Thank you for the christmas presents, and the christmas cards. :D I havn't opened them yet, becuase christmas falls on our p-day and we still have laundry to do and such, so i'm in the laundry room at 6:10 gettng my laundry done so i can have some time before the devotional to open presents.
The district ( all 10 of us ) had a sleep over in our room last night cuz I'm the one with the tree, and we did a secret santa thing which we finished last night, so that was fun. (I got an awesome present, i'll have to send it home soon, maybe) Needless to say... i hardly got any sleep last night, but at least i wasn't one of those sleeping on the floor... or on top of the closets :D
We had a devotional last night with bagpipes, sister smart playing the harp, and stuff like that, not too shabby.
And about the whole keeping in mind the true meaning of Christmas...we really don't have a choice here, haha. It's either you think about Christ, or you don't think about anything. :D
We've got our whole day planned out pretty much today, so we hardly have any time to sit around and open presents and stuff, we even have to have a sack dinner again, but oh well. And we liked the cards you sent me, so no worries, they're funny :D
Even though we're not heading to Brazil any time soon, we do get the chance to talk to our professors every week over skype for about an hour... only in Portuguese, so.... yeah... that's a pretty quiet hour.
By the way, i'm undefeated in the push-game ( where you stand about a foot from another person and try to push each other over without moving your feet and only touching their hands) and in the dot game ( the classic sacrament meeting game) I'm the champ.
Well I think that's about it, We gave the first lesson in portugese the other day... so that was a pretty short lesson :D And gave a great christmas lesson to our progressing investigator.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Friday, December 18, 2009
Week 6
Hey, so we were all surprised when we realized it was our 6th week and not our 5th, we're getting cabin fever, or something like that :D
I finished Jesus the Christ a while ago, it was pretty good. I liked it. We had Elder Maynes from the seventy talk to us on Tuesday, and we had the BYU men's choir on Sunday, I liked 'em both, not too shabby; except for the kids that sing like they're bobble-heads.
A good story: the other night, I hid under Elder Lunceford's bed in the other room until it was time for lights-out, then I creeped out and climbed up on the closet and leaned over Elder Barton's bed for about 10 minutes until I knew he was asleep, and started to sing "ring around the Rosies..." Needless to say, he could barely control his bowels, and I laughed maniacally before jumping down and running for safety, fun stuff. I found him hiding in my closet the next night, so crisis averted.
So we heard the news that 30 people got their visas yesterday, and a bunch more are getting some today, and then more tomorrow. This is the last time visas will be handed out before Christmas. So if we don't get them now, we wont be able to leave until February because of Carnival in Brazil.
We had another TRC appointment yesterday, and it had to be all in Portuguese (the get to know you, talk about stuff, and the lesson) yes, it was a bit choppy and... not... good. but it was better than we've been doing before, so it was great in comparison.
There are a lot of presents under the Christmas tree right now, it's kind of been deemed our district tree, so any presents that anybody gets goes under the tree in my room until Christmas.
I'll be sure to write a bunch in Portuguese next time...
I finished Jesus the Christ a while ago, it was pretty good. I liked it. We had Elder Maynes from the seventy talk to us on Tuesday, and we had the BYU men's choir on Sunday, I liked 'em both, not too shabby; except for the kids that sing like they're bobble-heads.
A good story: the other night, I hid under Elder Lunceford's bed in the other room until it was time for lights-out, then I creeped out and climbed up on the closet and leaned over Elder Barton's bed for about 10 minutes until I knew he was asleep, and started to sing "ring around the Rosies..." Needless to say, he could barely control his bowels, and I laughed maniacally before jumping down and running for safety, fun stuff. I found him hiding in my closet the next night, so crisis averted.
So we heard the news that 30 people got their visas yesterday, and a bunch more are getting some today, and then more tomorrow. This is the last time visas will be handed out before Christmas. So if we don't get them now, we wont be able to leave until February because of Carnival in Brazil.
We had another TRC appointment yesterday, and it had to be all in Portuguese (the get to know you, talk about stuff, and the lesson) yes, it was a bit choppy and... not... good. but it was better than we've been doing before, so it was great in comparison.
There are a lot of presents under the Christmas tree right now, it's kind of been deemed our district tree, so any presents that anybody gets goes under the tree in my room until Christmas.
I'll be sure to write a bunch in Portuguese next time...
Friday, December 11, 2009
Week 5
We had elder Costas talk to us on tuesday, and i gotta say he's my favorite so far, besides Holland. And we also got to watch the Christmas devotional.
I'm not sure if i mentoned this, but our Sacrament meetings are all in portugese; the talks, hymns prayers and most of the announcements. We also sing/pray in portugese in class, and are supposed to for our personal prayers. So that's pretty interesting.
We've started to work in the Referral Center this week. It's pretty fun, we can wait for people to call us, or chat online from mormon.org, or we can call them and follow up on requests and things. It's pretty intense, and nice to do something new and exciting. We have a script to read of course, but for chats and most of the incoming phonecalls, it's all up to us.
We've been going to the TRC (teaching resource center) every week now. We have to get to know our "investigator" in portugese for 15 minutes, and then give a lesson in english. Me and my companion are....not so good in the portugese area, but when we got to lesson 2 last week, we're really good. trying not to sound prideful, i'm pretty sure we're the best at lesson 2 :D If bringing our investigators to tears is any sign.
We had to fill our police reports or something like that for our visas the other day, it's about time. Cuz we've known about it forever.
Well, today is the 1/24 mark. We've got one month done here at the MTC, and besides the fact that i'm starting to lose track of what week it is, it's going pretty well. haha.
I'm not sure if i mentoned this, but our Sacrament meetings are all in portugese; the talks, hymns prayers and most of the announcements. We also sing/pray in portugese in class, and are supposed to for our personal prayers. So that's pretty interesting.
We've started to work in the Referral Center this week. It's pretty fun, we can wait for people to call us, or chat online from mormon.org, or we can call them and follow up on requests and things. It's pretty intense, and nice to do something new and exciting. We have a script to read of course, but for chats and most of the incoming phonecalls, it's all up to us.
We've been going to the TRC (teaching resource center) every week now. We have to get to know our "investigator" in portugese for 15 minutes, and then give a lesson in english. Me and my companion are....not so good in the portugese area, but when we got to lesson 2 last week, we're really good. trying not to sound prideful, i'm pretty sure we're the best at lesson 2 :D If bringing our investigators to tears is any sign.
We had to fill our police reports or something like that for our visas the other day, it's about time. Cuz we've known about it forever.
Well, today is the 1/24 mark. We've got one month done here at the MTC, and besides the fact that i'm starting to lose track of what week it is, it's going pretty well. haha.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Week 4...
Yeah, i guess you could say we're getting to be the old ones, since we're almost halfway done with our time here, but we found out the other day that we can expect to be here for an extra 2 weeks, which is a bummer, but it'll help with the language.
Yeah Elder Holland is great/easy to listen to, and i wouldn't be surprised if Elder Bednar showed up sometime before christmas, but you never know.
We've all been getting a bit sick around here too, just stuffy noses and coughs and stuff. It certainly doesn't help that they've stuffed us in a room with no air conditioning for 9 hours a day, where we're all breathing each other's exhaust. It's gross.
We definitly heard the BYU/Utah game from here, and we were guessing the score based on the sound of the crowd. We were way off, but our teacher couldn't keep it a secret anymore and told us how it ended. so we were all pretty happy...except for one of us...bummer for him :D And bummer about Max Hall, but i suppose there are worse things.
Thanks for the Tree, it's all set up and looking good, and we have foam pellets in and around it to look like snow. I took a picture. So no worries. And i did set it all up by myself, except for the pellets, but oh well.
I found out that Portugese is the closest romantic language to Latin than any other language. Which means that i can understand Italian and Spanish but they wouldn't be able to understand me. So i thought that was pretty cool.
Love you,
Aaron
Yeah Elder Holland is great/easy to listen to, and i wouldn't be surprised if Elder Bednar showed up sometime before christmas, but you never know.
We've all been getting a bit sick around here too, just stuffy noses and coughs and stuff. It certainly doesn't help that they've stuffed us in a room with no air conditioning for 9 hours a day, where we're all breathing each other's exhaust. It's gross.
We definitly heard the BYU/Utah game from here, and we were guessing the score based on the sound of the crowd. We were way off, but our teacher couldn't keep it a secret anymore and told us how it ended. so we were all pretty happy...except for one of us...bummer for him :D And bummer about Max Hall, but i suppose there are worse things.
Thanks for the Tree, it's all set up and looking good, and we have foam pellets in and around it to look like snow. I took a picture. So no worries. And i did set it all up by myself, except for the pellets, but oh well.
I found out that Portugese is the closest romantic language to Latin than any other language. Which means that i can understand Italian and Spanish but they wouldn't be able to understand me. So i thought that was pretty cool.
Love you,
Aaron
Week 3...
We're in our third week now and there's now about 180 Brazil missionaries waiting here for their visas, one guy has been stuck here for 18 months, poor dude.
Thanks for the chocolate cookies and the turnovers, they were really good. I finished the chocoate chip cookies yesterday, and the chocolate ones are already almost gone. And i've only had a few turnovers, but they were helpful since thanksgiving dinner was at 1:00 and we had a sack-lunch dinner later; and the day was over before i knew it, it hardly felt any different, haha. But we did get to hear from Elder Holland in the morning, which was neat-o. We had to stand in like for about an hour and a half to get good seats. After, we had a service project and colored little books for kids in disaster areas, which was fun, mostly cuz it was something new and colorful. Dinner (or lunch?) was just turkey, potatoes and stuffing, but I liked the jello/fruit pudding/salad thingthe most, so yeah :) And had chips, a sandwich and pop for our actual dinner. so pretty exciting stuff.
I'm reading Jesus the Christ too, i picked up where i left off from at home, and it's pretty good, it's slow going since we only get an hour out of the day usually to read anything except language stuff or sit in class, or eat. We got to hear from Elder Oaks on tuesday, and he was pretty good. And I also had a chat with Sister Elizabeth Smart the other day, so i thought that was interesting.
We've been listening to a lot of Chopin, since one of our room-mates has an ipod that has hymns played by other artists ( which bug me) and classical; so we pretty much only listen to classical. And he has one song that makes me kinda homesick, not in a bad way though, i think it's "Raindrop Sonata" or some thing like that, not sure, just thought it was interesting.
So pretty much I'll be a pro volleyball player by the time i leave here, considering how much we play (if you call 40 minutes 5 times a week a lot)
Love ya miss ya
Fica Gelado
(Stay Frosty)
-Aaron
Thanks for the chocolate cookies and the turnovers, they were really good. I finished the chocoate chip cookies yesterday, and the chocolate ones are already almost gone. And i've only had a few turnovers, but they were helpful since thanksgiving dinner was at 1:00 and we had a sack-lunch dinner later; and the day was over before i knew it, it hardly felt any different, haha. But we did get to hear from Elder Holland in the morning, which was neat-o. We had to stand in like for about an hour and a half to get good seats. After, we had a service project and colored little books for kids in disaster areas, which was fun, mostly cuz it was something new and colorful. Dinner (or lunch?) was just turkey, potatoes and stuffing, but I liked the jello/fruit pudding/salad thingthe most, so yeah :) And had chips, a sandwich and pop for our actual dinner. so pretty exciting stuff.
I'm reading Jesus the Christ too, i picked up where i left off from at home, and it's pretty good, it's slow going since we only get an hour out of the day usually to read anything except language stuff or sit in class, or eat. We got to hear from Elder Oaks on tuesday, and he was pretty good. And I also had a chat with Sister Elizabeth Smart the other day, so i thought that was interesting.
We've been listening to a lot of Chopin, since one of our room-mates has an ipod that has hymns played by other artists ( which bug me) and classical; so we pretty much only listen to classical. And he has one song that makes me kinda homesick, not in a bad way though, i think it's "Raindrop Sonata" or some thing like that, not sure, just thought it was interesting.
So pretty much I'll be a pro volleyball player by the time i leave here, considering how much we play (if you call 40 minutes 5 times a week a lot)
Love ya miss ya
Fica Gelado
(Stay Frosty)
-Aaron
Week 2...
Well I'm on week two, and it's not so bad. Just really tedious and the days are slurring together. I got the package yesterday :D thanks for the letters, it's nice to hear about stuff that's going on; and the pictures (i love the one of Joseph) and the sweet notebooks (except for the puppy dog one, haha).
I went to the temple today with my district, so that was nice. I mentioned before that im in class most all day i think, so portugese is coming along pretty good, i hope. i don't feel like i'm too far behind. Which is kind of hard to do since we all do everything together.
We had to meet/greet/introduce ourselves to some returned Brazil missionaries in portugese the other day, and give the first lesson in english.
I mentioned that the food is just like the cannon center before, but i didn't say how much gas it gives us. I don't think 30 minutes goes by before someone in our class farts. it's 24/7, haha, it's out of control.
We had the presiding Bishop on tuesday for devotional, that was pretty interesting. But other than that it's the same thing every day, so nothing too exciting.
Normally missionaries are allowed to call home on christmas and mothers day, but apparently we're not allowed to if we're in the MTC, so we get to miss out on that, but it depends on when we ship out. One of the other guys here is from Provo and we were saying how crazy it is to be so close to our stomping grounds and yet so far away.
yatta, love ya.
-Aaron
I went to the temple today with my district, so that was nice. I mentioned before that im in class most all day i think, so portugese is coming along pretty good, i hope. i don't feel like i'm too far behind. Which is kind of hard to do since we all do everything together.
We had to meet/greet/introduce ourselves to some returned Brazil missionaries in portugese the other day, and give the first lesson in english.
I mentioned that the food is just like the cannon center before, but i didn't say how much gas it gives us. I don't think 30 minutes goes by before someone in our class farts. it's 24/7, haha, it's out of control.
We had the presiding Bishop on tuesday for devotional, that was pretty interesting. But other than that it's the same thing every day, so nothing too exciting.
Normally missionaries are allowed to call home on christmas and mothers day, but apparently we're not allowed to if we're in the MTC, so we get to miss out on that, but it depends on when we ship out. One of the other guys here is from Provo and we were saying how crazy it is to be so close to our stomping grounds and yet so far away.
yatta, love ya.
-Aaron
Excerpts From the Week 1 Emails
Hey so ths is my email, I'll probably have p-day on friday from now on, but I'm not sure, just so you know.
Well i guess that the first two days are the hardest, because it's not so bad now. Got a headache sometimes from not enough sleep and focusing too much, but it's not too terrible.
Thanks for the cookies, clothes and battery; and thanks Mariah for the little notes you send me, they're sitting on the wall above my desk. I'll start taking pictures soon, should i send the memory card home when it's full?
We play volleyball every morning for gym, and spend about 9 hours a day in class, mostly learning about Portugese. My favorite is when we have Irmao Peterson, because he's funny and we learn a lot.
There's about 160 missionaries here who are waiting for their visas, some of them that arrived here in september have already been reassigned to Kentucky, or something like that, but that was before the online visa thing, so i think the rest of us in my district are fine.
So we only have about a half hour to write emails, and so far this has been about 13 minutes, so if you write something that would need a long response, don't be surprised if it's hasty.
There's some cool guys in my district, nobody really nerdy or annoying, which is good. My comp. worked in a mortuary for a couple years, so there's some funny stories about that.
Yatta, love you.
Aaron
Well i guess that the first two days are the hardest, because it's not so bad now. Got a headache sometimes from not enough sleep and focusing too much, but it's not too terrible.
Thanks for the cookies, clothes and battery; and thanks Mariah for the little notes you send me, they're sitting on the wall above my desk. I'll start taking pictures soon, should i send the memory card home when it's full?
We play volleyball every morning for gym, and spend about 9 hours a day in class, mostly learning about Portugese. My favorite is when we have Irmao Peterson, because he's funny and we learn a lot.
There's about 160 missionaries here who are waiting for their visas, some of them that arrived here in september have already been reassigned to Kentucky, or something like that, but that was before the online visa thing, so i think the rest of us in my district are fine.
So we only have about a half hour to write emails, and so far this has been about 13 minutes, so if you write something that would need a long response, don't be surprised if it's hasty.
There's some cool guys in my district, nobody really nerdy or annoying, which is good. My comp. worked in a mortuary for a couple years, so there's some funny stories about that.
Yatta, love you.
Aaron
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)