Note: This is the letter that Aaron wrote for the family. He ended up not having time to write another one just for the blog.
Well, things have been quite interesting the last few weeks. Every
day here at the MTC, we all get just a little more strange than the day
before.... Then again, that probably has something to do with the fact
that we're all a bunch of 19 year old guys stuck in a classroom for 12+
hours a day. It's totally worth it though. Lots of fun stuff happens to
balance it all out. Sorry I wasn't able to write last week. I'm assuming
you got my letter explaining that I was locked out of my email because
somebody had left the computer in Spanish, so my password kept getting
screwed up. I didn't realize until after I had been locked out why it
kept rejecting my password. So now I know, I need to double check what
language my computer is set to before I try to do anything.
My teachers here at the MTC are totally awesome. Clark
Sensei, our main teacher, is a total fireball, and super goofy. Just the
other day, he was sharing with us a story about how he came home late
one night and saw a couple of girls on the curb just a few houses down
the street who were totally wasted. He thought it was sad, and wanted to
see if there was anything he could do to help them. He had a bag of
gummy bears in his car, so he went to go get them. While he's telling
this story, a couple of native Japanese missionaries who are here at the
MTC walked by our open classroom door just in time to hear him shout,
"Hey, want some gummy bears?!" Haha! That was great. The Japanese elders
gave him some pretty funny looks, Clark Sensei about died of embarrassment, and we all about died laughing.
Every Sunday our branch of missionaries going to japan
has our own separate sacrament meeting. They always randomly select two
missionaries to give 5 minute talks in Japanese, but they never announce
who it is, so everyone is supposed to prepare talks. We were told that
since we were new we could pretty much count on not being called on, and
not to worry about it. I decided to prepare a talk anyway, because I
figured it wouldn't hurt, and they know that I've studied Japanese
before. It's a good thing I did, because wouldn't you know it, I was
asked to speak during my first sacrament meeting at the MTC (since the
first Sunday was fast Sunday). So that was exciting.
Last night, just for fun, some of us went through our
textbook "Learning to Read the Book of Mormon in Japanese", and used the
kanji dictionary in the back to find kanji we could use to write our
names. So, with the choices available to me based on which kanji are
used in The Book of Mormon, the combination I ended up deciding on means
"An enduring example of men." I hope I can live up to that so that it
actually has some significance. Speaking of which, I'm really enjoying
working on reading The Book of Mormon in Japanese. I don't get a whole
lot of time to do it since speaking is a much higher priority, but it's
coming along, and my comprehension is around 80-90%. I still have to
look up a couple of words now and then obviously, but it's fun.
There's so much stuff going on, and It's hard to decide
what to share, mostly because a lot of it doesn't make sense without
lengthy prologues, and I can't remember what I've already shared and
haven't shared. Regardless though, it's been a great experience so far,
and I'm looking forward to what else is in store. I miss you guys, and
hope everything is going well for you all.
Elder Blake
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