Mar 26, 2013 Teaching Native Speakers Wk 8

You know, it's not that I don't love the MTC, I do. We learn loads and it's a very spiritual, special place. It's just the same all the time. I'm exhausted. Anyway, we didn't have an apostle come visit last Tuesday, the special event was that the choir was being filmed for a documentary of sorts that will run between the first two sessions of conference on Saturday. The whole thing is about the MTC, I wonder if we'll get to watch it. Anyway, I don't know if I managed to make it on screen, but if I did, I'm in the front right corner, about 5 rows from the bottom. I am sure however, that we will have a special speaker this coming Sunday because it is Easter! We have been preparing a special choir number that our guest speaker requested. I'm pretty excited about it. The choir continues to be absolutely ridiculous. I told y'all about the 900+ people that showed up last week right? Crazy.

 The language is coming along. Our TRC teaching experience this Saturday was pretty humbling though. TRC stands for something that I've completely forgotten, and it is an activity we have every Saturday where we teach people who speak Khmer and are already members. Because most of them are returned missionaries, and our lessons are pretty simplistic by necessity, it usually ends up being essentially a vocabulary lesson, though it is fun to go in depth into subjects such as faith and inspiration through prayer and such.

 Anyway, this last week we taught one of the two native speakers, Om Meak, who is the most adorable 4 foot 9 inch grandma I have ever met. During our lesson, Elder Fowler asked her if she had any stories about a time where she had had her prayers answered. She went on to tell us a story for the next ten minutes or so about her and her family's experiences during the Kmer Rouge. It was absolutely heartbreaking, and even more so because we didn't know the vocabulary to offer sympathy. She is very difficult to understand and her pronunciation is very different that what our teachers are teaching us in class. We came out of the lesson with a whole new perspective on what the people of Cambodia have been through, how much the gospel of Jesus Christ can help them, and how woefully unprepared we are to teach that gospel. I guess that's what the Missionary Training Center is for.

 This morning I woke up at 5:30 to get some extra study time in and read a page from the Book of Mormon in Kmer. It took me 45 minutes, and I didn't understand it all, but I said all of the words. Reading and writing continue to be our major challenges. Though speaking the language is difficult, it pales in comparison to the written language, which is daunting at the very least.

 Someone asked me for confirmation about our stay here at the MTC again. We are here for the full 12 weeks. Everyone else learning languages similar to ours is leaving today or left yesterday. Somebody somewhere goofed and put us on the old language program, so we will be here for 3 more weeks. An interesting side effect of this is that we have now been here longer than anyone else at the MTC, excepting anyone who may have had visa problems. Fun stuff. Someone told me the other day that there is also another group who is a little behind us on the 12 week plan, but they are learning both French and Tahitian, so that might be by design. I love you guys, I love being a part of this work! I love my Savior.

Picture time by Mount Timpanogos