One week left, people! That's right, you read correctly folks. Sister Bauss here will only be in the MTC for another week! Which is why I thought the above reference was so fitting. I have so many mixed emotions about leaving the MTC. It's really going to be bittersweet. Exciting to go out and teach, sad to leave people behind, but it's only for 1.5/2 years, which really isn't as long as it sounds. I can't believe that some of my best friends have already been gone a year at this point. So much has happened in the past year, and still I swear it was only yesterday. Since I finished my freshman year at BYU I've traveled to China, Taiwan, and back, I've worked my first full-time job, I've performed on Chinese national television, I've lived in four different places with 17 different roommates, I've hiked mountains, I've learned how to maintain solid conversations in Chinese, and most of all, I've become a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Now, my training time here in the MTC is almost up! This next week will be a lot of prepping for the trip out to Toronto. We've got special classes to head to, packing to be done, and goodbyes to be said. It'll be interesting this week to host and welcome the new missionaries like we did this past week as I look back at where I was two months ago. Watching them say their goodbyes and put their nametag on for the first time...it's amazing watching that change take place as they put aside their life for one and a half to two years. My goodbyes and first day here at the MTC are such a blur, it's interesting to look back and see how much of a sacrifice that is for them and to be able to say without a doubt that the sacrifice is worth it. There is nowhere else I'd rather be and nothing else I'd rather be doing.
With all of the crazy that the past year of my life has been, I know more than ever that my Heavenly Father has a plan for me and has a plan for each of His children.
I've grown so much in the past week alone. And I hope to be able to continue that growth throughout my mission. I have no idea where I'll be in 16 months, but I'm excited to find out. I'll miss running out on the field and looking at the mountains and I'll miss the amazing people I've met here. But I know that the next part of my life will be in Toronto and I am so pumped for what it has in store!
All of my love and don't forget to write!
Sister Makena Bauss
Bao Jiemei
Now, my training time here in the MTC is almost up! This next week will be a lot of prepping for the trip out to Toronto. We've got special classes to head to, packing to be done, and goodbyes to be said. It'll be interesting this week to host and welcome the new missionaries like we did this past week as I look back at where I was two months ago. Watching them say their goodbyes and put their nametag on for the first time...it's amazing watching that change take place as they put aside their life for one and a half to two years. My goodbyes and first day here at the MTC are such a blur, it's interesting to look back and see how much of a sacrifice that is for them and to be able to say without a doubt that the sacrifice is worth it. There is nowhere else I'd rather be and nothing else I'd rather be doing.
With all of the crazy that the past year of my life has been, I know more than ever that my Heavenly Father has a plan for me and has a plan for each of His children.
I've grown so much in the past week alone. And I hope to be able to continue that growth throughout my mission. I have no idea where I'll be in 16 months, but I'm excited to find out. I'll miss running out on the field and looking at the mountains and I'll miss the amazing people I've met here. But I know that the next part of my life will be in Toronto and I am so pumped for what it has in store!
All of my love and don't forget to write!
Sister Makena Bauss
Bao Jiemei