So from the moment I stepped out of Grandma and Grandpa's car and pulled out my suitcases, I was thrust into a whirlwind of activity. Check in, Photo IDs, taking suitcases to my room, leaving my room (suitcases untouched) and going to my classroom, meeting my companion while the teacher speaks to us only in Chinese, having dinner, more meetings and welcomes and workshops, and then finally going to my room and to settle in. The schedule here is simple enough, bed by 10:30 and up by 6:30, and in between that it alternates from bursts of frenzied activity (the getting up process for example, or gym time) and long, 3-hour streches of class time to learn chinese. Personal study time and the time before bed is the only time I would really call "relaxed," as I go at my own pace. I can already say I love it here.
My companion is Elder Rozier, from Fresno, CA. As is the case with companions, we spend all our time within sight and sound of one another (save going to the bathroom, of course, as well as some interviews and things). He is going to Australia too, although he'll be in the Melbourne mission. My district (essentially my classroom) has 5 companionships besides us--Elders Frey and Fabiano, Haviland and Woodbrey, Watson and Scovel, Jones and Broadhead, and Fiso and Hartshon--making it the largest disctrict in our Zone, which is all the mandarin-speaking (well, learning) missionaries in the MTC. There are about 90 of us total. 3 districts just arrived, including ours, and the rest have been here for 6 weeks. I have my departure date, incidentally, Oct. 29, which really makes my MTC stay closer to 11 weeks. Which is something I'm happy about, nothing against the MTC of course.
The missionaries in my district will be serving in California, Taiwan, and Singapore mostly, although Elder Jones, who became our first district leader, is going to the Scotland and Ireland mission, which is the rarest of all the mandarin missions because there are only ever 6 chinese-speaking elders there, or so I hear. I have thus far met only one other missionary in my zone going to Brisbane, though there may be more, and I know from my roommates that there were others in the older generation (who left a week before my generation arrived). It's all exciting stuff here in the MTC.
My teacher is Sister Han, and she is native, which will be a great blessing for my district. Other districts, I know, learn from non-natives (Return missionaries, or RMs, being the classic) and have to learn "real" pronounciation skills from the computer resources available.
We all have Chinese names now, which Sister Han had already prepared for us before we arrived (although those of us, such as my companion, who have had Chinese names in previous Chinese classes stuck with their old ones). My Chinese name is Lai Zhanglao (Lai-jong-lao basically, with 4th, 3rd, and 3rd tones for those of you familiar with that). It means Elder Lai. Although the translation is really just phonetic, Lai by itself does have a meaning, actually: rely on or depend on. I really like it.
Learning Chinese is tough though. We had our first mock-investigator lesson on the 3rd day, before I knew how to say basically anything in Chinese, although Elder Rozier and I still managed to get through it pretty smoothly using our resources. I was surprised to learn that they actually won't be teaching us characters here in the MTC, that's for personal learning only, mainly out in the field. They gave us nice copies of the Bible in characters, as well as a triple combination (Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price), but I will have to learn how to read them independently. It's certainly a goal of mine, though.
The highlight of my time here so far though was Sunday. We had normal meetings with our branch--sacrament, priesthood, and district (which was basically sunday school), but after that I had the opportunity to join in the choir, which will be performing tonight. We will be singing a beautiful arrangement of "Behold the Wounds." After that, there was an incredible fireside, and then a recast of an even better fireside by Elder Holland from 2006 called Missions Are Forever. I wish these firesides were available outside of the MTC, because I would tell all of my friends who are thinking about serving missions to watch it. Even better, they SHOULD serve a mission, and watch it in the MTC, haha. Then after that, I learned that my district has basically the funnest service project every week--taking down chairs from the firesides on sunday and devotionals on tuesday. It may not sound fun, but it was a blast.
That's about it for now, I'm running out of time to write this email anyway. Send me more letters! Mom, you can tell everybody how to use Dear Elder while I'm in the MTC :) I want to hear about anything which makes your days great, because those stories will make my days great too.
Oh one other thing, my "personal project" right now (just when I have free time) is trying to translate a little card I got at the bookstore here (there's a barbershop here too, dad) into Chinese. It has 23 Questions which are answered by the Book or Mormon, such as 1. Does the Bible contain all of God's word (2 Nephi 29) or 22. Are we saved by grace, or works, or by both? (2 Nephi 25:23). I have only question number 1 translated so far... it comes to something like "Bible contains all God's word yes/no". I'm doing it both for personal study reasons and too learn a little more practical chinese grammar. I'll keep you posted on how it comes along :)
Until next Tuesday! Send letters please! Maybe even send addresses, so I can send YOU letters even if you won't send me any, haha.
[note from mom: let me know if you need Dear Elder instructions!!)
So much happiness!
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