The Ups and Downs of Chinese!

Dear Family,

Hey Guys!!! How in the world are ya??? Things are going great!! Today because of Labor Day we didn't have the temple... so that kinda stunk, but I got to write a lot of letters. This week has been great!! On Tuesday, it was a super good learning day!! Still trying to figure out this whole chinese thing! haha... but it is fun! I love this work.  My companion and I's lessons this week didn't go super well... :/ that was a little rough, but when Saturday rolled around and we had TRC, we had two awesome lessons!! In one of them there were three RM's one who served in Taiwan.  We invited them to share their testimony with someone this week.  They accepted, but it was really cool because I was able to testify about the power of testimony in Chinese and felt like it made a difference.  Sometimes it is hard to feel like you are making a difference when you are teaching members and when you are speaking a different language.  One thing that is so cool though is that with the Spirit anyone can feel a difference or a change in their state of being.  That is what the gospel offers.  Change for the better.  As saints, if we aren't changing from day to day for the better then we are not fully utilizing the blessing of the atonement and the gospel in our lives.  I have been changed by my MTC experience.  I hope to continue to change every day into the missionary and son that My Heavenly Father would have me be.  

I have been playing basketball recently... I think I am getting worse... haha.  I am also getting fat... haha! However, I am not too worried because I know that when I go to Taiwan in the heat and eating rice and veggies... I will probably lose more weight than I would like.  So... I think I am gonna continue to soak up the burgers and four square for the last 3 weeks.. ;) haha!  

I was able to hear from Mr. Wheadon this week!  What a great man.  It is people like Mr. Wheadon that keep you going and make you feel very loved. He also sent doughnuts!  My district LOVES him!!

I am sorry, these last few weeks I need to take more pics!!  I will!  These last few weeks are going to go by super fast... so I am going to take in every single thing that I can.

My Great MTC District on Temple Walk

We had a kinda interesting day on Thursday, Our teacher Ou Yang Laoshi had to switch classes... so that was tough.  I really liked him.  He was a real friend and brought the spirit into every lesson. We still have WuJieMei so that is good, but on Friday WuJieMei told us that our tones are really bad... It actually was really depressing and hard for our whole district.  We took a grammar and communication test... our results were poor. haha, but I think everyone’s are.  Anyways, after she told us that, we worked on tones for two hours... and made no real headway.  It was really hard for a lot of our district.  I kinda knew my tones were already bad... haha so I didn't get too down.  It hurt me to see everyone else down though.  It kinda scared me though.  I really don't know a ton of Chinese..  and in 3 weeks I will be in Taiwan... I think everyone at this point is a little nervous.  We just have to remember to rely on the Lord.  With the Lord, we can get our message across and not speak very well.  Without the Lord, we can't speak very well and our message doesn't get across. One thing I encouraged everyone to do was use this time these last three weeks very wisely.  I remembered hearing a quote " this isn't our time, it is the Lords time. "  That hit me really hard.  It makes me think every second if I am using my time wisely.  

I have thought a lot about football and the great lessons Coach Wall taught that are really life lessons.  I am so grateful to have had such amazing coaches and mentors in my life!!

Love you all!! 

Love, 

Elder Redding