Week 5: I could write a two-hour lecture on brevity

Our far-too-big zone

Discover Moving

Pack and grumbling

Short Distance but heavy suitcase
Stop the Problem 

How? Stop this construction.

The proof is time

Moving

So yeah, I had to move buildings today because my building is being redone. So that was fun and now email time is a little packed. Mom, just attach my message to the Primary kids or something to fill up space. (Mom's note: I think I'll post that on Sunday to break up the long wait between posts for everyone.)

Um, yeah, a lot happened this week. I gotta be brief, though. Gosh, I could write a two-hour lecture on brevity. This'll be tough. But let's go. This'll be pure journal highlights. 

So apparently I take too much control of lessons and look like a senior companion. I am technically senior companion, but that's beside the point. Basically now I get to talk less in lessons, and it's actually really helping our unity.

Also I gave my first-ever blessing of comfort and counsel. It was wild. I loved it. Great spirit. I'd talk about it more, but time.

Sister Stringham and I both forgot our nametags at breakfast one day. It was humorous. Sister Cañete said we looked naked. Good memes. 

Yesterday I gave a talk in Korean. It was intense. Also I didn't know I was giving it until during sacrament meeting. More on this story next week because it's good but I have no time. (Note: Elder Newton told his dad that it was a 10-minute talk that would have taken 3 or 4 minutes in English.)

I spoke only Korean for half of yesterday too btw. That was hard, but fun. I'm progressing well. 

Next week y'all will get a daily rundown of MTC life, so look forward to that.

Until then,

Elder Newton​

Feast your eyes on Week 5

A moth I thought was a hummingbird

More weird moth

Off-center temple

Macro mode is fun

Obvious Moroni

Sister Cañete

Sister Stringham sporting a sick jacket (jean jacket)

Giauque looking happy

How is this a lesson plan?

Really, Elder Pulsipher and I are a mess

Accidental good selfie

Week 4: I am a man of aesthetics

Aesthetic. I just took it bc I thought it looked aesthetic.

Hello everyone!

As we all know, the most important thing is the tweets for Mary. They are as follows:

"Something Spiritual"

"I'm sorry Fourth Missionary Talk, but you're too hyped" 

"'I was born in the MTC'

-Elder Babbitt 2k16"

"#Blindsided"

And now moving forward.

Honestly this language learning is insane. It goes so fast and yet feels like forever. I'm looking over my journal, and last week's events seem like forever ago. A lot of it is same old same old. Like my journal for the week covers maybe two pages total, but I barely remember the new kids getting here. Four Square matches are really starting to blend together. 

"I cannot write sentences because I am a failure"

I can make gerunds now. It's so cool.

Nathan Stagg from Monti is here. That's p cool.

Also I have some sad news. Elder Pulsipher is no longer district leader. I cried. He's real happy that he doesn't need to get the mail anymore. Our new district leader is Elder Coon. He's p chill.

I took many aesthetic pics at temple walk. Like so many. It was great. 

We had the Nashville Tribute Band as our devotional. They were fancy, but also not my musical style. The whole district cried at their last song except me. Bright side the choir that day had 1,703 people. I think that's the biggest record we'll have while I'm here.

TRCs are getting exponentially better. The members always compliment our Korean, and I finally can understand them and formulate sentences. It's my favorite. 

But yeah that's about my week without me explaining how to use adjectives and make gerunds and stuff.

Hope y'all are doing well. Enjoy the pics. (I like the one with the bee.)

— Elder Newton

The legendary bee picture.

P.S. Here's this week's poem.

Discover Cavalia

Neigh and Whinny

Billboards everywhere but never saw it

Stop the Problem

How?

Leave the signs up forever. 

The proof is advertising

*Cavalia*

Bonus post: Week 3 Discover Poem

Discover USPS
Lick and seal
Small stamp, but worth like 40-something cents
Stop the problem.
How?
Place question marks correctly
The proof is postage
*USPS*

Mom's translation: I think Elder Newton would appreciate a card or a letter. 

Another note from Mom: What in the world is a Discover poem? This might help clear it up. Or not.

Week 3: So, I'm famous now

Dear everyone (Mom, if you wanted to be funny, do a Dear First Name for everyone on the email list. I'm sure everyone will get a kick out of it):

​I may have only taken one picture this week. It's pretty aesthetic. Tell Mary to make it my Twitter header in a couple weeks.

So yeah, things are going well. And with no tweets for Mary I can think of, we can get right to it.

So Mark 10 has been real nice for me this week. Brother Chandler showed it to me because I was talking to him about being worried about something bad happening back home. And like it's nice to know y'all will be blessed. I think it's verses 28-30. Also I really like 2 Nephi 29. So yeah, I'm spiritual. Now on to my fame.

So yesterday Sister Bonnie L. Oscarson came. She was a real nice speaker. Also apparently Elder Jeffrey R. Holland was in town, but he didn't come. Elder Pulsipher was very disappointed. Anyway it was a real nice talk about being willing to be pruned by the Lord. So how did I become famous? Well, see, at one point there was a fun audience interaction section, and guess who was seated right behind the microphone in the audience. 

It was me!

So yeah, I did my best not to look at myself on the giant screen, but apparently my facial expressions were still very funny. People are stopping me randomly on my way to class now. I'm very memorable. Too bad y'all can't ever see it because them devotionals aren't public or something.

Important news! I got a left-handed desk! It's beautiful. I can write well. And like it's just. I'll have to send a picture next week, I'm so happy with her.

Oh yeah, also the Korean branch has 113 people as of today. So, like, we're the biggest in the world. It's intense. We take up like three tables at lunch now. 

Speaking of, vegan food is still great, it's nice to see Kate.

Of course four square continues to be the best part of any day. I'm a certified pro at this point. Also I get to play with the Portuguese today, and they're super fun. I'm looking forward to exercise.

Um, let's see not too much else is standing out. Today I spent like an hour in the Celestial Room because Elder Pulsipher fell asleep and I didn't notice. I think he was asleep. He could have been praying. So yeah, I love you all. Thanks for the mail and packages and things. Also emails. It's nice to know I'm not forgotten.

Best Spiritual Wishes,

Elder Newton

P.S. Apparently someone I know got called to Seoul but no one will tell me who it is.* So like someone write me a letter and hook me up with that info.


* Elder Palepoi Gilmore, one of Elder Newton's first friends from middle school, will enter the MTC Oct. 5.

The many photos of Week 2

Aesthetic view from classroom

Approaching temple

Still approaching temple

Not the temple

Aesthetic fountain

Me and the companion man

I like this one a lot

This would make a nice cover photo for my Twitter, Mary

Hey me again

It looks real compressed. I hope it's not. (note from Mom: the embedded version in the email did indeed look squashed)

Same with this one

The district after getting water

Elder Morgan is nice. He plays cello. Also League of Legends

I like taking pictures of marble benches.

Elder Babbitt: Real patriotic dude. Loves tanks.

Elder Coon: One of us had to be sporty

Elder Giauque: He looks stern, but is real nice

Aesthetic

Aesthetic

Aesthetic

I take selfies, sue me

Me ft. colored pencil behind the ear

And now the colored pencil is not behind my ear

I'm finally a licensed driver.  Also I now color coordinate my pencil to my outfit.

I'm amazed by this plastic

Week 2: So yeah I still exist and am making memes

First some quotes for Mary to put on my Twitter:

"I've messed minutely with the memes"

-Elder Pulsipher 2k16

"Memes were but a luxury in my day" 

-Elder Coon 2k16

A group pic. President Perriton is the old guy.

Now back to your regularly scheduled update:

Things are great. Elder Neil L. Andersen was here yesterday. That was cool. We sang him happy birthday. It was an official prelude hymn and everything.

Sportswise, I still do all four square all the time. But I did one thing of Kan Jam. There were frisbees. Kinda cool. But I like four square more. I'm so good now.

Also here's a note. When teaching in Korean, don't switch to Chinese. It'll confuse them and it'll take 5 minutes to get your lesson back on track. Also my investigator I had from Day 2 became my teacher. She's cool. No one told me that would happen. Also lessons are surprisingly spiritual for broken Korean. Spirit testifies, man. Also the gift of tongues is grnine.*

Thanks to Aunt Karen for the donuts. I shared with my district and now they all like me. Sister Stringham has pics. I need to get those.

Btw I'm using my journal to make sure I'm covering everything and so far every entry starts with four square.

Vegan food is good, but Saturday nights are scrap salad nights where the salads include: only spinach; spinach, feta and pineapple; spinach and pickles; spinach, pickles, feta and salsa; etc.

I apologize for the poor punctuation if it's bad.

I'd like to give Elder Hwang a shoutout for finding me a left-handed desk, and also talking about "Birches" with me. It's his favorite poem.

Quick bonus shoutout to Ms. Parrish: She taught me that poem and I love it now.

I don't know if I mentioned it. I think I did, but I had priesthood lesson on Sunday. It went great. I actually prepared and like it made personal study great. Also Nephi is real inspirational. 

Elder Adam Reese Newton
SEP27  KOR-SEO
2005 N 900 E Unit  16
Provo UT 84602

Btw I have an address where I can get letters. Send me things, please. Letters. Or candy, but I really like letters. It makes me look popular. I will answer all letters, but it is slow because there is very little letter writing time here. 

And yeah, I'm almost out of time, so here's a discover poem inspired by Emily Gidney's package to me.

Discover the goodness of Vegetables

Cardboard and pasta steaming

Face of box but 3 dimensional nonetheless

Stop the Problem.

How?

Use want to form in a lesson

The proof is a broken key reel

The goodness of Vegetables


* Grnine = gr9 = even greater than gr8

Photos from Week 1

Can you spot Elder Newton?

Here are some bonus pix that Mom couldn't figure out how to drag into an aesthetically pleasing layout using Blogger.

Babbitt and Morgan

Coon and Babbitt (companions)

Babbitt and Pulsipher

Week 1: Mass email that I actually know is going to everyone #1

Your purpose ft. Korean and Brother Chandler's hand

So um, hi. Everything is crazy. Lots of classes. I know so much and also no Korean at once. Like today at lunch I only spoke Korean with Elder Pulsipher. Of course I didn't say much, but like I did the Korean thing.

So I forgot my journal so I have no idea where to start.

Wait, actually I do.

Four square. It's taken over my life. We get exercise time every day, and I've exclusively been doing it. It's so fun. There's even a court in the temple parking lot. We play hard. My goal is to get a scar. Wouldn't that be a cool story?

Food.    I'm jumping all over on topics btw. So veganism is fun with Elder Pulsipher. Lunch people in the wrap line are real nice to us. Kate even refilled the kiwis just for me once. She gets a huge shoutout for that. The orange juice is fine. I drank it and everyone freaked out, but literally nothing happened. Um, also there are many bagels, so don't worry about me starving. 

Cute Elder Pulsipher

Class. My teacher, Brother Chandler, only speaks Korean. It's wild. He gestures a lot and the first week has felt like Darmok. (That reference was for you, Dad.) Anyway, I love Brother Chandler and he's really nice and spiritual. He's taught me so much. Like I can pray in Korean now. Like nursery level. But it's prayer. 

District: Changing the punctuation up. (Yo, Mom, if you ever want to fix spelling or grammar, do it. Thanks.)

Anyway, I love my district. I'll write more about them later and do bios or something. A few are in the few pictures I remembered to take. A lot of the pics are on Giauque's (pronounced jock) camera. Others were on Elder Babbitt's, but he deleted everything on accident. He's kinda like that.

Um, let's see, devotionals are fun. Doing a lot of SYL.* Thanks for all the email. I also enjoy letters and space stamps. Elder Pulsipher is district leader so I get mail first. Anyway, I think that's all I can think of for the week. More later. Or something.

P.S. Here's this week's "discover" poem:

Discover forgetfulness

Sent email and regret

Short click but many clicks to make a new email

Stop the problem

How?

Write a poem next week.

The proof is a rainbow

Forgetfulness

* Speak Your Language

Day 1: I'm safe and not dead

So yeah, everything is great here. I have a sweet companion: Elder Pulsipher. He's pretty cool, and guess what? He's also a vegan! Well, the same way I'm a vegan. Anyway it's all good. I totally know any Korean at all. We have some sick memes in our zone. Or branch. Or something.

Elder Newton and Elder Pulsipher

Also Elder Pulsipher is from Rexburg, and so far he knows everyone. Like all the Rexburginians go on missions apparently. I started calling him Mr. Popular.

Um, I love you all, tell people I'm fine and happy. Or something. Do as you will. Tell Jonah to feed my cats.

Anyway, letter time is almost done. I'll be more detailed later, but I gotta go study Korean again. 

Peace(I can still use emoji apparently, that's cool)

Discover MTC

Smiles and Biang

Small campus but hecka missionaries

Stop the problem.

How? 

Love the investigator

MTC

(Expect another poem next time too.)