Okay, this entry might kinda suck. Reason 1 - my english is slipping
away. It's not the words, but the sentence structure that is having
such a hard time. Japanese is pretty much the exact opposite. Reason
2 - I don't have any email notes like I usually have. Usually, I have
little ideas of what to talk about in my life, but I don't have those
notes.
I taught my first lesson in only Japanese last Thursday. It wasn't
too bad, but there was definitely some awkward moments. Hopefully this language will come sooner rather than later. We have 19 new
Kohai (junior) Japanese missionaries coming tomorrow. To get ready for
them, we had a Zone conference last night where we talked about how we have to be great. We are expected to do SYL (Speak Your Language).
That's where we speak everything we can in Japanese. If we don't know how to say it in Japanese, then we still have to try, then we have to
ask permission to speak in English. Needless to say, it's hard. But
we've all been told that it's the single most important thing we can
do. So in this conference we had to decided when to do it. It's
ridiculous some of the mindsets of these Elders. They were like,
"let's only do Japanese during class, or during dinner." Finally, I
was like, "Excuse me, but we should be doing SYL, all of the time/."
It's like these Elders don't know how to push themselves. They're
trying to find shortcuts. No way, I'll have none of that. So, the
whole zone will be speaking Japanese all the time now.
What else can I talk about... it seems that I'm stuck on Japanese.
Well, I ran into some of my old co-workers this week and they're
heading into finals. Yep, the real world does exist. I though the
Lord and I had a deal - he would pause the world as I went and did my
thing, then it would resume when I returned. Nope, the world goes on.
Some of the senseitachi (teachers) are really stressed about finals.
It's kinda funny, because I feel so removed from it all. Oh, and I
got word that one of my friends is engaged. I got word from someone
else that they are going to Europe for the summer. Wow, I guess life
does go on. Good think you're lives are so boring, right? :)
Conference at the MTC is pretty hilarious. They shove everyone into
the Gym, and put it on about a dozen TV and projector screens. Then
you sit there for 2 hours. It is a sea of black, with spots of color
from the sisters. The MTC president had to stand up and say that the
stand-up hymn of the middle isn't half time of a super bowl where you
can go to the bathroom. Haha. They also announced that we can't bring
mattresses, pillows, or blankets. :) But General Conference really
is a missionary's superbowl. It's 10 hours of meetings. 10 hours!
My companion and I are watching one Priesthood Session talk a day for
personal study. There are about 30 pages of notes in my study journal
from conference. My friend wrote me and called General Conference a
parenting seminar. Good for you two that you had one child turn out
okay. :P
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