старейшина Chun & старейшина Fillmore

Nametag

Namensschild

 

Apparently all missionaries have to take the ‘map picture’

Angeblich müssen alle Missionare dieses „Kartenfoto“ machen!

District UKR-DNI 0418 – 4 Elders, 4 Sisters

„Tower of Babel“ in our room at day 7 – we bought ALL the Cactus Cooler soda in the MTC

“Turmbau zu Babel” in unserem Zimmer, Tag 7 – wir haben alle Cactus Cooler Dosen im MTC aufgekauft

Week 5

Hello Family and Friends! Life here in the MTC is fabulous! It's going by so quickly. I can't believe it's day 36/60 already. My district has become my new family here and we had some pretty fun moments together here. My mom sent us a cake to celebrate the half way day in the MTC (which she actually miscalculated but we were all still extremely grateful for) and we devoured it. Hahaha we took some time out of our language study and all got together at a table outside to eat this glorious cake. It was a little chilly and a little windy but it was definitely worth it. I don't know what was in that cake but I think it was a good moral boost for everyone in the District even more than a physical one since we've all become a little... desensitized to the cafeteria food. It's not bad food, but it's all just mass produced and it tastes like it. It's kinda like eating at Golden Coral every day. It's good once in a while, but not so much for 3 meals a day every day for a few months. Anyways, we started by taking pictures (yes Mama I've been trying hard to take pictures and I'm going to send them home this week) We have all of these pretty nice pictures of us being friends and stuff and we have this pretty little cake with us and it's all nice. Then I tried to cut the cake (It had a Carmel layer on the top and all I had to cut with was a plastic knife and since it was a little chilly the caramel layer on the top of the cake got kinda hard) I told the district that if they wanted to eat the cake they had to follow the Chun tradition which is to scream as loud as possible from the moment the knife hits the top of the cake to the moment it touches the bottom. It never touched the bottom. Haha I started "cutting" and the plastic knife just went into the cake and the caramel wrapped around it and got sucked into the cake. Then the knife I was using broke and actually cut my finger and I started bleeding. After this, we just decided that we're close enough like family and since nobody's a germophob we just took the forks and dug into the cake. After 30 seconds, a good 60% of the cake was gone. Haha then we ended up not finishing, we had about one to two servings of cake left, but either way we had a lot of fun and really came together. So with this I'd also like to thank Mama for the amazing cake. It tasted wonderful and it really did lift everyone's spirits. We spent at least 20 minutes after eating just laughing. About 15 minutes of which we were just laughing at eachother's laughs. There are some seriously strange laughs in our district. One of which is mine... I have a higher laugh than all of the sisters but one, and her's is tied with mine. Haha

This week one of my teachers also got engaged. He's a character and a half too. My companion and the other Elders in my district have been really into pokemon lately and they've been putting a pokemon to everyone and the teacher who just got engaged is a squirtle. Haha he looks really scrawny and skinny, but he's always semi-hyper. Really happy guy and a really funny guy, he just told us his entire engagement story yesterday though. It was... in Russian. Haha He told us the story in russian, but he did enough with the hand motions and made sure to define all of the vocabulary we wouldn't know so I did understand the story. Apparently he took this lady up to a pretty hill after a stressful dinner because the ring wasn't finished until halfway through dinner. Then he was almost found out because they were supposed to be kinda meandering in the car but he knew where he was going, he had a lot of people helping him and one of them caught on fire and another almost caught the building on fire. But in the end it ended up being him standing on the hill with this girl looking up at the sky filled with paper lanterns like in Tangled and he quoted the movie by saying "(Insert lady's name here) you are my new dream." How precious. Then he made a connection to the Gospel about how he had everything planned out but it didn't all go according to plan but it did end up better than anything. So that's kinda like missionary work. We can plan all we want, it's not going to go the way we want it to, but it'll turn out for the best anyways because "The works and designs of God cannot be frustrated." D&C 3:1 I think... not sure. He didn't share that in the lesson. That's just something I stumbled on earlier that was cool.

Yesterday we had Elder Oaks come and speak to us. He talked about the Gift of the Holy Ghost and how important the partaking of the sacrament is to having that in our lives. He quoted president Ezra Taft Benson and said, "The Gift of the Holy Ghost is the greatest gift we can receive in mortality." Then went on later to say, "We all have the right to the companionship of the Holy Ghost but the privilege of the companionship of the Holy Ghost is dependant on our worthiness." (That was paraphrased I have no idea exactly what he said) but that was my favorite thing he said. When an apostle of the Lord speaks it's just amazing because you can feel the weight of the mantle on their voices and you can see the joy of the service in their countenances. I love being able to listen to the apostles speak. This next week is General Conference and the MTC choir is going to be able to sing in some of the sessions. I'm not going to be in it but the sisters in my district are. I didn't know that was coming up or I would have done it. I've been taking naps during choir practice. Haha

Well things are going great! Thank you for all of the prayers and love! Thanks for all those who have been writing letters and I hope to hear from the rest of you soon!

- Elder Chun

Week 4

Здравствуйте Friends
and Family!!!
Week 4 in the MTC!!!
... Just like week 3. Haha This week was a little crazy though. It seems it's gone by really fast. Russian is coming along and it's getting easier to understand but it's just as hard to speak it :P. The MTC has seemed really empty lately since the group of Russian speaking missionaries before us has left now, so our group for meal times, gym times, and TALL times (a computer exercise
for the language) is really small now. But this week has been pretty relaxing for me. As mean as it may sound, my companion got really sick and it was nice. I got to stay in the room and "take care of him". I usually just ended up writing letters, reading scriptures, studying the language, but mostly taking naps. He's much better now. It was also kind of funny. The illness came from nowhere. He was out and about socializing and having fun the night before he got sick. Then really early that morning I woke up just hearing him blowing chunks in the bathroom. Haha then he slept for the next 3 days pretty much non-stop. Now he's all healed up and back to his spunky self. I don't remember if I've told you this already but my companionship of three is now two seperate companionships because we assimilated an elder who had surgery and had to stay behind. So now it's just me and Elder Fillmore. (It's weird to have to type out Elder because I'm used to saying it in Russian. I'm too lazy to figure it out now though)

In our room we decided to start a little project. There's a certain soda that I've only ever heard of
here in the MTC. It's called a Cactus Cooler. It's actually really good but since we're at the MTC and there's not much to find funny and entertaining, we blew it way out of proportion. We started building a little "Cactus Cooler Tower of Babylon" in our room. It's more of a pyramid but as of right now it's about 60 cans big. On day 5. and yes... that's the most exciting thing to have happened all week. Haha we've had plenty of devotionals and good thoughts in class and things but right now I feel kind of like the teachers and the devotional speakers are all just dangling candy infront of our faces and not letting us eat any of it. They keep saying things like, "I know you're not in the field yet, but when you are, there's so much amazing stuff for you! So just remember that while you're sitting in class studying." They keep telling us all of these things and how awesome it is and how hard it's going to be and how worthwhile it will be. So I'm getting a little antsy (however you spell that) and I really want to just head out. But... I definitely don't have the russian for that.

Thank you everyone who has been sending letters. They really are one of the highlights of the day. Even if there's not much it gives me someone to write to and let's me know that there is still a world outside of the fences of the MTC. It feels like I've been here forever now. Haha I got my first haircut today.... It really made me miss my long hair. I had been sporting a semi-accidental fohawk for the last few days. My hair happened to dry kind of up one day after I showered and it
got stuck. I could get the sides down but the top stayed up and gave me a little mohawk type thing. It was pretty cool. But I cut it today. In one month at the MTC my hair grew about an inch. So... I'll get it back soon enough. Although I think I'm required to get another right before I head into the field. Oh well. I've completely given my hair to the Lord... for now...

Yesterday turned out to be an awesome day. It was Elder Fillmore's first full day of being back from the dead and there were a few really cool things that happened. The coolest of which was taking in the spirit through osmosis during the devotional. The talk was like ten minutes long (not really, it was a full talk but the beginning of it was kind of slow and it got really good when I dropped my pen and almost got whiplash as my head bobbed backwards. In case that wasn't hint enough, I fell asleep.) but I had definitely recieved some good insights. None of which the
speaker was talking about. Haha the first thing I've been thinking about a lot lately is that everyone always says that on a mission you need to completely devote yourself to the lord and you need to give everything to him, always be selfless, lose yourself in the work, etc. etc. etc. To me, that kind of implies, suck it up and just become a robot already. But then again, people are
also always saying, be yourself, you were called here for a reason, God loves you for who YOU are, etc. etc. etc. which to me, implies that we need to be individuals. So, I've been trying to find the balance between these two. In my case in particular it's pretty important because most all of the things I like to do are not allowed at the MTC. I can't sing the songs I like, I can't play the guitar, I can't do flips, I can't breakdance, I can't play rugby, I felt pretty worried a few days ago because we had a lesson about stress relief and they had us write down ways that we used to relieve stress before the mission and everything I wrote I was not allowed to do, I'm not stressed now, but when I become stressed, I don't know what I'll do. None of it's allowed. Haha But anyways, back to the spiritual thought. I was thinking about it and I found that the person I am, (this goes for anyone) is not defined by the things I do. The things that I do are defined by who I am. So I can 100% be myself, and also 100% obey God's commandments (and mission rules). So that was a little insight on it even though I still don't feel that my concern has been completely addressed. Then the day ended really nicely with us giving all of the sisters in our District a blessing as the grandeur of the MTC dims and the workload and stress stays if not gets worse.

Well I've got laundry waiting for me right now. I love you all and wish the best for you.

До свидания
Старейшина Чен
(That's what my nametag's gonna look like.)

Elder Chun

Week 3

March 7, 2012


This week has gone by
really fast. I feel so old here. It's like I've been here forever even though
everything
is happenning so quickly. I
had another transfer recently. Well... not me but in my district. I was telling
the second councillor of our branch that for a pilot program this seems to be
really un-controlled. We've had a change in branch presidency, we're going to
have a change in mission presidency when we get there, I was in a threesome for
a week now, and we have an odd number in our district. Oh well, it's been fun.
Our newest acquisition has been an Elder Anderson. He was on the 12 week
program but had at and needed surgery. So his group left last week and he needs
to stay. Bummer for him. Good for us. He knows the language and can help us
out. Well that's probably the only really new thing that's happened this week.
There was a really
strange MTC ceremony that took place this last week. It was the meeting of the DAW
or DA or DO, I don't know which... It's just pronounced daw. But anyways, I was
"summoned" by an elder I didn't associate with much who was wearing a
ridiculous stuffed wizards hat. He summoned everyone into one room and we had
to be really quiet. We soon found out that this was the meeting where the older
Elders pass down the MTC hand me downs and traditional clothes before they
leave. So there were a lot of bathrobes passed down, a lot of TALL ties (TALL
is an activity we do on the computers that most people hate so they wear these
really ugly ties when we have TALL to petition against it in a way) and plenty
of other random stuff. I inherited two different... awards? I don't even know
what to call them. But I got the first and the last ones. The first was a stack
of Missionary Health Guides. They're these little bound booklets that have
guidelines about how to stay healthy and fit while in the field. I got it
because I was voted to be the most fit Elder. My responsibility that came with
the inheritance was to collect as many of these health guides as possible and
pass it on to the next fit elder. The next award I got was a rock. Probably
about a 10 pound rock. Relatively hefty. It was called the rock of the
foundation. For two reasons. 1. It was the oldest hand me down that was still
being circulated through elders at the MTC. (started in 2005) and 2. It was
given to the elder who seemed to be the most solid physically, emotionally, and
spiritually. So as dumb as it is to inherit a rock from a bunch of real life
deprived 19 and 20 year olds, I was kind of flattered. Haha
I want to let everyone
know that I really appreciate all of the letters, concerns, and prayers. I get
regular letters from my mom in which she always has some story to tell me about
how somebody mentioned me or was concerned about an injury I may or may not
have. Speaking of which. In case you couldn't guess, I didn't run out of time
last week. It just really isn't too interesting of a story and so I might as
well milk as much as I can out of it. I don't even remember what I have and
haven't told you as the truth anymore. So we'll just leave you to wonder.
There's not too much more I can add to that now though because the MTC doesn't
have much variety in activities so I can't really say that I hurt myself
anymore without just using a dumb story like, "I tripped down some
stairs" or something. I'm sure there'll be plenty of fact and fiction sent
your way once I get into the field.
So I'm 1/3 of the way
into my MTC career. Russian is coming along but it's hard. I've gotten to the
point where I can say most of what I want to say (to investigators at least,
not anywhere near saying what I want in the conversation area at all) but I
sound like a retard when I say it. All the teachers keep telling us that
listening to russians speak is extremely important to the learning process.
Then they turn around and tell us that they're by far not native speakers. So
they tell us it's important and then they tell us we can't do it. Haha it's
confusing. I really wonder how different it's going to be in the field though.
I'm sure it'll be extra different for the Ukranian Elders going russian
speaking beacuse I'm sure that Ukranians probably have some kinda accent that
traditional russian speakers don't have. We'll see how that goes. I think it's
funny though because as little native russian as I hear, I definitely know that
the elders who left yesterday and the elders who are leaving this week have
REALLY obvious accents. Especially the ones from the south. Haha the one that
spoke the best in my opinion was Elder Mora (I talked about him before) and
he's the linguistic prodigy from Costa Rica.
This week for
devotional we had Alex Boye come and talk to us. His talk was awesome. In my
opinion it was almost as inspiring as Elder Hollands. Although in very
different ways. Listening to Brother Boye was kind of like listening to a stand
up comic. He threw in all kinds of racist jokes and funny slang and things that
we don't get to hear at the MTC very often. Most of it was just funny because
of the looks on the MTC Presidency's faces behind him. He is definitely a
performer and a half. He had his friend (the modern stevie wonder) come play
background music as he gave his talk. He came down from the podium and walked throughout
the missionaries as he spoke. And the passion and emotion in his story was
phenomenal. He told us his conversion story, and about how he came to know it's
message and the influence that it's members had on his life. He told us about
how he is the product of two good sister missionaries. He told us that they
were HIS missionaries just like we are going to be someone's missionaries as
long as we work our best. He emphasised that we are endowed with power and if
we ever down talk ourselves then we are being selfish. If we put ourselves down
then we are just denying the power that is given to us. Our job as missionaries
is not to baptize and to convert people. Our job is to do our best and to bring
the spirit with us wherever we go and then we just let the spirit teach. We
also had another devotional later where one of the 70 came and basically gave
the same exact talk as Elder Holland. I thought it was kind of weird but it
reemphasized the importance of using the Book of Mormon in Missionary work. So
I have become a firm believer in the importance of the Book of Mormon in
converson.
Well I'm running out
of time so one last time I just want to tell everyone how much I appreciate
your letters, your prayers, and your love. I can definitely feel it even though
I'm so far away. :P Haha It really does feel like it though.
- Elder Chun
P.S. Tell Grandma I
love her. (She wanted me to do that earlier but I forgot until today so make
that x3)