Following is Garrett's journal from week 22 of his mission. His email address is garrett.brothers@myldsmail.net
Please send snail mail letters and packages c/o the mission office:
Utah Salt Lake City East Mission
3487 S 1300 E
West Entrance
Salt Lake City, UT 84106
November 28th, 2016:
I was just informed where I’m being transferred to: I'm going to
Sugarhouse in the Salt Lake valley and will be working with Chinese-speaking
investigators. So I'm going to be learning Chinese! My companion will be Elder
Bach, who I went through the MTC with (he was my district leader in the MTC)!
My zone leader is Elder Owen, my first companion and trainer! And I’m
told that Elder Canaan (from my home ward) will be in my zone, if not in my
district! Whooooh!
November 29th, 2016:
I've arrived in my new area. This area doesn't have many
investigators, so it's slow, but that doesn't discourage me. Work is still
work, even if it's only helping people start to learn. I remember a quote
from conference that talks about a companionship determined to know that if no
one accepted their message, it would not be because of a lack of effort on
their part.
Elder Bach, my companion, is feeling really stressed by leading
the area. We’ve been out on our missions the same amount of time, but he's been
in this area longer and knows it better right now, so he’s the senior
companion. I've been trying to help as I can. It's hard.
Also, Elder Canaan didn't change areas, but the mission changed
the zone boundaries so we’re not in the same zone. Awww...
Also Chinese is weird, but I'M SO READY! We
have no study materials outside of an MTC student guide. It doesn't even
explain grammar, just simple phrases. Basically, we have good access to
vocabulary materials, but minimal access to grammar materials. Right now
we're trying to find someone who can help us pronounce stuff. If we can get some
tips for grammar, that would help a lot.
November 30th, 2016:
This area is so different! Basically, we cover the
Monument Park Stake. The stake has one Chinese ward. There
are sisters who cover our area, too. One speaks fluent Mandarin, so they
focus on the Chinese ward while we focus on the English speaking wards in the stake.
We go to church in both the Chinese ward and attend meetings in other wards in
the stake. But we cover a very large geographic area –
actually, we can go throughout the entire SLC valley to teach Chinese-speaking
investigators.
The English speaking wards in the stake are pretty rich, which
normally correlates to slower work. I didn't understand why since there's
guaranteed to be as many spiritual problems everywhere, and other issues such
as drug abuse. I’ve learned that some of the areas in our stake are gated which
makes it harder for missionaries to gain access. And even some of the people in
areas that are not private have been known to call the cops on missionaries. In
SLC!
I'm super excited to learn Chinese. I will not learn much
of the characters, only "Pinyin," the phonetic spelling of
Chinese. There are 5 tones (ā，á，ǎ，à，a), which is crazy in how
it can be learned as a second a language when it has hundreds of syllables.
Elder Bach is understandably stressed, as this is his first time
leading an area. I've been trying to help him out as I can, but I'm
limited until I know the area. I've been trying to cook, but I've found
I'm limited without a crockpot. I'm planning rice & beans, chicken,
and baked potatoes for tomorrow's lunch, but that's about the extent that my
current experience & groceries allow. Anyway, I wish I could say good night
in Chinese but I don't even know that!
December 1st, 2016:
I made rice, chicken, beans, & baked potatoes for lunch
today. It was a god experience, as the closest things I've ever made
before are: white rice [which didn't turn out so well], whole pan fried chicken
[today, I cut them up into little strips], canned beans [today's were from dry
beans], and I never actually had made baked potatoes by myself before. It
all turned out well enough--the beans were dry, despite being soaked overnight--and
I learned a lot.
I weighed myself today. I'm 160.8 pounds, which is way
down. To summarize:
July 10: 188 (soon after entering the MTC)
August 2: 174 (soon after leaving the MTC)
September 19: 171
December 1: 161
I called Sister Balling, the mission nurse, and she said it's
normal for missionaries to gain or lose weight like that on their mission, but
still I should watch it and make sure I don't lose any more. I'm not
under-weight for my height, but I'm close. It's not because I
don't get [have; can afford with temporal means] enough food! I've
actively chosen smaller portions because I knew I was eating too much at
home. I'll try to eat a little larger portions so I don't lose more
weight.
So my companion has been stressed because he's responsible for
the area, at least until I get my bearings. I've been helping out as I
can. It's a lot easier for me to help people if I can recognize their
distress. With Elder Bach, it's been easier for me to not over-criticize
already because I can sense he's really stressed. Basically, when I can
tell that people have a larger issue (a migraine, or a back hurting, a missed
dinner appointment, or stress) I'm all-there, all-out, ready to help
them. However, when I don't understand, don't realize, or otherwise don't
perceive the issue, I'm not nearly as outgoing. I'm trying to change.
December 2nd, 2016:
Cool! We got two new investigators--a family--and it's
really helped my companion with his stress. Also, despite the fact that usually
he doesn't like to talk, he's pretty open to it when approached casually (i.e.,
to fill time when driving, etc.).
Chinese is hard. The dialect we use is Mandarin,
both simplified and traditional. Right now I'm just learning how to speak it
from "Pinyin." We cover Cantonese as well, but there are very
few people who speak it left so we just use member translators when we need to
communicate.
It's just that we haven't had anyone sit down and talk to us so
we can know how to speak Mandarin properly. It's not nearly as forgiving as
English when it comes to speaking. But I'm still very motivated to learn
it; I love learning languages.
I got two care packages today! One was from the ward (via Sister
Bybee), and while I opened it I saw it was more of Christmas presents so I
didn't explore through it all. I saw a santa hat, though.
The other one was from my grandparents! I'm glad I opened
it to check, as it had some cookie dough--shipped frozen, express, in winter,
it arrived still cold, but I'm glad I got it into the fridge. Thank you,
though, grandma and grandpa; there's not a lot of food here and while I have
the money to meet that need on Monday, this week was going to be variations on
rice & beans (and chicken and potatoes). So thank you.
This area is interesting. We do a lot more finding, since we
don't cover the Chinese ward as much as the sisters. We also do a lot of
driving, but I've found it wonderful time to study the language more. We cover
the entire SLC valley, so we span the five missions within the valley to go and
visit anyone who speaks Chinese. As soon as we can find someone to get us
started on mastering the language, that is.
Elder Bach asked me what the hardest part of my mission had been
so far. While landing and entering the MTC is a (very) close second, the
hardest part has been the disunity in the mission. By that I mean how the
different areas of the mission can be so different. This primarily
is on differences in views, methodologies, and practices in things like
planning or daily schedule or music. It extends to all aspects of the work,
even degrees of obedience. They way I've seen it, these differences could cause
a beautiful refresh of ideas and liven up an area or district or even zone, but
more often those differences generate tension which then must be worked
over. In the worst cases, it can cause companions to act a little like
two strange cats who are not quite sure if the other is going to be a
problem. But it's really hard for inexperienced missionaries to know what
to do when the answers are unclear. And it's hard for experienced missionaries
to give a clear answer when they're not so certain themselves.
Well, I just looked at my watch. Goodnight, and remember:
"geren weisheng."
December 3rd, 2016:
We're taking a reprieve from lunch. Elder Bach is taking a
nap. He's constantly tired; I hope he's okay.
We also went to email the Chinese Ward Mission Leader a weekly
report, and while online I received an email from Chelsea. Perfect timing! She
mentioned she was sending me a care package. I've been so blessed by
everyone's support.
I'm going to go practice Chinese now. I REALLY wish
someone could teach me just now to sound out the syllables. From there, I
could learn. All we have is a thin spiral-bound book they give you at the
MTC, but it's not a textbook--it's incomplete without the rest of the course
materials. I will check with the mission office and see what materials they could
send me. I’ve asked the other elders and they're not really sure what the
office has in the way of Chinese training materials.
~Later~
Whew! We’ve attended lots of Christmas parties. I
feel like barfing. Maybe I got some bad food or something.
December 4th, 2016:
Today was pretty good! The "grace period"
between Elder Bach & I has ended, which is to say that we'll disagree about
a few things. It's gone differently than with Elder Trincado, though, but
it may be more because I'm not pushing as much to resolve all the issues. I
do feel a little less comfortable leaving items unresolved or unaddressed, but
Elder Bach already has a lot of stress from leading the area and his physical
health issues, so putting my concerns on the back burner is the least I can do
for now.
Things are going well in this little area of ours. We
found a family to teach and they're progressing! It's interesting,
though; in mainland China, the people aren't allowed to have a religion.
Or, at least to share it. Government workers can't have one. But
our investigators are just so curious--so hungry to know--about why others have
religions and even just what they are. It's an entire other culture.
Also, I’ve been told that all mail and
packages should be sent to me c/o the mission home. I’ve
been told that missionaries who are not in the SLC valley can have packages
sent directly to their apartments, because the zone leaders don't go as often to
the mission home to pick up mail. But now that I’m in the valley, we can
get mail delivery from the mission home almost every day. (My second companion,
Elder Matsuzaki, had been in the Salt Lake Valley for his whole mission, so he
didn't know it would be okay to send mail and packages directly to the
apartments if we're not in the valley.)
My mission has done a lot of good for me. I really
can't describe it all, partially because I can't see it all myself, but it's
certainly been a positive thing. I don't think there's been anything
negative about it. It's been wonderful and I'm very grateful for the
opportunity to go. I love my family a lot more because of my service.
Photos!
 |
| Me with giant balloon we found in a chapel one day |
 |
| Elder Trincado and me getting one last photo together |
 |
| A screenshot from notes on my iPad. I think this is my name in Mandarin Chinese. The iPad has a handwriting keyboard for any of the character languages. I'm a long way from being able to use the language, though. |
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