MTC Week 6

Dear Family, friends, and otter pops, 

     I love when people write me!!! Especially you Dad, you may be old, but you've got some awesome insight ;) haha, and yes I did get the package, thanks so much for sending it!!! :D Oh and me? Talented??/ haha, thats funny Dad, real funny ;) I call you all to repentance!!! Jk, that statement is much more funny when yelled in Chinese.... ya.... moving on! To all those people that have written me, and I haven't written back, I'm sorry!!!! You shall recieve your answer soon!!!!! Wow that makes it sound like I'm famous and a lot of people write me... I guess I should say, to the two people who wrote me and I haven't answered yet, your answer is coming!! I promise!!!!! 

So past week I had an audition!!! I was going to sing two songs, "Consider the Lilies" and "Savior, Redeemer of my Soul" But then they told me I could only sing one.... darn. However, I chose "Consider the Lilies" and I sang. Well... I don't know how to say it went, they also said that I would perform somewhere, but then again they say that to everyone, so it doesn't mean that much haha. It was a little frustrating because she corrected some of my singing technique that I knew to do, I just didn't do because I was nervous!! Ah!! Curse you aqua scum!!! Overall though, I think I'll perform somewhere with either singing or violin... if not that would be really sad.... but oh well, I'm not on my mission to perform at the MTC, I'm here for something much greater :D 

You know sometimes I think to myself, I have nothing to write about each week!! My life is just the same every week here at the MTC, but then I remember, my district makes things interesting, and my feelings change every week!! ........ I still feel like I have nothing to write about this week, but don't worry, once my remembrance juices start flowing, We'll be in action ;) 

Oh. There they are. So did anybody watch the General Relief Society meeting thing?? two of the girls in my district were in it!! And we saw them like 20 times during the songs, and one of the people in our zone had a close up!! Super cool!! It was actually super funny though, because saturday night there was just a bunch of elders crowded into a small classroom watching the relief society devotional live waiting to see people we knew while they sang haha. Ahhh.... good times in room 115 ;) However, Our zone only has 3 districts in it, and two of them are leaving a week from today... then our zone will have one district, and the new mandarin district thats coming in this wednesday (with Whitney!!) is going to the other zone!!! How lame!!! Hopefully they combine us... haha, but I'm so excited, I'll get to see whitney all the time because our schedules will be the same!! Huzzah!!!!! 

Could we just have a moment of silence?.... thanks.... I needed that. 

ok on to the best part!!! the synopsis of my week (Journal Entries and all!) oh ya, and the reason that I use my journal entries sometimes, is because It captures the exact emotion I had while writing it, instead of me trying to recreate an emotion and rewrite about it haha, moving on!!: 

Monday (last P-Day): ah... Skype TRC day.... So basically last P-Day a week ago we went to the computer lab, and taught a member from Taiwan about the Gospel. Crazy hard!! But it was cool because she was also going on her mission to Taichung! So it was like, I guess I'll see you in like three months there... ya... how odd. But funny! Other than that, nothing interesting really happened.... 

Tuesday: Yay, wrote people back day! huzzah!!! (I need to have one of these days again...) So tuesday night we had a super spiritual devotional about what we should write home. Perhaps I won't say exactly what was said during that devotional, but know, I'm using techniques I learned from that devotional ;) 

Wednesday: GEORGETOWN CUPCAKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is what I said "It was literally the most magical thing opening them!! It was like the briefcase opening with smoke billowing out from dry ice! Ok not really, but there were ice pack in it, insulation, and the best tasting cupcakes ever!!!! I shared them with my roommates using a credit card as a knife (how funny thats all we had... hmmm....) awkward, but funny!!!" Bahaha, that was so awesome :) Thanks so much Jenny!!!!!!!!!!!!! Other than the cupcakes, we taught our investigator about the Book of Mormon and receiving revelation. Of course my companions did say I oversing things.... that was mean >:( but thats ok, they covered by saying I don't over sing, rather I sing songs too well that don't need to be sung that good (nice catch guys ;). I was singing Radioactive at the time, thats what made them say that haha! I mean uhh... I was singing the Spirit of God. Yep. 

Thursday: To start, what I wrote " Today was awesome!!! we ate more Cupcakes (basically a taste of the celestial kingdom), Elder Roberts got a package, we spoke Chinese, played some 4-square at gym, and just had a grand ol' day!" That was the day that I decided I was going to work on the Christ like attribute of "Virtue". Talk about a tough one. It easy to control your actions sometimes, but controlling your thoughts in always a tricky one, since then it has gone good!! My companions have really tried to help me with toning down some of the "Babylon" Stuff they would say haha (babylon means outside world stuff haha) so ya, great time!!! However, it was a sad day because we found out that one of our teacher (the one we all really liked) is leaving us!! Elder Nelson is leaving us to get married, I mean who does that!! He leaves us tomorrow, so darn, but oh well, I suppose marriage could be important... ya..... Oh ya, and I got my all Chinese name tag thursday also!!! yay!!! 

Friday: "Wow, these days just blur together!! Today was so good, we basically had a call to repentance on doing SYL (Speak Your Language) soo.... ya, tomorrow will be good!!! We finished the cupcakes today (Sad) but they were so good!!!" So ummmm ya... Friday was the day me and Elder Bird got into a little... argument.... haha. Nothing to serious, and there's no hard feelings now, but the coolest experience happened because of that! After our little spat, we were not talking to each other, and there was tension in the air, but the thing that got us back onto talking terms, and able to see past our disagreements, was talking about our Savior Jesus Christ. We started talking about his atonement, and how much he loves us, and that led into us saying sorry to each other, and then feeling better!! It really reaffirmed the fact that as long as two people are working towards the same goal of trying to come closer to Christ, they can work out any problem they may have. It's through Christ that we are able to see past others weaknesses, and just learn to love them for who they are. Amazing. 

Saturday: I don't remember a lot about what happened saturday, but I did write about Elder Ricks. So me and Elder Ricks had an awesome talk on how to look past others faults, and differences in personality, and it was amazing!! We bonded so much as we talked about how to work through problems, and how if you want to help someone, don't try to help by changing them, change yourself. Phenomenal, God Bless that man :) 

Sunday: Oh sunday.... such a fun day!! Best. Fast. Sunday. Ever. So besides the fact that there were flat singers, the day was good :) Here's what I said "In the morning I was feeling super hungry, and my stomach was rumbling super bad, and I couldn't study :'( So I bowed my head and prayed to the Lord, dedicating my fast to him and asking him that as I fast, I will know how to help my companions. Near the end I simply asked the Lord to help me not feel anymore hunger pains so that I could focus on the work. I kid not IMMEDIATELY there was relief in my stomach, and I didn't feel hungry the rest of the day. It reminded me that the Lord really does know me, and if he can take time out of his busy schedule to make a 19 year old missionary not feel hunger pains, then there is no physically possible way that He doesn't love us."  That was such a cool experience!! and from there, I knew that the day could only get better :D So how the day got "better" was that Elder Bird got pink eye, and we got to leave the MTC! Because it was a sunday, there was no doctor on staff, so we went to the Instacare nearby. The driver drove us there, and we found out Elder Bird not only had Pink eye, but also had an ear infection, and a sinus infection haha (lucky him). After that, the driver drove us to Walgreens to pick up his medicine, and look at that, they were actually selling caffeinated beverages!! what a novelty!! haha!! After that, we got back a little late to the Missionary conference, where we learned awesome insight on our patriarchal blessings and the Book of Mormon! In my journal, I drew a Book of Mormon Kung Fu Master Kicking satan's butt, thats how awesome I felt! We then went back, had temple walk, went to dinner, and then went to Sunday Night Devotional. Now usually these are the most interesting of devotionals, but this time it was the Provo temple president talking to us about the importance of temples. he said "We go to the temples before we go on our mission so that we will have the power to teach". He then also said about teaching that "The Authority is given you, but power is earned." What an inspirational man!! He also talked a lot about how apparently there are some women vying to get the priesthood. He said that if he could talk to them, he would tell them that they do not understand the temple. That in the temple, they recieve the same power the men do, and are to be treated as queens. He said he once heard a talk from Elder Balard where he said "If there is a man in the congregation who has ever raised his voice to a lady, you are guilty of abuse, stop it now!" Amazing. Ah, there was so much he talked about!! I'm out of time, and theres still so much I want to tell!!! Well really quick there was D&C 109:15, and he said about that scripture, there is a difference between growing up and getting old. He also said "Forget what the wold labels us, The Lord calls us Kings and Queens!!" AH so much amazing-ness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

I really do have to go, but to end, I just wanted to thank you mom and dad for how you raised me. I don't want to bash on other people here, but some people are so rude, and have no idea how to be nice to people it baffles my mind!! When I think back to the lessons you two taught me, I realize I would never have, or ever want it any other way! I love you two so much, and I want you to know that even though I may not have shown it all the time, I love you so much, and think the absolute world of you two!!! I love you, and can't wait to hear from you soon!!! 

CTR, 

Elder Dawson 

P.S. If anyone has any questions... I suppose asking me them would be good... gives me something to answer haha!