2/3 of the way through the MTC!

Hello all!

Here I am, at the start of our 8th week here at the MTC! That means I'm 2/3 of the way through our MTC stay...that's crazy! I don't feel ready yet! I have so much more to learn still! All the same, I'm very excited to get to Boston!

The weather here has been awesome in the last week. One day it rained ALL DAY and it's snowed (lightly) about 3 times, I think. It's so beautiful, I love it!

I've been all sorts of sick the last few days. It started out on Wednesday or Thursday of last week - to me it felt like the beginning of strep throat. Then a couple days later a whole mess of mucus decided to join the party - I was (and still am) congested in my head, throat, and chest. Yesterday one of my eyes starting hurting and getting all red. It looked so irritated, and this morning when I woke up I swear it looked like pink eye, and I had all sorts of nasty crusty crap that had actually dried and sealed that one eye shut. It's probably pink eye, and I'm going to go to the health clinic later today to get some antibiotics for it or something. To top it all off, I lost my voice on Saturday for no apparent reason, and I'm still struggling to gain it back. I can talk okay now, but I can't sing at all. =[

The language is coming along really really well. I am a firm believer in the gift of tongues! The Lord has blessed me so much as I learn this language. My vocabulary continues to increase, and my capacity to understand is increasing. The grammar forms are making so much more sense, and things just get better and better. Most of what I can say has to do with teaching the gospel, bearing testimony, asking questions, etc. etc. To answer your question, Mom, yes I can do some conversational things as well. Getting to know someone, setting appointments, that sort of thing. And yes, I can ask to go to the bathroom! That was one of the first things we had to learn, hahaha. I absolutely LOVE this language. Even though it's slow-going, I can read the script, and I'm almost done learning the functions of the language - I still need to learn the rules for the didactic marks and stuff. In the language portions of class, we're mostly learning more grammar stuff and how certain things work. For example, we did passive voice yesterday. Most of this stuff is coming quickly and easily to me, and I am so thankful for the ability to learn that the Lord has blessed me with. He does, however, make sure I stay humble. People in my district have been complimenting me on my language ability and vocabulary retention, and I think I was letting it get to my head a bit. In our last lesson with one of our investigators, the Lord let me fall flat on my face because I wasn't worthy of the gift of tongues anymore. I was pretty confident in myself and my own abilities to speak the language, and I wasn't relying on Him as I should have been. So, I forgot some really easy words, and for the life of me I couldn't formulate a question to ask our investigator. We got through the lesson and it went well overall, but I was embarrassed at my stumblings and awkward pauses. I've said it before and I'll say it again - the thing I've learned most here is humility. We can't do any of this work, much less speaking an entirely new language, without the help of the Lord. I am forever grateful to Him for his help and blessings in my life. =]

I send my love and best wishes to you all! As our district leader here once said - "The gospel is true, the book is blue, and Jesus Christ loves you!" =D

Elder DeLong