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!