Dear Family,
So the Branch President just
recently came out and said that we need to be more careful about not flirting
with the sisters (we as in the Korean branch). He said flirting is talking to them when you don't have to. There is one elder here who has a major problem
with this, he is always talking to sisters, and it's like he has no
self-control. He sees a female and
naturally gravitates toward her. It's
really funny. So Elder Baugh started
saying, "23-19" (from Monsters Inc) whenever he is talking to a
sister. It is hilarious.
The MTC has a violin, flute
and cello you can check out to play for Sacrament meetings. During additional study time I got a chance
to play the flute, since the violin was already being used. I just played around with it, but it was a
really nice stress reliever, especially since I haven't had much of a chance to
play piano since I've been here.
For choir, we sang Jesus, Once of Humble Birth [Click here to listen; hymn begins at 1:49:56]. It was an amazing piece, like always. It was arranged by James C. Kasen, see if you
can find it. There is one part right
before the last verse, the organ part has a bunch of secondary dominance and
chord modulations. It is so cool because
it is perfect for the mood of the hymn. When I hear it, I can imagine Christ stepping up to Calvary,
and at the same time I see Him stepping up to His throne in Heaven. It is one of the most amazing things I have
ever heard. See if you can understand
what I mean when you hear it.
I have some scriptures for
you that I've come across this past week. Alma 31:26-38 - Alma offers this prayer out of sincere
concern for the Zoramites. It is so
powerful, and then in 36-38, it talks about the blessings they received because
of his faith. The other one is D&C
98:3. It's pretty straightforward, this
scripture helped me a lot.
I'll try and answer most of
your questions, but if I don't get to all of them I'll finish next week.
You asked about my
companion. He's pretty fun to talk to; he has a really strong testimony; and he is a great
teacher. I'm almost always with him, occasionally
I'll go on companion exchanges with some of the other elders. In my room, it is my companion and me, and
Elder Baugh and Elder Trentman. Elder
Baugh is from American Fork, and has an amazing sense of
humor. Oh, and he's one of the zone leaders in the
Korean Branch. Elder Trentman is the
district leader, he's from Sacramento,
and he's really funny too. He's so
inspiring; he's such a good leader. Elder Tischner is like Brennan Baer only with red hair. He's from Mapleton. His sarcasm, musical talent, and just about
everything else are just like Brennan. I
wouldn't be surprised if they are related. Elder Anderson
is really smart and kind. He went to India
before his mission to teach English. So
that's really cool. Elder Hogan took
Chinese in high school, so Korean comes pretty naturally to him. He is such a hard worker, and he is a great
leader as well. Elder Warren has the most incredible testimony, he
has gone through so much . . . the way
he has handled everything is very impressive. Elder Skouson has a talent for analogies. He is always comparing situations and basically
making parables. It's really cool. And he is just a really friendly person
overall.
So yeah, only four elders in
my room. We all have our own closet and
desk. We spend very little time in our
room, almost all day is either in the cafeteria or the classroom. Before lunch
we have companion, personal and language study, all on our own without a
teacher. Then in the afternoon and
evening we have a teacher there, and we basically either talk about gospel
stuff (in Korean) or learn grammar forms, or teach "investigators", which
are just the teachers playing the role of someone they taught on their
missions. They've all been off their
missions less than two years. Brother
Memmott is amazing. He's really nice and
just glows with the Spirit. He's really
funny too. Brother Chandler has been a
huge help in helping me feel confident in learning Korean. He's really encouraging, and has told me that
he is impressed with all my progress, and that he recognizes the Spirit in
me. Sister Wynn is really nice, she's
kind of shy though so I don't know her as well. My teachers only speak Korean to us, so it's really weird how I can know
so much that they say.
My favorite thing this week was
probably that choir piece we did. It was
so much fun. [I got to sit by Zarek for
choir.]
We can't listen to music in
the dorms, so I haven't used my MP3 player at all yet. I've barely played piano at all, except once
to show Elder Trentman (who also plays piano) that If You Could Hie to Kolob arrangement.
We always sing a hymn in
Korean at the beginning of class, but the room is like 12'x14', and there's ten
of us in there, so there's not exactly room for a piano. We sing a hymn at the beginning of both
afternoon and evening classes.
Stephen B. Allen spoke on
Sunday, about repentance and missionary work. Repentance must be a major problem for missionaries, because they talk
about it at least once a week. It gets
kind of old, it's always the same thing. On Tuesday, James B. Martino spoke; some of my favorite things he said were: We will be judged not by what we've done, but who we've become; and we
are unprofitable servants if we only do our duty.
I've got some Korean words
for y'all:
죄 - 'jwae' - sin
속죄 - 'sok-jwae' - Atonement
구속 주 - 'gu-sok-ju' -
Redeemer
I think it's really
interesting how they are interrelated. Because Korean has a smaller alphabet and less sounds than English,
there are less possible words to make. So new words are made by combining multiple words. It's pretty cool how the words are related to
each other. If you have ideas of Korean
words you want me to tell you, just let me know.
The language is coming
so much better. It's not much easier,
but it's less frustrating because I can actually say things during the lessons
without any notes or anything.
We get flight plans two weeks from tomorrow, and we'll probably get our Korean nametags in a week and a half or so. This Monday the group above us leaves so we'll be the most experienced Korean elders in the MTC. It's so weird, this time has gone by so fast.
Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Hines
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| Elder Hines and Elder Leavitt |
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