Week four!

Everyone! 

I'm so excited!  The Provo Temple reopened last week, and I get to go today!  I have missed going to the temple and how I feel when I am there.  We (the Mandarin speaking sisters and I) Have been spending a bit of time up on the grounds, but it is not the same as actually going in and spending time in the House of the Lord.  Our district has planned a trip for P-Day and I am definitely looking forward to it.

In other news, one of our practice investigators this week said he would commit to baptism as he continues to learn about the Church.  We have been working with him on how to find answers to his questions in the Book of Mormon, and yesterday we had a great lesson that helped to answer both some of his questions and some of mine.  It was wonderful.  Shen Jiemei and I are hoping that he will start studying more on his own and will be able to find more answers to the questions he has.

We also had a wonderful experience in TRC (the Training Resource Center, where we teach people from the "outside world" in our target lanugage) teaching some of the volunteers there.  Our first lesson went over a bit, so we only had a few minutes to teach our second volunteer.  Shen Jiemei had a great scripture that she shared from Mosiah 28:6-7 and then from Alma 19:23.  These scriptures show how the Lord honors His promises and answers our prayers.  When Mosiah asked the Lord to protect his sons as they served missions, Heavenly Father promised He would.  As a result we see in Alma that they were protected, even though they were in a very dangerous situation as Nephites in Lamanite territory.  After we shared the scriptures, We asked our volunteer what he thought of the scriptures.  He said that they were a clear example of the Lord's love for us and that they specifically addressed something he had been thinking about recently.  It was amazing to see how the Lord worked through us as missionaries to answer this man's question.  Being a missionary really is a wonderful thing.  I have learned so much already about how to listen better to recognize and follow the promptings of the Spirit.  Something I have been thinking about recently is how when I relax during a lesson it is much easier to figure out what needs to happen in the lesson.  Answers or scriptures will come to mind that we may not have thought of before.  This is the same when we plan for our lessons, as well.  It's interesting- what I have thought for so long is just instinct or impulses is actually in some cases the Spirit trying to communicate with me and help us as missionaries to better serve others.

For some of my Plymouth Ward readers - I have been seeing Elder Barfuss and Elder Wade a lot this week!  We have had some good conversations, and both of them seem well.  Elder Barfuss and I are actually in the same building for our classes, so we run into each other quite a bit, and since we are in language mode we always say hello in our respective forms.  Luckily, it's pretty easy to tell when someone is saying hello to you.

Fun story before I have to go - the other day we were sitting in the classroom and Elder Tsai wasn't in the room.  Elder Zavala picked up his pen and put it in his pocket.  About fifteen minutes later we were sitting around, and the Elders were talking about what pens they owned. (Apparently pens are a way of measuring masculinity?) Elder Young pulled out his Parker Jotter and they all agreed that it was a "good piece."  Elder Zavala pulled out his Zebra 300 series and they all nodded in agreement. ("Oh yeah, that's a good piece.")  Then Elder Zavala pulled out a Zebra 400 series and said "This is a Zebra 400 series.  It's a good piece.  It's also what Elder Tsai is looking for right now."  At that moment across the room, Elder Tsai said "Where is my pen?!"  It was movie-worthy.  Or at least sitcom-worthy.

That's all for this week.  Hopefully next week I'll have a surprise for you all!

Love you!

Sister Beer

P.S. A praying mantis flew into my leg this week while we were out playing bocci ball on the field.  I think it must have been shedding it's skin or something of the like since it was pretty white looking, rather than the green I have seen before.  I found out later that praying mantises can bite/eat people if they really want to, so I'm glad I was wearing pants that day.  A praying mantis bite sounds a little painful, although it would be a very unique injury.  "Yeah, this scar is from the time a praying mantis bit me.  It's not exactly one of your run-of-the-mill injuries, if you know what I mean."