Hello from the MTC! (May 31, 2013)

Anyanhaseo! (If that's how you spell and say it...)

Well, I've survived amost two whole days in the MTC! I'm still a little lost and confused (especially in my Korean class!), but it seems like everyone else is too, so I'm keeping up with the others I guess. The schedule for these first few days are pretty busy, and things seem to calm down after this weekend. Hopefully, I can concentrate a little more on my studies once I get into the MTC routine. I'm still having to worry about which classes and meetings I'm going to next, and the difference between "personal time" and "personal study time" and "study time."

The first day was pretty crazy. After I said goodbye to everyone, my host took me through some basic registration stuff (like making sure my information was correct, giving me a sweet Korean nametag, things like that), and then they threw me in Korean class. The teacher is supposed to use as little English as possible, and so it'll be confusing until we pick up some basic Korean. Once everyone got to class, he started teaching the Korean alphabet, and that was a lot easier to understand than the sentances he was trying to teach us.

The second day of class was similar to the first, except we kind of knew how to read (one Elder my class said "I've learned more in this day and a half than I have my five weeks of summer." So true!). We learned some vocab and some grammar, and it was funny to see the teacher try to teach us without using English. It eventually became a weird game of charades/pictionary, and we would try and guess the English definition of the Korean word he was saying. Our class moves pretty slow because of this, but we're just starting, so that's okay.

We're supposed to prepare and teach a lesson for an "investigator" today, and I'm pretty nervous; I don't know enough Korean yet! Luckily, we were given a book of missionary phrases in Korean, so my companion and I will probably end up mostly copying that for this lesson.

Speaking of my companion, his name is Elder Stapley, and he's from Manhatten, Kansas. I still don't know a whole lot about him, though he went to BYU and is looking into majoring ing Chemistry/Chemical Engineering. I think we're fairly similar in personality, and we haven't really had any problems yet. Oh except for that fact that he sings and wants me to join the choir with him. D:

My room is on the 4th floor of a building sort of towards the back of the MTC. The whole floor has Korean-speaking missionaries, and some of the older Elders affectionately call it "K-Town." There's 6 (!) in my room, so it's pretty crowded. Apparently, 6 to a room is pretty normal though, especially after the missionary age change. It seems like everyone in my room's been to college for about a year, so we don't have any of the younger missionaries in our room. We only have 4 desks and 4 closets, but that hasn't really been a problem so far.

In one of orientation-type meetings, one of the MTC presidency told us that we had 700 new missionaries arrive the Wednsday I did. Of those, 67 are going to Korean-speaking missions, which is one of the largest single language groups to come to the MTC at one time (they said that the Italian/Romanian missionaries had more, but that's because they get new missionaries every 9 weeks, while Korean missionaries come every 3).

Learning Korean's been my main focus so far, but I've had a few other meetings and seminars that's been more about investigators. It's been interesting; they really emphased getting to know investigators well enough to prepare a personalized lesson that the investigator will understand and relate to. We're supposed to ask about their religous background, what they already believe in, and things like that to sort of probe and figure out where they are spiritually. I hadn't realized that missionary work can involve getting really close to your investigator, so it's a good thing I've learned!

I guess to sum it all up, it's been sudden change in my lifestyle, and I'm still working on adjusting, but I think I'll like it once I get settled in. My teachers and leaders are good people, and I hope I can learn a lot from them. It's hard work, but I know the Lord will bless me and all the other missionaries here to learn and to grow into the missionaries He needs.

Love,

Changno Luke

Oh, and Dad, can you send back a list of who I need to email? I know that Mom definitely wants me to send to her, but I'm not sure what her email addresss is. Ask and see if Daniel, Lisa, Rachel, or Grandpa/Grandma want me to copy this to them. I guess for today, you can just forward this I guess. And it should be pretty obvious, but Friday is my p-day, so I'll be writing and checking emails then. Also, if anybody is curious about something or has questions, send them to me! I don't want to run out of things to type about. :D





Note: Andrew's letters are published exactly as he wrote them.  I'll add notes at the end to explain his slang, abbreviations, foreign words, or anything that might otherwise be confusing.

Anyanhaseo: Standard Korean greeting.  Means roughly "are you well?"  Usually Romanized as "anyeonghaseyo."

MTC: Missionary Training Center, a facility associated with the Brigham Young University campus in Provo, Utah where many outgoing missionaries spend two months starting to learn the language they will be speaking.  The rooms in the MTC were designed for four people to share, but due to overcrowding most rooms currently are shared by six.

"teaching investigators": "investigator" is the word commonly used to describe someone the missionaries are teaching the Gospel; that is, someone who is "investigating" the Gospel. In the MTC they role-play teaching situations with their teachers acting as "investigators."  Andrew will explain this more a few letters in.

P-day: One day a week is designated as "preparation day," when instead of attending class they have mostly free time to write letters, do laundry, etc.

Changno: Missionaries are designated as "elders;" "changno" is Korean for "elder."  Usually Romanized as "jangno."