July 3rd, 2012
Sister Coco Mack
MTC, Provo, Utah
Dajia hao!!!
Hey does anyone else think it's completely insane that I
have been here for 6 weeks??? WHAAAAAAAAAAT! I just think it's totally wild.
I am so excited to get our new group of missionaries this
week, we are expecting about 50 new ones in our zone all going Mandarin
speaking including my cousin and a friend from high school! It's going to be so
awesome. We have a goal to SYL (Speak Your Language, AKA: Chinese) all the time
and hopefully that will encouarge the new missionaries (and us) to work hard.
Earlier this week my Branch President complimented my Chinese in one of our
meetings where I said the prayer but then a few days later he heard me say another
prayer and gave me a few corrections. I was starting to feel a little
frustrated by the end of this week and we had a little bit of a venting
session in our residence hall last night (which I am repenting for now, don't
worry). This morning my companion said that she dreamed we were trying to teach
a lesson in Chinese and she was mad cause she knew she was asleep and didn't
want to be thinking about Chinese. I told her that I remembered having a
similar dream and then one of the sisters in our residence hall told me that
she heard me sleep talking in Chinese!!! It was such a tender mercy. I know it
sounds silly but it just made me feel like even though I have a lot improve on
and I could do so much better, I am improving. God is helping me to learn this
language, I know he is. I think it's pretty amazing that the all-powerful being
in the universe is helping me learn one of the hardest languages in the world
so I can teach his children about him and his son. I just have to keep kicking
when I don't want to kick, and to keep striving to be worthy of his help. I
guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm working hard and I'm so so happy and I
kick myself every time I am negative because it's so absurd. I love my mission
so much :)
One of the greatest highlights of the week: a friend from my
Provo ward arrived in the MTC this week! She is headed to Korea, so her classes
are in my same building. We have
the same schedule, so we get to see each other a lot. I knew she was supposed
to come sometime in June but I didn't know when. Then one of the Korean-speaking Elders told
me she was here and I ran to find her and gave her a huge hug and nearly
started crying because I was so so happy to see her. She's so lovely and
already such a good missionary, I'm grateful she is here. Plus we decided we
will live together when we get home because all our friends will be married,
graduated, or on missions . . . but we will always have each other!
My companion and I have taken to playing volleyball every
day with the missionaries in our zone and we are so awful it's hilarious but
everyone is just a really good sport and we just laugh the whole time and play
in the sand. I love it haha.
Ok I had such a cool experience this week reading the Book
of Mormon. We were studying the Christ-like attribute of Charity and Love as a
district. One scripture I read talked about service, which reminded me of Ammon,
so I decided to read that story in Alma 17-20. If you haven't read it recently,
you should read it again because it's so incredible. I read this story with the
lens of charity and love. It was so
powerful!
Ammon goes to teach the Lamanites about God. When he first get there, he is kidnapped and
bound and taken to the king "as was their custom to bind all the Nephites
who fell into their hands" where he could have been killed. But he is humble and full of love and says
that his greatest desire is to serve the king. He defends the king's sheep and
servants and is so obedient that the king "was more astonished, because of
the faithfulness of Ammon, saying: Surely there has not been any servant among
all my servants that has been so faithful as this man; for even he doth
remember all my commandments to execute them." Ammon starts to teach the
Lamanites by his example of faithfulness and service, an example which
astonishes them. That really spoke to me about how much we can influence people
by our actions. You never know who is watching so you just have to be your best
all the time. I love that. There are so many more verses I want to share but
I'm out of time. Just read it yourselves, and I know you will be touched by the
love of this missionary. I gained such a powerful witness this week that we can
never underestimate the power and miracle of God's love to transform people. If
the love of God motivates our service (as missionaries, as people trying to do
good in the world, as friends, etc), we will be a mighty influence for good,
and we will have a joy that pierces our hearts and our souls. It is so good.
Aren't the scriptures just delicious? I love to devour them here and I wish I
could do it for hours and hours every day. I'm sorry that I didn't take advantage of the
joy they bring into my heart more before now. But I am grateful that the
miracle of God's love in my life right now is that he is letting me have this
chance to be his missionary, to be refined and grow spiritually and most of all
to serve and love his children. It is such a privilege.
The days are long, the weeks are so short, and the work is
truly marvelous. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!
Love love love
Sister Coco Mack
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