MTC pictures

Canto speakers

Shea's college roomates- all at the MTC

                                                              Shea & Chai Dee

                                     
                                                        Sister Aldana & Sister Pearl

                                                                      Shea's district

Wong Ching Chong x3

Yo Family!

Whats up? Guess what that (Wong Ching Chong) means. That's right. It is a real phrase, even though it sounds made up. It is from a hymn. It means "Carry on!". That's why is is Wong Ching Chong x3. :) Well...  I am still alive and doing well! Almost half of our time has passed by before we get to head out to Hong Gong! The older district leaves in a week from today. We are all going to be really sad cause they really are hilarious. Two of the girls are from the Philipeans. Itz Ji Muih is hillarious. She makes us laugh like every single day. During the first week or so here everyone was like "Itz Ji Muih, show them Twilight!" and she would get all embarrassed and hide away in a corner. After a while the girls in our district finally cornered her and said "What is Twilight?!" So she put her hand over her mouth and the next thing we know is her four front teeth are missing and only her extremely large fangs and hanging out! We all scream and then laughed really hard. She has four fake teeth that she calls her Bella. Hahaha... she is the best. We are going to miss everyone when they leave.

But our district is really great as well. Both new Zone Leaders and the Coordinating sister were just called yesterday in church and all of them are from our little district of 6. Apparently our group is unique cause we all get along really really well and have no problems unlike a bunch of the other districts in our zone. I had no idea we were unique I just thought all the districts were like ours. But after every leadership meeting, our leaders come back and tell us how grateful they are that our district has no problems. Everyone is so great!

Well.... nothing to exciting has happened. There are fantastic devotionals and talks every Sunday and I really love class. We have some of the best teachers in the entire world. One important thing I learned this week was, you don't call Mormons in Hong Kong Mormons. Apparently Mormon in Cantonese means Devil Door. Sooooooo we just call them members of our church. But because of that, alot of people in Hong Kong think that we are a cult. Which is false. That's why we are going to go there! To prove them wrong! I bought myself some new, mini scriptures cause once we get to Hong Kong we will have to carry around scriptures in English and Chinese so I figured smaller would be better. I will send my other ones home. Either Landon can have them or I will use them when I get home.

I guess I did have one of my roughest days here so far. Even then though... it was only a couple of hours. Sister Pearl and I had planned this lesson that we thought was going to be perfect for our investigator Simba. Simba is always talking about her mom, So we thought teaching her about the plan of salvation and how families can be together would be exactly what she needed to hear. We had asked her to commit to baptism the lesson before and she said she would think about it, so this time we thought we had it is the bag. But as soon as we went in there and started teaching her she shut off from us completely. She didn't really talk or give input on what we were talking about. But we kept going on with the lesson anyway. I think that she understood us, but it was just not a good lesson. Especially compared to the lesson we had had with Kim a couple days before, when Sister Pearl and I could feel the spirit so strong and it guided the entire lesson based on Kim's needs. Anyway.... I was really upset after that lesson with Simba cause I had felt like it was what she needed to hear, but I guess we didn't say it to her in a way that she would feel the spirit teaching her.

Everyday here I learn more about the people I am teaching. We are taught to teach people, not lessons. It is strange how much of a difference it makes when you the spirit guide the lesson rather than you completely teaching the entire lesson line for line. I am so grateful for the time that I have to be here. Even though it already feels as if I have been here for eternity. I have grown so much and have seen how much other people have grown. Now I know why it is so important for young men to go on a mission and how important it is for as many young women to go as can go. It really puts your priorities straight. I LOVE THE LORD AND HIS WORK!

Love you all!

Shea

Hello dearest family

 

Another week as come and gone! It feels like just yesterday I just emailed you. This week has been the fastest week of my life. I don't know why... I thought towards the end of our time here that it would start going fast... but it is already going fast. Our older district leaves in two weeks! We were freaking out yesterday cause it is so soon and we will miss them so much when they leave.

 

When I first got here I was jealous of the English speakers who are only here for like 10 days... but now I am grateful for how long I get to be here. I get to work on spiritually creating myself for a full 9 weeks before I go out into the field. I am starting to really like it here as well. Everything is so in tune with the spirit here that everyday you hear exactly what you need to hear. It is really crazy! But I love it!

 

I have seen ChaiDee, Libby, Jessica and BreAnna! Libby leaves tomorrow! Crazy! I am going to visit her tonight... she just lives like 3 doors down from me. Jessica left last week and she lived on the same floor as us as well. ChaiDee lives a floor above us but we have the same meal time so I get to see her alot. I was worried I wouldn't even get to see BreAnna... but luckily I was scanning the crowd yesterday when the sisters got to watch Music of the Spoken Words. I found her there and she was telling me how she got moved up to the advanced level Spanish class so now she is only here for 10 days! Apparently she was really sick the first couple of days she got here but was feeling better by Sunday. I am excited for Keri to get here! How is she doing! You should give her a guilt trip for not writing me. That girl... 3 weeks now.... not one letter... ridiculous.

 

So Cantonese is coming along. Slowly but surely. Everyone is starting to level out in their speaking abilities, which is nice. Want to know a fantastic thing about Cantonese?! There are no tenses like English or Spanish! It is all in present tense, you just have to add words like yesterday or tomorrow or later! I think that makes up for the 7 tones that we have. :) Tones are super important. Dad I know you told me not to worry about the tones really until I got there... but there are some distinctions that need to be made. Like between pig and savior I was telling you about but also between small words like in and am. Hai = in and Haih= am So we are pounded with tones quite often. Thanks for sending that Walkman by the way. It is kinda hard to make it read the CD but it works. I just have to flip the walkman upside down. Thanks for getting me everything I ask for... you truly are the best. :)

 

Sundays here are so nice. They are the most relaxing day here. We just have sacrament meeting at 7:30am then breakfast, which is always cereal on Sundays. Which there are so many freaking missionaries here! It is getting kind of ridiculous. We got 1000 new missionaries this last Wednesday added to the already 3400ish missionaries that were already here. So meals are awful. Sooooooooooooooo many people. It is great how the army is growing... I just don't know how many more the MTC can hold. Normally I would really hate all of the people, cause I hate crowds. But I just look at it as getting me ready for Hong Kong. The Lord knew I hate crowds and wanted me to get used to them before I got there. Except when I get there I will be able to see over everyone's head, so it really wont even be that bad. Anyway.... sorry for that sidetrack... but after breakfast the sisters get to watch music of the spoken word and right after, relief society starts. During Relief Society there are always guest speakers so this week we got to listen to Linda Reeves ( I think that is how you spell it, not so sure... I forgot my notebook) but then after that we get to go hang out with our district in our classroom till lunch. Usually we just watch Mormon Messages cause we can. :) Then after lunch we have district meeting and temple walk. 

I LOVE TEMPLE WALK! We get to walk over to the temple and walk around the grounds. It is really the best. Getting out and seeing the sun is so refreshing. They cancelled it last week because there was ice. But this week we got our fill of Vitamin D for the week. Ahaaa so nice. But then we had choir practice, which you don't have to tell me I already know that I am a horrible singer... but you get a good seat for devotionals both Sunday and Tuesday so we joined. Then we had a devotional Sunday evening by Brother Littlefeild, I missed what his actual job is, but I know he helps the quorum of the 12 assign mission calls, but it was about how God can work miracles. He said how we as missionaries need to believe that we can do miracles and change peoples lives. Never doubting but trusting in the Lord with all our heart. I am so excited to convert all of Hong Kong! Hong Kong won't know what hit them. I am going to take it by STORM!

 

 

Well my time is up! I love you so much!

I am so happy!

Love, Shea

MTC Pictures!

Shea finally sent back the memory card with some pictures, YEAH!

Happy almost Valentines day!

Hey family!

Happy almost Valentines day! I thought about sending you a card... but decided not to.... cause I am just like that. 

This week has been much better than last week. I am finally starting to get into the grove of things here. I am actually starting to feel like a missionary. It helps that our district is awesome to the max! There are four of us sisters and one set of Elders. We all laugh together way to much. Sometimes we get distracted instead of concentrating hard on Cantonese. Pauline, our old investigator became our teacher! We were all surprised, we told her that she should go into acting, cause she was really really good. But she is from Hong Kong, but served a mission in New York English and Mandarin speaking. So the tables have turned! Now she has to struggle to teach us in English, instead of us teaching her in Canto. We get two new investigators this week Simba and Kim. I guess I will tell you about them next week since we teach them for the first time tonight.

The food here is starting to get really old and is starting to hurt my stomach. There is something about the food here that gives everyone bad gas. So bad for one of our Elders that we told him he has to go out of the classroom when he needs to let one loose. So the other day he stood up right before personal study and walked out of the classroom. We all knew what he was doing so Muk Jimuih or Sister Moody says " Bet you wont go into the old districts classroom and let it slip there." So of course Wuo JeungLou (Elder Woodburn) took that as a challenge and walked right into the older districts classroom thinking it was going to be a silent but deadly fart. But no. It was super de duper loud. As soon as he let a rip, he bolted out of there back into our classroom. We couldn't believe he just did that! The older district couldn't either! It was soooooooo funny! Gong Jimuih our coordinating sister was like, "Was that real?" I was laughing so hard I was almost crying. Wuo JeungLou was so embarrassed, which made it even funnier cause he doesn't get embarrassed easily. But don't worry we have repented of our immature ways and are all trying to be more missionary like. :)

Last night we had an awesome devontional by Mark J. Lusvardi, he is the director of public programs for the missionary department, but he talked about loving our investigators and how there are people waiting in our missions right now who are just waiting for us to get there and teach them. He also told us we are affecting generations to come. He told a story about a family he had converted in Argentina and how now the son is working on getting married in the temple. The son was actually there at the devotional with his fiancee and they got up and talked about how their lives would have been different if the missionaries hadn't been there. It makes me so excited to get out to Hong Kong! I am so excited to get to know the future investigators that I already love!  Then later that night we got to watch one of Hollands old devotionals called Missions are Forever. It was even better than the first devotional! He just got us all pumped up to go out and astonish our investigators with the power of God. He said our lives are never going to be like this again so don't waste a single moment. No regrets. He also brought up a good question. Why don't people flock to the fount? Because salvation is difficult. Because it takes work. We have to struggle and work every day. The road to salvation passes through the garden of Gethsemane (find out how to spell that mom, cause I don't know how.) It is a journey full of sorrow and suffering for both us and our investigators. Salvation was never easy. Every mission is tough. "It cost alot of you, it cost alot of those you teach, because it cost alot of Him."

I am so grateful to be here. I grow stronger everyday. This is literally the hardest, scariest, most stressful thing I have ever done in my life. But I know it is good for me and it is good for those I know and will get to know.

Love you so much!

Keep sending letters! I will send one back ... sometime.

Love you sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much!

Crazy Cantonese

Leih hou familia!

Leih hou familia!

Sorry I didn't get to write more in my email. The time here is kind of ridiculous. Days are crazy here. I thought that I would at least have time to write good letters or write in my journal..but no. There's no time for that. Even P-Day (today) I have wanted to take a nap soooo badly, but not yet. I have been up since 6 oclock this morning & now it's 1:30 and I still have to finish this letter, then shower, then have an hour of personal study, then maybe I can take a nap before 5:30. That's when dinner is...Then we have Cantonese class after that till 9:30. usually we wake up at 6:30, get ready & go to the classroom at 7, study and plan for the day till 8:30, then we go to breakfast for 1/2 hour. 
Don't worry, my companion & the other 2 girls in our district are determined not to get fat so we watch what we eat. Plus the food here is not that great so I go for fruit & cottage cheese, or cream of wheat almost every morning. Gym at 9. I played basketball one day volleyball the next and just ran another. Sometimes I can't decide whether I want to have fun and not "work out" as hard, or just "work out".Of course there are way too many missionaries in the gym at one time. Everyone playing volleyball just stands there waiting to get on the court. So usually I just run a mile or so, & go and pepper with the Samoans going to the Philippines & Hong Kong. They are in the same time zone and have the same schedule as us. After gym we get 20 minutes to change back to Sunday clothes and get to class. 
Then we have a 3 hour Cantonese only class. Our teacher is AWESOME! She can always tell right when we are on the edge of a brain explosion. That's when she bares her testimony to us and encourages us by telling us about when she was first starting out on the language. She always makes me feel better. Especially when I feel like I am failing. The other girls just seem to pick things up really fast. Because I am a competitive person I don't like to think that people learn at different paces. Even if some people have had a couple years of Mandarin. Which isn't the same, but I'd like to think it helps them anyway.
 My teacher was telling me the other day when we had interviews that I need to ask for help. Don't feel afraid to ask. So learning Cantonese is stripping me of pride. It is also humbling to me. One of our elders- Wou Jiung Louh- was saying how maybe we all got our call to learn this language because we needed to be humbled. And it is true. I honestly felt that before coming to the MTC I could easily teach a lesson in English. I wouldn't need any help. But learning Cantonese, and trying to teach someone by myself would be impossible.
 I have to wholly trust in the Lord and trust that our investigator can just feel my spirit. I have never had to so fully rely on Him in that way. It is So hard. But it hurts so good. Everything about this place is hard. The language, getting up early, studying so much, never seeing the sun, but I know all these things will help me bring more people unto Christ. And that the reason I am here, RIGHT? I know that the Lord loves us, and wants us to return to Him. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be here and am looking forward to the week to come. I love you all so much!
Love,
 Dung Ji Moih
Sister Aldana
Shea

Whipped Away to 3 hours of Cantonese!

As soon as you dropped me off I was whipped away to get my name tag which is awesome, then right into a 3 hour language immersion class. The teacher only speaks your language for the entire time. Cantonese is crazy. Unlike anything I have ever learned before. I feel like everyone else in my district/class is catching on quickly so I study every chance I get. My awesome companion sister pearl (Bou Ji moih) even made little flash cards so that we can quiz each other at lunch. My new Chinese name is Dung Ji Moih. It means East/Oriental. My companion and I get along super well.

Friday we had to teach our first investigator! .... in Cantonese. We have already learned so much freakin Cantonese. I thought my brain would explode by Saturday evening. I can now pray, testify and give out commitments in Cantonese. Only small phrases, but phrases non the less. Anyway our investigators name is Pauline. She is 16 and wonders about what her purpose in life is. So Friday worked all day to put together a script that we could read off of, since we couldn't say anything else... It was a really rough lesson. At one point for some reason we asked her why she thought her friend brought her to church and she went off in Cantonese, and of course I am nodding my head like I am understanding everything, apparently I am pretty good at it since after she finished, my companion turned to me and whispered did you get that? I was like Nope. Our investigator laughed and wrote "Died" Last Year" on the board. So we assumed that someone she knew died and she was depressed that's why her friend brought her to church. So Saturday when we were planning our lesson Bou Ji Moih wanted to talk about the plan of salvation, but I thought we should tie it someone into the BOM so that the next lesson we can really get down to the guts of why our church is different from other churches. So I used dads good old pen trick. I held up my pen and said "Leih" You. Then I took my pen apart grabbed the outside of the pen and said "Santai" Body. Grabbed the ink that was inside my pen and said "Linhg" Spirit. "Fann Tinfuh" Return Heavenly Father. So like your spirit returns to live with Heavenly Father and our bodies stay on the Earth. Remember that we have only had like 3 days of Cantonese at this point. We then went on to say how the BOM can answer life questions. So next time we teach, which I don't know when it will be since I don't know the days of the week are... we are going to teach about the restoration.   

BAH! I thought that 30min would be plenty of time, but it is not! I will write you another hand written letter. I think that I might just send you my camera card, cause really there is like no time to put pictures on here.

But remember DearElder.com

China HONG KONG mission. Leave April 1st. I don't know what other information you might need. But BreAnna sent me a letter so I am sure that you can figure it out.

LOVE YOU so much!

I keep feeling like i need to call you... see what you have done to me!

Sister Aldana

I survived the first day!

Well almost so far...it's still not done and it's 9:30. They say I have to write you to let you guys know I am still alive  :)  Right as I got here I was herded around to pick up my name tag and a stack of books that weighs like 50lbs. I think we have the biggest stack out of everyone. Then we went straight to language class. Our teacher spoke only in Cantonese for 3 hours, but I learned a lot and am trying to implement it every time I can. 

My Chinese name is Dung. Don't ask me what it means cause I have no idea. I don't think it means poop either. haha So I am Sister Dung Ji Muih. (Dung Dzee muy  sounds like this)
My companion and roommates are awesome! My companion's name is Sister Pearl or Bou Ji Muih. No Spanish. She is from Twin Falls, but really all over, she has moved a lot. She is 21 so not super young like our roommates/district. They are only 19. Sister Berry - Bik Ji Muih & Sister Moody - Mukh Ji Muih. So all is good.

After language we went  to orientation where the MTC presidency was able to speak to us. They are really great. After we went to dinner. Good news! My companions & district all want to eat super healthy so we can all eat together!  :)  Then we went to our rooms and unpacked for a little bit. We went to a giant mock investigator thing. idk what to call it. There were like 60 of us missionaries and one investigator and we did like 3 different lessons with 3 different investigators. Then I went with my companion to finish this questionnaire thing that she didn't have time to finish. Back to our rooms where a Cantonese sister came & talked to us. 
Now we are getting ready for bed. I am excited for tomorrow!I will write an email soon! Monday I think. 

Love you muchly!
Shea
Sister Aldana
Dung Ji Muih