Hanya dua minggu lagi? Bagaimana?
Date
May 18, 2018
Area
Provo MTC
Companion
Elder Graves
Hanya dua minggu lagi? Bagaimana?
Selamat pagi keluarga saya dan teman saya! Apa kabar?
Things here got into a really regular pattern for a while there, but they're starting to mix up a bit, because our new zone arrived! This past Monday and Tuesday we had to say goodbye to our old zone (which was actually hard, even though we'd only known them for 3 weeks), and on Wednesday all the new missionaries in our zone arrived. Of that group, we have a couple of Mauri elders from New Zealand, a few Aussies, and a lot of elders with Polynesian heritage. They all seem like great elders who have already gotten used to being in companionships and districts.
I'm getting closer to being able to read the Book of Mormon in Indonesian, which is awesome. There are some words used there that are really old and outdated in Indonesian, but they're actually still used in Malay (because Malay is basically an older version of Indonesian), which I've noticed when I talk to Elders Erickson and Choi. We've actually decided that when people ask what language we're speaking, instead of us saying Indonesian and Malaysian over top of each other, we're just going to call it Bahasa, since they're really similar, and nobody is going to know the difference.
We continue to learn Indonesian grammar rules, and I'm going to keep sharing them with you all. The pe- -an circumfix wakes a verb into a noun, but differs from the -an suffix in that the -an suffix only works for simple verbs, while pe--an works on non-simple verbs. It's a little hard to explain. There's also some words that just don't translate well, like the word for. In Indonesian, for can be said with bagi, which is for a person, atas, which is for prayers and blessings, and untuk, which is for pretty much everything else. There's also things that are kinda weird, like di vs dalam. di means in or at a place or real thing, while dalam is inside an abstract idea. So, di gereja is inside a church building, dalam gereja is in the Church. Also, the word "that" in English translates into bahwa, yang, itu, and supaya/agar, each of which has a completely different meaning. I've realized that that's actually a problem with English, where we use the same word for for different meanings, while in Bahasa Indonesia, they have separate words.
Our schedule has gotten pretty repetitive, with us praying, eating, going to class, studying, playing volleyball, praying, eating, studying, going to class, praying, eating, studying, praying, sleeping. It's pretty busy, especially because we're learning an entire language. It's crazy to think we only have two and a half weeks left before we leave to Indonesia
Our district got the chance to host new missionaries on Wednesday, which was cool. I actually hosted an elder going to Spokane on his mission, although I can't remember his name right now. The number of Missionaries from Washington at the MTC constantly surprises me, and it seems like every time any of us mention Washington state, some missionary tells us they're from somewhere there.
Something I keep forgetting to mention is that you can email me at any time when I'm in the MTC. I have a chance to check my email pretty much every day, though I can only respond. If you need to tell me something in the next two weeks, don't hesitate!
The food here has been getting better recently, although I'm pretty sure that's just because my expectations are lowered tremendously. A lot of elders (including elders Graves and Choi) have gained weight in the MTC just because there's a near limitless supply of food during mealtime, but I've actually lost a bit of weight.
Brother Grundvig, our new teacher, has started to open up to us. He makes jokes, and actually sort of reminds me of Jared, although I can't figure out why. Something about his personality reminds me of Jared right after he got back from Brazil, but replacing Portuguese with Indonesian. All three of our teachers are awesome, although we haven't seen brother Tuttle in quite a while, since he went and got married.
For the "Be One" celebration next month, they've been filming a bunch of stuff here at the MTC. The sisters in our district were in one of the choir things, and Sister Smith actually got an interview for it, so you might actually be able to see her in that. Unfortunately, that means the courtyard area outside of T3 and T4 is super busy all the time, with tons of cameras and people.
For my personal study recently, I've been splitting my time between the Book of Mormon and Jesus the Christ. In the Book of Mormon, I've just reached the part in 3 Nefi where Christ comes to the Nephites after his death and resurrection. Once I finish the Book of Mormon, I'm considering starting it over and reading it side by side along with the Kitab Mormon in Indonesian. Jesus the Christ is an amazing book, which has insights I've never even considered. One section was talking about how important the name of Christ is, and it made me think about the baptismal covenant, where we promise to take the name of Christ upon ourselves. I was also thinking about us as missionaries, who always have Christ's name on our chests. We're representatives of Christ, and that's a lot of responsibility.
I didn't really take any pictures this week, since it wasn't the most exciting week. One thing we did learn in our Tuesday night devotional is that the Church is producing Book of Mormon videos like the bible videos they made a couple of years ago! We got to see the trailer for them, and they look really good. They're making 60 15 minute long videos over the next 5 years. I've really appreciated the Bible videos lately, and am definitely very excited for these new videos. I don't know if they've actually officially announced it (since I'm pretty cut off from any news), so this might be super old news for all of you. Other than that, this week was pretty standard. I'll try to get a picture of our new zone this week to send next P-Day. I feel like I'm forgetting something important, so hopefully I remember that before P-day is over.
Saya tahu anda semua adalah sangat luar biasa! Maju terus!
Elder Marr
Things here got into a really regular pattern for a while there, but they're starting to mix up a bit, because our new zone arrived! This past Monday and Tuesday we had to say goodbye to our old zone (which was actually hard, even though we'd only known them for 3 weeks), and on Wednesday all the new missionaries in our zone arrived. Of that group, we have a couple of Mauri elders from New Zealand, a few Aussies, and a lot of elders with Polynesian heritage. They all seem like great elders who have already gotten used to being in companionships and districts.
I'm getting closer to being able to read the Book of Mormon in Indonesian, which is awesome. There are some words used there that are really old and outdated in Indonesian, but they're actually still used in Malay (because Malay is basically an older version of Indonesian), which I've noticed when I talk to Elders Erickson and Choi. We've actually decided that when people ask what language we're speaking, instead of us saying Indonesian and Malaysian over top of each other, we're just going to call it Bahasa, since they're really similar, and nobody is going to know the difference.
We continue to learn Indonesian grammar rules, and I'm going to keep sharing them with you all. The pe- -an circumfix wakes a verb into a noun, but differs from the -an suffix in that the -an suffix only works for simple verbs, while pe--an works on non-simple verbs. It's a little hard to explain. There's also some words that just don't translate well, like the word for. In Indonesian, for can be said with bagi, which is for a person, atas, which is for prayers and blessings, and untuk, which is for pretty much everything else. There's also things that are kinda weird, like di vs dalam. di means in or at a place or real thing, while dalam is inside an abstract idea. So, di gereja is inside a church building, dalam gereja is in the Church. Also, the word "that" in English translates into bahwa, yang, itu, and supaya/agar, each of which has a completely different meaning. I've realized that that's actually a problem with English, where we use the same word for for different meanings, while in Bahasa Indonesia, they have separate words.
Our schedule has gotten pretty repetitive, with us praying, eating, going to class, studying, playing volleyball, praying, eating, studying, going to class, praying, eating, studying, praying, sleeping. It's pretty busy, especially because we're learning an entire language. It's crazy to think we only have two and a half weeks left before we leave to Indonesia
Our district got the chance to host new missionaries on Wednesday, which was cool. I actually hosted an elder going to Spokane on his mission, although I can't remember his name right now. The number of Missionaries from Washington at the MTC constantly surprises me, and it seems like every time any of us mention Washington state, some missionary tells us they're from somewhere there.
Something I keep forgetting to mention is that you can email me at any time when I'm in the MTC. I have a chance to check my email pretty much every day, though I can only respond. If you need to tell me something in the next two weeks, don't hesitate!
The food here has been getting better recently, although I'm pretty sure that's just because my expectations are lowered tremendously. A lot of elders (including elders Graves and Choi) have gained weight in the MTC just because there's a near limitless supply of food during mealtime, but I've actually lost a bit of weight.
Brother Grundvig, our new teacher, has started to open up to us. He makes jokes, and actually sort of reminds me of Jared, although I can't figure out why. Something about his personality reminds me of Jared right after he got back from Brazil, but replacing Portuguese with Indonesian. All three of our teachers are awesome, although we haven't seen brother Tuttle in quite a while, since he went and got married.
For the "Be One" celebration next month, they've been filming a bunch of stuff here at the MTC. The sisters in our district were in one of the choir things, and Sister Smith actually got an interview for it, so you might actually be able to see her in that. Unfortunately, that means the courtyard area outside of T3 and T4 is super busy all the time, with tons of cameras and people.
For my personal study recently, I've been splitting my time between the Book of Mormon and Jesus the Christ. In the Book of Mormon, I've just reached the part in 3 Nefi where Christ comes to the Nephites after his death and resurrection. Once I finish the Book of Mormon, I'm considering starting it over and reading it side by side along with the Kitab Mormon in Indonesian. Jesus the Christ is an amazing book, which has insights I've never even considered. One section was talking about how important the name of Christ is, and it made me think about the baptismal covenant, where we promise to take the name of Christ upon ourselves. I was also thinking about us as missionaries, who always have Christ's name on our chests. We're representatives of Christ, and that's a lot of responsibility.
I didn't really take any pictures this week, since it wasn't the most exciting week. One thing we did learn in our Tuesday night devotional is that the Church is producing Book of Mormon videos like the bible videos they made a couple of years ago! We got to see the trailer for them, and they look really good. They're making 60 15 minute long videos over the next 5 years. I've really appreciated the Bible videos lately, and am definitely very excited for these new videos. I don't know if they've actually officially announced it (since I'm pretty cut off from any news), so this might be super old news for all of you. Other than that, this week was pretty standard. I'll try to get a picture of our new zone this week to send next P-Day. I feel like I'm forgetting something important, so hopefully I remember that before P-day is over.
Saya tahu anda semua adalah sangat luar biasa! Maju terus!
Elder Marr
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