4/21/16
I'm in a SanBanTuan with a boy!!!
My journal entry for the week: My first companion was a boy. (Then I explained)
To start, a SanBuanTuan is a trio companionship. 
To say the middle stuff, it's me and Sister Jensen and the Solo Elder in my district. He has no companion and needs one, but there are no elders even remotely available. Our teacher asked us if we would teach with him and plan and study with him. Things like that! So we do, and it's been a learning experience for sure. But we are becoming more unified.
To end it, it's super weird sometimes when we have to explain to people that we are companions.
This week has been great! 
We were able to host the senior missionaries this week and they were the sweetest people that I have ever met! I met this cool lady who is from South Africa, and her husband is Tongan, and they are my new friends. I love them! We also got to do two TRC lessons on Saturday. I'm still not exactly sure what TRC stands for, but I know that is is teaching a member of the church a lesson to help them build their testimony, rather than teaching investigators. It was really cool and they were really nice. It was a nice break from our regular daily grind of teaching people super basic gospel principles that they don't necessarily want to accept. Our investigators have been doing well, though! Our Investigator ZhangWei (my teacher YeLaoShi) is learning, but things have been a little off. We talked to our teacher about it and she said that we are very good at teaching lessons, our lessons are simple and clear, and great. But we aren't good at teaching people. We aren't adapting to our investigator's needs or making an effort to help or know her personally. The motto here is to teach people, not lessons, so we need to work on that. We decided to try and implement it in our next lesson with HanGeHui. HanGeHui (my teacher, GeLaoShi) is working on his relationship with God. He loves how happy LDS people are and wants to learn more about our church. He "came to church with us" on Sunday and really liked it, thinking everyone was very friendly. We adapted this last lesson to focus solely on getting to know him better and help him come closer to Christ. The spirit was so strong in that lesson as we bore testimony of God's love for HanGeHui and prayed with him to know if it was true. I love hearing investigator's prayers, so simple, sincere, hesitant, and hopeful. This is my favorite part and the most rewarding part about being a missionary, helping someone know who they are and come closer to Christ. We taught a person, and not a lesson. We have so much to work on, but it was a small step in the right direction. We have started going non-scripted in our lessons and it has helped a lot, not looking at our papers for Chinese, but communicating with the investigator, with maybe more broken Chinese.
Did I mention that I love Chinese? One thing that I love is how simple I am forced to be. My testimony is more sincere and my prayers, because I have to really think about what i am saying and am limited, so I say the most important things. The only thing that's really bad about Chinese is trying to sing hymns in it. It's not pretty, but mostly I think because we aren't very good at it. smile emoticon Our teacher laughs at us sometimes. He just got an internship for his major and next week may be his last week as our teacher. He said he wants to stay until we leave, but this would require him to work 55 hours a week. Which would be difficult. We really love him and want what is best for him, but it would be hard to get a new teacher right now. But we pray for him all the time! He is an amazing teacher-ever patient and encouraging and really caring about our progress. I thank Heavenly Father everyday for putting amazing people in my missionary experience to help me so far.
BYU Men's Chorus came on Sunday and it was so cool! They sang this beautiful prayer song in Swahili. It was very upbeat, but so passionate, and it brought the spirit very strong. They shared some cool experiences. I also have the privelege of being in the MTC choir. It is so spiritual to sing the way we do- our director has taught us that when we sing, we shouldn't be singing, we should be testifying. When we sang I feel My Savior's Love he had us think of an experience where we felt the savior's love, and it turned the song into 300 missionaries bearing testimony at the same time that we know of God's love. It has been an amazing experience! I figured out I'm an alto.
My roommates are still awesome and my companion and I are working together well. The oldest district in our zone just left, and we miss them already, but we get new Taiwan missionaries in today and I am so excited! smile emoticon At our P-Day Eve festivities we decorated for the new sisters to make them happy. I love service!
It's amazing what prayer and goals can do for us. Remember my obedience? Prayer has made it possible and the blessings that come from it are beyond describable. My day as a misionary can go thirty times better with obedience. ALSO, we got a huge pep talk about speaking Chinese more in daily conversation (SYL-ing) and that has been going better for me. It really helps me retain and remember my Chinese.
This week has been a testament to me of the power of being a missionary. Our departing zone that was leaving sang "I'll go where you want me to go" in sacrament meeting and they were glowing. They sang with such conviction. It was one of the most powerful experiences that I have had seeing missionaries about to go out and teach in Taipei, testify that they will go wherever the Lord wants them to go, say what he wants them to say, and be what he wants them to be. This song has become my model for my mission. I am here, on my mission. How can I not submit every ounce of my will to serve Him and His sheep? How can I say that I will do anything on my own? I'm learning to trust the Lord with every fiber of my being and go to him for literally everything. Prayer is real and it works. Joseph Smith got down on his knees, just like my investigators do every lesson and asked a simple question that has affected my whole life. I am thankful for Joseph Smith and know that he is a prophet of God. God loves each and every one of us more than we could ever know. We are His children and we should hope with every confidence and assurance that we will inherit a place in the Kingdom of God, and then go out, pray, serve, and make it happen. This is my greatest desire. I want to make every day count so that I can say that I never wasted a day of my mission. I love you all, and know that God does too.
Have a great week, and have Big Faith.
Sister DeWitt
P.S. I'm playing in church on Sunday!