MTC Week 2!!!

안녕하세요!
I am going to start off this update by telling you all about my magnificent Easter Sunday! President Uchtdorf came to speak to us and I got to SHAKE HIS HAND! I can't tell you anymore about the experience because I could hardly see him through my tearing-up eyes. But it was wonderful!

Here are some good quotes:

"If you want to punch Satan in the mouth, preach the gospel."

"Only when we fear no man, can we be great missionaries."

"Overbearance is boldness without love."

To top it all off, Dallin H. Oaks was the guest speaker on Tuesday night! I can't even believe that we got three General Authorities within a week of each other!
Some notes from his talk -- Counsel For Missionaries:

- Physical Health

- Instruments in His Hands

- Prepare yourselves to Act in His Service

- Remember Who You Are (Lion King?)

- Work to Establish the Church

- Teach AND Testify

- Get Committments

- Nurturing

- "Conversion is not an event the precedes baptism but what we work on throughout our lives."

Anyway, on to more regular MTC life,
We have a new elder finally! His name is Elder Barton and he was in the MTC for a week in January but broke his arm. Now he's back and he definitely studied up. He's such a strength to our district and to his companion who much needed him :)
There's a new teacher named Sister Baek who is really into pushing us to the limit. My first one-on-one interview with her consisted of her throwing verbs and vocabulary at me and me having to put them into coherent sentences. It was stressful but I have definitely learned a ton from her.
Most of our branch is all leaving for Korea on Monday and we got 3 new Sisters yesterday. So, by next week we will have 12 people in our branch: 8 Sisters and 4 Elders. Sister Power!!
My companion's blog is: seoulsistah.weebly.com
Another Sister's blog is: sisterapriljohnson.blogspot.com
Also! There's a site called dearelder.com where you can write out an email but I actually get it the same day so.....some of you should definitely do that :)

사랑합니다!!
- Holdaway 자매

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Missionary Training Center - Week 1!!

안녕하세요! 

(anyeonghasseo) 

I don't know what's going down with my computer.....

Anyway! Hello everyone! Today is Thursday which is my P-Day here at the MTC. I am normally going to check emails around 1:30-3:00. I only get an hour though! There's so much to say! 

This week has been the longest week of my entire life which all started on Wednesday which was the longest day of my entire life. I checked in went to station after station where I got my badge, my room key, my id-card and all my other information. I had to lug all three of my heavy bags to the 4th floor of my residence hall and I had NO time to unpack before I went straight to class. It's been 8 days and I have never heard my teacher speak anything other than Korean. Luckily, I've gotten pretty good at charades so that I can guess what he's saying :) 

The first three days there were meetings after meetings after meetings. I barely had any downtime. Through all of this my companion and I had to teach 5 lessons in straight up Korean to an investigator. I have never felt more out of my comfort zone! The first lesson we taught I literally only knew how to say "Hello" "Thank You" and "God loves us." I hope she got something out of our lessons. We have really been improving though. I am now "kind of" able to teach the Restoration, The Prayer and the Holy Ghost lesson. 

I love my district! It's different than any other Korean district there has ever been, apparently. We have 5 Sisters and 1 lonely Elder. The poor guy. The Elder, Elder Matthews, is from Australia and so is another Sister. Then, my companion is Canadian. What a diverse group. We have all gotten really close and according to our branch president we are the fastest learning Korean district they have ever seen. Even our Senior missionaries agree that they never knew as much Korean as we did in their first week. 

My companion is Sister Parcells and I love her so much! We get along really well and we both even each other out. I have pictures that I'll send in a bit, when I get my camera from my room. 

My days are starting to get more regular now. I get up at 6:30, eat breakfast for 30min, then class for 3.5 hours, then lunch, then gym, then class for 4 hours, then dinner, then class for another 3.5 hours. All in all, I have about 11 hours of classtime in one day. And it's in the same classroom too. Needless to say, my brain is full to the brim by the time I hit my pillow at night. As the days go by it gets a lot easier though. 

My branch is full of a whopping 25 of the Korean speaking missionaries. Most of them are leaving in about 2 weeks so it's just going to be a measly 6 soon. Because of such small numbers I was assigned as a Sister Training Leader. They have never called someone to that position only 4 days old! I'm so honored to be able to serve in this position and it's already been such a blessing to me. 

The BYU Men's Chorus came and sang to us on Sunday and they sang O Magnum Mysterium and Baba Yetu!!!! WHICH ARE MY FAVORITES!! It was awesome and I was definitely fan-girling. I was also honored to hear from the apostle Elder Neil L. Anderson on Tuesday night and there has even been talk of Elder Holland coming this Easter Sunday! I'm so psyched! 

I love it here at the MTC. I have learned so much and I can't wait to learn even more. Next week I'll figure out how to work out my computer and I can start emailing people individually maybe :) Busy days! Busy weeks! Lovely Companion! Lovely District! Lovely Zone! 

화이팅 (fighting) 

- Holdaway 자매

O Ye That Embark in the Service of the Lord: Day One of a Great Adventure

Dad here -- Sister Holdaway made it from Maryland to the MTC with great help from her grandparents (thanks Mom & Dad!).  She was in good spirits this morning and practically giddy when I talked to her about 10 minutes before she checked in.

This is an adventure for all of us -- and an adventure in serving the Lord (which is always a fun ride).  Hang on tight with us as we spend the next 18 months vicariously serving with Kaelin Sister Holdaway and watching her grow and bless others.

In the meantime, here's photos of her saying goodbye to us at the airport (sniff, sniff) and checking in at the MTC.