Thanks for all of your letters this week! I love getting them and reading whats going on! Thanks for the easter package as well to share. We put them together the other night (mainly so we didn't eat all the candy first) but, haven't passed them out yet. We thought we'd wait until it was a little closer to Easter. I'll keep you updated. I also loved the paper with scriptures of Christ's week leading up to his death. We always try to share a spiritual thought in our room before bed, and it has brought up some great discussion, especially because Sister Cheney took an institute class when she was at school in New York all about the Savior's last week. Pretty amazing! We're all excited for Easter here. The entire MTC is having sacrament meeting together and rumor has it, it is a general authority speaking. We have no idea who though. My district is going to try to line up super early so that we can get seats in the actual room instead of overflow. Our Elders are blessing the sacrament which will be neat!
Sunday was probably the best day I have had yet! It started off like a normal day going to Music and the Spoken Word, and then Relief Society. We then went to sacrament meeting, which is just with our Korean branch. There were about 25 sisters and elders from Korea here last week (if you have time go get the Korean Liahona at Deseret Book-all of their pictures are in it and President Shin wrote the article!!) and it was fun to get to know them, especially the ones going to Busan. For the special musical number, they all sang the EFY "As Sisters in Zion/Bring the World his Truth" medley in Korean! It was definitely the most amazing I had ever heard it. I only caught a few words here and there in Korean, but it brought the spirit so strongly. I know I already have such an immense love for the Korean people and can't wait to get there and begin serving them! We then went to our district meeting, and Elder Lee, who was our District Leader but is now our Zone Leader, taught on the Gift of the Holy Ghost. It slowly transfered into how we need to have Christlike attributes, and work on them each week while we are here. I love getting to have time to share with our district, and we grow so close together as we feel the spirit together. It really is amazing the power of missionaries here and the testimonies people have! Later at the devotional, Stephen Allen, the director of missionary services or something spoke about tips to being a successful missionary. At the end he mentioned how each one of us have guardian angels who are our ancestors in heaven who are assigned to watch over us while we are on our missions. This immediately made me think of how President Hinckley promised Dad that Beverly would be his guardian angel. I know this is true for me as well. When I am stuck in a rut, I just need to remember all the people here on earth praying for me, as well as the power in heaven and all of the people there who are guiding my success, and helping me through failures.
I have tried to read my patriarchal blessing each day this week, and I am amazed how much it focuses on missionary work. I don't know how I ever thought I wouldn't serve a mission! Even though I have hard days (just like I would at home), this work is so rewarding--and I haven't even started teaching actual people yet!! I really do love being here serving the Lord!
The Korean is coming along. We taught a lesson to one of our "Progressing Investigators" (aka teachers pretending to be an investigator) last night and I barely had any Korean on my paper--just English written down in the Korean sentence structure. It felt great!
Last Tuesday at the devotional, Elder Scott D. Whiting talked about how the MTC is an incubator-a controlled environment built for our growth and development. He then spoke about the Comforter. We are asked to leave behind all of the forms of comfort we have been used to our entire lives, and learn to find comfort with the true Comforter-the Holy Ghost. I have tried to work on that this last week.
As for other things here, another week has gone by! It seems like the days are long, but the weeks are short. It was fun to have the native Koreans here. There were a couple that are so funny! They would tell us funny Korean phrases and jokes that we didn't really understand...but laughed anyway! We learned about Korean Fan Death. Apparently, if you stay in a room with all the doors and windows closed, and a fan on, it is deadly. I guess in Korean newspapers, if they don't know why someone died, they will blame it on that! So the other day, we turned the fan on in our classroom, and when our teacher walked in, pretended we were dead. It didn't last long because everyone started laughing. The things that get us through the day...
Our teacher Brother Tanner compared our marked copies of the scriptures to the Pensive from Harry Potter and how it helps us see into our own minds and personal revelation. I thought it was a great analogy. Haha
There was SNOW HERE! I don't know if you got any in SLC but, it kind of stunk. Our district took a "Christmas Card" picture that I will send. So presh!
I don't know what else to send--We have so much candy! Then again, it doesn't hurt to have more! The chips and salsa were good. Maybe that. And more Diet Coke of course. I saved my last one to drink today. The caffeine free crap that they have in the soda machines just doesn't taste right!
Thanks so much for everything! I am so happy to be here and feel like I am really starting to understand a small portion of missionary work. I know I still have so much more to learn! The districts above us just left for Korea yesterday. Only 6 more weeks here! I know it will go by fast! (Even if I have to get creative with what I eat because everything is starting to taste the same...)
Love you and miss you all!!! Write me letters this week so I can get them again before next P-Day!!!
Love,
Sister Emily Maridell Burgoyne
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