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.