Hello! or Bula vinaka! Set tiko! This is my first email. P-days are on Fridays! Um, we will start at the beginning. When I first arrived at the airport, there was only one other missionary at the time. His name was Elder James and he was going to serve in the Phoenix Arizona mission. I laughed. So, we got into the express cab and the driver was from Jersey. Which is a(n) small island in the English channel if you do not know geography well. He gave me advice on how doing a part time residual income can help you with money.
Later that day, i went to my language class and they teach in an immersive style. So the teachers pretty much play charades with us with the Fijian language. I may have set my expectations a bit too high on the dredre or difficulty of the language. I can now tell you where I am from, who I am, how old I am, how many siblings I have, bear a simple testimony, give a simple prayer, and how to form a sentence in their language. What you do is you have noun sentences and verb sentences. When in a noun sentence you speak describing the noun with an adjective after you say the noun. So something like Na vale levu, translates in English to: the large house. The word vale (vah-leh) means house. Levu (Leh-voo) means large. So, it is backwards like Yoda speak.
I know the entire number system. Symbols are the same but dua (doo-ah) =1 rua (rolled r-oo-ah)=2 tolu=3 and so on.
Language wise I am not really worried. I have learned quite a bit in 2 days. As for companions, my companion is Elder Palelei (Pah-lay-lay). He is from Sydney Australia, His inheritance comes from Tonga. The district leader was not me, thankfully. Everyone thought I was going to be it, since most of the polynesians believe the leaders have a grudge against them. I settled at being the Senior companion here in the MTC. Their are only 4 white guys in our branch. 2 of which will go to Fiji and are in my district, which are me and Elder Thomas. There is one Elder from Tahiti and he is learning English and Fijian. He knows French, though.
When I am in the laundry we have computers with not really a time restriction other than be on time to lunch if I want it. Next time, I will have to bring my journal. I have written three pages on what has happened so I can space out what to hold in my memory. I am mostly focused on language so that I can at least understand what is being said. So, next time when I have that I will be more composed in thought. On another side note, one of my branch presidency members lived in Middleton. His name is President Coombs.
So, not too much happened but that is the gist of everything so far. I will have more next week.
So, not too much happened but that is the gist of everything so far. I will have more next week.
Elder MacLeod
