Happy Thanksgiving!! ... from the MTC

Thanksgiving in the MTC  Thursday, November 28, 2013

The dinner was really great! We had real potatoes! Pie, some weird yummy broccoli, delicious turkey and I loved their green beans. The only thing I didn't like was their yams.

There's a member of our district who is a little off on the holidays.... don't know why.... but it was weird sitting next to him as he grudgingly ate a bowl of cereal on Thanksgiving day. It was weirder having sister Pratt fast on Thanksgiving, what was up with that?

Ya, my first Thanksgiving away from home or family. It was powerful like unto all the thanksgivings, but not MY thanksgiving. I would've liked to go around the table being thankful, or drawing turkeys on the paper-cover of the table, or going to get a christmas tree, or playing games or watching movies or singing songs. Without those things, it was a bit sad. But the MTC people did the best they could do with us, and it was definitely a fun holiday anyways. 

We did a service project.... We made 350,000 meals for the church's humanitarian program. Their just like rice and oats that you can add water to and heat up... but for those in need of humanitarian food.... I'm sure it's a miracle and we all helped save lives!

We also watched a wonderful movie about the willy handcart company called Ephraim's Rescue. It's kind of like the mormony version of thanksgiving... the pioneers.

But the funniest thing we got to do... and I don't know if you'll be able to find a picture of it from Ellsworth or Smith or Bishop.... but the four of us.... okay... hold on....

So The president's wife held a primary program. Seriously. She had us sing "over the river and through the woods"... we did a lot of childrens songs and childrens games. I swear she must have been a primary leader before she was MTC president because she must have done this program before and we loved it.

We told the story of thanksgiving. She was the narrator, and whenever she mentioned a character in the story, whoever was playing that character had to run up to a microphone and say a phrase.

She gave us pieces of paper before the program started, while we were singing prelude songs, and when the time came, we all walked up to the stage to get dressed in our costumes and learn our lines.

The pilgrim men had those big hats and had honker guns, and whenever Sister nally said, "pilgrim men" in the story, the pilgrim men in their big hats (with buckles) walked up to the microphone and said, "bang bang bang!" as they honked their guns. It sounded like the honkers and dingers on sesame street. 'bang bang bang!" (honk honk honk) it was hilarious.

Their were indian men who said deeply, "big and braaave"

Indian woman who said, "shh shh shh"

Pilgrim woman who said, "mercy mee"

a Pilgrim minister who held up a bible and shouted, "Haaaaalelulia!"

And me, Bishop, Ellsworth and Smith were the turkeys that got hunted and shot by the honker pilgrim men.... Whenever she said "turkeys" in the story... we had to go up to the microphone in our funny glasses with a red balloon hanging off of our necks and a bunch of crazy feathers and go, "gobblegobblegobblegobble" as we flapped our elbows up and down.

... And we died and got eaten.

Oh oh oh oh oh oh!! and the musical numbers today were a bit lax, because it was more of an activity instead of a devotional.... so the musical numbers were not hymns but one of our musical numbers were actually the Joseph and Technicolor dreamcoat medley! So a girl with a great voice went up as a narrator and sang a verse or two from all the scenes in Joseph and summed up a bit of the entire musical. She sang things like, "A pharo's story, go go go joseph, way way back many centuries ago, ect."  and we all singed along going, "ah-ah, any dre-e-eam, any dream, any dre-e-am" it was way fun!!! it made me miss you guys and cry a little bit but I had soooo much fun at the thanksgiving program! :D

Snippets from Elder Buckwalter's Letters

The truth is, all good things come from God. All negative things come from Satan. Our minds are both divine because we are spirit children of our heavenly father. but our minds are also fallen because of the flesh and natural man within us during this probationary state. The only means by which good things happen to us, is by God's grace. Every good thing you have or can think of, is a gift to you from God... and I'm sure there are many you don't even know you have. If we are wanting or needing or required to do any thing, it is only by God that we can do it, he gave us our bodies and he gave us the gift of agency to choose how to use it. He oversees every action and occurrence and there is nothing that happens on this earth save he would allow it. He will not tempt us above that we are able. 

......

I know God has called me on a mission. Knowing that purpose helps me a lot. I often think of home and desire to do some of the things I left behind when I came here. But it's always for an instant at longest that I think of those things. Because right after I think of that, I am reminded of my purpose and why I'm here. I'm reminded that I've been called to people in Korea, and God needs and has asked me to help him bring his children back to him. I think of how important this work is, that I couldn't be doing anything better than the things the Lord has need of me to do.

Anyanghashimnika / 안녕하십니까 November 22, 2013

On Nov 22, 2013, at 11:59 AM, Elder Wesley Buckwalter wrote:

This language is ridiculous, it's on and off... I feel like I got this sometimes and I also feel like it's not even a language, rather my teacher is just making sounds up to freak us out and play with us.

The temple is closing soon, so this'll be my last time at the provo temple, I think I'll be going to Seoul Temple once a month so.... the next time I'm going to be at the temple is in Korea!!!!!

I have to be honest, the mtc is starting to make me ancy. I know I still have a lot to work on, but I kinda want to just hit the streets you know, come on, let me at em'. I think it's like 23 days left.

So, some quick funny stories.

Sister Giles folks are vacationing in Hawaii without her.... and they sent her an authentic pineapple I guess to be funny, but it was actually super super super tasty, the sweetest fruit in the universe oh my gosh!  and it was really funny and messy and awesome!

Ummm. Elder Smith, has finally started understanding the prayers, so just before gym time... the coach guy with the whistle asks for a volunteer to pray and Smith always raises his hand. Umm... probably on purpose he prayed as follows:

Hananim Aboji,  하나님 아버지

Dear Father in Heaven

Um shik er zhu shyo so kamsaderimnida  음식을 주셔서 감사드립니다

We're thankful for this food

Um shik er  /  chuk bok hey zhu shi op so so   /   kamsaderimnida 

음식을  /  축복해 주시옵소서 /  감사드립니다

This food    /   please bless    / thank you   (this is not a complete sentence, but it's what he said)

Jesucerisido eh irumero Kidoderimnida Amen.

예수 그리스도 의 기도드립니다 아멘

In the name of Jesus Christ Amen. 

It's funny because, you can either thank god for things or ask him to bless things.... I'm not good enough to know how to say we're thankful for and please bless _blank_. But he said it.... it was so bad haha. and right before gym time haha.

When we start a hymn, whoever chooses the hymn says, "1 2 3, start!"

Well, Elder Flinders was starting the hymn and said, "hana, dul, set, ka jok! / 하나,들,샛, 가족!"

He was supposed to say Shi jak 시작 which means start but "ka jok 가족"  means family!

1...2...3........Start!  <---  He was supposed to say.

1....2.....3.... Family!  <---  What he said.

hahahaha

Anyway. My companion is really british. He played the oboe for a choir number the other day. He was really good. It was a short notice thing, he just went up and said, "I see that you have an oboe line on the music, Can I play that?" .... so the day of, he played it for a member of the seventy on the tuesday devotional. I was singing in the tenor section... I was supposed to be watching the conductor. Mtc choir is really fun and spiritual, I'm thankful for that.

Um, I love all you guys. I can't think of anything else to say but thanks for your prayers and your support in any form! I love letters, "dear elder". I love emails. I love treats! I'm especially grateful for all the funds supporting me out here.

The church is true, in Korea too, of all things, it's still true there. haha.

God loves you and I hope you see him blessing you, please give yourself to him so he can shape you to your full potential. I've tried my own way and I've tried his way.... and I got to say, his way works better....

See ya next week.

Elder Buckwalter

An yang ha sayo yoh durl boon

(for those of you who this will be driving you crazy... first one says, "hi ya'll" second says "I'm doing well")

We've learned enough of the rules and vocab to say anything we need to, that is if we can remember absolutely every lesson. I keep my notebook handy and trying to say something goes kinda like this: flip, flip, flip, flip....... "ummmm, chimley bat gesumnika?"

Basically we can get our message across, everything we say is about 50% Korean and 50% english. When it concerns specifics or vocab we don't know except in English, we have to speak Krenglish, but we try our best. It's really coming.

I know that I know more Korean than I give myself credit for, I just have to access it in the databanks of my mind. I have to have the guts to try it out in my language rather than be lazy and just speak English like I have for the past 18 years. It takes focus and hard work and a lot of energy, but I'm doing it

I just don't want to go to Korea and get hit too hard. I don't want to say, "I wish I could have worked harder in the mtc".
I know I can do it, and lately I've been understanding why it's so important and realize how soon I really am going to hit the streets of Han Guk. It's motivating me to work harder and harder and therefore I feel more and more blessings. That in turn, makes me want to work harder and harder.

Blue skies!!! Smilin at me!! :D

It's a good feeling. It used to be tiring work, but now it's fulfilling work.

yesucrisido eh, eerumero kanchungdurimnida Amen.

Weeks go by so fast!

Every day feels long and relatively the same, but every week feels like only days.

I feel like I wrote all of you just 4 days ago.

If you've seen the picture of my teacher/investigator.... he said he would commit to baptism on December 14th if he could know it was true. He's already a member of the church but, it still feels super real and so awesome.

This week has been the hardest working week I've had here yet. I think it's because I understand better what I want to do here and I realize how much ground I still have to run before I'm the missionary I want to be.

I should have been studying those scripture masteries and those key doctrines relating to lessons in PMG. If I just generally knew what each lesson was and a key scripture to use for each, I'd be so ahead right now. Seriously, I need to get those scriptures down!!! and I just wish I had experience in the field cause I'm such a greeny.

 

 

Hey, by the way, thanks you guys for the things you've said to me, the love you've shared with me and the advice you've given to me. I'm grateful for your support with the things I need and the funds and everything! I hope you guys are feeling your blessings from the Lord and I can't wait to tell you about the people in Korea who will be blessed because you guys sent me out here!

You know, the things I've learned the most in here are actually kinda weird. Like the blessings of goals and scheduling. The blessings of a healthy diet and sleep schedule. Just how to be social in general, because a lot of people I'm forced to hang out with, I normally wouldn't hang out with. I'm a lot more social than I ever have been, to types of people who I never would have thought I'd be friends with.

 

 

Honestly, I don't think I'm going to ever be the same again. I've learned how to work so hard. I sometimes wish that I could go watch a movie or take a nap, perhaps play a video game or read a fictional book. Normally, those desires would work in me and I'd probably go turn on Netflix imagining a false truth that I'd actually get back to cleaning my room after just one show. Here not only is that option non-existing, but so is the desire. Doing absolutely nothing but stare at a screen for 2 and a half hours seems like such a huge waste of time! Oh my gosh! I could have learned 50 vocab in 2 and a half hours. I could have memorized a whole lot of Korean phrases on prayer or recognizing the Holy Ghost plus good scriptures to go with those lessons in such time like that. If you gave me 2 more hours to use in my day, you bet I'd use it, holy cow! I only have 2 years out in Korea to find people who could truly use God's help in their life. My mission concerns things of eternal importance, and there is nothing I could spend my time doing right now that would be worth more than serving this mission!

 

-- Elder Buckwalter

 

Oh oh oh oh oh Wait!!.....

Elder L. Tom Perry is coming to speak to the Missionaries here this Tuesday

 

P day again! Hi fam/friends - From Elder Buckwalter MTC Provo, UT

November 1, 2013 11:31:46 AM MDT

The funniest thing that's happened this week involves our teachers. I think I've mentioned before that my teacher (Christensen Hyung Jei Nim) (형제님, Brother -  ie Brother Christensen) teaches us once a day. But we have so much time in the classroom wher we did nothing! We studied way too much last week... it got so boring. We talked to Christensen Hyung Jei Nim about it, he said, don't worry you'll get a second teacher next week and that the time in the evening where we study for three hours strait would be replaced with an evening teacher. So now we have two teachers, one in the afternoon and one after dinner. The second one is named Decker Hyung Jei Nim.

So we walk in the room to meet our new teacher, "Brother Decker" and sitting there in the chair is KIM HAN BIN (김한빈)!!!!! Our investigator. We teach him every day in flat out Korean. We didn't even know if he spoke english! We thought he was some kind of payed actor, and we were making jokes about maybe seeing a ctr ring or that he slipped an english word here or there, but no one ever expected that he'd become our teacher!!!!!!!

So Kim Han Bin is his alias as he pretends to be an investigator. We taught him all that week and now the second week he comes out of the closet as our teacher for Korean in the evenings. He served his mission in Seoul and he is imitating one of the investigators that he taught like 3 years ago. We still teach him, it's just way awkward now, because he is our teacher and our investigator.

Anyway. He says to us our first day of class, "along with me as your new teacher, you all are going to get a second investigator to teach". So along with two teachers we have two investigators starting last week. He pulls up the bio on the screen to introduce our new investigator. And just as surprising as seeing Kim Han Bin in the chair as our teacher, we see on the screen Christensen Hyung Jei Nim! 2 Whamo surprises!!! No one saw it coming. Christensen Hyung Jei Nim, our afternoon teacher, is our second progressing investigator. He pretends to be a man named Ee Dong Sun(이동선), whom he taught on his mission in the past as well.

2 teachers, 2 investigators, 2 people total.

Isss Crazy! :P

On a more spiritual sense... I want to admit that I've been struggling with my Companion. He came late because he had trouble with his Visa and he's been a bit discouraged because he thinks he's behind every body just because he missed like 3 days of class. He really isn't behind, everyone here speaks varying levels of Korean and he isn't the worst.

Well, I'd been praying about a chance where we could finally get on the same page with each other and have some solid love for the other. Our culture's are so different and he's not the touchy feely kinda guy, he's nothing like me, it's really hard. If the companionship doesn't work together and have love, the spirit can't teach. I have to be a team with him and I'll tell you how I learned that the hard way:

We were getting ready for our first lesson with our new investigator, "Ee Dong Sun". 

-Right so we'd never met him, despite his striking resemblance with our teacher Christensen Hyung Jei Nim. 

We decided that we'd stick with just, getting to know you type of stuff. Like How are you, what role has religion played in your life, do you have a copy of the Book of Mormon, have you ever been to church, and we'd simply end with a testimony of the gospel and leave it at that. That was our general plan. No script, just a general plan you know, whatever.

We walked in, and I started talking to him. I was asking him stuff but he just looked confused at me. I remembered how last week, we were very very beginner at Korean so Kim Han Bin had been really really nice and lenient. Ee Dong Sun however wasn't cutting us any breaks, he had been our teacher and he expected some semi-Korean quality to come from our lesson. Nothing I was saying was making any sense. I tried my best to pull at any Korean in my brain, I was drawing at loose straws, I couldn't think of a thing to say! Everything I muddled together sounded awful and made no sense and it just made Christensen, excuse me... Ee Dong Sun Hyung Jei Nim, more confused and it made me more discouraged. I wasn't feeling the spirit, and I was getting frustrated because I knew I had better Korean in me than I was producing at that moment. I gave up, and I just asked if I could close with a prayer. He nodded, and I said a prayer and walked out.

-Pause in the story for a second.  Look through what I wrote in the above paragraph and see if you can notice anything "Elder Bishop" Contributed to the lesson? Can you see one time where Elder Bishop did anything? No. I didn't even look at him the whole lesson through. I didn't involve him at all. The rough-draft plan we made before the lesson, I just threw out the window. I took all his parts that we agreed he would say. He worked hard on his Korean and was ready to say the things we agreed he would say, but I took them first! I didn't give him a chance to teach the investigator. I greedily took it all because I was cocky and thought that only I could speak Korean.

Christensen Hyung Jei Nim, yes as our teacher and not as Ee Dong Sun, opened the door and called us back in. We sat down, and in English he says, "Elder's, that was the worst lesson I've ever experienced. Don't ever teach like that again!"

He talked to me and said, that I needed to humble myself and work as a team with Elder Bishop. He told us to screw the Senior-companionship business and just be equals. He told us to pray together, and plan better and he told us he expected more from us next time. He told us that the next time we would meet with him, he'd give us another start at the first lesson and he'd pretend this lesson never happened. He also said that by trusting the spirit and only by the spirit, would we be able to speak clear Korean. I needed to humble myself and let the spirit teach, instead of teaching by my own knowledge and skill of the language. Elder Bishop needed to trust that giving his best effort to learn the language was enough and he needed to be more confident because the spirit would give him power.

This hurt, because I didn't even realize how I'd been treating Elder Bishop until that moment. I knew he wanted to punch me, but he didn't. I hadn't realized that if I wanted love and unity in our companionship that I actually had to do something. I needed to start being loving and serving and open to my companion.

Anyway. Our second lesson went perfect. Maybe I'll continue the story later. But by planning, and prayer, and equality and charity and faith, can success come.

Honestly, I saw Elder Bishop teach by the spirit. With the tiny amount of language he actually knows... he bore testimony stronger than I ever have, and it only came because I gave him a chance to speak and because the spirit was with us. It's not Korean that we teach in. Korean, English, Swahili... it doesn't matter. God doesn't speak to his children in any of those languages. He speaks to his children by the language of the heart and by the power of the spirit. I am called to speak that language of the spirit, not Korean. If I do my best and work hard and have faith, then I will do fine in Korea because God will pick up that bit I can't do.

There will always be a bit I can't do without him.

I bear testimony of that.

I love you all.

Elder Wesley Buckwalter 장로