Christmas here really was wonderful. I told you most of what went on in the email I sent a couple of days ago, but there are still a few things that I left out. It's a REALLY good thing that you and the family has been sending food, because Christmas Eve dinner was a hilarious disappointment - leftover pizza. I topped it off with some cereal afterwards. Even though it was kind of pathetic, I couldn't help but laugh - I feel like that night's dinner was just preparing me for whatever Taiwan will have in store for me a year from now. Monkey brains? Squid on a stick? Raw eel? Blood pudding? We'll just have to see. That night for our "prelude music" for our Christmas Eve devotional, we sang "The Twelve Days of Christmas - Missionary Style." It was super-cheesy, but also really fun - I made sure I wrote down the verses so I could share them with you:
On the first day of Christmas a missionary needs: a copy of the Book of Mormon
Two Heavy Bags
3 Meals a day
4 Referral calls
5 golden contacts
6 bowls of ice cream
7 sessions planning
8 teachers teaching
9 sisters singing
10 prayers of blessings
11 elders preaching
12 apostles speaking
Anyway, the verses were kind of funny, but the real hilarity came from the lady who was conducting - she was acting all of the verses out, and soon we couldn't help but act out right along with her. My companion always gets embarrassed really easily about these sorts of things, so of course I had to act out everything in a very exaggerated fashion and try and be as obnoxious as possible (again, maturity level isn't what it used to be) - she laughed, though, and we had a good time.
On Christmas after I wrote you, we watched an old MoTab concert with Syssel. It was good and she really does have a lovely voice, but I think she chose all of the slowest songs in the Christmas carol repertoire. By the end of it we wanted to settle down to a long winter's nap. I ate a quick sack dinner, and then got out my violin and played for a little bit! It was WONDERFUL. It had been too long, and I loved going through old pieces that I had played as well as running through some of the new Jenny Oaks Baker arrangements that Grandpa and Grandma had sent (thank you! They're wonderful!). We had a Christmas fireside with Elder Allen, one of the people in charge of Mr. Kreuger's Christmas, and then watched.... Mr. Kreuger's Christmas. I really do love that movie (even though the thought of a friendless and lonely old person makes me really sad every time), and the scene with the Christ child was particularly meaningful to me this year.
In further news, I'm officially leaving the MTC in two weeks from today. How crazy is that? I can't believe it! I'm trying to have an "English fast" every day and speak Chinese as often as possible - it's difficult and sometimes we get a little lazy, but the thought of not being able to express myself in two weeks is so terrifying that I'm resolved to work hard and make that not-being-able-to-talk-at-all period of time as short as possible. That being said, I'm really excited about going to Taiwan, and I'm really excited to go out and serve the people. And even though my Chinese isn't very sufficient in terms of fluency in the language, I know that I can teach and that I can bear my testimony of Jesus Christ and of His Church, and that's what's important, right? I'm also learning to really love the language as well - it just makes a lot of sense. For example, we found out the word for doughnut yesterday - it's tiantianquan, which literally translated means "sweet sweet circle." Then again, there are some things that don't make as much sense, such as the translation for owl, which is "cat head eagle." Terrifying.
Okay, spiritual thought time - this is from Elder Bednar's talk (and sorry if my notes on that were somewhat disjointed last email - the timer on the top righ-hand corner of this computer screen really is unnerving). He read from Matthew 4:2-12. , when Jesus was tempted by Satan. He fasted for forty days, and then was tempted over and over again by Satan. Exhausting, right? Then it says in verse 11 that angels came and ministered unto Him. I think that's reasonable - He must have really needed the support that they could have given Him. Well, there's a footnote in verse 11 that leads to a JST which tells us that "Jeseus knew that John was cast into prison, and he sent angels, and behold, they came and ministered unto him (John). " I never knew that! It was incredible, actually, to think of a time when Jesus would have most needed comfort, He sent angels to go and minister to John, because He knew that John was in trouble and needed help. I love that the Savior has given us such a perfect example - He always turned to help others when they needed it, regardless of His own needs. I know that He still does that today with our needs - that when we most need Him, His help is there. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Thank you everyone for your continual love and support! Have a great week - until next Tuesday!
Love,
Sister Rebecca Winters
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Sister Winters - December 25, 2011 "It's a Christmas Miracle!"
Hello everyone, and Merry Christmas! It's been a fantastic day thus far - you'll hear all of the good stuff later in this email. First, though, I need to say thank you for all of the wonderful letters, home-baked treats, and presents that I received! Dad, I'm just like you - I woke up somewhere between three and four this morning (5 or 6 Georgia time, so I think I'm still on my Georgia Christmas clock in that regard) super-excited about Christmas. Thankfully I was able to calm myself down enough to go back to sleep, but still... I love Christmas. The MTC was extremely nice and didn't schedule anything official until 9:30, so we pretty much had all morning to open presents, reminisce with roommates about Christmasses past, say a few prayers, and enjoy being alive. We also got to watch the MoTab broadcast this morning - they closed with the Hallelujah Chorus, which I feel like was a tender mercy just for me. I love that song so much, and it just made my morning to hear it with the organ, orchestra, and choir!
And now I'm emailing you! I thought that I'd be writing a letter, so this is much better than I expected! It's what my roommate would call "a Christmas mircale!" I've been trying to take account of the "Christmas Miracles" I've been having lately, and so I thought you might like to hear about twelve of them (in honor of the 12 days of Christmas, of course!):
1. Did you know that if you combine a package of cake mix with a can of diet coke and put it in the microwave for 8 minutes, you get a fluffy, homemade cake>? If you put chocolate frosting on top, you can't even tell the difference. THAT is a Christmas miracle! Dallin, thank you so much for your awesome gift - I loved the whole thing so much, but I think my roommates might've enjoyed the 8-minute-cale the best. :) I took it out of the microwave and it was like Christmas came early! It was so incredibly thoughtful of you, and we really did love it so much. You're great - Merry Christmas (and I can't wait to hear about Jason - I've been praying for him )!
2. I was able to take out the seam of one of my two pairs of pants and then hem it with some non-sewing iron-on material. THAT was a miracle. :) My pants are so much longer now - I feel like I got a new pair!
3. Speaking of seams, I was wearing my lovely red coat in honor of the Christmas season yesterday. I love it, except there aren't any pockets - they're fake. Well, I put my hands up to the pockets and saw that part of the seam was coming out - I stuck my finger in, and there were pockets! I quickly took the whole seam out, and enjoyed keeping my hands warm in my new-found pockets. That was a Christmas miracle.
4. At service yesterday, the person in charge was missing - we couldn't find him. So we went to work and started folding rags for about 20 minutes. I got to do my favorite service job on Christmas Eve! It was a Christmas miracle.
5. We got back from service and found out that gym was cancelled, thus allowing me to work on some things (such as Christmas miracles #2 and #3) and finish planning our lesson which we were previously not completely prepared for. The lesson went well, and both that and the extra time we had to plan it were a Christmas miracle.
6. When I went to get my favorite soup for lunch yesterday, I looked into the cracker bin and saw only ONE package of crackers left - it was like it was left there just for me! Another Christmas miracle.
7. We haven't been able to listen to music here, but we can go on lds.org. I was online yesterday and saw that there's a link off of lds.org where you can stream the "Mormon Channel" Christmas music! It was on lds.org, so I thought it was okay. I was a little disappointed at first that I hadn't done that every day of December, but when my productivity of my language study declined as I happily listened to Christmas music, my attitude changed and I was grateful that I was productive during the month of December. Still, finding that extra bit of music on Christmas Eve was a Christmas miracle.
8. The ribbon that came with another elder in our district's bag of popcorn that someone sent him perfectly matched the wrapping paper that I'm using to make my Chinese Book of Mormon case with. :) Christmas miracle.
9. The Christmas Eve devotional we had last night was in the same format and style of the ones we have at home, which was really nice. They also had someone play a Jenny Oaks Baker arr. of Silent Night, which soothed my soul. :) We got to watch A Christmas Carol (which was surprisingly good and slightly creepy in some parts) and then read that book, Christmas Day in the Morning - it's by Pearl S. Buck though and we read it each year, about the barn) with my roommates! Our branch president's wife had it and let us borrow it. The whole evening was so nice, and such a Christmas miracle.
10. I had sacrament meeting with Elder David A. Bednar from the quorum of the twelve apostles today. THAT has been one of the greatest Christmas miracles of all. He talked about the character of Christ - how Jesus in every instance of anguish or sorrow, He fought the natural man impulse to turn inward, and instead turned outward. He always did this - that's why it was part of His character (character needs to be consitently lived in order for it to be part of your character). It was an especial delight to hear Elder Bednar refer to the natural man as the Cookie Monster and do impersonations of him over the pulpit - he definitely got his point across! Elder Bednwar also talked about conversion - that conversion is CONSISTENTLY being true to what you know. He said that we need to pay the prioce to obtain our own conversion. Conversion is turning away from the natural man -it's having the character of Christ because you're converting to Him. He promised us that we'll notice that we're converted in our own service when we quit worrying about the natural man. "Repent" can be replaced with "turn to the Lord" - so when we're calling people to repentance, we're asking them to turn to the Lord, to be converted in Him. Pretty cool, right? I also gained some more very clear insight on questions that I've been thinking about for the past few weeks. Losing yourself in the service = having the character of Christ. The grace of Jesus Christ enables us and allows us to do good and to become better. However, you can't focus on the blessings that you want to receive, because if you do, you won't get them. You need to lose yourself in order to find yourself. And with the help of the grace of Jesus Christ, we'll eventually be able to develop His character. Very gradually. It was a beautiful, beautiful talk - one that I know I'll always look back to as one that's changed my life. It was a Christmas miracle.
11. Having lunch with my brother, being there with him and opening our stockings together was a little miracle - I loved it. I think my favorite part was having both of our eyes well up with tears as we tried to express the things that both of us had learned from an apostle of the Lord earlier that day. We knew that even though we missed our families, we wouldn't have been able to hear that fantastic talk unless we were missionaries. And we knew that's where we were supposed to be.
12. The greatest Christmas miracle of all is the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I love Him and I am so very grateful to be His personal representative every day, every hour, and every minute for the next 16 months. May we all strive every day to look to Him, to become more like Him, and to recognize the "Christmas miracles" that we receive every day - be it big or small - because of His birth, His life, and His Gospel.
Love,
Sister Rebecca Winters
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Sister Winters - December 19, 2011 Christmastiiiiiiiiiiime is heeeeeeeeere!
I'm very, very excited for Christmas. We got our schedule - it looks like we'll be watching a couple Christmas movies (hopefully It's A Wonderful Life!), watching the Syssel/MoTab broadcast, watching Music and the Spoken Word, having a devotional, and having sacrament meeting with a general authority! Can't wait. Oh, and we also get to write our families on Christmas, so you can expect a couple of letters from me this week! Hooray. The snow is finally starting to stick here, so it's even starting to look like Christmas - pretty fun! You asked about the music - still a little bit of a lack of Christmas music, but I watched the Music and the Spoken Word broadcast this past week and it was awesome! I especially loved listening to Jane Seymour recite the Christmas story - it reminded me of watching The Scarlet Pimpernel. :) Oh, Daniel and I were also able to bring in the Christmas spirit by SINGING IN DEVOTIONAL this past Sunday! It was so much fun to sing with him - I didn't even get very nervous (although both of our hands were really tingly and we couldn't feel anything afterwards)! It was a little weird to be performing with my voice as opposed to piano or violin, but it was great. And SO wonderful to be doing it with Daniel! When the person conducting announced that we were brother and sister you could just hear the titters throughout the whole audience - so fun. Oh, and it's been a huge confidence boost afterwards, too - people will literally yell at me across courtyards to tell me that I did an amazing job at the fireside! This past week I hit a little hump with Chinese, so don't worry - the pride and humility is equalling itself out. :) One more thing about the fireside - they sang "A Child's Prayer" for the opening song - Daniel and I were singing our family's harmonies when everyone was singing together. I LOVED it! It was like singing with the whole family again. I love you all so much.
So no more funny service moments this week, but I do have a story that's somewhat related. There's a new gym at the MTC that's opened up, so my companion and I went over there to check it out. It was pretty nice - a bunch of machines with TVs that play church movies and conference talks. Well, I went to wipe it down with some spray and paper towels that they had, and guess what? It was the POISON stuff! Again, kills AIDS and every other virus you can think of, and you're supposed to wash yourself for 15-20 minutes if it gets in contact with your skin at all! I'm pretty sure that the MTC staff doesn't read the labels, because there's no way that we should be handling that stuff without gloves.
Shout-out to Anna - happy birthday this week, my friend! You're awesome and I love you.
A couple of you have mentioned that I haven't talked about my companion lately. Don't worry - I love her more than ever. I wrote this little entry in my journal last week that'll hopefully give you a better idea of what she's like and why she's so loveable. Disclaimer: she would have me tell you that she's really not as crazy as she seems in this, but these are indeed direct quotes:
"My companion really likes clothes. Loves shopping, loves clothes, and as she walways says, she goes with 'quantity over quality,' because she easily tires of her outfirst. It's been fun to see her on a mission as she's already gotten sick of her clothes, so not she puts together more... unusual... outfits. She knows that she looks a little unorthodox, so she's compensated by making som hilarious descriptions/personalities associated with some of her more original ones. Here are som of my favorites:
-*Middle part with two small braids going back/ruffly blouse*: "Jiemei, I look like such a medieval princess right now."
-*Bright yellow cardigan/bright red skirt*: "Man, you need condiments with that? Get your ketchup and mustard right here!"
-*Pink blouse, pencil skirt, and red scarf with white polka dots:* "Jiemei, be honest with me - do I look too much like a stewardess right now?"
-*Same outfit:* "Well, I feel like a Disneyland museum tour guide right now. 'Hey everyone, you can call me Minnie! *wink*"
-*Blue denim blouse/Indian wap skirt with crazy fish patterns on it:* "I feel like a 40-year-old woman in New Mexico who's obsessed with Southwestern art..."
She's SO funny! She always says the most bizarre/awesome things. One more example: we were walking outside and it was super gray and misty, and she said, "Man, it's like dementor weather out here..." So you can pretty much rest assured that I'm having the time of my life with her. I really hope we're companions in the field.
Okay, last thought and then I have to go. Sorry that it's a little bit of a repeat - I promise I have some more different ideas about it. Anyway, it's more about losing yourself. I think one of the ways to lose yourself is to focus on the moment - you can't focus on the future (even things like leaving the MTC or your future investigators too much) and be focused on the NOW simultaneously. And you need to focus on the now in order to really show people that you love them and to teach them effectively. Now this doesn't mean that I don't have to plan like the rest of the misssionaries - I know that planning is indeed central to the whole mission process, but I'm really trying to focus on the now. So Mom, you asked me if I'm getting antsy about the MTC and want to leave - my answer is that I'm trying not to. :) I'm really trying to focus on what I can do now, on making every day my best. Because it's when I do that that my future will be awesome, because I'll be prepared to be the best that I can be by doing my best every day. I was talking with a couple of the sisters the other day and we talked about some of our "perfect moments" we've had - whether it be doing something really amazingly fun like a surprise trip to NYC or whether it's doing something you love, like talking to your friends and your family. Well, all of these perfect moments had something in common - they all came from just focusing on that moment. In order to make my mission the best that it can be, I'm going to try and better focus on every moment! One last thing about this, then I really have to go - the Savior talks about this as well. I was reading His Sermon on the Mount today (love it), and He tells us not to take any thought for the morrow. I didn't really notice that before - I think that instead of meaning for us not to plan our future, He meant for us to focus on the now, so that we can enjoy the beauties of life now, and be better equipped for the future.
I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior, and I love Him. I'm so grateful to be able to wear His name for the next year and a half and to take this time to celebrate His birth and His entire life. I love Him and I love all of you - Merry Christmas!
Love,
Sister Winters
PS - I came up with a sprirtual analogy that's totally general authority status. It'll have to wait until next time.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Sister Winters - December 13, 2011 Healthy helpings of humble pie
Okay, so this week's highlight.... DANIEL CAME! It's been so awesome having him here - I love it! It was all I could do to wait a few hours for when his class had a break on his first day so that I could go and give him a huge hug. We've been doing that pretty frequently - even in the lunch room! The MTC is working its magic, though, because I feel awkward pretty much every time - I keep on telling myself that I won't be awkward when I get back, but at this rate, it'll definitely happen for at least a few days (sorry in advance). Oh, anyway, Daniel - it's really funny because the MTC has tons of rules about boy/girl interaction (of course) - normally I think those are a good idea, but it's been a little more irritating when you just want to spend time with your brother but you can't... we had to get permission to run together on the track in the gym, for crying out loud! Speaking of the gym, I thought it was myself who was perpetuating the idea that I'm more immature in the MTC... wrong. Daniel and I played 4 square together for the first time (for me) yesterday, and someone dove for the ball, and... they took the ball away because someone dove for it! I officially have gone downhill from feeling like I'm in high school and now feel like I'm in kindergarten again. :) Oh, one more thing about Daniel - THANK YOU FOR THE PACKAGE YOU SENT WITH HIM! It completely made my day to see all of the awesome stuff you sent (we even had nutella in our room to go with the bread - yum!), and I felt so, so, so loved. Thank you.
Okay, now about this email's title. Just a disclaimer - this is not supposed to be a "pity me" email in any way, shape, or form. This is just a funny thing that's happened this week and I want to share it with all of you. So the new missionaries came this week... and they all speak Chinese way better than me! I'd say a year on average (college-level, too) - it's a disaster. And it's my fault, too! You want to know why? Because I've been praying to be more humble AND more charitable this week - and then these guys were all sent over here to test me. It's working, but I'm happy to say that there have been at least a couple of instances where I've come out on top. Both of these experiences involve a certain Elder F. He's taken THREE YEARS of Chinese, and delights in using phrases that I don't know at all. He also has this wonderful expression of smugness and self-satisfaction that clearly indicates that he KNOWS that he's using words that I don't know. Example: I'm the ward music coordinator, so I was visiting all of the new missionaries to see if they played anything. Elder F said "Datiqin" with a grin on his face. I THANKFULLY had studied musical terms only the week before, so I calmly said, "Oh, cello? Awesome." For a brief instant the mask of smugness was gone, and in its place was a look that expressed his frank surprise (and, I imagined, disappointment) that I knew what he was saying. Obviously I haven't quite reached my goal of patience OR humility quite yet, but I feel proud of myself for resisting the impulse to point and yell, "HA!" after I foiled his little plan to make me look dumb (just so you all know, I'm exaggerating a little bit. But only slightly.).
I've only got three minutes and I need to write about my spiritual thought! Okay, Sister Dibb (President Monson's daughter) came and spoke to us at RS - she talked about her dad for most of the time, and it was so sweet. I'll send you stuff about it in my letter to you. Main spiritual thought - yesterday I was doing an activity in PMG for personal study under "using time wisely" about where I want to be at the end of my mission. One of the questions in "What do you want to have become?" and I answered, "lost in the service of those whom I teach and love." Now Mom, I know that you've always told me how that's been the best part of your mission experience, but "losing myself" has honeslty always scared me a little bit. I like who I am, and although I want to improve and become better, I'm scared about the personality I know and love and that it'll change (thanks for your letter about that - it was great to hear your comforting words). I also feel like my family and those that I love are an intrinsic part of who I am, and I don't want to lose contact with them in order to "lose myself!" But as I pondered the meaning of those words, I got a little bit of inspiration about it... at least inspiration for me (you all probably knew this and it took me a long time just to figure it out). Here's an excerpt from my journal about it. "I think I've always thought of losing yourself as losing your identity and losing those you care about in order to serve, but I don't think that's it. It's more like becoming so good and so obedient that you become a complete instrument in the Lord's hands, so that He can use you for whatever purpose He wants to. So it's not like I'm losing myself, Rebecca Winters, and all other personality traits and loved ones associated with that name. Instead, I'm Rebecca Winters, and BECAUSE of my distinct set of personality traits, talents, and people whom I love, I'm more equipped to become even better, to lose my SINGLE self in the work as I work WITH God to bring people closer to Him. It's like that scripture - "He who abaseth himself will be exalted," or, in my case, "She who will humbleth herself and tries to become more Christlike as she follows God's will exactly will be made greater and even better as God works WITH her." Or like Ammon says when he boasts in God, he knows that it's WITH God that he can do all things. He's lost himself by working with God, but he is now greater and can accomplish more. Awesome."
Okay, way over time, but I just loved learning about that! I feel so blessed, and so happy. I hope you all feel the same. I love you!
Love,
Sister Winters
PS - Morgan Crockett, you were awesome in Men's Chorus! I loved the concert and totally made a fool of myself trying to get you to see me. That's all.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Sister Winters - December 6, 2011 Happy St. Nicholas Day!
So, as the title suggests, we still celebrated St. Nicholas day here in the MTC! It's made me happy that even after leaving home four years ago, I've still been able to bring a little more Christmas joy into my friends' lives by that simple tradition. Yesterday one of the Hermana roommates was having a rough time, but when she found out about St. Nicholas day and how St. Nicholas had stopped by the store earlier that day to buy a few Christmas treats for the shoes, she was delighted! So fun. I took some pictures to commemorate the event - hopefully you'll enjoy all of those. :)
Chinese! Chinese is going well. I'm still pretty nervous to be the "older generation" starting this week (my companion and I said we'll just say "Ni hao" really fast to impress the younger generation... except for Daniel), so we'll see how that goes. I hit a rut last week with memorizing words, so I decided to memorize the baptism commitment instead. It went really well, so I ended up memorizing the First Vision account instead! It's still quite slow with a lot of "uhhhs" in between, but I've got it! Kind of fun. Since it was only our generation in church last Sunday, we all ended up bearing our testimony with some time still to spare! I think I made a pretty bad mistake - I'm pretty sure I said "I'm grateful that we celebrate Christmas so we can FORGET Christ's birth" instead of "I'm grateful that we celebrate Christmas so we can REMEMBER Christ's birth." Whoops. My branch president didn't say anything, so either my Chinese was so bad that he couldn't understand me anyway, or I didn't say it after all.
Winter is officially here and it is COLD! It's good, though - definitely wakes me up whenever I have to go outside. Like I said before, I'm really glad that we were able to watch the Christmas devotional - thus far, I feel like the MTC presidency has kind of been like, "Christmas? Huh? What are you talking about? We don't celebrate Christmas this early, or else you'll be trunky!" But the fireside was great. I think one of my favorite parts was listening to President Uchtdorf talk about his story with the candles - I laughed so hard! I was also reminded of our beauutiful candles on our tree at home, which made me happy. It's also been fun to think about Jerusalem memories over again when I think of Christmas and the life of Jesus Christ - I'm so incredibly grateful that i had that experience.
Okay, saving the spiritual things (aka the best things) for last. SO, I read a super-amazing talk (actually several talks, but this one was my favorite) last week by President Eyring called "Rise to Your Call." It definitely applies to all callings, but I loved reading it while thinking about missionary work. Here's one of my favorite passages: "The Lord will not only magnify the power of your efforts. He will work with you Himself. His voice to four missionaries, called through the Proophet Joseph Smith to a dificult task, gives courage to everyone He calls in His kingdom: "And I myself will go with them and be in their midst; and I am their advocate wih the Father, and nothing shall prevail against them." Because the Savior is a resurrected and glorified being, He is not physically with ever one of His servants at every moment. But He is perfectly aware of them and their circumstance and able to intervene with His power. That is why He can promise you: Whoso recceiveth you, there will I be also, for I will go vefore your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up."
So powerful, right? I loved it. Something else in my remaining 7 minutes - last night we had an awesome lesson on teaching with the Spirit. We learned about the central role it has in conversion and then tried to really follow it when we taught each other last night. Mom - thank you for your insight about "teaching with the Spirit." I shared it in class, and it fit in perfectly with what we were talking about! Anyway, teaching. Normally, we immature missionaries try to be as obnoxious as possible when we're the investigators. Thus far I've been a Southern baptist who complains about not being able to listen to rock n roll music or shouting "Hallelujah!" or "AMEN!" in the "Mormon church," a pagan who worships the gods that allow her to plant her crops, give her rain, etc., and a Messianic Jew who believes that Christ was the Messiah, but never really broke away from my Jewish ways. Other examples from other missionaries include those who have only read 1 Nephi ch. 1 verse 1 every day and someone who is 20 and recently divorced "with no kids... thankfully." Our teacher asked us to be a little more reverent this time so that we could really try and listen to the Spirit. Well, it worked! Both my companion and I felt the Spirit directing what we were supposed to do when we taught each other last night - it was very powerful. Then my teacher shared this insight about this scripture that I wanted all of you to hear: it's 1 Nephi 10:19. "For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost..." I've always thought of that scripture applying to me, but my teacher pointed out that we as missionaries are supposed to teach the elect, those that are "diligently seeking," and we aren't teaching them ourselves, but "by the power of the Holy Ghost," and then "the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them" as we teach. So cool, right?! I loved it.
I know that this church is true, and I know that I'm supposed to be a missionary right now. I miss all of you and love you so much, but I really do know this is where I'm supposed to be. Have a wonderful week! You'll be in my prayers, as always.
Love,
Sister Winters
Chinese! Chinese is going well. I'm still pretty nervous to be the "older generation" starting this week (my companion and I said we'll just say "Ni hao" really fast to impress the younger generation... except for Daniel), so we'll see how that goes. I hit a rut last week with memorizing words, so I decided to memorize the baptism commitment instead. It went really well, so I ended up memorizing the First Vision account instead! It's still quite slow with a lot of "uhhhs" in between, but I've got it! Kind of fun. Since it was only our generation in church last Sunday, we all ended up bearing our testimony with some time still to spare! I think I made a pretty bad mistake - I'm pretty sure I said "I'm grateful that we celebrate Christmas so we can FORGET Christ's birth" instead of "I'm grateful that we celebrate Christmas so we can REMEMBER Christ's birth." Whoops. My branch president didn't say anything, so either my Chinese was so bad that he couldn't understand me anyway, or I didn't say it after all.
Winter is officially here and it is COLD! It's good, though - definitely wakes me up whenever I have to go outside. Like I said before, I'm really glad that we were able to watch the Christmas devotional - thus far, I feel like the MTC presidency has kind of been like, "Christmas? Huh? What are you talking about? We don't celebrate Christmas this early, or else you'll be trunky!" But the fireside was great. I think one of my favorite parts was listening to President Uchtdorf talk about his story with the candles - I laughed so hard! I was also reminded of our beauutiful candles on our tree at home, which made me happy. It's also been fun to think about Jerusalem memories over again when I think of Christmas and the life of Jesus Christ - I'm so incredibly grateful that i had that experience.
Okay, saving the spiritual things (aka the best things) for last. SO, I read a super-amazing talk (actually several talks, but this one was my favorite) last week by President Eyring called "Rise to Your Call." It definitely applies to all callings, but I loved reading it while thinking about missionary work. Here's one of my favorite passages: "The Lord will not only magnify the power of your efforts. He will work with you Himself. His voice to four missionaries, called through the Proophet Joseph Smith to a dificult task, gives courage to everyone He calls in His kingdom: "And I myself will go with them and be in their midst; and I am their advocate wih the Father, and nothing shall prevail against them." Because the Savior is a resurrected and glorified being, He is not physically with ever one of His servants at every moment. But He is perfectly aware of them and their circumstance and able to intervene with His power. That is why He can promise you: Whoso recceiveth you, there will I be also, for I will go vefore your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up."
So powerful, right? I loved it. Something else in my remaining 7 minutes - last night we had an awesome lesson on teaching with the Spirit. We learned about the central role it has in conversion and then tried to really follow it when we taught each other last night. Mom - thank you for your insight about "teaching with the Spirit." I shared it in class, and it fit in perfectly with what we were talking about! Anyway, teaching. Normally, we immature missionaries try to be as obnoxious as possible when we're the investigators. Thus far I've been a Southern baptist who complains about not being able to listen to rock n roll music or shouting "Hallelujah!" or "AMEN!" in the "Mormon church," a pagan who worships the gods that allow her to plant her crops, give her rain, etc., and a Messianic Jew who believes that Christ was the Messiah, but never really broke away from my Jewish ways. Other examples from other missionaries include those who have only read 1 Nephi ch. 1 verse 1 every day and someone who is 20 and recently divorced "with no kids... thankfully." Our teacher asked us to be a little more reverent this time so that we could really try and listen to the Spirit. Well, it worked! Both my companion and I felt the Spirit directing what we were supposed to do when we taught each other last night - it was very powerful. Then my teacher shared this insight about this scripture that I wanted all of you to hear: it's 1 Nephi 10:19. "For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost..." I've always thought of that scripture applying to me, but my teacher pointed out that we as missionaries are supposed to teach the elect, those that are "diligently seeking," and we aren't teaching them ourselves, but "by the power of the Holy Ghost," and then "the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them" as we teach. So cool, right?! I loved it.
I know that this church is true, and I know that I'm supposed to be a missionary right now. I miss all of you and love you so much, but I really do know this is where I'm supposed to be. Have a wonderful week! You'll be in my prayers, as always.
Love,
Sister Winters
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Sister Winters - November 29, 2011
(Editor's note: How in the world did she type this in just 30 minutes??)
Hey, everyone! Thank you for all of the wonderful thoughts and messages and packages that were sent this past week - I think I reached an all-time mail high yesterday when I received 10 pages of dear elders. All of my district was pretty jealous, to say the least. My new title there is "mail queen." I kind of like it. :)
Okay, first things first: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JACOB! Man, I can't believe that you're 17! Heck, I was 17 when I went to college! Now THAT'S kind of crazy to think about. Anyway, loved your letter this past week, love that you're not dead, and I love that you're coming out to Utah to go out on a date with a very attractive red-head. Nice.
Okay, Daniel, Happy Thanksgiving in Chinese would be "Kuaile de Gan en Jie" (hopefully you can figure out the tones). And as far as hymns go, we sing at least two hymns each day, and they're always in Chinese unless you're singing prelude for the devotional or fireside. You'll also receive about 15 pounds of books when you get here - see the pictures I sent home for more details. Speaking of pictures, sorry that I haven't sent more home yet! I'll want that SD card back before I send this next one home - plus I want to take some pictures with Daniel when he gets here before I send it back. You'll like this next batch - I'll say more about it when I send it home.
Thanksgiving was really great! It was definitely different from any Thanksgiving I've ever had in the past - so different, in fact, that I didn't even miss home at all. That's nothing against how wonderful you are - it just didn't really feel that much like Thanksgiving in certain respects, even though everyone talked about Thanksgiving all day. Alright, let's talk about what happened - this is pretty much a direct quote from my journal entry about the day:
"Today was Thanksgiving! Didn't have a problem with trunkiness though since it was definitely unlike any Thanksgiving i've ever had before. We had breakfast and personal study, and then we had a morning devotional. On our schedule it said that our morning devotional would be with our MTC president, President Brown, but when we went back to our room to grab our keys, our roommates told us that the speaker was actually an apostle and that the auditorium was already almost full since word had gotten out about it somehow!. That tricky MTC! I'm so glad we talked to our roommates! We rushed over and it was Elder Nelson and his wife. They were awesome. Afterwards, we had one of our best MTC meals yet (seriously, though - we got pumpkin pie and everything!), and then went over to the gym for a Thanksgiving program. There we sang songs (when the organ started playing "Over the River and Through the Woods" for the opening song I almost died laughing), listened to some fun musical numbers, and even watched some missionaries act out the first Thanksgiving. Then we had a delightful sack dinner ("ONLY FIVE ITEMS! ONE SANDWICH! YOUR SANDWICH COUNTS AS AN ITEM!") and did some service. It was similar to the humanitarian kits we made in Jerusalem - these were first-aid kits that they're sending to West Africa. Since there were so many missionaries helping, they really cut down on the work we needed to put in it. My job was to put one piece of gauze - along with 5 other pieces of gauze handed down the line - into a ziploc bag. I'm still sore from all of that work! :) Oh, one more thing - during the service, they were playing this Rock-n-Roll primary music on the speakers right next to us (the singer sounded like a baby rock star - terrible!). The Spirit was gone and we were deaf by the end of the night - plus there was the undeniable feeling of my brain running out of my ears. But the MTC made up for it later that night when we watched 17 Miracles (a pioneer movie) - they gave us each a bag of popcorn and told the elders they could take off their suitcoats - they were ecstatic! It was like Christmas had come early for them! The movie was pretty good; I enjoyed it. I really liked Thanksgiving - I know they're trying to take good care of us here. And I know that Christmas will be great, too - I hope we get to watch 'It's a Wonderful Life.' :)"
Okay, I'm sure you all want to hear about the devotional - I'll probably write some about it in my letter today, but here are some things that stuck out the most - Elder Nelson said, "I'm thankful for your families! Please pass on that message to them." I'm thankful for you, too! Thank you for being so wonderful - I love you all so much. Oh, both Elder and Sister Nelson talked about Thanksgiving, of course. Actually, Sister Nelson talked a lot about being able to do impossible things through the Savior. It was awesome. She gave the examples of Joseph Smith, Nephi, and Elder Nelson. Elder Nelson talked about the entry "Hallel" in the Bible Dictionary. It means 'praise," and refers to many of the pslams. Psalms #136 is known as the "Great Hallel." In all 22 verses, they all end in the same words: "For His mercy endureth forever." Obviously it's a pretty important thing to remember. The word "Hallelujah" comes from the word "hallel" and it literally means "praise to the Lord God, Jehovah." We ended with listening to a song done by the men of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir called "Alleluia." In the 5 minutes of the song, only one word is sung - "Alleluia." It was very beautiful and powerful. I was so glad he was able to speak to us! Mom, I wanted more than anything to be able to write him a thank-you note - thank you for reading my mind across the country and for doing it for me! I loved hearing about that.
Okay, some other things: in church on Sunday, our branch president talked about Chinese culture similarities (specifically Confucianism) with the Church's. It was really interesting. I'd definitely recommend looking it up - I think the main thing was family values and trying to avoid conflict. Anyway, at the end he talked about how when we convert Chinese people, we're not only converting them, but "these people have lines of ancestry that go back thousands of years! You will be helping those thousands and thousands of people as well!" It was really, really cool to think about. There's actually a girl in my zone who is Chinese who had us help out with some family names today at the temple. The name I had was from 1571! It was so exciting - I had a powerful experience as I did the work for her which made me even more excited to serve the Chinese people.
Oh! Another thing on Sunday - during music and the spoken word on Sunday, my name was called over the loudspeaker. Apparently I was supposed to play the musical number with Shay Taylor in Relief Society that day... in 15 minutes! There was a subsitute secretary on Wednesday who forgot to notify us, so it was a bit of a surprise. It went really well, though - I was pleased. Daniel, just a heads-up - I think I'd really love to do a Christmas musical number with you when you come out. We found out in RS this past week that in the last batch of missionaries that came, there were 480 sister missionaries - crazy! I'm so glad to be part of that.
3 minutes left. Okay. As far as a Christmas wishlist goes, honestly I think that that solar alarm clock and basketball shorts are all that come to mind. I love surprises, though. :) We're officially the "older generation" at the MTC, which is weird. I'll hit my halfway mark this week, which is weirder, and Daniel comes next week, which isn't weird, but AWESOME! As far as bringing stuff goes, more Christmas music and those things I left (hairdryer, deodorant, contact solution, and gummi vites) are good. Thank you! Thank you again for the wonderful December package, all of your wonderful letters (they bring me so much joy), and for the pictures! They're all over my wall in my room. I love them! And I love you. Thank you again for everything - you're in my prayers, as always.
Love,
Sister Winters
PS - I'm the new Ward Music Chairman. Daniel, watch out - I need to assign the music for priesthood, and I know that you play.
PPS - A bunch of you wanted to know how the Chinese is coming along. I'm at about 400-500 words or so now - I hit a road block earlier this week, but it's coming along a lot better now. The hardest thing is retention, I think (it's hard to use the word "chastity" in every day vocabulary, for example).
PPPS - I love you all so much. You're the best.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Sister Winters - Siwang in Service
Hey, everyone! I'm on a computer with no sticky keys, so I'm loving life! Thank you for all of your letters, prayers, and packages this week. I can't tell you how much I (and my district and roommates) have loved all of the food. Mom, you're everyone's favorite. I also got an awesome surprise package from Aunt Jill and from Sister Schleiffarth (so nice!). Seriously, with all of the food that I got this past week, I know that I got more food than I would have had I actually eaten Thanksgiving Dinner! As far as my Thanksgiving schedule goes, we're doing some service projects, listening to some Thanksgiving music, listening to the MTC president, and we have a special "guest speaker" on Thursday night. A couple of my roommates at lunch with the MTC president and according to him we're going to "really enjoy" the speaker. I'm really excited - I'll keep you posted on who it is.
I'm still pretty tired sometimes, but it's great! We wake up at 6:30 or earlier - today we had to get up at 5:45 so we could be at the temple by 5:30! That's so crazy. We still have some pretty leaves left on the trees, but most of them are gone. We've had it snow a couple of times this week, so winter is definitely on its way. And yes, we're only allowed to read the scriptures, church books, and church magazines in the MTC/mission. It's fine, although I miss regular books sometimes. I woke up the other day and said, "I just want to read Harry Potter so bad right now!" My companion is having her friends email her poetry while she's gone. Maybe you, Rachel, and Joseph can do the same thing and email some Harry Potter quotes. Honestly, this MTC food is REALLY making me excited about it more and more every day. Dad, I've been meaning to tell you about Shay Taylor! She told me she's from Kaysville and we made the connection pretty early on. I actually auditioned for a musical number with her this week (All Creatures of Our God and King, I'm playing piano) and we played a violin/flute duet this past Sunday in church. That makes it every single Sunday besides fast Sunday that I've played a different instrument/sung and participated in the musical number. I don't mind too much - it's nice to have a way to release and play music a little bit, but I'm afraid my head is getting bigger from all of this performing. I joked around with my companion that I'd bring my accordian next week and play that so I could keep doing something new.
...Is Jacob alive? It'd be nice to hear from him soon.
As far as this week goes, it's been awesome! Chinese is still coming along well - we've gotten to the point where we don't really have to read things from our lesson plans anymore (before that we had to write everything in Chinese, then write everything in English and translate in our heads, etc.), so that's good. TRC this week also went better - I think my favorite part was when this Chinese lady we were teaching started talking really, REALLY fast. I soon realized that she was telling a story though and not answer a question so I felt no pressure to really understand what she was saying, so I just smiled and nodded. When i looked over at my companion, she had this frozen look of terror on her face. Apparently she didn't get the same message, and was worried she'd have to answer some sort of question at the end. I realized that I've hit my one month mark essentially - that gave me a lot to think about. Although I think I've been working hard, there's definitely still room for improvement! Please pray that I'll be able to keep improving and giving my all. I'm still loving my companion - this week I found out that she's a Brian Kershisnik fan! Of COURSE I had to love her after that! She even knows him too - pretty sweet. Oh, I'd also love some prayers to make sure I don't get sick - a bunch of my roommates are. I think I'll be fine, but every extra prayer helps, along with my gummi vites and iron immune system after growing up with five kids.
So I kind of almost died this week during service. We had three options: vaccuum the entrances, vaccuum the stairs, or clean the water fountains. Obviously I chose the water fountains. But then the service guy handed me some goggles, some gloves, and said that I should be really careful when I spray the "red spray." We spray the red spray to start out and then it shoots out red - it looks like blood and poison mixed! I took a closer look at the bottle and saw that what we were spraying kills AIDS, Hepatitis A and B, Influenza, and a whole score of other viruses. I didn't even know that scientists had invented something that killed AIDS! Then I looked on the back - Danger: if this gets in your eeyes, it WILL cause PERMANENT eye corrosion and damage. Do not get this on skin, or else severe burns will occur. If you get this on your hands, wash with warm water for 15-20 minutes. After using this product, strip off all of your clothes, wash them immediately, and then rinse your body off. So terrifying! Sister Christensen and I were terrified all week that we'd accidentally touch our "poison" clothes and then have to shower immediately again. Oh, and by the way - the title Siwang through Service means "Death through Service." Apparently Si means death, and a different tone of the same word means "four." So, as a result, 4 is an unlucky number. They don't even have 4th floors in Taiwan - or at least that's what we thought, until we talked to some older missionaries. Turns out they DO have 4th floors, and they make the missionaries live there.
Last story - I think that I'm already turning into an awkward RM. I've had so many social faux pas experiences this week! For example, one of our roommates clips her toenails over the floor - kind of gross, right? Well, that's kind of a little joke that my companion and I have. Anyway, I didn't have my glasses on one night and my companion said, "Dang it, i can't find my used Q-tip!" Also kind of gross. Well, to be funny, I said: "At least it's not a toenail!" Then I realized from an elbow to the ribs that that roommate was indeed in our room but that I didn't see her because of my lack of glasses. So then I had to follow it up with "...Or a used band-aid! Or something like that! ...Yeah." So awkward. BUT, good things did come from the experience! Since it was so embarrassing and I obviously couldn't talk about it in front of the toenail roommate, it forced me about it with my companion in the room in Chinese. A blessing in disguise, I guess... Anyway, time's running out so I'll tell you more stories in my letter home.
I love you all and I'm so happy to be here! Have a FANTASTIC Thanksgiving and enjoy all of the good food! Meanwhile I'll enjoy all of the good spritual food here at the MTC. Thanks for being wonderful - you're in my prayers!
Love,
Wei Jiemei
I'm still pretty tired sometimes, but it's great! We wake up at 6:30 or earlier - today we had to get up at 5:45 so we could be at the temple by 5:30! That's so crazy. We still have some pretty leaves left on the trees, but most of them are gone. We've had it snow a couple of times this week, so winter is definitely on its way. And yes, we're only allowed to read the scriptures, church books, and church magazines in the MTC/mission. It's fine, although I miss regular books sometimes. I woke up the other day and said, "I just want to read Harry Potter so bad right now!" My companion is having her friends email her poetry while she's gone. Maybe you, Rachel, and Joseph can do the same thing and email some Harry Potter quotes. Honestly, this MTC food is REALLY making me excited about it more and more every day. Dad, I've been meaning to tell you about Shay Taylor! She told me she's from Kaysville and we made the connection pretty early on. I actually auditioned for a musical number with her this week (All Creatures of Our God and King, I'm playing piano) and we played a violin/flute duet this past Sunday in church. That makes it every single Sunday besides fast Sunday that I've played a different instrument/sung and participated in the musical number. I don't mind too much - it's nice to have a way to release and play music a little bit, but I'm afraid my head is getting bigger from all of this performing. I joked around with my companion that I'd bring my accordian next week and play that so I could keep doing something new.
...Is Jacob alive? It'd be nice to hear from him soon.
As far as this week goes, it's been awesome! Chinese is still coming along well - we've gotten to the point where we don't really have to read things from our lesson plans anymore (before that we had to write everything in Chinese, then write everything in English and translate in our heads, etc.), so that's good. TRC this week also went better - I think my favorite part was when this Chinese lady we were teaching started talking really, REALLY fast. I soon realized that she was telling a story though and not answer a question so I felt no pressure to really understand what she was saying, so I just smiled and nodded. When i looked over at my companion, she had this frozen look of terror on her face. Apparently she didn't get the same message, and was worried she'd have to answer some sort of question at the end. I realized that I've hit my one month mark essentially - that gave me a lot to think about. Although I think I've been working hard, there's definitely still room for improvement! Please pray that I'll be able to keep improving and giving my all. I'm still loving my companion - this week I found out that she's a Brian Kershisnik fan! Of COURSE I had to love her after that! She even knows him too - pretty sweet. Oh, I'd also love some prayers to make sure I don't get sick - a bunch of my roommates are. I think I'll be fine, but every extra prayer helps, along with my gummi vites and iron immune system after growing up with five kids.
So I kind of almost died this week during service. We had three options: vaccuum the entrances, vaccuum the stairs, or clean the water fountains. Obviously I chose the water fountains. But then the service guy handed me some goggles, some gloves, and said that I should be really careful when I spray the "red spray." We spray the red spray to start out and then it shoots out red - it looks like blood and poison mixed! I took a closer look at the bottle and saw that what we were spraying kills AIDS, Hepatitis A and B, Influenza, and a whole score of other viruses. I didn't even know that scientists had invented something that killed AIDS! Then I looked on the back - Danger: if this gets in your eeyes, it WILL cause PERMANENT eye corrosion and damage. Do not get this on skin, or else severe burns will occur. If you get this on your hands, wash with warm water for 15-20 minutes. After using this product, strip off all of your clothes, wash them immediately, and then rinse your body off. So terrifying! Sister Christensen and I were terrified all week that we'd accidentally touch our "poison" clothes and then have to shower immediately again. Oh, and by the way - the title Siwang through Service means "Death through Service." Apparently Si means death, and a different tone of the same word means "four." So, as a result, 4 is an unlucky number. They don't even have 4th floors in Taiwan - or at least that's what we thought, until we talked to some older missionaries. Turns out they DO have 4th floors, and they make the missionaries live there.
Last story - I think that I'm already turning into an awkward RM. I've had so many social faux pas experiences this week! For example, one of our roommates clips her toenails over the floor - kind of gross, right? Well, that's kind of a little joke that my companion and I have. Anyway, I didn't have my glasses on one night and my companion said, "Dang it, i can't find my used Q-tip!" Also kind of gross. Well, to be funny, I said: "At least it's not a toenail!" Then I realized from an elbow to the ribs that that roommate was indeed in our room but that I didn't see her because of my lack of glasses. So then I had to follow it up with "...Or a used band-aid! Or something like that! ...Yeah." So awkward. BUT, good things did come from the experience! Since it was so embarrassing and I obviously couldn't talk about it in front of the toenail roommate, it forced me about it with my companion in the room in Chinese. A blessing in disguise, I guess... Anyway, time's running out so I'll tell you more stories in my letter home.
I love you all and I'm so happy to be here! Have a FANTASTIC Thanksgiving and enjoy all of the good food! Meanwhile I'll enjoy all of the good spritual food here at the MTC. Thanks for being wonderful - you're in my prayers!
Love,
Wei Jiemei
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Sister Winters - November 15, 2011
Happy birthday, Daniel!
Dear wonderful people,
Hello, and welcome to week three of my mission! I hope it's been as good for all of you as it has been for me. As far as language goes, Mandarin is going well! I've been finding promises here and there in the scriptures that I can totally apply to Mandarin - 1 Nephi 3:7 is a good one, along with replacing "build a ship" with "learn Mandarin" in 1 Nephi 17:49-51 (thanks, Dallin!). Our newest language experience is the TRC, the teaching resource center. We have people come into the MTC who speak Mandarin who act as themselves and we teach them and talk to them. Pretty cool, and very valuable. This past time we had only natives! Good news: I understood so many words, including "we," "church," Holy Ghost, Jesus Christ, strong, power, question, prepare, and death. Bad news: there were a whole lot of words in between each of those, and none of those words make much sense together. :) We kept a positive attitude and got through, though - the feedback talked about how much they loved how happy we were.
Speaking of being happy, I've found that I've needed to lower my maturity level to a certain extent to keep myself amused here (I'm still a very dedicated missionary - don't worry). For example, there's a missionary here in my disctrict who isn't mature enough to admit that he's wrong - so I kind of like to egg him on a bit. This past Sunday he mixed his chocolate milk with skim milk (so disgusting and watery) and he said that it was because he didn't want to consume that much sugar. I pointed out that he had Cinnamon Toast Crunch for breakfast. He didn't really like that, so he started going off on a tangent about how they spray on vitamins for cinnamon toast crunch and they're actually really healthy, etc. It was so hard not to laugh. In another instance, I was getting ready in the morning. I was about to go into one of the bathroom stalls, and this girl cut me off and went right on in. I shrugged my shoulders and went into another one. Then I was getting into the shower line and this SAME girl zipped in front of me and cut me off again! SO FUNNY. I don't know why it amused me so much, but it totally did. Now all I can do whenever I see her is try not to laugh. Sister Christensen and I are especially giggly when we are really tired, which seems to be more often than usual. If you have any tips on staying awake, I'd love them!
Don't have time to write about my schedule, sorry - but I WILL tell you about my favorite parts of the week! I love firesides/devotionals, RS, Music and the Spoken Word (they sang "My Favorite Things" from sound of music this week!), and service. Let me tell you a little bit about service. The jobs we did last week were: emptying mop buckets, ujsing dirty rags to clean up the mess my comapnion and I made when we poured out the mop buckets, washing nasty chemicals off of gloves (and had to inflate them and turn them inside out - so hard!), putting brooms away, and folding rags and stacking them (and by "folding" them I mean laying each one on top of the other until there are 20 in a pile and then folding them in half - tough I know!)This past Saturday we had to lemon oil doors. I felt like such a diva ("diva" is very much a Sister Christensenf word) because I asked "Wait.... ALL of the doors?!" Lemon oiling is not very hard, but this was definitely a step up from past tasks... especially considering how many doors there were in the building! PLUS Sister Christensen and I each spilled lemon oil on our pants (cargo and sweat, respectively) - definitely getting a little harder. We were even almost sweating by the end otf it! The guy who assigns our tasks makes me laugh, too. I have a sneaking suspicion that he kind of has a sadistic delight in ordering all of the missionaries around and having their fates rest in his hadnds during those 75 minutes of service every Saturday morning (I definitely would). At this rate with how much harder our jobs are getting each week, Sister Christensen and I predict that we'll be installing tolilets by week 12... without being divas about it. I'll keep you posted.
A bunch of experiences last Tuesday night just overwhelmed me. I poured out my heart to Heavenly Father that night - I told Him how hard everything was, how much I missed the people I loved, and pleaded with Him that I'd receive comfort. I knew I'd be able to go on a mission and complete it, but I honestly didn't know how I could, since the past 2 weeks felt so hard and so long. I knew that the Savior had atoned for my sinss and suffering, and I knew that HE could take that pain away. But it didn't come. I thought of why I was serving - it was because I was grateful for all that Heavenly Father had done for me. So I started thanking Him in my prayers for everything I could think of. As I did so, I felt an outpouring of love for me. It was a TANGIBLE FORCE, like a blanket being wrapped around me or even a hug. I knew that Heavenly Father was mindful of me, and that I could take courage and succeed. Everything's been so much better since. One thing we've been doing in my district together which I love is reading the BoM together. We pick it apart - so good. Anyway, in 1 Nephi 1 when Lehi reads the book about the destruction of jerusalem and all of his friends, does he weep? Does he curse God? No, he rejoices! Such a good example of gratitude - trying to be like that.
Last thing - I read Elder Marlin k Jensen's talk on having an "eye single to the glory of God" it was really good. I'd love any feedback from anyone else as to what that means - either in general or to them specifically. Alright, that's it. I love you all. I pray for you - thanks for your prayers for me! I definitely can feel them, and I feel very blessed.
Love,
Sister Winters
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Sister Winters - November 7, 2011
Dear Friends of Rebecca,
If you wish to write Rebecca you can do so directly (and free) from dearelder.com. Just select Provo MTC and the letter will be printed and delivered the same day! Here's the information:
Sister Rebecca Winters
Mailbox #116
mission code - TAIW-TAI
dep. date 0110
Thanks so much!
Pam Winters
Sister Winters - November 7, 2011
Dear loved ones,
Hello! How are all of you? I miss you and love you. Life this past week has probably averaged at "fantastic." It's been so great. Thank you for all of the wonderful mail and packages! Dear Elder really is the best. Some of you have been wondering whether or not I've been "winning" in my district with the most mail. My answer to that is that I'm much too mature and lady-like to be involved in a contest such as that one, but if I were.... I'd be burying everyone else in how many letters and packages I'm receiving. :) Thank you! Oh, and don't worry - I'm still able to maintain general popularity by sharing my packge goodies with people.
I've really been catching the missionary purpose this week. It says in PMG that the missionary's purpose is to invite others to come to Christ by having faith in Him and His Atonement, by repentance, by being baptized, by receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and by enduring to the end. One thing that i really loved is when my teacher spoke about how Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father's purpose is to "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man," and how essentially by doing this we're achieving the same ends. So not only are we representatives for Jesus Christ by wearing his name on our chests, but we're His representatives by doing what He would have done if He were on the Earth - same purpose! I love it.
I wrote last week that we already started teaching our investigator, Wu Pei Rong (started on the 3rd day!). Well, we ended our experience with her this past week - she came in and started telling us how it felt to be the investigator. She understood what we were teaching, she felt happy and loved, she wanted to do what we told her to because our testimonies were so powerful, and she felt the Spirit as we testified! I was SO happy. Not only that we were miraculously able to communicate after only a few short days, but that she wanted to do the things that we told her. We watched a short video clip of a sister who got baptized afterwards and I felt this huge flood of joy as I imagined being able to have one of my investigators do that. And that's when I realized that I'm here because Heavenly Father wants me to have joy. It's not only to improve my testimony, to make me a better person, to let me have joy in the future with my posterity from these experiences, but so that I can have joy NOW. He knew that I'd get the most happiness - now and afterwards - from going on a mission! I was so grateful to have that realization - it's made everything better.
Chinese is still going well - thank you for your prayers in that area! Wu Pei Rong became our second teacher, and she's Taiwanese, so I'm sure it'll keep getting better. About your prayers, though - I've been surprised at the amount of information that I've been able to retain thus far. I'm probably up to between 300-350 words. As I thought "I can't believe that I studied this word for only a few minutes and I still remember it," I realized that it wasn't me at all - that it was coming directly from all of the prayers for the gift of tongues in my behalf. Thank you. Favorite word of the week: Wugui. It means turtle, and when I found out, I yelled: "Oh my gosh, it's JUST like Kung Fu Panda! This MAKES SENSE!" And everyone else just stared. Anyway, I thought it was pretty cool. This past Sunday I bore my testimony in church - it went really well! I only made a few mistakes - I said "I'm grateful to learn the chinese people" instead of "I'm grateful to teach the Chinese people" (must be my southern accent kicking in), and I couldn't remember the tones for "restored." At least it was better than another elder in the zone - instead of saying that he knew that Jesus Christ was alive, he accidentally said that he knew that Jesus Christ was a monkey. Whoops! Our branch president speaks Chinese fluently (he was a mission president in Taiwan) and he was laughing really hard. I've discovered my new favorite Chinese learning activity - Whack-a-Zi (Chinese character). It's like whack-a-mole, except you whack the chinese character when you hear the syllable. Sounds kind of dumb (probably because it is), but it's funny to see how into it everyone gets. Oh, last thing about Chinese - I suggested to our district that we start singing the hymns in Chinese a little faster since we currently sing it at a funeral march pace and we're getting better at pronunciation. Everyone just looked at me and one of the elders said: "Hooooooooold up, Jiemei!" in a gangsta voice. It was really funny and now we say it to each other all the time. It actually inspired me to do my southern black woman impersonation that night as I was getting ready for bed. People got out their cameras and everything (no lie) - I felt like a celebrity.
You asked me how choir's going - it's great! There are two conductors, and I infinitely prefer the older one. He's Dallin's stake president, actually. Anyway, he gets super into the pieces we sing, and we sing much better under his direction. One thing I love about all of the MTC devotionals and meetings is that we sing like 3 prelude songs and THEN we sing the opening song. So fun. This last devotional was really great - President Monson didn't come (bit of a disappointment), but Elder W. Craig Zwick and his wife totally made up for it. His mission president was Elder Richard G. Scott - so cool! Anyway, he talked about prayer.One thing I loved is that he said that prayer consecrates the worst experiences for the welfare of our souls. I think that'll totally be true for the mission - I'll grow from everything, good and bad. He also talked to us about his disabled son, Scott. He said that Scott has offered thousands of prayers, but he doesn't think he's ever heard him ask anything for himself. I want to be more like that, for sure. You also asked me about the temple - we go once a week at 6:30 AM - it's really great to start the day that way. Mom, it's still weird for me to not hear your voice next to me as I do the session every week - I loved being able to go with you so often before I left. Thank you.
Hello! How are all of you? I miss you and love you. Life this past week has probably averaged at "fantastic." It's been so great. Thank you for all of the wonderful mail and packages! Dear Elder really is the best. Some of you have been wondering whether or not I've been "winning" in my district with the most mail. My answer to that is that I'm much too mature and lady-like to be involved in a contest such as that one, but if I were.... I'd be burying everyone else in how many letters and packages I'm receiving. :) Thank you! Oh, and don't worry - I'm still able to maintain general popularity by sharing my packge goodies with people.
I've really been catching the missionary purpose this week. It says in PMG that the missionary's purpose is to invite others to come to Christ by having faith in Him and His Atonement, by repentance, by being baptized, by receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and by enduring to the end. One thing that i really loved is when my teacher spoke about how Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father's purpose is to "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man," and how essentially by doing this we're achieving the same ends. So not only are we representatives for Jesus Christ by wearing his name on our chests, but we're His representatives by doing what He would have done if He were on the Earth - same purpose! I love it.
I wrote last week that we already started teaching our investigator, Wu Pei Rong (started on the 3rd day!). Well, we ended our experience with her this past week - she came in and started telling us how it felt to be the investigator. She understood what we were teaching, she felt happy and loved, she wanted to do what we told her to because our testimonies were so powerful, and she felt the Spirit as we testified! I was SO happy. Not only that we were miraculously able to communicate after only a few short days, but that she wanted to do the things that we told her. We watched a short video clip of a sister who got baptized afterwards and I felt this huge flood of joy as I imagined being able to have one of my investigators do that. And that's when I realized that I'm here because Heavenly Father wants me to have joy. It's not only to improve my testimony, to make me a better person, to let me have joy in the future with my posterity from these experiences, but so that I can have joy NOW. He knew that I'd get the most happiness - now and afterwards - from going on a mission! I was so grateful to have that realization - it's made everything better.
Chinese is still going well - thank you for your prayers in that area! Wu Pei Rong became our second teacher, and she's Taiwanese, so I'm sure it'll keep getting better. About your prayers, though - I've been surprised at the amount of information that I've been able to retain thus far. I'm probably up to between 300-350 words. As I thought "I can't believe that I studied this word for only a few minutes and I still remember it," I realized that it wasn't me at all - that it was coming directly from all of the prayers for the gift of tongues in my behalf. Thank you. Favorite word of the week: Wugui. It means turtle, and when I found out, I yelled: "Oh my gosh, it's JUST like Kung Fu Panda! This MAKES SENSE!" And everyone else just stared. Anyway, I thought it was pretty cool. This past Sunday I bore my testimony in church - it went really well! I only made a few mistakes - I said "I'm grateful to learn the chinese people" instead of "I'm grateful to teach the Chinese people" (must be my southern accent kicking in), and I couldn't remember the tones for "restored." At least it was better than another elder in the zone - instead of saying that he knew that Jesus Christ was alive, he accidentally said that he knew that Jesus Christ was a monkey. Whoops! Our branch president speaks Chinese fluently (he was a mission president in Taiwan) and he was laughing really hard. I've discovered my new favorite Chinese learning activity - Whack-a-Zi (Chinese character). It's like whack-a-mole, except you whack the chinese character when you hear the syllable. Sounds kind of dumb (probably because it is), but it's funny to see how into it everyone gets. Oh, last thing about Chinese - I suggested to our district that we start singing the hymns in Chinese a little faster since we currently sing it at a funeral march pace and we're getting better at pronunciation. Everyone just looked at me and one of the elders said: "Hooooooooold up, Jiemei!" in a gangsta voice. It was really funny and now we say it to each other all the time. It actually inspired me to do my southern black woman impersonation that night as I was getting ready for bed. People got out their cameras and everything (no lie) - I felt like a celebrity.
You asked me how choir's going - it's great! There are two conductors, and I infinitely prefer the older one. He's Dallin's stake president, actually. Anyway, he gets super into the pieces we sing, and we sing much better under his direction. One thing I love about all of the MTC devotionals and meetings is that we sing like 3 prelude songs and THEN we sing the opening song. So fun. This last devotional was really great - President Monson didn't come (bit of a disappointment), but Elder W. Craig Zwick and his wife totally made up for it. His mission president was Elder Richard G. Scott - so cool! Anyway, he talked about prayer.One thing I loved is that he said that prayer consecrates the worst experiences for the welfare of our souls. I think that'll totally be true for the mission - I'll grow from everything, good and bad. He also talked to us about his disabled son, Scott. He said that Scott has offered thousands of prayers, but he doesn't think he's ever heard him ask anything for himself. I want to be more like that, for sure. You also asked me about the temple - we go once a week at 6:30 AM - it's really great to start the day that way. Mom, it's still weird for me to not hear your voice next to me as I do the session every week - I loved being able to go with you so often before I left. Thank you.
Sorry if this was kind of preachy, but I promise it's really how I feel! :) I love all of you, and I'm so grateful for your prayers, your love, and your support. Favorite scripture from this week - D&C 123:12-17. I'm so excited to preach the Gospel to those people. Last thing - I know some of you wanted to know what you could pray for specifically. Honestly, I think that praying for me to be able to focus is what's most important. If I can focus, I'll get everything else in order. The church is true, and I love you!
You're in my prayers - English and Chinese.
Love,
Sister Winters
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Sister Winters - November 1, 2011
Nimen Hao! It's been a great first week here at the MTC (Missionary Training Center). Chinese is going well - I'm hard on myself sometimes, but then I remember that I've only been here for 5.5 days. My favorite words to say (in English) are "I," my name (Wei Jiemei), Jesus Christ, Book of Mormon, Jerusalem, and "attend church meeting." This is all very good, because I'm going to be saying those words pretty often! So far I can bear my testimony, pray, extend commitment invitations, and teach people on things a little bit. Daniel, your pinyin lesson came in handy so much - thanks! We're actually teaching an investigatory right now (she's actually a teacher), and it's going really well! We've talked about faith, God's love for her, and the Book of Mormon. I love it. Even though she's already a member of my church, I still feel a great love for her and I've felt the Spirit strongly when we've taught her and prayed with her. I think my favorite thing to do in Chinese is to pray. I'm trying to work on making sure I do it whenever possible.
Probably the most exciting thing that's happened since we got here was when we went to the nurse and she informed us that we needed to collect stool samples for our visas. Gross. We've been keeping the vials in this little white bag. The elders in my district are pretty uptight and feel awkward kind of easily (especially about this topic), so I ran in to the class where they were studying, grabbed my white bag and pretended not to want anyone see, and then dashed out of the room. I don't think they appreciated it too much, but my companion and I thought it was hilarious. My companion's name is Sister Christensen, by the way - she's very sweet, very loving, very fashionable, and just an all-around great person. It's funny, because I already get companion anxiety when we have to be separated for some reason. The girls in my room are great, too - there are six of us, and I actually met one of them in the Atlanta airport before I left for the MTC!
Thank you to everyone who sent me emails or letters - I loved them! One thing that I'd like to let you know is that I'd definitely prefer to get actual letters or letters sent from "DearElder.com" - I got about 12 emails today, whereas if they were typed on dearelder.com they deliver them to the MTC the same day. It's super easy and it takes the same time as writing it by hand.
Last thing I want to leave with you is a scripture - Mark 9:23. So great. I know it's true. I know this is where I'm supposed to be! Thank you for your love, prayers, and your support - I definitely need them. Love to you all!
Sister Winters
(Wei Jiemei)
Friday, October 21, 2011
Testing, Testing, 1-2-3...
Just seeing if this blog forwarding program works! Let the drumroll begin...
You all are wonderful!
Becca
The Final Countdown
Okay, so I guess I never blogged about the Galilee or the last month of Jerusalem - sorry. Just take my word for it though and know that it was the best part of the whole thing.
I've had so much fun since coming back - we left for Florida the day I got back from the Holy Land and went to Harry Potter World and visited some family in Orlando, then we went to DC the next week. Daniel and I also had a belated graduation present and went to Switzerland with our parents! Talk about amazing. It was a perfect week of eating, hiking, family bonding, and even a little paragliding. :) Then four days after getting back from that, I flew out to Utah to say some goodbyes to people... It was great.
And now I'm onto even bigger and better things as I prepare to go to the Missionary Training Center in four days! It's been pretty surreal and even a little scary as I prepare to say goodbye to all I know and love and venture into the great unknown. Well, I guess it's not completely unknown - it's just known that it'll be hard. :)
Okay, so here's the deal - this blog should be posting my weekly updates, so you can check out what I'm up to here. Or you can email me at rebecca.winters@myldsmail.net. Or you can write me a letter for free at dearelder.com. Or you can write me a real letter! I'll be in Utah until January 12, but then I'll be in Taiwan until April of 2013. I'd love mail of any kind... Especially around Christmastime (please!). My contact info will be on the right hand side of the blog, but here you go anyway:
Sister Rebecca Winters
MTC Mailbox #116
TAIW-TAI 0112
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793
Thanks, everyone! Hope to hear from you soon!
Love,
Becca
I've had so much fun since coming back - we left for Florida the day I got back from the Holy Land and went to Harry Potter World and visited some family in Orlando, then we went to DC the next week. Daniel and I also had a belated graduation present and went to Switzerland with our parents! Talk about amazing. It was a perfect week of eating, hiking, family bonding, and even a little paragliding. :) Then four days after getting back from that, I flew out to Utah to say some goodbyes to people... It was great.
And now I'm onto even bigger and better things as I prepare to go to the Missionary Training Center in four days! It's been pretty surreal and even a little scary as I prepare to say goodbye to all I know and love and venture into the great unknown. Well, I guess it's not completely unknown - it's just known that it'll be hard. :)
Okay, so here's the deal - this blog should be posting my weekly updates, so you can check out what I'm up to here. Or you can email me at rebecca.winters@myldsmail.net. Or you can write me a letter for free at dearelder.com. Or you can write me a real letter! I'll be in Utah until January 12, but then I'll be in Taiwan until April of 2013. I'd love mail of any kind... Especially around Christmastime (please!). My contact info will be on the right hand side of the blog, but here you go anyway:
Sister Rebecca Winters
MTC Mailbox #116
TAIW-TAI 0112
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793
Thanks, everyone! Hope to hear from you soon!
Love,
Becca
Friday, July 22, 2011
My mission call!
Hey, everyone! Galilee was the best experience of my life thus far - I can't wait to tell you about it. However, I think that there is some pressing news that I need to cover first. Tonight I opened the next chapter of the following 18 months of my life. I got my mission call! After a hectic opening process involving the mail coming five hours late, google video not working, and my brother taking a Chinese test during the time that I was wanting to call him, I was finally able to read it and see where I was called to serve.
I'm going to... the Taiwan Taipei mission! I leave on October 26th for 18 months where I'll speak Mandarin Chinese. It's going to be a blast. I'm still kind of freaking out about it, honestly... and that's an understatement. All I know is that I'm excited to serve and to see what good I can do for the people in Taiwan. I love you all and I'll be sure to fill you in on Galilee when I get the chance. Take care in the meantime!
Love,
Soon-to-be Sister Winters
Sunday, July 10, 2011
It's Christmas in July!
Hey, everybody! This past week was great. I'm done with my two hardest classes, I saw some super-fun sites, and I celebrated two holidays this past week!
Eilat (the snorkeling trip) was so much fun. The beach was alright (pretty rocky), but the coral reef was beautiful and the fish were plentiful! We also stopped at a dairy farm kibbutz thing with possibly the best ice cream I've ever tasted. We also played some super-fun games on the bus on the way back, so if that's not the best way to end the day, I don't know what is. I didn't bring my camera for fear of it being stolen or sunk... sorry about that.
Alright, so last Monday we celebrated the 4th of July and Christmas... on the same day! We took a field trip to Bethlehem all day, which was wonderful. Lots of fun things to see--one of Herod's palaces, the Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem University, Shepherds' Fields--plus I got 20 olive wood ornaments for 20 bucks! Not a bad deal. Anyway, my favorite part of the day was going to Shepherds' Fields... we're pretty sure that if angels didn't appear to shepherds in that field, then it was one that was extremely similar. Anyway, we all had a devotional and got some alone time afterwards--I went to a patch of field by myself and took a video while I read the verses in Luke 2 about the angels appearing to the shepherds. It was pretty neat. Oh, and playing my violin there was special as well. The day was one that I won't soon forget.
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| Oh, American knock-offs... |
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| Peace! |
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| We got to talk to some of the Bethlehem University students and ask them questions... it was awesome. |
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| The stones in these mosaics in the Bethlehem University chapel are naturally these colors |
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| Climbing around Herod's palace |
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| Jefferson and Herod's upper palace (we're at his lower one in this picture) |
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| Shepherds' Fields |
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| American food is the best. |
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| How much more patriotic can you get? |
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| My semi-candid, courtesy of Morgan Crockett |
Okay, prepare yourselves for a lot of facepaint...
...We had a lot of fun, as you can see. It was such a great night!
Yesterday, I played violin and conducted our choir for Glenn Beck's family... apparently they were there at our church with us, which is interesting. Today we did a little bit of service at Auguste Victoria hospital--we played games with some children who were there for a day camp. True to Rebecca Winters fashion, I had a little helping of humble pie while I was there... I was fully expecting my games to be the best... After all, I was the one who had a class on elementary music education, not anyone else. Yet, the games that the kids enjoyed the most were London Bridge, Duck Duck Goose, and face paint. Go figure. Oh well, we still had a blast--here are some pictures:
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| Too much fun with Duck Duck Goose |
Being awkward while eating free hummus on the street:
Getting ice cream from a bald man:
And having my date sample whiskey ice cream... whoops.
Alright, that is it for this week! I'll be in Galilee for the next 11 days, starting tomorrow. Supposedly it's the highlight of the trip, and since I can't imagine life getting much better than this, I'm pretty dang excited! I'll have internet, so if I get a certain mission call that I'm expecting in a week or so, you'll all be the first to know. Thanks for being great, and be good.
Love,
Becca
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Wait... What are missions?
Hey, everyone! Life is wonderful, but I'm not going to write about it just yet. I've been thinking a little bit [more like a lot] about my mission papers, and I realized that not everyone in my blogging audience knows everything there is to know about Mormon missionaries. This article (click on "this article") does a fantastic job of defining what I'll be doing very soon--let me know if you have any questions! Enjoy, and take some time to stop and smell the roses until the next post!
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| A rose outside my bedroom |
You all are wonderful. Thanks for your support.
Love,
Becca
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Music, Mitzvahs, and Missions!
Hello again! This post will be much more true to normal style. Alright, so here are some exciting things that happened this past week:
Exams. Okay, so exams weren't exciting, but they went pretty well. I still have a couple left, so please continue to keep me in your prayers!
Bucket List item. I checked off another item from the Bucket List! I officially played the Harry Potter theme song in the bell tower for all of Jerusalem to hear. My life is complete.
Bar Mitzvahs. On Thursday morning, we didn't have any class (since the morning was devoted to studying for our Old Testament final). So what did we do? We went over to the Western Wall and watched Bar Mitzvahs take place! They have them every Monday and Thursday mornings, but we always have class. It was such a great experience--the Old City was practically empty, all of the pastries in the city were hot and fly-free, and it was wonderful to see these little boys everywhere reading the Torah by such an important religious site. I've been to a couple of Bat Mitzvahs (for girls) before, so I was at least somewhat familiar with the concept behind the idea. What I didn't remember from previous ceremonies was the candy being thrown from the women's side of the area over to where the boy was carrying the Torah. That was pretty fun. It was also great to be a music nerd and note the tonal differences of the Torah depending on the Jewish denomination involved (the Israeli ones were also significantly different from the ones that I remember in America--cool, right?). Anyway, here are some pictures from the trip:
Another exciting thing happened today: I got to go to some residential areas in the Christian Quarter of the Old City that are specifically designated for people age 65+.
It was wonderful! My favorite part was at the end, where we got to go inside this lady's house and sing (or, in my case, play) hymns for her and for her mother. They absolutely loved it and kissed me on the cheek when it was done. It made me so happy--I can't wait to go back in a couple of weeks! Here are a couple of photos of me with my new-found friends:
So, in essence, life is fantastic. And it gets even better! Tomorrow we're going snorkeling in Eilat (and for the Mormons who are reading this, we're taking the trail of Lehi's family to get down there to the Red Sea!). We're also stopping at a kibbutz on the way back for dinner--don't see how life gets much better than that. But wait, there's more! On the fourth of July, we'll be taking a trip down to Bethlehem, complete with an evening devotional in Shepherds' Fields with music (including some violin numbers played by yours truly). I'm also planning on trying my hand as a street performer sometime this week... Should be interesting.
Oh, and I guess there's something else as well... My mission papers are IN! They should have arrived in Salt Lake City today, so I should find out in the next 2-3 weeks where I'll be going. Crazy! It all feels so surreal that I have no idea where I'll be spending the next year and a half of my future. It's exciting stuff, though! I wouldn't have it any other way.
Alright, that should be enough for now! Thanks for reading and for keeping me posted on your lives--I appreciate it so much. Have a fantastic week!
Love,
Becca
Exams. Okay, so exams weren't exciting, but they went pretty well. I still have a couple left, so please continue to keep me in your prayers!
Bucket List item. I checked off another item from the Bucket List! I officially played the Harry Potter theme song in the bell tower for all of Jerusalem to hear. My life is complete.
Bar Mitzvahs. On Thursday morning, we didn't have any class (since the morning was devoted to studying for our Old Testament final). So what did we do? We went over to the Western Wall and watched Bar Mitzvahs take place! They have them every Monday and Thursday mornings, but we always have class. It was such a great experience--the Old City was practically empty, all of the pastries in the city were hot and fly-free, and it was wonderful to see these little boys everywhere reading the Torah by such an important religious site. I've been to a couple of Bat Mitzvahs (for girls) before, so I was at least somewhat familiar with the concept behind the idea. What I didn't remember from previous ceremonies was the candy being thrown from the women's side of the area over to where the boy was carrying the Torah. That was pretty fun. It was also great to be a music nerd and note the tonal differences of the Torah depending on the Jewish denomination involved (the Israeli ones were also significantly different from the ones that I remember in America--cool, right?). Anyway, here are some pictures from the trip:
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| A boy wearing a tefillin and watching his friend read the Torah |
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| Bar mitzvah boy carrying the Torah |
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| Three very lovely Jerusalem Center ladies |
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| Thanking his female friends (who couldn't be in the men's section with him) after the ceremony |
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| A different denomination |
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| Reading the Torah |
Another exciting thing happened today: I got to go to some residential areas in the Christian Quarter of the Old City that are specifically designated for people age 65+.
It was wonderful! My favorite part was at the end, where we got to go inside this lady's house and sing (or, in my case, play) hymns for her and for her mother. They absolutely loved it and kissed me on the cheek when it was done. It made me so happy--I can't wait to go back in a couple of weeks! Here are a couple of photos of me with my new-found friends:
So, in essence, life is fantastic. And it gets even better! Tomorrow we're going snorkeling in Eilat (and for the Mormons who are reading this, we're taking the trail of Lehi's family to get down there to the Red Sea!). We're also stopping at a kibbutz on the way back for dinner--don't see how life gets much better than that. But wait, there's more! On the fourth of July, we'll be taking a trip down to Bethlehem, complete with an evening devotional in Shepherds' Fields with music (including some violin numbers played by yours truly). I'm also planning on trying my hand as a street performer sometime this week... Should be interesting.
Oh, and I guess there's something else as well... My mission papers are IN! They should have arrived in Salt Lake City today, so I should find out in the next 2-3 weeks where I'll be going. Crazy! It all feels so surreal that I have no idea where I'll be spending the next year and a half of my future. It's exciting stuff, though! I wouldn't have it any other way.
Alright, that should be enough for now! Thanks for reading and for keeping me posted on your lives--I appreciate it so much. Have a fantastic week!
Love,
Becca
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