Lose Yourself In The Work, Right?

This is Sister Clawson's ALL Chinese name tag!  It's getting official folks!

One more week down! Wow. Time is so weird. I feel like I've been here forever, I feel like I just got here, I feel like I'm not learning anything, holy crap I've learned so much, I feel like this week has been a year, oh my gosh it's already sunday?! MAN! I'm pretty sure I'm losing my mind a little bit") But hey, They say you're supposed to lose yourself in the work right? So I guess that's what I'm doing! Hahaha:)

This is Emma and her favorite Abby!!!  Sister Maughan is a favorite friend from just down the road:)  Emma and Abby have grown up their entire lives together.  Abby is headed to Ohio!!  Wahoo!!

This week we got more new missionaries!!! Three sisters and 7 elders! All of them are going to Taipei except for 2 of them so we are stoked! They are a bunch of awesome kids and I love there guts so much. We won't get to be with them for very long, so it's exciting that we will get to see them in Taiwan again! 

Also Abby Maughn joined the ranks this week!!! She is so cute:) I love her guts. She just shines! she's gonna be the greatest missionary, it's so fun to get to see her here;)

This is Emma's companionship and all the new missionaries going to Taipei!!  They just got to the MTC this week, and will traveling to Taipei 6 weeks after Emma's group:)

This week was as exciting as life can get in the MTC. :) We gave a killer lesson yesterday so I'm still super duper pumped about it! My chinese is still pretty rough, and probably will be for at least 8 more months...but no worries! I've got the Lord on my side. 

I don't have any long stories this week, just lots of little fun tidbits that happened throughout the week;) 

First off, I've been having lots of dreams. All sorts of them! They are in english, chinese, and they take place everywhere. At home, the mtc, snowbasin, one of them was hawaii. It's just been crazy. The funny part is that it's been so long since I've had dreams that every time I wake up from one I think I'm at home. Then It takes me a minute to realize that I'm not...then I get a little sad...shake it off..and then fall back asleep:)

The weather has also been KILLER nice this week! I haven't worn tights in days! Man, it's awesome. All the sisters in my district, during some additional study time we had, went outside and we went around and read a chapter from the Book of Mormon in Chinese. It's really helpful for us to get better at tones and translating! It was SO FUN! 

One of my companions, Sister Money, got her travel plans last friday! She's only got like 5 days...Then It will just be me and Sister Apsley for a week! We are sad to see her go. I've been so blessed to have the greatest companions at the MTC and have grown the greatest friendship with them. I love their guts! Sister Money you're gonna kill it in Canada!!!!

This week...I made a grown man cry...

My teacher Li Laoshi is awesome. Except he scares the CRAP out of me and it's been affecting my teaching. He's also my "investigator" So Every lesson we go into I'm more concerned about pleasing Li Laoshi than doing my best and pleasing the Lord. I DON'T want this attitude! So, saturday during personal coaching we had a "come to jesus" moment. I told him basically that I loved him, and he's been helping me so much, but I'm so terrified of failing him and am afraid of him being upset..

Then.

He cried.

And I felt awful.

He said he was very grateful I told him, and gave me some fantastic advice and encouragement. But I still just felt so dang bad cause this 24 year old dude is crying!!! Oh well, my teaching has gotten better.  ps thank you so much for the package you sent this week:)

I have so much Candy, chocolate, and goodies from everyone that I've piled up over the past 2 months..like I'm pretty sure I've got 30 pounds of candies..I'll have to pass that along when I leave, cause I've got no suitcase room as it is!!!! 

This sunday, we had the weirdest devotional of all time.....I can't remember her name....but I know she taught at byu.....basically it was like being in a college class for an hour...she had a slide show, but I'm still not quite sure what it was about.. She was a bit scattered. At the very end her husband spoke for about 3 minutes and that's where I really got some good stuff:) hahaha. He didn't say much but what he did say was powerful. He said on his mission he was a shy guy, but he said, "If you don't have self confidence, always remember you have Christ's confidence." Wow. That. Was. Perfect! It's so easy to not feel adequate on our missions, but we ALWAYS have the confidence of Christ with us!

Sunday night, our favorite cantonese missionaries left for Hong Kong. They will be greatly missed, It's sad cause I probably will NEVER see them again.. Thank Heavens for the after life:)

Emma's group and their FAVORITE choir director!!

Monday Morning I was reading in Jesus the Christ and found this awesome awesome awesome section. I've really just been craving good food and missing home cooked meals and what not, and then I read this. It was on the Word of Wisdom. "We believe in enjoying good food. We believe that these good things are given us of God. WE believe in getting all the enjoyment out of eating that we can; and therefore we should avoid gluttony;and we should avoid extremes in all our habits of eating."

:)

I just thought that was awesome. The end:)

(WARNING!!  THIS MAY BE TMI!!)

This week my farts have also been pretty awful...Like rank. My companions probably won't have the sense of smell and will most likely be blind by the time we leave the MTC.. pray for them. Pray for my bodily functions. 

TRC this week we taught a boy from Taiwan that's going to school at BYUI. Oh man, he was a special one that's for sure. We got on skype and had been talking to him for not even two minutes, trying to learn more about him and then he just stops and says, "OK, whats your message your going to share." Alright bruh. We didn't want to get to know you anyway! So we gave him our message about prayer and how we can receive comfort and answers through it. I asked him some concerns he had in his life right now. He said midterms:) So we helped him out and told him that God will help us in all aspects of life. Even midterms! He was great. ha. I prayed for him and his midterms at the end. Then I prayed for him to get a better attitude as well..but that part was in my head;)

Last night for devotional we had Rosemary Wixom come!! The Primary General President! She did a fantastic job and we got to sing all sorts of primary songs:) I forgot so many of them!! Primary songs are the best. :)

 

Emma's favorite hammock made an appearance:)  It was a hit!

Before we went to bed last night, I decided I would let my roomies get a little bit better of a taste of Sister Clawson, and what I'm all about. So I pulled out my hammock and strung it up between our bunk beds and let them all try it out. It was a hit. I'm officially the coolest person ever. They all wanted a gazillion pics of them in it and it cracked me up;) I also wore my chacos today for pday. I can still be me and be a missionary:) yay. 

I love you guys sooooo much. Thanks for being the greatest.

#Beizhufu (#Blessed)

Emma and Sister Moffet!!!  One of Em's favorite people, AND one of the best baker's we ever had at Great Harvest Logan.  When Ally was our baker, we won the Best Bread Award for ALL of Great Harvest at our annual convention.  She's a keeper, and she is headed to Sacramento CA:)

Wow! Another week at the MTC. Check! So this was our first official whole week as Sister Training Leaders. Holy cats. Girls. That's all I have to say.. Girls. We interviewed and talked with all of them and now I hope to have only sons in my future family.. hahaha jkjk it was actually super duper awesome to get to know all the girls on a deeper level and learn about how we can help them:)  I'm blessed with two awesome companions that help me with everything and we know how to get work DONE! Unless we start singing the Sound of Music..then it usually takes us a few minutes to get focused again..shhh. 

Emma's group.  

This week has been stressful. The language is coming, but extremely slowly. I'm terrified, but I know that the Lord will never leave me hanging. EVER. I'll keep trying my hardest. I've also been struggling on connecting with my investigators. Man! I want people so badly to want this gospel!!! But sometimes people are just content with life!!! All one of my investigators every says to anything we share with him is, "wei shen me?" which means "Why?" and of course I'm just thinking in my head, "because it's FLIPPING awesome thats why!!" But sadly that approach doesn't work. pray for me. Pray for my chinese. 

This is the Sharing of the Valentines treat night.  

This week one of my companions had to go to physical therapy. So me and Sister Apsley were just chilling, studying, and making friends as they walked in. A lady came up to us and gave us 20 dollars.....We told her we couldn't take it but she told us that the missionaries changed her life, and she's eternally grateful for us and our service. Wow. Talk about an angel sent from god. #beizhufu

(that means #Blessed) But really though, that woman touched my heart.

Exceedingly frightening pic!!  Emma removing her mask:)

Sister Menzies mom sent us some fun face masks:) So that was an awesome stress reliever this week! We all got valentines day packages full of chocolate and goodies. So we put our loot in the middle of the room, put on face masks and ate chocolate before we went to bed:) It was great. the face masks felt and looked kind of like dried elmers glue..but now my skin is oh so soft and supple. :) Thanks to everyone who sent such awesome V-day packages!!! It made my week;)

Sunday was great! Our film this week we decided to go and watch the Testaments. In Mandarin....OH boy..It started and my first thoughts were these. "Oh my gosh. I have learned NOTHING." But then they said the word Book of Mormon and I knew it wasn't right...Turns out it was in Cantonese...HA! ya, I changed that real swiftly. Then I could actually understand some of it:)

Wall of LOVE!

Monday was our first Skype TRC! So TRC is basically visiting teaching with members. We shared our message with a sister from Taiwan!!! Her name was Tsai Jiemei and she was wonderful. Her husband is the whitest guy I've ever seen from Utah and they are just living the dream in Taiwan! TRC is the greatest:)

Last night we were blessed to hear from Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the quorum of the 12!!!! Wow. Talk about inspiring. He spoke all about the process of calling missionaries. I had goose bumps the whole time it was so cool. These men are called of God and know PERFECTLY where each of us is supposed to serve:) The Lord knows us better than we know ourselves and works through our Prophet and his Apostles to assign us EXACTLY where we need to go. It was an amazing talk and I know more than ever that Taiwan is exactly where I'm supposed to be:) If only I could just get out of the mtc fast enough!!haha jkjkj lol

Emma's favorite picture of the week.  They titled it, "Called To Swerve!"  To get into the MTC cafeteria, missionaries must be in their Sunday clothes.  Since the girls exercise after breakfast they go through the sack breakfast line and eat in the halls.  Emma actually likes sack brekky best.

Wo zhidao zhege fuyin shi zhenshi!

Tonguo yesu jidu de shuzui women keyi huigai women de zui.

Wo zhidao Yuese Simi fan yi Mo'ermenjing.

Wo zhidao Mo'ermenjing shi Shen de hua.

Tonguo Mo'erminjing he qidao women keyi ganjue Shen de ai.

Wo ai Shen he Yesu Jidu he Shengling!

Feng yesu jidu de ming amen.

(This is Emma's testimony in Chinese!  So proud, and I'm sure it says wonderful things, but I don't speak or read Chinese, and James is nowhere to be found!)

Zai Jian till next week!

MTC Field Trips For The Win!

Emma and Sister S.  I think this may have been on the "Field Trip" Emma had to the eye Dr. this week.  

Ok so I have a serious question to start off with this week. 

is Enya back?!!!! 

My companion told me that a month or so before we left on our missions she apparently released a new album..is this true?! oh man oh man. Enya is so awesome. I love her so much. What I would give to here her sweet sweet voice while I'm in the MTC. 

Lesson study.

This week was another usual week living that MTC dream!! I really am sorry if the email is lacking this week....Everything is SO ridiculously busy, but all the same!! Every week, its the same. Class, teach, class, eat, class. Oh man..I can't wait to get to taiwan:)

After all the classes and lessons the girls get to help some sisters pack to leave the MTC for Taiwan!

One truly awesome thing did happen this week. I will remember it for the rest of my life because it truly rocked my world.

My evening teacher shared her conversion story with us at the end of the night this week. Her name is Guo laoshi and she is originally from Macau. She met the missionaries when she was 12. They taught her for 4 years..she never would commit but they never gave up on her. One day she was at home, alone, lying in bed, sicker than she had ever been before. She tried calling all of her family but nobody would answer. she didn't know what to do and thought that she was going to die there all alone. Right at that moment she remembered something that the missionaries taught her. They taught  her how to pray. That was her first time every praying. She said she completely poured out her heart to her Heavenly Father, asking for help and comfort. After she finished her prayer she was overcome with the most overwhelming feeling she's ever felt in her life. She slept for the whole day and woke up, healed. She called the missionaries that morning and they set up a baptismal date. 

Holy cow.

We were all a hot mess after she shared this story.

I cry SO much at the MTC it's stupid. Good tears mostly;)

Emma with her companions and her favorite friend Elder Johnson!!  Emma and Andrew were tennis, orchestra, and prom buddies.  Elder Johnson is headed to Paris!!  Fun to see friends at the MTC.

This story just really made me realize why I am here. I was so concerned about getting to Taiwan and not seeing immediate results and progression with investigators. The Lord has a plan. For all of us. If I work my hardest and help invite the spirit to touch peoples hearts they will act. Even if I don't get to be the missionary to see it, I can help plant a seed in their heart. Man this gospel is the greatest thing in the world.

Hot chocolate and tea delivery every night!

I also want to give a shout out to my Uncle Dave:) thank you for the best donuts in the entire world! I literally at 3...in a row... and it was the most amazing thing of my entire life. I always try to convince myself that I don't like donuts...but it is a LIE. a filthy LIE. I love them so much. SO MUCH. And I caved hard the other night and ate THEM ALL!! Uncle Dave, here's to you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the most delicious Krispy Kreme donuts I've ever beheld. 

I went to the eye doctor this week and got to go on a little bit of a field trip! to the outside world! man it was so great. It's still there! There really is more to life than the MTC walls! It's a miracle:)

Anyways, they have shuttles that take you to and from appointments and whatnot, after we were all done at the doctor, we called for a shuttle to come and pick us up. A big black van showed up and we were about to jump in and I thought in my head, "you know, what if this guy ISN'T from the mtc?" I mean it would be so easy! someone who know's how the mtc works could easily pick up a bunch of cute girls and kidnap them! so I asked him before we jumped in, "hey! Are you from the MTC?" 

he replies, "Yes."

 I say, "really? Are you lying to me?"
he says, "No! I am from the MTC."

My response, "Ok. Well, if you are lying you're going straight to hell."

apparently he's never been told that before.....he was dying laughing for a solid 5 minutes..:)

Glad I could make his day:) We had a good talk on the way back and are great friends now:) His name is Max. He's going to BYU, lives off campus with his wife, and is graduating in nursing, but his dream is to own Realestate. hmmm. bless his heart:) He was a nice guy. MTC FIELD TRIPS FOR THE WIN.

Emma and her companions and a sweet couple in their branch presidency.  

Our devotionals this week were fantastic! Sunday night was Jenny Oaks Baker!!!! say what?! she had a whole little production set up and played music with her family:) Totally reminded me of he Vontrap Family singers! (Emma LOVES Jenny Oaks Baker.  She's a violinist just like Emma!Here's a link to a song she plays with Condoleezza Rice.)

Last night we had choir!!!! yes:) it's the best thing in the world. AND get this, the choir director hinted to us that we should FILL ALL the choir seat next week..cause it's gonna be big...oh boy! I wonder who will come?! I'll let you know next week;)

Look at that festive room!

Edward Dube of the seventy came last night and it was fantastic. That's one nice thing about being here for so long, I get to hear all these KILLER SPEAKERS!! so that's about it for the week. Taking one day at a time, only 3 more pday emails till I'll be in Taiwan!!! 

Thanks to everyone who's sent me awesome packages and letters and prayers. you don't even know how much it brightens my day:) 

family. Mostly Jake and Seth. Why you no write me>?????!!!! 

im the favorite sister after jane! I hope school is going good and I love you guys so much:)

xoxoxoxox

emma

Seester Clawson

#HeavenlyFatherAnswersOurPrayers

This is Emma's trio:)  Sister Apsley, Sister Clawson, and now it includes Sister Money!

Just a wonderful thought....In 2 days I'm half way done with the MTC. HECK YES!!!!! Man this week has been a little bit crazy that's for sure!! First off... it snowed like everyday this week. A lot. And this is Provo?! It looks beautiful from the little pieces of the sky and earth that I can sometimes see..Oh boy, the MTC is great and SO FULL of the spirit constantly, but I will never work here. Ever. It takes a blessed and special kind of person to want to return to this place. Kelsey is my hero.

Next big thing, We are in a trio!! Dearest Sister Money joined us this week:) She got here in the middle of November but went home because she got really sick. Last wednesday she was able to come back and team up with me and Sister Apsley! I was really nervous at first, not gonna lie. But she has been the biggest blessing. Just another amazing girl that can help give even more fantastic insights on how we can help our investigators. She's a joy to have around and me and Sister Apsley love her to death. 

This is all the new missionaries who came to the MTC last week.  Unfortunately on the 5 girls that Emma is with are headed to Taipei, the rest of the group is headed to Taichung Taiwan.  BUT, they're all Chinese speakers!  Fun zone!  

We also got 18 new Elders and Sisters in our zone last week! I can't even explain how awesome it feels to not be the baby at the MTC anymore! man.. It's awesome. They are all from all over the states. But the majority of them have been attending BYU. I swear, everyone that goes to the mtc went to byu or is going to byu after. After living in the MTC for a month, I now know that I will never ever live here. EVER! Grace I still love you, and I will visit you and Jed when you live here, but that's it!!!! 

The days are all starting to blend together, and we are so tired at night that we literally laugh at nothing.......

But oh man, Sister Apsley did it again this week:) Here's what happened. it was saturday night, we were all winding down for bed and just talking. We were reminiscing on Sister Apsleys calf cramp adventure, from last week, laughing our heads off, and then we realized that it had been about a week since anything crazy had happened in the middle of the night. We jinxed it....HARD CORE. We all got into bed, talked for a bit, and then fell asleep. At about 2 in the morning, I heard hangers rustling, at first I thought it was just Sister Money getting up a few minutes earlier to get ready, but then it just kept going and going. It was dark so I couldn't see anything. I tried to fall asleep again but the hangers just kept on rustling! It got to the point that I was a little bit scared and slowly crept out of bed and cracked the door open so I could see what was going on. Sister Apsley, had climbed down from her bunk bed, pulled ALL of her clothes out of her closet, piled them up on the floor, and was laying down on top of them in fetal position...with only one arm in her shirt..ha. haha. hahahhaha. bhahbahbhbahbahbahbhahabhahahahbhbhahahaha! I laughed out loud for a bit:) I knelt down by her and was like, "Sister. Sister Apsley!" I finally got her to wake up and she was like, " oh my gosh, what happened? How did I get here?!" then at that point all of the girls had woken up and we all got a good little laugh for a second and then I told Sister Apsley to leave her clothes on the floor and we could put them away in the morning. We all go back to bed. 

All day, every day spent here studying!

The alarm goes off! I get up, pray, then run to the bathroom and brush my teeth. I get back to the room and Sister Apsley is standing by her pile of clothes and says to me, "Did I do this?! Why are my clothes all on the floor?!" she had NO remembrance of the night.....at all. WHAT?! I mean I was positive she would've remembered this time because we talked for a bit!!! Oh man, shes awesome:)

This week we also had an interesting lesson with our investigator Chen:) We asked him what some of his goals in life are and then we shared with him some of ours! When it was my turn to share I told him that I want to own a business. He said a lot of words after that I didn't know....after like a solid 3 minutes of charades and breaking down what he was asking me, I realized he was asking me what kind of business I wanted to own. I told him. "mianbao dian!" (this means a bakery!) he replied back, "mianbao dian?" then laughed... HE laughed at me wanting to own a bakery!! hahha he's a punk but I love his guts. At least my goals were cool! All his were   Jiating, xuexiao, he qian.. family, school, money. We are trying to help him get more specific;)

Some pretty great stuff to study!

This sunday was awesome! Sundays are always great. And guess what?? I gave a talk in sacrament meeting.,... all in chinese! SAy what?! It was kinda scary but super duper awesome. District meeting this sunday was by far my favorite part. I really really gained my testimony of the Book of Mormon and how the church would literally be nothing without it! Then Sister Teng shared a story with us about when she was about to leave on her mission. She said that the night before she left, her mom had to sneak her out of the house in the middle of the night and let her stay a few miles away at a friends house because her father wasn't going to let her go and serve...Holy crap. I couldn't believe it. He desire to serve the Lord was so strong, she snuck out of her house without telling her dad and left for a year and a half. DEDICATION! She's an amazing example and I learn new things from her every week. The Tengs are the bestest.

Now we are gonna talk about Legacy. The pioneer church movie that we all know and love. So sunday night we always get to watch a film and this time we decided to see Legacy because none of us had seen it in ages! (and we knew it had kissing in it..so..score..haha) HOLY CRAP. I have never heard so much whooping, and cheering at a movie in my entire life. The missionaries were all going crazy! Oh my gosh it was hilarious.....:) That movie took on a whole new meaning this sunday. I can never watch it the same way again! Every time they went in for a kiss everyone whooped and whistled! What is this place doing to us.

Sister Menzies mom also sent us a fun game this week! It's called Bean Boozled. It's kind of like Berty Bots Every Flavor Bean from Harry Potter. Except there is 2 of the exact same color bean..but one is yummy, and the other is AWFUL. My turn came and it was either going to be peach...or barf....I put it in my mouth and couldn't decide what it even was!!....I quickly found out and barfed in the garbage....the barf jelly bean...literally made me barf...I HAVE NO IDEA HOW THE CAN CREATE THOSE FLAVORS! IT WAS SO REAL! 

This is the group that Emma spends all day with, every. single. day.  Cheerful, happy and bright eyed missionaries.  She loves her district!  Girls are all going to Taipei with Emma, but the boys are all headed to different stateside missions Chinese speaking.

Now for a tender mercy:) This monday for some reason Luke Dance popped into my head. He was supposed to enter the MTC for his mission to Japan but I just didn't know when. :( I went upstairs to go to the bathroom and guess who's standing right in front of me... LUKE! Luke freaking Dance!!!!! OH my gosh I was so pumped. We both FREAKED out AND CRIED. Coolest experience ever. Heavenly Father totally loves us so much and gives us little things like that every day to help us keep going. It was so nice to see a homie:) And he'll just be right upstairs from my classroom for 8 weeks:) #blessed #Heavenlyfatheranswersourprayers

The girlies and a photobombing Cantonese speaking Elder:)  

Last night we had an amazing devotional from W. Craig Zwick! He's super handsome for an old man. hahah:) He spoke on how important it is to pray with fervency and frequency to the Lord. To ask him for specifics on the things you need help with everyday. It was fantastic. I've never prayed so much in my entire life than I have at the mtc. My knee was itchy yesterday so I scratched it and realized that both of my knees have dry, cracked, bloody calluses from praying... There's also 0 moisture at the mtc and every part of my body is cracking to so that could also be it...:) I love this gospel so much, and am eternally grateful for Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, The Holy Ghost and the CONSTANT comfort I am able to receive from them:) Talk to ya next week!!!

 

ooxxOxxXXXXOOOxxxxoooxxXXxx

Emma

This is a little tidbit that Emma sent to me that I thought was SO funny!!  It's Chinese New Year starting Sunday Feb. 7th and that's a HUGE holiday in Taiwan, and Asia in general.  We celebrate it every year with our favorite foods, and family party.  I asked about a little cultural celebration at the MTC and this was her response:)

haha Yay! I'm so excited for you guys to come:) And sadly we won't be celebrating chinese new year;(.....because apparently we are a bunch of Jehovahs Witnesses!!!! But if you find some fun festive stuff, send it to me in the package and we can use it in our room! if not no worries;) we just aren't allowed to have too much fun at the MTC.