Dear Family,
This last week I had the "half way point" day where I realized that the MTC time is going to end. It was a frightening realization. To think that I'm going to be out there speaking to people in a language that I'm going to have absolutely no fluency in... That's terrifying. By the way, if i get some of my "i"s and "y"s backwards, it's because I've been writing Czech too long. There are some consonants that can't be followed by an "i" so they use the "y." Little grammar lesson for you.
So this week I have to write like the wind. I only have twenty-eight minutes left and I have a lot to say. Well... there's alot that's bouncing around in my head. First off, thank you to everyone who wrote me - I received ALL of the letters yesterday. I'm not sure how that happened, but I guess the MTC was doing something weird. Seriously, I didn't get mail all week (even though we checked every day) and then yesterday... BAM! Mail galore. Anyway, thank you. It took me thirty minutes to read all of it, and that's not only because I'm slow at reading.
Let me get a few little things said before I dive into the big stuff: Ricky, my loving "Dear John" brother. I must say I found that letter quite disturbing, even for you, but on the other hand, a lot of the missionaries here got a kick out of learning that I have a brother who's weird enough to write something like that. Also, a few guys read it and thought that it was a real Dear John and one was like, "I'm so sorry. I can't see why the other Elders are laughing." That was until he got to the end and saw it was from a guy. Bahaha.
Next, Daddy: yes my companions are sick. Starsi Horvath has been coughing since he came to the MTC and hasn't stopped since. However I think it's just because of the dry weather. At one point, he was legitimately sick though, but that only lasted about two days and those two days were spent mostly in the dorm so he could sleep it off. Starsi Jones is feeling quite under the weather. These past few days he's had a really nasty head cold and hasn't quite been himself. I'm sure that he'll get over it in the next few days. As for me, I'm as healthy as ever. Except for the fact that the other day in gym, while playing four square (which is AWESOME-ly competitive), I twisted my ankle. So I've been hobbling around for the past three days or so. Today it feels much better. The only thing about it is that it's got this really annoying achey feeling all up my calf (probably mispelled; I meant the muscle in the leg if you can't figure it out). That's about it with me health-wise.
Next thing, Mommy: I hope you enjoyed your birthday card. I spent a whole ten to twenty minutes writing it (which is an awful long time to spend writing a letter here at the MTC).
Next, Michelley: I'll write you as soon as I can. Don't think I've forgotten you :-). But tell your disturbing brother that I'm debating whether to write him back or not. *rubs chin*
Now time for the fun stuff. This past week we've been doing SYL as much as we can every day. SYL stands for "Speak Your Language." You get to make a really nifty post-it note that sticks to your name tag that basically says that you can't speak English. Mine said, "Dnes je Česká Den!" which means "today is Czech day!" or another one was "Nemluvím anglicky; mluvím česky." which means "I do not speak English; I speak Czech." Anyway, those are super fun, but I find that if I don't do it 100% all day, then I stop about the first time that I do speak English. Also this last week, we started teaching the lessons in Czech which I must say is Super-Hard. Yes, it is Capitalized and Hyphenated. Oh my word! I never thought that my brain would explode as badly as it did. Thinking about where the lesson's going, thinking about the investigator's needs, thinking about pertinent scriptures to use, thinking about GRAMMAR! GAH. The pain is rushing back to me. Actually, I just stuttered like an idiot and slowly put sentences together. I think it would take me an average of ten to fifteen seconds to put a sentence like, "God is our father." together. Then our teacher decided to be mean to me and said that he didn't understand the verse that I gave him. Uh oh... It was the one in Abraham 3 where God is talking to Abraham, telling him that his seed will be blessed through the gospel and priesthood. That was interesting trying to answer those. Eventually we got past that and (oh by the way, I forgot to tell you that this was from our first teaching experience; sorry for the aside) we started talking about something else. At the end we got him to let us come back again next week, but he asked where we would meet. I was sure that I'd be able to answer a simple question like that. So I said, "Is it here good?" which basically means, "Is here fine?" I said, in Czech, "To je tam, dobře?" He looked at me like I was crazy; I had no idea why. There was no possible way that I could have screwed up such a simple sentence. So, thinking that I was right, I kept saying it. He kept looking confused and asked me, "Yes, where?" and so I said it again. Finally he figured out what I was trying to say and told me that it was fine to me, "here." In Czech he told me that what I was saying was, "It is there, good?" So it was no wonder that he was asking where. Hooray for my first language mistake where no one understands me. I'm sure it'll happen plenty more.
Now, a little more serious topic. Our companionship has been having a little bit of trouble this last week. As we've gone about out studies and classes, I've sensed that there was some tension and I didn't know how to resolve it. It seemed that Starsi Horvath didn't like me very much and wasn't willing to tell me that he can't stand me. So I thought that I'd just deal with it. Then the day that we had our first lesson in Czech, in our companionship study before the lesson, we were trying to plan out the lesson in Czech. I was at the board writing down sentences in Czech and saw that Starsi Horvath wasn't participating. So I asked him what we could say for the topic we were on. He said that whatever we said was fine. I kept after him and he said, "I don't care." I kept after him and gave him a sentence and tried to have him translate it. He told me, "slovník" which is "dictionary" in Czech. Basically, this was the fight, quite mild for any fight I've ever seen, but way more than any missionaries should be having. Our teacher came back in and stopped us and said that we needed to take a walk. We didn't really talk on the walk, but Brother Cardon tried to say things that were aside from the problem to get us to talk. He was pointing out how the name for November in Czech literally comes out to "leaf fall." Anyway, when we got back to the classroom, he spoke for a little while and then told us that we needed to have a companionship inventory. That's where we all just say what's on our mind and don't have any bad feelings toward anyone. We also talk about what we can do better and what others can do better. It turned out that Starsi Horvath was just feeling overwhelmed and it was nothing that I was doing. Anyway, that was the end of that and we all came away feeling much much better. (We talked for nearly an hour and a half).
Phew... we've had a little more butting heads, but we've resolved them with companionship inventories and I must say, we all feel amazing when we come out of them. I know that I do.
Hmm... there's a missionary here from the Czech Republic who's going to be serving in Wisconsin. He's really awesome. His name is Elder Kraus. This guy is massive. Probably two or two and a half feet across. However, he's a little bit shorter than I am-- like five inches shorter. Anyway, he's awesome but we don't get to see him very often or for very long. Whenever I see him I say, "dobrý den!" and he says "čao!" Kind of a funny exchange, but that's about all the time we have to talk together. "Dobrý den" means "good day," and "čao" means (take a wild guess) "ciao." It's even pronounced the same.
In the TRC, a place we go on Thursdays of every week and interact with volunteers who speak Czech, we have a language section which starting this week is the entire thing-- both contacting and lesson. Every single week we've been there, we've had a native Czech sister who's name is Kaya. She's awesome, but her English isn't very good and it's really hard to understand her because she talks so fast. So I guess I know what I'm getting into (a little bit).
Anyway, my time is up, keep writing to me: it really boosts my spirits. Starsi Horvath loved all the letters he got from all of you yesterday.
Love you all and pray for you always,
Starsi Monk