5th Pday letter (MTC Week 6) - I like to call the theme of this week's letter "Mom was right."

Well hello there ya´ll!

This week has been full of some crazy stuff that has been goin down so let´s get right down to it shall we?

So to start off: Things with Miller 장로님 [Elder] have been so much better! We have had some really boss lessons and we are really getting close as a companionship so it is quite awesome. We actually were sitting one day right before a teaching appointment and we decided that about 20 mins before our lesson we were going to change it to a lesson about the 몰몬경 [Book of Mormon]:). SOOOO we did. In those 20 mins we prepared a lesson and it ended up being probably the best lesson that we have taught yet! The spirit was there and testified of the 몰몬경의 중요성! [importance of the Book of Mormon] It was SOOOOO cool! We taught for about an hour and it was all Korean with no preplanned lines or anything. It was seriously so cool! It has been nuts teaching with Miller 장로님 we both are getting so much better at the language and it is just so cool.

So the next cool story is actually a TRC story so it is kind of cool. For those who don't know what the TRC is we go into a building where volunteers come and play as investigators! So the last two times that we have done TRC the lessons have been okay, if that, and really I wasn't very proud of our work. But this week was totally different. We went in to see our first investigator (we teach 2) and after we got done we went back to the prep room. As we were chilling in the prep room our instructor came in and told us that one of the investigators in one of the rooms was a real investigator. We all got excited and everything to the realization hit us that one of us 5 companionships would have to go and teach this 자매님. So when it came down to decision time Miller 장로님 and I decided that we were going to take the task and we would "Boldly go where no man/Korean Missionary had gone before." So we got our stuff went into the room and got to work. It was SOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSO cool!!!! AHHHHHHH 재미있습니다!!!! So ya we taught and it was actually easy to speak the language (more of less) and we taught a really good lesson. We commited her to prayer and asked the other volunteer who was with us (a friend of hers) if he would be willing to help us get a 몰몬경 into her possession. He agreed and Miller 장로님 and I both bore testimony and we closed. It was probably the coolest thing that I have done at the MTC yet ahhh. It was pretty freaking sweet if I do say so myself.

Ya so let's see other fun stories..... Hum..... Ah! Ok I got one.

So there have been two sisters in my district who, frankly, have not been getting along. One of the sisters is always injured and so she has to go to physical therapy 3 times a week which (almost always) is scheduled during our class time. Her companion who speaks the language better than anyone in the classroom is frustrated with her constantly because she is always missing class because of physical therapy, therefore, she isn't learning the language. WELL that has been going on for a couple weeks now and recently it has become a big time problem to where they cannot teach as a companionship; they cannot really do much together without getting into arguments. This has been extremely frustrating to me because I was the district leader (I'll explain that in a sec). SO, I talked with the two sisters and tried to get them to sort their differences out (with the help of a zone leader I must add) and ya, nothing good came of that. So yes, we are going to take a slight detour but we'll be right back. So last week they reorganized our branch so that I was the District leader for one more week (got released on Sunday, Miller 장로님 is the new District Leader), Saegers 자매님 [Sister] is the coordinating sister, and Gomez 와 [with] McCausland 장로님 are our Zone leaders so yes. Back to the story, so me and Saegers 자매님 sat down on Sunday and we came up with some big time fixes to the problems. Since we have it seems like they don't fight as much and both the sisters seem to be a little happier (or at least they were yesterday). So yes that has been interesting, but yes.

The language is starting to come, I've found that I am becoming increasingly more and more thankful to Mme. Bohn for teaching me French and my Mother for forcing me to actually try. I am having tons of opportunities to speak French here at the MTC and because of that, I am learning what things I need to learn how to say in Korean to become a better speaker. It has been nuts, I actually DREAMED in Korean.... Ok well.... I was speaking Korean in my dream, it was mostly English though BUT STILL that is progress. To be perfectly honest, in the last 3 days I've spoken about 60% English 20% Korean and 20% French. It has been so cool, although I am frustrated because I sometimes catch myself speaking French during teaching appointments because my mind will go into what I'm going to call "Different Language Mode." Any word that if it doesn't come to my mind in about .5 seconds automatically gets replaced by a French one and if I get one French word I will usually have to finish the statement in French. This can get confusing sometimes in my head as I sometimes have to translate from French to Korean which is definitely not something that I was expecting, but hey, life goes on. I shall report more on the language in coming weeks as we are having a huge SYL push this week (SYL = Speak Your Language). Hopefully, I will be able to get into a Korean mode one of these days and then life will be cool. But yes humm....

So I didn't have a question email to work from this week so I'm kind of at a loss for what else to say. Since that is the case I shall ramble some more. Bear with me!

OH, so our older district left yesterday (well, all except one, but he's going to Canada Korean Speaking.... different I know, he leaves tomorrow at 5AM at which point my district becomes the "older" district). It was so sad to see off the natives. They are SO cool, I asked them all to write in my journal and I've got Facebook addresses from all of them and I will look them all up after the Mission because they are just that cool! One of their names was 정장로님 a.k.a 형. He was so cool! 형 is a term in Korean which is like older brother. So ya, pretty much he was my older brother that I've never had. He was SO tight and he wants to go to BYU after his mission. So with a little persuasion he'll be at BYU-I with me in no time :). It has been fun seeing as how we are now halfway through our MTC stay.

I have to give a shout out to my Mom and then I have to be humble and say "You were right, Mom." I play the piano EVERY WEEK in priesthood. I play 2 songs... Care to guess?? First up: Hymn 319 in the English hymn book or Hymn 200 in the 잔송아 - Ye Elder of Israel. Then to close it out I learned hymn Number 80 in the 잔송아. I forget in the English hymn book but it is Sweet Hour of Prayer. It is sad and I think people are getting sick of the songs, but HEY, if they want to take the time to learn a song then by ALL MEANS please do it. I would love to actually be able to sing the hymns and not just play it on the piano :) So yes, Mom you were right. I should have learned more songs. I also should have taken piano longer and I also shouldn't have argued with you so..... 미안하고 사랑합니다 [I'm sorry and I love you] !!! Ahhhh ya

So yes.... Oh yes, a report on the new camera. IT is working like a freaking BOSS I love it. It works so well and I have taken 250+ pictures with it since I got it. I will make sure to get some ordered and printed off today, maybe even a CD to send home if I'm lucky :). But yes, thank you so much. I take good care of it and I couldn't be happier. Thank you soooooo much 감사합니다 [thank you]! It is the best 훌룡합니다! It is awesome.

Well yes it has been an awesome week. Time is so weird here, each day takes forever, but every week disappears. I don't know what time is anymore haha!

Just leave you with my testimony that I know the church is true. I am so grateful to our Father in Heaven and for everything that He gave to us and continues to give. I love the Book of Mormon and I love this gospel. 이복음이 잠되다는 건을 알 고 있습니다! 예수 그리스도의 이름으로 간증드림니다. 아맨.