Sep 11, 2012

So here in the MTC there are currently about 90 Mandarin-speaking Elders and Sisters. The older generation has 55, and our generation has 33. The older generation will be leaving this week and next week, which is weird. A week or so after that, the new generation will come in, they have 19 elders apparently. On Holidays here in the MTC, everything goes on as normal--except for the mailrooms, as I mentioned last week. I got several letters last P-day that I wasn't able to respond to until now, I'll try and work that all in. Later I'll try and get into the laundry room to upload pictures, and describe some of the Elders in my district. We have a new district leader now, Elder H. Sister Han left this week, and we got a new teacher. So right now, we're being taught by Brother Rasky and Sister Wend. The new teacher is also a native speaker (Rasky is an RM, although his chinese is still very good). There are a couple big items of news this week. First, I finished reading the Book of Mormon straight through! I started the Monday after arriving, and completed it last Friday. Everyday we have an hour of personal study time, I spent the majority of that time studying the Book of Mormon. I'm probably going to read through the New Testament next, or perhaps Doctrine and Covenants. As a side note, my favorite verse right now is Alma 26:29-30. I love how Ammon describes that when he and the sons of Mosiah set out on their own missions, they simply wished to convert "some" souls. Even if there was only a small chance of just one soul being converted, it made all those trials worthwhile. Secondly, I saw Brandon Peterson in TRC last Saturday! Brandon Peterson is RM in my stake in Ashburn who returned from his own mission Mandarin-speaking in Melbourne this summer. It was cool that I recognized him. I saw Elder Griffiths this week too! We actually see other pretty frequently, it seems like our schedules are fairly similar (at least when it comes to meals). I've also seen several other elders from my BYU ward. Oh, also, in the older generation there is an elder from Centerville ward, where the Chinese branch is in Virginia where I live. His name is Elder Seneca, he goes to West Point. I haven't met anyone from elsewhere in our area though, at least not with realizing it. I'm trying to save time right now so I can upload pictures, so that's it for this portion of the email at least. Thank you everyone! Elder Ladd So here in the MTC there are currently about 90 Mandarin-speaking Elders and Sisters. The older generation has 55, and our generation has 33. The older generation will be leaving this week and next week, which is weird. A week or so after that, the new generation will come in, they have 19 elders apparently.

On Holidays here in the MTC, everything goes on as normal--except for the mailrooms, as I mentioned last week. I got several letters last P-day that I wasn't able to respond to until now, I'll try and work that all in. Later I'll try and get into the laundry room to upload pictures, and describe some of the Elders in my district. We have a new district leader now, Elder H.

Sister Han left this week, and we got a new teacher. So right now, we're being taught by Brother Rasky and Sister Wend. The new teacher is also a native speaker (Rasky is an RM, although his chinese is still very good).

There are a couple big items of news this week. First, I finished reading the Book of Mormon straight through! I started the Monday after arriving, and completed it last Friday. Everyday we have an hour of personal study time, I spent the majority of that time studying the Book of Mormon. I'm probably going to read through the New Testament next, or perhaps Doctrine and Covenants. As a side note, my favorite verse right now is Alma 26:29-30. I love how Ammon describes that when he and the sons of Mosiah set out on their own missions, they simply wished to convert "some" souls. Even if there was only a small chance of just one soul being converted, it made all those trials worthwhile.

Secondly, I saw Brandon Peterson in TRC last Saturday! Brandon Peterson is RM in my stake in Ashburn who returned from his own mission Mandarin-speaking in Melbourne this summer. It was cool that I recognized him.

I saw Elder Griffiths this week too! We actually see other pretty frequently, it seems like our schedules are fairly similar (at least when it comes to meals). I've also seen several other elders from my BYU ward. Oh, also, in the older generation there is an elder from Centerville ward, where the Chinese branch is in Virginia where I live. His name is Elder Seneca, he goes to West Point. I haven't met anyone from elsewhere in our area though, at least not with realizing it.

I'm trying to save time right now so I can upload pictures, so that's it for this portion of the email at least. Thank you everyone!

Elder Ladd


[editorial note from Mom: I asked what the laundry had to do with pictures and was informed that there are computers in the laundry room (for multitasking?) and those are the only ones with card readers.]

In the first picture we have Elders F1
and F2, J and B. F1 is from Bountiful,
F2 is from Florida. Jones is from Las Vegas and
B is from Utah as well if I recall correctly.
J is going to Scotland, while the other three are
going to Singapore i think.

 He's [F2] also in the second picture with Elder J.

In the third picture, we have F1 again, my companion
Elder R (standing in the suit), and Elders
S and W. R is from California,
and S and W are from Utah. R
is going to Australia too (Melbourne though)
and the other two are going to Taiwan.

In the fourth picture, we have Elder W2, Elder H's
companion. He's from Provo, his dad works at the Provo
Temple so he sees him alot, haha. Both Elder W2
and Elder H are going to California, W2 to
San Jose and H2 to Anaheim.

Lastly we have Elders F3 (also from Utah) and
H3 (From Texas). They are both going to Taiwan as well.

Note: not pictured: Elder H, our new District leader. Elder H is tall and half-Taiwanese. He and I have very similar tastes (from Minecraft and Legend of Zelda to the books that we read).