The first week here at the MTC has been so much fun. The first few days were a little slow as we were going through all of the orientation, but now we are on the normal schedule with all the other sisters and elders. The days consist mainly of studying the language, with a little bit of studying the scriptures. Right now they are really pushing us to be able to do all of the main things included in teaching a lesson in Chinese. So far, we have covered how to pray, bear a testimony, and give a commitment in Chinese. So far, it feels like I am doing pretty well, but there are also those few religious words that we have learned that I have forgotten. But they come back pretty fast after reviewing them.
The zone I am in is great. I have attached a photo of all the elders in our zone. From what I understand too, our zone is really going to grow here in a couple of weeks. The Branch President has mentioned that because of when school ends, there will be a large number of people coming into the MTC near the end of June. Which will be pretty cool, he said around thirty Elders were coming into the MTC going Chinese speaking. But, the Elders that are in the photo will be heading out here soon. They are going to either Sydney & Melbourne, Australia,TaiChong, Taiwan and Scotland. Then there is our district, where everyone is pretty much going to the same mission as me, except one who is going to New Zealand. I was personally a little surprised to hear that one, I didn't even know they had a Chinese speaking mission there.
My district is also pretty sweet. You guys also know one of the sisters in my district. Sister Belnap, she was Morgan's piano teacher in China. There is a photo of my district also attached, you should be able to tell which one is her. My experiences here have been so great. It has been amazing to watch as my district learns Chinese. They are all picking it up so fast, and the only explanation that I can give is that it was because of the gift of tongues. Some though, like myself, did come in with a good amount of being able to speak the language. But there were still some that came in knowing nothing about the language. For example my two companions.
Right now, I have two companions, and they are both amazing missionaries. Elder Nixon, is from Texas and Elder Love is from Orem. They both are nineteen as well. That was pry one thing I was not expecting when I came to the MTC. I was expecting more eighteen year olds, but I found out that there will be when high school ends.
So far, we have taught two lessons, both in Chinese. The first one we taught was... quite the experience. I don't know what more I can say about that lesson. We had a plan, but then that plan didn't seem right, so in the lesson, when we decided we should do something different, well, we didn't know all the words that we needed to actually teach that lesson. The second lesson though, was not nearly as bad. We felt like the lesson plan we had was right and followed it, so we got through without too much trouble. But over all, the experience was soo cool.
Over all, the MTC experience has been a blast. The speakers yesterday at Mission Conference were amazing and just the spirit you can feel is so amazing. Can't wait till Tuesday to find out who the speaker is. One cool thing though is that over the next couple of weeks, they will be training all of the new Mission Presidents, so all of the Apostles will be here on the MTCcampus for the entire week. And by the sound of it, we will get to meet most of them.
Well, my time is about up. Love you all and can't wait to hear back from you.
Elder Okeson
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