Hello everybody! It is always great to hear from you. The dear elder is nice because I get to read the letters throughout the week, especially the talks because they go onto several pages and so it looks like I am getting like 5 letters. My district leader doesn't like that as much though... Plus that means I get to spend my whole hour writing my emails.
So the story about my
phone isn't super great. I just walked in with it without realizing it. Josh
called me as they were putting my name tag on. I told the lady that I just
realized I had my phone, so I turned it off immediately and asked if I could go
give it to you guys. She said no and that I would have to give it to my
district president or something. One of the district presidency came by our
rooms that night so I asked him what I should do and he just told me to bring
it to the front desk and that is what I did. It was kind of funny though, as I
had it in my room the first day I wanted to make sure nobody saw it. It was
like a tiny little tinge of guilt whenever I saw it.
So to answer Mom's
questions, I am doing well and I am confident. My emotions fluctuate a fair
amount but in general I am happy. My district and I definitely laugh. As we are
attempting to learn from Korean culture we make fun of the Japanese. My
favorite comment I made was about the Japanese. Korean has several forms of
formality. As missionaries we always honorify others and never ourselves. Most
Koreans would do something similar but would probably not honorify kids or
people younger than them. When we were asking about that somebody asked if we
would honorify like a little kid. Brother Driggs said yes. Then somebody asked
if we would honorify babies and he said yes. Then I asked if we would honorify
Japanese people and Driggs just shook his head while everybody else laughed.
Also, my companions and I have some heated discussion over which fruit is
actually superior. I argued for oranges, raspberries, and watermelon at
different times. But that is always fun as well.
I think it is harder to
have a sense of mission and purpose in the MTC because my lessons, although I
am supposed to take them seriously, are just with my teachers, and everybody
around us is Mormon. Though I still feel like I am working toward worthy
goals. I have been going to choir.
The first week the normal
conductor wasn't there and so we mainly just sang through the song. I thought
to myself it wasn't that great, I am not sure why everybody loves it so much.
But this last week the normal conductor came back and he is pretty awesome. We
sang a child's prayer with some children of the MTC presidency for one of the
devotionals. He talked about what it really means to be God's children and I
felt like I had a slightly bigger sense of God as my father. It was beautiful.
This next week I guess we are broadcasting to all the MTC's in the world, so I
am guessing it is going to be one of the first presidency or quorum of the
twelve. I guess Elder Holland came like 9 weeks ago, so that is really too bad.
I wanted to hear him speak. Then the week after that I guess we are singing
with a band called the National Tribute Band. I have heard of them but don't
know any of their songs. I guess they are pretty cool, so that is
exciting.
The language is coming
slowly but surely. It is basically just memorizing a bunch of words. The
grammar is annoying too since the verb always goes at the end of the sentence,
so our purpose directly translated goes something like this. "Other
people,to Christ through his atonement faith repentance baptism, gift of
the Holy Ghost, enduring to the end...etc. invite" Then we have to learn
all the conjugations for the different tenses and situations. So for me to
actually string some sentences together takes some time. You just have to
really know what you are saying and be thinking ahead. But I learn around 10
words a day. Actually being able to use them is harder.
It is cool to be in a
Korean branch. Our Branch President is from New Zealand so his voice is pretty
awesome. And you still hear his accent when he speaks Korean so that is pretty
funny. They ask us all to prepare a 3-5 minute talk in Korean each week on the
assigned topic. Then they call on two people randomly each week. That is nerve
racking but probably good. I feel like they encourage looking good and
appearing intelligent and stuff. But I feel like they sometimes think they have
all the answers and are expounding their knowledge on us which is kind of
annoying. Plus is makes everybody want to impress them (including myself) so I
felt like even testimonies and stuff were said while the person is very aware
of the audience. That isn't all bad but I at least realized how quickly my
pride becomes a problem.
P-Day is great just
because I feel like I actually have time to review things I need to review and
can workout for longer and stuff. Normally we have workout first thing in the
morning. Since you have to stay with your companions, we end up generally just
going to the gym or field, and the MTC only lets you do half court and there
are normally way too many people so it is often not a great work out, but it is
still refreshing and helps me wake up in the morning. But I am getting used to
waking up at 6:30 and 6 hours in class a day. It is tiring but also feels lazy.
We pray, study scriptures, pray, sit in a classroom, pray, pray, eat, pray, sit
in a classroom, pray, eat, pray, go to bed. You get the idea. Mostly sitting,
eating, and praying. So it can feel lazy but it is also tiring so it is an
interesting combination.
My companions are great!
Elder Litster, who is half Korean, if his mission president allows him to may
be moving up to the higher class and leaving like 4 weeks early. So there goes
our understanding of what our "investigators" are saying to us. So
that is too bad. But we all work hard and want to obey the rules. I realize how
much I say "guys." We aren't supposed to use slang, and I guess that
"guys" is slang. I am not sure I agree with that, but I am trying to
stop using it. Elder Litster corrects me most of the time. We have made it a
little game in class where we tally every time a person says "guys."
I am one of the worst.
So I had several
spiritual thoughts this week. I have started writing a "large and small
plates" if you will. The bigger journal I just write what happened
throughout the day or anything noteworthy. Then in the little journal I write
what I learned spiritually that day.
The problem is I didn't bring it here, so I am trying to
remember my thoughts. I loved D&C 76 and 84. There is so much good stuff in
there. It is amazing how merciful God is. When most people talk about heaven
they talk about one of the two lower kingdoms. And that is normally what we
talk about when we say hell, as Elder Rees said. A lot of D&C is focused on
missionary work so that feels very applicable to me. I listened to just a
portion of Elder Hollands Talk "Lord I believe. And I love how he
said that what mostly matters is how you act based on the truth you do have,
not on how much truth you have. And I love that. Some people have had
miraculous experiences that seem to be very direct answers to their questions
or about if the church is true. I haven't, however I have received many small
answers and impressions. And either way it doesn't really matter. What God wants
to know is if we will act leading with the faith we do have instead of leading
with what we do not know. That is what I am trying to do and will try to
do every day for the next two years. I
also loved both Brian's and Dad's talks. The quote Brian shared with me is
super cool. I certainly am pulled in both the direction of God and of the
world. I am interested in what everybody thinks about that quote and how we can
begin to turn solely towards God. Anyway I love each one of you. Sorry I feel
like this letter was long and scattered.
Hurrah for Israel!
--
Elder Sabey
