Half Way!

Made it! Half way.

I've now officially been here halfway. Six more weeks to go.

This week was another trying week. Its getting to the point where I'm sort of feeling like my sponge is full and I cant absorb any more. I need to find some way to wringit out. We are stepping up our chinese because now we are teaching in chinese. Can I just say, wow? That is a difficult thing? It feels like a handicap. But it does force us to teach very simply. Which is a good thing.

Our first experiance in the TRC with teaching in chinese was...sub par. At least for me.

We taught the only two volunteers that came in that day that were native taiwaneese. They were lovely people, both of them. So very nice, they smiled so much and were so friendly with us. And encouraging as we stumbled along. Which we did. It was ok, not painful at least...until one of them said something...then it all went down hill. We could understand maybe 1 word out of 20. I felt like "What language are you speaking? Because thats not what I'm speaking here." We would ask them questions and it felt pointless because we could not envolve them nor address their concerns. And when they asked us a question? Well...I just hope we said something along the lines of what they needed to know. The man was very helpful, he really tried to supply us with words when we struggled. His lady friend spoke no english but she gave us encouraging smiles.

I however was very frustrated, and probably as a result, did not feel the spirit. When we left the room I was upset to say the least. I felt completely useless, and entirely unable to help these people. My companion Sister Petersen said she'd felt the spirit, so did our teacher when she observed. Why didn't I? Chinese was making me a spiritual mute! I felt like I couldn't convey anything. My feelings of frustration increased when we found out only then that the man we'd taught was an ACTUAL investigator. Not a member, or a returned missionary or something of the like. I really really hoped that our inability to communicate the importance of the gosple didn't hurt his chance to recieve it.

I later realized (once again, boy am I thick) that this is so much bigger than the chinese. I really can't expect to learn and understand all this after a month! A bare month! and I'm already teaching (or attempting to teach) in chinese! I guess I need to be told more than once...which really isn't anything new... Even in the after months in the field I probably will not be able to understand a great deal of what people in the country tell me. But the amazing thing I realized is why it is important to me to speak this language. I realized why I want to learn it so very very badly and get so frustrated at my own inabilities. Its because I really do very much care for those people, and I care that they recieve this message. Because it is the most important messege they will ever get the chance to hear. I really just want to be able to tell them. I'll get there. Eventually. But until then I need patience...which is something (as any of you who know me will attest to) that I am notoriously not well known for.

This wednesday our new missionaries arrive. 22 of them. Included among them are 7 sisters! so many! 2 of them are going to be accellerated into our transfer. This makes me nervous. They will most likely add one sister to each of the existing companionships, making us tripanionships. I really don't know how we are going to adjust to another person squeezing into our dynamic, and I really fear making her feel more left out than she already will. I can't imagine trying to catch up to 6 weeks worth of MTC style learning while trying to melt into a dynamic of missionaries as closely knit as 6 weeks of learning chinese makes you! That would be so hard! I really hope we can adjust well.

Well, thats all I can spew out for this week in the time I'm allotted here. Ya gotta take what ya can get! Be well everyone!