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,.