Missionary Letter: Funny Week

Monday, February 9, 2009 9:25 AM

Okay, so this week has been pretty funny. I have a timer on what I write so I don't have that much time EVER. They block any way you can cheat too. Let's see, business first, dad, I can't send pictures on the MTC computers because they block it. Also, i would like you to send that SD card to USB port converter. You can buy them on Ebay for pretty cheap. Also, I forgot my battery charger at home, it's plugged into your wall. Send that with the stuff, and send the stuff soon! I got some pictures printed out none of them great, but I'll send them anyways and write names so you know who I'm writing about.

some funny stories...we are in district D and we spend a lot of time with district A at lunch, etc because we don't want to get too close to any one district at the advice of a teacher. And since we spend HOURS in the class with our wonderful boys, we spend time at lunch with some pretty funny Elders in district A. We don't spend time at all with the sisters in our zone except for in the sushe (dorm) at night. I have a hilarious comic I made about the boys in district A i'll send you. I'm still working on one that is actually funny for my own district. There are a lot of people learning Chinese that learned English as a second language and still struggle with it. 4 of the 14 boys in just the two districts.

So in our district there is a hilarious Elder, Li Zhanglao. Well, we went to go get our visa work done, and he found out they were drawing blood and he RAN AWAY. His companion had to chase after him, and Sun Jiemei and I had to go find them. We found Zhang Zhanglao, and told him to FORCE his companion out of the bathroom. We all had to coerce him to go, and then the nurses had to pretty much bribe him with gatorade and chocolate. I've never seen such a big Elder so scared of needles. It was great.

I found out the funniest thing about district A too. They all have drama too. One of the Elders the first week here, spit over the shower and it landed on the nose of another elder. Well, the other day the Elder that spit was joking about the "basketball playing abilities" of the Elder that got spit on...well this elder has a short temper, and despite their district goal to avoid the foyer during language study because they have a hard time as a district studying in the foyer, the Elder that got spit on refused to go in the class, and his companion was the district leader that made the goal...so he felt AWFUL...well finally his companion went into the room with him and we hear a big BANG. HAHAHA...The elder had hit the door with like all his strenght...all of a sudden we hear this Elder being like "OWWWWWWW OWWWWW I BROKE MY PINKY, I BROKE MY PINKIE" And his companion was like "Whatever, you are fine, you didn't break anything." I gave him my only ice pack and some ibo and I think that made him feel a little better. Then I told this Elder that the other day at the dinner table, the boy he was mad at was the only one at the entire table that told everyone to stop speaking badly about him...even though he thought this elder HATED him...and then he was like "WOW, I didn't know...I guess he forgave me, now I need to forgive him." they seem fine now. I wish girls were that simple. I addressed the girls about how we weren't building each other up last night, and one girl refused to "listen to my contentious spirit." I very much felt the spirit in approaching the situation and I'm sure Satan wanted her to not be involved in fixing contention. Hopefully her heart can soon be softened because I think everyone else in the entire room came to a common ground. So we all have an understanding minus this one sister. Who I hope will not be too mad at me for long, but today is Preparation day and an AMAZING day, so I will not dwell on it.

Amanda Nelson works here and I get to talk to here now and then. I had her text matt on his birthday and say happy birthday for me. That was fun.

About SYL, I need to do better. I went to a tutor and I knew when I first learned Chinese I didn't learn tones, so he told me to relearn everything. Well, I decided that was an excellent idea, so I stopped SYLing with words I wasn't positive for the tones...well last night I was talking to our fabulous zone leaders about why I haven't been SYLing, because Wei Zhanglao (in my district, there are 3) said he used to be so proud of me because I'd SYLed since my first day here and now I wasn't anymore...So he wished I would try to be that example he used to see...and I told them about not wanting to say things wrong anymore...so All the older Zhanglaomen (Elders) promised they'd fix my tones if I'd try. I think it's a good idea and I will SYL all the time, and take small breaks sunday and preparation day. That's my goal.

So I want to check back to see if you guys respond later, or write me on DEARELDER. My roommate got 8 letters in one day! I have 9 family members So i should be equaling that record, but I'm not. HAHAHA :). Seth gets home from his mission like 2 days before I leave to Taiwan. He sends me the cutest envelopes. I'll take a picture.

I'll WRite next week! bye.