June 1, 2018 Provo MTC

KAMUSTA!!!

So I'm here at the Missionary Training Center! I got here Wednesday afternoon and I actually feel like ive been here for 12 years hahah the days are so long. But I'll be in Provo learning about how to be a missionary and learning Hiligaynon (or Illongo, as the filipinos call it) for the next 6 weeks!! 

I've only been here 2 days but i actually feel like so much has happened i dont even remember everything! but as soon as I got here they took me straight to a classroom where my teachers started speaking illongo at like record speed and expecting us to like respond to them. needless to say we were all a bit confused. but we're learning! its really hard though. In Illongo, they don't have like a grammar system. Everything they say is based on the individual phrase so basically we just have to memorize all the phrases and eventually it will start to make sense they say. so thats a plus! so far it doesnt quite yet though hahaha. 

we learn 35 words a day and are expected to have them memorized by the next day. and then once we learn a word, we arent allowed to use the english word for it anymore. and my teachers rarely ever speak in english so its a lot of charades. but we taught a filipino yesterday! When they told us we'd be doing that on day 2 i dont think anybody actually believed them but yep. we taught a filipino woman named jess who doesnt speak english and it was kind of a train wreck considering all i knew how to say was hi and how are you and where are you from hahah. so her name is jess and shes doing good and shes from Bacolod. thats all i gathered :) but me and my companion couldn't figure out the word for church for the life of us so we really didn't have much to go off of. But its okay we talked to the Elders afterward and they said theres was just as much of a disaster so its not just us!!

My companion is named Sister Amataga and shes Samoan!! So English isn't her native lanugage so when we teach she always ends by bearing her testimony in her native language. its really cool. but her english is super good and i absolutely love her! Honestly the funniest person ive ever met. 

I will email every friday! at least while Im in the MTC. And I get to check my email every day. We all come sit in a big computer lab its fun hahah.\

My favorite thing so far that we've talked about is that God is mindful of each of us!! So remember that and know that you've got the best Father in Heaven thinking of you all the time and looking out for you :)

Palangga a ka!!!

Sister Johnson 

1. All the sisters in my zone! 7 are in my batch that just came in and then 7 have been here 3 weeks!!
2. My companion sister amataga!!!

hello family!! 

so basically i got here on wednesdya and they took us right in and there was a bunch of tables where i got all the things lik enametag and mtc id and all that. and then i moved my sruff to my room and then my host took me rihg tot my first class hwere they all just spoke hiligaynon a million miles an hour. it was interesting but my district is so fun cause like 5 of the elders are from byu and lived in helaman. so we have 2 districts!! theres 10 people in mine and 11 in the other. and then theres the older missionaries who have been here for 3 weeks now and they have 2 districts too. theres 4 girls in mine and then a trio fo girls in the other thats in my batch. so 7 total and then theres 7 girls in the districts right above us too. so 14 girls total and a whole ton of elders in the zone

my comp is sis amataga! shes from samoa and is huge hahah but shes hilarious and i love her shes so funny 

we live in a room with sis bookwalter (who was in my acting classes at byu) and sis christensen (the one whos insta i showed you that i thought id be comps with) and then the trio lives ina  different room adn thats sister adams (whos in ym acting calss at byu) and sis quinton and sis latu. so thats fun. 

the language is so hard. it seriously makes no sense becaus e they dont have grammar in illongo its just based on the phrase that you say. so thers all these rnadom words thrown into these phrases for no reason other than the fafct that it just goes with the phrase. its so hard nad literall ymakes no sense. but we memorize 35 vocab words every night and like 15 phrases. and we had to teach a filipino yesterdya in illoongo and that did not go well hahaha it was so hard. but it didn't go well for anybody so its okay. tonight we have to have a new 35 words memorized which i dont yet so thats stressful. i also have had 0 time bc i have to go with my comp to get all her shots and xrays and stuff cause i guess they don thave that in samoa and we missed all our study time and parts of class. so its harder but its aight ill find time later todya.

 so we woke up at 5 am this mornign to go to the temple bc my szone likes to be the first one there. and then we can email as much as we want on pday thres no limit. but we're busy doing things so kinda a limit. and then we cna check it whenever we want. we just go to a computer lab.

sis amataga and i had to teach last night when we met our branch presidency which was sorta fun. they told us to teach anout our purpiose. my comp is so eloquent iwth her wrods its nice./ so thats fun i suppose. 

the food is interesting./ not super good but its cannon food i think. except yesterday they fed us fish and i almost died i think. we eat dinner at 4 pm every day its so weird