This week seemed to go
by probably the fastest, which hopefully according to that logic it means my
last week it will go by really fast!
The language is coming
along. The structure of sentences is just really weird which makes this
language hard to learn. The pronunciation isn't that hard, it is but isn't, but
it's putting together the sentences that is really difficult. That is, in my
opinion, why it makes this language so hard to learn. Otherwise i probably
would have a good amount of it down. In the English language there is 4 main
demonstratives we use. This, Those, That, There. but in Marshallese there are a
bunch. They (Marshallese) are really specific about two things. Location and
Numbers. So if there are two or more items next to the person who is speaking
then it would sound something like this. Ikanaan men ke. Which translates into
"I want those things next to you." But with Marshallese it doesn't
directly translate into English. When you do translate it directly to English
most sentences sound like caveman English. And dad will be so happy that there
is a word that means ok or yes that sounds like when I say unga. It is inne but
the n has lines over it which makes the n have a "ng" sound on it
like the sound at the end of sing. I will try to speak some when I call you
guys soon. It is some weird stuff haha. But I’m just really waiting to go out
in the field so I can start learning it better. It's hard to learn it here, the
best way to learn it is being immersed in the culture and always speaking
it.
(Elder Andrew Romney since he first started to talk as a baby has said "unga" it means okay. He still says it. When you tell him something where the response is "okay", what you hear is "unga". We have teased him forever about his caveman response. We have even joked before about him learning a language where "unga" meant something. Who knew that it already existed in Marshallese and it meant exactly what he already said it for. Meant to be? We think so.)
I’m going to miss
temple breakfast and going to the temple when I have to go to the Marshalls
because the temple in our mission is the Fijian temple, so we won't be able to
go probably. This week our Tuesday Evening Devotional was spoken by Russell M.
Ballard and it was also a bombdiggitty talk. He talked about how
all souls are precious in the sight of the lord, and how we need to go and be
good missionaries. The spirit was really
strong and I learned a lot. To top it off we also will have general conference
coming up soon so that is awesome as well. It is also funny because for
languages like Marshallese general conference is tape delayed a week so when we
get there we will be watching it again, but this time in Marshallese. Luckily
we get to hear it in English first. But the general conference after this one
will be next April and I will be able to speak it and know what is being said
in Marshallese so that is a win win situation.
During our temple walk last Sunday me
and Elder Kim brought our umbrellas and we went around and photo bombed as many
pictures as we could with us and our umbrellas. We now are dubbed the Umbrella
crew because we are masters. It was pretty fun. We have a couple pictures of
us, and I will ask some of the other guys to send us their pictures with us
photo bombing them, hopefully.
 |
| The Umbrella Crew - more shots to come |
My favorite thing at the MTC has probably been learning the language and talking with
Bro. McComie about the Marshall's and
hearing his experiences. I also have enjoyed teaching our fake progressing
investigators and just got one of them to commit to baptism and the other is
going to soon hopefully haha.
Marshall Island Story from Brother McComie
The snack package is awesome and
yummy! Thanks.
This week we didn't get an assignment to
help on Wednesday so maybe next week. You are asked to do stuff like that and
you will get a letter stating when and what you are doing. Oh that reminds me
I've also had the fake calling of mail man the last few weeks because I am the
only one who can open our box because it is a really bad lock system, or it's
just old which makes it bad haha.
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