This week wasn't too interesting, like most weeks. But there were a few things worthy of mentioning. Well, only one really that I can think of but after that we'll see what comes out...
This week we had tragedy strike, 4 times that I was there to witness. Our elders claim that there were a couple more times than that, but I don't know because I wasn't there! But yeah, 4 times birds flew into our classroom window...and died. All during Song Laoshi's shifts. Coincidence? Maybe, but it makes it an interesting coincidence. But it is quite a sight to watch this black thing SMACK into the window, then this POOF of feathers flies up and occasionally a feather or two gets stuck. Our Elders think it is the funniest thing in the world and they can't stop laughing. I think it is sad, but I laugh too. My companion by far thinks its more sad than I do though, because she doesn't laugh when it happens, she pouts a little. While the rest of us crack up at the randomness of it.
In our branch we are told to prepare a 5 minute talk every week in Chinese, just in case we get called. I was thinking I had pretty good odds to never talk, because there were only 6 people out of the 33 in our transfer that would ever have to talk because there will be fast Sunday, then general conference our last two weeks here at the MTC. Last week a sister talked, so I thought the sisters would have a break this week from speaking, but no dice. They called on me. Good thing I didn't totally cop out of making one. As the weeks have progressed I've written shorter and shorter talks, and this week my talk was pretty short, but it was good because it had all the general points I needed in Chinese, I shared a scripture, spoke about it, said the general points I had prepared, then testified for 2 minutes. It was funny though because the older transfer translates for the newer transfer...and there were a couple sentences that nobody could translate...so as I paused to allow translation it was completely silent. Can't blame them, I wouldn't have known what "cleave unto charity" was in Chinese if I hadn't studied Moroni 7 in Chinese that day. And the speaker from our branch presidency quoted stuff I said twice after I spoke, so I felt my talk was pretty good...and now i don't have to worry about whether or not to prepare one my last non fast/testimony fast Sunday here because I 100 percent am not going to get called on anymore. Woo. But yeah it was a good experience to get up in front of everyone and practice my tones and stuff.
At our TA on Saturday, we did pretty good. My companion taught the Atonement pretty powerfully. My teacher was observing at that point and even mentioned as much, and it was a great way to transition into talking about how if you pray and find out that the church is true, it is necessary to receive baptism. I love transitioning into that...every lesson since we had a meeting that they talked about how missionaries were starting to think that service and other things in missionary work were good and if baptism wasn't taking place it was okay...but our teacher informed us that a missionaries sole purpose is to bring others to Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, BAPTISM, receiving the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end. Baptizing people is an incredibly important thing to do as a missionary and they tell us there is no better thing to do for a person than to bring them to Christ through baptism by water and fire, and never to think that service and other things were substitutes, even though they are important. So yeah, ever since that fireside, I make sure to at least mention the importance of getting baptism when they find the answer about the truth of the church in the affirmative every time that it is appropriate in any way when we teach.
This week I read all the scriptures I could find about Rachel in the Bible. There was a relief society where we talked about Ruth and Esther, and I wanted to write down the different tribes of Israel, so I thought I should study Rachel. She was an interesting lady. I never know who to feel bad for...her? her sister? their maids? It's kind of a weird situation. I'm not sure I quite understand. But that is sad that in the scriptures there are so many siblings who are enemies...Rachel and Leah...Nephi/Sam and Laman/Lemuel...Cain and Abel. If you think about it...some of the worst curses/destruction came from people who were at bad odds with siblings. My zone leader says they should just fight it out and get over it because he just read half that paragraph...
AH ONE MINUTE LEFT, i better send this or I'll lose it all! bye
Fu jiemei
Uh...Yeah can't think of anything else interesting that happened this week and I only have 3 minutes left. Happy St. Patricks day tomorrow, don't forget to wear green!
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