Things keep happening.

That's kind of how it is at the MTC.  Things happen, you learn lots, feel the Spirit, and then do it all over again.  Luckily it's not quite as boring as it sounds, even though I'm pretty sure my posts are all starting to sound the same.  I promise that we are all progressing here.

That being said, this week has been pretty uneventful.  Actually, that's a lie.  The new generation of Mandarin speaking missionaries arrived that week! (I realized after I typed the first sentence that things had actually happened this week, and I was too lazy to go back and fix it.  Oops.)  We have 34 new missionaries, 31 elders and 3 sisters, and they are pretty awesome.  The sisters are especially cool, and I have loved getting to know them this week.  There are no new New York North missionaries, but there are a couple (including one from Hong Kong) who are going to New York South.

Sister Stevens and I were talking this week and we realized that we really only have four weeks left at the MTC.  That is so crazy to think about... four weeks suddenly doesn't seem that long, and I realize now that I am going to be in New York City in less than a month.  I am so excited to go, bu there is this terrible feeling of "Am I going to be ready in time??" that lurks in the back of my mind.  I think that we will all be ready for what we need to do, though, and that we will continue to learn as long as we are applying ourselves diligently.  I'm glad that they don't expect us to be perfect when we enter the mission field.  On the other hand, though (I learned how to say that this week in Chinese, by the way) I can understand so much more than I did when I entered the MTC.  I attribute that to the Lord and to the fantastic teachers I have.

Speaking of new teachers... I mentioned last week that both of our teachers were transferred to new districts.  Our new teacher's name is Brother Vernon, or Wen Laoshi, and he served his mission in Taichung, Taiwan.  Well, Wen Laoshi looked pretty familiar, so one day after class he was chatting with the district and I found out that he is studying violin at BYU.  Naturally, I asked if he knew my freshman roommate, Caitie.  As it turns out, he doesn't just know her, but he actually spent time at our apartment freshman year!  He was there the night that one of my friends brought over "Singing in the Rain" and a large group of people crowded into our tiny Heritage Halls kitchen/living space.  So yeah... that's why he looked familiar.  Small world.

Also this week - Wen Laoshi told us that the teachers hear some pretty funny things in lessons taught by missionaries at the MTC (for example, one missionary told a story about how he had "zhuiluo"ed, or fell as Adam and Eve, off a trampoline), so naturally the district wanted to know if any of us had slipped up at all.  He replied "Well, they haven't been too bad.  The only really funny one is Sister Beer."  He then refused to tell me what I had done for TWO DAYS.  I was a little worried as to what I had said - it turned out that instead of saying Jesus Christ is our Savior (Jiuzhu) I had called Him a ring (jiezhe).  It had made our teacher think of Lord of the Rings, which is why he thought it was so funny.  Good stuff.  Chinese is hard.

Last Tuesday Elder David F. Evans from the Quorum of the Seventy came to speak to us about missionary work.  He has some administrative power over missionary work, but I can't remember what.  In any case, he gave a wonderful talk discussing the painting President Thomas S. Monson spoke about a couple of years ago in conference titled "The Rescue."  President Monson has told us that it is just as important to rescue those who have gone inactive and help them remember why they made the choices they did to join the church as it is to find new people to bring into the Church.  The way I see it, what is the point of having someone make binding covenants with the Lord if they are not going to keep them?  Also, if they do not understand the importance of these covenants, then we are not doing our job as missionaries and teachers.  I feel like this is something that I can use for my entire life.  I want to be able to reach out to people for my entire life with this message, not just while I am serving a mission.  His talk was supported by what we heard on Sunday in Relief Society from Mary Cook, the second counselor in the Young Women's Presidency.  She detailed an experience she has had with a friend of hers in her ward who is coming back into activity.  According to her, it is wonderful to see someone who once had that light regain it and understand it again.

We also saw another Bednar talk this weekend.  It was titled "Recognizing the Spirit" and, surprise, was wonderful.  The biggest point he made was that if we are keeping the commandments, keeping our covenants, and being good boys and girls we do not have to worry about having the Spirit with us.  He will be there.  Don't freak out because you have not received a specific, recognizable impression from the Spirit - it doesn't always happen that way.  This was a great lesson for me and I am growing to trust myself and the decisions I am making because of it.  He told us a story (which I am not going to outline here because I don't have enough time) about when he was a missionary in Germany and met President Boyd K. Packer called "The 20 Mark Note."  I would try to find it somewhere, if you can.  Super good. 

I'm out of time, but I love you all and I hope you have an amazing week!

Love,

Sister Beer

P.S. Uncle David, Aunt Joyce, and the rest of the Chicago Beers:  I was talking to President Brown, the MTC mission president, this week.  He saw my nametag and asked if I knew you, to which I responded that we are family.  We had a nice chat about Chicago and about how awesome you are.  President and Sister Brown say hi and that you are all wonderful people.  I agree. :)