July 18, 2013, Wednesday and Sunday are Ice Cream Days

Hello!

Thanks for all of the emails, letters, and postcards!  People kept asking me why I was receiving bear postcards.  I tell them I just really like bears.

This week went well.  Well, I got sick on Friday and I didn't really get feeling better until Tuesday. I got a nasty cold.  I had a really sore throat and awful congestion (and bad headaches, etc).  I skipped some classes on Friday and Saturday (and Sunday...'cause Sundays are just long) so I could take naps.  We're allowed to take a nap on P day, and of course we can sleep if we're sick.

We're now on a rotating schedule for teaching our three investigators (our three teachers), so we taught one of them each of the last three days.  We haven't had as much time to prepare the lessons, but we have notes from things we've taught before so it doesn't take as long to put something together.  Last night we taught one of our teachers (Bro Swain) and we didn't use any notes and we said a lot of things we weren't planning on saying.  We also understood a lot more of what he said. 

We leave our shoes in the hallway when we teach and sit crossed-legged.  My foot always falls asleep when we teach.  But we have it a lot better off than the elders...most of them aren't flexible at all and can barely sit like that.  My companion and I sometimes steal the elders' left shoes while they're teaching and hide them somewhere.  Well, my companion needed some encouragement.

The classrooms always smell lovely too.  We're taught to never point our foot at someone while we're sitting down.  Supposedly it's really offensive.  Also stepping over someone's leg or stepping over a kid on the floor is not okay.  Good things to know.

Oh!  There was one good thing about the 4th of July celebration.  We got to hear a cool piano and flute duet of yankee doodle.  It was really upbeat and lively.

Before meetings all of the elders and sisters sing prelude hymns.  It's pretty funny when they announce what hymn we'll sing next and everyone gasps or says "Ohh that's my favorite hymn!"  Oh, the exciting life of a missionary.  It's the best entertainment we get.  No, maybe our district power-walking competitions are the best form of entertainment. 

My nametag says:

Sister Butler

Kabun eo an

Jisos Kraist

Im Armej ro rekwojarjar

ilo ran ko aliktata

It translates to "The Church of Jesus Christ and the holy people of the very last days."  Except that I don't know how to type accents, so it's not quite right.  The computers are awful here.  They keep freezing and switching languages, so this is taking a while.

I'm trying to think what else happened this week.  We're all getting to know each other more in the district.  Maybe some of us a bit too much.  I need to keep my companion in line...always talking to the elders.  Well, she probably needs to keep me in line too.

Wednesday and Sunday are ice cream days.  It's pretty much the highlight of the week.  We have evening devotionals on Tuesdays in the Marriott center.  We're all hoping for one of the Twelve to be there next week.  They took a big photo of all of us missionaries in the Marriott Center after the devotional this week.  I think July marks the most missionaries in the provo MTC and then I think it's supposed to drop a little.  I wonder if the photo will be online eventually.  They said it's only the third time they've taken a photo of everyone at the MTC before. 

I'm trying to think of something cool about Marshallese that we learned this week.  There are a lot of words for directions.  "to the ocean," "to the lagoon," etc.  Most of the words are built of combinations of words.  Waanlaltok means to descend (waan = to move, lal = down, tok = to me) and waanlonlok means to ascend (lon = up, lok = away).  We read 3 Nephi 11 and the first vision together as a class to learn these words.  The perspective changes depending on who is speaking, so angels seeing Christ ascend back to heaven would say "waanlontok" while the nephites say "waanlonlok."  Marshallese people also add in extra vowels in words, but only when they speak quickly.  Waanlontok sound more like Waanlonitok.  I love all of the words with repetitive sounds like "melele" and "rekwojarjar."

We're a third of the way through the MTC.  On Wednesdays when new missionaries arrive we go around to those with "dork dots" (the orange dot sticker on their tag that shows they're new) and say "karuwainene nan MTC!" (welcome to the mtc!) and they're all really confused. 

I didn't take many pictures this week.  Most of the ones I sent today were from last week, except for maybe the map picture.

We're playing a musical number in sacrament meeting this Sunday.  We're practicing this afternoon with some people from our district.  They have an instrument room in the main building where we can check them out for an hour.  Should be fun!

Mom, chocolate would be great.  I don't think I really need anything right now.  We get 8 dollars on our cards every week (the elders only get 6, haha) so I have plenty to get necessities.  I sat in some sap under a pine tree near the temple so I took my skirt to get it cleaned. 

Annie, I'll have time to occasionally write letters.  Don't worry!  I have time on P days.  And thanks for the photos.  They are very cute. 

Leans, how does the carpet look?  Did they get it clean?

Kate, yes we can count down the days together. 

Sara Jane, that's great that you're going to read the book of Mormon in French.  I read the English and Marshallese ones together side by side (except I'm not on a tiny island and I usually stop for meals :) and it really helps me learn a lot. 

Meagan, I'm glad you're enjoying the family ward.  That's great you have opportunities to tutor people.  Good luck with starting your new job!

Who has photos from my graduation?  Do you think I could also get some of those?  One of all of us and the one of me and the parentals?  Thank you!   

Love and miss you all, I Iakwe kom,

Sister Butler 

Ellen, who is this?

LOVE it! The spunky scientist indeed!