MTC Week 4

你好！

To begin off with, just want to say thanks for all the letters I have been getting from all of you.  It has been absolutely amazing to hear from all of you and all the things that are going on in the "outside world," as funny as that may sound.

So far in the MTC, it has been an absolute blast.  We have been teaching everyday and studying when we are not teaching.  That is pry one of the best parts of being here though, you are always working on something, whether it is studying Chinese, studying the gospel, or teaching the gospel, it has its ways of always keeping you busy.  Over the past week now, we have been teaching four different people.  Two are Gold Tags, and the other two are our teachers.  Which means we are teaching in both English and Chinese, which is absolutely a blast.  Which brings up one thing that I am looking forward to as I become better at speaking in Chinese, which is really expressing myself to those I am teaching with my companions.  When we are teaching in English, we are really able to express ourselves using analogies, but in Chinese, we are still just working on learning gospel teams and are not able to use those same analogies to express our thoughts and feelings.

Now that it is week four, I feel like I have settled in pretty well, we have the same schedule each week, so things are going pretty smoothly, the only thing that changes though is what we are teaching to the investigators and what we are learning.  But for the most part now, all of the learning is done on our own time.  The time we have in class is more for coaching and helping us refine what we have learned so far, which is pretty nice.  The only thing that I haven't really settled into is the food.  The food isn't bad, but the timing of it isn't very ideal.  We have the first meal times, which for dinner, means we are eating at 4:30.  Which means that by 8 pm, along with many of the other elders, we are starving again.  But this past week, it hasn't been too bad for food.  One of the elders in the district above us got a food box, and we have been having zone parties pretty much every night.  It has been really fun.  We also have had nerf gun wars, which are also pretty awesome.  In our zone alone, I think there are pry around fifteen nerf guns, but they are all pretty much pass downs from the last set of elders.

There are two times we get to leave campus, and both times are for going to the Temple.  One of those are the Temple walks, which we take on Sunday afternoons after all of the meetings are over and just before dinner.  Those are always really fun and a blast to go to.  The other is for going to the temple for doing initiatory or an endowment on Monday mornings during our p-day.  Those are always really fun times and we absolutely love the time that we have outside in the fresh air.

For looking back on how I prepared for the MTC, there were definitely things I wish I could have done more of and other things I am happy I did.  One of the biggest things that I wish I had done more of while I was preparing to come into the MTC was memorize more scriptures or just know where to find them.  A lot of times, and I can see it in my companions too, we can think of a scripture that would be great to share, but none of us can think of where it is at in the scriptures.  The other thing was make sure that you truly enjoy the sleep you get before coming into the MTC.  One thing I have really missed while I have been on my mission are my Sunday naps.  Those days of getting to sleep for an hour or two after church are such a blessing to have, but while on your mission, there are plenty of other great things that you are able to work on.

Now for what has been happening over the past week.

On Monday, during p-day, we spent two hours playing sports.  I played volleyball the entire time and it was actually really good.  We were playing four on four and it was an absolute blast.  But because we were playing volleyball for so long, we didn't really do anything else during p-day.

Tuesday was relatively relaxed, but for devotional it was really cool.  We had another Apostle come to talk to us.  This time it was Elder Russell M. Ballard.  Pry one of the biggest things I got from his talk was how if we follow the Prophet and the Apostles, they can not and will not ever lead us astray.  They will be there to guide us through the toughest times of our lives as long as we listen to them and keep God's commands.  It was truly a powerful talk and his testimony was absolutely amazing.  

Wednesday was pry one of the cooler days of the week.  We got to be hosts, which are the missionaries that help all of the incoming missionaries check in and find where they are suppose to be going.  I was able to host four and a half people.  They were going all over the place, but to explain the half a person, there were not enough elders when they were unloading, and so I was hosting two people at once.  And then about half way through, I passed one of them off to another elder, so that I how I hosted four and a half people.  The coolest part of it though was to see all of the new missionaries coming in.  And to me, just thinking that that was me only four weeks ago, but now I am starting to be considered one of the older missionaries at the MTC.

Thursday was also really relaxed.  We were suppose to teach three lessons, two in English and one in Chinese, but one of the English ones fell through because we could not get onto skype to skype one of the investigators, so it ended up that we only taught two lessons that day.

Friday was when things really started to change.  Everything here at the MTC was starting to get really secure.  They shut down the main building on campus and the security here has been doubled.  Starting last Saturday until this Wednesday, all of the Apostles and the first presidency are here because they are doing the new Mission President Seminar.  We all were really hoping that we would get to meet some of Apostles while they are here, but by the sound of it, we pry won't because they are all really busy.

Saturday was also pretty routine, we just had classes and taught a lesson.  But the one thing that was different was that half of the district was gone for singing.  They had the opportunity to sing in the Mission President Seminar, so they were able to see all 12 and the presidency while they were singing.  They all sounded pretty excited about it all.

And then there was Sunday, which was pry one of the best days of the week, mainly because of the devotional.  Everything was different though for church because since the main building was closed, a majority of the branches did not have a place to meet.  So instead of having language branches, we had a combined meeting with all of the branches in our District, which was 35 branches in total.  Now for the devotional, it was given by Sister Janice Kapp Perry.  She has written many songs in the children's hymn book and does a lot of other songs for the Church.  It was an absolutely amazing talk.  Her husband also gave a talk, and he was absolutely hilarious.  Sister Perry gave a some back ground of how they met in music class, and how her husband used a very cheese pick up line ("Those lips look like they were made for more than just playing a musical instrument").  You needed to be there to get the rest of it, but it just got better after that.  But from a spiritual experience, it was also really fun.  We sang a good number of children songs from the song book and the spirit was absolutely amazing.  I don't know what it is about singing the melody The Army of Helamanand Sisters of Zion, but just the spirit that comes with it is always so amazing and overwhelming.  

Over all, this has been an absolutely amazing week and I am looking forward to another week here at the MTC.  I love you all and thank you again for all the letters and emails that you send me.

Love,

Elder Okeson

Week 3 in the MTC

你好！

This has been another amazing week, full of different activities.  And it has been such a blast.

To begin the week off, my P-day was spent trying to get some medical scans done.  We had to take the shuttle bus off campus, and on the way, we had to pick up up two other elders from the dentist.  This was another one of those times where a valuable lesson was learned.  As we were picking them up, there was a mother that asked for a blessing.  She hadn't been feeling very well, and saw the two elders at the dentist and asked them for the blessing, but neither of them had oil they could use for the blessing.  To our luck, our driver had some oil, so we were able to give her a blessing.  So the important lesson that I learned was to always have oil that you can use for a blessing with you at all times.  After that, we got dropped off at the health center that was going to be doing the scans for us.  It felt like the longest scan of my life.  They wanted us to hold our breath for 60 seconds while the CT scan was running.  I only lasted 20 seconds, but they said it was ok.  After that, we came directly back to the MTC, at which point we had twenty minutes to get ready for dinner.  So there wasn't really a break for me on that P-day.  But on the positive side, today is looking like a really fun P-day.

Tuesday was really cool.  At the MTC, we have devotionals every Sunday and Tuesday night.  On Tuesday, Elder Cook talked to us.  The biggest things I got from his talk were: "Don't feel concerned about not being good enough."  He then went to talk more about how as long as we are trying our best, the Lord will make us good enough because he knows we are trying our best.  "What you do here will help you in the field."  As long as we are preparing here, we will be ready when we get to the field because we have learned what we needed.  Lastly, he said "The lessons you are teaching are Spiritual Lessons, not Worldly Lessons."  For Sunday Devotional, Sister Sheri Dew also talked to us about this, how we should be teaching by the spirit.  It is amazing how Elder Cook and Sister Dew's talks were similar on how when we use the spirit to teach anything becomes possible, even the conversion process for those who may not believe it is possible.

And then Wednesday, we also got a new district in the zone, along with another sister in our district.  The sister that was put in our district was originally in the fast track program, but her visa to Taiwan, had not come through yet and her district had just left.  Her Chinese is really good.  For the new district, there are four new sisters and six new elders.  The interesting part of it though is that seven of them have already studied Chinese for two years.  They are a great bunch of missionaries and it is definitely going to be cool having them in our district.  The only sad part about all the new missionaries coming in is that we are now losing the oldest district.  They are leaving today and tomorrow, going over to Australia.  They are all really excited, but at the same time, they are all kind of sad to be leaving the MTC.

This week, we have been teaching two investigators who are both our teachers, but it is all in Chinese.  The lessons are getting better, but they definitely need some work as we are still forgetting a few of the Chinese words that we would like to use during the lesson.  The exciting part of teach though is that we are picking up two gold tags this week.  The gold tags are people who are actually investigating the church, but are being taught by missionaries here in the MTC.  We are all really excited about being able to teach in English once again.

On Saturday, we also started TRC, which is where we teach people from the "out side world" who have come in.  It is done all in Chinese, so we are pretty much teaching by the spirit because the people who come could be at any point.  The only thing though is here in two weeks, it will be us skyping people in Taiwan.  So it really will be a good experience, but I also see it being quite the experience as the people we will be teaching will actually be Taiwanese instead of return missionaries (TRC) or our Chinese teachers.

My time is about up, so I will email you again in a week.  Thanks for all the letters and prayers.

Love,

Elder Okeson

P.S.  I have attached a photo of the entire zone as of Sunday.

P.S.S.  Happy (be-lated) Fathers Day Dad :)

Hey,

To answer everyone's questions, the gym time is our time to do what ever in the gym.  As long as we are in the same area as our companion, it is ok, but there are no set activities of what we have to do during our gym time.

TALL is a program on the computer that the MTC uses to help the students learn another language. It was designed by students atBYU to help missionaries, but it is only really set up to help missionaries learn gospel terms.  It really doesn't teach any other vocabulary.

About my Visa, I gave them all the information they needed to send it in on the second day I was here.  I don't know when they actually are sending it in, but they have it all.

As for my companion's and district's Chinese, they are all doing really good.  All my companions came in knowing zero Chinese, but in the entire district, 4 of the 9 came in with some Chinese background, including myself.

For my mission president, President Day has already been serving for 2 years, so I will get a new mission president half way through my mission.

Love,

Elder Okeson

Week 2 in the MTC

Hey Everyone,

This has been an absolutely amazing week.  There have been so many things that have been happening, and so much to say about it all.

First of all, thanks for the packages.  It was really great to get something from home.  I did not think that getting mail would be so exciting, but at the MTC, it really is a blast.  The food was really great.  Our meal times are always first ones on the schedule.  So dinner for us is at 4:30, which means by about 8, I am usually hungry again.  So it is always nice to have a little bit of extra food that I can have to eat.

 We now have three teachers teaching us.  Xia laoshi, Jin laoshi, and Dai laoshi.  They are all really great teachers, but we are still trying to get use to the one that was our teacher.  During our lessons, she would not respond to any English to make it appear as though she didn't know any.  But when she became our teacher, we finally weaseled some English out of her.  I don't know why, but that was probably one of the more exciting things for us on Friday, only because we all wanted to know what her English voice sounded like.  Although out of all the teaching, the biggest thing was how important it is to make a master plan of all the lessons.  A lot of the lessons we taught were answering her questions and then attempting to share something spiritual at the end.  But with our next investigator, which we will start today, we will be going with our lesson plans we have made.

One of the other big things we did this week was look at all the new mandarin missionaries coming in this week.  It is amazing at how many new missionaries are coming in over the next few months, now that it is summer time.  For the mandarin missionaries though, there will be 24, 12 of which will be in our zone.  But at the beginning of July, there will be 54 mandarin missionaries.  We don't know how they will be split though.  They have not given us that type of information yet.

The Chinese is coming pretty fast now.  At the MTC, we are using TALL to help us learn a lot of the new vocabulary.  But the biggest thing they want you doing here at the MTC is SYL (Speak Your Language), which is the hardest thing, in my opinion, to remember.

Also, we get a gym time every morning, which is the best thing ever.  It is so nice to be able to go play some sports in the morning.  The main things that are done at the gym, besides being able to run on the track and do weight training, are basketball, volleyball, and 4-square.  I have not played basketball, but I have done the other two.  The volleyball is fun, but not extremely competitive.  However, the 4-square is.  I don't know how it is possible, but 4-square is pretty intense here at the MTC because it is really the only sport that you kind of keep score.

This week, we also were getting things done for our visas.  For our visas, we had to get blood drawn and get a chest x-ray done.  And for those who are curious... I did not pass out.  I survived the blood tests.  The chest x-rays were also pretty fast.  Way less painful than the blood tests.

And then my companions.  They are all really great elders.  They both did do a year of school at BYU (Provo) before coming on their missions.  Elder Love has four sisters and three brothers.  Elder Nixon has five brothers and 4 sisters.  Both of them are also doing great with the Chinese.  They are picking it up so much faster than I did when I started learning Chinese.

Anyways, I have to run.  I love you all and love the email and letters that I get from you.

Love,

Elder Okeson

P.S.  Trent, just to let you know... I have ran into 5 different people that know you at BYU.  You are quite the popular man.

A side note:  If you see stuff posted on Facebook by NPR/Church News about people in the MTC studying Chinese, those girls in the photo are in my zone.  They are leaving here in the next week.

This is a behind-the-scenes look at a story from NPR about how Mormon missionaries learn foreign languages at the Church’s Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah. Listen to the full report: http://bit.ly/1mslTAe

Week 1

Hey,

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