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