Nimen hao!

Nimen hao!

We hit our one month mark last Friday, I can't even believe that it has already been a month.Time has flown by! It has been amazing to see how everyone has progressed in such little time, it just testifies that with the Lord anything is possible!

This week has just been spiritual experience after spiritual experience, and I love it!

Monday: We had class that night and it was the first time the whole entire 3 hours was spoken in Chinese. A tad bit overwhelming at first, but it actually was really good! I didn't understand everything but I understood a lot more than I thought I would. At the end of class our teacher shared with us the Christmas Story of the 3 trees. How just like the trees we have a plan of what we want to do, but God has another plan for us. We may not always understand at first why he cuts us down and makes us into what we are. But if we go forth with faith and have patience we will be able to see what God has in store for us. I know that this is applicable to our own lives because I have gone through that same process. I'm still not sure what his exact plan for me is but I know that whatever it is that it is better that anything I could have planned.

Tuesday: The biggest thing that happened Tuesday was our devotional. Oh my goodness, it was fei chang hao! I had gotten a little annoyed with some people that day, and going into the devotional I was a tad bit bitter. I was humbled and chastened very quickly. Both talks were about charity, love and kindness. The first speaker (Sister Waddell) talked about loving kindness, and how no matter what people do love them! The second speaker (Bishop Waddell) talked about what our missionary purpose is: inviting others unto Christ through loving and serving them. What we should expect: it will be the most rewarding, frustrating, hardest thing we will ever do. But also that every mission is designed personally. Look for what Christ wants me to learn. Also what is expected of me: We are on the Lord's time not our own. He also talked about loving our companions and that when we get frustrated with them never think about what they are doing wrong but think about what you can do to change. So my goal sense then has been to be a better companion and serving others in the little ways.

Wednesday: It was a super special day, our zone all fasted together for our two missionaries with torn ACLs. We got good and some not so good news. The Australian Elder from my district is able to stay to finish his time at the MTC but then will go home for surgery and when his recovery time is over come join us in Taiwan. The Sister from the youngest district had to go home Thursday for surgery. We all miss her so much, but I'm so happy that she is getting everything fixed now so she can back sooner! Our district got to be hosts for new missionaries. It was so exciting! No surprise but I cried waiting for the missionaries to come, I just felt so much love for them. I also felt all those nervous and exciting feelings I had when I came in. It was just so amazing to see others leave their families in order to serve the Lord. This work is absolutely amazing! I am so grateful for the opportunity to be part of God's army in the Latter Day! Also a little funny thing when I started to cry two of the Elders from my district pulled out little tissue packets from their pockets and told me they have started to carry these around just because they know I cry a lot. hahaha super sweet of them! Last thing from that day, I was getting a little overwhelmed with some of the vocab and I was struggling to see my progression throughout the week. I was paired up with one of the Elders for language study activity and he asked me what I was frustrated about. So I quickly told him, and he gave me some pretty good advice. He told me that he could see me studying super hard and putting in a lot of effort. He compared it to going to volleyball practice everyday and working super hard. But I was choosing not to play in the game. He told me very bluntly that I needed to open my mouth, or I would never progress. So that is what I've been doing, and to no surprise it has made a difference. I've made mistakes but I've learned form them all! Super grateful for the constant reminders I have of my purpose.

Thursday: Honestly I don't remember what happened this day. Our last class ended with just us laughing super hard and our teacher telling stories. And when we were writing in our journals that night we were still laughing super hard so I didn't write down much. But our district was able to bond over that. I love them all so much! They are my brothers and sisters, I don't know what I would be doing without them.

Friday: We hit the one month mark, and our halfway mark at the MTC. As a district we were super excited but also super sad! We all have loved our time together at the MTC, and to know it's almost over is sad. But we are also super excited to get out in the field! One of the sisters that leave next week described it as a ship in the harbor, we are learning and growing here but our purpose isn't to sit in a harbor. It is to go out into the world and share his gospel! In a month am going to have the opportunity to leave the harbor and go out into the world to share his wonderful message! I get giddy just thinking about it!

Saturday: We had our last in person member TRC, the last two went really rough! But this was soooooooooo good! My comp and I were unified, our Chinese wasn't perfect but it was so much better! We understood partially what the people were saying. We left the lessons feeling great! I know that my comp and I prepared well for the TRC but it was not us teaching that lesson. It was the Holy Ghost and because of him it went to so well. I know that if we are in-tune with spirit he will take over and make it 100X better than we ever could!

Sunday: It was our last fast Sunday in the MTC. One of the sisters also mentioned how it was 2 of our 18 fast Sundays while on our mission. Broke my heart! It is going by so fast, and before I know it will be over. I'm not going to waste a minute of it! We had an amazing devotional from our MTC presidency about the relationship between the Savior and Peter. They compared their relationship to ours. "You were called to walk on the water. God will raise you out of the water you are struggling with." How amazing is that?!? I know that is true and no matter what we go through the Lord is reaching out to help us, all we need to do is reach for his hand. After the devotional as a district we celebrated one of our Elder's birthdays! We had cake, we sang him about 5 different songs in both english and chinese, we also had birthday hats and the little noisy blowy thingies. It was a hoot and a half.

Ah I forgot after the Tuesday night devotional I had this encounter: people were being really slow at walking down the stairs. So an Elder says to his companion, "uhhh I just wanna shove everyone down the stairs, but I can't shove the sisters". So I say, "You can shove the other side, it's just Elders." So the Elder in front of him goes, "Elder you can't shove me." And the original Elder goes, "Elder, I will shove you all the way to the Celestial Kingdom haha". So I respond, "ummm in that case, you can go ahead and shove me to the Celestial Kingdom." Then he goes, "I can't Sister, that's inappropriate contact, but I can politely invite you haha" It was probably the best invite I ever had!

I know this church is true and I love all of it with my whole soul/heart! I am so happy to be able to be sharing this gospel!

I love you all so much!
Love, Bao Jie Mei