Hi everyone!
I started my mission for the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints this past Wednesday.
I was “set apart” as a missionary Tuesday
night with my direct family (parents and siblings) with grandparents over Zoom.
Along with this I am now referred to as “Elder Butikofer”.
Since then, I have been the busiest I have
ever been—and I have worked jobs where you put in over 50 hours a week and been
through college finals. I am currently at the Missionary Training Center or
what is affectionately called “the MTC”. There is a new group of missionaries
that starts every 3 weeks (the duration you stay is according to your language
you are learning. Native speakers leave after 3 weeks, most languages are after
6 weeks, and hard languages [think Korean or Mandarin or other character-based
languages] leave after 9 weeks) The group I started with has around 370
missionaries. From that group we are separated into districts according to the
language you are learning. Since I am going to Angola, I am with 6 other
missionaries that are learning Continental Portuguese (the Portuguese that is
spoken in Portugal, Angola, Mozambique, and Cape Verde).
Because of the pandemic I am just attending
classes over Zoom. I spend 7-8 hours a day in class. That includes classes with
my district on how to plan and teach, workshops with all the missionaries on
various topics, and language classes (both with my district and individual
tutoring). I also have two hours of personal study each day—one of my choosing
and one specifically for Portuguese. But wait, there is more! The last
structured meetings I have each day are with my companions. Missionaries are
always assigned a companion to do everything with (more about mine soon). Each
morning I have companion planning (30 minutes) and companion study (an hour).
Starting this next Thursday I will also have two 30-minute lessons to teach a
day with my companion. So far, the best words I have to describe this schedule
are “exhausting,” “overwhelming,” and fulfilling.”
As promised, I will talk about my companions.
Yes, companions. Typically, missionaries are a couple, two, duas. However, I am
lucky enough to have two companions. I have been working with Elder Livingston
(a quiet Chicago boy with the voice of Morgan Freeman) and Elder Reil
(basically think of me if I was from Canada and several inches taller). They
have been called to the Portugal Lisbon and the Mozambique Beira missions,
respectively. I honestly love these two. The amount of self-motivated study and
planning that we have already accomplished in just 3 days astounds me.
The only real negative I have had from this
experience has been the scheduling, We have people in my district that are
Zooming in from 4 different time zones, and with such a packed schedule we’ve
all had to compromise a little. My “lunch break” is between 3 and 4 in the
afternoon (less than ideal). I have meetings (companion planning) starting at
8:30 each day, and poor Elder Livingston (who lives a time zone back) starts at
7:30.
Ok, I think I gave a decent overview of my
experience over the past 4 days.
Because of my time constraints and mission
rules I am unable to call most people that are not my parents, but I would be
happy to get any and all emails. I can be reached at jonas.butikofer@misisonary.org While I
can read emails throughout the week, I am asked to only reply on my preparation
day (“P-day”) which currently is on Saturday.
My spiritual thought is inspired through my
personal study from this week. Since I have read the Book of Mormon numerous
times in my life, I have decided to not read it chronologically but read the
sermons. The one I studied on Friday can be can be found in Alma 10. The
message I got was “God blesses faithful families; he wants to bless all”.
Alright, sorry for the very lengthy email. My
dad promised to swim to Africa and skin me if I wrote short emails (not
really), so I will have to write longer ones while I am still at home for the
next 5 weeks (I do not expect any to be this long in the future).
With love,
Elder Jonas Butikofer
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