July 12, 2013

   Anyoung Haseyo,
 

       Well done on the AP tests Emily!  Those are great scores.  I am also still really excited at how you are teaching with the missionaries.  I hope you continue to have that opportunity.

       I did get my visa so I won't get reassigned.  It will be cool to go to Korea with the rest of my district.   As far as packages go I'm not sure what I want just anything.  One thing I would like you to look into is a mosquito net.  Apparently, even in the city the mosquitoes there are pretty bad and are impossible to keep out of the apartment.  One Elder in my district has a Skeeter Defeater.  It is a net that you can set up like a tent but it doesn't take up much room.  If you could research price and stuff I would be grateful.  I might need one.  Did you see that missionary dress code has changed.  They put the new one up on lds.org.

Dad and Mom, you both learned another language.  What worked for you to memorize vocab?  My retention rate is terrible.

       I have had an amazing week.  I have been really productive and have understood most of what my teachers say.  We also had a great devotional and I learned a lot.  The sisters in our district all sing and play instruments and they tried out to perform a musical number.  We got to hang out in the practice room while they sang "Come Thou Fount".  They sounded amazing and it made my week.

       We had been told that Busan had an accent different from Seoul which is what we are learning.  Our teacher (the native one) assured us that it wasn't that different and we would have no problem understanding it.  He lied.  We taught some natives in TRC and they said that it is really different and we'll only understand a few words.  This was confirmed by an RM working at the bookstore so, I'm toast.  It is apparently easier than the Jeju accent which is very nearly a different language.  That one is in my mission too so I'm scared.

The hardest thing for me at the MTC has been accomplishing my goals.  I have a lot to do and not enough time to do it all in.  I knew when I started that this would be difficult and I would need the Lord's help.  Every night I kneel down to pray and I ask God for help with my goals.  Often I receive ideas of things I can do to accomplish them.  When this happens I go to bed confident.  The Lord is helping me.  I got this.  Then something always happens the next day to prevent me from doing all my work.  I might get a headache or be really tired or have my schedule changed.  I didn't understand.  I am being obedient and I pray for help every night and morning.  Why does it seem like God is trying to prevent me from accomplishing my goals?

      During the devotional on Tuesday we had an emeritus Seventy speak about prayer.  I don't remember what he said but I realized that I was only praying at the established times for prayer, morning, night, mealtimes, before class and lessons.  I was not praying when I ran into problems or had a hard time.  I had already asked God for help in my morning and evening prayers and I called it good.  However we are told to pray always.  I felt it was a small thing but I resolved to do that more.  The difference was amazing.  That next day, when the cafeteria food had made me sick, I said a quick, sincere prayer.  I felt better within minutes and was able to accomplish more in that class time than I had all day.  I continued to pray like that all day and I received help every time.  I couldn't believe that that had made the difference when all of my other habits I had been working hardly mattered.  In the shower the next morning I realized what else had changed.  (I blame the necessity for quick showers for the fact that it took me so long to figure this out.)  It was my attitude when I went to Lord for help in my prayer.  I had been asking for help but once I received inspiration or comfort I decided that was all I needed.  "OK thanks.  I got this"  I wasn't leaving a lot of room for the Lord in "I got this".  I was reminded of the exodus and the way the Lord taught the Children of Israel to rely on him.  He helped them in very direct ways every day.  I don't know if every one already had this lesson down or if it was important specifically for me, but it was clearly important that I get this down.  I am grateful for the way God made things hard for me so that I could learn this lesson.  I know I will need it.

I love you,

Stapley chang-no