Dear Home,
So much to write about, so little time, and it could be a month before your read it. Where to start?
First off, it's the holidays! Still can't believe it's been so long. But we go lucky here. We had Thanksgiving with some of the American members, and we still haven't finished all the pies we got after a ward Linger Longer.
I've seen a couple Christmas trees, too. It's hard to think that you guys are doing the same things. In my mind, its' still August.
Anyway, it's not all fun and games. With the weather getting colder, people aren't thrilled to stop and talk to us. It's getting harder to find new investigators, and we lost a lot of the ones we were working with. One is only interested in English, not gospel. Ton's of others just got busy and don't have time anymore. I wish I was better at talking to people, or even just understanding what they say. It's still hard. Probably will stay that way. I'll just get better at working around it.
I'm learning a lot of new things, though. One is that Koreans are pretty smart. All of them. A few of our investigators had exams last week and this week, and from what I hear they're pretty intense. But they come up with everything. chalkboard eraser cleaners. lots of ways to open doors or turn on sinks, rarely with your hands. The kick switch for the sink is actually pretty nice. Saves time doing dishes. I can't even remember all the odd little things I've seen. I should get better about writing those down. Sorry about that. I'll try to come up with some before I finish this. heated floors, drains in bathrooms)
On another note, I found some awesome stuff during our personal studies. One was on page 164 of Preach My Gospel. It talked about the same spirit of service we feel in the temple is here in the mission field. And vice versa. It's all the same work. For a temple addict, that makes me feel a lot better about not being able to go.
But it also got me thinking. There are so many who weren't able to serve missions that wanted to. I just wanted to take a moment and say that you don't have to worry about it. You can still serve, and I can personally witness that there are spiritual blessings you can see from it. It's an incredible blessing and opportunity.
Oliver Cowdery's testimony of the Restoration at the end of Joseph Smith History is pretty amazing, too. Lots of little things that let you feel the spirit and find new things you'd never noticed before. The hardest part is recording it all, something I've struggled with. Not writing, just organizing it. For a year I just dumped it all in one journal. Big mistake. I'm glad I did it, but it's near impossible to find anything.
Now I've gone a little over board. One for the temple (white journal), one for good missionary quotes and scripture references (black journal), one for Priesthood blessings, ordinances, temple names (small plates), and the large plates, pretty much everything else. That is currently divided into my study journal, personal journal, and family journal. May add more latter.
I really want to have a inspiration journal and a journal with favorite scripture passages, topics, etc, but both of those will take time.
Why am I writing this? Well, it might be useful to someone who who through the same dilemma as I did, but mostly because I wanted to talk about my family journal. Once I know the mail is safe, I may try to send them home. More day to day accounts of what's happening.
I always write, but I don't always write in the same places, so there may be gaps for days. I just wrote in the personal journal, but it's better than these bulk accounts where I forget everything.
I can't do it until I know I won't lose it though. That's the hard part. We'll see.
Lot's to do, but I'm finding some nice tricks. Using multiple journals has made a huge difference in finding what I need again.
But a brief return to my life here before I close.
The apartment is getting a lot cleaner. Elder Barney and I have really wanted to work on it, and he's done a ton. It's amazing how much you can get done in a couple months. Little bits here and there. It's a lot nicer when it's clean and we have space.
Last week we explored shops near the house. I found some speakers, so I've been working a bit on organizing music. Picking out the good mission ones. Slow working, but good.
We've been calling a lot of former investigators. So I've been able to practice over the phone Korean a lot. A little harder, but not too bad. I don't understand things normally, so it's all about the same. = D Little by little.
I don't want to lose the language when I get home though. This stuff is hard to pick up. I want it to stick for a while.
As for sharing the Gospel., I'm learning to speak more simply, and that's helped a lot. My long-winded nature is a curse out here. It's been so hard sometimes to find the one thing I should say. The short, powerful testimony that invites the spirit. But it's still mostly my companion. He does almost all the teaching. I just try to follow along and hope for the best when it's my turn.
I love you guys. Still no luck on making a trip down to the little folk village, but hopefully we'll get the chance next week.
For now, this is it. Got lots of notes to write.
Take care ! and let me know how you guys are doing. ^^
(Elder Robarts in Korean)
So... the letter from last week will get sent with this one. We never got to go to the post office.
PPS: This Saturday we had an awesome service project as a Stake for Mormon Helping Hands. I'll try to send pictures.
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