Tuesday, August 23, 2011

4th Pday letter (MTC Week 5)

Heyo!!!

Well I have to say that things are going MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH better this week. It was pretty freaking awesome to say the least!

But yes it is a good week to be alive and I have a bunch of fun experiences to tell you all about :) SO let's get right down to it!

First off, things with Miller 장로님 are so much better! We were able to talk on Wednesday and do our "Companionship Inventory." Probably one of the most useful things that I have received in the MTC is the charge to do that. It really does make my life infinitely easier. The two of us sat down and basically just "blew up" at each other. We talked through everything that was going on between us and now we are pretty much best buds I would say. We get along much better than we did and it shows! It shows in our teaching, it shows in how we study, it shows in class, it is just awesome to think that a little one hour venting session cleared both of our heads and helped us reset where we were in our relationship. It is so cool to have my companion/best bud back.

제가 한국아를 ???발리??? 배우고있습니다. 하지마 이것은 어렵습니다!! So ya pretty much I am learning quickly, but it's hard. I'm not sure if I spelled quickly right (hence the ???????) but ya it is coming along. I am finding that I can say more and more with each passing day. We are trying really hard to have a huge push on the language speaking so HOPEFULLY things will start to come a little bit faster than they were before! I have had a ton of opportunities to practice talking with the 한국살암. They are so COOL! SO much fun to talk to and talk with :). I was talking to Park 장로님 and he told me about what dictionary I should get when I get to Korea. He said it was the iRiver, according to him there are a ton of missionaries who have it and they are all totally pleased with it. So ya that is something that I am gonna need when I get there but for now I have my handy dandy Handi Dictionary. It is pretty nice if I do say so myself. Although we are recently discovering that the dictionary we have is racist. We were looking for some words that we needed for lessons and such and came across some totally sketchy stuff. It is no good, but life goes on haha!

My glasses are working just fine now. I got the chance to get out on Friday/Saturday (unfortunately I can't remember which. Is that sad??) and get my glasses. They are working like new. It is so nice to have some good glasses once again. Especially since I don't have to try and pop the lenses out every morning so I can readjust the frame to make it not retarded on my face. THAT is always nice ^_^. So ya glasses are sick, I can see once again. Contacts are nice cause I can now play 배구 and 논구 in my contacts so they aren't falling off all the time. That is always fun :)

Ya, so to the letters that I have gotten, I have some responses:

First to Mom;
That is so exciting about Jeremiah and Boyd coming in tomorrow. I remembered Jeremiah was coming but I COMPLETELY forgot about Boyd!!! AHHHH I feel horrible, but It is nuts that it came so quickly WOW. Sounds like they are both ready to be here. I am sure that it is going to be a bit of a shock for both of them (especially Boyd) but that they will love it. It is so cool here, like Dad has said a couple times, there is an awesome spirit in this place. I hope the girls are super excited for school and frankly it sounds like they are. They will have SO much fun especially Kellie-- a stinking Freshman in HIGH SCHOOL. Gah, that is scary. Only thing that is more scary than that is that Jenna graduates next year and is driving. Quite honestly I am glad that I am off the roads, I will make sure to pray for everyone in Jenna's path ^_^ Love ya sis!

Next off to Grandpa Gresko:
I was so excited to get your letter yesterday, it was so good to hear from you! You are definitely right I have had to work DANG hard on my Korean, honestly it still is really bad haha! I have the words in my head someplace but I just have to go find all of them and then there is the problem of putting it all together. That in and of itself is another miracle. Korean grammar is RETARDED. Here, let me give you a little example. Basic sentence structure is as follows:

Time/Subject/Secondary Subject/Place/(Adjective +) Indirect Object/(Adjective +) Direct Object/Adverbs/Helping Verbs/Verb

So ya it is wonderful trying to make sentences that work. Hopefully one of these days I'll actually get it but I really don't know. Glad to hear things are going well for you down in the good old AZ, I hope you continue to have fun down there and remember your grandson is praying for you :) In Korean of course!

Nater:
Dude it was awesome to hear from you, glad to hear y'all are hanging on. Life is rough sometimes; I am sure if you're faithful that things will be good. Glad to hear ASU is lookin alright :) BYU is where I'm at but frankly I am not a football guy. I just want the dang NBA lockout to be done ;) I WANT SOME NBA NEWS!!!! haha. Well, ya man stay strong! And ya, your guitar is at my house, just ask my Mom, she'll know :)

Shannon:
I will write you a letter considering my companion is done. No worries :)

So ya I will send another email in a couple of hours telling about my experiences here. I have some more time so when I do laundry I will hop on a computer and tell about my experiences. Love you all and I hope to hear from you soon!

P.S. Thanks for all of the letters that I've been getting, some days they are the thing that gets me through the day so thank you :). Love you all!

(an hour later)

So ya um, dear everyone.... Again :)
So I actually got more time right now so I figured I would tell about a couple experiences that I have had since last week :)

First off, Miller 장로 and I committed one of our investigators to baptism! It was so SICK!!!! AHHHHHH I can't even tell you how awesome that was :) We have had an awesome time teaching and everything and it just felt right so we did it. :)

Secondly, an experience that I had yesterday! I was in class and our teacher decided that we were going to go outside and just go off "by ourselves" (within about 15 feet of my 동반자) and just sit down and talk to God. So I did, I just sat down and started praying. I asked my Heavenly Father about my mission, about how I was doing, about what I could do better, and how I could better prepare myself for 한국아. As I was praying, I literally just asked my Father in Heaven: "How am I doing?" And I paused and waited, the warmth and the peace and the happiness that I felt was indescribable. I just was in a state of awe as I had a prayer of mine answered in such a powerful way that I started crying and laughing! I just was so stinking happy to be where I was and to be doing what I am doing. It was literally one of the most amazing things that has happened to me since I've been out here.

I have started to read that book that Dad gave me: "Drawing down the powers of heaven" (or something of that nature) and I am trying to follow the principles that are in there and I am trying to talk to my district about how we can better use Heaven's help in our district. It has been amazing to see the blessings that have come as I have simply tried to pray more focused and sincerely. As I learn how to ask for blessings and how to get answers, I have seen the answers come and I know they are from God! It is so cool GAH I can't even describe it. I am so happy to be here on my mission and I am loving every single minute of it :).

Lastly, I wanted to bear my testimony again I will try and spell it all right this time but no guarantees. Translating it on Google Translate doesn't help if I don't do it right haha :)

저는 이복음이 잠되다는 것을 알고있습니다. 저는 예수 그리스도가 우리의 죄를 위해 속죄해습니다. 몰몬경 잠됩니다. 제가 제의 구주 사랑합니다. 제가 제의 한을에 계신 아버지을 사랑합니다! 예수 그리스도의 이름으로 간증드립니다 임멘.

Note from Kris: this is what Google Translate said for what Josh wrote above:
I know that half-tone jamdoedaneun. I am Jesus Christ, the atonement for our sins hasbeen. Jamdoepnida Book of Mormon. I love offer nine weeks. I love the Father willhaneule offer! Immen testify in the name of Jesus Christ.

Looks like he still has a few things to learn, but it's coming!

2 comments:

  1. My boys love his letters every time we read them. They laugh at his antics and how he says Dude and other such terms all the time.

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  2. He wouldn't be Josh without all the "so ya" and "sick" - it make me laugh, too!

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