Italian Language Lessons

Me familia,

I'm sitting at a picnic table outside listening to Italiano discussions while I write. I am so glad the tape, pictures and memory card arrived. Did Dad's letter and Aidan's postcard get there too? I can no longer remember what I send, and when. Could you please date your letters, so it's a little easier to know the time frame with which I'm dealing? I'm so separate here that it's hard to remember things are happening outside.

I'm working on being more positive in my emails--thirty minutes is not enough time to present, discuss, and resolve angst! I'm stuck glossing over the difficulties and therefore left with being happy. I really don't have many issues very often: I'm usually so happy. It is nice to have a purpose in life--the one I've chosen is posted on my wall (in two languages!)

(The blog admin has tried to install this photo aligned correctly, but not possible no matter what gyrations she makes! It wants to be tilted wrong! So be it!)

Let us begin with awesome Chinese jokes. How do you ask someone to answer the door in Chinese? Say Ding Dong. How do you say masculine formal wear? Bow Taai! The second joke is actual--for real that's how you say bow tie.

Still no address from Ian: I'm seriously considering sending him a postcard via Brian to say thinks for the great packages. Also, in order to RETURN with HONOR, He has to DEPART with HASTE. Tell him to get his papers in!

Speaking of packages, Ian! Thanks! The list of enclosed items is as follows:

1. Thanks for sending my old 2009 drivers license and for finding it in the pocket of the camel bac that I took on the 2009 Cousin Trek to Southern Utah. I knew it wasn't gone--but it was hard to explain to every policemen who pulled me over that it was not gone for good, just lost.

2. Q-Tips! How did you know?

3. Tin Cup, Frog Puppet is the best!!!

4. Ginger Lemon tea/juice I have lots of packets left, but now I can share with the entire MTC!

5. Thanks for the Plan of Salvation puzzle--great teaching tool.

6. I love the missionary stickers.

7. Lotion yay! Smelly, but nice.

8. A blarney stone -- after St. Paddy's hmmm. But Sis Farr and I kissed it nonetheless. Each on the opposite side of course. Need all the luck for blarney we can get!

9. Wintergreen altoids and smelly lotion. Are you trying to tell me something?

10. Mentholatum--My friend.

Thanks everyone for writing me. I am keeping each and every note and card in reserve to read on days without mail--particularly Fridays and Saturdays which are the longest and hardest. By Saturday evening, I admit, I am beat up and frustrated with language, self, MTC, teachers, even my dear companion.

We are saved by our MTC crush. You ask, what is that? Well, when Sister Farr and I were interviewed we were asked an odd question, "Heard of MTC crushes?" We laughed, "What? like, for a 19-year old?" but Sister Farr and I are beginning to look a little more critically on Elders who pop out of the woodwork, take our trays, asking for our addresses, and want to take our pictures... Sister Farr and I are learning slowly that we should be a little less effusively friendly.

Despite our best cautions, we do have a crush. There is a guy who has stolen our hearts. Brother Tyler. He leads the sister coordination reporting meeting on Tuesdays at 9:10 and he is about 72 years old. We love his advice. His most recent: "Our father in Heaven is lively, good-natured and jovial person. How do I know, That is how I feel when I am full of His Spirit."

He also told us that when General conference was first being televised, the lights were so bright that many of the General Authorities seated in the back wore dark glasses-- which," he said, "facilitated secret naps during boring speakers."

Two fabulous mission scriptures: John 21:3 and 5 reminds me that I must work BEFORE God can direct: he can't guide my steps if I’m sitting DOWN.

Matthew 9:11-13 (Moroni 8:8) about the physician being sent to those who need a doctor.

And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? When Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Repentance, change, and progression hurts--like straightening a broken bone or removing infection. God loves you--right now, which is why He offers help to heal. He knows infection rages unabated if a patient is unwilling to endure the trials of lasting healing. The Savior is the perfect doctor, having suffered all the pain of every malady himself. He is our healer.

My part: God is willing to go to all and knows that every child is precious--my challenge is to see through his eyes, to see my purpose, to see his children as he sees them. I can't expect others to look past my exterior--that's why I have to shine my shoes, etc--but treating others His way helps them see the point of my message, the whole reason I'm here talking to them: God loves you as you are. Right now and He has sent me.

Enjoy conference! We will be! Love your daughter, friend, sister, cousin, Dia

Prayers and Pandas

China = panda bears right?

Good morning, ngoh ge ga tihng!

Wait. One moment--some kind Elder left this computer on EspaÇabols mode...-

Ah, just kidding, it was Portuguese. However you spell that.

Anyway! Hi!

This week was, for the most part, overall, fantastic. Saturday we had our very first teaching appointment in all Cantonese ever, during which I (again) swore loudly at our dear investigators. Thank goodness they are very kind people (and returned missionaries from HK volunteering there, just pretending to be investigators). I was trying to say "teach" which sounds like "gaau" (cow with a g at the beginning). Unfortunately, if you say "gaau" too high it becomes a rude word (which rude word is anyone's guess, because our teachers haven't told us what it means in English... which is probably good because we say it on accident all the time). One of our investigators (the one engaged to our native teacher from HK) told us he had read the whole BOM! (we question his motives, though...)

Fasting is a great miracle and is helping me overcome my very first onset of homesickness, which peaked on Saturday night--my heart is wrenched and lonely for all of you. Fasting on Sunday--along with a beautiful mission conference and testimony meeting that day--really helped me. I should say, fasting really helped God help me.

Our ward is mostly English-speaking (mostly--as in every single person, but us 3 Cantonese speakers... soon to become SEVEN today when our new district comes in!), so when we three give our testimonies in Sacrament, one of us is to go to the back to translate for the branch presidency members' wives. Last Sunday one of the presidency of the MTC came to listen to our testimony meeting, and I told Elder Smith that if he would bear his testimony, I would translate and I'd be more than liberal in my translations--turning, "Sahn haih ngoh deih ge tin fuh" (God is our Heavenly Father) into, "My soul is sanctified through the atoning sacrifice of Jehovah, Messiah, the Son of God and Savior yesterday, today, and throughout eternities." He took me up on it. We both looked WAY GOOD!

Our mission conference Sunday had talks about both mountain climbing and marathons--I thought of you, Dad! It has really been hard this week as I've missed you so much this week. I'll send you even more meticulous notes in my letter to you today.

Oh, we also had a seventy who was president of the South American area give the devotional last night. Can someone send me Derick's email on dearelder? And could someone forward these emails to him? I miss that little snot bucket. I mean, diligent, dutiful, Elder Gines.

There will be a MTC documentary between Conference sessions--you could all watch it if you can find it. I'm sending the family the article about the MTC that ran in the Deseret News in which Sister Farr and I were quoted extensively, in the form of one line and my name was spelled wrong.

Speaking of conference, AHHHH I'M SO EXCITED FOR CONFERENCE!!!!

I wish I could say more but I'm running out of computer time so quickly. You should all watch Conference so you can see it when I see it and we can pretend we are all watching it together! And yes, we see it in a big group in the gym-turned-auditorium.

I can't believe Tasha's getting married on Friday. She'll be beautiful; I want wedding pictures! I want wedding pictures!

My new favorite talk ever is, "Shine As Lights in the World" by Neal A Maxwell. Mom, please find it and put in on my blog! It's about finding light in this time of pervasive pessimism.

Last Wednesday when we went to the temple, three little girls said, "Hi, sister missionaries!" and our little hearts melted. Sometimes we forget what the black nametag means.

To end, really quick,

our branch prez told us a story about mission conference this week. He saw a little girl with down syndrome (sp) sitting with her family, taking furious notes. When everyone else got up to sing the rest hymn, she stayed sitting down and continued to write. He craned his neck to get a glimpse of what she was working on so diligently and saw the words she'd been carefully forming, over and over, the pages of notes she'd been taking about the conference so far: Mom and Dad. Mom and Dad. Mom and Dad--repeated over, and over, and over.

You mean the most to me, Mom and Dad, Aidan and Ian, and Brian and family and loved ones. Thank you for supporting me in this work.

And for your prayer list:

Please pray for me to have patience, courage in choosing the right and quickness in learning, especially characters,.

Week 5: If It Gets Any Better, We May Get Twinkled!

Hello, dear family and other lovely people!

Ahhh, so much to say. Firstly, I s'pose, we had a devotional from Elder Costa on Tuesday. I almost told him I know Raquel Call (All Brazilians know each other, right?) but I got too nervous. He stood up after his wonderful wife spoke and said (picture it with a sweet accent), "As you can see, my wife seems to be absolutely perfect. I, too, used to think-ed my wife was perfect" (*laughter*) "Let me explain. Every time I travel I find notes in my luggage. My wife is very good at fitting lots of stuff in little space, so she packs my things. One notes say, I love you, one say, come home soon. She is so nice to me. One time I find a note in my shaving cream! I unfolded it, and it said, YOU ARE HANDSOME! ...now I know she is not perfect, because now I find her eyesight is not so good. I took her to the doctor and got her glasses, and she never left that note again. With her glasses, though, she IS perfect!" Teee heeee.

In other news, my hair's getting darker, my washcloth finally stopped smelling like play-dough, two SEPARATE people at gym yesterday asked if I ran cross-country or track because, "your calves are... massive! I've never seen calves like yours!" ... thanks...?, I tried to help a sister just in from China understand that she could borrow my towel but she only spoke Mandarin and my Mandarin is super rusty (not that I EVER knew how to say "borrow" or "towel" anyway) (it was kinda depressing because I realized Cantonese is... less useful than Mandarin. Unless you're in HK!!), our older district left for HK on Tuesday and we cried.

I fell asleep with my nametag on and accidently took my scriptures with me to the bathroom, Sister Farr and I were interviewed (again, but for something else) on camera for a missionary documentary, our teacher got engaged to our (pretend) investigator in the most confusing and awesome Saturday of our lives (we walked into our teaching appointment on Saturday morning, asked our investigator in Cantonese, 'how's your week been' and he responds in English, 'Great! I'm going to ask your teacher to marry me tonight! But you can't tell her!' and we went... '...WHAT?!' Then our other teacher, Brother Jackson, ran back to our room and chastised us in Cantonese for not focusing. It was pretty hilarious), Mountain of the Lord is the best movie I've ever seen and the language is awesome. Speak Your Language has been hard because I'm a little more... dedicated to it than my companions (I'm sure just because it's naturally a little easier for me... it definitely has nothing to do with my level of spirituality :P).

One Month in the MTC! Well, one month and one week, but whatever. I like thinking about what has been different. When was the LAST five weeks I spent without touching a cell phone, without wearing jeans, without driving a car or watching TV or getting on facebook or touching a male? A month of never being alone, never listening to an ipod or typing an essay, or lying on the grass or taking a nap. A month without buying groceries, without buying gas. A whole month of not cooking! A month without calling Mom, without getting one text from an athlete, without working out with Ian. A month without sleeping in! A month without opening a novel. A month without taking a bath (I DO shower), without jogging outside, without swimming, without radio and google and Cami and Ian and Dad and news and wasting time and weather reports and dating and midnights and green smoothies and Aidan and Brian and Kamas and Harold B Lee library and...

I wish I could give up more--I wish it'd been five weeks without guile. A month without anger, without apathy, without mistrust and impatience and sarcasm. I want a month free of lust and vanity. I want a month without doubt, a month without pride, without anguish, without fear. I want to spend a month without competition and frustration and judgment. I wan a month of the Spirit's constant presence, of purity and love, one shining in the light of Christ and singing in the ways of the psalmist and basking in the warmth and constancy of God's love. I want a month of consistent scripture study and personal prayer, a month of charity, gratitude, commitment and hope.

One month turns into two, two into six, six into a year and finally I will have a joyous life to live and love, to look back on in confidence in God and joy in the work He's given me.

I GOT MY PACKAGE OF JOY FROM IAN! Sister Farr and I refer to it as "Christmas." We had the best time opening everything in it. The frog puppet is our new favorite. I bonked Sister Farr on the head while she was sleeping with the blarney stone in hopes that it would make her talk LESS. (just kidding, sister farr). We went into a sentence-forming frenzy with the magnetic words when we figured out our bunk BED is magnetic! Ian writes the best letters in the world.

Mom's letter last week was also pretty wonderful, although her boring ones DO make me a little less homesick :) Sister Farr and I are turning into the same person... And I'm not even going there with Elder Smith. I love my companions!

I'm rationing the St patty's day family cards, and reading them one a day.

I love you all so much! Your prayers help so much, I know. Thank you so much! You are wonderful and I love you!

Sister Darcey

My Companion - Life-long Friendships

Dia quote from first letter: "My companions are great. Sister Farr is LOUD!!! She is gorgeous and kind and 22 and danced at BYU and reminds me of a mix between Ashley Nixon, NaTasha Chandler and… Mother Teresa. She’s SO nice, so generous, so kind, so sweet and so not-easily-offended. Oh and did I mention LOUD? I love her. Elder Smith, my other companion cracks me up, too—he’s so 19 years old. It’s awesome, like having a little brother around all the time."

One of our classes was a great study of companionism, for missionaries, for married life, for church callings, at work, whatever our companions.

• Live and Teach by the Spirit: You are your companion's keeper and you both must strive to keep every commandment. Every rule, even those you don't understand yet.
• Study Together, Pray, study and Obey and recognize you are there to help others feel the spirit!
• Work Together, if you are depressed, change things up and work. Discouraged, work, confused, WORK - Ezra T. Benson
• Laugh together: One class this week was on the healing power of laughter. See the Miraculous Medicine of Laughter by Don Colbert MD

• Be flexible and open to new ideas: Our speaker's "My mission was important to me" story: I had a new companion and he wouldn't tract! After he transferred, he got top baptisms, How??? He still wasn't tracting. He was working with the people who needed him, the part-member families. And he gets every friend and every co-worker of theirs and baptizes them! "That's cheating." I said! PMG: Missionary Work is not just tracting! Use the ward council, work with the less active/part member families. Retention was President Hinckley's clarion call, Rescue is Pres. Monson's.

posted by the elder Sister Darcey--Mom, from Dia's letters and notes from Mission messages in March 2011.

The Mission--A Month--The MTC

Dearest family and loved ones,

This week I stole some enchiladas, crawled under a bathroom stall, forgot what season it is )we fall back, right=, planned two meetings of music and three musical numbers, ate every meal with chopsticks, taught a Sunday school lesson on unity, contacted 30 people in Cantonese (seems like EVERYONE here speaks better espagnol than Chinese... I don't get it...), scared some new missionaries from Hong Kong, laughed until I cried, burned a hole through some carpet, committed Brother Lau to get baptized, taught six lessons, kickboxed and yoga'd and pilates'd and step aerobics'd, helped an aetheist pray for the first time, had my first sleepover where everyone was asleep by 10:45, rocked a Cantonese commitment follow up, sang in the choir, figured out I was counting laps on the track wrong and ran a mile in 7:45, ate GF pizza and about 1000 calories of straight ice cream, learned a lot about humility and fell back in love with Romans 8:15-18 and 2 Nephi 31. Oh, mission. I love it here.

Now let's see how much I can relate about the preceding paragraph in my limited time (16:07 left... 16:01 left...).

Now, To Add Interest, Go To My Play List (On the Blog, left hand corner and turn on Come Thou Fount while you continue to read:

OK, first-- I loved the song we sang this week for devotional. We have choir practice for one hour on Sunday afternoons with the funniest choir director who ever sang a note (except Sister Applonie, of course) (and maybe Sister Hall...). He is great at helping us see the meaning in the words--for example, did you know in the song, "Come, Thou Fount," the line, "here I raise my Eben-ezer" refers to the stone--a reminder of repentance--raised in the wilderness to remind the Israelites of their turning toward God? Makes sense how thousands of years later, Charles Dickens decided to name a recalcitrant scrooge who would repent and turn to God and love, "Ebenezer." I am completely embarrassed to think about how many times I've sung that line without a CLUE about what it means.

This week, the lyrics went like this:

"Behold the wounds in Jesus' hands, the marks upon his side, then ponder who he came to save when on the cross he died. We cannot see the love of God which wsaves us from the fall, yet know that Christ from wood and nails built mansions for us all. Behold the outstretched hands of Christ, Our God, who came to save, whose love and grace redeems our souls and lifts us from teh grave. Though bruised and battered as we stray, His guiding hands caress--He washes and anoints with oil and in His arms we rest. Oh, empty is the heart of man when it is filled with sin! Come, open wide your broken heart, and let your Savior in. Behold the wounds in Jesus' hands--Look to your Lord and live!--He yearns to bless you with his love and all your sins forgive. Behold his wounded hands and feet, come touch and see and feel the wounds and marks that you may know His love for you is real. Then as you fall to worship HIm and wash His feet with tears your Savior takes you in His arms and quiets all your fears.

I love it. It reminds me of Romans 8:15-18 and D&C 45:3-5 and 2 Nephi 9:10-12,18 + 2:6-10.

"He offereth himself a sacrifice for sin...How great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of

the Earth!"

I have experienced both the healing and comforting + call to repentance aid from the Spirit this week. The gospel blesses our lives now with an eternal perspective on pain and trials and sorrow--Jesus Christ suffered for us that we may be comforted through Him, and He made a way to repent so that we can progress and move past the crippling power of guilt.

I wish I could tell you more. I am so thankful for each of you--Mom, Dad, Aidan, Ian, family and friends--who I know love me and support that I'm here. It's so sad to sit at this email table and hear the other Elders in our zone worry about what to write their families--Dads who they haven't even seen in years, Moms who write them every week expressing their disappointment and disgust that they would come waste their time and money here--learning and growing in service, hope and humility.

Thank you so much for your sweet support and love! I find so much joy in my prayers for you and my thoughts and memories of your kindness, humor and love.

Lots of ngoi,

Sister Dia Darcey (Baahk Ji muih)

Deseret News Article #1

English-speakers train for three weeks before departing for their assigned areas. Those learning a language remain for eight weeks — 12 weeks for more difficult languages such as Russian, Finnish, Mandarin, Cantonese and Japanese.

Provo MTC director Richard I. Heaton says the real story of the MTC is found in the missionaries themselves and in their sacrifices and struggles in what he calls "a place of growth."

Rather, the missionaries are expected to benefit from the regimen and self-discipline. "It doesn't force you as much as it allows you to develop these habits," said Elder Bryan Lozano of Long Beach, Calif., preparing to speak Spanish in the Texas San Antonio Mission.

Provo MTC President Gordon D. Brown underscores the spiritual nature of missionary training. "I call it 'the Lord's university' — I really see it that way," he said, adding, "I've never felt the (presence of God) like I've felt it here. This is a holy sanctuary of the Lord's; this is sacred ground."

Missionaries like Elder Payton Holt of Bountiful, also destined for the San Antonio mission, echo those sentiments. "The MTC has really prepared me spiritually and doctrinally," he said. "It has surprised me how quickly one can learn about the gospel."

The Provo MTC hosts an average of about 2,000 missionaries at a time — reaching nearly 2,900 in July and August as more missionaries arrive between school years.

Able to accommodate nearly 4,000 missionaries, the Provo MTC started reaching that level in the 1990s before the expansion of international MTCs. Now nearly a third of all missionaries are trained outside of the United States.

While most think of Mormon missionaries in terms of 19-year-old or 20-something young men in white shirts and ties, an increasing number of young women, older single women and retired senior couples help comprise the missionary force. The young men welcome their female counterparts and older missionary peers with the appropriate courtesies.

"They open the doors, take our luggage, return our lunch trays," said Sister Lindsay Farr of North Ogden, training for the China Hong Kong Mission.

"They treat us like princesses," agreed Sister Diondre Darcey of Tulsa, Okla., also off to Hong Kong.

Dearest family, friends and perusers of all kinds,

I have a stalker. I mean sometimes coincidence is an OK excuse, but seriously--it's been three weeks. She's ALWAYS AROUND--every time I look over my shoulder, she's there... without fail.... I gotta figure out how to shake her...) She even sleeps in the same room...

Her name is Sister Farr and she's the bomb--together, we think we're the bomb! It's bad, we're funny... others think we're not. At times our teachers offer mercy laughs, but mostly just roll their eyes. :D Our favorite new phrase comes from the movie "The Testaments" which is a really good film-- but the romance in it is HILARIOUS.

[They let us watch church movies on Sunday nights--the ones with any kind of love story are especially hilarious--picture 1,000 girl-deprived 19-year old young men cat-calling when anyone holds hands on the screen. The scene where Emma sees Joseph for the first time in the JS movie--totally got out of control bwahahaaaa.]

We quote, "You are a specter from the gods!" (which the bad guy says in a creepy harsh murmur) every time someone does something expecially awesome. I'm beginning to see why the 12-week missionaries get a little bit wacky by the time they leave this place...

I had my very first up close and personal contact with a urinal this week. YAH! Don't ask. Every Tuesday morning we get janitorial jobs as a service activity--and you all know how much I love cleaning. Truly, it is my next favorite activity after scripture reading. (NO JOKE, NO SARCASM!) Cleaning bathrooms is actually a great break from the class-gym-eat-class-eat-class-sleep daily grind (I know, GLAD to clean toilets even URINALS? Class must be pretty bad :).

Often we forget which meal is which and have to check watches to see if we're eating lunch or dinner. Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are our favorite because Sundays and Tuesdays we have devotionals/firesides from wonderful speakers with wonderful music and Wednesdays are P-day. Friday is the hardest day--a LONG day, with no breaks, and usually with no mail (Dear Elders don't come over the weekend, so we get about 100 on Monday night and 0 Tuesday-Sunday) (If anyone wants to send me a little note on DearElder on Fridays especially, it would be so appreciated).

Sometimes we also receive a rude awakening as to how old the Elders are. They seem about our same age until we realize they graduated in 2010... or when they make some genius comment like, "Wouldn't it be cool to be able to fart on demand?!" Yeah. Then I feel about 80 years old and start looking around for my arthritis medication.

We sing Called to Serve quite a bit. I'm beginning to think it's one of the only songs the organist knows or something...

I should stop since Cantonese doesn't have a tone for sarcasm. Bwahahaaa.

ANYWAY!

I really do love it here. I love gym time (when I feel like a real person, as opposed to an accessory to a desk), I love singing in and learning Cantonese, I love studying the scriptures, I love God's love that I feel here for others, I love the spirit of msisionary work that helps me be more humble and teachable.

The only time I've felt homesick so far was when I thought about Grandma Bezzant--please let her know I miss visiting with her and love her so much and I need her address. At times I do feel a little dumb being here dealing with 19-year old boys instead of hanging out with a 24-year old man at home, but it IS worth it and usually is just FUN :)

Speaking of Brian, seriously use his resources for Aidan's Mandarin training!! He's not busy at all now since he's only a part-time student (just KIDDING, Brian). Being at the MTC has helped me realize what a GREAT Chinese teacher he is--he used lots of the same techniques as my teachers use now (all chinese all the time, using gestures and other chinese words to help us guess meaning). Get him to Skype and explain some of the enigmas of Chinese-- like no plurals, no conjugation, STPVO etc (all the same as Cantonese). Oh, and invite him to the St. Patrick's Day party!!

I'll miss you family so much and I wish I were visiting the slot canyons next week.

The best part about being here is becoming more aware of the every day MIRACLES! I experienced the most beautiful miracle yesterday--feeling the Spirit while speaking Cantonese. Our teacher challenged us to speak ONLY Chinese AS FAST AS WE COULD for 10 minutes straight. The point was to realize how many sentences we could make with what we thought was pretty limited vocabulary. Surprise, we COULD say much more than we thought we could--and I experienced a beautiful tender mercy. As I was working to put together a sentence I realized how much I believed what I was saying--how fervently I believed it, how desperately I wanted to share my testimony of God's love and the fullness of His gospel with others. I said, "When I pray, I know God loves me and my family, and that we can be together forever even after we die."

I was practicing with Sister Farr--and at "even after we die" we both started bawling. Our teacher thought we were crazy, I'm sure, but it truly was a miracle, a tender mercy that gave me a strong feeling of affirmation. God loves us and is helping me learn!

"The cavity carved out by your sorrow will become the receptacle for your joy."

2 Sam 22 And he said, The Lord is my rock and my fortress, and my deliverer.

MTC Insights

Feb 20, 2011 I've been here three weeks and every day is like Tuesday devotional day at BYU. Family and friends, here are some of my note highlights:

Stephen B. Allen spoke and his message echoed in my heart: "Life is awash with difficulties, it might be the Dear John you got today. You wait for him two years and then the scuzzball, I mean young man dropped you?! Mine was a wedding announcement--it became the district dartboard." (Brian, that part did not echo in my heart, but it was a good lead-in for the message to a group of missionaries.)

Which of us isn't experiencing turbulence in life? It might be the language, the food, death, divorce, learning discussions, or loneliness. Richard G. Scott said in his book, Finding, Peace Happiness and Joy, "When trials are not a consequence of your disobedience, they are evidence the Lord feels you are ready to grow more. It is at that point that we are offered the opportunity to learn to trust and rely on Him.

Many of you thus far have been accustomed to trusting in your own value. You cannot succeed in life or missionary work on your own merit. Jesus Savior Pilot Me! Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy path.

At times, it may be the very waves of your turbulent life that are keeping you up off the rocky bottom. Jesus knows these waters, Find, Teach, Baptize You will feel a rich, beautiful feeling bless you as you realize how much you come to love others, particularly those people you are called to serve.

posted by Elder Sister Darcey - the Mom

Holy Ghost's Inspiration

Today's spiritual message began through the powerful message of music. High on the Mountaintop is my call to learn divine truth, How Firm a foundation, Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring (Bach). I didn't know an organ could sound like that!!!

The Holy Ghost can impress us so deeply that no moral power can separate us from the knowledge gained through it's power." 2Ne 32:2-3 5,8, 2Ne. 31: 11-12 How can I come to believe that more fully?

Jana Staples, the General RS Board spoke and said, "Trust yourself, who you have always been. Your body is a literal symbol of the righteousness you have already achieved. You will know you are being led by the spirit if you are acting generously, obedient, kindly."

John 14:26, But the comforter which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all thing and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

The story of Abraham and Issac reminds me that when Abraham sacrificed his own will to the Lord's he learned that the Lord will reward those who trust fully in Him. Peter walking on water reminds me again to #1 look to Christ to trust him, #2 Take a leap of faith and follow, #3 Beware of distraction #4 Call to Him in Prayer, #5 Take His hand and be lifted up.

Remember that I have two companions, not only my Sister but the Holy Ghost.

Why A Mission?

Bishop Richard C. Edgley of the Presiding Bishopric

"I don't care what your background is, you are a missionary and the mantle rests upon you. You are only the receptacle for the Spirit, you are not alone. Each of you is going to the second best mission in the church and you'll have the second best mission president, (the first was mine.) "

The presiding bishopric build the buildings of the church -- actually we go to the meetings and others build them. Pres Hickley was in Manhattan, and it was very expensive to buy land there. I told him when I served there on my mission we didn't have even one baptism in 15 months. Pres. Hinckley responded, "Well, now we have better missionaries."

Meeting at the MTC is Bishop Edgley's his favorite meeting (and he goes to a LOT!) He was once asked by an African delegate: How do you get your people to serve missions?" The delegate needed more volunteers to help with the AIDS epidemic.

He answered, "They are converted and are compelled to serve by a power greater than mine."

From a Mother's email letter to a mission president: "I have a very important request."

She had a son who was at college on a football scholarship. After the first semester, he called and said "I'm joining the Mormon Church! She said "You get home now! He went home, he insisted and she disowned him.

The next message was "Mother I'm going on a mission for the Mormon Church!" "No, you aren't, this family doesn't send Mormon Missionaries!"

Shortly thereafter two missionaries tracted to her house (as they do on occasion) and she asked them, "What are you doing in this city? Why are you here?"

They responded, "Ma'am, that's exactly what we wanted to talk to you about." They gave her the mission president's number at the MTC. She asked him, "How are you brainwashing these people?"

He responded, "Let me get someone to help you." She was asked to come to the MTC in her city where she talked to missionaries, they took her into a class, and took her to the huge lunchroom. At the end of the experience, she again emailed the Mission President and said,

"So, this is my request. In two hours, my son will get off the plane and come into your mission, when he does, please wrap your arms around him and tell him it's from his mother and she is so sorry."

"I promise if you share your experiences with your family, you will go him and see a change, even--no especially--if they don't understand why you are doing this now."

Feeling a little like Frodo

March 2, 2011

Dearest Wonderful Family and Friends,

Thanks for all the letters, notes, boxes and pick-me-ups. It does make me feel picked up!

Please tell Ian to hurry up with his mission papers-my entire zone can't wait to hear where my huge, genius, skinny, GF, martial master brother is going!! Ian, that had to be the funniest letter I've received yet and we all read and laughed together. So awesome. I especially liked the poem from Star Wars and the HILARIOUS puns. Tell Aidan thank you for his awesome part of the dear elder letter--I am so glad he's praying for me and the language! I'll pray for him and the language. It's great to be learning Chinese together. Tell him that the first aquarium is NOT in Moses--check out the second half of the BOM for the answer. He will have to wait until next week’s email if he needs more help. Tell Steven Mitchell congrats on his baptism!! I'm so excited for him and I thought about him all that day and night.

This is a interesting place. I've never laughed so hard or so often in my life--not always in joy, but sometimes in disbelief (Two thousand 19-year olds running around is like a constant circus). The MTC experience is inimitably awesome, more so than anything I've ever experienced--this week I made friends with President Brown, played piano for Sacrament and then accompanied a hard musical piece with zero practice (miracle!), got called as branch music coordinator (how unfortunate for them that they thought I was good at piano... I TOLD them it was a miracle, but no luck), learned more Cantonese, listened to Bishop Richard C. Edgley and Stephen B. Allen (chair of the Mission Board and a hilarious man), studied scriptures for about ten hours, taught a shoe-shining seminar, contacted in the lunch line, sang in choir, ate great GF food and BYU ice cream, ran a mile in 9:48 (don't laugh), taught 5 lessons and 7 investigators, cried a little, indexed notes, marked scriptures to my little heart's content, oh, and testified that God loves His children (Sahn ngoi keuih ge jing leiuh) to everyone who would listen. I also experienced the beautiful miracle of reading 2 Ne. 31:20 in Cantonese.

Eight sisters left our branch this week. Our room is now empty of the 8-foot-tall, gorgeous Sister Pitts (a ballerina for Utah Regional Ballet and known as our beloved "snoring sister"), Sister Wilcox who had the deepest, cutest dimples I've ever seen, hilarious Sister Hanney and Sister Stacey who alternately loved and loathed one another--it's just Sister Farr and me. We woke up one morning to empty beds... and dried our tears quickly as we realized that we had about 3x as much room to get ready for the day in :) bwahahaa! (dang participle)

Yesterday I was considering moving to the other side of the uppermost bunk (where my head was on the other side) so I could use the top of the wardrobe next to the top bunk as a shelf, . The only minus is there's no fall-out-bar on that side of the bed. Sister Farr replied, "If you fall off and die, I WILL KILL YOU. I can't learn Cantonese by myself!!"

At times, this great adventure feels akin to Frodo and Sam's parts in LOTR. Aragorn and Gandalf are actively battling the forces of evil---they can see the foe, yea look it in the eye while they battle the hordes of black and blood before them. Meanwhile, Frodo and Sam fight a much subtler battle. Slowly, inexorably, the faces of loves ones and friends fade as day after day they swallow lembas, trudge over gray rocks, walk, eat, rest, walk, go to the gym, service, study, study, study, learn and all for what? To accomplish a work that is so much beyond--even their own imaginings. No faces plead with them to stay the course and an unwieldy burden drags their every footstep.

Why continue? What is the point of all the discomfort and effort and weariness and work? No city is saved at the end of the day, no grateful praise sounds at the end of their quiet battle, nothing urges them onward, but faith.

Faith. That's why I persevere, faith that obedience and hard work will teach me humility and grant me the ability to see the Lord’s Spirit convert others to His Truth. And when I am finished, the shire awaits and in the end, the world is better