Hello everybody!
First off, Danielle, Happy
Birthday! I totally remembered it was your birthday before Mom reminded me...
So yeah, sorry about the late birthday wish. Anyway, I am so happy you are a
part of the family. It sounds like you had a fun birthday. I would sent you a
present, but there isn't anything cool at the MTC to buy. I remember when I
first met you, we went to one of your piano recitals. And you were pretty good,
I guess. :) Also, I just remember many times when we would joke around or laugh
together. You are just a fun person, always.
So about BYU. Go team! That
really sucks for Taysom Hill, but I like a throwing game more than a running
game anyway. I did hear some game day party thing going on at the stadium I
think, but for some reason they didn't let me actually watch the game. I
thought it would have been a very productive and uplifting way to spend my
personal study time, but oh well. Have it recorded for when I get home. Haha.
David and Danielle, I appreciated the play by play. Wait, I am pretty sure that
was you. Everybody's life seems to be doing well. Mom and Dad, I am so
impressed with you just complete willingness to have people stay at our home (I
still consider it partially mine.)
President/Elder/Brother Causse (I don't know what you call a
member of the presiding bishopric) gave the devotional on Tuesday. I loved what
he and his wife said. They were just pretty open and real. The wife talked
about two times in her life. The first was when they were called into the
Seventy. They had to move to America, and she didn't want to. She had to leave
her family, friends, native language, etc. And how that was hard. And she found
out that in the spit second when they had to reply and she said yes that she
loved her family and friends a lot, but loved God more. And I thought that was
beautiful. Then how when her husband was travelling a lot and they were in
Germany, and she didn't have many friends, how one night she prayed for snow,
so they would have a good excuse not to go to church. It didn't snow and she
took it as a sign that she did indeed have to go to church. Anyway, both
stories were great and real. Plus they are often how I experience life. I have
my doubts or problems, but when I actually have to make a choice, I find I
choose God more than I would expect. Then Brother Causse talked about getting
the calling as well and feeling inadequate. He quoted first Corinthians 2:1-5
ish. It was how Paul came not in strength of speech or knowledge but in the
power of God. And he, who has had to learn a new language at a much older age
than all of us, has clearly done quite well. He also talked about being bold.
So at the end of the devotional he said. Well I am asking you to be bold, so I
must be bold too. So instead of a closing song, I am going to play a song on
the piano. He played an awesome version of Come Come Ye Saints. It was cool.
So again, just trusting God
enough, trusting you calling, and that he will give you the ability to do the
work he asks of you, takes a lot of faith. But it is beautiful and worth it.
God does love us and wants what is best for us. I am excited to try to talk to
people in Korean about the Gospel, to meet new companions, and to love them.
Well I got my name in
Korean this week it is 세이비. It is pronounced Sabey. Well maybe a little bit more like
seh-ee-bee. So technically an addition of a syllable, but when it is said at
normal speed it just sounds like Sabey. Korean vowels are actually pure vowels,
so your mouth is in the same position as you say the vowel, and doesn't move.
So like our A like in Sabey is a mix between an "eh" and
"ee." Hence why in Korean they have to add another syllable. So it is
kind of nice because the vowels always make the same sound. However it is
really unnatural for Americans to not move there mouths during vowels, so it is
kind of hard. Basically the mouth is supposed to be in the same position for
the entire syllable, and you just move you lips and tongue to make the
consinents.
We also got our flight
plans. We leave Salt Lake City at 7:30 AM. We go to Detroit Metro, MI and
arrive there at 12:58 PM. We then leave from there to Seoul at 3:30 PM and get
there at 6:05 PM the next day. We have to report to the travel office at 3:30
AM, so that should be fun. Plus somebody said when they went to China, they
went from Michigan and went over the top of the earth, so I think we will
be doing that. So that is pretty awesome. My flight number is 159 on Delta, if
you want to look up and see if we do go over the top. So we are supposed pretty
much pack today. Tomorrow we have in-field orientation. Saturday is a normal
day of classes and Sunday we have church and then we leave.
We can call home in the
airport, so I should have started planning this before my last time to email,
but you can dear elder me what you want to do. I can just buy a calling card
and use a pay phone. Some of my friends' parents are sending pay as you go
phones with some minutes on them, so they can call and then just throw the
phone away. I have no idea if that is actually worth it or not. If you do that
you would have to have Matt send it since I will only have the next two days to
receive mail. He maybe would even have to drop it off at the MTC. So I think I
will just plan on the calling card. You can just Dear elder what you think. So
I will probably have several hours in Salt Lake but that will be at like 4:30
in the morning till 7. Or I call at Michigan. So yeah that is exciting. But we
don't get mail on Saturday night's or Sundays, so if you want to dear Elder
tomorrow is the last day.
Some more fun stuff about Korean. So they don't have words like the or a
or an. But they do have subject and object markers. So after every subject you
have to mark it and every object. It helps clarify what action is happening to
who etc. Anyway it is kind of cool, though not what we are used to. So often I
will be listening or reading and not know the work. Then later realize it was
an obvious work just with a marker on it. But I am getting better at realizing
it. Yesterday we there was a Korean studying out on the table next to our
teacher who is learning English at the MTC. So Brother Driggs asked him to be a
fake investigator with him. So we taught them both at the same time. He thought
our Korean was really good. He said he understood everything (doesn't normally
happen...haha). He asked how long we had been there. However he is still pretty
hard to understand plus he was talking slowly to us. But I am feeling like I
can say more than I used to. It was kind of funny though. Two of the most
common words are person/people and love. And one is pronounced saurong and the
other saurom. So during the lesson several times I said we can feel God's
person. However they still understood and knew what I meant. But still funny
and embarrassing that I messed up like two of the main words we use. It is
amazing how long it takes to learn words. I feel like I should be able to
remember hundreds of words a day. But there is so much you could possible learn
in one day that you can only hold on to so much. Some of you watched
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