Thanksgiving

WELL HEY FAMILY.

UH, FOR SOME REASON MY CAPS LOCK WILL NOT TURN OFF. oh ok, i figured it out. that was weird. anyway, happy thanksgiving! i am missing you all very much around the holidays but i think that thanksgiving at the mtc will be fun. we get to hear from some supposed apostle on Thursday, and we get to do some service and have a little extra time to write letters and such, so that's good. i guess I'll take a minute to tell you what i'm thankful for since i won't be around the table this year to do it. i love my family! you are all spectacular examples to me. everyone in my district has heard at least one story about the cooks, and they all seem to approve. haha. i wish i could be with you for thanksgiving (and aunt brenda's pink stuff). I am also grateful for little things like emails, showers, and the fact that my companions think poop jokes are funny. (p.s. i laughed soooooooooo hard about mitchells baptism comment). I am greatful for the truetts, who sent me some awesome bread this week along with some colorful pictures in it, i think luke or lilly drew Darth Vader, i really appreciate that one, it's hanging on my wall. i am also thankful for cocoa bean cupcakes courtesy of the grovers! (chrissy/ma grover, if you are reading this, i need your address! and i love you!)   i am grateful to be able to attend the temple weekly. I'm thankful for everyone who pays tithing, i'm grateful for the lord and i'm grateful for this opportunity to serve him! I'm grateful for prayers and answers to them, and i am so grateful to be where i am right now.  i am happy :)

so the language is coming.....along. haha. it's really hard. i'm not going to lie. i think heavenly father has an awesome sense of humor sending me to a mission where people talk 800 miles an hour. seriously. it's ridiculous. but i had the opportunity to fast this week. i know that as i focus and try my very best, heavenly father will come in and fill in all the gaps. he can take me the rest of the way. it's weird but i swear, when we are teaching lessons to our investigators, i am able to remember words that i was never able to remember beforehand, just because i needed to say them right then. i think my hardest trial at this point is just staying focused all the time, its really hard to study when you have a district as hilarious as mine is, but i know if i work my hardest i'll be able to master this language. I grow to love my companions more each day, though i know we have challanges, we always learn and overcome them with surprising speed. so i can't really complain about much.

being a sister missionary is awesome. i am filled with so much love for those around me, i am able to see people in the light that Christ sees them. when we got here, the mtc president said " if this isn't the hardest thing you have ever done, you aren't doing it right". i know that my desires to to good are going to be met with opposition, but the beautiful part of that is, i know if i try my best that i'll always overcome! I'm so glad i decided to serve a mission. i know it's where the lord wants me to be and i know my life would feel empty without it.

i have a huge favor to ask for mom: can you send me some contacts? i really like wearing them when i work out. and i've been wearing my glasses every day, but i didn't bring enough to last me the mission, two boxes would be awesome if that is at all possible, also i need sweater tights! my Florida legs are not meant to suffer in this cold. (it's been snowing this week). i think my prescription is +4.75 mom, if you don't have it written down. and i promise to write the kids individual letters on thursday!

here is my very short testimony in Cantonese (without the tones, because i have no idea how to type those):

ngoh jidouh yeh sou gei duk ge fuk yam haih jahnshatge. ngoh ngoi mouh yih mhun ging haih sahn ge wa. ngoh ji douh gating haih whingyhun tuhngmaai haih tinfuh gaiwhakge hatsam.

Micricles

leih hou, Gating!

 

I just got back from the temple, so life is wonderful. I don´t think ill ever get used to pouring a week worth of information into one 30 minute email. But I have to start somewhere! Ok so here is the news on my shoulder,

 

It feels like 500% better. It´s amazing. My entire district fasted for me on Sunday and praying for me to get better and it´s working. It´´s pretty much a miracle. I got up in testimony meeting on Sunday and bore my testimony of priesthood blessings. Though my shoulder still hurts every once in a while, i´´m still able to devote all my efforts into my work without it distracting me. Heavenly Father is awesome!

 

I´´m supposed to see a physical therapist once a week, and friday was my first day going. It was neat because they did this thing called electro'stimulation, where they basically zap me with as much voltage as I can stand and then they put ice on top of it. It´´s supposed to relax my muscles, but it makes me really twitchy sometimes, which my companions think is kinda funny. Oh, and I got really strong drugs that help me sleep reallllllllllllly well. haha. so i´´m kinda loopy. but I suppose that´s normal. Thank you for all your prayers back home.

 

I found out that missionaries in the MTC aren´´t allowed to call home for christmas, but i´´ll talk to you two weeks later when i´´m flying out to hong kong. So i guess that´´s not so bad. The weather out here has deff gotten...wintery. We were able to take a temple walk as a district last week and play in the leaves, and it was the first snow that ive seen since i got here. I sent home a letter today with some fun pictures in it from our temple walk. so hopefully aunt B or someone can help you scan them to get them on my blog.

 

Our language study is getting more intense every day. I can now say a full prayer in Chinglish. (chinese and english) and i´m getting better at focusing and retaining information. This week we have two new investigators, Bonnie and AFai, who we are supposed to teach entirely in cantonese. My companions are pretty fast at looking up words so usually were ok, but this time we can´´t have our dictionary with us, so we get to rely on the spirit! hoorayyyyyyyyyy. haha,  no it´´s really exciting. This week im praying to be better at interpreting what our investigators are saying...because it´´s hard to teach to their needs if you just do the nod and smile thing whenever they talk....you know, like when you´´re talking to a two year old. (except i feel like a two year old most of the time when i speak)

 

I´m glad everyone had a good Halloween. You should send me some mail. like....real mail. My companions always get tons of mail and it makes me feel like an orphan or something.

 

So....funny story that happened this week, Elder Moreno (the one from puerto rico) was saying a prayer in class and the word for Jesus Christ in Cantonese is Yeh Sou Gei DUk. and the word for Joseph Smith is Yak Sat Si Mat. and he messed it up in front of an investigator and said ´´in the name of joseph smith amen´´ and his companion and the investigator started laughing really hard. haha. Also, someone from our district was trying to say ´´do you have any questions´´ and accidentally asked the investigator...´´do you have any private children¿´´ lol. I really can not relate to you how funny everyone in my district is. Mitchell would aprriciate that whenever someone in the class says something sarcastic we all go ´´ohhhhhhhhhhhh!´´ (like in the regular show). haha.

 

Cantonese is awesome.

 

Anyway I´m running out of time but i love you all. The church is true and I really feel like i´´ve grown so much already. My testimony of prayer has definitly grown. I´m so glad that we have a prophet today that guides us and helps us know what to do. And I love Jesus Christ. Annnnd....oh! I found out one of my room mates is related to Hannah and Karen garner, my room mates from college! Her name is sister Neilson and she is soooo cute. I´´m not sure why i interrupted my testimony with that but oh well...i´d try to fix it but someone who is learning Spanish totally screwed up this keyboard and none of the buttons work right. aiieeeeyaaaa.

 

I feel like im forgetting something.....oh yeah! Give Emma a high five for me. People should not give out fruit for Halloween.  that´´s blasphemy.

 

ngoi,

 

Gou Ji Muih

1st email from MTC

Priority: Normal Date: Tuesday, November 1, 2011 6:15 PM Size: 16 KB

Hi family!!     So i found out pdays are tuesdays. I've found out a lot of things actually, and I only have 30 minutes to type so I gotta type fast! First, mom, thanks for the dear elders, i got them. That's the easiest way to get to me. so you can pass that info around to other friends/family. Also I got a dear elder from jared wadsworth and letters from sam and chris and the gang, if you could somehow get on my face book and get those addresses for me so i could write them back that would be super helpful!   Ok, so the MTC. wow. it's been crazy. No one ever told me exactly how hard the first couple of days were going to be. I think that I am adjusted now but there was an overload of info on the first couple of days. My companions names are sister taylor and sister hintze (yeah, I have two!) You would think that would be awkward but it's totally not. I love them both. I know that god's hand directs companion assignments, because i couldn't imagine being with anyone else but my sisters. Sister taylor is super smart. she was born in florida (west coast) and grew up in utah. She graduated the University of Utah with a bachelors in some crazy chemistry thing. I dunno. Anyway, she is good at keeping us focused. My other companion is sister hintze and she's also from utah. She's chill and she has a goofy sense of humor so I like that she can lighten the mood when we're so stressed out with the language. oh yeah, and i don't remember if i put this in my other letter but my cantonese name is GOU. and the other sisters are sister Hohn and sister Daai. so when you put it together it sounds like "go and die." and that's how the elders in my district remember our chinese names. haha.   THE LANGUAGE. OH MAN. it's pretty tough. I mean really tough. but I know that the lord is gonna help us to learn it. We taught our first discussion entirely in cantonese on friday. It actually went pretty well! I've learned a ton in the last few days, including how to pray in cantonese. (sometimes i cheat and look at my language book while praying though).   Ok so my district is hilarous. Really. I think they stick all the quirky weird people in the asian language missions so that they can entertain them selves for 12 weeks without dying of boredom. WE have an elder from england (like...tea with the queen/ harry potter british. its hilarous) and we have a elder from canada, and one from puertorico. They all make me laugh and they are really nice. I think i'll enjoy these 12 weeks with them. I've started a book called "the funny things of district 5a" where I write down things our district says. One of the elders plays trombone and he's got flaming red hair and he's from lincon nebraska, and he reminds me of ryan SO MUCH. We all went to the temple on sunday to take pictures and i'll be sure to get some of those to you,   Our roommates are the older district going to hong kong, they leave 6 weeks before us. we love them a lot. there names are sister nelson and sister neilson and sister leir. and together (they have about 6 elders i think, we make up the entire mission!!!)  My cantonese teachers name is brother jackson, and he served with the guy (mike hyde) that I knew at BYUI, who showed me all the hong kong stuff before I left. He has only spoken english in class like...once. so we are realllllyyyy learning to rely on hand gestures...haha. and memorizing vocabulaty.   You might have gotten a call from the stake president...Since I have been at the MTC, my shoulder, the one that has always given me problems, has been really really bad. I had to go see the doctor because it was hurting me so bad I couldn't concentrate in class. I'm supposed to see if the stake can help me with the medical bills of seeing a physical therapist because if i don't get the issue resolved the doctor said I would not be able to go to Hong Kong with my district. The good thing is I have 12 weeks here (or more like 10...we leave on the 9th of january) so plenty of time to get it fixed, and I also have my entire district praying for me. I know here is where the lord wants me to be, and as bad as my shoulder hurts sometimes, I just have to bear it until I can get it fixed. If you could remember me in your prayers this week I would appreciate that. (the biggest comfort that I get is reading mosiah 24:14-15. you should read it if you get a chance.   Tell mitchell that the food here is good, but it does give you gas. tell ryan i smelled teh cream soda tree. Tell lisa thanks for the note, and tell symonie thanks for letting me stay and having matt drop me off. It was pretty painless that way, I miss you all so much, i was glad not to be one of the crying families on the curb. it was kind of awkward.   How was halloween? What was everyones costumes? is mom still crying about not talking to me every day? (I love you mom)  Oh, I also found out i needed to get a hep A shot. so I got that. ummmmmmmmmm and i know i sent a letter home, but i don't remember if I put in it that i need a few things: winter tights and body spray would be awesome. and my shark, I miss sir digby chicken ceaser. oh and i have my camera charger mom, thanks for asking. I am going to print off pictures here and mail them to you in my next letter.   I only have 5 minutes left but I just wanted to say that I know the church is true! The book of mormon is the word of god. And I'm so greatful to be here. I pray for my family every night and I miss you all very much. I know that i;m in good hands, because i'm in the lords hands. Thank you so much for teaching me these truths before I got here, otherwise I don't think i would make it!!   I'm sorry this letter is so scatterbrained. i just had a lot to say! dear elder me back! and get me addresses! loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooove you!!!   Ngoh Ngoi Le!!   Gou Ji Muih.