A Few More MTC Photos

Three Preach My Gospel Versions: English, Romanized Mandarin, Chinese Characters

Three Companions: Son, Andersen, Nelson

District Destinations

Fire in My Bones

Well, it's a little difficult to believe that the next entry of this blog will be written from Taiwan. I leave the MTC around 5:30pm today, and I am so excited. There's a scripture in Jeremiah somewhere (20:19 or 19:20 or maybe none of the above...). Jeremiah was just being really oppressed and persecuted because he was crying repentance, and the people weren't taking to it very well. He says that he wanted to stop preaching, but he couldn't, because the word of God was in his heart like fire in his bones. That's sort of what I feel like, minus the being physically hounded and persecuted part. I am really grateful that I can share the thing that has brought me the most happiness full-time. I don't expect it to be particularly easy, but supremely satisfying.

This last week has been really good. Sister Nelson and I taught together for the last time on Saturday, and that was very weird. When we first started trying to plan teaching together, we disagreed all the time. We honestly did not communicate well, and we didn't understand why the other would want to do things a particular way. It always worked out alright once we actually got into the lesson, but the planning was sort of painful. Now I can barely remember what we were so disagreeable about. I honestly love teaching with her, and we've had some really amazing experiences together.

I'm a little heartbroken about leaving my district. They have really been more of a family to me. One of the elders in my district doesn't have a very supportive home. He is one of the nicest, best people I have ever met. It really tugged my heart strings when he said that being in the district had taught him what a good family was like. I mean, I'm glad to brighten his life, but sad that it needs that kind of brightening.

I wish I had more time to pour out my soul in this letter, but I really need to be going. I hope you are all well. I love letters. Remember that Taiwan has a postal service :)

Sister Andersen

Speaking Chinese

You can't post an MP3 file on blogger.com, so this is in the form of a "video" with a still picture and sound.

A Privilege to Pay

"A privilege to pay" is part of a quote that one of the wives of our branch presidency shared with us on Sunday (the branch presidency are three men, a president and two counselors, who preside over and lead our branch of missionaries, which is also our zone). She was telling us stories about Mormon pioneers (Mormon Trek, any Iowa City-ites?), and she told us about a survivor of the Martin Handcart Company. This particular company went through some really grueling trials, in great part because they left so late in the season. When one survivor heard someone comment on their experience, part of his response was: "The price we paid to become acquainted with God was a privilege to pay" (as quoted by President McKay, I think). It's really quite impressive that someone would consider a journey from Iowa to Utah, much of it in winter, which killed off a good fraction of the participants, "a privilege" because it let them become acquainted with their God. Any experience I've had to date has nothing on that, but I still think that anything we go through that brings us closer to God is, in net, a privilege to experience.

This week I basically stopped speaking English. I only speak English to church leaders, sometimes MTC employees, and to translate for other missionaries (or myself, if no one is there to translate for me). Previously, my companion and I spoke English to study and plan together, but we did away with that. I think it's a really good thing, if a little tiring.

In another slightly entertaining blunder this week, one of the elders in my district related the Book of Mormon story of the Brother of Jared seeing God's toe. For anyone not familiar with the Book of Mormon stories, it's actually the divine finger that appears. My teacher did an admirable job stifling his surprised laughter. It didn't matter too much--we all know what he meant, and I suppose seeing the foot of God would also be plenty astonishing.

I leave a week from today! I have my flight plans and everything. Thank goodness visas to Taiwan aren't hard to get (unlike the countless Latin America-bound missionaries who are hanging around the MTC or shipped off to USA missions temporarily while they wait). If anyone wants to send me mail after today or tomorrow, mail it to the Taiwan address on. That's the mission office. If it comes to the MTC after I leave, it will be returned to you, not forwarded. (DearElder.com is also an option.)

Well, that's all I have time to share this week. Thank you again for your time to read about my experiences, and especially thank you to anyone praying for me.

Much love,
Sister Andersen

MTC Day 61

Hello once again, from the shadows of the something-or-other hills I greet you (I get to watch Music and the Spoken Word almost every Sunday. I think it may be affecting my speech patterns).

Well, it is my second to last week in the MTC. Barring any travel complications, I will leave Utah for Taiwan exactly two weeks from today. Any mail that comes to the MTC for me after that will be returned to sender, so start sending stuff to my address in Taiwan sometime next week. DearElder.com does same-day letter delivery at the MTC for no charge, if you really want to make sure I get something the Friday or Saturday before I leave. Also, I think mail to Taiwan takes three stamps. You can use DearElder.com for mail to Taiwan as well, but it's not same-day. It costs 94 cents, I think.

This week got started off well as we got to go clean the temple last Monday. The church has well over a hundred temples around the world, and as far as I know, all of them get closed for cleaning periodically. I spent my Monday afternoon in the temple basement, assembling new chandeliers. It was really satisfying, for several reasons: 1) chandeliers are cool; 2) you can see the fruits of your labor instantly as you clean each little piece and hang it up; 3) it's for the temple, and I love the temple.

My companion and I are participating in this progressing investigator activity. A progressing investigator is someone being taught by the missionaries who is showing their acceptance of the missionaries' message by doing things like reading the Book of Mormon, praying, attending church, etc. Missionaries invite their investigators to commit to do those things, among others; an investigator keeping his/her commitments is a progressing investigator. Anyone familiar with my life, or any other active LDS person's life, will probably notice that we do and do not do a lot of things for the sake of our faith. Willingness to act on belief is a central concept to our religion (and to many others), so unless someone is willing to do that, I suppose he/she shouldn't join this church. Anyway, so we have an MTC Chinese teacher (I mean he teaches Chinese; he's not actually a Chinese person) that we get to teach repeatedly as if he were a progressing investigator. It's really great, because we can really get to know his situation and plan our lessons around his needs. We decided that we wanted to give him a call, because in our fictional timeline we had a day that we didn't meet with him. We told the teacher, and we actually got to call him using phones in two different rooms. I was a bit terrified to speak and try to understand over the phone, but it wasn't as bad as I thought. Granted, he's not a native speaker, but I will take my small victories as they come. It wasn't a long conversation--I just answered a couple questions he had and shared a scripture that was relevant to his situation. It's interesting how much I can care about someone who's identity is sort of fictional. But then again, we are interacting with a real person, and all people have needs, including MTC teachers.

Well, I'd better get going. As always, I hope you are all well and happy. I always enjoy letters, so thank you to all those who have written.

Much love,
Sister Andersen

MTC Laundry Room

Me in the laundry room, writing letters.

Us with some of our friends, the Spanish elders (taken when Sister Son was still in our companionship). L-R, Back-Front:
-Elder Jensen, Elder Harmon, Elder Carroll, ElderChatwin
-Elder Graham, Elder Hardgrave, me
-Sister Nelson, Elder Hildreth, Sister Son

MTC Day 54

Yet another eventful week. How to begin relating the most recent events which have transpired (and some old ones that I didn't stick in my last letter). I guess chronologically is probably the best way to go about things in this case. Almost two weeks ago we got new missionaries in. I don't think I wrote anything about it this past Monday because of time constraints and other material to cover. Our zone (larger than a district--ours has four districts in it; see some previous entry about that) received two new districts to replace the two districts that had just left the week before. One of the new districts is all elders, but the other has a companionship of sisters in it, Sisters Chang and Fisher. Sister Chang is from California. She's really cheery and fun. She already knew some Chinese before getting here, which is good, because Sister Fisher had a degree in Chinese (and French) and had spent a year living in China. Sister Fisher is from just outside of London. I really like both of them, and am happy to have them in our room. They don't leave until late August/early September.

As I think I probably mentioned previously, Sister Son feels insecure about her English, her familiarity with scriptures (which we rely on heavily when we teach), and her general qualified-ness to leave the MTC. I think everyone who talks to her for five minutes would probably think she was just fine to leave, but the importance self-confidence is not to be minimized. This week she ended up in a series of long interviews with an MTC supervisor. The whole thing was a bit emotionally stressful because she had to explain in rather painful detail what she's worried about and why she feels inadequate. I also sympathize with the supervisor; I mean, the MTC can't really start letting missionaries choose how long they're here, so it must be a bit of a rigorous process. Finally he presented her with a choice: July 16th (her original date), or August 26th (and switching to the other companionship of sisters). She chose August 26th. (Note: If you're wondering why the dates are so far apart, I suspect it has to do with the every-six-week changes that occur in every mission. Every six weeks, companionships may be switched around, missionaries may move to different areas, etc. For a missionary to come in the middle is probably much less convenient, but this is all just speculation). If she's waiting to leave, it's much better for her to be with the other sisters. She'd switch eventually anyway, and this way she can practice teaching in English until they switch over to Chinese. So the main gist of all this is that Sister Son is no longer in our companionship. Losing a companion is sort of like getting something amputated. You have these phantoms pangs, looking around as if she should still be there. I'm not upset about it, but it took a little getting used to again. I think having Sister Son actually helped Sister Nelson and I be more unified. Sister Son was in a difficult situation, and we got to work together to help her (we also received lots of help from her). Having someone to care for together was great for our relationship. It kind of brushed all of my silly complaints and annoyances away because it was so obvious that there were more pressing and important things to worry about. Now I just need to figure out how to keep in mind that there are always more pressing and important things to worry about, and things will be good.

We also have a new teacher. Did I mention that before? I think his name is Brother Barton (I know his Chinese name, but I don't know how to indicate the tones while typing, and you probably wouldn't know how to say it anyway). One of our other teachers left to get married, so Brother Barton came in her place. It's kind of fun, because it's like we're training him while he's training us. I like him a lot. He's really cheerful and excited about things. Even if he were complaining, I think he'd be smiling. Hopefully we can help him learn how to be a good teacher and expect good things from his missionaries.

Well, that's most of what's happened. For the MTC, it's quite a bit of change (especially considering it's so far into my time here).

I love you all!

Sister Andersen