I love the MTC!

 Me and my companion in the rain!  (It literally rains EVERYDAY)

 The LDS temple in Manila, right across the street from the MTC.

 Spaghetti was the treat for celebrating birthdays

 With my roommates 

Family!!

I can't believe another week has already passed. The days here are flying by! I wake up in the morning and before I know it I'm going to bed. I'm pretty sure everyday here has gotten better and better.
Everyday I think "ah this has been the best day so far here!" And then the next day tops it.  Today especially has been fabulous! We went to the temple this morning! It was so much fun to be there with my favorite
casamas. (I call my casama Sister Pau and both my roommates my casamas.)  It was so spiritual and such a bonding experience.
Let's see...I don't even know where to begin exactly! Every day we go through pretty much the same schedule.  We have personal study, then language classes, lunch, companion study, language study, TALL (our
computer assisted language classes), then gym time where I usually play basketball with the Elders, then dinner, some more language classes, teach investigators, spiritual classes, and then daily planning
and then bed. My teachers are absolutely amazing!! Brother Alcibor and Sister Balota are their names and they are SO CUTE. They both are always so happy and are so positive and helpful.  Brother Alcibor is a convert and told us this week a story about when his Father passed away.  The spirit was so strong in our district room, and it made me so thankful for the Plan of Salvation and for the peace and knowledge that the gospel brings.

I also spoke in church on Sunday, mom!! Every Sunday they call on random people to speak and I was one of them!  I spoke on agency and the Plan of Salvation.  Luckily, only the beginning and my testimony had to be in Tagalog but I felt really good about it!! Its so fun that we both spoke on the same Sunday (: (:

Elder Packard is in my district!! He says he's pretty close with Aubrey Dyer and her family,. small world.

BIG NEWS! I killed my first cockroach this week!! At the beginning of the week I was feeling super anxious about the field and wondering if I was really gonna be able to do it... But then on Sunday night we had a devotional called "Master, the Tempest is Raging."  It was all about how the Savior can bring us peace even when the crazy storms and typhoons happen around us.  After that I was feeling super pumped and decided to overcome my fear of the field and specifically the cock roaches. I thought that I'd make it into a game and count how many cockroaches I kill and try and kill as many as possible over the next 18 months.  So on Thursday there was one on the stair case and I ran up and smashed it!! I was so excited I announced it to my distrct and to Brother Alcibor. To my dismay, however, they told me that when you smash a cockroach IT LAYS EGGS!  So apparently, rather than killing a cockroach, I just created like 5 more.  HA.  Also, Brother Alcibor told me that at night they come and bite your eyes! And then it swells up really big. So, my fear of cockroaches is back in full force.

The food was better this week! We still had some crazy things like eggplant for breakfast...But we got to eat spaghetti and pizza one night to celebrate birthdays.  And last night we were talking about how much we miss french toast, and guess what was for breakfast this morning... FRENCH TOAST!  Tender mercies happen everyday.  I also drank a coke today which was so kahangahanga (amazing.) 

Sister Pau and I are working hard to try and give 100% everyday.  In the missionary devotional I went to when Elder Holland spoke, he told us of a famous swimmer who was asked how he became so great.  He responded that he lives by, "Kick when you don't want to kick.  Stroke when you don't want to stroke."  So we translated it to Tagalog and we say it every day when we start to get down or tired!! It's "Sumipa kapag ayaw mong sumipa. Kumampay kapag ayaw kumampay."  We try really hard to stay on task and spend every minute learning Tagalog. 

Some fun words I've learned that will show you how crazy Tagalog can be.... pananampalataya- faith kagalakan-joy nakakapinsala- harmful  mga pangangailangan-needs.  Crazy huh??? I'm getting better at pronunciation and I am learning to love speaking the language!!

The language is 20 percent Spanish.How cool is that??

I always accidentally start speaking Spanish... like today, a new group of missionaries came and I was like "hola!!" hahaha "Oh wait, wrong language!" I also talked to some Filipino kids today in the store!! So much fun.

Our lessons with our investigators went super well this week!! We have 2 investigators and 1 less active that we teach...in Tagalog. I can always feel the spirit in the lessons and I can feel the Lord blessing me with the language as I work hard everyday.

Even though I am far from you, I feel your love every single day!! I am so grateful for how blessed I am with such an amazing support system back home.  I don't know how I got so lucky with the best family and friends in the world?!!!

Mahal Kita!!!

xoxo

Sister Lockwood

 

Ps. I opened the greenie package from Sister Withers last Monday.  Tell her THANK YOU!! I sent a thank you letter today that is hopefully on its way (:

Pss. I also got the blanket package from you yesterday, mom!! THANKS FOR THE CHOCOLATEEEEE! And youre the best ever! (This is confusing to me, Laura, because I mailed the package to the mission office.  She is not supposed to get packages at the MTC.)  I think my casamas can even tell that I am so blessed with the best family and friends.  They were like "you got a package and a letter?!" And then when I opened the greenie package from Sister Withers they were like "Wow! I wish I had friends like you do."

 

SO COOL that Hunter is going to Japan.  He's totally gonna rock it.

I hope youre not worried about me at all because I'm not lying when I say that I LOVE IT HERE!