March 24, 2009

Well hello again. Let me tell you, time flies when you're serving the Lord! I'm now on my fifth week (by the MTC calendar, which is not exactly a normal measurement of time).

So, I don't have addresses for Karina or Tim. Someone needs to send them to me. I'd prefer a letter from each of them with a return address on it :).

Um, I think I missed Matt being there to help with this, but could someone make sure Grandpa Ogilvie knows how to get onto the blog. I meant to teach him the day before I went into the MTC, but he'd just gotten a tooth pulled and wasn't exactly perfectly coherent. Then Kyle happened and that went out the window :P.

Um, is someone making sure Grandma and Grandpa Warriner stay caught up. I don't care how you do it(phone, snail mail, carrier pidgeon or smoke signals), just be sure they get the content of these letters.

So the week has been pretty busy. Right after the last email I wrote to you we had the priveledge of hearing from Elder L. Tom Perry. He spoke about companionships and the blessings we receive from them. He talked about his mission companion and how they had both agreed to join the navy after their missions. The funny thing is that they each individually took a look at the bell-bottoms the navy wore at the time and ran straight to the marines. They ended up in the same -insert marine lingo for "district" here- so they were together for either Church or marine service for over 3 years. Pretty cool.

We got to see the Draper Temple dedication on Sunday here at the MTC. Yes, Chalene, it WAS a Utah thing. In the broadcast they mentioned that it was done all throughout the state. It was neat. I hadn't been to a temple dedication broadcast in maybe 10 years. Probably not quite, but it was fun to see through a new set of eyeballs.

I lost my pencil. This sounds trite, but you don't understand. I've had that pencil, and it's the only pencil I've used, since 7th Grade. I lost it sometime between Relief Society and the Temple Dedication on Sunday. I almost cried. I suppose I'm back to #3 pencils for the rest of my mission--unless I find a really cool pencil in Korea. That's okay--#3 pencils remind me of Dad, and I like that.

Um, as soon as there's real news about hte North Korean "satellite" I'd appreciate a dearelder about it. Elder Romero thinks his family will beat mine in up-to-dateness. Obviously he doesn't know the power of the 6 geeks :). I assume there won't be anything new until April 1st-ish.

So, I heard a really good analogy the other day. Sister Hadden said that switching from English to Korean was like switching from Windows to Mac. You've been so involved in chaos that when order comes into your life you don't know what to do with it, but you figure it out because it ACTUALLY makes sense. Korean is a very organized language. My left brain really likes it :).

:) is the newest from of puctuation. Look for it in all the new grammar books.

So, I heard about Karina getting the job in Chandler. Yay you! Congratulations! Mom says you're excited to get a new bow...I hope that's not all that's making you excited--haha. I'm glad you have a job lined up though. That makes things a lot less stressful given the way the economy is going right now.

I ran into Grandpa Robison in the temple this morning. It was delightful to see him. It made my day! It's so nice to see people you know and love! Such a blessed happenstance.

Ashley receives honorable mention for being the first person not related to me--or potentially related to me-- to to write me a letter. Carrie wins the runner-up position. I loved hearing from you both. Friends always in my heart.

Wow, I reached the end of my random list of things to say and still have 10 minutes on this thing. Get ready for a very random paragraph. Here goes:

Um...cafeteria...I've never seen people drink so much in my entire life. Seriously, people come back to the table with 8-10 glasses of various liquids. Even I have taken to getting three glasses: water, milk and either another water or juice. There are many, many choices of what to drink, though, so I suppose it can't be helped. The only problem is that they are more sugar than liquid. Oh well. Besides, the heating systems in these buildings are positively archaic and they made it dryer than the Mojave in here. Everyone is dehydrated and has sandpaper hands. Such is life.

Okay, I'm all out of randomness. Have a wonderful day! Love to all!

~R~