One more week and Taiwan here I come!

A bird does not sing because it has an answer.
It sings because it has a song.

Chinese Proverb

Hello Family!

Well, I first need to warn you that I don't have much time to write about my week here or in my letter home.  Today is our last P-day before we leave, so we are trying to accomplish a lot of things to start preparing us for Taiwan.  It is a little scary, but very exciting!  We officially got our travel plans and will be leaving Next Tues. Morning at 5am.  We have a 3 hour layover in Seattle around 9:45am-12:50pm  I will try and give you a call sometime in that 3 hour span.  I'm guessing maybe 10:30ish.  I'm so excited that I will be able to talk with you!  I hope you can work things out so I can talk to a few of you.  I may also have time in the morning, but I'm not sure.  If I do, it will be around 6 or 6:30 I believe.


So for a quick update on this week.  This week was a difficult one.  We had two of our elders leave for their missions the past two days.  We have all come to think of each other as family, so it was a little sad.  I am so excited for them to serve and it makes everything a bit more real for us now too.  It was hard for our class though.  They were stressed with packing and everyone was a bit unfocused.  I definitely tried my hardest, but progression wasn't as great as some weeks have been.  I have noticed a cool little shift though.  I think in Chinese a lot more often now and when I talk about spiritual things, the Chinese words often comes to my mind first.  It is kind of a cool experience.  Sometimes it is so strange to me that I am actually speaking Chinese.  I am just starting to look into characters though, so I have a very long way to go!

I also decided that the two day goal of SYL(speak your language) wasn't quite great enough, so I am going to personally try and do it tomorrow, Thurs , and Friday and Saturday   It is going to be a bit tricky because we have an Thai sister with us a lot and we have to speak to each other in English.  BTW you should tell Bobby and his wife to volunteer at TRC!  Last week no one showed up to help the new Thai speakers practice so it was a bit sad for them.  There are 5 of them right now and I'm sure they would love it!  There's is on Saturdays at 3 or 4 o'clock.  Also I think the new Japanese speakers may be having their first TRC this week... not positive, but probably.  Anyways things are great in the MTC.  It is such a cheerful atmosphere here and I can't even believe how much I have grown.  I am so happy to be here and to be learning so much.

1 more week and Taiwan here I come!!! ^_^y

Wo ai nimen!!!

Love,

Sister Sara Gummow