WEEK FOUR!

This week was AMAZING! Sister Good and I really needed a week like this after we collapsed last week. I think I prayed more this week than I have ever before, and it's made all the difference. Ever since Sister Good and I hit that bump in the road last week, we've only gone up from there and our lessons were on point this week. We taught our two new investigators Qiu Dixong and Wang Dixong. We decided that I needed to be talking more during our lessons to get more practice, so our lesson plan was basically all me except for when I needed help, or if Sister Good wanted to jump in. I was really nervous, but both of our lessons went really well this week. I feel my Chinese improving and I know it's because Sister Good has really helped me to work harder. I feel like our companionship was inspired. I've learned so much from her.

Luo Laoshi offered Sister Good to be fast-tracked since she's so far ahead of all of us. She would be moved to a new district with a new companion and only focus on gospel doctrine for the next 4 weeks, and leave one week earlier than us. She decided not to though, so our teacher said that we can only speak chinese to each other except for when we're in our bedroom, or when we're at lunch. So we'll see how this week goes!

Liu Laoshi is back! His surgery went well. We missed him - he's the best teacher in the MTC, I swear. 

He told us that during our first week, he felt stomach pains and they went away, but they came back last week and they were more severe, so when he went to the hospital and found out he had appendicitis, the doctor said that he's pretty sure it exploded the first time he felt stomach pains, which is really unusual. But Brother Liu told us he thinks that the Lord meant for the stomach pain to go away for the first couple weeks of our MTC experience, because we needed to learn something from him during that time, and he needed to learn something from us.  

(By the way Mom, you should tell Jonathan Shumway that my teacher served with him in Australia. His name is Jonathan Liu. Also, our substitute teacher Thomas Cottle lives next door to the Shumways. Small world!)

So, I'm so sad to report that another one of the elders in our district went home this week - Elder Spencer. He left for some personal reasons, and didn't really tell anybody or say goodbye. It was so sad, so now Elder Tan, Elder Mertz, and Elder Davidson are back in the tripanionship. It feels so small!

Also, we lost two districts in our zone last week so now we only have three. And the oldest district is leaving next week so our district will be the oldest for the rest of our time in the MTC, so we're all basically guaranteed to speak in sacrament meeting. At some point.

This week, we got to direct traffic for the new missionaries which was kinda fun. Apparently David Archuleta came and dropped off a missionary but I didn't see him. So that's kinda cool. All I did was direct the cars out of the MTC, so I saw all of the crying moms. Some of them took pictures of me which was a little weird. I guess they just wanted the full experience of dropping off their sons/daughters.

Our Devotionals this week were so awesome. I learned about the importance of invitations. When we do TRC, essentially we're just sharing a message with members. But they have really emphasized the importance of inviting them to do something. Because, they can definitely feel the spirit from our lessons, but for them to continue to feel something from our meeting, we should invite them to do something throughout the week to strengthen their faith in one way or another. The devotionals were central to that. Our speaker last night gave us like 5 invitations to help us improve in one way or another. It was awesome.

I hope everyone is having a good week! I don't have a lot of time, so that's it for this week. Remember to serve others when you're worried about yourself~
Sister Hendricks

 

 Pday laundry time!

Sister Kirkham, Sister Oviatt, Me, Sister Good, Elder Tan, Elder Mertz, and Elder Davidson

  

The temple this morning! Me, Sister Good, Elder Mertz, Elder Martin, Elder Davidson, Elder Tan

 We were trying to be creative haha

Temple walk! Sister Oviatt, Sister Kirkham, me, Sister Good, Sister Kitchen, Sister Tu'ione, Sister Payne, Sister Crowell, and Sister Baird. I love these sisters!

Directing Traffic!

 Saying goodbye to Sister Cutler! I will miss them! But luckily we'll meet them in Taiwan. Sister Giles was transferred to Georgia, and Sister Cutler to Arizona!

​Saying good bye to Sister Giles