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
No comments:
Post a Comment