Thursday, November 13, 2014

"Insert Clever Title Here"

It's Thursday so I heard from my missionary son this morning. I found out last week that Alexander was wrong when he wrote the Japanese word for Elder, which I thought looked like 5L3. Instead it's ちょうろう , but he said I can still call him 5L3.

In his letter to me, he told me that he gets to play the piano each p-day. I'm happy he can still find ways to bring music into his mission. I felt bad that the only music he could take with him was "appropriate" music on an iPod, but he didn't have one, so he didn't get to take any of this favorite music to listen to.

He said the only way to get photos from his camera to the computers there is to buy a card reader and they're expensive so he doesn't want to do that. So I don't have a single photo of him for this whole last month and it looks like I won't get any for the next month either. *Sad mommy!* So here's one of him from the day he went into the MTC, just minutes before we dropped him off.
 
He seems to really be enjoying his time in the MTC, which I'm so glad about since I've heard many missionaries not like their experience there for different reasons. Here's his letter from this week.


To Everyone:

It is hard to come up with clever titles for these emails! Hopefully when I get out to the field I'll have an easier time!
This week has been like just any other I'd say. I'm learning the language, speaking it a lot, and being a good boy and going to choir.
This week we sung "Praise to the Man"; the exact same version that David Archileta (forgive me for not knowing how to spell his name) sang while he was in the MTC in General Conference. They got the music specifically for General Conference, and it took them weeks to get it prepared enough to sing in General Conference. We had two two hour rehearsals to prepare it for the Tuesday night devotional. Needless to say, the Spirit was strong and we were able to sing it really well on Tuesday night. It's a bit different than normal choir, because we sit during the performance, and there's not a requirement of memorization (although memorization is always a plus), but I enjoy choir so much. According to one of the Elders in my district, I get a lot of face time on the cameras, so if you happen to find a recording of the MTC devotional's special choir numbers, be on the lookout for me. ;)
We get two native Japanese Elders next week, so I'm really preparing for that. I'm talking in Japanese as much as possible (even when it's just conversations at the dinner table), and I really hope I'll be able to help the Japanese Elder's experience a good one!
If you haven't noticed yet, there is no such thing as structure in my letters, so let's talk about what my ADD brain just thought of! Going to the temple every week is such a blessing! If you have a temple recommend, I highly *recommend* (so punny!) that you go as often as you can. Even if you don't have a temple recommend, I suggest you go to temple grounds as often as possible, because temples have such a different atmosphere about them. It's almost as if there's something different about them ;) 
Being in Narnia is great, I absolutely love it here! (Can't remember if I mentioned this before, and I"m too lazy to check, so if you have no idea what I'm talking about, say something, and I'll explain what I mean!)
Every day I'm more and more excited to go to Japan! I've enjoyed every second of being on my mission, and I know I'll keep enjoying it for the next two years (1 year and 11 months now).
Have a great week everyone!
Love you all!
Elder

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