MTC Week 6

Big week at the MTC. All the Chinese speakers that were here when we showed up left this morning. Off to the field. It's crazy to think we've been here 6 weeks, it's flown by. We start 'English Speaker' schedule on Wednesday, meaning we have 3 weeks left. It'll be sad to leave the MTC, it's such a blast here.

My companion Elder Brenchley and I take every opportunity to practice our Chinese. We met two Sisters from Taiwan and began telling them a couple stories. With our limited vocab, our stories were complete nonsense but it had these Sisters crying laughing. Whether they thought the story was funny or our Chinese was funny, I'm not totally sure, but either way it felt good. It's fun being a beginner at this language and picking up more every day.

 One day this week I went on an 'English fast'. The whole day I just spoke Chinese and for the most part I was fine. When a conversation about evolution came up, however, I couldn't contribute much besides 'My dad is not a monkey'. 

I've begun making friends with some of the Polynesian Elders who live on our floor. One of them is from Sydney and his name is Papalii. He's been telling me about the gang life in Australia and wanted to send a picture of me to his boys back home so when I get out in the field I can teach them. Don't worry Mom I'll be safe. He taught me a handshake so they'll know I'm one of them. Anyway it's really cool getting to know a different culture. They all wear the kilt thing instead of pants and they say it's really comfortable. Apparently there are a lot of Polynesians in Australia so it'll be fun to get to know all the Tongans and Samoans. It's amazing how 'perfect love casteth out all fear'. I really love these people and I feel like before my mission I would have been a little intimidated to go into the room with 6 of these massive Polynesian guys and just start hanging out. But my desire to love them just throws the fear out the window. Everyone is a child of God, and He loves all of them.

My companions and I were called as the Zone Leaders this week. Some of our responsibilities include interviewing with each of the districts and making sure everyone is doing alright, organizing and leading meetings and trainings, and generally just helping all the missionaries be successful. We're on call now as the new missionaries arrive; whenever one of them shows up we drop what we're doing and go welcome them into the MTC and then cart them around with us for the day. 
We have 23 new missionaries coming into our Zone this week, so we'll be giving them an orientation and just welcoming them into the MTC and training them. I'm excited to help them see that the MTC is so much fun, especially when you are obedient. I remember how overwhelmed I was when I showed up here 6 weeks ago and I don't want them to feel the same way. I want to show them what it means to be a missionary and how rewarding it can be. I'm excited for the opportunity to be a good example for these missionaries and I'm grateful to the Lord for trusting me to be a leader among His servants. 

The Lord truly improves us as we turn our lives to Him. Ask my mom. During high school she would wake me up for seminary and I would either:

grunt
yell
throw something
be mad
go back to sleep
all of the above

I was SO bad at waking up. Eventually it got too dangerous for my mom to enter my room so she sent in my little brother to take the brunt of the abuse. But here at the MTC the Lord has helped me wake up so much more easily. Now at 6:30 every morning, I promptly jump out of bed and exclaim 'Let's do the work Elders!'. It's a great start to my day. 


I know that trials are for our growth. Let's look forward to them with a positive mindset. The Lord will help us overcome them and become better because of them. Pretty awesome how His plan works. Just trust Him and stop trying to do everything yourself. Then everything becomes so much easier and so much more rewarding. 
I love the support you all give me! I love reading your emails and getting your packages in the mail ;)

Also I'll put in some pictures this week:




1. Your new Zone Leaders
2. Elder Brenchley and a mountain
3. The MTC during a storm
4. Elder Waters excited about his gift in the mail 
5. Elder Brenchley, Elder Seamons and I having a nice Saturday night 
6. A voice recording of me singing in church 




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