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)