Megan's first email home:
Hello family!!!!
I made it!!! Fridays are my P-days so get excited to hear from me then. So far my experience here at the MTC has been great. It's crazy how much we are learning already. I feel like I have been here for weeks and I've only completed 2 days so far. I'll give you a run down of my time so far:
Wednesday:
I had a great time with Merry and family at breakfast. It was fun to be with all of them. And it was great to see Greg and get some froyo before being dropped off at the MTC curb. I was dropped off and this nice sister missionary who is also going to Korea, but not my same mission was the girl that helped me to get my stuff up the hill and direct me where to go. I got my name tag and keys and was ushered to my room where I dropped off my stuff. Then she took me to my classroom where the teacher, Brother Madsen, only spoke to us in Korean. It was very overwhelming and kind of stressful because they were telling us to go take this survey and I obviously couldn't understand him because I don't speak Korean, but we figured it all our eventually. AFter the survey I went back to class and we went over the alphabet by just repeating our teacher. I am in a trio. My companions are Sister Jacklin and Sister Wadsworth. They are both awesome and it has been really fun to get to know them some and starte to learn and teach with them. We all work well together and are all scared, but ready to learn Korean. there are 6 elders in our distric as well and we are all going to Daejeon on our missions. We went to a welcome meeting by the MTC president and they talked to us about being missionaries and "putting away childish things." I gave the closing prayer at the meeting. Then we had dinner at 4:15...kind of early if you ask me. But it was fine. Then we got to go back to our rooms to unpack some. There are 5 girls in my room. Sister Dixon and Sister Matsen are also going to Daejeon on their missions. Then we had a "teaching experience" which was really cool. The guy from the District (the blonde one, Elder Christensen) led the discussion and we had the experience of teaching 3 different people (actors) as a collective group. We talked about how the whole point of us as missionaries is to think of the investigators and to invite them to Christ. It is not about us or how we teach. It's about what the investigator needs and the spirit will tell you and guide you to know what to say. It was really cool. I could already feel the spirit guiding my thoughts on how to respond to different sicuations and questions by each investigator. Then we had a tour of our residence halls and got ready for bed and had lights out at 10:30.
Thursday:
We woke up and had personal study then breakfast where I saw Sister Boody (so fun!) and then we had another orientation type meeting that again talked about how our purpose is to serve the investigator and bring them to Christ. Missionary work is not about the missionary. then we went to class and were introduced to all of the different books and materials that we got from the MTC. We had gym time, which is great because it's nice to do something active after sitting in class all day. We had lunch and then we had Korean class for 3 hours. It was hard! He only spoke to us in Korean with just a few english words as hints for us to be able to answer the questions (in english). But I learned a lot and I pretty much have the alphabet down and I have some greetings and basic things about God being our Father down. We have to teach our first investigator this evening using as much Korean as we can. We are kind of nervous, but hey, the Lord sent us to do it so it's going to happen. After class we had dinner and then we had our branch meeting. We met our Branch President who is President Yost and all of the new missionaries introduce themselves and bore a brief testimony. Then they interviewd each of us and it was really great because during my interview I was reminded why I was here. He asked my why I thought the Lord sent me to Korea and I responded that I knew that there are people there that I knew before this life that I promised them and their ancestors that I would go to Korea on my mission to bring them the gospel. I feel honored to have this opportunity. We also learned about all of the rules and how Sundays work at the MTC. Then we went back to our rooms and got ready for bed and hit they hay at 10:30.
Friday:
We woke up and did service and had breakfast.Then we had personal time to study and we worked on our lesson that we are going to be teaching today. We get to go to the temple this afternoon so I am excited about that.
Everything is going really well though. I love the spirit here at the MTC and although I don't know what to do with myself sometimes because Korean is really hard, I know that I will learn it through hard work and the gift of tongues. I know that this is where I am supposed to be right now and I am just so excited to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with the people of Korea when the time comes. I hope all is going well with you guys! I love you all and really appreciate all of the love and support. Matt, have fun at prom tonght! send me pictures! you will look great I am sure. Emily!! I love and miss you so much! Thanks for your emails. I appreciate them and isn't it crazy that I'm already learning Korean?! The Lord is really helping me. Congrats on finishing another SOL. Greg and Liss, I love you both and hope school and work are going well. Jessie thanks for the letter!! Love you so much! Dad, hope blacksburg went well and I wish you were learning Korean here with me ;) Mom, thanks for all of your help in packing me up and getting me all ready. I really feel prepared and like I have everything that I need right now.
Love you all and can't wait to hear from all of you! (Dear elder is a great way to send me letters bc I can get them everyday ;);)
Love,
Sister Livingston
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