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 29, 2011
Sister Winters - November 29, 2011
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Sister Winters - Siwang in Service
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
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
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
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