6/11/2012

Hi family!

(Hi Joshy-Squashy and Con-Con! I plan to spam your inbox too until you tell me otherwise.)

This week was great! Things just seem to keep getting better here.

Lots of things happened this week. On Saturday both the Cantonese districts (11 in total, all of us going to Hong Kong) fasted for one of our Elders, Elder Templin, because he may have to get foot surgery, and he really doesn't want to have to get it before his mission since it'll take 6 months to a year to recover from and he's already 24 and just wants to get going. It was really cool to think how powerful 11 missionaries fasting for another missionary must be. The MTC District President (kind of like a stake president here) he talked to said that he thought he'd probably be able to go, so we're happy about that. I think it's helped unite us all. The 11 of us spend most of our out-of-class/between-class time together, so we're all pretty close, which I love. One of the elders in my district may leave in a few weeks with the Elders in the district ahead of us because his parents are from Hong Kong and so he knows a good amount of Cantonese already. We're excited for him, but would be sad to see him go, especially because he's really helpful to have when there's not a teacher around to help us. I wanted to send you all a couple pictures of our two districts we took during our temple walk yesterday, but the computers here are super secure and it wouldn't let me get to My Computer. I've heard of people sending pictures here before, though, so maybe I'll try computers in another lab.

We also watched The Testaments last night--seriously the best movie ever. It always makes me cry. The last 20 or so minutes it just kept hitting me over and over "This is why you're here. This is what you've been called to preach." It was so cool.

Our new teacher's name is Brother Jackson (Jang Hingdaih), and he's really good too. He's been really helpful so far. He played soccer with Scott at Timpview! He told me he thinks Russell is super cool. Who doesn't? haha.

This morning we went to the temple, and while we were there we ran into Brother and Sister Hawks, our soon-to-be new mission president and his wife! It was cool seeing them, and super random. They will be here for training at the end of the month, and then will go off to Hong Kong! Our district will be the first district he welcomes! We also ran into them again when we got back to the MTC because apparently they're doing language tutoring today, so we said bye to them at the temple and then not even 10 minutes later saw them at the entrance to the MTC. It was funny.

I welcomed 4 new sisters this week: 2 going to Charlotte, NC, 1 going to Jackson, MS, and the other one going to DC South! Her name is Sister Borland, and she was in my BYU ward!! We were both pleasantly surprised to find out we were going to be roommates for the next 3 weeks. The new sisters are all nice and seem really hard working. They're pretty great. Also, to clarify to Dad, there are only 2 Cantonese sisters right now, and we're both going to Hong Kong. We don't expect new Cantonese missionaries until the beginning of July, when my friend Katie Cutler comes in! All the Cantonese missionaries are going to Hong Kong, which is fun, becaus a lot of the English speaking districts have people going to different missions, so we're glad we get to all stick together.

Also, I met Ann Pierson's younger brother! She was my old Young Women's president. I was playing 4-square at gym one day and heard someone call him Elder Basilius, which is her maiden name, and I looked at this Elder and thought "he HAS to be her brother" because he looks so much like her. So that was fun!

Our Branch President got released on Sunday (he was Scott's branch president too), and the 1st counselor, President Larkin, got called to be our branch president. Dad, I forgot to ask you this last week, but how do you know about President Larkin? Also, President Larkin told me that President Baker over the Mandarin branch wants to meet me--does that have anything to do with you?

I was sad that Uncle Rico didn't speak yesterday--apparently some things got switched around with the new mission presidents training at the end of the month. I hope to pop by his office sometime today or tomorrow to say hi.

Sister Lin and I are working together better and getting better at being on time, which I'm happy about. She has the same mailbox number as I do--our whole district just has a box. In answer to Amy's question, her first name is Huimihn, and her English name is Anna.

The Cantonese is getting better all the time, and I'm continually being humbled by how hard teaching can be sometimes, or pretty much anytime I listen to someone who can actually speak Cantonese and I think "I only understood 2 words of that!" haha. This week we taught 2 member volunteers from Hong Kong, which was fun. They helped me a bit with my grammar and vocabulary when I'd mess up.

Love you all! Thank you for all the love and support you've been showing! I hope things are great!

Sister Heaton