Wednesday, September 11, 2013

September 9, 2013

I'm fine with long emails. Out here we have an hour and fifteen minutes.  Today president also told us that its cool with him if we go over.  I love hearing about whats going on and it helps me find things to talk about. My companion says that it takes about ten days to get letters from home.  You haven't sent me any right? Just making sure they didn't get lost.


How did the Foreigner concert go?

Hooray for Hannah!  That's so cool.  I think its a great idea to put up links to her and Kelsey's sites.  Thanks for helping with that stuff.  Does my mormon.org account have a picture yet?  It didn't show up when I checked at the MTC.

Mom, that's a really good lesson idea.  I might adapt that for member visits. This transfer we really want to focus on member missionary work and referrals. There is a book about member missionary work that recently got translated into Korean.  The Power of Everyday Missionaries.  The leadership is really excited about it and my companion thinks it will help a lot.  Can I give you a challenge?  Remember when I talked about goals and planning?  Could you set a goal for a specific person to share the Gospel with and then sit down and have a missionary style planning session on how to accomplish that goal.  We are experimenting with the best way to help members share the Gospel and that is one thing we have talked about.  We are not sure how effective we will be at helping the members plan in Korean so it would be good to know if the principle is sound.  PMG talks about planning and there are lots of things in the District about it.  Could you do this for me?

Can I have the recipe for German pancakes?  I made something up but it wasn't as good.  Although I think that was because of the oven and pan.  The oven knob doesn't have any markings so we have to guess.

Today is the first day of my second transfer.  My companion and I are staying but the other team of elders are leaving.  They aren't going to be replaced either.  Masan is going to have just one team of elders for at least a little while.  We will have the house to ourselves which will be nice but boring.  It will also be harder to learn Korean without a native.  I really liked teaching him English.  His use of the language was hilarious.  Last week he announced that he was going to be a "skinhead".  He meant that he wanted to shave his head.  Sister Ellsworth, the American Sister missionary is moving and we are getting another trainee.  It looks like she is going to be a Polynesian.

What does Stapley mean?  The Koreans always ask me that question and I don't have a good answer for it.

Have I talked about Elder Bednar's talk, The Character of Christ?  It was given at an MTC devotional and still plays every week after devotionals.  I'm not sure you can find it online but it references a talk by Elder Maxwell on the character of Christ.  I haven't read that one.  The important thing was that Christ, when he experienced trials and suffering "turned outward".  He served others.  You can see this as you read in the Bible.  I have been reading the New Testament recently.  A focus on understand the Character of Christ has made it especially inspiring.  I have been working on become more like Christ in that regard.  I have seen that thinking of and serving others when you are suffering or sick helps you feel better.  When one of the Sisters got sick she called Sister Gilbert.  Sister Gilbert told her to go out and serve others.  She would feel better.  When I feel sick I can take all the medicine I can.  I can skip language study to take a nap but I won't feel better until I leave my apartment and get to work.  President Hinckley gave a talk on this.  It is the one where he spoke about "forget yourself and go to work".

Thanks for everything,
Elder Stapley


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