Letter from Elder Rife~March 29, 2011

Hey!! I'm alive.

Wow. What a week. They say the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days. Definitely true. This week has been crazy. Study study study. Everything is going well though so far. I haven't gotten too homesick or anything. It's been hard at times as I was expecting it to be. Especially being so close to home. But I know why I'm here and I know that I'm in the right place right now. We have 30 minutes on the computers so I can't write everyone back individually. I'm gonna write more letters today though that should get home tomorrow or the next day.

First of all I just want to say thank you for all the support! I seriously am so blessed to have as many people writing me and expressing their love to me as I do. I have like triple the number of letters, DearElders, and packages of anyone here. Letters really do help me so keep the DearElders and letters coming. I'll try to write everyone back in actual letters since I don't have time to email. Also, thanks so much for putting notes in my suitcase. Wednesday night was an interesting night and it was so good to have the support and love of my family. Real quick there are just a few things that I need. A hand towel, multivitamins, protein bars from Costco, and those little flossing things. I would also love a hoodie. It has been freezing here and my thermometer says that it's 62 degrees in our room!

Anyway, I have learned so much here already. I've been reading lots of talks from the Ensign book Hillary's mom made for me. Especially since we have conference coming up this week. Anyone who writes me next week should tell me their favorite talk from conference. If any of you want to read my favorite talks from what I've been reading out of the Ensign they are all four of Elder Holland's talks in the last four conferences, Elder Rasband's "The Divine Call of a Missionary," Elder Uchtdorf's "Of Things that Matter Most," and Elder Uchtdorf's "Continue in Patience." They have all helped to me know why I am here and have helped me to get through this tough first week. I hope that you can read some of these and let the Spirit point things out that apply to you.

We had Mission Conference the other night where Sister Nally spoke and she told us how she loved Mount Timpanogos. Then she said that she and her husband bought a lot for a new house and as they were driving away she realized she had forgotten to see if they had a good view of Timp. When they went back they realized that there was a smaller, less pretty mountain standing in the way of her view of Timp. She likened this to us missionaries in that The Lord is Mount Timpanogos and some of us are letting things get in our view of Him, like homesickness and stuff like that. It really helped me to realize that I am here on the Lord's time. Not mine. So when I'm wasting time that I could be using studying Korean I am wasting the Lord's time. I want to be the best Korean speaker I can so I need to be using the Lord's time to the fullest.

We also had a meeting with President Shin on Sunday. He spoke to us about many things but at a certain point he had me stand and asked me what my full name was. I said, "Michael Lincoln Rife." Then he said, "For the next two years you aren't Michael Lincoln Rife. You are Elder Rife. You are a new person and you can decide now to be the best missionary you can be." I really like this advice. I'm not Michael right now. I'm Elder Rife and I have a purpose. To bring others unto Christ so that they can be saved. Also, at the end of district meeting President Shin asked me to pray. I did it in Korean and afterwords he told everyone in our district that they need to sound more like me. I have less of an American accent and already sound somewhat like a Korean. Kinda cool.

Korean is coming along well. It just makes sense to me. I spend more time in class helping others pronounce and remember stuff than I actually do learning. It's all kinda been a review so far but it has been good to review everything. The sentence structure is making sense to me though now I just need to memorize words and stuff. I'm supposed to meet with someone in the next day or two to see if I can go early. I'll let you know!

Well I'm about out of time now. I love you all and am so thankful for all the support that I have! I know I'm doing the Lord's work. Please continue to pray for missionaries because we definitely need it. Also, keep the letters coming! Thanks for everything.
The Church is true. I know it.

-Elder Rife

Visitor at the MTC

Aaron Paxman ran into Michael at the MTC today and texted this photo and message:

"Saw Elder Rife today. He is doing good and he has great taste in ties."

Aaron was a missionary in Daejeon with the Rifes in 2001-2003; his father-in-law is Lynn Gilbert, who is currently serving as a counselor in Michael's MTC branch presidency, and will become the Busan Mission President in July 2011.

Letter from Elder Rife~March 23, 2011

Dear Mom and Dad/Family,

I’m okay! We were told to write you a quick letter just so you know that I’m okay and alive. Today was really surreal. We jumped right into everything the second we got here. I’ll write more about the spiritual stuff on Tuesday (which is our P-day).

They have a saying here: “The weeks feel like days, and the days feel like weeks.” Today felt like a week! I know I’m doing the right thing and I have tons of support. Eleven weeks kinda seems like an eternity though.

Today it was hard for me when everyone was learning the alphabet. It will be humbling. My comp is Elder Boyer. He went to PG High. He’s really nice. I met Elder Coward too. He’s in my district and we share a room. Don’t worry about me! I’ll write more and send pics on Tuesday.

I love you!

Elder Rife

P.S. I unpacked all my stuff and my CTR ring was sitting at the bottom of my bag. I have no clue how it got there but it made me really happy.

Another MTC Report

FROM MICHAEL'S MTC BRANCH PRESIDENT (Yong-In Shin) TO DAD:

Rich,

I did interview Elder Rife last night. I can tell that he will do well. He has a companion, Elder Boyer, who is very enthusiastic Elder. I think they will get along well. I noticed that Elder Rife was helping Elder Boyer answering questions on Korean language. Elder Rife's Korean pronunciation is more like Korean way without much American accents. Their schedule is such that they will start their language training from today. I am sure you and your wife are very proud of Elder Rife, and so are your parents.

I will keep in touch as he is making progress.

Yong-In

MTC Report

Elder Rife, called and ready to serve.

FROM AN EMAIL FROM DAD:

I just got off the phone with Lynn Gilbert. Lynn is a counselor in the MTC branch presidency over the Korean missionaries. He is also the Korea Busan Mission President, effective July 1, 2011.

He said “I just needed to call you to let you know that I spent this evening with your son, Michael. You would have been so proud of him. He looked happy. He has such a presence and is dignified and self-assured. He bore a powerful testimony of the gospel. He’s going to be a great leader.”

Can you imagine how that made us feel? We have been thinking of nothing else since we turned him over to the MTC yesterday at 1 p.m. (which was harder than you’d imagine). What a joy and what a relief!

Missionary Training Center

Elder Michael Lincoln Rife before being dropped off at the MTC on Wednesday, March 23.

with Mom and Dad

with Jenny

with Dad and Mom outside the MTC

Writing to Michael in the MTC

FROM AN EMAIL FROM DAD, HOW TO WRITE MICHAEL IN THE MTC:

Dear Family,

If you wish to write Michael, you may easily do so through two different ways. First, at any time, whether he’s in the MTC or in Korea, you may write to him at his new email address, which is:

michael.rife@myldsmail.net

If you use this route, he will receive your email message on his preparation day. He is only supposed to email back to his parents, though. If he sends you a response, he will need to do so through snail mail. As you know, we will edit (to the extent deemed reasonable) his weekly parental email message and post it on his blog, which Laura so wonderfully created, which is:

http://savingseoul.blogspot.com/

The second way you may communicate with Michael, and only while he is in the MTC, is through dearelder.com.

http://www.dearelder.com/

To use dearelder.com, you will need to sign up for an account. Then, you can email Michael, and dearelder.com will print your email and put a paper copy of it in Michael’s mailbox the day you send it (if you send it in the morning). That way, he won’t need to wait for P-Day to get your message.

Each time you use dearelder.com, they will remind you that they operate based on donations, and it would be nice of you to donate. I have donated, and I will continue to donate generously for all of us. So please use their service, guilt-free, knowing that I’ve paid for the privilege.

To direct your dearelder email to Michael, you will need this information: Elder Michael Rife, MTC Box 114, (mission) KOR-SEO, (departure date) 0607.

I can tell you from personal experience that, when you’re studying hard at the MTC (or working hard in Korea), it surely feels nice to get an encouraging word from home. So I hope we will use the means available to us to support our missionary.

With love,
Rich/Dad