Kumusta!!!!

Well, I cannot believe that it has already been 5 weeks. I have passed the halfway point and am now on the downward slope toward the field! It's crazy! And pretty terrifying. I can't believe that I will ever be good enough at Tagalog, let alone in 4 weeks from now. The language gets tougher and tougher, especially now that we speak only Tagalog in class. We try to set goals for our district, our companionship and of course personal goals, but it's still pretty dang hard. But I have faith, it's pretty much all you can have to think you'll learn the language. Thankfully I am a missionary. The Lord does bless missionaries in special ways. Language is definitely one of those. Before I left a friend told me that I needed to learn the language as fast as I could so that I could share my story with investigators. I think she is totally right, and that has been driving me. I have so much to share about the gospel, and I want to be able to do it! So thankfully, all things are possible with the Lord. ;)

So, I actually have some news! Well it's news here, to you it may not be, but to me its a pretty big deal. The senior districts in our zone are leaving soon and so they had to reorganize the leadership. We got 2 new zone leaders and a new district leader because our old one became the new zone leader. And... I got assigned to be the coordinating sister. You probably don't know what that is if you haven't been to the MTC, but basically I am responsible for all the sisters in the branch and have to report info to the branch president. I figured it was coming because it's only me and my companion that are sisters in the senior zone now, so it was either me or her. She got called to be the music person... I'm jealous. But I am grateful for the assignment, it will allow me to get to know the sisters better and I'm hoping will give me greater blessings with the language and teaching since I will have to spend less time on that to complete this assignment. haha... I know that's probably not how it will work, and I'll just have to work harder, but I can hope, right?

We lost one of our teachers this week. She's taught here for 3 years and apparently the MTC has a limit. So she had to go. It was awful, she was crying, I was crying. She was such a great teacher and I felt a lot of commonality with her and so I just felt like I had a built in personal support system. I was pretty down about it for a day and then realized I had to just move along. I really like our other teacher and apparently our new one is pretty cool, so hopefully we don't miss a beat with anything. It's crazy how attached you get to people here. Yesterday I had to leave my companion to go to meetings associated with this new assignment. It felt so weird! I didn't like it. I also had to be with the zone leaders, which may have contributed to it. :) No, I love the elders too, but not as much as my companion.

Speaking of which, here is my best spiritual experience to date. We had to teach a principle only in Tagalog this week. We were practicing with the district in the other zone that is the same age as us. They went first and of course were struggling, because we all still suck pretty bad. Then it got to us. I was trying to do my best and then I turned to my companion. She totally froze up. One of the elders tried to take the pressure off her by asking me a question, but I still wanted her to have a chance to contribute. She froze up again. I could tell she was really struggling. She just couldn't get the words out. Then the same elder gave her this amazing pep talk. I chimed in as well. We just tried to encourage her to just tell us a simple testimony. She finally got out a few lines and I just want you all to know that I haven't felt the spirit more strongly since I've been at the MTC, than I did in that room. I could just feel her testimony. Even though she couldn't say it. It was amazing. It was exactly what all of our teachers have been telling us about. How to teach with the spirit. Keep it simple. That was exactly what happened and it was amazing. I don't think I'll ever forget that feeling. It is amazing what the Lord can do with weak and imperfect people. It's impossible not to have faith in this work and faith in yourself when you have such a power on your side.

Well, I love you all and hope everything is going well. Let me know how your lives are!

Mahal ko kayo!

Sister Jackson