Hao chi!

Hey family and friends!

Let me see what I can remember that I want to say about this week.

Performing: I performed three different times yesterday, it was great! On Saturday night my companion and I put together a number for sacrament meeting, and besides my music falling right on top of me when I turned to page it went well. Sister Wawro likes to make me play things that aren't actually written in the music, but it usually works out and it's a good exercise for me to practice improvising. Then in the evening devotional I accompanied for two different songs: a violinist playing I Need Thee Every Hour and two elders in my district singing Where Can I Turn for Peace. Both went really well (from other people's perspective, at least. I knew where I messed up and I tried really hard not to look like I was freaking out on camera. Sources say I looked pleasant and happy, though, so that's good.) and lots of random people have told me it sounded awesome. One elder going to Houston Vietnamese speaking said, "Now don't be modest. Are you really good at the piano?" What am I supposed to say to that? Still, it was a cool experience to get to perform for the whole MTC and Ted Callister, who gave a really awesome devotional that ibn all honesty I don't remember much of because I got really exhausted after my adrenaline rush of performing, but I know it was really inspiring. (I sound like a terrible missionary, but I promise I really did listen!)

Chinese is still great, we sure have good times in class. Last week our teacher Brother Wu was writing a whole scripture on the board in pinyin, which is romanized Chinese. You write how the word sounds then draw a line over it representing which tone it is, which I can't really do in the email but hopefully you get the picture. Well he finished writing the scripture on the board and then started stranslating it, starting with "shi de," which essentially means "yea." So he writes "yea" on the board and draws a fourth tone over it, which, if you don't speak English, is not something you do. It was pretty funny. Now we sometimes assign tones to English words just to spice things up. Yes, I've been here for eight weeks and yes, that spices things up. Another thing we do when we're super bored is add "hao chi!" to everything. It means "good eat" and is used to describe delicious food, but we pretty much just say it whenever the opportunity is presented. Last week the following conversation happened (all in Chinese, of course):

Brother Wu: Next, we're going to practice inviting people to be baptized.

Me: hao chi!

Brother Wu: ...what does that mean?

Me: Well, when you eat good food and you really like it, then you say hao chi!

Brother Wu: ...yes. I know that. But why did you say it?

Me: We've been here for eight weeks.

Good times.

Lessons have been going well, although we still have many moments when we don't know what's going on. A few days ago we were teaching about resurrection and I asked our investigator what she thought about it; I didn't understand her response but asked if she had been talkign about reincarnation. No. A few minutes later she again talks for two minutes without me figuring out what she's talking about, something about bodies and perhaps being buried. I get an idea that she is talking about cremation, and how can someone be resurrected if they've been cremated? So I say, "Fire?" and make little fire motions with my hands. "Yes, fire." Sweet! Successful communication. I still don't know what she was asking. And I still haven't figured out how to say "cremation" in Chinese.

It's been a really good week and I've definitely been learning a lot about patience with myself, the other missionaries around me, and the MTC. But we only have a week left, and I definitely want to put in my best effort for the last few days I am here. I have such a wonderful opportunity to learn and grow and serve. I love it here, and I'm not sure I'm ready to go into the field, but hey, that's what faith is about, right?

Love you all!

Sister Cardon

P.S. You have one week left to send me a DearElder every single day if you want. Just sayin.