So! First week at the
MTC has been crazy! In some ways it's what I thought it would be, but in many
ways it isn't. First things first: my companions (I wish I knew how to quickly
type, or write for that matter, in Korean, because I actually know the word for
companion). My companions are Sister Gottfredson and Sister Wright, both of
whom are wonderful. It's really interesting to have to be with someone at all
times, with a few exceptions. So far, not that bothered by it. Our district is
made up of four other companionships, all of whom are elders, and they are also
wonderful. I feel like we're all watching each other grow up, even in just a
week of being here.
Oh, gosh, what else to
say? The schedule is not that interesting, if I'm being honest, just a lot of
studying and teaching and whatnot. I really look forward to the times when we
get to exercise (varied throughout the week and for an hour here at the MTC;
we'll have a half hour in the field). I think I kind of scarred Sister
Gottfredson the first day we went to the gym (Sister Wright decided to do her
own workout, so Sister Gottfredson, who is a swimmer and doesn't really like
dry-land workouts, decided to work out with me): I had us do the 100 calories
in 10 minutes warm-up on the tall bike cardio thingy, and then we did three sets
of the 10-10-10-10-10 dumbbell complex. Squats, squat jumps, etc. I was dying,
because altitude, but Sister Gottfredson was just sad. We've since gravitated
toward the gym-gym, court gym, with the volleyball and the basketball and the
four square (yup, that's a big thing here), so that's been fun. I miss having
all the weights from Prairie Life available, just right there. The weight racks
are not very impressive. But that's okay! I need to practice working out with
minimal to no weights, so it's good.
The MTC is basically
like EFY on steroids times 1000, but not at all, mostly because the way we must
conduct ourselves as missionaries is much different than how 14-18 year olds
conduct themselves at EFY. But the spirit here is amazing. I've already learned
so many things about myself, and I already know so many things that I need to
work on. Sunday we had the opportunity to watch a Church video. The one we
watched was Elder Bednar's address to the MTC from... before we were here...
called "The Character of Christ." SO. GOOD. I'm sure it's on LDS.org,
and if you get a chance, you should watch it. I'm pretty sure I was crying most
of the time he was speaking. The gist of Elder Bednar's talk was what the
character of Christ is and why we need it. Here's what I took away from it: the
character of Christ is the ability and willingness and... follow-through (? not
sure what the correct word is for it) to think of others in situations when the
natural man would want to turn inwards. When Christ finished His task in
Gethsemane, keeping in mind that three of His disciples had kind of let Him
down by falling asleep several times, and that one of His disciples was going
to betray Him, He healed the guard's ear. The natural man in that situation
would have wanted all the attention, right? Acknowledge what I did, I need
sympathy, maybe getting angry at His disciples for falling asleep... but Christ
didn't do any of that. Amidst all the hardship that He was experiencing in that
moment, His first instinct was to heal yet another person. And a person who was
coming to carry Him away, beat, and kill Him at that. The character of Christ
is to think of others before yourself. There was a ton of other stuff in there
that I'm not getting down because I don't have my notes in front of me (plus,
Elder Bednar says it way more eloquently than I do), but I thought it was a
really great talk.
We only have an hour a
week of computer time (How different from pre-mission lifestyle!), but I have a
feeling that as we settle into things a little more, the letters will get
easier to write, mostly because the schedule here is the same for pretty much
the entire time we're here.
I love you all a lot!
Hope you all have a good week!
Love,
Sister Chun
PS - If you want to send
me DearElder.com letters, or shoot, even hand-written letters, I would not be
mad. ;P
PPS - My companion was much more diligent about taking pictures than me. I'll try to be better in the future. :)
The group pictures are of my district. In the back row, left to right: Elder Huillet, Elder Gilmore, Elder Driggs, Elder Jarman, Elder Edwards (glaring at the camera), Elder Boden, Elder Horne. In the front row: Elder Martinez, Sister Wright, Sister Gottfredson (we look related...), Sister Chun. #nailedit
