Bipolar - Week 36

大家好，

This past week was better. I have never felt so bipolar in my life as I have as a missionary. This is turning out to be my hardest transfer besides my first. My first wasn't necessarily hard I was just new and tired but this transfer is kicking my butt. But it's ok, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. I think this is why I had such a good last transfer with my first baptism, God was preparing me.

We had zone conference this past week which was grand. President and Sister Cooke are so great. President Cooke cracks me up. For upcoming birthdays we get birthday scarves or ties. Two other sisters and I have birthdays this month so we were looking at the scarves and couldn't decide which one to get. President Cooke promptly came over and chose for us. He was telling us this one would bring out our eyes or complexion and that one would highlight our features. So funny. So I now own a scarf picked out by my mission president for me.

We had some good lessons last week. We taught Zhang LiYing a couple times. We don't speak her dialect and she doesn't speak ours but we can kind of understand each other. The first lesson was annoying. It took us over an hour to get through a 5 minute object lesson because she kept on talking and talking and not listening. At the end she said we need to teach her more slowly because she's not understanding. I wonder why. The second lesson we kindly told her that we are glad she has such strong faith in Christ but that we are here to teach her. That one went a lot better. We invited her to be baptized and she sort of accepted. She has already been baptized in another church and is totally willing to be baptized again but wants to understand why before she commits. The only problem is that our member interpreter with us doesn't know how to say "priesthood" or "authority" in her dialect so we literally could not explain why she needs to be baptized again. We'll try again tomorrow and hopefully figure out how to say it.

We also taught a Chinese girl living in DC. She's the singles ward sisters investigator but they invited us to help since she speaks mandarin. It took an hour and a half to get there and the lesson wasn't done until 9pm and then it took as an hour and a half to get home. Ouch. It was cool to be in DC late at night. I've only been in DC late at night twice but before I was surrounded with missionaries or people but this time it was just us and the occasional pedestrians on the street. Slightly sketchy but the city is cool at night.

We had Chinese choir practice again. There were only 10 people there and everyone was off key except for me and the one other soprano. It was funny but kind of a waste of time in my opinion. Oh well.

General Conference was so good! We watched it at the VC for Saturday morning and then members homes for the other three. I only watched the Sunday afternoon in Chinese but it had English subtitles. It's cool that they are having some of the men speak in their native languages. I'm glad President Uchtdorf stayed English though. It was fun having them speak a different language with Chinese translation and English subtitles.

On Saturday night we had hot pot for dinner after General Conference, it was so good! I'd heard about it from the rm missionaries from Hong Kong in my Chinese class at BYU. They weren't allowed to eat it there. Hot pot is where they put a special pot in the middle of the table with boiling whitish broth and lots of plates of food around it. They you just use your chopsticks to put the different food inside of the pot to cook it for a few seconds then you take it out and eat it. It was so good. The only problem is that the Chinese culture is for them to serve you and after a while I was so full but didn't know how to tell them to stop. I literally gained a few pounds overnight. 

Also, Chinese people don't like sweets. For dessert we always have grapes or sometimes really bland fruit cookies. Interesting, no wonder they are all so skinny.

Speaking of food and gaining weight, being on my mission has made me realize how much I want to be in shape when I go home. I was never fat or really out of shape but I wasn't in great shape unless I was playing lacrosse. Here it's just so hard to stay in shape with people feeding you stuff and 30 minutes of exercise or even 45 minutes just isn't always enough to counteract it especially since exercise doesn't always happen too consistently at 6:30am. Being in shape is a gift that I can't have on a mission. 

Here's a story that I read in the Ensign today that I just love. It made me laugh. 

"I was sitting in the corner of the celestial room by the organ during the dedication of the Memphis Tennessee Temple. President James E. Faust (1920–2007), a member of the First Presidency from 1995 to 2007, had come to dedicate the temple. He and several other leaders were seated behind the microphone. A local Church choir filed in and stood behind them.

A young woman I visit taught was a member of the choir. Throughout the meeting, I prayed that she would receive what she had come for. She had confided in me that she came to the temple dedication that day to find out her standing with the Lord. She had committed serious sins in the past, and though she had repented, she still struggled to feel good about herself. She even struggled to feel good about singing in the choir.

I stared at President Faust, feeling that he, as a representative of the Lord in the First Presidency, ought to be able to do something. But how could I tell him, and how could he do anything? After the meeting, he would file out of the room just as he had come in, and there would be no introductions, no handshakes, and no words exchanged. I understood that he was busy and had travel arrangements, but still I prayed.

President Faust, deep in thought, looked at me for a while--the muscles in his eyebrows were knit together. When the meeting ended, a happy expression flooded his countenance with light.

He looked at me again and then suddenly stood up, turned around, and stretched his arm forward as far as it would go. He pointed directly at my friend. Then he said firmly and loudly, “The Lord loves you!”

President Faust’s gesture was small and simple yet so powerful that it could have come only from the Holy Ghost communicating to him what I could not. Those few words blessed my friend and continue to sustain my faith that the Lord is mindful of the details of our lives and “that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass” (Alma 37:6)."

And the scripture is Jacob 4:4-6. In case we weren't told enough yesterday about the importance of following the prophet, here's another reason. When we listen to and follow the prophets our faith is fortified and strengthened and we can command in the name of Jesus and the very mountains or waves of the sea obey us. Whuut? So cool! Of course that doesn't mean that we can just move mountains whenever we feel like it, only if God commands us to or if Pharaoh is chasing you trying to kill you. But we can have power to overcome temptation and stand for what's right and bring power into our family and homes.

I love you all, you're the best.

Love,

Sister Black

Panda Express is Still My Favorite - Week 35

Dear family,

Ugh what a week. Can't say I've been a very happy camper. I have been
feeling very frustrated and inadequate and annoyed this whole week.
But regardless of my problems we did have a lot of good things happen
this week.

First off, I have now taught the restoration in Chinese about five
times so that's a start. Right now I'm learning the vocabulary for the
second lesson and I'll just go through and eventually learn the vocab
and for all the lessons.

We taught a new investigator and three potentials. The new
investigator is LiYing Zhang. She is from a part of China that speaks
a different dialect so she can understand us but we can't understand
her. She has been looking for a church and ran into the LDS church
four times during her search so now she believes God wants her to come
here. And she's right. We taught her the first lesson, she came to
church yesterday, and we are teaching her again tomorrow. We taught
another girl who's a college student living in DC. The lesson went
alright and we saw her while walking down the street by an Asian
market a couple days later. I think she thinks having people come over
to teach her is weird. I think it's weird too but it's salvation so oh
well. We also taught a guy who has been investigating for five months
now but that the branch mission leader wants us to start teaching now.
We went over to a ward members house to practice teaching a lesson on
Wednesday and her nonmember Chinese caretaker was there so we taught
her the first lesson. Apparently she had a lot to say about polygamy
but polygamy isn't in my vocabulary yet so I had no clue that that's
what we were talking about until after we left and Sister Liu then
decided to translate for me. We are going to try to teach her again
this week. We also saw her by the Asian market when we saw the other
girl. Asian markets are magical.

The food has been fun. Basically a Chinese meal is rice with five
different things to put on it. On Friday night one of the options was
squid so I have now eaten squid. Yum. I've also eaten tofu and
seaweed. I took a couple bites of one of the tofu things and then hid
it under my shrimp in hopes that no one would notice. So gross. It
depends on how it is cooked though because some of the tofu was
alright. Also I ate boiled pork bone. You just boil it for three hours
until it's soft and mushy. The texture was like really soft potatoes
in a stew. I liked it. Asians really like beans in dessert foods. One
member gave us bread to take home that had mushed up, sweet beans in
the center. I couldn't do it. Even though it tasted fine I was just
for some reason grossed out. Panda Express is still my favorite. Also
fun fact, KFC is super popular in China. I am now a pro with chop
sticks. Every person we have eaten with has gone and grabbed me a fork
but I refused to be American and I figured it out.

Apparently I'm really pretty by Asian standards. I can count four
Asians who this past week when we first met told me right away that I
was very pretty. In China, someone is beautiful if they are skinny,
have pale skin, a clear face, and big eyes. Maybe I should go find a
husband in China if I'm that attractive to them haha. Sister Liu told
me that in China some people get stuff put in their skin to make them
paler and others get surgery to make their eyes bigger (essentially
cutting the skin around the eyes). So interesting. She asked me what
Americans think is beautiful. I said anorexic and tan with long hair
but there are so many different opinions. I personally think pale skin
and short hair looks better as long as they know how to pull it off
(so Hannah and Mom are babes) but I'm crazy.

The General Women's Broadcast was so good! Cheesy as usual but good.
President Uchtdorf's talk was really great, you should all watch it.
It's a good reminder of why we keep the commandments even when we
don't understand or want to. "I think God knows something we don't."
That's for sure haha.

Mosiah 7:33 (: Make sure you all watch General Conference this week.
We all know what happens to the people who don't listen to or reject
the prophets from the scriptures. Loves to all!

贝姐妹

P.s. I have now blocked yet another guy on Facebook from messaging me.
I don't get why they think this is flattering. He was also sending me
pictures of married couples and crying people when I wouldn't respond.
I'm so irresistible.

God Prepared Me - Week 34

大家好！

I am a Chinese speaking missionary now! So crazy. When I got called
English speaking I was disappointed but I got over it because I
recognized that it was a call from God. Before I went to the MTC I
thought maybe I could still be a Chinese speaker on my mission. Once I
got out here I assumed I would be English my whole mission and that
once I got home I could continue learning Chinese and use it
elsewhere. So imagine my surprise and gratitude when I got to be
Chinese speaking after all! Looking back it's amazing how God prepared
me. I remember being so incredibly disappointed when I didn't make
madrigals in ninth grade but if I would've made it then I wouldn't
have been able to take Chinese, same with when I tried out for another
choir class my junior year. If I had made volleyball my sophomore year
then I wouldn't have been able to take Chinese that year either.
Making madrigals and the volleyball team in junior high would've made
me more busy and I would've made the teams in high school but then so
many other things I was able to do wouldn't have happened (like taking
art classes. I wouldn't have had time and I probably wouldn't be doing
animation..). During my high school years I would sit in my room for
hours memorizing vocabulary and how to write the characters because I
felt this inexplicable drive to learn the language that no one else in
my Chinese class had. Usually missionaries get 8 weeks in the MTC to
learn Chinese but I don't get any MTC language training so I'm going
off of all of the Chinese I studied in high school. I haven't had much
experience actually speaking it with people so that's been the tricky
part but I'm so glad I have a whole bunch of random vocabulary stored
up so now all I have to focus on is the grammar and not vocabulary.
God knew what I needed to do. He knew it would be hard on me but that
it would be ok and I would one day understand. And now I do and I
thank Him for not giving me what I wanted at the time so that I could
later have something better. I'm sure I'll see even more results from
this later, this is only the beginning. You should all go watch "The
Will of God" Mormon message right now. Like right now, find it on
YouTube. Mom can you please post the link on the blog? This video has
been running through my mind all week.

Wednesday was transfers. What a crazy day. I can't say I was feeling
very thankful that day. Sister Lewis and I arrived early to meet our
new companions since she's training and I'm somewhat training. Her
trainee is from her same ward in Alpine. I don't know why so many
missionaries are from Utah here but it will make going back to BYU so
fun because over half of the missionaries here go there. Anyway then I
got Sister Liu. We had our transfer meeting where the new missionaries
were introduced and the departing missionaries bore their testimonies.
I got to introduce Sister Liu and we announced that we would be in the
Chinese branch and got a great, surprised reaction from the other
missionaries. After transfer meeting ends is always chaos because
everyone is trying to move their luggage into each other's cars to go
to their new areas. It's so fun, I love transfers. Since Sister Liu
and I were opening up a new area, we had no phone, car, or apartment.
It took forever to get our car keys and apartment info and they didn't
have a phone for us. I was starting to get really frustrated and was
freaking out about whitewashing in Chinese. It took us forever to
finally get to our apartment and to drag our heavy suitcases up three
flights of stairs. That night we went and tried to visit the few names
of members the Chinese elders gave us. We had no info about the area
and where the boundaries are. After that we ran to a gas station and I
borrowed the cell phone of a worker and called my district leader to
let him know we don't have a phone and that we are alive. Not a fun
day.

The next day we finally got a phone and we were able to stock up on
some Chinese Book of Mormons. Essentially the whole day I was freaking
out inside because I didn't know what we were doing. I also found out
that apparently the Assistants to President Cook had forgotten about
us during transfers and that was why they were scrambling to find a
car and apartment for us. Sweet. That night we went to a Chinese choir
rehearsal since the Chinese are performing Christmas Eve at the vc.
They had us be soprano and the songs were really intense and high so
we were belting high Es, Fs, Gs, and a couple As with a room full of
Chinese people. My throat hurt by the end.

Church on Sunday was so fun. I love the Chinese branch. I could
understand maybe half of Sacrament meeting. It helped that the
speakers where two American interns visiting from the YSA wards who
served Chinese speaking missions. I understood about 40% of Sunday
school and barely anything in relief society. By third hour my brain
was tired and I kind of checked out. I have no clue what the lesson
was on. In relief society they had Sister Liu and I stand up and
introduce ourselves. They were all curious how Sister Liu became a
member since she lives in mainland China. She briefly told her story
and all of the sisters were so excited and one of them started crying.

After church we went over the the Branch President's house for lunch
with 10 other people. There are four Chinese elders in the branch and
they and the Branch President were making me think we were gonna eat
chicken feet which is pickled chicken feet. It looks like a pale,
bloated chicken foot with the talons still on there and all. One of
the elders, Elder Proudfoot, tried to give me some a couple weeks ago
and said that they eat it all the time in the Chinese program. I
refused to eat it and told him that's why I'm not in the Chinese
program. The next day President Cooke told me I was going to be in the
Chinese program. I will send you a picture when I get one, they look
so nasty. You have to bite it to break the bone then chew off the
pickled skin. Ughhhh yuckkkkkyyyyy. Anyway they didn't have any
chicken feet and the lunch was good and President Shen asked us to
each give a talk after General Conference. My first foreign language
talk!

We got 5 referrals and we have an appointment with two of them
tomorrow so I'm very excited. Things are finally moving along.
President Cooke told Elder Proudfoot last Thursday that they're
letting us settle in and then next week (this week) he'll talk to us
and figure out a plan. So my freaking out was legitimate since the APs
forgot about us and President Cook was just letting us settle for a
week. We finally figured out our area boundaries yesterday as well.
It's fun being a foreign language missionary because our areas are a
lot bigger. Basically the branch extends over more than half the
mission so we have free range. (:

My Chinese has been improving. The first day I felt awkward speaking
it but now it's coming and Sister Liu has been so great. She doesn't
like speaking English so she's more than happy to speak Chinese with
me and teach me. I wish I was proficient already but I know that's
unrealistic and my Chinese gets better every day. Sister Liu and I
both think my Chinese should be pretty good by my birthday at the rate
I'm going. I mean it hasn't been a week yet and I am speaking and
understanding so much better. We talk in Chinese in the car and
sometimes I have to ask her to repeat herself a few times because I
like to zone out while I'm driving and I forget to concentrate on what
she's saying. By the end of each day, and especially yesterday, my
head is buzzing with Chinese. I love it.

Today we went to the city. Sister Liu has been so excited. She is such
an Asian, she was taking  so many pictures. While we were walking
around we were chatting in Chinese and we talked to a few Chinese
tourists. We went to the National Gallery of Art which was really
cool. Got to see some original Monet, Picasso, DaVinci, and other
things. I wonder if the elders go there often, there's a lot of nude
paintings. It doesn't bother me because I'm just fascinated by the
different techniques and styles and I draw nude people sometimes.
Sister Cooke suggested we all go though so I hope they enjoy that.

Sister Liu is a temple square missionary. She is from Chuang Chun
(choo-ang choo-in) China. She is 23 years old and has her degree in
art and I think she does animation as well. She hated learning English
so she wasn't happy with when she was called English speaking haha so
she's so happy to be Chinese speaking again. Her mom joined the church
nine years ago when she went on a business trip to Korea and during
some meeting she felt the spirit or something and got baptized. A year
later Sister Liu got baptized too. Apparently you can get baptized in
China if your family member is a church member and they have church
members assigned to give you the lessons. Also there's 22,000 church
members in China. Now you know. Cool right?

That's about it. It's been an interesting week. Kind of lonely too
since I'm not at the VC anymore and we don't have any roommates but
that's ok. D&C 90:11 (: (: Love you all!

贝姐妹

 

 

How I'm learning Chinese words for household things:

 

Meredith's Baptism - Week 33

Dear family,

Meredith was baptized on Saturday!! It was so good. Sister Lewis and I
got off VC shift early to fill up the font and get set up. We had
Meredith try on baptismal clothes on Friday but the only sizes we had
at the church were 8 year old and Hagrid so an hour before her baptism
the elders got her clothes from a different church building. Thank
goodness they fit. The program was really nice. A lot of people showed
up which was a relief since 5 minutes before it was just missionaries
and ward missionaries and she and her mom. Mormon standard time at its
finest. We had some good talks and by the time it was time for the
actual baptism she was really overcome. We stood with her next to the
stairs of the font and hugged her as she pulled herself together. She
was fully immersed first time. After she came up out of the water she
gave Elder Fuller a hi five. When she came out after getting dressed,
Sister Lewis played the piano while I sang "When I Am Baptized/He Sent
His Son."

It was the strangest feeling having someone I taught be baptized.
Sister Lewis and I met her for the first time at the VC Lindsay
Sterling concert my first day in Kensington 12 weeks ago. A couple
weeks later we met with her again and started teaching her. She felt
the Holy Ghost so strongly from the beginning. After being out of town
she came to church 4 times in a row and readily agreed to keep the
commandments and follow Christ even though it was hard and wasn't what
she was used to. We got to see her change. She has this new light in
her eyes and she's so happy and comfortable at church. I thought I
would be bouncing off the walls and cheering on her baptismal day.
After all, baptism is the goal and is what missionaries do. But I felt
so peaceful and calm. I was so happy and excited but it was such a
deep, inner feeling. This event had so much significance. Another one
of God's children has come unto Him and made a covenant with Him and
has joined His church. I'm so humbled to have been part of that
process. But this is still the beginning. Meredith has a lot more to
learn and to grow in so many ways and I'm excited to help her along
her way. Although I'm leaving Kensington this Wednesday I'll still
keep in contact with her and always be there for her. One cool thing
about the day she got baptized was that it was on that day, September
13th, of last year that I got my wisdom teeth out in order to serve a
mission. So exactly a year later I was rewarded by having my first
baptism. If only I knew then.. Know that a year ago today I was a
drugged chipmunk.

Last night was Night of Music and Inspiration. I accompanied a sister
who sang "He Hears Me." It's a cheesy efy song but it sounded good.

Thursday was a party. President Cooke didn't want any of us in the
city on 9/11 so he had everyone in the Washington, D.C. zone have a
zone conference from 9am to 5pm. Usually zone conferences end at 3 so
we did some extra things. We had workshops by the assistants to the
President, zone leaders, President Cooke, Sister Cooke, and other
senior couples. We had a temple grounds tour, they fed us lunch, and
after lunch we played "do you love your neighbor" for a while.
President Cooke told a couple Chinese elders that I'm going to the
Chinese branch so I was talking to one of them for a while and he was
telling me about it.

At 5pm on Thursday we had shift at the VC so we went straight there
after zone conference was over. We had shift for 2 hours and then all
the VC sisters came in and we watched "The Saratov Approach." Our VC
training leaders had told us at the beginning of the transfer that if
we find 500 ways to teach principles at the VC then we'd get a prize.
So at 7 we had popcorn and treats and we all watched it in one of the
theaters. It was so good. I saw it last October when it came out in
theaters but a lot of the sisters hadn't seen it. We were so spoiled
on Thursday, it was fun.

I've been studying Chinese a lot this week. I study it whenever I'm at
the VC. I made a bunch of flash cards that I've been learning. I feel
like I'm cramming for the test but the test is to effectively teach
Chinese people the gospel in only a few days. Every day I basically
study Chinese and cram it into my head until my brain hurts and won't
take in anymore. It's fun. A Chinese elder showed me on lds.org how to
get to the Chinese materials and I discovered that I could download
the PDFs on my iPad so I now have the Chinese Book of Mormon, D&C,
Pearl of Great Price, General Conference, missionary pamphlets, and
the Book of Mormon children's picture book on my iPad which is so
nice. Yesterday I learned how to read the first page of the picture
book. The other pages I can understand probably 2/3 of the words and
the rest I can guess. I'm getting there. I'm starting to feel more
stressed about transfers and it's probably going to be a crazy week
trying to figure out a new area and companion and language. I could
use a lot of prayers right now.

We went to Georgia Avenue in the city today so one sister could shop
for a dress and then we got sushi and DC cupcakes. By the time we get
home I'll only have about 4 hours to pack up so I'll probably be up
late tonight and tomorrow night packing. That means I'll be behind on
sleep all week and on a mission you really can't make it up so that's
grand. Oh well. The sushi was good.

Deuteronomy 4:29-31

Love you all!

Sister Black

1&2 Meredith's baptism (: (: (: (:

 

 

3 the Kensington gang. Amber left this morning to go back home to
California and Idaho after living here since the spring. She was the
one who introduced us to Meredith.

4 sushi we had today

5 the page I learned to read yesterday. I can now teach about the first vision.

 

Chinese Speaking! - Week 32

Dear family,

So much to talk about! First of all, thank you so much Dad for the
GPS! It's perfect! You're the best (:

Meredith is doing so well. I adore that girl. We had a few more
lessons with her this past week and then on Saturday she had her
baptismal interview with President Cooke which went great. Sunday she was on fire. They announced her upcoming baptism in sacrament meeting and she was just beaming. She met tons of the ward members and personally invited every person that she met to her baptism. In Sunday school they had us divined into groups and talk about different aspects of faith and then one person from each group shared what they learned (I hate it when teachers do that but that's besides the point). Meredith was in my group and she went up to the front when it was our term and boldly testified of he blessings that come from faith. Then she said the closing prayer! So good! After church she went to choir practice and made more friends. That night we had a super great lesson with her at 7:30 and she was crying and feeling the spirit. We're already planning her visit out to Utah to visit me after I get home. Is it ok if she stays with us for a few days, Grandma and Grandpa? Her baptism is this Saturday at 5pm. Sister Lewis and I will be performing the musical number. I'm so excited for her! (: (: (: It's even cooler because both Sister Lewis and I taught her from the beginning so we got to see her grow and we'll both still be here for her baptism! A lot of people who are baptized have multiple companionships teach them before they're baptized. But not her because she's so ready. She just fell it to our laps and we just helped her get on the right path. It's incredible to see how God prepares these people. We'll teach so many people who aren't ready and won't keep commitments but then you find someone like Meredith who is just ready. It's her time. So amazing.

We had to drop Pulla. He hasn't been coming to church since July now. We had a lesson with him and told him if he doesn't come to church this Sunday then we can't teach him anymore. We said it a lot nicer than that. But really we are just here to teach and invite people to come unto Christ. We don't force anyone so if he's not willing then we've got to use our time to find someone else who is. He is going through so many hard things and this gospel would bless him immensely not only spiritually and emotionally but also physically and financially. There is so much help available through the church and through the blessings God sends. He basically told us he doesn't have time because of everything he's going through. He didn't come to church so we dropped him.

I get so sad when people say that they don't have time for God. God
has done so much for us yet most of us aren't willing to give Him a
few hours of our week. So selfish. I'm not excluding myself, I've done it too. I've put other things over God which isn't ok but I'm trying to be better. Good thing this gospel is about change and improving ourselves. His entire work and glory is "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" and most people go around
pretending He's not there to avoid having to keep His commandments
because it's "hard" and He "asks too much of us" and we just want to
do what we want and not be "tied down." It wasn't exactly a picnic for Jesus either. He's offering us everything but we are content with our own small, messed up world and not willing to sacrifice for something better.

Yesterday I went on a tour of the inside of the DC temple because me
and the security guy are tight. He took me and two other sisters
through the whole temple since it's closed on Sunday. It was way cool being the only ones in there and it was dark. We started at the bottom level and worked our way to the top 7th level. It was so beautiful. There's such a quiet reverence in there and the air is thick with the spirit. It's not like your heart is burning the whole time but your sixth sense lets you know that there's something different in the air and that although we were the only 4 people in the entire building, we weren't alone. It was an incredible feeling. We finished by going onto the roof. Let it be known that I have been on the roof of the tallest temple in the world and therefore I've been the closest to God. That's not doctrine but it sounds cool to say.

And now for the grand finale. You guys are gonna die. Get ready to
die. Next transfer I am going to be Chinese speaking!!!! Aaaahhhhh!!!!! So Friday night I has my transferly interview with
President Cooke. We were talking and he mentioned offhand that things change a lot like Salt Lake had just called him last night to tell him we are getting a sister from China. I jokinglyish said that if he needs any sisters in the Chinese branch, me and the Chinese girl will do it. He kind of laughed then stopped and looked at me and was like, "wait, you speak Chinese?" Sure do. So we talked for a little bit longer and he got super excited and went on about what a miracle it is that I know Chinese because he had been wondering who to put this sister with and had wanted her in the Chinese branch. The next day I was at the VC talking to Sister Cook and she started going on about what a miracle it is that I know Chinese and how awe struck they are. She asked when the sister was coming and I had assumed that she would come in January if she had just barely gotten her call. A while later Sister Cooke went up to me and said she just got off the phone with President and that the Chinese sister is coming this transfer. As in September 17th. As in 11 days. WHAT. She smiled and walked away as I started hyperventilating. I paced back and forth in panic. I am going to be opening up a new area and training a new sister in a language I haven't studied in over a year in 11 days. After a while I calmed down as I realized that this is coming from God. This is why I was sent here. God didn't need me in Taiwan and He knew my Chinese was good enough that I could be called upon to teach it without any MTC training or much notice. This is why everything had fallen in place so perfectly in high school for me to take Chinese. This is why I always felt such a strong urge to learn this language and study it for hours on my own at home. What makes it better is that I found out she's a Temple Square sister so it's not going to be hard to train her. I am so incredibly excited. I called the mission office today and ordered some study materials from the MTC and a Chinese name tag. God is too good.

Proverbs 3:5-6 (: Trust in The Lord!! Also, I could really use the
gift of tongues right now. We are always told "ask and ye shall
receive" so I'll be asking for sure! If you all could petition The
Lord on my behalf, I would be extremely grateful. "Great things and
small things, I can do all things, all that The Lord may require!"

Also, you should all keep reading my other blog. I sound full of it
but I think it's good and teaches important principles so please read it and share. amormonwithouthorns.blogspot.com

Love,

Sister Black

 

 

 

 

 

 

 1 Meredith and I

 

2 Sister Black and Sister White

 

3 Eating Italian requires a picture apparently

 

4 I finally finished my VC new sister training! After over six months
of being here... I'm a slacker

 

5 Some Chinese woman gave the VC sisters TONS of loaves of French
bread and water bottles. So in an emergency we can have the sacrament.

 

6 Elder Gillespie, a senior elder at the VC. He's an emirates member
of the Seventy and spoke in General Conference in 2000. We found this video of him so we took a picture of him with the clicker (used to click how many people come in each day).

 

7 Riding a golf cart with our temple security friend Brother M.D. Todd

 

Old Lady Houses - Week 31

Dear family,

Today we had our transferly zone activity. We had a kick ball
tournament with a slip n slide to home base. It was so fun, I think I
enjoyed it more than a lot of the sisters did. When my team wasn't
playing, I substituted in a couple other teams when a sister didn't
want to participate. And now I'm super burned so that's fun. That's
more sun than I've gotten all summer.

The rain over here is crazy. Yesterday was so warm and sunny and then
out of nowhere a huge storm hit. It came while Sister Lewis and I were
at dinner with a member. We didn't have umbrellas and had to run up
their long driveway to our car and I couldn't find my keys for a good
30 seconds so we got drenched. It was then nice and hot and humid
today for our zone activity and now the rain is starting up again.
East coast storms are so fun.

Saturday morning we had an emergency test. At 6:30am President Cooke
texted all of us and told us we we're have an emergency test and to go
to our nearest church building. We all went and basically sat there
for 2 hours. Lucky for us, we live in the K house with all the senior
couples and lots of missionaries so there were 16ish missionaries at
the chapel and the senior couples knew about the drill beforehand and
brought us all doughnuts. K house for the win.

Tuesday afternoon we had a sisters conference thing in DC. We went to
the library of congress and botanical gardens. We sat for a while on
the grass by the Capitol building and talked. Sister Cooke has been
worried about our health and some sisters have been developing eating
disorders and whatnot. Don't worry I ate three pieces of pizza today
at zone activity, I'm good. It was a nice activity and break.

Sister Lewis and I were struggling hardcore on Saturday. A nice old
lady in the ward invited us over for lunch at noon. We went over and
she had us sit down while she left for ten minutes to see if her
neighbor could join us. Sister Lewis and I fell asleep and we nudged
awake each other barely in time to sit up as she walked back in. Then
after we finished eating lunch she talked to us for a while. I don't
know what it is about old lady houses but something in the air puts us
to sleep. We were both struggling so hard to stay awake as she talked,
it was bad. Then another one of her neighbors knocked on the door and
she went around the corner to answer it and talk to him and Sister
Lewis and I kept on nodding off and only waking up when she would say
something loud or we thought she was coming back. We were glad when we
could finally leave. The struggle is real. She signed up for lunch
again this Saturday.. help me.

Meredith is doing super well. We visited her at work and brought her
cookies on Friday night because she was having a bad day. She came to
church again for the third time in a row on Sunday and we taught her
two lessons, one after church and one at night. Tonight we are gonna
watch The Testaments with her at the Visitors Center. I'm so excited
for her to be baptized!

Alba will be giving birth any day now so we haven't met with her much.
Pulla hasn't been coming to church so we are thinking we might have to
drop him :( I hate dropping people but we have limited time to teach
and we'd rather spend time teaching those who are willing to come to
church and keep commitments.

I just barely dyed my hair! I've been wanting something new with my
hair so Sister Truman dyed and straightened it for me(: Let's see how
well the straight hair goes with the humidity. The humidity hasn't
been bad but it's there.

Moroni 10:32-33. Come unto Christ and be perfected in Him. This
scripture is also the mutual theme this year.

I love you all so so so so much!! Can you believe it's September?
What? Crazy! K bye!

Sister Black

My hair and sunburn.

Studying in my element. The cats can never resist my charm.

God Still Matters - Week 30

Dear family,

This might be a shorter email. I can't think of much to write.

I went on exchanges with Sister Johnson last Wednesday. It was really
fun. It's interesting because I'm only a transfer younger than she was
when she got me. We had dinner with a member, taught Pulla, and then
we ran and got frozen yogurt before heading home. When we were
companions I was still new and she's definitely seen me at my very
worst, more than any of my other companions. But now I'm an older
missionary and I'm definitely a lot better than I was so it was cool
to see the change.

Meredith came to church and we had a couple lessons with her and she
is still solid. We are having another lesson with her tonight. Pulla
didn't come to church again so that's lame. Alba is still doing great
and is having some contractions. She's due September 17th which is
exciting. Hopefully we'll be able to meet with her Wednesday if she
doesn't have her baby yet.

The Visitors Center is fun. There were a ton of people on chat. It's
interesting because we are always told not to believe everything we
see on the internet but people see all this anti stuff about Joseph
Smith and automatically believe that it's true. It's really not about
Joseph Smith though, it's about Jesus Christ and His church. Back in
the Bible, the majority of the people rejected and hated the prophets
and wouldn't follow God so why would it be any different today. Joseph
Smith was called as a prophet to restore God's church so of course
he's gonna have enemies. It's not enough that they killed him, they're
still trying to discredit him over a hundred years later. Why do these
people care about Joseph Smith and this church? Why do so many people
protest and write books against a church that teaches its people to
love God and love others and that families are the most important
thing? Because this is the truth and the truth will always be opposed.
A lot of these people are so illogical and don't use their brains. It
almost hurts me to talk to them because they're so lame. I'm so glad
you're spending your Friday night trying to argue with a sister
missionary and tell her that her church isn't true. Get a life. Or a
Book of Mormon and read it. That's really the only way to know. That's
what we tell everyone. If you really want to know, just read the book
and pray about it. How is that hard? It's so simple but people won't
do it. People say that religious people or even Mormons are
close-minded but more often than not it's the other way around. I have
no problem visiting and learning about other churches and beliefs and
reading their religious text but as soon as we ask someone to try ours
they act like we're the plague and we must be false because this
internet website says so instead of turning to the source of all
knowledge which is God.

Anyway, the Visitors Center is great. Just usual business, nothing
major happening.

1 Nephi 19:7,9 The things of God which are most important are seen as
things that don't even matter any more. God still matters. His
commandments and laws still matter. God still loves us. Christ's
atonement is still in effect. Yet everyone today seems to think it
doesn't matter anymore. What is happening to the world? Exactly what
the prophets testified would happen in the scriptures. Although the
world's morals may decline and change, God's will not. I'd rather
stick with His ways than the worlds because God's way is the only way
to truly be happy no matter what anyone may say. I can think of only a
few times I've been as happy in my life as I am here doing God's work.
I'm constantly tired and it isn't the most fun thing ever, but I'm so
happy.

I love you all.

Sister Black

District meeting board. I drew the Capitol building.

 

Taking a secret nap at the Visitors Center. Can you see me?

I found a Japanese name tag.

 

And then a bunch of pictures from DC last week. The security guy is
DQQKY. He's currently investigating the church. He said he missed
church last Sunday and then God sent him His gang the next day.

 

 Then inside the Capitol and trying to be cute with Book of Mormons.