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| The Sister missionaries going to the temple |
Ni Hao Mama,
My P-Day is on Mondays and I am so happy. I was really surprised to
get your Dear Elder letter the other day. I
was having a tough time and your letter just made my day. To be
honest, getting letters is like Christmas for me.
I love getting letters from people I love especially my family.
I don't know what I am missing yet. I have everything. My retainer
should be in the drawer in my closest. Not sure though. Sorry, I can be a
pig sometimes haha. Oh, can you send me a picture of papa? I think of
him often. My companion and the other sisters
in my residence are always borrowing my stuff so I guess I am more
prepared than them. haha. I am soooooo happy for Ginger. Have they come up with the final name for him??? TJ Cash right?? I feel so bad for Charlie. Yes I remember Cousin Lance, it's totally great that Zoey can write me. I would be happy to hear from her.
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| Me, Sister Brown, Sister Griffen, Sister Hughes and Sister Strong |
We taught our first investigator, Yang Ju on Friday. (These are members acting like investigators). It was so
hard. We couldn't understand anything at all. Yang Ju was asking
questions and we weren't answering them right or saying the words wrong.
It was so hard. We were with Yang Ju for about 45 brutal
minutes. We were trying to teach Yang Ju about Heavenly Father (Tain Fu)
and Jesus Christ (Yesu Jidu) and he kept on asking us who Heavenly
Father was and we must have explained it to him like 15 different ways
and he still didn't get it. Our time was up so
we decided to pray (qidao) and Sister Strong and I got on our knees and
Yang Ju didn't know what we were doing, he just stared at us. We gestured
to him to get on his knees, fold his arms, and close his eyes. I think
that he thinks we were acting
because he was looking at us weird. Afterward, we just brushed it off
and went to lunch and I stuffed myself with sugar food to make me feel
better ;)
Saturday, we had to teach Yang Ju again. We were feeling
discouraged and we decided to work hard on our Chinese
and pray for help. Lesson #2 with Yang Ju was sooooo much better. We
understood him like 60% and we were successful on teaching him how to
pray since we know how to say, "get on your knees, fold your arms, and
close your eyes." Yang Ju told us that he didn't
believe in God and Christ. So we asked him why. He wanted to know why
his parents hit him when he was a kid, and why God let that happen. He
was gesturing "hit" since we didn't know what it was in Chinese and my
companion tried to understand him and said,
"like this" and hit me. Ow. But we laughed about it afterward. Today we
are teaching our 3rd lesson with Yang Ju and I am excited about it.
Every single day after arriving at the MTC we have 6 hours of learning
Chinese class total with 1 hour personal study, 1
hour companion study, and 1 hour of language study, so basically we sit
all day.
The Elders in our district are sooooo amazing. It's true that there
are good men in this world. The Elders would always make us feel better
and would walk us back to our residence to make sure we were safe, What's funny is that the Elders decided to circle
around us and we would walk in the middle of the circle and they said
that they circle us with the priesthood power. Our district leader, Elder
Taylor, reminds me so much of Justin, his personality, his excitement
of the gospel, the way he teases, and how he
never smiles at the camera and makes stupid faces. I feel like there is
another "Justin" but the real Justin is so much better!
On Friday, I saw an Elder signing ASL during lunch, so I asked him
if he was deaf. He said no but was going on an ASL mission. He went to
his language lunch table and I sat at my lunch table. I watched the
Elder sign to other people about who he had met and
that she was deaf and going Chinese speaking. Everyone was asking who
and he pointed at me. Everyone looked at me and there was one Elder who
caught my eye, it was my friend, Elder Bryce Jackson. We met at Deaf
Conference 4 years ago. Remember a few years ago...the
Romeo and Juliet deaf play we went to??? He was the one that play Romeo.
We were so excited to see each other, we started laughing because we
signed about how much we used to hate each other and how immature we
were. His companion was like, "You hated her?
But she is cute!" I laughed. It was so good to see him.
On Saturday Sister Griffen (Our sister "zone leader") pulled me
aside to talk with me. Oh by the way, I am a Senior Companion. We talked
about how things were going for me and my companion, how schedules
were going along and everything. She said that
serving a mission is sooooo hard but at the same time it's incredible to
help bring others to come to Christ. She asked me what I miss the most,
I just broke down crying and said, "My family, especially my mom."
She said that I would be blessed and so would
you. Thank you mom for being my best friend!
Can you all pray for me on hearing the difference between the 5
tones of Chinese and speaking Chinese? I am having a hard time saying
things right. Most of the Chinese pronunciation is Z,S, and T sounds.
These are sounds I had a difficult time with in speech therapy in the
past. Thank You!
Yesterday was the best day ever. Every morning we have been getting
up at 5:45 to go exercise. My companion loves to exercise so she wants
to do basically 1.5 hours of exercise everyday. So 30 minutes in the
morning and 1 hour after breakfast. I don't like
the schedule because it only gives me 20 minutes to shower, do hair, and
makeup. Anyway, yesterday I got to sleep in till 6:30. It's awesome! No exercise
day on Sunday is amazing. Sister Strong is a little sad that we can't
exercise on Sunday but I am very happy.
We went
to Relief Society and guess who spoke? Sheri Dew! She is an amazing
speaker and she spoke about women and the priesthood organization.
Later that night, I sat with the ASL group of missionaries for the Sunday night
Devotional. The speaker was Stephen B. Allen.
He was a funny guy. He asked a lot of people to stand up if you are new, or
departing, or fell asleep in class, or got a Dear John letter. I don't
have my journal with me but I will write you soon about his talk.
Later, we had the chance to watch Legacy,
I love that movie soooo much. All the elders scream when they see the
main characters Eliza and David kiss and I just enjoyed it haha. Many of
us wondered if there is a end to tribulation? Life is never going to be
easy but everything will work out if we have
faith in Christ and know that God's way is higher than our way, his
thoughts higher than our thoughts. In the movie when Joseph Smith was killed, David was
asking why he had to die. Eliza said, "Joseph Smith's work was done on earth, but ours
has just begun." She was a woman of strong faith.
Just know that I looooove getting your letters. It makes my heart
jump a beat. I love you mom, just 8 more weeks left in the MTC. It's
going by fast. I just wish we could talk everyday, so I am grateful to
have one day to talk to you. I will write you
a handwritten letter soon.
Love you,
Sister Moore
