Berapa minggu? Satu bulan
Date
May 25, 2018
Area
Provo MTC
Companion
Elder Graves
Berapa minggu? Satu bulan
I'm going to be honest: I have no idea what week it is. 4? 5? Next week is our last full week at the MTC, which is just crazy. Two weeks from right now, I'll be in Indonesia. Today is our official one month mark, although it definitely doesn't feel like it's been a month.
The days all just sort of blend together, with the exception of Tuesday, Sunday, and Friday. Tuesday stands out because we have choir and devotional. Choir is super cool, because the choir director (Brother Eggett) basically turns it into a mini devotional, and the choir itself actually has more members than the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The choir is done on a completely volunteer basis, and you just show up at practice and learn the song. The choir performs in the Tuesday night devotionals. Those devotionals are the ones with General Authorities. This last Tuesday we had the chance to hear from Elder Rasband. He talked about personal revelation, and quoted President Nelson's talk. That makes the third apostle in 6 weeks who has talked about that at the MTC, and the ninth or tenth time it's been mentioned between lessons, devotionals, and whatever else. I get the feeling that the Lord wants me to really focus on receiving personal revelation and relying on the Spirit.
I don't really know what to write about, since not much really happened this week. We're continuing to learn the language pretty quickly, although that's not super surprising. This week we learned the pe--an circumfix, which makes a word into a participle. I can't actually think of any examples off the top of my head, but whatever. I also learned that there are a ton of Arabic words in Indonesian, and apparently a lot of missionaries learn Arabic after they get back from Indonesia, so I guess I know what I'm doing when I get back.
Our teachers are great. Brother Tuttle just got back from getting married, and he seemed surprised how well we're speaking the language. Our other teachers are both great, and we all get along really well. Brother Grundvig only got off his mission four months ago, so he still seems like a missionary in a lot of ways. He jokes around with us, and is a lot of fun. Brother Hayes is also really fun. He's been back from his mission for two years or so, and has clearly been teaching for a while.
Our new zone is great, although they can be a bit (super) loud. They're a lot of fun though, and we all get along really well, which is cool. They have some games that they play that get really loud, but it's okay. They're really funny, and take care of their friends. It's pretty funny watching the orang bule trying to match how much their Poly companions eat.
For personal study, I've been reading in 3 Nephi. At this point, several pages are so marked that you almost can't read what's on them. I'm also still reading Jesus the Christ which is super awesome. Reading about the life and ministry of Christ is so inspiring.
I'm not sure if you all heard about the bombings in Surabaya, so I'll talk about that really quick. There were a couple of bombings of some churches in Indonesia a week ago or so. None of our churches were bombed, and so far there haven't been any threats against us at all. All of the missionaries are safe, and the church buildings in Indonesia have people out front on Sundays now. Brother Hayes told us a story about the last time there was a bombing in Indonesia. He and his companion were going to bring an investigator to church, but the investigator cancelled at the last minutes. Later, the missionaries heard that there had been a bombing at the exact bus stop they would have been at to pick up the investigator. He promised us that Bapa Surgawi will take care of us and protect us, and I'm not very worried about it.
I don't really have much else to say, so I'll leave you all with a picture of the ducks (Bebek, or ayam air) who hang out in the fountain on campus.
Saya tahu anda semua sangat hebat!
Kasih,
Elder Marr
The days all just sort of blend together, with the exception of Tuesday, Sunday, and Friday. Tuesday stands out because we have choir and devotional. Choir is super cool, because the choir director (Brother Eggett) basically turns it into a mini devotional, and the choir itself actually has more members than the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The choir is done on a completely volunteer basis, and you just show up at practice and learn the song. The choir performs in the Tuesday night devotionals. Those devotionals are the ones with General Authorities. This last Tuesday we had the chance to hear from Elder Rasband. He talked about personal revelation, and quoted President Nelson's talk. That makes the third apostle in 6 weeks who has talked about that at the MTC, and the ninth or tenth time it's been mentioned between lessons, devotionals, and whatever else. I get the feeling that the Lord wants me to really focus on receiving personal revelation and relying on the Spirit.
I don't really know what to write about, since not much really happened this week. We're continuing to learn the language pretty quickly, although that's not super surprising. This week we learned the pe--an circumfix, which makes a word into a participle. I can't actually think of any examples off the top of my head, but whatever. I also learned that there are a ton of Arabic words in Indonesian, and apparently a lot of missionaries learn Arabic after they get back from Indonesia, so I guess I know what I'm doing when I get back.
Our teachers are great. Brother Tuttle just got back from getting married, and he seemed surprised how well we're speaking the language. Our other teachers are both great, and we all get along really well. Brother Grundvig only got off his mission four months ago, so he still seems like a missionary in a lot of ways. He jokes around with us, and is a lot of fun. Brother Hayes is also really fun. He's been back from his mission for two years or so, and has clearly been teaching for a while.
Our new zone is great, although they can be a bit (super) loud. They're a lot of fun though, and we all get along really well, which is cool. They have some games that they play that get really loud, but it's okay. They're really funny, and take care of their friends. It's pretty funny watching the orang bule trying to match how much their Poly companions eat.
For personal study, I've been reading in 3 Nephi. At this point, several pages are so marked that you almost can't read what's on them. I'm also still reading Jesus the Christ which is super awesome. Reading about the life and ministry of Christ is so inspiring.
I'm not sure if you all heard about the bombings in Surabaya, so I'll talk about that really quick. There were a couple of bombings of some churches in Indonesia a week ago or so. None of our churches were bombed, and so far there haven't been any threats against us at all. All of the missionaries are safe, and the church buildings in Indonesia have people out front on Sundays now. Brother Hayes told us a story about the last time there was a bombing in Indonesia. He and his companion were going to bring an investigator to church, but the investigator cancelled at the last minutes. Later, the missionaries heard that there had been a bombing at the exact bus stop they would have been at to pick up the investigator. He promised us that Bapa Surgawi will take care of us and protect us, and I'm not very worried about it.
I don't really have much else to say, so I'll leave you all with a picture of the ducks (Bebek, or ayam air) who hang out in the fountain on campus.
Saya tahu anda semua sangat hebat!
Kasih,
Elder Marr
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