Glad to hear everything back home is going alright for the most part! This week was pretty much the same as the rest. I guess it was a little different.
On Saturday night we got the opportunity to Skype with some Taiwanese people for our TRC. Me and my companion got Sister Lu from Taipei (oh yeah, it's not Tai-pay. It's Tai-Bei.) So that was really fun. She was very nice and understanding of our awful, awful, awful Chinese. It was kind of hard to understand her because for some reason the TRC instructors decided it would be a good idea to do two zones of mandarin at once in the same room. So it was freaking loud and we had to like press our faces to the monitor to hear what she was saying. It was awesome to be able to understand some of what she was saying. She told us that she and her husband are converts to the church and they are trying to share the gospel with the rest of her family. She reads scriptures every morning through Skype to her sister. She said that her son is reading the Book of Mormon right now and trying to gain a testimony. It was really fun to hear her story and how the gospel has blessed her family. Despite some awkward moments in the call and the language barrier it was really fun to do that. This Saturday we get to do that again.
This week the Mandarin group ahead of us left for Taiwan and other various areas around the world. Which makes us officially the oldest Mandarin group in the MTC. We are so ready to get out of here. This week we were talking to our teacher and he told us that he's very impressed with our ability to speak/understand Chinese. He told us how awesome it is that we can understand him at a normal talking pace. We were all very confused because it doesn't/didn't sound like he was talking fast. Then he explained that when we first got here he talked really slow. He demonstrated and it was like this, "Hello.....Welcome.....to the MTC....I'm....Brother Dodge.." It was kind of interesting because now that I think about it, all of the "investigators" seem to talk at a normal pace for Chinese conversation. The language is still really hard and from what most teachers tell us it will be from 7 months to 1 year to be able to understand and speak the language. Then to read and write it will be about another year. Most teachers say they're still learning and their Chinese is nowhere near perfect.
Other than that there not much else. Me and the Elders are doing great. I was made District Leader. It's not too fun. I don't like being the mailman. Some of the sisters have issues with me already. Mostly because I don't take my role as district leader serious enough apparently. They don't like that I make jokes. The Elders on the other hand are usually in tears of laughter. Oh well, I'm just trying to do my best! Anyway, just another week in the MTC. Today we get new Mando's which is awesome. They're going to be right next door to our residence. We'll be sure to give them a surprise visit from Laoshi Long. We got the Cantonese speakers pretty good. They're all super weirded out but they caught on to the joke and they think it's hilarious. We're definitely going to leave behind the dragon for the next group. I also learned that one of the Canto's was in the Navy for about a year as a computer something. (IT?) So I like to talk to him. He's 24. All of the Cantonese speakers are super awesome (and normal.) The Navy Canto told me that the MTC is basically a glorified version of boot camp.
Something we love to do when we have some free time is watch these "I'm a Mormon Videos." We love this one called Mao Kai Ping. He's a tour guide in Taichung on Sun Moon Lake and we love to watch that video. We watch it like 6 times everyday. There's also a Surfer Girl Taiwan one. That one is possibly my favorite. Whenever we get down about being in the MTC we watch those videos to remind us where we're going to be in a couple weeks. You should watch them. We love "Mao Kai Ping." We think it's pretty funny. Plus the music is nice. For real though go watch it.
Anyway, I love you all so much! Thanks for feeding us. Thanks for the Dear Elders. They make my day. See you next week!
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