#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.