Dear Family,
Thanks for
the package! It looks like you had a fun
time at Costco or someplace like that. What’s up with all the healthy food? Just kidding, it’s a nice change from the MTC cafeteria food.
During some
additional study time, I had the opportunity to play violin and cello with
Elder Tischner. The MTC only has one
violin and one cello, so we just switched off. It was really fun, we played
through some hymn arrangements Elder Tischner had. He is so good at the violin. He apparently started when he was four, so no
surprise there. I luckily have a leg up
on him in music theory knowledge, so I don’t feel like a total idiot around
him.
For choir
this past week, we did an arrangement of Where
Can I Turn for Peace? arranged by Mary Ellen Loose. It would have been a really good arrangement,
if it weren’t for the three parallel fifths in a row! There were also multiple unresolved seventh
chords, but those weren’t quite as bad. Other than that, it was a really cool song to sing. Just not the best.
Richard N.
Holzapfel spoke at the devotional Sunday. He talked about how important it is to keep a study journal, and to
record the personal revelation you receive. He said when you do this you learn the patterns of how the Lord speaks
to you, and how to recognize His hand in your life. He talked about D&C 128. Verses 19-23 are really cool. It’s a letter from Joseph Smith to the saints
of the Church, and the wording he uses is so powerful. I thought it was amazing.
On Tuesday,
Don R. Clarke of the Seventy spoke. It
was probably one of my favorites so far. He talked about stepping it up as missionaries, and was really bold
about it. My favorite thing he said was
that the day the missionary cares more about the people of his mission than
himself, he is happy. Sometimes that is
the first day, sometimes it is never. Once the people know that you love them, they will be drawn to you. They will recognize the love you have for
them.
I’ll continue
answering your questions from [your previous letter]: The food is way redundant. They almost always have some form of a
hamburger available if you don’t like the other options, and that gets old
because the other options are pretty gross sometimes. I had something pretty good recently
though. It was a turkey burger with pepper
jack cheese and guacamole. Surprisingly
delicious. The food usually doesn’t
taste that bad, but it’s pretty hard on your stomach. I’m almost always feeling the effects of it
in my lower intestines, if you get my meaning. And it’s not just me, it affects everyone. I think there is a layer of methane gas
building up on the ceiling in my room. It’s lovely.
My Korean
classes are almost all language, very little culture. They probably figure we’ll learn the culture
pretty quickly once we get there. What’s
with this obsession everyone has about rice stabbing and sole showing? Is it really that funny, or is there some
inside joke I’m not aware of? Multiple people
have brought it up in letters to me.
I am so
excited to go to Korea, and I’m feeling pretty confident with my ability to
speak Korean. I know, I’ll get off the
plane and have no idea what’s going on, but for now I’m happy with the progress
I’m making.
That Bug’s Life analogy was perfect. It was so funny. :) [Referring to the elder who can't stay away from the Sister Missionaries.]
I’m glad you
like hearing about Korean words, they’re fun to tell you about.
사랑 - ‘sarang’ (‘a’
always sounds like ‘ah’) – love
간증 – ‘kanjung’ – testimony
예수 – ‘yesu’ – Jesus
I don’t know ‘vision’, but prophet is interesting:
선지자 – ‘sunjija’ – prophet
선교사 – ‘sunkyosa’ – missionary
교사 – ‘kyosa’ – teacher
교 – ‘ kyo’ – education
선 – ‘sun’ – good (as a noun)
Missionary is ‘teacher of good’ and prophet is along those lines; it’s
pretty cool.
Let me know any more questions you might have, and I’ll answer them next
week.
I love you all!
Elder Hines
P.S. Oh yeah, the Korean name tags will
be just the same but with our names in Korean, so that will be pretty cool.
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