The city of Santarém is situated on a plateau, located on the right bank of the Tagus River, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Lisbon. The economy of the city remains mainly dedicated to the production of agricultural goods.

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Week 6 of the MTC

February 15, 2016
Bom Dia Minha Familia! (Good morning/good day my family)

Another week has flown by here in the MTC! Sooo fast! It sounds like it was busy week for you guys too with Pulama, BIIFs, and your other events. Crazy!

So how was Pulama? Pehea na hula? Ua mana'o au e ninau no ka Kumu Hiapo ha'i'olelo, aka maopopo ia'u he maiau a maika'i wale no kana, with a hint of umph haha. 'Olu'olu e ha'i ia ia e leka uila mai i hiki ia maua ke kama'ilio, 'oiai he mau ninau ko'u no kekahi mau hua'olelo hou a pela mai Ka Puke o Molemona. Pela ke 'ano o ka loea haha. Ua ku'ai aku 'ia na "poke bowls" a pau? Lohe wau maia Dad mai ua helu 'ekahi na ho'ike'ike a na papa. Lohe pu wau ua komo piha na kaikaina me ke kaikuhine ma ka hana. Ke ola nei ka inoa o Kim ia 'oukou! haha. Nui ko'u ha'aheo! E o'u mau muli e ho'omaopopo mau 'oukou i ka lu'u piha 'ana ma ka hana. Ke komo piha kakou ma ka hana ke ho'ike nei kakou i na kumu, na 'anakala, na 'anake, i ko kakou 'ano makaukau, ko kakou 'ano kanaka makua, a i ko kakou 'i'ini e a'o. E ho'omau 'oukou i ka hana maika'i! 'Eo Nawahi! 'Eo Pulama Mauli Ola! Ke komo nei au i ko'u pale'ili Pulama keia manawa no ka ho'ike aku i ko'u kako'o, 'oiai 'a'ole i hiki ke komo i kela po'aono aku nei hahaha

As far as my buddies go they all leave this week. Elder Ortiz and Elder Parker left this morning to Mozambique. I'm soo stoked for them. People going to Lisboa, Portugal, will leave tommorow morning at 3:30am, and people going to Cape Veirde will leave Wednesday at 11:30am. I'm sooo stoked for all of them and I pray that they will all be safe. Super cool. What’s crazy is that we expect 26 new missionaries, at least, to be coming in on Wednesday! Crazy! As zone leader, I'll be working hard to make sure everyone is ok and settled in before I leave a few days later haha. It'll be cool though to see Kawena on Wednesday! I'm stoked for Vaea going to Nuku'alofa, Tonga! How’s Ku'i's papers going? What about 'Ohu? Sooo exciting!

It's been a pretty good week. Super busy as usual. This past Wednesday I got to host!!! It was awesome!!! I was able to host three elders. One is from the Philippines going to Korea (apparently there’s a lot from the Philippines going to Korea) and two elders from mainland China going to Australia! I guess there’s a large population of Mandarin speakers there. It was sooo cool to hear them speak Mandarin. I wanna learn haha. With those people going to Korea, I was like “aniyo! kahmsamnida! neh!”, the only three words I know in Korean. It was just exciting to see people going to the Motherland.

Also this past Wednesday me and some other missionaries were asked to participate in the "People and their purpose" activity. Basically its an activity that all new missionaries do when they get to the MTC, where they have an investigator and two missionaries who start the lesson, and then after the reins are handed to the group of new missionaries to continue the teaching. The goal being, they are able to discern the needs of the investigator, and help them come unto Christ. Well, me and Elder Wanlass were asked to be those two missionaries who start the lesson!!!! Soooo cool! It was cool to have come full circle.

I'm excited to go to Portugal!!! One of my teachers, Irmao Lemperle, who served in Portugal a few years ago, was showing us a few pictures from his mission, and it looks sooo cool!!! I was like "This is awesome!!!" I really hope I go to Madeira!

Sadly, this week we didn’t have a video skype lesson. I guess they didn’t have enough volunteers :( We'll get another chance this week though. I must say those are downright awesome!!! BTW last week i spelled the word fixe wrong. I think I spelled it fiexe last week, but its actually fixe. It’s pronounced like the word fish though, with an accent haha. As far as our other investigators go, we told Silvia we were leaving and encouraged her to continue to meet with the other missionaries, and continue to work towards baptism, since we had committed her to be baptized already. Our other one, Guilherme, we almost lost. haha. The last lesson we taught him, he was like, “I don't wanna be baptized. I just wanna be Catholic.” But we ended up convincing him to pray with us and he felt like he should read the Book of Mormon more to see if the Church is true. We were like "YES! Day 41, church is still true!" haha I hope we will be able to teach him one more time before we leave.

To end on a spiritual note, I totally agree with you, mom. Teaching the restoration of the gospel is one of the most important things we can teach people. When people understand the restoration everything else makes sense. If the first vision is true, then the whole church is true! If it isn't, then the church isn't true, but the first vision is true, so the church is true!!! Every time we share the first vision, we bring the spirit in. It's awesome!  It goes like this in Portuguese: "Vi um pilar de luz, acima de minha cabeca. Mais brilhante que o sol, que gradualmente sobre min. Quando a luz posou sobre min, vi does personages, cujo eslpendor e gloria desafiam qualquer descricao, pairando no ar, acima de min. Um deles, falou-me, chamando-me pelo nome, apontando para o outro, "Este e Meu Filho Amando, Ove-o"" (Sorry there’s no accentuation stuffs.)

Another important thing I'd like to say is that missionaries are to teach repentance! In the scriptures Alma tells the people, and Christ also tells his apostles, to teach nothing but repentance. The reason is repentance is turning from the natural man unto Christ. When we repent, we are becoming more like Christ. I think sometimes repentance is given a bad rap when really its an awesome thing! By repentance we come unto Christ and are perfected in Him. Awesome right?!

I love you, family! Please take care of yourselves! Work hard! Ate proximo vez (until next time)

Me ke aloha,
Elder Kim

An Excerpt from a different email:
Here’s my testimony of the restoration of Christ's church in Portuguese. Sorry there are no accentuation marks, and there might be some spelling and grammatical errors

Eu sei que Deus ama-nos, e ele e nosso Pai Celestial. Eu sei que porque deste amor de Deus, ele restaurou o evangelho por meio Joseph Smith, seu propheta primeiro dos ultimos dias. Eu sei que o primeiro vision de Joseph Smith e verdadeiro,e este vision e primeiro actividade de restauracao. Eu sou muito grato o evangelho de Jesus Cristo e opporutunidade viver com Deus e minha familia  no reino Celestial por eterna. Eu sei que e nesesidade para ter o restauracao. Eu escrevo estas coisas, em nome de Sua Filho, nossa Salvador, Jesus Cristo, amen. (I know that God loves us and that He is our Heavenly Father. I know that because of this love, he restored the gospel thru Joseph Smith the first prophet in these latter days. I know that the first vison Joseph Smith had is true, and was the first major event of the restoration. I am so grateful for the gospel of Christ and the opportunity to live with God and my family in the celestial kingdom forever. I know the restoration was neccesary. I write these things in the name of His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, amen).

Ate proximo vez (until next time),
Elder Kim


Elder Kim with two new missionaries, who come from Mainland China, who will be serving in Australia. When Elder Kim "hosts" new missionaries, it means he welcomes them to the MTC, helps them get settled in their rooms, takes them around to help them learn where everything is at, helps them check in with the office, the MTC medical doctor, etc. 

 Elder Kim also "hosted" this new missionary from the Philippines, who will be serving in South Korea, the Motherland for us "Kims".

Elder Kim, in one last picture with his zone. Most of these missionaries will be leaving the MTC for their missions this week. A sad but exciting time for all as they take the next step in their service.

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