The Missionary Presidents building take over

Dear Mom and Everyone else!

The sisters of Unit 152

Nimen hao!  The MTC is good.  Though, everyone seems to be getting sick.  And it's not even just a cold... There seems to be an intestinal flu that has been going around.  It lasts for about a day or two, and people tend to throw up all night.  Don't worry, I haven't gotten it yet.  And none of the other sisters in my district have gotten it either.  But so far, I think the majority of the Elders have had it... No bueno... or as I should say, bu hao!  We've just been washing our hands a lot.  And we've been trying to stay away from sketchy food.

Happy Birthday Mom!! I love you so much!  You are the best mom in the world!  I hope that you had a good birthday, and that you had a good time in California.  I wish for nothing more than to be with you... but I guess that will have to wait for another 18 months. :(  But ah well, when I get back, we can spend a lot of time together! Love you!

Anyways, I'll go by days of the week like I did last time, since it makes it a bit more organized.

Tuesday:  Well, I was eating my breakfast in the cafeteria when guess who tapped me on the shoulder!  Sister Chelsea Newman!  She just came in the last week apparently.  And I think she is doing all right so far.  I've only seen her once here or there.  But it was nice seeing her.  I keep seeing people from USU as well.  It's like being back at school! Hahaha! Especially with being in classes all day long... Seriously, like all day long...  Anyways, I do like Tuesdays though, since we get to have devotionals.  This week, it was Robert C Gay, who did an amazing job!  I forgot my note book, otherwise I would write more on him.  But I love Tuesday Devotionals!  We still get to go to the Marriott center, which is fun.  And It's been fun singing in the choir for the Devotionals.  Though, we often have to eat dinner early in order to get to practice on time.  The other sisters are considering not doing choir anymore, which makes me sad... because I like choir...

Wed-thurs:  Well... These are a  couple of my not so favorite days, since they always end up being long.  It feels like we are in class all day.  And we also have classes back to back, with only a meal in between....  But, what can you do?  We learn a lot... Though, I still need to work on my SYL- speak your language.  The problem is, if I SYL then no one can understand me except for the teachers... which gets really boring... So most of the time, I forget, or I just speak first in Chinese and then in English.

Friday:  This is the day that the Mission Presidents took over building 1M.  It's cool to have the mission presidents, but it's not fun eating sack meals or eating in the gym.  The food is often cold by time we eat it, and there are not as many choices as normal.  But that's okay.  One thing that makes me sad is that they don't have any skim or 1% milk.  They only have 2%, chocolate milk 2% or juice or pop or water... So, I've been drinking a lot of water.  Which is a good habit to start. :) 

Oh, we also extended our first baptismal invitation to an "investigator".  We were challenged to do so by another teacher, but we only had like 5 minutes to prepare... I did my best.  Our investigator said that she would think about it.  She's not a continuing investigator (an investigator you teach over a period of a couple of weeks) but it was nice to get the practice in.  I feel like we could have done a better job, but we didn't have time to learn how to properly extend a baptismal invite in Mandarin...

Saturday:  This Saturday was pretty good.  Our teacher overslept, so we didn't get to teach our investigator... Which was okay, since our syllabus didn't say that we were teaching on Saturday.  We also couldn't go and teach TRC because the schedule has been messed up with the Mission Presidents being around.  But I was fine with that, since we weren't really prepared... We just keep teaching lessons after lessons, that we don't have time to get ready for them anymore... Which is okay for me, but Sister Eliason needs a bit more time to prepare...  I just tend to wing the lessons... But we need to work on a bit more companionship teaching unity... which is hard, since Sister Eliason still feels that it's heard to express herself in Mandarin.

Singing in the missionary Choir

Sunday:  Well, this was the big day of the World Wide Missionary training broadcast.  It was a very cool experience to sing in it.  We saw 11 of the 12 Apostles, which was way awesome! They are all so sweet!  They all gave us thumbs up and waved at us.  Of course we waved back!  It was amazing to feel the spirit that just radiated from them!  And I was happy to have been a part of the broadcast.  They stressed the importance of members in missionary work.  I agree, without members, it would be very hard for us missionaries to do our job.  Did you know that one of the responsibilities of all members of the church is to bring others unto Christ so they can feel his love and partake of his blessings?  But most importantly, it is important to show your love for everyone you meet, members and non members alike.

Sorry mom, there was no up close shots of me.  But there is a far away one.  I took a picture of the recording of the broadcast on the computer screen... Not the best quality but, it was the best I could do.

Today has been pretty good.  We went to the temple, which is always a great experience.  I'll be sad when they close it for cleaning.  Other than that, we haven't done much... I'll just go and do laundry later, and then prepare my lesson that I have tonight....  I really want to take a nap though... I'm tired! Hahaha!

Thanks everyone who sent letters and Dear Elders.  I love getting mail! *hint hint*  I'll respond when I have time, but apparently, we are only supposed to send mail on Mondays... I've been bad at that so far... Whoops! 

We like to pretend we are witches when we clean  ;)

Oh! And Ev, Thanks for the Package! It was FANTASTIC! I love the peach!  And the apple made everyone laugh!  And I loved the lychee!  I tried to share some, but people seemed kind of afraid of them.  Just wait until we get to Taiwan!!!! :D 

Anyways, Love you all!  Talk to you all next week!!  Hope you all have a great day!

Love,

Sister Peng