Singapore 2013-2015: MTC West

Anyway, today is my ninth day here, and I'm loving it. The week is hard, but it is very valuable. Everyone is learning the language very quickly. I have a fake investigator which I have taught five times in Malay so far. We are going to get a new investigator on Friday, so we can learn more about teaching. I feel like I messed up because I kept forgetting everything to do, because it is so hard to speak in Malay. Elder O'Bryant is my companion. He is from Arlington, Washington, and he has already taken a couple years of college through a get-ahead program. Everyone in my district (there are 8 elders and 1 sister, Sister Wynn) is older than me, I am the baby of the place. Anyway, he likes computer programming, and he is really nice. He doesn't get mad very easily so win-win for me.

So there are two sisters that are in our branch that are going to Greece. One is Finnish and the other is Italian. It was a lot of fun to talk to them, especially the Italian one, for obvious reasons. I learned a little Finnish too.

Whoever said that it gets easier after the first Sunday was lying. I really haven't felt home sick or had a hard time adjusting to missionary life, but the days are still so long, and I can't remember one day from the next. I feel like I have been here for months.

Jenny Oaks Baker played in our Sunday night devotional! She gave an hour long devotional. The Sunday is really interesting, actually. It's rather slow, so you get some time to catch your breath after trying to prepare several lessons in a language that you don't know.

My days are all basically the same, but our gym time is usually different each day. We have 50 minutes to do gym time, and I usually run a couple laps, then play volleyball. The Indonesians, Greeks, and Malaysian missionaries all play it, and it's funny because all the Greek missionaries are from Europe, because visas are impossible to get for Americans. So there is a lot of accents saying "smash it!" in different ways.

I have 2 three hour classes with my teachers, brother Simon and brother Horman.

Every morning, i have personal study, language study, and companion study. We seem to have literally no time to read scriptures for OURSELVES. I have read maybe 10 minutes per day of scriptures, and the rest has been working on PMG, and our lessons for investigators, not to mention Malay. I think once I get the hang of the language, it will be so much easier to read more scriptures.

I saw Brigham! Yup, it was an awesome reunion. I caught him in choir, and we talked for a little bit. He is moving up to West MTC on Sept. 4th, so I will see him for a week before I go.