Anyway I am going to go finish my laundry and be back in like 5 minutes so if anybody wants to respond like right now I will have a little break and can answer any questions.
It is Brian's Birthday! Happy Birthday! So a memory of Brian. I remember when Brian baptized me. That was cool to have my older brother baptize me. More than just a memory though, I look up to his example as a whole. Playing soccer, going to BYU, singing, going on a mission, loving to read, etc. I am so eternally grateful for that. I have no idea what I would have done with no examples going before me showing me the way, but I do not think I would be where I am now, so thank you Brian (and everybody.) Plus I remember finally being at the same school as him this last year and playing on a soccer team and eating weekly meals with him. That was super fun.
This week has been good. Since my time at the MTC has been during summer, especially the end of summer a lot of teachers have been going on vacation so we have had like 5 teachers that we have taught as investigators plus several others who have been in our class for a class or two. But I think from here on out we will have the same two teachers for the rest of the MTC, Brother Driggs and Brother Sung.
So, cool things that happened this week: We sang with the Nashville Tribute Band.
I think I told you National Tribute Band which is what I thought he said but anyway it was cool. They are like a country Mormon rock band. They only played their more mellow music but that was our devotional on Sunday. A full concert with no applause. It was a little weird but super cool. You should listen to some of their music. And David and Danielle should join the band. :) Another cool thing that happened was our district was selected to be the missionaries who on all the new missionaries first day, when they teach the investigators as a huge group, so we got to talk with some people and see all the new missionaries. It was cool. Plus it made class shorter which was nice.
This last week or two I finished D&C and the Pearl of Great Price. It is the first time I have read them completely. They are really cool. I think reading D&C really gives me a sense of how God works through people. You can see Joseph Smith coming through in some of the sections but there are many, many spots (and as a whole the entire thing) that just seem inspired. I am not sure what one thing I would point to that I learned. I guess mainly that God is merciful and loving, but will not fix our problems for us, perhaps the most merciful thing of all.
I appreciated everybody's thoughts this week. I appreciated Dad's reminder to rely on God. It is so easy just to focus on what you can do. However it is always better to be relying on God, and then doing all you can comes naturally. So, I am working on it. Matt I also really liked the temporary fix thing with Adam and Eve. God's solutions are truly eternal. So thanks.
Fun story for the week, last P-Day, we accidentally locked our selves out of our room while we were in the shower, so we had to send some elders from our district to the front desk to grab a key. While we were waiting for them to get changed and go grab the key, we decided to play a game where we stood in the hall and kick-flicked our sandals and aimed for the iron on the ironing board at the end of the hall. It is harder than you would think and we kept nailing the ceiling and lights and stuff so we figured we should stop. But I was like ok, one more shot and flicked my sandal and nail the Iron hard enough to hit it off of the ironing board. Yup, nailed it. I am pretty proud of that moment.
So I guess I can try to explain the language a little better. So the "thing" basically makes a verb and -ing verb. So if i said I like running, there are two verbs. like and run. But the -ing makes it a noun. So in Korean, we would say I running thing like. That is a literal translation they would just here it I running like. But you can add more detail like making a whole clause a "thing." Thus allowing more complex sentences. Hopefully that makes sense. And Danielle yeah you got that right. Basically you start with the subject then go least important to most important. If everything is of equal importance they have a set order. Time goes before the subject, then place, object, verb or whatever. But basically you just but whatever makes the most sense given the sentence.
One of my teachers went to my mission. And several people we taught at the TRC went there too. They all loved the president and thought his language program for the first several transfers is amazing. So I am excited for that. I know that during the first two transfers I have to memorize all the full lesson plans in Korean. So I am trying to get a little head start on that.
So I am just wondering, how long did it take everybody to understand what people were saying on their missions? (I am not going to compare don't worry...) I just want to know what to expect haha. Our class has slowed down a little bit in order to help the sister's a little bit more, at least that is what I suspect. We have been doing activities where we all try to work together. He said we can all be sharks and try to get our own food or we can be Dolphins and work together so we can all eat. So we now do a bunch of "Dolphin activities". I try to help them when we have extra study time, so we work on making sentences together, but then I feel like I get less time to study myself. Again you see my shark/selfish/prideful side. However, I am doing my best to get over that. Really it is all about Zion, isn't it Dad? So hopefully our district is becoming more Zion like.
Spiritual thought for the week: I loved Alma 9. He says 6 times I think, "O, how great the ____ of God" Mercy, justice, plan, ect. And then explains a little bit about that. Anyway I guess what hit me about that is pretty simple. I just loved how he rejoices in the plan in God. I think the plan is beautiful and everything, but I don't feel like I rejoice in it. And I suspect the more I can understand and rejoice in the plan, the more meaning everything will have. Plus another thought is just classic, that humility really is everything. In Korea, they are all about humility. You have to honorify everybody older than you or else it is rude. And to compliment people you bring yourself below them. So as missionaries we always speak up to people, which means we can't call people by their name without their title attached. We also get very few baptisms I believe, which is humbling. So I think God is telling me I have a lot to learn about humility. Christ, in perfect humility, brought himself below all things. However, I guess the Korean members LOVE the missionaries. So, one missionary I guess said that can make it hard to be humble. Anyway I am excited to be in Korea and attempt to speak with people about the gospel. I am excited to be humbled, and rejoice in God's plan. O, how great the goodness of God! O, how great the mercy of God!
Hurrah for Israel!
Elder Sabey
P.S. On dearelders maybe put sep.14th instead of 15th. They keep correcting it. It still gets to me on time but it might just be annoying to them. Also, do dearelders work in Korea?
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Elder Sabey
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