August 8, 2009 oh hej nihao‏

Guess what everyone, I leave the MTC in just 8 days! I am so excited. It is going to be crazy.

It has been a good week, we are all trying to put in our last best efforts to prepare before we leave. I know that my Chinese is probably still incomprehensible, I will be in intense culture shock and missionary shock (getting used to working harder than I ever have in my life), plus the heat, bicycling, etc but I am excited. It will be great.

At the MTC I experienced more kinds of tired than I ever knew existed but now I am adapted and thriving like I've always worked this hard on this schedule. I know the first months in Taiwan will *ahem* kick my lady-like sister missionary sitting down area but I am excited. Because after the exhaustion comes strength. Some Elders already left for Hong Kong today.

I have been trying to be very good and obedient and receptive to the Spirit and today I was able to see a blessing of it. We were at the temple, waiting for our turn, and I was reading the Book of Mormon when Christ quotes Isaiah in 3 Nephi. A lady sat down next to me and I had the sudden prompting that I needed to share a certain scripture with her. I didn't want to because it is a quiet place where you ponder and probably shouldn't have conversations but I knew I had to; the impression kept coming. So I whispered, "Can I share a scripture with you? I'm a missionary." She said yes, so I read her 3 Nephi 22:10 - "For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee." Then all I said was "I just want you to know how much God loves you and cares about you." She was weepy and just said, "Thank you for listening." That was all we said; I was called in within two minutes after. It was amazing! I was so glad that I was able to listen to the Spirit to be able to be an answer to her prayer. It made me so happy.

Oh, guess what else was awesome! On Saturday we got to teach a real investigator at the TA - usually it is just members volunteering. It went well; they actually showed the video of us to another district as an example. It's funny that everyone thought we did so great because we left with mixed feelings - we invited her to be baptized but she declined. However it went well and I think we were able to resolve some of her concerns. She goes to BYU was was concerned why women have to stay home and can't have careers. So I told the story about you and Daddy, when you were deciding if you would work while Daddy went to Medical School. How you both sat down and figured out than in 10 years the amount of money you made wouldn't make a difference but raising your children was of eternal importance. The investigator totally clicked with it. She said "So, what you are trying to tell me is family is more important than personal achievement?" And we were all awestruck at her perfect eloquence of what we were trying to say but couldn't quite get at. It was great.

So anyway, life is great, the gospel is true and if you want to be happy start listening to the things God is constantly trying to teach you.

I love you!