MTC Week 4

So this week we hosted some new missionaries. My companions and I spent most of the morning with our new friend Elder Yang, who is moving into our residence hall. He is from Taiwan and knows little English. It was a great chance for us to continue practicing our Chinese, and quickly realize that we have a lot of work to do. Something really cool was that Elder Yang knew my older brother Spencer who served his mission in Taiwan. 
We escaped the MTC with Elder Yang. He had to go to the doctor to get a quick xray so we walked across the street to the BYU health center. He must have been so confused. Since we didn't know how to say 'doctor' or 'X ray', we decided the best thing to do was to tell Elder Yang that we were so grateful for him in Chinese. "You are our opportunity to escape the MTC" "Thank you for helping us go home" "Don't let them see us" "Run!". It took some explaining to reassure Elder Yang that we were not in fact quitting our missions and going to In N Out Burger. 
We all played sand volleyball this week since the gym was closed again. There were so many people waiting to get on the court and the game got really intense. The wind was picking up and rain was falling. If you lost a point you left the court, so the desire to win was overwhelming. Each point rallied back and forth with the growing audience oooohing and aahhhing. The crowning event in the volleyball match was when a collegiate volleyball player received a perfect set from his companion. He rose high in the air to smash the ball over the net at terminal velocity. The game looked like it was over. Some missionaries turned away in fear as the ball flew toward them. One Sister, however, nonchalantly poked out her foot and kicked it. It bounced back over the net. There was an uproar as the underdogs prevailed. The MTC creates these experiences since you just have to make it fun. It's pretty awesome.
Our branch got some new missionaries and some speak English and some speak Portuguese. So now we have even more diversity in our branch which has been really fun. I've had a good time using my experience at the MTC to get to know these new missionaries and help them adjust. 
The best way to succeed at the MTC is to work hard and have faith. Honestly this adjustment and work doesn't seem very difficult. It's been so fun and extremely rewarding. I just know that the Lord wants me to be here and He's helping me every step of the way. I've gotten a lot closer to Him simply by asking. Who knew it was so simple? I just ask to increase my faith and love toward Him, and each day I have experiences that help me become more converted.
I am grateful for this time that I have to be a missionary. I have all day to focus on learning and growing. I am trying to make the most of it and really loving pushing myself as I work to improve each day. I know that Jesus Christ loves all of us, and as we do what He's asked us to do, everything in our lives falls into place. I would invite you all to actively ask for ways that you can serve the Lord. This is the best way to feel true joy.

Almost halfway through the MTC-
Elder Halverson



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Backflips at the Sydney Operahouse

Image
Hey everybody hope you're having fun with the snow and the cold, it's in the 80s here in Australia. We had another good week and honestly a lot of cool moments. The biggest thing I'm learning right now is how to rely on the Lord and always trust that He has a plan for us even when we can't see it for ourselves. We had an amazing opportunity to go to the Sydney Operahouse and watch a performance. Our mission president authorized it and sent all us missionaries from the city to go see an acrobatics show. It was so awesome, seeing people do flips and stuff was so exciting and reminded me of my life back home where I was always jumping off cliffs and bridges and stuff. It was the first time I've gone to a show and said all my side comments in Chinese, since half the missionaries there were the Chinese ones. It was a great experience to do something 'touristy', and it's forever crossed off my Sydney bucket list. I went on a trade off with E...
Read more

Corona Ball

Image
Hey everyone,  Situation is definitely crazy but spirits are high. So we got moved to some random suburb outside the city and got quarantined. We can only go out if we have a scheduled lesson, so we do most of our lessons on video call. It's been fun to still be speaking Chinese to all my new friends I've made here. I love learning Chinese so much, it's been one of the biggest blessings of my mission. This week has been so weird, we've spent a lot of time inside. After we studied the scriptures as much as we could and called everyone on our phones, we were still left with a lot of time. So we made up a sport called Corona Ball so we can get some exercise.  My mindset is just to do my best and trust that the Lord has a plan. I know He's got this all figured out, and I don't need to know exactly why the world is facing this crisis right now. There are blessings to be found everywhere. For example, before we got quarantined, we got to help a guy fix a f...
Read more

Pet Cemetery

Image
Hey everyone, just in case you are wondering, the fires here in Australia are getting better. There were some really smoky days last week where we weren't allowed to go outside, but other than that it's improved. Everybody in the country and a lot of the people in the world fasted for rain last week. The next day, it rained. It was a huge miracle and since then we've had the rain we need. Thank you for the prayers.  So, what about the missionary work? Well, it's been pressing forward and we've had some cool experiences.  The first one is about a giant spider. Well all my jokes at the beginning of my mission about seeing giant spiders finally paid off. There I was at 6:32 AM, stumbling into the bathroom, grabbing my toothbrush, sitting there brushing my teeth not even thinking straight and still trying to open my eyes. Then I look over and a foot away eye level with my head is this massive spider it's as big as my hand and I was no longer asleep after ...
Read more