November 17, 2013
Hey Dad!
Yeah I got the package on Wednesday. It was so great:) I got some milk this week so I can have some of that European Chocolate stuff. Mmmmm. Also, the pumpkin spice tea smells and tastes so good! Sophie's painting was also really nice and meicuo (literally no mistake) on the characters for "I love you". And your mission journal entries have been really good. (note: Aaron sent Brendan some of the entries from his own mission journal when he first arrived in Hamburg, Germany) It's fun to see that there are a lot of similarities in the way we both think/thought at this age, but there are also a lot of differences. One really funny thing was when you talked about leaving your family and you said "and then they left and none of us cried." It was awesome. Stone-cold Smiths for the win. It was also really funny when you talked about contacting with your companion and you said "he always beat around the bush with setting up appointments. That's where I came in because I always made sure we set up an appointment." Classic.
As far as pictures go, that's kind of hard because we're only allowed to use cameras on P Day and at baptisms, and the last Sunday before we leave an area. If everything goes to plan with this Liao guy, then we'll have a baptism on 7th of December so I can take pictures with all the ward members then. Until then, you'll just have to imagine haha. Sorry:(
All the kiddos sound like they're doing just dandy. I got an email from everyone but Lucy this week. That was awesome:) I'm glad Damon's getting into some good music, even if it drives Sophie up the wall when he plays the Shins nonstop.
With calling at Christmas, we actually get to use Skype! Elder Sumsion says that when they did it on Mother's day, they went to a member's house and used their computer/ipad. It'll be about 30-40 minutes probably. I'm pretty sure that's going to happen either the P Day before or the P Day after Christmas and we'll probably try to do it a bit earlier in the morning so it'll be about 7 or 8 pm Sunday night your time.
The language is coming well! My mission is really awesome. They have this 3-phase system for learning the language that past missionaries developed and now we use them to learn in the field. It's been really useful. Right now, I'm on phase 1 which is basically chapter 3 of Preach My Gospel in 3 columns. One column is English, the next is pinyin(romanized mandarin Chinese), and the next column in Chinese characters. At the back of each lesson, there's a list of vocab words and teaching phrases, as well as grammar patterns used in the lesson that we are supposed to learn. Our district leader evaluates us on each lesson individually, and then our zone leader evaluates us on lessons 1-3 at the same time, and then 1-5 at the same time. I'm hoping to get all the evaluations completed by the end of this move-call(what our mission calls transfers). Right now I've passed off lesson 1 and 2 and hopefully I'll be passing off 3 on Tuesday. Once phase 1 is done, phase 2 is just a bunch of flashcards that help me understand and speak on topics outside the gospel. Other missionaries say they don't really start understanding everything until they get to phase 2 so I'm trying to get through phase 1 as fast as I can. Wow, that was a lot. Long story short, my language is coming along well. I have a plan, I'm sticking with it, and I'm learning how to teach really well. I'm also getting a lot better with contacting. I'm still awkward a lot of the time, but I have little victories here and there and I understand most of what people say in conversation or I can at least guess. I'm excited to keep improving!
Love you, Dad! Thanks for mailing the entries. I know it must have taken a while to get those all copied, cut, and organized. Your birthday's this Thursday and I put off mailing you something until the last minute. Hopefully I'll be able to get something mailed out today. If not, it might get there kind of late. Maybe more like a Christmas present. For now, Happy Birthday!!
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