MTC:  Week 9

We're in the endgame now, less than 6 days left!  

Unfortunately, I found out I will not be leaving on the same flight as everyone else.  The rest of the district is flying on a Russian airline going to LA, then Moscow, then Armenia.  And I will be leaving later Tuesday afternoon on a flight to Orlando California. So that's pretty sad I'll have to leave them all before the airport, but it's alright.  

Thank you all so much for the package of cinnamon rolls!! I just got them and haven't had any yet, but tonight I plan to share them around with my district and it'll be awesome.

I definitely don't feel prepared to leave with my current language skills, but I'm so excited to get to Glendale and start (attempting) to speak with some real Armenians.  

The MTC is nice and all, but at this point I think the whole district is very ready for a change.  We need new kinds of food, new people to talk to, and new daily schedules.  

This week was really good, I feel like I learned a lot.

The other day I was playing uno with a couple sisters, while Elder Schaumann practiced with someone for a musical performance.  So after a while one of the sisters asked me where I was going, and I said California speaking Armenian.  She got this kind of shocked look on her face and asked what part of California, so I said Arcadia.  And she was just stunned for a second, but then got really excited! She's going there too, speaking Mandarin.  What are the chances? So that's awesome, I've officially met 3 others going to Arcadia, all speaking Mandarin.  I hope I get to see them again over there. 

Since we were technically supposed to leave the MTC after 9 weeks, this last week we have nothing specific scheduled for classes.  So our teachers basically let us pick what activities to do.  We've been listening to videos and conference talks in Armenian and trying to figure out what they say, and practice giving 5 minute talks on a gospel topic.  We also play this game where two people face off against each other, asking only questions.  And each question has to build off of the last person's question, and whoever asks it incorrectly first loses.  It's so fun.  Then we also play a game where 2 people take 2 minutes and say as many points about a certain gospel topic as they can, and whoever can say more things wins.

Sorry I didn't get a chance to skype today, it's been busy. The next time might be when I'm in the field, but there's a chance they'll let me call the day before I leave.

If possible, could you please send me any email addresses that I should add to my weekly emails?  I'm going to try sending them out next week. 

I love you all so much, and I will talk to you from California shortly!

Love,

Elder Clayton

MTC:  Week 8

Oh my gosh, less than two weeks left.

Hello! This was another good week.

I saw a few more people I know, which is always fun.  I've seen Elder Woodward around a couple times (picture in folder :) ), talked with Elder Bradley Matheson briefly, and met Elder Church from school, who's going to Korea.

We're totally the old district now. It seems like just the other day that we were the new guys, but all our friends we got here before us are leaving.  The Koreans left last week, and our good Ukrainian friends left this week (pictures of both groups in the shared folder. The one eating chips and guac is with the Ukrainians.)  

Yesterday Dale G Renlund came and spoke at the devotional, which was really cool. I think we've seen like 5 apostles total now? It was a great talk, I learned so much about using personal and companionship study time to focus on those I teach.  When I learn new things, I add to my "arsenal" of teaching material, and the holy ghost brings things to my remembrance and testifies of truth while I teach.

This week we had our first real non-member TRC.  It was English speaking of course, which felt really different that teaching in Armenian. You'd think it would be easier since I'm fluent in English, but it felt scarier because I'm expected to come up with answers and responses basically immediately, and there's no downtime in the conversation. Whereas with Armenian I have to talk slow, giving me time to think while I speak. Anyway, it was a good experience.  I'm glad we taught in English at least a little bit since I'll be teaching in English fairly often in the field.

Speaking of the field, one of my teachers said he got an email from the Armenian Elders in Arcadia for me to read!  We didn't have time, but hopefully I'll get to read it tonight in class. I'm so excited.

Mom, I'm sorry, I think a few weeks ago you asked me about the pictures of the Elders doing that "floating" trick and I totally forgot to mention that.  They did it by sitting on the ironing board that sticks out from the wall.  If you get it from the right angle, you can't see the board at all. Pretty cool. 

Also, is there any way you could send me some new exercise shoes?  The soles of mine are ripping apart and becoming unusable pretty quick.  I'm pretty shocked they're so beat up already, I only wear them for an hour a day!  Anyway, I don't really care what kind of shoes, just a size 10. Thank you so much

I love you all and miss you a lot!

Elder Clayton

MTC:  Week 7

Hello again, my wonderful family.

I probably say this every week, but wow, I'm shocked at how fast time is going.  I'll be out of here in under 3 weeks.  That's scary. Exciting though.

This week, 3 of the 4 districts in our branch left, so it's literally just the 7 of us left.  So there were some rearrangements, and now Elders Gervasi and Price are the zone leaders and I am the new district leader.  It's cool being the district leader, although I'm still figuring out what all I have to do for it.  I'm not really good at conducting meetings and discussions, but this will be a good learning opportunity. 

Thanks so much for telling me about the stories from home, Mom.  Those kids sound adorable. 

And I loved hearing about the missionaries in Arcadia! It makes me a lot more excited to get out there.

Yesterday before the devotional, Elder Schaumann did another performance, accompanying for a violinist. And his companion and I got talking, and it was something like this:

Him: "Wow I've definitely never seen that language before!"

Me: "Yeah it's Armenian, and I'll be going to California."

Him: "Oh cool I'm going to California too, speaking Chinese. I'm going to Arcadia."
Me: O_O "Woahhh me too"

So yeah, I've finally met another person going to Arcadia! A native Mandarin speaker who came from China.  So that was awesome.  Hopefully I'll see him again out in the field.

I also saw Elder Cooper Christenson, Tyler's cousin from school.  That was cool talking with him.

I absolutely can't wait to see Elder Woodward. I will be watching for him!

That's about all the new stuff that went on this week.  My language is definitely still improving.  Now I can at least get the gist of whatever I read, whether it be from the Book of Mormon or a conference talk or whatever.  But when I listen to a conference talk (they have a bunch translated to Armenian), I have absolutely no idea what they're saying.  Haha I'm going to get out of here not understanding a word people say, I think my whole district is like that.  It's so hard.  Still lots of fun though. 

My schedule today's a little different, the temple opened back up and I have a haircut, so I don't know when I'll have time to call, but I will certainly try later today.

I can really feel God helping me these last few weeks before I leave.  I know it's going to be extremely hard, but I feel that I will get prepared enough to go, through God's help.

I love you all, and talk to you again next week.

Elder Clayton

MTC:  Week 6

Hello again! 

Last night for New Year's Eve sounds like it was fun for you, I'm so glad.  I wish I could've been there to celebrate with you all!  But it was cool here too, we left our weekly Tuesday devotional and there were fireworks from outside the MTC, so we stayed out and watched those for a while.

I can't believe it's 2020 already.  Now I can technically say I'll come back from my mission next year.

Mom, thanks so much for the package, it was perfect and arrived just in time. And that's so awesome you found some other moms of my district members on Facebook! 

Yesterday was supposed to be our first skype TRC with a real Armenian member, living in Armenia.  We planned out a lesson about the restoration and preparing for this upcoming general conference, and we were excited to give a 20-30 minute lesson to a real native Armenian speaker.  I was nervous, not gonna lie, because their accent and speed makes it a lot harder to understand them than all the returned missionaries we've been teaching so far.  But unfortunately, nobody showed up to the TRC, so we never got to teach. 

But it wasn't all bad.  In class our teacher got a phone call from an Armenian he knew from his mission, and he was about to ignore it since he was teaching class.  But we all urged him to answer it, so he did and we all got to talk for a few minutes with an Armenian for the first time. 

It's been snowing more lately, especially today.  I can't get over how fun it is.  And it's not even that cold, it's fantastic. 

Here's a crazy story: Apparently an Elder, on Christmas day, snuck away from his companion and jumped over the outer fence of the MTC and drove away.  Then a couple days later he emailed his district and told them he left because of some custody issue with his siblings, and he wanted to be there for them.  It seems like a fair reason to have to leave, but everyone's really confused as to why he jumped the fence secretly instead of just telling the MTC he had to go home.  I don't know the Elder at all, but he's kind of a legend now since everyone's heard about him.  The MTC caught it on camera too, so I know it's a true story.  Crazy.

Those were the highlights of this week.  Besides that it's been a lot of the same stuff, lots of classes and gradual improvement in the language.  Still lots of fun!  I can't wait to report again next week, and also to see Trevor Woodward when he comes in.

Love, 

Elder Clayton