Once again thanks for all the letters, packages, and dear elders! It's so nice to come back from lunch and dinner and see the letters on my desk! :) I seriously love it!!
Another eventful week here! So I've been here for 2.5 weeks now. On Wednesday my District was chosen to help host the brand new missionaries! It was crazy because none of us feel very experienced yet! But we found out how much we actually know! I hosted 2 cute sisters. Sister Jackson from Layton, Utah and Sister Summers from Tremonton, Utah. They're both going to Mexico somewhere... It brought back a lot of memories from just 2ish weeks ago when I was dropped off and took that first huge step into the MTC and the mission life!! I tried to give them some good advice, even thought I still need advice! :) haha It was great to see the excitement in their eyes for missionary work. I see them all the time and it seems like they're still loving it! I know I am! This Wednesday we're directing traffic when all the new ones come in! So we'll see how that goes!
On Saturday Sister Kirkham and I had our FIRST TRC, which is when volunteers come to the MTC and we teach them in Chinese! Soooo no one told us that they weren't pretending to be investigators. They were just being themselves!! So we taught our 2 volunteers about how to pray, why it is important, and that God loves them and stuff like that. AWKWARD. Crazy coincidence though! Our first volunteer was Sister Wesli Peay!! I knew her from Maple Mountain High School and she just got back from Taipei a few months ago! That was way awesome! So if you're reading this Wesli, I'm sorry we were so awkward and couldn't speak very well! :) It was still a good experience, and we both improved from our previous teaching opportunities!
Our Sunday night devotional last night was by Chad Lewis!! He played for BYU in the 90's and then went on to play in the NFL for 9 years. He served a mission to Taichung, which is the other Taiwan mission. It was so sweet to hear him talk about his love for the Taiwanese people. He also told some cool stories about how he shared his testimony and the gospel while he was in the NFL. He was a great speaker and it was so special. All of us Taiwan missionaries left a little more inspired and excited! It's pretty awesome though because 2/5 districts in our zone are leaving today for the field! So they got a pretty sweet last devotional!
Today is kind of a sad day though. Some of the missionaries are going to Hong Kong, but most were assigned to Taipei. We've gotten so close to them the last 2 weeks and they have so much experience. The crazy thing is that Taiwan changed their Visa requirements a few months ago! The districts before them all got reassigned to temporary stateside missions while they got their paperwork all sorted out. They're all in Taiwan now. They were only in their temp missions for 6 weeks so that's good! So now the whole system is backed up and these districts got reassigned too! It was fun to have like a second call opening party for all of them! They're mostly going east coast, but there is 1 sister going to Mesa! We're going to miss them all so much!! There's a Singapore district leaving next week so we'll be the oldest "mandos" (mandarin speakers) in the MTC then!!! AAAAH!! We aren't ready for that!! We don't know if our district will also be reassigned, but I don't care either way. I'll go where the Lord wants me to go! My district is kinda freaking out because they REALLY want to go to Taiwan. I know the Lord has a plan for us that we might not always be able to see. Things will always work out! I'll keep you guys posted though!!
I wanna leave you guys with a quick scripture I read Saturday night. It's Helaman 10:4. "Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done;for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments" LOVE that whole chapter though! Nephi's a great example!! I love what the Lord says about Nephi there. I've made it my goal to be a missionary like that, so one day Heavenly Father will say that about me too. I'm just here to do his will & his work!
I know this church is true. I know that when we pray with a sincere heart when we have a question, Heavenly Father DOES listen to our prayers and will answer them! I know that Joseph Smith restored the the gospel to the earth in it's fulness. I know the Book of Mormon is truly another testament of Jesus Christ. I know that through Jesus Christ we can be spiritually healed and forgiven of our sins. The Atonement is real!! Anyways..
I love you all! Thanks for the support! Keep praying & keep the faith!!
Note from MOM: Annie has been a huge fan of Chad Lewis for a long time! She read his book and followed his football career long before she was called to serve in Taiwan. This was a BIG deal for her! She's doing great and we are so proud of her but we miss her like crazy!
