Week 3? Something like that?

Léihdeih hóu!
This week went by SO FAST! Nothing too wild happened this week, just lots and lots of learning!
My district officially hit our halfway point this weekend! SO CRAZY! It feels like we've been in the MTC for a lifetime and that we still have another lifetime to go, but we still have so much to learn that I'm really just grateful for all the time that we have left (even if we are a tad envious of all the districts getting their flight plans). :)
This past week was also our last time with Lèih Jímuih since she's leaving for her study abroad in the UK. We're all so sad to see her go! She's taught us so much and we'll definitely miss her and her energy but I'm sure she'll have just the best time in Europe. :) Our district talks all the time about how we seriously have the best teachers in the MTC and we're so grateful for every one of them!
Lèih Jímuih also brought in a (fake, don't you worry) sword for a culture lesson this week, which we all thoroughly enjoyed. :) She also gave us all chopsticks as part of that lesson (still not very good at using them but I'll be a pro by the time I'm home, promise), and then Ha Jímuih came in and gave us a really good lesson about them. She asked us why we use two chopsticks instead of just one (which is obviously because you can't do anything with just one), and then she told us about that's like how it is with us and the Lord. We can't do anything without Him, especially not missionary work. That was a really cool lesson for me because I've been working on relying on the Lord more this week, and believe it or not, mission life (and life in general) is a whole lot easier when you're not trying to do everything by yourself. Who would have thought? ;)
In other news, this week is the mission president training conference, so our main building is shut down to missionaries so they can have all of the mission president meetings in there. Every member of the Quorum of the Twelve is here to train them (Elder Bednar walked right by our district yesterday and said hi :)), which has been so cool. Later today our district gets to meet with one of the new mission presidents to help him with his training, which should be really good! I'm excited to see how it all goes. :)
Life is good! I'm learning so much about the gospel and about Chinese and I'm really excited for this coming week!
Love you all! Thank you for everything you do! Gayaùh!
Gwok Jímuih (Sister Wasden)

Week 2 :)

Léihdeih hóu!
It's been a crazy and SUPER GOOD week!
I got to see Cameron on Saturday and it was SOOO GOOD. I've never had half an hour go faster in my whole life but it was SO GOOD to see him! Also I got to wave at Mom and Grandpa through the front windows. :) Definitely the highlight of my week!
Also our new Cantos got in this week! They're all so sweet and it's been fun watching them start learning Cantonese and also get introduced to all of our crazy zone traditions. Our whole zone is seriously so cool and I'm so glad that I get to experience the MTC with them! Speaking of, this week I officially hit my halfway point for the MTC! CRAZY. It's gone so fast!
This week my district was also selected to be the example missionaries for the incoming missionaries in People and Purpose. Basically our job was to talk to an investigator as a companionship in front of a bunch of missionaries, ask them questions about their lives, and then step back and let the new missionaries teach the investigator as a group. It was kind of funny though because none of us were nervous to talk in front of a big room of people or about the investigator or anything. The only thing any of us were nervous about was that we've never started a lesson in English before. I was worried the whole time that I was going to habitually switch into Cantonese and not realize it! We survived though and it was actually a really cool experience. :)
This week we learned that we'll be losing not one, but TWO of our teachers! (Cue the tears.) Lèih Jímuih will be studying abroad in the UK and leaves sometime next month, and Cheung Jímuih left today for a month-long trip to Hong Kong (although she'll be back just a few days before we all leave). Us Cantos are seriously blessed with the best teachers in the MTC and I'll miss them so much!
Also our devotional speaker last night was Donny Osmond, which was a wild time. He talked about "Perseverance, Obedience, Confidence, and Experience" and told us lots of stories about his life. Lots of people were freaking out, which was really funny.
In other news, I've been coming to truly love Cantonese. When I first got my mission call, I thought Canto would be pretty cool (true) and pretty hard (also true), but that was about it. Now that I'm able to speak it a little better though, I'm starting to see how beautiful it really is. Some Cantos occasionally comment on how they wish they were learning Mandarin instead just because it's much more widely spoken, but not me! I wouldn't trade Cantonese for the world now (although if you had asked me 2 weeks ago I probably would have said otherwise ;)). The tones are tough but they make the language sound so musical and I also love how conceptual Chinese is. For example, if you break down the word for "confidence" it means "self trust" and if you break down the word for "faith," it means "trust heart," which I think is so cool. We do need to trust ourselves and our abilities but even more important is trusting our hearts and trusting the Spirit, and I love how Chinese conceptualizes that. The other word that we learned this week that I really loved was "fuisam," which means "insincere" and when broken down means "grey heart." When Lèih Jímuih was teaching us about it, it was in the context of having sincere prayers and not letting our hearts be passive. Super cool imagery. :)
Our Tuesday night devotional speaker was Elder Nielson of the 70 and his wife (who are from Twin Falls, shoutout), and they talked a lot about just letting go of ourselves and putting our faith in the Lord. Elder Nielson also pulled up President Uchtdorf's talk about not sleeping through the Restoration, and it all just stood out to me so much. So often we hear the Restoration being spoken of in the past tense ("The gospel HAS been restored, the Lord HAS established his church," etc.) but the truth is that that's not entirely correct. The Restoration ISN'T over! The gospel IS BEING restored. The Lord IS ESTABLISHING His church on the earth. The Restoration is STILL HAPPENING, and we each have an amazing opportunity to be a part of it, whether we're on missions or not. Be a part of the Restoration! Don't let it pass you by. Do your part. Be invested. Be involved. And don't let your heart turn grey. :)
Much love to you all! Thank you for all you do!
Gayaùh!
Gwok Jímuih (Sister Wasden)​​

Léih hóu!
This week has been crazy! It's gone so fast and I can definitely feel time flying by. This email will probably be a little chaotic--I have no sense of time here and I'm not really sure what happened when but here goes:
First off, on Monday we got to move into the new buildings and THEY. ARE. AMAZING. My classroom is on the top floor and we have a GORGEOUS view of the mountains and the temple and it's pretty sweet. I'll be sure to include a picture. :) It's amazing to see how much the work is progressing, even here in the MTC. :)
Hosting this week was SO MUCH FUN and it was so fun to see all the new missionaries coming in! Speaking of, we get FOURTEEN new Cantos this week (that's seriously so many) and I'm so excited to meet all of them! Our upper Cantos left early this morning for Hong Kong and we miss them so much already (the departing districts sang in church yesterday and the whole zone definitely just sat there and cried) but we'll be seeing them all in just 6 weeks. :)
Also I'm officially not sick as of this week! SO nice to be able to breathe again. Lóuh Jímuih wasn't getting better though, so we ended up having to take her to the doctor, who sent us into the REAL WORLD to get her some antibiotics from the pharmacy. It was so weird to be off church property, but definitely a fun adventure. While we were walking down the street, a runner passed by us and said "Hey Sisters!" and Lóuh Jímuih turned to me and said, "Do you think she thinks we're REAL missionaries??" before we realized that we ARE real missionaries. Still getting used to that.
Teaching "investigators" has been really good! We also had our first TRC on Saturday, where they bring in real people from the real world and we have to teach them something in Cantonese (basically visiting teaching). We've got a lot of room to grow but it's so good to see that we're somehow able to get a message across in Cantonese/Chinglish. It also helps that everyone is so nice. :)
My theme this week that I've kept repeating to myself is that "There's no growth in your comfort zone and there's no comfort in your growth zone" and oh how true that is. I've definitely had a lot of really hard days here, but looking back I can now see that those were the days that I learned the most and came closest to Christ, and it's all worth it in the end. :)
Have a good week everyone! Love you all so much!
Gayaùh!
Gwok Jímuih

Léih hóu!
This week has gone by SO FAST but SO MUCH has happened! This is going to be a long and disorganized letter, so BUCKLE UP folks, HERE WE GO.
So first off, this week was a little rough because I got hit with a lovely cold Monday night and I'm just now barely getting over it. It's definitely been making its rounds through the district and Lóuh Jímuih is now in the worst of it (I feel so bad. Sharing is caring?), but hopefully she's better soon too. Oops.
This past week we finished teaching our first investigator/teacher (we all knew that big reveal was coming). Léih Jímuih (our teacher) was acting as Nikki, who is actually a real person that Douh Hingdaih (our other teacher) and Léih Jímuih both taught, and her story is actually really cool. She's back in HK now but we'll maybe get to Skype her for training later. :) ANYWAYS, so Lóuh Jímuih and I were in our last lesson with Fake Nikki/Léih Jímuih, and Fake Nikki usually asks a LOT of questions ("How does that work? Why is it like that? Etc, etc. She legit once asked us where heaven is), which take a lot of time and brainpower to answer. So Lóuh Jímuih and I are teaching Nikki about the Atonement (which was BEGGING for clarification questions), and as SOON as Nikki asked us the first question that we had no idea how to answer in Cantonese, I GOT A NOSEBLEED. I was totally fine because I get them all the time and therefore know how to handle them, but I think Nikki thought I was dying, so she just STOPPED asking questions (I think to get the lesson over faster?). We'd go over kind of a complicated sentence and then ask if Nikki understood or if she had any questions and she'd just give us a thumbs up and we'd continue on our merry way. Lóuh Jímuih has started referring to it as a "spiritual nosebleed" and it was a little miraculous and pretty hilarious.
This week has been kind of a tough week so naturally I've thought a lot about struggling and the purpose behind it. I've been struggling with a few things lately, mostly feelings of inadequacy. I've found myself being a little jealous of the English speaking missionaries because SURPRISE, turns out that Chinese is HARD (especially when you have a cold and lost your voice and therefore CAN'T do sounds and tones like you're supposed to) and I'm not quite perfect at it yet (chill out Sister Wasden, you've only been here two weeks). I've been feeling like I could be a much more effective missionary in English because that way I could say exactly what I want to say and be able to fully address the investigator's worries and concerns instead of only understanding a few words of what they're saying and using my elementary Canto vocabulary to answer them and so on and so forth. Anyways, we've had a lot of really good devotionals this week and I'm pretty sure they were all just for me. On Tuesday, Elder deFeo of the 70 spoke to us, and his main point was that "You are the right missionary at the right time in the right mission," which was oh so good to hear. If you're where the Lord needs you to be, you're always in the right place, and I know that the Lord needs me here (because it says so right on my call), even if it's not easy all the time. Later the MTC president was talking to us, and he showed us a clip from Elder Oaks, in which he was talking about why we need to come to earth and have hard times. The video was talking from Heavenly Father's perspective and it said "That which I HAVE I can easily give you, but that which I AM you must obtain for yourself," which hit me really hard. God LETS us struggle a little bit so that we can grow and become something greater, which is actually really cool. We just have to take advantage of the struggle so we can improve ourselves. And then on top of that, in case I wasn't getting the message enough, in church Sister Newell (the branch president's wife and an actual saint) was talking about how stress is a catalyst for growth and how struggling is an opportunity to develop and strengthen ourselves, AND in class Douh Hingdaih went over stress management strategies. Needless to say, I got the hint. ;) Stress and struggling can be tough in the moment, but if they push us to learn and grow and come closer to Christ, then they're 100% worth every second. :)
In other news, this week our district FINALLY got to do our service project, which is setting up chairs in the gym for Sunday devotionals (the gym has been closed while they were redoing the floors, but it's open again). Guys, it's been TWO DAYS and I'm STILL amazed. The MTC has it down to a SCIENCE and it went SO FAST and was SO MUCH FUN. Honestly, they're doing it all wrong everywhere else in the world. If this whole biology thing doesn't work out for me, I've decided that maybe I'll be a chair setter for the rest of my days instead.
Also today my zone got to go to the temple, and it was SO GREAT. The temple is WONDERFUL. We didn't get to go last week (it was closed for cleaning) and we all missed it SO MUCH. It was so good to be back and as usual, it was exactly what I needed. :)
Other miscellaneous news/nuggets of wisdom I've learned this week:
1. ERIN SMITH (oops, Sister Smith now) IS HERE AT THE MTC AND IT'S GREAT. I love seeing her around. :)
2. We move into the new MTC buildings today and we are all so STOKED. Some lucky missionaries (not me) have gotten to tour them and I've heard so many good things! My new classroom will be on the top floor and I'm really really really excited to see it, although I am a little sad to say goodbye to our old classroom.
3. This week I get to host incoming missionaries and I'm real excited for that. :)
4. And last but definitely not least, if you ever feel like you need some extra blessings, sneeze in the MTC showers. If you REALLY need extra blessings, sneeze three times in a row. At least 4 sisters will bless you every time, guaranteed. Tried, true, and Sister Wasden approved.
Okay, I think that's all for this week! Thanks for all the love, I really appreciate all of you!
Gayaùh! Much love,
Gwok Jímuih (Sister Wasden)