I have blisters on my feet, my head is spinning with a foreign language, and I already have bad farmers tan lines, but I am still excited to be here!
Don't worry, it is week two, but you didn't really miss week one. Last week I only sent an email to close family because honestly, I didn't even know what was going on. But, I feel like I know a bit more now.
I am not even sure where to start so much has happened. This Monday we taught our fist lesson to investigator... In Malay. And although everyone in our zone got to use their notes on their first lesson, we did not. Our investigators name is Akai, and he is so excited to learn about our church that I am pretty sure that if we were able to speak English to him he would be baptized already. As we try to talk to him in Malay though we are very excited when we can successfully ask him to read a scripture.
I wont go into detail on how our fist lesson went. But to sum it up, after we got back to our classroom, and we were alone, Sister Dayley and I fell down to the ground, and just laid there. Laughing but mostly crying. We realized, after reflection, that we one, never introduced ourselves, and two, didn't give him a commitment, and three, didn't tell him we were going to ever come back, or see him again.
I have been thinking a lot about why in the world the Lord trusts me to speak another language to his children and teach them. Before my mission, when considering going on a mission I felt like my words would not be powerful enough, and I wouldn't be able to bear my testimony right. But as we started teaching to Akai every day this week, I realized that it's not the words you teach with, it's the spirit. After introducing the Book of Mormon to Akai, in English I could have gone on forever about my love of that book, and all the many blessings, and happiness it has brought into my life. But in Malay all I could manage to say is, Heavenly Father loves you, and I know this Book is true. It was the first clear thing I had said all lesson, and I felt the spirit so strongly. What an amazing thing! How simple it is to know that we have a loving Heavenly Father and that he has given us the Book of Mormon as a sign of that love! Thank goodness for his gospel and the Lord helping me when I will fall short.
The church is true, that's all I'm saying.
I love my companion still, even though not every moment has been a good one. She has a powerful testimony and she makes me laugh. Her name is Sister Dayley, and my favorite thing about her is that when I tell her to start rapping about the gospel when I start beat boxing (Saying boots and cats really fast) she will totally do it! I have never met someone who will just start rapping when I tell them I can "beat box".
Out of all five people learning Malay at the MTC right now, there are Sister Dayley and I, and then a trio companionship of three Elders, Elder Hearewa (From Australia), Elder Homes (From Australia) and Elder Greenhaigl (from Minnesota). We affectionally call them Kita Elders (Our Elders) because they are all weird. I respect them all so much though. All of them really want to be here.
We spend a lot of time with them comparing the differences between America and Australia, and it's super funny. Like sometimes they will say something and we will just look at them blankly and they will be like, you don't have that here? It's like they are from a different world and I love it. It's also funny because in Australia they don't really consider all the swear words bad. So they will casually swear, and then look at me funny when I say things like "Goodness gravy, heck no". Even at the MTC I have been pegged as the sheltered Mormon girl.
In other news. I have been keeping my companion very entertained. I asked her after a long day, if there were any Braille speaking missions. You know. The dots they put under the signs outside of class rooms. For blind people? Braille. Speaking. Think about that for just a second.
Then the next day, when we were meeting our new teacher for the first time, I almost fell into a trash can. The Elders thought was hilarious and when I came back to class they had stacked a pyramid of trash cans in font of my desk.
The day after that, my companion really had to go to the bathroom, so she ran ahead and I was following behind studying flashcards. I walked into the bathroom, still studying, looked up and went, that's weird, that's a urinal. When it clicked that I had just completely walked into the boys bathroom (I know Alisa is loving this) I promptly screamed, which my companion heard all the way from the girls bathroom. and ran out.
Alright. That is all the exciting things I have to tell you. I love this oprotunity to be at the MTC and learn how to teach and learn a new language. I hope you are all doing well and have a fantastic week!
If you don't remember anything else, remember that Heavenly Father loves you.
Sister Skinner
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