First Report from the Missionary Training Center (MTC)

Sam entered the Missionary Training Center (MTC) on Wednesday, July 31. He sent his first email from the MTC on Friday, which is posted in its entirety below. Information in brackets was added by Sam's parents to clarify Mormon and missionary terminology for those who are unfamiliar with it. :)

Friday, August 2, 2013

Good day, all!

Thank you so much for your love, support, and guidance this past week, and previously! It is very comforting to feel your support as I enter this next stage of my life.

And what an experience it has been already! As I found out when I arrived here, the buildings on this campus [The Missionary Training Center] have been dedicated as sacred spaces for the edification of those preparing to serve God's children all over the world. Because of this, there is a pervasive feeling of peace and love, whether we are doing our laundry or eating our morning oatmeal, that really makes me excited to be here. When I arrived, I was shown to my room to drop off my bags, walked around briefly, ran into the wonderful Elder [Luke] Sanford [a fellow Yale student and close friend], who is already a Chinese speaking dragon, and went immediately to Korean class, which was already in full swing. Our teacher served in Korea recently, and thus far has only spoken to us in Korean. I love it! It has certainly been a challenge, but we know that we are learning this beautiful language for a sacred purpose, and thus feel incredibly excited, if a little bit nervous, to take it on.

That evening, we had a "teaching experience," wherein we rotated rooms, and as a large group worked on teaching a lesson to various practice "investigators" [people interested in learning more about the LDS church]. Elder Rosenberg (my companion) [all missionaries are assigned a companion and work together in pairs of two] and I were fairly silent for the first couple investigators, but when we came to Kae-min, a Korean investigator, we couldn't keep quiet! We needed to speak, and it was fun to see that a few other of the Korean elders chimed in as well. We all feel a great love for the Korean people, and cannot wait to begin teaching them! We then had a meeting, a tour, and returned to our residences for some much-needed unpacking. Our zone leader [a fellow missionary assigned to supervise 10-12 companionships] kindly stopped by with a bunch of snacks that we will try to avoid eating, as health conscientiousness is a big goal of ours for these next couple months. Elder Sanford, who is in our same building, also stopped by, and it was great to speak with him a bit more. We are actually running into each other fairly often, due to the proximity of our residences, classrooms, and concurrent meal times. I will certainly miss him when he takes off in a couple of weeks!

Elder Rosenberg is a superb elder, and I am very happy to be his companion. His dad is in the Air Force, so they have moved around a lot, but he comes most recently from the DC area. He is extremely intelligent, discerning, and has great leadership qualities (he was called as our first district leader last evening) [a "district" is composed of three companionships]. We enjoy many of the same things, and in particular have had a great time exercising together. He is speedy quick, which is great for me as long as I can keep up, and we had a great time on the rowing machines this morning. He will be attending BYU after his mission, planning to study mechanical engineering and business management on some im-press-ive scholarships.

We met our branch presidency [the adult leaders of our "branch," or small church congregation] last night, and had a meeting with them as a whole, as well as separate interviews with one member. They are wonderful, and refer to our branch as the "celestial branch," which means extremely high expectations. Nervewracking, but again, good. When I leave the MTC, I don't want to feel that I wasted a second that I could have been studying Korean or growing closer to our Heavenly Father. I met with President Perriton, one of our presidency members, who grew up in New Zealand, and who I immediately liked. He is obedient, wise, and very kind. He has lived in Korea for about twenty years of his life, and is an example in that regard. He reminded me a lot of President [Jeffrey R.] Holland in his discerning and loving counsel. He told me to cultivate this love for Korea, and to be a leader. I suppose that I will have to figure out what that means as I progress in the gospel, but it is certainly something to strive for. I think that we all could act more as leaders as we attempt to follow the guidance of the Spirit and act lovingly toward all that we meet. Sister Lee, the wife of another one of our presidency members, is a North Korean refugee who spent a lot of time in South Korea, and she is very cool as well.

Fridays will be our preparation days, which means service around the MTC at six am, followed by breakfast, gym and laundry time, etc. We won't be able to go to the temple for a couple weeks, but we will be excited to do so when the time comes. Today, our main goal is to prepare a lesson for an investigator that we will be teaching tonight in Korean. It will be simple, and full of errors, I am sure, but it is a great opportunity.

Korean is just plain wonderful. It is a lot of fun to speak Chinese with Luke and others, certainly, and it is like an old friend that feels comfortable, but Korean is a new chance and a new experience. Starting yesterday, all prayers are in Korean, and we are trying to do as much as possible in the language, which, frankly, is essentially none. Although our lack of proficiency is at times frustrating, we have beeen here for less than two days, and as we diligently study, the language will come. In addition, the linguistic flexibility required to attempt to communicate, especially at such an early stage, is absolutely thrilling.

I apologize for my brevity and stream-of-consciousness: I am quite a slow writer, and there is just so much to say, even from these past two days.

In conclusion, however, I love you all, and hope that all goes well. I am loving my time here, as it allows me to focus on what is important. I really want to develop an even deeper testimony of Christ and his love for all of us during my time here, and again, through study and prayer, I know that that will come.

All the best,

South Chang-no


PS, from Sam's parents: Jacob Barker, another missionary who went to high school with Sam and with Seth Warnick, posted this picture of the three of them on his blog. It was taken within a couple of hours of Sam arriving in the MTC!