HONG KONG HERE I COME :)

Léihdeih hóu!
I leave for HONG KONG on MONDAY! I can't believe it's actually happening! The MTC went by SO fast and it's always felt like I'll never leave, and it's only just barely starting to sink in that we're actually going out into the real world. CRAZY
We don't have much time this week, so here's a brief list of interesting/exciting things that have been going on:
1. The MTC started doing their open house tours this week! They moved our class temporarily to the second floor so that the tour groups would walk past our class and hear some Cantonese (as well as a few other languages that they moved into the hallway), which was an interesting experience. We all missed our normal classroom a lot, but it was kind of fun to get to see the tour groups coming through and also maybe show off a little Cantonese along the way. :)
2. This week I learned the difference between saying "I had" and saying "I'm pregnant." The hard way. Glad I figured that one out before I'm in the real world, oops. :)
3. This week I experienced déjà vu in Chinese, which was pretty sweet. I'm not totally sure what that means but I sure hope that it means that I'm almost fluent. ;) (Haha, riiiight)
4. We had our last classes today! I'm SO EXCITED to go out into the field but I have to admit that I'm a little sad to leave the MTC. I've seriously have been so blessed with THE BEST teachers and THE BEST district, and saying goodbye to all of our teachers was really hard. Thankfully our whole district flies to Hong Kong together or I'd be a total mess. I've learned and grown SO MUCH in the MTC and I'm just so so so grateful for my experience here. You guys, the church is so true! I'm constantly in awe of this gospel and how perfect it is. It's really something that's for every single person on this planet and I'm so excited to share it with the people of Hong Kong!
Love you all, thanks for all you do! Gayàuh!
Gwok Jímuih (Sister Wasden) :)
郭姊妹

UPDATE: I'M GOING TO HONG KONG

Léihdeih hóu!!
This week has been so good! We only have ONE MORE WEEK in the MTC so things have been picking up!
This past week we finally got our Chinese tags! They came a couple of weeks late, and we'll get totally different tags once we're actually in the field, and we can also only wear these ones when we're in the classroom, but we were all really excited nonetheless. :)
Also this week we finally got our FLIGHT PLANS! One week from today I will be on an airplane heading to CHINA! We were all so nervous to see if our visas went through or not that it basically felt like mission calls part 2, but it all turned out well. Our whole district (plus two other missionaries that are in the fast track district) will all be flying together. I've come to love my district SO MUCH and I'm so glad that we won't have to say goodbye because we're all going to the same place together. :)
This week Douh Hingdaih taught us a bunch of Chinese idioms, and long story short, I LOVE CHINESE. Seriously guys, Chinese is GREAT. The idiom we really focused on was "po fú chàhm jàu," which means "break pots sink ships" and it comes from a story about a battle where they broke all the enemies' pots and sunk all their ships so that way they couldn't eat or escape, so their only options were to win or die. Douh Hingdaih used that as an analogy for our missions (and our lives) and talked about how we need to break all of our own pots and our own ships so that we can go ALL IN with no excuses and no regrets. Super super cool. :)
Yesterday our district decided to watch "Character of Christ" by Elder Bednar again for our Sunday film (I had to miss like half of it the first time, so we wanted to be sure to watch all of it again) and HOLY COW IT'S JUST SO GOOD. He talks mostly about how Christ has always turned outward to serve others instead of turning inward to worry about Himself, and if we want to be Christlike we should focus on doing the exact same thing, and it was a super cool thing to hear. Really excited to start applying what I learned, especially out in the field!
Ummm I think that's about it for this week! In other news, I'm starting to think in Chinglish and sometimes when I say things I can't tell if I'm speaking Chinese or English (or sometimes even Spanish? Don't know what's up with that), so that's pretty cool. :)
I've been so blessed here and I'm so grateful to be learning so much! Life is so good!
Love you all! Thanks for all you do! Have such a good week and remember to turn outward. :)
Ngóh ngoi léihdeih! Gàyàuh!
Gwok Jímuih (Sister Wasden) :)

The Weekly :)

Léihdeih hóu!
This has been a crazy week! I have a theory that time flows differently in the MTC, so I'm not actually totally sure what things happened when this week. Or if they even happened this week at all? ANYWAYS, memory problems aside, here's a list of exciting things that are going on for us here in the MTC: :)
1. The 4th of July shower sing-along was a raging success! Not going to lie, we used to kind of joke around about all the people singing in the shower, but then when Lòuh Jímuih and I actually tried it it ended up being way fun and lowkey changed my life. Wish we'd discovered it 7 weeks sooner. ;)
2. Also on the 4th, we all were super cute and wore patriotic colors and Hah Jímuih definitely looked the most patriotic of us all and she doesn't even celebrate the 4th of July, so that was cool (shoutout to Hah Jímuih for not being American). :) (Also the next day we all accidentally wore matching striped shirts. Sorry, those are legitimately the only good pictures I have from this week.)
3. We leave the MTC TWO WEEKS from today! We should be getting our flight plans this Friday and we're all PSYCHED. It still definitely doesn't feel like we'll be really leaving (and probably won't until we're at the airport) but it's for sure an exciting step! We all still have a lot to learn but we're definitely getting really excited to go!
4. Hosting this week was CRAZY but so much fun! It was super super busy (we got 700+ new missionaries this week) and super super hot (about 104 degrees), but then it got super super windy and overcast towards the end which was honestly such a blessing because it cooled down a ton. I got to host one international missionary (from Germany) and four other sisters and it was seriously the best. :)
5. Douh Hingdaih did a fun activity with us in class where we got into groups and acted out Book of Mormon stories, and my group did Alma the Younger's conversion story. I was the angel and Alma Sr., and not to brag or anything, but I'm expecting my Grammy in the mail any day now. ;) Really though, it was so fun to watch everyone's skits and I honestly just love my district so much!
6. My word of the week is "gleichzeitig." It's not even Cantonese, it's German. Shoutout again to Hah Jímuih for not being American. ;)
7. Our devo last night was SO GOOD! My favorite quote was this: "It's not enough to be willing to do ANYTHING to have a successful mission; you have to be willing to do EVERYTHING." Super cool. :) He also talked a lot about becoming a "go-to missionary" and how to be the best we can be and I just loved it so much.
I think that's about it? Life is oh so good here and I'm learning so much! This really is the Lord's work and it's been so amazing to see everyone growing and progressing! I can't wait to get out into the field and share this awesome gospel with everyone!
Thank you everyone all for all you do! Love you all so much! Gayàuh!
Gwok Jímuih (Sister Wasden)

The Weekly! Apostles and Fireworks and Craziness

Léihdeih hóu!
It has been a wild week here in the MTC, so get ready for a chaotic summary!
On Monday and Tuesday our district got to work and do some training with President and Sister Davies, who will be over a mission in the Philippines! President and Sister Davies were SO COOL. They were so awesome to work with and it was so weird teaching in English, but it was a really cool experience.
Our Tuesday night devotional was CRAZY. Since the Quorum of the 12 was here for the mission president training conference, we were pretty sure it was going to be a really good devotional and BOY WERE WE RIGHT. Elder Bednar was our speaker and no big deal, only NINE OTHER APOSTLES were also there on the stand! It was SO COOL and the Spirit was SO STRONG and I just have such a testimony that the leaders of the church are truly led by God. It was amazing. Elder Bednar talked to us about treasuring up the words of Christ and having them in our hearts. He also talked about Joseph Smith and the choir (which I'm in :)) sang Praise to the Man because it was the 173rd anniversary of Joseph Smith's martyrdom and it was so so so good. Really powerful.
Between that and a few other cool experiences, my testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon have really grown a lot this week. Sometimes when we have some extra time in class, Douh Hingdaih does this activity with us where we all write down a question or two in our notebooks, and then we all read the same chapter out of the Book of Mormon together as a class, and regardless of how different all of our questions are, we all always find an answer. Every single time. This book is so true and it has SO MUCH power! Make sure you're reading it every day because it changes lives!
On Saturday the MTC Presidency gave all of the missionaries special permission to stay up late and watch the fireworks from the Stadium of Fire event and it was so fun! At first I wasn't that excited because I really really wanted to go to bed as soon as possible, but it was actually tons of fun and I really really loved watching the fireworks. :) We also had a devotional about religious freedom beforehand and we're seriously so blessed to live in a country where we can worship however we want. Way cool. :)
Other news:
1. We should be hosting again this week and I'm super excited! It was a lot of fun last time and I'm really excited to help out again. :)
2. I'm officially developing a watch tan. I'm not sure how I feel about that yet.
3. We start Skype TRCs (lessons with members) TONIGHT! We'll be Skyping people in HONG KONG and I'm really nervous but also SO EXCITED!
4. We get new missionaries this week! We thought we would be getting new Cantos but we just found out yesterday that they'll be all Mandos, which is kind of sad but still really exciting! The older district (Mandos) leaves today and we'll miss them so much!
5. New hobby: Hah Jímuih and I have started eating popcorn with chopsticks. WAY more fun and a lot less messy (sort of).
6. I LOVE CHINESE (in case you couldn't figure that out already ;)) This week I learned that the word for "firework" breaks down into "smoke flower" (seriously, how cool is that?) and the word for "bench" is "long chair." So literal. So good. ALSO THIS IS SERIOUSLY MY FAVORITE THING: We learned this week that a nice polite way to start a conversation with someone is to ask "Have you eaten yet?" (which literally translates to "Have you eaten rice yet?") and if they say yes, you proceed with the conversation, and if they say no, you say "Hurry, go eat!" and that's that. How sweet is that?! Chinese is GREAT. :)
Anyways, I think that's about all for this week! Have a happy and safe 4th of July tomorrow! Lóuh Jímuih and I are planning on leading an America-themed sing-along in the showers tomorrow night to celebrate. ;)
Thanks for all you do! Ngóh ngoi léihdeih! Gayàuh!
Gwok Jímuih (Sister Wasden) :)

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