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
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