12/25/2012

Christmas Day, 2012

     Well to start off this E-mail ive got some good and some bad news. Lets start with the bad news. Im not sure how some of you somehow got the message that i will be able to call home today, because that is actually not true. Sadly. I really wish i could though!! but think how crazy it would be if all 2031 of us missionaries called home today. I just dont think that would have worked. So, the only time i will be able to call you for the next little while, is when im in the airport on my way to tahiti. Sorry! Alrighty now onto the good news. So this last sunday I got called to be the District leader! of course it was a huge surprise to me, and probably to all of the other Elders, but Im going to do my, as always to serve to the best of my abilities. I got this calling for a reason (which im still praying for a confirmation) but the presidency here said that that they felt after much praying and thinking, that i was to be the next district leader. What a great blessing! And an awesome gift for this Christmas season! Christmas here at the MTC is completely different than i thought it was going to be. Everyone is so happy, the spirit is so strong and the talks are amazing as always. This morning Russel M. Nelson came and spoke with us. I felt that his talk was mostly focused on the new 18 and 19 year old missionaries, its crazy that there are already some missionaries that age here! The MTC is becoming packed! Meals are crazy now and it takes forever to get your food. Scary to think that the wave of new missionaries hasnt even started yet! hopefully i wont be here when that happens. We start tahitian tomorrow i believe and i am very excited. The mission presidents nephew Elder Sinjoeux is on the bottom floor of my building and ive had the priveledge to become good friends with him. He is extremely nice, and i get to help him with his english while he helps me with french and tahitian! I finished the book of mormon last night and Ive gained a huge testimony of that book. I know its true, There is no doubt in my mind that avery single word in the book is a gift from our heavenly father. I will have to write more letters to make up for this small email but sadly my p-day fell upon christmas. So i dont have much time at all today for my normal p-day stuff! Thank you all for the letters and gifts, this is definitely my favorite christmas so far. Im so blessed to be serving my Heavenly father. Im honered to give him the gift of my will this Christmas, and serve his other children. I love you all soo much! please be safe out there! Ua here vau ya oe! (I love you) A fiatoito (Stay Active)       Elder Fyffe

12/19/2012 Pics of the week...

Elder Fyffe & Elder Stucki - Friends as kids, friends in the MTC

Why the MTC is so great! Fruitloops!

He loves his Members Only jacket

Calculated the total time spent in classrooms since at the MTC

Taken from the east side of the MTC to the mountain east of the Temple during a sunrise.

Elder Nathan Stucki's last day at the MTC. We love that guy!

Week 5 at the MTC!

     I hope this is week 5, my planner says that it is, but it’s too early for me to trust my eyes or my brain! Plus it’s an icebox outside! It snowed last night and so there is a good amount of snow out there. Nothing that exciting really happened this week. It went by so fast though! I hope that the M.T.C. experience goes by fast, but being out in the field goes by slow. I love this time at the M.T.C. but when we are constantly watching movies like the District (which I highly recommend and can be found on lds.org I believe) and when we only hear stories about being out in the field, it makes it so hard to be here sometimes! I just want to get out to Tahiti!

   

     I start learning Tahitian in a little less than two weeks now and I can’t wait! It’s really bizarre to think that I will be learning my 2nd language here at the MTC; it will be just like starting over again! I'm so happy to say that I will be able to speak 3 languages when I get home!  No idea how that will help me...but it’s still cool.... Ua hinaaro vau ia amu I te fafaru! That means I really want to eat Fafaru, which is a dish containing rotting fish aged in rotted fish juice. I guess that it is a delicacy in Tahiti and if the missionaries eat it, the Tahitians will really like them! Plus they think it is Phunny to watch our reactions when we taste it, because not even the Tahitians like it! They have a very childish sense of humor. So I think I will be just fine there :)   

     

     The temple is closed today and up until the New Year, so I get time to nap on my P-day for once!! I can’t wait for Christmas here! I really hope that Monson comes to speak with us, and the really cool thing about that is, it’s something that could actually happen! Elder Millett and I are the stage crew, so he and I are the only ones who know how to set up the stage. Setting that thing up requires you to have both perfectionist and OCD qualities. It’s crazy how precise we have to get things lined up. But it’s cool that a huge podium thing like the one you see during conference can be set up and taken down in a bunch of pieces. It’s also cool because before we leave, elder Millett and I get to sit in the chair that the Speaker will be sitting in that night. So I’ve sat in the same chair as many of the 70, and even one of the 12, Elder Holland!

     Ya, c'est le top! Thank you all for the packages and Gifts and cards and letters! I can see why this is going to be one of the best Christmases I will ever have! My shelves are full with pictures of my family so I never feel too far away from home. So thank you! Some of the talks that I have heard lately are really good, I’m not sure if the outside world has access to any of these talks, but if they did I would highly recommend seeing all of them. Bednar talked to us and he was a completely different guy! He reminded me of Holland in a way! And if you think Holland is a powerful speaker at Conference, wait until you see him at the MTC...holy cow. Spiritually slapped in a good way. He is the definition of tough love!

     The MTC continues to be a huge blessing in my life. It’s still really weird to me how I can talk and teach a lesson in French. Even though I probably sound like a 2 year old, messing up all the time and forgetting words....I’ve only been here for 5 weeks, and I definitely count this as a miracle for myself! It’s weird because I’m forgetting a few English words, and I can only think of the French ones!

     Almost done with 3rd Nephi, just 2 more chapters! I love reading the Book of Mormon and highlighting every other scripture because it has meaning to me and answers questions I wasn’t even reading to find! Well I have to go change my laundry now, Please drive really carefully in the snow, I’m constantly stressing out thinking that you guys have to drive in this! So stay safe for the next two years so I don’t drive myself crazy! Love you all! A Faouitoito! (Stay Active!)

Love, Elder Fyffe!

Photos 12/13/2012

Is this a Tahitian teacher?

So cold that it froze an Elder's milk

Free time entertainment

The MTC monster?

I'm guessing he also studies. Notice the Elder marking his scriptures. I'm sure he will entertain the Tahitian people!

ONE MONTH !!!

Holy milk duds! It is getting so freezing here at the M.T.C! A few mornings ago, Elder Jambor Was getting some milk for his cereal and it came out frozen!! I will send a picture of it later. The walkways here are all covered by metal roof thingy’s, so when you are walking from place to place here, it’s like you’re walking through a freezer! The good thing is though, I’m in the classroom/lunchroom/workshops for upwards of 10hrs a day, so I don't have to go outside much. I hope that you are all staying safe while driving in the snow! Especially Amanda and Austin since it isn’t quite a skill yet.... the security here won’t let anyone slide in the snow on the sidewalks, I found that out the hard way, just another thing to laugh about I guess. Twenty eight new missionaries are coming into our district next week which means I will hopefully be somewhat busy with the tech support stuff, it helps to have a "calling" it makes you feel sort of important, and it’s a nice break from the usual. Plus I talk in my Indian accent whenever I am doing tech support stuff for people and or when I meet new missionaries. Just to have a little Phun. We are getting some substitute teachers for Christmas break time; I plan on doing that with them. I showed the other elders on our floor the rock paper scissors push up game and they all love it now. Each time you lose you do 10 push-ups, but it’s mandatory that you go to 100, so the game makes you go well over that. Plus you’re laughing the whole time so it’s like a double workout. We all do it every night and we challenge others each time. I can’t believe that it has already been 1 month! The time goes by so fast thankfully! All these stories I hear from my teachers about Tahiti make it so hard to be here. I continue to learn and thankfully I’m getting better not worse. I can practically translate just about anything in to French now. But I really need to get better at congregating. Thank goodness Tahitian doesn’t have any of that crap! Which by the way I start learning in a few weeks. I can tell I am going to really like it! The mission president’s son is here in the same building and I was able to speak to him in French and the little Tahitian I know and he said I had a great Tahitian accent, it practically made my week! Thank you all for sending me letters, it really has been a ton of help when I have those hard days. Mom and dad, I was wondering if you could get a smallish picture album together for me, the other elders want to see some and it would be really nice to see too! My time is just about to run out so I will leave with a short testimony that I have gained this week. So as I have been continually reading the Book of Mormon in French and English each day (by the way I just finished Helaman) I have been getting a stronger testimony on the verity of that book. I’m highlighting almost every other paragraph, I’m writing notes in all the margins and once I finish a chapter I tell myself to just read one more because I know I will find more things that could strengthen my testimony that much more. I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon and for the fact that it isn’t a chore to read, but a blessing. What other book out there other than the Bible can you read and find answers to any single one of your questions? I can’t think of many at all. Let alone the fact that the Book of Mormon can answer any question you have through the promptings of the Holy Ghost. My companion and I got our first "yes" to a baptism and I was so shocked and excited when I heard him say oui that I actually couldn’t speak for what seemed like a few minutes! I can’t wait to go to Tahiti and baptize my first real convert! It’s going to be such an amazing experience to change a family’s life in that way. This gospel brings people to a level of happiness that cannot be found anywhere else. It can be their friend when they don’t have any. It can be their mentor when they don’t have one, and through heavenly father, Jesus and the Holy Ghost, it can be their family when they aren’t fortunate enough to have one of those. This gospel has been my home away from home, and it will be for the rest of my life and I am so thankful for that. I know that this church is true and I know that it can change your life only for the better if you sincerely let it inside your heart. I’m out here losing myself in the service of others; I left my family so others can be with theirs forever. I’m bringing the eternities to the people of Tahiti because heavenly father sent me to go gather his other sheep. I love you all so much and miss you like crazy, especially you Teesha! Be safe this next week and I will talk to you later!

                                    Elder Fyffe.

First week in December!

Breakfast!

(Narration from David)

So one of my favorite things to do is to cook. Its a tradition to cook for the kids whenever they feel hungry. It's a little sad for me to not be able to cook for Christian, so I had to get creative to be able to make him a breakfast that would be within missionary rules. I printed out and cut out pieces of bacon, sunny side up eggs, toast, sausage and glued them onto a paper plate and wrapped with saran wrap. Here is what he will get hopefully today. (I dropped it off at the mail office next to the MTC today around 11am.) I'm going to make breakfast for him one way or another!

Week Three! 12/04/2012

Holy cow did this week go by so fast! It seriously seems like i was in here yesterday doing the same thing! So my companion and i have gotten another "investigator" or ami de L'eglise as the french call it. So that means I'm having to prepare twice the amount of lessons as last time, its getting pretty hectic. The phuni thing is though, that this is nothing compared to the field, I cant wait to get out there to Tahiti! Our teachers have been teaching us Tahitian words and sayings every night for the past week and i feel like i am going to love speaking that language. Hopefully i get to speak it a lot while i am out there, The fact that it is going to become extinct and rumor has it that in about 30 years, the church will actually stop printing things in Tahitian makes me sad. But then i feel awesome because i will know a forgotten language!! So its already been 3 weeks which means that i am halfway done with learning french, that's not enough time!! its amazing to me how with the lords help, missionaries are able to learn a language well enough in 8-10 to be released to the field, where i get to learn two languages in practically that same amount of time! I love getting to say that i have a testimony of the gift of tongues, and personally it was a little hard for me to have faith in it before i came here to the MTC. But now i can do nothing but rely on it! So when i start learning Tahitian on the 24th of this month, i will be able to give talks and bare testimony at church on Sundays and nobody but my district will know what the heck i am saying! Ive been having a lot of phun here, the Elders in my district are becoming more like brothers than classmates. It really helps the time go by when you are sitting in a classroom for a large portion of the day. The food cycle here is beginning to repeat and I'm starting to eat some of the same foods i did a few weeks ago, i hope that i don't get sick of it....OH, Ma and Pa, so you know how i didn't get my international drivers license when i was home? i got it here, it was only $15 and a filled out piece of paper, so don't worry about that! Last Sunday during church my companion and i got called to  Missionary Tech Specialists for our zone, so whenever new missionaries come in each week, we train them in all of the computer work. Its pretty neat to be chosen for such a calling. Although i feel like the instant they saw me wearing the headsets in the computers, they new i would be a perfect tech specialist. I mean, i am Indian ;] kidding, but that was the first thing that popped in my head, and i wrote it on a note and showed elder Millett during sacrament and he accidentally laughed out loud. Everyone turned and looked at us, it was really Phuni! I learned that on my mission it is highly recommended that we don't drink the water, so guess what my substitute is they say? Coke and coconut milk... this mission just keeps getting better and better! I bought a calling card with 500 minutes on it (the smallest amount they had) so i will be able to call you guys when I'm at the airport about to leave to Tahiti. I will give you more details about when and what time that will be in the morning, but just make sure you are aware of the fact so you can talk to me! Im already in Alma 40 now in the Book of Mormon, Waking up every morning at 5 and reading until i fall asleep has been pretty difficult, but it has definitely been paying off! i have a testimony of this book now, and it continues to grow!  and i cant wait to pray to know if these things are true at the end of it! Every other verse is practically highlighted and it still amazes me how just one book can literally answer any question that i have in my mind about this church. or how it always helps me receive comfort during the more difficult times here. I get to go to the Temple this morning with Elder Millett and when i cross that busy street from the MTC to the temple, i secretly always wish i am going to see someone i know driving by. and when i see cars that some of you have, i get all excited until i see its not you...then i frown. the end. But I'm glad i haven't seen anyone yet because i know it would make being here harder for me! My french is coming along so i will bear my testimony, but without any accents because i don't know how to get them to work on this stinkin keyboard! Je sais que Dieu est mon Pere Celest, et le Pere de notre esprit. Je sais que a propre le livre de mormon, je peux recoevoir tout la reponse de tout ma questions. Je sais qu mon seigneure Jesus-Christ a vivre. je suic tres reconnassant por l'opportunity d'etre missionaire. I ran out of time but i just want you all to know i love you so much and am so grateful for all the help and support that you have given me! I will send the pictures today!

                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Elder Fyffe