One week older and wiser too!

It has been another exciting week. Where do I even begin? Well let's start with Sister Smith. She is from Draper, Utah. She graduated in 2008 just like me and is familiar with the Jack family (her and Charlotte went to the same high school), so we already have some connections. Her mom is from Taiwan, but she didn't speak Chinese before her mission. She has been at the Provo MTC for the last 3 weeks learning Chinese, and does a great job speaking it! She is already teaching full lessons. Sister Orr and I usually just sit there, smile, and contribute as much as we can. It is definitely a new experience, but we are loving it all and learning many wonderful things together.

 

We have been very blessed to teach the Chinese this past week. Now that we are looking for Chinese-speakers they seem to be everywhere, which is great! A Chinese recent convert brought a friend to church two Sundays ago, and we had the pleasure of teaching him this week. He loves coming to church and recognizes the Spirit that he feels there. He is eager to learn, and it truly was a blessing from the Lord given to us at perfect timing! Our first time teaching him was the evening that Sister Smith arrived. I know that the Lord has many more miracles in store for us here in Gaerwen.

 

Recently I have been thinking a lot about virtue. I have been learning about the mindset of Christ. One thought I had was the importance of having good missionary thoughts at all times, including last thing at night when we go to bed. It was amazing because we had a similar discussion during zone trainings. We were talking about meaningful prayer, but then we spent a portion of time discussing what we think and talk about before bed. It didn’t seem related to the conversation, but it helped emphasize the importance to me of virtue. I am grateful for all the learning opportunities that the Lord provides.

 

The reason this email is so late is because today we went around and toured Caernarfon Castle with the district. I attached two photos, but you should also look it up online. It is a beautiful place, and I love being in Wales because of the rich history it has. I felt like I was walking around in a maze because we kept running into dead ends and were not able to always manage to go where we wanted to on the first try. There is always something fun and exciting! This week we are hiking up Mount Snowden with the mission, so that will be another exciting adventure as well.

 

Hope all is well on the home front. Know that I love and miss you!

 

Love, Becca

 

p.s. Here are the photo descriptions:

1 & 2) are from our climbing a mountain last week (it is always fun to explore)

3) me at Caernarfon castle today

4) the companionship (what a great trio!)

(These photos were forwarded from one of the senior missionaries along with the comment: "What a great looking group of Chinese speakers!" This was Becca's commentary...)

Yes, I am now part of the Chinese speakers in the EMM :) The only problem is that I don't speak Chinese.