Ketiga Minggu! (Somehow)
Date
May 12, 2018
Area
Provo MTC
Companion
Elder Graves
Ketiga Minggu! (Somehow)
Somehow it's already the third week. This week felt like absolutely nothing, and I can't believe how fast our time is going. The missionaries in our zone who were here when we arrived leave on Monday, and it's unreal that we've been here as long as they had been. The MTC is getting busier, with each week bringing in more and more missionaries. This coming Wednesday we get 35 new missionaries in our zone, which is going to be really weird.
Our Tuesday devotional was given by Elder Andersen, which was cool. He talked a lot about President Nelson's talk on personal revelation, which makes it the fourth time since I've been here it's been mentioned, so it might be a little important.
One of our teachers left for his wedding this week, and we just got a third teacher. Our new teacher only got back from his mission a couple months ago, which is pretty crazy. This is the first class he's taught at the MTC, so he's still learning how to be a teacher, but he's really good at the language.
Our schedule has become pretty regular, and there really wasn't much exciting that happened this week. I jammed my finger in volleyball, so it was pretty swollen for a couple days, but it's feeling better now. Really, this week was just a lot of study. We're teaching 3 investigators now, and we're teaching with the TRC tonight, so there's a lot of preparing lessons.
We learned more about prefixes, suffixes, and circumfixes(!) in Indonesian. Like I mentioned last time, most words in Indonesian are made up of the root word and then various additions. there's the me- prefix, which makes it an active transitive verb, and is usually paired with -kan, which indicates that the direct object is being acted on. There's also the ber- prefix, which indicates that he word is an intransitive, active verb. The di- prefix makes the word a passive verb. the ke- -an circumfix (a circumfix is where there's stuff on both sides of the word) makes an adjective into a noun. The -an suffix makes a verb into a noun by literally meaning "the thing that is ____". So makan is eat, makanan is "the thing that is eaten", or food.
As I get better at Indonesian, I get worse at English. There have been a couple of times where our teachers forget a word in English and just keep saying the word in Indonesian, hoping we'll understand. I'm not there yet, but I have noticed my English grammar getting worse. There are also a couple words I've completely replaced with the Indonesian words, like iya for yes and tidak for no.
I'm pretty much completely adjusted to Missionary life. My first name is Elder now, not Benjamin. I never think about how much longer I have on my mission, simply because this is what I do now. I don't really think of it as being away from home, in a weird way, the MTC has sort of become home.
I'm pretty excited to get to Indonesia. Brother Hayes was telling us some stories about his mission, and it sounds really cool. Everything there is super cheap, and so missionaries can buy pretty much anything they need. Brother Hayes said that in some of the cities, you can buy an absolutely massive meal for $1 USD, which is pretty crazy. He also bought a sword from the 9th century for $200, so basically Indonesia seems like an absolutely insane country.
I think that's pretty much everything I wanted to say, but if I remember anything else later, I'll send another email.
Saya tahu bahwa Kitab Mormon adalah benar, Joseph Smith adalah nabi modern, dan Yesus Kristus adalah Juruselamat kita. Saya bersyukur atas Injil Yesus Kristus, dan pendamaian-Nya.
Saya mengasihi anda semua.
Elder Marr
Included are some pictures from our Sunday temple walk, as well as some photos of me with two of our teachers (I don't have one with Brother Grundvig yet).
Our Tuesday devotional was given by Elder Andersen, which was cool. He talked a lot about President Nelson's talk on personal revelation, which makes it the fourth time since I've been here it's been mentioned, so it might be a little important.
One of our teachers left for his wedding this week, and we just got a third teacher. Our new teacher only got back from his mission a couple months ago, which is pretty crazy. This is the first class he's taught at the MTC, so he's still learning how to be a teacher, but he's really good at the language.
Our schedule has become pretty regular, and there really wasn't much exciting that happened this week. I jammed my finger in volleyball, so it was pretty swollen for a couple days, but it's feeling better now. Really, this week was just a lot of study. We're teaching 3 investigators now, and we're teaching with the TRC tonight, so there's a lot of preparing lessons.
We learned more about prefixes, suffixes, and circumfixes(!) in Indonesian. Like I mentioned last time, most words in Indonesian are made up of the root word and then various additions. there's the me- prefix, which makes it an active transitive verb, and is usually paired with -kan, which indicates that the direct object is being acted on. There's also the ber- prefix, which indicates that he word is an intransitive, active verb. The di- prefix makes the word a passive verb. the ke- -an circumfix (a circumfix is where there's stuff on both sides of the word) makes an adjective into a noun. The -an suffix makes a verb into a noun by literally meaning "the thing that is ____". So makan is eat, makanan is "the thing that is eaten", or food.
As I get better at Indonesian, I get worse at English. There have been a couple of times where our teachers forget a word in English and just keep saying the word in Indonesian, hoping we'll understand. I'm not there yet, but I have noticed my English grammar getting worse. There are also a couple words I've completely replaced with the Indonesian words, like iya for yes and tidak for no.
I'm pretty much completely adjusted to Missionary life. My first name is Elder now, not Benjamin. I never think about how much longer I have on my mission, simply because this is what I do now. I don't really think of it as being away from home, in a weird way, the MTC has sort of become home.
I'm pretty excited to get to Indonesia. Brother Hayes was telling us some stories about his mission, and it sounds really cool. Everything there is super cheap, and so missionaries can buy pretty much anything they need. Brother Hayes said that in some of the cities, you can buy an absolutely massive meal for $1 USD, which is pretty crazy. He also bought a sword from the 9th century for $200, so basically Indonesia seems like an absolutely insane country.
I think that's pretty much everything I wanted to say, but if I remember anything else later, I'll send another email.
Saya tahu bahwa Kitab Mormon adalah benar, Joseph Smith adalah nabi modern, dan Yesus Kristus adalah Juruselamat kita. Saya bersyukur atas Injil Yesus Kristus, dan pendamaian-Nya.
Saya mengasihi anda semua.
Elder Marr
Included are some pictures from our Sunday temple walk, as well as some photos of me with two of our teachers (I don't have one with Brother Grundvig yet).
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