Really Excited

September 23, 2014

Ok, well I'm finally here, and I have a little bit of time to email you guys. The flight from SF to Incheon took about an eternity, even with sleeping a lot of it. I was terrified, I felt like a fish somebody had bought at a pet store, and just threw it straight into the new water without letting it adjust to the temperature or water chemistry. But then we landed in Incheon and it turns out that real Korea isn't quite as foreign as it seemed. We got to exchange currency there, that was pretty fun. Then we took the flight to Busan, which went by really fast, I felt like I closed my eyes for a second and we were there. We met the mission president, his wife, and all the trainers as soon as we got there. I'm not quite as scared, just a little nervous and really excited.

I love you!

Elder Hines

Leaving the MTC

September 22, 2013

Chris (Elder Hines) called from the San Francisco airport.  Some of the things he said:

• Felt pretty miserable – not getting enough sleep last night – got up way too early (2:30 a.m.) to get ready and finalize packing
• Starting to feel nervous and homesick
• Sat next to a lady from Japan on the flight, really enjoyed talking to her the whole way there. They talked about the differences in Asian languages and a little bit about the church. He decided beforehand that he would start a conversation right when they sat down, to avoid that awkward silence before someone starts speaking.
• Said he was so grateful to have been with the district he was in. They were all hardworking, fun, spiritual, and committed to doing their best. 
• Bore his testimony in Korean . . . I caught the word ‘sarang’ and asked about it . . . he said he knows God loves us
• Favorite things/experiences at the MTC: choir and district meetings – deep doctrinal discussions, sharing testimonies, guy bonding time
• At first he couldn’t understand anything (his teachers spoke like three words in English the whole time), by the time he left he could understand about 90%. He thinks he will be able to understand about 20% when he gets to Korea, since the only words he knows are gospel-related . . . that and Koreans talk much faster!
• Said the missionaries in Korea are about 50/50 native and foreign
• There are about 50,000 members of the church in Korea . . . lots of room for growth in a country of 50 million!
• Doesn’t have a clue what is going on in the world. The only news he has heard is that Robin Williams died, because another elder found out about it in a letter. He said he will be really out of it when he gets home, but to just fill him in on things that are interesting.
• At the SLC airport, Chris and three other elders were standing in line to get some breakfast, and a man came by, talked to them for a minute, started to leave, then turned back and paid for their breakfast. 
• Talked for quite a while about Elder Bednar’s MTC ‘Character of Christ’ talk. They watched it again recently and it made quite an impression on Chris. He told me the story Elder Bednar shares of a lady who loses her daughter and thought more of his feelings as the stake president than her own.  

Flight Plans

Finally!

September 18, 2014

Dear Family,

Thanks for the letters! Yeah, I am getting really excited, and yes, a little nervous too.  Brother Memmott was telling us about his training at the mission home. He said they got put with a random trainer, and then went on a train and talked to people about the gospel. Then every hour or so they switched trainers. It sounds really fun, but really scary too.

So Korean is the only Asian language taught at the MTC where they don’t Romanize the words (write it out with English letters). So the hymn books are all Korean letters. It only took about a week to get familiar with the letters, but it’s an ongoing process. It’s just like learning to read again. I try to practice by reading out of the Korean Book of Mormon every day, and I can see the progression in my speed and comprehension each week. So yes, I have a Korean Book of Mormon and Bible that I got here. The bible isn’t printed by the church, so it’s kind of weird looking, but it’s really fancy. The cover is beautiful. 

I just got the package, literally 30 seconds ago. Thank you so much!

Korean is actually really fun to write, it is just so different from English in how it flows because of how the letters cluster into syllables. Brother Memmott writes in Korean cursive. When I first got here, it just looked like a bunch of scribbles, but now it isn’t too hard to read. It’s pretty cool to be able to interpret squiggles on a chalkboard.

Here’s your Korean words for the week:

Christ – 그리스도 – Kurisudo (u as in ‘up’)

Church – 교회 – kyohwae – 교 is relating to education, and I think 회 is just relating to gospel, or something like that.

Saint – 성도 – sungdo

We had two amazing speakers this week. On Sunday we got to hear from Tad R. Callister. He talked about the Plan of Salvation, but went in depth on some things and gave some really interesting insights. Tuesday was Richard G. Scott. Finally! He talked about prayer. You can tell that he is such a humble man, it is really impressive. And the spirit that he brought was so strong. A quote from him for the record books is: “To reach a goal never before attained, one must do things never before done.”

Speaking of quotes, I heard a really good one this week by Gordon B. Hinckley: “Faith in something greater than ourselves enables us to do what we have said we’ll do, to press forward when we are tired or hurt or afraid, to keep going when the challenge seems overwhelming and the course is entirely uncertain.” Pretty amazing, huh?

For choir (we sang the day Elder Scott was here, so that was cool) we sang Be Still, My Soul, one of the best hymns of all time. And like always, the arrangement (by Larry Beebe) was amazing. 

I was chosen to speak on Sunday, which was totally unexpected because the changes are so slim. The topic was on the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and although it was very simple, I think I did a pretty good job. It was funny because as I was bearing my testimony at the end, I looked up, and Elder Warren was smiling and nodding. I sat back down and he whispered, “It’s always nice to have someone checking your grammar.” He’s a pretty funny guy.  

Monday morning, our district was privileged to host the new senior missionaries. Elders rarely get to do that here, so this week was full of slim chances happening. It was really fun to talk to them and show them to their rooms and everything.

I’ll leave you with one of the most amazing scriptures I’ve come across. It was actually Elder Baugh who found it. It’s in 2 Corinthians 6:1-10. I like in verse one when it says “as workers together with Him”. But I especially like verses 4, 9, and 10. Pretty frabjous (word invented by Lewis Carroll; I’m still not sure of the meaning, but it sounds to me like a combination of freaking and fabulous). I also really like 2 Corinthians 4:5-6, 8-9, 17-18. Yeah, words can’t do it justice, someone needs to make a song out of these verses.

Thank you so much for the package, it was pretty joy-causing. I really like the things you wrote on the top, but you realize I’m learning Korean, not Spanish or French, right?

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Hines

Sister Wynn with Elder Hines & his district

Brother Memmott with Elder Hines & his district

Brother Chandler with Elder Hines & his district

Korean Hymnal (with Elder Hines' favorite hymn) & scriptures

Korean scriptures

Elders Skousen, Anderson, Trentman, Porcaro, Warren, Baugh, Hines, Hogan and Tischner

It Was Delicious

September 11, 2014

Dear Family,

So Brennan actually sent me what he sent to his family last week, so I got to read all about it. It was pretty cool. 

I hope that was a joke about the Gas-X. That would be so embarrassing. It’s fine, you just have to embrace it all, the effects of the MTC food included.

I highly doubt we would get to go to the Korean [temple] session, we only go on Thursdays, and we wouldn’t understand it anyway. Brother Memmott told us about going to the Seoul temple at the end of his mission, and even then he didn’t understand everything.

I haven’t spoken in Sacrament meeting, but since I prepare a talk every week, I kind of want to give it. Otherwise it feels like a waste of time preparing it.

Dang, Colton’s [marching band] visual sounds pretty intense. He just needs to make sure he’s only doing nonlethal damage to her so she doesn’t have to sit out for the next performance.

I don’t have my new nametag yet, hopefully soon. But it will be last name first, then Elder, like this: 하인스 장로  
Here are some of the Korean words you requested:

구원 – ku-won – salvation

성신 – sungshin – Holy Ghost (‘i’ is always pronounced ‘ee’)

If being familiar with music has helped me at all, it’s only because it makes me pay more attention to detail.  I can’t think of any other way.  I’m really careful to pronounce things accurately, whereas some Elders slop through phrases and words. 

We do service projects every Wednesday and Saturday morning. Saturday is putting up chairs for Sacrament meeting, and Wednesday is either cleaning or putting up flags in the front, which is pretty fun.

Last week we got to teach people from Korea over Skype, and we get to do it again tomorrow. It was a really cool experience.

I got to play catch with a softball with Elders Trentman, Skouson, Anderson and Tischner.  They don’t have bats, only softballs, so it was kind of lame. They are very safety-conscious. :) But it was a nice change from the usual soccer/basketball in the mornings.

We watched a video of a talk by Elder Bednar. He said that there is a common misconception in the church that the Spirit speaks to people always through ‘spiritual impressions’. They actually are the minority. Usually, the Spirit speaks to us in a way that we don’t even recognize as a prompting. His point was that we don’t need to worry about knowing if what we are feeling is the Holy Ghost. If we are keeping the commandments and honoring our covenants, we will always be in the right place at the right time.

For choir on Tuesday, we sang Hope of Israel, arranged by Stephen P. Schank, accompanied by the organ, and splitting into four men’s parts in one place. It was delicious.  Joseph W. Sitati spoke for the devotional, and talked about missionary work. Bet you didn’t see that one coming. ;)

A scripture I came across this past week is D&C 58:2-4. It is quite fantastic, especially if you take time to really ponder it, and see the things the Lord promises us if we are obedient. 

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Hines

Ministerial Certificate

Elder Tischner and Elder Anderson

Wall Sits - Notice Elder Skouson's 'legs of steel' with Elder Godfrey on his lap

'Glamour shot' by Elder Skouson

Moroni standing on the mountain