Boom!

Hello lovely fam!!

I miss you all!! And let me just say a big stinking I LOVE YOU!! Oh and go let Tuffy out for me:)

Ok... so this last weeks run down:

Monday: p-day- you received an email from me. Also, mere please confirm that you got my letter sometime this week. I got you mid-week pick me up which was brilliant and delish so thanks to you and your roomie however you said you hadn't recieved my letter.. mmm what? Also, I wrote other lovely people out there and really if I come home with premature arthiritis in my hands- thats why. Because I love you and I write you on Monday. boom. That night we had a lesson on humility in class- the focus of it was accepting God's will in our lives and putting our trust in him. As a missionary this seems to be a major lesson I am here to learn. I am working on it, I suppose that is all I can say for now.

Tuesday: OK I love Tuesdays because on tuesday night we have a fireside and they are always super great. This weeks was Bryan H. Richards who has had a variety of different callings, including mission pres in England. Anywho a few favorite quotes:

"never before and perhaps never again will we(the missionaries in the room- 2,600 ish or so) stand in a group that has all be endowed with a power from on high."

"never before and perhaps never again will we stand in a group that has all recieved a call from a living prophet."

He mostly spoke on knowing who you are and who you represent and becoming the message.

Oh and Tuesday morning (sorry back-up) we had what's called a Large Group Meeting where several different zones of missionaries have a big meeting with one teacher. This week's was on the restoration: a foundation of faith. The teacher shared a really neat quote with us from Elder Bednar on becoming a disciple of Christ "Its not just in the doing and the knowing that leads us back to God it is in the becoming and who we become."

And shout out to Meliss and Kirsten Shelley (whom I LOVE seeing every week- bah! mom she makes me cry every week- I know I have said this before but really.) thank you SO much for the package. The cookies and gourmet carmel apple was delish especially at 10:25 after a long day about on my way into bed. I love it! Meliss- can't wait to see you! Also on Tuesday I decided I am obsesed with the Book of Mormon, folks it is possible. I read it for a full hour during personal study and I swear to you it is not enough. I just love it. Someone should make a real movie about the whole thing, ok not really but I do love it. Read it, seriously. Boom.

Wednesday: I got a bit discouraged about chinese. The language is straight up hard. Don't get me wrong, it is coming, but slowly. And at the MTC they have this theory about first not comparing yourself (which is difficult to get used to because hello we compare our selves everyday in this day and age) and second that they have no real plan as to what you should learn while you are here. It is all about self-application. I want to say- give me a syllabus and I will be on my way. But no, they don't do that. So that I am gettiing used to but it will come. I can teach someone how to pray in chinese so that is good. And I am getting more comfortable with my tones and reading the pinyin. Also I discovered another fantastic quote by Elder Holland:

"Don't you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead...for those who belive in the gospel of Jesus christ, [blessings] will come. It will be alright in the end. Trust God and believe good thins will come."

It's a good pick-me-up. Also I discovered (i'm sure most people reading this already knew this but...) some people say that 1 nephi 1:20 is the theme of the Book of Mormon. chunk it.

Thursday: Not too exciting. We just practiced extending the baptismal commitment in preparation for our teaching on SAturday. It is so neat to be direct about asking people to accept baptism. I mean- it changes their life and we ask them to chagne their life in one simple question "will you be baptized?" such legit missionary work.

Friday: We practiced teaching seriously like abillion times in prep for Saturday. And we had an intense discussion on obedience in class. There is a learning curve that comes with becoming a missionary and some in our district have struggled more than others so we are trying to work on that. It is nothing intense, just singing "worldly" songs and such. Learning curve for sure.

Saturday and Sunday= the best days of my life in the MTC. Saturday we taught AND we taught the same Chinese lady from last week who is amazing. Seriously so beyond good to us. She teaches us, its out of control ANNDDDD WHAT THE she lived in Japan when we lived there (yes she is from taiwan but then she moved to Japan) she was in the Yokohama 3rd ward. Same years and everything, how bizarre is that? Our teaching went well- we really judge it on whether or not the investigator felt the spirit and not whether or not we felt like we did a good job and both sister VS and I walked away feeling like she had felt the spirit. It was good stuff. this week on sat we have to talk to someone in chinese for 15 min about whether or not they kept their commitments. phew- it is going to be a doozy.

SUNDAY- ok I lied, sunday is the best day in the MTC. Highlight= Brittney Barney absolutely surprised me at the temple. (again let me remind you all that I did not arrange for it so no rules were broken in the process). I just LOVE her. Oh it was so good to see her, eek! She was/is so encouraging. I don't know- someone tell her to write a book about how to encourage Sister missionaries because she has it down pat. Everything she says is good stuff. (BRITT there is a letter coming to you TODAY!) Also our zone leader (one of them) sang this song (my shepard will supply my need) look it up. It is beautiful. And I memorized the first two lines of the first vision in Chinese.

Ok odds and ends/shout-outs!

slace gabe (sarah gabrielson) I need your new address lady! and i hope work is going just fantastic.

Sestra DEAN! save those souls. October 16 is going to be a good day and I love and miss you. check yor mail box in a month because apparently that is how long it will take for my letter to get to you.

OHH all those that live in BOISE listen up: ok there is an elder from new zealand in my zone (elder randall) coolest ever and he is learning chinese and then off to canada, toronto to teach and he has such a thick accent its great BUT he was baptized/his missionary who converted him is from Boise and elder randall wants to find him to tell him he is on a mission: this elder's name Andrew R. Yorgason he lives (or lived) at 5000 fifeshire Place Boise, Idaho. If anyone knows this family please send some contact details for them. This elder randall would love to get in contact with him.

I will look for elder Ryan turner on wed.

Caitlin Davis's homecoming sounded awesome! I want to hear more- tell her to write me or something.

Candice Wood Steele- send me pics. I heard it was beautiful. I love you and I am so glad things are good. I love you!! you married lady (finally).

Weenie- write me and BEN I am writing you back today. Matt I am not asian, i promise, not yet at least. Nana- them's is a good idea and i love you.

And real quick can we talk about how I will be the older district here in two weeks. what? time. gone? crazy!

I love you. all.

Saying Farewell...

Cousins & Friends say "Good Bye"...

Milkshake moment with the gals...

Massive HOOP game at Farewell lunch...

Uncles, Aunts and Grandparents...say "good bye"...

Tuffy says..."let me out...!!"

"Valet Parking Attendant" at the MTC says "Hurry along, she's in good hands..."

First Pics...yeah!

"The comp and me."


"Our district...we are all going to Taiwan, Taichong."


"First day in the MTC with comp...'dork dots' on our tags"

"The sleeping quarters."

"Obviously hard at work!"

Booyah!

Seriously the most intense 30 minutes of my life is beginning now! Go! Ok so week two ish. Well techinically today is the beginning of our 3 week of time in the MTC. Everything in the MTC is weird, good weird.

So

Tuesday: I got double the packages- one from Court BS and one fromt he front desk which came via Dad. Sorry about the demerit on your church record, eek. She told me about BSU winning, excellent- so i wore my bsu shirt to gym and then about Mack's homecoming. Said it was outstanding and then of course the rest of you (mom and dad) told me more deets about it. Shout out to Mack- excellent talk from what I heard. And crazy that his mission president was Dad's teacher in Jeru, that is a stellar man for sure. That night we had a devotional by a member of the 2nd quorum of the 70 Lowell Snow. He spoke on choice and how we in every choice should ultimately choose God or something that moves us closer to him. Afterwards he asked us to all meet in our individual districts where we each shared why we chose to serve a mission. It was a very cool experience because we all have such different "conversion" stories that bring together different pieces of truth about the gospel to create a powerful force of truth- God's Royal Army, if you will.

Wed: Ok this was my first kind of difficult day in the MTC. Just feeling overwhelmed and bah! inadequate but that is ok because I know I have been called and the Lord already knows I can do this so I just need to believe in myself more and have faith in this plan for me. I can handle that, because ultimately he knows me oh so well. Don't worry too much mom it wasn't super bad just a meh sort of day. But that was quickly turned around by several of the other sisters who I live with, they are so awesome ans so encouraging. Especially when it comes to the Chinese. Again, mom, don't freak it was all good.

Thurs: Not much thursday just preparing for our lesson in the Teaching Expereince (where we teach a fake/real investigator). My comp and I planned our lesson which was an interesting experience for both of us because we appraoched it completely different but in the end we figured it out and we able to practice once our twice that night. Oh and shout out to Ryan... I played volleyball for gym. There was a lot of she-thinking going on :)

Friday: Much more practice for the TE. That night we were pretty nervous about the next morning when we would be teaching. We practiced a lot but it is still pretty scary to think about teaching. We had to contact in Chinese for the first 5 mintues and then teach a 30 minute lesson-lesson 1 from PMG. Well sort of- you see here we focus on teaching people rather than lessons. Because really it is all about the people and not shoving the gospel down their throat. And really really it is the spirit that is the teacher. WE have watched a few clips of this missionary show "the district" and there is this one segment where they interviewed converts and investigators and asked them about missionaries and they ALL said that it wasn't the lessons they were taught but the spirit that the missionaries brought to them that really converted them.

Satruday: WE TAUGHT!!! And it went OH SO WELL! Seriously Clark! Oh my! The spirit was absolutely there and we got to teach two ladies who were legitly (not a word) chinese. Luckily we were teaching in English but still it was cool. One was from mainland and one was from Taichong! So cool. They were members but they still had concerns that we (i think) were able to address. Very cool. Sister VS and I were comfortable teaching together and my comp- wow she rocked it by creating an analogy about the atonement and someone paying for us when we don't have enought money in line at the gorcery store. Ya know what I am talking about? Well it was perfect because one of the ladies we were teaching worked at Wal-mart so it was perfect for her. It was cool and inspired. And man to testify to someone that they are a child of God. IT's a very cool experience, one I hope to have more of. That night we watched a talk that Elder Bednar gave at the MTC a year or so ago about recogninzing the spirit. He said the question he gets most often is "how do I know what I am feeling is the spirit and not just my own feelings or me answering my question?" His answer- quit worrying about it, quit analyzing it, all good thoughts and feelings come from the holy ghost so just act. move forward with faith and confidence and act. Also- the gym is closed for some reason so we are having a horse shoe tournament as a district, ha!

And of course SUNDAY!!! The best day ever in the MTC. Highlights included Sister Elaine Dalton speaking to the relief society. the main point of her talk was that we, as sister missionaries, are fulfilling our young women theme. She had us all stand up and recite the theme, very powerful in a room of sister missionaries- who happen to be the bomb dot com. sorry! She also told us to do three things that apparently they are telling all youth to do 100% 1. pray every night and every morning, 2. read the scriptures every day and 3. smile, because the gospel is happy. it is a happy thing. I got to see Kristen Shelley again, she makes me cry. She feels like my mom when I hug her. ANDDD Mere, uh, surprised me at the temple. Let me set the record straight I did not plan it nor did she. She just showed up so I didn't break any rules but WHOA it was good to see her. And just to hug someone I love! eek it was nice. nice stuff.

Monday morn: this morning really. we got to go to the temple finally! Felt like a deep, much needed, breath of fresh air. I will definitely look forward to that every week. The Provo temple is so gorgeous inside, I just like it.

Ok so that's about it. I love you all and pray for you every night. AND I know that your prayers- well I can feel them, often. I love that. Sorry about the pictures, I still haven't gotten them back from being printed so I will send those via snail asap.

love bekah

Mission Launch Day

The looooonnng awaited FIRST letter!

Bahhhhh!!! Family I love you! I can't believe I am a missionary right this very second. Ok so this email thing, phew, it is exciting but a bit stressful because we only have a half hour and wooo I love this new life of mine.

So the run down:

Wednesday: very deer in the headlights-ish. Especially when I had to give the closing prayer in front of all the new missionaries. I was pretty nervous about that one but at least I had some cute earrings (thanks aunt chris). Oh mind you there were 500 new missionaries. I took a picture with me and my comp (THE Sister De Vicotria, more commonly known as Sister victoria secrets) and our dork dots on the first day so I will be sending that with other pics of the first few days. I met my district that Tuesday and we were all pretty awk. There are 8 of us and we are all going to the same mission which is not the norm and pretty awesome if you ask me.

Ok I am going to explain my district real quick. They/we have too much fun. Seriously it is sometimes a problem because learning chinese and laughing at everything doesn't really go hand in hand. One of the elders, elder ostvig was roommates with jeff bronson. courtney's older brother so that is about the only slightly "cool" connection I had with any of them. But seriously so fun. Constantly laughing. Sister VS and I are going to try our hardest to get things a little bit more under control but it is nice to feel like this can be fun, ya know. Because, whoa, that Chinese.... super depressing. rather it would be depressing if I didn't know that the Lord know I can handle the language or he knows that I will be really good at smiling at people as they speak Chinese to them and I don't understand a word. (but to be honest- I have already learned how to bear my testimony AND pray in chinese, it is mostly chinglish at this point but I know it will come in time and with some serious work on my part.)

Back to the sched: Wed was my first meal in the cafeteria and I think they made it the best meal so we didn't run in the other direction on the first day. Since then the food is pretty- cafeteria-ish. Not disgusting but very processed and deepfried and yikes. Taiwan will be a nice change- so I suppose the food is where I head down and power through. Although on Wed and Sun they serve ice cream and instead of having ice cream I get a banana and a bowl of the hot fudge sauce and do my own little fondue, if you will. Absolutely delish. Oh and the chocolate milk on tap, I'm not complaining. Wed night we had a live teaching sesh- which is basically where you are in a group of 30 or so missionaries and there is a actor in front who acts like an investigator and it is like a group teaching situation.

Thurs: still deer in the headlights, worse than wed but made it through the day because I saw a few key people that I LOVE. Thurs I ran into Courtney, Calvin, Taylor Price (you can tell the Price's I said hi from them) and a guy that I was friends with freshman year who is teaching and who saw Ashley often. I played 4-square during gym and dominated the king position for a bit. Two different classses each 3 hours long where we learn chinese and some spiritual goodness. That night we met our branch presidency who are so great. The branch president is the only one who speaks chinese. And our whole zone is chinese speaking so it makes for a amazing sunday, but I will get to that.

Fri: First shower in the MTC so I finally felt like I was living here for real. I am having a hard time with Chinese in general but and even harder time with the tones so Friday I spent a lot of time practicing tones with my comp (who had one semester of chinese at byu and she is SO patient with me). I swear tones would be easier if my dear mom would have given me singing lessons (joke joke, major joke). But really it is like you are singing what you say and the tones are hard to hit because they are high and low plus you are putting sounds together that are so unfamiliar. But I did get through the first paragraph of the intro to the BOM in pinyin (look it up, its romanized chinese characters). Oh! This is for all you p90X fans out there: one of the other sisters in my apt who is in my zone and going to Taipei knows the Ab Ripper X program so we are doing that during gym time. It's a problem because my abs are sore but I laugh all day so it hurts to laugh. Bu hao (not good). I ran into Ben Miles also. Oh and this was the first day of mail so thanks to my faithful mother for masteriing dear elder on behalf of all you who haven't yet. Here is where I am going to stress that if you write me you dear elder me. SEriously! I don't have enough time to email and read emails so dear elder me. This will change when I get to Taiwan and have more time to email. I got a secret letter delivery from Ash (she left it with someone who gaave it to me) which was SO great.

Sat: Finally felt almost 100% adjusted to this new life. Although I have to admit during the first few days I was giving myself more personal pep talks then I thought I would need. But that was ok because it just helped me remember and reaffirm to myself how awesome this work is and how I am here for a reason and there are people in Taiwan who only this girl, Bekah DeMordaunt or Sister DeMordaunt or Meng(fourth tone) Jeimei (mychinese name) can teach. Sat,. was weird because I could hear the BYU football game and thought of dad sitting so close. It was kind of awesome but kind of pep-talk-ish time. Oh we get to work out everyday and that really helps to break up the days. If I didn't mention that already. Also, it feels like we just eat,eat, and eat some more. It is weird.

Sunday was the best day ever (so far): It was my little birthday which made it awesome to begin with but then it waws fast sunday so it was just jam packed with the spirit. Mission conf (where all the elders and sisters are in one giant meeting) was cool. Basically all the members of the MTC presidency spoke. plus we are all singing and 2,700 missionaries in one room- well I felt like I should be paying big bucks to be there. It was the best. Then we had fast and testimony meeting as a zone (45 in my zone, all chinese speaking). And most testimonies were in chinese which was neat because you can really feel spirit of what they are saying without understanding them. Also I could understand more words than I would have expected. I ran into Kristin Shelley in the cafeteria (my dinner time is at 5:20 MELISSAAAA!!! and we went to the temple just a bit before then). That was so good to see her. Ah I got all teary eyed abd she got all teary eyed, loved it.

Ok real quick I need a few things: the body shop green vial, cotton balls, eye make up removes and an eye lash curler because someone (mom, mere or live) jacked it while we were all getting ready wed morning. I am sending a hand written letter today to the fam with pictures. I love my companion so much, did I mention that already? Mere write me about your calling lady! Ben - be good boy, tuffy. Sarah lacey gabrielson, job?? And if you want to send food we have all the candy and junk food available to us so homemade anothing would be delish. I love you all!!! I so love the MTC but it gets me almost too pumped to get into the mission field. Oh and most p-days I will be chiecking email after 1 pm because we go to the temple monday morning. I love you all one more time!!! I miss you though too, don't worry it isn't too fun that I am forgetting all the people I love. Ok 30 seconds- phew. love sister d!!

Here I Go!

Alrighty folks...I'm off! For a good 18 months, a real good 18 months that is. I CAN'T WAIT!!! AND I only have to wait 2 ish more days until I officially enter the MTC as a real legit missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I can't believe how quickly it has come and I love that it is here- the mission. Woo! I am thrilled to have the opportunity to go share the best gift ever- the gospel! I am one lucky girl! And even luckier to have wonderful friends and family supporting me on this crazy adventure. I love you all (not sure who reads this but I love you anyways) and thank you for your love and encouragement. Cross your fingers for me with the Chinese and say a little prayer or two that the people of Taiwan will listen to what I have to say (and if they don't listen just pray that they will let me love them)! Ooooo yay! See you in 18 months.

*note* Some member of my family will be posting my weekly letters/pictures home on this blog. I don't want you thinking I would break rules or something by blogging on the mission, no sir. I love me some rules (especially that one about skirts and nylons).