~Mom
I got the package that you sent last Wednesday actually. It was several hours after I had sent my weekly email, so I hadn't known about it yet. The memory sticks I got are perfect, they're what I need for my camera. I started laughing when you wrote that we got a new microwave. I was begining to wonder if that thing would ever die. I told Sister Philips (who was visiting us again last night) that we got a new microwave, and she gave me a weird look and asked if there were pictures included. Oh, and then she said: See Sister Loveland! Your family is already being blessed from your mission. (Wow, haha.)
~Eva
OH MY GOSH. I RANDOMLY GOT CINAMMON ROLLS THIS WEEK. :D That was entirely unexpected. My roommates at the residence hall are also being given a lot of food, so its kinda hard to share when no one is lacking. AH. We're loved. I think I gained some weight here because there's just SO MUCH FOOD. I got my dresses back from the alterations place, and they're acting up again. Although I think this time its because I might have gained some weight. That's why I'm SUPER excited to get dresses made in the philippines. :D Oh, and I have a favor to ask since I can't really print anything except for MyLDSmail.net stuff... Please send me the "Parable of the Mediator" talk by President Packer on dearelder.com or something. I want to be able to read it again when I'm in the mission field. :)
So it's Christmas this week. Oh boy. o_o It doesn't really feel like it at all. Mostly because there was no complicated school and flight plan schedule to try to get home for Christmas. There is evidence of Christmas at the mail room at the MTC though. Each day nearing C-day, the mail room has gotten more crowded and more full of Missionaries checking their mailboxes five times a day (Oh wait... that's my district.)
I bought the Book of Mormon Stories book (my district calls it the Book of Mormon for dummies) and I bought it in Cebuano, so I can compare read and learn some new vocabulary. ;) I also bought new shoes this week. The brown ones that I brought that were from Eva started to crack and change color. o_O I suppose they've already served their time as missionary shoes. And my shoes I bought at the missionary mall are slowly not staining my feet black anymore :P Although at least half of my nylons now have funny black feet marks on them.
So I actually said the closing prayer for Fireside on Sunday, not at devotional. So I was sitting up on the stand for the talk and because we're in a weird situation, there were six of us. There are 3 Elders in my district, and my two companions are there. (We got a new companion named Sister Hancock, who is also going to Hong Kong) Two of them had to sit on the front row instead of on the stand, so the man in charge of security, or organization or something said that to make it up to us since we didn't all get to sit on the stand, we can get floor seats for Christmas morning devotional. :O! We think it might be President Monson. But I'm just really hopeful, that's why.
For devotional this week, Elder Neil L. Anderson came and spoke. It's really cool to hear the apostles speak directly about missionary work. It's alot more specific to our situation in life at this moment. It felt like Elder Anderson promised me that I'll grow in the Spirit of the Lord and be able to teach by the Spirit. I'm super excited. I want to get to the mission field because then it'll feel like what I'm going to be doing for the rest of my 18 months.
Our first week in here, we kept saying "A day feels like a week, a week feels like a day." And I think that it's really true. Though actually I must say this week went by rather slowly for the most part. I don't feel like I just finished writing a letter last week. ;)
The temple is closed today so we didn't get to go. :( It's also closed next week. So last week's session was the LAST SESSION I'LL HAVE FOR 18 MONTHS!! Unless for some odd reason we get to go to Cebu temple. Not likely though, because it's still a mission away.
I haven't gotten my flight plans yet, so I can't say for sure when I'll be calling home from the airport. :( I'll let you know as soon as I can.
We have a new Cebuano District. I bet they all think that we're super smart and that we know everything. Eh heh... Probably because I know that's what I thought about the Cebuano district that was before us. There are two sister missionaries in that district, so it's good that they don't have to deal with solo sister difficulties. But they're going to Cebu, so I won't see them in the mission field. :(
There are like 300 missionaries here who can't get their Visas to Brazil. That must be annoying. :\
Well I love you all!
I have to go now. :( The timer is blinking really evil-ly.
I'd love to hear what's going on in your lives, so drop a letter my way. ;)
<3 -Sister Julie Loveland
December 23, 2009
December 16, 2009
HELLO once again my dear family and friends! <3
~Emily
I LOVE YOU DEAR. I'M SO SORRY I didn't mention your letter that I got last week. I thought you would be happy to know that more than once in your letter I laughed out loud. :) You're so funny. I was really happy when I was reading it <3
~Mom
The memory cards that I need for my camera are Memory Stick Pro Duo. That ENTIRE phrase. Its just a bit bigger than an SD card. It needs a adaptor in order to be used as a Memory stick. Apparently its the same ones used in PSPs. I think Jessie or Ian or even Jack might be able to help you make sure its the right one. If you put money in my account, would you be able to check the balance for me? I have a record of it here, but I want to double check it to make sure I have it right or didn't forget anything.
Last night, Sister Philips (Who is the wife of one of the counselers of the branch presidency, and is somewhat acting as a MTC mother) was asking one of the sisters if they knew the Peads. So I was like: oh... that's my Mom's maiden name. So then she mentioned Star Valley and I was like: My mom's ancestors founded Star Valley. So she says: Shut up! Shut up! :P She's a very funny lady who has been there for us in case we need any love. So she wanted to ask if you know Brian and Corleann Pead (I don't know if that's their proper spelling) and if you've ever had square ice cream in Swan Valley.
~Eva
Thanks for being the Sister Loveland postal service. ;) I want to hear all the updates with Elizabeth and the new baby. AND I THINK IT'D BE COOL IF YOU WERE A TEACHER. I'm so happy that you have something to work towards! <3
Oh, and my feet are slowly not turning black anymore. Now it's a grey color. I think the baking soda might have been the culprit, messing up the dye or something in the shoe. >_<
~Jessie
I CAN'T WAIT FOR PICTURESSSS. Make sure to take some when Zoey's born. Month by month updates would be cool too~ ;)
~Dad
I love you!! I'd love to see some pictures if you set up the Christmas tree this year. I know that's one of your favorite parts at Christmas time.
This week has been a lot of whirlwind. We had our first teaching appointment completely in Cebuano. So we used our very broken and slow Cebuano speak to teach. :O It is actually getting a bit easier to understand what our teachers are saying in Cebuano. I'm just a little overwhelmed because I don't think I'm managing to remember all of the vocab. We're supposed to study at least 20 vocab words a day, but it doesn't seem to work too well when I keep forgetting some. (INSANE!)
I'm also working on memorizing Joseph Smith's first vision translated into Cebuano.
Sunday's Devotional was the BYU Men's Chorus. It was AMAZING. I am definitely going to get a CD or two or three when I come home. It's a lot of special things going on now because its nearing Christmastime. I'm still crossing my fingers that the devotional next week will be the Prophet, Thomas S. Monson. ;) Also, it turned out that the Elders sitting in front of Sister Kim and I were going to the Long Beach Mission. They might be stopping by once they get into the area in January so they can teach a lesson. :)
I'm giving the closing prayer in Devotional next week. o.O That's interesting to say the least. If Thomas S. Monson really DOES come then OH MY GOSH! I can say I gave the closing prayer at the devotional he spoke at!
Yesterday I recieved a christmas box from the Los Alamitos Ward. Oh MY GOSH it was so big and full of love! I spent a good amount of time this morning just looking through the cards and ALL THE CANDY they sent. There's no way I'm going to be able to eat all of that. Lots of sharing will be involved!
OH MY DEAR FRIENDS. PLEASE SEND ME YOUR ADDRESSES ON DEARELDER.COM. Whenever I get an urge to send a letter I end up having to have Eva get them for me, and then that takes another week. Blah. IF YOU EVER WANT A LETTER... then you know what to do. ;)
We will be probably getting our flight plans for the Philippines next week. ACK!
I was also called up this week in Sacrament Meeting to give a talk. Every week we're supposed to prepare a 5 minute talk in the event that we're called up as the speaker. So I was picked this week! I gave a talk on Faith and what it really is. I know a lot of people don't understand faith, so I really wanted to understand it a bit better. Faith is a hope in things which are unseen but true. Faith is a confidence that is built after acting and understanding that God DOES work miracles and He answers your prayers. Faith is not blind obedience. It is a result of believing in God and acting on that belief.
My time is nearly up, so I need to say goodbye. I love you all dearly and I think of your love. I'm so grateful to be here doing this work. I've grown so much as a person and as a child of God. I'll be writing again next week. <3
December 9, 2009
HI EVERYONE!
I made sure to write down anything that I wanted to tell you in my weekly letter, so that when email time came I could address everything that I wanted to tell you. :)
~Eva
The three Jodi dresses that I bought needed to be altered. The back seam was being stressed out because I have womanly hips and so the ladies at the alterations room are going to raise the dresses at the waistline. I figured that since they're taking the dress apart to do that anyway, they could take in the waistline for me a bit. ONLY 50 CENTS A DRESS. WOWIE. I assume that's for the price of thread, because the seamstresses are all volunteers. =O They also have a Women's clothes store here and the Jodi dresses are only THIRTY DOLLARS. I could have bought another dress with the money I would have saved! But they don't have the nice blue ones that I got. :)
I also wanted to ask you about your MTC experience, if you can remember anything. I'd love to read about it in one of your letters.
And thanks for putting up with all my requests, like getting Cyrena and Tiffany's addresses for me. <3
~Jessie
Ummm... I'm not really sure what size I want. If the wallet sized pictures aren't TOO small, then that would be good. I want to make sure we can actually see the faces. :)
~Dad
Thanks for making sure that I got my card. If you have any questions that you want to ask about, I'm be sure to answer them for you. :) I love you.
~Mom
Thanks for the offer of new tennis shoes Mom, but I really don't need new tennis shoes. I have thought of a couple of things that would be nice to have if you want to make that a Christmas present.
Memory Stick Pro Duo card for my camera, just so I have some extra memory for my camera
An inflatable travel pillow (I have a long flight to the Philippines. x_x)
Or you can put some money in my BofA account so I can get some normal shoes.
First off, THANK you for the Liberty Orchards package that I got. I never properly thanked you Mom (and Jessie, because I saw the package that said Kira had sat on it. xD) My companions Sister Lew and Sister Kim and I all have had fun eating them. We call them Gummies. "Do you want Gummies? YESS!"
Dad wanted to know what my schedule was, so here it is:
6:30 - wake up
Eat, study, class, study, eat, study, class, gym, eat, prepare for bed, sleep.
10:30 - go to sleep.
That's pretty much what my schedule is. A few times the study/class/gym is a bit rearranged, but that's how it is everyday except Sunday which is when we have church meetings.
The card that Dad sent me got here. It only had 32 cents of postage on it but it somehow got here. :) So don't worry about that. It's safe with all of my other letters. I'm saving all of them and I have a big pile because my family is so good about writing me. <3
We don't know anything about the Elder that had to go home. He's probably going to be reassigned in the States when he puts his papers in again after he has his surgery.
I forgot to tell you, but since I'm going to be in the MTC during Christmas, I don't get to call home for Christmas. There's 2000+ missionaries in the MTC so they just don't have the capacity for allowing that. However... I DO get to call home when I'm at the airport before I leave for the Philippines. I'm going to need a calling card or something for that.
Sister Lew left for Hong Kong on monday, so its just Sister Kim and I now in our residence hall room. It's a BIT lonely because there are 4 empty beds. o_o We're going to get 2 sisters in our room today though. I think they're from Sister Kim's branch. (We're in two different branches) We're getting 4 more sisters into my branch today but they're being put in a different room. NEXT week is when the new Cebuano district is coming in. It's going to be like when I first came into the MTC and met Sister Dustin, except I'm going to be the "veteren" now. =O
Speaking of Cebuano, we started using only Cebuano in class on Monday. OH MY GOSH ITS MIND BOGGLING. We're also going to be doing this next teaching appointment COMPLETELY IN CEBUANO. Which basically means we're going to fail. A lot. But it's our first time so it's a bit intimidating to be sure.
I'm really excited to be here for Christmas because we're probably going to have at least an apostle come and speak to us. Last year, President Uctdorf came. o_o I'm going to have high expectations and say I think President Monson will come speak to us. :)
I was thinking the other day how last year I was super excited to go home for Christmas and we had our Christmas together-ness. I'm definitely going to miss that for sure, but I can't say that I'm lonely here. I know that I'm on the Lord's errand and so I can't really feel lonely because of that. If I were ANYWHERE ELSE during this season I think I would be sad, but I have to stay focused on my purpose.
This week I've been working on how to understand the Holy Spirit and understand any promptings I may have. I feel that I've grown a lot since coming here and I still have a while to go. But I am pretty certain that I wouldn't have had the means to have this growth and understanding if I wasn't preparing for a mission.
I know I've been called by a prophet of God.
I know God has a purpose for me in the Philippines.
I know there are people in the Philippines who are waiting to hear the message that God has for them.
I'm so happy and grateful that I have this opportunity. It has already blessed me so much and I can help bless the lives of so many people.
I love you, my friends and family. I know I'll see you again soon, so just wait for me. I'll be the best person that I can be when we meet again.
~Julie
Dec 2, 2009
HI EVERYONE.
Mom~
Do we have someone in the family named Chester on Dad's side? There's an Elder Loveland that I met here and I don't know if we're related. :) If you can send me a 3 or 4 generation pedigree chart, that'd be really cool!~
Jessie~
Can you do me a favor and mail me a couple of nice family photos? :) I want to laminate a couple so that I'll be able to show the people in the Philippines who my family is!~ I think the pictures we took last Christmas might be really good ones. :D
Eva~
Funny that you said that I'll have less time to study in the mission field. BECAUSE I FEEL LIKE I DONT HAVE ENOUGH TIME NOW. AHHH.
This week has gone by a lot slower than the other weeks I think. It seems like everyone in the MTC is sick. My companions are both sick, Sister Lew just got sick and Sister Kim just got over being sick. Security had to escort me to Rite Aid with some other sisters so we could go to the Pharmacy and I could get some perscription cough syrup. It was really weird being around and near BYU when I'm not actually attending school there. I kinda miss being a YSA there, but THIS IS CRAZY STUFF HAPPENING.
Sister Lew asked me this morning what I was most excited about in going to the Philippines. I thought about it only for a moment, becuase I already had my answer. Sister Lilywhite and Brother Morrey are always raving about the people in the Philippines. They say that they're the most hospitible and loving people on the earth. One thing that Bro. Morrey has said is that there is NO sarcasm in the Philippines. They love corny jokes, but sarcasm isn't there. It sounds very sincere.
When practicing teaching this week a couple times have gone really well, and a couple times haven't gone so well. It's helping me improve in teaching, but the times that the practice doesn't go well, I feel like I let them down. It really makes me want to make sure I prepare well so that I can have the Spirit with me. I don't want to let anyone down in the Philippines. :S
Elder Tapusoa was put into quarentine on Friday because he caught the flu. So now our district only has 3 people in it. @_@ We're SHRINKING!! Elder Treadway said that it's like we're on Survivor, District 7C edition. Outteach, Outlive, Outlast.
Another district is leaving next week. It's funny to be staying here so long that you see other districts come and go. The other districts in our branch are English speaking, so they only stay for 3 weeks in the MTC. Another district will be coming soon, and we'll be leaving just as they are. A new Cebuano district is supposed to be coming in on December 8th or something. I think there's going to be a Sister in that district, so they may be switching my companionship. Except that Sister Lew is leaving next week. :( She's been here for like 10 weeks already learning Cantonese. Sister Kim is the ONLY person in her district, so she's been getting one-on-one teaching and learning Cantonese really quickly and been hanging out with the older Cantonese district. When Elder Tapusoa was going to the doctor the other Elders left with him, so Sister Lilywhite just taught me. And then i had to do the weekly teaching appointment BY MYSELF! I was stressed. I learned a lot from that session though. I don't think I'll ever feel ready to leave the MTC. I think that even when coming home from my mission, I'll feel like I'm not ready to be perfect in teaching. Because no one ever will be! @_@
I love you all so much! Thanks for the love and support you've given me.
P.S. Jeffrey R. Holland came and spoke to us for Thanksgiving. Oh ho ho. He answered questions that we submitted the week previous. But he only got to answer 4 or 5 of them.
P.P.S. I LOVE 4-SQUARE! IT'S ALL I PLAY DURING GYM. :)
Nov 25, 2009
Hi there peeps!~
Tiff~
I got your email of when you forwarded your dearelder.com letter to me. :) Usually they just print it off the day that you write it and put it in your mailbox, so I don't know why I didn't get it yet. It could have been because I'm not in the philippines yet, and you specified that I was there, OR because they're trying to uhh... filter some stuff. Just so you knoooow. It's funny that you told me to tell everyone about you, because just this morning I mentioned to my companion about my friend back home. ;)
Eva~
I love you so much!! I want to hear everything about your doctor's appointment. I love the updates on Elizabeth too, because she's going to be so much bigger when I get home. Its nice to see how she's growing. :)
Mom~
Thanks for sending me the stuff that I need. I'm so happy that you are going to get to go see Michael. And I'm so happy he's going to get married. He's so much fun and so nice that he deserves to be happy!! Of course I wish I could be there for the wedding, but I'm sure Michael will forgive me, seeing as I'm a bit... uh busy. ;)
A lot of stuff has happened this week. My companion Sister Dustin has moved on to the Philippines this week, so I'm going to miss her. But we're going to be in the same mission, so it's quite likely that I'll see her again, or even be her companion! Right now the 6 beds in our room are half empty. Sister Purdy and Palmer both left this week as well to New York. They only had to stay 3 weeks because they're English speaking missionaries. We took a bunch of pictures. I'm so glad I have my camera.~ Right now I'm in a trio companionship with the other two sisters still in my room. They're Sister Lew and Sister Kim. They're going to the Hong Kong mission and they're learning Cantonese. :O I'll probably be with them until Sister Lew leaves, or the new Cebuano district comes in. There are no new missionaries coming in this week because it's Thanksgiving. So last week we had 700 new missionaries come in.
The last Cebuano district was huge. They had about 20 people in it. They all left on Monday/Tuesday though. So technically... for the time being I am the ONLY Cebuano sister in the WHOLE MTC. :) I am pretty sure that the next district coming in is going to have a Sister missionary or two.
Elder Aso that I wrote about last week is going to be sent home for medical issues. He has a problem with a heart valve that they discovered when he was in surgery for his digestive system. So he's not going to be in our district anymore. :( Our district now consists of 3 Elders and I. So basically we all have to go around everywhere together (when I'm not with my Sister companionship) because we can't be alone, and a Sister and an Elder pairing off is a no-no.
I have a field day on saturday, so we're going to be trying to make it seem like we're in the mission field as much as possible. We're going to make appointments with people to teach them and our schedule is a little more flexible for dinner and stuff. It seems like our branch is the only one that's really done field days in the MTC, but I'm not sure.
We had a devotional last night and Elder Dallin H. Oaks came and spoke to us! Try not to be too jealous. :) It was a really cool devotional. We got to hear Elder Oaks with his directness, but the subject matter was missionary work. There were a couple of things that really stood out to me as counsel that I needed to listen to.
On thursday, (THANKSGIVING) we're having a lot of speakers, and rumor has it that one of the speakers is going to be Jeffrey R. Holland. We'll see though, because rumors are everywhere. haha.
There's no temple session for us this week because they're closing the temple just before our session would have started. Thanksgiving and all...
The language is coming along I believe. I feel like I can actually carry on something of a conversation now instead of just asking what's your name and where are you from. Our teaching appointments are usually on thursday, but because of thanksgiving we're going to teach Sister Lillywhite on Friday as our teaching appointment.
My teachers are Sister Lillywhite and Brother Morrey. They both have very different styles of teaching and both of them served in the Cebu mission. The only missions that Cebuano speakers go to is either Cebu or Tacloban. I heard that about 1/3rd of the population in Tacloban speak Cebuano and the other 2/3rds speak Warai Warai. Apparently the sentence structure is the same though. That's good to know because that's really the hardest part of learning a language. :)
I gotta go now, my timer is running low.
I LOVE YOU ALL. Send me dearelders.com if you can. ;) HEARTS AND LOVE!!
Nov 18, 2009 More
~Eva
Canada Dry is just a ginger ale soda. It has no affiliation with beer that I know of. Your letter amused me greatly. ;) By your logic though, all soda should look like beer because they're in aluminum cans.
I don't know if I can recieve picture attachments, I think you'll have to send me one to test it out.
I fell down last week and scraped my knee on the pavement. I thought it was funny because you had that experience where you couldn't kneel to pray very well because you hurt your knee. It's scabbed over now and I can kneel on it okay, but it was hurting for the first couple of days. :P
~Jessie
:D If you can, just give mom the mac makeup and tile and have her put it in my top dresser drawers.
~Mom
My estimated leave date is January 4th. It may vary from that, but it's most likely going to be the first week of January unless I get visa issues.
The first aid kit that I was going to bring had all the normall stuff in it, but I also added a bug bite treatment stick that we bought in the camping section, and I added a bunch of antihistime pills and decongestant pills in case I get a bit sick. I was thinking that I should probably have some women vitamin supplements too, because it may be hard to get calcium and other stuff in the Philippines. Neosporin would be nice too. :)
~Dad
:) Getting dear elder.com letters has meant a lot to me! It doesn't matter if you send real letters or not.
~Emily
I want to see pictures of you in your new dresses! :)
~Everyone
Kumusta!!
(If anyone knows 2tricks email, go ahead and tell me. The one I have right now is the one he posted on facebook.)
This has been my second week here in the MTC. Here's a little backround information I never really got around to last week. I have 4 Elders in my district. I'm the only Sister in my district, so I'm a "solo" sister. I can either be with my residence hall companion, Sister Dustin, or be with a companionship of Elders from my district. Sister Dustin's district is ginormous, with 19 Elders and herself. They've been fun to have around in the hallways so we can practice Cebuano together. They've been here for 8 weeks already, so they're leaving next week. I'll probably be reassigned to another companion. :(
I'll refer to my district as Elder A, Tr, Ta, and B. :)
Most of the Cebuano speakers are going to the Cebu mission in the Philippines. A few are going to Tacloban. This week I heard that Cebuano isn't used as much in Tacloban as in Cebu. We're probably going to have to learn Tagalog and another dialect called Warai warai. So I started getting all worried, until Sister Dustin reminded me that the Lord is on my side and all things are possible. :)
Yesterday, Elder A went to the hospital. He was having some problems with his digestive system. :( We're waiting to see how he is.
We're going to the temple today! I'm probably going to say that in every email because we go to the temple the same day that I get to email home. ;)
It was a bit hard at first to always be studying and always on the go, but now I have a desire to always be learning, and there doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day to read the Book of Mormon and Preach My Gospel. Of course there's the language to learn as well. This week our teaching appointment is to go door to door and speak Cebuano to learn about people's families. Afterwards, we'll be teaching the first lesson about the Restoration of the Gospel.
If you guys have any questions, send them to me at Dearelder.com, and I'll try to answer them in the weekly mail. I get the letters pretty much the same day that you send them. :) If you don't know my mission information try asking my sister who's in charge of forwarding the emails from me. :)
I love you all! But I only have a minute or so left on my email timer, so I'm heading off. Bye byeee! <3
Nov 18, 2009
Kumusta!
The MTC is amazing! The first couple of days were really intense, but I'm much more into the schedule now. Every moment is scheduled, and there is so much to do.
I've been feeling so uplifted that everything just confirms to me that I need to be here.
I've learned a bunch of Cebuano already, but there is SO much to learn.
I'm the only sister missionary in my district, so I have to hang out with Elders all the time during class. I have a wonder sister companion named Sister Dustin in the residence hall. We get to hang out more during P-day and Sunday, which are awesome.
We get to go to the temple today, and I'm so excited. It feels like so long ago that I was reporting to the MTC and being shuffled around. So much has been packed into every day.
We're doing our first teaching assignment tomorrow, and I'm scared out of my mind. x_x We're going to be greeting them in Cebuano and then teaching the lesson about the Restoration of the Church in English.
I have to go now, I spent most of my time emailing family. Remember if you want to send me a letter, Dearelder.com is THE way to go. It's SO AMAZING. I'm lucky that I'm able to be on a mission with that website available to me.
Love you all! Bye bye~
Julie's Contact Info
Julie Ann Loveland
MTC Mailbox # 152
PHI-TAC 0107
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793
The 0107 means that she will probably be leaving the Provo MTC on January 7th.
Here's a couple of things that the MTC has told us (her family members) and in case any of you Julie fans are over-zealous, it might be good for you to know these things too. So, here ya go:
Please note the following items:
1. Your missionary's service began today. Please do not arrange or request visits with your missionary, including meetings at the temple or in proximity to the MTC.
2. All missionary mail must come through the US Mail or commercial delivery services. Hand delivered items will NOT be accepted. Do not send pizzas, fast foods, ice-cream, or any items that will spoil if they are not refrigerated within 24 hours. Missionaries are not called out of class to receive packages, nor do they have access to a refrigerator.
3. Communicate with your missionary weekly through letters sent to the above address or through the email account that the missionary will set up within the first two weeks. This account is to be used by immediate family only. Telephone calls for missionaries cannot be accepted. Your missionary will correspond with you on his/her first preparation day.
4. Families and friends should not plan to visit missionaries departing to their field of labor at the airport or MTC.
Should you need to communicate with the MTC call 801-422-2602.
DearElder.com
Hi everyone!~
This is going to be the last post from me directly because I am leaving for the MTC early tomorrow morning.
I'm going to do my best to try to correspond with everyone, but I have a limited amount of time to do so. If you can find the time, please go ahead and send me an email at the address I gave on Facebook. (You may want to wait two days or so which would give me time to set it all up.)
I also wanted to let everyone know that DearElder.com is a GREAT resource available to you. By registering, you can write letters that will be delivered for free! (Yay, no postage!) But what I think is the best part of all, is that because the Philippines Tacloban mission uses a pouch service, you can send letters to me in the Philippines and its STILL free!
I bought a lot of EFY (Especially for Youth) songs earlier today because that's the only music I'm going to be listening to for 18 months besides the hymns, and I figure that I'll want as much of a variety as possible. However, it's not like music will be playing 24/7, so just having something playing will be nice.
I was set apart as a missionary today at 5 o'clock. It was really nice to have my family with me, and to hear the advice of my stake president. One thing that he said was that junior companions have a responsibility to always support and give strength to their senior companion. I had never really thought about it before, but it sounded like a very solid piece of advice. I plan to adhere to it when I can.
I am a tad nervous about tomorrow, but most of that comes because I'm not sure what I'm going to be doing the first day. Once I get the schedule down, it'll probably be easier to digest.
Farewell for now. The next installment will be soon I hope. :)