Elder Brandon Wallace: More and more Chinese!

Nimen hao wo de peng you (Hello my friends)

So to start, I don't have a ton of times on P-day to email so if you want to write me, I'll still try and email back, but the best option is to use DearElder.com or to send a letter to my MTC address. DearElder delievers everyday and I can write back any day of the week

My address is:

Elder Brandon Wallace

SEP23 CAN-VAN

2007 N 900 E Unit 52

Provo UT 84602

So after P-day last Monday, we taught another lesson, but we didn't prepare, because we didn't know we were teaching on Monday. So we hurried and prayed really hard and we were so blessed with probably the best lesson we ever taught. The spirit was so strong and we could understand probably 60% of what was being said, which is enough to guess and hopefully answer the question they are asking you. It's still really hard with Chinese, but we are doing better for sure.

By Tuesday the days started to fly by, they honestly kind of just run together at the MTC. It's hard to remember all the stuff that happened because we have the same schedule and the same classes for almost everyday. Tuesday we got to sing in the choir for the Tuesday night devotional and the choir director said next week (tomorrow the 4th) the devotional will be broadcast to every MTC in the world. That means that one of the 12 will most likely be there and everyone here is super excited. Rumor has it that it's going to be Ucthdorf, Holland or Bednar and that sounds so awesome. I'll be in the choir again so if you know anyone in the other MTC's around the world, they might see me XD

The new missionaries came in on Wednesday and it was nice to not be the babies anymore. We still are the baby Chinese district, but we are getting more Chinese speakers this Wednesday so we won't be on the bottom anymore! Wednesday was also my one week mark, even though it feels like I've been in the MTC for half a year!!

One of the Elders in our district went home on Thursday. They didn't tell us anything, other than that he can come back in 6 months.There are now 11 people in my district, 3 are sisters, and 8 are Elders. So they split up our tri-panionship. Now Elder Claflin is my companion, and it's just the two of us. We haven't taught a lesson since the split so it'll be interesting to see how it changes the way we teach. Also on Thursday, as we were teaching our "investigator" we were able to commit him to baptism which was so awesome! Even though it's not real, and he isn't actually investigating the church, it was a super good feeling to get to ask someone to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the proper authority and have them say "Yes!". Except I said it in Chinese, so I don't know actually what I said, or if I said it right.

Speaking of mispronunciation, in Chinese, there are tones on the words and depending on the pitch you say the word, saying it in a different pitch could mean something different. So while I was teaching our investigator about Christ's ministry on the earth, I said the word Apostles wrong. So instead of saying that "Jesus called and ordained 12 apostles", I said "Jesus called and ordained 12 rocks". Just one of the many joys that Chinese has to offer.

Our "investigator" became our 2nd teacher on Friday and it was a little awkward, but he is super cool. His name is Brother Anderson (Ang lao shi), and he went to Australia on his mission and has only been back 2 months and is already getting married! Life goals, let me tell you. That means that he was still on his mission when I got my mission call. I guess our "investigators" that we teach our just our teachers, and we are teaching our other teacher, Sister Ochoa (Ou yang lao shi) on Tuesday.

Sunday was Fast Sunday, and since they force you to fast, We were all really hungry by dinner. But it was super spiritual and l'm glad that we fasted. During our testimony meeting in our branch, all of the older districts bore their testimonies (in Chinese, because that's all we ever do :/ ) and it was so awesome because I could understand most of what was being said. Our Sunday night devotional speaker was Sister Sheri Dew! It was super cool, and she is an amazing, pretty famous church speaker. Afterwards, the film we watched (you get to watch one of like 7 films Sunday night) was "Becoming a Missionary" by Elder Bednar, from another talk he gave at the MTC about 10 years ago. It was really good, and gave me new motivation.

We went to the temple this morning, and it's been pouring rain in Provo all day. Most of the MTC campus is a little flooded, it's awesome because it never rains in Arizona, so I love it!

The spirit is super strong here, and the language is definitely catching on. As much as I am dying to go out to Canada, I am actually excited to stay here and learn the language, and I'm ok staying for a little while longer.

I'm sure there are tons of things that I forgot to add or say, so I apologize, I might be able to respond today if you reply fast enough but other than that, I guess this is it!

Wo ai nimen (I love you all)

Wang Zhang Lao

Elder Wallace