八週 (Week 8) - November 24, 2024 - MTC

大家好！！！

Highlights:

     -Got a new companion!! Sister Ladle!

     -Went to the temple but missed our teacher (費弟兄) because we were doing SEALINGS and he was working ENDOWMENTS

     -HAD LUNCH WITH ALL OUR TEACHERS (its crazy to see them all in the same room)

     -Got to hear 余弟兄 play piano for us again!! He is heaven sent (also the state champion in piano performance for the state of Idaho)

     -FINAL DAY WITH 古弟兄 --> quite a heartwrenching day

     -All of our teachers left us to be with their families (insane work)

     -Got a homemade loaf of BREAD from my lovely aunt!!!! (We are forever in your favor and can never thank you enough seriously)

     -Performed 耶穌愛你 (Jesus Love you) for the new Chinese District and our 朋友 district 

     -Sang "I Believe in Christ" (我心來基督）in sacrament meeting with my district! (在中文）(In Chinese)

     -Threw a birthday party for our new Sister Ladle!!! 

READ THIS

#1 --> 

"The path to salvation has always led one way or another through Gethsemane"

-Elder Holland ("Lessons from Liberty Jail")

The most perfect, innocent and selfless person to have ever lived on this earth suffered injustice, tribulation and suffering at every turn in His life. As disciples of Him, "we promise to go where [the] divine path leads us" (Elder Holland). 

"Man's extremity is God's opportunity" (Elder Holland)

Let us gain an 'increase of love' in these times. We get to choose to be worthy of God's divine help!

#2 -->

"To believe that weakness and deficiencies in your character are unchangeable is to reject central truth of the Plan of Salvation"(Lawrence Corbridge, "The Fourth Missionary")

Saying 'this is just the way I am' gives you an excuse to reject the incredible gift of the Atonement! You are responsible for who you will become. We get to be intentional about who we are! What a blessing that is! So who will be choose to become?

"What personality will you have; what strengths; what knowledge; what character; what emotional state; what presence; what qualities; what virtues?...What will you sound like? What will it be like to be around you? Who will you be?" (Lawrence Corbridge)

Here is one answer I found:

"I bless you that we will really be like the Master--that we will think more like He thinks, that we will talk more like He talks, that we will do more of what He did" (Elder Holland)

Don't let your character be shaped accidentally. We are not victims of our circumstances. You get to choose to be cheerful, charitable and selfless! I am so grateful that God has trusted us so vulnerably to determine our own character. 

As I enter my final week at the MTC I keep being reminded of the fact that I represent my Savior. I've been very focused on Chinese (which is also very important) but what's more important is how people feel around me. Can they feel the closeness of their Savior to them in my presence? My daily choices will determine whether or not I am the kind of missionary that allows others to want to be better 'by my very countenance'. 

Some food for thought~

QUOTES:

-"How bad does my hair look" (some random lady in the cafeteria ）
-"lü sè...like aliens?" (松尾長老)
-"wŏ kàn jiàn yí dào guāng zhù
Xiàn zài wŏ tóu fā" (林長老）
(Translation: I saw a pillar of light, right now I have hair)
-"Lets find Grundy's address and fly to his house" (羅長老）
-"How long has our dìqíu been making goals" (玉姐妹)
-*growls* "I left my nice with my nametag" (rando volleyball Elder)
-"WHAT THE SHÉNME LUÓ GET IT" (林長老）

再見！

Sister 吳ardle

七週 - Week 7 - November 18, 2024 - MTC

 大家好！(Hello Everyone!)

Highlights:

     -We are finally full SYL!

     -我們的再次看到老師在聖殿！(We saw our teacher again at the temple!)

     -The Devotional speaker was Karl D. Hirst!!! I literally love him so much he is truly a general authority gem 

     -First week with our new Branch President!

     -Got to hear my incredible Chinese Tutor play piano for us !! (He is a piano performing major at BYU SO INSANE) (I am so music starved at the MTC)

    -Got 3 new incredible members added to our district!!!!!

     -Did a music audition and got to sing for the 800~ missionaries leaving this week!! (Made Brother Caulderwood cry what can I say)

     -Therapy with Mckay弟兄 (Brother) as always 

     -Dodged the pink eye pandemic !!!!!!

Yes

This is the important part-------->>>>>

On Fear:

"Courage feels an awful lot like fear to me"

Karl D. Hirst

(A BAR）

When fear tells us "What if...", God replies, "Even If". 

     

I truly think (especially as a missionary) that Fear and Pride are Satans biggest tools he uses to discourage us. "The proud stand more in fear of men's judgement than of God's judgement" (Ezra Taft Benson). Once we fear man's judgement, the adversary causes us to greatly fear ruining our worldly reputation. He wants us to fear so badly. 

So what can we do?

I think the only think we can do is do it scared. Do it scared! "Stop worrying about what you're saying, just open your mouth and say something!" (The Ricciardi Letter). God is the one who fights our battles for us. Take Gideon's army for example:

He started with 32,000 soldiers. 22,000 were sent home because they were afraid. 9,700 more were sent home because they drank water a certain way. This left Gideon with 300 soldiers against 130,000 enemies. 

If you feel like your efforts are >10% of what is required for success, "Welcome to Gideon's army!" (Karl D. Hirst). God doesn't take away the fear or the hard thing. Gideon's army still had to fight the 130,000. But guess what! They won. The enemy "ran, and cried, and fled" (Judges 7:21). 

In my life here at the MTC, my fear manifests as perfectionism. I get so afraid of saying something incorrect in Chinese that sometimes I just say nothing at all (especially now that there are native speakers in our district). This is me fearing man's judgement more than God's! God could care less that my Chinese is imperfect. All God cares about is that I open my mouth and say something! I am still learning to 'do it scared', but if I can rappel off a cliff in a waterfall in pitch darkness then I can say a broken sentence in Chinese. God will fight my battle. My >10% effort allows Him to use 100% of His power. 

Never, ever forget that God is on your side.

I truly mean that. The adversary wants you so badly to forget. Don't let him win. 

~Anyways on a less serious note here are some funny quotes:

-"Did she give us a 7 on crying in the lesson?"

-"Do they all go to the little land of Oz"

-"PAZOOKIE!?""

-"He gained 30 fahrenheit while he was here"

-"We need to ask him what his monkey is!"

I wish you all luck with your task to learn Heaven!

再見！(Goodbye)

吳姐妹

Sister Wardle

https://photos.app.goo.gl/efkbLoQppf7m4NjZ6

六週 (Week 6) - November 11, 2024 - MTC

 大家好！(Hello Everyone)

Highlights:

     -Catch me google earthing myself to Taiwan

     -LITERALLY MET PETER (the guy who plays peter 在 the temple)

     -Saw our teacher working in the temple!

     -Did a full day speaking no English! (禮拜三）(It's week 3)

     -Jessica's Theme????

     -The Fiji District sang the most beautiful song in Sacrament meeting :)

     -Found out we are getting 3 new members in our district this Wednesday!

Thought:

On Obedience/Intelligence (again) 

(God truly teaches people what they need to hear)

"Obedience is the path by which we can learn in mortality the things that truly matter most in eternity" --Elder Bednar

     Knowledge is gained through study and reading but intelligence (or wisdom persay) is gained through action and experience. 

Knowledge comes through diligence. 

Intelligence comes through obedience.

Through obedience we can become the most intelligent people who have ever lived on this earth! Intelligent people intentionally apply the knowledge they gain for righteous purposes in their lives. Don't let the knowledge you gain from spiritual experiences lay dormat gathering dust in the attic. Apply it! Use it! Become increasingly intelligent by being increasingly intentional. 

Example: 

     

I have been reading a lot recently about humility and forgetting myself in the work. I know exactly what humility is. I know that by service to others I can forget myself.

I have the knowledge of humility--

But this is not the intelligence of humility. It doesn't become intelligence until I actively think of ways to serve others. It doesn't become intelligence until I start actually doing things for others before I do them for myself. I need to get that glass of water for my companion or hold the door for all those people or give someone the last piece of graham canyon cheesecake (when you bet I wanted it) before it becomes the intelligence of humility :)

I encourage you all to actually find something in your life (an intentional action) you can do that will increase your intelligence, not just your knowledge, of the gospel. 

 

"We might think that God wanted simply obedience to a set of rules: whereas He really wants people of a particular sort"

 -C.S Lewis (you know I be loving C.S)

再見！(Goodbye!)

吳姐妹

Sister Wardle

 

Pictures: Elder Romney (Meiyou), MTC shenanigans..., My district, More shenanigans, The Provo City Center Temple (where I met Peter from the temple movie and my MTC teacher was working...)

 

 

周五 (Week 5) - November 4, 2024 - MTC

 大家好！(Hello Everyone!)

EVENTS:

     -耶穌愛你 (Jesus loves you)

     -花姐妹's  (Sister Holmes') first snow!!

     -Welcomed the new missionaries again!

     -萬聖節的快樂！！(Happy Halloween) (we dressed up as elders) (also the Holy Ghost)

     -Had an SYL lunch with the 老師's (Teachers)

     -中文 (Chinese) helping other's!

     -我們打排球跟我們的朋友！(We played volleyball with our friends)

     -不可思議不可思議 (Incredible!)

THOUGHT(s):

     On Humility:

     "Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call "humble" nowadways: he will not be a...person...who is always telling you that, of course, he is a nobody. Probably all you will think of him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took real interest in what you said to him...He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all". --C.S Lewis

    Is this not the character of Christ? The ultimate embodiment of our infinitely loving and merciful Savior? As I come to learn more about Him the more I understand what humbleness really is. As we forget ourselves day by day we slowly become more like Him. We slowly become the particular kind of person that will be comfortable in Gods prescence. The becoming is our task here on earth! (I'm so excited for eternity!!!)

     On Impossible Math:

     "Five Loaves and Two Fishes" (a BYU devotional by Dallas Jenkins himself)

--> "It's not your job to feed the 5,000; its your job to bring the loaves and fishes".

God does impossible math. I know this to be true because I experience the power of the gift of tongues every day. There is no way its me alone that is learning so much vocab and remembering it every day. I know for a fact that my understanding of Chinese is not my own understanding. I still have to put in a lot of work--God still demands that we bring the loaves and fishes (he can't bring things to my remembrance that weren't there in the first place) but he is definitely feeding the 5,000. What an incredible opportunity it is to be a variable in the equation that allows God to do His impossible math!

(I need everyone to send me more things to read)

再見！！(Goodbye)

吳姐妹

Sister Wardle