Minggu Akhir

Halo Keluarga Saya

We're there! It's the very, very last P-Day! We're so close, and you can definitely feel the excitement in the air. Class is becoming a little less hard study and a little more chatting with the teachers about what things are going to be like when we get over there. We're all guessing where each other's first areas will be (I guessed a city in East Malaysia called "Kucing." [The c makes a ch sound.] "Kucing means "cat, so it's got that going for it, and it's also supposed to be a pretty great area to serve). Tomorrow is culture day, which we've been looking forward to since basically the day we got here. So lots of exciting things going on.

I've started to get a little irrationally nervous about getting into the country though! There's all kinds of visa problems going on here at the MTC. We actually have about 140 Brazillian missionaries here at the MTC(missionaries *headed to* Brazil, not actual Brazillians. We also just call them the Brazillians, or the Mongols, or the Indos. They're not actually from those countries. Just clarifying! :D). I guess Brazil just changed their visa requirements so none of them were able to go to the Sao Paolo MTC, and it's starting to look like they're going to be here for more than 9 weeks. They actually had to hire 10 new Brazillian portuguese teachers to teach them all. They didn't have any before.

I don't think there's really anything to be worried about though. We should get in just fine.

Elder Perry came and spoke this Tuesday. He talked about effective teaching, and it was definitely very awesome. Such a good farewell from the MTC.

OK! Quick Indonesian cultural tidbit. Indonesians (and I assume Malaysians) eat rice for pretty much every single meal, including breakfast. Brother Ross told us there's a phrase that goes something like "Jika anda tidak sudah makan nasi, anda tidak makan" which means,"If you haven't eaten rice, you haven't eaten." (Interestingly enough, I guess they think the only thing westerners eat is bread, cheese, and milk. Who knows where they would have gotten that idea!) Anyway, we were singing "Because I Have Been Given Much" a couple of days ago and I've really been working on translating songs as we were singing them. So we got to the part of song where it says "my glowing fire, my loaf of bread, my roof's safe shelter overhead." When I realized that instead of saying, "my loaf of bread" in Indonesian, they just sing "my rice" instead. Perfect! Good to know at least some of the hymns are adjusted for culture. (Other notable changes in songs include the title of "Put your shoulder to the wheel," which is just called "the world needs people who help" and "Did you think to pray?" which is called "Before you left your house.")

Anyway! I've got to run, but I'll talk to you on Tuesday! I can't wait!

I love you so much! I'm doing great, and I know everything's going to go just great with traveling.

Dengan banyak kasih,
Elder Blissett (Kevin)