MTC - Week 4

Hi Mom, Dad, Taylor and Cami!

Since by this time it is already January 18th in Kiribati, I feel justified in saying happy one-month anniversary! I hope it's seemed as fast for you as it has for me, it's flying by. Two years will be over before you even know. 

I hope you guys have had an awesome week. It's been really busy for me, but also really good!   Thanks for the care package with the trail mix and the cookies! They're great. Also be sure to thank Zoey and Kaia for their beautiful drawings. I loved them.

I'll start off with the big news: we got our flight itineraries from the travel office! It's official, we're leaving on the 27th, for real. We fly from SLC to Honolulu, and then from Honolulu to Fiji. We spend a night in both Hawaii and Fiji, and then fly from Fiji to Kiribati. 10 more days, it hardly seems real! So excited.

I'll go through and recap this week:

We're adjusting to being Elder Singh's companions. He is very heavy and I am always very tired after a walk anywhere. You don't realize how much of a slope the MTC is built on until you have to push Elder Singh up a massive hill. Very hard work.

On Tuesday, we had our devotional from someone extra special: Elder Bednar came to talk to us AGAIN! They were holding a conference for all of the new MTC Presidencies here at the Provo MTC, and so Elder Bednar decided that he would give the devotional since he was here anyways. It was great. He just continued the same thing he gave on Christmas! He told us that altogether he got around 1000 questions from the various MTC's, and so he just picked his favorites out of the pool. It was almost better, just because he actually had taken time to prepare for them instead of just off the spur. Off the spur was cooler, because he was still so eloquent and it was "live" but I also liked seeing how he prepared and kind of created a theme out of the questions he chose. He really focused on faith, and I liked it a lot. My favorite thing he talked about was the concept of not receiving a witness until after the trial of our faith. He redefined "witness" and "trial of our faith" in ways I had never thought about before, and it was great. He told us that sometimes the witness we're looking for can end up being nothing more than just the strength to make it one more day, or one more hour. And similarly, he told us that the concept of the "trial of our faith" is not at all what it sounds like. It's not a huge trial necessarily. Usually the trials of our faith that are the most difficult are the smallest, things like reading our scriptures every day; praying morning and night; and for missionaries, following the rules in the white handbook 100% of the time. It was interesting perspective for sure. He also gave an awesome testimony about the Book of Mormon, and it was very powerful. What a cool guy. I'm very grateful I got to see him twice, I know that's rare.

Also on Tuesday we picked up the international Elders for our zone. They're replacing the Fijians who just left, but they're all speaking Tongan. They're all from Australia and New Zealand. It was fun. It's hard to get to know them though, Elder Davis and I had to move down to the first floor with Elder Singh, but the rest of our zone lives on the third floor. It's kind of sad actually, we hardly see anyone at night anymore. Oh well. We get to bed on time more often now which is a definite plus. 

On Wednesday we got to pick up the rest of the new Elders coming into our zones, the ones coming from the states. It was cool though, because now that we've been here for a month we're allowed to participate as hosts and help with luggage/orientation for the Elders when they get dropped off. It was so fun. We got out of a whole block of class, and it was really nice to see how excited everyone was. It was however, very very sad to see all of the crying parents. That part I wasn't too keen on. It was alright though. It just made me excited to call in ten days!

Another really fun thing! We teach lessons to our teachers like they were investigators. We've been teaching one of our investigators for like a week, and we were able to go through the lessons effectively enough in Kiribati (no notes by the way) so we were able to have our investigator/teacher agree to be baptized! Obviously it's not real, but I felt really happy about it.

In terms of other mundane things, I have not gained weight here at the MTC, I've stayed at 158. Some Elders have literally gained 15 pounds this month... so there's that. Other than that, I'm just doing lots of language and lots of class!

I love you all! Hopefully things are going well. Reply with any pressing questions and I'll work on getting them answered. I'm so grateful for this opportunity to be on a mission. Every day is hard, but every day is great. I really love the work, and I know I'm doing the right thing. Thanks for being willing to give me up for a while. I'll see you all in 23 months! (and I'll talk to you all in 10 DAYS!)

Love Dallin

Here are answers to a few more questions we emailed him.  I think because his district is only 4 people they allow a little more time and freedom with email.  He is allowed to let us know he is online and then we go back and forth until his time runs out.  Too bad that luxury will end in one week ;)

*How is the language coming with one week to go?  Are you able to hear native speakers?  I'm sure that sounds really different than your teachers and fellow missionaries.

I turned a corner. I'm at least as effective at communicating in Kiribati as I ever was in Spanish. At least in gospel contexts. I'm fully confident in that translation I sent you last week too now by the way, I was right. I hear native speakers rarely, but when I do I catch it pretty well. Our teachers are really good actually, one is native from Kiribati, one just got back and one is a pronunciation nazi, so I think we're doing alright. I'm starting to like it. And my English is starting to deteriorate. Sorry if things are phrased weird, I sound like an idiot when I try to have a normal conversation.

*Can you translate the phrase: "Come what may and love it"

How about something more terrestrial like: "I love watching football.  The 49ers are my favorite team.  They will win the Super Bowl"

The 49ers play the Seahawks Sunday night and it's literally THE GAME.  Ticket prices are sky high.  The last time they played in Candlestick Seahawks fans paid to have a plane fly a banner that referenced the "12th Man" crowd in Seattle.  This time 49ers fans are paying to have a billboard put up in Seattle that shows the 5 Super Bowl trophies the 49ers have won and asks - "How many do you have?"  FUNNY

Here's my best shot - hypothetical tenses are hard haha

Come What May and Love it - Ngkana bwa e tao roko, tangiria. 

I love watching football.  The 49ers are my favorite team.  They will win the Super Bowl - 

I tangiria n noora te football. I tatangiriia te naan 49ers. A na tokanikai te Super Bowl.

*Any other thoughts from Elder Bednar?

Elder Bednar also talked about spiritual gifts a little bit, he mentioned that the only reason you can ask for a spiritual gift and expect to receive it is if your primary motivation is so that you can act as a conduit through that gift, so that others can receive blessings. It was awesome. 

*We (as in Mom) asked for pictures last week and even sent a list of ideas because he says nothing new is happening and therefore there is no need to take pictures.  When pressed he sent this:

Not sure who is in this picture, I'm stealing some from Elder Davis because I'm a slacker.

Umm - I don't know if a random picture of someone you don't even know is going to make it onto Mom's blog.  You might have to try harder this coming week.

Just kidding, I looked at it, that's in fact Elder Davis. My companion. And he's sleeping on a kie, which is the mats we sleep on in Kiribati. Some apartments have beds, but only those on church property - like attached to chapels kind of. On the outer islands, you live in huts pretty much.  That's a decent enough story to make the blog I think. I will try harder. Nothing new is happening here though.

Here's our contraband fridge. Our former zone leaders gave it to us when they left. We have no idea how long is has been at the MTC or where it originally came from. We're excited to perpetuate it and give it to some other people when we go.

*The contraband fridge is great.  We actually left special "notes" to future missionaries - kind of like geocaches.  We would put them inside vents around the various buildings, in little cracks/crevices, wrap them on the backside of the bunk bed supports.  I'm sure you can think of other creative places.  Just be careful where you stick your hands, though, if you decide to look.

Our zone does that too. We call them Narnia Holes. We found a soccer ball in one, candy in another, a treasure trove of nickels in one, and a bar of soap in another. It's a tradition to replace them with random useless things. Elder Davis filled a few with those small green army guys.

Here's my Ana Boki Moomon. I turned it into a hardback and waterproofed the cover/spine with laminating sheets. It's cool I put pictures of the fam and Kalani in a pocket I put on the inside cover.

Here's Elder Ayala and Elder Singh. Singh is grumpy right now, he doesn't like his haircut so I'm sneaking pictures. 

Here's a bad picture of me from Ayala, and a better one I took myself.

(Closing words from Dad:)

While I'm certainly happy you are where you are, and know you're doing what's right, I can't help but have a few tears as I think of all that lies before you and what you are becoming.  Enjoy every day - literally EVERY SINGLE DAY on your mission.  It's not accurate to say it is the best 2 years of your life - there will be other days/times that are happy and enjoyable; but the sentiment of it being a life changing and uplifting time are real.  Enjoy it and look forward to each new day/challenge/experience.

It was on my mission that I started thinking about hard days as "memories".  After we would have an especially hard or trying day I'd think about that as a new "Memory" that I now got to have and tomorrow would be another day.

I am so proud of you!

Dad

It's good to hear I'm doing the right thing. I'm enjoying every day, for sure, and I'll continue to do my best as it goes on. Every day as a challenge is something I can handle for sure. I like that attitude. Thanks so much Dad. I wrote a reply letter to your big letter you sent earlier this week, hopefully you get it soon. Love you Dad, talk to you in ten days!

We can't wait to talk to him when he is at the airport in 10 days!!  Only one more full week in the MTC!