Well I made it out here to the field, my first week was brutal and strenuous but lots of fun. First off here is my address of where I am now so you can start sending food and stuff to me:
1101 Wilson Road #509
Conroe TX 77301
The mission is divided up into about 5 or 6 areas. My area is the Woodlands area which is quite a ways north of Houston. My proselyting area is this city called Conroe. It's almost the size of Orem, I think. Demographically it's a lot like Orem but population wise not as much I think. Anyway, it's pretty diverse, lots of hispanics, whites with their thick Texan accents and lots of Blacks too. It's an interesting place. Oh and I found out that this mission, the Houston Texas mission is pretty much one of the best missions. Do you want to know why? Well I think Austin will especially like this but Chuck Norris lives in our mission. That's right, no joke, he lives somewhere north of here in the College Station area, but yeah, isn't that neat? Chuck Norris lives in our mission. I'm gonna go baptize him eventually.
So anyway let me talk about what's happened. And I have pretty much all the time I want to e-mail so that's good. So the flight was okay, it the smallest plane I had ever been on. Only four seats wide, we flew in through some rain and finally landed. There were about 14 of us, 7 were spanish elders and the others were English Elders, one of them was Ryan Shaw, who I went to high school with. Anyway we met President and Sister Hanson along with the AP's (assistants to the president, meaning two missionaries who assist the president). President and Sister Hanson are real nice, I like them. So we left the airport and the moment I stepped outside the humidity hit me like a wet towel, it wasn't that bad, in fact it reminded me a lot of Georgia, only a little bit hotter. We piled into numerous vehicles with our luggage and went to the mission office which is somewhere south of where I am now in another area. We met the senior missionary couples who run the office and they gave us a little introduction and run down of things go around here. Then we went across the street to a chapel to eat. Some member owns some BBQ restaurant and he brought some food and after 9 weeks of MTC gruel it was the nicest food I'd ever eaten. It was some BBQ brisket with potato salad and baked beans. It was delicious. Oh! And guess what they had for dessert? Go ahead and guess...... Texas Sheet cake. I'm serious, they had Texas Sheet cake. I was incredulous at first, I remember when I had asked you, dad, if they actually had Texas Sheet cake in Texas, and you didn't think so. Well they do. And it was really good, I couldn't decided if it was better than Mom's or not, it was more moist, that's for sure but I still couldn't decide.
So then it was like 7:00 and a bunch of veteran missionaries came to go on splits with us to go do appointments and tracting and whatnot. I was a little nervous, we were finally going to do the real thing now, no more fake investigators, we were going to see actual people. So Elder Manship and I went with 3 elders, Elders Frost, Barret, and someone else. As we were driving there we stopped at this one intersection and I looked around and noticed that there were thousands of crows, on the power lines, the signs, the buildings, everywhere. It looked just like that Alfred Hitchcock movie with all those birds, though fortunately they were all squawking to each other, rather than sitting there silently, that was kinda creepy.
So we got to this apartment complex place and we split up and went a tracting. We knocked on doors and talked to all sorts of people, mostly hispanics, some blacks, and even one white person. Since there were 5 of us we split in 3 and two, and I was one of the 3 so I didn't have to do much but it was still a little nerve wracking. I did some of them to, in english and spanish, I'd say the little spiel and then they'd ask me something and I'd look at one of my companions and they'd take it from there.
It was kind of fun. Anyway, the english missionaries went back to the office for the night and us spanish missionaries got to spend the night at President Hanson's home. That was nice, after 9 weeks on a lumpy MTC bed of rocks, sleeping on a real mattress, a real CLEAN mattress was great, I fell asleep almost instantly.
The next we had a big breakfast in the President's home and then the companionships were announced. My trainer is Elder Astin, he's from Salt Lake, and has been out about 15 months now. He's a good trainer, speaks spanish fluently and always knows what to do. Then we went to the Houston Temple to do a session. That was neat, the Houston Temple looks a lot cooler than the Provo Temple, like castle. It's a lot smaller but looks a lot more new.
Then we had a training meeting thing in a chapel where we had some chili and cornbread, made by the same guy from the day before. It was also really good. Anyway during the training meeting I was sitting there and noticed a pass along card on a piano, it had the salt lake temple on it and I remembered that on the night before when were tracting we had given out lots of pass along cards and stuck them in people doors and what not so I grabbed it and put it in my pocket.
So the meeting ended and we were off to go to our area. We were picked up by Elder Brown and Elder Nelson, two english elders who we share our apartment with. Then we went to a place called bike world to get a bike. Dad, if you've been keeping on top of my bank account you will notice that about $400 and a bit more are no longer there. I bought the cheapest bike in the store, a black and white mountain bike and a helmet. So yeah, keep on top of that checking account.
Uh oh, I have like 8 minutes left. We are in a library and you get like an hour to each computer session but I think I can just log back in again so there should hopefully be another email directly after this one. So I got the bike, we went shopping so I could get some food. So I found out how the whole money thing works. We have our own little credit card things. At the beginning of each month we get $100 from the mission put onto our card. That represents our food for that month. I got a few things, I was afraid to spend to much. So anyway, Mom, this is your area of expertise, so if you want to mail me some ideas on food and stuff I can make that's really cheap but will keep me healthy that would be great.
Woah, two minutes left, so in case I can't do another e-mail here is some stuff I need:
-my camel back, if it's still intact, and I don't need the actual water sack thing, just the bag. (my backpack isn't the most biking friendly bag)
- my bike chain, I think one of the boys has it.
-hair gel (my hair is coming back)
- a sharpie (the other elders are very territorial over who's food is who's so we all label our food)
30 seconds. Love y'all, bye. I should hopefully get to do another one in a minute.
At the Airport
Alex called me this morning while he was waiting for his plane to Houston. We got to talk for about a half hour. It was really good to hear his voice. He sounds so much older, he really does. We just chatted about everyone and everything it was great! When he gets settled he will let me know his new address and I will leave it here on this blog.
Disposable Heroes
October 1, 2009
Howdy, family
This will be my last e-mail from the MTC. Pretty amazing huh? My last P-day in here, we, or rather I, call P-day 'El Santa Dia' which means the holy day. Cause that's what it is. It's a holy day. So... Again I don't have too much to say, the MTC is boring. I'm glad to get out of here. Oh, okay, I got something. So on Wednesday, which was yesterday our district had the assignment, along with many others to be host missionaries, which means we get to help the new missionaries like on the day when I was dropped off. It was kinda fun, watching these families drop their sons off and bawling, it was hilarious. I saw the Ebmeyers, I didn't get a chance to talk to Elder Ebmeyer as he was whisked away by the other host missionaries but I did get to talk to Bro. and Sis. Ebmeyer and their other son whose name I can't remember... Trevon or something.... I can't remember anything anymore except churchy spanish stuff having to do with the mission.
Thanks for the phone card thing, I had never heard that we get to call home when in the airport, actually I think I did hear it but I thought it was a rumor or something or that it was for missionaries going international, I don't know. Someone will tell us, but I'll definitely try to call on Wednesday when we're in the airport. The 4 missionaries in my district who are going to Chile leave on Monday while the rest of us 6 Texicans leave Wednesday morning.
So conference will be this week, it will be pretty intense, probably the first time I'll have ever watched conference in sunday clothes, without a pillow or blanket, and without the crash of someone digging through the lego box. So yeah, it'll be good.
And Dad you didn't tell me how to say the joke with the brain sucker that hispanics don't get. I suppose I could figure it out myself though... Oh and Alyssa I want to know how your Latin is going with Dr. Lillian, I would guess that you've learned nothing at all, either because you've dropped the class or the fact that it's Dr. Lillian and she's crazy.
Well that's all I got to say, I've got a surprise for y'all on the way, you might get it on Monday or Tuesday, depending on when I get around to sending it. Oh and I need a couple things. My flip flops and some stamps. That'd be great if you could send that stuff. Okay, Paz Suerte. Which means 'peace out'. Though I don't think hispanics actually say that, in fact I'm sure they don't actually say that, we have a lot of random things like that, sayings we have in english that we translate into spanish but that no hispanic would ever say. They're funny.
-Elder Rice
Howdy, family
This will be my last e-mail from the MTC. Pretty amazing huh? My last P-day in here, we, or rather I, call P-day 'El Santa Dia' which means the holy day. Cause that's what it is. It's a holy day. So... Again I don't have too much to say, the MTC is boring. I'm glad to get out of here. Oh, okay, I got something. So on Wednesday, which was yesterday our district had the assignment, along with many others to be host missionaries, which means we get to help the new missionaries like on the day when I was dropped off. It was kinda fun, watching these families drop their sons off and bawling, it was hilarious. I saw the Ebmeyers, I didn't get a chance to talk to Elder Ebmeyer as he was whisked away by the other host missionaries but I did get to talk to Bro. and Sis. Ebmeyer and their other son whose name I can't remember... Trevon or something.... I can't remember anything anymore except churchy spanish stuff having to do with the mission.
Thanks for the phone card thing, I had never heard that we get to call home when in the airport, actually I think I did hear it but I thought it was a rumor or something or that it was for missionaries going international, I don't know. Someone will tell us, but I'll definitely try to call on Wednesday when we're in the airport. The 4 missionaries in my district who are going to Chile leave on Monday while the rest of us 6 Texicans leave Wednesday morning.
So conference will be this week, it will be pretty intense, probably the first time I'll have ever watched conference in sunday clothes, without a pillow or blanket, and without the crash of someone digging through the lego box. So yeah, it'll be good.
And Dad you didn't tell me how to say the joke with the brain sucker that hispanics don't get. I suppose I could figure it out myself though... Oh and Alyssa I want to know how your Latin is going with Dr. Lillian, I would guess that you've learned nothing at all, either because you've dropped the class or the fact that it's Dr. Lillian and she's crazy.
Well that's all I got to say, I've got a surprise for y'all on the way, you might get it on Monday or Tuesday, depending on when I get around to sending it. Oh and I need a couple things. My flip flops and some stamps. That'd be great if you could send that stuff. Okay, Paz Suerte. Which means 'peace out'. Though I don't think hispanics actually say that, in fact I'm sure they don't actually say that, we have a lot of random things like that, sayings we have in english that we translate into spanish but that no hispanic would ever say. They're funny.
-Elder Rice
Ashes of the Wake
Howdy family, hows it going? Como lleva? I haven't figured out how to make upside-down question marks yet on a computer. But it's good. So... Not a lot has been going on. We have a week and like 5 days till we leave for the field. I'm ready for it, I'm ready to get out of this dank prison and out into the field and actually do stuff.
This week was kinda crazy, on sunday our Branch President, President Dickerson, walked in and basically decided on a whim to change up our companionships in our district. Not just for the day but our remaining time in the MTC. It was pretty random, we had to switch rooms up in the dorms and every thing. I got paired up with Elder Armstrong, formerly Elder O'Keefe, he's gotten his name changed cause of something to do with a step dad or something but anyway, Elder Armstrong is from somewhere around LA in California, he's one of those typical jock types who are into sports and dirt bikes and motorcycles and whatnot, and he's from California and his family is quite wealthy, he has like $80 ties and whatnot. I don't know why anyone would spend $80 on a tie but whatever... So we don't have a lot in common but we get along really well, he knows a lot of stuff and we teach together really well for a number of reasons. Not the least of which is the fact that our Spanish is about at the same level so, so far our leccions have gone well unlike before with Elder Wood because he knew all spanish and I would never really speak a lot and just chip in every now and then.
So yeah, Spanish goeth well, Yo se todo espanol. Pero yo no se todo espanol correcto. Har har. I can actually speak like all day in spanish, I haven't just because nobody else will but I could, I could get around. This last week and for the next week we're getting into the intense stuff, all the subjunctive tenses and whatnot as far as the actual subjunctive verb endings go they're pretty simple, the trouble is knowing when to use them, luckily there are some triggers or conjunctions that let you know when to use subjunctive stuff but still it's kinda vague, we don't have anything like in english so it's rather bizarre.
So we've gotten a couple new districts, and when the rest of the zone goes in there to meet them we all introduce ourselves by saying our name, where we are from and where we are going. And then we'll all sing 'Tengo Gozo En Mi Alma Hoy' which in english is the 'There is Sunshine in My Soul Today' or something like that. I can't even remember any hymns in english anymore. Unfortunately we don't actually sing it, we roar it, which much irreverence, clapping during the chorus, echoing the "hay's" and ending with a bunch of arribas and stuff. So yeah, it's not really a hymn when the whole zone signs it. It quite traumatizing. I remember when they did it to us on our first day and I was thinking that these people are freaking insane. Anyway, during these I'll say: "Me llamo Elder Rice, soy de Glasgow Scotland, voy a Houston Texas." Yeah, I tell them I'm from Scotland, and speaking spanish with a fake scottish accent is fun. And they actually buy it! Harar! It's probably because when we play soccer out on the field for gym I shout and scream with my fake scottish accent. It's fun, they think I'm absolutely insane. Which is great. Because I am going insane, I don't like care about anything anymore, sometimes I even forget I ever lived anywhere other than the MTC or knew anyone else aside from my zone. And I just don't care about those sorts of things. My companion likes to talk a lot about what he wants to do when he gets back, I don't cause I don't really care at the moment, nor do I think about it. Which is good.
Well I'm out of things to say. Oh and NO Austin you cannot have the speakers, or the player, or my itunes account number, if I were to give it to you, you would be able to buy songs and crud with my debit card. just get that music rescue program and rip the songs off the ipod and put the files into itunes. It's simple.
There will be one more e-mail I'll send you before I get out to the field so peace out.
----- Elder Rice
This week was kinda crazy, on sunday our Branch President, President Dickerson, walked in and basically decided on a whim to change up our companionships in our district. Not just for the day but our remaining time in the MTC. It was pretty random, we had to switch rooms up in the dorms and every thing. I got paired up with Elder Armstrong, formerly Elder O'Keefe, he's gotten his name changed cause of something to do with a step dad or something but anyway, Elder Armstrong is from somewhere around LA in California, he's one of those typical jock types who are into sports and dirt bikes and motorcycles and whatnot, and he's from California and his family is quite wealthy, he has like $80 ties and whatnot. I don't know why anyone would spend $80 on a tie but whatever... So we don't have a lot in common but we get along really well, he knows a lot of stuff and we teach together really well for a number of reasons. Not the least of which is the fact that our Spanish is about at the same level so, so far our leccions have gone well unlike before with Elder Wood because he knew all spanish and I would never really speak a lot and just chip in every now and then.
So yeah, Spanish goeth well, Yo se todo espanol. Pero yo no se todo espanol correcto. Har har. I can actually speak like all day in spanish, I haven't just because nobody else will but I could, I could get around. This last week and for the next week we're getting into the intense stuff, all the subjunctive tenses and whatnot as far as the actual subjunctive verb endings go they're pretty simple, the trouble is knowing when to use them, luckily there are some triggers or conjunctions that let you know when to use subjunctive stuff but still it's kinda vague, we don't have anything like in english so it's rather bizarre.
So we've gotten a couple new districts, and when the rest of the zone goes in there to meet them we all introduce ourselves by saying our name, where we are from and where we are going. And then we'll all sing 'Tengo Gozo En Mi Alma Hoy' which in english is the 'There is Sunshine in My Soul Today' or something like that. I can't even remember any hymns in english anymore. Unfortunately we don't actually sing it, we roar it, which much irreverence, clapping during the chorus, echoing the "hay's" and ending with a bunch of arribas and stuff. So yeah, it's not really a hymn when the whole zone signs it. It quite traumatizing. I remember when they did it to us on our first day and I was thinking that these people are freaking insane. Anyway, during these I'll say: "Me llamo Elder Rice, soy de Glasgow Scotland, voy a Houston Texas." Yeah, I tell them I'm from Scotland, and speaking spanish with a fake scottish accent is fun. And they actually buy it! Harar! It's probably because when we play soccer out on the field for gym I shout and scream with my fake scottish accent. It's fun, they think I'm absolutely insane. Which is great. Because I am going insane, I don't like care about anything anymore, sometimes I even forget I ever lived anywhere other than the MTC or knew anyone else aside from my zone. And I just don't care about those sorts of things. My companion likes to talk a lot about what he wants to do when he gets back, I don't cause I don't really care at the moment, nor do I think about it. Which is good.
Well I'm out of things to say. Oh and NO Austin you cannot have the speakers, or the player, or my itunes account number, if I were to give it to you, you would be able to buy songs and crud with my debit card. just get that music rescue program and rip the songs off the ipod and put the files into itunes. It's simple.
There will be one more e-mail I'll send you before I get out to the field so peace out.
----- Elder Rice
Elder Holland
September, 17, 2009
Howdy y'all.
So..... Not much to say this time. Not a lot happens that much anymore. Actually something amazing did happen. On Tuesday Elder Holland and his wife came and spoke to us. It was epic. Elder Holland is brutal, he totally destroyed us, waving his hands around and just bringing down the hammer on us. It was great, I could have sat there forever and listened to him screaming in my face. The gist of it all was that we had better not waste a single moment of our mission, not a single moment, he told us that we will regret wasting our time on our missions because we only we get to do this once. Well once as young missionaries anyway, it's probably not quite the same for senior missionaries. In fact, here at the MTC the senior missionaries get like an hour or two of nap time after lunch. I wish we had nap time, we need it more than they do. So yeah, it was epic. We were hoping for something, since we heard that President Monson was speaking at BYU for the devotional on Tuesday so we hoped that he'd just come across the street and speak to us that night. We weren't disappointed though, we got Elder Holland, he's brutal.
Speaking of nap times, yeah it's hard for me to sleep. But I sleep a lot better now, not only cause of the medication but probably because I'm finally used to the stupid mattress and cheap blankets, that and by the end of every day I'm exhausted just from doing what we usually do. Perhaps I'm working hard, which is what we should be doing.
Spanish is still coming along. It doesn’t feel like I've learned much but when I look back and when I'm teaching a lesson I realize how much I know, which still isn't much but huge compared to what I knew before. Yeah..... It's good....
Oh okay, I got something else to talk about. On Monday Elder Wood was wounded playing basketball, someone stepped on his foot or something while he turned or something and he got a real nasty sprained ankle. It's kinda funny, he's like 6'5, the tallest guy on the court and somebody steps on him? Harhar. He couldn't walk on it, so he spent two days on crutches and one day on a single crutch and today he doesn't need any and he limps along just fine. He recovered quickly but those first few days were miserable not only for him but for me as well. He was virtually helpless so I had to help him do everything short of helping him change his clothes and using the bathroom. I also had to wrap and unwrap his foot a lot. Which I dreaded the most, I think I mentioned before that Elder Wood has the nastiest smelling feet on the face of the planet. So yeah...... I should get a medal or something, I'm good enough to be a battlefield surgeon by now. Elder Wood still thinks I'm nuts, that other day when we got that nice thunderstorm, much to his displeasure I went outside in the pouring rain and ran around in circles roaring with delight. Cause I just love thunderstorms and rain, I'll probably be sick of rain by the end of my mission but out here in the wastes of Utah I love them, so yeah.
Anyway, that's pretty much all I have to say. And I only have like 3 weeks left.... pretty scary.... I'm actually eager to get out to field though, I'm tired of rotting in this prison, I want to teach actual people rather than volunteers pretending they are investigadores. Sooooo...... yeah. That's all I have to say for now. Oh I started another epic letter to answer all your questions and whatnot so if you have questions and stuff for me, send them now.
--Elder Rice
Howdy y'all.
So..... Not much to say this time. Not a lot happens that much anymore. Actually something amazing did happen. On Tuesday Elder Holland and his wife came and spoke to us. It was epic. Elder Holland is brutal, he totally destroyed us, waving his hands around and just bringing down the hammer on us. It was great, I could have sat there forever and listened to him screaming in my face. The gist of it all was that we had better not waste a single moment of our mission, not a single moment, he told us that we will regret wasting our time on our missions because we only we get to do this once. Well once as young missionaries anyway, it's probably not quite the same for senior missionaries. In fact, here at the MTC the senior missionaries get like an hour or two of nap time after lunch. I wish we had nap time, we need it more than they do. So yeah, it was epic. We were hoping for something, since we heard that President Monson was speaking at BYU for the devotional on Tuesday so we hoped that he'd just come across the street and speak to us that night. We weren't disappointed though, we got Elder Holland, he's brutal.
Speaking of nap times, yeah it's hard for me to sleep. But I sleep a lot better now, not only cause of the medication but probably because I'm finally used to the stupid mattress and cheap blankets, that and by the end of every day I'm exhausted just from doing what we usually do. Perhaps I'm working hard, which is what we should be doing.
Spanish is still coming along. It doesn’t feel like I've learned much but when I look back and when I'm teaching a lesson I realize how much I know, which still isn't much but huge compared to what I knew before. Yeah..... It's good....
Oh okay, I got something else to talk about. On Monday Elder Wood was wounded playing basketball, someone stepped on his foot or something while he turned or something and he got a real nasty sprained ankle. It's kinda funny, he's like 6'5, the tallest guy on the court and somebody steps on him? Harhar. He couldn't walk on it, so he spent two days on crutches and one day on a single crutch and today he doesn't need any and he limps along just fine. He recovered quickly but those first few days were miserable not only for him but for me as well. He was virtually helpless so I had to help him do everything short of helping him change his clothes and using the bathroom. I also had to wrap and unwrap his foot a lot. Which I dreaded the most, I think I mentioned before that Elder Wood has the nastiest smelling feet on the face of the planet. So yeah...... I should get a medal or something, I'm good enough to be a battlefield surgeon by now. Elder Wood still thinks I'm nuts, that other day when we got that nice thunderstorm, much to his displeasure I went outside in the pouring rain and ran around in circles roaring with delight. Cause I just love thunderstorms and rain, I'll probably be sick of rain by the end of my mission but out here in the wastes of Utah I love them, so yeah.
Anyway, that's pretty much all I have to say. And I only have like 3 weeks left.... pretty scary.... I'm actually eager to get out to field though, I'm tired of rotting in this prison, I want to teach actual people rather than volunteers pretending they are investigadores. Sooooo...... yeah. That's all I have to say for now. Oh I started another epic letter to answer all your questions and whatnot so if you have questions and stuff for me, send them now.
--Elder Rice
Frayed Ends of Sanity
Dear Family
How goeth normal life? It's probably pretty intense, I would guess. Life here is like that movie with Bill Murray where he re-lives the same day over and over again. What's it called? Like Ground-hog day or something? Anyway, that's pretty much what living here is like living the same day over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over again. I could hardly believe that I've been here like a month now and that we have a bit less than a month before we're deployed to the front lines.
I kinda want to get out there already, the MTC is boring. I feel like I could teach pretty good but I don't quite know enough spanish. I'm pretty good but it takes me a minute or two to process what people are saying, so in our mock discussions with "investigators" I hear and understand most of their words but it'll take me a minute to figure out just what it was that they were saying. And sometimes they talk so fast that I don't have time to think about what they were saying. I'll get it eventually, besides, I'll have to re-learn everything out in the field, because the native speakers probably sound a lot different than our computer programs and return missionary teachers. Though I'm getting it, my writing is really screwed up and I starting writing things with Spanish spellings and whatnot, so don't be surprised if my spellings come out a little funny. I did that the other day when in the RC I was telling some guy over a chat what prophets were and I unknowingly typed 'profetas'.
I really don't have a lot to say today, not a lot has happened, or least not that I remember, when you relive the same day over and over and over and over again there's not really a lot that sticks out. Ah, wait, okay. 2 days ago on Tuesday for the devotional we had Elder Richard Hinckley and his wife speak to us. Remember when he spoke to us a few years ago for stake conference? He's still really funny and he shared the same story about the English guy and the whatever church it was that he was a part of and how political their church is etc, etc, etc. So yeah that was pretty cool.
I don't have any funny stories but I will tell some things or some hilarity. Our district is rather terrible when it comes to singing. Of the 10 of us there are about 3 (not including myself) who know how to sing and the rest of us suck real bad. So whenever we sing a hymn it's pretty painful. In the TEC which stands for something about teaching, they have workshops for entire districts with other teachers. There are language workshops, study workshops, planning workshops, and many more but much to the disappointment of our district leader there is no workshop for music. So yeah, we're pretty terrible. One of our teachers, Hermano Hanson was telling us that it was a good idea to sing at the start of a lesson with an investigator. Elder Wood wanted to do that the next time we were in the TEC and having another mock discussion with a teacher playing as an investigator. I expressed my thoughts that it wasn't a good idea, but we ended up doing it anyway, we picked a rather easy song, 'Families can be together forever'. And it was horrible, just like I thought it was gonna be. I actually don't think I sound that bad but I can't read music so I ended up singing the first part along to the chorus while Elder Wood, well I told you about Elder wood's voice, that and he sung very very very quiet. I won't go into the details but it sufficeth me to say that we won't be doing that again any time soon. So yeah, we suck. We're in trouble when it comes to our last week and our district will have to a special musical number in our Zone sacrament meeting.
It suddenly occurred to me that school started again. I didn't realize that till just now, I also just remembered that Austin is starting middle school. Well Austin, I'm gonna tell you straight up that those two years at Dixon were probably the worst two years of my entire life. Middle school sucks, everyone is a jerk and you have no idea what is going on and nor do you know why everyone is mean or so stupid all the time. My advice for you would be to take advantage of your large size and be all intimidating, you're pretty easy to walk all over, so be brutal and don't let anyone try to push you around. Just stand up straight and stare at them with a scary expression on your face that says "I'm going to Kill you." But don't actually get in a fight, that would be bad.
Hmmm..... I've got five minutes left, nothing much to say. Aidan you sound like your doing really good in flag football, crush your enemies, show them no mercy. Any it Sounds like fun, and your birthday too, but the lego clock sounded lame.
Well yeah, thanks for the stuff, oh and by the way you'll get a bill concerning some medical stuff, that's just for some medication to help me sleep, I don't sleep good at all here in these musty dank rooms. So that's what that is, shouldn't be too much. So yeah, that's pretty much all I have to say. Oh wait! Dad when you get around to sending me another letter please include the dialog for the brain sucking joke thing. I love you all.
-Elder Rice
How goeth normal life? It's probably pretty intense, I would guess. Life here is like that movie with Bill Murray where he re-lives the same day over and over again. What's it called? Like Ground-hog day or something? Anyway, that's pretty much what living here is like living the same day over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over again. I could hardly believe that I've been here like a month now and that we have a bit less than a month before we're deployed to the front lines.
I kinda want to get out there already, the MTC is boring. I feel like I could teach pretty good but I don't quite know enough spanish. I'm pretty good but it takes me a minute or two to process what people are saying, so in our mock discussions with "investigators" I hear and understand most of their words but it'll take me a minute to figure out just what it was that they were saying. And sometimes they talk so fast that I don't have time to think about what they were saying. I'll get it eventually, besides, I'll have to re-learn everything out in the field, because the native speakers probably sound a lot different than our computer programs and return missionary teachers. Though I'm getting it, my writing is really screwed up and I starting writing things with Spanish spellings and whatnot, so don't be surprised if my spellings come out a little funny. I did that the other day when in the RC I was telling some guy over a chat what prophets were and I unknowingly typed 'profetas'.
I really don't have a lot to say today, not a lot has happened, or least not that I remember, when you relive the same day over and over and over and over again there's not really a lot that sticks out. Ah, wait, okay. 2 days ago on Tuesday for the devotional we had Elder Richard Hinckley and his wife speak to us. Remember when he spoke to us a few years ago for stake conference? He's still really funny and he shared the same story about the English guy and the whatever church it was that he was a part of and how political their church is etc, etc, etc. So yeah that was pretty cool.
I don't have any funny stories but I will tell some things or some hilarity. Our district is rather terrible when it comes to singing. Of the 10 of us there are about 3 (not including myself) who know how to sing and the rest of us suck real bad. So whenever we sing a hymn it's pretty painful. In the TEC which stands for something about teaching, they have workshops for entire districts with other teachers. There are language workshops, study workshops, planning workshops, and many more but much to the disappointment of our district leader there is no workshop for music. So yeah, we're pretty terrible. One of our teachers, Hermano Hanson was telling us that it was a good idea to sing at the start of a lesson with an investigator. Elder Wood wanted to do that the next time we were in the TEC and having another mock discussion with a teacher playing as an investigator. I expressed my thoughts that it wasn't a good idea, but we ended up doing it anyway, we picked a rather easy song, 'Families can be together forever'. And it was horrible, just like I thought it was gonna be. I actually don't think I sound that bad but I can't read music so I ended up singing the first part along to the chorus while Elder Wood, well I told you about Elder wood's voice, that and he sung very very very quiet. I won't go into the details but it sufficeth me to say that we won't be doing that again any time soon. So yeah, we suck. We're in trouble when it comes to our last week and our district will have to a special musical number in our Zone sacrament meeting.
It suddenly occurred to me that school started again. I didn't realize that till just now, I also just remembered that Austin is starting middle school. Well Austin, I'm gonna tell you straight up that those two years at Dixon were probably the worst two years of my entire life. Middle school sucks, everyone is a jerk and you have no idea what is going on and nor do you know why everyone is mean or so stupid all the time. My advice for you would be to take advantage of your large size and be all intimidating, you're pretty easy to walk all over, so be brutal and don't let anyone try to push you around. Just stand up straight and stare at them with a scary expression on your face that says "I'm going to Kill you." But don't actually get in a fight, that would be bad.
Hmmm..... I've got five minutes left, nothing much to say. Aidan you sound like your doing really good in flag football, crush your enemies, show them no mercy. Any it Sounds like fun, and your birthday too, but the lego clock sounded lame.
Well yeah, thanks for the stuff, oh and by the way you'll get a bill concerning some medical stuff, that's just for some medication to help me sleep, I don't sleep good at all here in these musty dank rooms. So that's what that is, shouldn't be too much. So yeah, that's pretty much all I have to say. Oh wait! Dad when you get around to sending me another letter please include the dialog for the brain sucking joke thing. I love you all.
-Elder Rice
Skeletons of Society
Family.
How goeth life in the secular world? Time doesn't pass, at all here in the MTC, there are no clocks or calendars, so we pretty much have to rely on our internal clocks and the odd watch here and there. And whats with that smoke and stuff in the sky? We assume there is a fire about, but they won't tell us what goes on in the world outside of the MTC. There could be some huge school shooting at BYU and they wouldn't tell us about it.
So.... For once I don't have all that much to say. Nothing all that remarkable has happened, my Spanish is getting better. Now I can generally get the main point of what I'm trying to say across and I can communicate basic ideas and stuff, I still have trouble with conjugation of verbs and whatnot though. Spanish pretty much has no rules and there a bunch of random aspects that don't make much sense at all, you just kinda have to roll with it.
Okay, here's an amusing story. So last week the other Elders in our room, Allbee and Manship, dismantled their bunk bed and put them both on the floor and then we started hanging sheets from the ceiling and we got rather carried away with it. So it was a pretty much a reconstruction of the old Israelite Tabernacle with the different rooms separated by hanging sheets and whatnot. It was pretty funny. Every Friday there is a room check where the custodial staff goes into our rooms, checks them out, and leaves behind a slip of paper saying how well we did. We've pretty much failed it every time, they have a checklist of things that should and should not be done. Like locking the door and leaving the lights off. They have a few random ones like "don't remove the window caulking" and "don't remove the side bed post thing." We haven't yet done this, but we're determined to get a perfect 0 on our room check one of these days, it will be epic.
Unfortunately this all had to go back up, on Sunday we had a couple districts from our Zone leaving. And when such an event occurs we do what I call foolish traditions of our fathers. Every Sunday we're to stay in our normal proselyting clothes until 10:00 rather than getting rid of them right at 9:30 like we do every other night. I hate it, it's stupid, and I show my defiance by not wearing my tie and un-buttoning my collar. Oh yeah, I am such a rebel. Anyway, then we do this other abominable practice called 'the hug line' in which everyone lines up and one end of the line moves down the other and thus ends up in everyone giving a hug to everyone. I hate that too, I'm not much of a touchy-feely person to start off with but hugging 30 or so sweaty, smelly other Elders is nasty. I want to take a shower after these abominable practice but there isn't enough time after that. And our Branch President comes up into the dorms and wanders around talking to everyone who's leaving. So we were in our room, and we hear that the President is going around to all of the rooms, now we still had all the sheets up and the beds down. So in a manner of seconds we quickly reconstructed our room as it was before. It was fast, it would have impressed those NASCAR teams who change tires during the races. Literally 5 seconds after we finished the President, (who's name is President Dickerson by the way) opened the door and came in and asked us if we were going to participate in the stupid hug line. We said yes, and went out. He didn't see a thing. We are amazing.
Another amusing story. So here in the MTC you can get T-shirts that have various countries at states for the missions in them. They're white, with a picture of the flag in the middle and the state motto or country motto or whatever it is, and information such as languages spoken there, population, how many square miles, etc. So Elder Wood wanted us to get Texas T-shirts. I didn't particularly want one but Elder Wood persisted on the grounds that we ought to love our mission areas, I agreed but said that we don't necessarily need some stupid T-shirts to love our mission area. Never the less I was tired of his prattling so I went in with him to fill out a slip for our T-shirts. But unbeknownst to him I didn't select the Texas shirt, I filled out one for a Sweden shirt, and about a week later we got them and Elder was flabbergasted and somewhat outraged that I had a Sweden T-shirt rather than a Texas one. I laughed, Sweden is el mejor. So now I got myself a sweet Sweden T-Shirt. I think I might get Norway and Austria shirts too.
Ummmmm..... I got 6 minutes, I don't know what else to say. Life here is one really long day punctuated by all too short periods of unconsciousness. The routine has gotten so regular that I barely notice the passage of time. Personal Study Time is my favorite time because I can study, by myself, and not to have to talk to anyone. So yeah.... I'm still alive, but for how long? This food is killing me, hopefully I will send my huge letter to ye'all that I finally completed today, it details some of the effects of the nasty food and I'm sure Aidan and Austin will find it hilarious. Happy birthday Alyssa and Aidan, you finally got a Tablet eh? Oh and the mac, har,. Oh and could you send me some face-wash or something? This hand "soap" as they call it in the bathrooms just ain't cutting it. Peace out.
---Elder Rice
How goeth life in the secular world? Time doesn't pass, at all here in the MTC, there are no clocks or calendars, so we pretty much have to rely on our internal clocks and the odd watch here and there. And whats with that smoke and stuff in the sky? We assume there is a fire about, but they won't tell us what goes on in the world outside of the MTC. There could be some huge school shooting at BYU and they wouldn't tell us about it.
So.... For once I don't have all that much to say. Nothing all that remarkable has happened, my Spanish is getting better. Now I can generally get the main point of what I'm trying to say across and I can communicate basic ideas and stuff, I still have trouble with conjugation of verbs and whatnot though. Spanish pretty much has no rules and there a bunch of random aspects that don't make much sense at all, you just kinda have to roll with it.
Okay, here's an amusing story. So last week the other Elders in our room, Allbee and Manship, dismantled their bunk bed and put them both on the floor and then we started hanging sheets from the ceiling and we got rather carried away with it. So it was a pretty much a reconstruction of the old Israelite Tabernacle with the different rooms separated by hanging sheets and whatnot. It was pretty funny. Every Friday there is a room check where the custodial staff goes into our rooms, checks them out, and leaves behind a slip of paper saying how well we did. We've pretty much failed it every time, they have a checklist of things that should and should not be done. Like locking the door and leaving the lights off. They have a few random ones like "don't remove the window caulking" and "don't remove the side bed post thing." We haven't yet done this, but we're determined to get a perfect 0 on our room check one of these days, it will be epic.
Unfortunately this all had to go back up, on Sunday we had a couple districts from our Zone leaving. And when such an event occurs we do what I call foolish traditions of our fathers. Every Sunday we're to stay in our normal proselyting clothes until 10:00 rather than getting rid of them right at 9:30 like we do every other night. I hate it, it's stupid, and I show my defiance by not wearing my tie and un-buttoning my collar. Oh yeah, I am such a rebel. Anyway, then we do this other abominable practice called 'the hug line' in which everyone lines up and one end of the line moves down the other and thus ends up in everyone giving a hug to everyone. I hate that too, I'm not much of a touchy-feely person to start off with but hugging 30 or so sweaty, smelly other Elders is nasty. I want to take a shower after these abominable practice but there isn't enough time after that. And our Branch President comes up into the dorms and wanders around talking to everyone who's leaving. So we were in our room, and we hear that the President is going around to all of the rooms, now we still had all the sheets up and the beds down. So in a manner of seconds we quickly reconstructed our room as it was before. It was fast, it would have impressed those NASCAR teams who change tires during the races. Literally 5 seconds after we finished the President, (who's name is President Dickerson by the way) opened the door and came in and asked us if we were going to participate in the stupid hug line. We said yes, and went out. He didn't see a thing. We are amazing.
Another amusing story. So here in the MTC you can get T-shirts that have various countries at states for the missions in them. They're white, with a picture of the flag in the middle and the state motto or country motto or whatever it is, and information such as languages spoken there, population, how many square miles, etc. So Elder Wood wanted us to get Texas T-shirts. I didn't particularly want one but Elder Wood persisted on the grounds that we ought to love our mission areas, I agreed but said that we don't necessarily need some stupid T-shirts to love our mission area. Never the less I was tired of his prattling so I went in with him to fill out a slip for our T-shirts. But unbeknownst to him I didn't select the Texas shirt, I filled out one for a Sweden shirt, and about a week later we got them and Elder was flabbergasted and somewhat outraged that I had a Sweden T-shirt rather than a Texas one. I laughed, Sweden is el mejor. So now I got myself a sweet Sweden T-Shirt. I think I might get Norway and Austria shirts too.
Ummmmm..... I got 6 minutes, I don't know what else to say. Life here is one really long day punctuated by all too short periods of unconsciousness. The routine has gotten so regular that I barely notice the passage of time. Personal Study Time is my favorite time because I can study, by myself, and not to have to talk to anyone. So yeah.... I'm still alive, but for how long? This food is killing me, hopefully I will send my huge letter to ye'all that I finally completed today, it details some of the effects of the nasty food and I'm sure Aidan and Austin will find it hilarious. Happy birthday Alyssa and Aidan, you finally got a Tablet eh? Oh and the mac, har,. Oh and could you send me some face-wash or something? This hand "soap" as they call it in the bathrooms just ain't cutting it. Peace out.
---Elder Rice
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