Monday, January 11, 2010

1/11/2010 Letter from MTC

Dearest jiating!
I am so sorry I can't see your pictures! Could you print them out and send them to me in an email? I would love it--I will send you pictures later, but we haven't been able to get to the bookstore when the computer there is working. There are so many missionaries wanting to print out pictures so the computer breaks down multiple times each day.
Well, I wanted to first of all thank you so much for your words and inspirations to me, wo ai nimen. I've loved the spiritual experiences this weekend, and I think that it might have been mostly because during the week was hard. It was a hard week for me. But, I had some wonderful, inspiring feelings this Sunday and today. It was such a blessing to be able to partake of the sacrament(lingshou shengcan) and we had some of the most fabulous talks that I really needed to hear. Sister Elaine Dalton came for Relief Society yesterday, she is such a sweet lady and a wonderful speaker. Also, we were able to meet her after and she is such a personable person. She really speaks from her heart and is such a wonderful, inspired person. She talked about the new young women value: virtue. And, mom, you'll be excited to hear that my companions and I are taking that virtue packet and are going to complete it before we leave the MTC. We might not get the Book of Mormon read by then, but we have already completed #3. Alma 5, a marvelous chapter of good missionary questions.
At our large group meeting last week we learned about miracles and how they work according to our faith. Dilligence and action is also required with that. A scripture I really enjoyed from that were D&C 97:8. Also, when we went to the health center I saw a plague that said this: " a missionary is someone who leaves their family for a short time so that other families can be together for eternity." I know that is true and I think about that whenever we talk about our purpose. It will be such a blessing to be able to bring families to the gospel and see it bless their lives.
Also, I needed to work a lot on patience this week, so there were some really interesting things I found from Preach My Gospel and the scriptures. Some good ones were in Alma 34:40,41, and Romans 8:24, 25, but especially in Romans 15:1-7. I loved verse 5. God tells us how He is patient, but he grants us the ability to become as such. That is so wonderful and is so inspiring for me. I have been praying a lot for patience this week. And the week before. Haha, I think it will be my personal aspiration for many many weeks :)
The language is coming! I love to bear my testimony in zhongwen and I now have the 1st vision memorized! Also, we played this game called bendiren (native speaker), and I was totally the bendiren on Friday. That means I didn't speak any English. at all. It was super hard, but I did it! :) I could speak English after I said the zhongwen first so I was still able to communicate, but it was hard. And, I saw Sister Ressa Casperson, did you know her? Although after she waited in the lunch line with me and had to wait a couple minutes for me to respond to any of her questions I'm pretty sure she was done talking to me and that's why she doesn't ask me questions anymore :)
Oh! Mom, you would be so excited, the volleyball is fun here! Sometimes it is hard to play, but there are a couple elders who have played beach or at least know how to set and serve and it has been a lot of fun to play during our gym time. I love playing here because a lot of people are good, but there are so humble about their skills and are nice! It is so wonderful.
Ok! You wanted to know about daily life, wake up is at 6:30, we get ready and are out the door and in our classrooms at 7am. Not going to lie, we sometimes run the last hallway to make it on time, but we've been working hard to try to be obedient so we've been on time the past week and a half. Then there is usually personal study and companion study, each for an hour. Then there is class time or Missionary Directed Time. With time for gym and meals that is pretty much it. Planning at 9pm and bed by 10:30. Between 9:30 and 10:30 we can iron clothes, shower, read, write in our journals, and get ready for bed.
Oh--do you remember in track, the twins from Skyline that always ran cross country? Well, one is my teacher! I also had physical science with them freshman year, but one still remembered me. He is a really fantastic teacher and has great lessons that I really enjoy. I love how we have language classes but also spiritually inspiring lessons that really help us see the purpose of what we are doing and help us to hopefully become better missionaries. Li laoshi is from China and she is a convert to the church. She's helping us so much with the language, and sometimes it is very difficult to hear what she is saying, but it will be so helpful when we are out in the field and people actually talk like that :)
Ok! You also wanted to hear more about the elders in my district. Li zhanglao (Elder Li) is from Hong Kong! He is our district leader, and He reminds me of our cousing Bebe, before he lost a lot of weight. He has the cutest face and Asian eyes and is truely the sweetest elder. Very sincere and very nice.
Ah-ya! I have to go, but I will explain more about our district later. I really have been impressed with the elders. Many people told me they would be immature and little, but I feel that many have really applied the call to their lives and they really are wonderful. They are very hard workers and i appreciate them in our district.
I love you all so much!
-Sister Ko

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