This week was full of some amazing experiences.
Tuesday:
Tuesday morning the elders and sisters going to Taiwan from our
district (6/8 of us) had to go get our blood drawn at 9 AM. They had to
get 3 viles of blood!! The 3rd one hurt so bad I honestly thought I was
going to pass out! Haha one of the sweet ladies drawing blood is named
Ellen Page she asked me if I was related to a Lani Haacke and I said Oh
my goodness! That's my grandpa! Ellen was taught by grandpa in high
school at Orem and she later gave him allergy shots! Do you remember her
grandpa? On Tuesday my district and I also joined the MTC choir. It is
so neat. I love it. We have choir practice every Tuesday and Sunday at
5:15. We sing in the devotionals on Tuesday and sometimes on Sunday. On
Tuesday night, Elder Nielson from the Seventy spoke and he talked about
10 things he wished he would have known before he went on his mission. I
learned a lot from it. After devotional, we were walking back to our
classroom and when we were walking in the door, there were two people
and they kept repeating, "Is there a red-headed Sister here who just got
here last week?" And I was like "OH that that's me!" They were looking
for me and it was President and Sister Stenerson. Sister Sternerson was
like let me give you a hug! I had no idea who they were. I guess they
are friends with grandma & pa H and they know you, mom and dad. I
talked to them for a little bit. They are in a branch presidency for
Japanese speaking missionaries so their classrooms are a floor above
ours. I will be able to see them more--probably every Tuesday. We then
set some district goals.
Wednesday: Today was
the day that I said a PRAYER in CHINESE with no book!! I was so excited!
It really boosted my confidence in being able to learn this language.
Sometimes it gets really frustrating but since Wednesday, I haven't been
frustrated at all about learning the language I am going to preach the
gospel in.
Thursday: Thursday morning Sister
Lindsay and I had the wonderful opportunity to clean all the showers on
the 2nd floor of our Residence Hall (We live on the 4th floor). Every
Thursday morning we have 75 minutes of Service. It actually wasn't as
bad as you think..haha..we got to use a foam gun and this big hose
thing. AND we got to wear safety goggles...so that made it so much more
fun! Haha The only gross thing is having to clean out all the hair from
the drains..there is a lot of hair here!!
HIGHLIGHT
OF THE WEEK: So today we taught Huang Di Xiong for our 4th time I
think. Guess what! He accepted baptism!! BUT there is a twist: SO we
have a preach my gospel in PingYin and a preach my gospel in characters
and we were using the one in PingYin to ask Brother Huang to be baptized
because our lesson went so well we thought it would be good to ask him.
So I was reading out of Preach My Gospel and before it has the
invitation to be baptized it says, "The invitation to be baptized and
confirmed should be specific and direct" and then it has a colon ( : )
and then "Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized
by someone holding the priesthood authority of God? We will be holding a
baptismal service on (date of service). Will you prepare yourself to be
baptized on that date?" Haha so In Chinese I said, "The invitation to
be baptized and confirmed should be specific and direct." and then I
noticed that I started at the wrong spot and I was like , "duibuqi"
(SORRY) like 5 times in a row and I look up and Huang Di Xiong is
laughing so hard, Sister Lindsay is laughing so hard and so we all laugh
for like a minute and then I said the part that I was supposed to and
he said YES and that he would be willing on Oct. 18! He just had to ask
his parents for permission...We were SO excited! It made our whole day!
It was so funny though. I probably got like so red..
Friday:
This whole week has been such a nice week..It started getting cold on
Saturday. Friday, Sister Lindsay and I went outside and studied on a
table. It was nice to sit in the sun because I swear we haven't seen it
since Oct. 1 :) We have gym every morning and this morning we played
volleyball and this Elder was playing with us and he was really shy at
first but then he started making all these Avatar noises whenever he
would hit the ball. It was so funny! We all laughed together so much!
So
class comes around and we have a new teacher--Brother Chia (Xie Lao
Shi) and he walks in and he was our investigator we just got done
teaching on Thursday. Sister Lindsay and I just start laughing because
we had some embarrassing moments (Like the one yesterday). So we talked a
little about our investigator experience-and he looks at me and asks me
in Chinese if I told the rest of my district if I told them what
happened. And everyone just started laughing. So we all had a good laugh
about what happened on Thursday. :) He then looked at Sister Lindsay
and said in English, "Compulsive dropping disorder?" and everyone
started laughing. During our second lesson with Huang Di Xiong, Sister
Lindsay's books fell and went all over and she looked at me and
whispered, "Sister, I have a compulsive dropping disorder!" and he
laughed a little at her...so we had some good laughs about stuff that
happened during our lessons and then we learning some more Chinese. I
love both my Lao Shi Men (Teachers) so much, Sister Ochoa and Brother
Chia are absolutely amazing. We really have been blessed. They are so
helpful and teach Chinese and the Doctrines of Christ so well!
Saturday:
On Saturday at gym Sister Moe and I (a sister in my district) did a
strength workout and I was (and still am) so sore! I love Sister Moe
(The one with the shortest hair in our pictures). She is the sister
going to New York Chinese speaking. She is 23 and has had so many health
issues to overcome before she has been able to serve. It is such a
blessing to know her and have her in our district. During class today,
Sister Ochoa gave an example lesson of the Restoration of the Gospel in
Chinese. She asked who wanted to be the fake investigator in class and
so I volunteered. It took some serious concentration to understand what
she was saying and I had to have her repeat some sentences she said but I
was such a good learning experience. I felt bad though because when I
looked around the room, the rest of my district was like half
asleep...It was a good learning experience for me though and I'm so glad
I volunteered. Saturday afternoon we had more classroom lectures and
Brother Chia was our teacher. The first hour we talked about stress
management and he made us go run stairs in our classroom building.
Imagine, running stairs, in a skirt--, with 8 people going up and down
stairs, and then having to go up at down 5 times. It was fun--we had a
good laugh. He talked about how important gym time is in the morning
because exercise really is a an important factor in helping control the
stress we may feel in the MTC and in the field.
Sunday:
Sunday was a great day. It is a great break from classroom time and
everything else that goes on the in the week. In the morning we had some
personal study time and then the Sisters went to The Spoken Word
(broadcast from Salt Lake) and Relief Society while the Elders went to
Priesthood. The speaker in Relief Society was Sharon L. Eubank. She is
the director of humanitarian services for the church. She talked about
coming to know our true identity and a lot on how faith requires action.
We had a district meeting with our branch president, Pres. Woodfield.
set a goal to strive to be perfectly obedient, went to sacrament
meeting. In sacrament meeting, the branch presidency randomly calls on
two missionaries to give a talk on a specific topic after the sacrament
meeting. Yesterday it was the topic of the Book of Mormon so all the
Elders and Sister's prepare a talk and hope and pray they don't have to
give it. Luckily yesterday, since my district and I are still 'new' none
of us got called on. Most of sacrament meeting is in Chinese. I was able
to understand the main concept that the speakers where trying to get
across. Sunday we had choir practice and then there was a devotional. It
was given by D. Greg Droubay--director of Media specifically in the
missionary department. We got the wonderful opportunity to watch the
video the church is getting ready for Christmas. It is phenomenal. I
can't wait for you to all see it! (It will come out right after
Thanksgiving).
Other than that, nothing else
has really occurred. All my friends that I saw the week before has all
left for the field. Sister Griffeth came this Wednesday so I have seen
her a couple times.
I LOVE YOU ALL!! I loved
reading all the emails! It is definitely a blessing to have such a great
family! I appreciate you all so much and am so grateful for you all!! I
miss you all so much!!
Love,
Sister Haacke
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