Our Branch President has asked us to take on some additional responsibilities. I'm one of the Tech Wizards now (we have to teach the new missionaries how to use the assessments and to email the Branch President every week.) Not much responsibility, so it isn’t a big deal.
You asked about how much “immersion” I am experiencing. I speak the language a fair amount, it's called SYL (speaka yo Language, said with a Chinese accent). There are no native Mandarin missionaries currently, although there are a few Cantonese and Korean natives.
The teachers are all returned missionaries, but from Taiwan, not New York. The guy we met from New York was there as a member we were teaching just for that day. The teachers say we should start to feel comfortable with the language by about 1 year, and by about 1.5 years we should be finally set. The characters though...only one of our teachers can read most of them from the BoM, and she admits she can't read anything really that isn't religious (she's been back for a year and a half, taking Chinese as her major at BYU).
The packages got through fine, thanks for the stuff. Also, thanks for the T shirt, it rocks.
I do get along well with my companion, that's part of the reason why you don't hear much about him. We go to the temple every week on P-day, and I must say that endowments are my favorite simply because they give me the longest time to do nothing but sit and think.
I ran into Derek Nichols a few times, but never got the chance to take a picture. He leaves tomorrow morning at 6 am, so I probably won't see him again for 2 years.
Other new, we got bumped up a week so that we fall on the same departure date as all the Spanish and English elders going NY-NYCN, so in exactly 3 weeks, I'll probably be standing in an airport calling you, or else on a plane. Supposedly we are going to be part of the largest single transfer in North American History, 22 Spanish Elders/sisters, 17 (I think) English ones, and then the 3 Mandarin speaking, possibly with a Native Mandarin whom I've heard is supposed to come in on the 26th. That plane is going to be very...interesting.
I decided on a Mission/Post-Mission motto scripture. D&C 58:27 To paraphrase it, "Men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do much good of their own free will."
There are plenty of pictures, I'll send you the SD card when I leave the MTC. Then, when I get home in 99ish weeks we can go through them all and see how many of the people I remember. The computers are weird, and won't acknowledge Flash Drives or SD Card Readers, so that's why you haven't gotten any pictures yet.
Back on the topic of the language, I should mention that saying "Jesus lives" and "Jesus is a monkey" sound almost the same. Also, the only difference between Revelation and Discrimination is a tone. Teaching discrimination by reading the Book of Mormon doesn't go down well with your investigators. Neither does telling them that Jesus made many robots. I'm sure it will come eventually, but in the meantime, I'm just trying to have fun looking at all the mistakes we're making.
Tell Cam I'm glad that they were able to get the game working, and that he's reading through those books so fast. His free time will start to slowly disappear over the next few years, so he should treasure the chance he has now.
Final random thing of the email, I have had the afro-circus song from madagascar 3 stuck in my head since day 1 (minus the lyrics thankfully). I hear it/sing it at least a half dozen times a day. I think I feel like a clown/in a circus while I'm here. Hopefully that changes. Also, I had my first dream in Chinese last night. I don't fall asleep till 11:30 every night, so I lie there for a while.
Love you all,
Jacob/Elder Christensen
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Thursday, February 7, 2013
February 5th, 2013
I'm doing well, the schedule is such that days are long, but the weeks are short. As for the language, that's just a given that it will take forever. The teachers tell us that it won't be until about the 1 year, maybe 6 months left period when you actually finally start to feel comfortable in the language, and we shouldn't even start worrying about reading characters until about week 52.
The hole in my suit was in the right elbow. No real signs of wear, so we were pretty sure that it was a tear from the Dry cleaners, they told me they would fix it for free, and I should be able to pick it up this week in the next day or two.
My weight is about steady in the 165ish range for the moment, but I'm going to start skipping the meal before gym, so I can run without getting a cramp.
The events of this last week: Fast and testimony meeting was really cool. There's one Elder here I haven't told you about, Elder Tjong-Ayong. He's from Suriname (above Brazil) he speaks Dutch, going to the Netherlands Chinese speaking. He had to try and learn English before coming to the MTC so he could learn Chinese. He also has a heart problem which means that there actually is a chance of him dying on his mission, and the last words his Dad said to him were that he shouldn't come back (I'm assuming he meant to Suriname, due to the fact he could get better care for his condition in Netherlands or America, but it might have been meant as that he didn't want to see him again, I'm not sure). He gave what was easily the most powerful testimony of the meeting.
We got a new district leader, Elder Gerrard, but other than that, things have been fairly stable in my district, no one is sick, except for the teacher (who I might add, looks a lot like Kirsten Stewart when she doesn't do her hair, which happens about once a week since she's sick.)
One last story, one of our investigators is a 48 year old man with a 20 year old and an 18 year old (both daughters). This last appointment, he realized we were 19/18, so he tried to set us up on dates with his daughters (at least we think that's what he was doing, he might have been talking about marriage for all we could tell). It was an interesting conversation trying to explain why we couldn't date his daughters.
Hope you all stay healthy and safe, and don't eat soap,
Elder Christensen the younger
The hole in my suit was in the right elbow. No real signs of wear, so we were pretty sure that it was a tear from the Dry cleaners, they told me they would fix it for free, and I should be able to pick it up this week in the next day or two.
My weight is about steady in the 165ish range for the moment, but I'm going to start skipping the meal before gym, so I can run without getting a cramp.
The events of this last week: Fast and testimony meeting was really cool. There's one Elder here I haven't told you about, Elder Tjong-Ayong. He's from Suriname (above Brazil) he speaks Dutch, going to the Netherlands Chinese speaking. He had to try and learn English before coming to the MTC so he could learn Chinese. He also has a heart problem which means that there actually is a chance of him dying on his mission, and the last words his Dad said to him were that he shouldn't come back (I'm assuming he meant to Suriname, due to the fact he could get better care for his condition in Netherlands or America, but it might have been meant as that he didn't want to see him again, I'm not sure). He gave what was easily the most powerful testimony of the meeting.
We got a new district leader, Elder Gerrard, but other than that, things have been fairly stable in my district, no one is sick, except for the teacher (who I might add, looks a lot like Kirsten Stewart when she doesn't do her hair, which happens about once a week since she's sick.)
One last story, one of our investigators is a 48 year old man with a 20 year old and an 18 year old (both daughters). This last appointment, he realized we were 19/18, so he tried to set us up on dates with his daughters (at least we think that's what he was doing, he might have been talking about marriage for all we could tell). It was an interesting conversation trying to explain why we couldn't date his daughters.
Hope you all stay healthy and safe, and don't eat soap,
Elder Christensen the younger
January 29th, 2013
I managed to avoid the stomach bug. Using hand sanitizer about 20 times a day seems to actually help you not get sick surprisingly.
The thumb thing was just my inner hypochondriac acting up I'm afraid. The thumb is not broken, just badly sprained, although considering that is swelled, bruised and still doesn't have full range of motion back after nearly 2 weeks, I feel justified in making that mistake.
Since I started running/working out during gym instead of volleyball, I've dropped down to 166 from the 170 that I was when I arrived. The treats were well appreciated. The Gingerbread men tasted really good.
I have run into Derek once, didn't really have the chance to talk to him, and we couldn't take pictures. Hopefully I'll see him a time or two more before he leaves.
We're getting the snow pretty good down here too. Have Cam email me first, I don't have his address. And the info for me and my companion is the exact same, just change the name to Elder Xean Cook.
I ran into a man who recently got back from the NYNYCN Mission, Mandarin speaking. He said that we will be spending most of our time in Chinatown, so no surprises there. The surprise is that apparently 99% of the people we will be teaching are illegal immigrants, and as such are highly transient, meaning that we may call them to set up another appointment, and they'll be in North Carolina the day after we teach them. Should be interesting to see how that works out.
As for hosting a new missionary, you have to have been here for about 6 weeks before they ask your district to begin volunteering for it, so I haven't been able to yet.
I understand more of what's being said, the problem is that being the visual learner I am, when I hear the word, I then see it in my head, and then I can remember the meaning. If I see the wrong spelling though, then I'm completely lost, even if it's a word I've heard every day for the last 20 days. Other than that, I'm struggling with speaking up more during lessons, because my companion is so much quicker on the uptake (both understanding and speaking it.) I'm getting better, its just a matter of time and forcing myself to open my mouth. A few examples of failed grammar this last week: Aizi (4th tone) and Aizi (3rd tone), the first meaning beloved son, the second means beloved midget. Don't say that to your investigator while talking about Jesus, it confuses them (one of the other companionships did that). Also, using the words for fellow man is apparently slang for gay. That didn't turn out very well. Chinese sentence structure, just to give you an idea, is STPVO (subject, time, place, verb, object) the exceptions are few and far between, but it is really hard to try and say everything with that structure, especially when there are certain words you have to use at the beginning of the sentence EX: IF, STPVO, SVO (if first stpvo, then the svo at the end must follow, kind of like if...then...) there are also 3 different ways to say can, (permissive, physical ability, and mental ability) and 4 ways to say receive (I don't even get the difference between those yet.)
Love you all a lot, and I'm sure these letters will get a lot longer once I'm out in NYC.
Jacob (Elder Christensen)(Chen ZhongLao)
The thumb thing was just my inner hypochondriac acting up I'm afraid. The thumb is not broken, just badly sprained, although considering that is swelled, bruised and still doesn't have full range of motion back after nearly 2 weeks, I feel justified in making that mistake.
Since I started running/working out during gym instead of volleyball, I've dropped down to 166 from the 170 that I was when I arrived. The treats were well appreciated. The Gingerbread men tasted really good.
I have run into Derek once, didn't really have the chance to talk to him, and we couldn't take pictures. Hopefully I'll see him a time or two more before he leaves.
We're getting the snow pretty good down here too. Have Cam email me first, I don't have his address. And the info for me and my companion is the exact same, just change the name to Elder Xean Cook.
I ran into a man who recently got back from the NYNYCN Mission, Mandarin speaking. He said that we will be spending most of our time in Chinatown, so no surprises there. The surprise is that apparently 99% of the people we will be teaching are illegal immigrants, and as such are highly transient, meaning that we may call them to set up another appointment, and they'll be in North Carolina the day after we teach them. Should be interesting to see how that works out.
As for hosting a new missionary, you have to have been here for about 6 weeks before they ask your district to begin volunteering for it, so I haven't been able to yet.
I understand more of what's being said, the problem is that being the visual learner I am, when I hear the word, I then see it in my head, and then I can remember the meaning. If I see the wrong spelling though, then I'm completely lost, even if it's a word I've heard every day for the last 20 days. Other than that, I'm struggling with speaking up more during lessons, because my companion is so much quicker on the uptake (both understanding and speaking it.) I'm getting better, its just a matter of time and forcing myself to open my mouth. A few examples of failed grammar this last week: Aizi (4th tone) and Aizi (3rd tone), the first meaning beloved son, the second means beloved midget. Don't say that to your investigator while talking about Jesus, it confuses them (one of the other companionships did that). Also, using the words for fellow man is apparently slang for gay. That didn't turn out very well. Chinese sentence structure, just to give you an idea, is STPVO (subject, time, place, verb, object) the exceptions are few and far between, but it is really hard to try and say everything with that structure, especially when there are certain words you have to use at the beginning of the sentence EX: IF, STPVO, SVO (if first stpvo, then the svo at the end must follow, kind of like if...then...) there are also 3 different ways to say can, (permissive, physical ability, and mental ability) and 4 ways to say receive (I don't even get the difference between those yet.)
Love you all a lot, and I'm sure these letters will get a lot longer once I'm out in NYC.
Jacob (Elder Christensen)(Chen ZhongLao)
January 22nd, 2013
The last week has been very full. We got a new MTC presidency, Nally is the last name of the new president. We got to hear Elder Holland on Tuesday, which was super cool, and the temple trip was most excellent.
As for lessons learned, I discovered that when you try to tip the ball over the net in Volleyball at the same time as the elder on the other side tries to spike, you run the risk of breaking your thumb. Turns out it was only sprained.
Our first investigator turned out to be our second primary teacher. The guy is a tone Nazi, but its helping us all a lot. Chen is my Chinese name because Kai was taken by the other Elder Christensen already, and the teachers assign our names, except for my comp who already had one.
The getting ready before b-fast isn't too bad, but I've had strange dreams basically every single night.
The mole is healing, but I still don't dare get a haircut yet, because the scab is still protruding.
Very little down time, almost all is spent in class. My roommates leave for the airport in a few minutes, but they've been here for twelve weeks, so they're desperate to get out. As for the mixing of older and newer Elders, I think they just do it as beds become available with Elders who are speaking the same language. There's a decent chance we'll get new roommates from the Chinese group coming in tomorrow. I feel like I haven't learned as much Chinese this week, but I think it's just because they've already given us somewhere in the range of 400 words, and I bet I only have maybe 50 memorized, with another 100 maybe that I can understand, but not fast enough to converse very well.
I had an experience this week when I realized that the anxiety I feel for the investigators when we teach is my way of feeling the spirit. I realized all I have to worry about is focusing on the missionary work. It really has been a blessing to find out this quickly that all I need to worry about is stuff here and in New York, and leave the rest to him.
Yours in service to the lord,
Jacob D. Christensen/ Elder Chen
PS, Chen is pronounced Chun.
As for lessons learned, I discovered that when you try to tip the ball over the net in Volleyball at the same time as the elder on the other side tries to spike, you run the risk of breaking your thumb. Turns out it was only sprained.
Our first investigator turned out to be our second primary teacher. The guy is a tone Nazi, but its helping us all a lot. Chen is my Chinese name because Kai was taken by the other Elder Christensen already, and the teachers assign our names, except for my comp who already had one.
The getting ready before b-fast isn't too bad, but I've had strange dreams basically every single night.
The mole is healing, but I still don't dare get a haircut yet, because the scab is still protruding.
Very little down time, almost all is spent in class. My roommates leave for the airport in a few minutes, but they've been here for twelve weeks, so they're desperate to get out. As for the mixing of older and newer Elders, I think they just do it as beds become available with Elders who are speaking the same language. There's a decent chance we'll get new roommates from the Chinese group coming in tomorrow. I feel like I haven't learned as much Chinese this week, but I think it's just because they've already given us somewhere in the range of 400 words, and I bet I only have maybe 50 memorized, with another 100 maybe that I can understand, but not fast enough to converse very well.
I had an experience this week when I realized that the anxiety I feel for the investigators when we teach is my way of feeling the spirit. I realized all I have to worry about is focusing on the missionary work. It really has been a blessing to find out this quickly that all I need to worry about is stuff here and in New York, and leave the rest to him.
Yours in service to the lord,
Jacob D. Christensen/ Elder Chen
PS, Chen is pronounced Chun.
January 15th 2013
My companion is Elder Cook, he is half Vietnamese and from L.A., but he speaks a fair amount of Spanish and some Arabic too, so he's a lot better at talking in Chinese than I am (He's more conditioned for learning/speaking a new language). Also, he's going NYNYCN too, along with one of our sisters in the district. For the record, we've had 3 teaching assignments already, all of them in Chinese, and while I can now understand most of what is going on in the lesson, I can't follow fast enough to interject myself into it very well. As a result, my companion does most of the teaching.
My scab on the side of my head has yet to have any trouble, so hopefully that mole is gone for good. I don't find the food here half bad, but I'm sure after nine weeks, I'm going to be more than ready to leave it behind. I forgot to bring my camera to the computer lab today, so no photos of my district today, maybe next week (most of them are going to taiwan).
One of the older generation elders, Seegmiller is his name, convinced all the new missionaries for a week that he was here while on leave from the Russian military. Had a marvelous fake accent to go along with the story, and all the other older generations played along, so we all fell for it.
I'm afraid I can't write my testimony to you in Chinese, as I have no Idea how to show tones on the letters (we haven't really started into characters yet, which is a problem, as I am much more a visual learner).
I have yet to need the scratchy sheets, as I sleep on the top bunk, and it is surprisingly hot in the room up there. Looking forward to going to the temple later today.
Oh, I ran into Ari Nash, she works here, but she got her call to Vladivostok, Russia. She goes in in May, I think. (That's the Russian peninsula just above Japan and the Koreas.) I'm afraid you may need to forward this email to Ethan this week, the computers are being incredibly slow and irritating right now, and I don't think I'll have the time to write him a letter of meaningful length.
I met Alex Campbell about 5 minutes into the orientation when I first went to the book store to pick up my stuff to learn Chinese (speaking of which, did you know that I got enough books to completely fill the small suitcase you sent me with? I have no clue how I'm going to take them with me, but I definitely need them, the grammar rules are ridiculous.)
Spiritual thought of the email: Make sure when I come home, I don't leave the mission field. Got that from a devotional where we watched a video of Elder Bednar. We had some church media guy do another devotional, don't know who he was, but he had a lot of info about the early missionary work of the church. Michael Hemmingway I think was his name, if that means anything to Dad.
Going to the gym is not fun, as I have to walk outside in about 5 degrees in shorts and a tee shirt, but the Volleyball is fun. My back has been tweaked a little, so I haven't gone running or done any heavy resistance workouts in gym yet; I'll wait until its better, then start really working.
Oh, Sacrament is...interesting. We have 2 Elders talk every Sunday, and they have to do the full thing in Chinese, then one of the Branch Presidency gets up and delivers a talk in a form of Chinglish. There are 57 Chinese missionaries in our Zone, and we are all the Chinese missionaries in the MTC out of the 3000 people here. I can say my personal prayers every night in Chinese at least, so I am learning.
Hopefully I can get more into the spiritual aspects of the MTC once I understand what's going on more, and when the computers are actually being effective.
Jacob
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