Last full week at the MTC
"Christmas In October"
From where I now write outside my residence room, I am enjoying a slightly off-pitch yet passionate rendition of "Defying Gravity" by two sisters currently taking showers. It's the best.
Also, I am tired. We're all tired. As missionaries, we are perpetually tired, hungry, and cold. Well, the cold part really only applies to me, but still. We're doing our best to continually learn from the scriptures, prepare our lessons, practice Chinese, all that good stuff. No one ever said missionary work was a breeze, and I know it's only gonna get harder, but I truly love it. Can't stop, won't stop! Especially now that we're just days away from leaving the MTC.
This whole week I was living in hungry anticipation of receiving my flight plans to Taiwan. On Friday, October 6, my District members and I admittedly wore red and green to celebrate the arrival of that special email; the one that contains our information for how and when we'll be exiting the MTC and entering our respective mission fields. In addition to adorning ourselves with festive colors, we orchestrated a "Secret Santa" within our district. (Too much? Hahaha probably, but we've been here for practically 9 weeks. I'd say excited celebrations were in order.) When we finally received email notifications at the end of our first class, 4:30 pm, we were over the moon. We ran to the computer lab, printed our plans out, and read them all together in our classroom. Now. There is a chance, due to potential Visa problems, that some of us will be reassigned to a stateside mission for a six-week transfer. We will know whether this is the case by the end of this week, so I'll let ya know the final verdict next Monday. In the meantime, I leave for Taiwan next Tuesday, Oct 17 at 6:20 am!!
I wanted to take this last paragraph to share a couple ever-inspiring Elder Jeffrey R. Holland quotes. He said at this last General Conference, "Brothers and sisters, every one of us aspires to a more Christlike life than we often succeed at living. If we admit that honestly and are trying to improve, we are not hypocrites; we are human." Perfection is unattainable in this life, and that's how it's supposed to be. We may be clumsy and inadequate on our own, but through Christ we can do anything. When we make mistakes, we are blessed with the opportunity to repent. I encourage you this week to find a little something in your life you'd like to improve on, and try to improve. Pray for help, do your best, and remember that Christ "has never been clumsy or inadequate but loves all of us who are." I love you all too, and I hope you have the best week EVA!
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"Christmas" present from Elder Allen...
Temple and nametag...
This tree smells like orange creamsicle, I kid you not...
Me and the first missionary, Samuel Smith....
Other random photos....
From where I now write outside my residence room, I am enjoying a slightly off-pitch yet passionate rendition of "Defying Gravity" by two sisters currently taking showers. It's the best.
Also, I am tired. We're all tired. As missionaries, we are perpetually tired, hungry, and cold. Well, the cold part really only applies to me, but still. We're doing our best to continually learn from the scriptures, prepare our lessons, practice Chinese, all that good stuff. No one ever said missionary work was a breeze, and I know it's only gonna get harder, but I truly love it. Can't stop, won't stop! Especially now that we're just days away from leaving the MTC.
This whole week I was living in hungry anticipation of receiving my flight plans to Taiwan. On Friday, October 6, my District members and I admittedly wore red and green to celebrate the arrival of that special email; the one that contains our information for how and when we'll be exiting the MTC and entering our respective mission fields. In addition to adorning ourselves with festive colors, we orchestrated a "Secret Santa" within our district. (Too much? Hahaha probably, but we've been here for practically 9 weeks. I'd say excited celebrations were in order.) When we finally received email notifications at the end of our first class, 4:30 pm, we were over the moon. We ran to the computer lab, printed our plans out, and read them all together in our classroom. Now. There is a chance, due to potential Visa problems, that some of us will be reassigned to a stateside mission for a six-week transfer. We will know whether this is the case by the end of this week, so I'll let ya know the final verdict next Monday. In the meantime, I leave for Taiwan next Tuesday, Oct 17 at 6:20 am!!
I wanted to take this last paragraph to share a couple ever-inspiring Elder Jeffrey R. Holland quotes. He said at this last General Conference, "Brothers and sisters, every one of us aspires to a more Christlike life than we often succeed at living. If we admit that honestly and are trying to improve, we are not hypocrites; we are human." Perfection is unattainable in this life, and that's how it's supposed to be. We may be clumsy and inadequate on our own, but through Christ we can do anything. When we make mistakes, we are blessed with the opportunity to repent. I encourage you this week to find a little something in your life you'd like to improve on, and try to improve. Pray for help, do your best, and remember that Christ "has never been clumsy or inadequate but loves all of us who are." I love you all too, and I hope you have the best week EVA!
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"Christmas" present from Elder Allen...
Temple and nametag...
This tree smells like orange creamsicle, I kid you not...
Me and the first missionary, Samuel Smith....
Other random photos....
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