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
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