Savor each moment

Anyways, just wanted to share some cool quotes from this week. Our teacher, Brothers Hodges read us this cool poem about the importance of time. I will paraphrase:

Want to know the value of an hour? Ask a woman in labor.
Want to know the value of 30 minutes? Ask a friend who has been waiting for you.
Want to know the value of a minute? Ask someone who just missed the train.
Want to know the value of a second? Ask someone who just avoided a car accident.
Want to know the value of a milisecond? Ask someone who received a silver medal in an Olympic spring competition.
Yesterday is history,
Tomorrow is a mystery,
today is a gift, that's why they call it the present.

So savor each moment of the day and make everything count! Don't forget to read your scriptures. There are so many treasures found in the Book of Mormon its amazing. My testimony has been growing and growing.

Alma 26:12-this is the Lord's work! He is the gift giver and we are the postmen.
Have a great week!

100% SYL

Anyways, this week has been good. Starting with this week, we are 100% SYL (speak your language) which means we are only supposed to speak English when we are talking with our Branch President, or having companion study, or a gospel discussion. Our teacher, Brother Hodges, or He Laoshi, said that we should be prepared to get very frustrated because he will not be speaking English anymore! The Elders in my district are still struggling with the language but they are making great progress.

My companions are doing great. It is a little different working in a three-some and teaching gets a little tough, but we are working on it. Our teachers say it is a blessing in a way because it will be easier to teach with members when we are out in the field. But we are trying to learn how to teach off of each other without reteaching. And right now they are emphasizing teaching the investigator, not the lessons. So that has been a big part of our learning, learning how to find the needs of the investigator and teaching according to what we find out instead of a rote presentation. It involves getting comfortable with asking some pretty straightforward questions, but I'm sure its going to help so much in Taiwan.

Anyways, we are having a lot of fun in the district. There are 5( one 3 some companionship) Elders and 3 Sisters. Yesterday Sister Son said something really funny... she was eating her first York peppermint patty ever, and she said, "It's like eating chocolate... and toothpaste." It was really funny in her Korean accent, but she likes toothpaste so she loved the candy! Haha.

Another funny story. We were playing a game where we were in partners and one person had to describe a word in chinese without saying the word... to the partner who had to guess the word. Elder Day, from St. George was describing binqilin (icecream) and he explained it like, "Ruguo ni chi kuai, ni tou..leng!" So in other words, if you eat fast, your head gets cold. We all thought it was really funny. And whenever our team would get a point, we say "cheng gong!" meaning, "success!"

Have a great week everyone!
Omni 1:26
3 Nephi 17- I love this chapter

Hello from Sister Chang!

Time is really short today because these computers are working at the pace of... dehydrated camels and are taking forever to load. Therefore I only have a few minutes to tell you about the wonderful things I am learning and doing.
MTC life is great. I have 2 companions, Sister Fisher from London and Sister Son from South Korea. We have so much fun together and we are learning how to work together as a companionship.

Bro Hodges (our chinese teacher who also served in Taipei), Sis. Son, me and Sis. Fisher

We have a lot of class, and do a lot of gospel discussion and Chinese study. They teach us the speaking part of Chinese and concentrate on having us learn how to communicate. We learned to pray and bear testimony before anything and learning some other tidbits on the way.
I've memorized Joseph Smith's First vision, 1 Nephi 3:7, and James 1:5 in Chinese, and its coming. I love speaking and we are doing a lot of SYL- speak your language and pretty soon everyting will be in Chinese.

I love this gospel! I love the Book of Mormon. There is so much power is reading the Book of Mormon with a purpose. I encourage all of you to do the same and decide that you are going to get something out of it before you begin your study. And always begin with a prayer.

Off to the land of no return: MTC

Sister Chang entered the MTC on June 25, 2008

Sister Chang and Mama Chang

No mom and dad for a year and a half