As far as updates go, the Japanese speakers are still everywhere. One group of Koreans left on Monday morning, and they were part of the summer surge, so the Korean numbers are really dwindling. The number of missionaries surge during the summer, so the group that left had about 30 people. The next oldest group has 31 people I think, and ours has 16. We did get some new Koreans yesterday in a group of 13 missionaries. When new missionaries get here, the Korean hall effectively becomes a zoo. The teachers have to ward off everyone trying to get a glance at the new missionaries. If that doesn't tell you how monotonous the MTC schedule is, I don't know what does.
In other news, I received a temporary new companion. Elder Macasieb is currently awaiting a reassignment of his mission and the rest of his district left on Monday. So since I was in a trio, we are companions until he leaves. It's been great because he's been helping me with my Korean and i get to experience just having one companion for a while.
One of the first things you learn here is the Korean missionary catch phrases. They are as follows:
친짜요?(cheen-chjai-yo) Translation: Really? Use: English equivalent of "come at me bro"
삼십삼 (sahm-ship-sahm) Translation: 33 Use: Refers to page 33 of the missionary handbook, which is the page that talks about flirting. Used when an elder and sister are getting a little too friendly
항성 선교사 (hong-soung soun-gyo-sah) Translation: Always missionary Use: When somebody is acting immature or makes their hand into the shape of a gun, teachers often use this phrase
As far as health goes I am doing much better now! Last week did start of pretty rough though. If you have ever experienced one nostril that was runny while the other nostril was bleeding profusely, then you would have a similar experience to me last Friday. However, I'm feeling much better now, and all that remains is a little bit of a cough. And now I am truly experiencing the blessings of having faith through trials. This week has been so faith-promoting and unbelievable. It started off with my suggestion to my companions that we stop using notes altogether when we teach lessons. So, despite our extremely limited vocabulary, we walked into a lesson with only a Korean Book of Mormon in hand. And it was our best lesson up to that point. When we do all we can and then trust the Holy Ghost to help us with the rest, our requests will be granted. Our fake investigator hadn't been reading the book of Mormon, so we bore testimony of its importance and challenged him to read it. He was really impressed and promised us he would. We have taught two more lessons after that and I feel like my ability to teach in Korean is skyrocketing. I only have a working vocabulary of about 215 words at the moment, but the Spirit brings the words that I do know to my remembrance when I teach, the Gift of Tongues is my new favorite thing.
Rosemary Wixom, the Primary general president, spoke to us this week for Tuesday devotional. She talked about 1 Nephi 4, which details the efforts to get the plates from Laban. She talked about how All of the sons of Lehi were on a mission just like us. And they finished their mission, even Laman and Lemeul did. But she stressed the importance of being a Nephi-type missionary, and not being a Laman-type missionary. Nephi trusts the Spirit of the Lord, and follows its promptings even though he doesn't know what is coming next. #missionarygoals
For all of those who emailed me individually, I will email you in about an hour, but I've got to go get my clothes from the dryer. #productivemissionaryprobs. Love you all and thank you for your prayers!
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