February 7, 2012

Well, I have learned just how much can change in a week. Again.

 

The day after I emailed you, I lost my companion. He was accepted into the accelerated program, and so he left the district. Which is kind of sad, but we still get mail for him so we see him every other day. I'm now in a tri-panionship with Elders Christensen and Bangerter. Both are from Utah, American Fork and Centerville respectively. Elder Christensen is opposite from me in pretty much every sense I can think of, but it all works out great. I haven't lost the opportunity to speak with a fluent person, E. Christensen (the not me one) took 7 years, so he's good. He was actually accepted into the accelerated program too, but turned it down. So it's the five of us now in the district. For only being 2 weeks in we are one of the smallest districts I know about. Oh, and I'm in a new room now. It's nice, no more jokes about farting. Two of the elders in the room are going to Angola, Portuguese speaking. Apparently it's being made its own mission soon. I think it's a part of Mozambique right now. 

 

So far I have only received one handwritten letter. So Alexis Cooper, you get a special shout-out. I realize that it's partially my fault for not getting my address out to people that first week, but I'm still a little disappointed. I didn't get any mail at all over the weekend except for the package with gym clothing (Thank you Mom!!! It was no fun getting back into stinky clothes). So this is my commitment to all my friends out there; will you follow the example of Alexis Cooper and write unto me? I will be receiving mail on every day excepts Sundays, will you prepare a letter for me by then? Yes, I did just adapt the baptism commitment from PMG to get people to write letters. 

 

Speaking of Visas, from what I've heard, they may not actually have mine yet. Supposedly, if they had received them before I entered the MTC, they would have mailed it to me. So I don't know what that means. I'm just glad that I'm not going to one of the France Missions (either Lyon or Paris, I can't remember). Apparently because they might be serving in Belgium, they have to run some medical tests on them. Of the "here's a bag, please bring it back with a sample" variety.

 

Speaking of medical stuff, I went in to the doctor yesterday. I haven't' been able to sleep through the night since I got here, I may have mentioned that last time. I figured it was just being cold and worrying about waking up on time, so I didn't want to go in, but the district/teachers made me. The doctor said pretty much the exact thing I was thinking. Apparently he's been giving some bad advice or something though, because the front desk asked if I wanted to talk to the other doctor and ended up not charging me. If it doesn't resolve soon I'll go back in to see the other doctor, but I'm pretty sure the second blanket I got will fix a lot of it.

 

Oh, and apparently KlouieKlouie is a real thing. That made me so happy to find out. I think I mentioned it last time (honestly, I can't remember what I tell you and what I write in my journal), but apparently the food in Benin (which by the way is pronounced /beniin/ in English /benin/ locally, and /benah/ in straight French. So I kind of got it right when I read my call. It explains why the Cline's pronounced it that way) is very greasy, so I might gain weight there. I've gained 2-3 pounds here I think, but I'm certain that at least some of that is muscle so I'm not too worried about it.

 

Tell Cameron that the food is good and my bed is very comfortable. 

 

French is going really well. I platued for a few days, but I'm back on the up now. Yesterday we taught two lessons in French, without notes. One was to "Fiacre" a Cote d'Ivoire Jehovah's Witness, and the other was "Laurence" a French Hindu (by the way, gender of French names makes no sense. Half the ones I think are male are really female). I was surprised by how much I could say, but there's still a lot more to go, obviously.

 

By the way, Dad, do you know if you have access to old MTC Firesides/Devotionals? There was a devotional by Bednar back in 2009 that we got to watch Sunday night called "Recognizing the Spirit." It was amazing, and I would love a copy of it if at all possible. 

 

I don't really have time to put pictures in my email, I'm typing as fast as I can and still can't say everything. I will print out some and send them home though. I have a picture of 3 Elder Christensens and 1 Sister Christensen in front of the giant map, it's funny.

 

Wow, it's amazing how much time flies while you're typing. I have to go, Love you all!

Elder Ethan Christensen