(No Subject)

Hello to you all! I hope you have had a good week.

I got over my cold this week. Coming to the MTC and realizing how many people were spending so much time together in such a confined area, I figured it was just a matter of time until I caught something. And I did last week, but I am feeling better.

I think also this week I have adjusted to being a missionary. While I was unpacking in my room when I first got here, I remember some awkward moments thinking about how I wasn't supposed to go places alone anymore, or listen to the music I'm used to listening to...and now those things are more routine.

I've noticed, though, that a lot of the things I used to define myself have gotten stripped down. We don't talk much about movies or music or even majors. Get-to-know-you questions have mostly been stripped down to "Where are you from" and "How many people do you have in your family."

I don't think the other things are bad--that's why missionaries don't do this forever. And being so concentrated on church things has, at times, felt a little odd. Sometimes it feels a bit like I'm living in a convent--a girl in my district called missions the modern Mormon version of "Get thee to a nunnery." In my conservative skirts and mary janes, singing hymns as we walk or finding myself quoting scriptures, I sometimes feel like a nun.

But on the other hand, I have gained a new appreciation for the religious devout. I have thought a lot about missionaries. And before my own mission, I would think a lot about the negative associations with missionary work that have happened over the centuries. I've heard awful stories of missionaries quashing cultures and doing well-meaning but misplaced things in the name of religion.

But as I am surrounded by goodness here, I am seeing the more positive side. Without excusing mistakes, I am seeing the love that motivates such work. Coming into this, I have had a lot of concerns that what we are doing is culturally sensitive. After this week I have more confidence in our missionary work, and I see that it really is motivated by love. None of us is perfect, but God rarely does things by himself--he does them through imprefect people, probably in order to help us all.

That's what I've been thinking about this week. That might be more interesting that what I've been doing: classes and meetings. Last night our district leader came down on our group for being disrespectiful in a class on planning, and the coordinating sister talked to the sisters in our zone about not flirting. We are working on learning the second lesson to practice in our mock "teaching appointment" this Saturday. My companion had to go pick up a prescription at the BYU health clinic down the street, and we were both excited to be able to leave the MTC campus for a half hour. We've learned how to conjugate Korean verbs into past, present, "if," and "when" forms. All is well.

Much love,

Carrie