Insights into the MTC-August 5, 2011

Hello Minasan (Everyone)

So I'll start off addressing the fact that appararently I said something that made you parentals think I was not ok based on the number of "You can do it" emails I got this week so I will just say I'm doing well. No need to worry, things are hard but that is to be expected but overall it its wonderful. I don't know if I mentioned this in my last email but basically I make a list of things to mention to you in my email so that is why I probably sound so all over the place. Thanks for answering my many questions last week, its helpful information.

So some random "nuts and bolts" things that I think are interesting but have no meaning basically. So I discovered this week finally why some people will put a country's flag under their nametag. It tells everyone that they are SYLing for the day, very interesting to me that they don't even break if people only speak english. Next so constantly there are announcements over intercoms throughout this compound kindof like a school telling people to go to the main office (another random thing about that is that they also have microphones like a school so you can be in the residence hall and hear, "Elder Carter are you in your room?" Then you just yell "Yes" and you can conversate like this (never have done this yet but I want to)). So everytime people hear "Excuse me Elders and Sisters" over the intercom people will throw their hands up with a number of finger up as there guess of how many people are getting called to the office. Its quite entertaining to watch during meals because there are so many people. Finally check out LDS News and look at the new in-field training that they are putting in place. Apparently I will be having 12 more weeks of training once I'm in the field. The church is definitely mixing things up. Also, the whole MTC is now the pilot program as I mentioned my first week as of August 1 everyone switched. The computers have not opened up so we still have counters on these but the other districts have had 1 investigator this week and next week I believe they switch to 2 like my district has now. Even the senpai have been switched so in classes they only speak Japanese (non-religious classes, if its about how to teach or something they speak English but if its related to Japanese its japanese only). Also speaking of Senpai they got their travel itineraries this week! They leave a week from Monday! I feel like I barely know them and they are already leaving us! I need to learn so much more from them! Crazy sauce. Moving on.

So yesterday Elder Clayton and Elder Beckstrand with a group of the Senpai tried out to sing an arrangement of a song for one of the bigger meetings in the MTC. Actually a little backstory. So they did this arrangement in sacrament for fun but who was visiting but none other than the MTC president, after they sang he pulled Beckstrand choro aside and told him to try out. They didn't this week so we get a knock on the door yesterday from the MTC music person saying she was requested by the MTC president to have them try out with her, He really wanted them. So they tried out and last night they opened the mailbox and they had this awesome stationary saying they would be singing at the mission conference we are having this Sunday so in front of the whole MTC. Crazy sauce with 2 days to prepare so this morning on our day of rest we woke up at 5:15 to do our laundry so that they could practice during the day. I won't lie, it sucked to wake up but after that it was nice to just be able to chill in the laundry room with not many people (ends up the Senpai do it all the time so they were there too) and then not have to worry about it all day.

Now for answering questions. My district has 8 elders and 0 sisters (there are two sisters in another district that entered at the same time as us). We have Beckstand Choro and Maxfied Choro who are also in our rooms. Elder Maxfield is from Arizona, also into fitness, is a pretty fun guy but kinda has been acting like a 2 years old today that I have been on splits with today so he has almost got slapped today. But beside the point we are buds. Then we have Henderson Choro and Nukya Choro. Elder Henderson went to BYU, was big into Japanese before he came here, has mad skills, break dances, and is possibly the most sincerly happy and nice person I have ever met. (His dream side kick was not a bear or lion like some of people, it was a walking Sunflower....that tells you the kinda man he is). Nukya Choro is a Japanese-American that doesn't know Japanese. His brother is in one of the other districts here with us. He is one of the hardest workers I have seen in our group yet he has had the hardest time with the language but he is my study inspiration. Then finally we have Perry Choro and Singleton Choro. Elder perry is from provo, went to byu, and likes to call me a girl.....not sure why to be honest. But he is a pretty chillax guy so thats nice. Elder Singleton is our Canadian! Yeah! So he has lots of stories and is another just really nice guy. Basically everyone is awesome in the district.

Moving on because I'm running out of time. As for the TRC, it didn't really stink that bad. Its super weird because you just see this camera on the wall of this living room moving around watching you but other than that it is super cool to teach someone "new" and its kinda weird because they are themselves. Like the first guy told us he was a member and served a mission so kinda weird to teach him, the next guy we did said he didn't believe God existed so that was different but it went well. Tomorrow we teach our investigators how to pray and recieve answers so wish me good luck on that. Next our two Investigators, Kudosan and Morimotosan. First of Morimotosan of Bishoff Sensei as he really is is not a good actor and is super chillaxed. He just sits back, doesn't ask questions and just kinda nods along and tells us to teach him everything. Last friday night we had a lesson with him and we invited him to baptism and he accepted. Tis awesome. He has been doing well this week and we are teaching him tonight again....I think. I have a sinking suspicion that he is hiding something so I'm worried for our next lesson but if we make it through that then we have succeeded so yay. Kudosan or previously Satosan or really Whetto Shimai is an awesome actress, she cries on demand seems super sincere when she is sincere and super bored when she is bored. Anyway we inviteed her to be baptised earlier this week but she said it was too fast and her husband wouldn't like it and all this stuff. Anyway we got in with her last night and our new companionship problem came into play, Clayton Choro talks nonstop in lessons so its kinda hard for me to get into so after 15 minutes of him talking straight in our lesson of 30 minutes she just looks at me and asks when I was baptized and how I felt. In very broken japanese I testified to her and all that jazz (running out of time for description) and the Spirit was aweomse, craziest experience of my life, tears came to her eyes and push come to shove she accepted baptism yay! She is actually German not japanese mom. She is the bomb. 10 seconds left.

bye

Random thoughts of the MTC-July 29, 2011

Ok so I have this counter that  counts down thirty minutes so I have no time to write emails if I read your emails so don't email me just dear elder me if that is ok with you guys.
 
I am good
The food is crazy and there is so much of it but its actually really good.

Nice that you guys are having grandma over.  Hopefully she is ok with people cooking for her, she has always been a good little server of others fulfilling their needs. 

Father our devotionals are actually on Sunday and Tuesday nights so hope that clears that up (although I don't think it really matters).

  Update on the B2 bretheren. I have now seen Andrew and he always sit at the Japanese table so we see him a lot and I got word that Colton has recieved his call to Seattle which is wicked awesome!!!!!! 
 
Ok now for how I'm doing stuff and this is really just going to be a random assortment of thoughts that I have written down throughout the week.  So we have the pamphlets to give to investigators and it wasn't till this morning that we found out that the pictures are different in them between the english and Japanese ones.  The English one has americans and the Japanese has Japanese people its super funny but makes sense.   Another random cool thing about class this week.  We were kinda talking with our Senseis (teachers) and one of them was telling us how we have basically the authority to call upon heaven for the gift of tounges. Random and I probably should have known that but I thought that was super duper awesome so yeah. 

The district is doing pretty good we have had some fun moments.  The MTC is tough.  We have had one elder just break down crying in one of our "Coaching Studies" (basically the sensei comes around and helps you study more effectively) and we have had the district leaders companion basically tell our district leader to sit down and be quiet so oh the fun of the drama of the MTC.  Tomorrow we have a "District Inventory" which basically should be called a "district roast" so that should be.....different.  Something dad would love is how many Moleskin notebooks I have seen here it is crazy.  I thought they weren't very popular but I have seen quite a number and the funniest part is the people I have talked to about it were basically all gifted them by parents that love them.  :-) 

Lets see tomorrow we have a TRC (can't remember what that stands for to be honest) basically you go into a fake living room that looks right with a fake investigator and a camera so your senseis can watch you. All the senpai call them "TRC Beatdowns" because they say you just get so discouraged and beat down after going in there trying to teach for 35 minutes in a foreign language.  I'm quite terrified of them to be honest. I hope they go well.  Now for the new progressing investigators.  So last Saturday we say our video intro to them the first one was one of our teachers which was not a big surprise but his new name is Morimoto san.  And then the next new investigator....the screen turns on....who could it be......Satosan? Yes it was the same person as Satosan but now apparently her name is Kudosan and she is 40 years old and have kids (the "actress" is actually 22 so its a little awkward to talk to her about 40 year old woman stuff).  anyway So we started teaching them.  We taught Morimoto san and he was interested in Christ so we taught him a lesson about that and the Book of Mormon and all that jazz and tonight we have another lesson with him where we are teaching the Doctrine of Christ.  Kudosan has also been fun.  We had our first lesson with her and were able to really push families which she seemed to eat up and after the lesson we go into our district classroom and have our usual "postop" on each lesson when all of a sudden Kudosan walks in the room, not only were we talking about her but we had never seen her leave her "house" so I was terrified.  Then she turns around and points her her newly put on nametag which says "Sister Whetlauf  - Teacher" Yep, she is our new teacher.  Ha. Now we have Satosan, Kudosan, and Whetto Shimai (Sister Whetto (super hard to say Whetlauf in japanese)) all rolled into one person.  she's a good teacher though and she got off her mission from Sendai last year so extra awesomness. I will have to talk to her about what to expect.  Tonight we are also going to try to teach a lot more by memory than having our "cheat sheets" with up so I'm a little scared especially since I tried it yesterday and basically all I could think of is "Baptism is good" etc.  Anyway.  So much to say but we are getting in the swing of things which is good I guess although its already a tad monotmous and they kinda are getting mad at us for being too fun (what they would call, "not focusing").  Hopefully the language keeps coming and the lessons get a ton better but I'm glad that we get this opportunity to practice so much, it shall be invaliable when we get into the country.  Anyway, love you all, hope all is well at home or wherever you are reading this. Peace out.
 
Elder Carter

Yay! Here we are.

Ok so I didn't read any of the emails I was sent and am just going to respond to the Dear Elders. First off thank you for the letters and packages people! They were amazing. It was funny that I was just thinking I could use more clothes and a notebook so that was divine intervention. Anyway let us start telling of adventures.

We taught Satosan (our progressing investigator) 3 times this week. Oh what an adventure that was. So we taught her Monday about I don't even know what and then halfway through the lesson she says she has a question which is terrifying enough because it is hard to understand but then all of a sudden she says she is "Bukyo" which I knew I had heard before then it occurred to me, Buddhist! Well that is fine and all but then she went on to tell us she didn't understand God or Jesus Christ and that it was much easier for us because that is what America has, a Christian background. Well that put a damper on things. We weren't even sure how to respond so we were a little beaten down after that but we committed to more fully teach her about Christ and our next lesson was the Plan of Salvation in Preach my Gospel which we thought that would be a good lesson so we basically read her all of that because it is a lot of information and we don't really know Japanese. Anyway complete and utter failure #2 of the weak, she was super bored and the spirit was no where to be found because it was all just two Americans reading Japanese poorly. Finally yesterday we had our final lesson with her and so we decided although we weren't thrilled with her progress we would commit her to baptism. This lesson also was much more simple phrases that we had learned. The lesson went MUCH better. We utilized the Book of Mormon better testified like champs and then the moment of truth. We committed her. First question is to explain what bapism is. We had explained the ordinance of it but she wanted the physical act so we pulled out every acting skill we had and acted it out for her. She seemed pleased so we moved on. Next she started talking about her feelings about the gospel. It was at this point for a brief moment I understood exactly what she was saying. It was almost as if she turned to me and said "Are you God?" It was crazy, it was beside the point. Anyway her point was that she had learned everything from us and she knew in her mind that it was true but there was nothing in her heart that she felt then she pulled out saying her baptism would be a "uso" I had heard this word before too but couldn't remember so I quickly flip through my dictionary then my eyes rest on the word. Lie. She thinks her baptism would be a lie. My heart ached for her. We were there to testify of the spirit the truthfullness and instead there was no spirit and she thought her baptism would be a lie. A very humbling moment in my life. Anyway we left downhearted. Two of the four companionships got a baptism commitment out of her so I guess we weren't so bad. Then last night we got to see a video of her telling us how we did (still in character but in English) and how she felt about the gospel. This just further put the nail in the coffin but I am grateful for the experience. Anyway we pick up two new investigators next week.

Moving on. I have been asked my Sunday schedule by a few people so basically here is what we do. We study A LOT. Ha All gospel study no language study. No classes. We have priesthood and sacrament where in both we sing Japanese hymns which is super awesome although I have no idea what I am saying. Also in sacrament the whole thing is in Japanese except two of the talks by the branch presidency. Oh and we have to prepare a three minute talk each for each Sunday that we may have to give if we are called to speak from the stand. Its like the olden days where they would call people on missions from the stand. I have seen a lot of Logan friends including Andrew and my friend Zac I lived by so that leaves only Orlando coming in in August and Colten which I don't know where his mission stuff ended up so that has been awesome. So many people I know here.

As for the pilot program we aren't the first to go through it apparently. There has at least been one district before us that did it and they are still here. I kind of like it. I worry that I may not learn as much other stuff about the language but I think we will be better listeners that the other 2 districts that came in with us. Also I believe as of August 1 at least the Japanese program if not the whole MTC will be switching to this new program. Also we were told last Sunday that there will be lot of changes toward more use of computers coming up at the beginning of August so I'm excited to see those. All we have been told so far is that there will no longer be handwritten letters to mission presidents but emails to them which I think is much more efficient.

Kinda sad that you mentioned how much you loved the temple mom because the temple is closed today so we didn't actually go. I think it will be open next week so we should be able to go then. As for your question of when I leave here it is 9/26 so two days earlier than expected. You should see how many books we have! Its like 50 pounds worth of language book and they still have the prices on them so we were able to figure it was like $400 worth of language books. They are super good though. Oh and they have fun names that the teachers even call them like Miyagi san, Samurai, Picachu, Sumo, etc

Yay for fabio, I know you could do it daddy.
.
Oh last week we sang called to serve in the Sunday night devotional and its this special MTC version and it is super awesome. It makes you just want to run out the door and baptize someone!
As for our exercise time I play 4 square. Which i thought would be pretty chill but these people are crazy here. It is the most political game ever. Don't get someones friend out or they will play dirty with you. Hardest most exercising game ever!

My district is the best we work hard but we have a ton of fun. We basically own our classroom and have to stay there all day so we get sick of studying sometimes and have fun debates like if you could have an animal sidekick what would it be, or which would win 1000 gueini pigs or a dog, etc. So so so much fun. Also we are in an observation room so they have one of those police mirrors where they can see through but you "can't" see back. (You actually can it is just hard) so we have fun when people are in there. Also the room we taught Satosan in had one of those mirrors so we would watch each other teach which I'm not sure we were suppose to but it was educational.
Oh and then there are these boxes on the wall like where a plug would be but there is nothing in them so they are empty but apparently people store things in them. We have found some funny things in them and we are still trying to figure out what to put in them ourselves.

I don't need anytyhing
Elder Clayton is going to Fukuoka
So are the other two elders

Sorry short, This timer is annoying. It also goes away in August thank goodness. Love you. Sum it all up with the part of the song:
"All is well
All is well"


Message for Kris:
That little bugger son of your's had to just go and crawl after I am gone. Hug him for me.

Message for Mandy:
Didn't know you could Dear elder
Devotionals are the bomb
Never actually had the ice cream I have been watching my girlish figure
Elder clayton is from St. george.
I play 4 square.

SPY (Speak Your Language)

Editorial note: These are being taken from handwritten letters from Kyle. So the interpretation may be a little off. (Kyle is not known for his handwriting skills.)

Parentals,

So much to say and it has only been a few days. Elder Clayton (my companion) is a good guy. Can't remember if I told you but he went to Snow Canyon High School, so 3 of the four of us in the room are from the St. George area.

So much different than expected. SO many rules and no oversight! First off though, it was awesome to get so many letters and the package (my district enjoyed the cupcakes). I earned the name Cupcake Choro (Elder Cupcake). I got a total of 9 pieces of mail that day! Anyway to bigger and better things.

So this is what I learned. My district is part of a pilot program where you start SYL (speak your language) from the beginning which normally doesn't happen until after week 3. So the Senpai (seniors) were a little worried about us. Speaking of senpai, they are the bomb! I thought they would tease us or something buy they are SO helpful. I have had some awesome talks with them and they have helped us with the language.

Anyway, so guess what!!!??? I taught my second lesson today! Oh wait....Did I forget to say...the last two lessons were in Japanese with a person that wouldn't speak any English? Intense! Our first lesson went awesome other than telling her God loves some kind of food...we aren't sure what kind. Also today, we committed her to pray to know if the Book of Mormon was true and she asked if she should do it now and without thinking I told her yes...so she prayed right in front of us. It was awkward and a half! Didn't help that Elder Clayton started laughing when he realized what we did. So i was repeatedly saying "your prayer was good" in Japanese of course. It was bad.

Anyway, Elder Clayton and I have been doing good. He is much more athletic than me and also he sometimes just burns out or is hard headed. So sometimes we test each other. All part of the experience. Anyway, I'll email on Friday hopefully. Love you and talk to you later.

Elder Carter

First Day in the MTC

Parentals,  (Kyle's name for his parents)

Kon'nichiwa from the MTC!!  Just finished unpacking all my wrinkly stuff.  (Don't worry Mom, I'll iron it eventually).  Well as you would imagine, it has been quite an adventure today.  They wisked me off and  20 minutes later I had an MTC ID, 2 nametags, room key, and ecclesiastical license (I think that's what it is.  It's all in Japanese and has Thomas S. Monson's signature).  There was other stuff but I can't remember.

Anyway, I was led to my room, which my host told me was so much better than his.  (He is going to Malaysia).   Then he brought me to my class.  Yes, 1 hour in and I'm already in class.  Even better is it seems we are in the spanish wing so they always speak spanish to us which is weird.  But I found my teacher who is really nice...but he hasn't said one thing in English yet.


I went through a computer orientation and then I'm told to teach this fellow new missionary how to do the orientation, and after checking the nametag it was Elder Clayton, who I knew from my paperwork is my companion.  Yay!  Anyway, went back to class and started to learn to introduce myself.  I know some of the stuff but a lot of it was religious so not exactly taught in schools.

Next surprise was when Jacob Beckstrand (who I was in SUCCESS Academy with) walked in. j I met a lot of people I know in here from old work buddies to schoole pals to Orlando's friend who is my Zone Leader.

We had a little lesson from the MTC President,  had dinner, then we worked on some teaching exercises, and finally met my zone.  Then unpacked.  On another note, I'm the only one going to Sendai in my district, so fun stuff there.  My language teacher just always yells "Sendai Power!" at me.

Anyway, almost lights out so I shall email Friday, I believe, which is my P day.  I'm alive, all is well, I love you.

Sayonara for now,
Kyle