Week 4 done!

 Hello everyone! 丁姊妹 here!

I can't believe week 4 is already over! Only 5 more weeks left of MTC and then I'll be heading out! Things have been good this week. Our language learning is combined with our teaching learning so each day we'll go over a principle from a lesson and some phrases that you could say to explain that principle. We practice our accuracy and fluency as well as memorizing. I think the hardest part is trying to come up with our own sentences. The biggest weakness for me right now is vocabulary. I know what I want to say, I just don't know the exact words to say it. We are encouraged to Speak Your Language (SYL) though. This essentially means, just say the words that you do know in Cantonese, even if it's just "I" and "you", and then fill in the blanks with English. I think I've improved over the course of this week but there are still many words I want to learn and many things I want to be able to say. We went over grammar for "when" statements, for "if...then" statements and "for and in behalf of/with" statements. The grammar comes pretty easily to me though (probably partly because Mandarin's is essentially the same). There are some differences I've learned between the two languages however. Like, for example, in Mandarin, if you want to ask a yes or no question, you can either us an A not A form (essentially you say the positive and negative next to each other) or you can just put "ma" at the end. I assumed it was the same in Cantonese because they also have A not A form and the "ma" particle. But, when I asked my teacher to go over it, he said that in Cantonese, they don't really use "ma" that often and mostly just use A not A when asking a question. I found that very interesting. But anyways, I think my district is progressing quite well in the language. A few of them have really been upping their vocab and I'm repeatedly impressed by what they know. Others have really improved their tones recently. It's encouraging to see how we're getting more of a hang of it as time goes on, and I know that part of that is Heavenly Father watching over us and guiding us along.

Sister Richardson and I for some reason weren't able to do our TRC lessons this week because we never received our confirmation emails which contained the zoom links for the appointments. Sister Richardson was able to contact help though and we for sure got our link for next week's lessons. Next week we start teaching in Cantonese! Exciting but also a bit scary. We just want to take it slow though, starting with what we know and what the person we are teaching knows. I have hopes for us, and I will be studying my vocab in the meantime. We also have a lesson in english next week so that'll be nice since we'll be able to focus on our teaching more than how to even teach in the language. 

Other than that, Sister Johnson, Sister Yamane, Elder Ng, and I are all still waiting for our visas so any extra prayers will be super helpful! I have faith that whatever happens though, Heavenly Father will put us where we need to be at the time that we need to be. 

Oh! also yesterday was our teacher, Sister Ko's, birthday! For her birthday we all wrote signs that each had a Cantonese word on it which altogether spelled out "Happy Birthday, Sister Ko". She loved it so much, she said it made her day. Then Sister Yau, another teacher helping out, taught us how to sing the birthday song in Cantonese so we did that as well. It was a fun day!

Oh and speaking of Sister Yau! She is another MTC teacher from Hong Kong who usually teaches Mandarin speaking districts but just finished teaching a Cantonese district. Since her district left, she's been joining our morning classes and helping out. She's really cool and I really appreciate her teaching style. I think she inspires all of us to believe that we can speak Cantonese! Similarly, Brother Smith is another MTC teacher who served in Hong Kong in 2015-2017. He speaks a lot of Cantonese! He's been helping out in our afternoon classes with Brother Ng and every time he talks, he'll talk in Cantonese and then repeat what he said in English. It was a bit overwhelming in the beginning, but I think it's good to be able to hear a lot of Cantonese speaking. More and more I'm able to pick out more words, and words I don't understand, I'll ask him about later. He comes up with really good activities that I think help all of us get a better grasp on the language.

Overall I'm just so grateful for all the people that have contributed to my learning experience so far! It's been wonderful having such a big support group. I can really feel God's love for me and the rest of us through the acts done by these people. I am just so excited to see where our missions will take all of us!

Always praying for you guys!

丁姊妹 (Sister DelHoyo)

My scripture this week comes from 2 Nephi because I just finished it and it is all so good!

2 Nephi 31:16

16 And now, my beloved brethren, I know by this that unless a man shall endure to the end, in following the example of the Son of the living God, he cannot be saved.

Endure to the end everyone! Never stop growing your faith and growing closer to God because it is through faith that we will be saved.

1. Haha my eyes are closed in this one but here's one of me, Sister Decker, and Brother Smith. (Plus all the vocab I wanted to save)