WEEK 8

THREE WEEKS LEFT!!!!! How crazy is that? It has been going by so fast. Do I feel confident with the language? Absoluetly not. It's hard talking to Korean natives, there like what?, what did you say? It's rather depressing, but eventually I will be fluent and actually be able to understand natives not just my fellow missionaries.

Such an amazing thing happened at Tuesdays Devotional...we had another Apostle come and speak. That is three since I have been here! So intense. Elder Neal L. Anderson. Did a marvelous talk on the merits, mercy and grace of Jesus Christ. He talked about how the apostles love to come speak at the MTC and are jealous of those who get to go speak. He said they consider us JR's in the work. We both share the gospel and tesify and are a witness of Jesus Christ. Best part I got to shake his hand! We always go out to the curb to way goodbye to the apostles when they drive by, but this time Elder Anderson took the time to come shake the hands of those waiting at the curb. Highlight of my life :)

Another great experience at TRC (so many great things happen there), we got to teach a non-member. She is a native from Buson, Korea and is here at the BYU center learning english. She has only been here for three weeks. Her roomate is a returned sister missionaries who teaches here at the MTC. They were with her during the lesson. Shin Su Min seemed excited to be there. Though she spent more time correcting our Korean than listening to our message. Which is fine. This was her first week at the TRC and I think eventually she will start to focus on the message more, rather then correct Korean. She told us she will be volunteering every week! It will be fun to get to see her. It was cool, my teacher, Brother Wells, pulled me aside and told me our investiagtor was a non-member, he asked if we should tell my two other companions. I was like YEAH! I think he was afriad knowing that would make us nervous, but truthfully it made me so excited. When he told me I had the rush of love for her and excitiment to teach her. It was a neat experience, prehaps a glimpise of how God loves us.

So during gym time I either do volleyball or four-square. Lately it has been four-square. Some days I kill people or I get killed. But it so funny because so many of the Elder don't trust me cause they know I can get them out. I love it. The younger Korean district boys told my Elders who then told me that they are scared of me in four-square and can't trust me. I was like good, i like to strike fear in people :) Four-square is so entertaining. Everyone is agianst Korea, it's hilarious. We used to have a feud against the Japanese but they are no longer in our gym time. So it's us against the Cambodians, Thai, Vietanmse, Madrins...pretty much every other Asian district...it's so much fun. It's not a serious feud, people don't really get mad, we just like to talk smack. Korean's are the most vicious four-square players...everyone says we are...I love it.

WEEK 7

The new korean missionaries are here!!! We have 12 new missionaries, 4 girls and 8 boys. So much fun. They are learning the language so fast. It's amazing to see and keeps me on my toes. I feel like I have to be smart now and know my korean becauase they ask me questions. The language for me is coming along great. I speak ok, it just takes me some time to form sentences.

TRC of course was wonderful. Our task was to purchase clothing and then share the gospel with them concerning families. I can't wait to actually get to Korea and barter with people it will be so fun. They told us the price of a skirt and I said a korean word that means "give me a discount"...they all started laughing, we had a fun time. And yes they gave me a discount :)

Afterwards we taught them the first lesson: Restoration of the Gospel. I had a more difficult time thinking up sentences. I didn't say that much. My companion Sister Bennet is really good with Korean and she said this long complicated sentences and I just stared at her with this confused expression of "what did you just say?" The investigators saw my face and just busted up laughing. My face turned red and I could not stop laughing, so embarrassing. But definalty the highlight for me in the lesson was reciting the First Vision in Korean. I am the first person in my Korean Zone to have memorized it. In our lesson the Lord really did bless me in remembering how to say and to be able to say it at a good pace with few pauses. You could feel the spirit. Sharing Joseph Smith's vision is so powerful, the spirit always bears witness. After reciting it the investigators clapped for me, the mom was like "wow!" It was such a good feeling, because before I had tried to recite and froze up and forgot all of it, but this time I just prayed for the Lord's help and he did. As missionaries you truly can not do this work on your own, you have to rely on the Lord.

Week 6

WEEK SIX

Provo Temple food AMAZING. I highly recommend eating there for breakfeast. The omelet is full of cheesy goodness and they draw smiley faces on your waffles with fresh whip cream. Today the man gave my waffle a mustache with bacon, it was delicious.

Our devotional speaker this past Tuesday was awesome, it was Elder Dallin H. Oaks! Thats two apostles in a row. His wife also spoke and she is such a good speaker as well. He talked about missionary work and made an emphasis on learning the gospel so you can teach by the Spirit. He repeated twice, "Prepare by learning the principles of the gospel and teach by the Spirit according to that persons need in any order." This is so important to remember because you can get caught on doing the lesson in order everytime, but thats not the purpose of Preach My Gospel. They changed it from the memorized lessons to this for a reason. So that missionaries can teach by the spirit to the needs of the investistigator.

Last night we did a 20 minute lesson with our progressing investigator Rob and we planned a lesson but did not go by it at all. He had not prayed and expressed concerns and we ended up talking about the Holy Ghost. And by the end he left with an understanding of the importance of prayer and how through prayer we recieve answers or get feelings of comfort through the Spirit, which he had felt before when reading the Bible. So it was a successful lesson, but perhaps our committment could have been more substantial. But My one companion was super frustrated afterward because we didn't do what we had planned and therefore she did not say much in the lesson.

Our heard us after our lesson discussing this whole issue and later in class shared a quote by Elder Bednar that I really like, "Planning is everything, plans are nothing." This related to what Elder Oaks talked about. It's important that we prepare and study for the lesson, but we need to makesure to teach to the investisgators needs and not freeze up if nothing goes according to our plans. Prepare and then teach by the Spirit. No one got to shake Elder Oak's hand but I got a picture of him from the curb of him driving away smiling and waving and wearing this stylish golf cap. So cool.

TRC teaching was fun this week. Our first lesson in Korean. Friday night we taught our progressing investigator in korean and it was horrible for me. I literally said two sentences. I was frustrated and knew what I had been doing was not working. I was writing down simply english sentences and then translating them into Korean. I wanted to be able to speak freely, which I had not been able to do. Doing the lesson made me realize I didn't know the vocab. So that night I wrote down words I would use from the first lesson, which was about 20 or more. And then I prayed that I would be able to memorize them and remember them for tomorrow because TRC was the next day. And the Lord totatlly helped me. Got them down within 30mins, and remebered them the next day. The Church is TRUE! I feel so blessed. And when we taught I was able to say so many sentences and express want sentences came to my mind. It was a ruff lesson because of our lack of language. But I left feeling like I was able to communicate what I needed to and our lesson flowed from prinicple to principle. The Lord has truly blessed me and called me to learn this language.