Hey! Okay, here's goes....
The MTC life is basically rocking. It's fun, it's hard, and most of all enriching. Seriously though, I'm absolutely in love with where I am. I don't even know what I could do more to make it more enjoyable. I'm just going to run through what I've slotted myself to talk to you about because of this silly timer.
Croatian is absolutely beautiful. Like, I thought it was going to be ugly, harsh and basically a mouthful of masochism, but it's not! Fancy that. When my teachers speak it, it sounds so pretty and I'm excited to learn more about it. My companions and I are trying to be better at praying more in the language and so are having around 6 prayers a day in it together for the practice. Loving it. We have also been teaching an "investigator" called Urosh in only Croatian. Funny thing is that he's actually an RM who went to Slovenia and so speaks very little Croatian. Ya, little peeved when we found that out. Two new investigators now - Marilena and Srgn. Starjesina Mulder and I love to speak in it, and actually last night we stayed up for like an hour and a half talking in only the language. It was great. Simple, but great. We're now trying to learn 50 words a day. We figure we'll know like 2500 words at that point if we can keep it up before we leave. Volim hrvatski zbog on je ljubav...
Dear Elder is pretty okay but I don't think it's same day. I've tried to time it and I got mom's letter on Thursday evening. Just so you know. I love the mail, and love to get it.
Care Packages. Wow. So much love. The elders are basically all jealous because of my overabundance of stuff. I've managed to parce out the gummy bears, but have been holding on to the mam mams... I actually tried to give away some cookies and gummies, but the freaking Russians just gave me twizzlers instead. Now starjesina Mulder hates me. So much sugar. We never sleep, seems like
I see a lot of people I know here. Mostly from the ward, but also from home. Saw Daniel and Adam Jacobs and Andrew Sypher and a few others. Seems like I know most of the MTC. It's great. Just like home, but basically better. (sorry mom, you've still got em on cooking and all, but that whole busy thing kind of rocks. :))
Class is going really well. It's very fast paced but I'm keeping up alright. This pilot programme rocks. Very geared towards learning how to be a good missionary, and how to learn the language. My guy teacher, Brat Morris is fantastic. He served in Serbia, and so almost speaks Croatian, but not quite. He is really funny. Totally plays the angry serb card really well. I kind of mess with him a lot though, as much as I can really. Once he was walking near us to the cafeteria, and had his hands behind his back like the angry serb he is and I just copied him all the way down the hall. I impersonate him as much as I can. So fun. Teaching is going great, and our new investigators are cool. We're being pushed really hard to commit to baptism early on, which I'm not a big fan of because I feel like people need to understand and need to really grow their testimonies before they can really be ready to make that commitment. But, the prorok says, so who am I to judge?
Gonna go through a standard day: Alarm blares at 6:15 and I wallow in self pity for 15 minutes before being good and getting up. Breakfast at 7, class at 7:30 until 10:30. Personal study. LOVE! Lunch at 11 30. Class again at 12:15 until like 3:15. Maybe then some TALL (which is their infantile way of teaching us to pronounce Croatian words well even though each letter has but one sound). Gym at which we as a zone (slovaks, czechs, slovenes, croats, and bulgarians) play either futbol or volleyball. Then some more personal study, language study, companion study, and some planning. Ya. We's be busy. I really like it, though we can't ever tell what day it is that we did things on, because it's all the same. The food, the study, the screw-around time, and ya. All the same. But we love it. Especially companion study. It's usually Starjesina Mulder, Sestra Black and I and we just go into some quiet room and talk about the gospel and our worries and fears about what we're called to do and how we're going to best do it.
Sundays, on the other hand, are quite different. We have personal study at 7 and then breakfast of like nothing at 8. Then Study and interviews by our branch presidencies until priesthood at 10ish? Priesthood is cool. Usually read out of the white handbook and then have a lesson by a member of the presidency. Feels like class, but better because we're out of that place. Ah, jeez. We're talking in the laundry room now about my mush on Starsi McClellan and how much I'm in love with him... He's my ZL and going to Slovakia and he's great. Well, you know that things never change. Still mushing all over other guys. Sheesh. Anyways, Sunday. Sacrament is cool, but way short because we have about 3.78 members in our branch so the actual sacrament takes like 6.94 seconds. But I'm rounding for math's sake... haha. Um, then more personal study and meals and stuff. Devotionals are fantastic!! Love them. We had a 70 here this time and he spoke very well about the things that we are supposed to do as missionaries. Lots of good quotes. Mostly abiout how to set good goals to become a better missionary. Talked about how we should compare ourselves to the good BoM missionaries in order to know if we are doing well. I've set aside now, at the urging of PMG, a "study journal" in order to collect my spiritual thoughts and goals. It's actually really nice. Sundays are cool, too because we get to go and walk to the temple. I see all sorts of people I know there, and it's just nice and peaceful. Gotta remember to take my camera next time though. Srsly, not a lot of time for piccis here.
After this Sunday fireside my district got to watch the Joseph Smith movie (not the Temple Square one) and it was great. It really is the best and absolute worst story I have ever heard of in my entire life. I love it. Afterwards I had something kind of weird happen to me. I was just kind of in my heart asking well, is it true? and I had that warm feeling go to every last corner of my body. Never happened to me before. So, I was excited about that and once again humbled by the power of the Holy Ghost because basically I just love it. I just thought it was so cool how it got out of my chest and all the way to everywhere. Cool, huh? Love.
My companions are great. Mulder is a philosophe and loves to debate things about the gospels. Loves to talk about all the conspiracy theories and stuff. Very interesting, and I love listening. You know me. He knows the scriptures better than anyone I have ever met. I love it. Elder Harris is confusing for us. He's not like anyone we've ever met. I've described him to myself as a 12 year old in a 10 year old's body sent to do an immortal beings work. Tricky. We are trying really hard to be accepting and loving, but he's very random and not incredibly cogent in his thought processes. But his spirit that he brings to our companionship is excellent. Very faithful. Incredibly obedient. There's a lot I can learn, I know, but I just am having a hard time believing that's true and in allowing myself to do so. Sestra Black is basically our fourth member. Really excellent sister. She is intent on every aspect of our learning and loves to understand us and the language and the lessons. She's so worried about the people of Croatia, and us. Very loving. We absolutely love her.
I love your continued support and love. I'm so excited to hear about the things you are doing. You're in my prayers and heart constantly. I will do all that I can to appreciate my time. I love you guys. gtg. Wish me luck.
\
Starjesina Adamsl
I just love how Chase has such happy feet. We all knew that he was going to love the MTC...he's learning a foreign language, busy all the time and getting tons of mail from lovelies like you. Keep sending the love. I will be sending a care package every week until he leaves for Croatia, so if you want to slip something in there, just let me know. I am happy to include it.
Thank you all for your support of Elder Adams. In the hard times, you will be like guardian angels.
Croatia
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
First Real Email
So Tuesday was Elder Adams' first P-day. He took time to write a detailed letter about his adventures. As a mother, it is so comforting to hear that he is doing well, getting along with his companion(s) and learning many things. Tomorrow will mark his first complete week in the MTC...only 8 more to go. It will go so fast. If you feel inclined to send Elder Adams mail but don't want to pay for postage, I am sending care packages once a week and you are welcome to piggy back on my package. Just get it to me by Wednesday morning. Here's Chase's letter:
Thug life!
Hey, this is Starjesina Adams checking in from the wonderfully adventurous area that is the Provo MTC! Absolutely loving it here and am really excited for the next few weeks to come. Over-verbosity out of the way, this is a great place. I really enjoy the classes, my teachers, this beautiful language of Croatian, and especially my classmates and companions. Yes, companions. We were placed in a threesome on our first day because we had an Elder who was supposedly going to Serbia never actually show up. So now Starjesine Harris, Mulder and I form this wonderful crowd. So, you'll have to forgive any typos or things like that but I only get 30 minutes to do this and if not apparently, it doesn't send. Keep that in mind if you don't get a weekly e-mail at about this same time every week. There's a giant red ticker in my screen corner that is now at 23:50... Um, the Mission president said in order to combat this, try and send your e-mails through what is called Dear Elder. Ask Neder what that is all about because I got a letter from her. Saves me time reading on the compy, you know? totes
So, got dropped off, whisked through this whirl-wind adventure that was the first day, got a companion, and then was spoken at in Croatian only in class all day. It rocked. Apparently we are on the new learning schedule that is basically experimental at this point, but they've said that they've seen good results thus far. I mean, on day three we taught our progressing investigator, Urosh, in Croatian. We taught him about prayer and got to know him a little bit on that day, but have since quelled some misconceptions about Jesus Christ, described the Holy Ghost, taught him to pray, and given him a challenge to read Chapter 12 in Eter of the Mormonova Knjiga. So cool. Starjesina Harris and I are teaching companions and Mulder is with Sestra Black, our solo sister in our class. She is great and very upbeat. I really do like my class. So much fun. It actually is pretty cool because we went around the room and everyone in my class has had at least a little bit of foreign language study. We have latin, greek, arabic, german, japanese, spanish, portugeuse, french and italian students. Sestra Black is even a Com. D. major at the Y. We all have a lot in common and are just loving helping each other out.
I want to talk about Sunday cuz it was pretty cool. lawlz. Um, so we had a lot of meetings which were pretty decent, and no class which was a nice break, but the best part of it all was our Branch President's talk in Sacrament. Well, first we had two talks by random selection (we all have to prep a talk for Sunday, this one was on the Atonement) and then a musical number and then he spoke. His name is President Creer. Really great guy, loving, compasionate, understanding of a lot of the things that we are going through. I really liked it. Well, I guess the real best part of Sunday was the fireside. We had a guy talk about the wonder of Repentance and he took the word back to its root in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew and apparantly it's another fake word like Atonement and so is misleading. I'd always assumed that pain and sorrow went with it, but he talked about how exciting and joyful the whole thing can and should be because heck, we get to change! It's nice. Like. ya.
I absolutely loved your package that you sent! I actually got it yesterday, though I was given the slip to go pick it up on Saturday. Problem is, the post office here closes on Saturday at 2 o'clock. All other days it's open until 8, but not so on Saturday. Whatevuhs though. 'Course, you and CarolAnn have got to be in some weird competition because I also got a wonderful package of carmel brownies yesterday too. I used a package of them to bribe my District into liking my little evening devotional. Remind me to talk about my district... So ya, totally have been showered with mail and packages and just love. I love you guys. So much. :)
So my district. We are just the Slovenes and Croats led by a Slovene, Staresina Defreitas, who is fantastic. From Virginia, really great guy. His companion is Staresina Bateman. Looks like the Washington Batemans. No relationship. In the Croats there are Elders Marcek Armond Smith Bishop Harris Adams Mulder and Sestra Black. It's great. The Elders hang out for study and stuff and its really nice. We get along really well. In our Zone we have the Slovaks, Czechs, Bulgarians, Croats, Slovenes and Serbs. Our Branch also has some Jamaicans and Las Vegas'ns... So we're a little wide spread.
I get snail mail whenever it arrives twice a day and whatever Dear Elders are sent we get that day. Thanks so much for forwarding my letter from Kyra! What a kidder... :) I like mail. So. Ya.
I know basically like half of the people in the MTC from my student ward and just work and stuff. Elder Mulder is always on my case about my supposed popularity. I think it just peeves him because he's from Utah and knows like one person here maybe. But ya, I've seen Scott, Steele, and a ton of my friends from school. We see the Colombians and Russians and Hungarians everywhere. We have a good time joshing eachother.
So, Elder Mulder. I really like this man. Like, I really do. He and I just clicked and are able to just totally screw with eachother and laugh and at the same time be totally serious. It's way nice. He's a philosophe who knows basically everything about the Scriptures. He likes conspiracy theories in them and stuff like that. We just talk and talk and talk about everything and it's nice. Friend fo life fo sho. I really just want what's good for him and he for me. We like to play with what we know of the language and I like to listen and learn to everything he knows. Last night Starjesina Harris prayed for our companionship in croatian and we had a really strong sense of the Spirit and everything was nice and so I lost my composure a little bit. He just looked at me and asked if I'd be okay and then we stayed up for like another hour in the dark just talking about hopes and dreams and fears and everything that excites us and is happy. We are good for eachother.
I love it here, I am happy and doing well. Food stinks. Class is long. It is fantastic. I love you all and hope to keep you in my prayers and know that you will all do good wherever you are. Peace be upon you. Lovesies. :)
Starjesina Adams
Please keep Elder Adams in your prayers...specifically that the language will come to him quickly and that he will stay healthy. Thanks for following the blog. It is going to be a great adventure.
Thug life!
Hey, this is Starjesina Adams checking in from the wonderfully adventurous area that is the Provo MTC! Absolutely loving it here and am really excited for the next few weeks to come. Over-verbosity out of the way, this is a great place. I really enjoy the classes, my teachers, this beautiful language of Croatian, and especially my classmates and companions. Yes, companions. We were placed in a threesome on our first day because we had an Elder who was supposedly going to Serbia never actually show up. So now Starjesine Harris, Mulder and I form this wonderful crowd. So, you'll have to forgive any typos or things like that but I only get 30 minutes to do this and if not apparently, it doesn't send. Keep that in mind if you don't get a weekly e-mail at about this same time every week. There's a giant red ticker in my screen corner that is now at 23:50... Um, the Mission president said in order to combat this, try and send your e-mails through what is called Dear Elder. Ask Neder what that is all about because I got a letter from her. Saves me time reading on the compy, you know? totes
So, got dropped off, whisked through this whirl-wind adventure that was the first day, got a companion, and then was spoken at in Croatian only in class all day. It rocked. Apparently we are on the new learning schedule that is basically experimental at this point, but they've said that they've seen good results thus far. I mean, on day three we taught our progressing investigator, Urosh, in Croatian. We taught him about prayer and got to know him a little bit on that day, but have since quelled some misconceptions about Jesus Christ, described the Holy Ghost, taught him to pray, and given him a challenge to read Chapter 12 in Eter of the Mormonova Knjiga. So cool. Starjesina Harris and I are teaching companions and Mulder is with Sestra Black, our solo sister in our class. She is great and very upbeat. I really do like my class. So much fun. It actually is pretty cool because we went around the room and everyone in my class has had at least a little bit of foreign language study. We have latin, greek, arabic, german, japanese, spanish, portugeuse, french and italian students. Sestra Black is even a Com. D. major at the Y. We all have a lot in common and are just loving helping each other out.
I want to talk about Sunday cuz it was pretty cool. lawlz. Um, so we had a lot of meetings which were pretty decent, and no class which was a nice break, but the best part of it all was our Branch President's talk in Sacrament. Well, first we had two talks by random selection (we all have to prep a talk for Sunday, this one was on the Atonement) and then a musical number and then he spoke. His name is President Creer. Really great guy, loving, compasionate, understanding of a lot of the things that we are going through. I really liked it. Well, I guess the real best part of Sunday was the fireside. We had a guy talk about the wonder of Repentance and he took the word back to its root in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew and apparantly it's another fake word like Atonement and so is misleading. I'd always assumed that pain and sorrow went with it, but he talked about how exciting and joyful the whole thing can and should be because heck, we get to change! It's nice. Like. ya.
I absolutely loved your package that you sent! I actually got it yesterday, though I was given the slip to go pick it up on Saturday. Problem is, the post office here closes on Saturday at 2 o'clock. All other days it's open until 8, but not so on Saturday. Whatevuhs though. 'Course, you and CarolAnn have got to be in some weird competition because I also got a wonderful package of carmel brownies yesterday too. I used a package of them to bribe my District into liking my little evening devotional. Remind me to talk about my district... So ya, totally have been showered with mail and packages and just love. I love you guys. So much. :)
So my district. We are just the Slovenes and Croats led by a Slovene, Staresina Defreitas, who is fantastic. From Virginia, really great guy. His companion is Staresina Bateman. Looks like the Washington Batemans. No relationship. In the Croats there are Elders Marcek Armond Smith Bishop Harris Adams Mulder and Sestra Black. It's great. The Elders hang out for study and stuff and its really nice. We get along really well. In our Zone we have the Slovaks, Czechs, Bulgarians, Croats, Slovenes and Serbs. Our Branch also has some Jamaicans and Las Vegas'ns... So we're a little wide spread.
I get snail mail whenever it arrives twice a day and whatever Dear Elders are sent we get that day. Thanks so much for forwarding my letter from Kyra! What a kidder... :) I like mail. So. Ya.
I know basically like half of the people in the MTC from my student ward and just work and stuff. Elder Mulder is always on my case about my supposed popularity. I think it just peeves him because he's from Utah and knows like one person here maybe. But ya, I've seen Scott, Steele, and a ton of my friends from school. We see the Colombians and Russians and Hungarians everywhere. We have a good time joshing eachother.
So, Elder Mulder. I really like this man. Like, I really do. He and I just clicked and are able to just totally screw with eachother and laugh and at the same time be totally serious. It's way nice. He's a philosophe who knows basically everything about the Scriptures. He likes conspiracy theories in them and stuff like that. We just talk and talk and talk about everything and it's nice. Friend fo life fo sho. I really just want what's good for him and he for me. We like to play with what we know of the language and I like to listen and learn to everything he knows. Last night Starjesina Harris prayed for our companionship in croatian and we had a really strong sense of the Spirit and everything was nice and so I lost my composure a little bit. He just looked at me and asked if I'd be okay and then we stayed up for like another hour in the dark just talking about hopes and dreams and fears and everything that excites us and is happy. We are good for eachother.
I love it here, I am happy and doing well. Food stinks. Class is long. It is fantastic. I love you all and hope to keep you in my prayers and know that you will all do good wherever you are. Peace be upon you. Lovesies. :)
Starjesina Adams
Please keep Elder Adams in your prayers...specifically that the language will come to him quickly and that he will stay healthy. Thanks for following the blog. It is going to be a great adventure.
It came....it came...it came!!!!!
At last, the long awaited first letter arrived....short, sweet, and to the point...but nothing could be better than seeing his name on the return address. It was handwritten, so I will just type it for you all:
Moje obitalje!
This is the part where I tell yo that I'm alive and well and absolutely loving this. My P-day is on Tuesday so I'll get 30 mins. to e-mail you on that day sometime.
My classes are fantastic, upbeat, quick. My companions (in a threesome; the Serb didn't show up...:/) are incredible. I love it here. I love Croatia, Croatians and the people here. Love love. TTYL :)
Chase
07/10/2011
More news to come....how exciting!!!
Moje obitalje!
This is the part where I tell yo that I'm alive and well and absolutely loving this. My P-day is on Tuesday so I'll get 30 mins. to e-mail you on that day sometime.
My classes are fantastic, upbeat, quick. My companions (in a threesome; the Serb didn't show up...:/) are incredible. I love it here. I love Croatia, Croatians and the people here. Love love. TTYL :)
Chase
07/10/2011
More news to come....how exciting!!!
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
The Beginning
After many lasts...last July 4th, last lunch with his family, last time on BYU campus, Chase entered the MTC today at 12:45pm.
Elder Adams and his sister, Bethany and brother-in-law Seth, began the short walk to the MTC (missionary training center) from Bethany's apartment. Only feet away from his destination, he was told that he would have to arrive by car...why? We're not sure. But, Seth ran the few blocks back to their house and drove the car to pick Bethany and Chase up to drive across the street. There were many missionaries saying their farewell's to loved ones. Other missionaries where waiting to escort Chase to his new home away from home inside the MTC. Just as Chase was about to walk in the door, out rushed Adam Jacob's, a dear friend who had arrived at the MTC 2 weeks ago. It was a great reunion..what an awesome way to start his new adventure.
Now Chase is hard at work...okay probably sleeping, but ready to get to work, learning and growing. We will post letters, emails, pictures and any info we get so you can join in our journey.
Check out the video on my facebook....it is wonderful.
Elder Adams and his sister, Bethany and brother-in-law Seth, began the short walk to the MTC (missionary training center) from Bethany's apartment. Only feet away from his destination, he was told that he would have to arrive by car...why? We're not sure. But, Seth ran the few blocks back to their house and drove the car to pick Bethany and Chase up to drive across the street. There were many missionaries saying their farewell's to loved ones. Other missionaries where waiting to escort Chase to his new home away from home inside the MTC. Just as Chase was about to walk in the door, out rushed Adam Jacob's, a dear friend who had arrived at the MTC 2 weeks ago. It was a great reunion..what an awesome way to start his new adventure.
Now Chase is hard at work...okay probably sleeping, but ready to get to work, learning and growing. We will post letters, emails, pictures and any info we get so you can join in our journey.
Check out the video on my facebook....it is wonderful.
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