June 25, 2013
Hello again, everyone!
First off, I've come to the realization that last weeks email header was incorrect. In Dutch, missionary is spelled 'zendeling.' Not 'zundeling.' Though it sounds like 'zundeling' when you say it. Now that we've cleared that up...
I've almost completed two weeks here, so I'm officially an MTC veteran. I feel like we're veterans as soon as we've been here longer than any of the English speakers (who are only here for about 12 days). I'll share a few of my adventures of this past week with you all.
All us Dutch learners are called "Dutchies" here at the MTC. It's kind of an endearing term now, and all Dutchies love the other Dutchies (and the Suriname Dutchies are okay). My classroom is my district, so there are 10 of us Dutchies in there. We've all gotten pretty close -- we're probably the tightest district in our zone. Us Elders do almost everything together, and the Zusters join us when they can. One of the Elders in my district got a letter from his family with a cartoon pig on the front, with the caption "Don't Let the Pig Get You Down." So, that's kind of become our district's motto. If anyone has trouble with the language or with teaching, we just say, "Hey. Don't let the pig get you down."
FUNNY STORY OF THE WEEK: So, as you know, the companionships in my district were each teaching an investigator. One of the companionships, Elder Moomey and Elder Pouwer, was teaching their onderzoeker (investigator). They were talking about baptism. In Dutch, there are two words -- dopen, which means to baptize, and doden, which means to kill. Elder Moomey got the two mixed up, and instead of saying that Jesus would love it if she were baptized, he accidentally told the onderzoeker that "Jesus would be happy if you were killed." Needless to say, she was very confused.
Remember how I told you about Lieke, our onderzoeker (well, pretend-onderzoeker)? Well, last Thursday, my companion and I committed her to baptism. The next day, we found out that Lieke was actually Zuster Moses, our second Dutch teacher! Our class sees her for three hours a day, but now she's teaching us, instead of the other way around. She's a recent returned missionary from our mission (got back in December), and a great teacher. She teaches almost entirely in Dutch.
The language is still great. The other day, Zuster Moses (who hadn't been teaching us for the first 10 days because she was playing the investigator) asked me where I'd learned my Dutch before coming to the MTC. That's how well it's going! She was surprised to hear that I hadn't really studied Dutch before I got here. I've learned so much. You hear so many languages here at the MTC -- some of my district's elders have started saying random things to people as hello, and we get responses: for example, we say "treetrunk" with an accent and we get back an "hola," a "ciao," or one of the many other languages. It's pretty entertaining.
I've had some great spiritual experiences here -- I was asked to give my first blessing for the sick last week, and I was asked to give another one yesterday. And, last Tuesday, my district got to go to the temple together. We get to go again today. I'm excited! The Spirit here is still just as strong, helping out us missionaries every day. We all got to attend the Worldwide Missionary Broadcast this past Sunday -- hearing a prophet of God speak is always amazing. 11 of the 12 apostles were there, too. It was great.
Well, that's it for this week. I split my email time today into three chunks, and the last one is now almost over, so it's time to go. WRITE ME!! There's nothing quite like getting mail as a missionary. I never understood that until I got here. It's about our only connection to the outside world (the MTC has been compared to a spiritual prison -- as in a prison that is spiritual, not a prison for spirits. Just to clarify). You can also DearElder.com me -- it's free, my box/unit number is 331, and I leave July 22. I have responded to every letter I've gotten! I'm so grateful for the letters I've received, and I mean that in all sincerity.
Until next Tuesday!
Tot ziens,
Elder Bonney
Elder Moomey, me, and one of my college roommates and one of my best friends in college, Elder Bascom! He's going to Finland and living on the MTC's West Campus. He got here last week. Elder Moomey and I ran into him at the Marriott Center before the Worldwide Broadcast started.
This picture is from last Tuesday on the way back from the Marriott Center for that day's devotional. I ran into Sister Bang, one of my best friends and fellow BYU 49th warder who is going to Taiwan, and we started talking...then Elder Richardson, also Taiwan-bound and a 49th warder, ran into us...then we ran into Elder Marler and Elder Lund, companions headed to Brazil. When we were about to take the picture, Sister McClune, another one of my good friends and a 49th warder, learning Spanish for Alabama, came running up. Basically, it was a great 49th ward reunion.
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