50 cheese sticks

Hello everyone, and a happy Thanksgiving! I trust you all ate plenty of turkey for my sake. Korea has its own Thanksgiving-type holiday in September, so they don't celebrate American thanksgiving here. But my companion and I decided to get pizza on the night of Thanksgiving to celebrate. Korean pizza is completely different from American pizza, I can tell you that. Common Korean pizza toppings include: corn, mustard, sweet potatoes, shrimp, etc. So they do taste very different, but pizza is pizza and a sweet potato pizza is almost like eating mashed potatoes I think..

One of the neighboring wards actually had a Thanksgiving party on Saturday, so we helped them with that and had a loosely American-based feast. Nobody really eats turkey here, so ham was substituted instead. It was a fun night, full of making paper pilgrim hats and pretend turkey hunting.

The weather here has definitely changed, and I'm not sure I'm going to make it through the winter. Being from central California, I'm used to much more mild winters. This week, however, it got down to about -5 degrees Celsius, which is somewhere in the 20's in Fahrenheit. It evened snowed here twice this week, not a lot but definitely a new experience for me.

And when it gets cold, the members tend to worry about the missionaries. Somebody from our ward actually bought my companion a sweater (I already had some so she gave me 50 cheese sticks instead) and all during church yesterday, the members kept checking my suit coat to make sure it was made out of warm material.

The Mokdong ward is very small, so they have a hard time filling positions. There was somebody in our ward that had 5 callings. However, he left for his mandatory military service, so there was lots of assignments left unfilled. One of them was the seminary teacher, so the bishop asked us to teach seminary a couple weeks ago, and we started last week. So here I am, teaching seminary less than 6 months after I finished it myself. We wake up at 5 am now, which is 1.5 hours earlier than normal, and our class has 2 students on a normal day. I don't know how long we're going to be teaching it, but it is definitely an added challenge to missionary work. Also, the teaching manual is all in Korean so I have to rely on my companion to do most of the preparation. But it is a good chance to know the scriptures better and to practice teaching in Korean, so I'm excited.

I didn't eat many new foods this week, but I did eat a lot of squid. I am getting used to it, but seeing the suction cups on the tentacles right before you take a bite still catches me off guard a little bit. 

One good dessert here is 설빙(seor-bing), which is a little bit like a snowcone but much fancier and better tasting.

The teaching is going very well, we're working with a couple great people that I sincerely hope will decide to come unto Christ. Spending all of your time working to help others definitely makes you more tired, but the happiness that you feel far outweighs anything else. A month has passed since I've been in country and I was worried that time was passing too quickly, but I thought yesterday, "it's only been one month here, I still have 21 more. That's awesome!" I love the people here and I love sharing this message of eternal happiness with them, and I still get 21 more months to do it.

Have a great week! If my fingers don't freeze off, you should hear from me next week..

soon-dey-gook (pig intestine)

Hello everyone! 

Time passes so quickly here, I've already been here for almost a month. Korea is such a great place though, I already can tell I'm not going to want to go home.

We traveled kind of all around Seoul this week, so I got to see lots of the city. It started off on Thursday, which was our "once every 6 weeks" temple day. The temple days become your Preparation Day, so on that Monday you just email and then get back to work. Anyways, I don't know if any of you have seen the youtube videos of the super crowded Asian trains, but I definitely got to be a part of that this week. The Seoul temple is actually in the Seoul mission, so we had to get on a train that crossed the Han river. It was about 9 am, so it was packed. When the doors open, everyone just uses their body to force their way into the subway. I barely got on, and the doors were about to close, but then a woman jumped in behind me. The worker there had to help push her into the train so the doors could close, but she got in. However, she was completely squished against the door, and I'm almost certain I could hear her gasping for breath behind me. Then the train went on a slight curve and pushed everyone in the train towards our side, and I legitimately thought this lady was going to suffocate because of me. But the curve eventually ended, and sure enough she could breath again, so all was well. I got to ride another "sardine" train again later in the week, my companion and I just end up laughing the whole ride because of how crammed everyone is.

The temple was amazing though, and they have a bookstore there so I got to get some compact Korean scriptures.

Later that day, we went all the way to Gangnam to work with someone that my companion used to teach. 

The next morning, we had our interviews with our mission president in Songpa, so our travel expenses were definitely above average this week. Our mission President is so great, and I love the office couple there. 

Also this week, I did my first exchanges. The zone leaders actually decided that I would stay in my area and that my companion would go somewhere else, which was initially terrifying because I still don't know my way around very well. But we went over the routes I would take the night before, then I had a great exchange with Elder Barton, one of our zone leaders. The address system in Seoul is crazy, but most missionaries seem to get a hang of it by the end so I still have some hope.

I didn't eat many new foods this week, but I did eat 순대국 (soon-dey-gook), which is pig intestines (and whatever other part of the pig they decide to throw in) in a soup. The texture was definitely new and took some getting used to, but it tasted pretty good. I also ate a bacon cheeseburger this week, but the ingredients probably don't need much explaining.

This week, a member of the Area Quorum of the Seventy came to our ward and spoke, I wasn't exactly sure what he was talking about but I'm taking my companion's word for it that it was a great talk. There was a ward meal after church, which is one of the benefits of being in a small ward. Everyone just brings whichever food they want, and everyone in the ward eats together and has a good time.

Korean is still as hard as it was last week, but I know a little bit more than I did last week, which is what matters. I've begun to realize the importance of setting goals, because it is so much easier to work hard and focus when you have a goal in mind. So I try to focus on how well I want to be able to communicate with the Korean people by the end of my mission, and it helps to keep me studying hard.

And even more important than that, I've learned the importance of missionary goals. Always being conscious of how well I want to be able to know the scriptures, how many people I have reached out to, how unshakable my conversion is, is so helpful when you're tired or discouraged. Missionary work is so rewarding, I definitely recommend it!

I hope you all have a great week!

As happy as we could be

Hello everyone! My dropbox should be functional from the link at the end of my email, but it's still in its beta version so I'll organize it and add comments when I have more time.

This week has been great! It rained a couple of the days, but that doesn't stop missionary work. When it rains here, it just kind of sprinkles/drizzles for about 48 hours, so nothing too heavy.

There are not many investigators right now, but there is always lots of less active members, and my companion is really good about visiting them. So we keep pretty busy, and walk a lot. Our phone has a pedometer on it, so on some days we'll walk 13,000+ steps even if we're only walking for 2-3 hours. It's kind of the Korean way of transport, so everyone here has killer calves. We do take buses and subways when we are in a hurry or it is too far to walk, and the public transport system here is extremely simple and efficient. All forms of public transport, even taxis, use "T-money" cards, so you just refill it in subway stations or at 7/11, and then you swipe it every time you get on and off the bus or subway. So, we can get pretty much anywhere in our mission for about $1.20.

I ate lots of new foods this week, beginning with noodles that were stuffed into animal intestines. My companion didn't tell me they were intestines until after we ate it, of course. It wasn't bad though, I can can say that. I also ate:

삼계탕 (sam-gyey-tang): This is basically just a whole chicken thrown into a broth with rice, ginger and other spices. So you just go at it until the chicken is gone, then you can drink the broth

짜짱면 (jja-jjang-myeon): These are the Korean "black noodles." They were actually closer to brown in my opinion, but they were delicious nonetheless. 

부침개 (bu-chim-gey): I tried this in America, and really liked it. It is some kind of batter with vegetables in it, which they then fry and it looks a little like a pancake. In Korea, there is of course also bits of squid mixed in, but it was still very good.

fruit: the average Korean eats way more fruit than the average American I think, but the Koreans have 3 main fruits that they eat:

-배: this is an asian pair, which tastes a lot like an apple, but they eat lots of it

-감: persimmons, which they eat frozen, firm, or squishy

-whichever fruit is in season at the time. Right now, it's 귤(tangerines), so they eat tons of them. 

I think yesterday was the first time that I ate all 3 in one day, it was quite the milestone.

In our area, amidst the apartments and tall buildings, there's a random mountain. It's pretty big, and it's just right in the middle of the city. It has bike trails and parks and exercise equipment, and even a soccer field on top. So my companion and I went there this week so he could show me this mountain, and we talked to lots of people while we were up there. People that spend their free time on a mountain are a lot nicer than the average person, so we like our mountain.

The Korean is coming, it's hard not to when everything around you is in Korean. But I'm starting to understand people, at least the ones that talk at a normal speed. There's so many things that I want to say to people on the street and while we're teaching but can't yet, so that's my motivation to work as hard as I can. I do get a little bit of lesson practice in English though, since the people here that speak English well love speaking with us in English. There's a 90 year old man that is less active, mainly because he attends like 5 different churches. He was a translator during the Korean war, and he's very nice, but he loves to talk. He started yelling during church yesterday which was pretty stressful on our part, but it's just because he has big expectations of this world, and he thinks that Korea needs more God in their lives. He's running for president though, so I wish him the best of luck.

A sister in our mission had to go home temporarily for medical reasons, so the American sister from our ward is with her companion now, since there were 3 sisters. But now, one of the Korean sister missionaries in our ward leaves for her mission in temple square, so we're not sure what is going to happen to our sister missionaries but they'll figure it out. Everyone at the MTC, say hi to 김민지 자매님 for me!

I wish I could say I was just still tired from the plane ride, but I think that's just the life of a missionary. We go to bed exhausted every night, but as happy as we could be. I love being here and serving the people of Korea, preaching the gospel is our greatest and most important calling. Have a great week everyone!

You formed well

Hello Everyone! 

There wasn't as many major changes this week, so hopefully I can fit everything in this week.

After emailing last week, we spent some time with some missionaries from a nearby area, it was a great time to unwind and get ready to face the next week. My first week was harder than I probably made it out to be, but I am much more comfortable in Korea now, and I am slowly but surely getting better at understanding people. Our bishop is from a different part of Korea where they speak extremely fast, so that is still a big challenge. The great thing about Korea is that everyone knows at least a little bit of English, so they can't all form sentences well but they can usually help me with a vocabulary word or two. My favorite is when the little kids try to teach me words by just pointing out 14 different things and saying the Korean word for it, like I can remember all of them. I ususally pick up a few though, and my non-MTC vocabulary has grown a lot. Korean people are so nice though. Even if they're not interested, everyone either tells you that you speak Korean well or that you are handsome(the direct translation of the phrase they use is "you formed well"). I love it

In addition to teaching English class, me and my companion do two other service activities each week. The first one we do is lunch deliveries to people in an assisted living-type apartment. Most of the people there can't walk, but when we knock on the door, they try to crawl to the door to get their lunch instead of letting us bring it to them. Most of the Korean people are fiercely independent..

The second service we do is helping kids with special needs play basketball. A guy has basketball practice every week that these kids come to, and we help them run drills and practice passing, etc. It was so fun and a lot of them were super good at basketball, they focus really well.

We actually got to teach a few lessons this week. Speaking Korean to a Korean is a lot more intimidating than speaking Korean in the MTC, I can tell you that much. We do practice lessons with members of our ward while they pretend to be investigators though, so it is great practice because I practice giving most of the lesson. We don't teach many lessons to investigators, but I'm surprised how full our days still are. We're trying to visit all the less actives in our ward ove rthe next 11 weeks, so we went clear down to the south end of our area last night to try to find some of them. We found out that they didn't live there anymore, but we did talk to a guy who was very drunk for a little bit. We'll see how interested he is when he is sober, but we did have a good conversation.

We also had a zone meeting this week where they talked about a talk that President Whiting (president of this mission area) gave a couple weeks before I got here. They talked about having the faith to baptize every month, which is what his training was about. So as a mission, we are working to develop that faith, even when baptizing every month in Korea is a challenge. I'm excited  to strive to work with that kind of faith, and I love missionary work even though I go to bed exhausted every night. It's definitely not a walk in the park, but doing this work makes me so happy.

This weekend was stake conference at the stake center in Incheon, which is about an hour subway ride from our apartment. I can't understand most of it yet, but working to pick out words despite how fast they speak is helping my listening skills.

The members still give us food all the time, The only groceries I've bought here are milk and butter one time.

Sunday, before stake conference, the member who was giving us a ride invited us to breakfast. The wife is Korean and the husband is American, and they're a really great family. She made us eggs and french toast and bacon, then invited us back to her house for lunch where she serves us tacos with kim chi and rice on the side, it was definitely an interesting meal. Then we went to the church and of course were fed again, and then we made 빼빼로(beh-beh-ro) with the primary children and youth. 빼빼로 is a candy that consists of a skinny sesame stick covered in chocolate and whatever else you want to put on it. But because the name has so many vertical lines, the company declared that November 11th (11/11) is national 빼빼로 day. Now it's a widely accepted holiday, and the company makes a fortune off of it. So a member of our ward helped everyone make it. Then everyone got a few, and they gave the rest to us to give to our investigators.

And speaking of food, I ate squid for the first time this week. It was covered in lots of spices, but the fishy taste was definitely still there and it was pretty chewy. I really love all the noodles and rice in the Korean diet, but I'm still working to get a handle on all the fermented vegetables they eat. The thing about Korean meals that has been the hardest for me though is that they rarely drink any liquids with their meals. And if they do have liquids, they come in very tiny cups. You really cannot find a cup over 12 oz. in Korea. Meals used to be when I drank the most water, so I'm still adjusting to that. 

After my first full week in Korea, I've realized that I love doing missionary work and that I love the Korean people (even the old lady that we found crouched by our trash can popping bubble wrap). Korean people are so diligent and kind, I'm so excited to serve them. The church is 100% true, even in Korea, I can promise that. I can't understand everyone yet, but I know that they are God's children and that I'm here to do the Lord's work.

I hope everyone has a good week! I'm working on making a Dropbox so that everyone can view my pictures instead of me just sending them to my mom. I don't think It will be ready this week, but I will try to include the link in next week's email.

Smile and bow

Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well! 

This is my first email from Korea, which I still can't really believe I am in. Anyways, I'm going to try to take this day by day so I don't forget anything:

Monday: We boarded a bus at 4:30 am to get to a train to get to a subway that took us to the airport. After a pleasant phone call home, we flew to Seattle. Before that however, our flight was delayed about 45 minutes, and our layover was only 1 hour in Seattle. So we were all certain we were going to miss our connecting flight to INcheon. However, since there were about 20 of us that were on the same flight, they gave us a few extra minutes to sprint to the next terminal, and we were off to Korea. We landed in Incheon at around 5 pm Korea time on Tuesday

Tuesday: We met our mission president and some of the other missionaries that came. We loaded our bags into a car, but we were of course told to ride the subway back with a Book of Mormon in hand. I was extremely nervous, but I brought myself to sit next to a man and start talking. He refused to look at me, which definitely boosted my confidence... He didn't accept the Book of Mormon, but I did give him a pass-along card. The next man I talked to refused to take anything I offered him. I did eventually place a Book of Mormon, with some help from one of the AP's. We got to the Mission Home, which is on the second floor of one of the three story church buildings there. We were fed dinner, then we headed to bed. We slept on the church floor on mats, which are typical sleeping arrangements for missionaries.

Wednesday: We were fed breakfast, then had lots of informational meetings and trainings. Then, the trainers arrive but they don't assign them for about 4 hours, so you try not to get attached to any of them. Then they have a meeting where all of them are assigned and it's a good time. My trainer is 존슨장로 (Elder Johnson) He has three transfers left and is extremely good at Korean. He has been in our area for 6 months already, and he might be there until the end of his mission. We are serving in the 목동(mok-dong) ward, which is on the very western edge of the city of Seoul. Each area corresponds to one ward, and each missionary zone corresponds to 1 stake, except in our stake which has two areas. So there are 5 stakes and 6 zones in our mission. Each ward typically has 4-8 missionaries, we have five right now. We got a ride in a car back to our apartment, then had a lesson shortly after. It was with an investigator that actually got baptized yesterday, his name is 이광표 형제님. I was so jet-lagged during the lesson and everyone was speaking Korean, it was a bit overwhleming.

Thursday: There was actually a big stake activity this week, 가족 발견의 날(family history fair), so the first night was the only lesson we've taught since I've been here. The family history fair was a 3-day event in Incheon, so we rode the subway or got a ride there on thursday, friday, and saturday. We were assigned to help in the primary children room, which wasn't much work since only 3 kids showed up the first two days. I got to meet a lot of the missionaries in my zone though, so it was fun. And, the members fed us dinner every day. Korean members are the most giving people I've ever met. Since I got to my area on Wednesday night, members have fed us all of the meals I have eaten except two, and those two meals were prepared using food that was given to us by members. They seriously just give us bags of groceries and insist that we always eat.  Some of the things that Koreans love to eat that I have tried:

Tangerines: Koreans can't get enough of their tangerines

Sweet Potatoes: Heat up a bunch of sweet potatoes, cut them in half and set them on a tray and you can make a Korean's day

Persimmons(sp): they eat them hard, soft, frozen, all year. They are soft right now, so they look like tomatoes but you just take off the stem and eat the insides. A little slimy, but not too bad

All fermented vegetables: I'm pretty sure their national past time is fermenting vegeatables, especially their kimchi. Kimchi and rice are a guest at every meal.

Pumpkin juice: It tastes a lot like liquid rice that is colored orange, but they just drink it or pour it on food. 

That's not even half of the new foods I tried this week,   but you get the idea.

Friday: We had a district meeting, which is all the missionaries in the Mokdong ward. There's me, my companion, and 3 sisters, one of whom is waiting for a visa to serve in temple square. Fun fact: Probably 70% of Korean members who serve missions are called to serve in Korea. For a country with only 4 missions, it's crazy. A Korean sister in our zone is serving 15 minutes away from her house. We had the second day of the family History Fair. The Koreans speak at least 10x faster than the teachers do at the MTC, so the hardest part for me so far has been understanding what the members are saying. The first two days were pretty rough (especially when a member of our ward thought I was the zone leader and started listing off tasks she needed help with, now she calls me Elder ZL,) but I am starting to get used to how fast they speak. We rode the subway on Friday, which is about 1.5 hours to Incheon. The first two days I had a hard time talking to people, but I'm starting to get the hang of it, at least until they say something back to me.

Saturday: We met with the ward mission leader, he took us to McDonald's (I've been fed McDonald's twice since being here, they seem to think that we really miss American food. Last night, the stake president's wife gave us a box of cereal and some peanut butter from Costco, I think she's trying to help me with the adjustment. Saturday was the last day of the famioly history fair, and there was a lot more people since it wasn't during work or school this time. So there was actually work to do in the primary, we sang family history songs and played games. The funniest part about working with primary kids is the fact that even the 3 year olds are way better at Korean than me and all the 5 year olds can read way faster than me. But Korean kids are adorable, and they love to give you candy which I can't complain about. On friday, w ehad to cancel English class, but we did teach on Saturday night. Almost all missionaries teach English class here, it's free and anyone can come. Sometimes we get people to teach from it, but if not they can just keep coming to English class. It was super fun, mainly because we speak in a language that I know during that time. But seeing other people learn a language is so cool, espcially when they learna new phrase and then use it all the time. One member of the class used the phrase "in spite of" at least 30 times during the lesson. Teaching English is definitely something I'm going to look forward to every week.

Sunday: Our apartment isn't very nice, but it is a 20 second walk away from the church, which is so great, especially since most of our lessons are taught at the church. The mission president came to our sacrament meeting for the baptism after, which made my introduction even more nerve-wracking. The two new sisters went before me, and then it was my turn. I gave my introduction, and then went to my seat. The thing about Korean sacrament meeting is that if you want to say something in the middle of sacrament meeting, you just say it out loud. So I was walking back and everyone was saying "oh, you speak well!" Everyone was very complimentary, probably because I can't understand them when they talk, so they probably thought I knew 0 Korean.

The baptism was held immediately after church, so basically the entire ward stayed (which was only about 30 people). My companions previous companion came back to see the baptism, and it was so cool. I couldn't understand most of what was said, but I could feel the Spirit, which is what really matters. I'll (hopefully) learn Korean eventually, but having the Spirit is important even if you can't speak the language well.

We had a potluck dinner at the Stake President's house to celebrate the baptism. The members of this ward are so friendly and welcoming to each other and to me, I'm amazed. I've never seen a more selfless people, I love Korea.

Some other things about this week:

One Korean word I learned very quickly: 모기 (mosquito) I got probably 8 mosquito bites on my face the first night, so I was not a pretty sight when I woke up. Of course, there was a member of the ward a couple hours later outside our door with several remedies. Mokdong ward is so great, I'm excited to be here for 3 months.

You know the quote "just smile and wave"? If you change "wave" to "bow" you will have my motto for this past week. I don't know what anyone is saying, but I smile and bow to basically everyone, and I can get by. Korean parents teach their two-year-olds to bow, it's the funniest thing.

I hope everyone has a great week! I'm sorry if I can't respond to you personally, I dont have a lot of time today.