Wednesday, December 18, 2013

December, 13, 2013

Dear Mom and Dad,

So this week has been crazy.... Starting with Sunday, I GOT CALLED AS ZONE LEADER! ON MY THIRD DAY AT THE MTC!  Usually they call a district leader after they have about 4 weeks of training but President Yost said that he felt extremely inspired to call me as Zone Leader.  Its an important and stressful leadership calling.  As well as taking care of my self and my own things, learning the language, preparing lesson plans, TRC, etc etc, I have to worry about every other missionary in my branch.  Me and Elder peterson do a great job taking care of the zone.  Its not that hard but it is a very big responsibility.

On monday and tuesday this week I had two more lessons with our progressing investigator.  I taught him how to pray and Elder Jarrett talked a bit about the spirit and the book of mormon.  Last week we committed him to go to church, and he did! This week we committed him to read the book of mormon and pray to know if it was true, and he did!  However on thursday, when we asked him when we could schedule another lesson and he told us he couldnt, he was going back to korea. How said me and my companion were to lose our investigator after only 3 lessons, we were slightly saddened, we had already developed a love for this man and a strong desire to teach him the gospel of christ.  But Im Won Sub had to leave.  Later on in the evening we were told we were getting our second language teacher, but that he would be about 5 minutes late.  Our district sat and waited patiently, studying and preparing for our new teacher.  The door creaked a couple of minutes into class and who walks in??? Im Won Sub, except this time he is wearing an MTC Teacher name tag, with the Words Brother Sung printed on them!  I was not expecting our investigator to be our teacher too!  What a great teacher he was too!  He immediately pushed us into review of our already present grammar forms and then taught us a new one, as well as about 25 new 다 거 (Words)!  He really upped the pace of the learning going on in our dsitrict, and now I think we are ahead of the other classes.  He is the best teacher of korean in the MTC presently.  The Standard for korean speaking missionaries is about 25 grammar forms and 500 words when you leave the MTC, his students leave with almost 50 grammar forms and around 1000-1200 words! What a huge jump! Our district has stepped up to the challenge though and we are doing well.  I really cant wait till about week 3 where we start becoming a bit more fluent and can talk to each other more and more.  However, being able to say full prayers in korean after only  a couple of days and giving basic lessons is great! My Knowledge increases exponentially each day!

Our oldest districts are leaving us on sunday, and its really sad!  I have already grown to like a lot of the older missionaries. Even some of the sisters!  (One of them always makes prison jokes around me because I do the Convict Conditioning workout, and when someone asked what it was she thought I said I went to prison, and it stuck)  But they are extremely excited to help us as much as possible before they leave.  A lot of them are getting really jittery to leave and finally get to korea though.  

Earlier this week on wednesday, I had kind of a break down.  Earlier that day I was told that I had done some things wrong, and then throughout the day I had a lot of people in my district bear down on me, and some sisters from the other districts tell me somethings as well.  None of it was very positive.  During dinner someone had said something to me and it was the last straw, I broke down and was sobbing during dinner, my companion tried to console me, but it wasnt working very well.  Just then one of the 9 weekers (the people getting ready to leave) walked up and sat down next to me.  He didnt ask me what was wrong, just started telling a story from his childhood about playing hide and go seek with his siblings.  He sat in a storage closet downstairs for an hour in the dark, even though he was scared.  His siblings had told him that if he turned on the lights at all, they wouldnt ever play with him again.  After about an hour of crying in this dark closet in the basement of his house, he walked out of it and turned on the light.  He then looked me dead in the eye and said, "Dont sit in the darkness like I did, and cry.  Stand up, walk out, and turn on the light"  It was one of the most inspiring things I had heard all day.  I got up and was determined to make everything right and be the best zone leader I could.  What a great missionary!

Before I go I want to share something with you guys that I thought of this week during one of my down moments.  The other zone leader asked me how my day was, and after everything I had been through, I looked him in the eyes and said "Every day in the Service of our Heavenly Father is a great day!"

I want all of you at home to remember that no matter what, Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are there and stand ready to help you in everything that you do!  All you need to do is ask them for assistance and they will come down to help you in the way that they think is best, even if it is just a friend telling a story.  

And as for the food, Jeremiah 4:19-20

My abowels, my bowels! I am bpained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
 20 aDestruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my btents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment.

I Love all of you at home and cant wait to write again! Send me letters I dont mind! I'll try to write back!
-Elder Yamagata

Me, my companion, and our teacher/investigator.
 

Elder Gildae trying to fart!

Hey!

My notepad after a lesson!

My other zone leader.
 

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