Cambria and Dale:
Congratulations on your new baby boy, Rocky!!! I am so excited for you!
Thank you so much for sending me pictures! Stella and Landon also looked
adorable on Halloween! I hope everything is going well for you guys and
your family! I sure love you all!
Bryan: Your
pictures you sent are beautiful! I am so glad you are doing great and
loving it there! Are you getting transferred or are you staying in the
same area?
Marissa: Your awesome! I loved reading about singing, and how you organized that huge mutual activity! Way to go Sis!!
Lachlan:
Keep being the star on the court! I love hearing how your basketball
games are going. AND all your push-ups and sit-ups?!? Keep challenging
dad!!
Alexa: I hope your week went well! It looks like you had
a ton of fun on Halloween! Write me a Dear Elder and tell me all about
it! :)
Thanks for all the letters, emails, and
prayers! This week has gone by so fast! It has started to get colder and
colder. Winter is coming! Here is a run down of my past week:
I'm going to start with Sunday and work backwards.
Sunday:
Sunday was such a great day. The older districts in our zone are
leaving tonight and tomorrow so they called new Zone Leaders and Sister
Training Leaders. Sister Lindsay and I were called to be the new Sister
Training Leaders for our Zone. I am looking forward to being able to
serve the Sisters in our Zone. They are all so amazing. It brings a lot
more responsibility on me but I am so excited to serve. I know the Lord
will truly bless Sister Lindsay and I as we serve His children. Since we
were called yesterday, we had meetings all through out the day. Since
it was also Fast Sunday yesterday, there is Mission Conference instead
of Relief Society/Priesthood. At Mission Conference the whole MTC gets
together and the Presidency talks to us. I believe it was President
Hacking. He talked about Joesph Smith and the importance of the First
Vision and how no one was there to witness it but Joseph and so we have
to, through his testimony, have faith and believe to know of its truth.
It was a very powerful meeting. The musical numbers are always so
powerful as well. Sacrament Meeting was also great. (I played the piano
and it went well!--We sang I Believe in Christ, Jesus Once of Humble
Birth, and Count Your Many Blessings) The testimonies borne were also
very powerful. I could understand most of them so that was nice. After
Sacrament Meeting, Elder Crockett, an Elder in our Zone who has been
called to the Taichong, Taiwan Mission leaving tonight to California to
wait for his visa, went and played the organ so we all went with him and
listened. He is phenomenal. It makes me want to try to learn the organ
when I get home from my mission! Sis. Lindsay and I had another STL
meeting and after we went to dinner with the other new STL from the
other Chinese speaking zone. At dinner we sat next to the two
interpreters that translate the devotionals for Chinese speakers. Their
names are Brother Beck and Brother Xu. They both served in the Taipei,
Taiwan mission so they told us all about the field! They were so
hilarious! They told us about our mission president and they acted out
President and Sister Day for us. I am so excited to meet them and be
able to serve under their guidance. They are going to be the best
mission presidents! and then when we get new ones in June, they will
also be the best! Oh and I almost forgot! Since Sis. Lindsay and I are
the STL's now of our zone, we get a cell phone!! We have to carry it
around with us everywhere...but, everything is locked on it. So we don't
really know what the purpose of it is. We also get to interview each
Sister in our Zone every week. I look forward to being able to get to
know the Sisters better.
Saturday: A normal day
of study. We had TRC in the morning which went well. And in the
afternoon we were studying the Book of Mormon as a district in Mandarin.
We decided to read King Benjamen's address in Mosiah. The Spirit was
definitely present. While we were reading, I learned more about the
importance of forgetting myself. It reminded me of an experience when
right before I left for the MTC, Austin Johnson had just returned home
from his mission. Mom and I were talking to him and his parents right
outside the Primary room in the church building and he said something
along the lines of, "I think I forgot myself a little too much."
(Jokingly--because his accent was really strong? I can't really
remember) It made me really want to be able to say that statement when I
get home from my mission. Today we also played Simeon Says in Chinese
and let's just say...I'm not very good at Simeon Says. :)
Friday:
Happy Halloween! I loved reading all about your Halloween. It sounds
like everything was so fun!! For us here at the MTC, it was just a
normal day. My district, however, had a little fun. Elder Butler sent us
a package earlier this week and in it contained some mustaches. So we
all wore those for some pictures. We had some fun. After class at night
we have what is called Additional Study Time--where you can study
whatever you feel like you need to work on. We took a little time out of
that and we all "chugged" a Creature in a Jar. We also got those from
Elder Butler. They were they most disgusting things ever. We all
challenged each other to put the entire thing in our mouth before
swallowing any of it. It was so gross. I thought I was going to spit it
all out. It was so thick! Everyone all had some good reactions to
it-except Sis. Allen. She took it like a champ. We all swallowed them
except Sis. Moe-she spit it all out before she swallowed any :).
Everyone got tons of candy from home so we all went to bed that night on
a sugar high!
Thursday: Since we have been here
for a month now, we started teaching each other. Each companionship are
investigators and another companionship are the missionaries. We set up
times to meet and everything. Sis. Lindsay and I are college roommates
who have a lot of questions about life. Sis. Moe and Sis. Allen are our
missionaries. I love that we do this. I have learned so much from being
in the investigators shoes. Sis. Lindsay and I teach the Elders-there
are three of them so it will be a great learning experience. On
Thursday, we also had to take our first language assessment. It
definitely was much harder than I thought it was going to be!
Wednesday:
Wednesday was just a normal day of learning. Sis. Moe got to see her
mom!! I was so jealous! She had a doctors appointment in Salt Lake and I
guess now if your parent live in the area and the appointment is not in
Orem or Provo, they ask that your parents pick you up and take you! So,
mom and dad, if there are any doctor appointments I need to go to, let
me know! ;).
Tuesday: Tuesday was also just a
normal day. A different teacher rather than our normal two came in a
taught us about learning our language. It kind of stressed us all out
because we are already a month in and she basically told us we have been
studying wrong but it gave me some new 'tips and tricks' to include in
my language study. Tuesday night, Sis. Lindsay, Moe, Allen, and I all
sat on the floor right before we had to get ready for bed and ate double
stuffed Oreo's and dipped them in milk. It totally made our day!
Tuesday night's devotional was by Rosemary M. Wixom, the Primary General
President. My favorite line from her talk was, "Learn to unlock the
Redeeming power of Jesus Christ,"
I truly do love
the MTC. I have learned so much. I have grown so much. I now just can't
wait to leave and serve the people of Taiwan and serve the people where
ever I will be getting my reassignment to while I wait for my visa. I
know that the Lord truly does have a plan for each and everyone of his
missionaries. I am so glad to be 1 of the 88,000 missionaries all over
the world!
I LOVE YOU ALL. Have a great week!
Love,
Sister Haacke
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