MTC Week 3

Hey everyone, 
I'm fluent in Mandarin now. The way I know is because I taught a lesson to a REAL PERSON in Mandarin with my companions. They bring in volunteers from outside the MTC and we teach these real people. It was a little uncomfortable because I can speak but not understand that well when this native Chinese lady starts speaking rapid mandarin to me. 
I ask her "What was a time in your life that you felt the Spirit?" And she starts sharing the really personal experience that I can understand about 10% of. By the end she is basically crying and I'm just like smiling and nodding because I can't really understand what she said. But it was really cool to be able to share some scriptures with her and bear my testimony. I know the language will come. I'm not really worried about it. I'm working hard on learning it and making progress. The Lord is helping me learn it so much faster than I would be able to by myself. 

I also bore my testimony in Church on Sunday. Pretty awesome how the Church is true in every language. I love the song 'Armies of Helaman' because I grew up singing about being a missionary but now I really am one. The Spirit is strong here at the MTC and I feel like I'm in the best place. 

The devotionals here are fine-tuned to missionaries but they apply to everyone. We learned a lot about service and being converted. They say the most important convert on your mission is YOURSELF. I'm excited to deepen my own conversion, and I encourage everyone to come unto Christ. Through Him, all our weaknesses will become strengths.
There's a worker or leader here who my companions and I always see walking around who looks like Donald Trump. Like it's remarkable how similar they look. It's always fun to see Trump directing missionaries or stacking chairs or something. In the MTC this qualifies as a top tier joke. 

We're still having a lot of fun with the language. Sometimes we will be walking and one of us will see a girl we know from back home. While the girl and one of us are talking, the other ones begin to talk in Chinese. "Is that your wife?" "Does she speak Chinese?" "She loves you". The Elder talking to the girl must then talk to us in Chinese and answer our questions and also talk to his friend. It's pretty funny especially when the girl wonders what we are saying.

Another thing I did this week is wear my brother Spencer's nametag from Taiwan. Since we have the same Chinese name (Hai Zhanglao- Hai just sounds like Halverson and Zhanglao means Elder) I can wear his nametag. But people often run up in astonishment because his nametag is slightly different than the classic MTC nametag. They wonder where I could have acquired such an amazing accessory. Depending on the person I have a variety of responses. Sometimes I will glance down at my nametag and act bewildered as if I didn't know it was different. Then it escalates to me looking around at the MTC and being so confused "I'm on a mission? what the heck???!" Sometimes I will respond with "Oh I think they gave this nametag to everyone who isn't getting sent home this week" and sometimes I just say "It's my brother's. He went to Taiwan". It's pretty funny that at the MTC wearing a different name tag is such a big deal.

The gym closed for cleaning yesterday which meant we couldn't play basketball for a week. To honor the gym being closed, we played MTC finals Game 7 on Saturday night right before it closed. Game 7 was anticipated and looked forward to for the whole week. It was 3 on 3 and an insane game. During the game I got blind-side swatted by a 6'10 250 pound player so hard that I actually hit the floor. Luckily I got some rebounds off him later and got some buckets on him. I refuse to be beaten by anyone. I love competing in the David and Goliath story. Basketball has been so fun here at the MTC.
 I have 6 weeks left here and I'm so excited. It's a blast being here. It's truly a blessing to have 2 years to serve others and become more converted to my Savior. I am so happy to be on my mission.

Elder Halverson


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