Week 9 - MTC
星期二,十月10号(第56天)
This week we have started In-field Orientation. It's interactive lectures, basically, about being in the field. Today's session was about goals setting and making plans. Each day we'll go do another subject. Other missionaries have told me it's super boring but it doesn't seem so bad.
We had Elder Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve join us today for the devotional. His talk was very interesting because he gave a history of the Book of Mormon. He even had one of the first copies of it there and showed it to us. So three apostles came to the MTC since I've been here. Not bad!
星期三,十月11号(第57天)
This morning sister Martino (president Martino's wife) ran into Elders Hugg, Church, Züger, and I while showing her grand kids around the MTC. She saw us and pointed us out and asked us if we would bear our testimonies in Chinese. Elder Church ended up saying that he testifies that his companion volleyballs to the end so much that he'll dislocated his shoulder. She had no idea what he said but she smiled and said thank you. She had no idea why the rest of us were laughing. Good thing Elder Hugg picked it up and actually bore his testimony.
So last week there was a survey that went out and if you filled it out, you could be selected for a 36 person choir singing for an apostle. I totally wanted to do that! So I filled it out, but it asked about choir experience, and while I didn't have to much experience with singing, it did ask about sight reading and I said I could totally do that. Well, Elder Hugg actually was invited to sing even though he kinda lied on his survey. He said he was a FREELANCE COUNTRY SINGER. Oh well, I honestly don't care about being in the small choir since they did have a lot of practices. Freelance country singer, oh my goodness...
星期四,十月12号(第58天)
Field Orientation was great today. It was about utilizing the members of your ward to help you out in your missionary efforts. They showed us a live play of what that looks like and while it was informative, it was hilarious. I probably laughed too much. I really enjoyed myself even when people were looking at me weird for laughing at things for way too long.
We ate on the grass for lunch as a district. It was a perfect day as far as weather for it. It wasn't hot out, but at least it was sunny and not too cold. Z and I have been thinking of doing this for quite a while now and we finally did it; just a few days before we leave the MTC.
Today was our last exercise time. Tomorrow there is a dedication of the newest classroom buildings (T3 and T4). Because of that, it conflicts with our exercise time tomorrow, plus on Saturday we have to pack up our stuff. We played volleyball hard with the other district that's leaving just like us. I don't think I've talked about them much but they're really fun to be with. We've grown a good relationship with them. I think it was a perfect way to end our exercise time here at the MTC.
I grabbed the mail today and to my dismay I got a letter saying that they had problems getting visas for Taiwan. Our missionaries going to Taiwan (5 of us in the district, possibly more in the other Chinese branch) won't be able to go to their missions for a little bit. They're slightly bummed, but excited because they get a new temporary mission call stateside, just until visas come. Our teacher had this problem too in going to Taiwan. He served in San Francisco for a week and then obtained his visa. I'm crossing my fingers for them getting called to Seattle. It's odd because the Taiwanese missionaries 3 weeks ago had only one person with this problem, and 3 weeks before then half of them had visa problems. It seems so random.
星期五,十月13号(第59天)
For In-field Orientation we discussed finding people. We did a ton of role-playing, too. My favorite one was when I got to be the missionary in an airport (which this situation is coming up very soon). I felt like I did a fantastic job introducing the church and getting the person invited to check out the church. They gave us mormon.org cards to share so it made me super excited to get into the field, even just the regular interactions with people at airports.
We had the dedication of T3 and T4 today. President Henry B. Eyring of the First Presidency and Elder Dallin H. Oaks came to preside over the meeting. Along with a few others, they shared great insights and history teachings of missionary work. Now that the place is dedicated, I can start actually learning Chinese, right?
So it turns out the Taiwan visas are coming in, just later than anticipated. So our missionaries will probably stay a little longer in the MTC.
星期六,十月14号(第60天)今天!
It's packing day! Tomorrow we're not allowed to pack because it's Sunday so I've got to figure out a good way to pack everything but still have stuff I can use since I'm still going to be here for another day.
Said some pretty hard goodbyes to my teachers today. Elder Hugg also left this morning. He sang Drift Away by Uncle Cracker as his goodbye song. Texas people, man. I'll see him later, though. It's likely I'll never see the MTC again, either. But, you know, I'm okay with that.
I don't feel like I know a great amount of Chinese, but I found this scripture:
"Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue." - 1 Corinthians 14:19
I don't need to know a lot, just enough to teach by the Spirit. Five sincere words in Chinese are more powerful than a thousand words read off of a paper.
Well, it's off to Germany now. The next time I'll write, it'll be in a couple weeks, and somewhere in Germany! I bid America farewell. See you in 22 months.
Auf Wiedersehen,
慕容長老
Elder Steffen Riener
星期二,十月10号(第56天)
This week we have started In-field Orientation. It's interactive lectures, basically, about being in the field. Today's session was about goals setting and making plans. Each day we'll go do another subject. Other missionaries have told me it's super boring but it doesn't seem so bad.
We had Elder Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve join us today for the devotional. His talk was very interesting because he gave a history of the Book of Mormon. He even had one of the first copies of it there and showed it to us. So three apostles came to the MTC since I've been here. Not bad!
星期三,十月11号(第57天)
This morning sister Martino (president Martino's wife) ran into Elders Hugg, Church, Züger, and I while showing her grand kids around the MTC. She saw us and pointed us out and asked us if we would bear our testimonies in Chinese. Elder Church ended up saying that he testifies that his companion volleyballs to the end so much that he'll dislocated his shoulder. She had no idea what he said but she smiled and said thank you. She had no idea why the rest of us were laughing. Good thing Elder Hugg picked it up and actually bore his testimony.
So last week there was a survey that went out and if you filled it out, you could be selected for a 36 person choir singing for an apostle. I totally wanted to do that! So I filled it out, but it asked about choir experience, and while I didn't have to much experience with singing, it did ask about sight reading and I said I could totally do that. Well, Elder Hugg actually was invited to sing even though he kinda lied on his survey. He said he was a FREELANCE COUNTRY SINGER. Oh well, I honestly don't care about being in the small choir since they did have a lot of practices. Freelance country singer, oh my goodness...
星期四,十月12号(第58天)
Field Orientation was great today. It was about utilizing the members of your ward to help you out in your missionary efforts. They showed us a live play of what that looks like and while it was informative, it was hilarious. I probably laughed too much. I really enjoyed myself even when people were looking at me weird for laughing at things for way too long.
We ate on the grass for lunch as a district. It was a perfect day as far as weather for it. It wasn't hot out, but at least it was sunny and not too cold. Z and I have been thinking of doing this for quite a while now and we finally did it; just a few days before we leave the MTC.
Today was our last exercise time. Tomorrow there is a dedication of the newest classroom buildings (T3 and T4). Because of that, it conflicts with our exercise time tomorrow, plus on Saturday we have to pack up our stuff. We played volleyball hard with the other district that's leaving just like us. I don't think I've talked about them much but they're really fun to be with. We've grown a good relationship with them. I think it was a perfect way to end our exercise time here at the MTC.
I grabbed the mail today and to my dismay I got a letter saying that they had problems getting visas for Taiwan. Our missionaries going to Taiwan (5 of us in the district, possibly more in the other Chinese branch) won't be able to go to their missions for a little bit. They're slightly bummed, but excited because they get a new temporary mission call stateside, just until visas come. Our teacher had this problem too in going to Taiwan. He served in San Francisco for a week and then obtained his visa. I'm crossing my fingers for them getting called to Seattle. It's odd because the Taiwanese missionaries 3 weeks ago had only one person with this problem, and 3 weeks before then half of them had visa problems. It seems so random.
星期五,十月13号(第59天)
For In-field Orientation we discussed finding people. We did a ton of role-playing, too. My favorite one was when I got to be the missionary in an airport (which this situation is coming up very soon). I felt like I did a fantastic job introducing the church and getting the person invited to check out the church. They gave us mormon.org cards to share so it made me super excited to get into the field, even just the regular interactions with people at airports.
We had the dedication of T3 and T4 today. President Henry B. Eyring of the First Presidency and Elder Dallin H. Oaks came to preside over the meeting. Along with a few others, they shared great insights and history teachings of missionary work. Now that the place is dedicated, I can start actually learning Chinese, right?
So it turns out the Taiwan visas are coming in, just later than anticipated. So our missionaries will probably stay a little longer in the MTC.
星期六,十月14号(第60天)今天!
It's packing day! Tomorrow we're not allowed to pack because it's Sunday so I've got to figure out a good way to pack everything but still have stuff I can use since I'm still going to be here for another day.
Said some pretty hard goodbyes to my teachers today. Elder Hugg also left this morning. He sang Drift Away by Uncle Cracker as his goodbye song. Texas people, man. I'll see him later, though. It's likely I'll never see the MTC again, either. But, you know, I'm okay with that.
I don't feel like I know a great amount of Chinese, but I found this scripture:
"Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue." - 1 Corinthians 14:19
I don't need to know a lot, just enough to teach by the Spirit. Five sincere words in Chinese are more powerful than a thousand words read off of a paper.
Well, it's off to Germany now. The next time I'll write, it'll be in a couple weeks, and somewhere in Germany! I bid America farewell. See you in 22 months.
Auf Wiedersehen,
慕容長老
Elder Steffen Riener
Week 8 - MTC
星期二,十月3号(第49天)
With Christmas on the way, the district and I put up some of our random socks as stockings. All my socks are black, but luckily I have one pair with some design on it so I used one of those (don't worry, they were fresh out of the washer and dryer).
So, I talked about Elder Hugg and his shoulder from volleyball yesterday. Well, it turns out he dislocated it. So he and his companion, Elder Church, went to the hospital to get it back in place. He apparently had dislocated it many times from football and the fact that he really didn't do much to pop it out this time worries the doctors. Therefore, unfortunately Elder Hugg will be going home after we're all done with the MTC to have surgery. Good news is that he will only be home for the max of 12 weeks so I will still see him later in the field. Best wishes to him.
星期三,十月4号(第50天)
It's official, I've been here for fifty days! I've been here for half of 100 days, or a fourth of 200 days, or a tenth of 500 days! Crazy!
We've started singing Christmas songs in 中文 now. It's coming up! On Friday we are going to be doing a secret Santa exchange so that should be fun. I've already got my gift picked out. Christmas day is gonna be lit!
Elder Hugg got a gigantic care package from his girlfriend back home. She sent him four boxes full of candy and snacks, all labeled with a personal love note on a sticky note. She's dedicated. Yet he hasn't told her he's coming home. I wonder how she'll take that.
We hosted new incoming missionaries again. I'd say this time it was much cooler. Both the Elders I helped were going to Little Rock Arkansas. This time I was even able to ease the sad emotions from the families dropping off their precious child. Elder Church, however, had only one missionary and it was because he took so long to set up his mission phone (new missionaries are now getting smartphones instead of tablets). Everyone in our district was finished hosting and no more new missionaries were coming in and Elder Church was still waiting for his missionary. So, we all banded together and decided to do a 5-man (minus Elder Hugg) host on this missionary. He basically got a VIP service from us. We carried all his luggage and cheered him on when he first opened his dorm. We even took him all the way to his classroom (normally you just let them in the building and then an employee is stationed to help them out) but we went in like the military clearing out a building. This new guy was so confused. We told him he would never understand since we've been here 7 weeks and he's only gonna be here for 3. It's not easy being us, I guess.
星期四,十月5号(第51天)
I got my Chinese nametag today. I was able to recite all of the memorized passages that I needed. Yè lǎoshī was a little nice to me in regards to messing up, which is weird because she is normally mean to me. Yup.
The English speaking Elders have always been noisy. They're actually quite obnoxious and this is the third set of them that we've had on this floor (they are only here for 3 weeks and then new ones come in). And each group of them are equally as obnoxious. This most recent group races around the hall, even entering into our side of the residence hall. They say that it's "tradition" but nah they're just trying to annoy us. They're only here for 3 weeks and never seen the English elders before them. A few weeks ago, one elder among the last group screamed at the top of his lungs at a time close to midnight and our zone leaders tried to reason with him that after 10:30 is quiet time but he was all like "you can't tell me what to do!" I don't get why each group is so wild. Now, I don't want to say that all of them are bad, I've talked with a few of them and they're really cool, but there are a few that are just too crazy for this missionary thing. I pray that their fields of labor will calm them down a bit.
星期五,十月6号(第52天)
It's Christmas ☃️day! Our stockings were all completely full of candy, we had our secret Santa, and we received our flight plans. What a great day. Oh! And I ordered mission shirts a while ago and they've arrived.
My secret Santa gift that I received was a pocket Scrabble kit. 很酷! I don't think they do Scrabble in Chinese and German words are always to long for the game board (lol) so I guess I'll have to play in English.
Turns out I'm leaving from Salt Lake City on Monday, October 16th at 3:50am from Salt Lake to Chicago, from Chicago to Frankfurt, and from Frankfurt to Dresden. I've got a layover of 4 hours in Chicago and 2 in Frankfurt. It's getting real. Oh man, I'm so not ready to give up English yet . I can't believe I'm actually going to a foreign country (I've never left the US except for Canada). I'm excited and scared at the same time.
Today was also special in the sense that we all got to watch the broadcast of Elder Hales' funeral service. My prayers go out to his wife and family. It was a great service.
We got back to the dorm and the newer elders all sung Christmas carols to us! How sweet of them. Them they all gave us hugs. I love the Chinese zone here.
星期六,十月7号(第53天)
It's not every day that I can say we played mini golf in the dorm with crutches and a rubber band ball. I guess that day is today.
Elder Züger and I spent our personal study evening on some nice grass outside T4 (our classroom building). It's not very flat, so we decided to call it Hill Cumora.
We developed a plan to help Elder Allen (who is going to London) to convert the Queen of England. The details of which I am not at liberty to say, in order to keep the plan safe. It can't possibly go wrong!
星期天,十月8号(第54天)
I had my first leadership meeting this morning. All district leaders, zone leaders, and sister training leaders go to this. At 7:20 in the morning we were to discuss what things we could do to improve in our work. I got lucky last week with general conference that I didn't have to attend it.
I bore my testimony in sacrament this morning. Throughout the day I've had a lot of missionaries tell me that they really appreciated what I said. It's nice to know that I touched a few hearts with my simple words.
Chocolate milk tastes a million times better after fasting.
We watched a film about the building of the Salt Lake Temple. It was super cool since it was based on President Wilford Woodruff's personal journals.
星期一,十月9号(第55天)今天!
Less than one week before I depart out of the US heading for Germany! Scary that it's coming up soon. Thought this day would never come.
Bis später,
慕容長老
Elder Steffen Riener
星期二,十月3号(第49天)
With Christmas on the way, the district and I put up some of our random socks as stockings. All my socks are black, but luckily I have one pair with some design on it so I used one of those (don't worry, they were fresh out of the washer and dryer).
So, I talked about Elder Hugg and his shoulder from volleyball yesterday. Well, it turns out he dislocated it. So he and his companion, Elder Church, went to the hospital to get it back in place. He apparently had dislocated it many times from football and the fact that he really didn't do much to pop it out this time worries the doctors. Therefore, unfortunately Elder Hugg will be going home after we're all done with the MTC to have surgery. Good news is that he will only be home for the max of 12 weeks so I will still see him later in the field. Best wishes to him.
星期三,十月4号(第50天)
It's official, I've been here for fifty days! I've been here for half of 100 days, or a fourth of 200 days, or a tenth of 500 days! Crazy!
We've started singing Christmas songs in 中文 now. It's coming up! On Friday we are going to be doing a secret Santa exchange so that should be fun. I've already got my gift picked out. Christmas day is gonna be lit!
Elder Hugg got a gigantic care package from his girlfriend back home. She sent him four boxes full of candy and snacks, all labeled with a personal love note on a sticky note. She's dedicated. Yet he hasn't told her he's coming home. I wonder how she'll take that.
We hosted new incoming missionaries again. I'd say this time it was much cooler. Both the Elders I helped were going to Little Rock Arkansas. This time I was even able to ease the sad emotions from the families dropping off their precious child. Elder Church, however, had only one missionary and it was because he took so long to set up his mission phone (new missionaries are now getting smartphones instead of tablets). Everyone in our district was finished hosting and no more new missionaries were coming in and Elder Church was still waiting for his missionary. So, we all banded together and decided to do a 5-man (minus Elder Hugg) host on this missionary. He basically got a VIP service from us. We carried all his luggage and cheered him on when he first opened his dorm. We even took him all the way to his classroom (normally you just let them in the building and then an employee is stationed to help them out) but we went in like the military clearing out a building. This new guy was so confused. We told him he would never understand since we've been here 7 weeks and he's only gonna be here for 3. It's not easy being us, I guess.
星期四,十月5号(第51天)
I got my Chinese nametag today. I was able to recite all of the memorized passages that I needed. Yè lǎoshī was a little nice to me in regards to messing up, which is weird because she is normally mean to me. Yup.
The English speaking Elders have always been noisy. They're actually quite obnoxious and this is the third set of them that we've had on this floor (they are only here for 3 weeks and then new ones come in). And each group of them are equally as obnoxious. This most recent group races around the hall, even entering into our side of the residence hall. They say that it's "tradition" but nah they're just trying to annoy us. They're only here for 3 weeks and never seen the English elders before them. A few weeks ago, one elder among the last group screamed at the top of his lungs at a time close to midnight and our zone leaders tried to reason with him that after 10:30 is quiet time but he was all like "you can't tell me what to do!" I don't get why each group is so wild. Now, I don't want to say that all of them are bad, I've talked with a few of them and they're really cool, but there are a few that are just too crazy for this missionary thing. I pray that their fields of labor will calm them down a bit.
星期五,十月6号(第52天)
It's Christmas ☃️day! Our stockings were all completely full of candy, we had our secret Santa, and we received our flight plans. What a great day. Oh! And I ordered mission shirts a while ago and they've arrived.
My secret Santa gift that I received was a pocket Scrabble kit. 很酷! I don't think they do Scrabble in Chinese and German words are always to long for the game board (lol) so I guess I'll have to play in English.
Turns out I'm leaving from Salt Lake City on Monday, October 16th at 3:50am from Salt Lake to Chicago, from Chicago to Frankfurt, and from Frankfurt to Dresden. I've got a layover of 4 hours in Chicago and 2 in Frankfurt. It's getting real. Oh man, I'm so not ready to give up English yet . I can't believe I'm actually going to a foreign country (I've never left the US except for Canada). I'm excited and scared at the same time.
Today was also special in the sense that we all got to watch the broadcast of Elder Hales' funeral service. My prayers go out to his wife and family. It was a great service.
We got back to the dorm and the newer elders all sung Christmas carols to us! How sweet of them. Them they all gave us hugs. I love the Chinese zone here.
星期六,十月7号(第53天)
It's not every day that I can say we played mini golf in the dorm with crutches and a rubber band ball. I guess that day is today.
Elder Züger and I spent our personal study evening on some nice grass outside T4 (our classroom building). It's not very flat, so we decided to call it Hill Cumora.
We developed a plan to help Elder Allen (who is going to London) to convert the Queen of England. The details of which I am not at liberty to say, in order to keep the plan safe. It can't possibly go wrong!
星期天,十月8号(第54天)
I had my first leadership meeting this morning. All district leaders, zone leaders, and sister training leaders go to this. At 7:20 in the morning we were to discuss what things we could do to improve in our work. I got lucky last week with general conference that I didn't have to attend it.
I bore my testimony in sacrament this morning. Throughout the day I've had a lot of missionaries tell me that they really appreciated what I said. It's nice to know that I touched a few hearts with my simple words.
Chocolate milk tastes a million times better after fasting.
We watched a film about the building of the Salt Lake Temple. It was super cool since it was based on President Wilford Woodruff's personal journals.
星期一,十月9号(第55天)今天!
Less than one week before I depart out of the US heading for Germany! Scary that it's coming up soon. Thought this day would never come.
Bis später,
慕容長老
Elder Steffen Riener
Week 7 - MTC
星期一,九月25号(第41天)
We had our first lesson via Skype. It actually wasn't too bad. About 2 minutes in I realized I was muted so that's why the Lin姊妹 couldn't hear me. 🤣 She was so nice though. We thought the person we would teach was gonna be a hardcore native speaker with no mercy, but instead every time we were having difficulty she would help us out. She goes to school at BYU Hawaii and was chill enough to show us around a bit. Elder Züger is obsessed with Hawaii for some reason so he really loved it.
With the departure of some of our missionaries who have been here nine weeks, it's that time of year again to steal more ladders. My roommates got me a better ladder that actually clings to the bed. It's secure, but it seems so sketchy. I told them, "this is probably going to kill me." And Elder Church responds with, "hopefully." Ouch.
星期二,九月26号(第42天)
We attempted another English fast. It went way better than the last one. Makes me feel good about my Chinese. Our lǎoshī even told us that our language skills are better than most people at a 4th year high school language. Pretty swag.
Elder Bragg of the Quorum of the Seventy spoke tonight at the devotional. He shared a story about a less active who was brought back to the church and showed a picture of him at the Seattle temple. 我喜欢。
As district leader now, I'm in charge of the devotional reviews following the speaker back in our classroom. I had no idea what I was doing but I guess I did well according to everyone else.
星期三,九月27号(第43天)
Our move back up to the sixth floor has been postponed. I don't know if I've explained this, but 3 weeks ago we were kicked out of the sixth floor of our classroom building and we've been on the 1st floor ever since. They wanted us out so that they could install some wall stuff or something of the sort. We got a letter from scheduling saying that we would move back up by this week. They gave us a date and time. So, the night before we packed up all of our stuff and got ready to move by the next morning (today). Well, we got another letter just recently ON THE DAY WE'RE MOVING saying that we're no longer moving. What's worse is that our room has been taken over by new Cantonese missionaries. Cantonese! Not even real Chinese like Mandarin! They told us that it's "not worth it" to move us back up since we've only got 3 weeks left. But there are many vacant rooms up there so I have no clue why they wouldn't move us into one of those. Three weeks is a whole English speaking missionary stay here at the MTC so I'm just baffled. So as of now, half of our Chinese zone is on the sixth floor and the other half is on the first floor. And our two districts have the Sister Training and Zone Leaders. I don't get it.
So, I mentioned that the two districts on the first floor contain the Sister Training Leaders. Well, that's our district that has them and it's the trio sisters. About a week ago, an extra desk appeared in our classroom (so, the trio's three-desk system turned into four). They were somewhat afraid that they would be separated into two companionships of two; rather than one companionship of three. We as elders took the opportunity to devise a great prank. Because new missionaries arrive here on Wednesdays, and this also happens to fall on a three week cycle where we also get new Chinese missionaries, I had the idea to split their desks two by two and make a fake name tag for the 4th desk. The new name tag looked so made up, and we used a name that's obviously not someone coming in. Since they're the Training Leaders, they know who's coming in, so it should have been nothing more than a short scare. Well, they come in and see it and they totally believed it! They were all like "they can't do this to us" and walked out. One of the elders learned that they were going to call our branch president concerning the matter (being sister training leaders, they get a phone). So we ran out to chase them down and tell them it was a joke, but we could not find them! Oh man we were so dead!!!🤤 We found them later and then told them it was a joke. They were not happy with us, but they said they hadn't called the branch president yet, so it turned out we weren't going to die. I still think it's funny that they were so gullible. Our name tag was so fake, I don't know how they believed it, and it wasn't a name of a sister who was coming in. Also, the first thing they do when they're not happy with something is they try to call the branch president? Is that like an abuse of your power of having a phone? Whatever. They were so concerned about not being a trio, it's like missionaries don't teach two by two (sarcasm). Hmmmmm. I'm just happy that I'm alive. I call that a win. Why is it that every time I try to prank someone, everything goes wrong? Murphy's law sucks.
Like I said, new missionaries arrived today. There are 20 new elders and 6 sisters so our floor is hectic again. They are going to Canada, LA, Taibei, and Australia. One is going to Montreal and already knows French so he's got a great deal. None are heading to Germany, though we're still alone.
星期四,九月28号(第44天)
Another package from mom. First I got lightsaber chopsticks, this time I got a University of Washington dragon thing. I think my mom has lost her marbles.
Yè lǎoshī wanted us to take everyday objects and apply them spiritually to lessons. She handed me a box of tic tacs. so I came up with a good comparison. I stood up and said:
"The Holy Ghost…is a ghost."
"Ghosts…are white."
"What else is white? These tic tacs."
"Thank you."
Needless to say, I think I had the best one; not gonna lie.
Trying to memorize I am a Child of God in Chinese.
星期五,九月29号(第45天)
We got our Chinese tags today! The ones we have are Chinese, of course, but the exception is our name. It's in English so that others can read them here at the MTC. And, since our English names can't be directly translated to Mandarin, we obtain new names here so it takes a while for our new names to be finalized and the tags created. Most people get Chinese names that correspond to their English names, and someone picks them for us before we get here (we can change them if we don't like them). For instance, Sister Love is 爱姊妹 which 爱 is the character for love. Elder Züger gets 朱長老 which says "zhū" so it's close to the sounding of his last name. My name, on the other hand, is 慕容長老 which says Mù Róng. It has no correspondence to my name but apparently it's super unique so I'm like special or something. I get four characters in my name rather than three. Only problem is that Yè lǎoshī is requiring us to have put missionary purpose, the first vision, James 1:5, the baptism invitation, I am a Child of God, and 1 Nephi 3:7 all memorized in Chinese to obtain them.
While we were supposed to be working on language programs, we decided to bring the world unto Christ. There's a window that looks out to the street where people often walk by. We wrote on our tablets things like "be baptized" "join our church" and "free baptism" and put them against the window while civilians walked by. Just fulfilling our missionary purpose!
星期六,九月30号(第46天)
Very busy but fun day with the October General Conference! We watched all the sessions from the MTC.
We had a long conversation in the dorm about how swag a lot of the Book of Mormon people are this morning.
First, we had the Saturday morning session. Elder John Pingree Jr. said that "God has an important work for all of us. Everyone has a meaningful role in this work. The Lord has a better mind for us than we have for ourselves." I think we need to see more potential in ourselves. We can tackle any challenge in this world.
Lunch was satisfactory.
Then, we had the Saturday afternoon session. I loved what Elder Ronald A. Rasband said about our lives and how there are no coincidences. " No one is placed in your life by accident. Everything is carefully planned by the Lord." He has a divine plan for us and we have to trust in Him that He will lead us to do good for ourselves and others.
Dinner was also satisfactory.
After that, we concluded the day of conference with the Priesthood session (the sisters went elsewhere to watch the women's session recorded from last week). I really enjoyed President Henry B. Eyring peace-in out️ to everybody at the end. He's such a boss.
I pray for dear Prophet Thomas S. Monson who was unable to attend conference due to his health. May the Lord bless him.
Following all of the sessions, the district got together and we reviewed the things we learned and felt from the Spirit. They all shared some great stuff. We had a great Saturday conference. At the end I was breathing my testimony that none of us are perfect but as long as we look at others through the eyes of Christ then we will see more in them. Then Elder Allen asked, "wait so if I look at you through Christ, I will be able to see that you're not just a trumpet player?" Sister Westover answered, "yeah! Of course not, he's also a camp counselor." Everyone got a good crack out of that. I think they love me?! ️
星期天,十月1号(第47天)
Today was lit!
We got to watch both the Sunday morning and afternoon sessions of conference. All of my district was super excited with Elder Neil L. Andersen talking about all the stuff about President Russell M. Nelson who became a really good friend to China so we took it as a hint to having China opened up to missionary work. We can't stop talking about how China could be opened up any time soon and that we as Chinese speakers will be the firsts to be called to labor there. Don't fret, everything from conference was amazing but the last things said really got us on our toes.
Nevertheless, my prayers go out to the Hales family. May they be comforted in the passing of Elder Robert D. Hales. Also wish the prophet health and comfort in his trials.
As it is Sunday, we continued with an evening devotional. We were pleased to have Brother Munoa, who is the executive producer of the recent New Testament and the Life of Christ videos. He showed us lots of photos of the behind the scenes of making the videos. The picture of Jesus with a Gatorade was my favorite. He even did a sneak preview of his work on the Book of Mormon. We've been waiting for something like that for so long and it's coming now! It's still in the works but still.
Lastly, we sprinted to the place we wanted to see our Sunday night church film. This time we watched Testaments which is a story about the Nephites at the time of Christ. It was such a great movie. Idk why, but I really love South American ancient stuff.
This day was just really cool. Also it's October - the new month is always awesome.
星期一,十月2号(第48天)今天!
Elder Z is going to the Salt Lake Temple today for a thing that the MTC does for anyone outside the US. So, I'm stuck here while he's at temple square. Oh well. The trip started at 07:30 and isn't done until 17:00. Z has no time to do his laundry so he and I had to wake up earlier to do it before he left. Ugh, I'm so tired.
Since I need a companion while Z is gone, I joined Elder Church and Hugg. But during volleyball, Elder Hugg got injured and they both left me with Elder Reynertson and Allen. Chilling with them now. Seems like I can't keep a companion today.
Well, this week coming up is the last normal week. Next week is the 9th and last so there's a lot of weird stuff that goes on. We're getting our flight plans this Friday so we're calling it Christmas. This week we'll be singing Christmas songs until we get the flight details. All I know right now is that I will be landing in Dresden eventually. It's getting so real.
Bis später,
慕容長老
Elder Steffen Riener
星期一,九月25号(第41天)
We had our first lesson via Skype. It actually wasn't too bad. About 2 minutes in I realized I was muted so that's why the Lin姊妹 couldn't hear me. 🤣 She was so nice though. We thought the person we would teach was gonna be a hardcore native speaker with no mercy, but instead every time we were having difficulty she would help us out. She goes to school at BYU Hawaii and was chill enough to show us around a bit. Elder Züger is obsessed with Hawaii for some reason so he really loved it.
With the departure of some of our missionaries who have been here nine weeks, it's that time of year again to steal more ladders. My roommates got me a better ladder that actually clings to the bed. It's secure, but it seems so sketchy. I told them, "this is probably going to kill me." And Elder Church responds with, "hopefully." Ouch.
星期二,九月26号(第42天)
We attempted another English fast. It went way better than the last one. Makes me feel good about my Chinese. Our lǎoshī even told us that our language skills are better than most people at a 4th year high school language. Pretty swag.
Elder Bragg of the Quorum of the Seventy spoke tonight at the devotional. He shared a story about a less active who was brought back to the church and showed a picture of him at the Seattle temple. 我喜欢。
As district leader now, I'm in charge of the devotional reviews following the speaker back in our classroom. I had no idea what I was doing but I guess I did well according to everyone else.
星期三,九月27号(第43天)
Our move back up to the sixth floor has been postponed. I don't know if I've explained this, but 3 weeks ago we were kicked out of the sixth floor of our classroom building and we've been on the 1st floor ever since. They wanted us out so that they could install some wall stuff or something of the sort. We got a letter from scheduling saying that we would move back up by this week. They gave us a date and time. So, the night before we packed up all of our stuff and got ready to move by the next morning (today). Well, we got another letter just recently ON THE DAY WE'RE MOVING saying that we're no longer moving. What's worse is that our room has been taken over by new Cantonese missionaries. Cantonese! Not even real Chinese like Mandarin! They told us that it's "not worth it" to move us back up since we've only got 3 weeks left. But there are many vacant rooms up there so I have no clue why they wouldn't move us into one of those. Three weeks is a whole English speaking missionary stay here at the MTC so I'm just baffled. So as of now, half of our Chinese zone is on the sixth floor and the other half is on the first floor. And our two districts have the Sister Training and Zone Leaders. I don't get it.
So, I mentioned that the two districts on the first floor contain the Sister Training Leaders. Well, that's our district that has them and it's the trio sisters. About a week ago, an extra desk appeared in our classroom (so, the trio's three-desk system turned into four). They were somewhat afraid that they would be separated into two companionships of two; rather than one companionship of three. We as elders took the opportunity to devise a great prank. Because new missionaries arrive here on Wednesdays, and this also happens to fall on a three week cycle where we also get new Chinese missionaries, I had the idea to split their desks two by two and make a fake name tag for the 4th desk. The new name tag looked so made up, and we used a name that's obviously not someone coming in. Since they're the Training Leaders, they know who's coming in, so it should have been nothing more than a short scare. Well, they come in and see it and they totally believed it! They were all like "they can't do this to us" and walked out. One of the elders learned that they were going to call our branch president concerning the matter (being sister training leaders, they get a phone). So we ran out to chase them down and tell them it was a joke, but we could not find them! Oh man we were so dead!!!🤤 We found them later and then told them it was a joke. They were not happy with us, but they said they hadn't called the branch president yet, so it turned out we weren't going to die. I still think it's funny that they were so gullible. Our name tag was so fake, I don't know how they believed it, and it wasn't a name of a sister who was coming in. Also, the first thing they do when they're not happy with something is they try to call the branch president? Is that like an abuse of your power of having a phone? Whatever. They were so concerned about not being a trio, it's like missionaries don't teach two by two (sarcasm). Hmmmmm. I'm just happy that I'm alive. I call that a win. Why is it that every time I try to prank someone, everything goes wrong? Murphy's law sucks.
Like I said, new missionaries arrived today. There are 20 new elders and 6 sisters so our floor is hectic again. They are going to Canada, LA, Taibei, and Australia. One is going to Montreal and already knows French so he's got a great deal. None are heading to Germany, though we're still alone.
星期四,九月28号(第44天)
Another package from mom. First I got lightsaber chopsticks, this time I got a University of Washington dragon thing. I think my mom has lost her marbles.
Yè lǎoshī wanted us to take everyday objects and apply them spiritually to lessons. She handed me a box of tic tacs. so I came up with a good comparison. I stood up and said:
"The Holy Ghost…is a ghost."
"Ghosts…are white."
"What else is white? These tic tacs."
"Thank you."
Needless to say, I think I had the best one; not gonna lie.
Trying to memorize I am a Child of God in Chinese.
星期五,九月29号(第45天)
We got our Chinese tags today! The ones we have are Chinese, of course, but the exception is our name. It's in English so that others can read them here at the MTC. And, since our English names can't be directly translated to Mandarin, we obtain new names here so it takes a while for our new names to be finalized and the tags created. Most people get Chinese names that correspond to their English names, and someone picks them for us before we get here (we can change them if we don't like them). For instance, Sister Love is 爱姊妹 which 爱 is the character for love. Elder Züger gets 朱長老 which says "zhū" so it's close to the sounding of his last name. My name, on the other hand, is 慕容長老 which says Mù Róng. It has no correspondence to my name but apparently it's super unique so I'm like special or something. I get four characters in my name rather than three. Only problem is that Yè lǎoshī is requiring us to have put missionary purpose, the first vision, James 1:5, the baptism invitation, I am a Child of God, and 1 Nephi 3:7 all memorized in Chinese to obtain them.
While we were supposed to be working on language programs, we decided to bring the world unto Christ. There's a window that looks out to the street where people often walk by. We wrote on our tablets things like "be baptized" "join our church" and "free baptism" and put them against the window while civilians walked by. Just fulfilling our missionary purpose!
星期六,九月30号(第46天)
Very busy but fun day with the October General Conference! We watched all the sessions from the MTC.
We had a long conversation in the dorm about how swag a lot of the Book of Mormon people are this morning.
First, we had the Saturday morning session. Elder John Pingree Jr. said that "God has an important work for all of us. Everyone has a meaningful role in this work. The Lord has a better mind for us than we have for ourselves." I think we need to see more potential in ourselves. We can tackle any challenge in this world.
Lunch was satisfactory.
Then, we had the Saturday afternoon session. I loved what Elder Ronald A. Rasband said about our lives and how there are no coincidences. " No one is placed in your life by accident. Everything is carefully planned by the Lord." He has a divine plan for us and we have to trust in Him that He will lead us to do good for ourselves and others.
Dinner was also satisfactory.
After that, we concluded the day of conference with the Priesthood session (the sisters went elsewhere to watch the women's session recorded from last week). I really enjoyed President Henry B. Eyring peace-in out️ to everybody at the end. He's such a boss.
I pray for dear Prophet Thomas S. Monson who was unable to attend conference due to his health. May the Lord bless him.
Following all of the sessions, the district got together and we reviewed the things we learned and felt from the Spirit. They all shared some great stuff. We had a great Saturday conference. At the end I was breathing my testimony that none of us are perfect but as long as we look at others through the eyes of Christ then we will see more in them. Then Elder Allen asked, "wait so if I look at you through Christ, I will be able to see that you're not just a trumpet player?" Sister Westover answered, "yeah! Of course not, he's also a camp counselor." Everyone got a good crack out of that. I think they love me?! ️
星期天,十月1号(第47天)
Today was lit!
We got to watch both the Sunday morning and afternoon sessions of conference. All of my district was super excited with Elder Neil L. Andersen talking about all the stuff about President Russell M. Nelson who became a really good friend to China so we took it as a hint to having China opened up to missionary work. We can't stop talking about how China could be opened up any time soon and that we as Chinese speakers will be the firsts to be called to labor there. Don't fret, everything from conference was amazing but the last things said really got us on our toes.
Nevertheless, my prayers go out to the Hales family. May they be comforted in the passing of Elder Robert D. Hales. Also wish the prophet health and comfort in his trials.
As it is Sunday, we continued with an evening devotional. We were pleased to have Brother Munoa, who is the executive producer of the recent New Testament and the Life of Christ videos. He showed us lots of photos of the behind the scenes of making the videos. The picture of Jesus with a Gatorade was my favorite. He even did a sneak preview of his work on the Book of Mormon. We've been waiting for something like that for so long and it's coming now! It's still in the works but still.
Lastly, we sprinted to the place we wanted to see our Sunday night church film. This time we watched Testaments which is a story about the Nephites at the time of Christ. It was such a great movie. Idk why, but I really love South American ancient stuff.
This day was just really cool. Also it's October - the new month is always awesome.
星期一,十月2号(第48天)今天!
Elder Z is going to the Salt Lake Temple today for a thing that the MTC does for anyone outside the US. So, I'm stuck here while he's at temple square. Oh well. The trip started at 07:30 and isn't done until 17:00. Z has no time to do his laundry so he and I had to wake up earlier to do it before he left. Ugh, I'm so tired.
Since I need a companion while Z is gone, I joined Elder Church and Hugg. But during volleyball, Elder Hugg got injured and they both left me with Elder Reynertson and Allen. Chilling with them now. Seems like I can't keep a companion today.
Well, this week coming up is the last normal week. Next week is the 9th and last so there's a lot of weird stuff that goes on. We're getting our flight plans this Friday so we're calling it Christmas. This week we'll be singing Christmas songs until we get the flight details. All I know right now is that I will be landing in Dresden eventually. It's getting so real.
Bis später,
慕容長老
Elder Steffen Riener
Week 6 - MTC
星期二,九月19号(第35天)
Our lesson was so good today. It was flowing so well and the investigator talked a bunch and asked questions. But the best part was me at the end when I bore my testimony in broken Chinese. I told him that our Chinese may be bad, but that we know for an assiduity that the gospel was true, among lots of other stuff. We were all crying by the end. So powerful. Why can't every lesson be like that?
Z and I went to the doctor today. I've been having issues swallowing and Z really hurt his shoulder. Doctor told me that I have a swollen throat. I guess that's bad. There's a virus going around and I've been told that I got lucky since I didn't have a full blown cold. He pointed me in the direction of the BYU pharmacy. It was really cool to be like "in civilization" again and see the MTC from the outside. I got all these medications they wanted me to take, but after one pill my throat was perfectly fine. Great.
Quentin L. Cook of the quorum of the twelve apostles came tonight for the devotional. It's really cool since I got to see Elder Cook in Seattle shortly before I left. I even shook his hand when he was in Washington! I have that over everyone else here. It's so cool that he got to see me before I went on my mission and how he sees me now at the MTC. At least, I think he may have seen me among a couple thousand people
星期三,九月20号(第36天)
The sand was so cold that we could not play volleyball this morning. Instead, one sister showed us a game where we volley the ball a certain number of times, then on that hit someone grabs the ball. With that ball they throw it at someone after they've said freeze and everyone must stop where they are. We were playing a round and Z ended up with the ball. He and I got into a stare down. I knew I was his target. He exclaimed, "you were the chosen one!" I immediately caught on and said in a burning Anikan Skywalker voice, "I HATE YOU!" He then juked me out and pretended to throw the ball but I already had dove out of the way. He just laughed and dropped the ball saying that he couldn't do it. It's not every day that you reenact a scene from Star Wars.
星期四,九月21号(第37天)
Elder Züger's plain white shirt came. Finally. That took way too long to get here.
Z has to receive physical therapy for his shoulder, so today was his first appointment. The doctor and nurses made him hurt, but I think he enjoyed himself.
My Mom is the best. I asked her for chopsticks and I was surprised to have received a package in the mail today. I felt it and it was obviously chopsticks. When I pulled them out, I found out that they were lightsaber chopsticks!!! Dude they're so sick! They both light up in a Sith Lord red. I decided to eat with them for dinner (using chopsticks for the very first time). When I pulled them out, I realized that several missionaries were staring at me. They were all smiling. A few of them came up to me and shook my hand, telling me I'm the coolest person they've ever seen. When everyone was done staring, I struggled to pick up a piece of broccoli. When I finally picked it up and ate it, I heard a dozen voices cheer with applause. I couldn't tell if I should be proud or super scared at what happened.
星期五,九月22号(第38天)
They're hanging up Christmas lights. It's way too early for that! They do look pretty at night, though.
Z has been teaching the German missionaries a bunch of German slang. They eat that stuff up. They say it to us whenever we see each other. Z has poisoned them. 🤢
星期六,九月23号(第39天)
Had the best TRC ever! We were able to teach two people and the Spirit was so strong during both lessons. I even remembered their names and used them to further make things personal. So cool. Too bad it's our last live TRC. From now on, we will be doing lessons over Skype for TRC. Unique.
The German Elders are like our best friends now. We love all seeing each other. I can't wait to see them in the field.
My mile time has gotten down to 6 minutes flat. That was hard. My hand started to get numb, slightly. This elevation really isn't good for me. Good thing I've got 3 weeks left in Utah.
I made a friend among the MTC staff. He's pretty swag.
星期天,九月24号(第40天)
Every three weeks there are new callings made in the Chinese branch. This is because in our branch, every three weeks missionaries leave and more come in. Well, I've been asked to be the district leader now. I was somewhat hoping I wouldn't be called as it. I've been avoiding it this whole time. Brother Sratton (part of the Branch Presidency) got me this morning to tell me. I was walking to my classroom when I feel a pair of hands on the backs of my shoulders guiding me. The next thing I knew, I was in a small room and he told me I was going to be the next district leader. I don't really know how to be one, save I have to be in charge of the district and get mail. I'll just wing it.
Watched an old MTC devotional from someone of the Seventy. It's about being a "consecrated missionary." It made me feel like I really have to step up my missionary skills.
Polished my shoes for the first time and they look neat. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. I'm pretty proud of them.
星期一,九月25号(第41天)今天!
Well, we've lost this last few missionaries to their fields of service. It's sad to see them go, but we have new arrivals coming on Wednesday.
I can see the end of the tunnel that leads to Germany. 3 more weeks. So close!
Bis später,
慕容長老
Elder Steffen Riener
星期二,九月19号(第35天)
Our lesson was so good today. It was flowing so well and the investigator talked a bunch and asked questions. But the best part was me at the end when I bore my testimony in broken Chinese. I told him that our Chinese may be bad, but that we know for an assiduity that the gospel was true, among lots of other stuff. We were all crying by the end. So powerful. Why can't every lesson be like that?
Z and I went to the doctor today. I've been having issues swallowing and Z really hurt his shoulder. Doctor told me that I have a swollen throat. I guess that's bad. There's a virus going around and I've been told that I got lucky since I didn't have a full blown cold. He pointed me in the direction of the BYU pharmacy. It was really cool to be like "in civilization" again and see the MTC from the outside. I got all these medications they wanted me to take, but after one pill my throat was perfectly fine. Great.
Quentin L. Cook of the quorum of the twelve apostles came tonight for the devotional. It's really cool since I got to see Elder Cook in Seattle shortly before I left. I even shook his hand when he was in Washington! I have that over everyone else here. It's so cool that he got to see me before I went on my mission and how he sees me now at the MTC. At least, I think he may have seen me among a couple thousand people
星期三,九月20号(第36天)
The sand was so cold that we could not play volleyball this morning. Instead, one sister showed us a game where we volley the ball a certain number of times, then on that hit someone grabs the ball. With that ball they throw it at someone after they've said freeze and everyone must stop where they are. We were playing a round and Z ended up with the ball. He and I got into a stare down. I knew I was his target. He exclaimed, "you were the chosen one!" I immediately caught on and said in a burning Anikan Skywalker voice, "I HATE YOU!" He then juked me out and pretended to throw the ball but I already had dove out of the way. He just laughed and dropped the ball saying that he couldn't do it. It's not every day that you reenact a scene from Star Wars.
星期四,九月21号(第37天)
Elder Züger's plain white shirt came. Finally. That took way too long to get here.
Z has to receive physical therapy for his shoulder, so today was his first appointment. The doctor and nurses made him hurt, but I think he enjoyed himself.
My Mom is the best. I asked her for chopsticks and I was surprised to have received a package in the mail today. I felt it and it was obviously chopsticks. When I pulled them out, I found out that they were lightsaber chopsticks!!! Dude they're so sick! They both light up in a Sith Lord red. I decided to eat with them for dinner (using chopsticks for the very first time). When I pulled them out, I realized that several missionaries were staring at me. They were all smiling. A few of them came up to me and shook my hand, telling me I'm the coolest person they've ever seen. When everyone was done staring, I struggled to pick up a piece of broccoli. When I finally picked it up and ate it, I heard a dozen voices cheer with applause. I couldn't tell if I should be proud or super scared at what happened.
星期五,九月22号(第38天)
They're hanging up Christmas lights. It's way too early for that! They do look pretty at night, though.
Z has been teaching the German missionaries a bunch of German slang. They eat that stuff up. They say it to us whenever we see each other. Z has poisoned them. 🤢
星期六,九月23号(第39天)
Had the best TRC ever! We were able to teach two people and the Spirit was so strong during both lessons. I even remembered their names and used them to further make things personal. So cool. Too bad it's our last live TRC. From now on, we will be doing lessons over Skype for TRC. Unique.
The German Elders are like our best friends now. We love all seeing each other. I can't wait to see them in the field.
My mile time has gotten down to 6 minutes flat. That was hard. My hand started to get numb, slightly. This elevation really isn't good for me. Good thing I've got 3 weeks left in Utah.
I made a friend among the MTC staff. He's pretty swag.
星期天,九月24号(第40天)
Every three weeks there are new callings made in the Chinese branch. This is because in our branch, every three weeks missionaries leave and more come in. Well, I've been asked to be the district leader now. I was somewhat hoping I wouldn't be called as it. I've been avoiding it this whole time. Brother Sratton (part of the Branch Presidency) got me this morning to tell me. I was walking to my classroom when I feel a pair of hands on the backs of my shoulders guiding me. The next thing I knew, I was in a small room and he told me I was going to be the next district leader. I don't really know how to be one, save I have to be in charge of the district and get mail. I'll just wing it.
Watched an old MTC devotional from someone of the Seventy. It's about being a "consecrated missionary." It made me feel like I really have to step up my missionary skills.
Polished my shoes for the first time and they look neat. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. I'm pretty proud of them.
星期一,九月25号(第41天)今天!
Well, we've lost this last few missionaries to their fields of service. It's sad to see them go, but we have new arrivals coming on Wednesday.
I can see the end of the tunnel that leads to Germany. 3 more weeks. So close!
Bis später,
慕容長老
Elder Steffen Riener
Week 5 - MTC
星期一,九月11号(第27天)
Class was tough today. Yě lǎoshī had us write down a bunch of sentences translated from English to Chinese. I didn't do too bad but even still. She wants us to learn 25 words a day from now on. Z and I could barely manage 15.
When we were teaching our investigator, we were on the plan of salvation which we really don't know the vocabulary for. We took way too long and she actually cut us off because we went over time and she totally chewed us out. I mean, she was right. She told us that we are supposed to be teaching people and not lessons so we should stick to only what we can do. Normally, the practice investigator does not break character, but I guess she really had to correct us.
星期二,九月12号(第28天)
Sang in the choir again.
We learned how to tell time and dates in Chinese. I feel like that was long overdue. It is super helpful now to somewhat know how to set up dates and stuff. It's weird how their curriculum works.
The devotional tonight was by Elder Keanon from the presidency of the Seventy. He has a great British accent which made every sentence much more enjoyable. What's cool is that the person who converted him is the mission president of the Manchester England mission which is where two people in my district are serving.
Some of the sisters had the wonderful opportunity to play a song for the presidency dinner which is a pretty great honor. One played piano, the other flute, and the final sang. Slightly jealous since they'll never let me perform with my trumpet.
星期三,九月13号(第29天)
We were playing volleyball again today like normal and I made a mistake and hit the ball in a totally wrong direction. Then everyone looked at me and started singing the cliché YMCA song from the Village People. I feel like they were mocking me...
This week was our opportunity to host the incoming missionaries. Every week new missionaries come into the MTC. So we got to help out the new ones that arrive and show them around a bit. I got three new missionaries today. One going to San Jose, another Montana, and the other England. All English speaking. The first was here early so I didn't get to see his family. The second I actually witnessed the family dropping them off. They were all crying but we're in a parking garage and traffic needs to move so I tried to hurry them up as kindly as I could. The last one just kinda walked out of the car, grabbed her stuff, and said goodbye all with a straight face. She told me it was just her aunt so I guess it makes sense.
星期四,九月14号(第30天)
My laundry basket broke so I had to get a new one. This one should hold out longer since it's more of a basket than a bag.
I had problems sleeping last night so this morning was pretty dreadful. We also taught two lessons today which is uncommon but I'm surprised I made it through while teaching some really good lessons.
I had to explain to Elder Züger what Costco is.
Z forgot his password to his tablet so we went to IT to see if we could fix this issue. Missionary tablets are required to have a certain program that basically lets the church monitor and control it somewhat. It sounds kinda scary but they just block stuff so that you don't get distracted from our work. Anyway, I grew to like the program a little more when they told us that they could remotely reset the password so that Elder Z could get back in so maybe them having a little bit of control isn't so bad sometimes.
We can custom order white shirts that have our mission placed on the front. Z, for some reason wanted a plain white shirt with nothing on it and decided to order like he was getting a mission t shirt, but without the design! That's like going to Taco Bell and ordering as a taco without the meat.
星期五,九月15号(第31天)
Oh my goodness it's pouring down rain! This makes me so happy. I get to use my extreme rain gear now. I even helped some sisters get through the rain when they had just exercising clothes on. Lightning strikes all around; it's incredible.
There are some senior missionaries who know we're going to Berlin and sent us a letter asking if we wanted to meet up before they left for Germany. We sent a letter back so hopefully tomorrow evening works out for meeting them. We'll probably see them in the field, then.
星期六,九月16号(第32天)
Happy hump day! This is the half way point for us. Exactly one month ago we arrived here at the MTC - and only one more month to go! Germany is getting closer I can almost smell it.
Today was such a long day for some reason. I was able to spike in volleyball and totally destroyed the other team. It was great. I'm humble I swear.
We met up with that senior couple we got the note from yesterday. Elder and Sister Storey. They're also going to Berlin and have next to no idea where exactly they're going (since Northern Germany is pretty big) just like us since we're doing Mandarin. They are super nice and basically wanted to tell us that if we are in the same area as them that they'll feed us whenever. The sister actually is from Germany and moved to the States when she married Elder Storey. Her German is pretty great. She reassures me that Germans will be fairly helpful and understanding when I make mistakes. We talked with them for about an hour.
Right after meeting the couple, our district got together for our hump day celebration. We all made toasts with chocolate milk; my fave. The sisters brought a bunch of candy that their parents mailed them earlier. I don't want to brag, but I think I have the coolest district ever.
I smacked into a window a few minutes ago while setting up the gym for the devotional. It's a glass door with a glass pane right next to it and I was coming out of a room that was around the corner to the door. I went super fast around it and BAM! The glass was super clean I didn't notice! Now I have a bump on my forehead. I went back and there's a mark on it from my face! Now I don't feel right... I'm gonna go to bed.
星期天,九月17号(第33天)
Well, I woke up alive so I guess I don't have a concussion. I like it when I wake up alive. The bump on my forehead is gone, too.
Today was full of such bossery. First, I read through Moses 1 and was reminded of how much of a boss Moses is. The MTC president Martino always suddenly appears to people in the cafeteria when someone starts being disruptive and loud. He's like a ninja - just comes outta nowhere. We also watched a video from David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He talked about his mission experience in Germany and he mentioned Mandarin (not in the same topic) I just feel like it was directed towards me and he's super funny while being an excellent speaker through the power of the Lord. He also mentioned an experience with President Hinckley and he was cracking some good jokes. I strive to be like that someday.
President Don Livingstone was our speaker for tonight's devotional. He is the President of the Provo Temple here. He and his wife spoke a lot about powerful conversion stories and of course, temple work.
I got to pass the sacrament for the Chinese branch for the first time. It's so much easier to do it with like 40 people than a couple hundred. I'm just going to have to get used to blessing the sacrament in Mandarin and German soon. 🤤
The three sisters that have performed a bunch (flute, vocal, and piano) also performed today. I told them I would like their performance as long as they would try to make it sound as good as a trumpet.
I miss my trumpet. I'm going to be so bad at playing it when I get back. Speaking of which, I'd say around 8 or so people commented on my trumpet tie. Made a good choice to wear it today (one of three trumpet ties, actually).
I met like 4 people who all came from Washington. It was super cool. A couple people were from the Tri Cities, and a couple were from Spokane. It's good not to be alone sometimes.
星期一,九月18号(第34天)今天!
Nothing much. Went to the temple again. Met someone who wants to go to UW when they come back. Some sister stole my hangers.
Over halfway done with the MTC. I just have to do what I just did one more time and then I'm in Berlin.
再见!
Bis später,
慕容長老
Elder Steffen Riener
星期一,九月11号(第27天)
Class was tough today. Yě lǎoshī had us write down a bunch of sentences translated from English to Chinese. I didn't do too bad but even still. She wants us to learn 25 words a day from now on. Z and I could barely manage 15.
When we were teaching our investigator, we were on the plan of salvation which we really don't know the vocabulary for. We took way too long and she actually cut us off because we went over time and she totally chewed us out. I mean, she was right. She told us that we are supposed to be teaching people and not lessons so we should stick to only what we can do. Normally, the practice investigator does not break character, but I guess she really had to correct us.
星期二,九月12号(第28天)
Sang in the choir again.
We learned how to tell time and dates in Chinese. I feel like that was long overdue. It is super helpful now to somewhat know how to set up dates and stuff. It's weird how their curriculum works.
The devotional tonight was by Elder Keanon from the presidency of the Seventy. He has a great British accent which made every sentence much more enjoyable. What's cool is that the person who converted him is the mission president of the Manchester England mission which is where two people in my district are serving.
Some of the sisters had the wonderful opportunity to play a song for the presidency dinner which is a pretty great honor. One played piano, the other flute, and the final sang. Slightly jealous since they'll never let me perform with my trumpet.
星期三,九月13号(第29天)
We were playing volleyball again today like normal and I made a mistake and hit the ball in a totally wrong direction. Then everyone looked at me and started singing the cliché YMCA song from the Village People. I feel like they were mocking me...
This week was our opportunity to host the incoming missionaries. Every week new missionaries come into the MTC. So we got to help out the new ones that arrive and show them around a bit. I got three new missionaries today. One going to San Jose, another Montana, and the other England. All English speaking. The first was here early so I didn't get to see his family. The second I actually witnessed the family dropping them off. They were all crying but we're in a parking garage and traffic needs to move so I tried to hurry them up as kindly as I could. The last one just kinda walked out of the car, grabbed her stuff, and said goodbye all with a straight face. She told me it was just her aunt so I guess it makes sense.
星期四,九月14号(第30天)
My laundry basket broke so I had to get a new one. This one should hold out longer since it's more of a basket than a bag.
I had problems sleeping last night so this morning was pretty dreadful. We also taught two lessons today which is uncommon but I'm surprised I made it through while teaching some really good lessons.
I had to explain to Elder Züger what Costco is.
Z forgot his password to his tablet so we went to IT to see if we could fix this issue. Missionary tablets are required to have a certain program that basically lets the church monitor and control it somewhat. It sounds kinda scary but they just block stuff so that you don't get distracted from our work. Anyway, I grew to like the program a little more when they told us that they could remotely reset the password so that Elder Z could get back in so maybe them having a little bit of control isn't so bad sometimes.
We can custom order white shirts that have our mission placed on the front. Z, for some reason wanted a plain white shirt with nothing on it and decided to order like he was getting a mission t shirt, but without the design! That's like going to Taco Bell and ordering as a taco without the meat.
星期五,九月15号(第31天)
Oh my goodness it's pouring down rain! This makes me so happy. I get to use my extreme rain gear now. I even helped some sisters get through the rain when they had just exercising clothes on. Lightning strikes all around; it's incredible.
There are some senior missionaries who know we're going to Berlin and sent us a letter asking if we wanted to meet up before they left for Germany. We sent a letter back so hopefully tomorrow evening works out for meeting them. We'll probably see them in the field, then.
星期六,九月16号(第32天)
Happy hump day! This is the half way point for us. Exactly one month ago we arrived here at the MTC - and only one more month to go! Germany is getting closer I can almost smell it.
Today was such a long day for some reason. I was able to spike in volleyball and totally destroyed the other team. It was great. I'm humble I swear.
We met up with that senior couple we got the note from yesterday. Elder and Sister Storey. They're also going to Berlin and have next to no idea where exactly they're going (since Northern Germany is pretty big) just like us since we're doing Mandarin. They are super nice and basically wanted to tell us that if we are in the same area as them that they'll feed us whenever. The sister actually is from Germany and moved to the States when she married Elder Storey. Her German is pretty great. She reassures me that Germans will be fairly helpful and understanding when I make mistakes. We talked with them for about an hour.
Right after meeting the couple, our district got together for our hump day celebration. We all made toasts with chocolate milk; my fave. The sisters brought a bunch of candy that their parents mailed them earlier. I don't want to brag, but I think I have the coolest district ever.
I smacked into a window a few minutes ago while setting up the gym for the devotional. It's a glass door with a glass pane right next to it and I was coming out of a room that was around the corner to the door. I went super fast around it and BAM! The glass was super clean I didn't notice! Now I have a bump on my forehead. I went back and there's a mark on it from my face! Now I don't feel right... I'm gonna go to bed.
星期天,九月17号(第33天)
Well, I woke up alive so I guess I don't have a concussion. I like it when I wake up alive. The bump on my forehead is gone, too.
Today was full of such bossery. First, I read through Moses 1 and was reminded of how much of a boss Moses is. The MTC president Martino always suddenly appears to people in the cafeteria when someone starts being disruptive and loud. He's like a ninja - just comes outta nowhere. We also watched a video from David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He talked about his mission experience in Germany and he mentioned Mandarin (not in the same topic) I just feel like it was directed towards me and he's super funny while being an excellent speaker through the power of the Lord. He also mentioned an experience with President Hinckley and he was cracking some good jokes. I strive to be like that someday.
President Don Livingstone was our speaker for tonight's devotional. He is the President of the Provo Temple here. He and his wife spoke a lot about powerful conversion stories and of course, temple work.
I got to pass the sacrament for the Chinese branch for the first time. It's so much easier to do it with like 40 people than a couple hundred. I'm just going to have to get used to blessing the sacrament in Mandarin and German soon. 🤤
The three sisters that have performed a bunch (flute, vocal, and piano) also performed today. I told them I would like their performance as long as they would try to make it sound as good as a trumpet.
I miss my trumpet. I'm going to be so bad at playing it when I get back. Speaking of which, I'd say around 8 or so people commented on my trumpet tie. Made a good choice to wear it today (one of three trumpet ties, actually).
I met like 4 people who all came from Washington. It was super cool. A couple people were from the Tri Cities, and a couple were from Spokane. It's good not to be alone sometimes.
星期一,九月18号(第34天)今天!
Nothing much. Went to the temple again. Met someone who wants to go to UW when they come back. Some sister stole my hangers.
Over halfway done with the MTC. I just have to do what I just did one more time and then I'm in Berlin.
再见!
Bis später,
慕容長老
Elder Steffen Riener
Week 4 - MTC
Xīng qī èr, August 29th (Day 14)
In class we were going around the room as practice investigators or missionaries working on certain grammar principles. When it was my turn to be an investigator, one of the sisters greets me (as a missionary) and speaks to me in Chinese. Everything was fine until she asked for my name, to which - for practice - I said "my name is Christina." Problem was that she didn't ask for my name! She asked how my day was. She couldn't stop laughing and I was embarrassed. I need to get better at this Chinese thing.
It was one of our lăoshī (teacher's) birthday yesterday. We didn't see him yesterday so when he walked in today I sang "22" from Taylor Swift because it was his 22nd birthday so it all made sense to me. He asked me which hymn that was (passive aggressive way to say missionaries shouldn't be signing regular songs). I told him it was hymn number 426 (which doesn't exist btw) to validate T Swizzle.
I got to sing in the MTC choir for the devotional. We went to dinner early so that we could catch the practice in time. The speaker was W. Christopher Waddell. He really emphasized the power that the Book of Mormon has in the missionary work.
Xīng qī sān, August 30th (Day 15)
All of the Chinese classes got together (which is rare) and we all attempted to teach each other a lesson. Elder Z and I tried, but didn't do so well. 3 weeks in and it's still difficult. I really hope this language comes along at some point, being a third of the way done with my training. One of our lăoshī wanted group photos so that was awesome to be in since she's leaving for Jerusalem soon. I also figured out that all of the language lăoshī are current BYU students. No variety, man.
Speaking of which, the other day a lăoshī was telling me that I was going to convert to BYU when I get back and he expects me to be his roommate. Heathen! UW is where it's at.
We started teaching a new investigator. It was still pretty much us just talking at him, but i think it was definitely better than our very first lesson. Though, that's not hard to do.
Xīng qī sì, August 31st (Day 16)
Got my mile time down to under 7 minutes, finally. My goal is to go under 6 minutes before I'm done with the MTC.
Some of the Chinese missionaries who are about to leave just got notices that their visas didn't go through, so a few of them are having to serve stateside for a couple months until their visas are finished. Kinda makes me scared, but none of them are going to Germany so I hope I still have a good shot. I wish they would tell me if my visa worked since I sent my stuff in like 3 months ago.
Elder Church, Z, and I all got haircuts today. They're free so we figured why not. I get there and one of the barbers tells me to sit and I did but he didn't ask me what I wanted; he just started cutting. After like 5 minutes he was done and he just said bye. Seemed like this is just another day at work and I'm just another missionary. Okay. Cool. You see, in my job at the YMCA, no matter how many kids I get, I give them all of my energy. I think this guy needs some lessons from me, however, he did a great job so I really can't complain.
We had another new investigator (we're doing two at once now) and or first lesson with him was fantastic! Way better than yesterday with the other one. We had a plan, but ended up not reading too much from it and said things that came to our hearts. And anytime the investigator had a question or a statement, we would ask them any word that we didn't understand. We were told later that in the field along for clarification really shows that you're trying to understand them and listen to them. Z and I also did a super dope analogy about the Book of Mormon. Our investigator was a big family man; he treasures his family. So, before the lesson, we took two dictionaries and overlapped the pages with each other. Then we had him try to pull apart the two merged dictionaries which, because science and friction, couldn't happen. We said that one dictionary represents the Book of Mormon and the other represents families. In essence, families that immerse themselves in the teachings of the Book of Mormon create a strong relationship. The investigator took it well, we think. Nonetheless, we're proud of that.
Xīng qī wǔ, September 1st (Day 17)
Happy Friday and happy September! TGIF bro. Though, Friday is just the same as any other day here. The only unique days are Sunday's and Monday's. Tuesday's can also be considered unique, but only because of the devotionals.
This day was super long, but nothing really unique happened today. Spit my cereal on myself this morning so the day started pretty crummy.
A few of the sisters in our district asked me if they could use the two dictionary analogy today for their lesson, plus the actual dictionaries. I had taken them apart yesterday so I put them back together for the sisters, almost page by page. Took me a good 10 minutes. Once I was done, they said they didn't need it! Savages! I think they just wanted to watch me suffer and interlock all the pages.
Some of my roommates ran into native Chinese speakers who are going to Germany and studying German. I wonder if i will be paired up with them in the field. That would be super beneficial to help with my Chinese, and they will most likely even speak better German than me (more so gospel talk, I suppose). At least they will know BOTH of their mission languages. I know about 0.25 out of 2.
Xīng qī liù, September 2nd (Day 18)
Elder Staten (the first Chinese speaking German missionary) is leaving Monday. He was packing his bags. It's sad to see him go, he's given me so much wisdom and tips. However, we're going to the same mission so I'll probably see him around in the field. He pointed out that I can actually grab all of the German study materials even though I'm not part of the German classes. I'm going to have to get on that soon.
Wednesday is coming up which means more missionaries. But more importantly, every 3 weeks new Chinese missionaries come in so I wonder if there will be more Chinese/German missionaries like myself, Z, and Hugg. This will be the first time I've experienced new Chinese missionaries since being here. Pretty cool.
Earlier this morning we got to start TRC. Don't ask me what it stands for but basically we teach two 20 minute lessons to members instead of investigators. This will be happening every Saturday from now on. Most of the people who volunteer to be taught are returned missionaries who spoke Chinese or are native speakers. I thought it was going to go poorly but it actually turned out well. I think we need to work on our transitions more. We also forgot to extend an invitation to them but oh well.
It's gotten to the point to where if there is a BYU game, everyone in my district is happy while BYU is ahead. But if they are behind, then they come up to me and tell me that I should be happy. Honestly, I'd rather have them win. As long as USC is destroyed, then I'm happy.
We have two lăoshí's: Buo Lăoshí and Tān Lăoshí. Tān Lăoshí was giving me some lip today. I usually play the hymn music for our songs in class but today he downloaded the app I use and he was like "you've been replaced." I told him I'm just like Beyonce so I'm irreplaceable.
Everyone is impressed with my Spiderman onesie. I wore it last night claiming "it's Friday so I gotta get wild." I went around my floor into every room and told them that they make this place a friendly neighborhood. Got some sweet pics, too, and the sisters regret not bringing their onesies. I guess I'm just a light for everyone to follow.
Xīng qī tiān, September 3rd (Day 19)
Fast Sunday is upon us today. I made sure I ate some snacks last night. This was probably my best Fast Sunday I've experienced. I'm in a place where the Spirit resides so well.
Z and I taught a lesson to our district this morning. It was on Agency and I felt like we did a splendid job. I mentioned in it that when I worked at camp... blah blah blah and everyone was like "wait you work at a camp?!" They were joking since I mention it all the time. I guess it's now an inside joke to them. So just about everything I say they will be like "wait was this at camp" or "did you learn that at camp." I feel like I'm well loved here.
While we were waiting for entrance to choir practice, an elderly MTC worker tells us all about "protecting the daughters of God." And he told us like his life story and his service in 'Nam.
Tomorrow morning, a third of the Chinese branch will be leaving us. And the night before they leave, the Chinese branch does a really weird ritual. It's sacred so I can't disclose too much but I'm proud to be part of this branch. But seriously, it's pretty weird.
Xīng qī yī, September 4th (Day 20)
Some of the Chinese elders who have been here for nine weeks are now leaving today. It kinda makes me sad, i looked up to them since they know way more than i do. Everyone is going to Taiwan and stuff and here am i going to Deutschland 🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪 so it's like I'm alone except not because I've got Z, Hugg, and Staten. Potentially more people like me will arrive Wednesday.
The Polynesian folks are leaving, too. They sang a really cool song in some language I don't know but it was beautiful.
I saw a WSU cougar shirt today and I was triggered! Go Dawgs!
Temple is closed today due to Labor Day. So this day is going by a lot slower than normal. I had to explain what Labor Day was to Elder Züger.
My man Nick also made a pretty sweet picture of me. I made it to Vogue magazine 🤣
Well, that's a wrap. On to week 4! 爱你们
Bis später,
慕容长老
Elder Steffen Riener
Xīng qī èr, August 29th (Day 14)
In class we were going around the room as practice investigators or missionaries working on certain grammar principles. When it was my turn to be an investigator, one of the sisters greets me (as a missionary) and speaks to me in Chinese. Everything was fine until she asked for my name, to which - for practice - I said "my name is Christina." Problem was that she didn't ask for my name! She asked how my day was. She couldn't stop laughing and I was embarrassed. I need to get better at this Chinese thing.
It was one of our lăoshī (teacher's) birthday yesterday. We didn't see him yesterday so when he walked in today I sang "22" from Taylor Swift because it was his 22nd birthday so it all made sense to me. He asked me which hymn that was (passive aggressive way to say missionaries shouldn't be signing regular songs). I told him it was hymn number 426 (which doesn't exist btw) to validate T Swizzle.
I got to sing in the MTC choir for the devotional. We went to dinner early so that we could catch the practice in time. The speaker was W. Christopher Waddell. He really emphasized the power that the Book of Mormon has in the missionary work.
Xīng qī sān, August 30th (Day 15)
All of the Chinese classes got together (which is rare) and we all attempted to teach each other a lesson. Elder Z and I tried, but didn't do so well. 3 weeks in and it's still difficult. I really hope this language comes along at some point, being a third of the way done with my training. One of our lăoshī wanted group photos so that was awesome to be in since she's leaving for Jerusalem soon. I also figured out that all of the language lăoshī are current BYU students. No variety, man.
Speaking of which, the other day a lăoshī was telling me that I was going to convert to BYU when I get back and he expects me to be his roommate. Heathen! UW is where it's at.
We started teaching a new investigator. It was still pretty much us just talking at him, but i think it was definitely better than our very first lesson. Though, that's not hard to do.
Xīng qī sì, August 31st (Day 16)
Got my mile time down to under 7 minutes, finally. My goal is to go under 6 minutes before I'm done with the MTC.
Some of the Chinese missionaries who are about to leave just got notices that their visas didn't go through, so a few of them are having to serve stateside for a couple months until their visas are finished. Kinda makes me scared, but none of them are going to Germany so I hope I still have a good shot. I wish they would tell me if my visa worked since I sent my stuff in like 3 months ago.
Elder Church, Z, and I all got haircuts today. They're free so we figured why not. I get there and one of the barbers tells me to sit and I did but he didn't ask me what I wanted; he just started cutting. After like 5 minutes he was done and he just said bye. Seemed like this is just another day at work and I'm just another missionary. Okay. Cool. You see, in my job at the YMCA, no matter how many kids I get, I give them all of my energy. I think this guy needs some lessons from me, however, he did a great job so I really can't complain.
We had another new investigator (we're doing two at once now) and or first lesson with him was fantastic! Way better than yesterday with the other one. We had a plan, but ended up not reading too much from it and said things that came to our hearts. And anytime the investigator had a question or a statement, we would ask them any word that we didn't understand. We were told later that in the field along for clarification really shows that you're trying to understand them and listen to them. Z and I also did a super dope analogy about the Book of Mormon. Our investigator was a big family man; he treasures his family. So, before the lesson, we took two dictionaries and overlapped the pages with each other. Then we had him try to pull apart the two merged dictionaries which, because science and friction, couldn't happen. We said that one dictionary represents the Book of Mormon and the other represents families. In essence, families that immerse themselves in the teachings of the Book of Mormon create a strong relationship. The investigator took it well, we think. Nonetheless, we're proud of that.
Xīng qī wǔ, September 1st (Day 17)
Happy Friday and happy September! TGIF bro. Though, Friday is just the same as any other day here. The only unique days are Sunday's and Monday's. Tuesday's can also be considered unique, but only because of the devotionals.
This day was super long, but nothing really unique happened today. Spit my cereal on myself this morning so the day started pretty crummy.
A few of the sisters in our district asked me if they could use the two dictionary analogy today for their lesson, plus the actual dictionaries. I had taken them apart yesterday so I put them back together for the sisters, almost page by page. Took me a good 10 minutes. Once I was done, they said they didn't need it! Savages! I think they just wanted to watch me suffer and interlock all the pages.
Some of my roommates ran into native Chinese speakers who are going to Germany and studying German. I wonder if i will be paired up with them in the field. That would be super beneficial to help with my Chinese, and they will most likely even speak better German than me (more so gospel talk, I suppose). At least they will know BOTH of their mission languages. I know about 0.25 out of 2.
Xīng qī liù, September 2nd (Day 18)
Elder Staten (the first Chinese speaking German missionary) is leaving Monday. He was packing his bags. It's sad to see him go, he's given me so much wisdom and tips. However, we're going to the same mission so I'll probably see him around in the field. He pointed out that I can actually grab all of the German study materials even though I'm not part of the German classes. I'm going to have to get on that soon.
Wednesday is coming up which means more missionaries. But more importantly, every 3 weeks new Chinese missionaries come in so I wonder if there will be more Chinese/German missionaries like myself, Z, and Hugg. This will be the first time I've experienced new Chinese missionaries since being here. Pretty cool.
Earlier this morning we got to start TRC. Don't ask me what it stands for but basically we teach two 20 minute lessons to members instead of investigators. This will be happening every Saturday from now on. Most of the people who volunteer to be taught are returned missionaries who spoke Chinese or are native speakers. I thought it was going to go poorly but it actually turned out well. I think we need to work on our transitions more. We also forgot to extend an invitation to them but oh well.
It's gotten to the point to where if there is a BYU game, everyone in my district is happy while BYU is ahead. But if they are behind, then they come up to me and tell me that I should be happy. Honestly, I'd rather have them win. As long as USC is destroyed, then I'm happy.
We have two lăoshí's: Buo Lăoshí and Tān Lăoshí. Tān Lăoshí was giving me some lip today. I usually play the hymn music for our songs in class but today he downloaded the app I use and he was like "you've been replaced." I told him I'm just like Beyonce so I'm irreplaceable.
Everyone is impressed with my Spiderman onesie. I wore it last night claiming "it's Friday so I gotta get wild." I went around my floor into every room and told them that they make this place a friendly neighborhood. Got some sweet pics, too, and the sisters regret not bringing their onesies. I guess I'm just a light for everyone to follow.
Xīng qī tiān, September 3rd (Day 19)
Fast Sunday is upon us today. I made sure I ate some snacks last night. This was probably my best Fast Sunday I've experienced. I'm in a place where the Spirit resides so well.
Z and I taught a lesson to our district this morning. It was on Agency and I felt like we did a splendid job. I mentioned in it that when I worked at camp... blah blah blah and everyone was like "wait you work at a camp?!" They were joking since I mention it all the time. I guess it's now an inside joke to them. So just about everything I say they will be like "wait was this at camp" or "did you learn that at camp." I feel like I'm well loved here.
While we were waiting for entrance to choir practice, an elderly MTC worker tells us all about "protecting the daughters of God." And he told us like his life story and his service in 'Nam.
Tomorrow morning, a third of the Chinese branch will be leaving us. And the night before they leave, the Chinese branch does a really weird ritual. It's sacred so I can't disclose too much but I'm proud to be part of this branch. But seriously, it's pretty weird.
Xīng qī yī, September 4th (Day 20)
Some of the Chinese elders who have been here for nine weeks are now leaving today. It kinda makes me sad, i looked up to them since they know way more than i do. Everyone is going to Taiwan and stuff and here am i going to Deutschland 🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪 so it's like I'm alone except not because I've got Z, Hugg, and Staten. Potentially more people like me will arrive Wednesday.
The Polynesian folks are leaving, too. They sang a really cool song in some language I don't know but it was beautiful.
I saw a WSU cougar shirt today and I was triggered! Go Dawgs!
Temple is closed today due to Labor Day. So this day is going by a lot slower than normal. I had to explain what Labor Day was to Elder Züger.
My man Nick also made a pretty sweet picture of me. I made it to Vogue magazine 🤣
Well, that's a wrap. On to week 4! 爱你们
Bis später,
慕容长老
Elder Steffen Riener
Week 3 - MTC
Xīng qī ér, jiǔ yuè 5 (tiān 21)
Dude! Everything makes sense now! Last night in class I noticed something so simple in Chinese and it gave me like a huge revelation. Everything is like connected for me now. I was so happy last night; noticing all these patterns and whatnot, oh my goodness, it's amazing. It's still going to be hard but I know I can totally do this now.
. . . nevermind. Well, I thought I had it. Started teaching a new investigator but she is a native speaker. That's fine, but the lesson was terrible. I don't believe she got anything from it. And now our lăoshī wants us to stop using any notes in lessons. I can barely do them with notes. At least I know that I can pick up this language. I'm just going to have to suffer through some rough lessons for a while.
I took a journey through the MTC. I heeded Elder Staton's advice about having access to the German curriculum books. Elder Züger and I went to the scheduling office and I told the sister at the front desk about my situation, that I am going to a mission where I'm only learning one of my two mission languages. She told me that I can request any German books that I would like, but she said that I probably shouldn't get them all. But I was all like no I want them all. She gave me a slip to get the books I needed and I headed over to the bookstore. I showed them the slip and they went into a back room while I waited outside. They came out and told me that I can't get them all because there are over 40 pounds of material! Wow! So, in short, they gave me the essentials. Still a lot of books, though. One of the books they handed me they warned me not to lose it. Then they showed me the price tag on it: $250.01! What on earth?! Good thing I have a missionary discount of 100% off.
We had the delight of having Elder Dallin H. Oaks at the devotional this night. What an incredible blessing that is to have, especially after that lesson that really brought my motivation down. He emphasized how Christ's work is eternal and temples are proof of it. The thing I got out of it the most was to ask questions only when I am willing to follow up on the answers. I think it's worthy to say that I'm proud to have been in the MTC choir again and have sung in front of an apostle of God.
Such a day with mixed feelings.
Xīng qī sān, jiǔ yuè 6 (tiān 22)
I ran into Elder Damiano today! He was one of the first people I ever met at the university. He's going to be serving in the Tokyo Japan mission and I'm very excited for him. So, my people-that-I-know count at the MTC is up to a mighty 2 meanwhile, there's a sister in my district that literally knows every other person. She has so many crazy connections with people. And she isn't even from Utah, only Minnesota. I think it's unfair that people will walk by and they'll spark a conversation with her because they know her in some ridiculous way. I just shake my head every time. Although, Z doesn't know anyone, it's not everyday that you see someone from Switzerland like him. But, whenever we are introducing ourselves to others, saying you're from Switzerland is much cooler than saying you're from Seattle. He usually gets more attention.
We have a new lăoshī and she's a native speaker so I don't want to say she's harsh, because she's very nice, but she's very firm. I think she is a really great lăoshī even though she's very pushy, but she was once a nonmember so she had firsthand knowledge of who we're teaching.
In class, we paired up with one another to teach a short lesson about prayer. I got paired up with the really good Chinese speaking sister, but it was all good since she helped me out a lot. I feel like my lesson was really good anyways, quite a lot of it was in English but I think she took away a good amount. If the most experienced Chinese speaker can say I did well then I'll just call it a plus.
Xīng qī sì, jiǔ yuè 7 (tiān 23)
Z started taking with a random sister today and she ended up showing us a little bit of sign language. It's cool because she is serving in the Vancouver Washington mission where one of my cousins served also doing ASL. Super dope.
Our lesson with the native speaker was a lot better. We ended up using no notes and it wasn't too bad. She even took us later (because she's an actor investigator) to review it which is very rare. She's very impressed with us, needless to say. Z and I are the ones who are struggling the most so she is really happy with what she sees.
We had an incredible idea to take pictures of all the beautiful murals in the new buildings. There are two per floor and they are amazing depictions of stories from the bible, Book of Mormon, and early church history. However, we had an epiphany in the moment. We decided to photograph Elder Züger in each picture to make it look like he was there in a ridiculous way. The photos are absolutely precious.
Xīng qī wǔ, jiǔ yuè 8 (tiān 24)
We taught a less active member today. It was terrible since they gave us like 10 minutes to prepare. To be fair, we were already preparing for our lesson with the investigator. I understand that when we're in the field we often get no time to prepare but they should wait until we've familiarized ourselves more with Chinese. At least we know that we can only do better from here.
It poured down rain in the midday. Having been fairly well acquainted with rain, I wasn't as astonished as my fellow missionaries. The lightning is always cool, though.
Z and I are dorks.
Xīng qī liù, jiǔ yuè 9 (tiān 25)
Forgot to mention that I got my mile time down to 6 minutes and 13 seconds. I almost passed out after it, however. When I got back to my room, I just went straight to bed in the middle of the day. I basically delayed passing out until I got to the bed. Woke up maybe 20 minutes later and my heart was still beating fast. I do not appreciate the high elevation of Utah. Sea level is much better. I figure that if I can get 6:13 almost a mile high, I can do much better at sea level.
I finally got a ladder for my bed. Normally, I just somehow crawl onto my top bunk, but in the mornings I just plop off. It's a great way to get arthritis. One morning I was so tired that when I jumped out of bed, I collapsed to the floor and just stayed there hopeless on my side and slowly grabbed my suitcase and a spare change of clothes. So I think life will be better with a ladder. Stole it from the Elders who left the beginning of this week.
We attempted an English fast today. I didn't do too bad with exclusively speaking Chinese. I couldn't say much, but I feel like it somewhat pushes me to learn more and get used to using the language more. Then again, it also made me want to pull my hair out so I don't know.
We had our second TRC with volunteer members. Z and I didn't prepare too well but we were able to pull off a decent lesson. I wish they would teach us a little more conversational Chinese instead of just gospel talk. Still, I don't think it was half bad. Perhaps by the end of my MTC experience, I'll be way more satisfied with my Chinese skills.
For setting up the chairs in the gym, I had the opportunity to assist in setting up the stage. At one point, when it's erected, someone had to go down underneath and pull out some audio chords for the podium microphone. Since I'm fairly small, I volunteered. It was so cool down there and I don't know why. Felt like a secret agent trying to hack the government or something. I know, I'm weird.
Xīng qī tiān, liù yuè 10 (tiān 26)
We had another temple walk and it was a gorgeous day for it. Went into the comfort of some shady trees behind the temple and as a branch we sang some songs that made the Spirit so prevalent.
The devotional speaker tonight was Chad Lewis who played for BYU football and ended up being drafted into the NFL and made it to the Superbowl.
Elder Hugg got a recorder in the mail and he can't stop trying to accomplish his goal of playing the song I Am A Child Of God through his nose. It's slightly annoying, yet I can't shake the feeling that I'm impressed.
We watched a pioneer movie called Legacy, but in Chinese. We wanted to watch another movie but it was filled. It's ridiculous how quickly people get to the movies. We were right at the door ready to go after the devotional was over and we were still to late. So, we just tried out the Chinese movie and it was fantastic. There were a bunch of other native Chinese missionaries that joined us and we all just had fun with the movie as we made funny commentary. For every kissing scene, I would yell repentance in Chinese and everyone would get a crack at that. We as Americans couldn't understand too much - I got maybe 5 percent - but what a great experience. We're gonna go to a Chinese session every Sunday night from now on. Hopefully it assists us with our language skills. After the movie, we spoke with some of the native Chinese sisters in their language and it was cool. One of them is going to Seattle so I congratulated her on that. What a great night.
Xīng qī yī, jiǔ yuè 11 (tiān 27)
We should be getting our Chinese name tags soon. The ones where it will say our names in Chinese characters rather than English.
Every time I do laundry my dryer lint comes out purple. Think I may have overdone it on the UW stuff.
Halfway done with the MTC, then it's off to Deutschland!
Bis später,
慕容长老
Elder Steffen Riener
Xīng qī ér, jiǔ yuè 5 (tiān 21)
Dude! Everything makes sense now! Last night in class I noticed something so simple in Chinese and it gave me like a huge revelation. Everything is like connected for me now. I was so happy last night; noticing all these patterns and whatnot, oh my goodness, it's amazing. It's still going to be hard but I know I can totally do this now.
. . . nevermind. Well, I thought I had it. Started teaching a new investigator but she is a native speaker. That's fine, but the lesson was terrible. I don't believe she got anything from it. And now our lăoshī wants us to stop using any notes in lessons. I can barely do them with notes. At least I know that I can pick up this language. I'm just going to have to suffer through some rough lessons for a while.
I took a journey through the MTC. I heeded Elder Staton's advice about having access to the German curriculum books. Elder Züger and I went to the scheduling office and I told the sister at the front desk about my situation, that I am going to a mission where I'm only learning one of my two mission languages. She told me that I can request any German books that I would like, but she said that I probably shouldn't get them all. But I was all like no I want them all. She gave me a slip to get the books I needed and I headed over to the bookstore. I showed them the slip and they went into a back room while I waited outside. They came out and told me that I can't get them all because there are over 40 pounds of material! Wow! So, in short, they gave me the essentials. Still a lot of books, though. One of the books they handed me they warned me not to lose it. Then they showed me the price tag on it: $250.01! What on earth?! Good thing I have a missionary discount of 100% off.
We had the delight of having Elder Dallin H. Oaks at the devotional this night. What an incredible blessing that is to have, especially after that lesson that really brought my motivation down. He emphasized how Christ's work is eternal and temples are proof of it. The thing I got out of it the most was to ask questions only when I am willing to follow up on the answers. I think it's worthy to say that I'm proud to have been in the MTC choir again and have sung in front of an apostle of God.
Such a day with mixed feelings.
Xīng qī sān, jiǔ yuè 6 (tiān 22)
I ran into Elder Damiano today! He was one of the first people I ever met at the university. He's going to be serving in the Tokyo Japan mission and I'm very excited for him. So, my people-that-I-know count at the MTC is up to a mighty 2 meanwhile, there's a sister in my district that literally knows every other person. She has so many crazy connections with people. And she isn't even from Utah, only Minnesota. I think it's unfair that people will walk by and they'll spark a conversation with her because they know her in some ridiculous way. I just shake my head every time. Although, Z doesn't know anyone, it's not everyday that you see someone from Switzerland like him. But, whenever we are introducing ourselves to others, saying you're from Switzerland is much cooler than saying you're from Seattle. He usually gets more attention.
We have a new lăoshī and she's a native speaker so I don't want to say she's harsh, because she's very nice, but she's very firm. I think she is a really great lăoshī even though she's very pushy, but she was once a nonmember so she had firsthand knowledge of who we're teaching.
In class, we paired up with one another to teach a short lesson about prayer. I got paired up with the really good Chinese speaking sister, but it was all good since she helped me out a lot. I feel like my lesson was really good anyways, quite a lot of it was in English but I think she took away a good amount. If the most experienced Chinese speaker can say I did well then I'll just call it a plus.
Xīng qī sì, jiǔ yuè 7 (tiān 23)
Z started taking with a random sister today and she ended up showing us a little bit of sign language. It's cool because she is serving in the Vancouver Washington mission where one of my cousins served also doing ASL. Super dope.
Our lesson with the native speaker was a lot better. We ended up using no notes and it wasn't too bad. She even took us later (because she's an actor investigator) to review it which is very rare. She's very impressed with us, needless to say. Z and I are the ones who are struggling the most so she is really happy with what she sees.
We had an incredible idea to take pictures of all the beautiful murals in the new buildings. There are two per floor and they are amazing depictions of stories from the bible, Book of Mormon, and early church history. However, we had an epiphany in the moment. We decided to photograph Elder Züger in each picture to make it look like he was there in a ridiculous way. The photos are absolutely precious.
Xīng qī wǔ, jiǔ yuè 8 (tiān 24)
We taught a less active member today. It was terrible since they gave us like 10 minutes to prepare. To be fair, we were already preparing for our lesson with the investigator. I understand that when we're in the field we often get no time to prepare but they should wait until we've familiarized ourselves more with Chinese. At least we know that we can only do better from here.
It poured down rain in the midday. Having been fairly well acquainted with rain, I wasn't as astonished as my fellow missionaries. The lightning is always cool, though.
Z and I are dorks.
Xīng qī liù, jiǔ yuè 9 (tiān 25)
Forgot to mention that I got my mile time down to 6 minutes and 13 seconds. I almost passed out after it, however. When I got back to my room, I just went straight to bed in the middle of the day. I basically delayed passing out until I got to the bed. Woke up maybe 20 minutes later and my heart was still beating fast. I do not appreciate the high elevation of Utah. Sea level is much better. I figure that if I can get 6:13 almost a mile high, I can do much better at sea level.
I finally got a ladder for my bed. Normally, I just somehow crawl onto my top bunk, but in the mornings I just plop off. It's a great way to get arthritis. One morning I was so tired that when I jumped out of bed, I collapsed to the floor and just stayed there hopeless on my side and slowly grabbed my suitcase and a spare change of clothes. So I think life will be better with a ladder. Stole it from the Elders who left the beginning of this week.
We attempted an English fast today. I didn't do too bad with exclusively speaking Chinese. I couldn't say much, but I feel like it somewhat pushes me to learn more and get used to using the language more. Then again, it also made me want to pull my hair out so I don't know.
We had our second TRC with volunteer members. Z and I didn't prepare too well but we were able to pull off a decent lesson. I wish they would teach us a little more conversational Chinese instead of just gospel talk. Still, I don't think it was half bad. Perhaps by the end of my MTC experience, I'll be way more satisfied with my Chinese skills.
For setting up the chairs in the gym, I had the opportunity to assist in setting up the stage. At one point, when it's erected, someone had to go down underneath and pull out some audio chords for the podium microphone. Since I'm fairly small, I volunteered. It was so cool down there and I don't know why. Felt like a secret agent trying to hack the government or something. I know, I'm weird.
Xīng qī tiān, liù yuè 10 (tiān 26)
We had another temple walk and it was a gorgeous day for it. Went into the comfort of some shady trees behind the temple and as a branch we sang some songs that made the Spirit so prevalent.
The devotional speaker tonight was Chad Lewis who played for BYU football and ended up being drafted into the NFL and made it to the Superbowl.
Elder Hugg got a recorder in the mail and he can't stop trying to accomplish his goal of playing the song I Am A Child Of God through his nose. It's slightly annoying, yet I can't shake the feeling that I'm impressed.
We watched a pioneer movie called Legacy, but in Chinese. We wanted to watch another movie but it was filled. It's ridiculous how quickly people get to the movies. We were right at the door ready to go after the devotional was over and we were still to late. So, we just tried out the Chinese movie and it was fantastic. There were a bunch of other native Chinese missionaries that joined us and we all just had fun with the movie as we made funny commentary. For every kissing scene, I would yell repentance in Chinese and everyone would get a crack at that. We as Americans couldn't understand too much - I got maybe 5 percent - but what a great experience. We're gonna go to a Chinese session every Sunday night from now on. Hopefully it assists us with our language skills. After the movie, we spoke with some of the native Chinese sisters in their language and it was cool. One of them is going to Seattle so I congratulated her on that. What a great night.
Xīng qī yī, jiǔ yuè 11 (tiān 27)
We should be getting our Chinese name tags soon. The ones where it will say our names in Chinese characters rather than English.
Every time I do laundry my dryer lint comes out purple. Think I may have overdone it on the UW stuff.
Halfway done with the MTC, then it's off to Deutschland!
Bis später,
慕容长老
Elder Steffen Riener
Week 2 - MTC
Tuesday, August 22nd (Day 7)
Forgot to mention that I performed my favorite camp songs, Boogaloo, last night in the dorm with all the Elders in my district.
They loved it!
Now they can't stop signing "Frankenstein" to me. It's great!
We went to the weight room for the first time during our scheduled exercise time. Luckily, it was right before breakfast so exercising didn't hurt as much. They've got TVs that broadcast Mormon videos and we can watch them while running or biking on the machines. No sound comes from the TVs, so you can actually plug in ear buds into the machines. It's the only time that ear buds are allowed for missionaries but unfortunately I didn't bring any. Problem was that I went on one and the TV in front of it was showing the death of Joseph Smith which was sad. Then I moved to a bike machine and the TV in front of it was showing the death of Jesus Christ; so I started my day pretty depressed.
Elder Z cannot stop singing Disney songs now. I feel like he's a little bit nostalgic for The Little Mermaid.
We have a new Sister in our Chinese class. Because missionaries must never be alone (except in certain circumstances), she joined two of our Sisters. So now they are a trio, or as I like to call, a truddy . She comes from the Fast track class where they've had enough of an introduction to the language that they only need 3 weeks here instead of 9. A few of them felt like they needed a little more time so those individuals are now rescheduled for the regular classes. Her Chinese is super good so it makes me feel worse listening to her speak.
Got my missionary debit card today in the mail. It's the card that they'll be putting money into every month so I can purchase food and whatnot. I don't know why they gave it to me so early. I feel like i might lose it before I even get to Germany...
We had a devotional tonight by a member of the Quorum of the Seventy, Elder Clayton, and his wife. They both shared extremely good spiritual messages. Elder Clayton tied in the eclipse from yesterday into his talk. He was lucky enough to have been in Wyoming when it passed by and showed us some spectacular images of it.
Wednesday, August 23rd (Day 8)
It's Wednesday, my dudes!
This morning we got to put our volleyball skills to the test. Right after breakfast, we headed over to the big grass field near the temple. They have sand areas that has like 5 nets set up. So, me and my roommates formed a team with a couple of Sisters and we went against another Chinese district. I did all my brrrrups and chyuts whenever we scored. Missionaries aren't allowed to keep score so that games don't get too competitive so I would always say "0-0".
We only have two more days with this investigator so Elder Z and I are really trying to get everything done. Today was pretty tough with him since he asked a lot of questions and we still really can't understand much Chinese.
There have been open house tours going on all the time throughout the days. Today, it was our assignment to help with the tour. All we were assigned to do was to stand in one place and tell them where to go, since the tour was self-guided. It was fairly fun at first, but after about an hour of standing there watching people walk by and a few people talking to me, I got bored and decided to spice things up. When people would walk by and ask where I was going, I would tell them to guess and they would normally say China, Korea, Japan, or Taiwan. Whatever it was, I would respond with "Close! I'm going to Germany!" and their eyes would usually grow ten fold. Some Samoan folks walked by and shook my hand but they were super big so my hand could have snapped like a twig. The whole thing took about two and a half hours so it was a long evening.
Siri does't want to go out with me either. It's okay, I wouldn't be able to for about 2 years, anyways.
Thursday, August 24th (Day 9)
My legs had been hurting since the last time I went to the weight room so Elder Z suggested I go back to work them more. It ended up helping a lot. They're not so sore now.
Elder Z and I went out on a balcony on one of the new buildings and it was an outstanding place to be. Elder Z exclaimed "hear ye, hear ye!" like he was shouting to a crowd.
The days are much shorter now. I assume I am quite used to the schedule that the days aren't as unique so they blend in together.
Other missionaries are getting sick, but luckily I'm fairly used to being exposed to hundreds of other people with working at a youth camp. No sickness for me!
Ran into some missionaries that are going to Germany and speaking GERMAN, finally. I keep getting conflicting reports on who I'll be meeting while in the field. Some say I'll have a mix of German and Chinese, while others say it'll be exclusively Chinese. I just would like someone to tell me so I kinda know what I'm getting into but who needs a plan, right?
I can somewhat form a few sentences in Chinese now. Still not nearly enough to be anywhere close to sub-par. It doesn't help that every single companionship in our class, save it for Z and I, have at least one missionary that has taken Mandarin before. So I feel extremely behind because of that.
Friday, August 25th (Day 10)
Bought some Chapstick from the store today. I'd been needing it for a while and I'm surprised I didn't pack any. My lips are very dry lately.
Elder Church (another roommate/district member) came up with a great business idea for when we're off of our missions. An idea of which I cannot disclose the information to anyone because it's so good. But basically it's gonna involve our Chinese skills. Well, after we learn Chinese, of course.
The new Sister in our district is also a band geek. She played the flute when she was in high school but also learned saxophone. She and I got into talking about band section stereotypes and we were guessing what instrument each Elder or Sister would play based on their personality. It was really funny because we were saying the same instrument for each person. Just proves that those band stereotypes are pretty real, since she and I have been trained so well in the band geekiness.
I updated my tablet here to Android Nougat (7.0) and it's pretty sweet. I now have access to a flash card app and it's really a nice deal for me. It now eliminates my need for making paper flash cards and, as I told everyone else, "writing on dead trees as much." But the other Elders and Sisters were telling me that they enjoy having the tangible ones so I didn't know what to say to come out on top of the argument like I always like to do. However, later we were going to sing a song out of our Hymn books so I showed them how I can play the music through my tablet and they were all amazed so I exclaimed, "CAN YOUR PAPER FLASH CARDS DO THAT??!?" I think I won the argument.
Saturday, August 26th (Day 11)
Things got pretty lit when playing volleyball today. Like, insanely tenacious. I was doing poorly at first so I told myself that every time I failed, I would do 5 push-ups. I ended up doing about 50 push-ups throughout the whole thing. Everyone seemed to enjoy it when I would just fall to the ground and start. I feel like it really helped me up my game so I was pretty much the MVP. Everyone was proud of me.
PHOTO SHOOT. Not really. Elder Z wanted some photos of me on a certain bench that was oddly close to the ground. He wants to submit them to Vogue Magazine.
There were a bunch of sirens going off today. Z and I counted about 4 police vehicles, 2 ambulances, and a firetrucks. So, something big was going on.
I'm getting proficient in making everyone in my class laugh. So much that when I was trying to tell something somewhat serious, they were all laughing because they were expecting me to say something sarcastic or just lose all my seriousness. Which ended up making me laugh and I realize I am poor at keeping my cool.
Z showed me a picture of his parents. It was really awesome, they were sleeping on their way home by train. Funny thing was that in the reflection of the window, you can see his dad's arm indicating that he took the selfie and they weren't actually sleeping.
Sunday, August 27th (Day 12)
Keep the Sabbath day busy here at the MTC. I somewhat miss the good old Sundays when they were chill but here it's like "Go, go go!" and onto the next thing. Don't get me wrong, though, I love all the things we do. It's just that it seems like there's so much. I guess it keeps us busy, but at the same time I wouldn't mind having some more personal study time. I've been trying to read the whole Book of Mormon and pick out all the Christ-like attributes that I find. Cool thing about having a tablet is that all of my scriptures and resources are electronic so it is extremely easy to mark, note , and cross reference everything.
I survived another sacrament meeting. They picked another random person to do a quick spiritual message in Chinese and it was not me so we're Gucci.
We did what was called a temple walk today. In the middle of the day, our whole Branch walked over to the Provo Temple together and enjoyed the beauty all around. We all went over to the shade trees and sang some really nice songs.
My district has become family now and it makes me happy. We do almost everything together now. We are going to set up a shared Google Drive file for all of our photographs taken while we're all separated when we depart to the field. Our District will encompass Taiwan Taipei, England London and Manchester, and of course, Germany Berlin. We also have plans to meet up when we're all back from our service.
We watched Meet The Mormons 2. I haven't seen the original, but this one was pretty great. It had some interesting stories to share. I liked the one about the Italian family that makes a five star meal for the homeless each month. They've got dancers and singers, delicious food, and a great dining scene to help these people. Super dope.
Monday, August 28th (Day 13)
Lucky number 13! I'm coming up on two whole weeks at the MTC. Z and I bought some beverages from the BYU store that look somewhat like alcohol but they tasted so delicious. It's like a fancy grape drink. Z has never experienced Martinelli's before so he's gotta taste some of it. I'm commanding him to do it.
There are a lot of missionaries leaving today. Wished them all good luck. Also had to stop by the travel office for some reason. They just wanted to see my passport, so hopefully that's good news for my visa.
Well, things are great. My Chinese still could be better but at least Z is here to struggle with me.
爱你们
Mù Róng Zhăng Lăo
Elder Steffen Riener
Tuesday, August 22nd (Day 7)
Forgot to mention that I performed my favorite camp songs, Boogaloo, last night in the dorm with all the Elders in my district.
They loved it!
Now they can't stop signing "Frankenstein" to me. It's great!
We went to the weight room for the first time during our scheduled exercise time. Luckily, it was right before breakfast so exercising didn't hurt as much. They've got TVs that broadcast Mormon videos and we can watch them while running or biking on the machines. No sound comes from the TVs, so you can actually plug in ear buds into the machines. It's the only time that ear buds are allowed for missionaries but unfortunately I didn't bring any. Problem was that I went on one and the TV in front of it was showing the death of Joseph Smith which was sad. Then I moved to a bike machine and the TV in front of it was showing the death of Jesus Christ; so I started my day pretty depressed.
Elder Z cannot stop singing Disney songs now. I feel like he's a little bit nostalgic for The Little Mermaid.
We have a new Sister in our Chinese class. Because missionaries must never be alone (except in certain circumstances), she joined two of our Sisters. So now they are a trio, or as I like to call, a truddy . She comes from the Fast track class where they've had enough of an introduction to the language that they only need 3 weeks here instead of 9. A few of them felt like they needed a little more time so those individuals are now rescheduled for the regular classes. Her Chinese is super good so it makes me feel worse listening to her speak.
Got my missionary debit card today in the mail. It's the card that they'll be putting money into every month so I can purchase food and whatnot. I don't know why they gave it to me so early. I feel like i might lose it before I even get to Germany...
We had a devotional tonight by a member of the Quorum of the Seventy, Elder Clayton, and his wife. They both shared extremely good spiritual messages. Elder Clayton tied in the eclipse from yesterday into his talk. He was lucky enough to have been in Wyoming when it passed by and showed us some spectacular images of it.
Wednesday, August 23rd (Day 8)
It's Wednesday, my dudes!
This morning we got to put our volleyball skills to the test. Right after breakfast, we headed over to the big grass field near the temple. They have sand areas that has like 5 nets set up. So, me and my roommates formed a team with a couple of Sisters and we went against another Chinese district. I did all my brrrrups and chyuts whenever we scored. Missionaries aren't allowed to keep score so that games don't get too competitive so I would always say "0-0".
We only have two more days with this investigator so Elder Z and I are really trying to get everything done. Today was pretty tough with him since he asked a lot of questions and we still really can't understand much Chinese.
There have been open house tours going on all the time throughout the days. Today, it was our assignment to help with the tour. All we were assigned to do was to stand in one place and tell them where to go, since the tour was self-guided. It was fairly fun at first, but after about an hour of standing there watching people walk by and a few people talking to me, I got bored and decided to spice things up. When people would walk by and ask where I was going, I would tell them to guess and they would normally say China, Korea, Japan, or Taiwan. Whatever it was, I would respond with "Close! I'm going to Germany!" and their eyes would usually grow ten fold. Some Samoan folks walked by and shook my hand but they were super big so my hand could have snapped like a twig. The whole thing took about two and a half hours so it was a long evening.
Siri does't want to go out with me either. It's okay, I wouldn't be able to for about 2 years, anyways.
Thursday, August 24th (Day 9)
My legs had been hurting since the last time I went to the weight room so Elder Z suggested I go back to work them more. It ended up helping a lot. They're not so sore now.
Elder Z and I went out on a balcony on one of the new buildings and it was an outstanding place to be. Elder Z exclaimed "hear ye, hear ye!" like he was shouting to a crowd.
The days are much shorter now. I assume I am quite used to the schedule that the days aren't as unique so they blend in together.
Other missionaries are getting sick, but luckily I'm fairly used to being exposed to hundreds of other people with working at a youth camp. No sickness for me!
Ran into some missionaries that are going to Germany and speaking GERMAN, finally. I keep getting conflicting reports on who I'll be meeting while in the field. Some say I'll have a mix of German and Chinese, while others say it'll be exclusively Chinese. I just would like someone to tell me so I kinda know what I'm getting into but who needs a plan, right?
I can somewhat form a few sentences in Chinese now. Still not nearly enough to be anywhere close to sub-par. It doesn't help that every single companionship in our class, save it for Z and I, have at least one missionary that has taken Mandarin before. So I feel extremely behind because of that.
Friday, August 25th (Day 10)
Bought some Chapstick from the store today. I'd been needing it for a while and I'm surprised I didn't pack any. My lips are very dry lately.
Elder Church (another roommate/district member) came up with a great business idea for when we're off of our missions. An idea of which I cannot disclose the information to anyone because it's so good. But basically it's gonna involve our Chinese skills. Well, after we learn Chinese, of course.
The new Sister in our district is also a band geek. She played the flute when she was in high school but also learned saxophone. She and I got into talking about band section stereotypes and we were guessing what instrument each Elder or Sister would play based on their personality. It was really funny because we were saying the same instrument for each person. Just proves that those band stereotypes are pretty real, since she and I have been trained so well in the band geekiness.
I updated my tablet here to Android Nougat (7.0) and it's pretty sweet. I now have access to a flash card app and it's really a nice deal for me. It now eliminates my need for making paper flash cards and, as I told everyone else, "writing on dead trees as much." But the other Elders and Sisters were telling me that they enjoy having the tangible ones so I didn't know what to say to come out on top of the argument like I always like to do. However, later we were going to sing a song out of our Hymn books so I showed them how I can play the music through my tablet and they were all amazed so I exclaimed, "CAN YOUR PAPER FLASH CARDS DO THAT??!?" I think I won the argument.
Saturday, August 26th (Day 11)
Things got pretty lit when playing volleyball today. Like, insanely tenacious. I was doing poorly at first so I told myself that every time I failed, I would do 5 push-ups. I ended up doing about 50 push-ups throughout the whole thing. Everyone seemed to enjoy it when I would just fall to the ground and start. I feel like it really helped me up my game so I was pretty much the MVP. Everyone was proud of me.
PHOTO SHOOT. Not really. Elder Z wanted some photos of me on a certain bench that was oddly close to the ground. He wants to submit them to Vogue Magazine.
There were a bunch of sirens going off today. Z and I counted about 4 police vehicles, 2 ambulances, and a firetrucks. So, something big was going on.
I'm getting proficient in making everyone in my class laugh. So much that when I was trying to tell something somewhat serious, they were all laughing because they were expecting me to say something sarcastic or just lose all my seriousness. Which ended up making me laugh and I realize I am poor at keeping my cool.
Z showed me a picture of his parents. It was really awesome, they were sleeping on their way home by train. Funny thing was that in the reflection of the window, you can see his dad's arm indicating that he took the selfie and they weren't actually sleeping.
Sunday, August 27th (Day 12)
Keep the Sabbath day busy here at the MTC. I somewhat miss the good old Sundays when they were chill but here it's like "Go, go go!" and onto the next thing. Don't get me wrong, though, I love all the things we do. It's just that it seems like there's so much. I guess it keeps us busy, but at the same time I wouldn't mind having some more personal study time. I've been trying to read the whole Book of Mormon and pick out all the Christ-like attributes that I find. Cool thing about having a tablet is that all of my scriptures and resources are electronic so it is extremely easy to mark, note , and cross reference everything.
I survived another sacrament meeting. They picked another random person to do a quick spiritual message in Chinese and it was not me so we're Gucci.
We did what was called a temple walk today. In the middle of the day, our whole Branch walked over to the Provo Temple together and enjoyed the beauty all around. We all went over to the shade trees and sang some really nice songs.
My district has become family now and it makes me happy. We do almost everything together now. We are going to set up a shared Google Drive file for all of our photographs taken while we're all separated when we depart to the field. Our District will encompass Taiwan Taipei, England London and Manchester, and of course, Germany Berlin. We also have plans to meet up when we're all back from our service.
We watched Meet The Mormons 2. I haven't seen the original, but this one was pretty great. It had some interesting stories to share. I liked the one about the Italian family that makes a five star meal for the homeless each month. They've got dancers and singers, delicious food, and a great dining scene to help these people. Super dope.
Monday, August 28th (Day 13)
Lucky number 13! I'm coming up on two whole weeks at the MTC. Z and I bought some beverages from the BYU store that look somewhat like alcohol but they tasted so delicious. It's like a fancy grape drink. Z has never experienced Martinelli's before so he's gotta taste some of it. I'm commanding him to do it.
There are a lot of missionaries leaving today. Wished them all good luck. Also had to stop by the travel office for some reason. They just wanted to see my passport, so hopefully that's good news for my visa.
Well, things are great. My Chinese still could be better but at least Z is here to struggle with me.
爱你们
Mù Róng Zhăng Lăo
Elder Steffen Riener
Week 1 - MTC
Can't help shake the feeling that I'm surrounded by Mormons.
Wednesday, August 16th (Day 1)
I'm really confused and I have not a clue what I'm doing here. Everything happened so fast. My parents dropped me off and we said a quick goodbye and I was off with this Elder (male missionary) who helped me with my bags. We talked for a little bit then he told me to go into a door and see a few people who will give me stuff. I got a whole bunch of papers and pamphlets and I was just going person to person receiving all this stuff. I met the Elder on the other side and we went to the residence hall and he showed me my room.
Very first classroom session the teachers refused to speak English, only Mandarin. In fact, everyone I was meeting today were speaking some different language and I'm just going to have to get used to hearing a lot of stuff I cannot understand. Every missionary you meet is going to some other place in the world! Absolutely have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm just going with it. I'm in a dorm with 5 others and they all are Mandarin speakers. We're here for 9 weeks total, but 3 weeks for people who already know some Chinese. For reference, other missionaries who are learning different languages are here for like 4 to 6 weeks normally. And if you're preaching in your own language, you're here for like 2 weeks. There are 3 other people who are going to Germany and speaking Chinese, others are going to places like Taiwan, Hong Kong, and England. They tell me that the Chinese Branch (my group of people) get really close and have high expectations. It kind of makes sense since a lot of Chinese speaking countries are some of the last few countries to be entered into for Missionary Service. Seems like we're all going to get along well.
I have been assigned a companion here. Missionaries are always in pairs because it was prophesied that the word of God would be preached two by two. It also keeps us safe and accountable. My companion's name is Elder Züger, even though the Missionary nametags can't do the "ü" character. So his nametag says Elder Zueger. He comes from Switzerland somewhat close to Zurich. But he was born and raised in the Philippines. He is a really cool person and admires my German even though he speaks it way better than I can. He likes music as well and respected that I was wearing a trumpet tie. He normally plays guitar and paints really well. He laughed when I told him that I worked for the YMCA because he only thought it was a song. He also thinks it's a gay bar. I have a lot to teach this Swiss person...
Today we all took some practice teaching sessions with dozens of other new missionaries and one investigator. Even though there was one of them and many of us, it was intimidating because we were teaching a lesson to them with almost no preparation. After a while the Spirit was very present for all of us to effectively answer some questions for them.
Thinking about signing up for the Missionary choir which I think goes and performs at General Conference which would be sweet. I ran into Elder Kellen Cribbs today and it was so nice to see him. I also met some Elders who claimed they were going to Lyon France which is where my cousin Elder Leblow is serving.
Excited to be serving the Lord here. It's weird to be seeing everyone dressed up as a missionary all with nametags and such. They all claim to have a lot of spirit but imma have to school them on what Camp Spirit is.
Thursday, August 17th (Day 2)
Much better than yesterday. Though, not to say yesterday was bad.
2nd day in and I'm starting to get some Chinese basics and yet I already have to teach a lesson when all I know is hi, how are you...
We got all of our mandarin books today. It's a lot of books and they are super heavy.
Teaching Elder Züger what it means to be "lit". I've been teaching him a lot of American stuff and he seems to enjoy it. We're starting to talk to each other more in just casual German. Of course, I just speak a lot of English and throw in a few German phrases. Whenever people ask us if we know German as Mandarin speakers going to Berlin, Elder Z always gives me too much credit for how much I know.
To the Chinese speakers like me, I'm nothing special going to Germany but everyone outside our language learning is totally surprised. They'll look at my Chinese nametag and I tell them that I'm going to Germany and they always raise an eyebrow.
This place is beautiful in the mornings with the sun coming over the mountains. Elder Z and I love to be outside when we study. He says that Swiss people love to be outside whenever they can. The whole campus is great.
Getting pretty used to the schedule. The tourists are numerous here. I always tell them when they pass to not tap on the glass.
Food is pretty great. We get the same stuff every two weeks which is better than every week I guess.
Friday, August 18th (Day 3)
Taught our first Chinese lesson today.
It sucked.
No clue what we were doing. We knew what we were supposed to say (sorta) but he would ask questions and we would just say "mmhmm" and move on to something else. And when we ended we wanted to ask if it was okay if we prayed but we didn't know how to say it so I literally just said "pray" in Chinese. Only thing I actually got from him was that he liked my trumpet tie.
Apparently we are the very first missionaries to be going to Germany speaking Mandarin. Makes me wonder if I'll be paired up with someone who is experienced in the field or someone new like me?
Even though the lesson was cringe worthy, my Chinese is definitely getting better. Elder Z and I are now saying our meal prayers in Chinese. I've started making flash cards to help me out. Yet I really just need a personal assistant to be there to correct my soundings of the words. For example, "beloved son" could turn into "midget" or "AIDS" if you're not careful.
It's kinda cool though since Chinese doesn't have conjugation and other annoying things like in other languages. So the verb "to be" becomes "is, are, was" in English but Chinese keeps it the same word no matter what. Also he, she, and they are the same so you don't have to worry about who you're talking about most of the time.
Earlier today we had our first exercise time. Z and I ran and did a few aerobic activities. I ran a full mile for the first time in about half a year or so. We were all sweaty and gross when we got back but there were some Elders cleaning all the showers so we had to wait for a while which pushed all of our individual plans back a bit.
Seems like the majority of people in the whole Chinese learner zone are going to Taiwan, Taipei.
We have the easiest task that we've been assigned for our stay. We just have to set up chairs for all of the weekly devotionals. Other missionaries have to clean the restrooms or classrooms, but we have it easy.
Saturday, August 19th (Day 4)
Ran into Elder Cribbs again today. He seems to be doing well. Apparently he only stays six weeks and he's on his 5th so I won't get to see him much before he leaves for Norway. It's okay though since I managed to get a picture with him.
Some sisters were trying to tell me that Apple was better than Android but of course I begged to differ. Me telling them that Apple was inferior just made them not like Android even more. Oh well.
We had our second lesson with our investigator, Liu Ji Ping. It went a lot better. However, it was mainly just us reading what we had to him rather than a full conversation. He did comment on my tie again (this time I was wearing an American flag tie).
I feel like I'm learning Chinese a lot slower than everyone else. I can look at the pages and read some stuff but it's hard for me to say stuff without the help of my resources even for simple sentences.
We had another piece of exercise time. This time it was after dinner and that was a mistake. I felt like throwing up all of my food. My mile time was about 7 and a half minutes which is pretty low to my standards. I want to get it under 5 minutes some day.
The field next to the temple was open during exercise time so we took the opportunity to get out of the MTC grounds for the first time and went there. It was really nice to get out for a bit. The MTC Campus is nice but it's always great to really get out. All of my roommates (6 of us total) decided to make a volleyball team. We call ourselves the "Bonjorno's" and our motto was "gratzie" all with very American accents. And every time we score we yell "duì".
Everyone in our classroom is becoming like family now. It consists of 3 Elder missionary pairs and 2 Sister missionary pairs, so 10 people total.
Also I guess the Berlin Mission actually encompasses most of northern Germany which is actually pretty sweet. So it looks like I won't be locked in the city for the whole time I'm there. Of course, I'm mainly going where there are Chinese speakers so I'm told that's mainly Berlin and Hamburg. Hopefully more cities have Chinese speakers or I just get lucky because exploring northern Germany sounds dope.
The other elders are starting to get annoyed at my camp songs now.
Sunday, August 20th (Day 5)
We had a sacrament meeting almost exclusively in Chinese. The people we go to church with are people in our Branch. And the people in our Branch are made up of all of the Chinese missionaries. Every three weeks, new Chinese missionaries like myself arrive. So quite a lot of people in the zone had already been here for 3 to 6 weeks so their Chinese is much better than ours. However, I could pick out a few words in their messages. Every Sunday one missionary does a talk on a certain subject for sacrament and must be in Chinese. The thing is, it's picked at random on the spot for who does it so I was stressing out if it was going to be me. They called out who was doing it and they said Elder Steffen and my heart dropped, but then I remembered that there is an Elder Steffen who shares my first name with his last. What's really cool is how he has a grandfather named Bob Steffen but from what I can tell this person isn't the same Bob Steffen that I was named after (sorry Bob). Got a pic with Elder Steffen, too.
Elder Z and I joined in on a choir practice. No audition, we just sat down and started singing with them. It was so great to be back in the learning of music scene again. I've had a drought of the good feelings that come from music. I mean we sing hymns and stuff every day but making music is much more powerful.
We had a devotional (or a spiritual message) by some guy named Kenneth Cope who apparently is pretty popular within the LDS community for his music, but I've never heard of him. He did musical numbers he wrote, as well as, spoke his messages for the time he took. It was a really great message and the music made it all the better.
I'm getting rumors that I will be transferred to the German branch for my last two weeks so I can freshen up on my German. That would be nice. However, it doesn't seem like that will happen. The other German-Chinese Elder tells me that we will most likely be teaching primarily in German and then whenever we get a Chinese person that's when I switch into Mandarin mode.
Elder Z and I are coming up with our own inside jokes now. He's obsessed with my surfer dude accent. That's where I talk about crushing the waves and stuff.
Today, August 21st (day 6)
Preparation day! Now I can take a rest from my labors of the week and do some laundry, email some people, visit the temple, etc. I also don't have to be in a missionary outfit so I can just wear regular clothes. Only other time I can do that is for bed time and exercise time. I was fortunate enough to find some Elders with the special glasses to look at the eclipse today. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. It wasn't too exciting here in Utah since it was only partial but it was cool nonetheless. Not too much to say about today other than that Elder Z and I are going to do another lesson with the investigator tonight so wish us luck!
Also good luck to the Seymour staff for their final week of camp!
Props to you if you made it all the way down here in the email. Also props to you if you just scrolled all the way down here. Whatever the case may be, I don't judge.
Anyway, the MTC is pretty coo,l but I think I need to just be in Germany already. Too bad I'm here for 9 weeks.
Wishing you all safe endeavors.
爱你们
Mù Róng Zhăng Lăo
Elder Steffen Riener
Can't help shake the feeling that I'm surrounded by Mormons.
Wednesday, August 16th (Day 1)
I'm really confused and I have not a clue what I'm doing here. Everything happened so fast. My parents dropped me off and we said a quick goodbye and I was off with this Elder (male missionary) who helped me with my bags. We talked for a little bit then he told me to go into a door and see a few people who will give me stuff. I got a whole bunch of papers and pamphlets and I was just going person to person receiving all this stuff. I met the Elder on the other side and we went to the residence hall and he showed me my room.
Very first classroom session the teachers refused to speak English, only Mandarin. In fact, everyone I was meeting today were speaking some different language and I'm just going to have to get used to hearing a lot of stuff I cannot understand. Every missionary you meet is going to some other place in the world! Absolutely have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm just going with it. I'm in a dorm with 5 others and they all are Mandarin speakers. We're here for 9 weeks total, but 3 weeks for people who already know some Chinese. For reference, other missionaries who are learning different languages are here for like 4 to 6 weeks normally. And if you're preaching in your own language, you're here for like 2 weeks. There are 3 other people who are going to Germany and speaking Chinese, others are going to places like Taiwan, Hong Kong, and England. They tell me that the Chinese Branch (my group of people) get really close and have high expectations. It kind of makes sense since a lot of Chinese speaking countries are some of the last few countries to be entered into for Missionary Service. Seems like we're all going to get along well.
I have been assigned a companion here. Missionaries are always in pairs because it was prophesied that the word of God would be preached two by two. It also keeps us safe and accountable. My companion's name is Elder Züger, even though the Missionary nametags can't do the "ü" character. So his nametag says Elder Zueger. He comes from Switzerland somewhat close to Zurich. But he was born and raised in the Philippines. He is a really cool person and admires my German even though he speaks it way better than I can. He likes music as well and respected that I was wearing a trumpet tie. He normally plays guitar and paints really well. He laughed when I told him that I worked for the YMCA because he only thought it was a song. He also thinks it's a gay bar. I have a lot to teach this Swiss person...
Today we all took some practice teaching sessions with dozens of other new missionaries and one investigator. Even though there was one of them and many of us, it was intimidating because we were teaching a lesson to them with almost no preparation. After a while the Spirit was very present for all of us to effectively answer some questions for them.
Thinking about signing up for the Missionary choir which I think goes and performs at General Conference which would be sweet. I ran into Elder Kellen Cribbs today and it was so nice to see him. I also met some Elders who claimed they were going to Lyon France which is where my cousin Elder Leblow is serving.
Excited to be serving the Lord here. It's weird to be seeing everyone dressed up as a missionary all with nametags and such. They all claim to have a lot of spirit but imma have to school them on what Camp Spirit is.
Thursday, August 17th (Day 2)
Much better than yesterday. Though, not to say yesterday was bad.
2nd day in and I'm starting to get some Chinese basics and yet I already have to teach a lesson when all I know is hi, how are you...
We got all of our mandarin books today. It's a lot of books and they are super heavy.
Teaching Elder Züger what it means to be "lit". I've been teaching him a lot of American stuff and he seems to enjoy it. We're starting to talk to each other more in just casual German. Of course, I just speak a lot of English and throw in a few German phrases. Whenever people ask us if we know German as Mandarin speakers going to Berlin, Elder Z always gives me too much credit for how much I know.
To the Chinese speakers like me, I'm nothing special going to Germany but everyone outside our language learning is totally surprised. They'll look at my Chinese nametag and I tell them that I'm going to Germany and they always raise an eyebrow.
This place is beautiful in the mornings with the sun coming over the mountains. Elder Z and I love to be outside when we study. He says that Swiss people love to be outside whenever they can. The whole campus is great.
Getting pretty used to the schedule. The tourists are numerous here. I always tell them when they pass to not tap on the glass.
Food is pretty great. We get the same stuff every two weeks which is better than every week I guess.
Friday, August 18th (Day 3)
Taught our first Chinese lesson today.
It sucked.
No clue what we were doing. We knew what we were supposed to say (sorta) but he would ask questions and we would just say "mmhmm" and move on to something else. And when we ended we wanted to ask if it was okay if we prayed but we didn't know how to say it so I literally just said "pray" in Chinese. Only thing I actually got from him was that he liked my trumpet tie.
Apparently we are the very first missionaries to be going to Germany speaking Mandarin. Makes me wonder if I'll be paired up with someone who is experienced in the field or someone new like me?
Even though the lesson was cringe worthy, my Chinese is definitely getting better. Elder Z and I are now saying our meal prayers in Chinese. I've started making flash cards to help me out. Yet I really just need a personal assistant to be there to correct my soundings of the words. For example, "beloved son" could turn into "midget" or "AIDS" if you're not careful.
It's kinda cool though since Chinese doesn't have conjugation and other annoying things like in other languages. So the verb "to be" becomes "is, are, was" in English but Chinese keeps it the same word no matter what. Also he, she, and they are the same so you don't have to worry about who you're talking about most of the time.
Earlier today we had our first exercise time. Z and I ran and did a few aerobic activities. I ran a full mile for the first time in about half a year or so. We were all sweaty and gross when we got back but there were some Elders cleaning all the showers so we had to wait for a while which pushed all of our individual plans back a bit.
Seems like the majority of people in the whole Chinese learner zone are going to Taiwan, Taipei.
We have the easiest task that we've been assigned for our stay. We just have to set up chairs for all of the weekly devotionals. Other missionaries have to clean the restrooms or classrooms, but we have it easy.
Saturday, August 19th (Day 4)
Ran into Elder Cribbs again today. He seems to be doing well. Apparently he only stays six weeks and he's on his 5th so I won't get to see him much before he leaves for Norway. It's okay though since I managed to get a picture with him.
Some sisters were trying to tell me that Apple was better than Android but of course I begged to differ. Me telling them that Apple was inferior just made them not like Android even more. Oh well.
We had our second lesson with our investigator, Liu Ji Ping. It went a lot better. However, it was mainly just us reading what we had to him rather than a full conversation. He did comment on my tie again (this time I was wearing an American flag tie).
I feel like I'm learning Chinese a lot slower than everyone else. I can look at the pages and read some stuff but it's hard for me to say stuff without the help of my resources even for simple sentences.
We had another piece of exercise time. This time it was after dinner and that was a mistake. I felt like throwing up all of my food. My mile time was about 7 and a half minutes which is pretty low to my standards. I want to get it under 5 minutes some day.
The field next to the temple was open during exercise time so we took the opportunity to get out of the MTC grounds for the first time and went there. It was really nice to get out for a bit. The MTC Campus is nice but it's always great to really get out. All of my roommates (6 of us total) decided to make a volleyball team. We call ourselves the "Bonjorno's" and our motto was "gratzie" all with very American accents. And every time we score we yell "duì".
Everyone in our classroom is becoming like family now. It consists of 3 Elder missionary pairs and 2 Sister missionary pairs, so 10 people total.
Also I guess the Berlin Mission actually encompasses most of northern Germany which is actually pretty sweet. So it looks like I won't be locked in the city for the whole time I'm there. Of course, I'm mainly going where there are Chinese speakers so I'm told that's mainly Berlin and Hamburg. Hopefully more cities have Chinese speakers or I just get lucky because exploring northern Germany sounds dope.
The other elders are starting to get annoyed at my camp songs now.
Sunday, August 20th (Day 5)
We had a sacrament meeting almost exclusively in Chinese. The people we go to church with are people in our Branch. And the people in our Branch are made up of all of the Chinese missionaries. Every three weeks, new Chinese missionaries like myself arrive. So quite a lot of people in the zone had already been here for 3 to 6 weeks so their Chinese is much better than ours. However, I could pick out a few words in their messages. Every Sunday one missionary does a talk on a certain subject for sacrament and must be in Chinese. The thing is, it's picked at random on the spot for who does it so I was stressing out if it was going to be me. They called out who was doing it and they said Elder Steffen and my heart dropped, but then I remembered that there is an Elder Steffen who shares my first name with his last. What's really cool is how he has a grandfather named Bob Steffen but from what I can tell this person isn't the same Bob Steffen that I was named after (sorry Bob). Got a pic with Elder Steffen, too.
Elder Z and I joined in on a choir practice. No audition, we just sat down and started singing with them. It was so great to be back in the learning of music scene again. I've had a drought of the good feelings that come from music. I mean we sing hymns and stuff every day but making music is much more powerful.
We had a devotional (or a spiritual message) by some guy named Kenneth Cope who apparently is pretty popular within the LDS community for his music, but I've never heard of him. He did musical numbers he wrote, as well as, spoke his messages for the time he took. It was a really great message and the music made it all the better.
I'm getting rumors that I will be transferred to the German branch for my last two weeks so I can freshen up on my German. That would be nice. However, it doesn't seem like that will happen. The other German-Chinese Elder tells me that we will most likely be teaching primarily in German and then whenever we get a Chinese person that's when I switch into Mandarin mode.
Elder Z and I are coming up with our own inside jokes now. He's obsessed with my surfer dude accent. That's where I talk about crushing the waves and stuff.
Today, August 21st (day 6)
Preparation day! Now I can take a rest from my labors of the week and do some laundry, email some people, visit the temple, etc. I also don't have to be in a missionary outfit so I can just wear regular clothes. Only other time I can do that is for bed time and exercise time. I was fortunate enough to find some Elders with the special glasses to look at the eclipse today. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. It wasn't too exciting here in Utah since it was only partial but it was cool nonetheless. Not too much to say about today other than that Elder Z and I are going to do another lesson with the investigator tonight so wish us luck!
Also good luck to the Seymour staff for their final week of camp!
Props to you if you made it all the way down here in the email. Also props to you if you just scrolled all the way down here. Whatever the case may be, I don't judge.
Anyway, the MTC is pretty coo,l but I think I need to just be in Germany already. Too bad I'm here for 9 weeks.
Wishing you all safe endeavors.
爱你们
Mù Róng Zhăng Lăo
Elder Steffen Riener