Week 4

oh my gosh! can you believe that i've been here almost a month? some days i can't, some days i can. it's hard at times to picture life outside of the mtc, which is a good and bad thing.
it's always great to hear about the family!!! you guys need to tell me every detail. i feel totally out of touch. MAKE SURE YOU GUYS DON'T FORGET HOW AWESOME I AM. (xiao hua (joke))
how was the super bowl? please say that you spent as much time watching president hinckley's funeral as you did watching the game. they let us watch it here, and last night rather than a speaker we watched a documentary on him that ksl 5 did. what a spectacular man! oh AND i just heard the news... ELDER UCHTDORF! awesome! i've always been wary of president monson, he kind of scares me. but after hearing him speak and laugh at the funeral i felt comforted. i know that we're in good hands.
i'm trying to think about what to write you about this week. honestly, it has FLOWN. time goes fast but i feel like my language skills are not keeping up. yesterday i had the blessed opportunity of praying in sacrament meeting! i couldn't feel my fingers! a lot of people complimented me on my tones. i don't know. hopefully at least by the time i get to taiwan i'll feel comfortable. next saturday (not this one) we teach the first discussion in mandarin. YIKES! wo zhidao tianfu ai wo (i know heavenly father loves me) so it will be hao (good).
teaching at the trc went pretty well this week. sister m and i aren't as comfortable with lesson two as we were with lesson one. the guy we taught just got home from the mission we're going to. he helped us a lot, and stretched us with tough questions. he said that the mission president in kaohsiung is awesome. he said you can feel his love.
i want to tell you guys about my teachers. they are inspirations. qian laoshi is probably my favorite person in the world. he interviewed me this week. as soon as we sat down i couldn't remember all of the woes i had to let out. he has this amazing faith that makes you feel like small troubles don't matter (the ones that really don't). the way he teaches and discusses goes straight to your heart. he helps me see what i would someday (far far away) would like to marry. you know, someone that is totally kicking it with christlike attributes. (go buy PREACH MY GOSPEL so that you can know what i'm talking about.)
wow! my life here is so boring. i don't have much to tell you about. i'll make sure to include more next time.
how about this... a few things i've learned about myself since i got to the mtc...
i love: cornbread, tapioca pudding, ice cream, the book of mormon, "our search for happiness" (ballard's book, i'm reading it once a month)
i hate: when people don't turn off lights or shut doors (when they leave or enter a room), when people cough without covering their mouths
also: i walk with long, fast strides. i look up to 19 year old young men. i am organized.

I’ll think of other things to tell you… We moved into another building which means that we have half the storage space. We also have two new roommates. They aren’t very nice. But I’m going to learn to love them, I swear.
Things are still good with my companion, but we seem to get more and more different by the day. Oh well.
I saw Breyden Burley. Funniest thing! I saw him in the “quad” type area. We saw each other at the same time and both of us threw out our arms to hug. Then immediately put them down to shake hands. Elder Welling laughed so hard!!!
Dad, you asked which I like more, email or dearelder. Dearelder is nice because I get it that day or night. But it’s nice to have something in the inbox when I email because I don’t get anything Saturday or Sunday. So… whatever you guys prefer. I just love to hear from you!

I don’t have much else. I’ll try to note noteworthy things during the week so that my emails are better.

Oh! Two kind of funny things… Elder Cornelius’s new favorite thing to say to me is “wo bu yao kan ni de tou” (I don’t want to see your head). And this morning a missionary from another district offered me his eggs this morning. It was weird. I was walking to get orange juice and he was taking his trays to the tray drop. Strange! But funny.

Well, I love love love love you guys. And I love the gospel. You should too!

Wo zhidao zhege jiaohui shi zhenshi de. (I know this church is true.)