I Made It Through Another Week!

Hey how is everyone doing!? I can't believe I made it through another week here lol. The days go by really slow but I was surprised to find that I've almost been here for two weeks. The language is coming along better and I'm able to say a lot of different words. They only really teach you the vocab for teaching church lessons, so I can say a lot of that but I don't know how to just have a conversation with someone about other daily events. I don't know if they really teach us that lol. I'll just have to learn that on my own. I'm slowly getting used to how much we have class and I'm able to better focus during them. After like 9 hours of class though I still have a tough time staying focused for the last hour of additional study. I think that part of the reason I've had trouble is cuz apparently I have pink eye! I've been feeling pretty terrible the last week with a headache, sore throat and a cough, but I thought it was just me adjusting to the higher altitude. But after my eyes got all red I figured something bad was happening lol. I went in to the doctor's office and they said I need to take some eye drops and take naps! That should really help cuz it's rough trying to sit through all those classes when your sick lol. I don't mean to sound so negative, it's not actually that bad. It's probably my fault for being sick cuz even when I felt bad I still played a lot of soccer and basketball and it probably made it worse. Oh well, it's worth it. They have a lot of good basketball players in my zone so we get some pretty good games going. There are also a lot of good soccer players so we've played a lot of that too. I've forgotten how much fun it is to play a full sized game of soccer. My district is challenging another district in a game sometime this week so I'd better not be sick when we play them haha. There's a lot of bragging rights on the line lol. 

Last Sunday everyone got up to bear their testimony in Chinese and I was able to understand like 95% of what the people said! I was really surprised. I had to focus reeeeally hard to piece together the sentences and if I ever got sidetracked I would miss everything but I can see some progress. I didn't share my testimony cuz I was just so busy trying to understand everyone else lol. I had quite a bit that I could say though so in my lessons with our "investigators" I'll actually be able to say some more without having to look it up in my phrase book. Btw, that little orange Chinese book that you bought me and I brought with me is essential to teaching lessons here. We all got a copy of it and it's the most helpful thing to bring with you when you're trying to teach someone! 

Several of the elders in my district are really good at piano so sometimes after meals we'll go and play together. I'm glad I memorized a bunch of songs before I came cuz it's a lot of fun to play. Elder Lauti and I like to play blues and jazz versions of the hymns lol. He's good with runs and chords and I'll mess with the melody so it sounds pretty cool. It's a good way to take a break from the classes. I wish I would've learned how to play all the chords too before I left cuz it's fun to just be able to mess around and make up your own songs. 

My "investigator" that Elder Osborne and I were teaching turned out to be our second teacher. He's a pretty cool guy but he lacks in his acting abilities. Our other teachers can act out what he's saying so I can actually know what he's saying haha. It actually really helps me to learn it when he does that and with all of the Chinese that they each speak. The whole class they probably speak like 95% percent Chinese so I don't catch everything. It helps if I look up a word that he says a lot and then when he says it each time, I'll understand him and remember what it means. 

Oh btw, I saw Dallin last night. We were walking back to our dorm room and I saw him waiting to get on the bus to go back to the campus. It was good to see him again and he said that he comes over to our campus each Thursday for his pday and for devotionals so I think we'll be able to manage a picture in front of the map. 

Well that's pretty much everything that's been going on around here. Have a great week everyone! Love you lots,

Andrew Stevens

 

 

Elders Decker, Osborne, Stevens, Pearce, Rosen