Letter #12 - It's A Christmas Miracle Charlie Brown

Shengdanjie kuaile!!!!

Christmas in Taiwan "came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags!" but it was amazing. Maybe the hardest and best week of my entire mission (not that I've been here very long lol). So many miracles!!!

We were in a 7 one day and started talking to a woman. Turns out she was SUPER eager to hear about the gospel, she'd been to a ton of different churches and read a lot of different bibles but she didnt understand any of them. We showed her Moroni 10:4 in the Book of Mormon and she got really excited to the point of jumping out of her seat, saying, "I understand!!!!!! How is that possible?" And we said, "Because it's the word of God!" She was such a golden investigator and so anxious to learn!

But...it was very frustrating because I couldn't understand what was going on. She was asking so many questions that my companion was kept busy answering all of them so she wasn't able to translate. I would say I've never been more frustrated in my life, but that would be a lie, because math exists and math is worse than even Chinese.

But, meiyou wenti. I know I'll get the language eventually, it just might take a while. Aaaand on two different occasions this week we found waiguoren (foreigners) who spoke English!!! So we contacted them and I got to share the gospel with them in English!! It was so awesome to actually know what was going on for once haha! Sister Reeve and I started saying "It's a Christmas miracle, Charlie Brown!" anytime something awesome happened this week. :)

Our ward threw a huuuuge party on Christmas Eve! I forgot my camera reader so I'm very sorry I don't have pictures this week...but, it was awesome. There was so much food. They set up tables of food in the church garage and everyone just dove in! It was crazy and awesome. We were kept busy contacting all the nonmembers who had come to the party. 

In the weeks before the party we tried to give out as many flyers for the Christmas party as we could, and I was praying that at least one of the people, out of the dozens we gave flyers to, would actually show up. Well, someone did!!! A man we found in a 7/11 a couple weeks before brought his niece and nephew! It was awesome. The party was great too, there was a nativity and music and an Asian Santa. Nobody in Taiwan really celebrates Christmas so it was awesome the have a ward who wanted to celebrate anyway.

MEMBER MISSIONARY STORY OF THE WEEK: A member took us out to lunch, and while we were eating the waiter asked "Are you church people?" The member, Chen Jie Mei, started talking to the waiter: "Yes, they're church people. They're from the mormon church. They're here for a year and a half and they teach lessons about Jesus Christ." She just kept talking and telling our waiter all about us and about the church! She bore her testimony and asked if he wanted to learn more! And he did! We set up a meeting with him! Whaaaaaaat!!! So, challenge for this week: Take the missionaries out to lunch and introduce them to your waiter. Your missionaries will LOVE YOU.

Anyway, that was long and rambly. But I wanted to bear testimony of my Savior. I am so happy that on the most holy day of the year I got to think about Christ. I got to celebrate Him, to remember His birth and how much He did for all of us. I know that my Redeemer lives. 

Much love!

Sister Daynes

Deng Jie Mei

Letter #11 - Hello from Yuanlin!

Some things about Taiwan: 

1. "Don't eat vegetables, they will make you fat. Also don't drink cold water, because it will make you fat. But eat all the rice and noodles you want." These are things we have actually heard from Taiwanese people. So I guess we need to let up on the ice cubes.

2. There are no stop signs. Traffic laws are pretty nonexistant which makes biking an adventure. We do bike contacting here, which means we pull up right next to all the people on motorcycles when we stop at stoplights and try to talk to them as much as we can before the light turns green. There have been some pretty great surprised expressions on their faces when two white girls try to talk to them. It's pretty priceless.

3. There are 7/11s on literally every street. Except they dont say 7/11, here everybody just calls them Sevens. We probably go into a seven every single day.

4. It's cold. I was not expecting this from Taiwan! But I guess it is December. Everyone is afraid of the cold, they bundle up in big jackets. We usually wear coats a lot now of the time now, especially at night.

5. In the MTC we said Nihao (hello) and zaijian (goodbye) all the time. But I had to unlearn that when I got here because nobody actually says those. Instead everybody says "Hallo!" and "Buh-bye!" Almost everybody speaks at least some English since they learn it in school here. We also teach a free English class once a week. It's pretty helpful when I try to talk to members because they are able to speak a little English to me. I'm making friends! There are some YSA sisters who love to sing and so I could talk to them about that! They're so awesome.

I am convinced that if every LDS church member in the world were like the members here, pretty soon the whole earth would know about the gospel. They are constantly sharing the gospel! They are always inviting their friends to church and volunteering to help us with lessons. We even got 4 referrals this week without even asking for them! This is member missionary work at its best! These people know how important the light of the gospel is and they want to share it so badly! Especially with their friends, because the gospel is the most important thing in their lives and they just want to share it!

The gospel is like having a $100 bill and walking around looking for someone to give it to. Except it is sooooo much better than a $100 bill. The gospel has given me and millions of others peace in our lives. Because of it, I can feel true joy. 

If you're wanting to share the gospel with someone and are nervous about it, don't be! I highly recommend all of you read Elder Dallin H Oaks' most recent conference talk on member missionary work. What do you know? Here it is. I found it for you. You're welcome. https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/10/sharing-the-restored-gospel?lang=eng 

Thank you so much for all your love, prayers and letters!

Much love,

Sister Daynes (Deng Jie Mei)

P.S. Address!

# 498-11, Wu Chuan Road
Taichung, Taichung 404-46
Taiwan

PHOTOS - First shots from Taiwan (Dec. 11, 2016)

1, 2, 3- last week at MTC

4, 5 - the district eating amazing food. That's pig ear on the table. I have also tried pig stomach and cuttlefish. They are not bad.

Letter #10 - TAIWAN

I'm here! And this place is the coolest.

We left the MTC Tuesday morning, took a 14-hour plane flight, got to the mission home in Taiwan and crashed. After 2 days of orientation I met my trainer! Her name is Sister Reeve, she has been on island 7 months. About 5 seconds after we met she said "Has anyone ever told you that you look liike Aowyn from Lord of the Rings?" I immediately knew I had hit the jackpot. I found me a nerd!!!!!!!!!!!!! She has been such a blessing and is so fantastic. 

We are in a small city/big town about an hour North of the big city, Taichung, in an area called Yuanlin. It's definitely not as busy or bustling as Taichung but there's still enough motorcycles to make biking interesting. We are whitewashing, which means we are both new to the area, we didn't know anyone or anything about it beforehand. But we met the bishop and the members pretty quickly and they are AWESOME. They LOVE missionaries, they are always inviting us to eat and volunteering to come to our lessons. The Bishop really wants us to focus on part members families in the ward so they can get 120 active members and split the ward in half next year. So we have a goal!!! We also have a lot of investigators and recent converts we need to meet with so there is a LOT to do! Sis Reeves says she's never seen members this golden her entire mission, nor has she ever had so many appointments set up in one week! As she said, "They've given me so many toys to play with that I don't know what to do with them!" It's nuts but it is the best problem EVER!

The tricky thing for me is that we're in an area where fellowshipping members is really important and I have no idea what they're saying. My sweet companion does basically all the talking and I contribute when I can. I know it'll come with time but gah I just want to talk to these amazing people! I did bear my testimony at their request on Sunday which was crazy.We also bike everywhere and talk to everybody on the road, or at least I try to manage a sentence or two in passable mandarin and then let my companion take over cuz I don't know what they're saying. But it's a fun time! This place is awesome. 

Our first lesson, the only one we've taught so far was with a woman named Enci who believes the church is true and wants to get baptized but she has to work on Sundays and is scared to ask her boss for time off. We shared Ether 12:6 with her and told her the Lord will help her, he will not leave her alone. That's one of the most important things I've learned on my mission. The Lord does not forget you. Why would he do that? You are His child. The Lord wants to help us and will guide us through all our trials. By the end she decided she would ask her boss. It was so cool and I really hope she'll be able to come! I didn't understand 98% of the lesson but you could feel the Spirit so strongly.

Thank you so much for all your love and prayers! They definitely strengthen me.

Much love,

Deng Jie Mei

Letter #9 - Walking In A Winter Wonderland

Last email from America!!!!! (Assuming everything goes smoothly with my visa...) It's crazy to think that in a week I'll be in Taiwan. After 10 years in Asia and 18 months in America, I'm so excited to get to return to Asia for the next 18 months of my life. 

I definitely don't know enough Mandarin. But the prophet has promised us that the Lord always qualifies those He calls. We are representatives of Jesus Christ. We are His hands on the earth, and our job is to act in behalf of Him. And that's incredible. We are certainly called to His work. (Seriously, we sing Called to Serve all. the. time.)

In other news, SNOW!!!! I am seriously stunned by it. It's gorgeous. I've been walking around feeling like I'm in a movie. I'm not used to this! It feels so unreal, it's like a fantasy. We were walking to the temple on Sunday and it just came pouring down!!! Like rain, but not! It's such a blessing to get to experience it before we leave and I'm really grateful for it. My roommates probably think I'm crazy but I'm too happy to care. We are seriously in a winter wonderland and it's freezing but it's wonderful.

Thanksgiving was actually pretty great. I was pretty impressed with the cafeteria's turkey and cranberry sauce. We did a service project where we made meals for kids in need which was a lot of fun. We also watched Ephraim's Rescue, which if you've seen the movie, it certainly gave me a lot to be grateful for. (Although, as my roommate Sister McCabe said, "Happy Thanksgiving! Everybody dies)." Elder Neil L Anderson (and his 8 grandkids who were adorable) spoke to us about gratitude which was also cool. And they had a program in the evening with musical numbers and that was a lot of fun.

So I've basically become the walking dictionary for my roommates. We're all sitting here emailing and at least 3 times in the last hour they've asked me how to spell words. It happens all the time in class too. It's nice to feel useful #englishmajor

They also give me a hard time because apparently I talk in my sleep a lot. This is weird because I don't know if I ever talked in my sleep before coming to the MTC. Apparently it's a lot of mumbling, sometimes in Chinese.

I also read a story this week that stunned me: An elderly couple, Brother and Sister Smith, in their late 70s joined the church, and a year later got their patriarchal blessings. One fast and testimony meeting Brother Smith stood up in church and read from his blessing: "Brother Smith, you and your wife would've joined the church several years ago, except the missionary who was supposed to teach you the gospel decided not to go on a mission."

What?!?!?? This was such a testimony builder to me that there are people out there who need the gospel and who God prepared for me to find. I'm so excited to go to Taiwan, to do my very best, to find these people and to serve them! We leave December 6th, so it's coming up soon!

Last thing! Go onto mormon.org and click on the #LightTheWorld initiative. This is such a great program the church has put up where it gives you ideas for 25 ways to serve over 25 days and starts tomorrow, Dec 1! I love this because at a time when we have so, so much to be grateful for, we can find ways to truly serve and help others. No matter what religion you are, service is something we all love to do.

Thank you so much for all your prayers, letters and support. (And thank you for reading my absurdly long letters). It really means so much to me. Wo ai nimen!

Sister Daynes

(Deng Jie Mei)

Letter #8 - "The snow glows white on the mountain tonight"

IT SNOWED THIS WEEK!!!!

It was the coolest thing. Light and powdery little flakes. Unfortunately nobody wanted to go stnad out in the cold with me and watch it. It was reeeaaaallly cold though so I guess I can understand that. The snow melted the next day though, and we haven't had any since. Really I think it's unfair to have it be so cold and there be no snow :(

We did a skype TRC this week which meant we skyped a member of the church in Taiwan (!!!) and shared a message about the Atonement. It was crazy because the woman talked so fast and we only caught a couple words here and there to try and piece together what she was saying. We shared a message of the Atonement and how when we pray and ask the Lord to help us carry our burdens, He will. even though we didn't understand everything we could tell she had such a strong testimony and loved the gospel. She told us she was excited for us to come to Taiwan and wanted us to come find her!

The Atonement is so important too. It's been a hard couple of days, but I learned a lot and I came out of it with a renewed strength and faith in my Savior. He is my support and this week I learned to lean on him heavily. When I drop my burdens at his feet, He will carry me. And that's amazing.

Maybe the best part of my week was getting to interview 6/13 of the sisters in our zone o n Saturday night. My companion and I just got called to be the STLs (Sister Training Leaders), which basically means we look after the other girls, answer their questions, interview them once a week to make sure they're doing ok. And it was the coolest thing ever. I got to hear all about how their MTC experience has been. They all just want to serve and do the very best they can. All of them had something they were struggling with - whether it was the language or companion drama - and I tried to listen to them and to the Spirit and say the things God wanted me to say in order to help them.  In all the interviews, I got a prompting to turn to a scripture that I could share with them. Some of them told me that the scripture was exactly what they needed to hear. One sister even teared up a little, the spirit was so strong. I felt so blessed to get to be a tool in God's hand to help His daughters. I got to see through Hie eyes and see Him supporting them. It reminded me that God is helping all of us. He sends us little tender mercies to get us through the day or to tell us He loves us. His hand is in everything. My challenge to you this week is to look for it. Find the ways He has helped you, because He is most certainly present in your life, and He loves you.

Sometimes I wonder how a helpless romantic, an army cadet, a fashionista, and a book-loving nerd all got put together as roommates to spend nine weeks together and learn about the gospel in Mandarin Chinese. It's mind blowing sometimes. Probably the only thing we all have in common is our love for the gospel. But I love these sisters and I love this work.This week has been awesome and things are getting better all the time! We leave Dec 6 for Taiwan which is crazy!!! As thanksgiving comes up tomorrow, I am thankful to be here! I am thankful for this opportunity and for the Savior of the world.

Love you all!

Sister Daynes

Letter #6 - Hurrah For Israel

What even happened this week? Things go so fast. We're teaching 3 investigators and a less active. Some of our lessons are really rough but we push through it! I've noticed that when things are the hardest and when I feel like I can't do anymore, God will send me a friend who will say a kind word, or a scripture that touches my heart, or an answer to prayer. He gives me just enough to keep going and it's amazing.

Our teacher proposed!!! He was sooooo nervous the entire class period but he still had to teach and pretend to be our investigator, and when I shook his hand it was so sweaty! He asked us to pray for him and then headed out the door and went straight to go meet his girlfriend and propose to her. Of course she said yes. We were so excited for him!!!!

We sang Hurrah for Israel in choir this week. I love the story of Brigham Young and Heber C Kimball leaving for their missions to England, and even though they were so sick they could barely stand, they stood up in the back of the wagon and shouted "Hurrah for Israel!" 

Wilford Woodruff had a similar story. He was called on a mission to England and walked as far as he could, crossed the Mississippi river, and then kept crawling when he couldn't walk. When the prophet Joseph Smith saw him, he said "Well Brother Wilford, I see you've started on your mission!"

Wilford said, "Yes Joseph, but I feel more like a piece of shoe leather than a missionary."

Then Joseph commanded him to get up and walk. And by the power of God, Wilford did and headed out on his mission.

I might quote Wilford Woodruff a lot as he's my great-great-great grandfather and is pretty big in my family. He's a personal spiritual giant of mine. (Plus not too much is happening here in the MTC so this is my story for the week). My point is, sometimes I feel exactly like a piece of shoe leather. No joke. I can sometimes feel useless and lonely and insufficient. But I have a goal in mind - doing my part to further the Kingdom of God. It really is the best thing about my life. I am so grateful for the gospel. Hurrah for Israel!

Love you all,

Sister Daynes

Letter #2 -"I think I'm gonna like it here" -Annie

SO MUCH TO SAY.

First things first: I absolutely love the Mandarin language. After years of struggling through it, I thought it would be one of the hardest things I had to do when I got here. It's actually one of my most favorite. Our first lesson, our teacher Gui Lao Shi showed us a video of an investigator telling us about himself. With our very limited vocabulary and some help with the teacher, we were able to figure out almost everything he said!!! It was so incredible. The gift of tongues was helping us already.

The gift of tongues is so real, by the way. I wouldn't have such a love for the language without it. Flashcards and memorizing are so fun to me now. I can't tell you how amazing it is to see Mandarin words pop up in my daily conversation and when I write in my journal at night. The other day I learned that putting 'le' at the end of a sentence makes it past tense, and I don't know why but I thought that was so cool! This language makes me incredibly happy.

Our district is great, there's only 6 of us so we're way smaller than the other districts. But the other sisters in our zone were so happy to have 4 new sisters come in! There's 11 sisters in our zone and at least twice as many elders. Some of the elders are pretty crazy, like bouncing off the walls. Our elders are way chill but we'll see how they are in 9 weeks. All the other districts have told us we'll probably get more done because we have more sisters than elders lol. 

The 6 of us in our district have gotten to be a kind of family. On Saturday we had like 3 hours of straight study time, reading flashcards out loud over and over with our terrible pronounciation. We got as much done as we could but got pretty delirious towards the end. We also spent a lot of time talking and laughing. We should probably get better at being productive but it was pretty fun. Here we study and study all the time. Learning the Mandarin translation for English words is easy but learning the tones is definitely not, so that's what I spend most of the time working on.

Out of the 6 of us, 4 of us came in with some kind of Mandarin experience. Sister Young and I probably had the most knowledge, we both have a fairly good vocabulary and are the best at pronouncing words. So yay! Those years of Manadarin in school came in handy after all. 

Also, if you've ever gone a couple days without a phone, it's incredibly liberating. I would highly recommend it. Our teacher's phone buzzed in class one day and it was so weird since we hadn't heard that sound in such a long time.

Last night at devotional Elder Bednar spoke to us! He and his wife talked about going through general conference talks and picking out the doctrinal principle, the invitation, and the promised blessings. I totally want to do this now, I think it'll help with watching conference so much. My district also joined the choir and got to sing Precious Savior, Dear Redeemer for Elder Bednar. It was amazing and it was broadcast to all 14 other MTC's which was way cool!! The choir director is hilarious and makes it all awesome. The MTC is really a place where the spirit dwells, I'm still getting used to all the rules but I know they're for the best and I really do love it here. I've learned so much already, it's amazing.

Here we call everyone by their Chinese names, mine is Deng Jie Mei, since Jie Mei is the word for sister.  (it's driving me nuts that I can't figure out how to put tones on my typed words). My companion Sister Hoskins (Huo Jie Mei) is awesome, we're having a lot of fun here. She's in her last two weeks of ankle surgery recovery since she broke her ankle twice. :( So she needs someone who can walk a little slower with her, and I need someone who knows where we're going, since I would constantly be getting lost on campus without her. So we work together perfectly :)

Finally and most important, Sister Hoskins and I are teaching an investigator! His name is Wang Xiao Yuan and although we're pretty sure he's actually just pretending to be an investigator to help us practice, it still makes me really nervous. He'll talk to us in Mandarin and we'll pick out a word or two, then frantically flip though our Mandarin dictionaries looking for a way to respond! It's frustrating because he asks great questions and I'd love to answer them in English but I don't know how! Sister Hoskins and I work great together when it comes to these lessons, she's so positive and excited. She's usually able to understand what I can't and tell me something in English so that I can quickly try to string together some words in Mandarin. It's such a miracle that we're able to understand what we can! Every time we teach I feel the spirit. I know that when I don't know what to say, God gives me the words. It's the spirit that spreads the gospel- we're just the tools to make it happen. He speaks through us and it's so incredible to know that we're doing a sacred work. I'm so happy to have finally begun life as a missionary. I know this is exactly where I'm meant to be.

Anyway, sorry that was long. If you know me I tend to get distracted. Thanks for listening to me ramble. If you want to write back I highly recommend DearElder.com!!! you type up a letter, then it's printed here at the MTC and I get it the next day. That way I can have the letter all week and respond on Wednesday. Plus I'll be here for 9 weeks so I'd absolutely love to hear from you! Mail is the best.

This church is true. Being a missionary is wonderful. have a great week. I love you all! 

Sister Daynes

Letter #4 - "And when threeeee weeks are up..." -Fiddler on the Roof

If we were English speaking, we would've left this morning. But nope! We're still here. And honestly I am loving it. But sometimes we'll hear missionaries here at the MTC say, "Oh, I'm just English speaking." Here in the Mandarin district we sometimes just want to look those people in the eye and say "AND DO YOU KNOW HOW LUCKY YOU ARE?!?!?!?!"

That was a bit of an exaggeration. But seriously, there are so many times in lessons when Sister Hoskins and I want to say something but we can't because we just don't know the Mandarin vocab. And yet I wouldn't change my call in an instant. I love the Mandarin language (aka zhongwen) so much more than I thought I would, and we are really progressing!!! I can now recite the entire missionary purpose and Joseph Smith's First Vision in memorized Mandarin. Plus I can bear testimony that the most powerful being in the universe is your Father in Heaven, and that He knows you personally and He loves you. So much. That's pretty cool.

Also, the other night I apparently woke up two of the other sisters in my room because I was talking loudly in my sleep. According to them, all I said was "Yesu Jidu!" Which is Jesus Christ in zhongwen. So I guess I'm now dreaming the gospel in zhongwen too!

Two of our districts left for Taiwan on Tuesday, leaving only 6 sisters left in the entire zone. Our new STLs (Sister Training Leaders) Sister Clark and Sister Loo are moving into our room today since we have six beds. So now things are going to be way cramped which will take some getting used to. But on the upside we are getting 10 new sisters and 8 new elders today!!! We're so excited to have new people in the zone! It'll be weird not being the newest in the zone. But our branch president said "When the new people get here, just talk in a lot of Mandarin to freak them out." We're excited for that. XD

One of the things we say a ton in the Mandarin district is jia you. Although I can't write tones on that, it literally means "add oil" and is basically good luck. So jia you to you in your trials this week! I believe in you. You can do it!

This week our lovely resource teacher Wu Lao Shi said something that I think changed my life. She said, "We are to God as a little child helping his mother make cookies. The child wants to help so badly, so the mom lets him crak the egg. But the child gets shells in the dough. But then the mom picks the shells out and everything is ok again." That is what we are. We are God's children and he loves us so incredibly much. He will forgive us over and over again every time we make a mistake. You are a child of God. How incredible is that?

I love you all! Keep writing, and as always send me any questions if you have them!

Sister Daynes

1) Sister Young's mom sent us a GIANT box this week filled with nothing but kitkats!

2) Sister Hoskins and I in front of the temple

3) All the sisters in our district before they left!

Letter #3 from Sister Daynes -"Ready for the Fall" -Imagine Dragons

This week's song is because I have never seen leaves like these and it's stunning.

The zhongwen is getting better every day! Miracles happen here at the mtc, i know it. Most surprising is how much language we've picked up. But we still have sooooooo far to go.

We walked into class one day to find our investigator, Wang Xiao Yuan, with a name tag on. None of us were surprised to find out that he's actually our teacher who has been posing as an investigator, though maybe we felt a little betrayed. His real name is Brother Daoqi and he's hilarious- very different from the timid investigator we had been teaching and it took some getting used to.

We were in line for breakfast one morning and the elder behind me was saying to his companion, "you haven't heard that song?" and he started singing "Marian the Librarian" from The Music Man. So...I started singing along. It was 6:30 AM but I'm sure we sounded beautiful. The elder laughed and said "You made my day!" my companion probably thought i was nuts but that's never stopped me before!

We played ladder golf for exercise one morning and we had way more fun than we should've. Probably because there's not a ton to do here haha. We take joy in the little things.

So this week was kinda hard because although my companion and i like each other, our roommates have really not been getting along. It's made me really sad because why can't everyone just be kind to each other? And since my companion and I have different opinions it's driven a tiny wedge between us. Plus it totally killed the spirit in our room. It got bad enough that it was hard fro me to focus in class because I was so worried about them.

Finally we all sat down and talked things out. i tried to mediate and it was one of the scariest things i can remember having to do. Things are way better now, but still not great and it still kinda stresses me out.

But you know what? I learned that I need to put my trust in the Lord. He is all-knowing and has all-encompassing love. I know there's something he needs us all to learn from this, so I'm putting it in his hands. I'm doing the absolute best I can, and I know that's all I can do and the Lord will handle the rest. He would never leave me alone to solve problems without his help. (Psalms 2:12, 9:10, 36:7, 62:8) So when I put my worries in his hands, I can smile and know that everything will be ok, and I can go on my way rejoicing. 

Much love,

Sister Daynes

1) Sis Hoskins and I

2) Us four enjoying beautiful Utah

3) FALL IS SO GORGEOUS!!!!!

Letter #1 from Sister Daynes - I'm alive!

Hey everyone! I'm here in the MTC (Missionary Training Center) and things have been good so far. I've been super tired and feeling a little bit sick still but hopefully I will get over that soon! Yesterday I got to the MTC late because an ammonium nitrate truck rolled over and closed all the freeways and they were afraid of an explosion. Just. What. So traffic was super insane. I thought I would be really stressed about being late but I wasn't, somehow I knew things would be totally fine.

I got checked in, unfortunately I missed my first language class but I heard the last 20 seconds of it before we went to a general meeting. Hearing the language made me feel so good inside, for some reason it felt like coming home. My companion was super happy to see me when I showed up! Her name is Sister Hoskins and she's from St. George. She is a super duper Utahn but is way sweet and happy and thankfully we get along great! The other sisters in our district are really sweet too. There's only 6 of us in our district, 4 sisters and 2 elders. 

So far we've been listening to a lot of people teaching us stuff. It's been hard to pay attention because I'm so tired but miracles can happen!!! Also the spirit is so strong here, everyone is so dedicated to the work and I love it! Anyway so I'll be sending these emails out once a week, our preparation day (or day off) is Wednesday so that's when you'll hear from me next. Feel free to email if you have any questions! Or if eventually you get bored of me, I won't be offended if you stop reading. 18 months is a long time haha.

Quote of the Day:

"But Mr. Hotchkiss--!!!"

"Hoskins, dear, Hoskins."

-Arsenic and Old Lace