Apostolic Blessing

Dajia hao,

 

3 weeks down, 6 more to go until I'm out of the MTC. The oldest generation of elders just left so we're now the second oldest generation. The generation above us leaves in two weeks so that means we will be the senior missionaries in our zone... It's pretty weird how fast time flies. I just do not feel like I've been here for three weeks. The days are incredibly long and the weeks fly by. My companion and I got called to be the elders in charge of training the new missionaries on how to use all of the computer programs. (It's really easy). Our new zone leaders are elders who I've made pretty good friends with. They're going to be awesome.

 

Language: Every day is a struggle to maintain focus and progress your vocabulary and grammar skills. I've got to where I learn anywhere from 30 to 100 new vocab words per day depending on my own focus. Pretty big gap. It is really difficult to pay attention when the days are so monotonous but if you do the Lord blesses you. My companion is coming along with the language slowly but surely. In the last two lessons I went in there and told him he was teaching the whole time whether he liked it or not. He did a fine job. It was just getting over that nervousness of the language and God truly does bless his missionaries with the yuyan enci (gift of tongues) We now have two investigators so we teach 1 everday. The preparation required is pretty strenuous. If you are not focusing your day around your investigator then you will not be able understand what their needs are and consequently not be prepared with the vocabulary that you need in order to teach. It's so cool when you prepare this huge lesson and you get in there and it just flies out the door because the Spirit takes it a different direction. It is during those lessons that I feel the Spirit guiding what he wants me to say and helps the investigator to begin to figure out how to open up that communication with the Heavenly Father. It's already weird typing in English... I just want to write all the Chinese words haha.

 

Elder Richard G. Scott came last tuesday to do a fireside. There is a difference between other men of God and the apostles. I didn't even know who the speaker was and all of the sudden me and my companion looked at each other and were like, "do you feel that?" The Spirit hit both of us like a ton of bricks. Everyone then stood up and Richard G. Scott walked in. I was blown away. His talk then rocked our world and didn't leave a dry eye in the entire training center. Just imagine 4000 sniffling elders and 2000 or so sobbing sisters and you can get the idea. His message was on the possibility of a special kind divine interaction with our Heavenly Father, can you guess what it is? Prayer. Our Heavenly Father wants us to converse with Him. We can tell Him anything he we want to. He is literally our Father and just like our earthly Father he is constantly concerned with the needs of His children. Sometimes the Lord won't answer our prayers automatically because he wants us to grow in faith and character. We must express gratitude to Him on a frequent basis. When He answers our prayers those Spiritual witnesses do not mean anything if we refuse to change. At the end of his talk he pronounced an apostolic blessing on all of us missionaries (this is when the waterworks began) He told us that everyone learning a language hold a special place in God's heart. He is aware of our struggles and if we work hard, pray, diligently read the scriptures and endure throughout our mission there is no way the Lord can withhold from us the gift of tongues. He then said that those struggling with companions if they were willing to pray and ask for strength and attempt to love their companions would be blest with patience and charity.

 

I love this gospel and I love this church. I love being a missionary and I cannot wait to be able to spread the gospel to all the world.

 

Wo hen ai nimen,

 

Mao Zhanglao

 

P.S. Holy cow! Thank you for all of the packages. I don't know what it is about beef jerky and white cheddar popcorn that completes my life but it does!I informed my companion of the competition we are in and I guess his mom is gearing up. Be prepared mom!  Also did my pictures send last week? If you email me today I'll probably be able to get back to you. :) Feel free to send me emails on dear elder whenever you want....... haha  

Tale of Two Companions

Hey family,

So I'm going to keep these letters to talking about my time here in the MTC and I will respond to your letters that you've sent me personally. :) Hao ma? Wo hen ai zhege jihui chuanjiaoshi! I love this missionary opportunity. It is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I know that this is the place that I am supposed to be. Two days ago I really feel like I broke through a language barrier. I was preparing to teach a lesson, my companion can't quite speak yet, and while I was doing so I realized I didn't need to look at my notes. I remembered everything I needed. I took that as a sign that I need to, instead of focusing on my notes and lesson plan, focus on teaching by the Spirit and really trying to discover what my investigators needs are. It was a bummer though because the other elders in my district took to long to teach so I wasn't able to teach that investigator but I get to teach him on Thursday so it's all good. :)

Now, I will tell you about some of the silly things. ha I have two elders in my district (the asian with glasses, and the white guy with glasses) there names are Elder B------ and Elder B----... They are a handful to say the least. There is never a moment where Elder B---- isn't talking about some random fact the absolutely nobody cares about. He can't read social cues very well so he can't really tell but I love him just the same. He has a very pure heart and really works hard to learn the gospel and the language. He is obsessed with Jesus the Christ which is a good and bad thing. He is constantly telling us about random doctrinal things and such. Elder B------ is our district leader. He is the epitomy of awkward and uptight homeschooler. ;)

He is done with three years of college at the age of 18 and is very intelligent. He refuses to have fun and dominates the other two in lessons which has gotten to be a pretty big problem. The other asian, Elder N-- is in their companionship and he absolutely cannot stand the other two elders. My companion and I have kind of taken him under our wing so he is semi able to cope with the days now but he is having a pretty hard time with it. Oh the joys of missionary work. I keep telling Elder N--- that this will just prepare him for when he gets out in the mission field and can't stand his companions. haha He is such a good guy. He just finished his army training so we have a lot to talk about.

My companion is awesome. We have had quite a few spiritual experiences together already. He is very sarcastic but when he gets into the groove of the gospel there is no stopping him. I think he is such a good guy. :) We work really well together and he always tells me how grateful he is that I can semi speak Chinese. Speaking of Chinese, I have been able to remember basically everything I have studied up to this point in Chinese. Especially grammar, which is essential to being able to understand the language. During sacrament meeting on Sunday I was able to understand nearly all of the talks and this is mainly because I can understand the sentence structure. Who knew that being good at English would help me be better at Chinese. Thanks Mom!!! haha

We kind of have a competition going on in our district to see who receives the most packages while we are here... just saying... haha I'm 1 behind. ;)

Thank you for all of the dear elder letters. I received a letter from Jacob, Jessica, Mom and Dad from Dear Elder. I guess that means I'm just missing one person... Daniel write me or else I will hunt you down when you are over in Taiwan on your mission. ;) There are twin sisters in our zone going to Taiwan. It can happen, I'll pray for you! I'll be attaching a bunch of pictures with this email. All of the pictures of the guys are the elders in my district. The sisters in our district are solid. Because the language is so hard I believe it really is true that the Lord sends intelligent people mandarin speaking. The lowest ACT score in our district is 27 and the lowest GPA is 3.7 (all the sisters have over 30). The branch pres holds us to a much higher standard than the other missionaries here at the MTC. It is crazy to see how much disobedience happens here at the MTC. I am constantly amazed by it. I can promise you that if you disobey while here at the MTC you will not be able to have the constant companionship of the Spirit and you won't receive the blessing our Father in Heaven has in store for us. Our district learned this very early. We decided to stay up really late one night and the next day every single one of us were incredible sick. It's kinda terrible. Our district has been sick more of the time here then not sick. Everyday is a struggle but with the Lord's help we will be able to do anything that he needs us to do.

I want you all to know that God is our loving Heavenly Father and we are his Children. He has sent us here to earth that we may obtain a body and learn to become like Him. I have a testimony of Jesus Christ and his atonement. He was sent here by our Heavenly Father to fulfill His righteous purposes. Satan is very real and knows our weaknesses. He wants us to be miserable. We must repent everyday. Repentance is key to feeling the Spirit and if we want to feel peace, joy, comfort, and happiness we must pray and read our scriptures everyday. I ask my Father in Heaven everyday to help me with my trials and I know that he will do this because he has promised us that He will. I love you all. I think about you constantly. The days are long but the weeks are short. I am so excited to be able to serve my Father in Heaven. The Spirit bears witness of the truthfullness of the gospel, no matter what language you speak.

Wo hen ai nimen.

Mao Zhanglao or Elder Meeks

Who are you? What have you done with my son?

He hasn't even been gone a week and he is becoming a new person.... Shocking and wonderful at the same time.  Feeling pretty blessed.

Ni hao wo de jiating!

It is P-Day today. :) This week has been crazy yet incredible. I can't believe I've already been here almost a week. I absolutely love being a missionary. I can't describe to you how the Spirit works in my life everday. It provides me with much needed comfort and help as I study Chinese and study the gospel. I definitely lucked out having my first weekend be conference weekend. I don't know if you all heard about everything they taught about missionary work but that is what I got out of it the most. My hand is so tired from taking so many notes! My companion and I made quite a few goals based off of the counsel we were given during conference. President Monson's talk during the priesthood session was amazing. 

There is also a talk that only missionary's get to watch while in the MTC. It is given by David A. Bednar and it is on the Character of Christ. This talk has completely changed my mind about how I will perceive missionary work from now on. It seriously does not matter what I want. It only matters what the Lord wants. My personal comfort is meaningless. While on a mission and throughout your whole life your thoughts should never be about you... Ever! I am saddened by my past personal choices to not be completely selfless. When we are not following the gospel of Jesus Christ we are being so selfish. Our Father in Heaven has given us the key to happiness and it is outlined in the missionary purpose. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Baptism, The gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. So simple, yet so difficult.

My companion and I are teaching an investigator. His name is You DiXiong or Brother You. It is amazing how the Spirit is present no matter what language is being spoken. My companion cannot speak Chinese... At all. So during our lesson it is my responsibility to teach and before our lessons he gives a lot of input on what we should be teaching. Needless to say our first lesson was an absolute train wreck. I could understand most of what he was saying but did not have the vocabulary to respond. So frustrating!!! My mind was completely fried afterwards. I couldn't even speak any english because my mind was just so congested with Chinese. But I think that's what the purpose is. Going to our second lesson yesterday, my companion and I did a complete 180. I decided not to use any notes and to just really concentrate on the Spirit. I can't even begin to describe how much I was blessed. Not only was I able to remember and say everything I want to, I was able to answer some questions that were really troubling our investigator. I taught him how to pray and asked him if he would ask God to bestow upon him peace to his soul. He did and even though my companion couldn't understand what was being said he told me after that he was hit with an overwhelming wave of the Spirit and so was I. Our investigator asked us what the feeling he was feeling was and I asked him to describe it first. He said that his mind was clear and that his heart was happy. I then went on to explain that this was the Spirit of the Lord testifying to him that what we were teaching him was true and then committed him to pray and read the book of mormon everyday so he could feel the love of our savior and the companionship of the Spirit all the time. With tears in his eyes he said he would do his best.

That, my friends and family, is what the gospel can do for people. Sweet is the peace that the gospel brings. I feel it everyday while I am studying the scriptures, praying, studying preach my gospel in english or in chinese, and when I strive to think of others before myself. For this is the character of Christ. In Matthew 4, when the Savior was fasting and Satan tempted him to make himself food, the Savior denied him. After Satan left it says that the Savior remembered John was in prison and then angels ministered unto him (typically mistaken for Christ). This is a mistranslation. The Savior sent angels to minister unto John instead of asking the help of the angels for himself. This is the character of Christ. When we are in our lowest moments our thoughts should only be for the people around us. Otherwise we are allowing the natural man to override us.

Mom, you were asking if Kenny Mayhew and my companion were related.. Kenny is my companions dad. :) haha Also Gabe McKay, from the McKay family in Eden is in my zone going to Taibei. I have seen so many people I know here and it is such a blessing. The light that missionaries have is uncomparable to others. That being said, there are so many missionaries who choose to disobey the rules. This honestly blows my mind. I don't see how one could disobey the rules here and be content with themselves and feel the Spirit. My companion and I strive to be 100% obedient and for the most part we have been perfect in this area. There really is no point and no excuse not to be. The Mandarin speaking missionaries are held to a higher standard than any other missionaries. Because we are here for 9 weeks our branch president is a stickler on the rules. I absolutely love this. Not to look down upon anyone but there is any obvious difference between the Mandarin missionaries and the English elders and sisters who are only here for 2 weeks. From what I have observed the gospel and the rules are just not taken as seriously. I was blown away at dinner yesterday night hearing a missionary say some of the things he did and then the people around him laughing and joking around about it. The mission is not the place for this!! I hope at some point all the missionaries serving realize that this work truly is not about them, it is about the Savior and his children.

I know that I am supposed to be a missionary at this time in my life. I've never known anything more true. I wasn't supposed to go two years ago or in a year or whenever I was supposed to be here now. I know that there are people living in Taiwan who are being prepared by the Lord for me to contact and invite to come unto to Christ through the Spirit of the Lord. For it is the Spirit of the Lord that makes it possible for investigators to receive revelation about the truthfulness of this gospel. My job is very small and pretty easy. I just teach how to open up that communication. The Lord does the rest. I love how Alma and Aaron teach Lamoni and his father. It is by simple truths that people are converted. I really strive to emulate this kind of teaching. Simple truths, powerful testimony, sincere prayer, reading in the Book of Mormon. This is how we convert.

I love you all and thank my Heavenly Father everyday for the opportunity to serve a mission that is being provided by you all. I know it is a sacrifice but I also know that this is what I need to be doing. Your brother, friend, and son is supposed to be a missionary.

Wo ai nimen,

Mao Zhanglao or Elder Meeks

I'm OK

Here is the first little email we received from Andrew.

Hi ya'll,

 

I don't have a ton of time. This email is just to let you know that I am doing well and I am safe. I absolutely love the MTC. I cannot even describe to you the presence of the spirit that I have had opportunity to be a companion with. My companion is awesome! His name is Mei Zhanglau or Elder Mayhew and my name is Mao Zhanglau or Elder Meeks. :) I love you all and I 100% know that I am supposed to be here.

 

Elder Meeks

****Just a little note that his companion is the son of a boy I grew up with in Plain City.  Andrew's companion's grandma is a very good friend of my mom.  SMALL SMALL WORLD