Hello Tagalog...Goodbye Spanish

Aking pinikamamahal na pamilya!

Bugger. I just typed this whole email into the journal entry thing on LDS.org hoping that it'd let me copy and paste it here...yeah, it didn't. It closed out of it as soon as I opened the email page. I'm kind of peeved. Really, we can't even have 2 internet pages open! So ridiculous. Well anyway, I'll try to recreate what I just typed. Hopefully I can fit it all in. First of all, thank you so much for the packages! they honestly made my day, you should have seen the ridiculous grin on my face. I almost shed a tear or seven because it felt like my heart was going to burst with happiness. It's been way fun to show people about my life. I love it. And thank you for the sketchbook/journal. I was actually able to take the one back that i bought here so it worked out perfectly. I kept the brown one with the flower designs on it because it was so stinking cute. Good taste you have :) So thank you so much.

 Seven Peaks sounds like a riot and the comment about Michelle's swimming suit made me laugh so hard! I think you should send a picture...I gotta see this :) And a picture of Boo's new glasses. He's totally going to look all GQ, I can totally see it. I got your letter with Chanae's email and the newspaper clippings. I seriously just miss that girl and really wish she'd get home because I can't communicate with her when she's in Fiji! but I still love her. And the newspaper clippings honestly made my day! I pulled them out and just drank it in. Everyone else enjoyed them too, I must say. I forget how much I love to read about that kind of stuff. Also, start brainstorming for other people we know that work here to try and get my stuff out. I don't know how much it'll be, but I'm pretty sure It'll just be my carry on with everything in it. I found out this week that there's a 15 lbs limit on your carry on, so that blows out the shove-everything-heavy-into-your-carry-on idea. If we can't think of anything or anyone, I might have you get a hold of Skachy. I'm just a litter nervous with his whole rule following mania he has. We're going to go through our stuff this week so I'll let you know next Friday about it.

Honestly, not much exciting has happened this week. Here are some highlights though:

1- We taught our lesson for TRC all in Tagalog this week! 35 minutes and we made it through the Restoration and how to pray. I honestly can't believe it. We've only been here 5 weeks and we know enough to be conversation and teach a lesson. Granted, we talk the speed of snail and I'm sure our grammar is terrible, but I don't even care! It was way sweet. I keep getting my spanish and my tagalog crazy mixed up though. It's honestly hilarious. It's like as soon as I enter that little foreign language bubble in my mind I can't control what comes out. It'll usually happened about 2-3 times per lesson but sometimes more if I'm not concentrating hard enough. It's sad though because I'm loosing so much Spanish! The other day in class our teacher wrote a sentence on the board that said, "I can go to the store" but none of us knew the world "tindihan" which means store. But I just totally out of the blue guessed store when he asked what it was. Totally had no idea, but apparently I was right. So they all go, is that what it is in spanish too? And I sat there for the longest time, and I couldn't remember if that was the word or not! But I don't know how I knew it if it wasn't the word. don't worry, I finally had to go as Sister Packard after class what the spanish word for store was. It's tienda, by the way. So pathetic that I couldn't remember that. It's ok though because my spanish has helped me SO much with Tagalog and right now that's what I need to be shoving into my head, so it's totally ok.

2- I found out this week that out of the top 10 languages spoken in the church, 5 of them originate in the Philippines. pretty sweet right! I'm not sure exactly where Tagalog falls, but still cool

3- So during gym a couple days ago, there was a grounds worker sitting there reading a book that looked a lot like Harry Potter. So of course I go up and ask her if that's what she was reading. It wasn't, but instead, we started talking about the movie. We honestly sat there for 20 minutes and she answered all my questions and gave me the low down on everything. I caved, I couldn't wait to watch it myself. I just had to know! Man, I should work on my patience or something.

4- I've decided I would totally love to work at the MTC. Honestly though, I think I would love it. Small drawback...I'd have to live in happy valley. The True Aggie inside of me honestly cringes and is slightly repulsed by that thought. So we'll see who wins the inner battle. Maybe I'll keep that idea on the table for after the mish; we'll see......

5- this isn't really a highlight, but still a part of the week. The 3 districts older than us leave this Monday and I can't even tell you how sad I am. I love the elders and the sisters are seriously the best. I'm going to miss them so much, especially my gyms buddies. I'm going to have to find some other gym buddies to be my psychiatrists and give me therapeutic treatment during gym time. I just know I'll be crying big alligator tears when they leave. It's ok though, because I'm still super excited for them. And once they leave, I'll only have 3 weeks left. How crazy is that?! This has flown by like none other. It's awesome though because it just sinks in more every day that this is where I'm supposed to be. I love it.

My other email was a lot longer, but I'm out of time so this'll have to do. I don't really have many good stories from the week so this email's kind of lame, but I promise I'll try to remember them all for next time. Thank you so much for everything you do for me. I wish I could adequately put it into words, but it just wouldn't do it justice. Mahal ko kayo MUCHISIMO!! (I don't know how to say that last part in Tagalog :) Have a fantastic week!!