2nd PDay in the MTC

P day e-mail (2)

Brayden Jackman

To Me

Jul 26 2014 (Saturday)

Hello everyone.

I was glad to get messages from all of you this week.  It was fun to read about how everyone is doing.  In answer to Mom's question, which I keep forgetting to answer, I can go to Brigham's Landing on P days and if you were to send a gift card I am sure that I could make use of it. 

I am glad that everyone had fun this Pioneer day.  The devotional last Sunday was given by T.C. Christiansen and he showed clips from several of his movies, including Ephraim's Rescue and 17 Miracles, then explained the background and importance of the clips and what we could learn from these pioneers to apply to our lives.  

I won the first round of "El Nativo" by the way.

This week has been fairly busy, what with preparing lessons for two investigators, preparing a talk for Sunday, learning daily grammar concepts, and studying how to teach the various lessons.  We took a language assessment last night on the computers.  The computer would generate various prompts that you would have to answer by speaking into a microphone.  The responses were recorded and are sent to be assessed.  

The initial questions deal with conversational Spanish.  Tell about yourself, what you like to do, where you are from, etc.  Then it asks you to find out about someone by coming up with your own questions.  Then, you were given various teaching situations were you had to explain different parts of the gospel (the Restoration, the First Vision, the Great Apostasy, etc).  Afterwards, the situation became that you are trying to answer an investigator's concerns (ex. has read part of the Book of Mormon and prayed but has yet to receive and answer).  You had about thirty seconds to prepare for each question and 30-45 seconds to give your answer. I don't have the scores back yet. I will let you know how I did.

The district was very grateful for the donuts and would like me to convey their thanks.

I have received several answers to prayers that have served to strengthen my testimony of the Gospel while I have  been here.  One night, when feeling particularly frustrated and inadequate, I prayed for strength and the words "peace be still" from that one hymn (they all shall sweetly obey thy will, peace be still...) went clearly through my mind.  Then, the other day when I was somewhat frustrated with my companions, for various reasons, I decided to pray for God to help me be less prideful and to help me to feel love for my companions.  I felt instantly better and went on to have a wonderful evening with them.  

For Ashlyn and Madilyn, know that I love you both and that your prayers for me are felt.  

Brooklyn, I have sent you a personal e-mail on your account.  Camden, your letter is in the mail. 

Thank you all for the support.  The packages are very thoughtful, always full of some of my favorite things.  I love getting letters from you all and I hope that if any of you ever need anything you should always feel free to e-mail me.

I will e-mail again next Saturday.  

Love,

Elder Jackman

The MTC continues

P-day e-mail                                                                                                              

Brayden Jackman                                                                                                                                                Jul 19 2014 (Saturday)

Hello all,

First point, my companion's name is Elder Harrison.  Second point, I now have two companions.  Last Sunday they announced that Elder Harrison and I would be in a trio starting Monday.  Our new companion's name is Elder Rameson (a as is apple). He is from Pleasant Grove. He was sent home from the MTC 8 months ago on medical leave with two herniated discs.  He is back now and will be serving in Mexico.  He was a professional Triathalon runner before his mission.  

We figured it out, and I am the youngest person in our district by one day.  Both my companions are 21. Go figure.

Elder Harrison is from Sacramento, California.

I don't have any specific requests at the moment.  the packages were great. It is so fun to get mail from home.

Saturday is our P day.  We get up at about 5:10 on P days, put a load of Laundry in at the Laundromat, then return and switch the clothes to the dryer before our weekly service project at 6:15. The service projects are cleaning the apartments that are used as classrooms.  We then get the laundry and change for the temple trip. The temple was open again this week and we did an Endowment session.  We also ate at the main campus cafeteria today.  The food is  better there, but they have much tighter restrictions.  I ran into several people I know while we were there, including Scott Johnson and Taylor Jones.  We have class again at 5:15 in the evening.

Sundays we do have devotionals.  My companions and I joined the MTC choir.  We practice ever Sunday and Tuesday evening, then sing in the Tuesday evening devotional. This also means that we don't participate in the weekly service that takes place on Tuesday evenings as in unfortunately conflicts with choir practice. Oh well. Sundays are very relaxing as we do not have class and most of the lessons are given in English. However, the Branch Presidency has a calender of predetermined topics for each Sacrament meeting.  Randomly, after the Sacrament, they select two missionaries from our zone to speak.  This pretty much means we have to have a 3-5 minute talk (in Spanish) prepared to give at literally a moments notice.  

Our investigator "Javier" progressed well.  We taught our fourth and final lesson with him on Wednesday, and the next morning he was teaching one of our blocks of class and going by the name of Brother Staute from Iowa.  My teachers are Brother Staute and Brother Reams.  We now have two of the three blocks of study as class, and one as personal/companion/language study.  

By the way, I have memorized the missionary purpose, the first vision, and the baptismal invitation in Spanish.  I enjoy learning a new language.  It is rather interesting.  

Apparently next week they are going to start a game to try to get people to speak more Spanish when they aren't in class (for practice).  Starting Monday, we draw pieces of paper from a hat, one of which says "native speaker" on it.  The person who gets this paper has to speak in only Spanish for the rest of the day.  At the end of the day we vote on who we think the native speaker was.  If the majority of people vote that they thought it was you, you get something from the vending machine.  The object of the game is to make people think that you are the native speaker even if you don't get the paper.

Dad:

Congratulations on the promotion.  After all of your hard work, you certainly deserve it.  It was great to read your letter and to hear your thoughts.  I miss being able to talk to you.  I am thinking that the two of us may have to go down to the Townhouse for a week after I get back.

Mom:

Thank you for all the time you take to write me letters, send me packages, and support me the way you do.  I want you to know that I am doing very well here.  My testimony is growing and I feel the strength of the spirit supporting me.  I love you.

Camden: 

You lucky son of a gun.  You break my car and all of a sudden the radio works.  Make sure you keep that list of movies for me to see when I get back. By the way, one of the Elders here in my district is a big LoL fan.  He is a mid-low level diamond player.  What a small world.  Just know that I think about you all the time.  You were always my best friend and I don't know what I would do with out you.  You have many wonderful characteristics that I envy.  Stay strong, and prepare yourself to join me in the service of the Lord.  I promise you it is worth it.

Brooklyn:

Thank you so much for your sweet e-mail.  I am glad I am finally rubbing off on you. Unfortunately, Spanish is messing with my English. You may have to correct me when I get home so I can learn to speak properly again.  I am glad to know that my service and testimony have helped you.  You have a powerful spirit and I love you dearly.  Keep going in music, it will serve you well.  Here at the MTC, you can audition for special musical numbers to play at devotionals.  Too bad they don't have any basses for me to play. Sigh...

Ashlyn:

I received your letter and, while it is a little bit inappropriate to ask a missionary on a date, I accept.  Try not to date too much before I get back.  I love you and I miss the excitement you find in life. 

Madilyn:

Thank you for including me in your prayers.  I miss your sweet smile, hugs, and witty retorts.  Thank you for the beautiful pictures.  I have them with the letters on my desk.  I love you Madi.

Starting this week, we will be teaching two investigators (the roles of which will be filled by our two teachers under different names in entirely Spanish).  We will also begin going to the Teaching Resource Center to skype with Spanish speaking members in order to practice teaching our lessons.  

I love you all.

Sincerely,

Elder Jackman

The first week of the MTC

Brayden Jackman

To Me

Jul 12 2014 (Saturday – First Email from the Provo West MTC)

Well hello.  It feels somewhat strange to be writing this letter (e-mail).  I am actually in the MTC.  It is almost surreal at times.  I wrote a letter to you on my second night here, but I doubt that you have received it yet.  

They throw you right into the thick of things here.  My language instructor has spoken to us in almost entirely Spanish since we got here.  So far, I can say a basic prayer and bear a simple testimony in Spanish, as well as carry on a more or less coherent conversation.  

Yesterday (Friday), we taught our first lesson in Spanish.  My companion, Elder Erickson, and I met with a "non-member" (member pretending to be a non-member who only speaks Spanish) and attempted to teach him about our relationship with God and how to pray.  We struggled to convey our message in broken Spanish but the general idea came across and the lesson went well. We were supposed to teach a twenty minute lesson but ended up talking to him for forty. We were actually able to more or less converse with him.

Our housing is in the old Wyview apartment complex.  Elder Erickson and I share our own apartment with our own shower, fridge, couch, spare bedroom, kitchen, etc... No Tree of Life for me. (pause to look at Dad)  

Elder Erickson is older than I am.  He is 21.  He has an associate’s degree in general science and worked to pay for his own mission before he left.  He played the trumpet in high school and college and plays the piano.  He is rather tall and a pretty good athlete.  So far, we have played basketball and volleyball during our gym times.  I lost a shoot-out to a sister missionary in Elimination twice.  Haha...?  I also unintentionally stuffed a poor, short sister missionary during volleyball.  (Yes, she was on the other team)  

I wanted to thank the girls for their letters to me and thank everyone for the "greenie" package you sent me.  It was great to have something come for me and it was fun to see what was inside.  

Every morning we wake up at 6:30. Elder Erickson and I both have the same alarm clock.  I take first shower, and we head out to breakfast at seven.  We have a 3 hour block for personal, companion, and language study starting at 7:30. After this we go back to our apartment and change into our gym clothes.  Our gyms on the West campus are three giant "bubbles.  They look like giant, white, round circus tents. A revolving door takes you inside. After gym we go to lunch for a half hour and then start another three hour block of lessons, this time with the teacher who speaks only in Spanish.  This block is devoted to language and grammar study.  These lessons are typically based off of missionary vocabulary (how to pray, bear testimony, greet someone, basic gospel material, etc...)  After this we go to dinner (the earliest dinner time of all of the districts, 4:30) and then back for another three hour block.  For now, this block is when we teach our fake investigator, Javier. After this it is usually around 9:00-9:30.  We then head back to our rooms, study, plan for what to study the next day, write in our journals, and similar activities.  We are in bed by 10:30, but I am pretty sure neither Elder Erickson nor I have gotten to sleep before 11:30.  It is a little bit early, but then so is 6:30 a.m. 

I hope you all know how much I love you all and how much I appreciate your support.

Love,

Brayden (Elder Jackman)