January 1, 2009 Email

Hey Everyone!!! Happy New Year!!!!
New years eve here was as fun as can be expected in the mtc. We drank some sparkling cider and blew some horns and woke people up with shooting confetti in their face. It was pretty fun. We got some sweet pictures I will send home. But then i woke up in the night to pee, wearing only slippers and garments, I got locked out of my room. So at three in the morning, I pounded on the door for fifteen minutes, but my companion thought it was people trying to get us back for waking them up at midnight and blowing confetti on them, so he didn't even get out of bed to let me in. So i had to talk to the front desk (in nothing but garments and slippers), who said they would send security to let me in my room. So i went back to the room and waited. The security gaurd took an hour to get there. So i had to lay on the floor outside my room for an hour (in nothing but garments and slippers) while i waited to get let into my room. It sucked alot. So ya i guess i learned my lesson for breaking curfew for new years geez.

Culture update: New Years in fiji is a huge deal. They have water fights and splashing and stuff for usually about a week. They love fireworks and there is no such thing as firework laws. They have the biggest best fireworks my teacher has ever seen that anyone can buy for dirt cheap. I am so excited. My teacher said one of their shows was so big that they put stadium of fire to shame.

The language is coming good. It was nice to get that tape and hear everyone's voices. I hope your doing good. I am doing great, love my comp and my disrict and zone. We have alot of fun.

I am teaching lesson 2 in fijian Saturday. My goal is to use no notes and not have to memorize sentances, just wing it. I bet I slaughter the grammer, but thats ok. I did a practice session with my teacher and did really good, so hopefully i can do good saturday. I made some good friends with the tongans who live by us, they left Tuesday though. They were alot of fun. They were trying to convince me that Tonga is better than Fiji. They promised that after our missions if i come visit them, they will have a girl and a fat pig for me. ha ha! Hilarious, huh? They are so loving it is awesome. They are hilarious and love to joke. They said fijians are the same way, so it will be way fun.

There is one fijian who is here. I try to talk to him a lot to practise the language. We do pretty good talking, so its cool. He is older i think, like 25 so he is more mature and not as much fun as the tongans were, but thats cool too. His name is Elder Ratalevu which means big chief so i always call him big chief and he gets really embarassed. It's way funny.

My sense of humor has become slightly retarded i think result of being cooped up in here for a month. But we say dumb stuff that is not funny at all, and then laugh our heads off cause we said it in fijian. Its kind of funny.

Well it's crazy to think my MTC experiance is half way done!! One more month and I am in Fiji!!! It will never come fast enough.

Well love ya'll and wish ya the best.

Crazy thought: I will be home next year!!!!!!!!!