After the first week, I don't know what happened to time. Next week half our zone - the Thais - will be leaving and it will never be the same without them! We'll get some more the Wednesday following, but no one can replace the Thais that welcomed us into the MTC and who keep things lively. :)
This past weekend, because of General Conference, felt the most like an actual weekend. Usually Saturday is a complete repeat of Friday's schedule, so to have Saturday and Sunday mostly free was really nice! And General Conference just made it that much better! But the highlight for me was Sunday night's devotional when they had the a capella group from BYU, Vocal Point, sing and give spiritual thoughts. The director had told the singers to prepare spiritual thoughts, and then he would announce who would be speaking and when at the performance. I loved every minute of that hour, and the music! They sang hymns, but after hearing nothing but the Mormon Tabernacle Choir or instrumental musical numbers, it was so refreshing to hear new voices, live, and in different arrangements. They also performed a song one of the singers arranged between an African song and "Come come ye saints" which was really cool.
Cambodian is coming along. Our teacher ruled out having notebooks when we're teaching our investigator which helps with forcing us to memorize more vocabulary better, though I miss being able to write down words I don't recognize and want to remember. I wish I could share something I've learned, but I don't know how to write in script yet, and I don't have a way of writing in romanized Khmae, because they still use different symbols. But as daunting as it sounds, Cambodian isn't as hard as it sounds. First of all, we don't have tones, and the hardest thing for me in learning it is reading script, and just getting a few grammar principles down. Otherwise their verbs don't conjugate, most of their words are merely little words put together like "want-hold" would mean "remember", or "shirt-pants-socks" would mean "clothes", and they don't have articles or plural vs. singular objects.
Next week we're going to have a General Authority speak at the Tuesday devotional which I'm so excited for, and they'll be broadcasting it to all the MTCs around the world. A couple Hmong Elders know which authority will be speaking since their teacher accidentally told them, but they won't share the secret with us. Still, it only makes me more excited to find out. :)
Have a great week!
Sister Dunster
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Sara in General Conference
Sara sang with the sister missionaries in Women’s Conference on 28 Sep 2013. I didn’t see her as our reception was poor in the chapel; but I saw her later that week when I accessed the conference on lds.org. - Elaine, Sara’s mom
Sara wrote:
“Sorry you probably didn’t even see me at all because you barely see my face at the bottom left corner of one frame before it switches angles,...In other frames, I was right behind the conductor and the only person obscured. If you saw a not-so-happy face behind the conductor during the congregational hymns, that’s my companion, Sister Walker. She admits she doesn’t know how to sing happily and is embarrassed that she looks completely unhappy. The girl to her left is our roommate Sister Litchfield. You’ll notice the last song (“I’ll Go Where You Want Me To Go”) for the congregation her mouth stops moving. It’s because she liked the descant the first sopranos were singing so she sang that instead. We all had a good laugh at the follies we pointed out....”
“I’ll tell you about my experience behind the scenes. We left around 12:30pm after a whole assembly line of sisters scrubbing more blush on our cheeks, checking our hair and our clothes. Once in the conference center, they lined us up according to height (which is hard since the floors are slanted for a better view of the front) and we practiced for an hour. Sister Emily Wadley was our director and what a character she is! She’s almost goofy, but still dignified. If you remember the movie, “17 Miracles,” she’s the mother from England who switched bonnets with the woman on the train to hide from her husband who searches the train to find her as she escapes to go to Zion. She’s also the woman who got the dried meat from the mysterious man. I didn’t realize it until they said she was in the movie and it clicked as to why she looked ever so vaguely familiar.
“After practice, the RS Presidency shared some spiritual thoughts with us; and, even just sitting in the Conference Center, I felt the presence of heaven was near. There was a special feeling deep in my heart that had nothing to do with being in the presence of prophets and apostles of God; but what they testify of--the love of Christ. It is their call to testify of Christ, and receive revelation for the people; but we have just as much right to gain a personal relationship with God as they have. As I said in my testimony today, the only thing holding us back is ourselves.”
An interesting note: Sara met The Maretts at the MTC. They are her brother’s in-laws. Bro. Marett is in a branch presidency there.
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| Sara is in red in the lower left corner. |
“Sorry you probably didn’t even see me at all because you barely see my face at the bottom left corner of one frame before it switches angles,...In other frames, I was right behind the conductor and the only person obscured. If you saw a not-so-happy face behind the conductor during the congregational hymns, that’s my companion, Sister Walker. She admits she doesn’t know how to sing happily and is embarrassed that she looks completely unhappy. The girl to her left is our roommate Sister Litchfield. You’ll notice the last song (“I’ll Go Where You Want Me To Go”) for the congregation her mouth stops moving. It’s because she liked the descant the first sopranos were singing so she sang that instead. We all had a good laugh at the follies we pointed out....”
“I’ll tell you about my experience behind the scenes. We left around 12:30pm after a whole assembly line of sisters scrubbing more blush on our cheeks, checking our hair and our clothes. Once in the conference center, they lined us up according to height (which is hard since the floors are slanted for a better view of the front) and we practiced for an hour. Sister Emily Wadley was our director and what a character she is! She’s almost goofy, but still dignified. If you remember the movie, “17 Miracles,” she’s the mother from England who switched bonnets with the woman on the train to hide from her husband who searches the train to find her as she escapes to go to Zion. She’s also the woman who got the dried meat from the mysterious man. I didn’t realize it until they said she was in the movie and it clicked as to why she looked ever so vaguely familiar.
“After practice, the RS Presidency shared some spiritual thoughts with us; and, even just sitting in the Conference Center, I felt the presence of heaven was near. There was a special feeling deep in my heart that had nothing to do with being in the presence of prophets and apostles of God; but what they testify of--the love of Christ. It is their call to testify of Christ, and receive revelation for the people; but we have just as much right to gain a personal relationship with God as they have. As I said in my testimony today, the only thing holding us back is ourselves.”
An interesting note: Sara met The Maretts at the MTC. They are her brother’s in-laws. Bro. Marett is in a branch presidency there.
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Sara and her companion at the Provo Temple.
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The Maretts and Sara
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And, her challenge is to read this!
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