Wednesday, October 31, 2012

My Date With Sandy


Hello, all. 

I am happy to inform you that we did not blow away in the storm!  And by storm, I mean hurricane.  Who knew New York got hurricanes?  (Actually, I heard they had one last year, but it's not really a place that you think of getting hurricanes!)  We did, however, lose power, so I am actually writing this post from the mission home in Scarsdale.  We have been having a good few days in our apartment in Chinatown, but since we have been without power for a couple days and there was no way to write home, they had us come up here so we could communicate with you all.  I will say that I am now very familiar with our area book, and I have learned how to light a gas stove without an automatic starter.  Good skills to know, I think.  The one thing is that since we have been in the apartment, we haven't been able to meet with many investigators this week, so that has been a little frustrating, and our plans for a hot-pot and pumpkin pie night for our departing Sister Gao have been cancelled.

In other news, we have new missionaries in our district!  The Blairs are a senior missionary couple (that's just what it sounds like, an older couple who chose to go on a mission) that have been assigned to our little branch.  Neither of them speak Mandarin, but Elder Blair spent ten months of his mission in the South East Asia mission in Hong Kong.  They live in our building, right next to one of the companionships of elders downstairs.  We love them already and know that they will be an excellent contribution to our district and our branch.  One good about this hurricane is it has given us more of an opportunity to get to know them.  On Monday they and the elders came up to our apartment to help us put up our blinds.  Afterwards, since we couldn't leave our apartments, we ordered a couple of pizzas, went to the Blairs' apartment, and had a little family night. 

This whole hurricane deal has really reminded me how wonderful it is to be prepared.  The Church encourages all of its members to prepare food and water in case of emergencies, as well as any other supplies they may need.  The same goes for missionaries, and before the storm hit we were reminded to get everything we need.  We then were given the excellent opportunity to serve our ward, especially our recent converts and less active members.  We called all of them to remind them to prepare themselves, and to tell them how much we and the Branch Presidency loved them.  Many of them were grateful for the information and to hear that we wanted them to be safe.  We will follow up with them soon (once cell phones are working a little better) and see how they weathered the storm.

I am grateful for a mission home that still has power and internet, a mission president that thinks to send updates to my family, and for an awesome district that is so willing to serve each other.  it has been a pretty great couple of days, all things considering.

We'll see how this next week goes - I have a feeling we are going to be helping out a bit with cleanup.  I'll let you know.

Love you!

Sister Beer

Friday, October 26, 2012

Week Four: In Which an Apostle Visits and the Missionaries Go to a Farm

Yep, you read that right. D. Todd Christofferson came to visit our mission on Saturday!  Having an Apostle come to speak is pretty much like Christmas for missionaries.  It was awesome to feel the spirit that accompanies an Apostle and to feel how much he loved us and our mission.  He told us about how the Lord asks us to call people to repentance, and that repentance will bring them joy.  When we sin, we are separated from our Heavenly Father, and that separation brings sadness.  I know from experience that when we truly repent we have joy.  The Lord wants to bless us and wants us to be happy.

In other news, we went to a farm this week!  


















Our ward went on a special trip to a farm outside the city.  It was awesome!  Once you leave the metro area, it's easy to see that fall has come to the Northeast.  


We bought apples, I ate a cinnamon sugar donut, and we looked at pumpkins. All around a great trip, I think.

Afterwards we went to West Point Military Academy, an Army school located in New York.  It's pretty old and pretty famous, and I actually had a friend in the MTC who was enrolled there.  They have a museum there dedicated to military history in America that was interesting.  Our ward is great.  The members are wonderful, and so humble.  I am blessed to be working with them.

Also, I would like you all to know that coming on my mission has not stopped me from baking!  I was a little scared that I wouldn't have time to bake, but as of yet I have made banana bread twice, so it's all good. 


I'm looking forward to other cooking adventures soon... :)

I have the opportunity today to go to the temple, which is great.  We get to go once every transfer, and this time around this is the week our District chose.  





















The Manhattan temple is unique, however, in the fact that half of the building is temple and half is a meetinghouse.  As of yet I have only gone to the meetinghouse portion, so I am super excited to go to the temple today!

Because we are downtown for P-Day, I was able to fulfill a life dream.  For lunch Sister Gao, Sister Khong and I (I am on splits right now) went and bought some soup at a local supermarket and sat in the plaza in front of the temple to eat. 


 Growing up, that's kind of what I imagined New York City was like, sitting outside, cars driving by, sipping your hot chocolate or soup, and thinking about whatever people in New York think about.  Now I can check that off my bucket list.


That's all I have time for today.  Thank you for your prayers and your missionary efforts at home.  I had a friend tell me once that miracles happen every day, and if we don't see them, we aren't looking hard enough.  Have a great week!

Love,
Sister Beer

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Resolving to be Happy, and Other Wonderful Things (Or: In Which Sister Beer Learns a Lesson)


Okay, everyone, this week has been amazing.

Let me just start by saying I LOVE General Conference.  Every six months I look forward to listening to the words of the Prophet and figuring out how I can apply them in my life.  This time was no different, only that I had the wonderful added bonus of being a missionary on top of the usual spiritual feast.  To start off, we had five of our investigators attend at least (note, at LEAST) one session of General Conference.  They got to benefit from hearing the awesome talks given and feel the Spirit that is at conference.  Also, the content of this particular conference was pretty much amazing.  Let me explain:

1. The age at which young men and women can go on missions has been lowered.  I am so excited for all of the 18 year old Elders and now 19 year old Sisters that have the opportunity to go serve.  I know that if that had been announced when I was 19, I would have filled out my application papers that afternoon!  I am predicting an influx of missionaries over the next year, which is exciting to everyone who participates in missionary work. (Which when you think about it, should be every member of the Church.... "Every member a missionary," anyone?)

2. Two new temples have been announced, bringing the total to 139 operating temples and 29 in progress.

3. There were some incredible talks given, including Dieter F. Uctdorf's talk about happiness (where the title of my post comes from) and David A. Bednar's talk about true conversion (which was a part of his Character of Christ talk that I have referenced before).  Here's the part where I learned a lesson, and my week became amazing.  The past week has been challenging.  Learning Mandarin and how to teach the Gospel to people in Mandarin is hard.  And I was complaining about it.  Not necessarily to my companions, but inside I was.  I kept thinking how sad it was that I couldn't do anything, how I was so frustrated with myself. Then Dieter F. Uctdorf spoke, and I felt like my questions I had were answered.  He talked about serving others and finding joy in the service, and how as we obey promptings of the Holy Ghost, the Lord will open pathways and talents we did not know we had.  He reminded me that we choose for ourselves to be happy, as is stated in 2 Nephi 2:27. "Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man.  And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all me might be miserable like unto himself." We are free to choose between the two, and I would prefer the first one, myself.  I am happy to say that now things are looking bright. I am finding Mandarin is still difficult, but my outlook on it has made things better and I am noticing more the resources that Heavenly Father has given me to learn. (Including two wonderful companions who know what they are talking about!)

Story time: On Sunday one of our appointments didn't show up (in China they call that catching a pigeon) and we were trying to figure out what to do next.  As we were sitting there, a woman walked in with her daughter.  She said she had come to check out our church and that her friend had told her about us.  That friend, it turned out, was a woman that Sister Chueh had contacted months ago who stopped taking lessons.  In any case, she was excited to learn about our church and agreed to come to General Conference with us.  She and her daughter ended up staying for both Sunday sessions!  They are wonderful people and I am so excited to start teaching them!

Also, I had dim sum for the first time this week.  And it was delicious.

Okay, that's all for now.  I hope you all have a great week!

Love, 
Sister Beer

P.S. One of my investigators this week told me I look like Lady Gaga... I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Sunday, October 7, 2012

I want to be a part of it . . . New York!

Yes, everyone, I have arrived in the big city!  Sorry about the week off of blog posts, last Wednesday was crazy.

New York is everything I expected it to be, and nothing I expected it to be at the same time.  Chinatown especially.  When I walk down the streets here, I feel like I am back in Taiwan, but then I remember that I am in the middle of a city in America and my brain gets super confused.  Except for the odd foreigner, everyone here is Asian.  Wow... by foreigner I actually mean American.  Sorry about that.  It's like a completely different culture and country here!  The weirdest part is that if you walk a couple of blocks one way or the other, there is this transition from Chinatown to the rest of New York and suddenly you are in America again.  It is rather jarring at times.

I have eaten lots of good food this week, and tried some new stuff that was pretty good too.  We eat a lot of noodles and this interesting rice-noodle-block thing called changfen (it is Cantonese food, according to my companion) that is super delicious.  I arrived just in time for Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, so we have been eating lots of moon cakes.  I think my favorite is the lotus filled cakes.  They are super good.  My first night here we went and got potstickers at the sisters' favorite place - super good.  The weirdest things I have eaten since getting here are chicken foot (not the worst thing I've eaten) and two small whole fish.  Sister Liu had to help me debone the fish so I could eat it.  I don't have her sweet chopstick skills yet.

Speaking of Sister Liu . . . I have two native companions!  I am the only non-native sister here right now, which is exciting.  My companions' names are Sister Liu (from China) and Sister Chueh (from Taiwan).  They are fantastic and have been super good to me this first week.  They are very patient with my Mandarin and do a good job of including me in contacting and in teaching.  I have actually been able to contribute to the last few lessons we have taught, which is super awesome.  I only understand about a third of what goes on most of the time, sometimes less, so I am happy when I can actually contribute.

Sorry this is a shorter letter, I don't have much time this week.  A quick thought before I go: I got to go to the General Relief Society Broadcast this week (down at the Manhattan Chapel, which is in the temple!  Half of the building is temple, half is chapel.  It's pretty cool.) and I loved how much of the meeting was about the Atonement.  It is through the Atonement of Christ that we are able to find peace in this world.  My favorite verses describing the Atonement are found in Alma 7:11-13.  Jesus Christ descended below all things so we could be lifted up and be happy with our families forever.  I know this is true.  We can access that Atonement through diligent prayer and communication with our Heavenly Father, and it is available to everyone.

I love you all! 

Sister Beer




With my cousin Micah--er, Elder Safsten.





This is from my window, but we actually moved to a new apartment that doesn't have quite as nice a view, but it does have a washer and dryer.  I think I'll take the washer and dryer.