Well, I’ve been here for one month and only have one more to go!! I can’t believe that time has gone by so fast, I’m sure in no time I’ll be on a plane to Hong Kong!

This past week we got our Chinese names assigned to us by our teacher! My full name is Gok (last name) Seung Lahm (first names) which translates to pure flowing river and beautiful jade. I’m not really quite sure how my teacher came up with it, but it’s still cool nonetheless! I feel so official now that I have my full Chinese name. When I remember I’ll attach a picture of it in characters so you can see what it looks like 🙂

On Monday my district and a couple others got assigned to host the incoming senior missionaries and it was such a fun experience! It was so great to see them all coming in so excited and ready to serve; it helped to remind me again not only why I am here, but to keep the excitement that I first felt upon starting my mission service.

I started a new diet this week. It’s called eating with chopsticks. It turns out that when you have to exert a certain amount of energy into picking up your food and it takes you three times as long as it normally would, you end up eating a lot less of it. One of my teachers challenged us to eat with chopsticks as many meals as we could throughout the day and it is proving to be rather difficult. Also, I’m not sure if I’m holding my chopsticks the right way because it kind of hurts after a while. Or it’s just really difficult to use them and I have to work out my hand muscles. Or both. But I’m determined that one day I will master them and become the chopstick warrior master I was born to be!

Funny language story for the week: My companion and I were teaching one of our investigators about prayer and the blessings that we can receive from it. At one point I was telling him how when we pray God can give us revelation when suddenly he started laughing at me. I was confused and started to nervously laugh with him for a minute, but having no idea what I actually said I decided to move on. After the lesson I told my teacher what I was trying to say and what I actually said and it turns out that if you say revelation with the wrong tone you’re saying racism. Yeah, I’ll probably have to go back and correct that misunderstanding…

This past Sunday was also the Provo City Center temple dedication and it was so amazing! It was such a neat experience to be sitting there with the thousand other missionaries watching this sacred event take place. Even with all of us in the same room, there was a reverence and awe that quieted everyone in attendance. How lucky we are to have temples where we can learn more and feel closer to our Heavenly Father and Savior. I know that there are blessings promised to those who worthily go to the temple and we are able to have clarity and see things from a different perspective. We should make it a habit to go the the temple as often as we can.

I’ve been thinking this week about desire and what it is that I desire most in life. Not only that, but what it is that I’m doing to achieve it so that instead of merely staying a dream it becomes reality. I know that the Lord will help us achieve our righteous desires, but only if we are also putting in the work. I encourage you to think about what you desire most and what it is that you are doing about it. There is no standing still; we are either progressing or we are falling backwards.

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

-Gok Ji Muih

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