Saying goodbye to Elder Kearl (my good friend from Chinese Camp) before he leaves!

Soda PARTY with our zone!

Saying goodbye to all the Korean Elders, love them SOSOSOOSO much!

Us deciding where we want to serve as old people. Elder Hanks: Antartica. Elder Gonzales: The Atlantic Ocean. Elder Skousen: Greenland. Me: Jerusalem...Shalom

Hey Friends and Family! 

I hope you are all doing well and have had an amazing week!

I started my week off with some interesting stuff that may or may not have failed kind of miserably!! We had our first TRC was on monday night right after I sent my last email. TRC is when you teach people who are members that speak fluent korean a lesson on any topic you choose. Are instructed NOT to speak any english to you! So my comp and I go in with the Gift of Tongues in our minds and you know what happened? Sadly not miraculous fluent understanding of korean. Our investigator told us about dream he had about prayer and a lot of other stuff, but we had no clue what he was saying so we just nodded our heads and acted like we understood, bore our testimony's, and closed with a prayer. It's super cool to be able to bear our testimonies in korean and pray. The gospel becomes so real and meaningful when you have to think about every single word that you are saying. In regards to the lesson though, I see the nod and not understanding being the pattern in the future for sure!

I am starting my fourth week of being at the MTC!!!!!!! SO CRAZY! This is officially the longest time I have ever been away from home. Mom and Dad might be feeling a little weird right now because they don't know what to do with themselves now that I have been gone;) Oh and shout out to my sister Jessica in Taiwan right now for hitting her year mark this week! She is such an amazing missionary and has the sweetest spirit. I look up to her so much and hope to be the missionary she is someday!

This week I got to sing in the Choir for the MTC. When missionaries say that choir is the one thing that can turn a ish week into a good week, they are not lying! Brother Eggett (the choir director) makes you so happy! He tells entrancing stories of his life or lives of the prophets that has the complete attention of almost 1000 missionaries. He is an incredible man and definietly will be a general authority someday. Also, music is such a relieving aspect of missionary life. As most people who know me know, I can't be in a conversation without relating what is being said to some song that I have heard. I think in the terms of music. So having choir gives me release from all the stresses I am having and just lets me be into my groove. I KNOW that the Spirit totally testifies through music and it is amazing.

My district is absolutely incredible. Each missionary adds something knew and exciting everyday. The classroom is always so SO fun and everyone is working hard and wanting to learn more korean, testify of Christ, and eat all the yummy snacks that mom sends me! So much fun in the classroom and it is a sacred place where we can feel the Holy Spirit and feel Christ's love for us more fully. Each day is different because we are studying different aspects of the gospel every single day. We study them first in english and get an understanding of them, then we go straight into korean and learn sentences and vocab that will help us give a summary and explanation of that gospel topic. It is crazy HOW MUCH there is to learn in so little time. My comp and I are especially working hard right now so we can more effectively learn the language and be able to teach in it. We have also made so super heroic district goals that are pushing us to the next level of korean. Our district eats together, walks together, prays together, and laughs together! We are all striving to achieve the principle set forth in D&C 88: 119 and apply it to our district. Being the district leader for the first three weeks was such a great opportunity and I am so grateful that I could teach lessons and encourage all the missionaries to work harder and have more conviction for the gospel. Elder Guthrie was assigned to be the new district leader on Sunday and I know that He is going to do Great!

Sunday night was one of the funnest nights in the MTC! A large part of our zone headed out to korea this morning at 3am so everyone decided to celebrate! Some of the elders had a HUGE stash of sodas in their room. Like 60 cans of soda that they had collected. They busted all of them out and everyone just laughing and drinking lots and lots of soda. Super SUPER fun. My comp versed one of the outgoing missionaries in a chugging contest, but he lost...#mormondrinkingparty #whitehandbook #hmmmIwonderifthisismissionaryappropriate. I also had another pepper, a DRY one this time! Which is like way WAY worse. Cried some and had some major heartburn for a while. Nothing a little BOM reading couldn't heal right?;) 

Not a ton to talk about this week SORRY! The life in the MTC is pretty repatitive sometimes, but korea will be much more interesting. 

The last thing I want to share is a something that I have been thinking a lot about his week. 1 Timothy 4:12 says "be an example of the believers." I was thinking how to help my district out this week with a thought that could inspire them to be better and to step of their missionary game! Cuz who doesn't need to step up their game right:) I was thinking that here at the MTC, everyone is mormon and everyone is a missionary so it can be easy to think that you are apart of some big collective. When you think this, you start losing you vision of your own individual mission and purpose. I was thinking in our Branch Council meeting and it came to me! Let us be an example TO the believers. We when do that, we separate ourselves from this collective that is a like a big black hole in the MTC and become individual missionaries of Christ's church. As we do this, we create a new collective. A righteous collective. A collective where everyone knows who they are personally, but knows that without a doubt that the person next to them is just as essential to the work as they are. This is just a simple thought, but it can have so much meaning! I hope you all will think about this a little this week and find places and situations where you are surrounded by believers, and be an example to them!

Love you all!

Elder Meeks