Week 5 - Hump Day

Getting ready for Asia with cutesy chopsticks and practicing the classic Asian photo pose

Sister Lew and Sister Fisher

你们好！

So this week we hit HUMP DAY! I can't believe I've been here for a month already. It feels like I just got here, but it also feels like I've been here FOREVER. The time is starting to speed up though.

This week was pretty good, nothing terribly exciting happened.
It rained last week, so the missionaries decided not to be missionaries for 10 minutes, and danced in the rain and jumped in puddles.

Devotional on Tuesday was about why missionaries go to the Temple before they leave, and the importance of making and keeping sacred covenants, and performing Temple ordinances.

I hosted on Wednesday, and two of the girls I hosted were converts and had amazing stories. It's so cool to see how the Gospel reaches people in endless ways. I can't wait to work with people and to hopefully change their lives. I got the package of circus animals and fruit snacks! THANK YOU :)

On Thursday, during our study time, 5 missionaries came up to us at different times to practice bearing their testimony, some in foreign languages, so that was really cool.

One of the sisters phrased a mission as "in our whole lifespan, sacrificing 18 months is nothing, but those 18 months are everything and will change our lives, and what we do in those 18 months can give people an eternity".  I absolutely loved that because it's SO true!  

I got donuts and a package from the Rudds, so that was really sweet.  Thursday was also the day I found out about all of my visa issues, so that wasn't fun. 

The scarf was sent by Sis. Rudd

The Rudds also send doughnuts!

During class that day, we learned how to teach the Plan of Salvation in a simple way to those without a Christian background, because that's what we've been struggling with the past few lessons with our investigators. They have no concept of God and Satan, so it's hard to explain the Fall and the whole Plan of Salvation. It was really interesting trying to learn how to explain this to people who have no idea about God.

That night, we had District Donut time, and in order to have a donut, everyone had to share their love-life stories. That was so much fun. Our district has so much fun hanging out together. I absolutely love them! It was so funny, so, someone called Elder Elliott an idiot for something he did, and then Sister Jenkins says, "it's pronounced Elliot" (a quote from the movie 'Open Season'), and everyone just sat in silence and then busted out laughing, because it was so awkward and no one knew how to respond.

Friday was pretty good. We talked about the importance of commitments and agency in order for real conversion to occur. If we don't have the desire to keep these commitments, then we can't be properly converted. These commitments are essential because they help us live the Gospel standards the way God wants us to.

I got my hump day package that day, which made me REALLY excited!! The pictures and notes were so cute, thanks :) Elder Elliott, got 3 boxes of donuts that day from some anonymous person, so we had District Donut time #2. This time, we had to share our first impressions of everyone. That was really funny. Mine was usually "She's Chinese, why is she here?"

Saturday was officially Hump Day. We had our last Mandarin Sister Soccer during gym with the Taichung (older) sisters. We had TRC, which was good. We talked about the importance of revelation through the Book of Mormon. We had good discussions with the volunteers. The spirit was so strong in guiding our lesson. I

I saw Sister Jordyn Hansen on Saturday! So that was fun! She got in on Wednesday. Saturday nights are never productive...we have our study time from 5:15-9:00, and it's just so hard to focus. I ended up falling asleep during my study, because I was exhausted and the weather was beautiful outside...perfect napping weather. Then we hung out with some of the elders from the other districts in our zone. It's been really fun just getting to know everyone. Then we had our hump day party with our district, and everyone brought a ton of food. That was a lot of fun.

Sunday.... Sister Fisher and I got called to be Sister Training Leaders for our zone!! We had made deals before, and I could've sworn Sister Jenkins and Sister Strong were going to be it. But I'm excited to be a STL and to work with and serve the sisters in our zone. I already love them so much. Sunday was full of training and leadership meetings for Sister Fisher and I. Sacrament Meeting was kind of sad because the Taichung district is leaving, and they sang their farewell song. They sang "Nearer My God to Thee" a capella in Chinese, and I just started crying. I've become so close to all of them in the past few weeks. They're going to be such great missionaries. Then we had our district meeting about the Book of Mormon. I had more training meets afterwards... the new Zone Leaders are Elder Lee and Elder Eyring, so I spent most of my time with them. Then we had Sunday devotional which was SO good. Brother Heaton, administrator at the MTC, spoke. He talked about helping people find God in their lives, and had two missionaries share their conversion stories. One of them was from a girl I hosted...she was given a book of Mormon to make fun of it, and by the time she read the 8 witnesses, she felt like she got struck by lightning, and freaked out, and read the whole Book of Mormon, researched all about the Church, put her name on Mormon.org, and the missionaries came, then she was baptized. All the stories were incredible and powerful. I don't have time to go into detail, but God is real. He knows all of us personally and is watching over us all the time. They showed a really cool Mormon Message about finding God. I absolutely loved it. It's based on a true story of a convert who struggled to know God. http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=3701964025001
WATCH IT :) It's so good and so powerful.

Before devotional, we usually sing prelude music. So our branch got assigned to be in the overflow since the gym is so small. The video was working but the audio wasn't, so the lyrics of all the hymns were on the screen, but we had to follow the conductor a capella, and for some reason it was just really funny. Then someone got on a piano and tried to follow along. It was pretty cool, then we started singing Nearer My God to Thee, and the audio came back on, and the spirit was so strong when everyone was singing it. We watched the Testaments for movie night. I don't know why they show that to a bunch of teenage missionaries...they had a bunch of awkward acting love scenes, and everyone was cat-calling at the kissing. It was pretty funny. It's a good movie overall. It really testifies of Christ and the Book of Mormon. but it was just weird.

Today, I went to the temple to do initiatories and that was really good. Two of the temple workers came up to me and asked if I was related to Larry and Sui Ying. Sister Christensen said that her husband served with Uncle Larry in HK. How's he doing by the way? and Sister Morris worked in the temple with Nin Nin for 18 years! It was fun getting to know them.

I think that's about it this week. I know that God is our loving Heavenly Father. I know that Christ lives. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and goes hand in hand with the Bible. I know that it's another testament of Jesus Christ. I'm so excited to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and bring the light of Christ into their lives.

Love you all so much. Hope you're all doing well.

我爱你,

刘姐妹

Sister Cardon, me, Sister Wawro

 

One Month in the MTC (although in Chinese it says, January or first month, haha)