6-25-10 First lesson in Portuguese only

[NOTE: Thanks to Elder Ludlow and his mother for sending us the pictures from the MTC that we are using in these blogs!]

Hello family- How are you all doing? Sorry i don't have your letters with me so if you asked questions i can't remember them to answer'em.. oh whale..

This week has gone by fast, but each day has been super long.. [kind of like their ties...] Someone in our district received his visa, so they are coming eventually, hopefully.. Also, some other elders who have been waiting here 11 weeks just got re-assigned to Nashville for a transfer or till whenever there visas come.. Hopefully that won't be me, but either way, i guess it all works out.. If God really wanted me to be in Brazil he could make it happen, so we'll see..

Me and Elder Ludlow have got a lot better at teaching recently.. We taught some new missionaries yesterday, as themselves (not "investigators") and I think we really helped them out a lot.. It was the strongest lesson we've had, and there was definitely the Spirit there.. We teach "investigators" several times a week (volunteers like tom could be- are you going to do that btw?) they used to always tell us how we needed to focus on their needs, but this morning our "investigator" said that we did really well (he had a disabled little daughter, and we focused on that and the fact that when he prays God listens).. He said many missionaries find out stuff like this and then just teach the first lesson as they would to anyone.. But the idea is to teach only what they need, and in this case we only briefly talked about the actual restoration, cuz you have to know there is a loving Heavenly Father before the restoration means anything..

We also taught our first lesson in Portugues solmente hoje..[Portuguese only, today] Fui bom.. [It went well] Mas nao posso dizer meus sentimentos bem ja.. [But I can't say my feelings well yet] Portuguese is fun though, we contact Spanish missionaries all the time and often they say "that sounds way better than Spanish" or stuff like that.. Maybe it's just my soothing voice though, who knows! Just kidding.

This week is the week that a third of all mission presidents are released and new ones are here in the MTC for training, so tonight we have a meeting that will likely have 5 or more apostles at it.. And sunday there are 4 different MTC sacrament meetings, and rumor has it that President Monson will speak at one of them, hopefully mine!

My companion got a little nerf basketball and hoop for our door (like Lib's) and we played jungle ball today for our workout time along with 2 other elders from the district! So to answer libby's question, yes that game [ninja destruction??] involves a lot of wrestling.. I accidentally bit elder Ludlows elbow too, and he has teeth marks haha.

Dad thanks for the Grandpa stories--that one last week was pretty cool, and I'm glad to hear that your scout campout went well and what not if you will and the like..

Well it's crazy i've already been here a month! I can't even think of anything more to tell you about.... let's see..we've had this sub a few times when our teachers are gone named Irmão Schaffer.. He is literally one of the funniest (and happiest) people I've met; his whole lesson is funnier than some comedy acts, and we still learn a lot! it's pretty fun, so everyone's excited when we hear he's gonna come sub. Well Bye Family!

6-18-10 MTC Schedule, head injury...

Date: June 18, 2010
Area: Provo MTC
Companion: Elder Ludlow

Dear Dad Mom Tom Libby Cath Em,

Hows it going? I'm always glad to hear from any of you, so thanks for writing me.

Cath it sounds like you had an awesome trip to Hawaii, and yeah i'm totally down for a half iron man when I get back!

Libby and Chris, that is cool Chris is gonna go to Mt. Sac [Mount San Antonio College] now! So you'll live in Walnut in an apartment or with the Waite fam? I enjoyed your story about the awesome surfer dudes at Flowrider. Yeah Elder Ludlow and I joke around a lot but one of our goals for this week is to joke around a little less. although we do almost always get done what we are supposed to, we get distracted a lot. I'm usually at the Provo temple on sunday afternoons, so maybe you do see me there.

Tom sounds like your relieved to be again temporarily done with school. Yeah I hear about the world cup because one of my teachers is way into it! And I hear the Lakers and Celtics championship game's on sunday too... that would be interesting. Is it the TRC that you were asked to help at? that would be really cool. I go there on Thursday mornings and we are assigned to talk about certain things in Portuguese but then we still teach all our lessons in English. [TRC, from the Internet: "The Teaching Resource Center gives missionaries some experience teaching in their mission language"--apparently they practice teaching volunteers.] Teaching a good lesson to the investigators' needs and actually helping them to see why this Gospel is specifically important for them is way harder than I thought.

Our contacts are within the MTC, to other missionaries usually. We are never allowed to leave the MTC for anything, except to walk to the field for soccer or Temple.

Speaking of soccer a few days ago I got elbowed in the head playing it, and my pupils were different sizes for the rest of the day, and the next morning! It was weird reading too, it made it all blurry. I went to the doctor though, and he wasn't there but the person at the desk just said come back if it gets worse. It got better, don't worry.


BTW I sent dad an email already.

Emily so I hear Syd is in town now and you have girls camp? that should be fun. You'll have to write me all the intricate details, about what your camp shirts looked like and for how many rounds of Big Booty [a clapping coordination game] in a row you maintained the title of Big Booty and what not.

And Mom- thanks for the snell mell. Maybe I'll just have to write you one back. Yes I am keeping a journal, but not every day. Almost every day is exactly the same, give or take about 2 events per day.

Daily Schedule, you say?
Here it is, generally:

Gym: 6:35 am
Breakfast: 8:15
Class:8:45
Large Group Meeting 11:40
Lunch: 1
More Class: 1:45-6
Dinner: 6
Even More Class: 6-9:30

During class, sometimes there is a teacher and sometimes we have Missionary Directed Time, which includes personal study, comp study, language study, contacts, and teaching lessons. Sometimes the schedule switches and we have afternoon gym but that's pretty much it. MDT is free time, but not at all free. We choose what we do, but it has to be what we feel is most productive at that time.

How was the bike ride? that sounds like it could be fun. Thanks for the prayers and for helping me pay and what have you, if you will. Don't steal my money and remind Tom he owes me big time!

Thank you for the package and the pictures! I got everything, and that was the stuff I needed, so thanks! And I'm sure I'll read those talks at some point.

6-11-10 --MTC games and injuries :)

Date: June 11, 2010
Area: Provo MTC
Companion: Elder Ludlow


As always, Lori's remarks are in [brackets]...

6-11-10

Hey guys! This week has been good.. the enter button doesn't work and every time you hit a period it makes two dots.. but anyways.. [I made paragraphs for him :)]

This past week has gone soo slowly, with classes/meals/gym/study time/meetings all day every day.. Today is the only day with more than like an hour of free time.. I taught the district the game ninja destruction, so we've been playing that a lot during time we have off.. pretty fun game..


We set a lot of goals last week as a district and companionship, and we were able to accomplish most of them.. Goals like 10 contacts a day in english with some short lesson, 5 more in portuguese, usually just a testimony because i can't communicate much more than that yet.. But we have learned a lot of new things, now we know the present and preterit tenses for all regular verbs and like 15 irregulars.. We don't learn any vocab in class, so we pretty much have to figure that all out on our own.. Elder Ludlow and I have taught several lessons, one of our goals is practice two full lessons a day.. It's a lot harder to teach a missionary lesson to someone who knows nothing about our church than I thought..

The Spirit is very strong here, it is nice.. And i got to go to the temple again today..

That's awesome catherine is in hawaii.. when she gets back remind her to write the missionaries at a [single adult activity]!

I've heard from Juker, but not Rex.. [friends who are also about to go on missions] I'll see him this wednesday though when he gets to the MTC.. I don't think my visa will come soon.. Nobody has got one for several weeks and some people have been here for 5 weeks longer than me, waiting..

My companion is really funny, we get along well.. we joke all the time, and make boring things fun.. For example, we have to climb up 5 stories every time we go to class and 4 stories every time we go to our rooms, so now every time we are at the top we try to drop pens down the middle (in between the handrails) and see how many flights we can get them to fall before they hit the side.. The current record is 5 flights, held by me, of course..

I'm gonna send you guys some pictures, they'll be printed out tomorrow..

I met Matt's brother here, who is going to Boise ID, and he's just as funny as Matt, so i've talked with him a few times.. [Matt is a friend of Jon’s from BYU-Hawaii who is currently serving a mission in Arcadia, California]

Is Father's Day this sunday? I sent a card but it won't be there sunday.. Oh well.. [Good thing it will be here by Father’s Day, since it’s NOT this Sunday :) ]

This week our district has been going to the field most days to play soccer, District H (my district) versus all.. It's usually pretty even and very fun., although the last 3 days in a row people have gotten injured.. Broken ankle, sprained ankle, Soccer ball to the face causing profuse bleeding.. But that is of course what makes it fun.. [ha ha]

[Speaking of injuries…and if you’re at all squeamish, you might want to skip this paragraph!] My friend from Hawaii, Elder Finch, was here going to Rio de Janeiro mission, but he had to go home to get a finger amputated.. I talked to him today, and he's not an Elder anymore, and he got his ring finger removed and his pinky moved up to where the ring finger used to be.. He had already been here ten weeks so as soon as he is able he will fly straight to Brazil..

Elder [Robert D.] Hales of the [Quorum of the] 12 [Apostles] [see photo at left] spoke to us on sunday about sacrifices and obedience.. And the guy who wrote [the song] “Our Saviors Love” spoke to us and I went up after and told him cath plays it [on her cello] so he said “God Bless her..”

So yeah my time is running out now so i will go..

6-4-10 First Full Week at MTC

Date: June 04, 2010
Area: Provo MTC
Companion: Elder Ludlow


P DAY [Preparation Day] IS ON FRIDAY, LAST WEEK WAS JUST WEIRD CUZ IT WAS THE FIRST WEEK.
YEAH TIME GOES BY VERY SLOWLY NOW. IT SEEMS LIKE EACH AFTERNOON IS A DIFFERENT DAY THAN THAT MORNING.

Answers to questions from home (Jon's answers are in ALL CAPS):

Have you been able to go to the temple yet?
YES I WENT THROUGH THE PROVO TEMPLE THIS MORNING. IT WAS A LONG SESSION... BUT IT WAS GREAT. WE WALK THERE EVERY SUNDAY JUST FOR FUN, AND ATTEND EVERY FRIDAY ON PDAY.

About how many Brazilian-bound missionaries are there at the MTC or do you know? I'M NOT SURE, BUT ALL 14 IN MY DISTRICT ARE GOING TO BRAZIL AND MAYBE ABOUT TEN MORE. MY COMPANION IS GOING TO MACEIÓ WHICH IS RIGHT BELOW RECIFE. TODAY ONE OF THE ELDERS GOING TO JOÃO PESSOA GOT CALLED TO THE TRAVEL OFFICE AND HE WILL LEAVE TOMORROW FOR SÃO PAULO. STILL NO WORD ON MOST OF OUR VISAS HOWEVER.

Have you met the sister who's going to Recife? YEAH I MET HER SHE'S COOL.

Will all of your district travel together, or will you guys just leave when your own visas get there? I GUESS WE JUST LEAVE WHEN OUR VISAS GET HERE, ONE BY ONE... SO HOPEFULLY I'M NOT LAST!

How was Sunday? SUNDAY WAS VERY GOOD. OUR BRANCH INCLUDES ABOUT 60 PEOPLE, ALL PORTUGUESE SPEAKING, ALTHOUGH MANY ARE GOING TO PORTUGAL, MOZAMBIQUE, CAPE VERDE, AND BOSTON. SUNDAY WAS THE DAY THAT FELT LEAST LIKE A SUNDAY OUT OF ALL THE DAYS I'VE BEEN HERE. WE HAD A LOT MORE FREE (SORTA, YOUR STILL SUPPOSED TO BE STUDYING) TIME. OUR BRANCH PRESIDENT IS BRAZILIAN AND HE'S COOL. WE GET A FEW SHORT TALKS IN PORTUGUESE EVERY WEEK. EVERY ELDER IN THE BRANCH HAS TO PREPARE ONE, THEN DURING SACRAMENT MEETING THE BRANCH PRESIDENT CALLS ON A FEW PEOPLE TO COME UP AND GIVE IT.


Can you tell us a bit more about Elder Ludlow or any of the other missionaries in your district? MY DISTRICT IS ALL WHITE AMERICAN GUYS. ELDER LUDLOW IS COOL AND VERY FUNNY, WE GET ALONG WELL. I'M SR COMPANION SO I USUALLY CALL THE SHOTS, WHICH IS WHAT HE PREFERS ANYWAYS. THERE'S AN ELDER IN THE DISTRICT WHO WENT TO BYU-HAWAII FOR THE LAST YEAR AND SEVERAL FROM BYU AND A FEW FROM BYU-IDAHO.

Any sisters in your district? NOPE THERE AREN'T SISTERS IN MY DISTRICT, THEY ARE IN THE OTHER DISTRICT. I'M GLAD THOUGH BECAUSE THEY SEEM TO DISTRACT THOSE ELDERS A LITTLE.

Any interesting stories that Irmão Harward or Irma Early [MTC teachers] have told you? YEAH LOTS OF INTERESTING STORIES. BROTHER HARWARD IS AWESOME, I CAN TELL HE WAS AN AMAZING MISSIONARY. HE TELLS US LOTS OF FUNNY STORIES. FOR EXAMPLE HE SAID THAT LOTS OF KIDS WOULD ALWAYS SAY, IN PORTU, "SPEAK ENGLISH, YOU GERMAN!" AND HE WOULD SAY "GO AWAY" AND THEY WOULD GET EXCITED AND YELL BECAUSE HE SPOKE ENGLISH.

SO MOST OF MY PORTUGUESE KNOWLEDGE IS ABOUT CHURCH STUFF (PRAYING, SHARING WHAT I BELIEVE) BESIDES STUFF TOM TAUGHT ME (PAYDAY HAHA). WE HAVE BARELY LEARNED ANY GRAMMAR, BUT CONJUGATIONS ARE VERY SIMILAR TO SPANISH. SO THAT IS HELPING. IT IS SOMETIMES KIND OF ANNOYING WHEN THEY WANT US TO MEMORIZE PHRASES RATHER THAN FIND OUT AND CREATE SENTENCES OF OUR OWN. BUT IT IS WORKING ANYWAYS...

TOM HOW WAS YOUR SHOOTING AND "LONGBOARDING" WITH MY BOARD? THATS COOL YOUR CAR HAS THE CHIP. YOU SHOULD DRIVE BY ABOUT 6:35 AM TO SEE ME PLAYING SOCCER! JUST KIDDING WE NEVER PLAY SOCCER WHEN WE HAVE GYM IN THE MORNING, AND WE USUALLY HAVE IT IN THE MORNING. THE GRASS IS TOO WET. WE HAVE A PULL-UP BAR IN THE RESIDENCE AND ELDER LUDLOW HAS PERFECT PUSHUP SO NEEDLESS TO SAY I'M GETTING RIPPED. NOT. BUT I DID 18 PULLUPS YESTERDAY : )

[Jon forgot to take his yellow fever vaccination card with him, so we had his grandparents who were visiting here take it back with them to Provo and drop it off at the MTC.] Regarding this, Jon wrote: YES I GOT THE YELLOW CARD FROM G AND G. TELL THEM THANK YOU, PLEASE! IT WAS ACTUALLY FUNNY BECAUSE THEY CALLED MY NAME ON THE MTC-WIDE LOUDSPEAKER AND WE ALL THOUGHT THAT MY VISA HAD COME, SO MY WHOLE DISTRICT WAS EXCITED AND WENT TO THE FRONT DESK WITH ME, BUT IT ENDED UP JUST BEING A DANG YELLOW FEVER CARD.

I THINK I MIGHT SEND SOME STUFF HOME, BECAUSE MY SUITCASE WILL BE TOO HEAVY IF NOT. WELLP IF I DON'T SEND THIS SOON, THE PROGRAM WILL EXIT AND I WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SEND IT TILL NEXT WEEK!

LOVE

Elder Hooke

PS COULD YOU SEND ME "DEAR ELDER" LETTERS RATHER THAN EMAILING ME? I'LL STILL RESPOND TO YOUR QUESTIONS BUT AT LEAST READING YOUR EMAIL WON'T BE USING MY PRECIOUS 30 MINUTES ON EMAIL. THANKS!

5-29-10 First Real Letter From the MTC

Date: May 29, 2010
Area: Provo MTC
Companion: Elder Ludlow

Dear family of mine,

Tudo bem aqui. Days drag on forever here, you are always busy. We sometimes study for 4 hours straight, eat a meal, then keep studying. I never even did that when I was in school, not even close. When we think back to something we did in the morning that morning, it seems like days ago. I'm Not even exaggerating, It is really strange. It's not that bad here. It is pretty much what I expected, a little bit
of exercise, just enough time to stuff ourselves for every single meal,
and a ton of studying and church meetings. The buildings are often
really hot so it is miserable in a suit during meetings. I sweat here
more in meetings than i do in gym in the morning. Can't wait for Brazil
weather...

My companion is Elder Brad Ludlow from Riverton, Utah. He is very nice and humble. He is always willing to work and no one complains in our whole district. He is the first missionary from his family. My district is really cool. 14 missionaries, all from the U.S., about half from UT. We just played an intense game of soccer and my district dominated. There hasn't been a set schedule yet, usually we have had gym in the morning and I run and play basketball. But today it was a nice afternoon gym time so we went to the field to play futbol! There are more people here then there were at BYU Hawaii by a couple hundred, and the cafeteria is almost exactly the same. Even some girl who I always saw in the cafeteria at BYUH I now always see in the one here! The food is better though, in my opinion, and to this point most people are happy with it. I could definitely see why people gain weight here because it is all full of fat and sugar, and everyone eats till they are full every meal.

We haven't spent too long on the language yet, but so far I can introduce myself and do basic greeting stuff, share my testimony (although only about things in our little missionary Portuguese book nicknamed the green lizard), and say a prayer, also using phrases from the green lizard. But I can understand a lot of Portuguese, especially for just a few days here. Spanish helps with vocab, but makes it harder to get used to pronunciation.

They said as soon as our visas come we will be transferred to São Paulo. Our teacher also said he is pretty confident that our visas won't come very soon. Our teachers are Irmão [Brother] Harward who served in João Pessoa [Brazil] and got back a year ago, and Irma [Sister] Early who served in Portugal. There is only one other person in the MTC going to Recife that I know of, and she is not in our district. A few of my friends from BYU-H are here, so it's been nice to be able to catch up with them.

[Photo: Irmão Harward and Jon]  
Right now I am doing laundry and the time to email is running out! I love you guys, I guess [inside family joke]. Thanks for supporting me on my mission.

Elder Hooke