MAY 27, 2013: HYRUM'S LETTER #2

LETTER FROM HYRUM: MAY 27, 2013

I have the feeling that almost every one of these letters is going to start with something along the lines of "Wow, what a week!"

Wow, what a week!

Every single day here is chock full of things to do. Almost every minute from 6:30 to 10:30 is scheduled. It's exhausting, but also incredible! I've never felt so productive in one day than I do now. We are truly living the law of consecration, and giving every minute and part of our lives to the Lord. It's an amazing feeling, and I'm glad I get to do that for the next two years.

My Chinese is coming. It feels like it's coming really slowly, but then I remember that I've only been here like 11 days. At that point, my brain explodes. It feels like so much longer. It's cool because some expressions are becoming habits in Chinese. My favorite things to say are "dui bu qi" which translates roughly to "excuse me", "nimen hao" which translates roughly to "Hey, y'all", and "wo de tong ban zai nali?" which means "Where is my companion??"

Chinese is awesome, because it has NO TENSE. That means that if you want to say something happened yesterday, you just put the word yesterday in the sentence and say the same verb. Everybody who has learned a conjugating language, eat your heart out. The grammar is fairly simple. There aren't any articles to deal with, you just stick all the important words right next to each other. THAT SAID, Chinese is really difficult. The difficulty comes from the fact that nothing in Chinese corresponds even remotely to it's English equivalent, and because there isn't any similar language to compare them (think Latin or Germanic), words often don't translate directly, or there are three different ways to say "can" that all mean different things even though English only has one. On top of that, there are tones. If you don't say the word with the right inflection, then you're saying the wrong word!

It'll come though. I'm still frequently amazed at how far we have come in the incredibly short time we've been here. I've been told that 1 week in the MTC is equivalent to 1 month in the field which is equivalent to 4 months in any other place. That, my friends, is the gift of tongues at work.

I absolutely LOVE my district. I was admittedly a little skeptical, as I usual am, when we met. I wasn't sure if it would be a fun group of people. Boy was I wrong. The MTC is hard and all, but the MTC is also incredibly FUN. This group of people is a large part of what makes it fun. It's a little like band camp. Or choir camp or church camp or anything like that. You find that group of new people you didn't know before, and by the end of the camp, you are best friends and you never want to leave them. That's what the past week and a half has been for our district. And we've still got 8 weeks to go! I think I've laughed more in the past week and a half than I did the whole last semester! These people are great!

I think the MTC is just everything at once, because as well as being really difficult and really fun, it's also really spiritual. I remember on Saturday when I walked back through those gates after being out on the field. There is a tangible difference in feeling between outside the MTC, and inside the MTC. It's so real. The Spirit lives here, constantly, and it's so powerful. Even sitting in a somewhat noisy room in the computer lab here with 20 clicking keyboards, I can still feel that same Spirit. It's incredibly uplifting, and I know I want to cherish the next 8 weeks that I can continue to have that feeling here constantly.

"This is my desk in my room that I'm never at because we're always in the classroom. Thanks to everyone who sent me stuff to put up, especially Mason for his picture!"

Some other fun things:

-There was a Sister in the Cafeteria whose nametag said "Sister Richardson", and I didn't know why (then), but I stopped her and commented on how I hadn't seen any other Richardsons. Well, it turned out that she was from Mesa, AZ and that we were second cousins! Her grandpa is Grandpa Jay's twin brother. I thought that was pretty cool!

-All of the people going to Taiwan had to give a stool sample last week. I'm trying to forget that.

-I think it was Thursday when my companion and I came in from studying outside, and there was this old guy without a nametag talking the some of the people in my district classroom. Well, I'm glad we were nice to him, because it turned out he was the General Sunday School President, who had somehow picked our class to come observe for a little while. We were all glad we were on task and studying while he was there!

-I also saw my Mission Prep teacher from Winter semester in the health clinic last week. That was really neat!

-A big Thank You to Sami for giving me my nice journal. I write in it every night, like we're supposed to. Xie Xie Ni!

Thank you so much to everyone who has sent me letters! So here's the thing: we are only allowed to write letters on P-Day, which for us is Monday. And the mail room is closed on Saturday and Sunday and they don't print the dearelders until 5 o clock each day. So last week, right after my letter writing time was up (P-Day ends at 6) I got a huge stack of letters, and I've had to wait all week to reply to them! But since it's memorial day, and sadly, the temple is closed, I'll have more time to write today, and I should be able to reply to all of you. So if you want me to reply to you on a Monday, try to send dearelders in before 4 o'clock (MDT) the Friday before! I wish it was a better system, but it's not and that's okay. 

Thank you so much for sending me letters! It's so exciting every day after dinner to see if I got anything, and I read your letter at least three times during the week. It's such a strength to me.

Please continue to pray for me. I know that I need it!

Until next week,

Tian Zhanglao

Elder Richardson