I really like the MTC but I am excited to get out of here

This last week was a good/confusing/spiritual week. I really like the MTC but I am excited to get out of here. We were able to host the new missionaries on Wednesday.  it was really fun to see the difference from when we first got here and how we are now. I don't know exactly how to explain it... but the MTC ages you are core. Not physically but spiritually....? I guess. there is just a difference. I don't know exactly what it is. I was able to host some girls straight from Japan that were super nice. Everyone is so nervous when they first get here. It is fun to get them to relax and start talking. we just get to reassure them that if they make it through Sunday everything gets easier. And the teachers at the MTC are pretty much the best people ever. Sometimes I don't actually believe they are human.

Our teacher Foohng Jimuih is sooooo in tune with the spirit that she always knows exactly what to tell us, when we need to hear it. I swear every week everything is coordinated with each other to have a theme. but it really isn't. this last week for TRC we were supposed to teach a 40min lesson on receiving revelation through prayer. So sister pearl and I both studied during our personal study and came up with some really great things. If you ever have time you should try reading in the bible dictionary about Prayer. It is really awesome. it talks about how we need to align our will with Gods, even for our prayers. We both learned so much about aligning our will with His. then we didn't even use what we learned in our lesson. we were talking with Lu jimuih (the girl we taught in TRC) who is working on her mission papers. so we really just talked about those and not worrying about our weaknesses, because God will always make up for what we lack. So sister pearl and i decided that those studies on prayer and revelation were really for us. then the next day, Foohng Jimuih (our teacher) taught us about righteous desires and how God always wants to help us accomplish our righteous desires. Then last night we were able to watch a devotional by Elder Bednar "The Character of Christ" that was so freakin good. He talked about to have faith in Christ we need to understand his character. Everything that Christ did was turned outward. Instead of focusing on himself, even right after he suffered for the pains and sins of everyone else, he healed is accusers ear. He took care of his mother while he was on the cross, "Behold thy mother". He was even doing missionary work while on the cross, "You will dwell with me in spirit paradise at the end of this day". So if Christ in his darkest moments could turn outward and focus on others... so can I. Bednar said this is the only way we can truly convert ourselves. By turning outward and focusing on others our faith will grow. We will see the light of others growing from our touch.

So this week I am going out 100%. this week I am 100% focused on my purpose to bring others to Christ. Whether it is through studying the language to be able to communicate with them or even brushing my teach so that people don't run away from my awful breath. Everything I do is focused on bring people unto Christ.

I love Christ and his gospel.

Love you all!

Shea 

Chinese doesn't sound to much like Chinese...

Hey family!

So I am still alive and doing fantastic! Cantonese is coming along slowly but surely. This last week my brain has been clearer than ever and I have been able to remember so many more words and grammar principles. We have been working on teaching the law of chastity and the Word of Wisdom to our investigators. Every time we move into a new lesson there is a whole new entire set of vocabulary that we have to learn. So we know words like abortion, drugs, beer but not phrases like "Good night!" "What is your favorite color?" or any other things you might normally say in a day. But all that is important is that we can teach the lessons. We can learn the rest later.

Sometimes I forget we are learning freakin Chinese. It is weird. After learning some words and hearing it everyday it no longer sounds so abnormal. We got these two new sisters in our room who are going to Australia. We were talking about one of the Sih Fahn's (Role Play's) we did, but we kept using the word Sih Fahn, cause that is just what it is. Then the new sisters were like "What is Sih Fahn?" They we just looked at them like.... you don’t know what a sihn fahn is.... then it hit us that that was Chinese not English..... Our bad. Then we explained what we meant. Our prayers in Chinese seem much more normal now as well. I had to say a prayer in English when we taught a lesson in English and it was really hard. I got through it but it was rough.

Our teaching skills are improving everyday here. We have gotten so much better than our first week. We have also come to know that we teach much much better in Cantonese. Sounds weird. But it is true. God knows when to send you speaking another language or not. Our teacher said that her boss said that we are supposed to practice teaching in English to build up our confidence..... haha not. I am pretty sure that our lesson with Bob in English was our worst lesson to date. I was really upset with myself for not doing as well as I could have, but soon realized that we have to have bad lessons to learn from and to see how much we improve. So.... yeah. I much prefer teaching in Cantonese. We are forced to speak simply and clearly. No grand analogies. Just Gods love and his simple doctrine.

We had an awesome TRC lesson this week. I was really nervous before since we were teaching our first 40 min lesson. But it turns out 40 mins is SOOOOO much better than 20 min. We actually get to get down to the meat, take our time and savior each moment. We were teaching the first lesson about Gods love, blessing families, prophets and the restoration. Then we were going to focus on the Atonement and Jesus Christ because he is central in everything we do. The first half of the lesson went really well... everything was flowing. We were teaching two returned missionaries who were really nice to us and would talk about their expirences. When we started talking about the restoration I had them reach the first vision. The spirit was so strong as they read it. Then sister pearl asked them how they came to know that Joseph Smith was a prophet. So we went around and everyone told how they came to know. When it was my turn I felt the spirit so strong. All I could really say was, Every time I read these words, I feel the spirit and I know it is true. I might have said some other simple phrases, but honestly all I can remember was feeling the spirit very strongly. After the lesson, the people we teach write feedback for us and we get to read it and this is what one of them said, "One of the strongest feelings of the spirit I have had since I have been home. Thank you so much for your love of the Gospel and sharing your testimony with me. I am so grateful for the spirit and all it taught me. I feel close to the spirit, to God and what to do better. Your sharing of Joseph smith's experience really hit me. I feel the prophet Joseph Smith is even closer to me now than before. He seemed so real, like he was with us when you testified." Anyway it was really good feedback. Allot of the times when we teach we never really know if we are helping someone. Allot of the time we just think of it as practice and just move on, but some people actually learn from what we say. It is kinda awesome!

I love being here, but am excited to head out to test out what I have learned! I love this gospel and I love all of you! Thanks for your support!

Keep on keeping on! Know God loves you!

Shea 

Family!

6 weeks down... 3 weeks to go! Thank goodness we don't have to be here 12 weeks. As much as I love it here.... I might have gone insane if I had to be here 12 weeks.

This week nothing to exciting happened... it was the hump week for us, so it went really really slow. But it is all down hill from here! Next week I believe that we will get our full Chinese name tags. Right now they have our names in English and the rest in Characters, but after next week we will get to see our new name tags! I am excited to have a name tag that says Dung Jimuih! Then the next week we will get our travel plans! BAH! I am so excited! I will get to call you from the airport as well! The older district had a 3 hour layover in LAX where they got to call their families and talk for quite a while. I will let you know more information when we actually get our plans.

Our lessons this week have gone alright.... we taught Kim about the resurrection. When we explained that we get perfect bodies and will live forever she responded with.... Vampires? We have no idea what she said though, since she is speaking in Cantonese. We were like what is that? Then she says Twilight. And we are even more confused....... then it hit us. So we put our fingers up to our mouths to look like fangs and say Vampires? And she says Yeah! I just started laughing. I guess the resurrection is kinda sorta like that.... but No. Defienetly not. We live forever and have perfect bodies, but we don’t eat flesh and blood. So that was a great lesson. Really funny. I love Kim so much. The next lesson we taught her was about the 3 Kingdoms and how we could live with our families forever. We then explained the temple and how we can be sealed. This was a huge road block for Kim. She said that she doesn’t want to accept the gospel without her family. Which I can understand, which makes it so hard. Right after that lesson I went straight to Elder Woodburn in our district who is a convert to the church and asked him how he overcame something like that. We said that it was really really hard for him. For the longest time he didn’t want to be with his family. The only thing that got him through that is focusing on his future family. He said it even scares him now that he is not sealed to anyone. It is kinda crazy. I have never really thought of families being together forever has a stumbling block for some people. But we teach Kim again on Wednesday so I will let you know next week how we recover from this road block.

TRC was really really good for us this week. We have been focusing alot on companionship unity in class. So we have been working hard on me talking more and Sister Pearl talking a bit less. Alot of the time I am cool with her just talking and then me jumping in with a few questions for our investigator and a quick testimony. But we have been evening out the talking, and it actually makes things so much easier. We are able to build off of each other’s thoughts and keep the investigators engaged. It also brings the spirit into the lessons more fully. Our feedback from our investigators on Saturday was that we had awesome Comp unity. It was so satisfying to see the fruits of all the labor we had put in.

 Thanks for trying to send some cookies! They ended up hard as rocks though.... kinda tough to eat. I am glad AZ is good and NO was good! I still need some pictures of Luna. I only have like 2 of her as a newborn, and honestly I would much rather have a picture of her cute face now than when she was fresh out of the womb. I am jealous of Grandma! What the heck! Swimming with dolphins! Who does that! .... she would. I agree with Michelle about God has a plan for all of us. God is one smart cookie. He knows what’s up. All we gotta do is trust him. And dad... I am proud of you for standing up for those who cannot stand up for themselves. Sometimes I cannot believe that people who live inside a bubble, inside a bubble, inside a bubble of mormoness could be so closed minded. Haven’t they learned to think what would Christ do? Honestly.... I know what he would do. It says in right in Matt 9:10-12. Maybe you should tell people to read it. Just kidding that probably wouldn’t go over well with them. But that really is what Christ did. We should all be opening our arms to those who are sick and sinners. We are to heal/help not critisize and rebuke.

This week I have kinda been on an Apostle/Christ's ministry kick. I have been reading about each one of Christ’s apostles in the bible. I have decided that Peter is now one of my new heroes. I want to love the Lord like he did. I want to help others as he did. I want to follow Christ to the end. I love the Lord! And I love this work!

Love you all!
Shea

Hey Family!

Hey family!

 

I am halfway done with my MTC experience! Crazy right?! The next 4 weeks are going to go by so fast! I am so excited to get out there but at the same time it makes me nervous. This last Saturday in TRC we taught two different people. One girl originally speaks Mandarin so some words were still in Mandarin, then the other person we taught spoke very old traditional Cantonese, which we don't learn here... so I was humbled quite allot. At first I was frustrated cause I was like how do they expect us to teach these people who don't speak what we are being taught! But then I was like Oh... wait a sec. everyone in Hong Kong is going to have different accents and dialects. I am never going to fully understand people there. Lets just say it is a good thing that it is the spirit that teaches them and not me!

 

But really. Whoever invented Cantonese had to have had a strange/mean sense of humor. Who the heck decided that they should have the same word have 7 different tones and 7 different meanings?! That is just rude. For example.... Sahn (low going down) means God. San (mid level) means mail. San (high level) means new. Saan (also high level) means mountain. Now that is just rude. But I know in time they will come. :) I kinda like the rudeness and singsongyness of it. Whenever we talk in Cantonese it sounds like we are singing. This week we have been memorizing the first vision. So everywhere we sound like we are singing.

 

The new CD player you sent works much much better. I will send the other one home in a package this week. I have been falling to sleep with the sounds and tones every night this week. I like to think that it is helping. Bik Jimuih (sister berry) said that she woke up Friday night and heard me talking in Cantonese in my sleep. I find it hard to believe since I have a hard enough time speaking when I am fully conscious.... but she said that I was praying in my sleep for Kim (one of our investigators). Awesome right.... I hope it was for real and that sister berry wasn't dreaming.

 

Brother Meek sent me some cookies the other week and I forgot to thank him. Thank you, Brother Meek! Keep sending Kelsie's and Carly's emails. I like to read them. It makes me even more excited to go out into the real world.

 

Our lessons with Simba and Kim went much much better this week. We committed Simba to baptism on Saturday! It was such a great moment filled with the spirit. I really cannot explain the joy that comes when I know our investigators are doing well.:) Sister Pearl and I are beginning to teach more in unison and our lessons are being more led by the spirit. Which in turn helps our investigators to know that we really do care for them and are only there to help them. 

 

Yesterday we had an awesome devotional from the President of the Provo Temple. He talked about the reason why missionaries are required to go through the temple before they are to start their missions. Everything in the temple is to prepare you to take upon the name of Christ. All the covenants we make there are to help us start to become the property of Christ. It was really neat then going and doing inititories this morning and getting to hear all the blessings we are promised if we keep those covenants we make. Next time you go.... think of yourself as being a missionary... it is awesome. So don't worry to much about me! I have all those blessings under my belt as long as I remain faithful to the covenants I promised to keep. 

 

I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to be here. There is no where else I would rather be. I have grown so much and been stretched to the limit. I have been hewn down, only to start to be regrown how God wants me to be. This is honestly the best thing that I could ever do to prepare myself for the rest of my life. As a mother, as a sister, as a daughter and as a friend. There is no way that I could possible reach my full potential without going through this. If any girl or boy reads this that is debating on going on a mission.... JUST GO! There is nothing that will effect the rest of your life like a mission does. It will effect where you will go to school, what you will study, who you will marry, how you will raise your family, and how you will live the rest of your life. The new sister missionaries here are told quite often that the next generation we will raise will be great missionaries. It is cool to me to think that I am effecting my own posterity by being here, not just those that I will teach. I know that this is where I am supposed to be and I know that God loves each and every one of us.

 

Love you all!