20 flavors of Gatorade

Hello Everyone!

 

I've mentioned before that my name in Korean sounds like the name of the "beagle" dog, but this week the interpretation of my name was taken to a whole new level. I don't know how many you are familiar with "the Evolution of Species" by Charles Darwin, but it doceuments his travels and observations about evolution. Anyways, when he rode to the Galapagos Islands, he rode on a boat called the "SM Beagle" Conveniently enough though, the name for that kind of boat in Korean sounds like the second half of my last name. I had several people point that out to me this week, I thought it was quite the coincidence..

 

I keep thinking that every week is going to be the hottest one of the summer, but I just found out this week that it's the hottest summer in Korea in over 20 years so I don't think it'll be cooling down anytime soon.

Our mission President told every missionary that they had to drink some Gatorade or other electrolyte-replenishing drink every day, and we even had a day where he told us we weren't allowed to work outside if we could help it.. Also our house is 90 degrees Fahrenheit every morning.. But despite the heat, I'm loving life over here!

 

This week we had a mission leadership conference in Seoul, followed by a Zone Training Meeting, where we deliver the training we got to all of the missionaries in our area. It went well, and I love being around other missionaries. And both Elder Young and Elder Santana, My companions in the missionary training center, are serving in the same general area. It is strange to think how far we've come after learning the Korean ABC's 11 months ago. Unfortunately, my pictures aren't uploading so I guess you'll have to wait on the photo...

 

One other fun thing I did this week was exchanges, where you work with a different missionary for a day and assist in the work and training in that area. So I got to go with Elder Landgraf, a missionary who has only been in Korea for a month. I love working with brand new missionaries because I think that they have such a great vision for misisonary work that sometimes older missionaries lack. And, I really enjoy teaching language, whether it is English or Korean so I had some fun teaching opportunities.

 

This week, Sister Morris, who was serving in 수원, went home this week due to medical problems. So from now until further notice, Elder Christensen and I have to teach English class by ourselves. WHich usually isn't too bad, but when you have lots of students that are at different levels it can get pretty complicated. The Korean English students couldn't believe that there were like 20 flavors of Gatorade in America, there's only one flavor in Korea so they were in total shock. English class is my favorite :)

 

And speaking of English class, one of our students decided that he wanted to learn about our church, so we ate lunch with him and taught about the Restoration of the Gospel. He was very sincere and really wants to find out if it is true, which is amazing. Our church leaders tell us that we will find greater joy and satisfactiopn than we have ever experienced while serving as a missionary. And sometimes it's hard to trust that promise when you've been walking for several hours in the humidity here with nobody that wants to talk to you, but when I am able to meet people like that, I realize every time that there really is no greater joy than missionary work.

 

 

 

Have a great week everyone! And Happy Birthday Mom!

 

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