Sister McKenna Wright: WEEK SIX: we are the OLDEST MISSIONARIES AT THE MTC

So on my way to the computer lab to write my weekly email, I had a revelation that made me scream.....and yes, I made it my subject line. The Cantonese sisters left this morning so we ARE THE OLDEST MISSIONARIES HERE!!!!!! Shenme dongxi! Wo bu keyi. (What the heck! I can't.)

Ok so funny things for the week:

-I went to the temple on Monday and I'm about to put my clothes in a bin and a little old lady sticks out her arm and yells DON'T DO THAT! It scared the heck out of me and I look at her and she's LAUGHING. She says "sorry I just wanted to make sure you were on your toes.'......a little old lady in the TEMPLE and she plays a trick on me?? Haha, well it was pretty funny.

-We played Simon Says in class this week! It's actually called Laoshi Shuo, but basically that game. By the time it was my turn, everyone had one hand on their face and the other hand on their companions head, switched shoes with someone else, and switched watches. I wish i would have gotten a picture of it!!!

-You know the game "What are the odds?" Well, we played it and this Elder ended up having to write our Branch President with the letter that Nacho Libre sends to Encarnacion!!!!!! If you don't know what that means 1. you're not as cool as I thought you were and 2. LOOK IT UP. Just kidding I still love you. But still look it up to understand how funny it is that he had to send that to our higher authority.

-For the Singapore elders' last breakfast, we all blew up the brown paper bags and popped them at the same time. If you've never popped one....it’s very, very loud. It was a very nice send off though:)

-I'm awkward, as everyone knows. Some things for me were a little more awkward than usual. We were talking about something at lunch and it had to do with short people so I reached over to high-five Sister Akita. I moved my hand away because it looked like she wasn't going for it...then she reaches towards me for a fist bump so I fist bump her of course. Turns out she was reaching for the napkin tray right next to me....so I fist bumped a person not going for a fist bump. She laughed about it for the rest of the day. Wo meiyou social skills. (I don’t have social skills.)

-So apparently our Elders' room is haunted by a ghost named Bevans. He steals sheets off of beds and takes retainers out of people's mouths and writes on people's study materials. It seems pretty sketchy to me, but all the Elders believe in it. So watch out for Bevans.

-I matched with an old lady yesterday. One of the ushers for a meeting was wearing a blue dress, mint necklace, and the same kind of blazer. Everyone laughed and said that was me in 50 years.

-Last one. Another awkward moment in my life. So we're walking up the stairs to our residence and there's this red stuff on the steps going all the way up. We were like "ew what kind of gross person leaves their blood on the stairs?? At least clean it up" etc etc....well we get back to the room and I take off my shoes. There's a red berry squished into my shoe and the "gross person" was me!!!!!!!!

I must have tracked it up the stairs earlier and then we noticed it on our way back...everyone laughed, I laughed, it was great. I'm constantly the source of laughter so whatevs. Wo bu guan. (I don't care:) )

Shout out to Sister Sierra Brooks for entering the MTC this past week!! And Elder Isaac Wu for entering this coming Wednesday! Oh and Happy Birthday to Tanner McAllister!!! And of course anyone else because I love you.

I saw Sister AnnaSue Larsen and Elder McKay Demars in the MTC this week!! Oh and Elder Evan Coutu left to Poland this morning...ugh I'm so sad!!! But of course excited for him. Good luck Elder!!!

CRAZY happening this week:

Well the Elders from the older districts were supposed to leave Tuesday right?? The Taichung and English elders left in the morning and the Singapore elders left in the afternoon. Well it's lunch time and the Singapore elders are supposed to leave in 30 minutes. We walk out to say goodbye to them and the TAICHUNG ELDERS are there!!! Their flight got delayed til the next day!!! So they checked in, some checked their luggage (and therefore couldn’t get it back to the MTC), called their families, said all their goodbyes, and then CAME BACK. It was pretty nuts. All at the same time that the Singapore elders were ACTUALLY leaving. Craziness. But they're gone now, so it all worked out...

And we are the oldest AND we have 22 new missionaries coming in this week!!!! We are SO old. Next week is our in-field orientation and then the next week we LEAVE!! 18 more days - woot WOOT!! Yes, I am ready to get to Taiwan if you couldn't tell.

Great things:

I memorized 57 words in like 45 minutes this week!!! So if I keep that up, imagine how many I could learn in 3 hours of study time!!! Woohoo!

We played Grammar Jeopardy and we got a Daily Double! It actually is super duper helpful because we only have so much time to construct a sentence, not 5 minutes like it normally takes me!!

Speaking of speaking.....I GAVE A TALK ON SUNDAY. Definitely the scariest thing I did all week. So if I didn't already write about how talking in the MTC words...everyone writes a talk on the same topic and then they ask two missionaries RIGHT THEN to come up and speak. Normally we have an hour between Priesthood meeting and sacrament, so I figured I would write it during the break and it would be awesome. But instead, during that hour, we had a sisters' meeting, so I only had about 15 mins to write a talk that was barely a page long. OF COURSE that's the Sunday I get called to speak!!!!! I was sitting in my chair and I got the overwhelming feeling that I needed to prepare myself to speak....that's the Holy Ghost for ya. I really tried to push it away (that's terrible, don't do that) but then President Teng called my name and my feet moved while my brain stayed in my chair. It seemed like a spoke for 20 seconds, but everyone told me that my talk was awesome. So that was cool.

I got my Language Study Assessment scores back and I actually did pretty well. Considering that I thought it was awful and that I could do a lot better...that was really confidence boosting. I'm above average of where I would be expected to be for the MTC so YAY I'M NOT HOPELESS!!!

I realized that I need to trust in the Lord more. Everything, my study time and devotionals and lessons, have all somehow centered around that. Wo de tongban said something I really like....if our trust is something we're holding in our hand, we can't reach out to the Savior. But if we hand our trust to Him and give it over, it leaves our hand outstretched and empty, ready to grab His other hand. I really like that. And it's what I need to do in order to fulfill what He would have me do. Because what I'm really doing is bringing back the souls that already knew this truth. Everyone who came to Earth knew the truth at one point and all I'm doing is reminding them. And I love that.

Our district has this really hard investigator who grew up in the church and has a testimony, but has decided to drink and party. Her boyfriend is a member and he proposed but will only marry her if she serves a mission. So she wants to be better for her boyfriend, not for herself. Well....we did role play in class and I was chosen to BE this investigator. My fellow missionaries had to teach me, as her, and it was so cool. It was cool because I got into the role and really got to understand how she might feel...misunderstood and unworthy of God's love. I got to feel what would help to teach her and what I would want to hear if I were actually her. It was awesome. Role play is a sacred time.

OK ATTENTION EVERYONE! Go look up Come Unto Christ Youth 2014 Theme RIGHT NOW because I've watched it everyday for the past two weeks and I just love it so so so so so much and it's my favorite thing right now. The video, the music, the words, just everything. Do it. You won't regret it.

Maybe look up Jenny Oaks Baker too. She spoke/played in a devotional last night and it was SWEEEEET! Speaking of devotional...apparently we have a REALLY BIG ONE on Tuesday...hopefully an apostle!!!

So, somedays I feel really sad because I don't get any mail. I challenge you all to use DearElder.com and SEND ME LETTERS??! Or handwritten letters are even better but dear elder is so easy and it would make me eternally grateful!!

The one bad thing that happened this week is that I got a stomach ache and had to stay in bed for a few extra hours. I didn't think I would be sad about it, except I was!! Weird huh? But yah SO many sisters are getting sick but I feel pretty good right now! This MTC food is KILLING my insides....I can't wait for healthy fresh food!!!!!

Well this has been a great week, full of ups and downs and insights on how to improve myself. Love it. Love you. Love this gospel.

-Ren Jiemei