Carissima Famiglia,
'Ci sto' is a fun little phrase we learned. It means “I'm down.” Italian is really fun, and just gets funner every day. Everything is way funnier in Italian, too; you just say one word and everyone laughs hysterically, but if you had said that in English it wouldn't have been funny at all. That's one of the things I like about learning a language; I think it's funnier because it makes you think about things in a new way, things you've known or heard forever but never really thought about as much as you have to when you are reading it in a foreign language. That's why jokes are funnier, but it also is great to do with such a gospel-focused atmosphere. When I read the Book of Mormon in Italian I feel like I catch a lot of details or only the overall gist in a way that is really striking.
Also, the space bar on this keyboard is squeaky, and it is pretty annoying. Or maybe it is my companion's keyboard, I can't tell...
So, as of today, I have officially used up one whole daily planner! Every night we plan as a companionship what we will be doing the next day, every minute, and every week we plan generally for the whole week. Now I have used up a whole one and that is a really weird feeling. Time is flying by - I really can't believe I've been here as long as I have! We haven't very much time left in the MTC at all, which is so exciting but also makes us really nervous.
This past Sunday night our fireside was the BYU men's chorus, who came and sang to us the whole time, intermixed with testimonies and conversion stories of members of the choir. It was really neat. They sang some deep south gospel spirituals and some LDS hymns and some psalms set to music, as well as even this one really cool native American chant thing, including wind and bird whistle noises! It was a really awesome devotional, and it felt great to listen to some music since we can't otherwise!
This past Saturday was a really neat day; we did a lot of things differently from our normal sit-in-a-classroom-all-day, and that was fun. In the morning, with Fratello Tilini, we went outside and did a street-contacting role play thing. My companionship and one other were missionaries first, so we walked around and contacted the teachers and other missionaries in the Italian zone in Italian and tried to teach them a little something and set up a return appointment, all in Italian! We've been learning a lot about how some people have been prepared and are ready and waiting to hear the gospel message, and so it is those people that we are called to find and teach. So the exercise was focused on finding people who are prepared for the message (I think PMG uses the term 'elect'). So it was a really neat activity. Then we switched and we were investigators and a couple of other companionships were missionaries. As a non-elect, we either get to be really rude (because some people will be) or waste the missionaries' time (because some people will). I got to be one of the elect for the little exercise, and it was really really neat. Sometimes it's hard to see our Anziani as missionaries instead of just 19-year-old boys because we are with them all of the time, 24 hours a day (not quite, but sometimes it seems that way). One of the companionships, Anziano Bona and Anziano Dunshee, came and taught me during the exercise. Anziano Bona is a super-goof, super funny and way fun to be with, but sometimes I feel like he's never serious, but not really because I know he is sometimes. And Anziano Dunshee might be the funniest man alive; he's got this three-piece brown suit that he bought at DI, and it's awesome. But he's not at all confident at his Italian skills and I think he really stresses about it and gets discouraged with the language a lot. So they came up to teach me and I thought, oh ok, this'll be interesting, and it turned out to be an amazing experience! It's amazing how even in a fake teaching situation you really can have the spirit and teach with the spirit, and I really felt that when they were teaching me. Even in sometimes very broken Italian (which is what all of us have at this point), I could still feel the spirit and truthfulness of their message and I really wanted to learn more, even though I already know the gospel! I wanted them to just keep talking and keep teaching me. I think they really enjoyed teaching me as well. I loved getting to see them really being missionaries; it felt good. And that's the difference between a 19-year-old boy and a missionary; this truly is God's work on the earth and he helps us all, even the craziest of the 19-year-old boys, and when we accept that help and have the spirit with us and always strive to be better, that's when we become missionaries instead of just people.
In the TRC yesterday we taught the first lesson, in Italian again, to a Buddhist investigator! That was interesting. None of us knew anything about Buddhism, so we got to learn a lot about it from her. It was really different teaching the first lesson to someone with a non-Christian background; we focused a lot more on God and Jesus Christ, that they exist and love us, than we did on the idea that God speaks to us now through living prophets. I enjoyed it.
I don't think I have any funny stories this week to share, sorry, although we did discover this week that we've been using the wrong type of 'reject' when we say that people rejected the prophets in Italian. We've been using 'rigettare' instead of 'rifuttare,' which is more to reject food and throw up than to reject an idea! Glad we figured that one out.
Things are great; I hope they are for y'all as well. Thanks for the letters, I love them!
Love, Sorella Langham
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
April 6, 2010
Buongiorno, famiglia!
I hope y'all are doing well; this week was a good one in the MTC, aside from ridiculous crazy weather. It keeps getting really warm and then snowing within a four-hour time span, over and oer again. Utah weather is silly. But the snow is still pretty; it always is.
So, you know how I am really out of it when I first wake up, and can't think too clearly? Well, in order to keep my companions from thinking I am crazy, I have been strictly adhering to a no-talking to anyone policy for the first fifteen minutes after I wake up, when my brain starts to click into gear. Unfortunately, a few days ago I was so out of it that I forgot to keep quiet. I was laying in my bed, and my companion, Sorella Shuel, was the only other person in the room, sitting getting ready over at her desk. I said, "Sorella, is dwander a word?" and she said, "I don't know, what does it mean?" and I said, "I don't know, but I was telling someone that they were dwandering the word in my dream." and she said, "well then, it's probably not a word." Then she got up and walked over to me while I forgot everything that just happened. She said, now standing by my bed, "it sounds like a combination of dwindle and wander." And I sat up abruptly and said, "What on earth are you talking about?" And she said, "Really, sorella? We just had a five minute conversation about the word dwander." And I said, "Dwander? Is that even a word?" and she said "no! you made it up in your dream!" and proceeded to explain to me our conversation. Then she left the room, and I forgot everything that happened again. She came back in a few moments later and I said, "Sorella, I have this vague, strange, dream-like memory of us having a conversation this morning, but I'm not sure if it was real..." and she said, "Sorella! This is the third time!" and had to tell me all about it all over again. It was very funny.
This weekend, as you know, was general conference. That's a really interesting experience in the MTC; we all sit in the giant room that holds 2000 missionaries and watch it on big giant screens. It was fun! I really enjoyed the sessions, and thought they were wonderful. It was amazing how much focus was placed on family and raising children, wasn't it? I thought that was neat. We were all encouraged to come with specific questions written down to look for answers to, and I found that to be a productive and enlightening experience. I especially enjoyed Elder Uchtdorf's talk, Brother Anderson and Brother Martino, and Sister Beck's. What were some of y'all's favorites? On Saturday night, while all the elders were in Priesthood, they re-played the Young Women's conference for us, and President Uchtdorf gave an awesome talk there. He told about how he met his wife, which is always fun to hear. I loved it when President Monson was talking about his wife at the beginning on Saturday morning, remember? It's neat listening to the prophets of our day when I spend all my time teaching and testifying that we have prophets on the earth now. It is so true!
Yesterday we taught our first all-Italian lesson in the TRC. We spent 15 minutes getting to know them over "dinner" (fake dinner), then planned our lesson, then went back in and taught the message of the restoration for thirty minutes, all of it in italian! It was so much fun, and so hard also. One of the other sisters told us that night that during the food section she asked for a salad because she knew how to say that, but then their investigator asked them what she wanted on it. The only food words she knew were potato and fish, so that's what she asked for! We had a few language glitches as well: right towards the beginning, when we were explaining dispensations we mixed up our tenses, and our investigator ended up convinced that Noah was still alive and leads our church today! We also accidentally said "Gesu Smith" instead of "Gesu Cristo," a pretty awful mistake to make, and one that we were worried about making beforehand because we kept doing it during practicing, and then it happened! We laughed at that, so it was a good think it was a fake investigator who was super patient with us. At the end, he brought up that scripture in Revelations that says you're not supposed to add unto these words or whatever, but my companion misunderstood and thought he was talking about James 1:5, where it says to ask of God. So she turns to Moroni 10:3-5 and says, "we have a scripture that says the exact same thing at the end of the book of mormon!" And I had no idea what she was talking about, because the book of mormon says no such thing, and he was confused too, so we had to work through a few minutes of confusion there too. It was funny, because the scripture she turned to was exactly the one I wanted to turn to, so I thought we were thinking the same thing at first, but then she was saying how it said the same thing as the scripture in Revelations and we all got beffudled! This teaching in another language thing is really tricky. I told you last week about "uomo" (man) and "uovo" (egg), right? We actually did get that mixed up this week just in conversation. I had these chocolate easter eggs in the pocket of my coat for us to eat during general conference, but one of my companions asked for the man in my coat instead of the egg in my coat and our elders looked us very strangely. We've discovered another word that makes for a horrible mistake: 'il dono dello Spirito Santo' is the gift of the Holy Ghost. But if you accidentally say 'donna' instead of 'dono', then you are saying 'the woman of the Holy Spirit'! It's the same for the gift of tongues: il dono delle lingue, if you mix that up. That's happened to us a couple of times, but never with teaching, just in conversation or prayers so far.
Mom, you asked what Sundays are like here. We get up, have breakfast at 7, then go to our classroom and study until 10, when we go to R.S. After R.S. we have lunch at 11:30, then Sacrament meeting at 12:30, then a district meeting until 2:30, which is sort of like sunday school combined with district goal setting time. Afterwards we take a walk up to the temple and are usually there from 3-4, then head back down and eat dinner. After dinner we study for another hour or so, then go to the Fireside where someone speaks to us, and after the fireside we get to watch a church movie! We've watched the Joseph Smith movie three times and the Testaments once so far. Sundays and P-days are by far the most relaxing days in the MTC.
Well, that's about all I have time for right now. I love you all very much, and love getting letters from you!
Love,
Sorella Langham
I hope y'all are doing well; this week was a good one in the MTC, aside from ridiculous crazy weather. It keeps getting really warm and then snowing within a four-hour time span, over and oer again. Utah weather is silly. But the snow is still pretty; it always is.
So, you know how I am really out of it when I first wake up, and can't think too clearly? Well, in order to keep my companions from thinking I am crazy, I have been strictly adhering to a no-talking to anyone policy for the first fifteen minutes after I wake up, when my brain starts to click into gear. Unfortunately, a few days ago I was so out of it that I forgot to keep quiet. I was laying in my bed, and my companion, Sorella Shuel, was the only other person in the room, sitting getting ready over at her desk. I said, "Sorella, is dwander a word?" and she said, "I don't know, what does it mean?" and I said, "I don't know, but I was telling someone that they were dwandering the word in my dream." and she said, "well then, it's probably not a word." Then she got up and walked over to me while I forgot everything that just happened. She said, now standing by my bed, "it sounds like a combination of dwindle and wander." And I sat up abruptly and said, "What on earth are you talking about?" And she said, "Really, sorella? We just had a five minute conversation about the word dwander." And I said, "Dwander? Is that even a word?" and she said "no! you made it up in your dream!" and proceeded to explain to me our conversation. Then she left the room, and I forgot everything that happened again. She came back in a few moments later and I said, "Sorella, I have this vague, strange, dream-like memory of us having a conversation this morning, but I'm not sure if it was real..." and she said, "Sorella! This is the third time!" and had to tell me all about it all over again. It was very funny.
This weekend, as you know, was general conference. That's a really interesting experience in the MTC; we all sit in the giant room that holds 2000 missionaries and watch it on big giant screens. It was fun! I really enjoyed the sessions, and thought they were wonderful. It was amazing how much focus was placed on family and raising children, wasn't it? I thought that was neat. We were all encouraged to come with specific questions written down to look for answers to, and I found that to be a productive and enlightening experience. I especially enjoyed Elder Uchtdorf's talk, Brother Anderson and Brother Martino, and Sister Beck's. What were some of y'all's favorites? On Saturday night, while all the elders were in Priesthood, they re-played the Young Women's conference for us, and President Uchtdorf gave an awesome talk there. He told about how he met his wife, which is always fun to hear. I loved it when President Monson was talking about his wife at the beginning on Saturday morning, remember? It's neat listening to the prophets of our day when I spend all my time teaching and testifying that we have prophets on the earth now. It is so true!
Yesterday we taught our first all-Italian lesson in the TRC. We spent 15 minutes getting to know them over "dinner" (fake dinner), then planned our lesson, then went back in and taught the message of the restoration for thirty minutes, all of it in italian! It was so much fun, and so hard also. One of the other sisters told us that night that during the food section she asked for a salad because she knew how to say that, but then their investigator asked them what she wanted on it. The only food words she knew were potato and fish, so that's what she asked for! We had a few language glitches as well: right towards the beginning, when we were explaining dispensations we mixed up our tenses, and our investigator ended up convinced that Noah was still alive and leads our church today! We also accidentally said "Gesu Smith" instead of "Gesu Cristo," a pretty awful mistake to make, and one that we were worried about making beforehand because we kept doing it during practicing, and then it happened! We laughed at that, so it was a good think it was a fake investigator who was super patient with us. At the end, he brought up that scripture in Revelations that says you're not supposed to add unto these words or whatever, but my companion misunderstood and thought he was talking about James 1:5, where it says to ask of God. So she turns to Moroni 10:3-5 and says, "we have a scripture that says the exact same thing at the end of the book of mormon!" And I had no idea what she was talking about, because the book of mormon says no such thing, and he was confused too, so we had to work through a few minutes of confusion there too. It was funny, because the scripture she turned to was exactly the one I wanted to turn to, so I thought we were thinking the same thing at first, but then she was saying how it said the same thing as the scripture in Revelations and we all got beffudled! This teaching in another language thing is really tricky. I told you last week about "uomo" (man) and "uovo" (egg), right? We actually did get that mixed up this week just in conversation. I had these chocolate easter eggs in the pocket of my coat for us to eat during general conference, but one of my companions asked for the man in my coat instead of the egg in my coat and our elders looked us very strangely. We've discovered another word that makes for a horrible mistake: 'il dono dello Spirito Santo' is the gift of the Holy Ghost. But if you accidentally say 'donna' instead of 'dono', then you are saying 'the woman of the Holy Spirit'! It's the same for the gift of tongues: il dono delle lingue, if you mix that up. That's happened to us a couple of times, but never with teaching, just in conversation or prayers so far.
Mom, you asked what Sundays are like here. We get up, have breakfast at 7, then go to our classroom and study until 10, when we go to R.S. After R.S. we have lunch at 11:30, then Sacrament meeting at 12:30, then a district meeting until 2:30, which is sort of like sunday school combined with district goal setting time. Afterwards we take a walk up to the temple and are usually there from 3-4, then head back down and eat dinner. After dinner we study for another hour or so, then go to the Fireside where someone speaks to us, and after the fireside we get to watch a church movie! We've watched the Joseph Smith movie three times and the Testaments once so far. Sundays and P-days are by far the most relaxing days in the MTC.
Well, that's about all I have time for right now. I love you all very much, and love getting letters from you!
Love,
Sorella Langham
Friday, April 2, 2010
March 30, 2010
Ciao famiglia!
So, normally I like to come up with clever titles for things that I write, but with a thirty-minute time limit, I figure the content is much more important than the title. This week I kept a list as the week went on, so that I don't get to the computer and have brain freeze about what on earth to say like every other week! Let's see how this goes.
So we have gym time every day, as I think you know, for fifty minutes. During the past week or so I've taken to sometimes playing basketball or foursquare during my gym time. A lot of people play volleyball, but I hate volleyball. Four square is really interesting; the funny thing about it is that the gym is pretty dominated by the elders, but they are all so afraid of treating the sisters disrespectfully that when we play games with them they practically let us win. So I'll go to play foursquare, and when I hit the ball towards one of the elders, he often will just stand there and not even try to hit it. Using this to my advantage I have been able to advance to the second square! woohoo! I have still not achieved queen of the four-square status yet, nor do I think I ever will. Even with the elders' extreme (and kind of ridiculous) leniency, I simply do not have the hand-eye coordination!
One of our teachers, Fratello Tilini, is super gung-ho about teaching us the language. All of it. Right now. He loves Italian, and loves teaching it, and gets sooooo excited about it. I really like that; it helps make class more fun for us. But this week he came up with a fun review activity for all of us. Each companionship (there are six companionships in my district) took one grammar concept and made a poster for it, and then we each taught the class a short, five-minute lesson on our poster's concept. We taught pronomi diretti e indiretti, which is one of the trickiest things we've done so far. We've been told that some missionaries never catch on to using these in speech, not even by the end of their mission, but that if we can it's great and really aids in our fluency and sounding like an Italian. I really want to get this language down well, so I hope that I can catch on!
Also, the showers are interesting. They are, of course, very echo-ey, and they are in stalls with curtains with one central water sprayer thing (so the stalls are kind of in a circle around a central point). One of the sorelle in the other district, Sorella Snodgrass, and I once this week decided to sing Pocohantas together in the shower. Let me tell you, that was fun to bust out 'just around the river bend' at the tops of our lungs. Way fun. The elders are always telling us about how they sing Taylor Swift in the shower...our Argentinean elder especially seems fond of the song 'love story.' What strange nineteen-year-old elders we have.
I am trying to read through Il Libro di Mormon in Italian as much as possible. I've gotten through Lehi's dream; it's interesting, but difficult. Reading Predicare il mio Vangelo (Preach my Gospel) is a lot easier, just because it's simpler language. La Sacra Bibbia is even more difficult, and the format is bizarre because it's not the King James version in Italian, it's different. I kind of like it sometimes, but there aren't really any footnotes. I am also shocked at how much longer the Old Testament is than the New Testament!
Every week we have what's called companionship inventory, where our companionship sits down and we discuss how we are doing as a companionship, in studying, speaking, teaching, and getting along with each other, and anything else that needs to be addressed, and we set goals and stuff. I kind of like it, because I am big on telling people how I feel about them all the time. I can see how that would be a difficult thing for some people though. It's been very useful for our companionship, however. Mi piace companionship inventory!
I got a letter this week that totally made my week. Every Thursday night a bunch of my London friends and I gather for London movie night here at BYU and we all watch a movie. Of course, I don't gather with them anymore because I am in the MTC. But they still gather. One of them works here at the MTC Laundry, so I saw her once while I was here (Annie is her name). So the next week she got all the Londoners to write a bunch of group letters - mostly in crayons, and with pictures too - and she brought them to me in the MTC and dropped them off in my mailbox. It was so exciting, because it was like five letters in one! It completely made my week. It was so great to hear from all of them.
This week in class we watched a talk from Elder Holland that he gave here at the MTC about ten years ago, called the Miracle of a Mission. It was completely incredible! I'm not sure if it's possible for y'all to get a text copy on lds.org, but if you can, you should. I think he talks about a lot of the same things in a talk called The Atonement and Missionary Work, so you could check for that one too. He talked a lot about how much his mission meant everything to him, and how it changed his life and can change ours. Then he stopped and suddenly changed tracks and said, "I get the impression that one of you here is seriously considering going home" and started talking about that. In a room of 2000 missionaries, he got the impression that one person wasn't going to stay, and adjusted his entire talk to meet that one person's needs! It was incredible to watch him follow the Spirit like that, and then testify so powerfully of the importance of a mission and he said don't you dare go home to whoever it was. It was really neat.
This week we've taken it upon ourselves to SYL (Speak Your Language) every single day until dinner, then take a break for the evening. As a result, we've learned a lot of new words. Get this: the word for man is 'uomo' and the word for egg is 'uovo.' My companions and I were joking about how easy it would be to get those mixed up in a Plan of Salvation lesson and start teaching that God sent the eggs down to earth. He created the eggs in His own image, and wants them to gain experience and grow to be like Him. Isn't that hilarious? So now we try really hard not to mix up those two Italian words. Our teacher taught us how to say a phrase with the basic import of "I’m down with that" this week: ci sto. (pronounced chee stow.) We also learned 'how come?' which is 'come mai?' (pronounced co-may my.) Y'all should learn Italian pronunciation rules this week, please, because I just realized I don't want to explain how to say all the phrases I type. So learn them and then you can know! How exciting that would be! Italian is really beautiful; I love listening to it, reading it, and trying to speak it. We all keep talking about how someday we will be fluent and how we can't wait to be able to speak quickly like our teachers do!
Please write letters and emails both, but remember that I can only get emails on Tuesdays, so make sure to have them written by Monday night. And I (like any missionary) love to get letters. I hope y'all are doing well!
Love,
Sorella Langham
So, normally I like to come up with clever titles for things that I write, but with a thirty-minute time limit, I figure the content is much more important than the title. This week I kept a list as the week went on, so that I don't get to the computer and have brain freeze about what on earth to say like every other week! Let's see how this goes.
So we have gym time every day, as I think you know, for fifty minutes. During the past week or so I've taken to sometimes playing basketball or foursquare during my gym time. A lot of people play volleyball, but I hate volleyball. Four square is really interesting; the funny thing about it is that the gym is pretty dominated by the elders, but they are all so afraid of treating the sisters disrespectfully that when we play games with them they practically let us win. So I'll go to play foursquare, and when I hit the ball towards one of the elders, he often will just stand there and not even try to hit it. Using this to my advantage I have been able to advance to the second square! woohoo! I have still not achieved queen of the four-square status yet, nor do I think I ever will. Even with the elders' extreme (and kind of ridiculous) leniency, I simply do not have the hand-eye coordination!
One of our teachers, Fratello Tilini, is super gung-ho about teaching us the language. All of it. Right now. He loves Italian, and loves teaching it, and gets sooooo excited about it. I really like that; it helps make class more fun for us. But this week he came up with a fun review activity for all of us. Each companionship (there are six companionships in my district) took one grammar concept and made a poster for it, and then we each taught the class a short, five-minute lesson on our poster's concept. We taught pronomi diretti e indiretti, which is one of the trickiest things we've done so far. We've been told that some missionaries never catch on to using these in speech, not even by the end of their mission, but that if we can it's great and really aids in our fluency and sounding like an Italian. I really want to get this language down well, so I hope that I can catch on!
Also, the showers are interesting. They are, of course, very echo-ey, and they are in stalls with curtains with one central water sprayer thing (so the stalls are kind of in a circle around a central point). One of the sorelle in the other district, Sorella Snodgrass, and I once this week decided to sing Pocohantas together in the shower. Let me tell you, that was fun to bust out 'just around the river bend' at the tops of our lungs. Way fun. The elders are always telling us about how they sing Taylor Swift in the shower...our Argentinean elder especially seems fond of the song 'love story.' What strange nineteen-year-old elders we have.
I am trying to read through Il Libro di Mormon in Italian as much as possible. I've gotten through Lehi's dream; it's interesting, but difficult. Reading Predicare il mio Vangelo (Preach my Gospel) is a lot easier, just because it's simpler language. La Sacra Bibbia is even more difficult, and the format is bizarre because it's not the King James version in Italian, it's different. I kind of like it sometimes, but there aren't really any footnotes. I am also shocked at how much longer the Old Testament is than the New Testament!
Every week we have what's called companionship inventory, where our companionship sits down and we discuss how we are doing as a companionship, in studying, speaking, teaching, and getting along with each other, and anything else that needs to be addressed, and we set goals and stuff. I kind of like it, because I am big on telling people how I feel about them all the time. I can see how that would be a difficult thing for some people though. It's been very useful for our companionship, however. Mi piace companionship inventory!
I got a letter this week that totally made my week. Every Thursday night a bunch of my London friends and I gather for London movie night here at BYU and we all watch a movie. Of course, I don't gather with them anymore because I am in the MTC. But they still gather. One of them works here at the MTC Laundry, so I saw her once while I was here (Annie is her name). So the next week she got all the Londoners to write a bunch of group letters - mostly in crayons, and with pictures too - and she brought them to me in the MTC and dropped them off in my mailbox. It was so exciting, because it was like five letters in one! It completely made my week. It was so great to hear from all of them.
This week in class we watched a talk from Elder Holland that he gave here at the MTC about ten years ago, called the Miracle of a Mission. It was completely incredible! I'm not sure if it's possible for y'all to get a text copy on lds.org, but if you can, you should. I think he talks about a lot of the same things in a talk called The Atonement and Missionary Work, so you could check for that one too. He talked a lot about how much his mission meant everything to him, and how it changed his life and can change ours. Then he stopped and suddenly changed tracks and said, "I get the impression that one of you here is seriously considering going home" and started talking about that. In a room of 2000 missionaries, he got the impression that one person wasn't going to stay, and adjusted his entire talk to meet that one person's needs! It was incredible to watch him follow the Spirit like that, and then testify so powerfully of the importance of a mission and he said don't you dare go home to whoever it was. It was really neat.
This week we've taken it upon ourselves to SYL (Speak Your Language) every single day until dinner, then take a break for the evening. As a result, we've learned a lot of new words. Get this: the word for man is 'uomo' and the word for egg is 'uovo.' My companions and I were joking about how easy it would be to get those mixed up in a Plan of Salvation lesson and start teaching that God sent the eggs down to earth. He created the eggs in His own image, and wants them to gain experience and grow to be like Him. Isn't that hilarious? So now we try really hard not to mix up those two Italian words. Our teacher taught us how to say a phrase with the basic import of "I’m down with that" this week: ci sto. (pronounced chee stow.) We also learned 'how come?' which is 'come mai?' (pronounced co-may my.) Y'all should learn Italian pronunciation rules this week, please, because I just realized I don't want to explain how to say all the phrases I type. So learn them and then you can know! How exciting that would be! Italian is really beautiful; I love listening to it, reading it, and trying to speak it. We all keep talking about how someday we will be fluent and how we can't wait to be able to speak quickly like our teachers do!
Please write letters and emails both, but remember that I can only get emails on Tuesdays, so make sure to have them written by Monday night. And I (like any missionary) love to get letters. I hope y'all are doing well!
Love,
Sorella Langham
Email from Rebecca, March 23, 2010
Hello Family and Friends!
This week we had a zone conference, our first, on Saturday. In fact, I don't think we have zone conferences very often; it was apparently the only one that the oldest district has had. It was the most amazing meeting - all of the Italian teachers spoke, and the district that left this week all bore their testimonies. Everyone was really touched by it. Afterwards our teacher, Fratello Clarke, had us all spend twenty minutes writing about the impressions we received during the meeting and what we feel we need to individually work on, and to set some goals. They are really big on goal setting here in the MTC; it's really interesting. We set daily goals and weekly goals and companionship goals and district goals and personal goals, all sorts of goals. And then we really do keep them and follow up on them and check ourselves to see how we did. It's a really effective way to measure improvement, I've found.
There are two districts that are older than us that have been here since before we got here. One district has only two elders, both going to Catania. They are both super tall, so we call them the giganti (italian for giants). The oldest district had four elders and one sister. Since she was the only sister in her district, she is what is called a 'solo' sister, which means she doesn't have a companion. Instead, she uses two elders together as her companion, or tags along with some of us. Her name is Sorella Urban, and we all love her a ton; she was in my bedroom. Today that oldest district left for Italy. It was the first people we've seen leave, and it was really emotional for all of them. All the sisters had an ice cream party in our room before going to bed to say goodbye to Sorella Urban; it's sad because she is going to the Rome mission, so we won't even see her when we get there! My whole district, thank goodness, is going to Milan, so we will all still see each other every mission conference. That will be very nice.
On Sunday we walked up to the temple and took a bunch of pictures, all the Italians in the MTC together. We sang together Army of Helaman, and some of the elders in my district had put together an arrangement (really awesome one, too) of Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy. It's fun to be so close to my district. We've had a couple of really good district evaluation-y type meetings this week, where we've really openly discussed what we feel that we as a district can do better to really be representatives of the Lord. I love the spirit of constantly seeking for improvement that exists in the MTC; there is no way to be happy here if you aren't humble!
Last week for devotional on Tuesday night Elder Cook came and spoke to us! He gave an awesome talk about what a great time it is to be missionaries, and left us with an apostolic blessing that we might know that we are in the right place. It was beautiful.
Every Wednesday and Sunday they give us ice cream. I love ice cream, and it's BYU creamery ice cream too!
We taught the second lesson, about the plan of salvation, on Monday in the TRC, with the fake investigators. It was really enjoyable. The more I am here the more I realize the beauty and importance of the fundamental, simple doctrines of the church. And how there is so much to them, and always more to be learned. I love studying the scriptures topically, and I feel like I'm finally understanding better how to do that. We will write down questions our investigators (simpatizzanti) ask us, and then spend our study time studying the answer to that question. I love it here.
Ti voglio bene (I love you when meant non-romantically),
Sorella Langham
This week we had a zone conference, our first, on Saturday. In fact, I don't think we have zone conferences very often; it was apparently the only one that the oldest district has had. It was the most amazing meeting - all of the Italian teachers spoke, and the district that left this week all bore their testimonies. Everyone was really touched by it. Afterwards our teacher, Fratello Clarke, had us all spend twenty minutes writing about the impressions we received during the meeting and what we feel we need to individually work on, and to set some goals. They are really big on goal setting here in the MTC; it's really interesting. We set daily goals and weekly goals and companionship goals and district goals and personal goals, all sorts of goals. And then we really do keep them and follow up on them and check ourselves to see how we did. It's a really effective way to measure improvement, I've found.
There are two districts that are older than us that have been here since before we got here. One district has only two elders, both going to Catania. They are both super tall, so we call them the giganti (italian for giants). The oldest district had four elders and one sister. Since she was the only sister in her district, she is what is called a 'solo' sister, which means she doesn't have a companion. Instead, she uses two elders together as her companion, or tags along with some of us. Her name is Sorella Urban, and we all love her a ton; she was in my bedroom. Today that oldest district left for Italy. It was the first people we've seen leave, and it was really emotional for all of them. All the sisters had an ice cream party in our room before going to bed to say goodbye to Sorella Urban; it's sad because she is going to the Rome mission, so we won't even see her when we get there! My whole district, thank goodness, is going to Milan, so we will all still see each other every mission conference. That will be very nice.
On Sunday we walked up to the temple and took a bunch of pictures, all the Italians in the MTC together. We sang together Army of Helaman, and some of the elders in my district had put together an arrangement (really awesome one, too) of Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy. It's fun to be so close to my district. We've had a couple of really good district evaluation-y type meetings this week, where we've really openly discussed what we feel that we as a district can do better to really be representatives of the Lord. I love the spirit of constantly seeking for improvement that exists in the MTC; there is no way to be happy here if you aren't humble!
Last week for devotional on Tuesday night Elder Cook came and spoke to us! He gave an awesome talk about what a great time it is to be missionaries, and left us with an apostolic blessing that we might know that we are in the right place. It was beautiful.
Every Wednesday and Sunday they give us ice cream. I love ice cream, and it's BYU creamery ice cream too!
We taught the second lesson, about the plan of salvation, on Monday in the TRC, with the fake investigators. It was really enjoyable. The more I am here the more I realize the beauty and importance of the fundamental, simple doctrines of the church. And how there is so much to them, and always more to be learned. I love studying the scriptures topically, and I feel like I'm finally understanding better how to do that. We will write down questions our investigators (simpatizzanti) ask us, and then spend our study time studying the answer to that question. I love it here.
Ti voglio bene (I love you when meant non-romantically),
Sorella Langham
Letter from Rebecca, March 9, 2010
Ciao from the MTC! It’s been a very long and very busy week, but also very awesome. The spirit here is always so strong, we learn so much every day. In class we’ve been watching these video clips from an art project called 6 Billion Others. They are so awesome; if you get a chance you should really check it out.
We are in class all day long, from 7:30 am until 9:30 pm, with breaks for meals and gym. Even our p-days, Tuesday, are jam packed with things to do. I am beginning to realize that they truly are preparation days, and not days off.
My district is really fun. At first I was super nervous about being shut up in a room all day with a bunch of 19-year-old boys, but our anziani (Elders) are actually pretty cool and not too bad. One of them, Anziano Zanni, is from Argentina! He said he’s from San Juan, which I think he said was near Cordoba…sound familiar? Was it in your mission, mom? There are five sisters and eight elders in my district, so the classroom is pretty packed. Our two teachers are Fratello (Brotehr) Tilini and Fratello Clarke. They are very different from each other and they make a good combo (they never are there together, usually one in the morning and one in the evening) because by the time you get tired of one teaching style a different one comes. It makes for a nice variety.
I am lucky that I took some Italian before. At this point I am quite a bit ahead of most of our district, and certainly am more fluent than many others. I am in a trio with Sorella Shuel and Sorella Costley. After one week we are really starting to get along pretty well and have a good time together. Yesterday we taught the first lesson to Italian-speaking volunteer “investigators” in the TRC. We seemed to work really well together as a companionship and it turned out to be a very powerful spiritual experience for all of us. We taught our investigators how to pray and asked one of them to give our closing prayer. She asked if I would help her, so I sort of prompted her along, and it was a very powerful prayer when she prayed to know if our message was true. We “left” her a Book of Mormon and she sounded like she was excited to read from it and “see” us again next week. It was really neat, and really helped us draw closer as a companionship.
On my very first day, the Sister missionary assigned to greet me and show me to my room ended up being Sister Jordan Smith, a friend from my study abroad in London! That was really neat, and made me feel much less nervous. (Tender mercy? I think so. This truly is God’s work, and His hand is in every detail of it!)
I still can’t roll my r’s, so sometimes I use gym time just to practice. I go up to the track and walk around it trying and trying – I mostly only end up making a ton of weird noises. I’ve had several people ask me if I was ok! I guess it must not sound like a rolled r yet. I’ll keep trying.
Mom, I loved your note. It made me happy. The only other letter I’ve gotten is from Andrea, which was nice. I also found her note she left on the underside of the shelf in the custodial closet on my first night, which also made me feel more welcome.
Tonight will be my first MTC devotional with a general authority. Rumor has it that Elder Holland will be coming. But I’ve been told that that’s the rumor every week, so I’m not getting my hopes up just yet.
I love you. Please write.
Love, Sorella Langham
We are in class all day long, from 7:30 am until 9:30 pm, with breaks for meals and gym. Even our p-days, Tuesday, are jam packed with things to do. I am beginning to realize that they truly are preparation days, and not days off.
My district is really fun. At first I was super nervous about being shut up in a room all day with a bunch of 19-year-old boys, but our anziani (Elders) are actually pretty cool and not too bad. One of them, Anziano Zanni, is from Argentina! He said he’s from San Juan, which I think he said was near Cordoba…sound familiar? Was it in your mission, mom? There are five sisters and eight elders in my district, so the classroom is pretty packed. Our two teachers are Fratello (Brotehr) Tilini and Fratello Clarke. They are very different from each other and they make a good combo (they never are there together, usually one in the morning and one in the evening) because by the time you get tired of one teaching style a different one comes. It makes for a nice variety.
I am lucky that I took some Italian before. At this point I am quite a bit ahead of most of our district, and certainly am more fluent than many others. I am in a trio with Sorella Shuel and Sorella Costley. After one week we are really starting to get along pretty well and have a good time together. Yesterday we taught the first lesson to Italian-speaking volunteer “investigators” in the TRC. We seemed to work really well together as a companionship and it turned out to be a very powerful spiritual experience for all of us. We taught our investigators how to pray and asked one of them to give our closing prayer. She asked if I would help her, so I sort of prompted her along, and it was a very powerful prayer when she prayed to know if our message was true. We “left” her a Book of Mormon and she sounded like she was excited to read from it and “see” us again next week. It was really neat, and really helped us draw closer as a companionship.
On my very first day, the Sister missionary assigned to greet me and show me to my room ended up being Sister Jordan Smith, a friend from my study abroad in London! That was really neat, and made me feel much less nervous. (Tender mercy? I think so. This truly is God’s work, and His hand is in every detail of it!)
I still can’t roll my r’s, so sometimes I use gym time just to practice. I go up to the track and walk around it trying and trying – I mostly only end up making a ton of weird noises. I’ve had several people ask me if I was ok! I guess it must not sound like a rolled r yet. I’ll keep trying.
Mom, I loved your note. It made me happy. The only other letter I’ve gotten is from Andrea, which was nice. I also found her note she left on the underside of the shelf in the custodial closet on my first night, which also made me feel more welcome.
Tonight will be my first MTC devotional with a general authority. Rumor has it that Elder Holland will be coming. But I’ve been told that that’s the rumor every week, so I’m not getting my hopes up just yet.
I love you. Please write.
Love, Sorella Langham
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