Hello Family!
I am still alive, and doing well!
They say that if you can survive until your first Sunday, that you can make it the whole time. Let's hope that's true. haha I think that was the hardest part though, the first couple of days, just trying to get used to it all and also the idea of not going home for two years. I'm all good now though. Once you get into the thick of things, you're fine.
It's weird, we we've only been here for a week, and we've already changed our Zone Leaders. They were the ones who basically showed us Malagasy's around, and now their gone. They are going to Singapore and they left Monday morning. So we've already gone through a big change, which is good cause now I feel experienced, in a way.Tomorrow is Wednesday, so all the newbies are coming in! I'm super excited about that, and have been all week long. I'm going to be the one they look up to and think 'Wow... he's so experienced and smart.' Yup. That'll be me. We'll be hazing the newbies all day long, throwing our spare bananas at them, tossing them from Elder to Elder. YES.
My companion in the MTC is Elder Fox. He's a pretty cool guy. haha on the first day we had a big orientation meeting with all the arriving elders, and they asked everybody which country they where from by saying 'would the elders from .... please stand.' They eventually did all the states and, of course, Utah had a big turnout. Elder fox is from Nebraska, but they never called nebraska. Poor Elder Fox.. he never got to stand up.
We've been learning Malagasy pretty hardcore since we got here. I can now pray completely in Malagasy, if I wanted to, and I usually want to. It's hard though, for sure. Learning a new language isn't easy, but hey, i'll be here for 9 weeks so I'm not really worried about it at all. Since the second day we've been here we've been teaching an investigator in Malagasy, which is crazy, but pretty cool too. The first time we taught, we really didn't know what to do. Our lesson was all scattered and such. Yesterday though, we taught our 3rd, and I feel like it went by well! I've still got plenty to learn about teaching though. I guess that the biggest part I'm worried about.
Like I was saying earlier, we've already had to say bye to elders we've just started to get along with. Yesterday we had an Elder temporaraly join our district for the day. His entire district left on Monday morning, and he didn't leave until today, so he hung out with us all day. He was this asian kid who was crazy smart, seriously. He was fluent in 6 languages! English being his 3rd language, behind Mandrian and Togolac (the language Wes learned, I don't know how to spell it). Really though, he was crazy. And we would laugh at everything! haha all the time, it was the best! I wish he would've just been transfered to our mission. He was super fun to hang around with. I'll upload a picture of him if I ever figure out how.. Maybe I'll just print them off and send them home. Anyway.. I'll figure all that out eventually.
And about all the rumors about the MTC food here.. uh.. yeah. I've got the gassy bloats.
I said I'd send home malagasy phrases, so I'll send this one for this week:
Tiako anao = I love you. Really, it translates to 'I loved you,' but my teacher said that what they use, so there you go.
Well, I miss you all! And I think about you a lot! but not too much. I'm super excited to get out into the field! If Jeff Tribett is reading this, I think I get what you mean now. And I'll be here 3x as long as you were.
Oh yeah, I see Eric all the time. We've had some pretty good chats since we've been here, and we got to sit next to each other at the temple today. I've got a crazy story about that, but I'll tell you later; my time is almost up. I saw chase the first day, and I ate lunch with him, but I haven't seen him much since. He only has two more weeks here, dang!
Okay, thank you for all you do! I got pretty tired of finding all those notes the first day, but when I find them now, I smile. hesitantly.
Veloma!! (goodbye)
Austin Bergera