October 2nd, 2012

Ni hao Jating!

 

So, I don't know if you realize this but, I leave this month! I am so happy I can say that now! Less than 4 weeks! But...who's counting...

Well, the newbies are finally here, 6 new sisters! They are awesome, I love them. I haven't had a chance to really get to know them all that well yet but I will soon. I love them especially because they think my Chinese is the most amazing thing, haha bless their hearts, so naive. I just got called as Coordinating Sister! I am so excited for this calling, it's...kind of a big deal. It's the biggest calling a Sister Missionary can have at the MTC. I am in charge of all the sisters in my zone, so like a zone leader only for the Sisters. Since conference is this weekend my calling isn't effective until afterwards. I will get to attend all the branch presidency meetings etc. I am so excited, just HONORED! 

Like I said, conference is this weekend, probably the second best thing next to Christmas. All of us are so excited, classes and TRC have been cancelled for Saturday, except treats aren't allowed in the building where we will be watching. How lame is that!? Oh well.

The language is coming along, most of the time. I almost started crying the other day when we were practicing with one of our teachers. I was really tired and just not in the mood for Chinese and I said something in bad grammar so the teacher corrected me and I was about to just lay down and quit. I was so done teaching for the day haha but we made it through and my teacher pulled me aside and said I'm doing amazing....shucks. :) haha. 

My new favorite thing to do is look up how to say the classic American saying such as "Cool your jets" "Where do you get off?" "fat chance" that one is my favorite...haha and of course they don't translate right so in Chinese it doesn't make any sense but I still think it's funny. So does my district..."Sister Raitt could you say the missionary purpose for us?" "FAT CHANCE!" haha my teacher looks at me..."opportunity to get fat?"  Of course I didn't do the greatest translation so that is how he interpreted it, but we all laughed. Now the whole district uses my sayings.

I played softball with some Elders the other night, that was fun. They were like..."does anyone here pitch?" I said..."umm..ya I could throw to you" haha they thought I was this phenomenal player, they obviously haven't seen college pitchers but I felt great about myself. It was fun to get out and play with them.

Brother Nightingale (one of my teachers) has been playing games with us to teach and help us learn Chinese. It is so fun, I get a kick of of it. Yesterday he gave us each a sentence to translate, and we had to go up against someone else and whoever translated it the most correct got the point. So when it was time to challenge, we have to stand up and face each other, then the Elders start singing "Eye of the Tiger" hahaha so funny. Games are my favorite. And I pretty much laugh at anything and everything now days, so fun.

Sunday was fast Sunday, seeing as how I pretty much only eat rice now, I was FAMISHED by the time dinner came around, and low and behold the dinner wasn't all that great so, feel free to send me ANY form of real food. I weigh 7 lbs. Fast Sundays are hard at the MTC because we have either meetings or just study time all day long, we start to get a little delusional in class, you can only flip through flashcards for so long before we all wanna rage and bust out of the gates. haha. Just kidding, I'm loving it here. I am definitely ready to leave though, being here for so long we watch English missionaries come and go, It's depressing. But there is lots that we can learn here so it's all good. 

Question of the hour...is the prophet coming tonight?? haha we get our hopes up every week...then our hearts shatter when It's just the missionary management and we've already heard him speak twice. Tonight may be the night! I just finished the Book of Mormon last week, I'm tellin ya...all of a sudden the things I'm reading make sense! I bought a Bible story book that walks me through all the Bible stories, my mind is just blown! I have never heard these stories before, I'm like a little sponge soaking up all this new gospel doctrine! I love it. I love hearing stories everyday about missionary work, there is no doubt in my mind this church is true. I am amazed to know that RIGHT now Heavenly Father is preparing people for me to teach in Australia who are just waiting to hear the gospel. Pressure much?? No, because the spirit does all the work, I just have to find them and help them. How great is my purpose!? love it. 

I miss all of you so much, I pray for you multiple times a day. I know the Lord blesses all of us, even if we can't see it immediately. I am about out of time, please keep the letters coming (I got a whopping 2 this week - that is sarcastic) I love to hear from you! Have an awesome week! 

Love,

Sister Raitt