Week 1: First Week in the MTC and loving it!

Here is Sister Roberts first post from the MTC.  She is loving it!
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First of all, I just love it here!!! Even though I haven't even been here a full week. Ask me if I feel the same way in a few weeks!!! :) So the first day was definitely crazy. Once I was dropped off, I was rushed everywhere. Got my books (which BTW they weigh 35 pounds instead of 12 like they said they would. Benefits of learning Chinese...), got my tag, MTC card, went to my dorm, dropped off all my bags, then went straight to class. But of course they only speak to you in Chinese. 

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t was awesome because I understood. I responded back to the teacher and he said "Oh ni de zhong wen fei chang ha

​o​

" which is "Oh your Chinese is very good!". With a surprised tone in his voice. I can't complain. I had my name changed from Ru Jie Mei to Luo Jie Mei which was the Chinese surname 

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 had been given in China, and the name that all my family has. 

​We then 

 had a welcome meeting, and it was cool because 

​as ​

I was sitting there, I was overcome with love for my companion. And I literally hadn't even talked to her much! Definitely a cool experience. After that, it was dinner

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The first day wasn't too exciting. A lot of information thrown at you. 

Second day was also very hectic and crazy. It didn't help that we (my room) were all so tired because my poor companion (Sister Hughes or Hu Jie Mei) spent the night throwing up. I went with her to the doctor (cause I have to stay with her) and that took about an hour.  She's ok :) 

I love her! She's just the best! She's from Bountiful Utah and has been here her whole life. She's also going to Taiwan, and she just has the sweetest testimony! I have so​ much I can learn from her! So get this, we are both short, we both were born on July 3rd 1996, we both have heart murmurs, and we basically love the same food. Except she doesn't like spicy. We are literally the same person. It's the best!!! We were a match made in heaven!!! We have two other Sisters in our room. Sister Erickson (Sun Jie Mei) who is outgoing and just tells it how it is. Love her! And we have Sister Skinner (Ruan Jie Mei). Hu Jie Mei (my companion) is going to Taiwan Taibei, Sun Jie Mei is also going to Taiwan, and Ruan Jie Mei is going to Toronto Canada mandarin speaking. Pretty cool! We all get along really well. 

Our district is pretty small. We have us four sisters, then we have three elders who are in a tri​-​companionship. Elder Ramanlal, is from Hawaii and is going to New York North mandarin speaking, and who also met the cast of Hawaii five-0 (shout out to Hallie and my mom and brother) because they wanted to use his house. He is also the district leader. Elder Joly is from Utah, and he's cool. Then Elder Welch from Utah as well. Everyone in my district has had some amount of Chinese experience. Everyone is working really hard to learn Chinese... It's hard. And oh goodness it takes so much brain power. Especially trying to understand the teacher who only speaks in Chinese. But it's definitely an adventure! We have learned so much already. It's overwhelming for sure, but it could be worse. At least I have background, good pronunciation and ​a ​good ear for the tones. 

Second day was pretty straight forward. We met the branch presidency and we also met our zone. Which is only 5 more elders. So there's only 4 sisters in our zone and branch. (Our zone is our branch and there are​ only 12 people all together). Our zone is pretty awesome. We eat all our meals (except breakfast together). They are really helpful, which is good. The only complaint I have so far about the MTC is that I feel like no one has really taught me anything. As in, how the MTC works. Or the daily planning

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 Maybe it's just cause I missed half of the second day going to the doctors with my companion, but I just feel like there is so much I don't know!!! I'll figure it out eventually. So as I said we met the branch presidency, and we were given our callings. I'm the pianist (woohoo!) Sister Erickson (Sun Jie Mei) is the Sister Training Leader, Sister Hughes (Hu Jie Mei) is the chorister, and Sister Skinner (Ruan Jie Mei) is the music coordinator. It'll be fun. So for church, we have to write a talk every week. In Chinese... yay... Then they randomly pick on 2 or 3 people to share it. I guess it's good cause by the time you leave the MTC, you have talks prepared. Anywa​y, ​ I gave the lesson in relief society (first time teaching a church lesson) and it went well. ​I​t was on Enduring to the end. ​I​ t's funny though because it's just us 4 sisters, and then the three wives of the branch presidency. Sorry i'm jumping around so much. There's so much I want to say!!! And I feel so rushed!!! 

So we taught our first investigator on Friday....yes it was in Chinese. It was awful ​(haha)​. We taught about God and Jesus Christ. It was supposed to be 30 min, and ours was 5... but it's ok! The next day we taught again and it was a whole 15 min!!! Good for us! It's kind of frustrating because we literally don't know enough Chinese!! I mean I guess it's a good experience, but I can't say I learned much from it. I was just annoyed cause I couldn't speak. Also the investigator was on her phone during the prayer(s), so we taught her about prayer the next lesson. The second lesson definitely went better. We taught about prayer and more about God. I'm almost positive though she isn't a real investigator. But I gotta say she's a good actor. 

So my companion told me that someone told her that there are 355 rules in the MTC....how crazy is that.... but our branch president taught us that we should just be obedient and not ask why. The rules are here after 170 years of missionary experience, so we just need to trust. 

BTW​ my P-day is on Monday!

I've been sleeping well, and I haven't been homesick at all...sorry haha. I may get there, but honestly, I just have so much to do, and so much to think about that I have very little time to think about home. Which is ok with me. It's not like I have forgotten any of you though. Don't worry!!!   We have really just been learning Chinese and doing personal study, with meals in between.  Wake up at 6:30, get breakfast, go to the gym (we are lucky we have gym in the morning), get ready, have personal study for an hour, companion study (hour), language study (hour), then lunch, additional study (hour), then class (3 hours). Then dinner, more class (3 hours), and study time, daily/weekly planning, then bed. Crazy I know. We are allowed to go outside for companion study and additional study though. Thank goodness!!! 

This past Sunday was awesome. It was so spiritual. After church and our temple walk with our district, we went to devo​tional​. Chad Lewis (the NFL football player) and his wife spoke, I​t​ was really good. Also, Taysom Hill was there and bore his testimony. ​I​t was so good. After devotional​, we have 10 or so option of movies (maybe less). We watched this devotional given by Elder Bednar about the Character of Christ. I​t​ was awesome. Basically he said that we need to work on being someone who thinks outward instead of inward. He encouraged us to go through the scriptures and find examples of Christ and where he shows love and gives service instead of thinking inward. You all should do that!!! 

Well that's all ​I​ got for ya! I'm not frustrated with the language yet, and I'm actually just really excited. My testimony has grown so much. I have felt the spirit so much and it's just such a confirmation that I'm supposed to be here, and that my Heavenly Father is ​happy for ​me. I know it'll be hard, but so far it's been great!!! Thank you all for your emails and letters!!! Talk to you next week!!!!

Love, 

Luo Jie Mei

(Sister Roberts)