Happy Sabbath

Our Temple walk.

Snow. Everywhere.  

This was the activity I talked about in my last email.  Everyone got a self-portrait.  Mine is in the classroom.  I'll send it next time.

Self portrait of Elder ____________!  (Rain said this after seeing this picture.  "His portrait looks like a fly swatter!  It could also be a racket!)

 Self portrait of Elder__________________.  Check out his hair!

The Key that Opens Everything

This key opens everything, EVEN VENDING MACHINES!

WEEKLY UPDATE--Three More Sisters!

Well, hello again!

Besides getting new missionaries today, Nothing new has happened since my last email. I have had the same schedule, same service, same food, class with the same people but regardless, this week has been nothing less than Extraordinary!

The rooms in the residency halls in the MTC have 3 bunk beds and each room sleeps 6 sisters. For the past three and a half weeks it has just been my companions and I (the 3 of us) in one room. Last night we learned that my companions and I were getting three more sisters in our room. So we were frantically consolidating our stuff to accommodate these new sisters. This morning my companions and I woke up at 6:00, got dressed, and headed to the very first endowment session in the Provo Temple. I absolutely LOVE being outside. Despite the cold, the snow looked so pretty this morning. It was a wonderful session. After that, we headed to the Health Center for Sister. Brinkerhoff's doctors appointment. This girl is a crack up. She is so accident prone, extremely forgetful and never ceases to make me laugh at how frantically excited she is all the time. After that we stopped at the mail room to pick up our packages. (THANK YOU FAMILY AND FRIENDS FOR ALL THE GOODIES AND SNACKS FROM HOME!! THEY ARE VERY MUCH APPRECIATED AND MY DISTRICT LOVES EATING THEM!!!) Did some laundry, cleaned our room and now I am emailing...

This week, I learned lots more mandarin. LOTS of Mandarin. Here at the MTC we have this thing called SYL. Speak Your Language. With that, because we are with our companions 24/7 we are instructed to "Speak our Language" wherever we go and whenever. So....my companions and I speak to each other (with what we know) ALLLL DAY and I thoroughly enjoy it. We each carry a small notebook around and every time we dont know how to say a word in Mandarin, we say it in english and then write that word down in our notebook so that we can translate it and practice using it.

Also in the MTC, we have this thing called TRC. Teaching Resource Center. It is a place where missionaries go every week to practice teaching lessons to member volunteers and get feedback about what and how we can teach more efficiently. My companions and I went to the TRC on Saturday and we taught two member volunteers, Brother Lei and Brother Lucero, both of whom served missions in Taipei. They were both such great help and they shared with us some experience that they had while they were serving.

Dad, Brother David Lucero said (while we were speaking to him in Mandarin) that he served in the High Council with you when he lived in Hawaii and he sends his regards.

I found more hawaii people!!! Also, my Mandarin teacher, Ryan Foley, is related to Uncle Mike and Sally Foley! How cool?! What a small world...

I dont have much to say this week, other than I absolutely love it here. Well not so much here in Utah, but here on my mission. I love my companions, I love my district, I love walking to the temple, I love listening to the teachings of our leaders and I love learning. I feel the spirit so strongly here, It is amazing.

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!! UNTIL NEXT WEEK!!!!
-Sister Goo.

Temple Session

Early morning session.

Happy with my TONGBANS!

THANK YOU AUNTY LESLIE! I dont know where you got that picture from......

Sharing the love.

Monday

PEACE. LOVE. JOY.
We love learning.

OUR FAVORITE TEACHER!!!! WU CHIA XIN!!! (oh yeah, plot twist, our first "investigator" wasn't an actual investigator...)

These are our normal faces.

FROM HOME XOXO

SeaWeed! THANK YOU  THANK YOU  THANK YOU!!!

Sunday with my "TONGBANS"

With my District
Emma Miller, Annie Brinkerhoff, Zachary Johnson, Michael Budd, Spencer Welch, Chandler Turner, Skyler Ruston, Laker Smith 

and Hannah

wo de tongbans! (my companions)

henduo xiaweiyi ren! (more hawaii people! Manny and Terenoa!)
​

More snow.

Grammar Lesson

our mandarin teacher drew each of us as part of her chinese grammar lesson.

Mandarin Grammar illustrations.

Sister Brinkerhoff

Meet Sister Brinkerhoff!  She is from Indiana!  She is Awesome!

 This girl is a crack up. She is so accident prone, extremely forgetful and never ceases to make me laugh at how frantically excited she is all the time.

​

My Missionary Commission

M Y   MISSIONARY   COMMISSION

I AM CALLED OF GOD.

MY AUTHORITY IS ABOVE THAT OF THE KINGS OF THE EARTH.

BY REVELATION

I HAVE BEEN SELECTED AS A PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE OF

THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.

HE IS MY MASTER AND HE HAS CHOSEN ME TO REPRESENT HIM.

TO STAND IN HIS PLACE,

TO SAY AND DO WHAT HE HIMSELF WOULD SAY AND DO

IF HE PERSONALLY WERE MINISTERING

TO THE VERY PEOPLE TO WHOM HE HAS SENT ME.

MY VOICE IS HIS VOICE, AND MY ACTS ARE HIS ACTS;

MY WORDS ARE HIS WORDS

AND MY DOCTRINE IS HIS DOCTRINE.

MY COMMISSION IS TO DO WHAT HE WANTS DONE,

TO SAY WHAT HE WANTS SAID,

TO BE LIVING MODERN WITNESS

IN WORD AND DEED OF THE DIVINITY

OF HIS GREAT AND MARVELOUS LATTER-DAY WORK.

HOW GREAT IS MY CALLING!

ELDER  BRUCE R. MCCONKIE

Got pictures!

Here is Elder ???  who passed out at the sight of his blood.  

Me, Sister Brinkerhoff and Sister Miller.

Outside in the snow.

My SPACE.

Here we are!  We survived the needles!  

WEEKLY UPDATE--In the Morning It Snows

15 days in the MTC....It feels like it has been a month. Our days are long. Really long. But our weeks go by quickly here. We are on our third week of lessons and classes, only 6 more weeks until I am off to Taiwan!

Lets see.....this week was busy, as usual.  The schedule is pretty much the same week to week. Wake up, eat breakfast, (sneak a banana out of the cafe for an after dinner snack later), exercise, go to class, study, eat lunch, study, eat dinner, study, plan, eat a banana, sleep.

Our district escaped the MTC campus for a little bit and walked to the hospital to take some x-rays and get our blood drawn for our visas. One of the Elders got nauseas at the sight of his own blood and passed out. It was a wonderful bonding experience for all of us. As a district, we laugh  A LOT and we all get along so well with each other. I am very grateful for being able to be around people that are so positive and spiritual and who are so happy all the time.

I FOUND PEOPLE FROM HAWAII HERE AT THE MTC! It is refreshing to be able to connect with little pieces of home. I met an Elder from Makiki going to Korea and an Elder from Waianae going to Japan. Also, Hannah Logan is here! She is going to Argentina.

We have service every friday morning. My companions and I clean the bathrooms on our floor in our residence halls. We are fortunate enough to have been given the opportunity to clean hair out of shower drains and unclog toilets :) Lots of fun :)

Before class, our  Lao Shir (teacher) makes us run 5 laps around our classroom building so that we are awake (for the most part) during class time. Preparing us not only spiritually, but physically as well!

So here at the MTC, part of our lessons are to practice teaching the gospel, and what better way to do that then with an ACTUAL INVESTIGATOR! We started teaching our first investigator about a week and a half ago. Her name is Wu Chia Xin, She is 21 years old, from Taiwan and is here for school and is working on learning more english. Can I just say.....that the first lesson was... rough....I mean, the lesson was very simple however, with our limited knowledge of mandarin vocabulary we did not understand much of what she said to us and sometimes when she asked us questions, we could not answer them because we did not know how to say it in mandarin. We must have been doing something right because she kept agreeing to meet with us.We opened and closed every lesson with a prayer, our testimonies, and we expressed to her how much we and our Father in Heaven loves her. As the lessons progressed, we taught her how to pray, gave her a Book of Mormon. Before one of our lessons we got the impression to deviate from our plan a little and go over the Word of Wisdom... Long story short, the spirit was felt so strong in that lesson, there was not a dry eye in the room and she accepted our invitation to become baptized. She was so happy, we all were. 

I play the piano for sacrament. I play every sacrament. That is my calling here. I think it will follow me wherever I go. I really enjoy sundays here. Aside from our regular sunday meetings which are always very good. On sundays, we get to go on temple walks. All of the missionaries get to step off the MTC campus and hang out with each other around the temple. Also a great bonding thing for us. Also, on Sundays we have Sunday Evening devotionals. This past sunday the choir (which I am in) Sang "Consider the lilies". After that we all Had the privilege of listening to Sister Janice Kapp Perry speak (and sing) to all of us. Her and her husband and the definition of true love. They are so sweet. It was the BEST devotional i have EVER been to!

I am beginning to understand more and more Chinese every day that I am here and it is so awesome! My mission, the short amount of time i have been on it, has seriously been the most amazing experience. I love being here, I love my companions, I love this gospel and my testimony has grown so much in just these past few days. To witness just how much this gospel can help change lives, It is truly incredible. This has been the best decision i have ever made.I just want to thank you all for all your Love and support, It has been so nice to read the letters and emails from my family and friends. Until next week!

Wo Ai Nimen!

-Goo jie mei

D&C 42:6-8

WEEKLY UPDATE--Nimen Hao wo de ja ting!

Nimen Hao wo de ja ting! Hello  family! 

  I have been in the MTC for a week now and i absolutely LOVE it! Well, besides the fact that it is cold and really DRY in Utah...and that we eat dinner SUUUUPPPPPER early (around 5:00) so I usually am hungry when it comes time to go to sleep. Also, they don't serve a whole lot of rice at the MTC and they always have the same fruits here; apples, green bananas and honeydew melon. Fruits here are not the same as fruits back home.  BUT they DO have POG here,which i thought was funny, so I drink that every day. They also have Cookies and Cream flavored Milk. I am not a fan.

Anyway, let me give you a brief run through of my schedule here:

6:00am   Wake up, pray, get ready for the day.

7:00am - 7:45am    Breakfast

7:45am - 8:45am     Exercise 

9:00am - 12:50pm     Personal/Companion Study

12:50pm - 1:30pm   Lunch

1:30pm - 5:00pm     Language Study

5:00pm - 5:45pm     Dinner

5:45pm - 9:30pm     Personal/Companion/Language Study

9:30pm     Back to residencies, get ready for bed, read, pray.

10:30pm   Lights out

The missionaries are kept busy here in the MTC. Everyday is like this. We study and learn and teach and then study some more. We literally spend all day in our classrooms. Sundays and P-days are different though. My P-days are on Wednesday. I don't have a specified time at which I email so just watch for my email throughout the day. Oh also, they changed the rule here at the MTC so that now missionaries, on P-days do not have a time limit for emailing. Sooo, if you get more than one email from me on Wednesdays but at different times of the day, just know that I am not breaking any rules and that I am allowed to do so :) 

I have two companions, Sister Annie Brinkerhoff from Indiana and Sister Emma Miller from Lehi, Utah. They are the sweetest. They both took years of Mandarin in High school and College so they have been a tremendous help, helping me learn the language. In fact, all of the Elders in my District have taken years of Mandarin while in school so they all have been helping me catch up with the language.

What people say about being "immersed in the language" is not an exaggeration. The first day I got here, I dropped my suitcases off in my room, grabbed by book bag and headed to my class, only to realize that I had been dropped into the deep end of a pool of mandarin language without knowing how to swim. The teacher would ONLY SPEAK CHINESE and that we could only answer and talk in mandarin as well. As you probably may have guessed, my first day was so confusing and a bit overwhelming. I understood nothing that was spoken in class. All of my books were in pinyin and i didn't know how to pronounce the words correctly or say the different tones. BUT NOW I am able to introduce myself, say my prayers, read scriptures (slowly), share my testimony, and teach, in simple phrases, the lessons that are to be taught. I also know how to ask basic conversational questions such as, "Excuse me, where is the bathroom?" and "I am hungry. Where can i find some ice cream?". Mandarin is difficult, but it has definitely become a lot easier. I do not credit myself for that. I have prayed so much since I have been here. Not only for help and guidance, but for strength and to thank Heavenly Father for this incredible opportunity to be able to be a representative of Him.

Being here in the MTC has been a lot of work but it has also been a lot of fun! Meal time is always a buffet and we have dessert with EVERY meal! I have had donuts for breakfast every day and cookies with my lunch. I am hoping to lose all the weight that I gain here at the MTC while I am out in the field. I have also been assigned to play during our sacrament meetings and I  joined the MTC choir! Yesterday evening (Tuesday) we had a special MTC devotional with Elder Anderson, from the Quorum of the Twelve, and I got to sing in the choir for that Devotional. We sang, "Joseph Smith's First Vision. It was beautiful! I also play Volleyball in the mornings. It is a great way to somewhat "take a break".

I feel like I have SOOO MUCH to say in this email, I dont even know WHAT to say. But I do want you guys to know that I LOVE YOU ALL SOOO MUCH! and I hope you all are doing well and having fun back at home. I miss you all and I want to thank you all for EVERYTHING! I will send pictures later! 

WO AI NIMEN!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

 -Goo jie mei

Sister Stream Cheron Goo

MAR09  TAIW-TAI
2005 N 900 E Unit 148
Provo UT 84602

(oh also, mom and dad, thank Aunty Leslie for me! She left me a package full of goodies yesterday. It was very much appreciated!)