NI HAO!!!

Wahoo!  I have made it through my first few days at the MTC! I arrived on Wednesday afternoon at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah and was immediately taken to my first Chinese class.  In class, I met my companion, Sister Cutler, and the rest of my district.  Also, I met my teacher, He Laoshi.  She is from China and we all love her! She absolutely refuses to speak to us in English so we play a lot of charades.  My class, which is also my district, has 12 people in it (I think).  There are two sets of sisters and then a bunch of Elders. Most everyone in our district is going to Taiwan except for me and two other elders going to Hong Kong, two elders going to France (one Paris and the other Lyon), and then an elder headed to Montreal.  We also got to meet our zone too! Again, most people in our zone are going to Taiwan.  I actually think there are only 4 in our zone going to Hong Kong (but I'm not positive).

On Thursday, we had a full day of studying and Chinese class.  It was rough - but good at the same time. 

On Friday we had to teach our first lesson.  We were given an "investigator" (just an actor) and we had to teach him in Chinese only THREE DAYS after being introduced to the language.  It was hard, but Sister Cutler and I had a good time anyways.     

On Saturday we taught and studied again - basically the same routine.  

 

Everyone has been telling us that the first few days are awful, but once you get to Sunday everything gets better.  I didn't think that the first few days were awful....but Sunday really was AWESOME!  We started the morning with breakfast and then some study time.  During our study time our whole district got together and we sang hymns in Chinese and we passed around our scriptures and everyone marked their favorite scripture in each other's scriptures.  I chose 1 Nephi 17:50.  It was some great district bonding! We have all become really great friends and I am excited to be with them all for the next 8 weeks.  Then all the sisters went and watched "Music and the Spoken Word" and then we had relief society.  After lunch we had sacrament meeting (all in Chinese) and then we did this thing called Temple Walk.  It was literally the coolest thing ever.  Our whole zone gets together (well all the zones at the MTC get together) and we walk up to the temple.  When we get there we go around back and sing hymns on top of the hill.  Everyone brings their cameras and we have a fun little photo shoot.  It was so fun! Our district and zone are seriously the best! Sunday night we had a devotional (which was fantastic) and then we watched a devotional that had been given by David A. Bednar a couple years ago. It is called The Character of Christ and I highly recommend looking it up! 

On Monday we woke up and headed off to the temple with our zone!  It was so cool to see everyone there together! 

I love the MTC!  Sometimes (a lot of the time) the language is hard and I'm like "oh my gosh i don't know any Chinese", but i have to keep reminding myself that I have only been speaking Chinese for like 4 days ... I can even say a prayer now! 

Oh, I also have a Chinese name which is pretty cool.  It is Shao Jie Mei.  (Jiemei means sister)! 

Anyways, the MTC is cool.  Missions are awesome.  And I can't wait to preach the gospel in Chinese!