Merry Christmas everyone! We were surprised this morning with an extra half hour of computer time this week! So you'll have this email, and then I'll send another one on Tuesday. =]
So far, this has been one of the best Christmases ever. I had completely forgotten about the materialism and commercialism of this holiday season, and to be honest I sort of forgot that this day was coming. It came up so quickly! Not that I forgot what this marvelous season celebrates, but the specific day almost slipped my mind. I've been completely losing myself in learning this language, dealing with companionship issues, and striving to become a better person and missionary. I count this as a blessing, because, like I said, it's not been about who's getting what and getting the plans for the day laid out and making sure the decorations are all set, or whatever. This Christmas has been completely about Christ, and I love it.
I hope things are well there at home! I definitely want to hear what you've all been up to! (You too, Elders McHardy and Ellsworth!) I hope this day has been wonderful for you all. Mine has been AMAZING. Last night, we had a fireside for Christmas Eve. It was a nativity scene type of thing, with narrators reading off of a script and quoting Luke 2, and missionaries in costume acting out the parts. There were several musical numbers and congregational hymns; it was a nice evening. Then we all got to eat popcorn and watch "A Christmas Carol" (the one with George Scott as Scrooge). Sister Taylor (the one sister in our district) and I have decided that watching movies at the MTC is better than watching them anywhere else. Funny moments were even funnier with all 2100+ of us laughing, and there were moments when we would applaud or give standing ovations to characters. It was tons of fun! We also sang a couple of fun Christmas songs in addition to traditional carols and hymns, like The Twelve Days of Christmas, missionary style! I'll give you the last verse: On the Twelfth day of Christmas, a missionary needs: 12 apostles speaking, 11 elders preaching, 10 prayers for blessings, 9 sisters singing, 8 teachers teaching, 7 sessions planning, 6 bowls of ice cream, 5 golden contacts! 4 referral calls, 3 meals a day, 2 heavy bags, and a copy of the Book of Mormon! It was a really enjoyable evening.
This morning I got up, and there was no anticipation to open presents. Instead, I had an anticipation for our 2-hour sacrament meeting with a General Authority. No, I didn't have my family with me, but you were in my thoughts and prayers. After we ate breakfast, we all met to watch the Christmas "Music and the Spoken Word", and right after we had sacrament meeting. Normally, we meet in our individual branches (there's about 50-something branches for the MTC!) for sacrament meeting, but this week we all met together. All 2100+ missionaries! We do that for firesides and devotionals, but this one was different, because it was also sacrament meeting, which meant that we all were going to partake of the sacrament together. Let me just set this up for you: there were 5 sacrament tables in various places around the room. Each table had 4 elders that were breaking the bread (only one elder at the front of the auditiorium said each blessing), and at each table were 7 or 8 more elders who passed the sacrament, each with 2 trays. It was a huge, coordinated effort, but we got it done. It was really cool! That was probably the biggest sacrament meeting i've ever been in or will ever be in!
Guess who we had come and speak to us? Elder David A. Bednar. It was an incredible meeting! His wife gave a wonderful talk, but Elder Bednar's...wow. I think that was probably the best talk I've ever heard in my life. EVER. It was so awesome. I have 5 full pages of notes on just his message. It was about the character of Christ - I'll have to type up another email with my notes and give you a run-down of his talk, or maybe I'll send a letter. It was really, really amazing.
We then had lunch (turkey, potatoes, rolls, stuffing, etc....AND CHEESECAKE!), and now we're here doing our extra 30 minutes of email. After this we have some personal time and a district meeting, and then another program from the Tabernacle Choir, and another fireside tonight! It's truly been a fantastic Christmas so far, and I can't wait for the rest of it. I know that I'll never have another Christmas like it!
Something I keep forgetting to mention:
You know how when you're walking around, doing whatever, you're usually looking at other people's faces, if you look at them at all? Here, you're looking at everyone's nametags. It's so cool to see all the different languages (though about half of the missionaries here are learning Spanish, it seems) - in most languages, it just says "Elder ______), and sometimes Sister is changed, but in Russian and a lot of the Eastern European languages, the word they use for Elder is different! It's been really neat to see all of the different languages on the nametags and get to know people here. I feel like our district is the most-talked-to district in the whole MTC though. Every single day, without fail, at least one person will stop and ask us "What language is that?!" and we get to proudly say each time "THAT is Cambodian." You should see the look on their faces when I tell them I'm going to Massachusetts. =D
I talked about the Mandarin-speaking missionaries, right? We've made pretty good friends with them, since they have the same schedule as us (along with the Hmong, Thai, Vietnamese, and Korean missionaries, too). No, I did tell you about that, because I remember saying that I learned a couple of things in Mandarin, and that the sisters who were teaching me were surprised at how quickly I picked up on the tones. So that was cool! Sister Burton and Sister Resendes are the two that I talk to the most - Sister Resendes is into musical theatre too, and she has a similar sense of humor as my own. We get along really well! She's going to Taiwan.
The language continues to be very challenging, but it's also really interesting and cool at the same time. We've been starting on the script this last week (yes, all the swirly, weird-looking stuff!), and I now have all 33 consonants memorized, as well as the 32 sub-consonants. The vowels are much more difficult to memorize though, and one of our teachers mentioned that starting Monday (tomorrow), the teachers will no longer be writing in Romanized Cambodian on the board - script only. It's very intimidating, and I'm doing my best not to freak out. We sang "I Am a Child of God" (or "khnom kuu cia koon robah preah") yesterday in class from script, and we caught a few of the words. The gift of tongues is coming to us bit by bit as we trust in the Lord and do our very best, and little by little, we're learning to read the script. Line upon line, precept upon precept. It's crazy how much we've learned in just 2 and a half weeks!
Well, I'm down to my last minute of email time. I love you all so very much, and I pray for you all the time. I hope you've had an enjoyable, memorable Christmas. Expect another email from me on Tuesday! Maybe a letter sometime soon as well, if I don't get to address everything in the email. I love you!!!
suasdei thngai no?ael!
Elder DeLong
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