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!)

The Church is Truer Than True!

Sister Anderson and I had the best week I've had since coming out on my mission. To the point that not only did we meet the mission standards of excellence, but we tripled them. And I feel overwhelmed with gratitude for how much we've been blessed! One of my friends who is on her mission is Spain said that Elder Holland came to visit them recently, and he told the missionaries there that "Your success if directly proportional to your desire" and I truly believe that! Earlier this week I was praying before personal study and I was thinking for a long time about what I wanted to promise Heavenly Father this week. At first I started to ask, "Please help us to find those people that are prepared to hear the gospel," but immediately the thought came to my mind, "Well what is it that you want exactly?" I thought for a long time and then came up with a specific number of lessons in my head that I felt we could promise Heavenly Father as long as we worked our very hardest. At first it felt outrageous, but I felt very peaceful the more I prayed about it. When we accounted on Sunday we realized that we had taught exactly the number of lessons that I had promised Heavenly Father we would strive for.

The most amazing part is that there's no way we would have been able to teach so many lessons and find so many new people if it was just sister Anderson and I. Heavenly Father is leading us to people left and right! A few weeks ago Sister Anderson and I went to find a less active individual in an apartment complex, and on our way out I felt like we should knock on a certain door so we did. The people were friendly but not interested, and as we were walking away they said, "You know I'm pretty sure one of the people living right across from us is Mormon. Maybe try them." Sure enough, when we knocked on that door we were able to meet a wonderful couple who recently moved here. The wife is a member and the husband isn't but he wants to learn, so we've started teaching him. Part-member families are my favorite to teach! :)

That same night we contacted them we were on our way to visit a different name but the name of a less active woman in our ward came to my mind so we suddenly decided to go see her instead. When we got there we had a wonderful discussion with her, and Sister Anderson shared an inspired story! The woman told us that it was really weird that we came that night, because just earlier that evening one of her daughters out of the blue had asked her, "When are we going back to my church?" We've also started teaching her fiance. :)

The ward can't get enough of Bennett and Verna, and Bennett and Verna can't get enough of the gospel! Something special from one of our lessons this week was that Verna has only agreed to say the closing prayer once before, and it was very brief, because she feels that her prayers are too personal and she has a hard time talking to Heavenly Father with other people around. Verna agreed to say the closing prayer for our lesson on Wednesday. She asked Heavenly Father how He was doing, and then she said, "I love you, Heavenly Father" and choked up and started to cry. One of the most genuine, heartfelt prayers I have ever heard. I've decided that when my mission is over you guys need to drive up here and pick me up so that you can meet all of these people with me!

The people here are so wonderful. Heavenly Father fills us with more love then I've ever felt before.

Up to this point we've been spoiled with having beautiful weather, but this week the weather has definitely started changing and I'm learning what Washington is actually like! I think I might have to invest in some good boots! We have transfers next week and it would make absolutely no sense for president to transfer me because Sister Anderson and I are in the middle of the 12 week training, but for some reason I've had a weird feeling recently that I'm being moved anyway. Who knows, though, it might just be me. I guess we'll find out! President Bonham is wonderful, by the way. I'm not sure I've told you anything about him, but he frequently tells the missionaries that they're not allowed to do drugs and not allowed to participate in high-speed races to the Seattle space needle. Okay, President Bonham, whatever you say. :)

The church is truer than true!

Love you all!

Love, Sister Slade

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

Moroni 7:35-37 By Sister Slade

Once again, Heavenly Father never ceases to amaze me in the ways he chooses to bless his children- oftentimes in ways that they didn't expect! The first half of this week was definitely a test of my faith and patience. It seemed like all of our appointments were falling through, and when we did have appointments for some reason it was next to impossible to find members that were available to help us. The challenges at the beginning of the week made us work harder though, it's funny how the more desperate you get the more sincere and pleading your prayers become. Heavenly Father must have approved of our hard work, because we have seen so many miracles in the last couple days-big and small- that I feel overwhelmed by how aware Heavenly Father is of me and of the people around me.

We had exchanges on Saturday, and Sister Kidd and I were doing a lot of tracting because both of our appointments had fallen through. Up until this point we still hadn't found that new investigator, but I had been praying for days that we would find someone new to teach that week. After a whole lot of no's we knocked on a door, and a girl answered and to our surprise she immediately invited us in. We got to know her and found out that her name is Mikayla and she is 14 years old. She told us simply that she wanted to know more about God and Jesus Christ. This girl has got to be incredibly prepared, because from minute one when we had an opening prayer, you could tell that the spirit was working on her and she was very intently focused on what we were telling her. The spirit was almost tangible, it was so so strong during the lesson, that at one point after I shared with Mikayla the first vision I felt like I had to just stop in the middle of what I was saying and ask, "Do you feel how warm this room is right now? Do you feel that warmth inside of you?" Mikayla's eyes teared up and she nodded and we were able to explain to her that that feeling was the holy ghost telling her that what we were telling her was true. Such a beautiful moment! She's young and open to learning and hungry for truth. I am so excited for Sister Anderson and I to be able to teach her!

We were able to get in contact with another 14-yr-old girl who is inactive, and we were able to go visit her along with the YW first counselor. When we got there the girl told us that after we came she called her mom (Who is also inactive and who she just recently has been able to have contact with) and her mom was so excited because she said she has been wanting to get back in contact with the church. In the last few months the mom has been working really hard to overcome drug addictions and is making HUGE changes in her life. The mom joined us for the lesson, and at multiple times would turn to her daughter and teach her things like how to pray and who Heavenly Father is. Hearing the moms story and everything that both of them have had to go through was so touching, especially since the mom has a super firm faith in Jesus Christ. At one point she started crying when she said, "I'm having a religious conversation with my daughter." We will be teaching the girl and her mom together from now on. The timing of finding them and the changes that have been happening in their lives within the last month is impeccable- absolutely not a coincidence. :)

Two  hours before church started on Sunday, Sister Anderson and I decided that we needed to invite two of our potential investigators to church- people we haven't even had the chance to teach yet. When we got to church one of them was there with his 2 kids, and the other came with 6 of his grandkids. Bennett and Verna also came to church, and 4 of the less actives we've been working with came. In the end there were 13 nonmembers at church yesterday, and the ward- especially the primary and YM/YW- hardly knew what to do with itself! What an incredible thing to see! I was smiling the whole first half of sacrament meeting- I almost couldn't keep from laughing- because it was just such an outrageous and unexpected blessing for everyone!

Whenever we have a rough day one of the ways I remind myself of the miracles Heavenly Father is showing us is that I think to myself, "Bennett and Verna are getting baptized, Bennett and Verna are getting baptized!" and I say another little prayer of gratitude for them. We taught Bennett and Verna about eternal families and the temple this week, and when we asked them if they would continue to prepare themselves to go to the temple Bennett grinned and said to Verna, "Yeah, I think we can do that," and Verna just winked at him. Bennett and Verna were married two weeks after they met, and they've now been married 28 years. I've never met two people who are more in love. The beautiful thing is that they can now prepare with Everett and Darlene to go to the temple as they are all close friends now. I can't wait until a year from now when I'll be able to come back to Oak Harbor to watch both of those couples be sealed!!!

Everett and Darlene were called as our new ward missionaries- SOLID calling! :) Bennett and Verna still can hardly wait for their baptism! Verna has read through both the relief society and Sunday school manuals, and has recently surpassed me in her BOM reading! Bennett likes to tell us about his new favorite programs on the Mormon channel, and also about how he can only get through one chapter in 2 Nephi at a time because he ends up studying one chapter for 2 hours. :) Verna likes to say that, "On October 12th, you'll have yourselves a twofer!" It's hilarious.

Well I love you all! I'm so excited that Brandon is in the MTC now! I can't wait to hear from him. KaraLynne said she saw the pictures from when you dropped him off- I would love to see those too! How is school going for everyone? Are things pretty busy? I would love to hear from you guys, even if it's just a quick note.

Love ya lots!

Sister Slade