Halo keluarga saya!
How's everything going back on the home front? It's been so good to hear from all of you! It's funny, I've only been gone for two weeks but it kind of feels like forever. You become very disconnected from the world around you at the MTC which is actually really unnerving. It's pretty funny to hear the rumors spread around about how BYU is doing or anything else. News travels fast around here and letters from home are almost always filled with sports updates.
Whew! I really feel rushed, I guess I'll just have to send a letter with whatever I miss, huh?
So! Laaast Saturday we finally taught in the TRC for the first time. That's a place where people from around Provo come in to pretend to be investigators so we can get some "real experience." We taught in Indonesian the first 6 (of 8) principles from lesson 1, and even though we had notes, the entire experience was very terrifying. We got to teach Brother Leo's wife, so it was good to have someone so forgiving, but still very scary. This weekend we're actually teaching the whole lesson in Indo without notes, so I hope it all turns out OK! I'm pretty sure it will, the language is actually coming along really well. I only have to look up a few words per panel in my Book of Mormon stories book and I'm starting to read Preach My Gospel too! It's very exciting!
Alright, sooo, my companion is still great. We're really close as a district and close with the other Indo district as well, so sometimes it's hard to stay focused, but I'd rather have that problem than have a district I didn't get along with. I can tell we're all really growing up a lot. It's amazing to see how people are starting to realize the measure of the calling and growing into it admirably. Everyone in our district is doing really well.
Ok! Every Sunday we have great firesides with staff from the MTC, and every Tuesday a general authority comes to talk to us. This week Elder Holland came, and since I'm singing in the MTC choir, we got to sing for him and for the whole MTC. It's a huge choir, but it's still fun to be a part of that. Anyway, his talk was absolutely amazing. I don't think he read a single word from a prepared talk but the whole time just spoke to us like the missionaries we are! I had no idea he was sometimes kind of a "table pounder." He definitely gave it to us straight, but it was so awesome. I'd never really realized how important, how wonderful and what a privelege it is to serve until I heard his talk. He was really really great!
So, we spend lots of our time talking about Indonesian culture in our class and we hear lots and lots of crazy things. It's definitely a very different part of the world. Most notably, Brother Leo was telling us about in his time in Malaysia, he almost always had an Orang Putih (white person. Which reminds me, in Indo "parents" is orang-orang tua, which means old people. Funny, huh? :D) companion. Which, you know, isn't that surprising. What was, however, is that he said routinely when they'd knock doors in Malaysia, people would open up, take one look at the white guy on their doorstep, gasp and run away to go hide in the house! Not close the door, not say anything, just run away and hide. He said after they called out to them to tell them everything was ok, they'd start to see a the whole family kind of peek out from around the corner, and finally after some coaxing they'd come out to invite them in. He says they just don't really see many white people so it's always very shocking when they do. Very, very strange.
Anyway, it's been so good to hear from all of you. Thanks so much for the pictures and letters. It's always so exciting to hear from home. Isn't Dear Elder great? I love you all so much and think about you everyday. Thanks so much for giving me the chance to come out here and do some good. I know this gospel is true and that our family has truly been richly blessed by it. So good to get to talk to you guys again! Dear Elder me if you have any specific questions for next week!
I love you soo much!
Dengan Kasih dan Hormut, (with love and respect. I guess they sign letters like that! Who would have thought to sign with respect?)
Elder Kevin Blissett
I am constantly amazed with how quickly missionaries learn the language. I mean, of course I understand the "gift of tongues," but to see it in action is so fantastic! What a blessing to have a fireside with a General Authority every week. That actually made me laugh when I wrote that. I remember Mama really talking up the MTC to Shelby saying stuff like that and I don't think the MTC was his favorite part. So crazy to think of being white as a novelty. I wonder if that is still the case- probably depends on how remote a place you go. I just love reading these letters! So glad you post them.
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