First Letter from MTC: Orientation Day Thoughts

1-21-09

Dear Family,

Today was my first day at the MTC and I am exhausted! My companion Sister Ackerson is very nice. She is from Portland (Beaverton) Oregon. We will be companions for the next 12 Weeks & I am glad! We share a room with all the girls speaking Mandarin at the MTC. There is a companionship of 3 that entered the same day as us: Sister MacIsaac, Sister Allen & sister Jorgenson. There is also a solo sister who will be with us for 6 more weeks. She spoke today with me a little in Chinese. I understand everything she says, but so far I'm slow in formulating responses. My companion just recently graduated from BYU in Middle Eastern Studies. So yeah we have a lot in common thus far.

Mostly the happenings of today was orientation-related. We got lots of advice about loving our companions, becoming closer to Christ, studying the language, etc. We ate dinner and Sister A & I sat next to some Spanish-speaking Elders & some Elders in our district. It was really fun. We laughed a lot.

After dinner we meet our district, well, half of it. All the incoming Chinese Elders & Sisters met with the branch president. We got to introduce everyone find out rules

...So please send me a copy of my call letter. I am supposed to have it. If you want to send those dresses & my green Chinese textbook called Chinese Zink I'd like that too. I shouldn't have brought some of the stuff I did & should have brought the kind of stuff I left. Sad day. The dictionary they gave us is identical to mine. The Spanish Elders received a bad one I hear, but I guess us Chinese learners lucked out? I made friends with a lot of the Elders in our district. I really like everyone I've talked to so far.

In my mission president interview he said I seemed to know a lot about China & the culture. I hadn't mentioned anything before, so it's probably that I kind of bowed to him. HaHa? I'm not sure. I said I knew some things but still had a lot to learn. So yeah. Today was fun. I met a lot of people and learned a lot . . . but I'm excited about language class. My P-Day is Mondays so, I'll probably write again then!

Until next time,

Sister Flora Aimee Bruno