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