Pictures in the MTC Weeks 1-4

Here are a few pictures. More to come as soon as Amanda sends her card to us.

This is us in our classroom when we all wore matching outfits. Can you tell which one is Elder Lynn?

I have no legs! I'm in the Narnia hole.

Sister Kelly and Sister VanWeezep

My District

Us and the older district, with Elder Lynn photo bombing as usual.

MTC Week 4

So, this week seriously week by so fast. I seriously feel like it was just P-Day and now it's here again. I guess that's a good thing though. Can you believe I've been on my mission for a month now? It was a month yesterday. So weird! I realized that and was just blown away because the days go by slow, but the weeks just fly on by. I guess that's just because my whole day is planned out so I'm busy almost every hour of the day. Not much really happened. I've had a lot of stupidity "blonde moments" unfortunately. I always knew I was dumb but not this dumb. The other day it was sunny and we were all sick of our classroom so we sat outside our classroom which is just by the entrance of the MTC. While out there we noticed some ducks and I was like,"how did they even get here?" And then we started to mess with the ducks and try getting as close as we could to them. Then here comes my stupid moment... they fly away and I said the stupidest thing ever, "I didn't know ducks could fly!" I'm so dumb!! haahah I mixed them up with penguins. The whole time I was wondering why they were there was me thinking they were penguins but really they were ducks. Dumb right?? Yeah... totally.
On Sunday, I got called on to speak. IN KOREAN!! On Saturday I had a prompting/feeling that I would get called on so I made sure to prepare a better talk than usual where it's just simple. So when I got called on I turned to my companion and was like, "I told you! I knew it!" It wasn't too bad. Very very short. It had to be on repentance so I just said a few things about that. Read a scripture in English and then just bore a short testimony in Korean. I was pretty glad I was prepared. We got 9 natives again. They are pretty intimidating because I still feel like I hardly know that much to hold a conversation so when they try talking to us it makes me nervous. Luckily, they kinda understand English. One Elder is hilarious! He says he hates children, but loves babies and the youth haha. Oh and his favorite color is pink, but he isn't gay. He even flat out said that haha it was hilarious with how honest he is. It's also funny to see he has a pink camera and water bottle. He even shared some pink M&Ms with all of us. The native sister missionaries are way nice and funny too. As I was brushing my teeth last night I watched in the mirror as I saw one of them was trying to figure out how to get the paper towel out of the thing. It was one of the motion ones where you wave your hand and it will come out. So she is like feeling the sides looking around at it. Then as she did that she motioned in front of it without knowing and it came out and she jumped cause it scared her. It was pretty funny to watch.
Yesterday I had my first opportunity to host new missionaries coming in to the MTC. It started raining on us and was cold, but it was a fun experience be a host. I got the chance to help two sister missionaries. One was way shy, but seemed super nice. I could tell she was nervous, so I tried my best to make her feel okay and help her know where to go. The other sister was so friendly and way cute. She brought 4 HUGE SUITCASES! I'm not even kidding! I only brought 2 suitcases and I thought I had a lot of stuff! But 4!! Wow! So, I probably should repent because I was kinda judging her a little, but she really was nice. She just brought way more than she needs but whatever. If she wants it she can pay for the extra ones I guess. At dinner we had this random "mtc guest" sitting with us. Just asking us about what we do all day in the MTC, and why we decided to serve missions and what things are we sacrificing. She said she wasn't a member and she sure didn't seem like it. We all ended up writing our emails done and saying we could meet with her on Friday to talk to her. It was so great! I really felt like a missionary. At least that was until we went and told our teacher Sister Allen about it and she said it sounds similar to the same person her last students told her.. So, this lady must be a really good actress! :( UGH! made me frustrated that the MTC does that. I want to really teach a real investigator and just stop role playing! I'm done with role playing! I want the real thing. She may not be acting though, we'll know for sure once we meet with her. I'm really hoping she isn't a member, and we can help her, but at the same time she might be.. we'll see.
This morning was a fun experience too. Every P-Day we have the chance to do a session at the temple, which I love. Today was well still rainy though. Because I'm on main campus though don't give us a bus ride over to the temple so while walking it started pouring rain on us... then it started to hail a little. So we were running like idiots trying to get there as fast as we could. My companion even lost her name tag in the process. It like fell off I guess. lol
By the time we got inside the temple my companions hair was drenched and my coat was soaked haha. After the temple, on our way back down to the MTC we tried looking for my companion's name tag, but no luck. We said a prayer hoping they would let her get back into the MTC and to find it. So, we were able to get in and then we went and printed our emails and we met the other two sisters in our district and they had her name tag! So prayer works. Just saying haha.
Last story of something that happened is that since I've been here a month they had us do a language study assessment. We take it on the computer and we get asked questions and scenarios and we have to talk into the microphone in Korean as it records us. It was super-dooper hard! Man! I am so thankful for the spirit in my lessons and for the PMG because honestly just being asked to say something off the top of my head is hard. I feel like I know nothing!! Everything I know requires me to practice it or just write it and read it. It's hard to form sentences only in my head. One day I'll get it though... just hopefully sooner than later.

That's all for now, I will answer questions and stuff in my hand written letters. LOVE YOU!!!

MTC Week 3

Hey everyone! For starters I'd like to say that my butt and legs are so toned!! Like no joke! I don't even run or do leg workouts during gym time anymore just because we get a workout The MTC seems a lot emptier and quieter now that the older districts left (30 missionaries total.) Now we are left with 17 missionaries. It was so sad saying goodbye to them all. We were sad on Monday and Tuesday because our whole hallway was all Korean districts. Now my district and the other district are on complete opposite ends of the hall. It's been a lot easier to get to know the other group of sister though because we are the only ones in our residence hallway. Last night we had a girls night along with a massage train that was definitely needed. My back is sadly still a little tense though, but it's a lot better than before.
Even greater news though is that got two new elders yesterday! I met them both briefly while I was in language study. One of them is named Elder Stoker. Both kinda know some Korean. One is half Korean so he knows the middle form of how to speak, but sad thing for him is that we missionaries use the high form which just means it's very polite and proper. The other one can read Korean I think. That's about all I can remember. Just like me I never saw the older districts the first couple of days I got here so I won't really see them yet. It really made me reflect on how much progress I've made though. These two elders are going to be looking up to our 2 districts and just like we all asked our older districts for help, they will most likely want help from us. I know I have learned a lot, but we as a district seriously feel like we don't know very much to help the other new missionaries coming in. I did also learn how to count! So that's fun! I can count to about 20 fast but if I thought about it I could easily get the rest. It's super easy.
To answer mom's questions. I have been eating more than just cereal. Don't worry mom. I have figured out that I can make a quesdilla and I eat burgers and the chicken when they have it. Just that past week was horrible food choices. It's been better now.
Now for Dad. Ok, So I thought there was a dead body because well it wasn't moving!! I seriously stared at it for like 2 minutes. So what if we're at the MTC. Murders can still happen.. Jk. Well kinda. I'm sure that'd never happen, but still that was just my first thought okay? Give me a break. Haha. There are exactly 8 sisters. and now 7 elders. The two new elders won't be going to the same mission as us. They are just going to a Korean speaking mission. So that means 7 sisters and 5 elders are ALL going to leave on April 28th really early in the morning on a flight with me to South Korea. In a couple weeks we are expecting another group of missionaries to come so that'll add more. Sacrament meeting is going to be so empty until they all get here.
My Korean compared to everyone else is ehh.. I honestly don't know how to compare it. They tell us not to compare ourselves, and it's been very easy not to compare myself. I love my district! I seriously think we are all pretty much on the same level. We all help each other out so we learn and learn more through teaching each other. Like I said I know how to count, and I know how to ask why, how, when, where, what questions to investigators so they won't just say yes or no. So that's also great. I probably need to get better at reading Korean. I practice sometimes reading, but it's just a lot easier to speak than to write and read. One cool experience though which I can't remember if I told you already or not, but during our language study TALL lab time we practiced reading sentences as fast as we could. One of our zone resources Sister Baek was helping us and she would time us. She asked Sister Van Weezep to read the Korean sentence. She did that in 8 secs. 2nd time in 5 secs. Then she asked her to read the same sentence in English. She did that in 3 secs. ONLY A 2 SECOND DIFFERENCE!!! Crazy! Then Sister Baek bore testimony of the gift of tongues. It really is a miracle that we are able to read that fast. I still feel like I'm reading slow, but in reality I'm not, especially when it's words I'm familiar with like God, father, Jesus Christ, etc. So, that's such a blessing. I can not wait for the day where I can just understand though. In our lessons I will be prompted by the spirit to ask a really great question and then the investigator goes on and on talking and I'm so lost!! It's seriously like having to play charades. I have tried my best to just play off the feeling I get from them. Half the time that's even hard to do though.
The Sunday and Tuesday night devotionals were AMAZING!!! and guess what?!!! President Thomas S. Monson came! And luckily we even got a great middle area seat. It was so great to have the prophet in the same room! After the devotional we all quickly found our way over to him and shook his hand. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!?! I shook the prophet's hand! To bad I'm lying...  he never came. I wish though. It's like a inside joke around here to tell the new missionaries that he will be coming though. We did have two elders of the seventy come with their wives. They gave such great talks. I wish I had my notes with me so I could give you a better explanation, but from what I remember is that I am apart of the Lord's missionaries for these latter days. I was set apart and called before I was even born to serve a mission. The Lord is preparing people in Korean just like He has been preparing me my whole life and in the MTC to teach them. Another thing I really liked was about trials and prayer. Heavenly Father hears our prayers, they're recorded, and He will grant them. But we have to pray to Him first. of course. He respects our agency. God knows us and what we want and need already, He's God!! Haha But he wants us to pray to Him. Which then humbles us. Then after we pray, we must then "wait patiently on the Lord." That's in a scripture but since I don't have my notes.. I can't cite it. But I know that's true. And with our trials that's what we must do. Trust in the Lord and that He and Heavenly Father know us and have good things in store for us. We just need to be patient and endure through the hard trials. Sister Van Weezep has a quote on her desk that says, "Tough times don't last. Tough people do."
I LOVE THAT! Know why? Because it is so true!
I love you all so very much, and I miss you a bunch.
XOXO,
Sister Kelly (SK4)
P.s. I tried figuring out how to upload pics but this computer is stupid. I will try another one but if you don't get an additional email. I might just send the SD card to michelle and she emails them to you. We'll see. LOVE YOU!!

Besides sending long email, Amanda also wrote an 18 page letter, too! that came in the mail today.  Here goes—

In answer to some of Mom’s questions.  I sometimes play volleyball but not much anymore because all the good players are leaving to Korea today at 2 AM.

We have 3 meals a day here. Breakfast then class then lunch then class then Gym then dinner then class.

I really love all the Elders in my district now. Lynn included.  I’ve gotten used to him and plus I’ve just prayed to love him.  So guess what? Prayer works!

No chips and salsa.  I’d love them but seriously I don’t have time and we can’t eat in class so they’ll just sit in my room.  Thanks for the thought.

As for studying….yes!  I sometimes get tired of it but no my ways won’t change.  Don’t go thinking this is good practice for college.  Totally different.  I love the gospel and learning Korean so it’s enjoyable. It’s just exhausting when it’s all the time.

We did receive a Korean Preach My Gospel.  I’m using the English one though because it’s easier and I just use what we call our “Tall” book which helps us to form sentences using vacob. for each lesson.

Yesterday I learned how to bear my testimony in Korean.  Then we had a little mini testimony meeting in class where we all went around and bore our testimonies.  It was very nice and I actually understood a good majority of it  We did all buy Korean hymnals because we need them for class when we sing our opening hymn  We’ve gotten really good at singing “I Know My Redeemer Lives, “God Be With You”, “Sweet Hour of Prayer”.  We aren’t pros yet but we are doing well and it sounds pretty.

I would love to have you send me the Ensign not not actual books. For personal study time I usually read the BOM in English and then some in Korean so that usually takes up my whole hour.

Saturday night we had our “pass down” ceremony.  The older sisters who are leaving were given items and then they pass them down.  I got two pass downs  I’ll send pics later.  One is a picture of a bun framed and then I recd a fancy gold man’s watch.  I’ll try my best to explain the meaning.  I believed I received the bun picture because I’ve worn my hair up in a bun a lot.  On the back of the pic it explains the meaning.  It represents our beauty basically.  When I send the pic I’ll write what it says exactly.  Now for the watch.  The sisters say this story is true
but anyways I don’t know for sure.  So there once was a sister missionary who was so beautiful and she thought her teacher was cute.  Her teacher also thought she was cute so what happened? They fell in love.  But she was a missionary so he gave her his watch to represent his love saying he’ll wait for her.  HaHa bogus right!  I loved it because it made me think of show all us girls think our teacher Brother Campbell is super handsome.  So, jokingly whoever receives the watch will fall in love with their teacher.  There was more about how the watch went back in time but it is actually broken now so….I guess I can’t go back in time.  Bummer.

I also wasn’t feeling very good that night.  Had a bad tension headache and felt sick to my stomach.  Luckily when I work up Sunday morning I felt better.  Still ate a light breakfast just to be safe though.

On Friday night we got revenge on the older sisters.  We have what’s called a “Narnia Hole” in the top of the closets.  In the Narnia Hole other  missionaries sometimes leave gifts.  We had an old christmas candle in ours
So our revenge involved the Narnia Hole and Sister Gooch.  We got another sister Allred to give us her room key so we could prank the older sisters back.  She was so excited to be in on it. On Friday nights we have what is called TRC which is where we get to teach volunteers.  Totally love it and being ale to share what I know how to say in Korean.  After TRC we just have additional study time. Sis. Johnson and Sis. Gooch left a little earlier so Sis. Johnson could go hide in the Narnia Hole.  She was in there over an hour! I felt so bad that she had to wait so long of the the girls to finish showering and get back in their room.  So when they were all back she slowly opened the top drawer of their dresser.   Sister Johnson, Sister VanWeezep and I were in our room when we herds the other sisters freaking out.  Sister Johnson was yelling, “There’s a goblin in here”.  We all went in the hallway so we could hear better.  We are like around the corner from their room.  They all thought it was Sis. Collinwood so Sis Lyman is calling tout to see if she is in the shower or not. Then they check the closet and no ones there.  Sister Gooch opened another drawer so we hear them freak out again. Eventually Sis. Lyman realizes to check the Narnia Hole since she knows about it and she screams when she finds Sis. Gooch.  It was great!  They all loved it.
We are planning on pranking the new girls who come because they won’t know about the Narnia Hole We’r hoping those girls will be fun and the type of personalities that we can do that with.

On the more spiritual side.  We watched a Mormon message called Wrong Roads.  I recommend you watch it.  It made me feel a little better when facing trials.  We also watched the Shaytards video “Our Fun Family” and it made me miss camping, hiking, and all those fun outdoor activities. I got a chance to watch Steven’s video about the hike he went on with Ryan  I’m so jealous.  I always will be when you all go on fun adventures like that.  I also watched his other vlogs so that was cool.  Since Sister Vanweezep has to email the President every Saturday night I’ll probably be able to do that again.  So don’t hesitate to mention me in your vlogs Steven Could someone please comment back to Aunt Britt as the computer won’t let me.  Just tell her thanks and how its getting easier.  I definitely think Yoda is Korean!  Makes sense doesn’t it  Also on Instagram can you comment back to Amber and say thanks and the same to Katey.  They are all so nice.  50plus likes on almost every pic. Sweet.  I can’t wait to send you all the pics I’ve taken so far.

Sis. Vanweezep had a funny experience in TRC.  So we speak/teach in Korea. So one of the volunteers, named
an, was being taught by Sis. Vanweezep.  He kind of broke the rule and spoke in English to us a majority of the lesson but was fun to talk to.Sis. Vanweezep was trying to talk about having faith in Jesus Christ and about following Christ, but she sounded out “to follow”and read it in such a way it changed the meaning and Dan laughed and corrected her.  What she ended up saying was “man with no balls Jesus Christ” Soooo bad! But we had a good laugh and learned we can’t separate a word like that ever again. But that’s hard work since we’re are still learning Our teachers don’t ever correct us because they know what we are trying to say.

So before Relief Society all the sister missionaries watch the Spoken Word together.  It’s a good start to a beautiful day.  The Spoken Word makes me think of Daddy just like I think of him when I hear classical or MoTab.
I wishing the MTC choir can sing at General Conference but it probably won’t happen.  They haven’t said anything and there’s a lot more elders in choir than sisters. This includes West Campus MTC. The Elders don’t over power us sisters though.  Help of the Spirit, probably.  During the Spoken Word that last song they sang was called “Hold On” from the Secret Garden cd. It was about facing trials.  I felt the spirit testify to me that is’s important for our family to just hold on and trust in the Lord.  He’ll get us through it. It was a comforting reminder so I thought I would share it.

Also two Korean sisters did a violin/piano musical number and it was “If You Hie to Kolob”.  It made me miss Nauvoo and think of all the saints.  I love violin sounds.  I am hoping one of these nights they will show 17 Miracles.

Sister Vanweezep and I have taught 2 lessons on the first vision and Book of Mormon so I try my best not to cry.  But I really do love Joseph Smith and the Saints.  A part of me wishes I had gotten called to serve there but actually last Sunday the speaker for the devotional was Br. Warner who wrote the Nauvoo Pageant. So once again I thought about how much I wish I was going to Nauvoo but I am excited to be going to Korea.

Anyways, a few fun facts.  Sister Johnson is famous.  She as an extra in High School Musical and also “Forever Strong”.  The scene in Forever Strong where he reads the letter from the old rugby player it shows a pic of her, her mom, and a guy who is supposed to be the older player.  Pretty cool, huh?

For the musical number on Sunday the older missionaries who are leaving go up and sang the first two verses of “God Be With You” and we joined in on the last 2 verse.  Made me cry. I will miss them so much. Church will be super small without them.  Anyways, just know everything is going great.  I love you all so very much.

On Sunday Movie Night we watched the Restoration movie.  I loved it!  While watching it I had an impression.  Remember when Emma and Joseph had soooo many trials with losing so many children and Joseph being tortured but he still endured.  So that me think of our family and the trials we have had.  Emma asked Joseph “How much will we have to endure?”  Joseph told her I believer 70 to 1.  The spirit confirmed to me that we will always face trials.  But the more we endure to the end the stronger we will be.  I pray every day for our family.  I pray for dad and mom especially. 

I’m teaching in Korean about God having a plan for us and here I am.  It’s finally hit me.  If our family must go through a hard time again then that’s God’s will.  I know He also has a plan to get us to overcome that trial. It’s very hard for me to admit that we all know its true.  I love you and hope and pray our family is always safe and okay.

Love
Sis SK4

MTC Week 2

Letter # 1
This is in response to your Dear Elder which first off I love Dear Elder.  Only because I get it the same day so that’s very nice.  I understand I can’t get everything.  I will just not get anything.  Hopefully you haven’t gone and bought me a purse or anything.  I have survived without a bigger bag.  Same as the tops. I’m fine.  I really want the skirt, but I understand I don’t need it.

If there is anything I’ve learned it’s definitely that this mission comes with sacrifices.  I feel like I’m making or will be making a lot of those but it’s just all apart of the experience.  As many outfits as I’d love to have I’m fine without it.  If I do ever see a skirt in Korea though could my tax refund go towards that? Or does that go against everything I just said: Haha aren’t I silly?

I am getting sick of the MTC food…yup.  Definitely sick of it.  At first I liked the options but this past weekend they just have stuff that looks gross or just not what I want.  So what do I eat? Cereal…yup! I ate cereal and PB&J for like 3 days.  Maybe some fruit here and there but nothing is good.  Oh wait, the bagels are good, too! So bagels, fruit, and cereal and PB&J. That’s a good diet right?  I haven’t had soda once!  Doing so good with that.  Only water.  Plus during gym I’m actually working out instead of playing volleyball so hopefully I’ll get a flatter stomach.  My butt and legs get a workout daily.  My residence hall is on the 4th floor and my classroom is on the 3rd floor and no elevators.  So the stairs leave me out of breath some times and my legs felt sore the first week but I’m good now.

I moved bunk beds to the extra bottom bunk and I’m sleeping so much better now.  Thank goodness! Plus I put some pictures on the wall next to  my head so I see all your faces every night.

Found out my old  investigator is now my 2nd teacher.  He’s super handsome FYI haha.  His name is Brother Campbell.  He’s such a great teacher.  I understand him better than Sister Allen.  But Sister Allen is so sweet and cute.  Brother Campbell just explains better.  Sister Allen and Brother Campbell are now role playing as new investigators.  So I have 2 investigators instead of one now.  I taught Sister Allen’s character yesterday and it went so well.  We taught her how to pray and gave her a Book of Mormon to read.  Tomorrow we teach Br. Campbell’s character again.  We have been busy today and Sister Van Weezep and I haven’t finished planning our lesson and tonight was Tuesday general authority devotional sows hopefully will find time before we teach.

Love you all so much.  Can’t wait to email you on my p-day.  I go to the temple in the morning so probably later in the afternoon I’ll be on email.

Letter # 2
Man! I am so happy to finally be able to get back on the computer and email. You were right when you told me that I'd get tired of just studying all the time. I am enjoying the MTC but at the same time it is so physically and spiritually draining. I'm sure you've heard that over and over before though.

So, everything is still good. For the most part, besides being sick of studying haha. I love my teachers. Brother Campbell and Sister Allen are such great teachers and I can truly feel the gift of tongues working. I mean I've been here exactly 2 weeks now and I know a lot. I have been teaching actual lessons in Korean! Ain't that crazy?! I haven't really felt overwhelmed anymore. I've just come to realize and accept that I will make mistakes and not be able to learn it all at once. I just have to study and learn what I can and then when I teach lessons the spirit will guide me as to what I should say. Which actually did happen just two days ago. My companion got called to be the new sister training leader for our zone since the other one is leaving for Korea this coming Monday. So, because of that she had to go to these meetings to be trained and that affected our companion study time. Which then affected our lesson for the next day. After her meeting we seriously had no time to study. Since I'm still the senior companion for another week or so I had planned some of it myself, but since we are a companionship I wanted to make sure she was involved too. We didn't have much time at night to do it, so we ended eating breakfast really fast and getting to class early so we could finish. Thankfully we got it finished, but it wasn't that long. I had a prompting to bring one of our old lesson plans on prayer and I wasn't sure why but I am so glad I did. Our investigator ended up asking questions about prayer and I was so thankfully I had brought my paper that helped me remember the korean vocab so I could translate what I wanted to say. And let me tell you, that lesson was short, but the spirit was still present. It's weird to me that we are just role playing with our teachers and that we can feel the spirit like that, but at the same time I'm loving it. My companion and I felt like we were able to just go by the spirit and not use our notes and just bare our testimonies on prayer. It was amazing. I mean I seriously maybe looked down once and the rest just flowed. There were times I was just trying to figure out what to say in my head but I could definitely testify that the Lord was helping me remember what I had learned and He helped me speak Korean to my investigator. Pretty cool huh?

Now I have a more funny experience to share. First on Friday night since I am senior companion I had to get interviewed by the (now old) sister training leader Sister Lyman. She is awesome! I love her! She and like 3 other sisters are seriously my favorite out of the older group of korean missionaries. In the interview she said that she and those other sisters actually look up to us. Which took me by surprise because we actually look up to them. She also mentioned that they love that Sister Gooch, Sister Johnson, Sister Van Weezep, and I are more like a 4 companionship. Which is so true. We always end up doing everything together. It's rare when it's only 2 of us together. On Saturday night, us 4 went and took showers at the same time. We always leave our door open so we don't have to take our key with us. So I was the first one to come back to our room and I noticed the light was off for some reason. I didn't really think much of is because I just figured one of the other girls just decided to turn it off since we were all in the shower. Sister Johnson comes back and we just happen to noticed that there's this black blow up cat. Which has been passed down from each group of missionaries when the others leave to Korea. So, we laugh at it and just throw it. Thinking they just decided to throw it in our rooms. (Normally they throw it in our showers while we are showering haha) So the night continues and we just all are talking about random stuff while we get ready for bed. I finished writing in my journal earlier than everyone else so I decided to just do some crunches on the floor. While I was doing crunches I noticed underneath Sister Van Weezep's bed a fist that made me like look twice. I was like thinking, "what the heck?" I sat there for like a minute or 2 just trying to figure out if that was really a hand or not then I saw a foot... and then I just was like "oh my gosh is that a dead body?" and the other girls were like wait what? Sister Gooch and Sister Johnson's desk is on the other side of the bunkbed so she immediately turns and looks under it and we then realize it's Sister Jacobson! Haha I love her! Meanwhile this whole time of us talking about the body she didn't move one bit till maybe like 5 minutes and she finally lifts the blanket haha and she tells us how she wanted to scare us haha. She was under there for maybe an hour!! So funny! So while talking to her Sister Gooch notices under Sister Johnson's bed that there's another body! She was Sister Lyman! Man these girls are hilarious! So, immediately I check undermine which had  suitcases where Sister Collinwood was hiding. We were maybe laughing about it for like a whole other hour. They were hoping to wake us up in the middle of the night by shaking our beds and scaring us. Would have been funny, but I'm glad we caught them. It just made it that much more funny.

That's probably the funniest thing that has happened this past week..
So the natives from Korea come for about a week and a half to be trained on how to be a missionary and teach so yes its at the beginning of their missions and they then leave with the set of missionaries that will leave next to go to the Korea. Which is next Monday!! I'm so sad they are all leaving. The native sisters are soo cute! They are seriously happy about everything and excited to even just go to the gym with us. One comment that one said was "I really want to go swimming, but I don't know how to breathe underwater." Haha seriously it was funny at the time. They say such funny innocent things like that all the time. Talking to them makes me so excited to finally get to Korea and meet more Koreans. I still got a whole lot more to learn though. Thankfully I have 7 weeks more of that.
Oh! Another awesome experience that happened was on Sunday during our district meeting, we talked about the devotional we had that night. We all kind of told very personal things and shared our testimonies. They elders also mentioned that they considered all of us family and they would do anything for us sisters. It was very comforting, cause it's true. I really do feel like they are like my brothers. Sister Gooch also mentioned that our district seems to be a lot closer and stronger than others. We really are lucky to have been blessed with such great strong missionaries in our district. I consider all of them such great friends. I'm going to miss them when we actually have to leave and go to Korea. Once again, thankfully that's 7 weeks away haha.
We didn't sing in the choir this week, because the song was some really hard song.. Yes there are 47 missionaries in my branch. ALL are going to Korea. Some different places in Korea but majority to my same mission. We are asked to SYL which stands for Speak Your Language. So that means once you learn a new word then replace it with the english word and try to never say the english word again. It's hard sometimes because we go to eat or devotionals where we speak and hear english but then in class, lessons, and church we are to only speak korean. They understand we all can't know it all, so we syl. Sister van weezep and I have recently realized it's affected our english a little. We talk more like yoda haha cause that's how we have to think in order to translate to the way korean grammar is. It's not a huge difference but occasionally we notice we put our verbs on the end of our sentences on accident haha. Like for example I might say something like "I cold am." Get what I mean?

I went to the temple this morning and that was such a great experience. Just a nice refresh to make it another week here.


Love you all! Miss you a ton! I miss you Daddy a lot!! I am always praying for you and mom!
Sister Kelly

Korean word of the week: Death
Pronounced Chock um
Pretty self explanatory right? Chock someone and that equals death haha

MTC Week 1

Annyonghasayo everyone! The MTC is so awesome, but yet soo exhausting. My very first few days here was pretty nice. I didn't really feel overwhelmed or anything. I feel so lucky to have been blessed with a companion I love. Her name is Sister Van Weezep. Pronounced just like it's spelled.She is from Farmington, Utah. 20 years old. Super fun outgoing personality. I've noticed she and I laugh a lot together so that's great. I love everyone in my district. The elders and other sisters are way cool and funny.Sister Gooch and Sister Johnson are just as amazing and fun as my companion.
A little about my branch and district. My branch has 47 missionaries in it. 2 of them are my district(28B) and another (28C) that came on Feb. 26th. The other 3 will be leaving to Korea in about 1 1/2 weeks or so. Which means the natives came! The came about 2 days ago. I haven't talked to them much because I really only see them while eating, but they sure seem happy about us learning their language.
The first day I stepped into my classroom and heard my teacher (Sister Allen) only speaking in Korean I felt calm. It was weird, but I just couldn't stop laughing because it was just weird. I didn't feel overwhelmed like everyone made it seem like. I just tried guessing what she was saying and asked and she would say Nay which means yes or un yo which means no.
The spirit is definitely stronger here at the MTC.
 By my 3rd day here, I learned how to introduce myself in korean, the alphabet, and I learned how to pray in Korean. How cool is that? Of coarse everything is simple phrases but after like 3 or 4 days I felt like my district and I were learning so fast. I remember Brother Halloway trying to teach me and I was struggling, but here I can definitely feel the Lord helping me. On friday we had to teach our first lesson to a pretend investigator IN KOREAN! I had only been there for 3 days and I had to teach! It was ridiculous! But my companion and I did good. We basically were teaching for maybe 3 or 5 minutes which consisted of hello, introducing ourselves. We said do you know god? We know god. We love god. Then we prayed. But over the coarse of the week we've learned more Korean and can now make our 5 minute lesson into possibly 10 min lesson. Yesterday we even taught him how to pray and he actually prayed it was amazing! We were on a spiritual high it was great!
Us 4 sisters (Sister Gooch, Sister Johnson, Sister Van Weezep and myself) all were joking about putting our orange dot stickers we got on our first day here back on when the new set of missionaries going to korea come. Then we will pretend we are new and pretend we are so nervous about learning korean and then bam! All of a sudden just start speaking korean to them and say "The gift of tongues!! It works!" or something like that.

Mom you were wanting to know about some things so here goes..
the mtc food is alright. I'm trying to eat small amounts and healthy cause honestly I feel like we study eat study eat and then eat eat eat.study study study. It's exhausting and my tummy doesn't like being bloated 24/7 from eating too much.
I chose the top bunk because I have no idea why! But I did. There's 3 bunk beds in our room so I could change but doesn't matter much. My bed is pretty hard but I'm so tired by the end of the night it doesn't really matter.
I have plenty of closet space. and drawers. My own desk area. It's all good.
Honestly to answer your last few questions everything is just great! Well for the most part. I have come to realize I love Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.
Sunday was a cool experience because we sang in korean and everyone bore their testimonies in korean. Then we have a devotional which was just so great! Loved it! Then it was movie night. Definitely going to be a fav of mine. We watched the testmaments movie and its pretty good, I've seen it before so it wasn't anything new but there's some cheesy parts that all the missionaries like to quote. Some of the older korean elders were making me laugh to hard with their comments during the movie haha.

Tuesdays are service days so it's just nice to be able to take a break and wear some regular clothes for a change and clean. It was a good break. Our assignment is to help clean 19M which is the gym. Sister Van Weezep and I cleaned the drinking foundations and had to wear these goggles that look like ones you would wear in a science class lol. Sister Gooch and Sister Johnson got to vacuum the stairs with this cool ghostbuster looking like vacuums. We will have to send some pictures haha.
Tuesday nights we have a devotional where a general authority comes and speaks. This week it was Marcos A. Aidukaitis of the Seventy. He and his wife gave wonderful talks about missionary work and how we were born in this time in history for a reason. Us 4 sisters also joined the mtc choir so we got to sing that night during the devotional. We sang Come to Jesus. Such a beautiful song! Look it up! It's written by Janice Kapp Perry's daughter I believe. It was printed in the Ensign or something like that this past year. After the devotional we have a devotional review type thing as a district where we talk about it and that was really good. It was really spiritual and uplifting :)
After we had personal study time and companion study. I think we ended up just doing language study and I was doing so well up until that moment. We were talking about a way to say something in Korean and I didn't quite understand. On Tuesday morning I woke up with a stuffy and runny nose (which I still have sadly) so I was even more drowsy because my body was still adjusting to the new schedule and so that night I had a sinus headache and was tired and then I just had a hard time understanding verb stems or whatever. I thought I knew but then everyone was trying to help me understand but there's this one Elder named Elder Lynn. Grrr boy does he get on everyone's nerves! He talks and sings and just thinks he is always right. but anyway he just was correcting me and making me feel stupid and I felt so overwhelmed and I realized I was never going to be able to learn Korean. I tried to hold back the tears but they just flowed out. Then Elder Ely (pronounced e-lee) who is super funny. He has such a great funny personality haha. We joke around with him all the time. well he just happened to notice the tears flowing down my face and so did my companion and I immediately say I'm ok. Cause really I was, I just laughed it off. I just couldn't stop the tears from coming out. Another awesome elder named Elder Bryner joked about giving me a hug but of coarse.. we can't haha. so that made me laugh. Then my companion gave me one instead haha even though I said I was just fine. I just was tired and stuff. Then Elder Ely was so sweet when he said they could give me a blessing. That made me feel better, like the Lord was trying to tell me it'll all be ok. At least that was until Elder Lynn had to go and say, "I believe the handbook says that there's only certain circumstances we are allowed to give blessings to sisters." or something like that. Honestly I don't know but he just ruined that whole moment for me.
I never ended up getting a blessing. I really didn't feel like I needed one, at least I don't yet haha. My Korean is slowly coming along. I'd send you all pictures but I have no cord to upload it to the computer :( so send that and then you will get pictures!!
I'm sad to hear about Mr. Wilborn. I love him!! And wow!! so many views! I really hope I didn't look ugly in the video.
haha I know I shouldn't care but yet I am still a girl and I still care. Please tell me I looked pretty. I wish I could watch it. It sounds like great video :)

I love you guys so very much! No more food!! please! I'm having a hard time finishing what you gave me already and now the other 3 sisters got some goodies so that's even more food. I'm trying not to be one of those missionaries that gets fat guys. Come on! Don't you know me at all? hahah but yeah thanks though! I still loved what you all gave me! Tell Tyler he needs to keep that room clean and that I love him. Tell mel She better love those shoes to death! DON'T wear them out too much though haha. Then everyone else.. just I love you! Miss you a ton. Steven got my birthday card right? Sometimes I forget I'm a missionary and feel like I'm just away at EFY and I go to look for my phone to call mom or text someone but nope.. No phone. but It's all good. Just studying studying and more studying. People aren't joking when they say that the days feel like they go on and on forever and the weeks go by so fast. I can't believe it's already been a week. Time is flying by.

Talk to you in a week!
XOXO,
Sister Kelly