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.
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