HEY FAMILY!!!!
Ah, it's SO GOOD to finally write you! My p-day is today, Thursday, so this is when you can expect emails from me. I can also write snail mail letters today, which I fully plan to do. I haven't gotten any mail from you yet, but maybe you haven't sent it yet...if you have time, DearElder.com is really fast and it's FREE, so if you're ever on the computer and just have time, drop me a line. It's funny how I never knew how much missionaries appreciate mail until I am now a missionary myself. And I have been here just a grand total of 3 days! But thanks Heidi and Paige SO MUCH for your letters, you don't even know how much of a pick-me-up they were. It meant so much to me that you were thinking of me. Thank you.
Well, I guess I'll tell you a bit about my district. I can't remember what Sister Ellison (my comp) told us when you were dropping me off, but I'll be quick. So, there are 13 of us going to Mongolia--7 elders, 6 sisters. I think they said the only other time they've had this many going was once before, when they had 13 elders. We've doubled the number of sisters to ever be going over there at the same time--the most they've had before is just 3!! So I lucked out in several ways, because sometimes there is a solo sister going over there, and also because if I had stayed sick, I would've had to be bumped clear to September 29th or something, and I'm sure the group going out there isn't nearly as large. Most of us are from UT; my comp just so happens to be from Alpine, which is a funny coincidence since we know a few of the same people but had never really seen each other before. Also, the elder that just got here late after being sick with swine flu got here the day after me, and he's from Citrus Heights [California]. Funny how connected I am to some of these missionaries already, eh?
Our teachers are Bro. Cannon and Sister Marta. Bro. Cannon went on his mission to Mongolia and has been teaching here for 2 years, and Sister Marta is a Mongolian sister who served in Colorado (English speaking) and has been teaching here for almost 4 years. I'm sad because she is such a dear and will be leaving us at the end of August. She's graduating BYU and is moving on, and I think she said we have a chance of seeing her out in Mongolia when she goes home, depending on when she goes. But they're really great and I love them already, and they have been nice about trying to get me and Elder Grace (the one that came the day after me) caught up. I'm still behind, and I can't believe that it was only Monday you dropped me off. It's clear in my memory like it just happened, but when I think about all the stuff I've been taught since then, it boggles my mind. That fire hose analogy is totally accurate...I feel like the moment I got here, they flipped the switch, pulled the trigger, or whatever analogy you want to use, and since then I've been struggling to stay afloat.
The language is crazy hard. I knew it would be, of course. And I guess I can't be too hard on myself, because I've been here just a few days, while everyone else was here 4 1/2 days before me. But not only are the verb conjugations hard and everything, but it's all in a different alphabet, which I have pretty much got down, except I'm still bad at sounding words out. The hard thing is that everything just SOUNDS THE SAME!! I'll get to that in a minute though. The Mongolian alphabet has 35 letters, and it's tricky because a lot of the letters look really similar to one another but have different sounds. For instance, if you have a "Y" that has a straight tail, then it makes the "uh" sound, like in "put." But if you have a curly-tailed "y" it makes the "oh" sound, like, "Oh, I didn't know you wanted me to speak Mongolian already." So that’s tricky. Plus a lot of the letters are extra tricky because they look like our alphabet but make a different sound. Like the letter "p" makes the "r" sound, the letter "H" makes the "n" sound (go figure), and the letter "B" makes the "vwe" sound. And there are like a bzillion vowels, all of which only slightly differ from another. AND, there are letters with sounds like "ch" in Bach, and "lth" in health, and they love those letters the most. And they'll combine like 10 consonants in a row, which makes it trickier. So, if you have any interest in learning the Cyrillic alphabet, it is not all that bad, but it's the sounding out of the words that gets hard.
Oh, and by the way, if you want to say Sister Staib, it's pronounced Staib eck-chhh. Crazy, huh? They're going to give us new nametags with the Cyrillic spelling of our name on there.
OK, I have very little time, so I'll move this along. My comp is awesome, she's a hard worker, she's really nice, and she's smart. I really like her, we work well together. It's weird having someone with you 24/7, I can't say that I love that yet, but maybe I'll get used to it. Just like everything else about being a missionary. I think it was kind of hard being dropped in the middle of everything because everyone else had already started out as newbies and been pumped up and told the expectations and shown the ropes, but I just kind of got dropped off in the middle of things and all of a sudden I'm a missionary, and I'm expected to be fully up-to-speed and everything. So it probably just took a few days' adjustment and I feel like now I'm getting the groove of everything. It was nice yesterday seeing new missionaries with the dot on their tags, because it meant I wasn't the new one anymore.
I've seen my DC roommate Sara (or Sister Sonntag) often, and every night we'll have a little pow-wow before we get ready for bed. They give you a bit of time to unwind, and it's been so good to see her. When she came by my room the first night and said hi, I jumped up and ran to the door, and gave her this big hug in the hallway (and, I confess, broke down in tears). It's not like I don't want to be here, but it IS really hard the first few days. I didn't anticipate that. The weird thing is that I keep expecting that I'll get to go home in a few days, but I don't. This is what I mean about getting into the missionary mindset--it takes some getting used to knowing that we are missionaries 24/7, that there are no breaks, and there won't be...not for 18 months. I don't know why that feeling surprises me, I knew exactly what I was getting myself into!! But it's OK, it's the Lord's work; it is THE MOST IMPORTANT WORK!!
Seeing Sara and seeing other friends around campus (like my friend David Kader from Jerusalem) have been huge tender mercies. It makes me feel validated as a person--I'm real, I have friends, I have people that love me and know me, as opposed to all these strangers that I'm still getting used to.
We had a devotional on Tuesday night, by Pres. Steueur. Former Seventy and now the Ogden Temple President. He and his wife both spoke, and it totally pumped me up. It was just what I needed. When we all sang "Called to Serve," I couldn't believe myself, but I started crying. It was so powerful. I was so touched. I am excited that I get to be here for 3 months, surrounded by other missionaries being trained to go to almost every corner of the earth.
AAH, it's beeping red at me that I have less than 2 mins. I will write you more in a regular letter today. But I know you're wondering how I'm feeling, so I'll let you know. I'm feeling a bit better. It's been hard to recover since we're going going going all the time. I haven't been sleeping well at night, which makes things worse. I'm still coughing up gross stuff and having respiratory problems. I've been lying awake at night, very frustrated that I can't sleep. But my Branch Pres. knows my situation and he said I could be accommodated if I need to.
OK I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!
Sister Staib
No comments:
Post a Comment