Week 7: August 26, 2019

What a wild week! This has for sure been one of the most humbling but coolest weeks here at the MTC. ELDER BEDNAR came and gave a devotional at the MTC, and the best part is since my companion is from the Philippines he gets like front row seats for translating, which he doesn't need because his English is perfect, but we still go there anyway. So we literally sat 8 rows away from Elder Bednar while he was talking. It was such a powerful talk, and basically he told us as long as we're being "good boys and good girls" and striving to be better everyday, then we'll be able to be successful missionaries and have the spirit with us. All the old Mandarin and Cantonese speakers left this last week, which was really sad, but they got replaced by an English district in our zone, which is so weird because we literally never have had English speakers in our zone, only Mandarin and Cantonese, so that's super weird.

This week we had 5 TRC's, which is a lot off from our 1 TRC a week prior to this. 4 of these were non member, and the other one was on Skype. It's seriously so humbling because they all speak so fast and I have no idea what they're saying, but that's OK because I didn't expect to be fluent 7 weeks into the MTC. I get my flight plans this Friday though, which is so crazy and exciting, because Its basically Christmas at the MTC, and when you've been here for 7 weeks like us, it's kind of a big deal. In just 2 more weeks I'll be flying out to Brisbane! 

This week in class my teacher showed such an awesome part of a talk from Elder Holland when he spoke at the MTC back in 2000. I was able to find the whole talk on gospel library and read it. A really good quote from it says: "I have thought about this a great deal. I offer this as my personal feeling. I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? It seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries and mission leaders have to take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary.

Now, please don’t misunderstand. I’m not talking about anything anywhere near what Christ experienced. That would be presumptuous and sacrilegious. But I believe that missionaries and investigators, to come to the truth, to come to salvation, to know something of this price that has been paid, will have to pay a token of that same price." It is seriously such a good talk, it's on gospel library if you just search up: "missionary work and the atonement". I'm so grateful for the opportunity to serve a mission and to be able to bring the joy that comes from this gospel to people's lives. I know that it's not going to be an easy 2 years, but it will be so worth it. 

Love,

Elder Ensign

Alma 29

Sorry not many pictures this week, but my district was supposed to be pondering a mural, and me, elder packer, and both the sisters fell asleep so they took this picture of us haha

Week 6: August 19, 2019

你们好！

This week was probably one of my most eventful weeks here in the MTC. Something really funny this week is I ate a salad wrap here and then my stomach started hurting a ton, and my companion thought that my appendix burst so he forced me to go, even though I knew it was just an upset stomach, to the health clinic, which was closed, so we went from there to the intermountain urgent care that's quite a bit away from the MTC so I got to breathe some outside air for the first time in a while which was nice.

Probably the coolest experience of my whole time here happened this Saturday. My last actual member TRC's was this Saturday, and from now on I have non member TRC's 5 days a week so thats super crazy to think about. But anyway for TRC's I kind of worked with my older brother Michael, and got him to come volunteer for TRC's on Saturday, and when it finally came I had the opportunity not just to see him, but to get to teach him!!! I was so excited but it was really hard to see someone close to me have to leave again haha. Plus his Chinese humbled me quite a bit, but don't worry by the time my 2 years are up I'll be better than him hahaha.

This week all of the mandarins and Cantonese speakers ahead of me are all leaving, including the Jergensen twins and Elder Brenchley. I'm sad to see them go along with all the other friends I've made, but I know they're doing the Lord's work and that they'll do so good out there! In 3 more weeks I'll be flying out to Brisbane and couldn't be more excited to serve the people there! 加油！ 加油！

 我爱你们！

Elder Ensign (高长老）

I really don't know why we took this pic

The legend Elder Chansing

Me and my comp after the temple

Me with Michael


This is kind of a personal experience that I just wanted to share with you all and not my weekly email. So during class on either Wednesday or Thursday my teacher was helping me and my comp out and she started asking me questions about my goals, and I wanted to do better with lessons because my companion normally speaks more in the lessons than I do because he has a lot of Chinese experience and I don't. So anyway she keeps kinda asking me what's holding me back and I finally kinds just break down and just start saying how hard it's been for me to stop comparing my Chinese to others, and how other people seem like they're progressing so much more than me so she gives me this chapter, judges 6 verses 36 to 40. So basically she told me that she knows that I'm one of the hardest working Chinese students in her class, and she explained kind of one of her own experiences with this and told me that God recognizes me working hard and that she wanted me to pray and kinda ask for something along the lines of what Gideon was asking for. Normally asking for signs from God is something we shouldn't do, but she told me to do it. I basically prayed and asked God to help me have more success in my lessons, and to be able to have more 50/50 lessons with my companion rather than him talking most of the time, because that's how the lessons have gone up until now. Then at TRC's I was walking into the first room to teach people, and I felt way more confident than I have before in my TRC's and I was able to give a good lesson and lead the whole thing and I taught probably 50/50 for like the first time, and then the 2nd one I got to teach Michael which was so much fun. My Chinese still isn't amazing, but I think it was just the confidence boost that I needed from Heavenly Father to be able to teach lessons better. Then when we went to the temple this morning, I went in with one question: "am I going to be a successful missionary?" Because honestly this whole time I've been here I've kind of been doubting myself. In the ordinance room I just got a sudden thought to turn straight to Mosiah 7. I don't think I've ever gotten a prompting so specific, but when I got to the celestial room I flipped straight to it and started reading the heading, and at first I didn't see anything at all that would pertain to this. So I flipped over to the end of the chapter and read verse 33. It reads "But if ye will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in him, and serve him with all diligence of mind, if ye do this, he will, according to his own will and pleasure, deliver you out of bondage." This has been probably the coolest experience I've had at the MTC so far, and my testimony has grown so much from it. Sorry this is so long, I just thought this is something you all needed to hear.

Love,

Elder Ensign

Week 5: August 12, 2019

大家好！

By far my favorite week of the MTC so far! So much fun! I officially hit the one month mark of my mission last saturday, and by the time I leave the MTC I'll be 1/12 done with my mission! So much stuff happened this week. First off, me and my roommates were able to get a hold of a fridge on last monday, but 4 days later the mtc went around and took EVERYONES fridges from them. I was super depressed because I was so excited to get a fridge haha. 

Another dumb thing is the new cantonese elders decided it would be funny to have all 7 of them jump in the elevator at the same time, and they snapped the elevator cord and had to sit in the elevator for about an hour. And whats annoying is that my class is on the 4th floor and they closed both elevators for like 2 days to fix them so i had to take the stairs... needless to say I don't get along well with the new cantonese elders. Another huge event is that over half of the MTC is moving buildings this wednesday because everyone's zones got split up. So that means I have to go to the basement of another building, which kind of sucks because I really liked my room on the 4th floor and we were with the other chinese zone but now we won't be together.

Aside from that, TRC's this week were really good. I was able to express myself a lot better, and was able to share a personal experience with the people I taught on the Book of Mormon and it was seriously such a cool experience. As I was bearing my testimony to them I could feel the spirit so strong. Its awesome looking back and seeing how much I've improved, even though I've still got a long way to go, but I am honestly so thankful for the opportunity to get to learn the mandarin chinese language.

One more month and I'll be in Australia! I couldn't be more excited to share this gospel with the people of Brisbane! Love you all! 加油！

Love,

Elder Ensign 

1: me pulling an Elder Tumbokon

2: Elder Robison and I

3: Luke Dance

4: my roommates messing around haha

my roommates messing around haha

me pulling an Elder Tumbokon

Elder Robison and I

Luke Dance

Week 4: August 5, 2019

Wow! Already finished 3 and a half weeks here at the MTC! This week has been so fun! First off, I switched my iPad out for a crappy Samsung phone but it's better because I can get more apps, so you all can text me on Google hangouts! On Wednesday, I got the chance to host some international elders, so basically I just showed them around and took them places that they needed to go to fill stuff out. It was way fun but kinda hard to talk with some of them because they couldn't really speak English. Cool thing though, the other elder ensign got to host someone that my older brother knew when he was serving a mission in Puli in Taiwan! 

On Friday this week my district made a Goal to not speak any English for the whole day, and it actually went along really well! I spoke a little English on accident but it was mostly Chinese all day. Its so crazy to see how far Ive come, and I thought I was doing really good until I talked to one of the native Taiwanese elders who's fluent and I got humbled real fast... So I've got a long way to go. But it was still really fun! 

There's something I've been thinking a lot about this week. I've been making this mission a lot about me, but that's not something I should be doing. It should be about bringing others unto Christ. I hear people all the time complaining about where they are going to serve their missions but it's not about where you serve, not who you serve. You're called to where you're called for a reason. Just some food for thought this week and all you future missionaries. 

TRC's this week were good! It was cool to compare last week's to this week's and see how much I've improved. We were able to teach a lesson completely off of their needs this week, rather than just a set lesson plan. We shared a scripture with both people we taught, Alma 36:3 which seriously was the most perfect scripture ever because it worked perfectly for both of them, definitely divine revelation haha. The gift of tongues is seriously so incredible though, there's no way I could do any of this without it. 

The work has been speeding up, about 700 missionaries came to the MTC this week! So the lines for everything are crazy and the devotionals are packed but there's nothing I'd rather be a part of than the gathering of Israel! 加油！ 我爱你们！

Love,

Elder Ensign

Sorry not much pictures this week but I'll have more next week!