Christmas Week

Merry Christmas FAMILY!!!!

 

The package you sent was awesome! I was astonished by the size at first, and by the fact that it looked a little abused on the outside, probably due to rough handling, but I now hold the award for biggest package in my district. haha. I've loved everything that i have opened so far, particularly the whoopie cushion (you know me too well) I opened the contacts today and I went ahead and opened the 12th day of Christmas first, because I was pretty sure it was clothes, and I was in desperate need of something to wear on sunday. Mom, the skirt and dress are so cute and both fit wonderfully! I don't know how much i will wear the cardigan, but I think i'm gonna wear it on Christmas. Thank you so much!! It made me so happy! Did you get the tape I sent home yet? have you listened to it? I guess you probably figured this out but i won't be able to get any mail after 2pm on the 23rd, including dear elders, so if anyone needs to say anything i'd do it before Friday. :) And i don't know when BYU is going to sent out acceptance letters, you might want to ask chrissy grover (she applied the same time as me) and also log into my Church Education System account, i think that info is on the green sheet. Check my BYU-I email too.

 

Ahh, so this week has been pretty great! I am filled with the Christmas Spirit (as well as the Christmas Chocolate). I came up with the idea to do 12 days of Christmas for the elders in our district and so far it's been really fun. We had a district goal this week to have more charity towards everyone and I really think that it has helped unify our district even more. I really love all of them :) So far we have done 7 pictures picking (we drew funny pictures of each of them), 6 lame jokes a joking, 5 m&mmmmmmm's (inside joke), 4 words in elvish (I'll take the ring!), three hand shakes (we gave them handshake coupons), two things for free (little sewing kits we found in the alterations building), and a note that said they love me! And we've done it all in Chinese. It's been really fun so far.

 

I have a funny story of something that happened this week, on Wednesday mornings we get sack breakfast and we are allowed to get 4 items each. I just wanted a yogurt because i wasn't hungry so i asked my companions if they wanted me to get them something too. They both wanted yogurt and one of the elders wanted some too, so i walked up to the cashier with 4 things of black cherry yogurt. The Cashier looked judgementally at my tray and then at me, and the back at my tray, and with the straightest face i could muster, I said "I really REALLY like black cherry yogurt" and at that very moment, I got a horrible nose bleed. So imagine me trying to be as serious as possible, trying not to laugh, with 4 things of yogurt and a nose bleed. It was pretty hilarious.

 

Anyway, on to the serious stuff. Our lessons this week went well! Our investigator got sick in the middle of a lesson and had to run out, we were really worried about her and we asked the leaders to give her a blessing. She is fine now. We taught her about repentance and the atonement and it was a really great lesson, we are thinking her baptism will be between Christmas and new years and we are very excited to plan it.

 

While our teacher was sick we got taught but sister Daaih from Hong Kong. She is so cute. Everyone from hong kong is cute. She told us a lot about the people and her intense love for them. We were so glad that she came in, me particularly. I am soooooooooo pumped for china. we only have a little less than 3 weeks left. It's crazy!! One thing that she said is that mainland china is ready for the gospel (she was quoting elder bednar) and that the lord is just waiting for there to be enough missionaries to send into china. I really feel like this mission is part of my calling in life. I think sometime or  another i'll end up going back to china, even if its just for a little bit, to help establish the church and to teach english. I really really want to. TRC was good this week, we taught a 65 year old HK native who liked to talk a lot. I was able to bear testimony more than once, but i have to admit that I didn't understand most of what she said. It's hard to teach to the needs of the investigator when you don't understand them, but the spirit was there. Our teacher, Jang Hing Daih, told me that he's really noticed that my tones are improving, and that i'm losing my English inflection when i speak Chinese. So that's good, maybe people won't make fun of me when I go over there. haha.

 

So as far as I know Christmas is going to be pretty sweet. We just found out that we get to hear from a general authority and that MOTAB is coming to the MTC. That's pretty neat, huh? (motab is mormon tabernacle choir, incase you didn't know, mom). I also found out that since the temple is closed this week we get the opportunity to do service at the temple. I hope I get to polish moroni. I called it. It's gonna be neat because we get to wear temple worker clothes to do it and little white booties. :)

 

Anyway, I know you guys are having fun. I hope the Christmas eve bonfire turns out good! And I hope all of you will hug the cousins for me. I love you all and I miss you and I get to talk to you on the phone in 3 weeks! :) I hope that you are filled with the Christmas Spirit and I hope that you aren't sad i'm not with you, but instead are glad that I am serving the lord.

 

Love,

Sister Cook

 

P.S. Mom, Good!

Ryan- did you get my letter to the seminary class? how were exams?

Hoffs- THANK YOU FOR THE PACKAGE! I have a letter for all of you in the mail. I love you

Symonie- You are a fantastic human being. I seriously love the gifts that you sent for me and my companions. Thank you so much! There is also a letter for you in the mail today.

 

SINGDAAN FAAILOHK!! :)

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Hey family! It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood. (except for the fact its 20 degrees outside) but i wouldn't know what outside feels like because i haven't left the MTC in 6 weeks. What's going on in the world? anything exciting?

 

Anyway, this week was pretty humbling. As I stated in my last email we started a English fast last monday, meaning we were only allowed to speak cantonese all week long. Needless to say, that's pretty hard, especially if you don't know enough normal vocabulary to get something as simple as a drink of water. It was pretty hilarious when we started getting creative and saying "may we receive the blessings of water?" and "i need to go accept baptism (take a shower)" but we did learn a ton. It was pretty great. There were points in the week where we just completely gave up on trying to speak Cantonese and our teachers were pretty upset with us. Xie ji muih said that we needed to repent for speaking English (she's intense). But the most humbling part of the week was when we watched Elder Hollands talk "Miracle of being a missionary". He basically chastised everyone in earshot for wasting any time on the mission because it is the most important thing that we have done thus far in our lives. It meant everything to him and it should mean everything to us. He's right, because though we are a bunch of 19-21 year old kids, we are participating in the eternal salvation of human souls, and we need to take that seriously. It was a great talk, after which we all felt pretty guilty for not taking our English fast seriously.

 

Since that night we have been SYLing as often as possible and I can tell you, we are getting so much better! And not only that, we're happy! It is frustrating when you are trying to say something important and you can't get it out, or someone doesn't understand because you have the tones wrong, but it also feels like a huge victory coming out of lessons where we completely covered everything we wanted to, and understood our investigators needs.

 

Speaking of huge victories, one of our investigators, A-fai, has accepted baptism this week! We will be holding the service on the 21st. Even though A-fai isn't actually getting baptized, because he is actually jang hing daai, our teacher, it is still really great when your investigator can feel the spirit. A-fai is someone that Jang hing daai taught on his mission and as our teachers portray these people, they only act on and accept invitation when they really feel the spirit. When we started meeting with Afai he seemed nonchalant and really bored with everything we said, and we have seen his faith and testimony grow so much, it's been awesome! I can't wait to do it for real.

 

Another big success this week was TRC, when we get to teach lessons from cantonese people from the outside world. We didn't get to go last saturday because it was thanksgiving weekend, but this Saturday we got to meet again with Mr. Wai. He's an elderly man from Hong Kong and he lives here in Utah by himself, we taught him 3 or 4 weeks ago for the first time and haven't seen him since but we love him SOOOO much. He's awesome and really funny. After we taught him on revelation through church attendance he said "You cantonese so good! you will do good in hong kong!" haha. I pretty much want to adopt him for my grandpa. If nana ever wants to get remarried, tell her i have an eligible suitor for her. :)

 

On Tuesday night Brother and sister Yamashita (from the 70) from Japan came and spoke at the MTC. It was great because sister yamashita only spoke a little English, she has only been here for 4 months. Can I just say I love asians? anyway, she gave about a 15 minute talk in broken english, and she kept messing up, so she kept laughing at herself, but the she bore her testimony and the spirit was undeniable! I love that the holy ghost can break the language barrier, and I know that i'm going to mess up but I just gotta open my mouth, and say what i need to say with as much confidence as I can muster! Heavenly Father has got my back in learning this language, and just like dear sister Yamashita, I will be able to fufill my calling and say what the lord needs me to say when I get to Hong Kong.

 

I want to bear a quick testimony that I know life is hard. Missionary work is hard. But the reason it is and always will be hard is because the Atonement isn't cheap. What Jesus Christ went through was far from an easy experience. But I know that the more I forget my own wants and desires, and focus my work  in the Lord, the happier I am. Every time we keep the commandments, we are only giving back what heavenly father has already given us. When we pay tithing we are giving back only 1 tenth of what he has blessed us with. When we dedicate a year and a half to serve a mission, we are only doing it on the life and energy he has granted us. But the one thing we can give him, that he didn't give us, is our will. And I know that by being a good missionary because I love god, and I love people, is a lot more satisfying than doing it for any other reason.

 

The church is true! I love you all. If you could this week, please pray for my companion sister taylor, her knee has been hurting her so she has to do some PT exercises too. Oh and mom- For Christmas I would love a new dress. I am SOOOO tired of my clothes already that it makes me sick. haha. I have worn some very interesting combinations in order to switch it up a little. Who needs to match anyway, right?

 

:)

 

Joigeen!

 

Gou Ji Muih