Anyway, some other highlights of the week include getting to talk to some Mandarin Missionaries while Elder Yu practiced for his violin audition. One of the Mandarin missionaries - Elder Hsieh, walked in while we were practicing and offered to accompany Elder Yu in his violin piece: "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Peace." Elder Hsieh is amazing on the piano (and the violin too) but my favorite part was just talking with him and his companion Elder Tseng. They are here to learn English in the MTC and so while we try to communicate with broken Chinese and fluent English, they speak broken English and fluent Chinese. There is no doubt that there English is better than our Chinese though. They are super nice and I'll see them later tonight.
If any of you were wondering, when the new Mandarin-speaking missionaries came into the MTC a week ago, none of them came into our room - so we still have room for our stash of food (see picture) and Elder Boud in our room put up his hammock where we have empty bunk beds. One of the highlights from last Wednesday though was that I was able to see Elder Asa Neilson (Nielson?) when he came in. I also saw Elder Connor Arnell when I went on the temple walk on Sunday.
As for me - there isn't too much to report. Every day I study by myself for an hour, with my companion for an hour, and then the language whenever I have free time (at least an hour though). My language goal is to learn 50 words a day - which over the past week I have found possible. The key is finding the time to review them so that I can retain them. I also want to learn ten phrases a day (using the words I learned) and two scriptures a week. When I don't study we are in class or in meals. See the pictures for some language learning tools my Taiwanese teacher made for us... her pictures are awesome! I love being able to read the Book of Mormon for 45 minutes to an hour each day.
I am still running; I am sure that running is boring news by now but I ran with an Elder in my zone that ran a 4:17 mile in high school.
Yesterday in our Tuesday devotional Elder Anderson came and gave us a message. His grandson Elder Hadlock is in our zone and sat on the front row and read aloud the scriptures that Elder Anderson used in his talk. Another Elder in my District - Elder Bosco - is a family friend to the Anderson's so he and his companion got to go meet with Elder Anderson after. Because an apostle came, they broadcast the devotional to all the MTC's around the world. This is cool because I sang in the choir (More Holiness Give Me... it sounded great) and I heard that I was on camera. I hope that my friends in the other MTC's got to see me!
Finally, I just want to share a couple of the thoughts that Elder Anderson shared. He said that our testimony is like a fire, and that we need to keep it burning bright. Often times in the MTC (or when things are just generally easy) the flame is easy to be ignited. However, if we let it simply burn it will begin to burn out. Elder Anderson shared advice from Elder Oaks: Be Obedient, Be Worthy, Be Busy. He told us that missions are not complicated, but they aren't easy either. I hope that I can stay diligent to do the things he mentioned. The work is good, and my testimony is growing each day. I'm learning more and more about how I can bring my own talents to the field in order to be an instrument in God's hands.
Keep the faith!
Elder Allen
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