Week 5

The Daejeon missionaries with President and Sister Shin!

Hellooooo kajoke!!! (that's how you say family in korean)

 

This has been another great week here at the MTC. I hit my one month mark tomorrow, so I've been here for 4 weeks...crazy. Just have another month to go before I get to go to korea!!!!!! I am soooooooo excited to go to Korea. I seriously can't wait. I know it will be difficult  and a lot of work but it is going to be so great. I can just feel it.

 

On Saturday we got to meet our new mission president! He and his wife were here this week for the new mission president training. They met all of the missionaries going to Daejeon on Saturday night and I LOVE HIM!!! Never before have I met such a cute, happy, smiley and kind man. He and his wife are going to be incredible mission presidents. He is President Shin (pronounced sheen) and he and his wife are from the Daejeon area of Korea, so they know the area well. He said that we are going to work hard and play hard. Since they know the area they are going to take us on cool cultural events on our p-days so I'm pumped for that! He says it is a very beautiful area and we are going to love it. His wife served a mission in Buson so she loves missionary work and is super excited for all of the missionaries, especially the sisters. We had a meeting and he talked about how the things we need to know about the korean people are that they are religious, they love food, they love to sing, polite greetings are very important, they are very diligent and hard working and they are always in a hurry (bali bali). After meeting with him he shook all of our hands (and gave us hugs) and his wife gave us hugs and they said that they would meet us in Korea! I was so happy after we met with them. My head hurt from smiling so much. I just know that this is where I am supposed to be and that I am going to love the korean people that I serve. It is going to be so great.

 

Sunday was the big world wide missionary broadcast. It was amaZING! (todd k. mack) It was so cool to be in the marriot center with 11 of the 12 apostles and soooo many missionaries and missionary presidents. Definietly a once in a lifetime thing. I was 5 rows up from being directly behind the apostles. I was sitting next to Sister Anderson. We are both wearing blue shirts (mine is light blue) and we are sitting close to the stairs in between the altos and the sopranos. I don't htink you can see a close up of me but I do think yuo can see sis anderson at one point so you can know I am standing next to her. My companions are shown though so you can look for them. The broadcast was so great and I am excited to have more member involvement because I think it will really help. This is such an awesome time to be a missionary because the Lord really is hastening his work and I think there are going to be a lot of miracles that happen with this many missionaries out in the field. I feel honored to be a part of it. President Shin talked to us again on wednesday and he told us that they are going to start having missionaries use ipads in the next year and that we are going to be changing how we communicate with people because the world is changing how we communicate with people. It will be interesting to see all that lies ahead. While I was in the marriott center, my testimony was confirmed that we are lead by a prophet and apostles and that this really is the Lord's work. So cool.

 

On tuesday we had a devotional from Janice Kapp Perry who wrote lots of the childrens songs and As Sisters in Zion. It was cool because we got to sing those songs with her and she rewrote a song to be The Sisters of Zion and its about the sisters being missionaires. We get to sing it every sunday after relief society. So sweet. She talked about how a mission sanctifies the missionary. She and her husband were way cute and funny together. Apparently his first line to her was: "Those lips look like they were meant for something better than playing the clarinet."They were in a music class together. haha and then he walked right up to her during her talk and kissed her. All of the missionaries were obviously dying. It was pretty funny.

 

Our lessons with our investigators are sometimes really good and sometimes rough, but it's all a learnign process. Our lesson with yoo song jin went super well and we talked about how he can build his foundation on christ. I have learned a lot of new grammar forms so we can go into a lesson with just vocab and an english outline and we can pretty much say what we want to say. It's incredible all that we have learned. We memorized Our Purpose and the first vision in Korean so that's also cool.

 

On Wednesday I helped to host the new missionaries, which was fun. I say Lexy, my roommate in Spain, which was way fun! She is going to France.

 

Well things are going really well and I love this work. I am super excited to go to Korea and serve the people there. Thanks for all of the love and support! I'm glad you are all doing well. Who's the best family in the United States? It's you! It's you!!!

 

Love you all!

Livingston chamae

Week 4

Megan ran into Barrett at the Temple:

Her district:

Megan and her companions with the Korean sisters:

The calendar Liss made for her:

A Plan of Salvation puzzle from the Yosts:

Hey family!!

 

This week has been another crazy week, but it still was good. We have been learning a lot of new grammar forms in Korean this week, which is exciting because that means we can make more sentences and speak more clearly during lessons. We have been memorizing Joseph Smith's first vision in Korean and we have about half of it down. It's pretty awesome. We are still teaching everyday and the lessons generally go well. We have started going into lessons with just a general lesson plan in english and then we have some words in korean so we can make sentences on the spot. It can be difficult, but it makes the lessons a lot more personal when you don't have to read off a response or question. This past Sunday was so so so good!! Sister Marriot, the 2nd counselor of the RS presidency spoke and she is such an amazing woman. She is a convert to the church and she has a strong southern accent and she is so cute. She talked about how our vulnerability and lack of skill in speaking anew language will be endearing and reach the people you are talking to, which is good to hear because it will prob be a while before I can fully express myself in Korean.  She talked about loving God in every situation you are in and the blessings of the priesthood. She also told her conversion story, which was so so sweet. She said that inspired questions were what finally helped her to act on her knowledge that the church is true. Her husband is the one that asked those questions and then they were married a year later. How tender! Also before that we watched music and the spoken word and it was a special one for fathers day. It had me tearing up a little bit. Hope yyou had a good fathers day dad and I hope you are having fun in yosemite with greg and matt!! During Sacrament meeting the Korean missionaries sang the efy medley and it was so sweet. I might have cried a little then too. I'll send you a pictur eof me with the Koreans. They are so cute. They already left to go back to korea. That night the devotional was really good. Elder Allen spoke and he showed a bunch of old church commercials and talked about the tag lines and how they applied to missionary work. it was fun.

 

On Tuesday the devotional was also great. We made our trek to the marriott center again and Elder Gay spoke. He talked about the power that we have as missionaries and that in order to receive that power we need to work in His way and be obedient to not only the rules/standards, but how to teach with the purpose in mind. As missionaries we are not meant to teach lessons, we are meant to invite people unto Christ and help them to gain that relationship. It all comes down to love. I sat next to Sister Anderson during that devotional because we are singing next to each other in the choir. It was the best. We get to sing for the huge missionary broadcast that they are having on Sunday. Supposedly the first presidency and some apostles will be there so that's pretty awesome. Maybe the camera will zoom in on us, so if you watch it, keep a look out for us! Unfortunately after the devotional I started to not feel good and after we had a district review and I got all ready for bed, I got really sick. I was one of the lucky people that either got food poisoning or a flu bug. They are still not sure because it hit a bunch of missionaries that same night/the next day. I was up pretty much the whole night being sick. The girls will underdstand when I say that it reminded me of our time in Washington...not good. All day on wednesdayI literally slept in bed. I felt bad for my companions because someone always has to be with me, but luckily since we are in a trio, they could switch out with other people and go to class while the other one stayed. They were nice to take care of me. So that was kind of unfortunate. I don't know why I've had such a hard time staying healthy at the mtc. I normally hardly ever get sick. But I am feeling a lot better now and they instigated a no hand shake policy at the mtc to hopefully stop the spread because they aren't sure if it is the flu or food poisoning. I hope it was the food. Although now I don't know what I am going to eat for the next 6 weeks because none of the food looks super appetizin gto me. Oh well. I'll be fine.

 

But yesterday I went to all of my classes and we taught twice to make up for our lesson that we missed on wednesday. The lessons went pretty well. One of them said that they would read the BoM and the other said that he would pray about Joseph Smith, so we were excited about that! Tonight we are teaching at the TRC. Last week Sister Wadsworth's sister came to the TRC so that was fun to see her. The people that volunteer at the TRC are way nice, so that was comforting for the future.

 

I am still loving missionary service! I am getting more and more excited to go to Korea and serve the people there!!! I really appreciated the love and packages that I received this week!!!

 

Greg and Liss...the calander you sent me is so cute!!! I absolutely love it! That was so sweet of you to make for me! I hope you had a happy anniversary!!

 

Mom, I got the package from you and thank you for the socks and the cute sweater! I love them! I also appreaciated the notes and passing on the wedding invites. I got the credit card so you can activate it for me now :) I also got the package from Sister Yost today and it was so so so sweet!!! Thank you so much! She sent me the cutest plan of salvation puzzle in Korean and some goodies. That was so nice of her. Thanks for slipping in the emergen-c as well.

 

Jessie, thanks for all of the delcious goodies from Russia and Estonia! I am excited to try them! I also got your postcard in the mail today. loved it.

 

Love you all!!! Hope you are having a great Summer!!

 

Love,

Livingston Chamae

Week 3

Megan and her cousin Rachel:

Megan and her friend Rachel:

Megan, Sister Jacklin, and Sister Wadsworth (her companions):

Walking to the Marriot Center:

Megan and Rachel:

Hello family!!!

 

Thanks for your emails and letters! I love hearing from you all. I'm glad that everything is going well for you and that you were protected from the crazy storms in Virginia. This has been a crazy week with lots of highs and a few lows, but luckily the highs are worth it. I was pretty sick with a cold this past week, which was no fun since you always are around other people constantly and you need to be on your a-game, but I am feeling a lot better now. On Sunday we heard from Sister Clegg on the general relief society board and she was amazing. She is such a cool and real lady. I really enjoyed her talk. She said that the most important things that we need to have as missionaries is to know our purpose, be bold and expect miracles. Something I have noticed since being set apart as a missionary is that I have a lot more confidence. It is definitely a gift of the spirit that I've received since being here and it is so helpful in that I'm not scared to participate in class or teach an investigator in Korean or to mess up. I'm really grateful for that. For devotional that night we heard from Richard HEaton and he talked about the importance of that first visit we have with investigators. It is important to make sure that you and the investigator are on the same page. You should ask them what they are expecting and their intentions with meeting with you and we shoult tell them our purpose of inviting people to come unto Christ through faith, repentance, baptism and the holy ghost. I am still enjoying my district and companions and my teachers. We do a lot of hands on demonstrations andactivities so that is really helpful. I just hope that one day I will really be able to express myself in Korean because it is still a struggle.

 

On Tuesday we madehistory by having the first ever missionary fireside in the Marriott Center at BYU. All of the missionaries from the MTC and the west campus were able to attend together. It was pretty incredible. We walked from the MTC and it was so cool because it was an endless line of missionaries either way you looked. Awesome. It's exciting to be a part of this huge wave of missionaries because it might never be like this again. The fireside was so so so so good. Elder Arnold of the seventy spoke and it was truly incredible. He testified with such power and knowledge of the truthfuklness of the gospel. He talked about how we need to work and serve so that by the end of our missions you can say that you have no regrets and that you have worked diligently. One day we will have the opportunity to give an account of our stewardship to the Savior. It was really great.

 

Right now we are teaching two progressing "investigators." (The investigators are our teachers acting as investigators). It's kind of weird to teach our investigator and then he will come in 5 minutes later as our teacher, but I think it is a really cool system because they see how we teach and can see what we need to learn more about. But our lessons with Beck jae min are going really well. We taught him about prayer last time and he committed to pray everyday!!! It was so exciting! It was one of the highs of the week because we went in there prepared with our "script" of a lesson and then when we had to answer his questions or elaborate more I was able to think of things to say to him in Korean. I was really happy after the lesson. Our other investigator is Yoo song jin and he is not progressing as well. For some reason when we go to teach him almost the same lesson as beck jae min, it just never works out as well. We try so hard, but he's not really responding so we are kind of stumped right now...but it was just disappointing to leave a lesson and feel like we didn't accomplish our purpose at all. Oh well...I'm not perfect and it's a learning process. Yesterday was a really hard day for me, but today is a new and better day. Thank you for all of your love and support. I can really feel your prayers.  

 

cho nun hangook marur saranghumnida!!! (I love Korean!!) Sometimes I have to remind myself of that :)

 

Love,

Livingston Chamae

 

p.s. there are missionaries from Korea here and they are sooooo cute! They taught us a dodgeball game at gym time and they love to hug us and try to talk to us and teach us korean words. 3 of them are going to daejeon so they could be my companions in the future. I'm excited!!!!

Week 2

Hello dear family!!!

 

Thanks so much for all of the letters and emails. They seriously are the best. Keep the dear elders coming because I love to read them at the end of the day before I go to bed. The days are super long here, but the weeks seem to go quickly. Here is what happened this week:

 

On Friday we went to the temple and it was great. I love it there. I could feel the love and excitement of people on the other side of the veil for the people that I will be teaching. It was a tender mercy to feel that. Then after p-day had ended that night we taught our first investigator in Korean...it went well given the circumstances of my companions and I not actually being able to speak Korean. We basically went in there and read off some sentences that we had and I'm not sure if the person could understand us at all, but hey we did it! On Saturday we taught Yoo Song Jin again and it was so great. We prepared really hard and tried to improve our teaching by asking him more questions and we taught him about prayer and how to pray and we got him to commit to pray to heavenly father everyday and he prayed at the end of the lesson. (btw this investigator is really an actor that is going to turn into one of our teachers eventually). After our lesson we all were literally so happy and on a spiritual high because we understood what it felt like to really have the spirit there in a lesson with us. It was a great feeling. I still am really enjoying working with my companions. They are super funny and we get along well. We help to break up the stress by laughing and remembering that we are learning. And I really enjoy my district. They are some funny guys. We're trying to get them to participate more in class, so hopefully they will.

 

Sundays are the best! It was fast Sunday so we had mission conference and the speakers were great. We talked about how God created man in his image and likeness. we both look like God and we can have the same attributes as god. We also talked about making sure that you as a missionary are converted before you can convert other people. We had testimony meeting with our zone in Korean. It was cool to hear the sacrament prayers in Korean. Then we sang in the choir, which is a cool experience. Apparently there is a big conference with all of the general authorities training new mission presidents that we get to sing at so I'm excited about that. We went on a temple walk with the district so I'll try to attach some pictures. We had a really cool devotional that night where a man basically acted out that he was Brother Richards who was joseph smith's secretary and he was in the room when the prophet was killed. it was incredible to hear that story and then sing praise to the man after. I am amazed by all of the sacrifices made by the early saints. Then we watched Legacy which was great because who doesn't love legacy?!

 

Monday felt frustrating because I just wish I could speak the language to express myself to investigators. Especially since I could think of my responses in 2 languages but neither of them were in Korean. But I received a bunch of mail that night that helped to make me feel better and I know that the language will come with more time and practice. I've already learned so much. I've learned to pray and to make basic sentences in present, past and future. I've learned how to count and I know how to read. I'm working on memorizing 5 vocab words a day becuase that's what is the hardest. Once I have vocabulary I can form sentences and say what I want and understand people.

 

Tuesday nights we have a devotional and it was way cool. Elder Callister of the Seventy came and talked about how the LDS church is the only church on the earth that matches the blueprint of Christ's church from the New Testament exactly. He gave a lot of  scriptural examples and it was cool to see how the church follow's Christ's church.

 

This week in class we've been focusing on teaching the doctrine of Christ and how that will bring someone closer to God. I really enjoy our class discussions and my teacher, Brother Madsen. He's really good at bringing the spirit to class. He still mainly talks to us in Korean, but i am learning a lot from being immersed in the language. On Thursday I saw Sister Anderson!!!! I was praying that I would get to see her because everyone's schedules are different, but I saw her when we were taking a break outside. It was so good to see her and give her a big hug. She seemed good. she seemed a little overwhelmed, but she looked happy and she is in a trio as well. Hopefully I will see her some more.

 

I'm glad that everything is going well for all of you. Again, I really appreciated the letters so keep them coming ^^ (that's a smiley face in korean) I am sooo excited to go to Korea and teach them the gospel so that they can receive all of the incredible blessings that the Lord has ready for them. I feel blessed and honored to be given that responsibility. Way to go for reading the BOM!! That's one of my favorite things here is that I have the time to really study the scriptures and think about how they apply to me and just learn more about my Savior. So keep it up! I would also recommend, especially Matthew, that you read Preach My Gospel. Presdient Packer said that PMG is a book that was put together on the other side of the veil and that prophet and apostles assembled it here on earth. It's awsome so I would recommend that.

 

I love you all so much and appreciate the love, support and prayers. You all are in my prayer as well.

 

ps I feel like my cardreader doesn't work or something because I can't attach pictures...I'll try to figure it out.

 

Love,

Livingston Chamae