We received another letter from Kyle today.

Dear Family,

 

CAN YOU BELIEVE THE REVELATION WE RECEIVED ABOUT MISSIONARY AGE REQUIREMENTS ON SATURDAY!!!!!! It was Amazing!! Everyone in the Auditorium went nuts and was so excited!! Conference was So amazing! Mom and Dad, I sent you home a letter today about my feelings and everything. You may want to share it with the family and anyone else who would like to read it. It´s basically just a summary of all my notes..... which were not a few so, maybe typing it up and sending it via an email would be good.  Or maybe just the notes that I wrote would be good to add to the blog michelle, that way people actually know I´m learning a thing or two out here hehe. Also, Michelle, I AM receiving your dear elders and LOVE them!!! thanks so much! Same goes for Mark and Anika.  Dear elder´s here are the best! we can pick them up after dinner and its always nice to get a little love from back home before diving into 3 more hours of cantonese. 

As for the schedule here, it´s awesome! I feel so sorry for the Elders that just dont get it. There are some who just don´t see how amazing the MTC is and how much it helps you as an individual and as a missionary. Everything is spaced out evenly and set up so well so that the spirit can always reside with you and you can continue to learn in a variety of ways. Plus, the gym time is awesome. Elder Staheli, My compaion is pretty good at volleyball so I will play that sometimes with Him, but I also have gotten very good at 4 square. I think I may have the record for reigning as King of the court for the Longest cuz I stayed while the whole line went through several times! Not to boast, but I think I've just found a new talent for me! :) I always make sure that I run and get an actual workout before playing foursquare though cuz foursquare in and of itself isn´t the best workout, it´s just a nice cool down and something that allows me to have fun. 

My companion is really into football, and is a huge BYU fan and guess who we had come for Sunday night Fireside last night...... Chad Lewis!!!! He played for BYU, then the St Louis Rams, and then the Phili Eagles! 

He´s a hall of famer and my Companion just freaked out when He saw him walk up the aisle. I guess Chad is pretty much his idol because He saw almost every one of his games from BYU on. He's right behind Steve Young and Levelle Edwards in Elder Staheli´s book of favorite people haha. We ran up and shook his hand before the meeting and my Companion got to give him a bro hug. Chad said "It doesn't matter if you're going to Salt lake or Sydney, or if your speaking English or Cantonese!" and my companion was just awe struck because we were the ONLY one's speaking cantonese to talk to him so Elder Staheli knew that He was talking about us and that we were mentioned in one of his Idol's talks, it made me happy to see him so ecstatic! :) Another thing Chad said that was really funny is since he served his MIssion in Taiwan, he knows mandarin and is the NFL ambassador to China. So they asked him to talk about the Superbowl in China and he accepted, but then realized that he didn't know many terms outside of the mission/church language. They assured him it would be fine and would be fun so he "Testified that Steve Young threw true passes." hahahahaha :) I thought that was pretty funny, but I guess it got the point accross lol. 

I'm sleeping much better and eating fantastic every day! I actually eat more healthily here than at home haha :) Anika would be happy to know I'm eating salad with almost every lunch and dinner. Just a small bowl, but i'm starting to like it. And the fruit they have here is SO good! I eat cantaloupe with almost every meal, no joke! :) Everyone looks at me weird when I salt it, but it's so much better that way :) Thanks so much Grandma and Grandpa Ray for your letter. I will write you back, I Promise! :) 

The language is coming along SOOO much better than I could ever imagine. I have gained a HUGE testimony about hard work and the blessings of it. Someone said regarding learning a language "there is no language so difficult that a 4 year old somewhere in the world can't speak it." It made me laught to think about that, but it is true! So I have tried really hard to learn the language. I always carry flash cards with me in my pocket and whenever I have a minute or two, I pull them out and start memorizing again. I dont say this to boast, but to exclaim how much of a miracle it is that when we work hard, and even above what is expected, the Lord blesses us exponentially. I am learning between 20-25 words per day JUST from the flash cards! I know probably over 200 words and am able to understand almost every sentence my teacher says if he will repeat it once. My brain get's saturated with words by about half way through his sentence, and im just a couple seconds behind in hearing a word then knowing what it is, but whenever I ask him to say it again, I understand HIm completely! It's such a blessing and my companion just keeps getting more and more impressed. I'll ask him the correct way to pronounce a word and he'll say "You're already learning that!? We didn't learn that until 2 weeks ago!" I know that working harder than even is the normal or expected brings extra blessings and that humility is key to inspiration (anyone name that quote? :)) 

I am trying to remain humble as I learn and am always trying to work as hard as I can. I'm so grateful for my companion. He's a really hard worker.  I love you all SOOOOO much and am so grateful for the privelidge it is to serve my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Love you all so much! keep my updated please! and I'm sorry I didn't get to answer everyone's questions :(

 

Much love,

 

Elder Shafer (Siu JeungLouh)