Sunday, February 10, 2013

Happy New Year!

Look at that big jerk... Ruined my life, and for what?! A stupid kid! Because of you I am now stuck here in this frozen wasteland!
Waste land? I think you mean WONDERLAND! I mean how about all this fabulous snow, huh? Oh, and wait til you see the local village, cutest thing in the world! I haven't even mentioned all the free yaks milk!
Wait... what did you say?
Uh, the yaks milk! Milk from a yak isnt exactly a picnic, but once you pick the hairs out, it's very nutritious!

Well Happy New Year everybody!! Happy Sonlar and New Years Blessings Many Receive please! That's the literal word for word translation by the way :) And I picked this one because it's kinda cold here in my new area. In fact quite frigid. We traveled to and stayed in Seoul for three days so we could make it to the mission conference/celebration. Which was incredibly fun, we had an absolutley fabulous time and ate deuk-guk. Rice cake soup, traditional for new years.... SOoooo good ^^ But yeah, we travel back, get to our house. Now, we're really high up in our building. And the area's in the mountains. And it is winter time. And it is really cold. And when we got to our house.... The water heater was frozen solid ^^ Happy New Years gift for us... You thing coal is bad to receive for Christmas? Try this one. The house was down to about nine degrees C, and... Well that right there should about cover any and all explanation needed. We finally got it fixed earlier this morning, and man... Don't think I was ever so happy to see the thermostat hit just 15 degrees ^^ Heh. Also fun little thing that happened. Everyone went out of town this week. Almost everyone. So, Saturday, during the conference, I get a call from the branch president. Asks if I can give a talk. I'm thinking of all the travel time we have to get back to our area, and I think, yes, I can do that. Two hours later, he calls again. Do I play the piano? ... I can try the right hand. Great! Here are the four we'd like you to play tomorrow, can you do that? ... My mind is racing, don't know if I'll even have time to get to a piano to practice this stuff once, but yeah, sure I can try. Ah, thanks so much... Hour later, he calls again. I look down at the phone, see who it is, kind of brace myself, and sure enough, ten minutes later I'm also teaching the Elders Quorum... heh ^^ It was quite the fun time. I hesitate to put it this way, but 'luckily' no one was able to make it for Elder's quorum ^^ Too much of a good thing, you know ^^

One of the things that impressed me has been the study of the the book of Alma (in the Book of Mormon) There was one word that stood out to me in the first chapter.Twentyninth verse. It begins, "And now, because of the steadiness ot the church, they became exceedingly [blessed]..." I want to point out to you the word 'steadiness.' I want to first point out what it does NOT say. It did not say righteousness, though that is implied. It did not say perfection, though the fact that they were striving toward that is unquestionable. It says steadiness. This word to me means diligence, it means constant and consistent perserverence. When I one time gave a few words about diligence, I had brought in the story of the tortoise and the hare. I went over the story, then compared the opposing sides of their personalities. Fast, slow. Arrogant, humble. Hair, no hair(yes that actually makes a difference). And we all realized though, that the only attribute that made the difference is truely steadiness, diligence. I think we all can learn this lesson ourselves, to not worry about the speed that we're at and if we're slower or even faster than other people. Choosing to be righteous for one day is fantastic! But if the next day we just go back to where we were before, that effort was wasted. Every day, do a little bit. And then the next day do a little bit more than the little bit you did the day before. It makes a difference.

Love you all!
새해 복 많이 받으세요!
Good Luck, God Bless, and God Speed!
Elder Annen

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