Chapter 1: Lin Jie Mei the Second

note:  "Jeimei" is the generic Mandarin for "sister," as in "Sister Larson."  Thus her name, and the web address for the blog.


Nihao family and friends!

Wow so much has happened here at the MTC! It has been seriously such a great learning experience, and each day gets better and better. I'm going to be honest, the first 2 days here were probably some of the two hardest days in my life. I was exhausted, and couldn't figure out what my teacher was saying, and I doubted whether I could be a missionary. But after some sincere prayer and some much needed sleep, things started to get better! 
My companion's name is Sister Warren, and she's so great. She is from Delaware and we get along so great. I love her so much already.


Here are some pics of me and Sister Warren! There isn't anything 
very exciting to take pictures of haha.

The first day of class I walked in and there was a name tag on my desk and it said Lu Jie Mei (Sister Lu), and I immediately asked my laoshi (teacher) if I could change my name to Lin, so I could be like my sister, the OG Lin Jie Mei. So now I am officially Lin Jie Mei the second, and I could not be happier following my sister's example. 
My Chinese class is going pretty well! During the 3 days that I have had official class, I have learned how to pray (without reading out of a book), how to bear my testimony, and Sister Warren and I even taught an investigator! His name is Huang DiXiong (Brother Huang) and I just can't believe that I can already have a conversation in Chinese with a native speaker about the gospel. The gift of tongues is so real.

Us with our pocket dictionaries. Note the word "pocket." they probably 
weigh 5 pounds and are the size of bricks.  Ahh I love mandarin.

My laoshi is great. He served his mission in Toronto. He only speaks to us in Mandarin, and he definitely has a different Mandarin and English voice, so when he speaks a word in English, Sister Warren and I don't recognize his voice, and we just think it's so funny. Also his name is Xiong DiXiong, which translates to Brother Bear, which is pretty great.

One thing that I have learned is that when people talk about Elders being obnoxious and crazy, they weren't lying. Some of the Elders in my zone are the most stereotypical Elders, but they can be funny sometimes. 
I didn't realize how many missions spoke Mandarin! There are 2 Mandarin zones, and in those zones, there are people going to Australia, Singapore, Vancouver, New York, Virginia, Taipei, Taichung, Hong Kong, California. It's so amazing to me!

Another thing I have learned is to be exactly obedient. My branch president said to us in our first meeting "If you are almost obedient, you almost get blessings." I love that! So be obedient!

I love you all! Have a great week! I love hearing from you all!
Love, 
Sister Larson



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chapters 78 and 79: Happy Thanksgiving (again) AND Taidong Takes Taipei

Image
Hello! Happy Thanksgiving! This week was so great! We had so much fun this week, ahh it was just so so awesome! This week, we spent a little time preparing a play about the background of Thanksgiving for our ward party on Saturday. Let's just say, it was the funniest thing ever and I would send it to y'all except for the fact that it's in Chinese and most of you wouldn't understand it. But it was actually hilarious and honestly one of the most funny things I've ever participated in. The ward LOVED it and they quoted it all the time at church the next day hahaha. We also got to participate in a super sick aboriginal dance with members of the Beinan tribe. It was sooooo sick and some of the Elders in our district got to wear traditional Taiwanese clothing to dance in. haha I was a little jealous, but it's fine I'm over it.  We had a great thanksgiving too! A member in our ward made us a thanksgiving dinner very similar to what we get in America and it ...
Read more

Chapter 80: I'll be home for Christmas

Image
"You can count on me" hahahaha 大家好 This week was great! We went caroling at Carrefour like last year and it was so much fun.  I don't really know what to say for this week. I just cant believe it's over! Crazy. My mission has been great, it's been hard, its been happy, its been sad. But most importantly, it's been the most amazing experience of my life. I'm so grateful I could dedicate my life to Jesus Christ for the last 19 months. This gospel is true!  I'll see you all soon! Love, Sister Larson
Read more

Chapters 66 and 67: When the going gets tough, the tough get going AND I become famous X3

Image
Happy September!!  Lol I'm so dead I can't believe it's already September. I think I say that every month. Haha. This week was definitely one of those growing weeks as a missionary. Our friends have like literally all disappeared or texted us saying they don't want to meet with us anymore. Like. Literally all of them. Except for this one really cute family (they are really cool). It's been pretty hard for me and Sister Cajilig because we've been working so hard and having great, spiritual lessons, but then these people just disappear. All at the same time. It's been of one of those "Do I falter or do I finish?" kind of weeks. And we decided to finish! So we are going to go ham this week on the street contacting and finding, it's going to be great! In other news, we've recently been working with this really old man in our ward named Brother Chen. He's 94 and was baptized probs over 50 years ago and has been inactive ever since. We...
Read more