Dear Home,
Out and about today. Forgot a pen. Luckily Elder Barney let me borrow this (pencil). Luckily, there's not a whole lot this time.
First off, you guys are the greatest. I got the Thanksgiving package last week, so I started my thankful chain. I tried to send the progress picture, but no luck. I counting it as language study, too. Practicing spelling and what not. (I'm not actually using language study time, don't worry. Just a couple minutes each night.)
(in ink) Alright, we're back! And I found a really cute little speaker to keep on the desk instead of using the apartment set in the front room. Gets the job done well. And it packs really well, too. Happy campin.. ^^
Also, Mom, you're a genius. Washed my sheets today, that mission ready blanket you gave me, already dry. Faster than the sheets. Both that and the towels are incredible, especially with no dryer. Makes life a ton easier.
So this week we had Stake Conference with Elder Ringwood there again. That was good, but my favorite part was the choir. Koreans like singing a lot. Lots of good music lately. The Osan military branch had their Primary presentation this Sunday. I forgot how good Primary songs sounded. And now I've got some speakers for the journal writing time (not sure if we can play music during study time).
Love this place. There's so much to learn, I need to practice just talking to people, but it's good. And by very small degrees, I'm starting to understand this language. It's still hard to understand people when they talk, but I can usually guess. And I'm usually wrong, but I'm getting closer.
But the people are the best. Brother Kim is leaving on a mission soon, but he's helped us a lot. we can always count on him to help with a lesson. And he's helped a lot with Korean, too. He doesn't speak a whole lot of English, so we help each other grow a lot when we try to have a conversation. One fun thing was trying to translate something from Korean to English, just the two of us. We actually did pretty good.
I'll miss that guy. If you can find him on Facebook, that would be awesome, but it'd probably be hard. I'll figure it out later.
Other people: President Furniss. Awesome guy, I've talked with him for a while, and you can easily tell how hard a worker he is. Our Area Authority told him to take more P-days. And when a General Authority says you need to take a break more often, you know you're working hard.
I don't know how he does it, but he also is really good about questions in emails. With how many he gets a week, it's impressive that he's able to respond to them. He's good at listening and getting you excited for the work.
Sister Furniss is great, too. She felt like a real mission mom right from the get go, and every time we get a chance to talk, she's fun, and when she talks about the love she feels for her missionaries, no one could question it.
So, my companion: He's pretty cool. Sometimes we have language barriers with communicating, but not bad. He's a really good trainer. Definitely likes to be a trouble maker with other missionaries, it's kind of fun to watch, but when he gets in a lesson, it's like a whole other person. I just wish I could pick up Gospel teaching tips from him more. I can't understand much of the lessons, except for bits here and there. So all of these examples of teaching to the culture and people haven't really sunk in yet. It's great for learning Korean though. And it's fun to share English terms every now and then.
snap! only fifteen minutes left.
Elder Barney and Burningham (I am guessing here, Elder Robarts' handwriting can be difficult sometimes) are great, too. Barney came out of the MTC at the same time as me so it's been great having another greeny to talk with. And Burningham, our district leader, is hilarious. He and Elder (something in Korean) are great together. They've been in this area for 3 months together, so they're pretty well used to each other. Never a dull moment.
and we wrap up there.
Love you!
Elder Robarts (in Korean)
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