Week 2

Well, yet another week. It's insane how it flies by.

You remember that story Pres. Monson told about the Spanish-speaking Elder and sending him to a Japanese class? Well, you know where they send Japanese Elders when they have a hard time? Korean classes. Supposedly it's the second most difficult language taught at the MTC, the most difficult being Finnish. If I start writing in Finnish, you know what happened.

The week has been good and I've really enjoyed it. Korean is hard. There aren't any cognates so there's no correlation like there is for the latin languages. I like it, though. It IS coming, but it takes hard work.

We do a lot of sitting. Class is long and frequent. I sometimes wish that I had a little more natural padding on my bum, but such is life. The MTC cafeteria is doing its best to help me out with that situation. I now know why Tim was so excited to find the fruit loops. Every cereal stand is different, so knowing which line to stand in is definitely a plus.

We just got some missionaries going to Korea FROM Korea yesterday. It's a humbling experience to speak Korean with them. There's a long way to go.

It's funny how everything has to be run through bureaucracy here. Sis. Peterson wanted to call the BYU Asian Elders to give them some names of some Korean investigators she'd been working with before she came in and it took three days of phone call approval procedures to clear a 5 minute phone call to MISSIONARIES! Oh well such is life.

I'm doing well having a companion. I'm grateful for siblings. Sis. Peterson is an only child. Sometimes I think it's hard for her to have a shadow (or maybe she's my shadow seeing as she's a foot shorter). But she's a trooper and I'm grateful for her.

Saturday and Sunday are really fun because...we get to watch CHURCH MOVIES! WOOHOO! Seminary videos never sounded so appealing. I got to watch the Joseph Smith Movie again Sunday. It is SO good. Next time you're in SLC you should go see it downtown. Yayness.

So...Mom and Tim and Megan got facebooks. Go figure. It IS taking over the world, haha.

We watched this movie called "The District" which is a documentary on a district in Texas and their work. Who knew you'd watch reality television as a missionary.

We had Sis. Elaine Dalton as our RS teacher on Sunday. You'll be happy to know she wasn't wearing a man suit and that awful pink color was nowhere to be seen. She had a tactful green sweater on. She had some great things to say and she told us about the development of the Virtue value and gave us the insert for the YW book about it. Apparently we were some of the first people in the Church to get it, so that's cool.

I love choir here! Where else do you sing with a 5 to 1 guy to girl ratio? It's pretty cool. We're singing "Consider the Lillies" tonight for Devotional. I like it.

Mary, I heard a Chuck Norris joke from one of our teachers the other day: Chuck Norris doesn't sleep; he waits.

Things I miss:
Cocoa that doesn't taste like water. Seriously, nothing beats listening to Dad tap the bottom of the cup as the pitch rises because the Cocoa settles.

Hot cider.

The OJ is terrible here. Chalene would be upset :P.

I've been craving a tomato and cheese.

It's all food this time. That's weird.

Things I'd like for you to send:

The lyrics to Be Thou My Vision. It's always stuck in my head and I don't know the words. It's irritating.

Same with Poor Wayfaring Stranger.

As for news: I'd like to be informed just not a ton. The big things would be nice, though.

I heard about the ward boundary changes from 3 different sources: Mom, Malea and Cristy/Doug. Go figure. I'm sure everything will work out well. The Church is true everywhere.

Random Fact: Missionaries at the MTC consume 400 gallons of milk a day, which requires a dairy farm of 300 cows to produce.

It's great to hear from you all. I love you and pray for you constantly!

Love,
Rachel

P.S Use dearelder.com while I'm still at the MTC. It's free. It's same-day. It makes me happy.