We received the following two letters in the mail. That was a happy day!
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Dear family,
Today is Fast Sunday, my first Sunday in the MTC here in NZ, and on Sunday's we are given some time to write a letter to the (MTC) President as well as our families, We are provided with envelopes and they post the letters to home for us. Today was also the first time it has rained here while I have been here. The weather is nice and we have left our window open all day and night ever since we arrived here.
I love learning from my companion, Elder Vaiomo'unga (I bet you guys are having a fun time trying to figure out how to say his name. It took me the whole first day to learn how to say it as well as remember it, and then it took the second day for me to get good at it. Now I can say it all the time just fine.)
This MTC is very small, it is probably about the same square footage as a Stake Center back at home, or possibly 1.5 Stake Centers. But we are making history by being here because we are the VERY FIRST North American missionaries to come here. I think there were eighteen of us who flew from San Francisco together, and that included the missionary from Canada. There are about 80 missionaries here, and as I said in my email, they come from MANY different places. The country sporting the most missionaries here though is either America or Samoa. I'm not sure which has more. The missionaries in my room are of course me and my companion as well as Elder Christie and Elder Talia. Elder Christie is the missionary from Alberta, Canada, and Elder Talia is Samoan but he is from here in Auckland. Elder Talia's house is actually RIGHT outside our window, I could literally hit it with a rock easily. Talia and Christie aren't even in our district though, they are the district leaders of another district. Our district leaders are Elder Burns and Elder Langi. Langi is another Tongan, so that puts 2 our of the 3 Tongans here in my district. Elder Larson (the one from Cali) is not in my district either, but we're still good friends and eat together at all of our meals. I really wish we could call home more often because there are so many more things and people I want to tell y'all about, but I'm trying to keep a journal every night. I don't have enough time to write everything in my journal either but it's better than nothing. I don't have enough picture either because we are only allowed to use our camera's on p-days and we haven't had one yet. But that's all okay because I'm having a great time and am loving being a missionary, two years will go by fast. I love all of you, I think about y'all everyday.
Your favorite missionary,
Elder Moore
Tell Landon to prepare for his mission by practicing studying. When we study we have to study for our investigators and their needs. We have to meet our investigator and discern their concerns during that 5-10 minute meeting then for personal study we have to study for that concern. This can all be very difficult. That is something I wish mission preparation class taught, but I guess it doesn't. Mom can teach it better than anyone anyway.
Notes:
"wh" makes an "F" sound here
President Tarawhiti: pronounced Tair-uh-fit-E
Vaiomo'unga: vI-o-mo-oonga
Talia: Tuh-Lie-uh
Monday, March 4, 2013
Dear Family,
I have more time to write than I do to email, so I'll write a letter to y'all tonight instead of in my journal and I'll send it on Sunday when the MTC lets us send letters home. We only get 30 minutes to email while we're here. I really wish I could write as fast I talk, there are so many things and people I wish I could tell y'all about. Today was my first time to play rugby! 6 of us went out on the hill outside and played 3 on e touch rugby. It was so much fun, especially because nobody cared about points or if anyone messed up. I was probably the worst and smallest playing, so it was good nobody card about winning. We all just want to play to have fun. There was on Tongan, 2 Tahitians, and a Samoan/New Zealander playing plus me. It's crazy how many kinds of people there are here. Another thing that happened last night was that I think someone decided to borrow my scriptures and has yet to return it. At our fireside last night the MTC presidency announced that they were missing, so hopefully they will turn up soon. Perhaps I'll get a Tongan set if we don't find my own. For today I just shared with Elder Vaiomo'unga and used the hardcover Book of Mormon dad sent with me. Tomorrow we are going to get some new scriptures from the MTC so I can study better. Hopefully the new set will be temporary but if not then all is well.
Another plus to living in a room with four awesome guys is that nobody cares if you put the seat down. I usually put it back down anyway though. They have some funny words here. Elder Talia is from here and he always says the word "as" as an adjective, like "that's sweet as!" It's just like Ryan (LeBaron) told me, and it always sounds so strange. He also always says, "true" like I tell him something and he says, "Oh, true, true" or "True!" There are some more but I can't think of everything at the moment. The "D" and "H" word seem to not be bad words I guess. Here is a funny joke I heard in our district. A man trained his horse to run when he said, "Praise the Lord" and to stop when he said "Amen." So after training his horse the man decided to put this training to the ultimate test. He got on his horse, faced towards the edge of a cliff and said, "Praise the Lord" but then in his excitement he forgot the word for stop. In his fear he said a quick prayer, "Dear Heavenly Father, please make this horse stop, Amen" upon hearing "Amen" the horse stopped RIGHT on the edge of the cliff. The man was so relieved, he said, "I'm still alive, praise the Lord!" and the horse went over the cliff.
Oh, they also say "eh" here sometimes just like my Canadian roommate, Elder Christie. Please let me know in you email if / when you get these letters.
'Ofa Atu! (I love you),
Elder Moore
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