Yeah,
that happened. And surprisingly, it wasn't all that bad. This week
Sister Liu and I were assigned to translate Sacrament Meeting (our Sunday
service). When I found out, I kind of freaked out. Like, about a
half hour of "WHY did they assign us to translate??"
freaking out. Since I am the native English speaker in the companionship,
and my English is better than Sister Liu's, I was the logical choice to
translate. Except for the fact that I usually can only understand other people's
Mandarin when they speak really slow and say it more than once. Luckily I
have a very patient and spiritually sensitive companion. After a few
talks with Sister Liu, she reminded me of the power of faith and that if we
trust the Lord, we can do anything He wants us to. Partway through the
week we found out that it was the Primary Program this week, and that a
majority of the meeting would actually have to be translated from English into
Mandarin for the congregation. We decided that I would do the Chinese-->English
translation, and Sister Liu would do the English-->Chinese translation with
help from me if I felt comfortable. After a few intense language studies
and a LOT of praying the day came and the meeting happened, with a flawed, but
passable translation on my part. (Sister Liu did an amazing job, by the
way. Her English comprehension is awesome.) There were a few times
when I had to turn to the English speakers and say "I have no idea what
they just said," but for the most part I was able to get the idea across.
That experience done, one of my new goals is to be able to translate in
meetings by the end of the cycle.
In other news, Sister
Liu and I have started running. Take as much time as you need to pick
your jaw up off the floor. Despite my long-lived abhorrence of running
and everything like unto it, running is one of the only options of exercise left
to us now that our downstairs neighbors have objected to our morning exercise,
using words like "moving furniture." Yeah... I'd rather not
have my movement compared to a sofa, thanks. But, out of respect to them
and respect for our bodies, we are now venturing out into the world for our
daily exercise.
A thought before I
leave you: this week we had two member present lessons. This is a pretty
big deal for us, since it is very difficult in Chinatown for people to find
time in their schedules to come to investigator lessons. Can I just say
how much I love having members at our lessons? It brings a wonderful
spirit and a great resource for the investigator to have a friend they can talk
to, and someone besides the missionaries testifying of truth. I challenge
any who have the opportunity to go with the missionaries and share their
testimony. You have no idea how much good you will do in helping that
person as they come closer to Christ.
That's all I have for
you this week. I love you all!
Sister Beer
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