Friday, February 12, 2016

MTC Email #3

MTC District
      Already my third P-Day. Kinda weird. As I said in my last email, I can tell time is flying by at an incredible speed, but each day feels like weeks. Our senpai are leaving tomorrow (Japanese for superiors). The way that the districts work is that when you come in, the first three weeks you have a district who is at 6 weeks as your senpai. When you hit three weeks, that's when they hit 9, so they leave. You are alone for 3 weeks, and then you are the senpai for another group for your final 3 weeks!

     Our senpai are all really awesome and I'm sad to see them go. Lucky for me, I'll be able to see about a third of them later since they are also headed to Tokyo! I am worried though about one thing. One of them, who's name is Elder Manapori(Said almost like monopoly), is extremely enthusiastic about everything, super fun to be with in general. He hails from Australia, and has the accent to show it. Super funny guy. Anyway, I'm scared I'm going to get to Japan, and he'll have already converted everyone and taught them how to speak English with an Australian accent. Probably unfounded, but I'm going to get there and have no one to convert or speak Japanese with simply because I said that. :P
     I started lifting weights last Monday. I know the concept is laughable, and I was stupid. Now my arms both hurt and I have learned my lesson. The cons vastly outweigh the pros for someone who is an aspiring programmer anyway. :P On the bright side, everyone gets a laugh out of it, right?

     We got our iPads this week too. Still trying to figure mine out, since I grew up using real technology like Windows laptops, but I should have some pictures to send by next Friday. In theory. I suppose we shall see.

     Other than that, there's not much in the way of updates to speak of.  As far as that stupid hidden alarm clock goes, we still have not found it, and I am considering sneaking out of the MTC, renting a blowtorch, and cooking the stupid thing after taking apart the ventilation while looking for it. When I get off my mission, I'm going to hunt those missionaries who put it there down, and smack them. It probably won't hurt, since I have no muscles, BUT I'M STILL GONNA DO IT.

Elder Hess
     Actually, there was one other thing. The 'inheritance'. Basically every set of senpai has passed down this set of objects, occasionally added a new one. The ones I know of so far are Vietnam Guy(A light green toy-story style paratrooper who has been taped to the walls of the dorm), and four ties. The first I'll describe is the Tie of Champions. Katie would get this one in a heartbeat. Essentially, you have to drink 1 gallon of chocolate milk in 20 minutes and manage to keep it down. Next is Stanley. It's a grey striped tie, no one has any idea about the story behind it, it's just there. There's the Chosen Tie, which is given from the last Chosen One to the new Chosen one(Who could be anyone). And there's the Melting Peacock. Super ugly, and has a hilarious story behind it. It's passed down to the first one to hear the story out of the new missionaries. Hess-chorou is the one who got that one. Here is the story in his own words: 

      "One day there was this beautiful melting peacock that lived in the city of Nagasaki in 1945. He was climbing a hill one day when all of a sudden, BOOM! They dropped one of the first atomic bombs. His colors got so distorted and melted away so that he looked just absolutely hideous. So he was cursed to live the rest of his life like that.  Then one day as he was hiking around a small little town known as Tokyo, he was hit.  He was ran over by one of them Vietnamese carts that is pulled by a person.  It made him go flat like a pancake. So then there was this one guy who saw it and walked up and scooped him off the pavement to shape him into a tie.  And ever since then it has been the legend to be worn every Tuesday."

     Kewl, right? He typed it up himself. Anyway, so he's going to be wearing it every Tuesday in honor of the poor peacock's lost beauty. Maybe I can send you a picture when I figure out how.

    The studying is awesome. I've always learned best through using what I know, as opposed to flashcards or rote memorization, and here that's 90% of your day, so it's been fairly easy. We do talk almost exclusively about the language though, and we have to self-study the kanji since they don't teach that here. I relayed what I felt was the most important cultural facts I knew about Japan to my companion, since I figured info on the 'toilets' they have there would be good to have. :P His face was great. XD

     Anyway, that's all for this week. I love you all!
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Elder Harper
'Failure is simply just fuel for success"

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