So! Cebuano is awesome! I love it so much! It only has 20 letters in the alphabet so there are a lot of words that sound super similar and are hard to pick out. For example: Dili means "no" but Diri means "here." Ready for your super fast Cebuano lesson??
Cebuano in Cebuano is Bisaya. Its a very phonetic language. Just use the Spanish vowels ( ah, a, e, o, oo) and say every sound. Ex: Kauban (companion) would be pronounced: kah-oo-ban. Also, I learned that mga (pronounced munga) makes things plural. I'll use some Bisaya in this email, but let me know if thats annoying and I'll stop! Pero(but) I have learned so much ug(and) I want to mag share share with you!!!!
SO! I have duha mga kauban!! (2 companions)! They are amazing! I love them so much! I am so lucky to have them becuase they are great! Sister Nye is from Logan Utah and she wants to major in statistics! She even brought a calculator on the mission and has used it 3 or 4 times! So so funny! We get along so well and we are very similar people! Except shes way funnier than I am and loves to have a good time. Sister Kolo is from Tonga! She is so cool and so sweet and has such great faith. I'll tell more about that later. She is beautiful and has the best hair! I'm jealous because its so long and gorgeous and when I told her that{I cut my hair}, she almost scolded me and told me to never cut my hair again! hahaha, so fun! I love her! Sometimes she asks if she can pray in Tongan because she feels more comfortable doing that and its awesome! We also learned that I love you in Tongan is Ofa atu. We work super well together and its great. We have a hard time being on time all the time, because there are three of us, but we are working on it.
So! My second day in the MTC, I was assigned to be a sister training leader.... crazy right? Also its not as easy as I thought. We have one sister, in our room who has been struggling. She's actually Tongan too, but she grew up in Cali. But yeah, she has not been following the rules about going to bed on time and being in our room on time and even snuck out once. Good thing I'm a light sleeper... that was a rough night. Needless to say, I've been called a stick in the mud and been told that I come off a little strong, but I have faith that when we choose to be exactly obedient, miracles happen. And I need a miracle to learn this language. So yeah, there have been many tears shed already with me trying to study how to become a better leader that is loved and respected and not hated. I had to call my mission president yesterday about her sneaking out.. so yeah, lots has happened in my first week, pero(but) I think things are finally on the up and up. The other sister and my branch president (who is PRESIDENT MULLEN!!!! He says hi!!!) keep telling me that I'm doing the right thing and that they respect me for sticking to my guns and doing whats right even when I'm terrified to do it. SO that has been very helpful!
We have already taught 5 lessons sa(in) Bisaya! Super nindot!(nice) Our inbestigator's name is Diane and she is awesome! We love her! She's golden! We started off on Friday with notes and essentially read a script and the Spirit was not there. The next time we went in with a memorized script and we still didn't feel the spirit, but is was slightly better. Then for the 3rd lesson, we had no idea what to teach her because we didn't know how to ask questions and even if we could ask questions, we couldn't understand a word she said. Sister Kolo with all of her faith suggested we prepare ourselves by learning as many basic words as we could and just following the spirit. So we did and that was one of our best lessons. We learned that her parents were Catholic and that she was afraid to tell her parents that she was interested in our church. In very broken Cebuano, we testified of faith in Jesus Christ and that it brings such power into our lives to do whatever hard things we need to do. We invited her to tell her parents and to read the Basahon ni Mormon and to pray. The next lesson, she told us she felt the gugma sa Dios (love of God) while reading it. AND THEN! In our lesson yesterday, we planned to ask her to follow Jesus Christ and be baptized, but she practically asked us if she could get baptized!!! We then asked her formally and she was so excited! The spirit was so strong and even though she is a pretend investigator, it was a neat experience.
Also, the gift of tongues is real!!! I am by no meant bisdak (fluent) in any way, pero (but), I can understand most of what our investigator and teacher says. But only when I have the spirit with me! Also, Sister Nye and I got to be in the MTC choir for a devotional with Dallin H. Oaks. When he walked in, I felt this warmth wash over me and I just cannot deny those powerful confirmations of the truth of the restored gospel. This devo was also broadcast to all the MTC's in the world! So grandpa might've seen me on TV, pero wa ko kahibao. (but I dont know).
Sister Kolo, Me, ug Sister Nye on our first day!
SIster Nye and I the first time we got to exercise!
I got a bottom bunk!!!
My desk :) My towels are super nidot btw!
These are all of my cebuano books! THe bible is so cool! Oh! and dont worry... I have the same copy of each sa Ingles. SO MANY BOOKS!!!
Not my grestest selfie, but no shame :) Akong mga kauban!
We got to go to ang templo karon adlaw (the temple today)!!! Super nindot (nice!!
My distrikt is super nindot(nice)! I love them so much and we have so much fun learning Bisaya together!!! Akong mga Elder are a little immature at times but they are so nice to us mga Sister and they have great testimonies.
The picture with all of my roomies: Sis. Veitch from Canada, Sis. Hingano from Cali, ug akong mga kauban.
The selfie at the Temple: SIster Smith ( a solo sister from Idaho who is speaking Hiligaynon and has been here 3 weeks, the other sister training leader), Sister Kolo, Sister Nye, me, Sister Eyeslee, ug Sister McKendrick from Florida. Only me and akong mga kauban are going to Tacloban. Everyone else is going to Cebu.
Fun fact: Taclo- means to cover. So Tacloban is the place that is covered... cool but also sad. Also, you say Tah-cloh-ban... like it looks :) SO I've heard that the missionaries going to the Philippines have been delayed because of the weather!!! Would you mind checking up on that for me??
I love you all so much and I miss you! I hope school is going well and good luck with everything being so different with our new ward and stake boundaries! I told President Mullen that our ward and stake boundaries are changing and he said it should automatically fix itself.. like being able to pay for my mission in a different ward and stake shouldnt be a problem.
I know that this is the Lord's work because otherwise I could not do the things I have done in 1 week!!! I am so grateful for the gift of tongues and for the enabling power sa pag-ula ni Jesukristo! Nasayud ako nga importante ang Basahon ni Mormon
(in the atonement of Jesus Christ! I know the Book of Mormon is important)! I love this gospel with all my heart! Until next week!!!
Sister Osmun
P.S. I have gotten up at or before 6:30 every single day of the mission, walay (no) problema so far and I haven't hit snooze once! And my headaches have left for the most part and I feel so good! If being able to get up on time isn't a miracle para ako (for me), I dont know what is!!! Also. I found out that I WILL be going to the Manila MTC on my 7th week and I'll get to go to the temple there! So excited!!!
Lots of love!
XOXOXOXOXOXOX
