July 5, 2013

July 5, 2013

Anyoung Haseyo,

Yay!  Some youth moved in!  The blessings of supporting a missionary.  It was cool to see those pictures.  Keep sending them.  What do my edited letters look like?  I wasn't sure I was coming up with good enough stuff for you to post.  You can't be getting more than a couple lines out of them.  I will try to do the thank you notes today.

For 4th of July we got out of class early and had a special devotional.  I was all pumped for a cool spiritually instructive one like we usually get on Sundays and Tuesdays but it was just a quick story about serving our country and then we watched 17 Miracles.  I'm not sure what that had to do with Independence Day but at least we weren't in class.  Then we got to go outside and watch The Stadium of Fire from a distance.  Most of it was obscured by trees though.  We didn't get back to the residence until 10:50.

I literally just ran into a Brother Stapley teaching in this building.  He is from Arizona.  That's cool.  

      My schedule-

-Everyday I wake up at 6:10 so I can shower without waiting in line.  We try to get to class at 7 for district opening exercises.

-We do whatever till breakfast at 7:45.  (Funny story related to breakfast.  One of the Elders in my district thought it was spelled breakfrast and has been pronouncing it that way all his life.  No one ever pointed it out to him till now.  He says it is too late for him to change.)

Depending on the day we have in some sort of order;

-Personal Study (usually scriptures)

-Additional study (usually lesson planning)

-TALL(Technology Assisted Learning and some other word that begins with L.  It is supposed to let us learn to pronounce vocab like a native but it is terribly inaccurate and not worth it.  We usually just practice sentences in the nice, comfy computer lab wheely chairs during this time.)

-Gym time

-Lunch at 12:45

-Class at 1:25

-Language Study at 4:25

-Dinner at 5:40

-Class at 6:25

-Closing prayer at 9:25 and back to the residence hall.

-Lights out at 10:30

My district has the two best teachers in the zone.  Brother Sung grew up in the States but spoke Busan Korean at home.  He served in Seoul.  He is really funny and tells us all about the culture and subtle things in the language.  He has perfect pronunciation, obviously, and makes sure to teach that to us.  He never had to learn Korean though and doesn't understand why you say some things a certain way.  "I don't know why we say it that way. It just feels right."  Apparently we will develop this "feeling" after a while in country.  Brother Campbell however, was in our shoes two years ago and can teach the reasons behind some of the principles.  He is straight off his mission and is super spiritual.  Our pronunciation is noticably better than the other district, even the RM teachers.

Pictures.  I have one of Bro. Sung in street clothes.  One of my district at the temple.  I am trying very hard to look good while facing the sun and failing miserably.  There is also one of part of my district eating lunch at the residence and then one of my room.  Mine is the top middle bunk with the bed unmade because I took a nap. 

Love you!

Stapley Chang-no