" means child. "mga anak" means children. Fun stuff.

The cafeteria here is fun. As some of you may know, I worked in the MTC cafeterian last year as a server. It's definitely interesting to be on the other side. I've been several people that I know there. I've seen some missionaries that I know too!

Days pass sort of like this: wake up, get ready, eat, workout, study, eat, study, eat, study, go to bed. We wake up at 6:30 in the morning, except if the sisters want to go to the special sister workout at 6. Every morning they have a workout class like pilates or kick-boxing. No elders allowed. On my first morning Sister Arnold and I went to yoga class. In addition, we have exercise time written into our schedules everyday. Everything is planned for us. I eat when they say to, I sleep when they say to (and that's at 10:30 at night). Everyday here so far, I've been SLEEPY. Hopefully I'll get used to this schedule, but from what other missionaries have said, it doesn't sound like the sleepiness really goes away. My first night was really hard for me. It was probably a combination of 1) New bed 2) Holy Moley I'm a missionary now 3) It's 10:30, and last night I went to bed at two, 4) IT'S HOT. I mentioned my Marshalese roommates? Well, they keep the thermostat as high as possible, so I was sweating. Our classroom is hot too. Oh well. I'll adjust. In the Philippines, I doubt there will be much air conditioning anywhere.

Here's how the accelerated language track goes. Instead of being ehre for a normal 9 weeks, we are only studying for 6 weeks, but we'll be good enough, because they've improved the emphasis and lessons. My companion, Sister Arnold has been in the MTC for 3 weeks already, but she wasn't learning Tagalog. She was in here studying as if she was going to an English speaking mission. She basically had to wait around until all the other Philippine-bound missionaries such as myself came in so we could all start the 6 week program together. That's what I would have done too, if I had entered the MTC on February 22, like originally planned.

In the MTC we only get 30 minites of email time, so I need to wrap up. This week had a special schedule since it was my first week. My regular Preparation Day (day in which I do laundry and check email and go to the temple) will be Fridays. I may or may not be at the temple at 7 a.m. on those days.

Love you all so much! I'll write to you next Friday!

Everyone should write to me using DearElder.com! Those get sent to me daily, not just once a week!

Love,

Sister Kelli King