Dec 28, 2009‏

Dear Jiating (Family),

Ni Hao again! How are you all doing? The MTC is still great! Also, as many of you can email me as you want, but I can only spend 30 mins on email a day, so I may not get to email you all back! Literally, there is a clock ticking down in the top corner, and if it reaches "0:00" I get kicked off. Brutal!

Anyways, before I forget there are a couple things that I need that I don't have. I should have a brown fancy-ish blazer in my closet. If someone took it find it and steal it back. Apparently we need to wear blazers to large group meetings and I only have a winter coat, which gets really hot in a room of 2,000 missionaries! In my room there is also a scripture case and a journal. I need those too. Things that are not in my room that I need is Hypoi-allergenic laundry detergent for about 24 loads. My skin is so dry and the detergent is not helping! I have plenty of lotion, though, which is a blessing. I would also appreciate a semi-nice looking watch. Not expensive at all, just nice looking. I lost mine and there are practically no clocks here at all! So to Sum it Up: Blazer, Scripture case, journal, detergent, watch. Thanks! Sorry for the inconvenience!

Now to get on with the week. Christmas was amazing! Christmas week we had some awesome speakers. Last Tuesday Niel L Andersen came and talked about the condescention of God. It was amazing! It was particularly special for me because his talk, "You know Enough" in October 2008 is one of the reasons I am here. What a great Christmas Gift!

On Christmas Day L Tom Perry came and spoke about Jesus. From where I was sitting, He looked a lot like Grandpa Timms! I felt so special. It was such an amazing talk! The Christmas evening Devotional was Greg Olsen. He is the one who painted most of the pictures of Christ we recognize. He was amazing. One funny story he told is that He had models dressed as Jesus and His Disciples that he was taking pictures of in the middle of a field and for a split second one of the neighbors thought it was the second coming! I loved it! I still laugh!

The coolest part of the week is that we had our first TA (Teaching Appointment). Even though it was just a girl pretending to be an investigator it felt so real! We taught her that God loves her, and the spirit was so strong. My companions were amazing. I am so blessed to be with them to learn and grow. I couldn't have asked for better companions! We talked to the girl who played the investigator at lunch and she said that she was pretending to be one of her friends and she did not know what to say to her about the church but we answered the question for her. I was really humbled by the experience. I know that the spirit worked through me and my companions to bring her answer to her because we could never have known on our own. The spirit is real! I love it!

One of the scriptures we shared in teaching really hit home with me too. It is one of my classic favorites: Proverbs 3:5-6. Learning Chinese is hard. Truthfully, I know by myself it would really be impossible. But god wants me to do it. I know I can do it because of that. I need to stop trusting my own abilities and start trusting his. He parted the red sea for crying out loud! Of course he can teach me Chinese! :)

The funniest thing that happened this week actually happened this morning. There is optional morning gym time for the sisters and they bring in an instructor and she does a class. today the class was Step Aerobics. I have never done that before. Now I know why! I am so not coordinated! I tripped over my step a couple times and I even feel down! I could not stop laughing! I guess I got more of an ab work out than I expected from a step aerobics class by laughing so hard!

Well, Wo ai Nimen! I love you all!

Love,
Sister Collyer

PS - I am trying to figure out pictures. Maybe next week!