Hey all,
So, this week was pretty busy, I transferred into a Chinese district (which I now love) and have, in three days, relearned how to speak Chinese.
At the MTC people pass out a lot. And by people I mean my companion. And by pass out I mean she says, "I unconsciously must have put it somewhere." Who knew that our unconsciences (is that a word) were that strong?
In class we were talking about a conjunction ("junction, what's your function?" -School House Rock) that has a connotation of not meeting expectations or letting someone down. One elder meant to say in Chinese, "My cat killed my dog but I still love my cat." But he used the wrong tone and it became, "My body hair killed the dog but I still love my body hair." Tone problems are the best.
I have a study goal to learn 10 new vocabulary words a day, but I have a horrible memory. So to help me learn the words I take songs and translate them into Chinese. I had to learn how to say honest and sincere, so of course I chose Bye Bye Birdie's Honestly Sincere. So now when I try to say, you have to pray sincerely I sing, "You gotta be zhen cheng. Cheng shi de zhen cheng." Pretty much my Chinese is great.
Coming on a mission truly has blessed my life. This week I accomplished one of my life goals. My goal to pee in a urinal. Yes, I have now joined the super cool exclusive club that half the world has been inducted into. Don't worry, it was in a women's bathroom. Now that there are so many sister missionaries here, they had to change some of the men's bathrooms into women's. Yes, some other sisters have adopted my life goal and shared with me their life goals of 1) kissing a llama, and 2) shearing a sheep. Luckily they are going to Mongolia, so the shearing sheep will become a reality.
For Sunday night movie we got to watch the Testaments dubbed over in Chinese. So great. There was this one guy with a really raspy voice who (other than this super high-pitched fast-speaking Chinese lady with a tinkly laugh) was the best part of the movie. He was talking so fast in court trying to defend his friends and no one could understand anything he was saying. Then he suddenly stopped and said in slow motion, "Mei you Mi Sai Ya." Everyone busted up laughing because it was the only thing they understood. Our first day in class, the four of us advanced students introduced ourselves and one elder said he loves taking long walks on the beach. The four of us busted up laughing but in their 6 weeks here they haven't learned how to say beach (why would they?) so they all awkwardly smiled and said a couple ha's. So great.
The other day in class there was this horrible smell and I looked over at the laughing elders and one mouthed, "it wasn't me." So I opened the door and another sister said to me, "Did you fart?" I said no, but someone did. The elders laughed so hard and our teacher was so confused and we found out later that one elder had opened a bag of beef jerky and that that was the smell but he thought no one could smell it.
In our new district everyone is really focused. People study the scriptures and study the language really hard. It helps me be inspired to work hard. To keep them focused they have Babylon points, and they keep track of how often they talk about unrelated things or take away from study time by being distracting. And we try to stay below the previous week's Babylon point record. One day we talked about Babylon so much, about our homes and families and soccer and movies, so we knelt down to pray and to talk about what we could do better and someone goes, "10 points to Babylon!" And someone else says, "And Babylon wins the House Cup!" Hahaha I love how much Harry Potter can relate to every aspect of life and how widespread it is.
But in all seriousness. I love this gospel. I have learned so much this week and I am so excited to be heading out to Taiwan tomorrow. I know this is the Lord's work and I know that the true gospel of Jesus Christ can bless families and can bring the most happiness this world has to offer. I feel blessed and honored that the Lord has seen me as worthy to preach His gospel and I know that there is someone waiting for me in Taiwan to learn how to have an eternal family and return to live with God again.
Love,
Sister Perkins
At the MTC people pass out a lot. And by people I mean my companion. And by pass out I mean she says, "I unconsciously must have put it somewhere." Who knew that our unconsciences (is that a word) were that strong?
In class we were talking about a conjunction ("junction, what's your function?" -School House Rock) that has a connotation of not meeting expectations or letting someone down. One elder meant to say in Chinese, "My cat killed my dog but I still love my cat." But he used the wrong tone and it became, "My body hair killed the dog but I still love my body hair." Tone problems are the best.
I have a study goal to learn 10 new vocabulary words a day, but I have a horrible memory. So to help me learn the words I take songs and translate them into Chinese. I had to learn how to say honest and sincere, so of course I chose Bye Bye Birdie's Honestly Sincere. So now when I try to say, you have to pray sincerely I sing, "You gotta be zhen cheng. Cheng shi de zhen cheng." Pretty much my Chinese is great.
Coming on a mission truly has blessed my life. This week I accomplished one of my life goals. My goal to pee in a urinal. Yes, I have now joined the super cool exclusive club that half the world has been inducted into. Don't worry, it was in a women's bathroom. Now that there are so many sister missionaries here, they had to change some of the men's bathrooms into women's. Yes, some other sisters have adopted my life goal and shared with me their life goals of 1) kissing a llama, and 2) shearing a sheep. Luckily they are going to Mongolia, so the shearing sheep will become a reality.
For Sunday night movie we got to watch the Testaments dubbed over in Chinese. So great. There was this one guy with a really raspy voice who (other than this super high-pitched fast-speaking Chinese lady with a tinkly laugh) was the best part of the movie. He was talking so fast in court trying to defend his friends and no one could understand anything he was saying. Then he suddenly stopped and said in slow motion, "Mei you Mi Sai Ya." Everyone busted up laughing because it was the only thing they understood. Our first day in class, the four of us advanced students introduced ourselves and one elder said he loves taking long walks on the beach. The four of us busted up laughing but in their 6 weeks here they haven't learned how to say beach (why would they?) so they all awkwardly smiled and said a couple ha's. So great.
The other day in class there was this horrible smell and I looked over at the laughing elders and one mouthed, "it wasn't me." So I opened the door and another sister said to me, "Did you fart?" I said no, but someone did. The elders laughed so hard and our teacher was so confused and we found out later that one elder had opened a bag of beef jerky and that that was the smell but he thought no one could smell it.
In our new district everyone is really focused. People study the scriptures and study the language really hard. It helps me be inspired to work hard. To keep them focused they have Babylon points, and they keep track of how often they talk about unrelated things or take away from study time by being distracting. And we try to stay below the previous week's Babylon point record. One day we talked about Babylon so much, about our homes and families and soccer and movies, so we knelt down to pray and to talk about what we could do better and someone goes, "10 points to Babylon!" And someone else says, "And Babylon wins the House Cup!" Hahaha I love how much Harry Potter can relate to every aspect of life and how widespread it is.
But in all seriousness. I love this gospel. I have learned so much this week and I am so excited to be heading out to Taiwan tomorrow. I know this is the Lord's work and I know that the true gospel of Jesus Christ can bless families and can bring the most happiness this world has to offer. I feel blessed and honored that the Lord has seen me as worthy to preach His gospel and I know that there is someone waiting for me in Taiwan to learn how to have an eternal family and return to live with God again.
Love,
Sister Perkins
No comments:
Post a Comment