你好 from Sydney! : Week 2 - Snippets from my letter home.

Ni hao!

I hope you all are doing well!!! It's been the longest week ever...but it's been good for the most part. We're finally starting to get into a routine which is nice.

Our typical day:

6:30 Wake Up

7:00 Breakfast

7:35 Workout

8:55 Personal Study

9:55 Companionship Study

10:55 Language Study

11:55 Lunch

12:30 Additional Study Time

1:30 Class/or teach an investigator

4:30 Dinner

5:15 Class/teach an investigator

8:30 Additional Study time

9:00 Planning

9:30 Return to Residence

10:30 Lights out

It gets a little redundant but it's been good. We switch our exercise every day so sometimes we do weights, or cardio, or play soccer or four square. I actually made a couple of goals playing soccer!! :) apparently I'm good? Just kidding.

The stress is starting to come, but I've been trying to keep a good balance of food, exercise, fun, and studying in my life. I think it's working...I haven't had a meltdown yet, so that's good!

I keep running into random people that I know, like one kid I went to EFY with 4 years ago. Or I see people from college, or siblings of people I know. I said goodbye to Sister Whittaker last night. She's so amazing and I know she'll do wonders in Budapest!!

I love my district! We've had some fun this week... Just joking around, being normal people and not uptight missionaries. Elder Wheeler just keeps telling us the funniest stories from the army and Elder Vaughn is the little brother that we all love. He's the one going to Sydney with me. Oh yeah, I met people from Oz who know the mission/presidents pretty well. So, I've talked to them about it. I've also gotten to know my zone really well this last week. They're all so fun and funny as well as so spiritual. It's so cool! I love my zone. We're like one giant Chinese speaking family! We have missionaries going to Taipei, Taichung, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Auckland, and stateside. It's pretty cool

My Chinese just keeps on growing...it's a lot of work and studying, but I've really enjoyed it. Wu lao shi asks me to translate for him quite a bit...The other missionaries in my district are also really improving. It's really cool to watch and witness the Lord's hand in all of our lives. I actually am "studying" the scriptures now, and there is so much power and truth to them. I love it. My testimony of the Book of Mormon keeps growing. I know that the Lord inspires us when we read the BoM. Even without specifically looking for something, I'll come across a scripture in my personal study that will help with a lesson or it's something that I just needed to hear.

I love being in an environment where we're all here for the same reasons, and that is to invite and help others come unto Christ. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is just so wonderful and brings so much happiness into our lives. We see that happiness and light of Christ in every missionary here at the MTC. It's absolutely beautiful. The random testimonies, or scriptures that people share, or random insights can bring so much light into our lives.