This week, Sister Liu shared this experience...
HELLO EVERYONE,
The MTC has been amazing, I can't even begin to describe what it's like here, there is so much I want to say, but so little time, so I am going to try to summarize it as best as I can:
Well first, for those of you who don't know, I am at the Provo Missionary Training Center right now, and I will be staying here for 9 weeks, and then leaving for Taiwan.
Day 1 - Wed:
My companion is Sister Graham and I absolutely love her to death. She is 5'2 so we are both miniature :) She went to USU for fall semester and is now here. Our zone has so many people and then it is broken down into districts. So I am in zone 39, district D. I already love our district and zone so much. On the first day, we just learned how to introduce ourselves in Chinese, so it was pretty easy. In our district we have, Elder Fleming, Elder Ludwing, Elder Boothe, Elder Chen, Elder Williams, Elder June, Sister Graham, and me :) Elder Boothe is form Australia, and hearing him switch back and forth from his Australian accent to Mandarin is so funny.The food here is the same food I've been eating for the past six months, since it is all BYU dining, which I guess is a little comforting. First day was actually really good, not as overwhelming as I thought it would be.
Day 2- Thurs:
First full day. It was long... we had a couple of workshops, a 3 hour class, and then 5 hours of just studying... BUT it was still good :) We watched a video where the investigator we are supposed to teach on day 3 introduced himself. He spoke really fast and all in Mandarin, but I actually understood like 90% of what he said, which was really nice. We also met our branch president, he and his wife are both from Taiwan. Then we got interviewed by his counselors. It was just a really long day..
Day 3- Fri:
Wow. Where do I even begin? Today we taught our first lesson, and it was so so cool! Our investigator's name in Yang Ju. We all went in as companionships, and my companion and I were towards the end. All the elders who went already came back and told us that it was really hard, so Sister Graham and I were really nervous going in because we had to speak all in Mandarin. BUT, when we went in I was able to understand pretty much everything he said, which was a relief. We taught him how to pray and got him to commit to praying later that night. After this lesson, Sister Graham and I were so excited to teach more! If this is what missionary work is like, I really can't wait to get out into the field :)
Day 4- Sat:
Today we taught our second lesson to Yang Ju. and we covered SO many topics. Like SO MUCH. We somehow managed to teach about the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith and the first vision, The Apostasy, the Restoration, faith, the atonement, and heavenly father's love in general. And we somehow manged to teach it all in chinese.. He seemed to grasp everything we were saying really well, said that he would pray that night to know if the things we said were true :) My chinese church terms are getting a lot better. Saturdays are hard because we have classes in the morning and our 4 hours of studying after..Every day, except for sundays and monday, we have classes; We have two classes a day, 3 hours each, so 6 hourse in total, plus personal, companionship, and language study. Then we usually have a another hour of additional study.. So it's really long... But it's a good thing the next day is Sunday and then our Pday (preparation day) on Monday!
Day 5- Sun:
Yes. Best day of the week. We got to listen to music in the spoken word in the morning, and then we went to relief society after. Apparently the MTC has the biggest relief society in the world.. makes sense haha. After Relief Society, we just had a bunch of various district activities, and then Sacrament Meeting. Every week we are given a topic and we have to write a talk in Mandarin about it. Then in Sacrament meeting, the president calls on two random people to go up and speak.. Slightly stressful, but it's good practice for us missionaries. After Sacrament meeting we went on our temple walk around the Provo temple. It was so nice to see the outside world, considering that I haven't even seen a moving car in the past 5 days.. Sunday was so nice, and definitely a good way to recharge for the rest of the week :)
Well I have to go, but I love and miss you all!
Love, Sister Michelle Liu
- forget yourself, and go to work. - President Gordon B. Hinckley