A Bit Sick

If you would, please pray for Elliott this week. Thanks for your support! He loves hearing from you.  Love, Elliott's mom.

September 18, 2012

Week X + 1

Hello!

So, I'll be totally honest, I'm sick.  Like literally sick.  With a sinus infection.  And pink eye.  That was a new development last night.  A few prayers for some health would be greatly appreciated (and, I'm grateful for the prayers already in my behalf)!  This being sick thing has been an ongoing thing with everybody in our zone... so mom and dad, I might have to forgo sending a letter again today, but if I feel better and up to writing one, I'll send one.  Maybe put it in the box tomorrow?  I'll play it by ear.

This week had been a great week.  For starters, I finally figured out a really good way to learn Korean vocab.  Guess how many I got down this week (and can still remember).  I'll give you a hint, it rhymes with 210.  Yeah, it's been a pretty epic week.  And, speaking of Korean triumphs, Elder Bowman totally rocked our lesson yesterday.  I had him do most of the teaching (considering I've done most of the talking in the past), and he did super well.  A couple of grammatical mistakes, but I (and the teacher) could understand (and I was able to help out... it was a really good listening exercise!  In case it's not obvious, I'm super stoked about this.  It was a ton of fun!)

Oh, and great story involving foreign language.  Really fast, in Korean, the sentence order goes Subject-Object-Verb... or virtually any order (order signifies emphasis) as long as the verb comes last... as opposed to English (Subject-Verb-Object) or Spanish (Subject-Verb-Object).  The other day, I was trying to say a sentence in Spanish (butchering the accent, by the way.  Whoops), and I threw the verb at the end... I had to pause for a minute or two trying to figure out why that didn't sound right... it took quite a while to figure it out.  So, on the plus side, when I'm trying to say something in a foreign language, I slip into Korean grammar without realizing it.  Huzzah?

And, I ran into my home teaching companion from Eugene - Elder Jones.  He be serving in Denver, Colorado.  As a matter of fact, he's sitting at the computer across from me.  It's been fun catching up with him!  He leaves next Monday (the MTC is a different experience for everyone).  He seems pretty stoked.

As far as gospel goals go, I've restarted the Book of Mormon.  Starting from the title page.  Made it to Chapter 2 of First Nephi.  Reason why I'm doing this (this will make a lot more sense if you've had the chance to see Elder Bednar's talk, The Character of Christ - I don't know if you can though, it's an MTC Fireside... maybe it's on LDS.org?  In any event, it's super good - so much so, I saw it again this last Sunday) is because Elder Bednar suggested that if you have a question, buy a cheap paperback Book of Mormon, read it cover to cover, and mark it up pertaining to your question.  Then, after you're done, think about it, pray about it, and then write a half page summary of what you learned.  I'm sure you're dying to know what my question is... and I hate to do this, but I shan't share until AFTER I'm done with this exercise.  Mostly so I have some really good things to talk about.  Sitting on the edge of your seat, no?

Alisa, I got your Dear Elder yesterday.  A pinkaliscious themed birthday party? That will be so fun!  Take pictures!  I might have to send you a picture of my eye (totally kidding - that's actually kind of gross).  And rumor has it that Vera is growling now?  And she's taking a few steps now?  That's super exciting!

Hmmm, well, this is just weird, I have like another 10 minutes to write (This is strange for me too... I feel like I have a TON of time left), so something significant I learned this week.
I'm really loving the Book of Enos.  He sets out a really good pattern to receive revelation... and on how to better listen to the Spirit and other people.  The pattern I picked up was Ponder (he thought a lot about the words his father spake and what the Lord told him), Act (he prayed for a remission of sins - acting on what his father told him... he prayed to gain further knowledge of what the Lord promise him - so much so that his faith was strengthened), Remember (he remembered the Lord's promise that whatsoever Enos asked in faith, the Lord would grant it unto him... and everything leading up to that was based on prior conversation and revelation before), and Trust (Enos knew that the Lord could not lie... and therefore, when he was given a remission of his sins, he knew he received it; when the Lord promised that Enos would receive whatever he asked for in faith, Enos knew the Lord would grant it).  That's been serving as a great springboard for what I've been trying to do this week... to just listen and slow down.  I've really been trying to give a lot of thought to my responses this last week, and I've been giving a lot of thought about what I've been reading and hearing.  It's been nice... slight understatement.  It's been incredible.

Anyways, time's up (I had to back track a bit - the Spanish story is included in the last 10 minutes of writing).  I love you all so much!  I love hearing from you!  And learn the Korean Alphabet!

-Elder Wedam