February 7, 2011

Almost done with the MTC, only 3 more weeks and I'm gone. Hopefully I can pick up more of the language by then, but it's starting to get difficult because rather than just talking to them about the lessons that you want to teach, you have to both translate and teach.

I've been teaching lessons in Taglog and it's really difficult because you have to:
1. listen to what they say and translate it
2. Understand what they said and think about what they need to hear
3. think of what you're going to say
4. translate what you want to say.

It sounds easy but it's really hard when you can barely understand what they're saying.

The weather here is pretty bipolar. One day it's nice and the snow is all melted and the next there's a bunch of snow on the ground. I've kind gotten used to the cold though and my body has adjusted as well.

Jeffrey R Holland is my new favorite apostle. If you've listened to any of his talks, they are excellent talks and he speaks with great conviction. When he came here he didn't have a teleprompter or notes but his speech was well prepared and had purpose and a definitive message. I only hope that one day I can talk as good as him. We haven't had anyone else from the twelve but I'm hoping that one of them will come before I leave.

For the past few weeks we've kinda made this game where we tell stories and incorporate a song into the story. It's pretty entertaining and it passes the time when we're not busy and bored. In our dorms, we managed to make a sauna by putting a sheet over the exit and turning all the shower heads on hot full blast. It was pretty relaxing and we might do it again before we leave for the Phillippines. I forgot to mention earlier that we've gotten nicknames from the distict before (which already left) and my name is Vin Diesel. There is another district before us leaving today but I'm not nearly as sad about it because the last district was the best ever. After today, we'll be the old district in our zone and then we're off. It's funny how fast the time has flown by and it makes me wonder how fast my mission is gonna go by.

Well that's about it, nothing new has been going on. Things are going well and I'm enjoying my stay here at the MTC.