September 16, 2013 - My Eventual Knowledge of Chinese Characters

Your letters today made me chuckle more than usual.

Dad,
I can only imagine what it must be like to have to work on stuff from 3 pm to 10 pm on the weekend. Oh what, I do know what that's like, because I do that every day. And I can't stay up late playing Rome Total War. I've been having much better time recently at the MTC. I felt pretty good before, but in the last week our lessons have gotten much better. Elder Ah Mu and I had a very good companionship planning that led into a very good lesson. I feel like we're working together better, though things are still hard. I'm at the point now where my Cantonese is almost never an insurmountable barrier in our lessons. I obviously can't say much and don't understand everything, but I get enough that it's mostly stopped bothering me. My companion has also improved a lot in the last week, though he throws in a lot of things from English grammar that are incorrect in Cantonese, like 'that' or 'who' or 'are'. Cantonese is weird, not at all like English, so I try to think of them as totally separate and bring in none of the English connotations to words.

Mom,
Sounds like you've had a trying week. I can sympathize. Every day they make us make our beds, just on the off chance that room inspection is that day. We spend the whole time dressed up in these bizarre, expensive, fragile clothes. Really weird.
Preach My Gospel lesson by the Sisters sounds good. I would say, before coming I read through it for my scripture study, but honestly for non-missionaries only chapter 3, and some parts of other chapters are super useful. I think it would be a good activity for the Young Women and Young Men to practice teaching lessons from it. You have to understand stuff on a much deeper level in order to teach it. I emailed Megan Barrett just a little bit ago that since arriving here I've learned nothing new but understand everything much more deeply.
We have really cool teachers here. One of our teachers, Sister Yu, is new, so sometimes she's not sure what is best to teach, but when we're teaching she's great. Every time we see her my whole district shouts YU JI MUIH which freaks her out. Brother Foong (pronounced Fong for some reason) is a linguistics master, knows 7 languages. I think he was born in Malaysia, but his English is better than mine. He's really great to do study with. Sister Cook, or Gou in her Cantonese name, is also kind of new, but she's great. Her investigators are always a bit tricky.
I hope I can be there when Matthew shows up, but we found out yesterday we're moving to West Campus on the 23rd. I hope I see him, but I don't know. I also haven't seen Evan yet, not sure if he's at West or not. If you find out, tell me where he's at. Also, if you somehow can, tell him I have Pday Monday, temple walk at 4 pm, 14 M residence, 10M class. I know Matthew's ready. What I would say to him is that time travels freakishly quickly while you're teaching, so you only have time for the most essential stuff. Tell him to economize his knowledge.

David,
I resent your allegations. I'm just attempting to communicate with my distant kin. And your threats of nonsensical language are empty in the face of my eventual knowledge of Chinese Characters. How will you fare when you're trying to look up a character on google that HAS NO ALPHABET TO BE ORGANIZED BY? So take that. And keep coding. Flummox.

Joseph,
Economic troubles mean nothing to the brave at heart. I have been living for 6 weeks now on $6 a week, and you don't hear me complaining.
You would not believe how annoying it is to have only $6 a week.
Swimming is an unsurpassably good workout, so think carefully before you consider stopping. Also, I hated swimming my junior year, loved it my senior. Lastly, if you found another hobby, you'd have to be willing to put the same energy and time into it as you do into swimming, and that's hard. Self discipline is tough, but it's doable. It's just easier if Coach Ryan is doing it for you.
If you want to send your outline, send it by Dear Elder. I'll have more time to read it. I look forward anxiously.
I personally hated physics labs. I feel like the teachers are trying to prove to you that they aren't actually lying to you. Do them all immediately, the same day if possible. They're almost impossible to make yourself make them up. And when you start to work on group 4, let no noble notion of scientific ingenuity sway you. Do the dumbest and most easily carried out experiment possible. Believe me. You will never look back at group 4 and wish you tried harder.

Rebecca,
Your letter sounds kind of depressing, and I really don't need that right now. Becca, as Dad always says, you're a hard worker. You enjoy doing things much more than I do, so I know that you'll be fine where ever you go. Just don't let disappointments get you down. I don't know what will happen with Nutcracker, or the Symphony, but even if nothing seems to be going well, you're a great girl. Besides, your real destiny is to be a Karate master, like the girl in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Follow Joseph to Krav Maga class.
I know what you mean about Abby. Believe me, I slept in the same room as Joseph and David for more than a decade. It can be rough. I also know what you mean about David. Once he moves downstairs, he won't really go upstairs at all, so you can run away much more effectively. If you forget your contacts, you will die violently, so don't do it. I always love your John John Billy Bong thing, Rebecca. Oh, you should swim instead of dance. Just by the way.

Abby,
Your letter was funny. I do know what P.S. means, I think everyone does. I ALWAYS look forward to showering, so you should repent. Now. School can be boring for genius' like us, just stick with it. But don't do IB. My Companion has 5 younger sisters, and they send him really funny cards. Why don't you? Do you not love me? If you don't cry it means you don't love me, by the way. Goldfish are gross. Just saying.

I finally added some pictures.

Elder Morrell, you son/brother