Here are some misc. events from this week (why am I using the abbreviation "misc."? It is the painful evidence of my gradual loss of spelling ability due to language immersion; after much agonizing I cannot for the life of me remember how to spell the complete word.):
Noble's
Noble's is a steakhouse in Chaozhou. The Wang family took my companion and me (see I still remember not to say "my companion and I"--all is not yet lost) there for dinner last week. Oh my amazing food goodness...It was excellent. We both felt bad that they spent so much money buying us such a nice meal, but we did love the food. First of all, the steak was great. Also, there was a salad bar, complete with fresh fruit, tasty bread, and other goodies, and ice cream for dessert. Probably one of the best two meals I've had since I got here.
Getting the monkey off my back
I know, you're hoping there really was a monkey on my back, forcing me to wrestle it off or something. That's not completely ridiculous, since there's apparently a place in my mission called Monkey Mountain where you can go and see lots of monkeys in the wild. But this time I'm not talking about monkeys so much as the brown book. The brown book is the first level of the mission's language study program. To pass it off, you have to memorize vocab, teaching phrases, and scriptures for each of the five missionary lessons. Then you are tested by a leader for each lesson, plus a midterm and a final. Sister Stratford's former companion compared the brown book to a monkey that you just want to pry off you back, but you have to get it all done before it stops harassing you. I'd say that's a fairly apt description; I did learn a lot from it, but I'm happy to be on to the red book. The red book is basically a list of 1000 vocabulary words that you also memorize and pass off. It's interesting what words are included in the first 1000 Chinese words one should learn after being able to teach the gospel (e.g. "Batman"). I've heard that listening comprehension goes way up with the red book, because it broadens your vocabulary a lot :)
General Conference!!!!
I love Conference! Twice a year, in October and April, we get to hear our church leaders teach us exactly what we need at that time, and they are always so right. Conference on a mission was like Christmas. I anticipated it for weeks and was a little forlorn when it was gone. I wrote down some questions to get answered, and, sure enough, I got them all answered in the content of the talks. I even had a couple questions that I hadn't bothered to write down answered. Two of our investigators, who are sisters, went to three or four (out of four) sessions, and seemed to really like it. One of them said that some of the speakers seemed to speaking directly to her; I think every earnest listener of Conference will feel that way at some point during the talks. I was really excited for her to have that experience and feel the power of their teaching. It sort of blows my mind to hear the current prophet, Thomas S. Monson, speak, and know that he is really speaking and leading for God, just as Moses, Abraham, Alma, and every other prophet has.
