Week 7: 12% Charge Left on my iPad, Let's See How Far We Get

This week I have realized how weird missionaries are. At times, it feels like I cannot remember anything from my previous life. As if I am but a wee baby, a green bean if you will, born only 7 weeks ago when I entered the MTC.  I can't remember movie quotes, band names, songs.... I can't even remember people's names.  We have dubbed this strange syndrome the "MTC Bubble," and it remains to be seen whether or not it's effects will last the whole mission, though I hold out little hope...

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Quote from my companion right now: "That Elder is MEOWING" (he is) "You can really tell some of these elders are 18..."

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That's the closest I'll get to a tweet in a while.

This is what the MTC Cafeteria looks like, if you were curious. Photo credit Elder McColm of our Kohai.  (Although there is no exact translation into English, senpai (先輩) means an upperclassman, senior employee or other older person with whom you have dealings. Conversely, kohai (後輩) is the junior or lower person.)*

The new STLs in our district got their phone.  They had been waiting and waiting for a call, and while the Zone Leader had gotten three, they had gotten none.  Then it came, THE CALL. (Not the mission call, that came months ago.)  And it was a spam call!!!  Somebody with an Indian accent called asking if our computer was hacked, and if we could give him some personal information.

I thought it was pretty funny.

That wasn't the only technical difficulty of this week!

We were watching a Mormon Message as a part of our lesson, and while our little cute Japanese teacher was trying to change the volume on the TV, she accidentally changed the channel and the screen went to static.  We all freaked and tried to fix it, but things just went sour really fast. I guess The Bubble took away any technological abilities a room full of 7 girls and one boy had to begin with.  We ended up accidentally scanning for channels, and we were all worried that cartoons would come on and we would have to close our eyes and plug our ears.  We went on a field trip to another room to watch the video.

This week at Sunday devotional, we had a surprise attack... My companion calls it ELDER BEDNAR : PART TWO!!! 

That's right! They announced that instead of having a speaker, we would just be watching the prerecorded talk from Elder Bednar titled "The Character of Christ." We were all disappointed, but when it was over, out of nowhere, in pops Elder Bednar, the man himself! He did a Q&A session, and Sister H from our district got her question answered! It was so darn neat!

Here's a picture of Sister H on screen while she asked her question.

The best part was when he said, "I was here a while ago for a different talk, I doubt any of you were there back then"

Aha,

Ahaha,

If only you knew, Elder Bednar, if only you knew.

He had his wife come up and answer a question, and then he goes and sits down. She says: "He said he was going to help and he abandoned me. You're not keeping missionary rules" (as in staying near your companion.)

Then when he came back, he responded: "You just witnessed the wife of an apostle throwing him under the bus."

When he was choosing someone to ask a question, he pointed: "You, the elder with a white shirt... Oops, that's obvious." Two elders stood up, he pointed to one, "Not you, but I love you too, elder."

In other, less interesting news, we had a fire drill on Thursday.  These are the special things you get to experience when you have a 9-week extended stay at the MTC.

Obligatory temple picture. I'm telling you again, we are seriously cool cats!

My district and I have been thinking, and we have decided... Pokemon Go is a big deal for missionary work!

Here is our logic:

Pokemon go gets people to go to large public locations as well as landmarks.

Temples and church buildings are included in this.

In places like Russia where missionaries aren't allowed to proselyte, and they have to stay inside church buildings and wait for people to come, Pokemon Go will draw people in.

Therefore, Pokemon Go increases missionary opportunities and exposure of the church!

Basically, we all really wish we could play Pokemon Go.......

The last, and best thing that happened to us this week was SO FUNNY.

It wasn't actually funny, but we have all gone stir crazy in the MTC.

Anything is funny at this point.

This is another effect of THE BUBBLE.

Our cute Japanese teacher was saying a sentence with the word "llama" in it, which in Japanese is "rama." We were all quite confused. 

So she explained it in the second language we are learning, charades.

She hunches over, puts her hands into fists, and walks across the classroom I'm a gliding motion saying "RAMARAMARAMARAMARAMA"

IT WAS SO FUNNY.

Here is a video of me reenacting it:

Here is a video of me eating a fish (it wasn't actually that bad):

Here is a picture of the apple flavored conyak jelly I also ate:

TA TA!

じゃまたね

*(See you later...I think)

*Explanations added by Mom