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