Becoming and Some Pictures!

My family and friends!
 
I love you all!
 
Salamat kaayo for your letters and packages and thoughts and prayers. They
are really such a strength to me. And what a surprise to have a letter from
Dad the day after you all got here- it's so great! I love the large family
email- thank you Aunt Diane for the great idea.

I get my travel plans tomorrow- so it's a week and a half left here- we'll
either leave on the 15th or the 16th, and fly for a very long time. I'm not
ready at all, but I have a little while, and maybe I'll never feel ready to
do this, but I'm going to anyway. My broken Cebuano, and limited knowledge,
and my gama'y, small inadequate love is going to have to be good enough-
and it will be because the Lord's going to make it good enough. I get to be
one of those weak things of the world, in D&C 1 who is made strong if I
trust in Him.

I didn't even tell you about TRC- we get to teach returned missionaries who
speak Ceubano (I guess we could teach other Cebuano speakers, but no one
else in Provo speaks Ceubano- it's kind of a secret language), but we get
to teach them as themselves. Instead of pretending that they're an
investigator, we really get to invite them to Christ personally, and talk
to them about their own mission. Last week, we taught a missionary who had
returned from Cebu 3 weeks ago. He was so excited to talk about his
mission, and the people who he'd been able to help, and who'd helped him-
and he was so encouraging with us. It's getting to be real that I'm going
to Cebu- to Negros and the city, and the bukid (mountain, out-there)
regions. I'm really going to talk to people in Cebuano and try to
understand their life, and how the gospel of Jesus Christ can help them,
and then try to convince them of that. It's a good thing I have the Spirit,
because without it, that sounds impossible. I think one thing that I'm
really learning here in the MTC and hopefully for the rest of my misison,
is how to follow the promptings of the Spirit, and to listen to them, and
discern the Spirit.

We're always supposed to SYL (speak your language), but that means we use
English for words we don't know, and then try to look them up later, but
it's easy to get off track, because it's hard to express yourself in
Cebuano. So this week, we've started English fasting, in the mornings,
until noon. It's not easy, but it's possible! I thought it would make me
feel really unprepared, and I certainly learned how much I don't know, but
I also learned that I can do it. I've really been learning that everytime
you make a goal, it's an act of faith- faith in yourself, and faith in the
Lord that he can help you get to that goal, and then you just have to do
it.

Oh, this is the best! We go out to the field for exercise, and we've been
trying all the games they have- so we played Boccee the other day, and
frisbee, and soccer, but then we played Kubb! The gym people didn't even
know how to, but we've now got everyone playing Kubb, and I think of you
all! Have so much fun at the reunions, and tell me everything that happens-
who wins the games, and where you're all sleeping, and what food you eat,
and which is the best day. Anything, everything!

The rest of this week flew! I really love it here in the MTC, and I'm going
to miss being taught everyday, but I'll learn so much more from the hard
work everyday in the field. This week, we (my district) got to teach each
other, as ourselves in companionships, and it helped me see how to really
love my investigators. We all know each other pretty well, and that's how
we're supposed to know everyone we talk to-we could really think about what
our listeners needed, and listen to the Spirit. We also learned that
Cebuano doesn't even really have a concept of verbs, which I'm not sure I
understand yet, but it's really cool, and kind of crazy- what an adventure!
Here'e something I've been thinking about a lot. My first day here, I kept
getting the thought :"Be her"- be the missionary who I want to be, be the
sister who serves and loves and preaches the good word. It was really
inspiring to me, and it kept me going. But over the past few weeks, that's
changed. I no longer just want to "Be her"- to act that part, to be
someone- I want to "Become her"- Become someone who serves because that's
who she is, deep down, to become a disciple of Jesus Christ and emulate him
in every way that I can muster. I love the Cebuano clarity- Become as a
verb is Ma- himo- able to make- we're able to make ourselves better, we're
able to become who we want to be. I'm going to try my best to be able to
make something of myself, and my mission, but I can't do that alone- it's
not just that I'm able to make- because honestly, I'm not- but that the
Lord is able to make.

Plus, here are some pictures- there's the necessary map picture with my
district, and then also us at the temple- or some of us, I'm not exactly
sure which one it was.

I love you all- thank you so much for your wise words and thoughts!
Kitakits, (so here's some more Filipino humor- kita means we(inclusive),
but it also means "to see"- so to say goodbye, you can say "we'll see each
other"- and then they're the same word and it's really funny, apparently-
actually I laugh at it every time- I can't wait to go meet all these
people!)

Sister Tueller