Sister McKenna Wright: WEEK TEN: FREE AT LAST!!!!

YEP THAT'S RIGHT PEOPLE, I AM ACTUALLY GENUINELY TRULY LEAVING THE MTC THIS WEEK!!! Tomorrow in fact.....no big deal.

So I am spending P-day frantically racing around doing every little thing!! Not to mention taking care of all of the stuff my roommates left, like boxes and food and trash! So this is gonna be a crazyyyyyyy day and we'll see if I get sleep tonight! Which I definitely hope I do since sleep has been in short supply lately. Sister Baker and Elder Shoop left to Vancouver Canada Tuesday morning so we all stayed up late saying goodbye. Sister Akita left to Ogden on Friday, Sister Sorenson left to Tacoma this morning at 2:30 am and Sister Morris left to St. George this morning at 3:30 am!!!

So Thursday night we didn't sleep because we were helping Sister Akita pack. Elder Jensen and Elder Christensen left Saturday so we slept a little bit but woke up early to see them off. We actually slept on Saturday night so that was good, but I literally didn't sleep at ALL last night!!!!!!!!! When you live in a room with two people who are leaving in the middle of the night, there is a lot to get done and no time to sleep! So we stayed up all through the night until 4 am when Sister Morris, Sister Price, Elder Robinson, and Elder Griffin were gone and I decided I would sleep until 7. So maybe 15 hours of sleep total in the past 4 nights!!! And possibly none tonight if I don't get everything done!!!

Our teacher

Goodbye classroom!

Our district, last time together

Branch President and his wife

Sisters!

So who is left you might ask?? From my district, Elder Pincock and Elder Nielson. From the other district, Elder Humphries, McNeil, Ploeg, Perkins and Roe. Sister Griffin and I are the only sisters left!!!!! (along with one other sister from the other zone) I like being her companion, she's great!! So who leaves with me....Sister Griffin, Elder McNeil and three other missionaries from the other zone. The Carlsbad California peeps go tomorrow too, so that's Ploeg and Pincock. Then everyone else goes to Nebraska on Wednesday. WOW it's hard to leave everyone, let me tell you!!!!

Things I've Learned:

Although it has been quite crazy with everyone leaving, I have learned a lot this week. One of my favorite quotes was from my new teacher Brother Vernon..."Be a sniper, not a clay-pigeon shooter. Don't just shoot a spray of doctrine and hope it hits someone's heart." I like this because it emphasizes that we teach individuals, not general populations. Our purpose is to help other become closer to Christ, not spout doctrine at them.

Another thing I learned is to not say "I believe..." rather say "I KNOW" because it is much more powerful and the Holy Ghost will back you up and testify of the things you say when you really truly have a testimony of it.

I also gained an even stronger testimony that God knows me. I got a priesthood blessing from my Branch President this past week and in it, he talked about how I would be blessed with charity. You see, I had been studying and praying for charity all week and here is a promise that I would be helped in developing that. COOL.

Another way that I learned this is that this morning at the temple, this old lady grabs me and starts saying " I'm gonna tell you a story"....well I don't know this lady and I'm like oh great she's probably crazy, but she told a story about how she had a dream that she was supposed to tell all of her children to have priesthood blessings to keep their homes safe. The next week was a terrible tornado that knocked down all of the houses around except for theirs. She then bore strong testimony to me that God knows us and is aware of us and loves us. See, everything just kind of tied together for me and it was awesome.

Ge Jiemei (our teacher who got assigned to another class :( ) came and visited this week just to tell us about some awesome talk she read called "Receive the Holy Ghost" by Bednar. She said that it's not just about being obedient, it's about seeking ways to be righteous. She related it to us staying at the MTC longer because maybe it's so we can find more ways to be righteous and fulfill our purpose other than the obvious ways. I really liked that. Also, she gets married in ELEVEN DAYS!!

Not with the vacuums again...

We love each other!

Last Selfies

What can we say?

Funny Stuffs:

Go look up "In our Lovely Deseret" in pinyin translation. That song is already fast, don't even get me started on in CHINESE! Our teachers loves to sing fast songs and watch us struggle so that was a hilarious experience. We also sang "Angels We Have Heard on High" because the Gloooooooria part turns into ROOOOOOOOONG-YAO and it's the stereotypical asians-mix-up-their-r's thing. So hymns in Chinese are basically the best.

Elder Robinson, aka Luo Zhanglao, has been only speaking Chinese for the past two weeks. It's been incredible. So whenever he slips up, it's awesome. This week, he said "It's a duel, pull out your wands!" which is amazing. Then we were deciding who had to pray and he said "Let's play rock, paper-" cuts off and starts over "Let's play-" and puts a hand over his mouth like he was shocked that his mouth was betraying him! haha he's so awesome.

Elder Christensen, aka Ke Zhanglao, had everyone take turns writing a continuous story instead of people writing goodbye notes in his Bye-Bye Shu (shu means book). So it mentions Nacho Libre, Hot Rod, Napoleon Dynamite, TMNT, Adventure Time, Harry Potter, Kim Possible, Indiana Jones, Pokemon, Jimmy Neutron, Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings. Just everything awesome pretty much. So reading that was a highlight.

I saw a cat at the temple today. That's all. I don't know why or where it came from, but it made me happy.

Kitty at the Temple

I miss my cat!

Not fun stuff:

I went to the chiropractor again. Turns out...I have mild scoliosis in my upper back. I've been having a LOT of pain, so there's another reason I'm not already in Taiwan riding a bike everyday. If you feel like praying for my back, that would be pretty swell :)

Elder Neal L. Anderson from the Quorum of the Twelve comes TOMORROW NIGHT WHEN I LEAVE TOMORROW MORNING!!! We literally missed an apostle by a day coming and leaving. cool. NOT.

SO YAH the Tahitians (here for 12 weeks) left before us so we were literally the very very very oldest missionaries in the MTC for a week and half!!!!!!!!! How crazy is that? How many people can say that? I can now:)

I used Google Earth for fun this week...I found my old house in Florida and the playhouse we built about 10 or so years ago is still there. Still miss it and everyone there. That was a good time but sad.

Well, I'm starting a new phase of life. I'm scared and excited. I'll still be in Utah so as soon as I get my real address, I'll send it out. I love you all. Thank you for all the prayers and support. I know I'll make it to Taiwan eventually. God is so good to us. One of my favorite moments of the week is always choir. This week Brother Egget said that God is as personal as he is omniscient and incomprehensible. (from a talk by Elder Maxwell). As much as God is capable of, the universes he has created and all of the people he takes care of...just as massive as all of that is, he is equally personal and knows us and cares for us. Everything that happens is shaping us into who he wants us to be if we let him and trust him. I love it. He loves you. If you don't have a testimony of it, borrow mine and hold onto mine until you get your own because I KNOW it's true.

Sister Wright (Salt Lake City South Mission)
Rèn Jiěmèi (Taiwan Taipei Mission)
任姐妹