That's right, folks, I am officially on English-Speaking Missionary Time! That means that three weeks from today (the time that an English speaking missionary stays at the MTC) I will be shipping out to the Big Apple to teach people the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In Mandarin, no less. This is some pretty crazy stuff, here. I'm kind of freaking out about it, but in a good way.
This week has been so good! We had great lessons, wonderful weather, excellent study sessions, and fun times to be had by all the Mandarin speaking missionaries.
We have a tradition every week to play what we call "Anything Goes Paiqius," our special version of volleyball where everyone is on the court at the same time and we all just try to get the ball over the net in any way possible. It's pretty fun stuff, and this week we added a new rule: whenever someone yells "Chinese Fire Drill!" you have to find a new place in the court, while still watching to see if the volleyball is flying toward your head. Good times on the volleyball court. Also, as we were walking home after playing it started to rain on us! The weather that day had been everywhere from sprinkling to sunny, so we were all super excited when the rain started falling (rather hard, actually) and we could hear thunder rumbling in the distance. I miss Michigan thunderstorms, so it was good to have that for a few minutes.
Here's a good funny story for you all: yesterday our teacher challenged us all to speak more Mandarin. I had done super well through all of dinner and all the way back to the classroom. As soon as I got to the classroom door, however, I saw two of our teachers talking to each other. It was the most surreal experience. I knew they had never met before, so seeing them together was strange. Looking back I don't know why I was so surprised. It's pretty normal for teachers to talk to each other. In any case, I just stopped at the door, stared, and said "Whoa, this is weird." Brother Vernon then said "阿！你应該説中文！“ (Hey! You should be speaking Chinese!) I was a little embarrassed and eventually got over the fact that our teachers were talking to each other. I still don't know why I was so surprised. In Sister Stevens words, "She nearly died." That may be a bit of an exaggeration.
Last Tuesday especially was super cool for us all. What I didn't write about in my last letter home is that last Sunday we were told that the visiting General Authority wanted to speak with all missionaries Mandarin or Cantonese speaking or who were from Mandarin and Cantonese speaking countries. Naturally, rumors began to fly that China was being opened, that we were all getting transferred immediately to Shanghai or Beijing, all that fun stuff. Obviously that didn't happen since I am still in the Provo MTC, but what did happen was still pretty cool. We met with Elder Anthony B Perkins of the Quorum of the Seventy*, formerly President Perkins of the Asia Area Presidency. When they walked in I thought they looked familiar, and then when President Brown said their names I remembered that Elder and Sister Perkins had served as the mission president in the Taipei mission before my family moved there and had actually given an address for a televised stake conference while we were there. I remembered hearing about them from the other ward members in Taipei while we lived in that ward, so it was pretty cool to meet them. He talked about what a gift and a responsibility it is to be a missionary learning a Chinese language. He told us that what we are learning right now (both language and doctrine) and the work we are doing as missionaries will influence the rest of our lives in ways we never could imagine. It makes me kind of excited as to what the future could hold for the Mandarin-speaker version of Sister Beer.
That night at the devotional Sister Perkins said something that struck me. She quoted her daughter, saying, "You can always be as bold as you need to be when you speak out of love." As missionaries we have to talk to a lot of people and ask them to do some things that may not come naturally to them. (Like being baptized, for example. I'm pretty sure that's not high on a lot of people's "To Do" list.) When we help them understand that we are asking them to do these things because we love them and genuinely want them to be happy, then it is much easier to accept. Another thing she said is that we as missionaries were called to be ourselves, not some other person's view of a perfect missionary. I think that extends outside of missionary work as well. The Lord loves you for who you are, and wants you to be yourself, just a better version of yourself. That's why He gives us commandments and laws to follow, because He knows that they will help us become better versions of ourselves that are closer to Him. He does not want you to give up your quirks and qualities that make you an individual, He wants you to develop your talents and become the wonderful, strong person He knows you can be. Moroni tells us in Ether 12:27 in the Book of Mormon that the Lord shows us our weaknesses so that we may turn unto Him, and then He will make our weak things become strong. I know that the Lord does this and that He provides opportunities to help us to grow and become better people through Christ and His Atonement.
That's about all I have for today. So you all know, even through my departure date has changed, my address stays the same. And if you don't know what that means, don't worry about it. Just use the address on the side of the screen.
I love you all and I hope you are having a wonderful week!
Sister Beer
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