The mystery of godliness, how great it is--D&C 19‏

Dajia hao, 

I hope you all are doing great! I hope after hearing a shout-out to Mrs. Shwartz in general conference you are all more inspired to have great Grandview days! (For those of you who don't know--Elaine S. Dalton's mother was the first grade teacher after pretty much our whole family.) 

So, my companion, Sun Jiemei, is just about the cutest person in the entire world. She is very petite, has straight black hair, and a wide jaw that comes from her being half Indonesian. She hates eating outside, even though that is the lifestyle of Taiwan. (The average person eats out pretty much every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner--food is so cheap, and their kitchens are all too tiny to cook much.)  So have been spending a lot of time inside lately during meal times, and she has been teaching me to cook curry and soupy rice and cabbage! I am so excited to cook for you all when I get back. 

The other day, we were studying and she said to me, "Sister Brown, ask me a really hard question--I know how to answer any hard question by using the scriptures." So I got all philosophical about it and asked her something about how to compel yourself to love when you don't want to. She said, "Okay, now turn to 1 Nephi 13:22". 

You can go and look it up yourself. I was laughing so hard. 

She was raised Muslim. It is really interesting having her perspective on the gospel. In her view, she says there is nothing wrong with Islam. She just joined the church becase she felt it had more truth to give her about God than Islam did alone, and because it helped her understand herself better. 

So much I want to say about her!

It's interesting being a trainer, and watching her go through all her first experiences as a missionary. Rejection, responsibility, work work work. It is the closest thing I think to being a mother that I have ever felt--I feel a lot of responsibility to teach her the things that will help make this life the best, happiest, and most successful for her. It is interesting what conclusions I come to, when I think of it that way. Sometimes the way I feel inspired to help her is to teach her the skills I have developed over the past seven months on island--how to talk to strangers, how to teach, how to schedule and plan, etc. But when I really pray and think deeply about what she needs, I realize the skill I want to give her most is to live every day with a cheerful and faithful heart. Mission life really is full of so many things we can't control--which means a lot of disappointments. Just like life outside the mission. I think the best thing I can give her is to be a person who can face these disappointments and yet still genuinely LOVES this life. I hope someday if I have kids I will be able to teach them the same thing. 

And I just spent pretty much all my time writing mission advice for Bill, which I sent to Mom. So I better get going. 

But, life is good! Don't worry about me, but keep praying for me. 

Sister Brown