Nimen hao!!

Nimen hao!

Hi mom and dad!

Ok,I have 28 min. haha. First, thank you SO much for sending the electric blanket! I was freezing every night and now I sleep so much better :) and mom thank you for sending my debit card. Dad and Melissa, thank you for the dear elders :) It's so fun getting mail. Melissa, I wrote you a letter today and as soon as I get a second I'll put it in the mail box :) I love you guys so much! Thank you!

So last week I felt way scatter brained when I wrote my email so this week I wrote some things down that I want to make sure I remember so maybe I can be a little bit more organized haha so I went through my journal to see what I could tell you and almost every single journal entry started out, "today was the longest day of my life...but it was so great!" haha that made me laugh. It's so true though. Every single day is so long, but every day is so great in different ways.

Last night we all had kind of a little bit of a break down. It was the first time I cried since I have been here, which is weird because I'm a really big cry baby (thanks to you, mom. haha) so I thought i would be crying all the time. Anyway, we taught a new investigator last night and it just went horrible. I have been working so hard on my chinese and I felt like because I have been working so hard and memorizing words and phrases and just practicing all the time that I would be able to see some improvement. I didn't. My companions and I went in and none of us knew what he was saying and we couldn't get to our lesson plan and it was just so like, awkward. I'm not sure if he will want to meet with us again. it was really bad. I was expecting my mission to be hard, but I never could have imagined it was going to be this hard. It is so frustrating and discouraging to know something that will bless someone elses life, and not being able to tell them. I want to help my investigators so bad but I just can't understand them and they can't understand me. so I'm working harder and having the spirit and hoping they will be able to feel that through me. That being said, my chinese really has improved a lot. I just need to be patient with myself and remember that I have only been here for 2 weeks. On Sunday it was fast sunday and we had a missiion conference. All day it seemed like they were talking about testimonies and how to streangthen them. Well, when sacrament came around, I had a feeling I needed to bare my testimony. So I sat there til the very end, naturally, until I finally got the courage to go up. And I bore my testimony in Chinese!! It was amazing! Everyone said they understood it and that my tones were really good! So that really gave me a boost of confidence. I'm still working really hard though. Especially after the lesson with the investigator last night, a fire has been lit and I am determined to work harder and faster.

I am so happy to be here, I seriously feel so blessed every single day to be here. I get to see miracles happen on a daily basis. For example, baring my testimony in chinese-miracle. Being able to (somewhat) pray in chinese-miracle. The fact that I can sit still, quitely, and focused in a classroom literally all day long-miracle. haha. Also, I get to see Heavenly Father answer my prayers. My teacher said something like, if you pray very specifically, it is easier to recognize when your prayers are answered. I think it was on Friday, I was getting really down on myself. I was really frustrated because one on my companions would whine and complain every time we went to the bathroom because apparently the other two of us took too long...idk. haha. But I just really wanted to be alone just for a minute. Which most definitely is not allowed. So I prayed that morning that I would be able to see Chelsey. She had come in on Wednesday but I hadn't seen her yet. Sure enough at lunch I was able to see Chelsey! It was a miracle. It was so good to see someone from home and someone I love. We have seen each other a lot since then and I love it! I love that we get to be here at thesame time.

Speaking of new missionaries coming in, last wednesday we got about 800 new missionaries! And we are expecting over 800 more tomorrow! How crazy is that! the lines at meals are getting soooo long (even from when I came in two weeks ago), and Monday morning they came in and put another bunk bed in our room. So tomorrow we are probably getting new roommates, which means there will be 6 girls in a room that was made for only 4 girls......yeah. It is going to be interesting to see how this will work out. haha. It is really great though. The Lord asked for more missionaries and that is exactly what He is getting! I LOVE being a misisonary so so much!

I don't have a lot of time left, but I wanted to mention how much I love my district. We spend all day every day together and we have become like family. We probably like each other too much, we get distracted VERY easily. For the most part we are able to focus and work hard though. There was an instence on Saturday after gym where we didn't really have anything to do (we had about an hour til we got to go to bed), but we had planned on planning a lesson for the next week. Everyone got talking and really distracted and I was trying to study and learn chinese but I felt that the spirit had left. It was the worst feeling ever. I never want that feeling agian. I tried several times to help everyone get back on task but apparently I'm not a very assertive person...haha who knew right? haha. That is something I want to work on though is to be more bold and assertive. Dad, you told me that in your letter before I left. Thank you for that letter by the way. I love it.

Anyway. I don't really have too much left to say. I did get my batteries and medicine though, thank you! It was funny, every night they have a bunch of missionaries names on a screen that need to go to the front desk and I guess my name was on there, but I didn't know. Several people came up to me and asked if I had gone to the desk and I had NO idea what they were talking about haha. It was funny.

Oh, one more thing I have learned. Well, I've learned a lot, but one more I want to mention in the next 4 min. So often I put all my trust and rely so much on other people. While it's good to trust other people, I have really learned that before anyone else, I need to put my trust and rely on the Lord. I could not have been able to do any of this or learn half as much Chinese without Him. He is the one person that FULLY understands us and what we need, so it's kind of obvious that He should be the first person we turn to, right? I think I have always known that, but I haven't really ever fully acted on that knowledge. I'm so happy that I get to be here and learn, grow and prepare so that I can go to Taiwan and hopefully share what I have learned and help change someones life. I'm SO EXCITED!!

Wo ai nimen!

Sister Fuller