Kumusta Pamilya!!!
So, I did get your Dear elders, but not until Tuesday night. And seeing how I email on Monday morning, that didn't work out the best. But I got them and I sure loved hearing from everyone! I especially love that it's printed out so I can read it as many times as I want. So, the moral of the story is, if you want me to reply to your Dear Elder send it no later than Friday. We'll get this figured out soon enough. Also, my P-day is on Monday and I have TONS of times to write letters so if you want a quick response, make sure I get your letter and such before Monday. If not, it's okay though cause you can just get it the next week. I am pro at writing letters so it shouldn't take to long anyway. In other news, Happy Birthday to Julie and Mark very soon! Mark, I tried to send you a letter from the address you gave me but it got returned saying "no address exists" so can I please get that? Thanks! Nahigugma ko ninyo!!
Can you believe that 2 weeks from tomorrow I will be on a plane to the other side of the world?!?!?! Time is flying by SO FAST!!! We get our flight plans this Friday and think and I am so excited. But it's also kinda sad cause I'm gonna miss seeing everyone here so much. I literally see at least one new person I know a day and it is the best. The other day I saw like 10 and it was a little freaky especially since half those people I didn't even know were gonna be here! I see Sister Ricks all the time cause we have lunch together so that's been great. This week has been AMAZING. So many awesome speakers, wonderful lessons, great spiritual experiences and lots of chances for growth. Yesterday was the most musical day of my life, but it was so great! I played the piano for sacrament meeting then I sang a 3 part harmony of "Love at Home" with Sister Bingham and Sister Gaono with Elder Metusela (the musical genius from Australia) improvising on the piano. It was so great! And then we decided we would prepare a song to try out to sing in Devotionals and stuff on Thursday with a four part harmony, Elder Metusela on the Piano and arranging it, Elder Smith on the violin and me on the flute. They can definitely get me to do stuff I never thought possible but it has been so fun and great and I feel so much more confident in my own musical abilities. I feel like a new person!
The language is coming along just great! We had an amazing TRC (teaching resource center) where we got to talk to some return missionaries in Cebuano and once we were done, on of the girls said the our Cebuano now was about the same as when she left to go to the Philippines after 9 weeks! Wow! That's crazy! So that was really comforting to know that I'm already were other missionaries have been and I still get two more weeks of learning! They just changed the program for languages and we are the first to try it and it has been very effective. When she said that, I couldn't even imagine how they could only learn what we have in 9 weeks! That's so long! I don't know what they did, but I sure appreciate it. Some of my new favorite words, ngitngit- dark and paburito- favorite. You can definitely tell the Spanish influence on that one!
I decided to write down some of my thoughts so I could remember what I wanted to share with you. One of the cool things I learned this week was in Cebuano there are 2 different words for know. Nasayud is know in your heart and kahibalo is know in your head. Because these two words mean the same thing in English, I never really thought of just how incredibly different they are! Once upon a time, my roommate Noelle and I were having a conversation about Faith and she told me that a friend told her he hated when people said in there testimonies, "I know that..." because the very act of knowing made faith not possible because according to Alma 32:21, Faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true. She disagreed very strongly cause she has faith in things that she KNOWS. And I didn't really know what to say at the time, but through Cebuano, my mind has been made clear! What those people on the stand are saying is "I know in my heart" (nasayud) and the knowledge talked of in Faith is "i know in my head because I have seen it" (kahibalo) and they are two very different things. Just something to think about!
I would write more, but I am out of time! Thank you all so much for the support you have given me, I know (nasayud) that i am in the absolutely right place and my Heavenly Father has surrounded people that are changing my life and changing me into the person he wants me to be. This gospel is true. It brings true happiness that things of the world cannot give. We need to have faith that everything is for a purpose, every trial is to bring us closer to him and our lives are blessed in more ways than we will ever realize.
Gugma,
Sister Pike
P.S. I love hearing about your lives, I just wish i had more time to reply to each of you individually!
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