Yooooo!! You got a the new dog!!! That’s so dang cool, I wish I could meet him haha. And that name. Zeus. Completely awesome, haha. Oh yeah and that’s cool how that worked out, being right near Tiffany's and all. He really does look like the coolest dog ever. I cant wait to see him in 2 years minus 2 weeks haha. Its crazy how I've been in this place for over 2 weeks now. On Monday our Dai Senpai are leaving for Japan, which they are getting way excited for, and on Wednesday we get the new Kohi! (new guys going to Japan). So starting Wednesday, our district will have officially been here 3 weeks and we will be the new Senpai. Man thats crazy, only 6 more weeks and we'll be the ones going on that flight to Japan!!
Christmas was this week wasn't it. Well it was definitely a different day but far from a normal Christmas obviously! Your package got here a day after Christmas but It was totally sweet!! I was like, yoooo, Yoooo, YOOOOO! It was all great stuff and I have been craving everything in there forever haha. And Lobaccaro Choro in our district came in while I opened it I gave him some High Chews since he had never had them, and he ended up having like 10!! Haha, he loved them. Which is great for him and everyone who loves them here because there supposed to be even better in Japan! But yeah, thanks again for that, it was a Great gift!
So Christmas. We had a lot of special things going on but the nicest part was the extra free time probably, haha! Sundays are awesome here. We always have the Devotional thing at night and I’m usually very awake to hear the message but something about being sat down all day put me to sleep I guess. So I wasn't able to get the full feeling of the spirit that day but it was still a nice little change up. At least my head didn't hurt near the end of the day from studying hah. Oh yeah, and we got to watch a talent show from people here in the MTC. It was mostly all music but one guy, (who was Russian, of course. Cause they are amazing) completely rocked this song on the organ. He was just going crazy on all the keyboards and even using the foot keyboard throughout the song. It was pretty amazing and he never made a mistake. That Russian Perfection, haha. Also, there was a magician in one of the talents and that was wayyy cool. He had some crazy sleight of hand and he was pulling umbrellas and cards out of nowhere and doing all these tricks with them. That was pretty sweet.
But anyways, the day ended with watching a Christmas, Tabernacle Choir special on the big screen and then going back to the dorms with 2 hours of free time!! It was funny because we were all so excited that we had a full 2 hours to do whatever. Haha, so we pretty much played darts and some of us did a little workout right outside our door. I forgot to tell you this but the pull up bar is like 5 steps from our door so our little corner is where me and a few others do pushups and pullups haha. So that’s a nice little blessing.
So anyways, Japanese is coming along slightly. I learned some more words and a decent amount more on conjugation and sentence structure stuff. I can at least write some sentences in English now and translate them over to Japanese..roughly. But I'm still having a hard time in P.I.'s (Progressing Investigators..teaching them) because I can't think on the spot so much. Plus, yesterday, when we taught Iida-san, she seemed to be talking so fast and I had a hard time knowing what she was saying. Buuut I guess I have to struggle at some point. I know I'll get the language eventually, I'm just not so good now, haha.
Yeah, so probably out of the people here, Bates choro and Lobaccaro choro are my good friends. And Bates choro lives in the same room as us so we do all kinds of weird handshakes and stuff haha. We've all had some good talks in there and at night when we have a little free time, we just go off talking about movies, games, and gospel doctrine type of stuff. Its always pretty great and I enjoy the people all around us. Anyways, that’s all I really have for now. I forgot my camera unfortunately so no pictures this week :( I'll send more next week though. I can't even remember what I have to send on there but I have it hah.
Goodbye for now Kazoku
- Carlini choro
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Sunday, December 22, 2013
Last Sunday was probably the best day in the MTC, and I've finally been able to read some scriptures while I'm here now haha. When you have sooo much language study, its really difficult to find any time for scriptures but now I've changed my attitude on that. Its quite funny though because at home, I basically dreaded going to firesides/devotionals, but here, it becomes the nicest thing ever because you finally get to relax your mind for a moment and actually feel the spirit strongly.
When you're learning a language, you start to forget how to focus on what we are really here for and it sucks because everyone else is mostly only putting their focus on Japanese right now. I would have thought that I would enjoy that more but I'm not much of a studying kind of guy as you know, and it gets really overwhelming when that's all you do. So ya, Sunday was great because we didnt have any language study that day (I think) and we got to focus almost entirely on the gospel. We got to hear the BYU mens chorus and afterward watch a talk that Elder Bednar did last Christmas which was incredible. I teared up when BYU was singing because the spirit was very strong and I was imagining how its going to feel coming home from a successful 2 year mission. It was a very spiritual night for me and all of my roommates agreed.
Anyways, I don't think I had taught an investigator since last Saturday but now we have taught him 4 times....and all in Nihongo (Japanese). Its really tough and I feel like I cant say what I would really like to but its crazy to think that we have legitimately "taught" (in broken Japanese) a lesson to someone, haha. But yeah, he was a really nice guy and he actually just works for the MTC but it is still very intimidating because he's a really good actor and acts completely like the character he is supposed to be. Like whenever we brought up certain words that someone may not know, he would ask about it kind of in depth and we had to explain it ourselves. Oh yeah and he wouldn't respond whatsoever to our English and obviously just spoke to us in Japanese.
But now we are done teaching him after our 4 lessons and we got him to commit to things throughout which was cool because some of the other companionships couldn't get him to pray for a while but after we did our lesson to him on prayer and invited him to pray, he did it! So yeah, now we are going to have 2 other investigators that we have to teach starting Monday and we have to switch off between them which means individual lessons for both. They definitely push us to get us ready for the field though. Haha, we barely know enough to teach a lesson but then we have to go in there and get them to feel the spirit along with explaining things well enough so that they understand them. But as we've learned, its really all about letting the spirit teach, which is very good in my case because I'm pretty bad at Japanese haha.
Oh yeah! And that will be cool to hear what Cristel has to say, since she's been here and all. I wonder if instead of language study, she would focus solely on how to teach the whole time and that's why their stay here is so short. Ask her that for me, unless she just reads this herself, cause it would be cool to know. I bet that would be really tough too because studying is just sooo boring and hard!! haha, but I knew thats what I was getting myself into and I know that it will be more then worth it as time goes on. I always think about how its going to be when I'm out in the field and feel confident with my surroundings, the gospel, and Japanese so I can truly be a great tool in the hands of the lord. I already know its going to be the greatest feeling ever! :D
And Christmas!! I almost forgot! Yes you should definitely send me some goods because it will make me happy haha! And as far as stuff they allow, I haven't heard of anyone getting in trouble for stuff and everyone has been getting a lot of packages since its almost Christmas. Haha, my roommate, Young ちょうろう, got a mini christmas tree and a bunch of treats/snacks in a package from his girlfriend. I've seen some big packages and I'm pretty sure you can send whatever you would send through UPS to them. Just as long as its not like a gameboy and tv or something, hahaha.
But yeah, I've been craving some Mike and Ikes and something gummy. Also, if you can send me my black scripture case, that would be helpful... hmmmm, And maybe something like wheat thins or some other snack I would like. Haha, its just always nice to have snacks here because we have dinner at 4:00 and then we dont get another meal until morning so we get hungry a lot at night. So yeah, those would be some cool things to get.
Anyways, its time to send you a bunch of pictures on separate emails and I'll just have a description of what they are on there. Goodbye for now!
Talk to you later mates
When you're learning a language, you start to forget how to focus on what we are really here for and it sucks because everyone else is mostly only putting their focus on Japanese right now. I would have thought that I would enjoy that more but I'm not much of a studying kind of guy as you know, and it gets really overwhelming when that's all you do. So ya, Sunday was great because we didnt have any language study that day (I think) and we got to focus almost entirely on the gospel. We got to hear the BYU mens chorus and afterward watch a talk that Elder Bednar did last Christmas which was incredible. I teared up when BYU was singing because the spirit was very strong and I was imagining how its going to feel coming home from a successful 2 year mission. It was a very spiritual night for me and all of my roommates agreed.
Anyways, I don't think I had taught an investigator since last Saturday but now we have taught him 4 times....and all in Nihongo (Japanese). Its really tough and I feel like I cant say what I would really like to but its crazy to think that we have legitimately "taught" (in broken Japanese) a lesson to someone, haha. But yeah, he was a really nice guy and he actually just works for the MTC but it is still very intimidating because he's a really good actor and acts completely like the character he is supposed to be. Like whenever we brought up certain words that someone may not know, he would ask about it kind of in depth and we had to explain it ourselves. Oh yeah and he wouldn't respond whatsoever to our English and obviously just spoke to us in Japanese.
But now we are done teaching him after our 4 lessons and we got him to commit to things throughout which was cool because some of the other companionships couldn't get him to pray for a while but after we did our lesson to him on prayer and invited him to pray, he did it! So yeah, now we are going to have 2 other investigators that we have to teach starting Monday and we have to switch off between them which means individual lessons for both. They definitely push us to get us ready for the field though. Haha, we barely know enough to teach a lesson but then we have to go in there and get them to feel the spirit along with explaining things well enough so that they understand them. But as we've learned, its really all about letting the spirit teach, which is very good in my case because I'm pretty bad at Japanese haha.
Oh yeah! And that will be cool to hear what Cristel has to say, since she's been here and all. I wonder if instead of language study, she would focus solely on how to teach the whole time and that's why their stay here is so short. Ask her that for me, unless she just reads this herself, cause it would be cool to know. I bet that would be really tough too because studying is just sooo boring and hard!! haha, but I knew thats what I was getting myself into and I know that it will be more then worth it as time goes on. I always think about how its going to be when I'm out in the field and feel confident with my surroundings, the gospel, and Japanese so I can truly be a great tool in the hands of the lord. I already know its going to be the greatest feeling ever! :D
And Christmas!! I almost forgot! Yes you should definitely send me some goods because it will make me happy haha! And as far as stuff they allow, I haven't heard of anyone getting in trouble for stuff and everyone has been getting a lot of packages since its almost Christmas. Haha, my roommate, Young ちょうろう, got a mini christmas tree and a bunch of treats/snacks in a package from his girlfriend. I've seen some big packages and I'm pretty sure you can send whatever you would send through UPS to them. Just as long as its not like a gameboy and tv or something, hahaha.
But yeah, I've been craving some Mike and Ikes and something gummy. Also, if you can send me my black scripture case, that would be helpful... hmmmm, And maybe something like wheat thins or some other snack I would like. Haha, its just always nice to have snacks here because we have dinner at 4:00 and then we dont get another meal until morning so we get hungry a lot at night. So yeah, those would be some cool things to get.
Anyways, its time to send you a bunch of pictures on separate emails and I'll just have a description of what they are on there. Goodbye for now!
Talk to you later mates
Saturday, December 14, 2013
Heyyyyy whats up FAM!
So yeah, my P day is on Saturday (today - きょう) which is sweet, because I already feel like a break is quite helpful. This is definitely different from what I thought it was going to be and there is a crazy amount of studying haha. But its not as much the gospel as I would have thought. Or at least so far.
We have had a lot of Japanese classes which I really like! But holy cow I couldn't imagine not wanting to learn a language and have to do this much studying! You must really have to lose yourself in the work. I think we've done about 13 hours of Japanese studying in the class and then a little bit when we go back to the room....Which is pretty much never, because we're always out in a classroom or something. Anyways, most of the Japanese is going right over my head in terms of remembering, but I believe that as we go on in our studies, things that are said a hundred times that you don't understand finally come to you.
Oh yeah, and the whole first day the teacher didn't say anything in English. Even when he was instructing me on how to log into this thing he didn't do it. It was cool though and it really makes you want to learn. But let me tell ya, after you sit in the same classroom trying to practice a language you dont understand and almost all of the instruction is IN JAPANESE, it makes my head hurt, haha. But everyone is dealing with it and our district is really dedicated to learning it. We've made a bunch of goals already and I feel like we will be pretty good near the end of our stay here. Its insane to think that its really only been 4 days and we've done sooo much. However, I feel like I will quickly get in the rhythm of things and get used to the schedule
hopefully. Which is really good, because we are incredibly productive by the end of the day hah. You'll actually see and hear guys who have only been here 6 weeks and they have little conversations and they can teach lessons in Japanese! It seems crazy when you look at it but once your in the class practicing for 3 to 4 hours, you feel like you'll deserve the ability to speak it hahah!
Anyways, I'll answer some of your questions now. So yeah, the Japanese elders and sisters get their P day on Saturday, along with some Portuguese speakers and whoever else. But if you want, you can also send me quick emails of whatever you want on Dear Elder . com and they give us those on the same day. Actually we have to go pick them up but we get them the same day usually haha.
Oh yeah and the hot tub sounds pretty nice right now cause its really cold outside as you know haha. Oh yeah, and my Companion is pretty great! He is actually full Korean and he lived there since he was 8 so he is fluent in that. He also speaks perfect English so there is no communication barrier at all. He is progressing quickly in Japanese and I feel like knowing Korean helps him out a lot because their sentence structure is the same as Japanese...Which is super confusing by the way. Its really difficult to form sentences without knowing a lot of stuff. Oh yeah, and his name is Stokes 'Choro' - ちょうろ (Choro is Japanese for Elder and it comes after their last name) So we are all Choros and Shimai tachi (Shimai is Sister and 'tachi' makes it plural) But yeah he is really cool and super outgoing. He also got assigned as our District Leader so he has to do extra things like go to some meetings, do quick interviews with the Senior Companions, and pick up the mail (which I go with him to haha). And he is also 20 so we feel like we are the Big Brothers of our District a little bit hah. Oh and our Japanese teacher is awesome!! He is Ekins Sensei and he seems to speak Japanese really well, at least to me his accent seems good haha. He is a pretty tall white guy and he went to Fukuoka on his mission. But we dont know a lot about him because he basically will only speak Japanese to us haha.
Yeah, and me and my doryo - どうりょう (which means companion) taught our first investigator yesterday which was crazy. Funny thing is, we thought we were supposed to meet in a certain room to PREPARE to teach the investigator (although we already had a little prepared) but when we opened that door, the investigator was sitting in there and he invited us in, in Japanese, and started talking to us (all in Japanese). So we had to start right then and there and try to teach him a lesson all in Japanese. It was pretty terrible. We only had a few sentences ready for him and then we were shuffling through our books trying to find how to say things, haha. Stokes choro pretty much did the whole lesson. Or at least anything of what we could say. I pitched in a few times and I said the prayer at the end which was tough. But we got him to say that he would think about coming to church with us and that we could meet with him tomorrow. (Although its role play, so we arent really meeting with him again yet). Anyways, wow, I am writing so freakin much haha.
Oh, yeah another funny thing about what you said about the scriptures is that I literally havent even read any of the Book of Mormon since I've been here! We've been so jam packed with Language study and goals of reading the missionary handbook and memorizing the missionary purpose and stuff that I have to go to bed before I get the chance haha. And we have the earliest breakfast which is at 6:45 so we even wake up earlier (6:15) so that we can get all ready and be there on time without a huge line. But wow!
Thats cool that you started setting up the blogspot thing for me already! It wont let me go to the link but I bet its awesome! And I think thats sweet what you did to my plaque picture! Thanks! And yeahhhh, if you could learn some basic Japanese that would be sweet! Although its got so many things to it and is pretty dang hard right now, we've learned a lot. Mostly gospel terms though. But it was crazy how I could understand a good amount of what our investigator was saying when we taught him! And in only 3 Days for that!! So yeah,
Im so jacked for Japan, its gonna be so awesome. My roomates dont have as much Japan pride as I do but they still wanna go. Stokes choro has all this Korean pride thing going on hahaha. Nihhon Ichiban!! (Japan is Number One). And thanks for the quote by the way! Thats pretty much what I've been thinking these past couple days after we all study for 4 hours straight. I will absolutely stay out here and serve the people that the lord set out for me to find and I will never give up on this language. Haha, and it will make "a great story."
But yeah, Im sorry this letter is pretty long cause I knew I said I wouldnt write much but when all you do is work and studying, writing letters seems great! haha, I also feel really bad now for the Elders and Sisters that I havent written yet because now that Im here I wanna get a letter everyday!! Haha so yeah thats pretty much my last few days. Crazy how much info I have in such a short time. Im excited to see the new guys come in on Wednesday and slowly make my way up to a Senpai (what we call the guys who have been here for 3 weeks) and eventually a DaiSenPai! (People that have been here 6 weeks) so yeah, we are Kohi for now hahah.
Thats it for now Kazoku!! (かぞく = family)
Love, Carlini ちょうろ
So yeah, my P day is on Saturday (today - きょう) which is sweet, because I already feel like a break is quite helpful. This is definitely different from what I thought it was going to be and there is a crazy amount of studying haha. But its not as much the gospel as I would have thought. Or at least so far.
We have had a lot of Japanese classes which I really like! But holy cow I couldn't imagine not wanting to learn a language and have to do this much studying! You must really have to lose yourself in the work. I think we've done about 13 hours of Japanese studying in the class and then a little bit when we go back to the room....Which is pretty much never, because we're always out in a classroom or something. Anyways, most of the Japanese is going right over my head in terms of remembering, but I believe that as we go on in our studies, things that are said a hundred times that you don't understand finally come to you.
Oh yeah, and the whole first day the teacher didn't say anything in English. Even when he was instructing me on how to log into this thing he didn't do it. It was cool though and it really makes you want to learn. But let me tell ya, after you sit in the same classroom trying to practice a language you dont understand and almost all of the instruction is IN JAPANESE, it makes my head hurt, haha. But everyone is dealing with it and our district is really dedicated to learning it. We've made a bunch of goals already and I feel like we will be pretty good near the end of our stay here. Its insane to think that its really only been 4 days and we've done sooo much. However, I feel like I will quickly get in the rhythm of things and get used to the schedule
hopefully. Which is really good, because we are incredibly productive by the end of the day hah. You'll actually see and hear guys who have only been here 6 weeks and they have little conversations and they can teach lessons in Japanese! It seems crazy when you look at it but once your in the class practicing for 3 to 4 hours, you feel like you'll deserve the ability to speak it hahah!
Anyways, I'll answer some of your questions now. So yeah, the Japanese elders and sisters get their P day on Saturday, along with some Portuguese speakers and whoever else. But if you want, you can also send me quick emails of whatever you want on Dear Elder . com and they give us those on the same day. Actually we have to go pick them up but we get them the same day usually haha.
Oh yeah and the hot tub sounds pretty nice right now cause its really cold outside as you know haha. Oh yeah, and my Companion is pretty great! He is actually full Korean and he lived there since he was 8 so he is fluent in that. He also speaks perfect English so there is no communication barrier at all. He is progressing quickly in Japanese and I feel like knowing Korean helps him out a lot because their sentence structure is the same as Japanese...Which is super confusing by the way. Its really difficult to form sentences without knowing a lot of stuff. Oh yeah, and his name is Stokes 'Choro' - ちょうろ (Choro is Japanese for Elder and it comes after their last name) So we are all Choros and Shimai tachi (Shimai is Sister and 'tachi' makes it plural) But yeah he is really cool and super outgoing. He also got assigned as our District Leader so he has to do extra things like go to some meetings, do quick interviews with the Senior Companions, and pick up the mail (which I go with him to haha). And he is also 20 so we feel like we are the Big Brothers of our District a little bit hah. Oh and our Japanese teacher is awesome!! He is Ekins Sensei and he seems to speak Japanese really well, at least to me his accent seems good haha. He is a pretty tall white guy and he went to Fukuoka on his mission. But we dont know a lot about him because he basically will only speak Japanese to us haha.
Yeah, and me and my doryo - どうりょう (which means companion) taught our first investigator yesterday which was crazy. Funny thing is, we thought we were supposed to meet in a certain room to PREPARE to teach the investigator (although we already had a little prepared) but when we opened that door, the investigator was sitting in there and he invited us in, in Japanese, and started talking to us (all in Japanese). So we had to start right then and there and try to teach him a lesson all in Japanese. It was pretty terrible. We only had a few sentences ready for him and then we were shuffling through our books trying to find how to say things, haha. Stokes choro pretty much did the whole lesson. Or at least anything of what we could say. I pitched in a few times and I said the prayer at the end which was tough. But we got him to say that he would think about coming to church with us and that we could meet with him tomorrow. (Although its role play, so we arent really meeting with him again yet). Anyways, wow, I am writing so freakin much haha.
Oh, yeah another funny thing about what you said about the scriptures is that I literally havent even read any of the Book of Mormon since I've been here! We've been so jam packed with Language study and goals of reading the missionary handbook and memorizing the missionary purpose and stuff that I have to go to bed before I get the chance haha. And we have the earliest breakfast which is at 6:45 so we even wake up earlier (6:15) so that we can get all ready and be there on time without a huge line. But wow!
Thats cool that you started setting up the blogspot thing for me already! It wont let me go to the link but I bet its awesome! And I think thats sweet what you did to my plaque picture! Thanks! And yeahhhh, if you could learn some basic Japanese that would be sweet! Although its got so many things to it and is pretty dang hard right now, we've learned a lot. Mostly gospel terms though. But it was crazy how I could understand a good amount of what our investigator was saying when we taught him! And in only 3 Days for that!! So yeah,
Im so jacked for Japan, its gonna be so awesome. My roomates dont have as much Japan pride as I do but they still wanna go. Stokes choro has all this Korean pride thing going on hahaha. Nihhon Ichiban!! (Japan is Number One). And thanks for the quote by the way! Thats pretty much what I've been thinking these past couple days after we all study for 4 hours straight. I will absolutely stay out here and serve the people that the lord set out for me to find and I will never give up on this language. Haha, and it will make "a great story."
But yeah, Im sorry this letter is pretty long cause I knew I said I wouldnt write much but when all you do is work and studying, writing letters seems great! haha, I also feel really bad now for the Elders and Sisters that I havent written yet because now that Im here I wanna get a letter everyday!! Haha so yeah thats pretty much my last few days. Crazy how much info I have in such a short time. Im excited to see the new guys come in on Wednesday and slowly make my way up to a Senpai (what we call the guys who have been here for 3 weeks) and eventually a DaiSenPai! (People that have been here 6 weeks) so yeah, we are Kohi for now hahah.
Thats it for now Kazoku!! (かぞく = family)
Love, Carlini ちょうろ
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
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