Sorry for the delayed post- its been a crazy week!! But here is Scott's letter for this week. So so so proud of him & happy for him! FYI the eventful week at home includes my engagement & we have plans to create a life size cardboard cutout of my Scott so that he can kinda be there since he will be over in Korea. Gonna be so fun! The Elders Williams, Conover & Evans are various guys that Scott grew up with & are in the mission process as well. So so fun to see these kids be adults and representatives of Jesus Christ to the world. So proud of all of them!!!

 

Hey everybody!

So I was going to write a bunch of things in Korean, but I don't have the keyboard layout memorized yet, and for some reason or another, the computer won't let you open up the onscreen keyboard when you are on your email, so I apologize for that!

Aside from that though, this last week has been pretty great!  last tuesday, at the devotional Elder Neil L. Anderson spoke and it was a super awesome talk.  We weren't too sure who was speaking last week because usually if it's someone of less consequence than a 12 or first presidency they let you know who it is, and they hadn't made us aware of who was speaking yet, so we had a bit of a hunch that it was someone of significance.  The moment he walked in the building you could just tell he was an apostle of the Lord and his presence just invited the spirit like nobody's business.  Actually I don't think invited is the correct term, more like commanded almost.  It was a really cool experience.  It was President Monson's birthday last tuesday so Elder Anderson compiled a bunch of points that President Monson likes to make and went over them in his talk.  It wasn't the most normal of talks, but was a cool one nonetheless, and pretty appropriate considering the occasion. 

This past Sunday's fireside was a cool one too.  I can't remember the speaker's name at the moment, but he was a member of the MTC high up staff I guess (they usually speak on sundays and apostles or GAs generally come to the tuesday devotionals).  He started his talk by asking all the missionaries to say a prayer quickly of what they need to hear about at that time, and he would do his best to follow the promptings he recieved to talk about those things.  I swear this dude must have been perfectly in touch with the spirit or something because every single missionary I talked to said he covered what they had been praying about, including myself.  Afterwards, we watched this movie that was a replaying of Elder Bednar's MTC Christmas address from I'm not sure when, but I'm guessing whenever the last Christmas was that was a Sunday, because it was indeed a Sunday in the movie.  That was a really amazing talk, and I really wish I could have been here to  hear it in person.  He talked about the Character of Christ, which in simplest of terms meant to turn outward to help others, when others would turn inward.  He gave some really great examples, and if you have any means by which to try and find that talk, I would really encourage you to try to watch it.

Well it looks like it's been a pretty eventful week back home with you guys too!  I don't want to spoil anything for anyone else, but then again I do, considering you decided to wait until 3 weeks after I left to act on things *cough cough* Tony...  In all seriousness though, I'm super happy for you two, and I kind of enjoy the novelty of having a cardboard cut out of myself in existence.  That's kind of awesome, and I mandate that you keep said cardboard cutout until I get back, just so I can see me in all my glorious splendor!!! 

It's pretty sweet here whenever you go to the temple, I don't think I've gone yet without people telling me how to be a great missionary, which I'm really grateful for considering I don't really know where to begin, much less in Korean.  I'm really starting to enjoy the language.  It is incredibly tough, but even more rewarding.  You can see the gift of tongues working here in the MTC.  I'm sure in any other environment that there is not a way on this earth that I would have learned as much as I have in the past three weeks.  It's really amazing just to think about.

Elder Williams left for Boston last week, and he seemed pretty excited about it.  I was jealous to say the least, but let's be honest I don't know enough Korean to function yet, so it's definitely for the best.  Also, I'm not sure when he came in, I'm guessing it was last week, but I've been seeing Elder Conover all over the place.  Dude's not even that tall, he's like an inch and a half taller than me, and pretty much looks exactly the same.  It's pretty great haha.  I'm super excited to see Elder Evans tomorrow!!!!!!!!! I'm giving him the biggest hug ever!(elder's are allowed to hug each other, don't worry)  I'm super excited that he could make it out here, and super jealous that he'll be gone in 3 weeks.  That's okay though, he'll be well prepared in that time.

So craziest thing ever, one of my friends from school, not a missionary right now, also female, comes and volunteers for TRC on saturdays in Korean!  It's so crazy how small of a world it is that she'll be around like that!  I'm not sure how effective I'll be at teaching her though.  하영, you better not mess with me if I teach you, also I apologize if I spelled your name wrong, spelling in Korean is not one of my strong suits at this point, much less typing based on memory of the keyboard. 

We have some really great teachers here who really do a great job with the language as well as teaching us the gospel side of things. It's really cool to see how people love the mission experience so much that they feel they need to come back and teach others who will be serving as well.  It's crossed my mind to do the same when I get back, but that's a ways away.

In regards to the thermals Lindsay keeps asking about, no I do not have tops, I only have bottoms I'm pretty sure, and other fun news is that I lost my voice! isn't that just grand? haha

I love you all and look forward to hearing more from you guys!

Love Elder Clawson

 

p.s. Dear elder's are kinda awesome, but don't really work on saturday and sunday, so try and get them done earlier than that if you wish to send them and they are of an urgent nature.

3 weeks down, 101 to go!

Not only did we receive a new email this week, but Mom & I (Lindsay, aka Scott's sister) received actual hand written letters! They were addressed specifically to us, so we won't post them, but basically they detailed the adjustment from normal life to missionary life & stark differences. Also I sent him 7 greeting cards with random stickers & such. He thought that was funny, thank heaven- it was a 50/50 shot that he would think I'm ridiculous rather than sweet... He, so far, has exceeded our expectations in the communication department. We still have no pictures though. Sad.

Here is the new email-

Hey everyone!

I was going to try and write the greeting in Korean, but the computers here are kinda spaztic so I was not able to get the Korean keyboard running.  Well I'm glad to hear from you guys and how you are doing.  I've sent like 4 letters already, but I don't think I've gotten any acknoledgement that they ever got to their destinations, so I'm beginning to think either the MTC eats outgoing mail, I suck at writing addresses or something, or you guys just haven't gotten around to responding about said letters. At any rate, know that I have been writing letters, and I did not forget the rest of the world, far from it as the case may be.

It's been interesting for a while here these past few weeks.  I have no recollection whatsoever what I wrote last time, and I don't think I really have time to read over the past email, so if things seem repetitive I apologize.  For gym time we've basically played soccer primarily, as opposed to basketball, foursquare, or volleyball.  I'm pretty glad that that's the case because I'm better than most at soccer, and worse than most at basketball.  It seems like all the BYU football players, or just football players for that matter, get called to the Mandarin speaking missions which are in our districts.  They are kind of interesting to have around for sports, just because of how loud they feel sports have to be, but it's entertaining to say the least.  There's also this one dude that I'm pretty sure doesn't really belong here just based on the way he talks during sports and the vocabulary he uses, but whatever that's his issue not mine.

Part of me is kind of wishing I could have entered six weeks ago because the older districts seem like people that I may have got along with a little better, and would have done better to learn from.  Not to shoot down any of the people in my district, it's just I get kind of tired of being asked questions all the time, about something I barely understand, but being that I'm the one being asked the questions, it appears I may be doing better than most when it comes to the language, which by the way is still punching me in the face and kidneys daily.  Our teacher says our district is moving insanely fast though, especially relative to the other districts that came in at the same time as us.  We're learning things that I guess people don't really learn until they're like 8 weeks into the MTC.  That being said, our teacher has also told us that we will be learning more basic things for the next week or so.  While I have been doing well with grammar, vocab does not seem to be my strong suit.  I can't figure out a way to study it that it sticks. I've tried flashcards, quizzing, and a bunch of other things, but I can only get like 8 words a day when others are getting 20.  I guess it's just something I need to work, and since I've never really studied before I guess I need to learn how a bit.

There are some really fun people I have met here too.  There's this one elder, Elder Forbes, who is seriously one of the funniest people I've ever met.  He's not in our district, and He's going to the Taejung mission, so I guess I'll have to savor the time I have here with him.  Most of his roommates are pretty funny too.  For Bosco and Peter, there's one who knows about the Kyle Herp Derp dude, and we've been quoting it pretty constantly since we found out that each of us knew what it was.  Today we rocked a little bit of an NSYNC while we were just waiting around in there room, before we did our laundry.  It was way fun, and about the best sounding singing ever.  We pretty much deserve to be a boy band at this point.  Hit up Columbia records for us if you get a chance anyone!

NOLAN!!!

If you are reading this, I want you to write me or email me or something when you get home, so I know you got home safe and are not dead!  I had a dream and you were in it last night, and I about punched a brick wall when I woke up cause I was pretty bummed.  At any rate, Maximus requires you to apprise him of your state of living. 

Sorry for that little outburst everybody.  It had to be said. 

The temple here is pretty cool, it's massive!  There's this one staircase that seriously is the greatest thing in the whole entire world.  The way the air conditioning works, there's this huge pressure differential between the ground floor and the basement, so when you walk up or down it there's this amazing breeze that just would make you the happiest little school girl in the world, regardless of gender or age.  It's a lot better looking on the inside than the out too, but there's still things I really prefer about the Redlands temple to the Provo one.

Were still just barely getting into learning gospel stuff pretty much, but what we are learning are called the fundamentals.  It's basically what we're supposed to teach so that people can become comfortable with the church, and not afraid of us/think we have horns.  All in all it's a pretty cool experience here, but I cannot wait to get out of this tiny area and get into the country.  I Basically figured out that if you tripled the size of the MTC all the way up to the temple, it would be about the size of a space that roughly 55,000 people would occupy in Seoul.  It's pretty gnarly to think about but kinda awesome at the same time!

I look forward to hearing from people, and getting a package today!

Love,

Elder Scott Clawson

First Email!

One day a week missionaries are given a day off which is called a preparation day (P-day for short.) During this time they are expected to do laundry, shopping, WRITE TO THEIR FAMILIES, etc. There is also a lot of football/soccer/basketball/frisbee/etc. We received our first email from Elder Clawson on Tuesday. Who knew Scott's brain could ever hurt after classes?!?!

Hello everybody! On-yung Ha-se-oh for the phenetic Korean folks!

So this first week has been fun and I've learned a lot already.  The first day we got here we started learning the language and it's pretty gnarly!  For Lindsay and Mom, if you guys learned Korean and we could speak when I get back that would be way fun, however Sasha already told me that she will make some Korean speaking friends at UCI so that I can have some randoms to talk to a little bit as well cause everyone knows that it's way better to talk to random people right?  That's what a mission is about right? just kidding.  Back to the first day, we basically just got oriented and stuff getting familiar with the territory, which being here for a week I seem to know my way around a lot better.

The food is still pretty good, occasionally they have biscuits and gravy and thats probably the thing that I look for the most in the cafeteria.  The lessons are tough but we learned a whole lot in a hurry when we first got here.  I didn't know that my brain could hurt at that level.  When Dad said that it wouldn't be harder than hell week, he must not have known how gnarly Korean was, but it's okay, now that we're more into learning the gospel side of things and not learning as much Korean really, it has become a lot easier.  It's a whole lot more enjoyable when the teachers tell you stuff you can understand (During Korean instruction they basically don't speak any English).

I like my roommates and my companion, but there are obviously some things that bother me about them, but that could just be because I'm easily bothered when I'm sleepy and I'm basically always sleepy here.  6:30 to 10:30 is a tought schedule to live by but I've been adapting and getting by.  When we first had gym time, I played basketball and it was a lot of fun, and I was a lot better than I expected to be.  You shoot to play, and I played pretty much the whole time so that can be a bit of an indication for you I suppose.

Our classroom instruction teacher does a really good job! Her name is sister Judd (Judd Cha-mae-neem) and she served the the Taejung mission, which is Brother Lanier's mission so that's pretty cool!  Fun fact for ya!  Turns out I'm like the only one who was not aware that the Seoul West mission was closed so now there's just 3 missions in Korea, but from what I gather its for no lack of success in the country.  Also, people in Seoul speak the fastest Korean of all the missions, so if Mom and Lynz do learn Korean, I should be able to beat Lindsay in a speaking race, because I know she will want to have one what with her incredibly fast speech patterns.  

The toughest adjustment for me has by far been the lack of guitar in my schedule!!  Needless to say that was like the only thing I used to do, it's tough to just drop it and try and not worry about it at all, but I still get stuff popping into my head constantly throughout the day, so I guess I kinda brought it with me in a way.  Yesterday I saw a worker at the paper alteration desk, where they do laminations and shrink your patriarchal blessing and stuff, with a guitar and he could barely tune it.  It kinda hurt to see, but I had to just bare with it and keep going throughout the day.  Fun fact number 2!  Turns out I didn't need my temple clothes after all, so eventually, I'll probably be sending that back to you guys.

As far as things I would like to be sent up this way, I'd like some more gym shorts if that's at all possible.  I did in fact get the package that you guys sent me and thanks so much for everything that was in it!  Also, it would be pretty sweet if you could send up a pair of my vans just to kind of chill and hang out in for P-days, as well as for the service portion of things during the week.  I see a lot of other people wearing just kinda normal shoes, and It'd be nice to have a touch of home to wear when I can.  Also my companion ended up getting only slip on shoes, and I'm soooooooooo glad that I didn't get any, because I've never heard somebody talk about their arches hurting as much! doesn't really bother me that he does, in fact it's kind of fulfilling in that I didn't make that mistake and decided to get laced shoes! It doesn't help him though that his feet are flatter than just about anyone I've ever seen.  Mine pale in comparison to his, it's kinda gnarly.

Also some people find my vocabulary to be interesting what with the rads, and gnarlies, and neat too.  Neat I guess comes off really strange to a lot of folks but whatever, it's so fun to say right?!?!

Well I'm running out of time, and I'm sure there's a bunch more I'd like to say but alas i only have like 30 minutes.  That in mind, parentals, it'd be helpful if you used the dear elder service to send me letters before tuesday so I can know what to right about come P-day!  I'm liking it more and more here everyday, and am really growing a lot, especially in my testimony.  Hasn't been too many spiritual experiences what with the Korean overload but, they will come I promise you.  I love all you guys that read this but I'm gonna name a specific few! mom, dad, lynz, nate, bosco kevin, and sasha

love,

Elder Clawson

Our first handwritten letter from Elder Clawson. A few things to point out- look at that penmanship! If you know my brother half as well as I do you know that took effort! Second- All missionaries are issued a name tag. In Scott's case it says "Elder Clawson" with "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" beneath it in the language of his mission. He's going to learn so so so much. We all love and miss him already but are so incredibly proud at the same time.

Greetings!  My name is Nancy and I am Scott's mom. While Scott is away gallivanting about South Korea, his sister Lindsay and I will be keeping this blog for him.  Mostly it will contain his letters, emails, and pictures but I might throw my own thoughts in once in awhile and I bet Lindsay will too... 

Scott is serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Seoul, South Korea.  He entered the Missionary Training Center in Provo Utah yesterday.  This was such a bittersweet experience.  Like so many things in the church, this process is almost engineered.  We pulled up to our spot on the curb and got out of the car.  We were greeted by a delightful missionary just a few weeks Scott's senior.  I hugged and kissed my little man for the last time as did Lance.  Scott's new best friend asked him if he had his cell phone or keys or anything else that he should leave behind in his pockets.  Scott said no and he was gone...  I watched him walk away and felt like a portion of my soul was walking away with him.  He was off on a fabulous adventure, the adventure of a life time. 

He has been given strict instructions to remain safe and to be a good communicator.  Let's all keep our fingers crossed that he does just that.  =)