Alrighty lets see what I have to say about this week...
FIRST AND MOST IMPORTANT
Happy birthday mommy! Or as my Taiwanese Brothas and Sistas would say, "Zhu ni sheng ri kuai le!" Directly translated that means "Wish you birthday happy!" Oh fun Chinese grammar... Well anyways, every body should wish wo de mama a happy birthday because she is one of the strongest most awesome ladies I know and I love her dearly!
THANKS
Thanks for the dearelders and letters and stuff! Shout out to Kohler cuz when he sent me a copy of his farewell talk I got 5 separate dearelders with that one talk and it was awesome to go back to class with all of those letters! And mommy thank you for the package. I LOVE MY COLOR PENS. All of my notes and letters will be a lot more rainbowy from here on out. Also thank you for the goodies. :) My roomies say thank you too
STUFF
Stuff is good! Really! I am loving it here! I love teaching so so so so much. And the language is shooting up! It is still really challanging a lot of the time but as I look past those moments I realize that I have learned a lot and am getting more and more prepared which is good cuz I leave in about 4.5 weeks (SHENME??--WHAT??) So crazy!!!! I have already completed half of my training! AHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
ZHONGWEN IS BECOMING NATURAL!
Chinese is becoming natural. I told you last week that I was talking naturally in Chinese in my sleep at night, well now I am talking naturally in my awakedness during the day! I never say "Thank you" or "Its okay" or "Excuse me" more. Its always, "Xiexie" "Mei guan xi" "Dui bu qi." I know these arent extensive phrases but the fact that I automatically think to speak Chinese at all means that I am progressing. When I write in my journal at night I am starting to write in Chinese. I had better keep up learning the language after my mish otherwise I will have no idea what I wrote about.
I have started to understand how obtaining the gift of tongues works. It requires 3 things: Diligence, Prayer, and Obedience. With diligence I was talking to my laoshi and she said "You need to write down numberic goals and make a plan everyday. When you do all that you can to fulfill your part the Lord will take you even further." At first I thought, "Nahhh i can just think of what i wanna do in my head." But I never obtained my goals when I didnt make a written out numrical plan. Laoshi compared goalmaking to the story of Jesus feeding the 5000. "If there wasnt a number (5000) to that story then where is the miracle?" By making a plan Ive been able to better obtain my goals. Also prayer and obedience are super important and I know this because Ive experiemented with it. When I dont pray and when I am not doing the things I am supposed to, my chinese suffers. I am glad that this gift of tongues is available to all. It is not always easy to be supr diligent, prayerful, or obedient..but boy does it pay off when I make an honest attempt! Hen hao!
TRC
TRC was definitely the highlight of my week. I realized that TRC is a lot like Monsters Inc. You go into a hallway with your district and they just put you in front of a door with your companion and you just go in and do work! Haha. But anyways, my experience with TRC this time around was awesome. We taught Liu Jie Mei. Super awesome 19 yr old girl and shes already a member. I understod about 90% of what she said! and my companion understood her too! We taught about bearing testimony and I invited her to bear testimony to a friend. She said, "I am so happy I came in to volunteer today because I needed to hear this message. I am going to LA this weekend and I felt impressed to bear my testimony to my friend but now I feel like I should do it." Sweet! After we taught her we went into the hallway to wait for my district to get out. In the hall were a few volunteers and I decided to pratice some Chinese. I talked with a 13 yr old boy, his mom, and grandma. We had a really pleasant convo and I understood about 85% of what they all said. We talked a lot about missions and Christ. The grandma was really interested in talking about Christ and asked if I would be here next Saturday! I tld her "For sure! Come find me!" When they left, the TRC instructor told me that the grandma was an actual investigator! Wow i hope I can see her next week!
LESSON ABOUT LESSONS
I have learned a lot about effective teaching this week. I decided that in order to have a successful lesson I need to listen to 3 things: My companion, the investigator, and the spirit. Before I would just focus on mostly what I needed to say and the lesson always ended up not too good. But as I make an effort to listen to others I am able to be better involved and the lesson just always goes better. The spirit has been so strong this past week! We taught an investigator about commandments and I cant really explain it but as I was bearing testimony about the importance of keeping commandments I just felt an overwhelming sense of "This is so true!" cool beans :)
LONG LOST RELATIVE?
I met another Sister Tracy in the bathroom last week! She said her dad was adopted and he grew up in Elba or Almo Idaho...long lost relative maybe??
MUSIC
Well it turns out I am not the only that misses music. My distict is going crazy. We found a solution though. Yesterday we went on LDS.org and made a playlist. Thank goodness. The silence in that room during studytime can be eerie.
COOLNESS
Hey Prez Hinclkeys oldest son came and spoke to us last week! If you close you eyes it sounds JUST LIKE Prez Hinckley! Trippy
WORTH IT
Well I really dont have much else to report on. Stuff is good though. There are a lot of things that are hard out here but as I reflect like this I realize that those hard experiences were worth it because the lessons that I learned were worth it and this whole mission thing is so worth it.
ZAIJIAN
Next week is gonna be weird. My roomies and I will be the only girls and the oldest generation in my zone. Shenme??? Cool things ahead!
Zaijian wo ai nimen!
Zhong Jie Mei
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