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Lashi Long

Hello everybody!

This week at the MTC was the same old same old. Things here can get really repetitive. I can definitely tell that my Chinese is getting better though. It's kind of weird to think I've only been here for about 5(?) weeks now and can give gospel lessons in Chinese. It's really tough still, especially when you're trying to figure out what they're saying.

This was also a really sad week. I had to say goodbye to my Canto friends! They left for Hong Kong a week ago(?) and I miss them so much. I got really close with a Cantonese speaking missionary called Elder Farr. He was so awesome and we would spend most of our nights talking about South Park and stuff.

Lately, we've put that puppet you sent us to work. We've been playing with that dragon puppet like crazy. One night one the Elders in my residence decided it would be funny if we got the puppet and harassed people in the bathroom stalls. So we did it. It was super funny. We were all dying! It's interesting to see how people react. So anytime someone is going to the bathroom we give them some entertainment. Many of the Elders will try to pet the puppet. Hilariously they all say the same thing, "Oh SO CUTE." It's pretty funny. It's probably only really funny because we're in the MTC.

One night we were laying in bed and one of the elders said, "Turn on the lights right now." So we all got up and we're like, "what's up?" He found a white handbook wedged between the top bunk and the bottom bunk. Inside it had instructions of how to get to a Narnia hole. The Narnia hole was a vent above our door, but we had to access it by going in the hall and popping the ceiling square board things. We found a note that said, "Have fun!" There was a silver star wars AT-AT in it. We're thinking about leaving something. I think we're considering leaving the dragon in the vent. It's name is Lashi Long. Which translates to: the crap dragon. We even use the little drums you guys sent us. We're going to leave the dragon with instructions and diagrams on how to harass the people in the stalls. The funny part about this all is that some of the elders have gotten REALLY good at operating the puppet. So it almost looks like a real small dog thing. Sometimes I have to do a double take to make sure someone's not keeping a freaking dog or something. It really does look like something out of Team America World Police.

Anyway, this week was just another boring dreadful week at the MTC. Can't wait to get out of here. We get new Cantonese speakers today so that'll be interesting. We're definitely going to use Lashi Long... I love the pictures of Grandma and Grandpa Burge with their matching eye patches! Super cool and funny. I miss you all so much! Thank you for the Cup of Noodles. We ate 3 each the night we got them.... All of the elders say thank you. They also say that it was the best meal they've eaten at the MTC. Teehee. We love the chopsticks! They work great! Sorry to hear they were hard to find.. That surprises me too..

My favorite MTC meal is probably the Navajo taco. I thought I was going to be sick afterwards but nah. We eat burgers here like literally at least once day! They're not very good either. We had some ribs and steak, that was probably one of my top favorite meals. Honestly though, it's burgers everyday. I don't know why. They have some good salads here. Sometimes they're freaking weird and put like weird stuff on them. My favorite is when they put chicken on top. Like I'm pretty sure school food is better than here. I don't know why it's so bad. I miss fast food in general. They cater on Mondays to the MTC, but every time they bring something ,like last Monday was Taco Bell, it just doesn't taste the same. It's almost off. I miss Cafe Rio a lot. Our breakfast is kind of retarded. They set up our schedule so we have to get what's called a "sack breakfast" it's like cereal, milk, and some yogurt. It's alright but our schedule is set up so that we have to eat it almost EVERY morning. When we could be eating the hot breakfast served by the MTC. It sucks. They bring in pizza and it's alright but it almost seems old/cold... I don't' know..I haven't had the biscuits and gravy here. The pasta here has stopped up a lot of the elders in my residence. I was smart enough not to eat that. We don't have desks. For some reason we have like 6 beds in our room which is retarded. So we only have a table. Bringhurst has some Chinese light saber chopsticks. Those are used often. Our room is on the second floor, but the MTC won't let us open our window shades AT ALL. I miss my mama's cooking for sure though!

Hey, I ran into Calianne Timothy at the temple. We went to school together, until about eight years ago when she moved to Texas. She got called to the Montana Billings Mission. This picture was taken with her camera. She is already in Montana now, but she emailed the picture to me on her last p-day.

My testimony has grown so much since I've been at the MTC. I didn't really believe people that the Spirit was strong at the MTC. But it really is. I love to read the Book of Mormon now, especially in Chinese. When it's in Chinese it almost has a different meaning when you read certain verses.

Love,
Silas

Two more pictures

Laughing problems and a strange P-day restoration lesson

I enjoy the pictures you guys sent me. So awesome to see what everyone is up to! Thank you Mom for putting my name on the temple roll. Sorry to hear that Mom is stressed out about school! That is a lot of stuff to worry about. My days are pretty repetitive. Lots of teaching. Lots of learning. I haven't had to speak in sacrament yet, but I know one of these days I'll have to. It honestly doesn't seem that bad. Lot's of people here freak out over that. Singing in Chinese is a bit interesting. Funny story, me and my companion were singing with our district in Chinese and there was a certain part in the song that said, "ching chong." Me and my companion started laughing. We got some disappointing looks from some of the others. Me and my companion have a laughing problem. We laugh at stuff all the time and in prayers. We're not sure why. The MTC will do that to you I guess. Sometimes it's hard to read the music because you don't use tones when you sing and it's hard to figure out exactly where the words go in the song. I sit in one classroom basically for 13 hours every day and the class is entirely in Chinese. It's kinda weird because sometimes there's no teacher, so we have to be our own. Some of the people in our district struggle with that........ I did play some four square.. I'm really bad at it. So I just run. I'm also pretty bad at running as well. The only thing that's been bugging me lately is the way I speak. It's kinda different now. I think I've mentioned in previous emails that I speak in a Chinese sentence structure. It bugs me, because I'm like..."Why am I talking like a Chinese Panda Express cook?" Things here at the MTC are pretty much the same old same old. Glad to hear everything is going well back home. I'm genuinely happy to be serving a mission, but the MTC sucks. One thing I really like to do is to talk to the Cantonese speakers. I LOVE the Cantonese speakers. They're all so cool and I really get along with a Cantonese speaker called Elder Farr. We talk every night. We talk about South Park and stuff. He's a cool guy. He leaves for Hong Kong in 6(?) days now. I'm definitely going to miss him. We get new Mandarin speakers and Cantonese speakers soon. So that'll be fun. We use slang around here, so we call them Mandos and Cantos. There's lots of lingo around here for some reason. Especially with the Chinese Asian languages. Teaching is always really hard, but I've just come to terms that I will suck and I will suck even more when I get to Taiwan. I talked to Elder Tyson Mckeon about it, and he made me feel better. I LOVE getting the Dear Elders and it lifts my spirits so much. On P-Day we spend a lot of time using Google street-view to look around Taiwan. That gets us really excited and motivated to go. I talked to one of my teachers who got back about 2 years ago, and his mission president was Blickenstaff. He says Blickenstaff's really cool. He was telling me all about Taiwan and told me that shark fin tastes good...... He also told me that he loved going to the beach on P-Day and they even let you dip your feet in the water. Ugh, I can't wait to leave this place. So about an hour ago me and my companion were doing laundry. We had to get off the computer and go down some stairs. When we were going down the stairs this man starts talking to us. He starts asking about where we're going and stuff. Then he started to ask why we weren't dressed up and was asking questions like, "are you only allowed to teach in church clothes." We explained why we were dressed. Then he started asking questions like why we're serving missions and we kinda got the feeling like he wasn't a member. Then it progressed into like a full on lesson about the restoration. It was weird. He wasn't like a fake investigator. He just works at the MTC and had some questions. We taught him in English about the restoration and why the Church is true. It was kind of intimidating but the Spirit was so strong. Near the end of our 45 minute lesson he said that he meets with the missionaries and is taking the lessons, but he was still confused about Joseph Smith and the Restoration (still kind of is.) Then he started to cry and tell us that our testimonies of the Gospel touched his heart and that the missionaries had told him that he could be with his deceased mother again through the Plan of Salvation. He bore a short testimony and told us that he was so thankful to talk with us... The MTC is a weird place.... I feel like we really helped him and answered his questions. It was just kinda weird, because there were so many missionaries passing us on the stairs and for some reason he decided to choose us. It was weird. I saw Mark Huelett and that was kinda weird, but fun. The food has gotten a little better. My stomach has adjusted a little more. I don't really get sick anymore. As for the snack stash we're slowly working on it. We found some time to eat it. We really want Cup of Noodles. Emphasis on cup because we don't/can't find any bowls. There is hot water available in our residence building. The MTC store is pretty alright. There's a "missionary discount" on everything which is cool. But that being said, everything in that store is over priced. Today my companion bought two double A batteries for $2. They never really give you enough time to do anything either. So going to the store is hard. Plus the workers at the store kind of have an attitude about everything or something, so the experience is not very pleasant. I haven't really bought anything besides Q-tips from the store. A lot of missionaries are giving me a hard time because I have all this money saved up on my MTC card. I have like $23 or something. I'm thinking of getting a hoodie with the mission logo on it. Everybody else has them and they're pretty nice. I have the top bunk. One of the springs in the bed is broken so it sticks into my back if I sleep a certain way. But I'm sleeping fine don't worry. I haven't even worn my other suit at all (the black one.) I rarely use my gray suit (only for like meetings/sacrament/stupid stuff). Elder Dube and Elder Rasband have come to speak to us. I have to go to the temple. We're doing sealings, and I get to pretend to be a little kid. Love you bye!

Silas

该MTC是监狱！

Exciting to hear that Krista and Sam got engaged! I wish I could be there for their wedding! Don't think Ben and Ale should get a ferret..... Our Chinese names in our district are really simple. Like mine (Bo Zhang Lao) or my companions Gui Zhang Lao (Pronounced Gway) It's kind of funny though because I don't even know their real English surnames. They all have some Chinese experience prior. Except one of the elders. But it's crazy how fast he is learning and he's almost as good as me. We're getting some shots today. We did receive the care package. My companions were thrilled as we opened it together, mostly because they told us that we would not be celebrating and were told not to throw any sort of party. Talk about MTC buzzkill. That's nothing new though. As for the packages though, I'm grateful for them. But I'm going to have to ask you stop. It's getting out of hand. We have SO much food. We dedicated an entire closet in our Residence to food and it's like packed full of food that you guys have sent me. I'm really enjoying the Cantonese speakers that share the same buildings with us. Most of them are going to Hong Kong and they're all super awesome. It's funny because we read the same characters and have the same sentence structure but the actual words are way different. I don't know of a scripture to use and don't really care. Just use that D&C one about the field or something. At the MTC I feel like I never really have enough time to do anything. So it's hard for us to eat the food because by the time we get done with everything it's 10:00 and then we have to go to bed at 10:30 and the Elders in my district are kind of Nazi's about stuff like that. I'm just looking forward to the day I can leave. I've given many lessons in Mandarin Chinese and it is super hard. But I'm learning so much and I can safely say I can struggle through an entire missionary discussion/lesson in Mandarin Chinese. I do a lot of stupid stuff when I teach though, and I'm not good at it. For example, I was teaching our old investigator Ye Shi Hua and he was telling us about how he read the introduction to the Book of Mormon and pointing at the Book of Mormon and stuff. Well, I for some reason didn't register that. So at the end of the lesson I invited him to read the Book of Mormon. He looked at me like I was an idiot. Then we got him "baptized," and he became our teacher. Which was a bit awkward. But I like him. I told him I was sorry about inviting him to read the Book of Mormon and he laughed so hard and then told me, "Yeah that was pretty weird." Oh well. I'm not that good at Chinese but I'm learning a lot. It's been a good week though and I love hearing about home. I love dear elders. Oh! One last thing. We would like some Cup of Noodles and chopsticks. Most Elders survive on that stuff here and they're easy to make. Plus we're dying for some Asian food. Anyway, I've got to go. I love you all so much and miss you more than you think.

该MTC是监狱！(The MTC is a prison!)

First Letter from the MTC

Hey everybody,

So yes, my P-Day is Wednesday. By the way, I love dear elders. They make me so happy to read them. The MTC is pretty alright. It can really suck sometimes though. Our Branch President is a former politician that served/worked along Presidents of the United States. So he's pretty intimidating. He yelled at us one day, because we were listening to church music when we were studying. The White handbook says we can listen to church music, so we weren't sure what the issue was. Anyway, my companion is Elder Giles. He is really cool. He's the perfect balance of obedient, but laid back enough to laugh. My district has a total of 8 people. Four of us are elders and then the other 4 are sisters. Its a closely-knit district, and for the most part we all get along really well. My Chinese name is Bo (boa). So, Bo Zhang Lao (Burge Elder).It's kind of funny because I can't really read my own missionary name tag, I'll send a picture next week of it, but it's all in characters except Elder Burge. But as we go through the MTC we get different name tags, so eventually my name tag will be entirely in the Chinese characters. Which will be weird. The MTC is a very busy place and I feel like I'm constantly running around. The food here is probably the most awful thing I've experienced in my life. It's really hard for me to eat for some reason. Mostly because 90% of the food is really bad and makes me sick. So I've lost like 10 pounds. But fortunately I got your package full of stuff and I've felt way better. The language is extremely challenging and frustrating. We've taught our fake investigator 3 times already. It's very frustrating to try to teach him because we can barley understand what he's saying. I can pray/read scriptures/bear my testimony in Chinese in just a week. It is absolutely crazy how fast you can learn here. I've learned SO much Chinese here that it makes my head pound by the end of the day. I already want to leave the MTC. This place is alright, but I'm ready to be out in the field. Most guys here have a hard time with the schedule and it stresses them out a lot. They also stress out about the language. Everybody in my district has such a strong and powerful testimony and crazy life stories. I feel like sometimes my testimony and life story are very simple and bland compared to theirs. Everyone here is extremely nice and helpful. I had my blood drawn yesterday, I have a cold right now and I had a chest x-ray that was required for my mission. I really miss you guys and I haven't even touched my photo album of home, because I'm worried it will make me homesick. By the way, I'm not homesick. I'm happy to be a missionary and happy to be out. I miss my Mango a lot. Glad to hear that Sam got a two year something at USU and that things are going well back home. I don't have a whole lot of time to write. But I'm alive and doing well. Oh by the way, to get the shot for Japanese Encephalitis it's $450, and I think I want to get it, but I'm not sure how it will be billed or all that stuff, so if i do get it I want to make sure it's okay to? Anyway, the way we talk in our residence is weird, because we learn so much Chinese that we structure our English sentences the way you would in Chinese. So for example, "you hand me toothpaste right now, yeah?" Its weird. Anyway, I've got to finish up my laundry and stuff. Don't worry about me doing laundry Mom, because the washing machines are exactly the same from my job at the warehouse, so I know exactly how to use them and everything. I'm happy to be out and a missionary. I love you all so much and miss you a lot. I'll write to you next Wednesday! Bye!

P.S. Confucius say what?