Week 5: PALANGGA TA KA HAW

Kumasta kamo!!

Another crazy fast week at the MTC with crazy slow days. I seriously don't understand it. Time is wild here! I wrote down a list again this week so I'll know what to say so here we go:

I got to host this week! That means that we're assigned to welcome all the new missionaries, get them their new materials and send them off to language class within the first ten minutes they get here and say goodbye to their parents. I hosted this AMAZING sister that's going to Poland. Her mother is from Poland and when her mom was 9, the police burned down her house (Poland was mega-communist then) and so she had to escape to America. She eventually found work in Utah, met a Mormon, and got married. Now her daughter is going to Poland!! Mega cool right? 

The clothing guidelines have changed for our mission so we can wear slacks now so the MTC gave them out to us. They're SO. UGLY. We were all trying them on and we looked so dumb haha but we have to take two pairs with us. So much extra weight!! I'd rather pack food!!!! 

I'll attach a picture but Elder Mahaffey has been trying to get more flexible so instead of playing basketball all through gym time, he tries to touch his toes. It's SO funny. His companion pushes his back so he can reach but he just can't do it. He always says "I shall touch my toes before I leave the MTC so I might not perish from inflexibility". He's so weird and funny. Another weird thing my district does because of him is call things "basura" which means trash. So he'll say "Basura sa akon" which directly means "I am trash" but Ilonggo doesn't translate to slang so it's weird and so funny. 

So a sad thing is that an Elder from our district has to go home because he got injured during gym time. GYM TIME IS A TRAP!!! DO NOT EXERCISE!!! But he'll be gone for six to twelve weeks and THEN come to the Philippines. It's been hard to think all of us aren't going out together but you really learn here that you've got to rely on the Lord's time, for everything. 

Only other thing I can think of are two awesome new friends I've made while I've been here. They're going to two different places in America but they're on an ASL mission. The one Elder, Elder Michaels is SO funny and has so much energy and the other, Elder Pauley, is so so sweet and hilarious. Elder Pauley is completely deaf and THE most happiest person I've ever met. He's taught me some sign language so I can ask him how he's doing and where he's going but that's pretty much it. His spirit is so strong though and it's encouraged my determination to serve a mission even more. 

LAST THING we got our flight information last week!!! We leave on Wednesday at 7:35 and we'll be traveling for two days. My two companions have been assigned to a different travel group than me so I'll be in a companionship with two ELDERS while we're traveling. La-in gid!!! (really weird) It's fine though because nobody sits next to anyone on the plane. So excited to leave now though!! The 7th can't come soon enough!!!!

Thank you all for all your support and love, it means the world for me to get on here and see all the nice emails. Mostly because I have dreams like the night before p-day where I only have three emails and they're all from H&M or something HA. So glad that doesn't happen. YOU ALL ARE AMAZING!!! MAKITA NILA DASON SEMANA!!!

palangga ta kamo!!!

Sister Pope

Sorry for only two pictures literally nothing crazy happened this week I don't even know how I wrote this much for this email 

1) Elder Mahaffey and Elder Green trying to stretch between class time. They're so dumb haha

2) Elders from our neighboring district, from left to right, Elder Rodgers, Elder Young, Elder Maughn, Elder Davenport, and Elder Gonzalez. They're so crazy and fun

Week 4: TATER TOTS!!

Hello Everyone!!

Good week this week, lots of happy moments. The two Cebuano districts left on Tuesday which was sad, it was a lot of fun having them here and I'll miss them a lot. The new districts got here on Wednesday and they're full of fun people. Along with people leaving, our teacher Brother Rutherford left for Jerusalem after working at the MTC for three years and he was the one that played our first investigator. He was for sure a spiritual giant and we've missed him a lot but he's going to spend an amazing three months in Jerusalem. 

Things are going well with classes, we are progressing with our "investigators" and got a new one this week, "Loreto" who is mysteriously also Bro. Meek. It's actually funny because I get so serious when I teach but Brother Meek asks such ridiculous questions when we're teaching that even HE cracks a smile so I start laughing while explaining why we use bread for the sacrament and not potato chips. Dang it Loreto!! Also Brother Meek told us this crazy story about him building these covered wagon camping things and got run over by one. These things are like a thousand pounds and one went over his shoulder but to this day he doesn't have any complications. CRAZY. 

The best thing about the food here is that about twice a week for breakfast they have tater tots. Tater tots are really the best thing ever and they always start my morning right. Also cool thing: the Nashville Tribute Band came as our devotional on Sunday and the MTC choir got to sing with them, it was pretty awesome. I also got to see my cousin Elder Reid before he peaced out for Australia, it was mega awesome!! But I had to keep saying to the staring missionaries "He's my cousin!!!" because you're not allowed to hug missionaries that aren't family members. Anyways, fun to see him before he was off!

Last words for this week are that the elders in our zone are pretty awesome. We all get along so well and they're so much fun to be around, they've definitely made the stay at the MTC awesome! I even have secret handshakes with some of them, they're just amazing. It'll be hard to say goodbye to them all in just two weeks! Anyways, that's pretty much it for this week. I'm learning more and more each class time and loving the mission so much! Definitely one of the best life decisions I've made so far. 

I've loved my time here and my testimony has grown so much more being here and seeing the devotion thatthousands of other missionaries have to serve the Lord and move His work forward. Kabalo ako nga matuod ang ebanghelyo!!! 

Have an awesome week every one!!! Plangga kita sang Dios!!! 

Sister Pope

1) Elder Okerland and Elder Lee, they're awesome and always talk in british accents while speaking Ilonggo HA

2) Finally a district picture with everyone in our district!! (plus Elder Lee and Elder Glenn) 

3) There's this dumb game here where if you shoot a fake blowdart to someone they have to get down on one knee and can only get back up if you touch their shoulder. Elder Gonzalez was really milkin it with Elder Maughn and asked me to take this picture of them haha. Elders are so weird

4) Me and Stir Fry!!!!! I'm gonna miss having my cousin here so much

Week 3: DANG IT SATAN!!

Hey Everyone! 

So the entire MTC and BYU servers shut down on Monday during our email time so I wasn't able to send pictures and email back everyone but it's all good. This week has just gone by SO fast!! I don't even know where to start, I feel like my mind goes blank as soon as I open up a new email haha. Best news this week is that Sister Garrish's foot is looking good to we're thinking she'll be able to come out with us on Sep. 7th!! Raise the roof! My district has been the bomb looking out for us and being really friendly, they always wait for us when we go to meals and carry Sis. Garrish's scooter thing down the stairs so I don't have to. It's the BEST. Meals here have been.. bad haha. There are so many missionaries here that we have to wait in line for like thirty minutes at every meal IF they don't run out of food, then it's cereal for dinner. It's been fine though, we get enough which is what's important. 

I'm learning a lot in class but having a hard time with the sentence structure. In Ilonggo, they start with the verb, then the focus, then the object and then the location. So everything is like "go we cafeteria". Also something funny we learned that to say "The people killed Jesus" you say Ginpatay ni JesuCristo ang mga tawo" but if you say "Ginpatay si Jesucristo sang mga tawo" you say "Jesus Christ killed the people" WHOOPSIE. I said it accidentally in the lesson and the investigator looked horrified haha whoopsies. Our teachers tell us to think like cavemen and that's been helping a little bit haha. We've learned a few gestures this week too and they taught me the lip thing where you point to something with your lips. Bro. Meek does it ALL the time on accident it's so funny. 

Sister Cherry, Sister Pito and Sister T leave this week :( They're awesome and so funny, I'll miss them a lot. My favorite thing to do with them is our evening prayer, we say it in the language we're learning and then whoever said the prayer says something nice about everyone before we go to bed so we're always ending the day right. They leave on Wednesday :(( I got called to Sister Training Leader though with Sister Gonzales and Sister Garrish so we got to take care of the girls coming in on Wednesday!! Wooo!!

Highlight of this week has been blaming everything on Satan haha. I took off my shoes when we got back to the residence one night and Sister Gonzales said "WHOA that smells awful DANG IT SATAN!!" it makes me laugh SO HARD every time haha she's the best. 

Wow I really can't think of anything else other than just going to class, eating (or maybe not...), and sleeping. Thanks to everyone for the emails and loves, I really appreciate them! You guys rock!!! 

Sister Pope

1) This is the zone leaders wallpaper on their phone... yes that is Elder Mills

2) So 500 spoons are missing from the MTC cafeteria and nobody can find them... #MTCprobs

3) Our district! Minus Elder Kortus and Elder Charters, they were very lost that day haha. It goes Elder Green, Elder Robins, Elder Taufa (not in our district.. photobomb haha), Elder Mills, Elder Brown, Elder Mahaffey, Elder Kelly, Me!!, Sister Garrish, and Sister Gonzales. They're all AWESOME!!!

4) Elder Green and Elder Robins, the new zone leaders!!!!!

5) Elder Glenn and Elder Matsen in our district, everytime we see them we just say KUU-MOO-STAAAHH!! 

Week 2: SUBONG!

Kamusta everyone! 

It feels weird to be typing on this computer right now, I've already been sucked into the time warp that is the MTC. People are not kidding when they say days drag on FOREVER and then the whole week is gone and you're wondering where the time went. It's crazy! But all and all the time I've had here has been amazing. The language has been coming along well but I've learned something tricky about it. I thought that Hiligaynon and Ilonggo where the same language but apparently they are pretty different. They speak Ilonggo in Bacolod and it's completely based off Hiligaynon, but it has spanish and cebuano influences in it whereas all of Hiligaynon is it's own words. So there's a lot our teacher tries to correct and fix when he's teaching. He'll say stuff like "well the book says this but really everyone says..." It's kind of frustrating because we can't study ahead since everything is pretty much wrong but God know that I need to be more patient and I'm trying. 

We didn't do a whole lot this week, it's really just a cycle of exercise, food, class, food, study, class, food, study. We got a new "investigator" this week and we'll be teaching her on Wednesday. Sometimes I have dreams where I get to teach my investigators in English. They're never reality. HA. It's cool though because the language sounds so amazing. We get to do sessions at the temple on our p-day too which has been awesome, especially with the other missionaries. It was fine at St. Louis but there were only a bunch of old people in our sessions (not the I don't love old people, I do, they're amazing); it was just nice to have some people my age.

The food here is a time-food warp too because some mornings I feel SO fat in my clothes and by the end of the day I swear I've lost ten pounds. The MTC really is a magical place kiddos!!! 

I leave off on two funny singing stories: we have exercise in the morning so it's only my two companions and the other three sisters in our zone in there and they ALWAYS ask me to sing songs and one of the sisters from Samoa wants me to sing the National Anthem haha she's so cute. But anyways, the sister from Tahiti, Sister Pito, only knows the first part of the Jurassic Park theme song and she'll have random words go along with the tune and she'll just sing it over and over. She's too cute. Also, my companion Sister Gonzales sings the hymn "Today, While the Sun Shines" but instead of saying "today" on the chorus, she'll sing the ilonggo word for "now" and sing at the top of her lungs "SUBONG! SUBONG! WORK WITH A WILL!" It makes me laugh everytime and she gets it stuck in the whole district's head. HA. She's such a gift. 

Anyways, that's about it for this week. I think I might've said this last week but this Elder at the MTC keeps getting my DearElders. His name is Elder Alec Pope. FUNNY. He gets my mail but doesn't send it back to me and just throws it away. NOT FUNNY. I got all of them starting from last Tuesday though (because I spoke strongly at him during a mission conference and couldn't yell) so I should be able to get them now. Thank you all so much for your support and caring! It means the world. Talk to you all next week! Palangga taka! 

Love,

Sister Pope

1) All the elders in our class had to do push ups because... actually I can't remember why haha but Elder Green did 50!!

2) My name tag <3 <3 I love to see the temple

3) Us by the Philippines!!! Three more weeks.

4) Sister Gonzales is from the Philippines and brought this fan with her. Literally its the only things that keeps me alive when we sit outside for PCL.

Week 1: MTC AND MY DISTRICT

HELLO EVERYONE!!!

It's been my first week at the MTC and it's been just so crazy I can hardly believe it. I was beginning to believe that p-day would never come haha. We got to do laundry and things today though so it's all maayo! First couple of days was tough, especially having no idea what my teacher is saying to me mostly all of the time but it's all around been an awesome experience. DISCLAIMER: Missions are really hard. But I'm learning to humble myself and get into the work without thinking about myself too much. 

I got put into a trio companionship with Sister Garrish and Sister Gonzalez since we're the only three sisters in our district and then the only three of six in our entire zone. Lots of boys. 18 year old, silly, dumb boys. But incredibly spiritual and very helpful in learning the language. (one of them asked me what dryer sheets were and if you put them in the washer or dryer. WHO RAISED YOU?!!?) On the third day out here when we had exercise time, Sis. Garrish landed on her foot wrong and broke it. Dang it right?? So please please PLEASE send your prayers towards her. Her foot is in a boot right now and we need all the time at the MTC for her to heal and then some miracle for her to come out to the Philippines with us because if things don't work out, she'll have to go back home to get surgery and then come back in two months and we SO don't want that. (unless that's what's supposed to happen, but we want her to come with us).

You all could've expected this, but my teacher speaks in mostly/all hiligaynon which made my mind explode the first day but I've actually learned so much. Everyone here asks if I learned the language before (why yes actually I took hiligaynon in high school???). It's fun though. My companions make fun of me a lot that I have a connection to everyone here and I think it's true. People will tell me where they're from or where they're going and I've either been there or know someone there. I actually met someone at the gym that grew up in Arvada and was childhood friends with my roommate's husband, Kevin. HA. Our first lesson with an "investigator" was on Friday and I almost cried/threw up after it I was so upset with myself and frustrated haha. I couldn't say anything I wanted to and if you speak in English the investigator pretends like he doesn't understand you and it's really hard BUT we had our second lesson on Monday and our lesson was AMAZING. He read the Book of Mormon and we committed him to baptism *fist pump* I know it's just an actor but I was still SO happy. Also my left toe has been numb the whole week I've been here, even when I'm not wearing shoes and it's freaking me out. If anyone can tell me what that is please let me know so I can convince myself I don't have some debilitating disease haha. 

On the rest of the days, we just have six hours of class and then four hours of PCL (personal, companion, language study) and it's helped me to SYL (speak your language) a lot. Also I saw Kyle and Nick at the temple on Sunday! It was such a tender mercy since I had hoped to see them all week and they just happened to have their time at the temple be the same as mine. They're doing amazing in Chinese and can't wait till we're all out in Asia. All and all, I'm so happy to be here and cannot wait for my roommates to get their mission calls!! Seriously so proud of them. Also mega shout-out to Morgan Higdon and Elizabeth Melby. Their letters kept me alive this week fr. I cried haha. Also thank you to my family who wrote me DearElders, I love getting those so much. 

Anyways, to close, here's a few things I learned this week:

- I am really bad at volleyball

- the Lord makes you be humble when you need to learn something

- I have amazing friends that email me

- the sisters in my zone keep me goin 

- hiligaynon is really hard 

Other than that, I have a zillion pictures to share so enjoy! I miss you all so much and love you all. Also I've gotten a couple emails asking for my address so here it is:

Sister Alyssa Pope

SEP-14 PHI-BAC

2005N 900E UNIT 115

PROVO, UT 84602

Kabalo ako nga matuod and Libro ni Mormon kag buhi ni JesuCristo. (wrote that from memory yay!!! It says I know the book of mormon is true and Jesus Christ lives) Love you guys!!! Until next week. 

Sister Pope 

1) Sister Gonzalez, Sister Garrish and I getting ready for the day

2) Our awesome teacher brother Meek!!

3) Our district leader, Elder Mills

4) Sister Gonzalez saying her evening prayers under a blanket. She feel asleep under there hahaha.

5)Roomies/companions!!! From right to left: Sister Cherry, Sister Pito, Sister Tagage, me, Sister Gonzalez and Sister Garrish. I'll write more about them next week when I have more time.

6) Me and Sister T!! She lets me hug her everyday and says "If you fight, I fight. If you go home, I go home". She's the best

7) Elders from our Zone! On the left is Elder Green and on the right is Elder Glenn. Both awesome guys.

8) Best part of the week by far!!! Loved running into these guys at the temple, especially with Elder Daines leaving just today. 

9) fanning myself off with the "Our Purpose" poster. I'm going to die in the Philippines haha.

MIND THE GAP

I've at long last gone on my trip to England and it was just an adventure after another and so much fun. I was there from last Friday to the following Saturday morning and it was everything I hoped it would be. I'll just go day by day:

FRIDAY:

We got in at around 7:00 am and checked into our airbnb in Fulham, which ended up being the cutest city ever to be in. 

Our passports, waiting at the O'Hare airport 

The view down Parsons Green Lane

We took a 5 hour nap because we were really jet-lagged and then Claire drug me through the tube to a mystery location as a surprise for my birthday. We got off at Hyde Park and I put two and two together -- we were going to the British Summertime Concert Series!! In short, it meant that I was going to see one of my favorite bands of all time in person (Mumford & Sons). We got to the park at 5ish so we saw Alabama Shakes perform and waited around in our spots before Mumford came out. The place got absolutely packed as soon as they started performing and EVERYBODY had a beer in their hand. Pretty soon everyone around us was binge drinking and getting really drunk but when the English get drunk, they just get really silly but are still really polite and friendly. Needless to say, the concert was absolutely amazing and the concert plus the jet-lag made us all tired enough to sleep well that night.

Marcus Mumford breaking my heart with his gorgeous voice

SATURDAY:

This was a pretty cool day mixed with touristy stuff and countryside stuff. We went down to the most basic tourist place ever, Parliament/London Eye, and took pictures. We took a tour through Parliament as well which was really neat, although I really don't understand British politics.

Among British politics, I don't understand British traffic 

At every stop a recording says "MIND THE GAP BETWEEN THE TRAIN AND THE PLATFORM"

After we finished being tourists for the day, we took a train out to Haslemere to meet up with family-friends of the Huberts. We ate at a six-hundred year old inn called "The Crown" in Chiddingfold and it was just so cute. I had a hamburger for dinner with fries and it was SO much food but I didn't want to be rude so I forced myself to eat every bite. Our drive back to the train station was so beautiful, English countryside is everything it's hyped up to be. I truly felt like a Jane Austen character.

SUNDAY:

We woke up SO LATE, probably around 2 pm and we were so tired still. I meant to go to a YSA ward that was a few tube stops away from where we were staying but I totally missed the meeting and felt like a sinner. We decided to keep the day low-key in accordance with Sunday so we went to the National Gallery and looked at paintings. I was mostly excited for the Van Gogh's, which did not disappoint.

MONDAY:

This was a pretty big day for us. We took a train a little up North and got to go through the Harry Potter studio tour! It sounds cool, but being there in person was just so unreal. There are so many props there that fans are very familiar with that are just everywhere around sets and display cases. My favorite part were seeing all the props that they used in the different scenes, it's insane how much detail the design teams went into creating everything.

 Harry's bed

 If you look in the background you can see the golden snitch that Harry caught in his first Quidditch game and NEVILLE'S REMEMBRALL !!!!!!

 Just hangin' in the Great Hall after the start-of-term feast nbd

Sirius' family tapestry 

^^^^ NEVER 

Remember this from the movies? Me neither. They did tons of stuff like this in crazy detail 

Takin' the Knight Bus 

This was at the very end and amazing. If you look the the furthermost right side of the photo you can see some people standing by it for scale. It was pretty big.

We took the train back to our apartment and changed into nicer clothes for the theatre. We went to see Romeo and Juliet at Garrick theatre and it was pretty cool. Lily James (Cinderella) was Juliet and Richard Madden was SUPPOSED to be Romeo but he was sick, Needless to say, I was very salty he wasn't in it seeing as he plays the total babe Robb Stark in Game of Thrones. Nevertheless it was a really good show and a good way to end the night.

TUESDAY:

Another pretty lazy day for us, we woke up around 11 am and wandered around Fulham Street doing nothing in particular. We had reservations at the Ritz at Palm Court so we took the tube down there and got seated immediately. First off, the bathroom was insane. They called it a "powder room" (so proper) and they had great big mirrors all over the place so there were several ladies standing next to them and legit powdering their nose. I have no idea how they let riff-raff like me in. We ordered the normal "afternoon tea" and got so many little sandwiches and "puddings" (English for dessert. Idk man.) I ordered the one tea on the menu that a Mormon like me would be able to drink (chamomile) and it was actually so yummy. By the end of it, we were filled to the rafters with finger sandwiches and scones.

Filled with tea, we took the tube to Queen's Theatre for Les Miserables and man it was just mind-blowing. Everyone in it did such an incredible job and their staging was out of this world. The center of the stage rotated around so they did the production walking on a moving platform and moving the scenes in one continuous motion. That may not make sense but just know it was really cool. 

WEDNESDAY:

This day was a butt-clencher. The whole reason we even thought about coming out to London was to see the new Harry Potter and the Cursed Child play... which we did not have tickets to. The only way you could get them was either via the "Friday Forty" raffle that they do every Friday or waiting outside the theatre in line at an ungodly hour to get tickets that somebody gave up. The raffle proved to be impossible because thousands of people would get on the website for the raffle. The odds were so not in our favor. We went to the box office a little after 7 am (doesn't sound too bad but with jet-lag it was a NIGHTMARE) and waited in line behind six other potter-heads. Slowly, people accumulated behind us in hopes to get their golden ticket but none of us could know if there were even tickets available until 10 am. When 10 am came, a woman came out and said something briefly about there being "several" tickets and took the first two people in line inside the box office. All of us were freaking out because we have no idea what "several" was supposed to mean. At long last it was our turn and the woman offered us tickets 10 rows away from the front for £100. Now that sounds like a lot, because it is. But we waited in line and our whole trip was designed around it so we just went for it. I'm SO GLAD that we did because it ended up being the best show I have ever seen ever ever ever.

Ran into Brian Goyda in line to go into Part One?!?? I went to high school with this goofy kid

The show was done in two parts, each with two acts so four acts in total, adding up to be about six hours of the show. I would talk about the show but... #keepthesecrets. The book/script comes out July 31st though and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND Harry Potter fans to read it. 

THURSDAY:

This day was nothing short of magical. We didn't have anything planned for the day other than going out to Highclere Castle (aka Downton Abbey) so we didn't get our day started until 10ish. We went out to lunch before we took the tube to the train station and then rode the train out to Newbury. We were met by our cabbie there, who then took us to the castle grounds which are nothing short of amazing. We toured throughout the castle and got to see all the rooms that Downton Abbey was filmed in and all the rooms that Downton Abbey ~wasn't~ filmed in. They use a lot of the same rooms for filming, they probably don't use half the castle for the show at all, which is insane because the show already makes the estate like huge. The grounds surrounding the castle are also beautiful, with green rolling hills and tons of sheep in the distance. 

Welcome to my crib 

 Land like this surrounded the castle for miles

The weather stayed nice all day and we even got sunshine a couple of times. We didn't leave until they closed at around 6 pm and I had barely eaten anything all day so we went to a pub near our flat and I was a total Brit and ordered fish and chips. I literally devoured the whole thing and didn't leave a single scrap on my plate.

mmmMMMmmm

FRIDAY:

Our last day to do stuff! It felt like the last day though, the trip felt really long. We went to the Tower of London to see the crown jewels (which were obscenely showered in diamonds) and I got to make a few new friends.

I was pretty tickled that they let me stand so close to them and not fly away. I guess we had a real connection.

The last couple of things we wanted to do were pretty nerdy so we went to Kings Cross so we could go through Platform 9 and 3/4 and then swung by Baker Street to creep around Sherlock's apartment. A pretty ideal way to end our trip to England.

SLYTHERIN 4 LYFE

 Benedict Cumberbatch ilysm

Our flight was at 7 am the next morning which resulted in about a total of 13 hours of travel. All of it was 100% worth it. I can't wait to go back one day because I for sure am going back.