Thursday, July 26, 2012

Guanyu Zhongwen he hao de meng (Regarding Chinese and good dreams.... I think that's what I said....)‏

Diana is still doing well. Here's the latest.

Hello everyone!
 
I hope this week has been going as well as it can for you all! Thank you so much for all the letters--keep sending them, even if you only have something little share! It is so wonderful to hear how everyone is doing, both the good and the bad. I think of the family constantly and I wish so badly I could reply to everyone personally. I am trying, but there isn't much time for writing letters.
 
Before I forget, Mom--for my plaque I wanted D&C 11:12. Also I think picture 27 was the one we liked? Sorry for taking so long to get that to you!
 
Life is going really well for me, here. Today for P-Day Sister Briggs and I went to the gym to work out with our elders, then got sack breakfasts with them and we ate them outside at a picnic table, while we all confessed our most awkward date stories and most serious childhood crimes. We have a lot of fun together. Thankfully all of the elders in my district are going to my mission, except for two. Elder Cottle is going to Paris and Elder Laboulaye is going to Montreal, Canada. Both already speak fluent French, but they have been called to speak Mandarin. (Other places where they are sending Mandarin-speaking missionaries besides Taiwan: Australia, California, New York, England, and Ireland. Kind of interesting.) 
 
After breakfast, we did laundry. Then I met up with a friend of mine who plays harp, to practice a musical number. We met when we both played in BYU's symphony orchestra, and were happy to find we were in the MTC together! Her name is Sister Bennion, and she is going to the same mission as Rachel. Houston South, Spanish speaking. She keeps her really nice harp in Sister Brown's office, so that is where we practiced. (Sister Brown is the MTC mission president's wife.) Apparently Sister Nally (the MTC music director lady who auditions people to play in firesides and devotionals) asked Sister Bennion if she could accompany someone on Meditation, that famous violin piece that I've played before.  It is her favorite piece. So we are going to audition on Thursday but since we were asked to play it we are pretty much guaranteed to get to! So that is exciting. I have been able to play violin pretty often. I usually get in a good hour of practice on Sundays and P-Days, and then anywhere from 0-30 minutes on the other days. The sisters we live with are really supportive and don't mind me playing, which I really appreciate.
 
After that, we ate lunch and then walked to the hill behind the temple to write letters, read scriptures, and talk with all our sister friends. We all wore sunglasses and took pictures.  It was such a beautiful, sunny day. It was so nice to lie down in the shady grass, to take off our shoes, and enjoy the free time.  I kind of hate that I am spending my summer inside cold buildings and wish my companion would let us study outside more often. But that's okay.
 
We teach lessons every day in Mandarin, to fake investigators. It is such a cruel task, in a way, because you can speak fluent Mandarin and still have tons of room for improvement on the way you teach. It is also a very realistic task. We do every day exactly what we are going to have to do out in the mission field. Also, they never give us feedback on our lessons, which is also cruel but realistic. I am used to the school system, where you are given a grade and some scribbled comments at the top of your paper about what you did well and where you have room for improvement, some concrete evidence of progress or the lack of it. But real life isn't like that. There is never any official way to know if you are a successful teacher, parent, friend, doctor, lawyer, etc. We just have to do the best we can and have integrity about how hard we are working.
 
Generally people seem happy here, but there is definitely a thick undercurrent of discouragement among a lot of the Mandarin missionaries. Our classrooms take up a long hall in the basement of one of the buildings. We dash around NiHao-ing and XieXie-ing each other with smiles and jokes. But every once in a while, when your classmate is pretending to be your investigator and you urge them to open up to you about their concerns, or when you're having a heart to heart with someone in the lunch line, or on the bike next to you in gym time, or at the sink next to you at night when brushing your teeth, you see glimpses of many people's insecurity about their ability to learn the language. It is really tough. Every day our teachers or leaders find ways to give us pep talks, and we try to build each other up as well in our lessons and meetings. But I think a lot of the missionaries are really struggling. Some of the elders, especially, but definitely not just elders. I feel like I'm generally good at handling stressful tasks like this and most of the time I feel fine but there have been a couple of times when I have felt so physically overwhelmed with how difficult it is. We all envy the English missionaries, and even the Spanish-speaking ones who will stop as on our way home at night and bare their testimonies and we can understand pretty much everything they say.
 
But I wouldn't take it back, for a second. It's also such a rewarding experience. It feels so good, to be humbled like this, and to have good friends to share the experience with. And there is so much  joy in my life here. On Sunday we were able to listen to what was, for me, a life-changing devotional from Elder Bednar about recognizing the Spirit. Every day during personal study I feel myself shrinking in the beauty of the atonement.  Yesterday I was vacuuming a hallway in our dorm building during service time, and I couldn't explain it but I just wanted to cry with how grateful I was to be here and to feel this love for the gospel. I keep waiting for the point where I'm allowed to say, "This is really hard." It seems like you're supposed to say that when you''re a missionary, right? I''m sure more of those moments will come when I am out in the field, outside of this safe, clean, uplifting little MTC bubble. But so far all the little tiffs with my companion and all my frustration with Chinese have been so worth it.
 
I know it has also been a lot easier for me than it would be for other people, though. I miss the family so much, but I haven't been caving under homesickness. I miss the band so much, but I haven't really worried that I made the wrong decision for my life. I have made so many good friends here, and definitely not everyone can say that about their MTC experience. At the end of every day, when all is said and done, I feel like I really am doing 100% fine. And I know I am lucky to be able to say that.
 
Take care! Please keep writing to me!
 
Sister Cow
 
P.S. I forgot to tell you about my good dreams! All the sisters tease my because I am infamous for switching up "You" and "I" in Chinese. I do things like pat people on the shoulder saying, "I am so cute". And the other night when we figured out how to say, "Sleep well, I hope you have good dreams!" I sweetly, affectionately told all my roommates that ""I will have good dreams." We have a lot of hilariously moments like that. I have so many other funny stories about the things we say, but they will have to wait for next time. Take care!

Friday, July 20, 2012

Week 2

Here is some of Diana's email from this week.

Hello everyone!
 
Thank you so much for the letters, packages, and support! I miss the family so much and I pray for everyone every night.
 
There is so much to say, I don't know where to start. Life is just so, so good here, at the MTC. It feels a lot like being in a religious private school away from home. I definitely have an advantage in that sense because I love school. Even though my Chinese is so limited, I am excited to learn more every day. I read my grammar book while I use the stationary bikes during gym time. I think SYL (speak your language--when we are only supposed to talk in Chinese from when we wake up to lunch time), is pretty fun, even though I'm really bad at it. Seriously, don't assume just because I enjoy learning Mandarin that I'm becoming competent at it... It is coming very slowly. And surprisingly, even the religious education here is fairly intellectually stimulating. Everything we are taught to do as teachers is supposed to focus on our investigator's needs. The Preach My Gospel fundamental, "Teach People, not Lessons" is drilled into our heads every day. I love it, because it means every time we open the scriptures or teach a lesson it is something different. Or at least, that's the way I see it. I think every missionary definitely gets something different out of their experience here, depending on what they bring to it. Probably not everyone sees it the way I do. 
 
The most suprising thing about life here is how much fun it is. I am not even kidding. My companion and I are roommates with and live next door to several other mandarin-speaking sisters, and they are becoming some of my best friends! Every night from when we get out of class to when we are supposed to be in bed, and often long after that, we are laughing nonstop, telling stories about our day and speaking really bad Chinese to each other. Last night Sister Newman ran into our room and said, "I need help!" She opened a box of six gourmet cupcakes from the Cocoa Bean Cupcake Cafe, that someone had sent her. We all sat in a circle to eat them--we would take a bite of one and then pass it around. It was so light-hearted and memorable. A couple of the sisters are the type who laugh hysterically at nearly everything--they kind of remind me of Mary, and it is so cute.
 
The elders in my district are also hilarious. (My district is the people who I go to class with--there are nine of us, total.) I wish I could turn them into garden gnomes, take them home, and set them free in the backyard so I can watch them interact from the deck. There is something so sweet and precious about a diversity of personalities having to work together. I love all of them so much, from sleepy Elder Cottle who naps during class and always has a candy bar in hand, to the soft-spoken, insightful Elder Laboulaye who gently nudges Elder Cottle awake, to Elder Lindley who is really smart but ironically has a thick valley-girl accent, to Elder Kattleman who  bonds with me over our common resistance to authority. (Although the way authority trickles its way down to us is so different than how I thought it would be--more on that later.)
 
The monotony of the food here is slowly creeping up on me. I've started only eating real foods, untouched by cafeteria worker hands. Like raisen bran and peanut butter and banana sandwiches. A few days ago after several long hours of class time, I wandered around the cafeteria for a few minutes only to discover that frosted flakes was all that appealed to me. Even the wraps have started to lose their savor, especially since they stopped offering feta cheese.... (They rotate ingredients.) And I have barely been here for two weeks. Today was the first time that I had a 3rd-hour-cannon-center-visit moment, in which the only thing I could think to do with the remains of my  chicken pablano soup, salad, and dinner roll was mix them all together and imagine them being slopped into a pigs' pen like on Charlotte's Webb.
 
I definitely have to get going. I am ten minutes overtime on my letter. But thank you so much for all the love you all have shown to me. It means so much. If you are really concerned about me, and want to help me, the best thing you can do is take care of yourselves. My worries for the people I love at home are the most pressing ones, these days. I have been trying to write most of you personal mail in addition to this, where hopefully I can be more helpful.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Ni hao wo de jiating! (Hello my family)‏

Diana sent her first email to her family today with title of this post as the subject line.

She said:

"So, overall I am pretty happy with life here. There is so much to learn and eat. As soon as you dropped me off at the curb, some missionaries showed me where to check in. A sister missionary helped me take my suitcases to my dorm room, collect my 12-pound bag of textbooks from the bookstore, and then I went straight to class. My teacher, Tan Laoshi, threw us immediately into Chinese mode and we haven''t really left it since. Learning this language is easily going to be the hardest thing I have ever done. There are always two things to memorize with every word--the sound and the tone. The grammar is so backwards from English--I can only construct very simple sentences on my own. I look at sentences in my textbooks and try to disect them but I am still so confused at the order all the words go in. Also, there are several sounds that we never use in any of the languages I have been exposed to--English or Spanish. I was foolishly hoping when President Bischoff spent so much time in my blessing discussing how I would be able to speak the language that he meant I would have a gift with language, that it would come easily to me. But now I think he meant that more as comfort and reassurance to me. Please pray for us to be able to do this!"

Diana is learning to teach by the spirit while her language is limited:

"Still, I have been learning so much. We have already taught two lessons in Chinese. The second one went much better than the first. I can say a very simple prayer and bear a very simple testimony. It's funny how I had all these well-though-out philosophical ideas about what kind of teacher and missionary I wanted to be, and what I really wanted to teach people on my mission, but I am finding that my primary mode of communication on my mission will have to be the spirit and love that I carry in my demeanor. It is a humbling but beautiful lesson to learn."

Diana wanted to try a different diet every week. One week vegan, one week vegetarian, one week Atkins diet, one week gluten free. It appears that she has changed her mind. It's also good to know that Diana isn't starving, in fact, quite the opposite:

"The food here! I only have three minutes but just know I am not suffering of starvation. I am not going to try any of those crazy Buddhist diet plans because obviously that would be really inconsiderate to my companion. And also I like a lot of the food! Probably largely because I have been to the cannon center so much that I know what foods to avoid---last night''s cod nuggets, for instance. But every morning I have fruit and oatmeal, or whatever liquid grain equivalent they are serving, and for lunch I have a wrap. THE WRAPS!!! It would almost be worth coming on a mission for the wraps alone! It''s like free L&T every day! For dinner I eat more. I am never hungry. Meals come so often."

Diana's testimony has grown. Her final paragraph says:

"I have never felt so much love from the lord. I feel a pure humility when I pray to him. And it is so sweet to me how I can say that I love Jesus Christ in my testimony in the only way I know how, but I can mean it with so much sweetness and peace than I ever could in the most eloquent English words. And I have never loved any of you so much! I think about everyone every day! Thank you so much for your letters! Please keep sending them--dear Elder is great, because they give me no time to read emails. There is still so much I want to say but I am out of time."

If you would like to send Diana a letter through Dear Elder, click here. Click "write a letter" then select "Provo MTC". Address it to Sister Diana Brown, MTC Box #: 97, Mission Code: TAIW-TAI 0920, Estimated MTC Departure Date: September 27, 2012.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Sister Diana Brown entered the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah on Thursday, July 5, 2012. Before entering the MTC she and her family had lunch at SLAB pizza, also in Provo. Policy changes don't allow families to say goodbye at the MTC anymore so Diana said her goodbyes at the pizza parlor.

Diana and her oldest sister Rachel

Diana hugging her sister-in-law Aya

Diana and her younger brother Jeffrey. He will have left for his mission before Diana gets home.

Diana going in for the hug on John-Mark, her brother-in-law.
Diana hugging her brother Doug
Diana and her sister Natalie

A thoughtful moment between hugs

Stephen hugging his sister

A beautiful twin hug between Mary and Diana


Bittersweet tears between parting twins

A post hug solemn father

Diana and her mom

The farewell finale

Although there were tears, Diana's family is proud of her and loves her very much.