Elder Christopher Hines: 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