It's been another amazing week here at the MTC. I'm really getting into this SYL (Speak Your Language) thing. Sundays and Mondays are the hardest because we have church meetings on Sunday and Preparation Day Monday, but other than that I've done a lot better. I can tell how much more my Chinese improves when I really commit to not speaking English except during the times when we're "allowed" to (quote marks because we obviously can all the time, but are asked not to sometimes). I'm getting pretty good at pantomiming. I've also gotten good at not giving up and switching to English when I don't communicate properly through my pantomimes (example: Today when I thought I saw a jeep with flames painted all over it. I tried to communicate this insignificant observation to my companion, resorting to acting out blowing out birthday cake candles to say "fire". I think she thought that I thought I saw a jeep that was actually on fire. I let it go at that, since I didn't have any good ideas to act out paint). It will be an exciting day when I can actually communicate every idea that I come up with in a given day, all in Chinese.
This week my district had a great experience at the Referral Center. The RC is a call center. People make requests over phone, on the church website, or on behalf of friends to receive church materials (Book of Mormon, Bible, church videos, etc). We call them and ask if they got it, if they would like something else, and if so, if the missionaries can deliver it and share a message with them. When they agree to have the missionaries deliver something, or when they suggest a friend or relative who we can contact because they think they would be interested, this is a referral. Missionaries are all about goals. Everything has a goal. The RC is no exception. For the last few weeks, our weekly goal as a district has been 16 referrals (2/person). We got 15 two weeks in a row, and then we decided to really put our hearts and prayers into it. This week we went in and got 24. I guess that might not sound that dramatic or exciting, but believe me, it was the cause of much rejoicing and thanksgiving.
As I mentioned, goals are one thing that have begun taking over my life. Another thing is meetings. We have meetings all the time. Fortunately, the meetings are usually pretty amazing, if you want them to be. I mean, anyone can get bored in a meeting, and some meetings may be impossible to be excited about, but I think that 99% of my MTC meetings so far have given me good reason to be excited. I hear all sorts of scriptures that I've read I don't know how many times before, but in a light that I probably would never have realized on my own. It's great.
Well, I wish that I had better stories, but it's a little difficult to come up with action-packed anything when you're living at the MTC. I love it, though, and I hope there's something to keep your attention in these messages so you'll still be reading when I get to Taiwan. That should provide some fodder for more engaging writing.
Much missionary love,
Sister Andersen
3 comments:
Yes! MTC goals. You are doing just great, Emily! I am wondering what
you do on Mondays, your preparation day.
I miss having you come here to do your laundry and some of the nice
cooking you did. But I look forward when you return
to trying out the new Oriental dishes you will have learned to cook.
I love the photo of your MTC group---what a great looking bunch of
missionaries!
Carry on!
Love you,
Gram
Way to go, Sister Andersen! I'm so proud of you! Keep going with the SYL, even with the silly pantomiming. My companion and I kept a list all day of all the things we wished we'd been able to say but couldn't, then asked our evening teacher. That's how I learned such crucial vocabulary as "iron," "tie tack," and "vacuum cleaner." We also did a lot of "comment dit-on . . .?" One eventful breakfast, we all bowed our heads to pray and realized nobody in the district knew how to say "food" (as in "please bless the"). Circumlocution is beautiful.
Whatever! Your stories are awesome :) You mean you don't know how to pantomime paint?! haha... yeah, that's a difficult one! Sounds like you're doing amazing!!
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