Anyunghaseo!
How was the holiday for you all? Did you get together as a family and light some fireworks? Here at the MTC, we had special devotional where we talked a little bit about patriotism and service, and then watched the movie "17 Miracles" (the devotional was okay, but I've already seen the movie...). Afterwards, we all went outside to watch some fireworks that were being shot by a nearby concert/celebration. The trees at the MTC are pretty big, and a there were a lot of people trying to see them, so I didn't have an awesome view, but it was still nice to be outside and be a part of the festivities. They let us stay up nearly 20 minutes past our normal bedtime, which is pretty crazy.
I realized this the other day, but around a week from today, my district and everyone who came here at the same time as me are going to be the oldest group here. That's weird - we're going to know the most Korean in our entire branch!
Korean-wise I'm still learning a lot. My teacher said that at this point (around 5 weeks in), any lessons we give shouldn't have a script written out; they should just be English bullet points, so I've been working on that. It seems that because it's easier to write notes instead of a script, I have time to practice and go over what I'm going to say, so the lessons have gone smoother than I've expected. The notes I bring in are pretty detailed though, so eventually, I hope to get to a point where I can give 8-15 minutes worth of lesson with around a half-page of notes.
The MTC (or at least part of the MTC) recently made some changes in their foreign language program, and we've been challenged to memorize Joseph Smith's first vision - I think like verses 16-20ish. It's a little difficult - there's a lot of words and phrases we've never used or learned ("pillar of light," "directly," "brighter than the sun"), and written Korean is in a different form than what we've learned. Like in Japan, how polite you are when talking depends on who you're talking to. As missionaries, we've mostly learned the "high form" which means you honor whoever you're talking to (there's also a "king form," "middle form," "middle polite form," and "low form"). The first vision is in low form, because Joseph Smith is writing about himself and there's no need to be polite, so it's not something we're used to. For example, sentences end differently, and the word for "I" is different. I'm memorizing by a weird combination of memorizing the sounds and trying to memorize a few of the more common words, but it's coming along.
I've come understand how blessed me and my district are to have the teachers we have. Brother Sung is an awesome teacher - natually, his Korean is really good, but he also teaches in a a way that we can understand, and does a really good job in general. He always corrects the mistakes we make, but never in a way that feels like we've made one. It seems like Bro. Sung tells stories all the time; whether it's funny or spiritual, we all love it when he does. He's really easy-going, and I know that the whole district will miss him when we leave the MTC (a couple people have said that they hope everyone in Korea is exactly like Bro. Sung). Bro Campbell is maybe a little bit more strict - he doesn't tell as many stories, and almost never speaks in English. This is a good thing though; it forces us to listen and try to understand his Korean. Bro Campbell is also really spiritual - whatever we're talking about, Bro Campbell has a scripture that fits the situation and helps us with the discussion.
Bro Sung says that Bro Campbell has really good Korean - he says he was surprised to hear an RM with pronunciation like Bro Campbell. My district's noticed this too - we had a RM substitute for us one day, and it was really obvious that he wasn't as fluent in Korean as our other teachers. A couple weeks ago, one of the members of the branch presidency gave a talk in Korean, and we all noticed that he had an accent, which made us all really excited that we knew enough Korean to know when someone wasn't fluent (sometimes, we make fun of the other districts; part of the American accent is to pronounce the "liul," a letter with a sound that mixes an "r" and "l," with a really hard r-sound. This is especially funny when other people say the marker for plurals - the digut-gutslash-liul should sound like "duul," but people pronounce it "durr." It's really hard to focus on talks in church when all we can hear is "durr" being repeated over and over. We probably shouldn't make fun of them though; like I said, my district's been extremely blessed to be taught by Bro Sung and Bro Campbell; the others are doing what they can with what they've been taught...). When a Korean gives a talk or says a prayer though, we have a very hard time understanding. They talk really, really fast! Bro Sung says that he goes maybe 80% of his normal speed when teaching us, but I feel like he's being generous in that number. It's probably closer to like 60%.
I talked about the sickness going around at the MTC a couple weeks back, and it seems like that's settled down. We're still technically not supposed to shake hands (so I don't with the branch presidency), but it doesn't seem like people are feeling that sick anymore, so that's good. I've been feeling pretty healthy for about the past week as well, so hopefully I'll stay that way.
This last Sunday, the cafeteria was really full (the MTC wants the minimize how many people work on Sundays, so everyone eats at the same time), and so there was no space to sit with my district. I wandered over a bit, and found a seat by Elder Roylance! I finally got to actually talk with Richard, and that was fun. He says that the first couple of days have been hard, but that's probably to be expected. I see him around every one in awhile.
To Dad - I definitely should have mentioned this earlier, but could you send some photos of our family? I know I'm supposed to have some to bring to Korea, but I kept forgetting to ask in earlier emails. For some reason, a couple people in my district want to see pictures of our family too; probably something to do with seeing how Japanese everyone else looks. I was going to write about our Sunday meetings, but I'm out of time, so maybe next week? And as for my missionary scripture, I did a bit of looking around, and I think I'll go with Jacob 6:4-5. I got the scholarship-deferement thing, and I'll get to work on filling that out. Thanks!
Just one quick thought before I wrap things up: as a district leader (although I think it's almost time for me switch out with someone else), I've noticed that everyone in the district has something to contribute. There's a few people in the district that don't really get along, and so these people don't really listen closely to others. Since I've been a district leader, I've been trying especially hard not to do this; as I've tried to listen to everyone and tried not to make hasty judgements. As I do this, I've found that I can find good things about everyone. Sure people aren't perfect, but then again, neither am I. There were a few people that I was a bit apprehensive about dealing with, but as I've tried to be friendly and not dismiss them, they've responded the same way and I've learned that the apprehension I had before was never really an issue. I guess my point is - it's important to understand that everyone is different, don't judge others for how they're not like you, but appreciate them for the strengths they have that you don't.
Here's a few pictures I took: one with me and my district at the temple, one with me an Richard at them temple, and one of my room. The sun was really bright at the temple, so everyone in the pictures are squinting, but at least I have pictures this time :). Really quickly, from left to right: Sister Jackson, Sister Pope, Elder Frampton, Elder Pickard, Elder Harris, Sister Bussio, Elder Killpack, Sister Segovia, Elder Diede, Elder Stapley, Elder Redd, and me!
You'll notice that my room is tiny. The beds take up a lot of space! My bed is the one in the middle, bottom bunk. The people in my room aren't in my district, but the one on the bunk bed is Elder Stapley, the one flexing is Elder Gee, the guy in the red is Elder Demordant, and the one in blue studying is Elder Perry. We're all going to Korea, but I think everyone else is going to Seoul.
Thanks for all your support, prayers, and love!
- Luke jangno
Notes:
The fireworks they saw were from the "Stadium of Fire" show put on every year at the BYU football stadium, which is fairly close to the MTC.
RM: "returned missionary," e.g. someone who has served a mission. Here Andrew is using it to contrast the pronunciation of somebody who spent two years in Korea with that of a native speaker.
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