2012.10.23 I'm in Korea!

 Hey guys!

I'm in Korea!

Still can't believe it, but this is exciting! I'll save the culture shock stories for later, but I'm surprised by how it's gone really. It's not too bad. I will say one thing though. It might be a good thing I was sent here. Things are a little different than in the US. I actually don't have a whole lot of time to write, they mostly wanted us to let you guys know I'm alive. But it's true, I'm doing well. I realized that I didn't have a sunset two days ago. Pretty crazy.

Last night we went street contacting, which was a fun experience. Nothing like the MTC, that's for sure. I'm looking forward to it.

Gotta wrap up here I'm afraid, but I'll write again soon. Thanks for everything-- I already had mail when I got here. You guys are amazing. Love you lots, until next time!

~Elder Robarts (PS, I've been stressing my name a little too much. They use a (tuh) at the end, in the MTC they used (chuh) Something like. So the next letter will be a little different.)

BYE!

2012.10.22 2323 The Eagle has landed!

He is an Eagle Scout, you remember.
 
If they are on schedule, they landed about half an hour ago.

It's the middle of the night for me (mom in Sacramento), but it's tomorrow afternoon for him.   

2012.10.22 last call

Elder Robarts' travel plans included a lay over in San Francisco from 7am until 11 am.  Family coming to see the missionaries off was strongly discouraged, but telephone calls were quite alright.  How excited we were at the home front expecting a nice long phone call!


Logistical problems, of course.  Joseph and Tom both had to go to work as usual. Which meant Joseph did not come to Ruth's and Tom left at 7:30. Debi could go in a little late.  Andrew had a test in his 9am class at Sacramento City College.  We needed to gather at the Hinds' house as they have little children and also Miriam there convalescing. 

Andrew and I arrived not long after 7.  Debi came a bit later.  At nearly quarter to 8, my phone rang.  We were so excited!  But it was Joseph calling to say he had missed his train and would like a ride.  I fought through slow commuter traffic to the light rail station, took Joseph to work & returned about 9. 


Benjamin had called. Ruth & he had exchanged numbers.  He didn't have as much time as we had hoped.  He had to be off by 9:15.  He tried to call Joseph & I on Joseph's phone (mine was with Ruth for the home team to be able to talk to Benjamin), but we didn't hear it.  He tried to call Debi & Andrew on Debi's phone, but they didn't pick up either.  But Debi called him back and they were conversing when I got back to Ruth's.  Ruth texted Debi to let her know I was back.  Soon Debi texted that she was off the phone. 

We called Benjamin.  It was a bit hard to hear and understand him which wasted some of our time.  The pay phone timed out calls to it in only a few minutes, so we had to re-call.  Esther and Jared sang part of "Gethsemane"  but their voices were very soft and the time was very limited.  We stopped them after one verse.  There was not time for each of us to talk with him. We put him on speaker phone.  Benjamin bore his testimony to us in Korean.  That was the part we heard most clearly.  Although we could not understand his words, we could feel his spirit and his love.  And laugh a little at how much he had to say despite knowing we didn't understand a word.

Good-bye!  Safe flight!  Happy landing!  We love you!


Benjamin and his 12 companions arrive in Korea about 3pm October 23 Korea time.  What time is that Sacramento time?  Sacramento is 16 hours earlier.  So that's what?  11pm tonight, the 22nd)?  Twelve hour flight?! yawn! body kinks!

That gets them to Seoul.  Which is about 167 km from Daejeon.  My former Canadian missionary (where they use metric also, you know) says that would be about a 2 hour drive, maybe a little less. 


They are going to be so exhausted! After practically no sleep last night, too.    Kinda detracts from their exciting first glimpse of Korea. Besides, it's dark.  I hope they enjoy the city lights. No, it's not dark!  It's tomorrow afternoon.  It'll be 11pm our time, midnight by their Utah body clock.  groan!  If they can keep their eyes open, they can see lots. What will it be like? What will they think? Is it very different?  An exciting new world.
 
I hope they get / got some sleep on the plane.

My son is half a world and 22 months away. 

2012.10.16 snail mail posted the 16th

Dear Home,

Without fail, I always forget what I wanted to write.  One thing I will say though, the MTC and learning a language give you  alot to laugh about.  For example, for me, in Korean, I have the hardest time not honorfying foods.  I always accidentally throw itin.  Drives me insane.

Aright, some genuine topics.  Lat Tuesday, David A. Bednar came and talked to us about learning from the living prophets.  He talked about the importance of General Conference, and why we need to study it well.  One pattern he uses is to look specifically for doctrines/princples taught, invitations to action, and promised blessings if we obey.

It was an incredibly good talk, and the District Meeting we had afterward was pumped with the Spirit.  I had the opportunity to bear my testimony at the end and share my gratitude for teh examples my district have shown me.  I talked about how I felt when they bore their testimonies.  If all can do in Korean is that, it'll be enough.  We will be successful and when we come home we'll remember that we're still missionaries.  That fire in our hearts won't go away.

Have I mentioned this already?  It sounds familiar.  Anyway, I loved it and I love my District.  This Sunday I was released as DL,so it still feels a little wierd, but more and more I begin to realize just how hard it will be to say good-bye again.  ... But it has to be done.  Korea is calling us.

I've been here so long.  We've become such a family here.  But I realized something about week two of my mission:  I've spent more time in the MTC than all of my immdiated family combined. And I believe. So much has happened here. 

Tracting is challenging.  You try so hard to understand what they're saying, it's hard to remember what you wanted to say.  Getting better though.

Done with the District sketch, too.  It was a small working space, so the detail is somewhat lacking.  (Not to mention I'm getting super rusty here.)  but bonus points if you can tell who is who.

I guess I should explain the extra stuff with this letter.  

This is a song that the older generation always sings before they leave the MTC.  It's a traditional Korean farewell song, sounds pretty good.

Also we got our travel plans!!! ... Anyway, we get split up right away.  Daejeon leaves 3am, Pusan leaves 8am.  Lots of hard goodbues this Sunday.

So Sills has the handwriting of an angel.  This is a copy of a card he made for memorizing the First Vision.

The first vision card is just a  fun little example of the stuff we are learning here.  I can actually use most of the grammar in it now.  = D  It's such a crazy language.

I talk with the Korean missionaries and understand almost nothing, then they laugh and say we're learning fast.  It doesn't always feellike that until I think about our first day here.  Chanting as a class to get teh alphabet down.

Has it only been eleven weeks?  Has it already been eleven weeks?  I feel both here.  Time paradox.  I'm going to have to start getting a package together soon.  I'll probably send home all my Dear Elders, but I think I'll try to keep the hard copy ones.  There's just so much... You'll see what I mean in a bit.

But this'll be tight.  There's a lot more language stuff than I was expecting.  I can't believe I'll be halfway around the world in a week.  Fun Fact:  From the time we leave to the time we get to Korea, 36 hours will have gone by (if I remember right.)

Do I wrap up here?  I porbably will, thre's a lot to do today.  And this is our last P-day. 

Oh, Temple.  I'll miss you so much... Never take it for granted, guys.  You've got the House of the Lord 20 minutes away.  That's one of the greatest blessings I can imagine.

- Gotta wrap up here or it won't make the mail today.  Love you!

2012.10.16 pictures

Sketch of the Temple. Man I miss that place...

Trying to keep up on sketching. There's not a whole lot of time for it, but here's one of the statue of Christ in the visitor's center of the Salt Lake Temple

Yep, this one is pretty poorly done, but I still wanted to make it. Here's my district and our teachers. (Bonus points to anyone who can guess who is who.

Me with our new Korean missionaries. Man I love these guys. (A couple of the younger gen. missionaries snuck into the picture too.)

Hehe, this is the tenth member of our district. We made him a couple weeks ago, but he's been improved a bit of the course of our time here.

Travel Plans!!!

Waiting for fireside (or maybe devotional) Lot's of people in the MTC, but not nearly as much as before.

2012.10.16 email - last P-day in the MTC

Dear Home,

It's been a crazy ride, but my MTC experience is almost over. This is my last P-Day, so I've got a lot to cram in here. In case your watching your emails though, there's one thing I want to hit first.

We got our travel plans! So we get up and report at 3AM, fly from Salt Lake to San Fran. at 5:50(salt lake time), arrive at 7:00 (our time). Then there we have a four hour layover, so that's when I'll call. If you guys want to get together, I'll have plenty of time to talk, President Shin just told us not to miss our flights, but other than that we should be good. I have a phone card that should give plenty of time. I know you guys have work and school, but if you want to/are able to meet somewhere, just let me know which number to call. (probably through dear elder)

From San Fran, we fly at 11:00 AM (our time) and arrive in Seoul at 3:00 PM the next day.

It's going to be crazy, but I'm looking forward to it.

Here's some pictures. (note from Mom- I'll post them as soon as I can)  I'll send another email shortly, but if you're reading this pretty soon after I sent it, I might be able to see a reply before I have to get off.

~Brb Elder Robarts

Alright, the rest of the letter:

So much has happened this week I don't even know where to begin-- although that's partially because I forgot that I sent a second letter last week and I don't completely remember how much I wrote in there.

Anyway, the position of District Leader has moved on again, so I might actually have time to get everything done that I need to. It'll be crazy though. Right now Elder Sills is serving, just in time for the final stretch. A part of me will miss serving. It was rough at times, and it always felt like there was so much I needed to be doing or thinking about, but I love the feeling that I get when I have the responsibility to watch over some one else. I mean, we're always supposed to, but it's different when it's part of a calling. You really do receive inspiration for those you serve. I just love my district. We mess around with each other, but you can always depend on them.

Anyway, I might not have much more time, I think most of it is in my letter home this week, but I love you guys!

Before I close though, I just wanted to say how much I love the people of Korea. Since the native Koreans came, I can honestly say I've never met a Korea I didn't like. They're just so naturally friendly.

And oddly enough, we share a lot of traits. Not super emotional most of the time (a trait I'm losing more and more it seems), they talk to themselves a lot (they even have special grammar forms for it), they're very clean and like things organized, and they have one of the coolest languages ever. Hard, but cool. Get this, they use grammar forms a lot of places where we use tones. Practical upshot, a lot of times they can express in writing things we could never do with english. How cool is that? I'm beginning to like the different endings for different people too. I mean, why wouldn't you use higher speech when talking to Heavenly Father? So fun to play with.

Anyway, my companion is waiting for the computer, so I gotta run. Enjoy the pictures and everything. I'm sure I'm forgetting something very important, but oh well.

As for the thought of being an hour and a half away from home for four hours... Yeah, tempting. But they said not to have family send you off, so a three or so hour phonecall will have to be enough. :) Hope I can talk with a lot of you, but if not, I understand. Thanks for your love and support guys!

~Elder Robarts

2012.10.09 snail mail

10-09-2012

Dear Home,

 I wrote a bit earlier, but I wanted to write  little more.  Quick warning: This letter will be extremely unorganized.

Fun facts:  These Korean Elders are incredible.  I especialy like talking to Elder Kim.  He's so fun.  And with all of them, it's entertaining trying to communicate in Korean.  One of them actually helped as teacher's assistant in a Korean class, so he's been able to help us a lot.  But they're all awesome, one of these Elders is the sweetest guy I've ever met.  He's so nice, I always feel good talking to him, even if we don't always understand what we're saying.

#2 My sketching is dreadful now.  I was showing some old sketches to an Elder here when he asked about it and he asked for some tips.  When I was showing some things I like to do, I realized that I'm out of practice.  I've done a few sketches here, but not much.  I'll send them home (pictures) next week. 

Currently I'm working on a sketch of the district -- don't expect it any time soon.  =D yeah.....   I should work on that while I'm going over 딘 어 review.  Anyway...

#4 David A Bednar  came last night!  He's defiinitely one of my favs, especially after watching some of his talks he's given in the MTC in the past.  (They show talks about once a week on Sundays,  I think we've seen three from Bednar so far.  All awesome.  So now we've seen four.  =D )

Talk about spiritual talk.  We were exhausted by the end of it.  But he talked about learning from the living prophets, and really studying the talks during General Conference.  One pattern he likes is looking for three things.
- doctrine/ principles
- invitations
- promised blessings
Personalize it.  Dont write what they say, write what you feel.  Anyway, we practiced with G.C. clips,  and the difference was very noticable..

Such a good talk, and one thing I failed to mention.  For the past four weeks, our district has camped out early to get good seats.  (I like to bring a blanket to lay out on the ground that we can sit on.  Purpose not much, but it's fun to do things as a district.)

Anyway!  we got split up in the push to get seats, but my companion and I were fourth row, dead center.  He looked straight at us a couple times, crazy.  Awesome, right.  But it didn't stop there. 

That evening, District meeting was really powerful.  We each shared what we liked, and we ended up talking a lot about something we heard that night about testimonies and conversion, and how we don't want to come home the same people we were before.  We don't want to go back to that. Already we've grown so much.

I had the opportunity to bear my testimony that night, and I know the spirit was there.  I've come to see those missionaries as my family here.  It's getting harder and harder to think of saying good-bye.

I've come to know them, I've heard their testimonies.  I told them I know that if all they could do was bear their testimonies, that would be enough. We would be successful missionaries.  Because spiritually, I know they're ready.  If they can hold onto the testimonies the've borne here, there's no way they'll lose sight of what matters once we get home.

They say that almost 50% of RMS come home and aren't active, but you won't see any from District 28-G.  This Sunday I think I get released.  Not sure, since there's only a week after that, but probably.  I've loved serving these guys.  I'll miss being able to have those interviews and ask them about life.  I'll still be able to have talks with them, but it won't be the same.  I've got a good district. Every now and then there's a district that feels like you've known everyone in it all your life.

I love you guys.  The closer I feel to these guys, the more I'm reminded of my family back home.  It's been two months since I've seen your faces, if it wasn't for the amount of things we have to learn and do here, that'd be unbearable.  Luckily though, I happen to be in the Lord's service, and He knows how to lift His servants when they're down.  And He's lifted me a lot.

Don't worry though.  I'm not too homesick.  I can always focus on what I need to do.

It's so crazy to think that we're going to Korea in less than two weeks.  I'm excited, especially after spending time with the Korean Elders.  Gotta sign off again, but I'll try to think of something clever to write.

10-11-12
Alright, unforeseen aspect of being DL, baptismal interviews.  I guess we do those with our progressing investigators.   (We would have with 강혀체님, but since I'm District Leader it would have had to have been our Zone Leaders, and they had class at a different time or something)  It was a good experience.

Gotta wrap this guy up.  But before that,  couple more things.  We expected our travel plans today, but it turns out we've got to wait until tomorrow.  oh, well, you win some, you lose some.

But one fun thing I wanted to mention - Korean charades.   Pick a vocab word and explain it without English.  (Fine, it's more like Taboo)  Pretty fun though.  We did a little today.  We also shared stories in Korean -- by the way, Sister Wadsworth is one of the best story tellers I've ever seen.  She makes little hand puppets when she does conversations, switches spots, vocalizes and does actions for thoughts during the story.  And it's all in Korean.  Really awesome.

~~

Today went from good to bad, but not because of something that happened to me.  Sister Hunt got called out of class today, and when the Sisters came back we learned that her grandmother had passed away from cancer.  It was a hard blow to take, and it was hard to see how much she was trying to go on like nothing had happened.  But she said that they'd been really close before.  Anyway, if you could keep her in your prayers, I'd really appreciate it.   I know she'll be ok, she's strong, anw we're all here for her if she needs us.  I just wish there was more I could do to help.

~~

It's so hard to write when you only have a few minutes at a time.  I want to get this in the mail today though, so it looks like this is it. I love you guys.  I'm sure I'm forgetting something.  If you think I'm ignoring you, I don't mean to, but you may want to ask again.  It's impossible to remember what you wrote or what I wanted to write.

Just know that I do love you.  I look forward to chances to write to you.  I just have a lot on my mind. 

Take care everyone!  I'll write again soon.
                                                                 좌/ㅏ추  장조