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.