For Thy Good and Experience

HELLO EVERYONE

So I guess I'll just start with the changes going on here at the MTC.

First of all, the MTC is getting  SUPER busy. All of the missionaries

who are getting off from school and set their availability for the

summer more and more every Wednesday. The cafeteria might as well be a

gauntlet at this point. And residences/classrooms are getting filled

at the same rate. But the good news is, and second of all, the new

buildings here are opening up next week and they look awesome. The

only bummer is that I don't think any of the foreign languages get to

move to the new buildings. Which really is unfair if you think about

it, the foreign language missionaries are the ones who have less of an

ephemeral stay here at the MTC. But oh well. Maybe they'll move us to

a bigger classrooms to fill out our zone. And speaking of the zone,

and third of all, they just called me to be the zone leader for the

Korean Branch for the next four weeks. I felt like I already had

enough on my plate but I guess the Lord saw it fit to afflict more

blessings towards me. I'm still adjusting to the calling but I'm

looking forward to whatever may come of it.

But as far as how my general experience at the MTC is going, it's

still good. I look forward to learning something new everyday, I'm not

even kidding. Maybe it's because I know so little about Korean and how

to properly teach that I'm grasping at whatever I can get but I really

do enjoy all the things that I'm learning in one way or another. It's

pretty easy to get stressed out or overwhelmed though, if you don't

have the right mindset. Like when I start to get anxious or fret about

things that are out of my control, it obstructs the learning and

definitely obstructs the Spirit. Here at the MTC there is a lot of

talk about the "character of Christ" and how if you boiled it all down

you would know that the Savior always "turns out" instead of "turning

in". Put more simply, every missionary should be striving to forget

about themselves and instead focusing on the work. This can be

difficult when you feel like you have worry about yourself first, fix

whatever, then deal with the work. Bzzzt. Wrong. This whole week I've

been struggling with my own stress and my own problems but I saw that

as I put that aside and put my effort towards our investigators or in

strengthening my knowledge in the gospel that the problems fix

themselves. And I know for a fact that when times do start to weigh on

you, that that's just for your experience, and for thy good. He's

stretching us to make us tools in his hands, and that's something to

take joy in. But accepting and being able to always remember that

takes some patience, which is something I'm trying to work on because

another big focus here at the MTC is becoming more like Him. Which is

really just a goal for any disciple of Christ but even more befitting

for missionaries, who wear His name everyday and teach and testify of

him full time.

Well, that's all I got this week. I hope everyone is doing well, and

thanks to everyone who writes I appreciate it!

-Elder Metcalf

MY KOREAN NAME TAG

So there's no "f" sound in Korean so when I head over there I will

thence be known as "Met-keh-puh" (Metcalf) "Jang-no" (Elder). But the

natives here just call me Metkap Jangno based on my English name tag,

but here it is:

Just a short note....and some pictures

This week has been a little wild, I've been having some companion troubles but I think it's almost completely worked through. The Lord is stretching me and making me stronger everyday and I guess he decided to stretch me a little more this week. But aside from being afflicted with blessings, it's been a pretty similar week to the last few except this week we got new missionaries! I'll attach a pictures if I can get any but they're all awesome. The natives are getting used to the missionary life so it's a bit like babysitting every now and then but they're so fun to be around that I just forget it half the time. But language is going slowly but surely as always, and I learn something new about teaching everyday. So that's me.

MTC Life Thus Far

HELLO

So as I'm writing this, it's the start of my fourth week here at the MTC, which means I have about five more weeks left here in Provo and I'm totally loving it. When it comes to the MTC it's very much a mixed review I think, people either hate it or love it. I'm in the latter group of course, but I might be biased because I need all the time I can get with respect to this language. And I don't mind the food too much either, but I will warn you that it's not gourmet. The days go by super fast, I can't even remember what I did at the end of the night. My zone is great; we just sent off a batch this morning and we're expecting the next batch starting tomorrow evening. So not a lot to complain about.

The language is going well I think. I always have a good attitude about it and I can look back now and see the increments of progress (basic sentences, verb conjugation, memorizing "Our Purpose" in Korean), but I know I can do better. This week I'm going to try my best to treat everyday like it's my last day at the MTC, and I think with that type of fire under me I'll be able to push myself even farther. 

And when it comes to teaching it's actually quite hard when I see the language as a wall. Opposed to when my companions and I really think about our investigators needs, prepare accordingly, and then worry about what to say in Korean. By the way, I would consider myself very blessed when it comes to my companions, they really know their purpose (and it doesn't hurt to add that one of them is a second gen Korean and tentatively knows what our investigator is saying when they speak Korean). But yeah, teaching isn't easy and the MTC isn't just about learning the language, it's about learning this gospel and how to better invite/help others come unto Christ. And I'm really striving to keep Christ at the forefront of my thoughts while I'm here and hopefully my entire mission. He is the reason for the season, and that season is all year, every year. 

That's all I've got for now I think, I'll let you know how it's going a week or two from now.

-Elder Metcalf

Scenes from The MTC

From Mom Metcalf: Gavin's Pday(preparation day) or his sort of day off for those of you who are unfamiliar with LDS terminology....is Mondays. I got another letter telling me of how he is doing.  He is learning slowly but surely.  He struggles with his need for perfection but says that at the end of the day he is satisfied and sleeps really well.  He is thankful for all the inquiries from home and feels your prayers and support. He made fun of me....he says I must have given his address to everyone under the sun. Out of his trio companionship, he is the only one that has gotten real letters and packages. But he is loving that also. He says that sometimes in the down time it gets boring so being able to look at his mail helps. He is learning so much every day. He realizes that although he is the one who will be speaking the words, it's actually the Holy Ghost that will be teaching through him.  Anyhow, he's in a great head space. He's loving his group and in particular his companions....Elder Seo is from Sandy, UT and is Korean himself. Although he learned the language as a child, he doesn't speak it very well.....yet.  And his other companion is Elder Dait, who is 25 and from the Philiphines and Gavin says he is goofy.  Which in his estimation is a good thing. He sent along some pictures too. Enjoy.

First Letter from the MTC

HELLO EVERYBODY!

I don't know where to start so this is going to be a bit random. So my companions are Elder Seo (yes he's Korean, but from Sandy Utah) and Elder Dait from the Philippines (spelling?) and Elder Dait has been on his mission for eight months already!! He had visa problems so it wasn't until now that he got to come here. And yes, I am learning to love my companions more and more each day, but as with any companionship we've found our weaknesses too. But I am very much looking forward to the next nine weeks (yes, nine weeks until I leave) with these guys. And the rest of my zone is awesome too! We are incredibly diverse: 3 Americans, 2 Canadians, 2 Mongolian, 1 British, and the rest are native Koreans (no time to count). It's been a blessing having all of these native speakers here too, they help out a lot with learning the language. My progress with the language so far is just the alphabet and a few key-words. So technically I can read Korean! It just takes forever to read something. And then after you sound it out, you don't know the meaning. Imagine being back in preschool and learning how to spell "cat" and "dog" while sounding it out. That's what learning Korean for the first time is like. Learning the gospel is a bit difficult too by the way, or at least learning how to teach simply. But the biggest positive here at the MTC is the Spirit, I've

felt it so much already, I can't even count. But that's all I've got for now, I'll tell you more next Monday!

Elder Metcalf

my companions, Elder Seo and Elder Dait

My zone