Only 1 week left in the MTC!!!

This week has been very good! We only have 1 week left now!! We officially got our flight plans and are leaving the MTC on Tuesday the 26th of January. I'm so excited but pretty nervous. It'll be awesome. We all fly over as a district, plus all the Taizhong missionaries, so it'll be altogether a group of 21 missionaries. I'll get you all the address ASAP.

So this week has been neat. The teachers switched it up a bit and we were assigned to another companionship to teach them as a "progressing investigator". The person playing the investigator has to pretend to be someone they know, so it feels so REAL. We are teaching Sister Weinheimer who is playing her cousin Jackie. It is amazing. I've really been touched at how the Lord can work through you. Even though it's just a role-play, Heavenly Father has really taught us to listen to the Spirit. Sometimes it just feels like pure intelligence is flowing through you and somehow the right scriptures are shared, the right questions are asked and the right answers are given. My companion and I are finally learning to teach together, so it's neat. Don't get me wrong, we are still pretty stinky at teaching, but it's just cool because there are many times that despite our lacking abilities, we've been able feel another power direct us in our teaching. Anyway, that's probably the biggest thing I got a testimony of this week.

So another thing I've been kind of working on, is just recognizing the feeling of the Spirit. If you've been in the Church your whole life, sometimes feeling the Spirit can just be a routine experience, but it really IS a miracle every time we feel it confirm something to us. So I'm trying to recognize it more in my life. Anywho.

Elder Perry came this Tuesday. It was neat. He really likes to delve into the scriptures. He talked about the importance of the Restoration. It's actually pretty amazing, this week has been week of the Restoration for Poohface. Elder Perry spoke on it, then we taught at the TA (we teach a volunteer from the "outside") the Restoration, then yesterday we had a whole devotional about Joseph Smith. It's cool. So first off, at the TA yesterday my companion and I were struggling pretty bad with Chinese. We were trying to get out our lesson but were just having problems. Haha. We were teaching 3 people, one of which was an older woman who didn't speak Chinese. Anyway, so when we were teaching, it wasn't a very powerful lesson...but when I recited the First Vision in Chinese the woman's whole expression changed. Before she just smiled and nodded, but when I quoted the first vision, I could see her face get serious. It was really neat...even though SHE didn't understand the Chinese and I could hardly understand what I was saying too, we both REALLY felt the Spirit. It was special. It just confirmed again that Joseph Smith's vision was true. Then yesterday all the "Jiemeimen"/sisters in my zone sang "Joseph Smith's First Prayer/I am a child of God" medley for the Sunday Devotional. I was nervous but prayed alot so it wasn't so bad. Before we sang, the 6 of us had a mini-testimony meeting about when we first knew for ourselves that Joseph Smith was a prophet. After we sang, we heard from Susan Easton Black who is an amazing Church historian who recited some pretty neat history about Joseph Smith that isn't heard of very often. She told this story about when Joseph Sr. moved to NY then sent for Lucy Mack and the children who were waiting in Vermont. On the way there, they stopped by an inn and someone tried to steal their wagon. To be brief, because of all the hubbub, Lucy Mack accidently left 11 year old Joseph at the inn (kind of like me being left at the Avalon Theatre when I was 5...maybe every time they passed the inn after that they said "there's Joseph's home!"...). Anyway, so Joseph was walking in the snow, trying to follow the wagon trail but was hit by a passing wagon which opened his wound from when he'd had his leg operated on. He said that as he was wallowing in his blood and giving himself up for dead, a mysterious stranger picked him up and carried him the Palmyra. Susan Easton Black compared that the Joseph of Egypt, how his brothers left him in a pit but then he was picked up and taken to Egypt where he would bring to pass the salvation of many. WAY interesting! Anyway, it was cool. I hope that wasn't very boring, I just thought it was really cool.

So hmmmm...I'm trying to think of anything else of any interest that's happened this week...I broke and have been eating gluten. I think I eat sliced potatoes and chicken for 2 out of 3 meals. I'm so sick of it. One day I just felt like Donald Duck from Jack in the Bean Stalk and wanted to yell, "Shut up! I can't stand it! Blah blah blah blah" and start eating the silverware and stuff because I just couldn't take eating the same thing again. Haha. But I'll try to be better. I'm really wondering how gluten free I'll be able to be in Taiwan. I've just been praying that I won't have any side-effects or damage for a year and a half. I think it could happen. :)

Welp, I'm sorry I don't have many interesting things to say. My emails are always very "Churchy" but I really don't experience much beyond that. Haha. I love you all!

I love hearing from everyone! I wish I had time to write everyone individually. In the field I won't have an email time limit so I'll be able to write more people. Update and let me know how everyone is doing! Love you all!!

Coley Dowdle