Much More Learning

Da Jia hao!

 

This past week has been a pretty good one. I have been sick for the past few weeks and it is finally starting to go away which is great! I'm loving it here. I've reached the halfway point at the MTC. The older generation of Mandarin speaking missionaries all left today to their missions, so it's pretty quiet around our dorms and classrooms now. The total group had about 50 people in it and the new group that comes in 2 weeks only has 20. So, the Mandarin zone of missionaries will be much smaller for my last half of the MTC stay. It was cool to see how all of the missionaries have progressed in their language since I have been here. My branch president gave a farewell talk for the missionaries leaving and said how all of them next week would be sitting in Sacrament meetings all around the world. And possibly some of them would be assisting in a baptism that Saturday. How crazy would that be? It seems surreal to go from Provo, UT to the middle of Taiwan in about 14 hours. Im sure when I walk off the plane in about 6 weeks I will have a little bit of culture shock. David Jorgenson, my friend from High School just left to Tai zhong, Taiwan today. He was very exicted to leave. It will be cool to see how his experience is in Tai zhong and if there are many differences from how mine will be in Taibei. I'll be in the north half of Taiwan and possibly along the east coast (which supposedly has some of the world prettiest beaches!) and he will be in the southern half. I can't wait!

 

I titled this week's email, "much more learning" because as you reach the halfway point it seems like the learning curve starts to level out and you don't seem to be learning as quickly in the language. BUT, it all depends on your ability to study creatively and effectively. The Chinese language has some 5000 characters in it, and not to mention when you combine them it blossoms into thousands of meanings. My point is, there will always be more to learn! My branch president, (the leader for my group of missionaries church meetings) has studied the language for 50 years and he says he is still learning new things! He claims that you can never truly call yourself fluent in Chinese. It's pretty funny to think that. As my companion and I are figuring out, we need to constantly change our study so that it is effective and allows us to learn at a faster rate. My idea for this next week and into the coming weeks is to spend some of my time reading the Chinese Book of Mormon and comparing the English right along with the Chinese to learn some of the important terms that the scriptures have in them. I think this will allow me to utilize the Book of Mormon more effectively in my lesson and help the investigator be able to see how the Book of Mormon specifically applies to him or her. As of right now we usually use a scripture in our lessons but we really don't know what the investigator is saying when he reads them, we just have to remember the English meaning because the Book of Mormon language is much more formal and a larger vocabulary than I have learned. So we feel that this new way of studying will really be effective for us in learning and teaching.

 

Another importing thing that I learned this week, almost more important than being able to speak the language well, is the importance of having a strong and profound testimony of the Book of Mormon. A speaker came to talk to us this past Sunday about the Book of Mormon and its role in spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the entire world. It was a very powerful and life changing talk. He talked about how the Book of Mormon is central to the belief in this entire church and how without it, it would be nothing. The Book of Mormon, truly was translated by the power of God. This book is "most correct of any book, and would help an man draw nearer to God than any other book if a man would abide by its precepts." -Joseph Smith. The Book of Mormon truly is the Word of God. It contains the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ and contains all the things we need to do to be able to return to our Father in Heaven. I learned from Brother Watson's talk that I must have a strong, unwavering testimony of this book if I am to help others see the imoportance of it. I love this book and I love reading it everyday and seeing how it helps me in my life and how it can help others. I hope that all other will come to see the truth of it also.

 

My time is up for this week, but I hope everything is going well for every as school is starting and the summer is ending!

 

Love,

Elder Bastian