"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.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland?

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.

Gandalf the Gray can become Gandalf the White through conversion to Jesus Christ.

 Hello everybody! Boy did this week go fast! All of a sudden it's P-day again!

On Wednesday this week there were rumors going around the MTC that Elder David Archuleta was entering the MTC today!I heard all different sides of the story! "Oh, that rumor's been around for weeks!" "Oh yeah, he lives in my building!" "I think he's going to Chile!" Well I can confirm the rumors that it is in fact true. Our very own runner-up of American Idol is on a mission! I saw him at dinner that night. He didn't have a body guard on him, and he didn't even have a huge companion to protect him. He was with another little guy for a companion. Whatever. I think he's going to Chile, but I've heard no conformed reports.

On Thursdays I get to participate in what is known as "Service." I call it "Earn your keep, you lazy missionaries, slave labor time." You spent 75 minutes doing chores, pretty much. For the past two weeks I've gone to the same women's residence building and vacuumed, wiped bathrooms, etc. This week I cleaned sinks. To help me with proper technique, a Sister from my zone/branch, Sister Tioti helped me out. QUIZ TIME! How do you pronounce "Tioti?" Here's your clue: she is from the Pacific island nation/principality? of Kiribati, which I've never heard of before, I think (which is quite something, because I'm decent at geography). If you guessed "tee-oh-tee" then you aer WRONG. If you guessed anything along the lines of "sauce" or "sose" then you are right! Good for you! Just pretend the "ti" is an s, and you've got it.

Choir has been intense this week. I can officially say now that I am performing in General Conference on Saturday during the afternoon session! I am on the alto 1 section. The sisters are wearing what mom would call "Easter egg themed" colored shirts. I'll be wearing pale green. So keep your eyes out for me during all the songs! I cannot tell you wear I am, because I don't know! I think it's by the height we listed when we filled out our mission papers, so it's likely I'll be in the back, unless there are some good, tall altos. Look for green! Again Mom, provide times and websites and stuff for people here so they can watch! Also, load a link of the songs from YouTube onto all my blogs! The songs and talks will all be uploaded to YouTube by the church in the days following Conference.

Anyway, choir. Practice is every morning at 7. Fun fact: I am still not a morning person. I don't think I've been a morning person since I was in elementary school, when I would wake up early so I could watch "Goof Troop" with my sister before school. Those days are long gone. After 2 weeks I still struggle to get out of bed at 6:30 and to sleep at 10:30 at night. I lie in bed restless all the time. Sigh. Anyway, back to choir. Choir rules are strict. If you miss a rehearsal, you're out and replaced. People sit outside the rehearsal begging to be in the choir. But guess what, there's a new member of the choir. Can you guess who it is? If you guessed Sister Tioti, you are wrong,. If you guessed Elder Archuleta, then you are right. I frown at the injustice (because seriously, he just got here, and he's missed a bunch of rehearsals), but I won't let it bother me. He may have sung with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir before, but he's never sung during General Conference! And neither have I! I'm so excited to be able to sing for my biggest audience ever. My audience is... the world. That's a lot of people. I'm sure David Archuleta didn't ask to be in the choir either. I'm sure it was offered to him, so I hold no hard feelings against him. So when you're not looking for me in the alto section, you can look for him in the (I'm assuming) tenor section!

It took me nearly 2 weeks, but I'm finally getting the hang of studying for Tagalog. At first I think I was in too much shock to study properly, but now I'm getting the hang of it.

Tagalog Lesson for the Day

Tagalog grammar is very backwards from English or Spanish. Tagalog follows the basic sentence structure VAOL: Verb, Actor, Object, Location, in that order. If any of the parts are missing, just skip it.

Examples

English: The boy threw the ball to the girl.

Tagalog: Threw boy ball girl.

English:Missionaries teach people gospel principles.

Tagalog: Teach missionaries gospel principles people.

Fun isn't it?

In Tagalog there is no verb -to be, nor do they have any articles like "the" or "a." So you may be asking yourself, how would one say such things as, "Jesus is the Savior" or "The church is true?" The answer is in the markers. Tagalog uses marker words like "ang" "ng" and "sa" to draw emphasis to words.

Examples

Tagapaglitas ang Jesucristo. (Jesus Christ is the Savior.) Literally "Savior is Jesus Christ." In this example 'ang' is used to mean is.

Totoo ang simbahan. (The church is true.) Literally it means "True is church." Ang is "and" again. This is not always the case. Fun fact: Simbahan is one of my favorite words in Tagaglog because it reminds me of The Lion King.

Ang Aklat ni Mormon. (The Book of Mormon) In this sentece "ang" means "the." It's very confusing.

On Sunday afternoons we take trips to the temple grounds! So in Sunday I may be at the temple grounds between Conference sessions! Look for me! I'll even bring my coat to hand off, Mom!

All the sisters in my apartment are leaving on Monday, and Sister Arnold and I are getting new international roommates on Tuesday! Our roommates are flying to the Philippines via Los Angeles and Hong Kong! How cool is that? It's very likely I'll be following the same route. I'll be sure to buy a phone card so I can call the family from the airport(s) whilst I travel. But we don't have to worry about that for another 3 weeks. I can't believe time is going so fast! I leave the MTC on April 23!

Temple Walk on Sundays is a highlight of the week.

"The Really Ugly Skirt"

In Sister Arnold's last room, she and all her roommates found this really ugly skirt in the "give away"  box on this floor of the residence hall. They all took turns trying it on and it magically fit them all; very Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, but now its the Traveling Skirt. They all took turns wearing it for a day, and then they let any and all sisters have the same chance. I got the honor of wearing the skirt on Wednesday March 28th.

The top bunk behind me in this picture is my bed.

My District in the MTC. Elders Knowles, Partch, Taukei, Saaid, Sisters Arnold, and King.

Sister King and Sister Arnold at the Provo Temple grounds.

Sister Arnold, Elder Taukei, Elder Saaid, and Sister Kine (me) posing with a Philippines flag. Elder Saaid is wearing an authentic filipino shirt.