One month left! . . . Again?

I guess the biggest news this week is that I have been extended at the MTC an extra week!  Instead of leaving on the 18th of September, with the rest of my zone, I will be leaving the 25th with the rest of the New York North bound missionaries.  The NY North mission transfers are one week off of the other Mandarin speaking missions, so Elder Murray (the other missionary in my district going to NY North) and I get to chill at the MTC for another week.

I found out because a voice came over the intercom calling me down to 1M to meet with my district president.  It's a little weird when they talk over the intercom, because this voice comes from the heavens and expects you to respond. (There are microphones somewhere so they can hear you talking back.)  I went over, completely confused as to why I was there, and he sat me down and told me the news.  He then asked if I wanted to call home to tell my family.  At first I assured him I could write a letter home (sorry, parents) but he encouraged me to call.  So here I was, sitting in a little room in 1M, waiting for someone to pick up the phone.  When Mom heard my voice, I could tell that her missionary daughter was not who she was expecting to be calling.  They had just arrived home from some event with my oldest brother Chris, who was visiting, and the phone had started ringing.  Nathan told her "It's BYU calling, you probably don't want to pick that up."  Oh Nathan.  In any case, I'm glad she did pick up and I told her the news.  I also got to say hi to Chris and Mary, which was great, and to speak some Chinese that they probably didn't understand.  I loved hearing from them, and even though I want to go to the field, being in the MTC an extra week never killed anyone.

In other news, I am no longer coordinating sister!  It's a little sad because it means I don't spend quite as much time with the other sisters, but ling yi fangmian (on the other hand) it means that I get a little more time in the evenings to prepare for the next day, write in my journal (I do that now, by the way), and other miscellaneous stuff.

I got to host my cousin Sister Caroline Ure as she entered the MTC this week!  She is going to New Orleans, Spanish speaking and is pretty much awesome.  I love how much family I have seen here in the time I have spent at the MTC.  It's pretty great.

After much anticipation, our new teacher arrived this week!  His name is Mu Laoshi, and he served his mission in Taipei.  Also, he is a hipster.  Okay, so that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but not much.  He has the glasses, the wavy-on-top hair, the old style kicks, the random interests, the special obscure drink... the list goes on.  We all really enjoyed his teaching - he's pretty great.

Oh yeah, and Tuesday Devotional this week was pretty much the best.  Neil A Anderson from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles* came and spoke to us.  It was SO COOL to have an Apostle there to speak to us!  At the beginning of the meeting Sister Stevens and I sang "Behold the Wounds in Jesus Hands" with the choir.  The words invite everyone to recognize what Jesus Christ has done for us and to recognize Him as our Savior.  It was pretty powerful.  When Elder Anderson started speaking, he had us sing "Happy Birthday" to President Monson (he turned 85 a week ago) and he then told us what he throught the prophet would want us to hear.  My favorite point he covered was when he told us to let the Lord shape our back to the burden we are given.  He gave us three quotes from President Monson to illustrate this idea: "Whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies," "The Lord will shape the back to carry the burden," and "When you are on the Lord's errand you are entitled to His help."  I especially like that last one - as long as we do what the Lord asks of us, He will help us.  On the flip side, if we are not doing what He asks, He has no obligation to do so.  It brings to mind the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 82:10: "For I the Lord am bound when ye do what I say, but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." 

I am grateful for the support I am getting from home and from my friends.  Thank you all so much for everything you do to support missionary work, and those you know who are missionaries!

I love you all!  Have a wonderful week!

Sister Beer

*Apostle: For those who are not familiar with LDS terminology - we have a President at the head of our Church who runs the affairs of the Church along with his two counselors.  The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles are the next group under them and they have specific responsibilities pertaining to running the Church as well.  All of these men, however, are special witnesses of God and of Jesus Christ and testify that He Lives.

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. :)

We're halfway there . . .

And I think I can accurately say that I am living on a prayer.  I don't think that song has ever applied so directly to my life, now that I think about it.  And yes, I am over halfway through my MTC stay!  Sunday was the beginning of week 7 out of 12, so we're all pretty excited/anxious about that.  Part of me really wants to be out in the mission field now, but I know that there is so much more I need to learn here before I can go teach.

This week has been a little strange, since we have been the only generation of Mandarin speakers at the MTC, but that will change tomorrow with the new group coming in.  We have 33 new missionaries coming, which is significantly smaller than the 50 others that came with me, and 3 of them are sisters.  Since I'm Coordinating Sister, I got sheets with their names and mission assignments on them, and it has been fun to see where everyone is going.  No one from this next generation will be going to NYC!  I was a little surprised to see that, but I guess they have who they need for the time being.  They are, however, going to Taiwan, Scotland/Ireland, several missions in Canada, and Australia.  Pretty cool stuff.  I'm super excited to meet the new missionaries, especially the new sisters.

This week was also a little sad.  Both our teachers were replaced, and one of the members of our branch presidency was released.  We are sad to see everyone go, especially our teachers.  Brother Liu and Sister Han are wonderful teachers and have helped all of us so much with our Chinese and our teaching.  Luckily they will still be around, teaching other classes and whatnot.  Also, even though we are going to miss Brother Johnson in our branch presidency, I was surprised and pleased to find out that his replacement is none other than Brother Grimley!  Brother Grimley and his wife returned six weeks ago from their call as mission president in Taipei, Taiwan.  I just so happen to know their son and his family, since they were in our ward while I was in Taiwan.  Actually, Sister Grimley (the younger one) was my Young Women's president for a year.  When I met Brother Grimley (the older one) after District meeting he saw my tag and asked "Are you who I think you are?"  We had just barely missed each other, but he met my dad during the month before my family moved back to the States.  It was cool to make that connection, and I am super excited to have them be a part of our zone.

It has been great to see Elder Safsten around the MTC!  I love that we are here at the same time.  He's pretty fantastic, and is going to be a great missionary!

This week our elders decided to assign us superpowers.  Apparently, I would make things spark.  Think Jubilee from X-Men.  Sister Stevens would have laser vision (because of her piercing stare) and would be able to fly uncoordinatedly.  I have this image in my head of her wobbling in the air, bumping into things.  A lot of things.  They also decided that if we were a part of Avatar, the Last Airbender, that I would be a water-bender and Sister Stevens would be a earth-bender.  Yeah... sometimes focus is hard.  Don't worry, we're still learning things.

For example, yesterday Sister Stevens and I did our first door approach.  It was rather nerve-wracking, since we had NO IDEA what we were doing.  The lesson went well, though, and he is "coming to church" with us on Sunday. (He can't actually come to church with us since we are in the MTC.)

Sunday's Relief Society was AWESOME.  For those who have never experienced/heard about MTC Relief Society, all the sisters meet together at 9:30, watch Music and the Spoken Word (there was a wonderful performance of "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho" this week), then have Relief Society immediately afterwards.  There is a speaker who addresses us, rather than the discussions that usually take place.  Usually one of the branch or mission presidents' wives will speak to us, but this week we had the privilege of hearing from Rosemary Wixom, the General Primary President!  She was wonderful, and shared some stories about missionaries she had met and the importance of our work.  I also found out that she served a mission when she was younger, which was cool.  One of her main messages is that Christ is love.  His message is centered around love for others and around serving our fellow men.  As we grow closer to Him and become more like Him, we become more charitable people.  Moroni 7 talks about charity and its importance.  Without charity, which is the pure love of Christ, we are nothing.  She also asked us to love the children, wherever we go, and to help them know that they are children of God.  Something that I have come to know more fully while at the MTC is that we are all children of God, and that He loves each of us and knows us individually.  I am so happy to have this knowledge, and the peace that comes with it.  He loves you, He wants you to be happy, and He has provided a plan through which we can have eternal happiness.

I have to go, but I love you all and I hope you are having a wonderful week!

我愛你們!

Sister Beer

畢姐妹

One month!

Shiqing shi zheyang de (and it came to pass), I have been here at the MTC for over a month!  Sunday was the one month mark, and we all were amazed that it had been that long!  The MTC is a strange place - it feels like we have been here forever, but at the same time it feels like we just got here.  It was good to hear from my parents about the Safsten Family Reunion this week.  It sounds like it was lots of fun!

To celebrate one month of being on my mission, I was asked to accept the assignment of Relief Society Coordinating Sister within our zone.  For those who may not be so familiar with mission hierarchy, here's how it goes: each missionary has a companion that they stay with at all times.  Companionships are put into small groups (usually around 5 companionships) called districts.  While at the MTC, your district is who you study with, who you spend time with, who you teach with, all that fun stuff.  Each district has an Elder called the District Leader that reports to the next higher authority, the Zone Leaders.  ZLs are a companionship (two) Elders that report to the Branch President, the head of our congregation, about the welfare of the Zone.  However, because of the rules that surround the interactions between Elders and Sisters, the Sisters do not directly report to the District leaders.  Instead, they talk to the Coordinating Sister (that's me) and then she reports to the Branch President.  What this means is that I get to visit the sisters in my zone each night and talk with them about how they are doing, see what they need, all that sort of thing and then I talk to the Branch President about what is going on within the female portion of the zone.  I go to a couple extra meetings, but it's not too much time.  This assignment (it's not a calling since we are missionaries) will last three weeks.  Because of the timing, however, this also means that I get to be one of the first people to meet the new generation of missionaries coming in next week, and I will be one of the first missionaries they talk to!  It's a little intimidating, but super exciting at the same time.  I'm looking forward to getting to know this new group.

The older generation of Mandarin speakers all left this week.  They have gone off to places like New York, California, Taiwan, Australia, and England.  It is inspiring and kind of heart-wrenching to see them go.  We have become good friends with many of the Elders and Sisters in that generation, and it will be strange to be at the MTC without them.  Also, it will be strange when the new generation comes in next week and suddenly WE will be the older generation.  Elder Wade also left this morning to go to the Brazil training center, and Elder Barfuss leaves pretty quickly here, too, to go to Thailand.  It was awesome to see the two of them here and to be able to represent the Plymouth Ward so strongly in the MTC.  I am sad to see them go, but excited for what they get to do!  I am SUPER excited for my cousin Micah to come in tomorrow!  Even though he won't be here long, it will be nice to see another face I know in the MTC.

The elders in my district were super nice to me this week - I had a pretty bad cold and was feeling gross and yesterday I walked into class and there was an Emergen-C, pack of tissues, and bag of pretzel M&Ms sitting on my desk.  It was so thoughtful of them, and I greatly enjoyed the M&Ms.  I am feeling much better now, don't worry, and am grateful for it!

Last week when Sister Stevens and I were going to the temple we invited the Elders to sit with us afterwards and ponder the session, maybe write a couple letters or in their journals or something.  The quick response from an Elder: "No, we're going to go do manly things, like burping, picking things up and setting them back down again."  That, of course, invited some amount of laughter from the district and we set off toward the temple.  As it turns out, Sister Stevens and I didn't have much time for writing anyways.  We hurried back right after the session to go sing in the MTC choir, something that we have been doing every week.  It is a wonderful experience, and we enjoy it.  Today we went to the temple in the morning, and it was so nice to sit in the quiet and feel the Spirit that is there.  If you haven't been to the temple recently, go!  There is nothing better than going and feeling what is there.  If you don't know what a temple is, then go find a Mormon friend to explain it to you.  I wish I had the time here, but my computer time is limited.  You can also go and feel the Spirit that is there, even if you don't go inside.  I love the temple and the experiences I have there.

One of my favorite experiences I have had on the mission is while listening to a musical number that one of my district members accompanied.  The piece was called "The Prodigal" and one of the lines said, "Make of me a miracle for someone’s wand'ring child."  This line reminded me of one of my goals here at the MTC, to turn out to others when I want to turn in.  As I wasn't feeling well this week it was really easy to just think about my needs, what I wanted, and how I could get better.  However, the work did not stop just because I did.  I found that as I turned out, I was happier and better able to cope with what I had.  It was pretty cool, actually.  I would encourage all of you to turn out when you want to turn in.  As we serve others we can lead more fulfilling and happy lives.  Service is the quickest way to loving others and developing charity, which is crucial to our progression and improvement.  Moroni 7:46 states that "if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth."  This is so true.  As we turn out we can be happy, and we can help the people around us be happy, too.

I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week!

Much love,

Sister Beer

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." 

Post san (three)!

I have been in the MTC for almost three full weeks.  It feels like I have been here for months, and yet at the same time I can hardly believe I am a quarter of the way through my MTC stay!  The amount of information I have learned is incredible, and I am still a little surprised at how much of it I retain on a day-to-day basis.  We are using our Mandarin more and more, trying to SYL (Speak Your Language) and it has been cool to see vocabulary that I didn't know I knew pop up in my daily conversation.  I still have to ask what a lot of words mean, but that is okay.  We are still learning, and that is what is important.

This week we went to the Teaching Resource Center (TRC) for the first time.  At the TRC volunteers come and the missionaries teach them a lesson.  Sometimes the volunteers are real investigators of the Church, but often they are just Mandarin speakers that live in the Provo area.  This week Sister Stevens and I taught two young men, one who's name I can't remember (oops) and Frank.  Frank is in America on a two month long vacation from Kaoshiung, Taiwan.  He was so fun to teach, but so hard to understand!  His accent was very pronounced and he had a slight lisp, so trying to figure out what he was saying was a little difficult.  Even so, he bore a beautiful testimony about the importance of the Atonement and of Jesus Christ in our lives which Sister Stevens and I were able to (mostly) understand.  The TRC, we learned, is stressful but can be rewarding!  This will become a weekly occurence for us.

We had some fun in our district the past couple of days.  For the past bit my companion and I have been trying to figure out what animal best represents each member of our district.  We finally hashed out most of them, so I decided to draw our district in animal form.  By the time I had almost finished the picture, I realized that we had not figured out what my animal was.  Since you can't really choose your own animal, I posed the question to my district.  Their answer?  A hamster.  I'm not quite sure what qualifies me to be a hamster.  I've never really identified with them, to be honest, they seem like timid little creatures.  Still, I drew myself in as a hamster.  I am going to draw another picture with the animals that we want to be, so we can set goals to become more awesome.

My thought for the week: turn out.  I watched a talk this week by Elder David A Bednar where he talked about the character of Christ and about turning out to serve others, even when we feel like we are in need of service.  As we do this, we can better serve others and we can be more open to the healing power of the Atonement.  I would recommend reading his talk from a few General Conferences ago on this topic - it's pretty great.

I love you all, and I hope you have a wonderful week!

Sister Beer (Bi Jiemei)

Post 2 from the MTC

Last week I wrote you from the busy, crowded laundry room. This week I am sitting in the English speaking missionary computer lab, and it could not be more different. Quiet, cushy, only four people... it's ridiculous. As you may be able to tell, there is a bit of a dichotomy between the English building and the rest of the MTC. Our elders first discovered this difference this week as they were exploring the MTC. They walked into an air-conditioned (!!) building and found that the rooms had real, normal sized desks, rather than the weird little half-desk-attached-to-chair things found in most classrooms. Not only that, but the computer lab has headphones with WORKING MICROPHONES. And who studies in this building? Not the Mandarin speaking missionaries, with our 20 pound bags of books, but the English speaking elders.

(I know that reads a little bitter, but I really do love our building and classroom. We have a good time, even if I can't fit my books on my desk.)

In other news, I've completed another week at the MTC! It is crazy to think how much I have learned since coming here. The people are supportive, the missionaries fun, and the material more important than anything I have ever worked with. 

A funny story with one of our elders this week: On Wednesday I was having what one could call a difficult hair day. I had it tied back, but it kept falling down and distracting me. Finally, while my companion and I were at the drinking fountain, I decided that fine, I would just take it down and let it be. As I walked back into the room, one of our dear elders looked at me and said "What's WRONG with you??" He had been meaning to inquire after my well-being and obvious change in hairstyle. However, what came out was not what he intended, and he spent the next minute or two trying to make up for his mistake. Sister Stevens and I could not stop laughing, and throughout the week at appropriate moments we have asked the question "What's WRONG with you??" in the most loving way we can. We have a great district. It kind of feels like a room full of little brothers, which some of you know can be the best and most aggravating thing in the world. I am grateful that we are in this particular group, though.

Our fireside this week was a musical fireside by Jenny Oaks Baker, a nationally acclaimed violinist. It was wonderful, and her music brought the Spirit to the meeting. I have always loved her music and it was very cool to hear her in person. Each song she played was accompanied by a story from her life or a reaffirmation of her testimony. Two of my favorite songs were when she played "Amazing Grace" and when her four children performed "I am a Child of God." I did not realize how much I have missed listening to uplifting music until I heard her play. One unfortunate thing about the MTC is that while music can be performed, we cannot just play it to listen to while we are here. I loved being able to just sit and listen for a while to Sister Baker's music. It was wonderful.

That's all I really have time for this week. I'll remind you that mail to the MTC is free through DearElder.com and that if you want a letter back from me, please include your address.

I love you all!

Sister Beer