End of week 7!

 Greetings everyone! Since it's been seven weeks of this now, I'm sure you guys know the drill.

We are in the last stretch now! As my MTC training lasts 9 weeks and we have now finished week 7, you should expect only two more emails until I'm sent into the field! This week in MTC, as well as the next two weeks to come, are much slower than the weeks before. These weeks are filled with mostly review and I've definitely felt that. In each class we'll usually have a Book of Mormon read/share, a Task Practice (familiarizing ourselves with a new portion of one of the preach my gospel lessons), and some grammar, whether it be new or review. I think the new grammar is probably what I'm the most shaky on right now because they are things like "according to" or "since" or "apart from" and I don't usually say those things in normal conversation. 

If you've been keeping up with my mom's social media then you'll also know that we've been in Virginia this past week for our family reunion. It's been very fun being here but I definitely feel bad because I haven't been making time to do language study. It's always that idea of like, "if I tried my hardest at doing this thing, how much would I have progressed in it by now?" But I also can't tear myself down too much because I did just want to make the most of the time I had with my extended family. I will make sure to get around to that cobwebby stack of flash cards, I promise. 

I actually had the opportunity this week to lead Book of Mormon read in my morning class. I chose 2 Nephi 26 for us to read because it's a really cool chapter about Christ's coming. I had us read three verses at a time and allowed time for possible commentary, but it felt like a lot of the time, no one really knew what to say and I had to say something. I kind of felt bad afterwards like I didn't pick a good chapter that the others could relate to. Sister Decker messaged me telling me that she really enjoyed it and thought it was cool because she'd never looked at that chapter that way. And that did make me happy, but I still felt down afterwards. After we finished morning class and had our break, I did start to feel better. I just reminded myself that a lot of times on my mission I might feel inadequate or like I didn't create as strong of an effect as I wanted, but if I can just listen to the spirit and do what I feel is right, then I know my efforts will work out in the end. 

As for TRC lessons, Sister Richardson and I had two this week, our Cantonese one on Tuesday and our English on Thursday. I think our Cantonese one went very well. I understood a lot more of what the girl we taught said than I did the first time and I made sure that if I didn't understand, to ask her if she could repeat what she said or rephrase it. It was a good feeling to see that she understood what we were saying as well. We taught the plan of salvation and I know that's a complicated subject so it's good to know we could explain it well enough in Cantonese. The feedback survey we received from her two days later looked pretty good as well except she marked that we hadn't given her an invitation after we did. So I don't really know why that was but I'm just glad everything else was good.

 As for our English TRC, it was really strange. The woman we taught said she had grown up in a town where people live and die there and things are pretty boring, but when she came to Utah she saw how much happier people were. When she asked them why, they told her it was because of the church and encouraged her to work at the TRC so she could meet with missionaries as a job. She said she has never really had a religious background but has always supported the idea of a higher power. So we started by explaining our views on the Godhead and our beliefs in God being our Heavenly Father. She said that it was kind of hard for her to wrap her mind around the idea of a God that loves us, but we took it slow with her. She asked us many questions, one being, how can you even start to develop the sort of faith that God exists and is watching over and guiding us. We told her it is really something that takes time and effort. I told her about the metaphor of faith being like a seed. We have to nuture it and grow it in order to see it's fruits. I told her that prayer and studying the scriptures is a great way to start and that I know God will see her efforts and help her. I think the lesson went pretty well overall. She seemed willing to try praying and thinking about the ideas we talked about. We also asked her multiple times if she had any questions and she would say "nope, that seems pretty clear/ makes sense". However, when we got her feedback survey, we were surprised. All of her answers were either average or below average and at the end of the survey where it asks about any feelings she had, she marked "confused" and "talked at" (she also marked "love" and "comfort" which was good but I want to focus on these first two). We did not get the indication that she felt either of these. On our end, it felt like she was engaged in our discussion and we made the effort to make sure she was understanding as we went. So that was a little weird, but more experience for us I suppose.

Now let's talk about good moments from this week. On Tuesday in class with Sister Ko, we talked about food we could eat in Hong Kong. We watched a cool video about all sorts of food places and good things to eat. Sister Ko said her camera was having some problems so she had it off while we watched the video. Then after we finished, she said "Oh I forgot I have a friend coming in to class today. Give me a minute." Sister Ko then turned her camera back on and she had these big sunglasses on, a bold flowery collard shirt, hoop earrings, and her hair pinned up in this big updo. She said "Léihdeih hóu, chyùhn gaau sih." in this thick Chinese accent and we were all laughing so hard. She had a menu of food behind her as a green screen and pretended to be a food vendor. We each had $30 and one by one we had the opportunity to use our money to buy stuff from her. Lots of people just bought one or two things and then she would have to give them change back. Not everyone understood her when she asked them how much change she owed them so she either had to take a few minutes to try and help them understand, or she'd have Elder Ng (who's Cantonese is the best out of us) explain to them. I was last and when it got to be my turn I already knew what I was going to say. I said "Ngóh séung máaih hóu dō sihkmaht." (I want to buy lots of food). I asked her for four different things which the prices of added up to exactly $30. She was like, "wow! I don't owe you any money!" I was very proud to be able to communicate in just Gwóngdūngwá. 

One miracle that also happened this week happened to Sister Whitney! She was the one who's visa has been lost in the mail for the past few weeks. We've all been praying for her visa to be found and this week it was! She was able to get her visa on Wednesday actually during class and we were all so excited for her. I know how much more stressful it must be to lose a visa rather than to have just not gotten it. Sister Yamane, Sister Johnson, Elder Ng and I are all still waiting for our visas to arrive but we won't give up hope just yet! I know Heavenly Father is watching over us.

As for travel plans, we asked Brother Ng a bit about it and he said that you can't really tell when your travel plans will come. Sometimes missionaries even receive them the day before they're supposed to travel. He said all we can do is keep an eye out for them. The one person who has received their travel plans is Elder Ng. He's going to Vancouver though, not Hong Kong, so it's not as weird for him to get his plans at a separate time than us. I just hope they come soonish so I will have time to menatally prepare.

Overall, I'm having such a good time in MTC and I just love being a missionary. It's already been such a wonderful experience and I haven't even gone into the field yet! There are lots more adventures and experiences to come and I can't wait to take all of you on my journey with me. God is good!

Much love,

丁姊妹

(Sister DelHoyo)

Mosiah 7:33

33 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.

What are some of your "bondages" that you struggle with in life?

Sister Ko as "Amanda" the street vendor

Our initial reaction to her haha

 Little pictures we drew as we came up with grammar to use when explaining a gospel principle