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
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