My lovely family!!!
Oh my goodness emailing
you is the HIGHLIGHT of my week. But i can definitely see why they have a
rule for only emailing/writing once a week. Because when I email it
makes me miss you! Not too much, but I absolutely love you so so so so
much. I can't even begin to express how much you mean to me.
Also, THANK YOU for all the letters!! I feel like I am
being showered with love when I get a letter or dearelder or package. I
have the best family and friends in the entire world. Thank you so much
Emma, Josiah, Max, and Gideon - I LOVED your cards! Megan Greenhalgh
Probst sent me a package of mini cupcakes and a dearelder! Taylor
Psalto, Mina May, Marcene, Marianne, Matt Rogers, Haley, Grandma Wilcox,
Spencer Waddoups, and ESPECIALLY Whit Twit, Dad, Momma, Jaren.... hmm
who's missing... uh Parker!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WRITE ME YOU GOOFUS! :) I want
to hear about your life! But seriously, if I forgot anyone (and I
probably did).. Thank you times a million. Letters lift and encourage me
so much! Keep em coming! Mom, I especially liked your list of things
you had to tell me. That was awesome. I do that too, in my journal. I
love hearing from you. I tell my companion and my roomies every day how
much I miss eating green smoothies and going to Zumba together. I miss
you!
BUT... the MTC is amazing as ever. I can't believe how
blessed I am to be here. It's the most incredible place in the world.
Every single day is such a spiritual high - by the end of the day it's
exhausting :) But I wouldn't trade it! I LOVE being a missionary! Being
able to help others come unto Christ is the greatest feeling in the
world. Let me tell you about my week! Sorry it's so long (and hopefully
not boring...) but I just want to tell you EVERYTHING. I wish you could
be here so I could just tell you all in person!
This week we continued teaching Pauline. Wednesday was
ROUGH. During our lesson, we didn't do very well at all. We had a lesson
completely prepared on Christ and then Pauline said, "I know God
doesn't love me because my sister died." Uh.. yeah.. okay.. not prepared
for that. I felt so bad because I wanted to convey Heavenly Father's
love for her SO BADLY but I don't know enough Cantonese yet. So our
lesson wasn't very good at all. Sister Morgan and I felt absolutely
awful. We prayed but couldn't really focus the rest of our language
study time. We went to dinner and it was the most incredible tender
mercy to see familiar faces. Cale Strong and Jake Segura came up to see
me and I told them all about my day. Jake was really helpful and told me
about his first week. He said, "How long have you been here? Calm
down." He said if I focus on Pauline and her needs and the doctrine,
then the language will come. It was exactly what I needed to hear. Then I
went and said hi to Ben, and he helped me out too. It was such a boost!
It so nice to have some familiar faces at the MTC with me (except Ben
left today... sad!!). It's also comforting to hear that others have the
exact same experiences. When we got back from dinner, I had 5 dearelders
and 3 cards sitting on my desk. BEST THING EVER! Hearing from people in
the "outside world" is soooo motivating and helpful! I got teary
reading your letter, Mom. I also had a note from two sisters in our room
that I've been struggling to love. They wrote some scriptures down
(Mosiah 4:27, D&C 84:88, D&C 11:21) and wrote, "Remember God
loves you and will not try you beyond your means. We love you!!!" I was
seriously so humbled by that. It was a huge reality check to be like,
okay. They love me. They're supporting me. I felt bad for not loving
them as much. (But ever since then, things have been WONDERFUL. I
absolutely adore them!) So, then Sis Morgan and I asked Elder Barker
(our DL) to give us a blessing. It was a wonderful experience. He told
me so many times in my blessing, "Our Father loves you, and He is proud
of you." It was so special. Elder Barker has really stepped up to the
plate as our district leader. It is so neat to see how the gospel
changes people. I hope I can change myself. I really want to be an
effective missionary for the Lord. I want to do this work to the best of
my ability!
Anyway, Thursday was sooooooo much better! In our
lesson with Pauline, the Spirit was there in abundance. I said the
opening prayer and prayed that she would be able to feel God's love for
her and feel the Spirit. I could tell she was touched. Then throughout
the lesson, we just kept getting promptings by the Spirit. Things that I
didn't even know how to say kept coming out of my mouth. I testified of
our Father in Heaven's love for His children, and for Pauline. We told
her we KNEW she'd see her sister again. There was an especially powerful
moment when Sister Morgan said, "I KNOW God loves you, Pauline." and I
said, "WE love you." Sis Morgan and I were almost in tears by the end of
the lesson. It was so powerful.
On Friday, Pauline became our other teacher haha.
Sister Tai! She's AWESOME. So our teachers are Sister Chang (Jeung Ji
Muih), Sister Tai (Daai Ji Muih), and Brother Harper (Haa Hing Dai). I
LOVE THEM ALL. Ps... all of us might possibly have teacher crushes on
Brother Harper... hahaha. Especially me. He's pretty cute. And super
patient. And very nice. And he has a great smile. But we're
missionaries.. soooooooo. Yeah. Can't help but think of your parents
Morg! ;) your dad was your mom's teacher in the MTC.. oh man.. hahaha.
KIDDING EVERYONE. I'm totally focused. Okay. Anyway. So Daai Ji Muih's
testimony was POWERFUL on Friday night. When she finished with class for
the day, she said, "So how you feeling?" and until that moment, I
hadn't realized that I actually wasn't "houh houh" (good good - you say
it "ho ho"). I was pretty overwhelmed. So I said that out loud. Daai Ji
Muih nodded and shared Alma 7:11-12 with us and bore the most
incredible, heartfelt testimony I've ever heard. She told us that she
knew Christ suffered for us so that he would KNOW how to succor us. She
told us we could do it and that God called us to this mission and God
does not make mistakes. She told us how glad she was that we were going
to serve in her home, Hong Kong and how much that meant to her. I was
crying the entire time. She is so sweet. It was a powerful testimony to
me that, yes, Christ loves me! He is there for me! He knows EXACTLY how I
feel and he will hold my hand every step of this crazy journey. How
thankful I am for that. I am so thankful for Him. He is the center of my
testimony. I know He lives. I know He descended below all things so
that He could help me in my greatest times of need. I am going to repay
him the littlest bit I know how by serving him with my whole heart these
next 18 months.
Sundays are the greatest day at the MTC (besides P-day
;) ). They are SUCH a spiritual high! We went to sacrament meeting, then
went to Relief Society where Mary Edmunds was the speaker. She was
incredible. Her testimony of missionary work was wonderful. Then for the
closing hymn, we sang "Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd." PLEASE GO
LOOK UP THE LYRICS. They are amazing. I cried my eyes out during the
hymn, I could barely even sing. I felt so strongly what I am doing is
RIGHT.
"Out in the desert they wander
Hungry and helpless and cold
So to the rescue we'll hasten
Bringing them back to the fold."
I
feel so much compassion and love for the people of Hong Kong, and I
haven't even met them yet. I want to bring them back to the fold! They
are wandering, hungry and helpless and cold, missing the most important
thing in their lives: the gospel of Jesus Christ. I want to go share
this beautiful message of happiness and peace with them! I can't wait to
be able to do that. I can feel my thoughts, my actions, my heart
changing already. I will never be the same again. And how awesome that
is! I also thought, during that song, of Stacy and Sheldon. Maybe you
should give me their addresses. I'd like to write them a letter.
So, after RS, the elders were at priesthood so we went
back to our classroom (when I say "we" I almost always mean me, Sis
Morgan, Sis Johnson, and Sis Palmer- my besties here at the MTC!) and
watched mormon messages and just had a cry fest for a while. The one
that made me cry the most was called "Power of God" I think. You guys
should definitely go watch it. It made me think of you, Parker and
Jaren, and how you hold the priesthood, and the many wonderful things
that you are able to do with it. Honor it! Remember what a blessing it
is that you have it! I am so proud of you broskis. I love you to pieces.
PARKER YOU BETTER WRITE ME OR I'M GONNA BE UPSET. :) anyway, after the
mormon message cry fest, and after lunch, we went on our temple walk!
Greatest thing ever. I'm gonna try and send pictures but this card
reader I'm using won't read my SD card. It's weird. I'll try and figure
it out! On our temple walk I saw Becca! I've seen her every day. She's
in the same building as me! Anyway, I talked to her for a little while
and she was crying to me for a sec. She said, "Are you homesick?" and i
said, "No! Not at all!" and she is. She's kind of having a hard time. I
hope I helped her out a little bit. I just was encouraging her and
telling her how much I loved her! Whit, you should write her.
I sing in choir here! It's fun! The choir director is
incredible. He is a great guy. He always shares a spiritual thought and
it's always so inspiring. I love that everything here is so
uplifting!!!! :)
The elders in my district are good missionaries, Dad.
Especially Elder Barker. He's awesome. But they're all great. I love
them so much! There are 3 districts here going to Hong Kong (did I tell
you that already?) it's like 24 people. It's the most people they've
EVER sent to Hong Kong from the MTC. EVER. How cool is that!?! So the 6
of us girls in our room are the only ones going to Hong Kong in the
whole MTC. We feel pretty special :) It's so fun! We get along SO WELL.
We laugh all day, and do everything together. I feel like I've known
these sisters longer than just a week and a half! We are so bonded and
so close. It's great :) Everyone here is so nice, though.
Funny story. Hilarious, actually. I hope you appreciate
it. So I got a package on Friday, but I didn't know who it was from.
They just give you a slip that says "you have a package" and you're
supposed to go pick it up. Friday we didn't have time, and then Saturday
when we went the place was already closed. I was bummed! But I was
like, oh well I'll just get it Monday. Well at 10:00 on Saturday night, I
hear my name over the loudspeaker that goes to the ENTIRE MTC. "Sister
Shaylee Wilcox, please come to the front office." That's
embarrassing. And let me give you a little vision: I had wet hair from
the shower at this point. I was wearing Papa's green silk pajamas.
(thanks for sewing up the fly for me, by the way Mom. haha!). The front
office is in 1M. I live in 17M. Long walk with wet hair in silky green
old man pajamas. I was like, "if it's just my package I want to wait
till Monday!" But my coordinating sister said, "uh.. they wouldn't call
you to the front office for just your package... you'd better go." So at
this point I'm kinda freaking out. What did I do? Eat too much salad at
every meal? ahhh!! So sister Morgan and I throw on hoodies and our
nametags over our PJs (yep, I wore the green silkies!) and walk
cleeeeeeear over to 1M. We get up to the front and they hand me my
package. Haha. It was cupckaes from Megan! So I was totally happy about
that, but Sister Morgan and I were dying that we looked so ridiculous so
late at night in our pajamas clear across MTC campus. I'm proud of
those silky pajamas from Papa :) I love em! I bet he had a good laugh
watching that :)
Oh, my time is about up. I have to go. I love you all
so much more than I could say! I miss you! But I am SO HAPPY here. I
love it more than I ever thought I would. I know my Father in Heaven
lives and loves me. I KNOW He is guiding my life. I know Jesus Christ is
my Savior. I am doing the most important, sacred work in the world! I
am so thrilled with this opportunity. I'm working hard. I'll continue to
do so. I hope I can show the Lord that I love Him and that I will do my
best during this mission.
I love you all! Keep writing me! xoxo
All my love,
Shay
Gwok Ji Muih
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