June 25, 2012

Hi Mom!

I found out that I can check mail everyday after visitor center if we are scheduled to be there that day, so I can get mail about three or four days after you send them. :)

Berkeley is the place we live in, our area also includes Oakland, Emeryville, and such because we are serving in a singles ward.

Our mission president is leaving this week. We are meeting him on Tuesday to say goodbye, and we are seeing our new pres on Thursday. President Meredith, the new one. He is really cool.

Some place don't take American Express, but yes, mostly I can use. I usually use my debit card though, because they don't charge fees. Sometimes credit charge fee.

We don't have place to buy lunch unless it's outside in restaurants, but we eat every meal, so don't worry, I'm eating pretty good. Plus, I found out I can cook the dishes grandma cooks a lot, not because I tried cooking it before, but because I ate it a lot. So eating is a good way to learn cooking too. :) We do cook lunch at our apts, but we have an hour total so I have enough time to do things, usually.

Sometimes people drop off food at the mission home so we can just take, but we buy the rest of our good at grocery stores.

Apt is about 25 minutes away from the mission home and visitor center. We drive, well, I drive. Guess what, they made me drive on my first day here. Apparently we are a mission who drives a lot, so we have 82 or so cars in the mission, with about 200+ missionaries around, drivers are in short supply, so I get to drive.

Dad is right though, CA drivers are really nice, if you turn on the signal, they'll let you in, mostly. We have a cute red Toyota Corolla. :)

Hmm... if you seen any grey cardigans, then I need one. I had a lot of things I wanted, I guess I'll tell you next week, then you can send it, so wait for my email next week. Also, I'll be sending you a letter with pictures, so look for that.

My luggages were slightly overweight, but my carryon was not full and really underweight. So I think I'm good, at least right now.

Our p-day, we don't really have a certain time, we can write whenever we want, but it's really busy because we have our usual study times in the morning so we only have from 12 to 5 to do what we need to do. I usually write you before we start visitor center at 6pm. We don't have a time limit.

Yeah, I know Sister Lin, she is really quiet and cute. She is the one who always have her hair half up in the pictures. I don't know which ones though, I think I only have a few pictures of her, check the name tags.

It's actually really cold here, we usually don't wear short sleeve, I'm already wearing the white jacket almost all the time. So if you send me any clothes, more like fall-winter clothes.

Yeah for piano lessons. Remember, have to practice :) You got keyboard working, right? If not, you can always get someone to help you, remember? :)

I like my car...but I guess you can do whatever. :)
Okay, I guess you can sleep in my bed. Just don't hit your head too often.

We actually pray around 10:25 now, since bed time is 10:30.
Didn't get to eat zongzi, people offered but they had the salty ones and I didn't like those, so no, but that's okay. You eat for me. My MTC companion made me cookies and dumplings, but she could only bring cookies since dumplings need to be in the fridge. She is nice, I only saw her once since we got here because she is full proselyting while I'm visitor center half of the time.

Can you get me Jenny's address and phone number? I think someone should visit her and Andy :)

We'll have lots of appointments next week. The Chinese girl I was telling you about, she is so smart. Everything we give her to read, she reads, and she remembers everything. We even had a date for her to be baptized, but her parents are in Beijing, and they sort of don't want her to yet. They are coming in late August, so hopefully we can convince them it's okay and we are not bad people like the internet say. She is really good though.

We found lots of people to teach next week. Lots of people say they just want to know about Mormons, not convert, but then taking lessons from us. We'll be okay. :)

I am really glad I get to be in the visitor center. Even though we don't get to see lots of people baptize, but it's cool to see them feel the spirit and sometimes even cry. We had a couple that was really prepared. When they came with their elders, we took them through presentations. We talked about how they felt here and the next step is to act on what they know--baptism. Then the elder ask them to be baptized and they accepted right there. So Cool!

Then we get people who ask lots of good questions. Then there are others who pretty much cries after presentations. Hey, Mom, maybe you could go to Temple Square and watch God's plan for His family, it's really good and I introduce the tour a lot. Bring kleenex though. :)

We are teaching a girl whose family is Jehovah's Witness, so wish me luck. You should ask your coworker about their Jehovah's Witness experiences...

Anyway, I'll send this now, hopefully you get it before I go.

Lots of loves,
Meng