Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Letter from Elder Rife~May17, 2010

20 days from now I will be in Korea! Thank goodness. I'm soo excited to go. I've loved the MTC and it really is a great place but I'm definitely ready to go. Hopefully I can learn a lot more in the next 3 weeks though.

So last night we got 14 native Korean missionaries! Twelve of them are elders and 2 are sisters; 6 are going to Seoul, 4 to Daejeon, and 4 to Pusan. They are so cool. We spent about 45 minutes yesterday meeting all of them and just speaking Korean with them. I'm always surprised that I am able to understand them and communicate with them so well, but at the same time I feel like I have so much to learn. We get to spend these last three weeks with them and then when we go to Korea we go with all of them. I'm really excited to get to know them better and to practice my Korean with native Korean-speakers.

Last week's TRC went pretty well. Every Saturday right before the TRC I feel so unprepared even though we've been practicing all week for it. I always feel so inadequate. But I guess that's how a mission goes. You can never be as prepared as you need to be, but you trust in the Lord and do your best and He will compensate for what you aren't capable of. I've definitely felt of that as I've been here and I'm sure I will feel more of it when I get out into the field.

It was last Tuesday that we got to meet with Elder Neil L. Andersen. At 5:30 we went to the front lobby of the MTC and waited for him and his family to arrive. They came in and we got to meet all of them and talk to them for a while. We talked with Elder Andersen for about fifteen minutes and he asked us to tell him where we are from and where we are going to be serving. He's a really cool guy and it was awesome to get to speak with him personally without 2000 other missionaries around. He said he was just recently in Korea and that he loves it there. He asked if we had been there and I told him that I had lived there because my dad was a mission president there. His grandkids were 15 and 13 years old. We took them to dinner and talked to them about the MTC and about being missionaries. Then I got a brief update on the playoffs because both of his grandkids play basketball. We took them to the devotional and sat on the front row with them while Elder Andersen spoke. I don't have time to write what he spoke about but he talked about the merits, mercies, and grace of Christ. It was a really cool talk and I felt like I learned so much. It was awesome.

Anyway, besides that not much else happened this week. I've been studying hard and trying to learn the language better! I also found out that when I get pictures developed I can just get them put on a cd that I can send home. I can also put videos on it! So I'll send back some pictures and hopefully a video or two that can be put up here on the blog. Maybe of us speaking Korean or something.

Thanks so much for all the support! I love you all.

-Elder Rife

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