Languages R Fun-E

Learning a language after age 60 is tough. But I gain some hope of functionality by thinking back on the experience of going through the language acquisition process a few times.

When we moved to Brasil in 1996, we wanted to bake chocolate-chip cookies, partly for a taste of home and partly to share a USAmerican classic with our neighbors.  Brasil has good chocolate, because of the many German and Italian immigrants who settled there.  I understood that chocolate chips per se would not be available, but if I could just find a bar of semi-sweet chocolate, I could cut it into bits.

photo courtesy Jamison Judd

I spent weeks wandering the abundant chocolate aisle in the large grocery store at the mall, with no luck.  Then one day, the phrase "meia amargo" caught my attention. Half bitter rather that half sweet. They looked at it a different way! Larrge bars were available and I was able to chop it into pieces to bake cookies.

Before going to Brasil, we took a semester of Portuguese at the University  of Florida.  I was in the class at 7:30 a.m. and Sanford at 8:30.  Every weekday morning I would throw my bike on the back of Sanford's car, and drive as far as his lab, pulling the bike off and cycling into Matherly Hall.  After my lesson, I would hurry out and meet him.  He would have the younger girls (age 2 and 4) buckled into their carseats in the other car, and I would hand him the book and bike.  I would drive home and he would go to class in McCarty Hall, then cycle back to work, bring the bike home, and we would do it all again, Five days a week.

One of the first things our Brasileira teacher taught us was that they are not firm about things.  Never answer a question with yes or no, always couch it as "acho que sim" or "acho que não."  Some folks from church had kindly invited us for a meal and the mom asked if I wanted a second slice of chicken torte.  I said no.  Just no.  Failing to answer properly.  She looked like I had slapped her across the face.  I understood immediately what I had done, and tried to answer properly from then on.

One comfort in struggling with a new language was the universal appeal of music and dance. During our time in Brasil, our stake at church was holding a worldwide celebration of the women's organization, and our congregation had been assigned Japan. More than a dozen auditioned to be one of the four fan dancers.

I followed the moves of the leader.  Maybe she was giving oral instructions, but her body was like my body and the words didn't matter.  I just did what she did.  At one point we turned around, and that is when I saw that most of the room had stopped dancing, and was staring at me.  (Thanks for those ballet lessons in elementary school, mom.)

It was a great experience, because I got to know the other three women in the fan dance and they made sure that I understood when and where rehearsals would be. And I could finally find a way to contribute to our congregation.

My dancing days over, but maybe we can find some way to contribute to our congregation in Indonesia, even with my imperfect Indonesian speech.

Terangi Dunia!

As we prepare for our mission, there are so many moving pieces:  The language is taking up the most time, but we also have to worry about clothing, health issues, retirement paperwork, legal concerns, preparing our house...the list seems endless.

But in the midst of all this, spiritual preparation is also crucial.  Because our entire purpose for making this trip is spreading the good news of the Gospel.


So we are grateful for the timing of our church's annual "Light the World" campaign, with emphasis on finding ways to emulate the example of Jesus Christ and thus become better neighbors and friends. It is a great reminder of what kind of preparation should be our priority.

It is interesting that the Indonesian version uses the word "Terang" for the verb "light."  Terang's first definition is "bright" so some may read it as "brightening the world," which is also a great way to look at the acts of kindness encouraged by this effort.  The word can also means "vivid, clear, luminous, flaring."

Because Indonesia sits on the equator, there is only about 12 hours of daylight, year round. Much more darkness than our home in Florida.  In a land where people must often settle for the dingy light of a candle or flickering dim bulb, reference to "brightness" makes the message clear.  Hopefully we can continue to share that message for the 18 months that we are privileged to serve in Indonesia.

Here is the link to today's video in bahasa Indonesia.

(Not) Opening Our Mission Call Letter

Opening a mission call letter is a big deal in Mormon culture.  But ours didn't happen the way one sees on YouTube.

Our stake president was kind enough to drive in to Gainesville early on the morning of Sunday, July 30 to interview us before we headed out to Sanford's speaking assignment in Chiefland.

We knew the paperwork had been submitted, because we heard from mission medical.  Sanford had to redo his urinalysis.  Also, they were concerned because a drug I sometimes use is not available in Indonesia.  And then the phone calls stopped and all we had to do was wait.

Three weeks later we flew up to Salt Lake City, to join the Woodbury clan at the Lovell Ranch in Idaho for an amazing view of the eclipse.  The next week, I decided as an act of faith to start the Hepatitis A & B vaccine series, which takes six months.  The week after that, we left on vacation to Europe to see our daughter and her family.

We were told it would take about six weeks, to get our mission call.  As it happened, both the Labor Day weekend and Hurricane Irma intervened.  Intellectually, we knew that was the likely reason for delay, but it was still worrisome.

This picture overlooking Prague was taken right before our phones buzzed.

We talked about going to New Jersey instead of Indonesia, and feeling good about the opportunity to serve wherever we were needed.  We worried that we had been turned down entirely and our stake president would break it to us when we got back.  And we waited.

About that time, Hurricane Irma took a wrong turn seeming to head for Gainesville, so we were watching CNN, texting and calling home.  And in between discussions about generators and safe parking places, we also asked about the mail.  Nothing.

Then on the afternoon of Tuesday, September 12, when we were touring Prague Castle, our cell phones buzzed and we both had messages from Missionary Medical, "Congratulations on your call to serve! ...you appear to have adequate health coverage where you have been called to serve."

But where is that?  So that was our first confirmation of a mission call.

We flew home a few days later, and the very next day after we got back, Sanford went off to St. Augustine to help with storm cleanup from the hurricane. When I went out to the mailbox, there were two large white envelopes from missionary travel.   Sanford called me on the phone during the afternoon, and at his agreement, I opened my envelope, which included very detailed instructions for a visa application to Indonesia and our reservation information for a flight from Salt Lake City to Jakarta, Indonesia.

Still no idea as to when we would report to the Missionary Training Center (MTC), etc.

That was Saturday, September 16, and that evening we decided to write our stake president and mission president and bishop to see if anyone could tell us about the status of our call.  Well, Indonesia is 12 hours ahead of the US, so it was Sunday morning there and the mission president called us immediately.  He sent us a .pdf copy of the letters, which were dated on August 26.  He also told us about the online information, in which most everything is available that would have come with the packet itself.

Mission call packet

One of my first steps was to contact the MTC about setting up our online language training.  On Tuesday, September 19, Sanford helped a friend through surgery and he was recovering in our family room, so I set up a table in the living room for a Skype orientation with a language coordinator at the MTC.

That same afternoon the paper letters and packet with our official mission call also arrived.

Because Indonesian is not a common language, it took another month for the MTC to find a tutor, who we met with for the first time on October 18.  He has been very helpful.

Sanford finally got the first shot for the Hepatitis A & B series after we heard about going to Indonesia.  He will take the third/final shot on the day we leave for Indonesia.

So that's how we finally got our mission call.  We think of it as a unique experience, and we will always remember Hurricane Irma and Prague.

Called to Indonesia

We will be going to Indonesia in March 2018, called to serve for 18 months as Member and Leader Support (MLS) missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

It is an amazing place.

Sanford had the privilege of serving his first mission there in the 1970s, and we have been back to visit in 2010 and 2015.

We are looking forward to living and working among these people.