Week 9

Subject: Week 9

Hey Everyone!!

It's official: this is my last P-day in America!! I am so excited! With my stay at the MTC coming to a close, I thought it might be nice to highlight 10 of my favorite things about the MTC. Sound okay?

1. My District. They're just plain incredible!

2. The grounds. The buildings may be a trillion years old, but they keep really good care of them, and the gardening could rival Temple Square's!

3. Temple Days. Getting to go to the temple every single week has been such a blessing. Why did I never do it every week before?!

4. My Teachers. They are so awesome!

5. The Ridiculously cheap book store. No tax AND a 40% discount?! I'm in!

6. Wednesdays- ice cream from BYU creamery.

7. Making fun of all the Mandarin Speakers across the hall!

8. Having Devotionals twice a week

9. Sitting right by the window so I could watch the leaves change.

And my most favorite thing....

10. THE FOOD! ... .. 

Okay maybe not.. hehe. Actually my favorite thing has been being surrounded by literally thousands of people all desiring to be missionaries and who love the gospel! Cheesy? Yes, but so true!

These past two months have been SO much fun, I've learned more about myself, the gospel, and Korean in 8 weeks than I think I could've in a whole year at home. Crazy how that works.

So, time to highlight the events of the week. I think I'll start with the most exciting: I went to the Hospital! Don't worry, it wasn't for me, one of the Native Koreans was having chest pains Tuesday night, and the Branch Presidency asked me to go with him to 'interpret' (aka talk to the doctors) because none of his companions speak English. I think they forgot I had been released as Zone Leader on Sunday so it wasn't really my job, but I took the opportunity to leave campus and said sure! I rode in a car for the first time in 2 months.. and it was the weirdest experience ever. We got to the hospital around 9 and waited, then waited, and waited.. they finally did some ex-rays and such and I waited some more, haha. It was literally the most bizarre thing seeing normal people in normal clothes! I felt so out of place, but at the same time it was fun to get away from campus for a while. At around 12:30they came and told us they didn't find anything wrong, so they gave him some IBprofun and sent us back! My leave was short-lived, but fun nonetheless. I do have to put something in here for my cousin (you know who you are): the security guards took us to the hospital and back, and I talked to them about the security issues and such at the MTC. They said they have people try to sneak in all the time, but they "always" catch them! I had to smile, because it seems like you finally cracked the code! haha.

On Monday I had the awesome opportunity to sing at the Couples Missionary Orientation. I sang "Here Am I, Send Me". It was so great to get to share my singing with others, thanks again Shelley for sending the music to me!

Yesterday we had In-Field orientation. Everyone always talks about how much they hate it, but I actually loved it! They had us go around to different rooms and learn about using our planner, working with Ward Mission Leaders, and adjusting to the field. It really got me pumped to leave! For those of you who have seen "The District" (the LDS Reality series that followed missionaries around and filmed them teaching, every pre-missionary has to watch them), I'm excited to tell you I MET THE BLUE CHAIR MISSIONARY! For those who don't know what that means, basically there was one episode where this crazy elder made some random comment about how he wished he was a blue chair.. anyways my mission prep class always made fun of him, and it turns out he works at the MTC! It's about as close as I've ever gotten to meeting a celebrity, haha.

This week my teacher, Brother Madsen, assigned us all to study up on a Christ-like attribute and then share it with the class. My attribute was Hope, and it was so cool to be able to focus all my studying on that. I think as I go into the field, and really for all of us (no matter what stage of life we're in) to always have hope. I guess I had thought hope was to wish or to desire, but in a gospel sense it's more like trust, having perfect faith that everything is going to work out because you have a testimony that God keeps His promises. Very cool. 

This upcoming week I've decided to study about the attribute of diligence. I would love to hear from all of you about any insights or thoughts you have about it, maybe even a scripture or two! 

Well, the time comes to peace out. Next time you hear from me, I'll be halfway around the world! Whoo hoo!!

Love you all,

Elder Easton

Week 8

Subject: Week 8

Hey All,

 Looks likes I'm one week closer to heading out to the field! I am here to tell you that miracles do happen... because MY VISA CAME IN! Hallelujah! At least I think it did, I got my travel plans today!! I leave on the 30th at 6:10pm to LAX, where I get in at 7:05. I have a lay-over there until 10:10 pm, and then it's a straight shot to Sydney where I arrive at 6:10 am October 2nd! I am so excited!! It's going to be an anxious week for me, getting ready to peace out! 

 In other news, a weird thing happened last Sunday. Instead of being released as Zone Leader, they kept both Elder South and I in and called a third Zone Leader, Elder Nelson. We got to train him this week and then we'll be released on Sunday and he'll be the new trainer. I'm super glad I got an extra week in this assignment, it's been so much fun to work with everyone and even skip class a few times, haha.

 On Tuesday, a new group of Korean Natives came in. Only two of the eight speak English so it's been really fun trying to talk with them. My Korean hasn't really improved, but I'm working my hardest on it. They are such nice people and every time I talk with them it makes me excited to get out there and start teaching (er, trying to teach haha)

Wednesday marked 50 days in the mission for me (not that I'm counting or anything!) It is incredible how much time has flown by already. We got some new arrivals in the MTC, one of them being Ashley Dyer, believe it or not! I ran into her this morning in the laundry room, she's headed to Brazil! It took her a minute to remember me, but she asked how Katie was doing! She got our address and said she wants to write Kate sometime. Hopefully you'll get a letter from her soon!

Earlier this week I had the awesome opportunity to host new couple missionaries coming in! My job was kinda dumb, all I did was walk them across the parking lot from their car to the bookstore, but it was still fun to talk to them. There were some going to Missouri, some to Africa, some to Church headquarters and even a couple heading to Lyon, France (What used to be dad's mission!). Seeing all of them come in made me think of Grandma and Grandpa being missionaries and doing the same thing, and also made me imagine when mom and dad will go on their mission. It was definitely worth giving up some time to do.

Our devotionals this week were awesome. On Tuesday we had a 70 come, Elder Schwitzer, who's actually from Cottonwood Heights! I didn't recognize him or his family, but it was fun to hear about home. He talked about becoming a missionary, really striving not to just go on a mission but to live a mission, to be converted not just by going through the motions but by truly putting your heart into it. 

Which leads me to my spiritual thought for the week. My district made a goal this week to live out missions with "No Regret". That means being able to look back after two years and to really feel like we did all we could to serve the Lord. For me I realized that that means utilizing my time better, for it's not really my time but the Lord's. I've tried to consistently remind myself whenever my mind wanders or I take too long of breaks why I'm here and what I'm doing, and it really helps. I think it's important in life, too, to strive to always be your best so that you can be satisfied with how you acted. Obviously it's impossible to go through life without ANY regrets, but I think that's what makes the Atonement so beautiful- as long as we do our best, it'll take care of the rest. I have such a strong testimony of that.

I love you all and thanks for all the prayers, especially about my VISA. In just two short weeks I'll be writing you from the land down under!!

Much Love,

Elder Easton

Week 7

Subject: Week 7

G'day Mates!

It's been just another grand week in the MTC. The rain has been wonderful, it's been cool and cloudy almost everyday, which I love. Apparently last Saturday there was a pretty intense storm, we had to stay inside our buildings an extra hour or two and all sorts of things were thrown around- a few trees were torn up and some gutter pieces were lying all around. Pretty cool. 

The oldest group left on Sunday, and I'm officially in the longest-at-the-MTC group!! Kind of a weird feeling. It was really hard to say goodbye to everybody, especially since we're all going to different missions. On the bright side, one of the missionaries, Elder Judd, passed down a way sick Korean Book of Mormon to me! It's from the 70's and has pictures all over... can't really understand it, but still neat to look through. On Wednesday, we got about 33 new missionaries! The most surprising part is it was almost exactly half elders and half sisters. It's been fun to get to know them, although they're still trying to adjust to the MTC. They all seem kind of scared and anxious.. I feel like I wasn't that way when I got here, but maybe I was! Haha regardless it's been great being the oldest and having everyone look up to us, as if we know Korean (joke's on them- none of us still have a clue!). One funny thing though, they always ask us how to say EVERYTHING in Korean... at first it's fine but after a few hours of "How do you say this?" or "How do you say that?" we decided to tell them everything was pronounced like this: Cho-nun pah-bo eem-needa, which is to say "I'm an idiot". Was it the nicest? Perhaps not... but it'll be hilarious when they say it to their teacher tonight! Haha.

Speaking of Korean, I feel like I'm starting to make progress in it. We have covered all the material they teach at the MTC and for the next two weeks we just review and practice, which is nice. The trickiest part really is just memorizing. One thing that helps me that my teacher said is, "Nothing is hard, only new". I just keep reminding myself Korean isn't hard, just unlike anything I've ever done, and that's really helped me try to focus on making it known! If that makes sense.. Yeah basically just a heads up, as my Korean improves I feel like my English is getting worse and worse.. so I apologize if none of my writing makes sense! Haha.

So here's the latest news about Australia: I haven't been able to check on my visa status yet, but a batch of Mandarin speakers on our floor were called to Sydney South and none of their visas came in time, so they all got temporarily reassigned... I'll know in about a week where I'll be headed for sure, but chances are I'll be reassigned somewhere in the US! So everyone take your bets!

On Sunday I'll probably be released as Zone Leader. It'll be nice to have some time again, to be able to use my language times and actually get to bed on time, but I'm kind of sad that I won't get that opportunity to really get to know everyone anymore. Ah well! It just means I'm that much closer to heading out, right?! It still seems like yesterday I got here. The saying is SO true- "Every day feels like a week, and every week feels like a day!" Time sure flies by. 

Okay, so spiritual thought for the week: The past few days I've had a lyric from Les Mis stuck in my head: "To love another person is to see the face of God". Talk about powerful! For one of our class-times, we studied about Charity with each other. This quote I think goes perfectly with the idea of Christlike love. When you try to love others unconditionally, to even just try to see them how Heavenly Father sees them, then it brings you that much closer to our Father in Heaven, to feeling the Spirit and being spiritually in tune. Okay, I get it, it's a really big charge- to love others unconditionally- and no one's going to be able to just snap into doing something like that, but I still think it's a great idea to keep in our hearts. The more we try to forgive others, to let things go and desire to help them simply because we know God loves them and we love God- then that makes a HUGE difference. Just a thought.

Oh! Exciting news! Yesterday, we all got our Korean nametags. I was kind of worried mine would be in English (at least my name) because of where I was going, but it turns out everything is in Korean!! They're super cool, I'll take a picture of them this week and try to send them to you.

Well everyone, thanks again for your letters, gifts, and most importantly your prayers. I am loving this work and am so thankful to be a missionary! Talk to you all next week.

Keep it real,

Elder Easton

Week 6

Hello All!

Everything's the same as always. Still at the MTC, truckin away! It's exciting though knowing that by the end of the month I'll be halfway across the world!! Whoo hoo!!
On Sunday, the oldest group of Korean speakers head out to Korea and my group becomes the oldest! It feels like just yesterday I got here, and now I'm on the top of the food chain! Where did all the time go? I definitely don't feel like I know enough Korean to be the oldest, but s'all good.

Consequently, Elder Wagner got released as Zone Leader last Sunday. I was really sad, he's been such a good example and great friend to me, I'm sad I don't get to spend nearly as much time with him anymore. The new ZL with me is Elder South. He went to Yale before this and is a genius at everything, including Korean. It's been fun to get to know him better, and we work really great together. We've had some issues with travel plans for missionaries in our zone already, and we've had to spend a lot of time jumping through all the loopholes at the MTC to get the problem fixed. Seriously all the travel and international offices are good for is sending us back to the other one. It's ridiculous. 

Every Wednesday we have personal gym time, meaning we're not allowed to go to the gyms and instead have to exercise in our dorms or outside. My district has created this thing called "Nature Walks". We go out and watch all the crazy runners sprint around the buildings. Literally though I am pretty sure some of them think it's the Olympics or something... it's really funny. Anyways this week we decided to take some paper cups and fill them with water, then we waited until the runners came by and ran out to them to hand them water cups like they're in a marathon our something. It was pretty dang hilarious- some got super mad and would hit the cup into the air, some would just look so confused and others would laugh and take it. It was great to have a good laugh.

I know no one would believe it, but I started doing a workout program with my zone! Haha a girl in my district leads it, her name is Sister Seegmiller. We all call her Sister Jillian Michaels because she is fitness woman to the max! Pretty sure she's stronger than all the elders here! It's awesome. Anyways she had us do some P90X ab workouts on Tuesday and I'm pretty sure I still can't breathe without being sore. Luckily for me now my abs look like they were chiseled by Michaelangelo... not. Haha.

Yesterday Elder Wilkinson and I ate lunch with a teacher from Brisbane, Australia. He served his mission in Perth, and we basically bugged him for 45 minutes with all sorts of questions about Sydney and Australia in general. He was so nice and laid back, I hope that's how all the Australians will be! But seriously it made me so stoked to head out to Down Under. I think I forgot a little bit about how much I love Australia and how excited I am to go there, but this conversation definitely reminded me again. I am counting down the days until I go! Although I heard from another missionary that Australia's been a little difficult lately with getting visas, so we'll have to see how that turns out. Cross your fingers that mine comes in time!!

As far as Korean, this has been a big step for me this week not so much understanding it better but just feeling okay with the pace that I'm moving with it. I am certainly getting more comfortable with the language and the phrases that I do know, and it definitely helps to have native speakers right next door to my classroom to help me out. I can now teach most all the lessons in Korean without writing it all down, which is exciting!! (Even if my sentences are more simple than a kinder-gardener's, haha). I can really feel all your prayers, thank you thank you so much for them. 

This week I've really been pondering on a certain phrase we hear all the time at the MTC: "Put your whole heart into it". I guess I had never really thought about it before, but this week I've really tried applying it to my life. I think putting your whole heart into it means that you've literally done EVERYTHING you can, and that's when the Lord will take care of the rest. Have I really been doing my best, my very best with all of this? We all know I may have a particular problem with napping, so I'm proud to inform you that this missionary here has officially made it through a full day without napping during class! It's been awesome to really see the benefits of trying to put my whole heart into learning this language. Not only do I have more focus, but anytime my drive dies down I try to remind myself of that phrase and it gets me going again. Hopefully it'll last!

Well youraboon (Y'all in Korean), that's all I have to report. Just want to remind you all of the love I have for you and also the love I have for my Savior. The gospel is true and will bring us true peace and happiness if all we do is adhere to it's guidance and message. I know the Book of Mormon is true, Joseph Smith truly was and is a prophet of God, and that Heavenly Father knows and loves me. I am so thankful to be a missionary and want you all to know that I promise to put my whole heart into this work, for there's no greater blessing than serving our Heavenly Father. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!

Talk to you soon,

Elder Easton