Chapter 12: An Exercise in Patience and Unsalted Vegetables

Nimen hao!

So this week was pretty crazy. Lots of exciting things happened, and lots of disappointing things. Unfortunately, not every day will bring lots of investigators and lessons, as I've had to learn recently. 

So this week on Thursday, I went to Beverly on an exchange with Sister Scott, one of the sister training leaders. She's Scottish, which is funny because of her last name, and she's super sweet. In Beverly, which is an English-speaking only area, we ride bikes, or cycles, as the Brits call them. And we ride them in rain or shine. Lucky for me, it was rain. We were riding to a lunch appointment with a member and got so completely soaked, my dress was damp for the rest of the day and my hair... I don't even want to talk about my hair. But, it was fun and we laughed about it. Eventually. 

That day we also went knocking, which was interesting for me because in Hull, we don't do knocking. It's a bit too sketchy and the students are never really home at one time. So we knocked on this old guy's door, he was a bit brusque but let us come in and talk to him about life and religion. He said that the scriptures were a bunch of fairy stories and that anyone who believed in religious crap was completely mental. (That's British for "stupid"). He also told me that all Americans are idiots and that we need the British to help tell us what to do. Well. That was another instance where I had to chant "I'm a missionary, I'm a missionary, Christlike love," in my head to keep me from saying something sassy back. He was an interesting guy, suffice it to say, and I'm never going back there ever.

For service this week, we went to the chapel and helped a member put on a huge birthday party for her kid. We blew up balloons, set up food, and then got to watch the magic show that was done for the kids. It was hilarious seeing the kids get so freaked out whenever he would pull out a dove or a scarf or something. And it was really fun to serve as well, that's the most important part.

So when I was in Beverly, Sister Huang was supposed to meet with Winnie, but sadly, she flogged us. Flogged is either a missionary word or a British word, I'm not quite sure, but it means she stood us up, which was really sad. We've called her a couple times and she won't answer us. I'm pretty sad and I want to be able to see her again and help her out with whatever she's going through, but I also have to trust that the Lord knows the situation better than I do, and that He will help me get through whatever happens. 

But all that aside, I found an amazing scripture that applies not only to missionaries, but every member of the church! It's 3 Nephi 5:13 and it says, "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life." When I read this, I was like, Yeah I am! I'm a missionary! But then I remembered that every member is a disciple of Jesus Christ, and anyone who is willing to follow Him is His disciple as well. We represent Him, and we are trying to help bring about the immortality and eternal life of all men. I know that it is hard sometimes, I know that it's not always fun or exciting. But I know that there is a purpose to this, and I'm learning so much every day. I would never give up this experience for anything, and if I didn't know without a doubt that this church was true, then I definitely wouldn't be here. So be bold and be happy! You are disciples of Jesus Christ, and as such, you have great responsibilities and the entitlement to great blessings. 

I love you all! Keep up all the good that you are doing! I appreciate all of your support and prayers, it really keeps me going. You're wonderful! Have a super fantastic week!

Love,
Sister Larson


Bonus feature: An excerpt from Meagan's email to me about the food in England:

On my exchange, Sister Scott asked if there was anything I didn't eat. I said I could stomach almost anything except seafood, I really hate it. So what did we have for dinner both Thursday and Friday? Fish. We had fish pie on Thursday, with salmon and cod and prawns (shrimp for you Americans) and then salmon on Friday night. The salmon wasn't that bad, but oh my goodness I still don't like fish. You'd be so proud of me for smiling and choking down those baby shrimps. Also, the British don't put salt on their anything. Especially the vegetables. So that's been fun too. Either way, I'm getting used to it and I knew that I wasn't coming to England to try all of the amazing exotic food they have here, heehee. While these days have been hard and discouraging, I still am glad I'm here. I know that it can't stay horrible forever and that if I put the focus on others instead of on me, improvement will happen.

Chapter 11: Accepted invitations, the true meaning of Easter, and a punk kid is spared by Meagan's longsuffering

Da jia hao!

So this week I don't have a ton of time to write a bunch of things, but I'll start off with the most exciting news for those of you who don't always care to read the whole message... I don't blame you, when I get going I just can't stop! Anyways. We invited our investigator to be baptized and she said yes!! And I'm the one who invited her, in chinese! It's pretty exciting because she's really our only investigator at the moment, and because she's just so great. Oh, it's Winnie by the way, I think I talked about her last e-mail, where we started teaching her under the assumption that she was just helping me with my Chinese. So it's great to see how far she's come. She's scheduled for baptism on May 23 and I am just so excited!

Some lovely pics of these head statues at uni[versity],
and some lovely views of the greenery of England.
All of the buildings are so old. and those head statues are weird,
they're in front of the law building, which makes no sense.

Me and my companion, Sister Huang with the head. we're picking his nose

Other than that, we've been working with some other less actives and recent converts. I think the hardest thing about being on a mission is trying to help people change their lives and come closer to Christ, but they aren't willing to do things. It's so frustrating! I just want to tell them, You could be so much happier! Let me help you! But agency is the greatest gift we have been given, and I have to respect that.

We had our zone training meeting last Thursday and it was great, the Spirit was so strong when we shared a few experiences about when we felt success on our missions. I felt kind of like a poser because I haven't been out that long, but I shared Winnie's story and inviting her to be baptized and it was just great.

I also had ranch dressing on my salad at a member's house this week. It was an amazing, beautiful experience. Not many people here use salad dressing, they use this stuff called salad cream. It's gross. So the ranch was basically heavenly. 

More lovely views of England in the spring.

I also got my full Chinese name this week from my trainer! We worked for like half an hour finding something I liked, but we finally settled on Lin An Jia. Lin is my last name, so my missionary chinese name is Lin Jiemei, and An Jia is my first name, which means peaceful and good. So, it's super fitting, yeah? :)

Easter was great, even though it didn't really feel like Easter because I didn't hunt for eggs or have a big dinner. The talks in Sacrament were great, particularly the one from Elder Gibb, the senior Elder in our district. He talked about his sister's battle with dementia and how it was heart-breaking for him to watch her forget everyone, even her own family. But he also said that through the Atonement of Christ, he has found comfort and solace. And that's what the Atonement is for: to strengthen us and comfort us. I know that I have felt uplifted by my Saviour on those lonely nights when I have been frustrated and yelled at and just want to go home. That's when I remember why I'm here: so that I can share the message of this wonderful event with others, hoping that they will be willing to hear it. Remember that the Lord loves you so much! That's the true message of the gospel.

My pet, xiao ji as he's called in Chinese,
or Sam as he's called in English.
I got him from a member who's a Chinese YSA
the first time I met her, like my second day here.

Well, I love you all and hope you've had an amazing Easter! Some days are good and some days are less good, but I know that when we try to do our best, we are successful! In England, when we want to say "thank you," we say "ta, love". So, ta loves! You're all wonderful!

Love,
Sister Larson

P.S. I just remembered another story! Elder Holland would be so proud. Last night, I was walking along the road, trying to get to the YSA FHE activity we have every monday night, when some punk kid on a bike yelled in my ear and freaked me out, and then yelled some racist things at my companion, who's an Asian. Oh, I wanted to chase him and yank him by his little punk hood and give him a piece of my mind, but I remembered Elder Holland's story in conference about the sister who had mashed potatoes thrown at her, and I thought of what Christ would have done in my situation. So I just smiled at that punk and tried to think Christlike thoughts and said nothing else. It's so so hard to do. But it's what Christ would do, and I'm trying to be like Him. I know we all can be if we really try! Wo ai nimen!

Chapter 10: Meagan's first week in England-- Salvation is not a cheap experience

Dear jiating he pengyoumen,

I'm finally in England!!! It was a long, boring journey, including a 6 hour layover in the London airport while I was jetlagged and running out of stuff to do, but I finally made it to the mission home around 2 in the afternoon on Wednesday. I was picked up by the two APs and did some business, then was driven about an hour east to Hull, my first area! My trainer's name is Sister Huang, she's from Taiwan and so speaks fluent Mandarin, but she's also very fluent in English, so that's wonderful. We live in a flat between two pubs, or like night club things so weekend nights are very interesting, with two other Sisters, Sister Tafengatoto and Sister Pacis. They are English speakers but are from Tonga and the Philippines. 

Everyone who wore polka dots to travel!
Me, Elder Moore, Sister Kwan, Sister Berrey

So this week there is so much to say, I'll have to restrain myself. First, there are accents everywhere! This area is less posh and fancy, there's lots of druggies and single moms and teenage partiers, so that's been interesting to get used to. I'm the foreigner now, and people automatically are like "oh, you're American" and I just smile like Yup. They sometimes think it's cool. Unless they're Mormon, they don't know where Idaho is. So, that's always fun to explain. British people, as you know, use different words than I do, so when I say trash can, they're like no, it's a dust bin or a rubbish bin. Among others. They also drive on the wrong side of the road. I've almost gotten in to member's cars and the driver's side when they told me to go sit in the front. So that's been interesting to get used to as well.

Our study room in our flat! Our flat is really narrow
and has stairs all over the place. It's weird.

So far, we've visited a few members, and now we're mainly working with less actives and recent converts. One of them is Vania. She was baptized in December I think and is Chinese. We go to her house for lunch or tea (tea appointments mean like dinner appointments, so tea is dinner). She works with music and music mixing, so we're trying to help her keep her standards and we're also trying to get her to go to all three hours of church, about every other week she only comes to Sacrament meeting. We also have FHE with Suki and her son William every week. Suki is older and has two older kids, but she also has William, her 7yo at home with her. She speaks Cantonese and Mandarin and not much English, but William speaks really good English. He was shy with me at first, but now he likes to give me stickers and show me stuff on his mom's phone. He's great. They come to church every week, so that's awesome. 

We also have a sort-of, almost, kind of, new investigator. Her name is Winnie, and she is a street contact from a few weeks back. She likes singing, so Sister Huang was going to invite her to church choir but didn't know when the practices were, so she never set up an appointment or anything. So when I came, we had the idea to ask Winnie to help me with my Chinese since it's terrible, and she agreed. Saturday evening we went over and I was like, okay I'll say some stuff and you correct my grammar and pronounciation. So then I taught her the first lesson in chinese, with her correcting me. At first, it was all about the Chinese and not really listening to what I was saying, but at the end when we were talking about praying and the Holy Ghost, she actually had questions and wanted to listen to us. It was awesome! So we're meeting her later today to help check her essay (another way we try to get to talk to Chinese investigators - I love English grammar and I'm good at it:) and hopefully we'll get her to come to the YSA FHE they hold here every Monday night as well. 

I think the hardest thing to get used to so far is not being afraid to talk to people, be it members, investigators, Chinese, English, strangers. It's pretty hard for me. It's also hard to go to Chinese appointments because they just jabber to Sister Huang and I don't really follow the conversation. My Chinese will come in time, and during that time I can work on developing patience!

One funny thing that I didn't really know the English had was squash. It's like liquid fruit concentrate juice stuff that you add to water to make a juice drink thing. It's pretty weird, but it doesn't taste too bad.

British money! 10£ note, and then 1p, 2p, 20p, 50p, and 1£ coins.

Well I know that was a way long e-mail, sorry about that, but I love my mission so far! It is so so hard, so different from what I was expecting, but I do love it. The ward is great, they're all very nice and willing to feed us and help us out. I know the Lord is watching over us! This work is hard because, according to Elder Holland, "salvation is not a cheap experience". It is so true! We are trying to help change people's lives, which is not easy and never has been easy. But I think it will be worth it. I'm excited to see what I will learn and experience here in England. I love you all, especially you missionaries! Keep working hard and reading your scriptures!!

Ai,
Sister Larson

Chapter 9: Meagan Leaves the USA; Her Mission Leeds Us To Believe She is Not in Heaven, But Maybe in Hull

For this week's blog, we present a smattering of text and pictures documenting Meagan's exciting week as she has left the MTC and is now in England.  First, part of her final MTC email to her family:

Dear jiating,

Well it's my last day at the MTC and they gave us some time in the morning to e-mail, do laundry, and pack. So far my suitcases aren't going over the weight limit, which I am very happy about. Other than that, it's been so crazy busy this past weekend. On Friday we had in-field orientation all day, which was kind of like EFY a little bit. It was okay, but there were lots of Yingwens (English speakers) there who like don't know anything so it was mostly targeted towards them. Basically it was about stuff I've already learned in the MTC. But I still got a few things out of it, so yay. Then Saturday was Conference. Being that this is like the first year in ages where I've listened to all four sessions, it was amazing. There were so many good talks! I hope you all enjoyed it too, especially the ones about working with missionaries in the ward (nudge nudge). :) In between sessions, we just hung out in the classroom, signing bye bye books (or bye bye shus, as we call them. Hopefully Dad will be able to figure that out). I'm really sad to be leaving these missionaries, I love all of them so much! Especially the ones in my district, we got really close. So it's a bittersweet farewell. Anyways, Saturday night we watched the General Women's Meeting, which was pretty good. I liked the video of the different language "I Am a Child of God" or "Wo shi Shen di haizi" as we say in Zhongwen. Then Sunday we got up and watched Music and the Spoken Word and then Conference. Sunday morning was my favorite session I think. Then we ate lunch, then watched afternoon session, which was also good, and then we walked to the temple and took zone and district pictures with everyone. And then today we are just packing and getting ready to go!  You won't hear from me for a little bit because I won't have a p-day this wednesday, because I'll be arriving in England! I'm excited but nervous, so hopefully I'll get there in one piece! I have loved the MTC, it's been one of the best experiences of my life so far, but I am excited to move on with my mission and have my first "transfer"! I love love love you all, thanks for all of the letters and packages you've sent to me while I was here. Be good and nice and share the gospel! Wo ai nimen!

Love,

Meagan

 Along with this email, we got some pictures and some amusing descriptions to go with them.  I can't say I appreciate the "dad" comments:

All the sisters in the zone! the one with beautiful blonde hair
 in the middle is Sister Branch. I love her! And the Asian one on the end is
 Sister Phelps, who is so cute and gives the best hugs. I will miss them so much!

Our district! Like any family photo, there wasn't any one where we
 all looked super great. In the first one, Savage is looking
 too cool for school. And then I think in the next one, Faddis
 isn't smiling and is squinting. He was like dad and was whining like
 "The sun's in my eyes! I can't smile for this long! I'm uncomfortable!"

Meagan has a perfectly good Canon camera that she got a few years back for Christmas and it still works well.  Apparently it has taken on a life of its own in the MTC:

Also, everyone (meaning the elders) likes to make fun of my camera. They call it the dinosaur egg, Faddis makes some snarky comment about how they used it when Lincoln was president, Johnson is always like "you have to wait for Larson, she has to change the bulb on her camera," and then I was pretty amazed to learn that not everyone's cameras run on AA batteries like mine does. Everyone made fun of me for that too. We also call my camera like an indestructible weapon. They're all like "You can't take weapons on the airplane, but you can take your camera, so I think you'll be safe from anyone and everyone" and when the elders bug me I threaten to hit them with the brick and they stop. And the other day at the temple I was swinging it around and I accidentally hit Faddis in the hand with it and he just looked at me and then like freaked out like it hurt really bad. So yeah, that's the story of my camera. :)

Finally, this morning (Thursday), we got an email from the England Leeds Mission office, including a letter which reads, in part:

Dear Brother and Sister Larson,

It is with pleasure we welcome your daughter, Sister Meagan Anne Larson, to the England

Leeds Mission. We find her prepared and committed to serve the Lord and to share the

message of the Restored Gospel.

Your daughter's first companion is Sister Huang, who was prayerfully selected to ensure

the best introduction to missionary work for Sister Larson. They will be serving in the

Hull 1 Sister Area in the Hull Zone. We are confident their relationship will be a mutual

blessing.

Weekly encouragement from home will certainly help inspire Sister Larson's missionary

effort. We encourage you to write her once a week with your letters uplifting in spirit.

Please let other family and friends know how important it is to write positive, encouraging

letters that support missionary work. 

We also received this picture of Meagan in the mission home.  We are so excited to hear her first report! The blog will probably be updated on Monday or Tuesday now, instead of Wednesday or Thursday, coinciding with her weekly emails home.

Chapter 8: Travel Plans Have Arrived Along With Meagan's Future Husband (?)

Dajia hao! (Basically it means like "Hi everybody!" but literally it means "big family good". Take it as you will.)

Do you wanna build a snowman? Well everyone here totally does because it snowed last night! I was a little bit way upset because I'm like Hello, it's spring and I will have enough cold weather in England thank you very much! But oh well, it does look pretty even if I feel like a Popsicle all the time.

The beautiful view outside my window of the
popcorn popping trees that are almost ready to pop!

The same view from my window of the
popcorn popping trees covered in snow.

This week was a massive improvement on last week. On Thursday we got our travel plans!!! We were so so excited and pretty surprised because we thought they were coming on Friday. We got them at lunch and for like an hour and a half afterward no one could focus on anything. There are 13 of us leaving on Tuesday. 12 are going to Taiwan, and 1 is going to England. (That would be me in case you weren't sure.) :) They are flying out only 20 minutes after my flight leaves though, so I won't really be left behind all by myself at the MTC. They fly to Tokyo from SLC and then to Taipei. I fly to Chicago, then to London, then to Leeds. I'm supposed to get to Leeds Wednesday afternoon ish I think. I'm so excited but I'm really really scared to fly internationally by myself. I think I'll be okay, and at least all of the places I'm flying to speak English predominantly, so that's good. I can't believe I'm almost ready to go!

 The two districts with our travel plans! I'll even name everyone.
From left to right top row: Sister Berrey, Sister Price, Elder Faddis, Elder Johnson, Elder Randall, Elder Moore,
Elder Savage, Elder Davis. Left to right bottom section: Sister Biancardi, Sister Jorgensen, Sister Kwan.
Then there's me and Elder Teasdale at the very bottom. We are all so so stoked!

Also on Thursday two Elders from our sister district challenged our district to a volleyball game during gym time. Now you all know me, and you know how well I do in sports that involve throwing, hitting, or any other form of manipulating a ball. As in, I am so terrible it's funny. So I wasn't going to agree, but somehow they both convinced me and the other sisters in my district. We were all freaking out and didn't want to go, but on Friday morning we played volleyball. We were all pretty terrible, but it was so fun because everyone was positive and encouraging, and we all just laughed with each other at our mistakes and kept going. That morning in companion study, Sister Biancardi likened our experience to an investigator's introduction to the church. It looks scary, you don't think you're good enough, and everyone else seems to do it perfectly. But when you take a deep breath and actually try it, it is so fun and so worth it and you realize that everyone makes mistakes but you help each other out and just support and love one another. 

All of us outside with the lovely Taiwan flag! I'm representing England in my heart.

Last Wednesday, after typing up e-mails, we went back to the classroom to find swarms of new missionaries in our basement floor. Before, there was only one side of the building being used on our floor by the Mandarins, but now the other side of the building has been taken over by Germans. And also I think some Portuguese but there's only like four of them so we don't really see them ever. The German Elders are pretty nice, they like to speak to us in German and they even learned some phrases in Chinese! It's pretty fun having another language, but at first we were a little miffed at them daring to invade our Chinese-speaking dungeon floor.

Both of our "investigators" have been baptized! Yay! It would be more exciting if they weren't, you know, already members and RMs nonetheless, but it's been fun teaching them and I actually did get a little excited when they had their baptismal interviews and we talked about their "xilihui" or baptism service. I can't wait to do it for realsies in the field!

 Me with my travel plans looking oh so spiritual and prepared!

On Sunday, the most amazing thing happened. Some of you probably heard about it. Be excited for me anyways because it was basically the best day of my life. Richard Elliot and David Archuleta came and did the Sunday devotional!!!!!!!!!!! David had just gotten back from Chile like this past week but they both shared some stories from their missions and their testimonies, and then Brother Elliot played the organ like a boss and David sang like an angel and it was beautiful and I know I'm a missionary but he's still just so cute. Background information, I have been like IN LOVE with David Archuleta since he sang on American Idol. We also have the same birthday and so I knew it was a sign that we would get married. He'll wait for me, I know it. But in all seriousness, it was an amazing devotional concert and the Spirit was so strong, especially when we all stood up and sang the last song, Hark All Ye Nations. We were all just so ready to go preach about the gospel's light of truth and love! And we're going to go light every land! It's just so exciting.

The Taiwan flag and England flag! Yay!

Also on Sunday, we fasted because it was Fast Sunday and that's what you do. But I think the whole no food or drink thing, plus the exhaustion, plus the fact that we've been here for like 2 months made us crack a bit. We couldn't go on our temple walk because "it was too cold and we wouldn't want to get sick right before we go to the field even though it's not really that cold but we won't let you anyways" (according to Brother Seow in the branch presidency). Okay, so I was a little sad I couldn't go walk to the temple. But our district just went back to the classroom, and then we just did the weirdest things. One of our Elders started talking with his hand, like a puppet. One of them would put a gummy bear in his mouth, suck on it for a bit, and then spit it out. I think that's totally cheating where fasting is concerned, but hey, men are free according to the flesh. And the sisters just sat and laughed at everything until we cried a bit and yeah. It was interesting. We're so ready to go. I think.

Also on Sunday, we watched Legacy in Mandarin. I understood quite a bit, but that movie is just so cheesy and wonderful. At the part where they're laying the cornerstone for the Nauvoo temple and the choir sings, it was in English. I guess they were too lazy to translate the song and then sing it in Chinese. So whenever anyone sang, it was in English. Everything else was Mandarin. And at the one part where the two guys fight over dancing with Eliza or whoever she is, everyone is yelling like "yeah, you go, cut that log, yeah!" in the English one, but in Chinese everyone just says "Jiayou!" all the time and that's it. "Jiayou" literally means "add oil" but it's a colloquial expression meaning like "good luck!" or "You got this!" It was fun to watch that movie again.

This toy that we have that literally looks just like our teacher, Su laoshi, or Brother Su. He's Asian.

One of the things that's the most awkward about being a missionary is when you accidentally bump against an Elder somehow. Obviously, as missionaries, we're only supposed to shake hands, but accidents happen. I've brushed up against them on accident so many times, and it literally is so funny but so awkward because then you like jump apart and make awkward eye contact and mumble like "oops sorry" and then you never mention it again ever. I suddenly understand awkward RMs like fifty times more now. I'm going to be one of them.

For my spiritual moment of the week, I finished the Book of Mormon sometime recently! And I've already started it again. I love it so so much! I love how the truths of the Book of Mormon are universal, how they apply to everyone at all points in life, and how different parts stick out when you're going through different trials. All of the missionary stories really impacted me this time around. I absolutely love the book of Alma. It is so inspiring and motivating to hear about these missionaries, whose missions were so successful but had so many trials as well. I know that the Book of Mormon was written for us, in this day, even if it doesn't seem like it. There is so much we can learn from it. If you haven't read it yet, or if you don't read it everyday, seriously do it! Even if you don't have an hour for scripture study each day like us missionaries, read at least a few verses every day. I can promise you that you will find answers to questions, comfort in trials, and motivation to do what is right. Your families will be blessed, you'll be able to respond to promptings of the Spirit better, and you will be happier. I love the Book of Mormon! Wo ai Moermenjing! 

Thanks as always for the prayers and support! You are all so wonderful! I am so excited to actually get to go and meet the people in England whom I already love. I know this church is true and I know that it can help anyone and everyone feel happy and loved. Wo ai nimen!

Ai,

Sister Larson