안양하세오!

My District and our Native Sisters

This is me and some of the ducks that live at the MTC. I love the MTC ducks!

Us outside at lunch the other day!

This is me and Sister Choi (left) and Sister Hwang (right). Sister Choi will be coming with me to Busan!!!

Another classic week at the good old MTC. As much as I just love the food, I'm definitely excited to leave to Korea! The time is going so fast. It really is like being in your own little spiritual bubble world. We have been able to have class outside a bunch this week thanks to this amazing weather. It's my favorite thing ever. We always eat our lunch outside and this week we had a little friend! We saw a deer in the bushes by where we were eating. It was such a random, but fun piece of home!

We got our new missionaries this week! We got two native Sisters, nine native Elders, and 1 English Elder. Pooooor Elder... But they're seriously awesome! They make me so excited to go to Korea! I got to go with the other STL and our Zone Leaders to go pick them up and seeing their faces was just the greatest. They were so excited to be at the MTC and have the sweetest spirit about them. Sister Hwang and Sister Choi are my favorite people ever! It's one giant joke watching us try to communicate. Between their broken English, our broken Korean it becomes one big game of charades! They're all so helpful and patient with us learning Korean. During their first gym time we had an intense game of volleyball, it was their first time ever playing! I may be able to teach about the Restoration of the Gospel, but I can't explain how to rotate in Korean to save my life! They made us a deal that if we would teach them to play volleyball they would help us with our Korean! 

The next day things got intense! Elder Dahl, Elder Bond, Sister Alder and I had to do new missionary orientation and give them a tour of the MTC! It was a royal disaster! Thankfully, most of them know a little English, but I didn't know that at the time. Everything we said we would say with hand actions and trying to make sure they were understanding! It was a fun mix between English, Korean and charades. Same as before, I can testify of the Gospel, but once it comes down to explaining where you get your hair cut, sack lunches, and all the exciting details of the MTC I'm a goner! We found out later that some of them are actually fluent in English so I'm sure they just thought it was hilarious! 

We started a beautiful thing called Skype TRC this week. We skype members from Korea and teach them 45 minute lessons once a week. We get to know them, then teach them as the spirit directs. My companions had me sit in the middle, so I felt like it was a huge screen of my face then both of them cut off on the side. They put me there because they say if I were to get a bloody nose I would bleed sunshine and happiness. That's the reputation I've gotten at the MTC. (I'm still trying to decide if that's a good or bad thing!) So during our lesson I did my job, I sat and smiled. In our review she said we seemed really happy to be there, had good eye contact and that she loved how much we smiled. Mission accomplished! 

We got to practice proselyting outside with our Native Korean Elders this week. It was the most intimidating thing ever, but I loved it! We would be the missionaries for ten minutes, then would switch to being the investigators while they taught us. And to make it more intense we had to teach alone without our companion. Our Korean Elders are awesome and were so patient with our shaky Korean! I was also shocked at how much I got out of what they said when they taught. It was such a cool experience. My favorite part was when I went up to one of the Elders and asked what he was doing to start the conversation, he pointed to a picture of Joseph Smith in his PMG and said reading about Spider-Man the super hero. We both broke character laughing, it was the greatest! After we went inside and had a testimony meeting. The spirit was so strong. It's amazing how much the spirit can touch you even when you don't know ever word being said, or even most of the words. I can't even begin to describe how cool that experience was being in there with all of those amazing missionaries. 

That next night we decided to practice our proselyting with our native Sisters in our residence hall! They get so excited when we ask them to practice things like this with them. It's so cute! As Sister Akagi and I were talking to Sister Choi, Sister Akagi tried to compliment her shoes. When she did Sister Choi looked horrified! It took us almost 5 minutes to get the message across that Sister Akagi had just swore at her in Korean! Apparently the word shoe sounds really similar to a really bad word, but no one warned us of this!!

This week we had a substitute teacher come in to teach us, Sister Kim, we love when she gets to teach us! She came in and told us to ask any question we wanted about her to get to know her really well. She opened up and told us all kinds of things about her life. After she said now I'm going to leave and you have 7 minutes to plan a 15 minutes to help bring me closer to Christ. The pressure was on!! We quick brainstormed what could help her best, threw together a lesson and she came back. When it was my turn to talk about what I had prepared and thought to go over, I felt like nothing I had prepared to share was right. It was a feeling unlike I had ever felt. I decided to just role with it and say what I felt needed to be said. Vocabulary words came to me I had studied but knew I didn't have memorized. It was amazing. I shared a scripture with her and before I knew it, I was in tears and so was she. The rest of our lesson went a completely different route and it was amazing. After she talked to us about the importance of being a missionary everywhere you go and always. You don't have to be in the field to be a missionary, you can be a missionary in the MTC. You don't have to be a full time missionary to be a missionary. You should always be a missionary where ever you are. If you have a desire to serve, then do it. Stop waiting for the next step, or something else to happen. There is no better time than now. She shared something with us she had been told on her mission, that in the next life everyone you knew who didn't have the gospel will you you didn't share it with them. They'll know you were too afraid or whatever it may be to share the truth with them. I know the gospel can bring us so much happiness and lift us through any trial. It's amazing to see how much more God can make out of you than you could ever make yourself. 

I love you all!

사랑합니다!!

Stout 자매