well today is my last day at the MTC! I leave tonight at 6pm to head to the airport. I am so excited I can not even tell you. I have worked hard here to prepare to get out ther. It is so much fun to see something that you have strived for happen.
The MTC has been awesome. It has been heck of fun, it has also been hecka hard. There are times when you just want to scream because you are so frustrated with the language, and then other times when you can just rattle off for 30 minutes in chinese. Its truly amazing. I never would have that that learning a language would have been so much fun, but it is.
Today is my last preparation day here. We have a lot of stuff to do before we leave. I need to do my laundry, which is what we are doing right now. Then we have to pack. I already started packing all my books and stuff that I don't need access to right away. Obviously, there are the weight limits on luggage on airplanes so we have to be really careful not to exceed that.
I have a ton of journals of people that i need to write in. We are all writing just brief notes in eachothers journals, its fun. It feels like the last day of school, when everybody is running around trying to get everybody to sign their yearbook. Its much more sentinmental than that though. These are people that I have struggled with for the past 3 months. I have grown really close to some of them. And I hope i get to see them after I get home.
Well on Saturday, we had our final teaching practice. We taught an older Taiwanese lady. I could not understand her. There is a word in chinese that is pronounced like choo. And she said it, but when she said it she kept saying tsoo. It was so strange. It really threw me off. In these rooms that we teach in our teachers watch us from another room. There are cameras and mics in the room so that the teachers don't have to sit in and interupt our lessons. Anyways, after the lesson we went back and found our teacher. We found him and he just started laughing. We didn't know what was going on. So he told us that I guess Taiwanese people, especially older ones, have really strong accents and they mix some of the Taiwanese language noises with Chinese, so all of this lady's "ch" came out as "tss." He said very very few people do that now days, but there are a couple. That made me feel a lot better because I could not understand her much.
It still doesn't seem real that I am leaving today for Taiwan. I won't get there until tomorrow sometime, but hey who cares I am going to Taiwan!
Well I had better go, but I just want to tell you all that I love you and that I appreciate your support. You have all been so nice with your emails and letters and packages, it has really kept me sane here. Before I sign off I just want to tell you all that I know that what I am doing is what God wants me to do, I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true and that through him we can all find the greatest happiness. I love you all so much!
Elder Anderson
p.s.-Next time you here from me i will be in Taiwan :)
Showing posts with label MTC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MTC. Show all posts
Monday, March 24, 2008
Monday, March 10, 2008
March 10 2008 Email
well well well,
this week was another millisecond in time. i think i blinked and then it was over. its crazy, 2 weeks from today i will be in Taiwan, time is flying by too fast. i almost wish i had more time to learn the language better, but o well. i am so excited to go i can't even tell you. we have been learning about culture and stuff this week which is awesome. we know a lot of the food etiquette and gift giving etiquette and etc. learning that stuff just really gets you excited to go.
well i am trying to think what happened this week. it is so hard to distinguish. o ya, we had an apostle come speak to us from the quroum of the 12. Elder Jeffery Holland came and spoke to us, it was by far the best talk i have ever seen in my life. no joke it was amazing. he just like every missionary out there is an "elder." all of us were ordained to be an elder, and what he said was really cool. he said that even though his title as a leader of this church is Apostle, he said that every single missionary is an apostle with a lower case a. although we as missionaries arent called to be leaders of the church, we have been called to represent christ as one of his apostles/disciples. and that our actions and words should be as if we were speaking for and in behalf of Jesus Christ because we are representing him. this is his gospel.
he also gave a portion of the talk about how Jesus was abandoned right before his death, by everyone. even some of his disciples, like judas. anyways he gave us a challenge that day, that we may never abandon Christ.
well lets see, i am trying to think what else has happened. the new missionaries in our branch have been here for about 2 weeks, they are funny. sometimes i can't believe i sounded like them at some point. truly though 8 weeks ago my chinese was terrible, now i feel quite comfortable having a brief conversation with someone in chinese. its crazy how much you can do with the Lord's help.
hahaha...so i just remembered yesterday was daylight savings time here, so we lost an hour. anyways, elder fronk forgot to change his clock. our zone leader, elder kitterman, went around sunday morning and knocked on everybodies doors at 7 just to make sure they were all up. when he got to our room he knocked and no one answered so he came in. we were all sleeping, because our alarm hadn't been changed. anyways, we all woke up, i had changed my clock so i looked up and saw that it was 7, but elder fronk had forgotten so it still said 6 on his. so he was all mad because he thought that elder kitterman had woken us up early. so elder fronk was like "what are you doing in here, its 6 in the morning?!" well, elder kitterman refuses to speak english, he always speaks in chinese, its good practice, but he doesn't have very good tones so he is rely hard to understand when he speaks chinese. anyways, he is trying to tell elder fronk its 7 oclock, he keeps saying in poor chinese "xianzai shi qi dian." which means right now its seven oclock. so here these 2 sit arguing over the time for about a minute. elder kitterman just keeps saying "xianzai shi qi dian, xianzai shi qi dian." finally i just got tired of hearing them and i was just like "elder fronk, its 7 oclock." and then he realized, it was just really funny because it was the first chinese arguement i have ever heard. quite entertaining.
well sorry my typing is horrible, i hope that it makes sense. i only have 30 minutes to write all my emails so i try and rush through them fast. well i love you all and appreciate all your emails, and letters and support. the mission is great i love it.
Favorite scripture of the week is James 1:5.
love ya all
Elder Anderson
this week was another millisecond in time. i think i blinked and then it was over. its crazy, 2 weeks from today i will be in Taiwan, time is flying by too fast. i almost wish i had more time to learn the language better, but o well. i am so excited to go i can't even tell you. we have been learning about culture and stuff this week which is awesome. we know a lot of the food etiquette and gift giving etiquette and etc. learning that stuff just really gets you excited to go.
well i am trying to think what happened this week. it is so hard to distinguish. o ya, we had an apostle come speak to us from the quroum of the 12. Elder Jeffery Holland came and spoke to us, it was by far the best talk i have ever seen in my life. no joke it was amazing. he just like every missionary out there is an "elder." all of us were ordained to be an elder, and what he said was really cool. he said that even though his title as a leader of this church is Apostle, he said that every single missionary is an apostle with a lower case a. although we as missionaries arent called to be leaders of the church, we have been called to represent christ as one of his apostles/disciples. and that our actions and words should be as if we were speaking for and in behalf of Jesus Christ because we are representing him. this is his gospel.
he also gave a portion of the talk about how Jesus was abandoned right before his death, by everyone. even some of his disciples, like judas. anyways he gave us a challenge that day, that we may never abandon Christ.
well lets see, i am trying to think what else has happened. the new missionaries in our branch have been here for about 2 weeks, they are funny. sometimes i can't believe i sounded like them at some point. truly though 8 weeks ago my chinese was terrible, now i feel quite comfortable having a brief conversation with someone in chinese. its crazy how much you can do with the Lord's help.
hahaha...so i just remembered yesterday was daylight savings time here, so we lost an hour. anyways, elder fronk forgot to change his clock. our zone leader, elder kitterman, went around sunday morning and knocked on everybodies doors at 7 just to make sure they were all up. when he got to our room he knocked and no one answered so he came in. we were all sleeping, because our alarm hadn't been changed. anyways, we all woke up, i had changed my clock so i looked up and saw that it was 7, but elder fronk had forgotten so it still said 6 on his. so he was all mad because he thought that elder kitterman had woken us up early. so elder fronk was like "what are you doing in here, its 6 in the morning?!" well, elder kitterman refuses to speak english, he always speaks in chinese, its good practice, but he doesn't have very good tones so he is rely hard to understand when he speaks chinese. anyways, he is trying to tell elder fronk its 7 oclock, he keeps saying in poor chinese "xianzai shi qi dian." which means right now its seven oclock. so here these 2 sit arguing over the time for about a minute. elder kitterman just keeps saying "xianzai shi qi dian, xianzai shi qi dian." finally i just got tired of hearing them and i was just like "elder fronk, its 7 oclock." and then he realized, it was just really funny because it was the first chinese arguement i have ever heard. quite entertaining.
well sorry my typing is horrible, i hope that it makes sense. i only have 30 minutes to write all my emails so i try and rush through them fast. well i love you all and appreciate all your emails, and letters and support. the mission is great i love it.
Favorite scripture of the week is James 1:5.
love ya all
Elder Anderson
Monday, March 3, 2008
March 4, 2008 Email
ni hao well team,
life is going good. mtc is pretty awesome still, i have been here for almost 2 months now. we were talking as a disctrict and it definitely takes a certain kind of person do be able to make it through these 12 weeks with out going crazy. but it hasn't been that bad at all, occassionally i here the little new elders whining about how hard it is and then i ask them how long they have been here, they are usually like "4 weeks and its so tough," i giggle quitely inside as a inform them of my 8 week stay thus far.
well i am starting to feel like a senior in high school, it is coming down to the wire. we have been here longer than anybody else and we are almost ready to be sent out. the only difference between us and being a senior is that we aren't getting lazy. there is no senioritice here. matter-of-fact yesterday i was thinking about how much time we have left until we leave and it kind of scared me. i have always been working hard here, but these last 3 weeks are crunch time. i leave on the 24th of march, so i have exactly 3 weeks from today to be able to speak chinese well enough to teach the gospel and survive daily tasks. i think i am doing alright though. my pronunciation isn't the best, but i am working on that. they tell us that we will pick up the pronunciation once we get over there and start hearing it everyday, it is nearly impossible to do so in an enviroment with all none native speakers.
well this week just flew by. i can hardly remember the story i wanted to tell you all this week. it was a funny one. but maybe i will remember it in a second.
the food isn't so bad. once you learn the ins and outs of the lunch room it is wonderful. there are all sorts of things you can get, you just have got to know where to look and when. its great being an oldie of the MTC, we know virtually all of the hidden treasures haha.
o i remembered my story, so elder fronk, one of the elders in my aparment, we were in a mission conference yesterday. it is this really boring 2 hour meeting that is extremely large. there are about 2000 people in this meeting. anyways, yesterday we were all fasting so our bodies were pretty tired, not to mention the room where the mission conference was held was about 100 degrees. elder fronk fell asleep right, no big deal whatever, but he got startled by something and awoke by flinging his limbs in every which way. he ended up kicking one of the people in front of him in the back of the head, who happened to be a Branch Presidenct. Branch Presidents are like the bishops over small little groups of missionaries here of about 60. so this branch president turns around to see what the heck is going on and sees elder fronk just sitting there. elder fronk didn't know what to do, so he just was like "hi" and waved. it was funny trust me.
well i wish i had more to say, but its tough remembering in the morning. we have been teaching about heaven and what happens after this life in the TRC. the TRC is a place for volunteers to come to let the missionaries practice their language. well we were in there teaching this lesson, to a native, and my companion accidently told her that heaven is this "very pessimistic place" it was kind of funny, i started laughing and the lady just looked at him so confused. the words are really close and he got his sentence structure all messed up so it changed the meaning.
anyways i love you all and appreciate your support.
life is going good. mtc is pretty awesome still, i have been here for almost 2 months now. we were talking as a disctrict and it definitely takes a certain kind of person do be able to make it through these 12 weeks with out going crazy. but it hasn't been that bad at all, occassionally i here the little new elders whining about how hard it is and then i ask them how long they have been here, they are usually like "4 weeks and its so tough," i giggle quitely inside as a inform them of my 8 week stay thus far.
well i am starting to feel like a senior in high school, it is coming down to the wire. we have been here longer than anybody else and we are almost ready to be sent out. the only difference between us and being a senior is that we aren't getting lazy. there is no senioritice here. matter-of-fact yesterday i was thinking about how much time we have left until we leave and it kind of scared me. i have always been working hard here, but these last 3 weeks are crunch time. i leave on the 24th of march, so i have exactly 3 weeks from today to be able to speak chinese well enough to teach the gospel and survive daily tasks. i think i am doing alright though. my pronunciation isn't the best, but i am working on that. they tell us that we will pick up the pronunciation once we get over there and start hearing it everyday, it is nearly impossible to do so in an enviroment with all none native speakers.
well this week just flew by. i can hardly remember the story i wanted to tell you all this week. it was a funny one. but maybe i will remember it in a second.
the food isn't so bad. once you learn the ins and outs of the lunch room it is wonderful. there are all sorts of things you can get, you just have got to know where to look and when. its great being an oldie of the MTC, we know virtually all of the hidden treasures haha.
o i remembered my story, so elder fronk, one of the elders in my aparment, we were in a mission conference yesterday. it is this really boring 2 hour meeting that is extremely large. there are about 2000 people in this meeting. anyways, yesterday we were all fasting so our bodies were pretty tired, not to mention the room where the mission conference was held was about 100 degrees. elder fronk fell asleep right, no big deal whatever, but he got startled by something and awoke by flinging his limbs in every which way. he ended up kicking one of the people in front of him in the back of the head, who happened to be a Branch Presidenct. Branch Presidents are like the bishops over small little groups of missionaries here of about 60. so this branch president turns around to see what the heck is going on and sees elder fronk just sitting there. elder fronk didn't know what to do, so he just was like "hi" and waved. it was funny trust me.
well i wish i had more to say, but its tough remembering in the morning. we have been teaching about heaven and what happens after this life in the TRC. the TRC is a place for volunteers to come to let the missionaries practice their language. well we were in there teaching this lesson, to a native, and my companion accidently told her that heaven is this "very pessimistic place" it was kind of funny, i started laughing and the lady just looked at him so confused. the words are really close and he got his sentence structure all messed up so it changed the meaning.
anyways i love you all and appreciate your support.
Monday, February 25, 2008
February 24 2008 Email
hey everbody. how is everything going? i appreciate your emails and letters and packages. they make life here so easy. the MTC is tough, but i love it. it is only as easy as you want to make it, if you really get in here and study hard you forget about everything else. every night when i lay down to go to bed, i check to see if my head hurts and if it does then i know i studied hard enough that day. the chinese is still coming great, my listening comprehension is far better than my speaking, but thats how it usually goes. our teacher teaches us basically all in chinese now. when he says a word we don't know we just look at him confused and then he will write it on the board in english, but he refuses to say it. we are trying to do the same thing in our district. we are going to have english fast this week were we can't speak ANY english the whole day. its going to be interesting because all of us are at different levels so it will be interesting to see how we can communicate.
well we received our new permanent teacher, brother Curtis. he is awesome i love him. for our first activity with him he told us to ponder what our purpose was as missionaries and what our visions were for ourselves as missionaries. we pondered them for a bout 15 minutes and then he had us follow him out of our class and towards the gym. as we walk he asked to remain silent and continue to think about what our purpose is. we walked to the other end of the MTC campus and into a building with a big painting of Jesus Christ teaching his disciples just before he sent them out in to the world to teach. brother curtis asked us to think about how our vision and goals coincide with the saviors vision for the spreading of his gospel. i thought it was awesome! as i looked at the picture i was overwhelmed by the spirit. i always new that i wanted to come on a mission to help others, but standing there looking at this life size picture of Jesus Christ, i realized that i am disciple of Jesus christ. my vision and goals are second priority next to his. there is a scripture i read a little while ago, in the Book of Mormon, in 3 Nephi 5:13 it says "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people that they might have everlasting life." What an awesome scripture that is for missionary work. I realized though that you don't have to be a missionary to be a disciple of his. Although i have a calling to be a missionary, all of us who have the knowledge of the gospel can be missionaries to. hahaha well thats enough preaching, i just wanted to share with you all that experience. the spirit is so strong here, you can really feel it teaching you on a daily basis.
well nothing too knew has happened. hahaha... o ya. this is kind of funny. we have an missionary from New Zealand here in our district, Elder Lords. He is aweseome, i talk with him a lot. Anyways, in New Zealand, they use words that they don't consider bad words there, but in America we do, especially when you are a missionary. Anyways, one of our subs was teaching us and Elder Lords was writing down the stuff on the board as fast as he could, and he broke his pencil. So really loud he yelled "damn," and the teachers face just dropped. hahahahaha... i couldn't stop laughing for like 5 minutes. i had to explain to the teacher that he was from New Zealand and that Elder Lords hadn't quite yet adjusted to the American culture. At first Elder Lords didn't realize what was going on cuz the teacher was glaring at him and everyone else in the class was just laughing under their breath. Elder Lords figured out what had happened and apologized, but it was quite funny.
well this week, we taught our second lesson in chinese. it was so much fun. the person that we taught, served their missions in Taiwan also. they came in to help us practice. he spoke really fast and i sometimes didn't understand what he was saying so i just smiled my head and nodded because i have figured out that people usually are asking yes or no questions. and 90% of the time they are looking for a yes answer. i sure hope when i get to taiwan i have a companion that really knows the language well.
valentines day was pretty crazy here. we have so many candy hearts it is ridiculous, hahaha... i don't even it breakfast anymore i am trying to widdle down my stash of goodies. i usually eat a bunch of cookies for breakfast. it keeps me healthy :).
it is so warm here all the snow is melting. for like the past 3 days there have been lakes of water all over and the water is running down from the roofs like there is a fire hose loose up there. well i have rambled long enough. i well let you all go. love ya
Elder Anderson
well we received our new permanent teacher, brother Curtis. he is awesome i love him. for our first activity with him he told us to ponder what our purpose was as missionaries and what our visions were for ourselves as missionaries. we pondered them for a bout 15 minutes and then he had us follow him out of our class and towards the gym. as we walk he asked to remain silent and continue to think about what our purpose is. we walked to the other end of the MTC campus and into a building with a big painting of Jesus Christ teaching his disciples just before he sent them out in to the world to teach. brother curtis asked us to think about how our vision and goals coincide with the saviors vision for the spreading of his gospel. i thought it was awesome! as i looked at the picture i was overwhelmed by the spirit. i always new that i wanted to come on a mission to help others, but standing there looking at this life size picture of Jesus Christ, i realized that i am disciple of Jesus christ. my vision and goals are second priority next to his. there is a scripture i read a little while ago, in the Book of Mormon, in 3 Nephi 5:13 it says "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people that they might have everlasting life." What an awesome scripture that is for missionary work. I realized though that you don't have to be a missionary to be a disciple of his. Although i have a calling to be a missionary, all of us who have the knowledge of the gospel can be missionaries to. hahaha well thats enough preaching, i just wanted to share with you all that experience. the spirit is so strong here, you can really feel it teaching you on a daily basis.
well nothing too knew has happened. hahaha... o ya. this is kind of funny. we have an missionary from New Zealand here in our district, Elder Lords. He is aweseome, i talk with him a lot. Anyways, in New Zealand, they use words that they don't consider bad words there, but in America we do, especially when you are a missionary. Anyways, one of our subs was teaching us and Elder Lords was writing down the stuff on the board as fast as he could, and he broke his pencil. So really loud he yelled "damn," and the teachers face just dropped. hahahahaha... i couldn't stop laughing for like 5 minutes. i had to explain to the teacher that he was from New Zealand and that Elder Lords hadn't quite yet adjusted to the American culture. At first Elder Lords didn't realize what was going on cuz the teacher was glaring at him and everyone else in the class was just laughing under their breath. Elder Lords figured out what had happened and apologized, but it was quite funny.
well this week, we taught our second lesson in chinese. it was so much fun. the person that we taught, served their missions in Taiwan also. they came in to help us practice. he spoke really fast and i sometimes didn't understand what he was saying so i just smiled my head and nodded because i have figured out that people usually are asking yes or no questions. and 90% of the time they are looking for a yes answer. i sure hope when i get to taiwan i have a companion that really knows the language well.
valentines day was pretty crazy here. we have so many candy hearts it is ridiculous, hahaha... i don't even it breakfast anymore i am trying to widdle down my stash of goodies. i usually eat a bunch of cookies for breakfast. it keeps me healthy :).
it is so warm here all the snow is melting. for like the past 3 days there have been lakes of water all over and the water is running down from the roofs like there is a fire hose loose up there. well i have rambled long enough. i well let you all go. love ya
Elder Anderson
Monday, February 18, 2008
February 18, 2008 Email
well i dont have much time to day. they are slowly figuring out all the ways i can have more time to type. they only give us 30 minutes on pday and the computer are terrible so it is really hard to get them to work in 30 minutes anyways.
nothing to fantastic has happened this week. we just are speaking chinese a lot. my district is pretty sweet. there are 7 of us now. we just got a new branch president. anyways, i played piano for our church meeting the other day, i messed up a lot, but i dont think anyone noticed. i dont like to play piano for the meetings its scary.
well the chinese is coming good. i was praying in chinese with my teacher the other day during an interview. brother dean, who happens to be one of the best teachers in the world, anyways, while i was praying i got the words for laoshi and laoshu mixed. so i ended up in my prayer asking heavenly father to bless all my rats that they may teach me better. hahaha... that was pretty funny.
the language mistakes are the best. they are so freaking hilarious. somebody from our zone was reciting part of Joseph Smith history, and instead of saying "this is my beloved son, hear him," they said "this is my beloved midget hear him." the words for midget and son are the same except the tones are different they both sound like "aihtsa" though.
well insanity has begin to set in. it is week 7 and we have been laughing at everything. the dumbest little things will put the entire district on a giggling rampage. thankfully, we have never had one of these little fits while we had a teacher. they always happen during personal study.
i really have learned to love everybody here. we are all so different, but we are united in the fact that we are all here to bring others unto Christ. i wish i could spend my entire mission with the young men i have met here, but i am sure i will meet many more great young men in the field. well thats all for me. i love you all and hope you are doing great.
love,
elder anderson
nothing to fantastic has happened this week. we just are speaking chinese a lot. my district is pretty sweet. there are 7 of us now. we just got a new branch president. anyways, i played piano for our church meeting the other day, i messed up a lot, but i dont think anyone noticed. i dont like to play piano for the meetings its scary.
well the chinese is coming good. i was praying in chinese with my teacher the other day during an interview. brother dean, who happens to be one of the best teachers in the world, anyways, while i was praying i got the words for laoshi and laoshu mixed. so i ended up in my prayer asking heavenly father to bless all my rats that they may teach me better. hahaha... that was pretty funny.
the language mistakes are the best. they are so freaking hilarious. somebody from our zone was reciting part of Joseph Smith history, and instead of saying "this is my beloved son, hear him," they said "this is my beloved midget hear him." the words for midget and son are the same except the tones are different they both sound like "aihtsa" though.
well insanity has begin to set in. it is week 7 and we have been laughing at everything. the dumbest little things will put the entire district on a giggling rampage. thankfully, we have never had one of these little fits while we had a teacher. they always happen during personal study.
i really have learned to love everybody here. we are all so different, but we are united in the fact that we are all here to bring others unto Christ. i wish i could spend my entire mission with the young men i have met here, but i am sure i will meet many more great young men in the field. well thats all for me. i love you all and hope you are doing great.
love,
elder anderson
Friday, February 15, 2008
Craig Sent Pictures
Craig as Angel Moroni??? or the Statue of Liberty???what do you think?
Craig and his District at the MTC
This Snowman will have a hard time knocking doors.
Monday, February 11, 2008
February 11, 2008 Email
Hey Everyone,
Thanks for the emails and everything I really appreciate all your support. I am still loving it here. The MTC happens to be one of the coolest places on earth. I didn’t think I would ever hear myself say that, but it truly is. Well, maybe not for everybody, I can see why some people might not like it, but I definitely like it. If you have a cool district it truly makes it easy. My district rocks! I have never become such good friends with people this fast. I think because we are all in here for the same reason, we are here to serve the Lord and when you are united in a common goal it generally makes it easy to get along.
I am not sure if I have shared this story with you, but last week Elder Daniels, one of my room mates, was reading some flash cards with Chinese on the front and English on the back, anyways, he got to one card and he looked at it and tried to say it and said “ta chan ga,” and he looked at it again and said “ta chan ga,” then he looked at his companion and said “where the heck are the tones on this word,” and then his companion, Elder Fronk, looked at him because he wasn’t sure if he was being serious, then he realized he WAS being serious, so he told him, “that says ‘to change’ your dork,” the card had flipped around and he didn’t even know it. Elder Daniels was reading English, but he was too zoned to even realize it. We had a good laughed and we all agreed that we have been here for too long.
The Chinese is coming great, I started a new goal last week, 100 new vocab words a day. Its tough to find the time, but for about the 4th day in a row yesterday I knocked down over 100. Plus with all the Chinese we learn in class, I am really starting to get a good solid vocabulary built up. When people talk to me in Chinese I generally know what they are saying. It is great! I think I know more Chinese now than I do Spanish, that’s not saying much for me, but it definitely doesn’t say much concerning public education considering the fact that I took Spanish for 4 years. Haha…
Well I am learning a ton and loving every minute of it, I miss all of you and can’t wait to see you in 2 years. I really wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Well except maybe the top of an untouched snow bowl with my skis, anyways, I love this opportunity I have to serve and bless the people of Taiwan.
Love,
Elder Anderson
Thanks for the emails and everything I really appreciate all your support. I am still loving it here. The MTC happens to be one of the coolest places on earth. I didn’t think I would ever hear myself say that, but it truly is. Well, maybe not for everybody, I can see why some people might not like it, but I definitely like it. If you have a cool district it truly makes it easy. My district rocks! I have never become such good friends with people this fast. I think because we are all in here for the same reason, we are here to serve the Lord and when you are united in a common goal it generally makes it easy to get along.
I am not sure if I have shared this story with you, but last week Elder Daniels, one of my room mates, was reading some flash cards with Chinese on the front and English on the back, anyways, he got to one card and he looked at it and tried to say it and said “ta chan ga,” and he looked at it again and said “ta chan ga,” then he looked at his companion and said “where the heck are the tones on this word,” and then his companion, Elder Fronk, looked at him because he wasn’t sure if he was being serious, then he realized he WAS being serious, so he told him, “that says ‘to change’ your dork,” the card had flipped around and he didn’t even know it. Elder Daniels was reading English, but he was too zoned to even realize it. We had a good laughed and we all agreed that we have been here for too long.
The Chinese is coming great, I started a new goal last week, 100 new vocab words a day. Its tough to find the time, but for about the 4th day in a row yesterday I knocked down over 100. Plus with all the Chinese we learn in class, I am really starting to get a good solid vocabulary built up. When people talk to me in Chinese I generally know what they are saying. It is great! I think I know more Chinese now than I do Spanish, that’s not saying much for me, but it definitely doesn’t say much concerning public education considering the fact that I took Spanish for 4 years. Haha…
Well I am learning a ton and loving every minute of it, I miss all of you and can’t wait to see you in 2 years. I really wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Well except maybe the top of an untouched snow bowl with my skis, anyways, I love this opportunity I have to serve and bless the people of Taiwan.
Love,
Elder Anderson
Monday, February 4, 2008
Feb 4, 2008 Email
hey hey hey,
well nothing new is going on here. everything is going really well, it is the beginning of the fifth week, at this point we are basically no longer allowed to speak in english unless it is absolutely necessary like in class and stuff. it is tough, but really fun. we can usually get our point acrossed, but sometimes i think i am using more sign language than chinese. to talk we basically play chinese sharads, you say a couple words until you get to a word you don't know how to say and then you act it out. its pretty funny! all you see is these elders running around trying to act out what they are saying hahaha. think about it, how would you act out the great apostasy? or the gold plates? its tough.
we have had some really neat meetings that are very spiritual, yesterday we watched a film biography on the life of president hinckley, it was so funny. he is probably one of the funniest people i have ever seen on TV. anyways after going to these meetings you just want to get out there and tear it up, but i can't yet.
THIS WEEK IN FOUR SQUARE: so this week i did a somersault kick and hit the ball back in to the square, i was upside down. anyways after wards an elder from another district said that he had something to give me, so i followed him to his room and he made me kneel and close my eyes, i was a little nervous, but my companion was there so i did. anyways he went and got something and came back and told me to open my eyes and arise. i opened my eyes and before me was the most hideous belt i have ever seen. It was the four-square king belt. it is like a blue weight lifting belt with all these bottle caps glued on to it and the name of all the previous kings. there are about 12 names on it. so i figure it has probably been here for about a year. so now i am the current 4square king and before i leave i have to crown the next king. i am supposed to add my name and something funny and then pass it. hahaha... it made me laugh. well the chinese is coming awesome, i feel like i can communicate pretty well. yesterday i bore my testimony all in chinese and the elders and sisters that are just about to leave were very impressed, so that made me a little less nervous for when i get to taiwan. I can't wait to go! i like it here, but the field is going to be awesome. we have been teaching the first two lessons in english, my teaching skills have really improved. the last time we taught volunteers it was amazing, the spirit was so strong even though it was just a practice lesson. our teacher was very happy at how well we are doing with both teaching the gospel and learning the language.
well i love you all and hope to hear from you,
love,
elder anderson
well nothing new is going on here. everything is going really well, it is the beginning of the fifth week, at this point we are basically no longer allowed to speak in english unless it is absolutely necessary like in class and stuff. it is tough, but really fun. we can usually get our point acrossed, but sometimes i think i am using more sign language than chinese. to talk we basically play chinese sharads, you say a couple words until you get to a word you don't know how to say and then you act it out. its pretty funny! all you see is these elders running around trying to act out what they are saying hahaha. think about it, how would you act out the great apostasy? or the gold plates? its tough.
we have had some really neat meetings that are very spiritual, yesterday we watched a film biography on the life of president hinckley, it was so funny. he is probably one of the funniest people i have ever seen on TV. anyways after going to these meetings you just want to get out there and tear it up, but i can't yet.
THIS WEEK IN FOUR SQUARE: so this week i did a somersault kick and hit the ball back in to the square, i was upside down. anyways after wards an elder from another district said that he had something to give me, so i followed him to his room and he made me kneel and close my eyes, i was a little nervous, but my companion was there so i did. anyways he went and got something and came back and told me to open my eyes and arise. i opened my eyes and before me was the most hideous belt i have ever seen. It was the four-square king belt. it is like a blue weight lifting belt with all these bottle caps glued on to it and the name of all the previous kings. there are about 12 names on it. so i figure it has probably been here for about a year. so now i am the current 4square king and before i leave i have to crown the next king. i am supposed to add my name and something funny and then pass it. hahaha... it made me laugh. well the chinese is coming awesome, i feel like i can communicate pretty well. yesterday i bore my testimony all in chinese and the elders and sisters that are just about to leave were very impressed, so that made me a little less nervous for when i get to taiwan. I can't wait to go! i like it here, but the field is going to be awesome. we have been teaching the first two lessons in english, my teaching skills have really improved. the last time we taught volunteers it was amazing, the spirit was so strong even though it was just a practice lesson. our teacher was very happy at how well we are doing with both teaching the gospel and learning the language.
well i love you all and hope to hear from you,
love,
elder anderson
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
January 29 Email
well the spirit here today at the MTC is somber, but strong. Although I am sure all of us will miss President Hinckley's witty jokes, clever talks, and heart warming smile, I can't help but be happy for him as he goes on to return to live with his wife. I will miss him, but it doesn't change my purpose here. I love President Hinckley and I know that the next prophet will truly be God's servant here on the earth. Pray for the church leaders I am sure they have many long nights ahead of them... Well you all probably will know more about whats going on then me so feel free to email me.
This has been one of the most spiritual weeks at the MTC. Everyone here is awesome! It doesn't matter who you were before you came here, we are all united in one purpose now and you can feel the love that each missionary has for the people they are preparing to serve all over the world. There is no greater work than missionary work! The languages is still coming great, just building vocab and working on the goofy grammar of chinese. Well another week at the MTC is done and we begin another one, the days and weeks are flying by, I love it! I'm gonna be in Taiwan in no time. And the MTC rocks, anyone that says it sucks is crazy haha. The food is good and the people are friendly, what more could you ask for?
Thanks for all the emails and letters and dearelder.com. They are all great! If you wanna save 41 cents just use dearelder.com, it works great.
I love you all,
Elder Anderson
This has been one of the most spiritual weeks at the MTC. Everyone here is awesome! It doesn't matter who you were before you came here, we are all united in one purpose now and you can feel the love that each missionary has for the people they are preparing to serve all over the world. There is no greater work than missionary work! The languages is still coming great, just building vocab and working on the goofy grammar of chinese. Well another week at the MTC is done and we begin another one, the days and weeks are flying by, I love it! I'm gonna be in Taiwan in no time. And the MTC rocks, anyone that says it sucks is crazy haha. The food is good and the people are friendly, what more could you ask for?
Thanks for all the emails and letters and dearelder.com. They are all great! If you wanna save 41 cents just use dearelder.com, it works great.
I love you all,
Elder Anderson
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Here is another email from Craig. We are also recieving letters, which we enjoy, but are harder to post!
well hey everybody.
everything is going great. The MTC. isn't so bad. My district is super cool and fun. My companion is a little nerdy and hard to communicate with sometimes, but he is a great kid. We have been learning so much here. Every morning we get up at 6:20 so that we can get a decent shower in before all the hot water runs out. Then we get all dressed up in our suits and head to class at 7:15, we study whatever we want for an hour and then we go to breakfast. The food is alright, but it starts to get repetitive after a while. After breakfast we go to class for 3 more hours until lunch. We have 2 teachers Sister Feng, and Brother Ronney. They are both cool, but sister feng is a little mean and i don't think she understands american humor. Today is the 13th day of the Reign of the Feng. Hahaha... she isn't that bad. Brother Ronney, is way cool, he served his mission in Kaohsiung too, so he knows a lot about the mission we are going to. He also has a sense of humor and his classes are great. After 3 hours or so of Language/Churchie stuff, we go to lunch. After lunch we usually do another 3 hours or so of language and then head to the Gym for an hour, I play four square. Its a real mans sport! Lol seriously though, its intense, they have more injuries from 4square than from all the other sports combined, volleyball, basketball, and running around in circles like a dork, i think its called jogging. We shower and then go back to class for another 2-3 hours depending on when our gym time was. After that we do a little planning for the next day, then we wash rinse and repeat if necessary.
well, i just wanted to let you all now that i am doing great. i have made some great friends here, and i think most everyone enjoys my sense of humour. love you all
love,
Elder Craig Anderson
well hey everybody.
everything is going great. The MTC. isn't so bad. My district is super cool and fun. My companion is a little nerdy and hard to communicate with sometimes, but he is a great kid. We have been learning so much here. Every morning we get up at 6:20 so that we can get a decent shower in before all the hot water runs out. Then we get all dressed up in our suits and head to class at 7:15, we study whatever we want for an hour and then we go to breakfast. The food is alright, but it starts to get repetitive after a while. After breakfast we go to class for 3 more hours until lunch. We have 2 teachers Sister Feng, and Brother Ronney. They are both cool, but sister feng is a little mean and i don't think she understands american humor. Today is the 13th day of the Reign of the Feng. Hahaha... she isn't that bad. Brother Ronney, is way cool, he served his mission in Kaohsiung too, so he knows a lot about the mission we are going to. He also has a sense of humor and his classes are great. After 3 hours or so of Language/Churchie stuff, we go to lunch. After lunch we usually do another 3 hours or so of language and then head to the Gym for an hour, I play four square. Its a real mans sport! Lol seriously though, its intense, they have more injuries from 4square than from all the other sports combined, volleyball, basketball, and running around in circles like a dork, i think its called jogging. We shower and then go back to class for another 2-3 hours depending on when our gym time was. After that we do a little planning for the next day, then we wash rinse and repeat if necessary.
well, i just wanted to let you all now that i am doing great. i have made some great friends here, and i think most everyone enjoys my sense of humour. love you all
love,
Elder Craig Anderson
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Craig's 1st Email
Craig emailed this to mom and dad. He entered the MTC Jan 9, 2007. Pictures to be mosted soon.
Hey how are you guys doing?
I wrote you a letter this morning that you will probably get in a couple days. Haha... o well. The MTC is awesome! I really really like it, my comp is not to bad either. I think i told you about him already in that letter I sent you guys. Thanks for the brownies! They are way good! We went to the temple this morning, so mom you can't come to the Provo temple on monday mornings haha. Matter of fact just stay away from the Provo temple/ Provo Area haha. They only give us like 30 minutes a week to type emails and the systems are way slow, so unless i email this out way early it will break. I can't fix them here either they are beyond repair :) .
>
> So the food is pretty good, i think i told you that. And we stay super busy. We aren't even allowed to breath unless we scheldule it and plan for it. I took to many breaths the other day and they almost sent me home for hogging all the air. It was scary. lol
>
> I lost my companion at a huge meeting the other day, it was pretty intense. i couldn't find him and i was freaking out. the ZL's helped me find him though and i was relieved, it was like trying to find a lost dog, but except it wasn't a dog.
>
> Chinese is coming along well. i don't think i will have any problem with it. No offense dad and mom, but Spanish is way to easy. i sometimes envy the elders that are learning normal languages, but i am so excited to learn chinese. if you can learn mandarin i am confident that you can learn any language. the tones are so intense, we have been learning a ton of words and the word for Jesus Christ is Yesu Jidu, but if you say it wrong you are saying something about a monkey. The teacher that told us that is chinese and she doesn't speak english very well, but everyone is afraid to correct her because she is kind of mean, so we just sit there wondering what the heck she is trying to say and laugh because thats about all you can do here when something goes wrong.
>
> The MTC is full of laughs i haven't laughed so hard and so much in my entire life. i love all the missionaries here. there is such a unique bond here as you prepare to invite others to come unto Christ. i have never felt such a love for a group of strangers in my entire life. It is so neat!! I can't even explain it to you. Well i better go, i still have to write Gabe an email and i only have like another 4 minutes left on my time. i love you guys so much and miss you a ton, but i couldn't be happier than i am in here.
>
> love,
> Elder Anderson
> Zhang zhang lao.
Hey how are you guys doing?
I wrote you a letter this morning that you will probably get in a couple days. Haha... o well. The MTC is awesome! I really really like it, my comp is not to bad either. I think i told you about him already in that letter I sent you guys. Thanks for the brownies! They are way good! We went to the temple this morning, so mom you can't come to the Provo temple on monday mornings haha. Matter of fact just stay away from the Provo temple/ Provo Area haha. They only give us like 30 minutes a week to type emails and the systems are way slow, so unless i email this out way early it will break. I can't fix them here either they are beyond repair :) .
>
> So the food is pretty good, i think i told you that. And we stay super busy. We aren't even allowed to breath unless we scheldule it and plan for it. I took to many breaths the other day and they almost sent me home for hogging all the air. It was scary. lol
>
> I lost my companion at a huge meeting the other day, it was pretty intense. i couldn't find him and i was freaking out. the ZL's helped me find him though and i was relieved, it was like trying to find a lost dog, but except it wasn't a dog.
>
> Chinese is coming along well. i don't think i will have any problem with it. No offense dad and mom, but Spanish is way to easy. i sometimes envy the elders that are learning normal languages, but i am so excited to learn chinese. if you can learn mandarin i am confident that you can learn any language. the tones are so intense, we have been learning a ton of words and the word for Jesus Christ is Yesu Jidu, but if you say it wrong you are saying something about a monkey. The teacher that told us that is chinese and she doesn't speak english very well, but everyone is afraid to correct her because she is kind of mean, so we just sit there wondering what the heck she is trying to say and laugh because thats about all you can do here when something goes wrong.
>
> The MTC is full of laughs i haven't laughed so hard and so much in my entire life. i love all the missionaries here. there is such a unique bond here as you prepare to invite others to come unto Christ. i have never felt such a love for a group of strangers in my entire life. It is so neat!! I can't even explain it to you. Well i better go, i still have to write Gabe an email and i only have like another 4 minutes left on my time. i love you guys so much and miss you a ton, but i couldn't be happier than i am in here.
>
> love,
> Elder Anderson
> Zhang zhang lao.
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