Herro!
I cannot believe that I am almost done here at the MTC! Today next week at 3PM I will be landing in Seoul, Korea!! That is unreal to me. So here is a break down of the past week.
Tuesday after I emailed home we had a devotional by Elder David F. Evans. He spoke to the Korean Branch the previous Sunday and it was fun hearing from him again. He reminded us that as we are on our missions, it is not about us. We are full-time service missionaries which means we are being sent all over the world to serve and love all of the children of God. It is about the Lords work! He referred to Ammon as a great example of forgetting himself to serve in Alma 26:12. He also reminded us to be willing to yield and choose the Lord before anything else. It was pretty awesome.
Wednesday was a weird day. A lot of the missionaries in my zone are getting sick with various things like mono, the flu, and pneumonia... I promise they are dropping like flies around here! In class today, less than half were in attendance.
Oh! I don't remember if I told you but the MTC totally changed all of the Asian language missionaries schedules. It is weird because our whole last week in going to be so messed up from the usual. We will see how packing and such turn out. It has a few perks because we have been given time today to do laundry, Friday is P-day, and a few hours on Saturday to pack. CRAY!! Along with the new schedule they are switching around teachers, which started 4/24. My whole district was super bummed because we love our teachers!! Brother Tanner is our favorite person in the whole entire MTC. He was promoted to a Zone resource so we are happy, but also sad. He promised to come by and see us as much as he can. We are holding him to that and so far he has stayed true to him promise. ^^ He is the BEST
Anyway, we met one of our new teachers, Brother Mersmann. He is a good teacher, but not amazing like Brother Tanner. Even though we don't have much time left he set time aside to have each companionship meet a new "progressing investigator." He speaks Korean so fast!! Even with body language I asked him what he meant 100 times before he wrote something down for us to translate later. Also, we didn't mean to but he laughed at me and Sister Stradling when we were trying to think on the fly... we might have said a wrong word but that was rude! I was super frustrated but this is like a sneak peak of what we have in store when we get to Korea. :/ Oh well, he apologized for laughing and promised to bring us treats to say sorry haha. Pray for me though!! Prayer will help a lot more than candy and popcorn. After that fun experience we had lunch. Guess who surprised our district with a lunch visit? BROTHER TANNER!! He sat across from me and I was so happy to talk and vent. He turned my day around with his solid advice. I love him!! ...but in an appropriate teacher-student kind of way. I am so grateful for everything that he has taught me in such a short amount of time.
Thursday our other teacher, Sister Wadsworth, had her last day of teaching us. I am not too sad. It just sucks that everything is changing just before we leave. She didn't really prepare a lesson so we just asked her all of our culture questions. It was helpful, but I feel like it was the opposite of productive. Next was lunch. Food here is blah. Soon I will be eating the best food in the world! Anyway, after lunch we had class. To our surprise again, TANNUHH taught! (that is how his name is pronounced in Korean haha) Brother Mersmann had to go to the hospital for some muscle spasms so we he couldn't teach. We felt bad but we are SO happy Brother Tanner was his sub. ^^ He gave us an amazing pep-talk! He shared some scriptures which are as follows: Doctrine and Covenants 35:15, Luke 18:18, and one in 3 Nephi 17. Basically he pumped us up for thrashing the nation of Korea with the word of God! Even though the word thrash sounds a little violent, I am so ready and excited to work hard and talk to everyone I can to spread this message of happiness, peace, and joy!! Brother Tanner always knows exactly what to say to get us excited to go out and work as hard as we possibly can!
When class was over I was called in for a doctor's appointment. They said it was a follow up... you may be just as confused as I was. I went in and when the nurse was taking my vitals I asked what the follow up was about, he didn't have an answer for me. I waited a good 20 minutes before I was seen. The doctor called me in to check up on my finger that I went to urgent care to take care of. Apparently, having looked at my X-ray more closely, it appears that I cracked the bone in the tip of my finger. There is nothing you can do about it except let it heal. It heels fine so I was a little surprised to hear that. It was pretty funny thought because after the doctor told me that, his expression changed to be more sad like there was bad news haha. I just raised both of my eyebrows and said, "Is that all?" He nodded his head and said, "I hate to inform you that your finger nail might grow in weird..." As his voice trailed off and he looked me in the eye, I literally laughed and said, "Is that the bad news?" He said yes, I told him I could care less, and asked if I could leave. After I was excused I laughed all the way back to class as I told Sister Stradling how disappointed he was for my finger nail. What a goon.
Friday we met Sister Wadesworths replacement, his name is Brother Wade. I had seen him around campus and in our language building before. I feel bad but my first impression of him was totally wrong. After learning from him for ten minutes, I decided, I LOVE HIM!! He is an amazing teacher! If he and Brother Tanner taught together, I am pretty sure we would be professional Korean speaking missionaries. I think the enthusiasm they both have about the Korean language, missionary work, and our individual success is what makes them AMAZING! I literally do not think I could ever put into words all of the appreciation or love I have for them.
Anyway, back to class. We had just finished dinner and Brother Wade was teaching. He was introducing himself and mentioned he was moving apartments and had not eaten since breakfast. Sister Scott and I quickly stood up and said, "we will be right back!" He smirked because he knew exactly what we were thinking. We used Sister Scott's bag as a way to smuggle a teriyaki bowl out of the cafeteria for our new- second favorite teacher. When we got back he was so grateful. He taught us a grammar form for an hour then we were allowed to take a 5 minute break. In the break I stood watch at the door distracting any teacher that may want to talk to Brother Wade. When he downed his food class began again. It was awesome. Along with the pep talk from Brother Tanner yesterday, Brother Wade proceeded to tell us all about his mission and the work happening in Korea. The district as a whole is SO PUMPED! This is exactly what we need leading up to our last week. We are so amped to learn all we can before we are actual in the country!
Saturday was the best day! Since our travel plans were supposed to be delivered Thursday before dinner, the whole district was anxious. The eleventh check on a class bathroom break at 9AM, THEY FINALLY CAME! Poor Elder Jorgensen had Sister Scott and I over his shoulder telling him to hurry up. Us three took a second to find ours. Then we immediately started running back to the classroom. I am not quite sure how that looked to other missionaries and teachers on campus but I'm over it. WE ARE SO EXCITED! I had every ones travel plans and I got 4 paper cuts on my hands and I was trying to hand them out as fast as I could. It was a happy day. Luckily Brother Wade was teaching so he shared the excitement with us. We asked him to text a picture of them to Brother Tanner. They were both stoked. It is needless to say that everyone had smiles on their faces for the rest of the day. Also, in every spare moment we just stared at them. We know nothing is changing but it is just SO EXCITING! Anyway, the good mood didn't fade even when the sister's retired their residence halls. I had picked up an Italian hymn book that I bought for Jenni Sloan, since she is in Italy for the next few years. I decided to break it in and have a concert for the sisters in my room. I laid in my bed with the hymn book in hand. I would randomly open up to a page and ask a sister what song she thought it might be. They would start me off with a tune and I would try my best to sing in my best Italian. It was pretty hilarious. I was laughing and singing loud. Also, one of the times it started sounding pretty good- turns out we had chosen the right song for the right tune. That may sound lame but it was funny and awesome. #hatersgonnahate
Sunday was great, as usual. In Relief Society we heard from Bonnie L. Oscarson, the new Young Women President. Her first order of business was to speak to all of the sisters here at the MTC. She is adorable and said a lot for really helpful things. She started by speaking of feeling inadequate. I for one feel very inadequate when it comes to being a missionary in a foreign country. She felt the same when she was called by President Thomas S. Monson. She was funny and shared this thought with the prophet when she was called. President Monson replied, "Of course you don't know everything- you were just barely called." haha I can imagine him saying that. She also said that two people can do ANYTHING as long as one is The Lord. GREAT reminder to rely on Him and His power. After Relief Society we had lunch then Sacrament meeting. When they were announcing who we would hear from, we were all shocked to find out that they were calling on a brand new sister that just got here 10 days prior! Bless her heart, she did really well but I would have been terrified and felt so embarrassed. However it was awesome because the native Koreans are so impressed even with her. They are very verbal about that with all of the "oooo's" and "ahhh's" after each speaker and prayer. It is very encouraging. I love them.
THEN the best things happened when I went to the temple. Guess who was there?? The best mom in the world, my favorite set of twins- Derek and Alise, and my adorable nephew. I promise it was the best thing ever being able to see them one last time before I leave the country in a week. Thank you for coming!! I love you all very very much!
Monday was such a wonderful day with Brother Wade! He is so great and follows the spirit so well when he is deciding what to do in class. He felt impressed to take up to a grassy spot of the MTC. He invited us to bring our scriptures. We walked reverently across campus. Once we arrived he softly said, "There is power in praying with your scriptures in your hands." He then invited us to find a spot to kneel and offer a prayer to our Father in Heaven. Brother Wade suggested we pray for 5-10 minutes then open our scriptures to read for another 5-10 minutes. Once we were done he told us to come sit by him so we could talk about our experience. He is an inspired man because that activity was exactly what I needed. The second I knelt and started praying, tears immediately started falling down my cheeks as I thanked my Heavenly Father for everything that I have been blessed with. I pleaded for help in feeling confident in teaching what I know to be true. I pleaded for retention with the Korean language that I have learned thus far. I thanked Him for the help I had received thus far. I poured my soul to Him. When I finally closed my prayer in Jesus Christ's name, I open my scriptures up to Enos. I encourage everyone to read that book. Enos was experiencing a similar thing to me. It was awesome to read about his experience. After I read Enos, I started reading in 1 Corinthians. After about 10 minutes of awesome reading, I made my way over to Brother Wade where we waited for the rest of the group to join us. It wasn't long until we were gathered. Brother Wade read to us Doctrine and Covenant's 11. It was awesome. Read that too!! After, he shared his testimony with us. He is so amazing! When he finished he invited everyone to share their testimonies as well. It was a really sacred experience. I will forever treasure what I have learned from each and every person in my district. Overall, Monday was the best day ever!
Today is Tuesday again and the schedule has officially changed. It is not supposed to be our P-day but we were authorized to email home and do laundry. Laundry is done and soon we have dinner. Devotional tonight will be pretty great- because it always is. I hope everyone back home and around the world is doing well. I miss you all and I am doing great. Everyone in the zone is back in classes and healthy. Everyone is cleared for Korea in less than 7 days! Let the countdown begin!
XO,
Sister Sloan
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