Letter from Elder Dallin 5/28/2012

These are excerpts from a letter from Elder Dallin:

We're finishing at the MTC by July 17 because apparently the way we're learning is fast enough that we'll be able to teach by that time - we still get exactly 9 weeks here, to the day (I did the math with another elder here) and I won't be going to the Philippines MTC, that is strictly for locals.

The other day, I heard that the CIA comes here to the MTC to try and find out how we learn languages so fast.  They let the CIA take copies of this and that, but the CIA can't seem to figure it out.  I guess they don't realize the spiritual aspect or the incentive to learn the language that we have here.  The CIA coming her makes sense though.  They go to recruit at BYU because return missionaries (RM's) are the perfect candidates for it: they often know another language; they're hones and loyal (often previous Boy Scouts); don't drink, smoke, or gamble; etc, etc.

One of my roommates last night randomly asked for a bedtime story - a fishing story.  I was only too happy to oblige; he asked me to tell about a normal fishing day.  I proceeded to explain that the fishing is open from 7am-7pm, so Dad would wake us up at 4am and we would go down to the dock down the hill from our house and get a skiffride to the boat ("skiff" - a metal boat with an outboard put on the back) and we would take the tarp off the net which is wrapped around the huge reel about 4 feet in diameter on the sides and 5 feet wide, then we would head out to the inlet after getting about 100 gallons of gas and a 3.5 x 4 x 4 foot tote of ice.  As we would head out at 5 or 6am, I would have to try and stay awake to check for salmon jumping or "jumpers".

That's about as far as I got before they decided that we needed to get to sleep.  Now whenever they have any questions, they remind each other, "Hey! That's for tonight, remember?!"  Because it has now been made a nightly ritual in our room for me to tell about days of commercial fishing.  If we ever finish with that, I'll start telling them about Bristol Bay!