Last email from the mtc in Provo, UT

PSA: I think I receive everyone's DearElders, if I don't I wouldn't know -hehe but I try writing everyone back so hopefully you're getting my letters. And thank you for writing me, my time at the provo mtc is quickly coming to an end. I leave Monday so if any of you want to get your last DearElders in, do it! I love reading them. 

These last two weeks here have been awesome. 

The Language: I think I was more fluent in the language at the start of my mtc experience than I am now. Not actually (that's a bit dramatic) but learning a language is super cool. I know a lot of words but I'm so grammatically incorrect that what I say doesn't make sense. It's awesome though because I was never good at memorizing things prior to being at the mtc and now random words will stick in my memory. 

The Weeks Experiences: 

Tuesday: Elder Anderson 1 of the 12 apostles spoke to us on the topic of temples last Tuesday.

Friday: I taught a Filipino lady in Wisconsin over skype about our life on earth. She was so nice and I have my second skype lesson tonight at 8:15 pm. 

Saturday: My district hosted "the ratties" which if any of you have watched the office is like the Dunddies because a part of our district was leaving that Monday. It was hilarious. Everyone in the district was given an certificate for being something. For example my award was "The blind (and deaf) faith award" because my name is Helen and I'm super faithful hahaha or I hope the faith part was included. 

Monday:  The zone leaders left and set an alarm on the stl phone for 2 am. It goes off and my companion (who's on the lower bunk) rushes to her clock to turn it off. She's so dazed she doesn't know where its coming from I tell her it's the phone she grabs that opens it up and reads "gotcha". Those same leaders set 3 alarm clocks at 30 minute incriments starting at 1 and hid them around the room of the elders that were leaving. The recounting of that story was hilarious. They went so far as to place an alarm in a drawer and lock it. 

Spiritual Thought: 

I love the message of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It's truly a message of love. I really felt this as I read and pondered 3 Ne 17. Love can and should be the motivation for everything we do. Jesus Christ suffered the sins of the world because he loves us. My teacher said that overbearance is not possible if there is love. I think often times we hold back from checking up on people or doing things because we don't want to bother them but I think that when we do those things with love as our motivation then it's impossible for it to be overbearing. And if it's a good thought then it's from God and we should follow it. Which leads me to another point made in my Sunday class. When we receive promptings from the Spirit often times Satan will follow the prompting with a sentence of logic. For example: we may be prompted to go hug somebody but then think "no they're busy they don't want to be hugged". So we ignore it but I challenge you to ignore the second thought. 

Love and miss everyone! 

BIRTHWEEK

Week 4 (apat) 

What a good week - I celebrated my birthday on Monday and everyone blew me out of the water with birthday wishes etc. I had set my expectations really low expecting nothing but hoping for cards at least and don't underestimate the power of love haha. Really though it didn't matter if the gesture was big or small everything meant the world to me. So thank you everyone! 

Saturday the girls in my zone celebrated my birthday with face masks while we studied. And here my spiritual thought for the week comes. I had brought 6 face masks for myself and companions to enjoy throughout my ENTIRE mission, but there were exactly 6 sisters in our zone. So I had to decide if I wanted to include the other sisters and use all the masks or just keep the celebration between my companion and I because no one knew of my birthday. Anyways I decided to give all 6 of my masks away and share because making this special for everyone was going to make me happy. So I let everyone pick out a mask and pop the one bag of popcorn my companion and I had gotten as a gift. And so everything I was saving or trying to look forward to I decided to use and in return a sister went to her room and bundled a happy birthday handsanitizer, these nail things, hawaiian candy, and a face mask. And I ended up with another bag of popcorn because it was set in a share pile for all the sisters in the hall. Yeah, so, weird story but it made me think of heavenly father because when we give everything we have he'll bless us. He'll help us out and make sure we too are taken care of. And if you really want to think more about helping others read MOSIAH 4 because that had me thinking pretty deep too. 

The tagalog: Is going good I feel like I've begun to plateau on my language progress but I'll be immersed in the langauge 8 days before I originally thought I would because I'm leaving to the manillla mtc October 2nd rather than the 10th. 

My funny story for the week: "An electrifying bday" 

I straightened my hair for my bday. Showered then blew dry my hair. If you've seen me at this stage in my getting ready process you know my hair is INSANE not an understatement like really big/ fluffy. Anyways I'm singing to myself just making it fun and I went to unplug the blow dryer and it would not come out of the socket so I grabbed it by the tongs partially putting my finger in the socket and my whole body shook like cartoonish - I electrocuted myself. I shrieked before I realized what was going on and then proceeded to laugh at myself for a good 10 minutes because I thought turning 20 would mean I'm a little wiser - or at least wise enough to not put my finger in a power outlet but that wasn't the case. I mentioned the state of my hair previously because after I shrieked a sister in my zone came into the bathroom to ask if I was okay, I told her the story and she responds, "did the electricity do that to your HAIR". Nope. 

Love and miss everyone - Thanks again for my bday wishes!

Sis Crawford 

  Tori got an extra birthday bonus seeing her fall roommate on her p-day Dacey Zimmerman and family.

week 3

Week Tatlo (3)

Another good week at the mtc. Stomach problems have gone down and tagalog has gone up. 

About a third of the mtc is going to the philippines so its a language a lot of people toss around campus which is super cool. My district had our first trc this week and it was roughly awesome. Meaning the people were so nice but trying to teach a lesson in a language you've been learning for two weeks is rough. My goal for the next trc is to say um a little less - all good things

My companion and I have been asked to serve as the new STL sister training leaders for our zone. Our zone has 5 districts about 70 people with a total of 11 girls and 5 of them will be leaving next week but 6 will be coming new to the mtc so thats exciting

As  I learn the language at times I feel like my memory storage is full it's coming slowly but surely. It's funny though being at the mtc feels like here is the only place I'll serve but know one day I will be in the Philippines and thats crazy. I also heard this week that most Philippine missionaries go to the manilla mtc a couple weeks earlier so who knows when I'll actually leave the provo mtc. 

Funny Stories this week (I found them funny):

- An elder in my district was asked to conduct the music but it's in tagalog so he didn't know which song it was the teacher tells him it's We Thank Thee Oh God for Our Prophet and he begins to sing Called to Serve so the class begins singing two different songs all to the words of We Thank Thee oh God in tagalog. I was dying we had to begin again 

- The teacher asked any questions in tagalog and an elder responds opo (yes) then admits he doesn't know what was asked but for those who knew it was kind of funny 

My teacher this week shared the verse seek not to declare my words first seek to obtain my words and then shall your tongue be loosed. There are promises that if we obtain His word then open our mouth in faith it will be filled with what we should say. I then read a verse that in order to receive knowledge we must do more than ponder it in our hearts (2 Ne 32: 4,7,9) If any of us wants a deeper knowledge of anything we should pray for understanding because I know Heavenly Father will give us the knowledge we need. As I pray for deeper understanding of the gospel I've had cool thoughts come to mind and I can't wait to put opening my mouth to the test in the philippines... I know this applies to more than missionaries. If any of you want to put these verses to the test than I challenge you to do so! 

Love and miss you all - Sister Crawford 

Tori’s 20th birthday is in 3 days Sept. 10th —if you want to send her a letter in the mtc

you can send it for free thru 

http://www.dearelder.com

they print it and deliver it to her room

this is the info you need:

Sister Helen Victoria Crawford

10-10- PHI-CAU

2005 N 900 E unit 155

Provo, UT 84602

Week One

One week at the mtc (missionary training center) down 6 more to go! 

I'd say its been a wild ride already. They waste no time here we're scheduled from 6:30 in the morning to 10:30 at night but it's cool. First day I walk into class and the only language being spoken is Tagalog and I'll never forget how hot my face felt when I could not figure out what was being communicated to me lol 

Lifes gotten better though and I've picked up on some of the basics:

Magandang Umaga - Good morning 

Kamusta kayo - How are you

Mabuti - good 

Magandang directly translates to beautiful and Mabuti is pronounced my booty hahaha 

I can pray, testify, offer an overview, share a scripture, and extend an invitation in tagalog

My companion is a red head from california, super nice and super indecisive like me 

Theres a sickness going around the district right now and I hope it doesn't get to me

We've already taught lessons to our teachers in tagalog and this upcoming monday we'll have our first trc. I can't tell you what it stands for but I know it means we'll teach people that served in the philippines or filipinos about the gospel.

As mom dropped me off last week she called this place LDS Hogwarts (Harry Potter) and after a short time being here I can attest to the truthfulness of this comment. Things are super different food wise though funny story that relates - I was drinking orange juice and everyone was freaking out because they say its a laxitiv and I noticed as I looked around nobody else was drinking orange juice, but I've been lucky enough to not have any stomach problems so far. And the only reason I decided to share this is as I typed this email out a person let one rip. smh(shake my head). I'll try to get pictures out soon, I forgot to bring a cord to upload pictures my bad. 

On a serious note I know that I could not be where I am at in learning the language of Tagalog without the help of the Savior. He wants to help me learn the language as much as I want to learn it and although I feel like a lot is being asked of me,  I know as I continue to put my faith in Him it will come. I just need to "forget myself and go to work". 

Love and miss you guys!

Love, Sister Crawford 

Introduction

Okay folks,

This is my first missionary blog post. For those who aren't LDS I'll just explain how the next year and a half will go for me. I'll spend anywhere from 6-9 weeks in the mtc (missionary training center). There I'll be taught how to speak Tagalog and share the gospel, and then I'll head to Cauayan Philippines where I'll preach of Christ and serve anyone in need of help.
I have chosen to serve a mission because I believe the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true and I love the peace that the gospel brings me.