July 31: First Views and Experiences is the Philippines

July 31: The Philippines-- Different than Anything I've Ever Seen

I made it to the mission home this morning. We traveled for over 2 days and slept for 5 hours in a hotel. We are in Bacolod now and its GORGEOUS!!! It's like Hawaii but better. It's so pretty. There are fields and beautiful trees everywhere.

But it's crazy. So crazy. Different than anything I've ever seen. The poverty is so evident. There are shacks built connected to each other everywhere with bamboo walls and dirty floors. Seriously so crazy. And those will be my areas. They keep all the sisters close to Bacolod so the senior couples can help if they need to. They greeted us at the airport today and they are so cute.

All the food I've had so far has been delicious.. the fish heads will come later.

It doesn't feel real but ill meet my companion today and start teaching tomorrow. (She is with her trainer, Sister Rosdahl, in the photo above.)

I love you, I love you, I love you!!!!!!

Love,
Sister Foote

July 25: God Will Bless You When You are in His Service

I leave for the Philippines in 4 days!!! I still love the MTC but I'm getting more and more ready to leave. I only have one real day of class left. It's so crazy and a little bit sad. I have grown so so close to my district. I love them all so much and my teachers are the greatest thing that have ever happen to me. They are so sweet, so funny, and so incredibly in tune with the spirit. It is amazing. It feels weird to be leaving and I just keep thinking there are other things I need to learn but our teachers say they are confident that we are ready! It's really amazing all we have learned. 

 

This week has been great. We got to host new missionaries again which was super fun. I loved meeting the two girls I hosted. They are going to be awesome missionaries. It's cool to remember how  far I've come and how much I've changed.

 

Probably the best part of the week is that I was able to memorize the whole 1st vision in ilonggo in one day (last friday). It was awesome. I really love it and can feel the power of the words even if they do just sound like gibberish. I know I was blessed to be able to learn it that quickly and it's been fun to help the other missionaries in my district learn too. My companion and I will just stop random missionaries outside and recite the first vision or bear our testimonies to them. It's a lot of fun.

 

I sang in the choir for the last time on Tuesday and we sang Praise to the Man. It was an awesome version and really cool. 

 

Life in the MTC is great. I love it. I love it. To all those considering a mission.... Go :) Don't be afraid or feel too inadequate. God will bless you when you are in His service. This work is so so important and can truly change and bless lives. All the things I thought I'd miss? I don't. I don't feel like I'm really sacrificing, I'm just getting blessings. We are helping God find His children.. What a great call. He is absolutely involved in this work. It is truly worth every sacrifice.

  

Anyway i love you lots and lots and lots. Kabalo ako nga makahimo ko ini (I know that I can do this. haha)

Next time you hear from me ill be in the Philippines!!!!!! And I'm sure I'll have a lot of adventures to report. Love you all so much! Pray for me. I'll need it now more than ever :) 

 

Sister Kimberly Foote

July 18, 2013: Faith and Fear Cannot Coexist

Kamusta Kamo!  Maayong Hapon!

I love you all so much. This week has mostly been really great. I had a lot of great experiences... 

including being able to see my dear sweet parents everyday. What an absolute blessing. I sad goodbye for real 2 days ago and it was a much better, more confident goodbye. I now understand more about being a missionary, being a companion and I have learned so much about this gospel and following the spirit. 

I get my travel plans... TOMORROW!!! Which means I leave for the Philippines a week from Monday.  Only a few more days of real showers and I only get to use a washing machine one more time.. but it's all so worth it. The other day we were sitting in class and I was just overcome with the thought,"This is worth every sacrifice. Every single one." And so I am more encouraged to study harder, to learn more, and be positive even though things are hard.

Every week we teach at TRC and last week we taught a woman from Bacolod. She is like 50 and so nice. It was so awesome to talk to her and I really was able to understand a lot. Forming sentences comes a lot faster for me now. It's still hard but I am trying to recognize the progress I have made. Funny story... 2 days ago I was trying hard to SYL (Speak Your Language) so I was trying to ask my district..."Can I please sit here" but it was taking me a long time to get the words out and in the mean time someone else sat down in my seat. It was awkward and hilarious.

Oh possibly the highlight of my week was that I learned Head Shoulders Knees and Toes in Ilonggo! It's awesome and way funny. (I've gotta entertain myself somehow, right?)

Ok, awesome thing happened yesterday!!! We got to host the new missionaries. It was so much fun. I loved getting to greet the new missionaries and tell them about how much I love the MTC!! It's the greatest. But I forgot to mention the chocolate milk... what was i thinking??? I dropped the first girl off at her Portuguese class and her teacher wasn't speaking any English. I felt bad leaving her with that shocked overwhelmed look on her face. I know I looked just like that a month ago. But I know she'll be great. She will learn and progress just like I did. It really was so cool to be able to see how far I've come, how much I've grown and how much I've learned.

But the best part of hosting was that I got to host KAYLA RICHARDSON!! She was so so so excited and happy. She is doing so great and I love her. And i happened to see her at night when she was going back to her residence and she said she had a great day and gave me a huge hug. So let her parents know she is the best.

One of my goals this week is to work on memorizing the first vision in Ilonggo. It is super hard but I now know what all the words mean so hopefully it won't be too difficult. Oh, and I memorized the "My Comission" by Bruce R Mckonkie. ....so so so good! You need to look it up. It was when I heard the Las Vegas missionaries recite this that I actually got excited about serving a mission. What a blessing it is to represent Jesus Christ.

I love the idea that faith and fear can not coexist. Our teacher was talking about how we pray all day for the gift of tongues and the spirit and to remember what we have studied. We prepare our lessons but when we walk in the door we say to ourselves, "I can't do this." We let fear back into our lives and our faith shrinks. We need to truly trust in God. Trust He actually will help us. His promises don't just apply to everyone else. They are for you, and for me.

Love forever

Sister Kimberly Foote

July 11, 2013: God Answers the Simplest Prayers

Kamusta Kamo!!!

I love you all so much. Thank you for all the great letters. they mean the world to me!!! Keep um coming :)

I am happy that mom and dad have made it to the MTC. I got to see them the first day they got here. I had been showing my district pictures for a few days making sure they would look out for them. they found them before dinner while i was in the bathroom and ran in to tell me I HAD to come right then to see them! So i ran out and gave them a big hug. It was so so so good to see mom and dad..don't worry they were of course crying. and we got to eat dinner a few times. it was so great to see him.

So this week has seriously passed so quickly. It felt like the week had been 2 days. It's all going well.

I have been studying the Book of Mormon a lot this week , big surprise right? but I just love it. what incredible examples and what great comfort and strength we can find in those pages. I am amazed at the faith the prophets had to write the Book of Mormon knowing that it would not be needed until our day. Can you imagine being commanded to write a journal for people 2000 years later?? They had such great faith in God and knew that through Him the miracle of the Book of Mormon would be brought forth. I feel so grateful to be able to share that miracle and blessing with others. When we are trying, we can feel God's love as we read of Him and search His pages.

I also loved reading in Alma about faith. Great stuff. In the devotional this week they talked about prayer.  I am just amazed at how interested and involved God is in our lives. He will answer even the simplest prayers and help us with the smallest problems. I was having a hard day yesterday and feeling lonely and all the sudden the girls in the other room all came in and we ate candy and told stories. it was super simple but i know that God truly is involved in our lives. That is just one example of a MILLION things that have happened since i've been here.

I love you all SO SO SO much. Thank you for praying for me. For supporting me. and for writing to me. I cherish your letters. I leave for the Philippines in just 18 days... so crazy. so scary. so overwhelming. haha I can't imagine speaking in Ilonggo ALL day long.

Oh, the good news though is even though it's hard to learn and I feel like I'm not progressing I really do know a lot of ilonggo. It's really cool there will be words that I try so so so hard to remember or pronounce and i just can't do it. but then like 2 days later I can say them without even thinking about it. The words i struggled with so much in the beginning just seem simple now. What a blessing. Keep praying for me.

I love you all!!! Palangga ta kamo!! 

Love,

Sister Kimberly Foote

Sister Kimberly Foote

July 4, 2013: God has Confidence in Us

Kim's District:

and companion:

Kamusta Family!!! Maayong Hapon!

Well another week has passed at the dear mtc. I still love it hear a lot. There are certainly hard days and long days but its great. I LOVE getting dearelders from everyone. It is always the highlight of my day! 

We teach about once a day. We have 2 teachers and they are also our "investigators"... welcome to learning a language no one speaks. but it's cool because they can see where we are struggling and how to give us advice and stuff. I love my teachers so much!!! Brother Speicer has been home like 8 months.. and he is just so intune with the spirit. He always knows when we need encouragement and what to say. and Sister Tamang is the cutest. she has been home for 1 month and served in my mission. 

She has only told us a little bit about it. but it seems pretty crazy. I still don't feel like I'm really leaving the MTC and going to the Philippines. It feels like when I eave I'll just go back home...but I actually won't be home for a very long time. It's worth it though. There isn't anything I really really miss. I know I'm supposed to be here. Even if learning the language is super difficult. God has confidence in me.. that's why he called me to the Philippines, so I just have to trust in that. 

Relief Society every week is an incredible speaker. Last week was Sheri Dew... I was sitting on the 2nd row. It was way cool. What an inspirational lady. And the devotional on Tuesday was Brother Richardson, the BYU religion professor who is in the general sunday school presidency. He was really good. He talked about each call being received through revealation and God having confidence in us. He knows where we are at right now in  our lives. He knows all our weaknesses and experiences and called us anyway. We need to trust him and believe we can do this. 

Dad I have been trying hard to do what you said.. there are scared 19 year old girls that need someone to be there for them. I am trying to be strong and be a support to everyone in my district. I have had some really great conversations with a couple of the girls. I am happy people can trust me and I can help them. I am so impressed by the faith and strength these girls have. I look up to them so much. 

How wonderful that God allows us to support and help each other. 

Love love love 

Sister Kimberly Foote

P.S. MOM AND DAD!!! I have been telling everyone you're coming to the mtc. I CAN'T wait to see you! ...and you'll look 20 years younger than all the other senior missionaries.. at least haha. 

Kabalo ako nga manluluwas si JesuKristo. Kabalo ako nga kilala ni JesuKristo. 

June 7, 2013: Loving the MTC

So I am in the real MTC and I absolutely love it! The first few days were really really long and kinda rough, but not terrible. And after that life just kinda clicked and everything got so much better. I know where everything is now, and I have made a ton of friends. 

The one thing I didn't expect is that we have a LOT of time during the day that we just study on our own. but we also have a lot of class time.. basically the entire day we are either studying or eating...not kidding. but I like it. My teacher never speaks in english.. starting on the first day. so we just have to learn ilonggo. but it's so fun. I love it. It is a super crazy language and none of the words sound like english at all... a few sound kinda like spanish so that's good. But mostly its just like memorizing gibberish. Most words are like 15 letters long. like to say pray it's... magpangamuyo and restored is nagnumbalik and stuff like that. The first few days everyone was very very overwhelemed but finally I woke up one day and it all clicked. i was able to pray and bear my testimony.. which the day before i was struggling with so much. What a blessing. I keep progressing so that's great. We definitely still have so much to learn! In some ways I definitely envy the english missionaries. but I think since we have to work so hard we'll appreciate it more.

Oh my teacher is great. His name is Brother Spiecer..something like that. and I love him. He is really nice and funny and he teaches well. He got home a few  months ago and he is married and his wife is already pregnant.. crazy. haha.

My district is pretty diffent than everyone elses. we have 12 sisters and 2 elders.. almost all the other districts I have met are only elders. There are certainly a lot of sisters in the MTC but there are still way more elders.

I found out there are now 21 missions in the philippines! so cool

Oh and i talked to an elder whose brother is in the philipines right now and i gues they get like 300 pesos a month which is like $7.... CRAZY!!

Mom and Dad, I am so excited for you to come to the MTC. You're gonna love it. 

So now a few funny things... when new missionaries come on wednesday everyone yells welcome in their langugae. but we asked our teacher and they never say welcome in ilonggo. so we decided to just yell random words at them.. the benefit of no on speaking our language is that we can say whatever we want. so to most peole we yelled "palangga ta ka" which means "I love you" but to some we said "magpangamuyo"..pray and to a few we yelled "maghinulsol"....repent hahaha it was a lot of fun.

The other day a sister asked me what the word was for "sing" but i thought she said "sin" so i gave her the word and i few minutes later i heard her practice saying..."will you commit to sin with us?".... hahah it was awesome. Luckily we fixed it before she taught the lesson (by the way we started teaching on the 3 day and have already taught 5 lessons!) ...all in ilonggo. without notes.

I think i was on the screen for a minute at the broadcast so that's cool. it was great. it was so good to hear about uniting together. gettting the world more involved and excited about missionary work. My favorite part was that they kept saying things like "You are apart of God's work which mean you have access to God's help." He wants to help the work along and He will support His missionsaries! What a neat feeling to know God is helping me do this. And it was so so cool to be there with SO many missionaries. We went like 2 and half hours before it started so our seats were pretty close. We could see all the apostles well. It was neat when they all walked in, you could really feel their strength and the spirit. It was great.

I think the coolest part of being a missionary is that I get to wear a name tag with Christ's name on it. What an incredible blessing and responsibility to be His representative, to act as he would act, and do what he would do. I am trying hard to do that and show charity and kindness to those around me and be on time and productive all day.

I'll just close with my testimony in Ilonggo.

Kabalo ako nga matuod ang Simbahan ni JesuKristo sang mga Santos sa Ulihing mga Adlaw. Kabalo ako nga matuod ang Libro ni Mormon. Kabalo ako nga importante pamilya kag propeta kag magpangamuyo. Kabalo ako nga kilala kita ni JesuKristo. Kabalo ako nga palangga kita sang Dios. Kabalo ako nga manluluwas si JesuKristo kag buhi si JesuKristo. Sa Nglana ni JesuKristo. Amen.

I love you all so much! Please keep sending me DearElders it means so much to have all of your suppport, you are all so great. I can feel the support of your prayers. I love you all more than words can express. Trust in God, life doesn't get easier but it does get better. He has a greater perspective for our lives than we do. I really know that when we turn our lives over to God he can do more with it than we every could on our own. My life is not where I expected it to be but it is so much better! (even if it is scary)

Palangga Ta Ka!!!! God is truly helping this work move forward.

Love

Sister Kimberly Foote