July 10, 2021 - Home MTC


 First week of the MTC has gone very well! My district is full of outstanding people. There are 8 of us: six Elders and two Sisters. Most of us are from Utah, but one Elder is from Florida and one is from Arizona. One of the sisters spent most of her life in Russia! My companion, Elder Patterson, is really insightful and thoughtful. We taught our first lesson together this morning, and it went turned out better than I thought it might! I'm sure it will be a different beast when we have to do it in Korean, but its working well so far. I'm excited to work with these people for the rest of these 8 weeks at the MTC.


Both my teachers are great. Brother de la Bruere has extreme ADHD, and it's actually worked to the district's benefit so far. His high energy level keeps everyone engaged, and he is more than competent with teaching Korean and missionary skills. Sister Cho is much more relaxed and confident, so the contrast between the two helps my classes feel different while still feeling productive. We only have one language tutor, and he's booked for the next two weeks, but we did have an opportunity to meet him as a district and he is wonderful. He's from Las Vegas, and while the Korean words he injects into his English sentences sound alien to me he seems really easy to work with and a joy to listen to.

We aren't getting into language study for another week, so other than providing resources for us to study in our own time we haven't touched any Korean. Personal Korean study is going well, but the real test will be a bit more than a week from now. I can, however, read the language now! Korean is one of the few Asian languages with an alphabet, so though I may have no idea what I'm saying, I can sound out Korean words!

Zoom continues to be Zoom. Theres no surprises there. While I would of course prefer to be at the MTC in person, there are some unique opportunities afforded to me as I participate in the MTC from my home. I feel incredibly blessed to be doing what I'm doing! I still am clueless about how most of the MTC will work; I've only been here for 4 days so far, after all. But I'm excited to see what the Lord has in store for me!


감사합니다!
Elder Wardle
예수 그리스도 후기 성도 교회

Location: 3148 Old Mill Cir, Cottonwood Heights, UT 84121, USA

Comments

  1. J. FichialosJuly 11, 2021 at 2:40 PM

    Thank you for sharing Joseph!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AmandaJuly 12, 2021 at 5:06 PM

    We are so impressed by your optimism!!! Way to go, Elder Wardle!! :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

December 7, 2021 - Gimje

Image
Hello once again! I may be a day later than usual, but I did not die, nor did I forget to update. This update is coming out a bit later than usual because p-day was on a Tuesday this week. I still don't have much time, so this may be a brief update, but I have some fun updates to share! This past week was the first full week where we are working exclusively in 김제 (Gimje, also pronounced (Kimje), and it has been a nice transition. We have taken on a couple of teaching friends that were previously being taught by the sisters, and we have been getting to know them! They are both sweet old ladies, and I am excited to get them progressing toward baptism.  Sacrament meeting was also very busy this week! We invited some less active members to attend, and they did! So did a high counselor and a visiting family. Our sacrament meeting room was full, and it was wonderful! I still can't understand what people are saying during the meeting, but that doesn't stop me from feeling the spir...
Read more

September 12, 2022 - ChungJu

Image
 Chuseok and a Year in Korea What a wonderful last two weeks we have had down in Korea! In some ways it's been busy, and in others more of the same, so I will try to pick out the highlights here I started off the week with an exchange with Elder Wagner. We started in the MTC together, and it was fun to reminisce, particularly as the date of the exchange was exactly one year from when we finished the MTC. We had a busy schedule of meeting potential English interests over zoom, but most of them canceled. We also met an old Muslim teaching friend for dinner. He ended up being 30 minutes late and came with 2 girls we had never seen before. It was a pretty aggressive double dating setup, with too many questions about if we could help get them American Visas, so we took the fact that they were late as an excuse to leave early ourselves for the sake of our "other appointment". I'd heard stories from other missionaries, so it was good to get that out of the way and made for a...
Read more

November 21, 2022 - Namwon

Image
 Christmas is here! I may or may not be writing this email in the last 10 minutes I have before lights out, and I will be continuing on the lean format of last week's email. Anyone with complaints, feel free to send a formal complaint. We went to Jeonju for  interviews with President . Priesthood callings are really cool, and I really respect my mission president.  A  miracle friend  of someone we are teaching suddenly attended one of our appointments, and it turned into one of the most spirit filled discussions I have had in a long time. Turns out she is  also  good friends with Branch President, and loves the light she sees in members of our church, and wants to learn more! According to me and my authority,  Christmas  began last Thursday, and so we are preparing and sharing messages to Light the World! We are also holiday multitasking, and have a huge  Branch Thanksgiving Party  this week, and we want to cook some amazing America...
Read more