Photos from the front line - Provo MTC - 8/27/2015

Jeremy apologizes for the lack of group emails:

"I'm making your job as blog supervisor pretty boring, I'm sure. It's just that MTC life is pretty repetitive. Although feel free to post the attached pictures if you feel so inclined. Just a quick photo shoot at the Temple the other day."

So please enjoy these photos of not-Jeremy's-face. He leaves for Korea on 9/15(!!!), and I'm sure we can look forward to many more updates from him after that.

"Four Words, One Way" - Provo MTC - 8/13/2015

Tomorrow is my halfway point in the MTC. I certainly don't hate it here or anything, but I am definitely ready to actually get to Korea, as I'm sure all of y'all are sick of hearing about my boring MTC life and want me to get to Korea as well. So I'll keep it brief.

So the words for "child", "young woman", "virgin", and a word which I'm not going to write here but which might be considered the antonym of virgin are all extremely similar in Korean. Brother Sung tried to teach our district the difference once, and our English-speaking ears couldn't pick up on any variation. So that has made for some amusing moments while trying to teach lessons. My Korean certainly is rapidly improving, though. I've finally managed to stop lapsing into Spanish while speaking, so that's fortunate. Sabey, Litster, and I have decided that each day we'll have one person in our trio speaking only Korean (aka, one person doesn't get to speak). It's rough but it helps.

That speaker to which I alluded two weeks ago who was supposedly going to be a big deal turned out to be a big deal. It was President Russell M. Nelson--for the less Mormon among you, that's basically the second highest authority on the planet in our church. Not only that, but it was his first speaking assignment he had done since becoming President of the Quorum of the Twelve (which he was set apart as the very same day I reported to the MTC, coincidentally). We in the choir sang "Be Still, My Soul" at the devotional, which was super cool.

In other news, the Korean branch has been joined by none other than the one and only JDP3 (aka Jerry Dale Perry III (aka Elder Perry)). It was really weird seeing him here--I had almost forgotten that College Station actually still exists; it's hard to remember life before the MTC.

That's all, folks.

Stay classy, my friends.

Elder Rees, goin' back in there.

P.S. I'd like to offer a mass apology for the sloppy and disjointed quality of all my emails--both the group emails and individual ones. Also, sorry if I just don't even reply to anyone's emails. We only get 60 minutes to write them, and it flies by much faster than you would think. But don't let that hold you back from writing them, because we get to print out all the emails we've gotten in the morning and read them throughout the day, so I can read them all and I do really appreciate all of them!

"One Day, Three Ways" - Provo MTC - 7/30/2015

The following are three interpretations of a typical day at the MTC:

I. As it appears on paper:

6:30  Wake up and get dressed

6:40 - 7:30  Time for exercise

8:00  Breakfast

8:30 - 9:00  Plan your day with your companion(s)

9:00 - 10:00  Study the scriptures by yourself

10:00 - 11:00  Study the scriptures with your companion(s)

11:00 - 12:50  Study Korean

12:50 - 1:35  Lunch

1:35 - 4:35  Class time with Brother Sung

4:35 - 5:35  Study Korean

5:35 - 6:20  Dinner

6:20 - 9:20  Class time with Brother Driggs

9:30 - 10:30  Go back to the dorms, wrap up the day, prepare for bed, etc.

10:30  Lights out

II. As it actually happens

6:20 - 6:30  Wake up a few minutes before the alarm; be in denial; desperately try to fall back asleep while you still can

6:30  Actually get out of bed

6:40 - 7:30  Choose one: a) Go check if gym is still closed for some mysterious sort of renovation work. It is. b) Be told the exercise field is "too wet" to play soccer. c) Play volleyball.

8:00  Enjoy some consistently delicious breakfast

8:30 - 9:00  Confirm with your companion(s) that today you will do the same thing you did and will do yesterday, the day before, and tomorrow.

9:00 - 10:00  Study the scriptures by yourself (or for some Elders in our district--not me, I swear--nap time)

10:00 - 11:00  Study the scriptures with your companion(s)

11:00 - 12:00  Study Korean

12:00 - 12:50  Try to focus while Elder Baird tells stories about his many girlfriends waiting for him back home

12:50 - 1:30  Stand in line

1:30 - 1:35  Eat lunch

1:35 - 2:00  Be taught by Brother Sung

2:00 - 4:35  Joke around with Brother Sung and listen to stories about snowboarding, tricking, Korean culture, and his friend who really should be his girlfriend

4:35 - 5:35  Study Korean

5:35 - 6:00  Stand in line

6:00 - 6:15  Stand around with your food waiting for a seat to open up in the cafeteria

6:15 - 6:20  Eat dinner

6:20 - 9:20  Class time with Brother Driggs

9:30 - 10:30  Go back to the dorms, change, work out, try to squeeze in some studying Korean

10:30 - 11:00  Lay in bed with a flashlight practicing reading Korean

11:00 - 11:30  Try to fall asleep

11:30  Fall asleep

III. As it feels

Wake up. Pray. Korean. Pray. Korean. Pray. Korean. Korean. Korean. Pray. Pray. Pray. Scriptures. Korean. Say welcome to the fresh missionaries. Korean. Korean. Scriptures. Pray. Has it only been two weeks? Korean. Korean. Pray. Korean. Pray. At least it's P-Day* tomorrow! Oh wait, it's only Monday. Korean. Korean. Pray. Why is that Nocturne still stuck in my head? Pray. Scriptures. Korean. Eat. Korean. Korean. Korean....

(*P-Day: "Preparation Day". One day a week that's basically a day off. Includes writing e-mails, doing laundry, lots of sports, and going to the temple. And occasionally naps. And occasionally naps on the temple grounds. See attached picture.)

Of course most days have something going on that will change things up, but that's basically my life these days. Well, that and flashcards. Like, flashcards on flashcards on flashcards. My flashcards have flashcards. We get $6 put on our ID cards each week to use at the MTC Bookstore and vending machines, and I've seriously spent just about all of it on flashcards.

In other news, on Sunday we watched a devotional that Elder Holland gave at the MTC years ago titled "Missionaries are Forever" (I think). It's basically been all I could think about over the past few days. I asked Brother Driggs to get me a print copy so I can read it whenever I feel the need.

By the time I'm out of here, I'm gonna have some seriously ripped quads. Our dorm is on the 4th floor of our building, our classroom is on the 3rd floor of another building, and we're always climbing up and down all the stairs (there are no elevators). Also, in all my years of doing taekwondo, I never knew that its name is a pun. It means both "way of hand and foot" and "way of great power". Also, "south" in Korean is pronounced "nam," so after I'm done with my mission (since I'm in Seoul South), I can say I've spent two years serving in 'Nam. Things I've learned about Korean. And exciting news: Brother Sung says they eat tooons of Japanese curry in Korea (which, for those of you who don't know, is my absolute number one favorite food ever). My call truly was inspired.

Our choir director told us that we're reeeeally gonna want to be singing at next week's Tuesday evening devotional, and that it's being broadcast(ed?) to every other MTC in the world. Sounds to me like some big deal's gonna be speaking. Is Elder Holland too much to hope for? I suppose I'd settle for President Monson or Uchtdorf.... (That last sentence was sarcasm. Apparently Koreans don't really get that sort of thing, so I always feel the need to explain when I use it.)

Til next week.

Stay classy, my friends.

Elder Rees, goin' back in there.

"Goin' Back In There" - Provo MTC - 7/23/2015

Mis Amigos,

Well this last week has been....something else. Our schedule is so busy everyday. The Korean is...coming. Very slowly, but surely. They had us teaching lessons entirely in Korean on our second day here. We literally just copied some sentences out of a textbook and read them (or tried to read them) to somebody. But we've improved a lot since then. The past few days we've only brought a card with a few vocab words into the lessons and done alright. Speaking of "we", I've actually got two companions here, Elder Sabey and Elder Litster (see attached picture). They're both super cool. Sabey's also going to Seoul South and Litster's going to Sydney North (speaking Korean). All the other elders in our district (three other companionships with whom we do basically everything; see other attached pictures) are going to Seoul, one sister is going to Seoul South, and the other sister is going to New York (speaking Korean). Litster is a former gymnastics national champion and Sabey was the world number 6 cup-stacker in middle school. So that's...cool. I guess. (He really is awesome, though.) Also, Litster is half Korean and grew up speaking some Korean at home, so he's already ahead of the curve, but he helps everyone out a lot. Our district is also a ton of fun and really hard working. We're basically the district that every district wishes they could be, not to brag or anything.

Our branch presidency has everyone in the branch prepare a talk in Korean for and then randomly calls on a few missionaries to give theirs. Thankfully, I didn't get chosen. One down, eight (? Nine? Seven?) more to go. Also, our branch president, President Perriton, not only is from New Zealand and therefore has a sick accent, but is also absurdly wise and insightful. Everything he says should get added to the Doctrine and Covenants.

Sabey, Litster, and I joined the MTC Choir, so that's fun. As if we weren't already busy enough. There seriously needs to be at least five more hours in the day. I've been trying really hard to make time for exercise (which is especially important considering the fact that we spend basically all day sitting in a classroom and  every meal is a) all you can eat and b) super delicious), but it's a struggle. We have two teachers, Brother Sung and Brother Driggs. Brother Sung grew up in Korea and Brother Driggs served his mission there and is now a Korean major at BYU. They're super fun. They've taught us a whole lot not only about the language but also missionary work and the Korean culture. It's getting me super excited. Apparently instead of basketball courts, the Mormon church buildings in Korea have ping pong tables. Speaking of which, if anybody is gonna be in Provo anytime in the next few weeks and just happen to be at the MTC exercise field in the morning and just happen to have brought a ping pong table with them, that'd be awesome. Seriously everybody in our district (me included, obviously) has been talking smack to one another about their ping pong skills, but for some absurd reason they don't have any here at the MTC. In other news, Sung grew up in the southernmost province of Korea and Driggs served his mission in Daejong, which is also in the south, so apparently up in Seoul they'll speak an entirely different dialect from the one we're learning right now. That won't exactly make things easier, but I'll survive I'm sure.

All in all, working super hard, having a ton of fun.

Stay classy, real world.

Elder Rees, goin' back in there.