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.