First Week!

Hello!

It's Elder Siebach! Hope you all are doing very well!

Wow, what a week so far. The first day, and every day since have just been a flurry of activity. I get up everyday at 6:20 so that I can beat everyone else in the hall to the showers, get dressed and ready for the day, plan the day. Personal study, language study, lunch, dinner, breakfast, and most days I have 3 hours of language lessons. My teacher is Brother Kruman, but his Cantonese name is Gru Hingdai. Hingdai means teacher and Gru is close to Kru I guess?? My name is Sin Jeunglouh. Sin is pronounced with a high rising tone over the "I" so its pronounced "seen". Jeunglouh means Elder. I've really been working on SYL when I'm not in class, but it can be pretty hard when I have such limited vocabulary. Everyday my mind explodes after the language study because our teacher only speaks in Cantonese. Cantonese is one of the most bizarre languages! I could go on and on about it, but I'm sure you want to hear about everything else as well. My district is 4 elders and two sisters. 3 of us elders attended BYU this last semester, and the 4th went to ASU. One sister is Chinese and speaks Mandarin so she's out here to learn Cantonese, and the other sister is from Virginia but just finished up her Junior year at BYU. In the entire MTC of 2500 some odd missionaries, there are only 11 missionaries that are Cantonese speaking and all of us are going to Hong Kong. Its funny to walk around because our tags and the Mandarin tags have the same characters so they always call out "Nee Hoh?" and we respond Leih hoh! (This means hello/How are you?).

Everyone says the first week is the hardest and that after that it gets slightly easier. I hope they're right because I am worn out and feel like I've been going forever at the end of every day. Most days we have an hour of gym time but that’s never enough. I always want so much more! Lately I've been doing volleyball, 4 square (which is surprisingly competitive and hard), and  stationary bikes.

On day two we got our first investigator named Pauline. She is from Hong Kong and thats about all we really know. The first day we talked to her about the Book of Mormon and prayer. The second day, we redid the first (this time a little better) and extended an invitation to read the Book of Mormon and pray. (We didn't do this the first time because we didn't know how to invite/extend. Both times I have prayed and testified to her. So far in the 15 or so hours of language training that I have had, I have learned to ask basic introduction questions and responses, pray, testify of some truths, and extend commitments. After the lessons I have felt a little overwhelmed because of how little I know how to say/ask and then I remember I've only been here a handful of days. I don't like to count the days because I know it will feel like so little time here and so much more to go. But I really do love the MTC. Great people, great teachers, great district, great Spirit. I see a lot of friends from BYU, and Lone Peak all the time. I've seen elder Christensen 2 or 3 times and Chase only once. I think he probably left today for Farmington anyway. It was also great to see Grandma and Grandpa so much! I got a number of pictures with them but on their camera so hassle them about it. I actually haven't used my camera yet... I'll get on that. I just have my mind and thoughts in so many different places all the time.

So just so you know, Mondays are P-days. I get to go do a temple session at 6:30 on Monday mornings, but because today is Memorial day the temple is flat-out closed. I was bummed because I was really looking forward to that during the hardest parts of my day.

It's awesome to hear the Elders that have been here for 7 weeks and here how their Cantonese has grown. I'll think we'll all be in a shock when we get to Hong Kong though.

Oh, I forgot to mention, almost every other day we have the opportunity to use an online language learning program called TALL. At first I didn't want to use it just because I'm notoriously bad with computers, but its actually really nice. You can look up and listen to words and there are certain checkpoints that you try and meet each day. Speaking of technology, I can't tell you how happy I am to not have a Facebook currently or a cell phone! Some elders here are having a tough time with that, but its a blessing to me. I do just wish that I had more time to email you guys.

Anyway, tell me about you guys! How is school wrapping up? How was Ottawa?

It is wonderful to be Dear Eldered by you guys because it means that I can read the letters throughout the week, and then I can just get on here and respond without wasting precious time to read online emails. But please others write me! I got 6 letters the first day and none the rest of the week. (I was hoping 6 letters was a sign of things to come).

Things I could use: nice packages, and most everything else I can get at the MTC bookstore for really cheap. Flashcards have saved my life the last week. I think I have over 100 vocab words and phrases that I try to go through in use in a sentence a couple times a day. My companion Elder Wu has really been a blessing too because he is a walking dictionary of Cantonese. It's also a curse because he knows what is going on in the lessons and speaks fairly fluently while I'm a little ways behind him. He may leave with the earlier district in which case the three elders left would become a Tripanionship.

And mom, I don't need my patriarchal blessing. I have one shrunk and in the front of my book of Mormon cover page.

Anyway, Love you guys so much! I appreciate the prayers and letters! Keep them coming

Elder Siebach