10 kg of kimchi

Hello Everyone!

Well, this was my last week with Elder Christensen. He leaves on Wednesday, so lots of farewells (and farewell buffets..) this week. Almost all of my companions have gone home after serving with me, so I'm pretty used to all of it by now, but it looks like the pattern will change a little bit. I will be staying in Suwon, and my new companion will be Elder Case. He started his mission 6 weeks after me, so he will be my first companion who hasn't been on a mission for more than a year longer than me, I think the change will be exciting. He is serving in Seoul right now and actually is learning Korean Sign Language (for the church members that need it over there) but will now be here in Suwon with me for a while. I can't wait!

A church member gave us 10 kilograms of 김치(kimchi) because we ran out at our house...

t should take us a few weeks or so to finish it.. :)

And actually as I was carrying the kimchi from the church to our home, we passed a couple with a newborn child. I said hello in Korean, and at the same time my companion said hello in English, the Father was not actually Korean and I had failed to notice. So, they were friendly and said hello back, both in English and Korean, and kept going our opposite ways. We were anxious to get home, we had just had a ward activity so I was carrying tons of kimchi and bottles of juice, and my companion was carrying donuts and a pie and we were trying to drop our food off at home before our strength gave out. But after walking for a minute or two, we heard somebody behind us say "Excuse me?" in perfect English. As it turns out, it was the father that we had said hello to a minute before. It turns out that he was from Missouri, and he had turned around to come back to talk to us. So he asked "Are your from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints? You should come to our house sometime, we would love to talk about religion. Can I give you my phone number?" I almost dropped my kimchi. We exchanged info, and hope to meet him again this week. These are the kinds of people that we pray to be able to meet, and we were able to meet him at a time that we weren't even expecting. These kind of experiences may be more common in certain parts of the world, but over here I've come to know how special these experiences are, and I'm so grateful. And I'm grateful that I get to stay here for the next little while, I love this place!

Have a great week everyone!

-Elder Bigelow

PS this week we hiked around Hwaseong fortress, some of it has been restored but it was a pretty sweet fortress back in the 1700s

A little bit better today than you were yesterday

Hello Everyone! I hope everyone enjoyed your 추석 holiday, I know I did. We actually had some unexpected news this week though... There was a problem with the contract of our apartment, so despite all the business of the holiday week we had to move houses~ Here's a photo of the new house:

It's a little bit smaller than our old one, but it's got all the necessities and we don't spend a whole lot of time in the house anyways....

Okay not actually true, that photo was taken at the Korean folk village. In the city next to us, there's a traditional folk village where you can experience some of the customs of Korea, including pottery, dancing, martial arts, architecture, horseback archery, and of course forms of punishment....

It was a super cool adventure, I'm glad I got to see it

There was also an earthquake in Korea this week, very rare here but I think one of if not the largest in recorded Korean history. It was in the Southern part though, so it was just a little bit of shaking on our end. We're all okay!

The other highlight of this week was a visit from Elder Whiting, one of the leaders of our church. We were able to meet with him as leaders of the mission one day, followed by meeting with the whole mission the next day, it was such a great training. He taught us a lot about pushing ourselves to be better and following the guidance of the Spirit, it's been a huge help to me in my missionary work. That's one of the things that I cherish about this church, the fact that no matter where you are currently, the important thing is that you're trying to be a little bit better today than you were yesterday, and a little bit better tomorrow than you are today.

I hope you all have a great week! This is Elder Christensen's last week before he goes home to America, so I'll find out my new companion this Saturday~

Love, 

Elder Bigelow

I literally thrusted in the sickle

Hello Everyone!

This week started off by meeting the oldest couple in our ward, they invited us for a meal. They heard a while ago that all missionaries like Pizza and Fried Chicken, so now they buy it for missionaries every time they come over. However, there's a sister missionary serving in our ward that can't eat wheat, so they said that they would make something different. However upon our arrival, we noticed that they had made Korean food in addition to buying 2 large pizzas and several boxes of fried chicken. So, we ate until we couldn't eat any more, then we shared a message. Then, they taught us yoga exercises to do every morning so we would never have to go to the hospital. Then, the Brother Kim Myeong( the father) felt my back and told me that it was still swollen a little bit from my recent surgery. So he brought out his Chinese blood remedy kit and was prepared to draw a few drops of blood from my back.. Sadly though, I told him that we have to get permission before we receive any medical treatment, so no home remedy blood treatment for me this week. ~I love Korea so much~

Also this week, we had Zone Training, where we were able to teach all of the missionaries in the area for a few hours. This time we talked about the talk "What Lack I Yet" given in November of 2015, which teaches us to turn to God to know what can help us progress and become more like the Savior. It is one of my favorite talks, and being able to learn about it in depth this week was such a privilege.

Our Suwon zone has a banner that every missionary in the area from the past 3 years or so has signed, and we will give it to our previous mission president soon, so my companion and I got to create a new one this week:

Also this week, we did a Zone Language Study, where all of the missionaries meet and more experienced missionaries taught different aspects of Korean that were difficult. Also, we had a class to teach all the Koreans English using a curriculum I prepared. I basically thought of the words in English where the meaning changes based on whether you add down,up,out,in,on,off (for example turn down, turn up, turn out, turn in, turn off, turn on all have different meanings) and we taught the Koreans those subtle differences. English is way hard though, I'm so glad I'm not learning it~

Also this week, I went on exchanges down to AnSeong, which is the southern end of our mission boundaries and is completely countryside. You might remember a scripture verse that goes like this:

3 Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work;  4 For behold the field is white already to harvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul;

I guess I'm a successful missionary now, because I literally thrusted in the sickle. While I was in Anseong, we helped one of the church members there with their farm. So after we harvested some sesame and cleared fist-sized spiders, we used a sickle to clear a path through giant weeds so they could plant more crops. I was a novice with a sickle at best, but I think I started to get the hang of it..

This week is 추석(Chu-seok) in Korea, it is Wednesday through Friday and one of the two biggest holidays in Korea. It is a little bit similar to American thanksgiving, where extended families meet together and enjoy a feast and honor their ancestors. Also, everyone gives each other gifts of tuna, sesame oil, fruit, and spam, it's really a happy time here. I hope you all have a great 추석, don't forget to eat lots of spam and tuna! Love you all!

-Elder Bigelow

Army Soup

Hello Everyone!

This week was pretty historic, yesterday the stakes(a geographical area of church members) of Suwon and Yeong Dong were combined to form the new Gyeong-gi Stake. So we met with about 700 people to make the official changes, with the meeting presided over by Elder Choi of the Quorum of the Seventy and Sister McConkie of the General Primary Presidency. Although we all wish that more stakes were being created instead of shrinking, the leaders emphasized the importance of unity, through a particularly unique example...

This is actually dog meat. 

-One very traditional and popular food in Korea is called kimchi soup, which is very delicious. After the end of the Korean war in the 20th century, Koreans didn't have a lot of food left, and many of them were starving. So, they borrowed some of the staple foods from the American soldiers, namely meats such as ground beef and hot dog meat. But now that combination, called army soup, is served nationwide today and is even more delicious in some people's opinion (including mine). So they talked about how although combining may not seem like a great idea at first, you'll find that things are even better together :)

I'm not sure if I mentioned this last week, but the choir in our ward congregation sang a song in church last Sunday, which of course the missionaries got to participate in. But somehow, they decided we were good enough to sing in front of all 700 people at the meeting yesterday... There were only about 25 of us, but it went well! Although I hope the people in the back could hear us...

Also this week, one of the ward members hosted a dinner and activity for the young single adults in our ward, and the missionaries got to plan the lesson and game. The exchange students from BYU even found their way over to the house, and it was a great time.

We've been working a lot on finding new people that we can teach, and we were blessed to find 3 new people. Two of them are friends with mental disorders that limit them a little bit, but they told us sincerely that they want to change and be better people, and that they trust that we will be able to help them. It was a great reminder to me that the primary role of a missionary is that of service, and doing so will lead us in the direction that the Savior would have us go.

As hard as missionary work can sometimes be, I'm so grateful for the opportunity that I have to be a missionary in Korea, it's the best!

Have a good week everyone!

-Elder Bigelow

Army Soup

Hello Everyone!

This week was pretty historic, yesterday the stakes(a geographical area of church members) of Suwon and Yeong Dong were combined to form the new Gyeong-gi Stake. So we met with about 700 people to make the official changes, with the meeting presided over by Elder Choi of the Quorum of the Seventy and Sister McConkie of the General Primary Presidency. Although we all wish that more stakes were being created instead of shrinking, the leaders emphasized the importance of unity, through a particularly unique example...

This is actually dog meat. 

-One very traditional and popular food in Korea is called kimchi soup, which is very delicious. After the end of the Korean war in the 20th century, Koreans didn't have a lot of food left, and many of them were starving. So, they borrowed some of the staple foods from the American soldiers, namely meats such as ground beef and hot dog meat. But now that combination, called army soup, is served nationwide today and is even more delicious in some people's opinion (including mine). So they talked about how although combining may not seem like a great idea at first, you'll find that things are even better together :)

I'm not sure if I mentioned this last week, but the choir in our ward congregation sang a song in church last Sunday, which of course the missionaries got to participate in. But somehow, they decided we were good enough to sing in front of all 700 people at the meeting yesterday... There were only about 25 of us, but it went well! Although I hope the people in the back could hear us...

Also this week, one of the ward members hosted a dinner and activity for the young single adults in our ward, and the missionaries got to plan the lesson and game. The exchange students from BYU even found their way over to the house, and it was a great time.

We've been working a lot on finding new people that we can teach, and we were blessed to find 3 new people. Two of them are friends with mental disorders that limit them a little bit, but they told us sincerely that they want to change and be better people, and that they trust that we will be able to help them. It was a great reminder to me that the primary role of a missionary is that of service, and doing so will lead us in the direction that the Savior would have us go.

As hard as missionary work can sometimes be, I'm so grateful for the opportunity that I have to be a missionary in Korea, it's the best!

Have a good week everyone!

-Elder Bigelow