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