Elder Benny Yamagata: 11 DAYS LEFT!!!

Mom and Dad,

So my time here at the MTC is winding down quickly!!! It amazes me that almost 2 months has gone by that fast!! But first my week:

So last friday we skyped a man who lives in Korea for our TRC lesson and it was cool, we were supposed to teach for 40 minutes, but lack of volunteers made us have to cut it down to 20 minutes so another companionship could have 20 minutes to teach as well. It was really cool, the man lived in Busan, in the southern part of Korea. Turns out he was actually one of our teachers companions, and a great friend of him. He taught us a little bit about himself and then we taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was better taht the lesson was only 20 minutes though, we started running out of things to say! So we finished with bearing our testimonies and then prayed with him, how cool!

Not much happened Saturday but then Sunday I was released as zone leader of our branch. It was a bittersweet feeling as I didnt have to go to so many meetings and would have more study times and be able to focus more on korean, but I was sad that I wouldnt be helping out the new missionaries all that much. But turns out I still am! They always come to me and ask me for help with Korean or with the rules and what they are supposed to be doing. It was funny as one of the elders dislocated their shoulder last week, and the first thing he did was run to me to tell me and then had me go with him to get it looked at. The zone leaders didnt even know until I told them the next day! Then I found out yesterday that he would be going home to get surgery on it, and they didnt even know when I told them! So I politely let them know, but its funny that a lot of the new missionaries still think of me as a leader!

A couple of days ago we were told that the MTC is taking down the huge firewall on the missionaries that prevented us from accesing anything that was non church approved. It was weird to be able to see the Google homepage! Haha, but its nice that we are able to research topics about our missions and such during some down time. The first thing we did was look up this church in Korea called God's Church that believes that Heavenly Mother lives in Seoul and that Heavenly Father died choking on noodles..... weird!!!!! They believe in other things too but thats crazy! You know Korea has some weird religions when our teachers are telling us the Jehovah's Witnesses are nice....

Anyways, yesterday we got our Korean Nametags, preparatory to us leaving in a short while here. Mine was spelt wrong, it said Yamataka... I wasnt that mad.... ok I was but still, I had my teacher fix it and they are supposed to be sending me the correct ones soon! Hopefully I get them in the next couple of days, because I want to wear mine!!!

Tuesday we heard from Bishop Gerald Cousse, 1st Counselor in the presiding bishopric. His talk was on loving everyone and doing it through the Atonement of Chris. It was a great talk, but I was so tired from the day that I actually passed out a little during it! Lately I havent been able to sleep much so it tires me out during the day.

Anyways I can't wait to leave here. Its only 11 days away now! I still can't fathom that I will be in Korea for 22 months preaching the Gospel and helping everyone there, as well as having fun in the process! Our branch president told us on sunday, we are here to work Hard, but we are here to Play hard too! I love being on a mission and feeling the spirit so strongly everyday and I love the people of Korea so much even though I havent even left yet! I hope all of you have an amazing week and are safe. Make sure to thank our Heavenly Father for everything that he gives us everyday! We sometimes take it for granted the things that he does for us, and Im pretty sure that he loves to hear a thanks every now and again from us! Anyways, I love everyone and I cant wait to get to Korea to tell you how it is!

Love,

Elder Yamagata