The beginning

Ian has been in the MTC for one week and two days. He's left a bare spot on our sofa and a piano and computer that are missing his touch. We miss him, too. He was set apart by Pres. Warner from the Grandview West Stake. Pres. Warner pronounced some unusual and beautiful blessings on him. We look forward to seeing those unfold as Ian's mission gets underway.

In the meantime, I will be posting pictures and his weekly letters on this blog so here goes ---


Monday, Sept. 6, 2010 (FIRST LETTER FROM MTC)

First days have gone pretty well. I feel like I’m much more receptive to the spirit and definitely recognize it a lot better than I used to. My district is pretty awesome. They're all good guys and two sister missionaries as well. My companion is pretty cool. Elder Chan whose parents are originally from Hong Kong but he grew up in Fremont CA so basically right next to where I’ll be serving. I can't believe they only give us 30 minutes to write and read all the emails haha. It's so dumb. I only have 2 minutes 40 seconds left except my companion and i were told this like exploit thing where if you log off the computer at like 2:04 or something then it rounds back up to three minutes so we can have unlimited time technically but it's a huge mafan to do since having to log in and then out and in and then out is really really annoying and it's tough to collect your thoughts when you're constantly looking at the clock in the top right-hand corner.

I’ll try to tell you what I've been up to in the (ostensibly) 3 minutes I have left. So the days here are really long. Waking up at 6:30 is pretty tough and probably the hardest part of the MTC so far. As far as the classes go, they're pretty good. We have two teachers mainly: Weilaoshi and Konglaoshi. Konglaoshi is some hardcore RM from Taipei and weilaoshi is a sister missionary who served with Joel in Taizhong. I also knew Weilaoshi's sister at BYU last year and went on a couple dates with her even which is hilarious cause I met a guy who was in her (weilaoshi's sister hannah's) ward last year and with Michael Slawson as well and who dated Hannah too and it was really funny as we imitated how she always would say "THAT’S GREAT" after every single thing you'd say hahaha. It was funny. There are loads of people here that I know from last year actually. I keep running into a bunch of guys who were in
Helaman Halls last year. My district is good and I'm rooming with an elder from NZ and an elder who's like 25 who's from France. He's the man though and I learned "zhe busoi da le o' toilet" from him the other day which is probably the most useful thing I’ve learned so far haha. jkjkjkjkjk lulululu.

We’ve been listening to Elder Holland a bunch and that's been pretty cool. He's the proverbial man and his talks are all really inspirational. Oh and I’m being accelerated I think so I’ll probably be out of here in about 5 weeks or so which doesn't seem like much time at all. But I’d definitely get sick of it after the 12 weeks that everyone else has to stay and since my Chinese is already better than most of the elders and sisters who got here 6 weeks ago I suppose it makes sense. I'm learning pretty fast here in the MTC which is cool. I've learned a bunch of religious Chinese vocabulary already and my testimony is definitely strengthened as I study the scriptures and PMG.

Today is P-day but it hasn't really felt that different since I’ve still been in a suit all day since we thought we were going to the temple this morning (it was closed for labor day...) and you have to be in missionary dress if you want to get into most of the buildings here anyway. So basically there's not much point in changing into normal clothes just for like a tiny part of the day. My companion, Elder Chan, and I went to a room in the main building for about 50 minutes today so I could play the piano which was pretty good. It being P-day and all I deemed it an appropriate activity. (Man this timer is annoying...)

I only have 30 seconds (ostensibly) left cause I keep going too slow and letting it drop below the minute so I lose a minute haha. I should probably go since we need to do laundry but I love you guys and it sounds like your house search is going just about as annoying as this timer that makes me forget what I'm saying and panic (although not quite that annoying since I get to write like 1 sentence and then have to logoff!) Haha my companion and I are like lolling so hard cause it's impossible to concentrate on what we're writing since we have so little time left and keep having to log off.

Ok I need to go and I really can't think of anything more to say even though I know there's tons but I’m too like pressed for time and flustered---

Bai bai, love you guys,

Li4 Zhanglao. (Yes I finally adopted the family xing haha)

P.S. I totally understand how Joel gained weight here now since we do like no exercise and the food is plenty and not altogether healthy. One missionary in my district from Hong Kong Elder Tam (so so hilarious cause he's SO Cantonese) eats like 10 plates per meal haahahah I don’t know how he's so skinny still. Deng yi deng i guess. Yue lai yue pang. Ok I really have to go now. Have a great week!