Elder Brigham Blackhurst: Everything is better in Chinese

Hey everyone! Home stretch of the MTC!

This week was one of the best so far. If I wasn't in the swing of things by this point, I'm definitely pretty settled into the MTC by now. Every day is still lots of work - wake up, eat, Chinese, eat, sleep - but I love it.

Chinese is still an adventure. Pretty tough - we're kinda hitting the point where we're running out of resources to put onto our flashcards, so it's hard to progress besides just speaking, finding what we don't know, and looking it up. To all you Chinese speakers, advice would be much appreciated. Even with the struggle, it's pretty great. I love the language. It's so much fun, such incredible history.

The MTC is pretty old at this point. We've seen so many Elders and Sisters come and go. The food all tastes the same. I'm looking forward to Aussie fish and chips.

A few fun things this week.

To those of you who know Elder Keaton Harris, he's on my floor, which is fun. He arrived last week and he leaves the same time I do. Not bitter at all.

I met an Elder who came in last Wednesday in the other Chinese branch. He's speaking Cantonese (almost as cool. Not quite.) but he's from Melbourne. We sat down and just talked about his home for half an hour - I'm so excited. I can't wait to be there. Best mission in the world.

We got yet another Apostle on Tuesday - Elder Andersen. I swear, his talk was written for me personally. I testify that this is the work of God. I'm eager to go out and share. I'm grateful for men and leaders like him who rekindle that desire to serve - especially after a long couple days.

We decided, as a District, that for our Sunday night film, we'd go see Testaments - the old LDS historic fiction movie that highlights the Americas around the time when Christ was crucified and goes to minister to them - except it was in Chinese. I haven't laughed so hard since we got here. Not that the movie itself is funny - it really isn't - but in Chinese, it was hysterical. The villains and their cult, oh my gosh. The translations were golden. The fact that the only distinguishable name in the whole film is Jacob, which translates to Yaga - it was great. In hindsight, it probably isn't really that funny to anyone that doesn't speak Chinese, so I apologize. To those of you who do, go watch it and please validate me. It's hysterical.

On a more serious note, this week was a testament to patience and hope; how important it is for us to endure to the end. This is just the beginning of my mission - haven't even started working with actual investigators - and it's kinda frustrating sometimes when your Chinese isn't as good as you want it or when the investigators don't keep their commitments or when you don't know how or what to study and you hit a rut in the path. But we press forward. God doesn't ask us to be perfect. He just wants us to keep on going. So we go. We keep going. And he'll bless us all the way.

I've had several requests for mailing addresses - I can be sent mail at the MTC at 2005 N 900 E Unit 202 Provo UT, 84602. When I hit Australia, if you're willing to pay the ridiculous fee for postage, it's 76 Cathies Lane Wantirna South VIC 3152 Australia. So there it is. We love packages.

Thank you so much for all the support. I miss you all lots. Love you all. Keep on keeping on. Romans 8: 35-39. God will take you all the way.

Elder Blackhurst