E-mail dated 10/26/2010

Hey family! How is everything going!? Sounds like its goin pretty good! Thats way awesome that Steph had the chance to fly out and see you guys!! I'll bet you loved that! And thats cool that al boy got to see her as well! How sweet! So it sounds like Al has given as many talks as dumbledore at the last week of school! Thats good though! I'll bet he tears it up! Good work Bro! Thanks for those pictures you sent to me mom! They were way cool. It just pops em right up when you open the email so its pretty nice! dad looks legit like jack sparrow. And alex looks kinda like a mexican . .? Was that his goal; . .? Ok good. So this week has been pretty good! We had Elder Nelson come and speak to us last tuesday! He did awesome but it was way short of a talk. It was only like twenty minutes. He just talked about how to be a good missionary and things like that. His wife also spoke. It was pretty good. We also taught in the TRC again this week. So what we do is we teach the first lesson in english twice, and then the second lesson in english twice. And then after that we start teaching the first lesson in Korean. But right now we still have to teach the second lesson for the first time. It's really cool! This last time our "investigator" was a returned missionary guy but he was probably like 28 or so. He was way cool but he also brought his daughter so it was so distracting but at the same time it was way good for us because thats how its going to be out in the field. So it was good practice for us. We did decent on our task this week. It was a lot harder than last week for sure. And we hardly had time to work on it it seemed like in class and stuff. But we did okay. I just hate it cause some of the people there don't know they're not supposed to ramble on in Korean for like ten hours to us so sometimes they do and my companion and I dont know what to do . . . hahaha. So sometimes we just say, thank you, and hurry and run. Cause there's like a time limit and we have to move to the next room. It's so funny. But yeah, the language is coming! I mean, as good as it can come probably for only being here three weeks. We have just had so many grammar forms and what not thrown into our faces so its just hard to understand them all at once. But i'm slowly getting it. It will come with time I know! The other day my companion and I taught a lesson on hope to our district and member of the Branch Presidency. We dominated it. My companion is way good at teaching. We just kinda talked about how hope comes from having faith and we have faith by having all the Christ like attributes and all that! we did good though. Ok so I have a funny story. So the other day we were in our residence hall and we went down in the basement to get something out of the vending machines and then we went back up the stairs to go back to our room (which is on the 3rd floor) but for some reason I went in on the second floor and didn't notice and my companion and the others were with didn't stop me cause they wanted me to notice I was on the wrong floor . . . but i didn't catch it so I walked in to some random room thinking it was mine and some kid was in the middle of his prayer and I was all "ummm . . .what are you doing in my room? can I help you?" hahahaha The kid had no idea what was going on but then I looked on the room number it was room 207 and not room 307. I just looked at him and ran. It was hilarious. Poor kid. Ahh well. So yeah. Things are going good and I hope things are going good for everyone back home too! i love and miss you all a ton! Oh yeah so I guess for my plaque or whatever you can put up 1 Nephi 3:7. I always loved that scripture. Or do you not think thats a good one? I dunno. Thats the only one that I can think of right now. Well my times almost up, they only give you thirty minutes to read and write all your emails here. It's lame. Ok love you all and write back soon! The dear elder way is the best because I get them that same day. but if you wanna send pictures in an email likeyou did thats also cool and I really like it! Ok love you allll!!!!:)
Love,
Elder Grose!

E-mail dated Tue, Oct 19,2010

Here is an excerpt from his e-mail this week:

Hey it was good to get all those letters and dear elders from you guys!! It's always nice to get mail :) Thanks!! I've already taught a couple lessons and stuff in front of the District and I had to pass the sacrament in the Korean zone for Sundy last week so that was cool. It wasnt hard or anything but they are like . . . not organized . . so you never know whats going on. . . . So last night we had a Korean Elder fly in at like ten thrity and so everyone was so excited and happy to see him. The rest of them should get here today. They are sooo smll and tiny. hahaha I fell like i could pick them up and dunk them in the baskeball hoop. Ohhh guyy. So since the Elder last night that got here was alone he had to sleep in a couple of the elders in my districts room and they slept with the cooling fan on or whatever and i guess over in korea they have this weird thing about sleeping with fans on and the elder like woke up in the morning hacking up a lung so lets hope he lives past his first day here in the U. S. of A. Poor little guy. He'll be okay.
. . . Well thanks again for all the letters and stuff. I love you all and Keep writing me !! LOVE YOU!!!

First E-mail from the MTC

Almost a week after arriving in the MTC we got Andrew's first e-mail. Here are excerpts from it:

"So I've been here for almost a week now and things are going pretty good I would say! I've already been made District Leader . . Don't know why they chose a sasquatch to lead our district but alright i'll deal with it. The language is coming ok I guess. It's pretty hard but I can already pray in Korean, bear a short testimony and introduce myself and my companion. . . My companion's name is Elder Roskelly. He's a pretty cool guy! He's 25 as of like three days ago . . so.. that's a wild fact for you. He's also completely done with college and had a job in New York before he came here. He's dang smart. I'll be learning a lot from him. . . . So the food here is pretty good but i think by like week six i'll be begging for kimchi. It's like kinda the same food every week. i do however love the fact that you can eat as much of it as you want. Oh and I get like five glasses of drink to put on my tray each meal because the cups are sooo small!! . . .
My address is:
Elder Andrew Wayne Grose
MTC Mailbox #98
KOR-BUS 1213
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

Dropping off at the MTC.

See you in two years!

Getting set apart as a missionary.

Many friends and relatives came to wish Andrew good bye the night before he left. President K. Brent Keller set Andrew apart as a full time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

It was a very spiritual evening.

Going to the temple

Shortly after receiving his mission call, Andrew went to the Ogden Temple to receive his endowments. It was a sacred day with family.

We also went to several other temples over the course of the next few months.

Draper:

Salt Lake:

Logan:

San Diego:

Finally, speaking in Church.

Andrew spoke in Church three weeks before he actually left because of Fast Sunday and General Conference. After church we had people over to the house for Cafe Rio Salads. There were about 120 who came. Many of them were pretty young women.

Waiting . . .

One by one, all of the "goons", except the two non-members, left for their missions.

The Call From a Prophet of God

"You are hereby called to the Korea, Busan mission. You will report to the Missionary Training Center on October 6, 2010." signed - President Thomas S. Monson