Preparation Day 3/3/09

RoseE writes,

"Okay, in a rush today, they changed the rules on temple times, so we can't go in the morning anymore.* We must go last thing in the afternoon and be late for dinner, which we are, and hence late for the devotional, which we cannot be because, as mentioned previously, I am supposed to sit on the stand and pray, for which reason I am wearing a suit jacket which I found in the sisters' giveaway box and had dry-cleaned, as it fit very well and looked professional and cute.

So.

We have two new sisters: Ogelvie and Peterson. I, being from Minnesota**, can pronounce Sister Ogelvie's name correctly. I am the only one. They are both handling the MTC with much more grace than ever I did, which is good for them.

Our North-Carolina-bound roommates are leaving tomorrow. This is the second set of roommates to whom we have bid goodbye, and here we remain, still. Twenty-seven days and counting! We theorize and suspect that when the new Korean-from-Korea sisters arrive next week, they will be rooming with us, so that they will have some roommates who "speak Korean." Which we don't, really. But we try.

My district is now playing a "paper clip game," wherein if you speak English when you were supposed to be speaking Korean (which is most of the time now) you must surrender one of four paper clips you have assigned to you at the beginning of the day. Yesterday I was the only person to lose a paper clip. Tomorrow I am putting the smackdown on the others and actually calling them out when they slip up. So there.

We have not yet received our flight plans or anything like unto them, but I am fairly sure that when they arrive, there will be a rule printed in big letters that says something to the effect of 'if you were scheming to meet somebody in the airport, you can just forget about it right now, Elder/Sister.'*** We have a lot of rules like that. But we are allowed to make phone calls from the airport to our families, which is good.

Brother Thiel took each of us aside this week and had us repeat the First Vision after him so he could correct our pronunciation. When it was my turn, he had me repeat back the first line or so and then just recite the rest. He said my pronunciation was genuinely surprisingly good and that he was very impressed. (Sister Pace, the teacher down the hall, assurred me that this would happen if I read aloud from the Book of Mormon every day. So I did. And so it did. Aren't miracles handy?)

A billion billion thanks for my package! Sister Linford was really excited to have cookies that she could eat. I was just excited to have oatmeal scotchies, as they are the most delicious cookies known to man. I am very smug about my small and efficient carryon, and will be more smug when packing day comes. Everyone else will have their trains of bags and I will have . . . just my stuff. That I can run a block while carrying.#

To Bethe: I do miss Doctor Who and Avatar a lot, but there is nothing here to watch them on and no time to watch them in, and for a while I have more important things that I have to be working on. But when I get back it will be summer and I fully plan to just veg on the couch for a week and catch up on my shows, probably at peculiar hours of the night as I will be jet-lagged out of my blessed mind.

To Teancum: I laughed my head off at your letter. Yes, they have been a bit short -- I really liked hearing more from you. The more you write me, the more I can write you back and tell you some of what it will be like when you go on a mission. (It will be like wearing a suit coat all the time. Next question.)

On the lds.org chat this week, I talked to a man named Wes who was A. not crazy and B. not looking for a fight, which is a big step up from most of the chats that we get. I committed him to go to church . . . and now I'm waiting anxiously to hear back from him to see how it went. Real investigator! Yaaay!

Um, what else is news this week . . . hm . . .

I knew I should have made a list, now I can't think of stuff . . .

Oh, Grandma Rosie wrote me a letter, and I wrote her back, and then realized I had thrown away the envelope with her address on it, which was stupid of me. So I will probably write a letter to Cat and stick them both in one envelope and make her write the address on it and pop it in the mail. If I can do that before next P-Day. I find I do not correspond much between P-Days anymore.

Excuse me . . . juunbi nal. We are strongly encouraged to say "Preparation Day" isntead of "P-Day." I feel that this is a losing battle, but in the spirit of the thing we have all learned to say it in Korean and thus avoid the issue entirely. Nobody knows what we are saying in Korean anyway. Although one of the new sisters tried to say something at dinner the other day and I was like "Huh?" Because she said "moh-da" instead of "moh.-da". Um, the difference doesn't type out very well, but she missed the t-shaped glottal stop at the end of the verb stem and I just could not figure out what she meant. So I guess that's good, if I'm beginning to hear things like stops and dipthongs correctly. And can differentiate between things like "sa-da" which is "to buy" and "SSa-da" which is "to be inexpensive." My favorites are still "i-da," to be, and "i.-da," to exist. Two different verbs that sound almost exactly the same and mean almost exactly the same thing but which cannot under any circumstances be mixed up. Fun times.

Oh, and I have learned the word for "to sparkle." Pik.gaban.dja.KKada. It's a sparkly-sounding word. Just . . . trust me.

Eurm . . . oh, the printer is fixed now, so I can actually print out e-mails, which is a great convenience. Still only on Tuesdays, though.

Aaaaaaaaaaand one night this week Elder Barzee came into the classroom wobbling around like he was drunk on the half-bottle of Raspberry Disani he had in his hand. Elder Gygi tried to wrestle it away from him and calm him down, playing along. "Come on, Barzee, you've had enough . . . you know you can't handle vodka . . . just give it to Sister Hadden, she's from Russia. She can take it." He pulled the bottle away from Barzee and handed it to me. I promptly wrenched off the top and took a big swig. Both elders just stopped and stared at me. Sounding awestruck, Elder Barzee asked, "You really thought it was vodka, didn't you?"

Fun times.

Anyway, that's what I've got for you this week. Cat W., I'm writing you longhand, because I have more time to do that. And I love you all, and all that jazz, the church is true, Joseph Smith is a [] PROPHET OF GOD, and I am out of time on this computer.

RoseE"


*Missionaries at the MTC attend the temple every week on their Preparation Day. (P-Day)

** RoseE was born in Minnesota, and lived there (excepting the few years we followed Todd and the Navy around the East Coast) until she was 15.

*** Todd has plans to fly to California on the day RoseE is flying to Korea. I will just cry, so I'd better stay home and take the phone call.

# Guidance from RoseE's Great-Aunt Bethe, who knows: Only bring as much baggage as you can carry around the block at a run.