2013.03.24 email

Dear Home,

     Transfer week! This was a short transfer. Only four weeks, but boy did it feel longer.

     Haven't gotten the call yet, but I'm pretty sure I'm staying here. And there's a LOT of work to do. It's been extremely hard to work this transfer. But I won't go into it. It's not something I want to write about.

     I've found so much gold in the scriptures. They really speak to you sometimes.

     Particularly the story of Alma the Younger. (I read Alma 8 today) I've always related to him, he's been one of my favorite heroes of the BoM. But there are three scriptures I wanted to share, one from today. Alma 4:15; Alma 8: 14-18; Alma 31: 30-38. Go  through those if you have time. This is where you see the strength of faith. Alma had some ROUGH times. Wasn't easy, even for a prophet. But the spirit never failed him. He never let himself get down. He was sad a lot, but he stayed strong. I've taken a lot of strength from that.

     Also, this transfer I've had a bit more time to read (already went through all our records and there's not really much I can do from the apartment...), so I've been reading from the missionary library. Good books. I covered Our Search for Happiness in one day, even on a missionary timetable. I was struck by the story of President Hinckley, and the wisdom of his father. "Forget yourself and go to work." Something like that. Again, even a prophet faced the challenges I've been having. And he received and followed the same counsel. Look what happened.

     The Gospel is powerful. This week I received a powerful witness of the Savior. He lives. He has carried the burdens of us all. He loves us more than we can comprehend. And Through Him, we can be saved. We can come Home. There's so much more I wish to say, but time can't do it justice.

     Our Heritage is another good one. Kind of a sad read at times. But I was again struck by the faith of the saints, especially partaining to the Temple. They left Temples they had built with their own hands. I thought it was hard just temporarily leaving one for 2 years, knowing it'd still be there when I came back. But I understand perfectly why they built Temples so soon after moving to a new home, despite persecution or poverty. I would have wanted the exact same thing.

     Jesus is the Christ. The Temple is the House of God. I miss it more than I can express, but I am in love with this work. I've said it before. If you have the blessings of the Gospel, Relish it. If you have yet to experience it, Try it!

     -End of spiritual highlights-

     So, some fun odds and ends. Thanks for the tongue twisters. Those and idioms/expressions are my specialty here for teaching english. I like story telling, explaining where phrases come from.

     Also, I've gotten pretty good at chopsticks. Eating chicken (on the bone) without touching my hands, even cooking. In the morning I like using them to cook eggs. Really convenient. Also, use a chopstick to mix hot chocolate. Super good.

     Also, turns out Korea is well suited for missionary shopping. Quantity doesn't have a huge impact on price here. Not as much as the states anyway. You can buy some small stuff. Good for weekly shopping. Also, no baby carrots here, but they do have giant ones. Got one last week. a couple kilograms I think. Big fella. Took a while to eat it.

     Also, theres a certain food called 짬뽕 I think that's spelled right. Seafood, and spicy. Tastes pretty good, but I've learned something about Korea. Your taste gets acclimated to the food, but your body doesn't. The day after eating 짬뽕 is rough. Korean, American, makes no difference.

      Computer crashed. Thanks for drafts Gmail. ^^

     Sign to start wrapping up though. I'll do some pictures and see if there's time left over.

~Elder Robarts

(pictures will be on Facebook  when I get to a computer that cooperates better.  Sophie is having problems with Ubuntu right now.- Mom)