First Impressions

"Hi there!

Last week I safely arrived in Provo, in the Missionary Training Center (MTC). Let me tell you: 'MURICA IS AWESOME! They have extremely greasy food, big mountains and lots o' space in here...

But it's been a great first week here in the MTC. I already know some Japanese, but I'm still clunky as heck. Demo daijobu. Just give it time...

So as a missionary, you're assigned to a district and a douryou (companion), right? My district is awesome! They're such good people! The senkyoushitachi (missionaries) in my district are:

My companionship (Anyanwu-chourou and I), the "tripanionship" (Hansen-chourou, Monson-chourou and Allbright-chourou) and two sister companionships (Hood-shimai and Fuller-shimai, Cox-shimai and Magalogo-shimai).

(Chourou = Elder, Shimai = Sister. Elder Santos = Santos-chourou)

Hansen-chourou is the district leader. He has a sincere heart and he's also pretty funny. He likes cats. So much, in fact, that he starts to act like one in our residence halls (or dorms). It's so funny! He also gives good massages, I guess...? Ii chourou desu!

Monson-chourou is super awesome too. He sleeps alot during class, even though he sleeps enough in his own bed. He is a very smart guy, has very sharp senses (especially for the spirit, when reading in the Morumon-shou). He likes a good laugh, though.

Allbright-chourou is bit more silent, but he can make the whole class laugh just like that! He is very sincere and very friendly. I really like this guy.

Oh, these chouroutachi all come from the States (Washington, California, Vegas respectively).

Hood-shimai is super cool. She's from Hawaii and has the 'tude, y' know what I'm sayin'? She's very friendly and she's good at Japanese. Like, really good.

Fuller-shimai is very collected and calm -- very focused. She cares a lot about how her study and really wants to give it her all. Very kind. She's so friendly!! (She's from Recksburg...? I can't spell.)

Cox-shimai is also very focused. When it's break-time, however, she breaks loose in somewhat "loud" conversations with her doryou, Magalogo-shimai. She is very true to the rules. Righteous!

Magalogo-shimai is from New Zealand. She has some Dutch roots, though she can only say "Van harte gefeliciteerd". Very friendly, has a very kind heart, I like her.

And now about my doryou... Anyanwu-chourou. He's from Sweden. Knows four languages: Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and English. He and I, we're the legendary European companionship.

He's very cool and very "liberal", as he calls it. A bit stubborn. And he didn't seem to care about the rules. He still has a lot of difficulty. To be honest, we didn't have a good start. We clashed a bit in our interests and ideas. I was really worried that it would never work out between us: cooperation was so hard. But you know, it's getting better. He actually cares a lot about his friends and family. His heart is in the right place. We're getting there. Don't worry.

The Japanese districts and groups are all huge nerds and I really feel at home here, haha! The language resources are even named after Pokemon and Japanese words and names. Our small lesson guide is called "Ninja", and our useless dictionary is called "Magikarp". Oh, and Pesci-chourou, our zone leader, is crazy awesome. He is super funny and keeps telling us he is the "example you should NOT follow". He has a huge Pokemon sticker book and he "assigns" Pokemon stickers to new senyoushitachi, judging by their appearance, hobbies and characters. I got Smeargol. Those of you who know me and are Pokemon-adepts may know why. For those of you who don't: One time I was making this sick drawing of Super Mario on our classroom's chalkboard, when Pesci-chourou dropped by to say hello to all of us newbies. He had a seizure, caused by the awesomeness of my picture. He asked me to draw him. And then I drew him. He was ecstatic. He then said: "Screw it! You get the painty pokemon!!" And that's how I got Smeargol. Yep. And now there's like six more drawing requests from different senkyoushitachi. Got a busy schedule.

There's still a lot more to cover, but that, my friends... is a story for another time. See you next week. Stay well!

~Santos-chourou"