Tender Mercy

August 21, 2014

Dear Family,

Thanks for your letters! They were really fun to read. Ask Colton why he doesn't love me :)

For choir this week, we sang Precious Savior, Dear Redeemer, but it was to a completely different melody. And like always, it was amazing. The choir director is really good at choosing good songs. The music is by Brett Stewart, see if you can find it :)

So how fast did you hear about me getting to host Zarek? It was pretty amazing, I was so glad I got the opportunity to, and hopefully it made it easier for his parents. 

Jenny Oaks Baker spoke on Sunday [about lots of experiences she has had with prayer in her life], and she played a few musical numbers. It was pretty amazing. She had all of her kids as an ensemble with her, they are really good. 

Tuesday['s devotional speaker] was Bonnie L. Oscarson, YW General President. Boring.  I'm kidding, it was really good too :) She talked about ways to be more effective as a missionary. She said you cannot be successful as a missionary without the Holy Ghost, and that the Spirit is the teacher, we can't do things our way. She also said that the Lord will guide you to those he has prepared to hear the gospel.

We watched a video by Elder Holland, it was called the Gift of Teaching. One of my favorite things he said was that if someone you are trying to teach isn't receptive, just love them, and maybe you can teach them tomorrow. 

Korean is getting a lot better, I can understand a lot of what the teacher is saying now, and sometimes maybe respond :) Even though it's stressful, it is so interesting that it makes it worth it. Korean is so cool because it is all completely logical. If it wasn't a new alphabet and completely different sentence structure from English, it would probably be a really easy language to learn. It's funny, because you can take almost any verb and turn it into an adjective or an adverb. So it can't be translated literally into English, but it still makes sense in Korean.

Favorite hymn, probably tied between Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise and Praise to the Lord, the Almighty.

Favorite scripture, I have no idea, there are too many. One that I thought about recently was the one in 3 Nephi 22, I think, the one that that amazing song by Dallyn Vail Bayles is based on. [My Kindness Shall Not Depart From Thee: 3 Nephi 22: 8 In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer . . . For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.] Pretty amazing, huh? 

So with the song from last week, did you like the part close to the end when the tenors go up to the high f? I thought it sounded really cool. It's too bad because the Korean hymn book doesn't have Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise. It does have Praise to the Lord, the Almighty though. 

Love you!

Elder Hines

Elder Hines and Elder Leavitt - Such a tender mercy for both of them!