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:
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.
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