MTC Tricks

Today is my last day in the MTC. In ~11 hours, I am going to be reporting to the travel office; in ~18 hours, I will be on my way to Florida.

So, my flight schedule is split into two flights. The first is from here to Texas, and the second is from Texas to FL-FTL. So I was thinking that in order to make it easier for you guys, I could call from the Texas airport instead, if I can't get any time on the phone in the morning. The problem is that I don't know if they adapt the times to the time zones of the places where you land, so I don't have any idea what time it would be for you. So I'll call in the morning, if there ends up being enough time, or I'll call it from the Texas airport anywhere from 9:00-12:00. Sorry if this doesn't work out, I just realized that there are going to be a lot more missionaries than pay phones tomorrow morning. I'll try my best.

I don't know if they would let us Skype together, or if I'll have the resources to do it, etc. Either way, Paul would be the one to ask, he's the one who actually used Skype.

Eldè Trockel left with the rest of my district last week. It turns out that they have no idea what's wrong with his liver, but he's not gluten intolerant. His liver has grade 1 liver damage, for some unknown reason. The doctor said (nonchalantly) that worst-case scenario, he has to have a liver transplant. No big deal. But for now they're just waiting to see if the problem gets worse.

My last week in the MTC has been chaotic, to say the least. Enough said.

Tonight, my temporary companions are planning to play a trick on one of the new districts in our zone. We bought a new alarm clock, and they are planning to hide it in their room, set to go off ~1:30 AM. (I will be staying up outside of our residence, because if I fell asleep then I would only get ~2 hours of sleep anyway, and then I would be groggy. I can sleep on the plane.) The alarm clock will be hidden behind a vent in the ceiling outside of their room. I'm going to do my best to pretend that I can't hear it, but I don't think I'll be able to keep a straight face.

Thanks for all the pictures! I don't have any for you! Sorry!

Thanks,

Eldè Slade

Introduction to my MTC Teachers

I only have one more week in the MTC. I received my travel plans a couple of days ago. I leave at 2:30 AM next Tuesday, the fifth, and I'm flying to Texas first, then to FL-FTL. When I arrive, I will have to wear my suit jacket for the entire first day. From what I've heard of Florida, this may just be the hardest thing I will ever have to face in my entire mission. But I will bravely... try... to do it.

My entire district has already been sent off to their respective missions, with the exception of a few people who are leaving early tomorrow morning. Actually, my entire zone, except for me, two other elders, and three sisters, will have left by about 8:00 AM tomorrow. The entire zone will consist of two companionships, which collectively span across four different districts. For this reason, the other elders and I have been called to be the zone leaders. I'll be able to return from my mission and be able to say that I was a zone leader. Unfortunately, the entire reason we were chosen for this position was not because we are ready for it - it is because there are literally no other people to choose from.

My two new companions (effective as of ~3:00 AM tomorrow morning, when the last member of my district leaves for Boston) are Elder Soll and Elder Ehlert. They are both learning French, and they have been here for two weeks and four weeks respectively. So, because they are on different levels and I am learning a completely different language, we will go to our classroom building, split up into three different classrooms, we will be taught by three different teachers (one on one student-teacher time) and then we will meet back up when class is over.

As well as getting my teachers to myself, I will also be the only Haitian Creole student in any MTC in the world. Only the Provo MTC teaches Haitian Creole, and there won't be another Creole student until December (and only one then). Just to show you about how many people can speak Creole. It's kind of sad, really. Seven billion people have something that is good or better than good, but only a few million people have the thing that is best.

I decided to go through my Haitian Creole instructors, because I don't think I've done it yet. There are three; all of them went to the Fort Lauderdale, Florida mission.

- Frè Hall (Brother Hall), who returned from his mission most recently. You have to question everything that he tells you, because you can't always trust it. For example, he tried to convince us that you can say "just kidding" like this: "m'ap joure", which means "I'm screaming/cussing". (You're actually supposed to say "m'ap jwe", for the record.) He's a funny guy, but sometimes I think he's trying to get us killed.

- Ti Frè Nelson (Little Brother Nelson), who is very serious, and it is obvious to everybody that he cares about us and about what he is teaching.

- Wo Frè Nelson (Tall Brother Nelson), who is about a foot taller than Ti Frè Nelson, and who enjoys his name much more as well. He's really the only teacher who takes time out for language study any more; the other two expect you to use the dictionary and other forms of study on your own time. He's a nice guy.

By the way, happy late birthday, Mom! M' espere ke ou gen yon bon anivèsè! (I hope I spelled that right.)

Lastly, I wanted to talk about serving a mission. I firmly believe that all young men should live worthily to have the opportunity to serve one. And if they are worthy, then I firmly believe that they should do so. The gospel of Jesus Christ has brought so much good to me and my family, and I know that going out to share it with the rest of the world is exactly the right choice to make. If you have any doubts, then squash them, they're not worth having.

Thanks,

Eldè Slade

MTC Update

First of all - I couldn't send back the things I had planned to, because they told me that the envelope looked like it was tampered with. They're not allowed to send it if it looks like that apparently, so I'm still stuck trying to find a good sized box that will fit everything without them sliding around.

Thanks for the laundry bag. I used it for the first time last Monday, and it was really helpful. (It didn't feel like it was going to break because of the weight every time I picked it up, which is always a plus.) Mom, did you make it yourself?

I don't have a picture of myself all dressed up. This is partially because I keep forgetting to do it, and also partially because I don't have an SD card reader anyway, and my companion's broke so I can't use his any more, so even if I got one I wouldn't be able to send it to you.

I had a really good devotional last night. It was great. I think hymn#221 (Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd) is one of my new favorite hymns. After the devotional, my district wend to see The Legacy. As it turns out, it is the old version. It is chalk full of bad acting and unintentionally funny serious moments. I feel kind of bad for laughing so much during it, but I don't really think I could have stopped myself. (To make it more funny, The Legacy is supposed to be a sort of religious romance movie. So we were watching a romance movie in the MTC.)

Dad - the bible also gives patterns that validate the restoration of the church. The pattern goes: the church is established on the earth, by the means of a prophet. (First: Adam.) Then, the people become wicked, reject the church, kill the prophets, and apostatize. Through revelation, God calls another prophet to restore the church to the earth. Examples of these prophets are Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. The most recent, and also the last of these "restoration" prophets, is Joseph Smith.

The language is still going pretty slowly. It's hard to see any progress that I'm making, but it's becoming a little more natural.

I don't even know what date I'm leaving yet. All of my companions received their travel plans already; they'll be leaving on Monday and Tuesday of next week. But I'm staying another week after that, which means that I'll probably be paired with a French companion from another district for that week. We will both be next to useless in terms of language study with each other. Oh well.

(French and Haitian Creole have many similar words, but some of them are completely different and even the similar ones are just different enough because of the accent that you can't always recognize them without context.)

I'll receive my travel plans some time this week. I'll probably leave really early Monday or Tuesday, two weeks from now. In general, missionaries are only allowed to call home two times a year - once at Christmas, and again on Mother's day. But we're allowed to call as many people as we want when we depart from the MTC, at the airport. So I'll be able to call really early in the morning two weeks from now some time.

(I said that I'm leaving two weeks from now. It's been getting colder and colder each week. I'm trying to make it these last two weeks without needing to buy a sweatshirt, because I know that I won't need it or even want it any other time in the next two years.)

I did sealings in the temple this morning for the first time.

Eldè Trockel had his liver biopsy a while ago. Today is his appointment to go back to the doctor's office and see the results. So today we find out if the doctors have any idea what's wrong with his liver.

Can somebody look into how much a trip to Haiti costs, if I were to go there after my mission? (note from Nancy:  It is about $550 to fly from Denver to Port-au-Prince, Haiti)

Thanks,

Eldè Slade

Learning at the MTC

I need to get better at thinking of email subject titles. Anyway, here it is again, in no particular order:

I've been feeling the spirit so much in the MTC. Almost each Sunday or Tuesday night devotional, I learn something new from the speakers and the spirit. Looking back, I don't think that I would have been ready to go out in the field after just a week and a half, English speaking or not.

My district got off on a huge discussion today on marshmology. I'd never really considered before how large a topic it was. Eldè Trockel took the AP Marshmology class his senior year, but he only got a 4 because he mistook "Graham Cracker" for "Gummy Bears" and wrote his essay on why you can't make s'mores with just chocolate, marshmallows, and gummy bears. And of course there's the new controversy of burning marshmallows, which some people take to be unpatriotic and which other people believe is simply a way of expressing your political beliefs.

I'd like to thank Story for the tie she gave me before I left. It's really great. On a scale from bad tie to no tie, it's definitely a seahorse. (Seriously though, it's an awesome tie, and I almost can't go somewhere without someone complimenting it, which I like even though I don't really like wearing ties.)

Another awesome word: tranblemandetè, which means "earthquake", and which is pronounced exactly the way you would say earthquake in french.

And: flafla, which is pronounced the way you would say it in English, and which means "hogwash" or "nonsense".

Jeanna - I'm sorry, I don't know anybody who can format your book for you. And I don't really have time to send more on the subject, and it's kind of hard to describe how to do something when you can't sit down and do it yourself. But if you're interested on learning how, I'll tell you the most important thing: when you're formatting the book, don't apply formatting, apply styles. (Don't bold something, give it a bold style. If you don't know what this means, I'm sorry I don't have time to explain, but I'll tell you the second most important thing: Google!)

I translated "in the jungle" to Haitian Creole. It actually sounds pretty nice, except I had to change "the lion sleeps tonight" to "lions sleep tonight" because "sleep tonight" takes up too many syllables. Oh well. I'll send it home written, but I can't type it because I don't have time and I forgot how to type an O with a grave accent above it. ♫♪♪♫♫♪♪♪♪♫

Another pretty cool Haitian Creole word: sik, which means sugar. It also, coincidentally, means diabetes. (It's pronounced "seek").

Eliza - The way you say "I love you" depends. If you're talking to more than one person, you way "m renmen nou"; if you're just talking to just one person, it's "m renmen ou". "m" sounds like you're saying, "mmmm, that's good", except it's really short. "ou" sounds like the O in "cartoon". "Nou" sounds like "new". And "renmen" is slightly more complicated. You don't roll the R, but it is very guttural. I can't explain it better than that. And the "en" combination is a very nasally E. So "renmen" sounds like "ray may", except... not really. (Also, you should know that the word for "to love" is the same as the word for "to like", which is annoying.)

Almost all sites are banned here, including YouTube. But we're only not allowed to listen to music in the residences, so we've been trying to figure out how to get around the block on the computer's internet and get some good music. Finally, after a few weeks of trying, we did it. You go to LDS.org, find a page with a youtube video embedded in it, and then skip to the end. The video player shows suggestions. You click on a suggestion, and it plays that video, even though YouTube.com itself is blocked. It's pretty easy to get into classical music, and songs by the Piano Guys, but just a few days ago we discovered how to make it (after following this process for ~20 songs) to Disney videos. So now we can listen to "The Circle of Life" while we study!

Eldè Halling, one of my companions, sleepwalks, and sleeptalks, a lot. We have some funny stories about that, and I've already sent a few. (I think.) He has also been to Haiti two different times in his life. He is going to Boston.

Eldè Trockel, my other companion, knows both Spanish and English as his native languages; he has also studied Mandarin for four years, and he is relatively fluent in that. He has been adapting to learning Haitian Creole much better than any of the rest of us. He is going to Tampa Florida.

Eldè Casper and Eldè Ashby are the other two members of my district, but I don't have time to get into them right now. They are both going to New York.

A good quote: "A fish is the last one to know it is wet." (You have no idea what I'm talking about, do you? Hah!)

Thanks,

Eldè Slade

I have a few more minutes. (That means, two.) So I'll add another few things.

Eldè Trockel and I, as a way of learning the language better, have started telling a story. I say a sentence, then he does, then I do, etc., all in Haitian Creole. When we don't know how to say something, we write it down so we can look it up later. It's really fun; I'm not sure how useful it is, though. It's still too early to tell.

Another of Eldè Halling's sleepwalking stories:

Eldè Trockel got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. Eldè Halling followed him, carrying his pillow. In the hallway, he scared Eldè Trockel a ton when he said, right behind him: "I have my stuff. Are you ready to go?" His stuff, meaning his pillow. And we're not sure where he thought they were going anyway.

That's it, I'm out of time.

MTC Update

OK, one hour a week on the computer is not that much time. (Especially with 30+ emails to read through first.) So I'll be quick. I made a list of things I want to talk about, but it'll be in no real order.  I only have 5 more minutes so it'll be a little clipped. Oh well.

First of all, I hope that Becky and Jeremy have gotten moved all right. I feel bad that I wasn't there to help them out, so I'm sorry for that.

Also, I'd be interested to know who of you all know anything about the "Narnia Hole". It seems likely that Dad would know about it, although he might know it by a different name. I'm not going to tell you all what it is, I just want to find out if any of you know it, or if it's just modern-day MTC culture.

This morning I did an endowment session at the temple. The guy was from the 1600s and his name was/is Simon Cluzel.

I came to the MTC without getting my TDap or Flu shots, so I had to get them here. I went to the clinic, got the shots, paid for them, and left. Later that day, I received an envelope from the MTC containing the money that I paid, as well as a bill that said something along the lines of "We're sorry, we charged you the wrong price. The actual price is $X more than you paid. Here's your money back, please come to the clinic and pay up or we'll send a bill home." I was laughing, I've never received money and a bill in the same letter before.

Another funny story, this happened just last night: Eldè Halling sleeptalks a lot. (Sometimes he even sleepwalks.) Halfway through the night, we wake up to hear him telling someone "If you want me to share a scripture, I will do so." A few minutes later, he continues. "Mwen vle pataje temwayaj mwen." (I want to share my testimony.) He then proceeded to start a prayer (not a testimony), in Haitain Creole, thanking God for today, and asking him to help us learn Haitian Creole. He stumbled through a few words, and so instead of finishing the prayer, he said in English: "man, I'm sorry, I'm so tired. Maybe it would help if the lights weren't off." A few minutes later, he wished whoever he was talking to "good night", and that's where it stops. He doesn't remember any of this.

I didn't get to watch General Conference from the conference center, but I watched them all here. It was a great conference, I really enjoyed all of the talks. I think it's interesting how much they're pushing member missionaries. I think that my favorite speaker is David A. Bednar - partially because his talk on Saturday, but mostly because of his talks which they play on Sunday nights here at the MTC. (None of them are published online, unfortunately. I checked.)

But the part that I enjoyed the most is that for the Sunday devotional, after General Conference, we got to listen to Vocal Point. It wasn't as good as they would have been because they were limited to doing hymns, but they still sounded great, and they each bore their testimony in between songs and you could really feel the spirit.

My new favorite word is "an kèskeseksa" which is actually two words, but "kèskeseksa" is never said without the "an" so I put it there anyway. It means "in question" or "in doubt". I have not found a legitimate place to use it yet, but when I do it will be super impressive.

Also, it's ridiculous how many two letter words there are in Haitian Creole. I've made a list of ~60 so far, not including the words that are acronyms or onomatopoeias.

Last but not least, I just wanted to say how similar learning a new language is to learning a new programming language. I didn't think they would be so similar. I've never gotten deep enough into Spanish for me to realize it. But there are a few points:

-The first language is the hardest. It takes years (for a linguistic language, only a few months if you really try for a programming language) to become really proficient in it.

-Each consecutive one after that makes it easier to learn new languages.

-Just because you know one way to say things doesn't mean that you know the language; I can piece together sentences in Haitian Creole fine, but I still can't understand all that much when other people speak.

-The ultimate goal is to become fluent - to get the point across quickly (save time) but with as little ambiguity as possible (readable code/understandable sentences). (For the record, Haitian Creole is ridiculously ambiguous. So much depends on context. I'm having trouble adapting.)

I'm out of time.

Thanks,

Eldè Slade

Great Time By Brandon

Che fanmi mwen ak zanmi mwen yo,

(Dear my family and my friends),

I’m having a great time at the MTC.  The first couple of days were rough because I’m not used to working that much, all day, every day.  But it’s extremely spiritually uplifting to be here.  I can’t wait for General Conference next week.  It will be good to watch it surrounded by so many missionaries going all over the world with the purpose of preaching the gospel to the people, and helping them come closer to Christ.

        I’m going to try to send this letter with a Haitian Creole hymn book, but if I can’t get a good-sized box for it, I’ll just send the letter alone.  There’s only about 30 hymns, but it’s kind of amusing to look at the translation.  For example, the line “high on a mountain top, a banner is unfurled…” loses a lot of detail in the Haitian Creole version, which means something like “on a mountain, there is a flag…”  (Note from Nancy…Britney had a funny post about this hymn a few weeks back, too!) I know you won’t be able to read it (I can’t) but missionaries get ridiculous discounts on language material, and I thought you might like to see it.

        I just got back from the gastroenterologist (did I spell that right?) with Elde Tockel, and unfortunately we don’t have any new information on his errant liver.  He had to schedule a liver biopsy, which sounds pretty gross.  Next Tuesday is when he will go.  They get to stick a large needle into his liver, and he gets  to stay awake to watch it.  If it were me, I would be freaking out right about now.

        My p-day is about to end, so I have to cut this letter short.  I’ll try to send another next week.

Mesi,

Elde Slade

PS I was hoping to get a box to send home a few more things, but it’s so hard to find one, I’m just sending a letter.

I wrote this letter on Monday, but I’m sending it on Thursday so you may receive my next email first…I don’t know.  (At the time I seal the envelope, I have been here for a few hours more than 2 weeks.)

Thanks for everything,

Elde Slade

PS According to my instructor, Haitians are “the best”!

(note from Nancy…many of the words Brandon includes that are in Haitian Creole—including the word Creole—have accent marks over specific vowels.  Since I have no idea how to make those accents on my keyboard, I am leaving them out.  For example, Elde (for Elder) has one over the second “e”.  I am typing that word specifically without the “r” at the end on purpose!)

Two week update By Elder Slade

First of all, I haven't received any mail from you (Mom and Dad) even though your Dear Elder letter said that you were sending a physical letter. The only thing I've received from you is the print-off from the Character of Christ talk, which makes me think you used a different mailing address for it. I don't know what happened to the rest of your mail, I think it's making its way back to you because it never made it here.

Thanks to Britney for her letter. I'll send my response to your questions in writing, because I'll have more time later today to do that and I don't actually have your letter with me at the moment.

And, the one other thing I received so far: a wedding invitation from Courtney. It was pretty funny, actually. The district leader gave me the letter, and I was talking to Eldè Trockel about it. The envelope said it was from her, so I was saying something along the lines of "She's my cousin. I think she was going to get married soon." As I was opening it, I was joking to myself about how funny it would be to get a wedding invitation from her, considering that I'm on my mission and there's no chance that I would be able to go. And then I pulled it out and started laughing.

I really wish that I could go, and I'll actually be no more than a few miles away from the wedding, which just makes it all the more ironic that I can't. Anyway, congratulations to Courtney on her marriage. I wish her the best of luck.

Haitian Creole is coming along slowly still - at least it seems like it. It's hard to see any progress because it's not exactly quantifiable. I can't remember if I told you all already, but they actually gave me a bunch of French materials as well, because apparently Haitians speak Haitian Creole, but they read French. (If that makes any sense.)

Today Eldè Trockel has a doctors appointment outside of the MTC, because he has something wrong with his liver. So I'll be going with him in just a few hours; but Eldè Halling will be doing a companion exchange, he will be staying with the rest of the district so that only two of us have to leave campus. (Can you call it a campus?) Anyway, wish Eldè Trockel luck, because if it turns out that he's intolerant to gluten, then his life will get much harder. (On the other hand, if he's not intolerant to gluten, then the doctors have no idea what's wrong with him.)

Now I'll return to The Character of Christ. Thanks for printing this out for me. Unfortunately, the talk you sent me is not the same as the one I watched here at the MTC. It's pretty close, but it leaves a lot out, and reading the talk really isn't the same as watching him give it. I hope that I'll be able to convince the people here at the MTC to publish the talk on LDS.org, or at least to let me take a copy of that video with me when I leave, but I don't really think I'll be able to do it. Darn.

The cafeteria food is pretty good, most of the time. I've only had a few meals that tasted really "off". The one thing I don't like about the food is that unfortunately, pretty much everything gives you gas. I'm not even kidding, I don't know what they do to the food, but it's not normal. The juice is the worst, but most everybody learns to avoid it after their first week, so we can usually keep the methane levels to a relative low.

Thanks,

Brandon

Some awesome clouds, with a glimpse of the ground in the far distance. The plane ride really was a blast. (But I hope they send me to Florida in a bigger seat, it'll be a 6x longer flight and the flight here was starting to get uncomfortable after just an hour.)

MTC Lessons by Elder Slade

“Che fanmi,

Apparently I’m allowed to write at any time at the MTC. (Note from Nancy: Not correct. He clarified in an email last week.) When I am in FL-FTL, I will be able to write only on my P-day.  In the MTC, my P-day is Monday.  So far my experience with the MTC is that days feel like weeks, even though each individual activity seems really short.  I am having trouble thinking and retaining all of the information that I have been cramming into my head.  As they say in Haitian Creole, “tet chaje”—literally “mind full”.  For the same reason, I’m having trouble getting to sleep at night, which is only compounding the problem.

        A couple of tips for future MTC-goers:

1.   Don’t trust Google Translate.  At all.  It’s wrong.

2.   Speak as much of your language as you can, don’t attach words and phrases to English words and phrases, attach them to meanings.  For example, when I interpret “nan non Jezikri, amen’” I don’t have to consciously translate Jezikri any more, because I know what it means, instead of knowing that it translates as “Jesus Christ”.

3.   The juice gives you gas.  Avoid at all costs.

4.   If you are assigned to room M16-137, don’t bother messing with the AC.  It doesn’t work.

               Although I feel overwhelmed, I have to admit that I have been extremely lucky/blessed.  Haitian Creole is just about the most awesome language ever, and it is ridiculously simple.  Give it another few days, and I’ll have learned more Haitian Creole than I ever did Spanish.  Besides that, it sounds amazing, and I can’t wait to learn it.  One of the best parts about the language is how much you can say using a limited vocabulary.  For example, the verb “ule” means “to want”,  the verb “di” means “to say”.  But the verb “uledi” means “to mean” or “want to say”.  There are all kinds of clever constructs in the language that I really enjoy finding.

         You mentioned that Andrew gave a talk on his third day –so did I, with my companions (more on them below”, after only 1 ½ hours of language study.  It was terrible, as you can imagine.  We taught him again today.  It went better, thanks for asking!  But still it wasn’t exactly a conversation.

        There are only five people in my district.  Elders Ashby and Casper are companions, and I am part of triple companionship—me, Elder Trockel, and Elder Halling.  We all are speaking Haitian Creole, but we’re all going to different missions.  They will be at the MTC foe six weeks, I will be here for seven.  I don’t know what I’m going to have to do for that last week (as far as companions are concerned). (note from Nancy: See previous blog post) The reason that I stick around for an extra week is because the FL-FTL mission’s transfers are a week behind the MTC schedule. So I come t the MTC the 18th so that I learn the language with others who are learning it, but I stay for a week longer because otherwise I would arrive in between transfers and they wouldn’t know what to do with me.

        I hope you’re all ok.  I’m out of time (and paper) for now.

Elder Slade

MTC Pictures of Elder Slade

MTC and the Character of Christ By Elder Slade

I have already answered many questions in a physical letter which I am sending today. Feel free to type it up if you want to in order to put it in a blog, but since I don't have much time I'm not going to answer all of your questions and I won't go into much detail.

Week #1 started extremely slow and is speeding up alarmingly fast. It feels like it's been so long that I can't remember what happened at home just a week ago, but it's not really a bad experience. You guys should all watch Elder David A. Bednar's 1.5 hour long talk called "the Character of Christ", which is an awesome talk. I watched it last night. This morning I went to the temple and did initiatories. It is the first time I have been to the temple since getting my own endowments; it was a great experience.

My district is only five strong; my two companions are Elder Halling and Elder Trockel. Neither of them are going to the same mission that I am, but we are all speaking Haitian Creole. I have some pictures, but this computer doesn't have a card reader, so I can't send them to you. I'll see if I can do it next week. (My P-Day is Monday.)

A quick explanation on my 7-week departure date: learning Haitian Creole is only a 6-week language, but the Fort Lauderdale Mission transfers are a week behind most other missions. So they'll consider us ready to leave October 29th, but I will stay in the MTC for another week to Nov. 5th (alone, I will probably get a French-speaking companion - so, alone) after the rest of my district has already left.

Haitian Creole is an awesome, and incredibly simple, language. It sounds awesome; it is easy to learn; it will be incredible to speak; but it will most likely be useless for the rest of my life. Hah.

The rest of what I want to say is in my physical letter. I'm almost out of time, but if you respond quickly I may be able to answer.

This may sound mean, but I was really glad that I got to fly to Utah instead of driving there. It was a lot of fun. I got a bunch of pictures of cloud formations (which I can't send you.)

And, I haven't seen Kyle here yet, and I think he leaves early tomorrow morning, so I probably never will.

Thanks,

Elder Slade

I told you all to watch "the Character of Christ", but I can't find it on LDS.org, and I can't get on Google to do a more extensive search, so here's some more info to help you find it if you can:

It's a talk by David A. Bednar, given on Christmas day (a Sunday) at the MTC, at least a year and 9 months ago. (Before the age change, anyway.) It really is an awesome talk.

LINK TO TALK