2012.09.04

Dear Home,

Crazy week! So, the most exciting thing for me was our progressing investigators this week. After four weeks, we're getting so much better at teaching, and my companion and I are a lot more in sync. The results, last week we were able to commit one of our investigators to be baptized on the 22nd, and another that we were really struggling with was willing to pray with us for the first time. That was pretty amazing. I wish I could go into more detail here.

Also, we watched Monson's Celebration of Life this Sunday, that was pretty awesome. Great music. Definitely a nice break from studying. Speaking of which, we learned the two most complicated grammar forms this week, (or at least the ones that Brother Petersen said would be the hardest for us to learn probably.) but no biggy. Indirect discourse and indirect questions. Will you think about why we came to this earth? The prophets say that we can live with God again as we strive to live the Gospel. --Way too short on time to translate that. But we know how to now.

Anyway, it might be short this week, the timer on the computer isn't up, and I don't want this to shut down without me sending it.

I'll get working on my hard copy letter though, and I might see if I can send some pictures, but I don't have my cord for my camera so I'd only be able to use a card reader (if they have one...). There's a chance I'll have to wait till next week.

Anyway, I love you all, thanks for the support, I promise I'm writing as often as I can. That's just not very often. Back to the field, Horrah for Israel!

~Elder Robarts

2012.08.28 (snail mail) (or more nicely, USPS)

In Korean, then (thankfully!) translated,
Famiy and friends, dear

So I guess the mix-up last week was probably annoying. So this week you get some extras.  And for how much has been going on, I probably need that.

There are a couple of things I wanted to say, but naturally I forgot them instantly when I started writing.  We will see how it goes.

I love the temple trips we have here.  Last week we did endowments, so I got to take a name through.  Only a few left but our group likes sealings.  So we might do a lot of those.

This might not make sense to a lot of people, but those temple cleaners are thorough.  Three weeks = nothing.  I've even planted a few in the fountain personally and they were gone two days later. 

Only one has made it a week.  So I held on to that one, but I'm still looking.  Mark my words, I will conquer can!

Also, our district is serously the best one here. (You can't tell I'm prejudiced).  We do almost everything together here, and it's easy to feel comfortable with all of them.  It's the same with Peterson (something in Korean).  He laughs at us alot, but he's pretty awesome.  Definitely one fo the biggest geniuses in Korean here.  And when he's teaching grammer, it shows.  Honeslty I have no idea how he holds it all in.

He doesn't hold back though.  If there is a rule that changes something we're learning, almost always he'll include that.  From what I've seen, some of the other teachers wait.  For example, when we were learning negative form, he had us using two forms that a few other districts hadn't covered.  I think they used (I miss something there) which Peterson said is for when you're using the cann / cannot form.  He had us learn some extra ones that you can tag directly onto verbs, for "didn't do" or thins like that.  He also doesn't speak English as much.

Because of that, sometimes it seems like we're moving slower than others, but when I think about how much we're starting to understand our progressing investigators, I know we're doing something right.

Really, I think this will be the best thing for us.  When we get out there, this will prepare us for that. And we'll still be able to learn the same way as we do here.

Anyway, good times.  What was it I wanted to write about?  I'll probably wrap up here. 

Hope you guys are all doing well. 
I'll save some for next week.

(his name, I assume, in Korean)

2012.08.21

The missing email.  He tried to send it, but my long email address tripped him up.

Dear Home,

The MTC is incredible! I had no idea how much time would start to blur here. It doesn't feel like it's been a week since our last P-Day... It's been full though.

We got to go to the Temple last week and do sealings, -first time for all of the Elders in my district, so it was cool to be there for that experience for them. Personally, Sealings have always been my favorite. :) Anyway, looking forward to it again today.

 

As I mentioned, I joined choir here, and that's been great. Definitely one of the best stress relievers we have here. --Did you know we can't play music at the MTC? Rough... Definitely makes me appreciate hymns more. I might be singing at home more when I get back. We can pull up conference recordings while studying, but nothing we brought with us, and we can play anything in our rooms. It's good though. The spirit is still there.

 

Anyway, tangents. Our investigator last week was interesting. We finished teaching him Thursday I think. Definitely hard, but it's getting easier, and we're understanding more. We started a new one this week, and we're getting a second tomorrow. Teaching two at once, in Korean? Multiple lesson plans... Crazy. Good thing I've got the testimony bit down. Now we just need to learn how to teach and effectively communicate... Might be a little more tricky. Our teacher gave us a translation list of "How to begin teaching" in PMG. But in more basic terms so we can learn them faster. That'll be fun to work on. It came out to about 2 pages of English/Korean.

 

Anyway, no one wants to hear about the language. The spirit of this place it far more important. And it's legit. Not going to lie, I'm bone tired. From 6:30 to 10:30, there's no stopping, and your mind is under constant pressure of learning a new language. I've started having dreams in Korean, a little creepy. But even with the strain, the spirit doesn't go away. I'm pretty sure it's the only reason we're still functioning. And to me, that's pretty awesome.

 

No general authorities yet, but we get to watch talks sometimes, and we've seen a few really good ones by David A Bednar. "Characters of Christ," and "Recognizing the Spirit." Awesome talks. He gave them during devotionals here, so they might not have them online, but they're good.

 

I'm not sure what else there is to say. There's too much to cover everything, and I don't know which to choose. Some native Missionaries from Korean came in yesterday. I haven't had a chance to meet most of them, but it's going to be pretty awesome around here. SYL, everyday. They're not in our district, but they're in our zone, and they live on the same floor. Odds are we'll run into them a lot.

 

On a light note, my weight has changed a lot here. First week, I gained five pounds or something like that, but after eating a little better, I dropped it this week. Feels pretty good now. The lines for the salads and wraps are pretty long, but I've got a good system. Eat the salad while waiting in line, don't waste time. And of course, there's always studying. I've got a small notebook that I use to practice vocab here. Works great. But seriously, I've gotten pretty healthy here. =D

 

I hope no one is expecting anything super spiritual or amazing from these letters. I try to get that in my handwritten ones, since I have more time. Why rush the spirit, right? This is the light hearted stuff that I don't really have time for here. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of jokes around here. "Everyday?", Two handed fist pounding, stalkers, random stuff... Won't go into it.

 

I've only got about a few minutes left, so for now I'll go over logistics. Thanks for the letters, by the way! Love them, makes me happy. But for everyone but my Omoni (I think that's mom, no time for the Korean keyboard...), this is goodbye. Going strong, love you all, take care, keep the adversary on the run, I'll catch you later.

 

Elder Robarts

2012.08.28

Dear Home,

So apparently the email I sent last week didn't go through, sorry about that. But it should be in now, so this week you get double.

Life is pretty insane here. The language is getting easier, I'm actually picking up on some things these guys are saying now. Kind of creepy. The lessons are good too. We have two new investigators now, and they're as opposite as they come. One is the golden investigator who is already fairly willing to be baptized, the other is a guy who doesn't want to pray, and we've spent two lessons trying to understand why. I think we need to teach him more about God and Christ. He needs to know that they're real. And that they want him to communicate. Anyway, that's occupied a lot of my thoughts lately.

Other news, the new Korean district is pretty awesome. We've hung out a couple times, learned some new phrases, they're fun to talk to. And they're very patient about our Korean. It's pretty impressive. 

I think a lot of this will have to wait for this week's snail mail, there's never enough time here. But another fun thing that happened last week-- We got our first Apostle! Neil L. Andersen gave an excellent talk for President Monson's B-Day. That was pretty cool. He shared lessons he learned from Monson's life. I'll include them in the letter (not in much detail though).

About 13 min left. Thank you all for the letters you've been sending, they've been awesome here, even if I haven't had much time to respond to them. Just know that they're appreciated, and I'll try to write back when I can. My testimony has grown a lot out here. I hear some elders say that the MTC has really made them question their testimony, but mine has never felt stronger. When you're teaching in Korean and a phrase pops into your head that you've never even thought of before, it's hard to argue that the spirit isn't real, especially when that phrase was exactly what the investigator needed to hear. Granted, that's only happened once or twice, but it's all the more powerful because of it. This is a hard language. I've been cramming the grammar in the most, but this week I think I'll try to get my vocab up. I need to be able to recognize more of what the investigator is saying.

One form we learned yesterday is a beast though. You use it when quoting, saying that he said/commanded/asked/ etc. You've got to switch the verb form you use to plain form before you even add it, so when you're talking, that takes up a second more than you need just to figure out what you want to say. Petersen said it would feel like one of the hardest forms we'll learn. Gives me a lot of hope.

The days are different here. It's hard to remember from day to day. You'll notice this in my letters, but my spelling is getting shot out here. Every other word in english is getting more difficult for me. That'll be fun... The snail mail I'm working on now has a few of those. I hope that means my Korean is getting better...

But the Lord's work is definitely progressing. These Elders and Sisters I'm working with are incredible. I know we'll get this language. And the spirit will be with us.

So, for future letters. If you want me to write back about something, please have a section of the letter specifically for that, by the time I have time to write, it's hard to remember what you asked, and there's no time to re read. Thanks!

(Note to Mom, Joe: I haven't gotten the adapted for the mp3 player yet. Did it get sent there? Let me know, thanks!)

(Note to Debi: Thanks for the cookies! They were amazing! I'll try to write a note later. I'm out of time.)

I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but snailmail will have to save the day. Hope this goes through.

~Elder Robarts

2012.08.24 snail mail scanned

A letter in the mail today! Since he did part of it in Korean and I don't know how to do that, I scanned the letter.  Here it is.  Can you read it?

Ok, that's pretty hard to read, isn't it? Here it is:

Dear Home,

Lots happening, here but the days are staritng to blur.  It doesn't feel like a week since last P day.

Since my last letter, we've taught our investigator quite a bit last week, and this week we started a new one.  How'd it go?  Kinda varies from lesson t lesson, every other day goes well, then we have a lesson where nothing we try to say makes sense.

Anyway, it's always a  surprise when the people here start speaking English.  Our investigator from week one started teaching us this week.  Fun fact, gospel terms like Faith, repentance, baptism... They don't know what that means in Korean. It's just like English.  Wasn't expecting that...  So, this week I've been studying alternative terms.  A prophet is a messenger of God, a testimony is a witness, faith is belief, that kind of thing. Makes the lessons go a lot smoother.

Anyway, fun times.  I'm doing well here.  It 's crazy here almost constantly, but I'm good.  And I'm starting to pick out bits and pieces of Korean when people talk. 

Some exciting news, Some native Korean speakers came in last night.  I haven't met most of them yet, but it's pretty cool.  SYL anyone? (I'm gonna die...)

The temple last week was incredible.  I'm really looking forward to it.  We did  sealings last time, and it was the first time for the other Elders of my district.  We've been going in a group a lot, but last week the (Korean word) wanted to do an endowment session, so it was just the guys.  We might do endowments today, though.  I still have some names to take through.

I'm beginning to love P days.  Still frantic, but it lets us take care of all those things we never have time for otherwise.

On a spiritual note, the Gospel is simple.
(4 lines of Korean)

You can't really sue more complex ideas when speaking another language.  I'm learning the grammar forms, but the ones that hit home with those you teach are the ones you can put your heart into.  The very foundation of your testimony.  To me that's pretty awesome.

-- lots my train my train of thought, when a computer opens up here, you jump on it.

Life is good though.  Scripture study is really different when you're doing it for someone else.  Preparing lessons ... very fulfulling.

I think I'll wrap up here though.  I've got some notes I want to write.
(Korean)
(signed in Korean)

2012.08.12 (snail mail paper letter)

Dear Home, [KOREAN]!

For the past couple of days I've been feeling bad for not being able to write more, but then I remembered I've only been here for four full days.  I'm still going to try, but there's not really much time here.

Good news, whatever we're doing, it's working.  Day 1, Holy cow our teacher isn't speaking English.  Day 2. we're teaching a lesson in Korean???  Day 3, That lesson was terrible. -- Praying was nice though.  Day 4, [all in KOREAN]!!!  Day 5, Thank goodness it's Sunday...

Seriously though, it's been good here.  We're already praying in Korean, and I've gotten comfortable with doing it without the cheat sheet  (I've been praying alot here.) We're bearing our testimonies too.  But I'll say this.  You appreciate prayer so much more when you have to think this much about whatever you say.

And when you pray for the gift of tongues in the language you are learning, it comes.  And mostly, it comes through love of the language and the people.  once you have that, things click.

My tongue even moves differently now.  I can feel Korean being different.  Pretty cool.  Wicked hard though, even with the spirit.

So my district- Elder Forbes, my companinon; Elder Quist, our new district leader and one of my apartment buddies; Elder Gerszeski, another missionary from our apartment - talks really fast in Korean; Elder Campbell, Elder Sills, Elder Elenbads, anoterh set from the room next to us; and Sster Bell, Sister Hunt, and Sister McKay.  10 in our district, plus two others. 30 new Korean missionaries when I came in, plus the 30 that were already here.  Definitely not alone here.

As for life, it's hectic, but amazing.  As I mentioned, the third day out here (Friday) we got to teach our first investigator.  ---in Korean.

Not going to lie, it wasn't very good.  But the prayer went well. (Iwas pretty excited about praying.  I've carried around that card until it's almost falling apart - slight exageration.)

The second lesson was incredible though.  We remembered practically everything.  And it's cool to see how things went.  He accepted a BoM (Book of Mormon) and committed to read it.  MTC, yeah, but I was still happy.  I mean, Korean.

08/13/12
Anyway, it's late, I don't have much time to write.

Some important notes, we walked to the temple Sunday, that was great, and I went to choir practice here, and it was really cool.

(There's a small chance I'll sing in General Conference.  = D )

Today, more Korean, we did a service assignment, taught our investigator again, and it looks like  I'll have to continue this later.

08/14/12

So,  yesterday was pretty hectic -- that's kind of normal here.

But we only had a little time to work on our lesson.  So we had to improv most of it.   Luckily, we remembered a few critical vocab words, so we were able to get the point across with some broken Korean.

I;m so looking forward to the temple today.  I've missed it so much...

I hope everything is going well there.  It's incredible to think that I last saw you all a week ago. 

The Lord knows all time.  And I'm out of mine.  Laundry is done.

[KOREAN again]!

~Elder Robarts

Mission Mom answers questions about packages

I wrote to Sister Furniss, wife of the president of the Korea Daejeon Mission, asking questions about sending packages.  This is her response.

Sister Robarts

I look forward to having your son join us here in Korea. We are so grateful for the wonderful experience that they have in the MTC and how hard they work on and learn the language.

 

To answer your question on packages....frequent would be one per month, some may receive a package only once every four or five  months. I think a good average is a box every two to three months. Postage is quite expensive to Korea, so that limits the number of boxes we receive. The best way to send packages is by using the flat rate boxes from the US Postal Service.  95% of our boxes come that way   It takes about 2 weeks to arrive at the mission office, then about 2 more days to continue on to your missionary.

 

Since the packages are not opened here, I do not often see what is sent.  Korea has just about every thing you can get back home, just not the brands you love.  If he has a favorite treat cereal  or candy bar.  Sometimes that brand can be purchased here, sometimes not   For example,we can buy Snickers, or Twix here....but I would love a good old Butterfinger.Your missionaries favorite foods seem to be high on the list. Our children always send their father licorice. They receive things like brownie mixes, mac & cheese mixes, cake mixes,    

 

We send the boxes directly to the missionary at Christmas. Koreans to do celebrate Christmas in a big way...so your gift could possible include a companionship gift.  A super small tree or a Christmas sock to hang in their apartment.  If he has an American companion at Christmas, they will probably receive about the same.

 

At the mission Christmas party everyone receives a gift from Pres. Furniss and myself 

I hope this answered your questions.  

 

Have a great day

Sister Furniss