Padre,
I sent you two pictures. One of which is
a close-up of my tag to answer what the white thing on the bottom of my name
tag is. Basically, I'm in a pilot program called SYL which stands for Speak
Your Language. There are five steps to this program and they are:
1. Try in the language first.
They want you to try saying whatever it is that
you are trying to say in Italian so that way you are applying what you know all
the time.
2. Use what you know
Don't feel like if you cant say it in Italian
you shouldn't say it at all. Use as much Italian as you can but mix in the
words that you don't with your native language.
3. Ask permission
If you just don't know how to say anything you
want to in Italian, ask permission to speak in English or your native
tongue
4. Find out how
Ask how to say those words in Italian and then
work on remembering them for next time
5. Do something more
What can /will you do to make sure this doesn't
happen again? How will you better study and learn the language?
It's supposed to get us in the mindset
of using our mission languages all the time and then after about three to four
weeks, we are only supposed to be using our mission languages to communicate
with our teachers, the investigators that the MTC brings in form outside or
calls on Skype that we teach for twenty minutes in Italian (We start those
calls in about four days) and members who just want to be of help to the church
and let missionaries teach them. They come in for workshops and we get
critiqued on how to better connect with people, how to turn any situation into
a contacting one and how to tun almost any rejection into an opportunity for a
pass along card or an invitation to visit LDS or Mormon.org.
I'm able to read my emails everyday
because when I got here, I was given and I-pad. They want us that will have
devices on our missions to start learning how to use them here in the MTC so
that we will be more effective in the field and not have to wait for a few
months before we are able to effectively use and incorporate them into our
lessons. So send emails anytime during the week and I'll be glad to get
them.
In my district there are 9 missionaries
that are headed to Italy. I sent you a picture of all of us as well. Three of
the Nine if us are headed to Rome, and that would be myself, my companion and
the Elder who is in the middle of the picture with the blue tie. in total there
about 23 missionaries headed to Italy, seven going to Rome and the rest to
Milan.
Anziano De La Rosa and I are getting
along ok, and we are both working on our Italian so that we can better hold a
conversation, or just a conversation at all. I've been teaching him English and
he's been correcting my pronunciation of Italian words and "giving you an
accent that isn't so Americano". I appreciate his concern and am working
as hard as I can to learn a language that is so different from my own.
Also, in other news, my black shoes
finally stopped giving me blisters and hurting my feet. And, the other day as I
was walking to class, I was called to by first name by a missionary that used
to come to our house when you were Ward Mission Leader. I didn't catch his name
or rather I don't remember it. But I thought it would be fun to tell you that
he remembers us and is excited to hear that we moved. We didn't talk long
because I had class but he said it was fun getting to know us. Also, the Fourth
of July away from home was interesting because we obviously couldn't stay up
until 12 watching the fireworks but we couldn't sleep because of the fireworks.
I got to see a few para-sailors jump out of a plane and trail with a blaze of
sparks for about two minutes. It was fun but bittersweet because I won't be
able to watch those again until I get back from Italy. The have fireworks there
but they don't use as many of them or as often. I have only one question for
you and that is: What can I do to better learn the language? Rather, what did
you do to better learn the language?
Ciao for now!
Anziano Anderson.
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