Called to Serve the Lord; Assigned to the Taiwan Taipei Mission: Taiwan Here I Come!

Dearest Family,

Good news! Another apostle came! And Fabian was right, it surely was Elder Quentin L. Cook! :) What a blessing! 8 apostles in 9 weeks at the MTC. The Lord really needed me to learn something important from them all. We've also had some from the Quorum of the Seventy come and address us. What amazing men of God!

So my companion got her reassignment! She is now going to Hong Kong China Mandarin speaking! How crazy is that?! The Lord just has special plans for each of us, I know that for sure. Sometimes He also has a different way for each us to come to know of His plan. For my companion, it took surgery for her to get a reassignment. It took not being able to ride a bicycle in Taiwan for her to get a reassignment. I know the Lord knew where she was going all along. He felt she just need to take the back road in finding out, perhaps.

Also, the NPR segment came out... I'm kind of embarrassed of my voice. Haha. I'm so glad that I don't have to listen to that for the rest of my life. I'm sorry for everyone else. Haha. It was funny listening to it and laughing because of the mistakes they made. So my companion, Sister Jackson is from Texas NOT Wisconsin. And Elder Gibbs is not named Kevin but is named Devin. Yup! It's funny how they can sometimes get things wrong.

My district is pretty amazing. I love them sooo much! We are definitely exemplified unity. Last week, we did what is apparently called the "Pillar Challenge." So at the MTC and at the BYU Cannon center, they have these pillars full of cereal. As a zone (but it was our District's idea) we decided to to take the challenge of emptying out the pillar. I can honestly say that I felt sick afterwards. We decided on Captain Crunch, the berry one. I guess on missions, we have to do things to keep us laughing, having fun, and unified. Mission accomplished. (See picture below)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Father's Day! I hope that my daddy had a special Father's Day! Father's are so special. I just love that quote from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in a mormon message: "Of all the titles of respect and honor and admiration that are given to Deity, He has asked us to address Him as Father." I know that our Heavenly Father loves us just as our earthly father loves us. How sweet it is to know that!

I love you all! Take care! Talk to you (by email) in Taiwan!!!!!!!!! I'm soo ready for this. I leave you with part of the letter I wrote to my branch president that pretty much sums up my MTC experience.

"Wow! My time at the MTC has come and gone so quickly! I can only imagine what the rest of my mission will be like. In class yesterday, we discussed how missions really are such a short amount of time and we, as His servants, don't want to waste any minute of it. As I mentioned in my "Enduring to the End" talk in Sacrament one Sunday, it's tough knowing when the "end" is because it's just that much easier to start slacking off and getting "missionary-ritis" as I like to call it. It's similar to "senioritis" which I definitely had the last few months in high school. I've been praying so hard here at the MTC for help to keep going and improving and to not be complacent. That's how life is. We're never going to stop progressing, even in the Celestial Kingdom. I need to do my part if I want to show Heavenly Father that I can teach His children about His gospel.

Now that I'm towards to the end of my MTC experience, I got so discouraged looking back because I know that I could have done so much better preparing for the language. I felt that I let Heavenly Father down in preparing myself for the field. I didn't meet my goals and I didn't do a lot of the things I wanted to, as far as my language study goes. But now as I think about it, those feelings come from the adversary. I know that I tried. But it's those feelings of "I knew I could have done better" are the ones that I need to repent of. I'm grateful for this MTC experience, which has taught me so much and has given me a foundation of what I need to do when I'm in the field. I know that everything that I do is for the Lord and His children. All of the spiritual gifts that He gives me and will give me are for Him and for the benefit of my brothers and sisters.

I love His work and it is truly a privilege to be a part of it. My MTC experience is one that is so unique for me and is one that the Lord has given me to prepare me, personally, for the field. I know of His love because I have felt it."

Love,
Sister Sagisi (Xia JieMei)