Week 1

 October 19, 2016

Hello everyone!

It's my first pday and so far it has been great! We got to go to the temple and are now waiting for our laundry. I just wanted to tell you all about my first week and some awesome experiences I have had. first of all I and in a trio of 3lders. Elder Mark is from Indianapolis and is the youngest of three. He played oboe and loves computer video games. He is very shy but I love him a lot! Elder Kellis is from New Mexico and lives in  super small town. His graduating class was 25 people! He worked on a ranch and is a very outgoing guy! I love him as well. In our district of 11 new missionaries there is someone from Hong Kong and we are teaching him all the dumb things Americans do. It is really funny! There is also Elder Boren who is from Saint George and we are literally the same person. We have everything in common and I love him a lot! He helps me when I feel homesick. Also in our district is two sisters who both had Korean mothers and are fluent so they help us a lot, Sister Hansen and Johnson! Another sister, Sister Forest is from Vegas and played cello in the top band at LVA.  There are also two other elders both from Arizona, Elder Packer and Hunsaker. And there is also a sister who played college volleyball for San Fransisco University!!

SO that's a little bit about our district, as I mentioned there was also 11 other missionaries as well in another district. There are about 100 missionaries here going to Korea and 23 left on Monday and we are getting new ones today. There are about 2,100 missionaries here at the MTC. 

First of all the food is AMAZING, third best to my mom and Mr. Ciarlo's cooking. If I were able to get fat I would be right now. Basically ever day we get up at 6;30 and go exercise for an hour then we come back and shower and go to breakfast at 8:15 ish. We then have class till 12;40, then lunch, then class till 5;40, then dinner, then class till 9;30 and then we go to bed. IT IS HARD WORK! and holy cow is Korean hard! There are technically 315 letters in the alphabet! but you can break it down to 15 consonants and 16 vowels combined and pronounced in different ways. I walked in to class on the first day and Brother Watts, our teacher only spoke Korean. He would talk for about a minute and then stare at us. We would have blank stares back and he would repeat the same thing in Korean but add one English word and would keep doing that until we understand. So basically he only talks Korean. Even when we ask a question he answers in Korean and we have no idea what he says. Then the second day here we had to teach an investigator in Korean!! it was so scary. It is very overwhelming and I definitely felt inadequate. But after a week I will admit I know more Korean than I do Spanish and I took that for three years in high school. 

We have had two speakers come talk to us, Via Sikahema and Elder Lynn G Robbins. Via Sikahema is a retired NFL football player and he talked about how we have influence on others even though we don't know it or think we do. And Elder Lynn G Robbins is in the presidency of the 70 and talked about becoming like Christ and taking on Christ like attributes. That was really good and the thing that stood out to me most was he said we choose to be like Christ. We choose to love others, or have faith, or be patient. We cant just say, "Oh I'm just not a patient person." This talk touched me so much that I actually like love everyone, Which is crazy especially if you know me. 

The last thing I want to talk about is a talk by Elder Bednar. He talked about the character of Christ and he said Christ always turned outwards when others would turn in. He also talked about how we cant just have  a testimony, but we have to do what we believe. 

Also i joined Choir! I know right?! me and singing don't mix but I joined because I felt the spirit so much when singing the Army of Helaman the first day here!

I miss you guys a lot and think about you guys all the time, but I know that two years is such a short time and we will meet again. 

Love you all!

Elder Goon

PS. emails and letters help me a lot, also there is this thing called Dearelder.com where you can send me instant letters.