Most happiest meeting Elder Holland

Hello everyone! 

In Korea, one popular thing to do is to go to a cafe that has cats in it, so you drink your beverage in the company of cats. I have never been to one of those, but in my last area I walked past something called a "dog cafe" every day for 6 months, but never tried it. But now I have a companion that really likes dogs a lot, so we went and sipped hot chocolate while in the company of a small army of dogs~

And then there's this guy, whose hair may or may not have been crazier than mine then... (I promise I got a haircut later that day)

I would highly recommend it.

Also this week, we had the privilege of meeting with Elder Holland, a member of the Quorum of the 12 apostles. He spent several days in Korea and did several different broadcasts where he talked about the importance of raising children, what being a member of this church means, and the importance of priorities. Additionally, we had the opportunity as missionaries to go and meet him personally in Seoul. We each got to shake his hand, and he gave a wonderful talk. He taught us how to relate personally with those that we teach, it was a huge help. And he also emphasized that none of the missionaries truly understand the magnitude or importance of the work we are participating in. He invited us to consider why it matters that Jesus Christ lives, to consider what that really means. And he invited us as missionaries to consider our role, just how important it is that we are extending the loving hand of the Savior to those we teach or just meet on the street. I feel so spoiled to have had the privilege of learning at the feet of two of the Lord's apostles in the last 6 months, and I'm especially grateful that we do have living prophets and apostles to help lead us towards Christ.

Other fun things this week:

-My English mistake of the week: Instead of saying "most happy" or even just "happiest," I decided to say "most happiest" as I was relating a story. The worst part was, after I said it I stopped and thought "wait, that's not right", but then immediately following that I thought "no, that's right English.. I don't know why I'm second guessing myself"...

-Watching a 2 year-old Korean child dance to a Korean pottytraining song, I still can't decide if his dancing or the lyrics to the song were funnier~

-One of the women that we are teaching has a daughter that is helping to organize the 2018 Olympics, which will take place in Korea. So she gave us these really cool pens and pins that they created when there was officially 1 year left until the olympics-

Have a great week everyone!

(If you want to view Elder Holland's talk you can do it here!: http://www.lds.or.kr/event/devotional-with-elder-holland )

Love,

Elder Bigelow

Me love English

Hello everyone! I'll start off the week with a picture from our children English class~

The writing didn't show up very well, but it says We Love English. The problem was, one of the kids was holding the W upside down so it said "Me Love English".... Maybe we're going to have to be better teachers so these kids don't leave class sounding like the cookie monster...

Other than that, our week was super busy, we are meeting with a whole lot of people so I'll give a quick update on a few of them:

최석원- He is the one that used to be a pastor in another church and began meeting with us to 1-learn English, and 2-learn about our church so that he could start his own eventually. He knew that our church has very good systems, like the lack of paid ministry, worldwide uniformity in administration, humanitarian aid, and a system in the church that doesn't include advancement or being higher than any other member, and so he wanted to learn from it so that he could start his own church eventually. But as we have been meeting over the past 6 weeks or so, we have seen a change in him that I never would have expected. He quickly realized that the systems in this church are not just due to clever administrative tactics, but it is because this church is led by Jesus Christ in all meanings of the word. He realized that although many churches have become corrupt and all about money, that there still is a pure church out there, and his whole perspective has changed. We don't know what the future holds for him, but he intends to continue learning about the church. This is him~

민병희 (Min-byeong-hee)- We met her doing service at a secondhand store a few weeks ago, her son is marrying an American and she wanted to learn English, so we have met her twice now. She loves to practice English, and we love to help. One way that I have been teaching English recently when we teach 1 on 1 is having my companion lead the conversation while I write on  piece of paper. I write down things that we said that they didn't understand, translations of some words, and I write down what they say in correct and natural English, the students have really enjoyed it so far. But 민병희s is also very interested in religion, and has wanted a religion that matches her values. In her searches so far, the religion that has best matched her culture and values has been Buddhism, but she has been very interested as we have talked together about our church. She was excited to learn about the Restoration of the Gospel through the prophet Joseph Smith and the fact that it was such a significant event that happened not too long ago. And she said to us a few days ago, "Not a lot of people in Korea know about your church, I didn't either until I met you. But now that I know, I think that even if I don't join your church I can still help a lot of people know about your church. I've already told over 20 people since we met for the first time last week!"

I feel really blessed to be around such great people, both those that are of our faith and those that are not. I'm looking forward to a great week with a special visit from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles, I'll let you know how it went next week!

Love,

Elder Bigelow

Stickerboarding

Hello everyone! This week was pretty amazing, here's some highlights~

One activity we do as missionaries is called stickerboarding, where we go to a busy street corner with a board that has a question on it. We hand out stickers to everyone that walks by and it gives us a good chance to talk to lots of people at one time. So this last week, my companion and I created one (pictured below) that helped us tell others about our purpose of missionaries. So the question is: "What do You Think When You See Us?"

And the 4 options for them to stick stickers on were:

-"Why are they in Korea?"

-"Am I going to have to speak English?"

-"Why are they wearing nametags?"

-"They are handsome."

We created this board so that we could easily talk to people about our free English class, and also our greater purpose as missionaries which is to help others come unto Christ. The 4th option was just an option to add some fun to the board and keep things light.. So we tried using it this week, we went to a street corner and offered stickers to everyone that walked by for an hour. The problem was, it was harder than we thought to introduce our purpose  because the overwhelming majority of people stuck their sticker on option number 4, "they are handsome". Men, women, children, couples alike all just liked the fourth option... So, maybe this week we will reevaluate our strategy and try again~

Other highlights this week:

-When we said hello to an older lady as she walked by and she said "Hey, I am a Christian too! Here, have this" and proceeded to hand us full-size snickers bars.

-We had stake conference (all the church members in a large area meet for a single meeting) this week, and somehow I can't seem to escape performing in the choir at stake conference. Last time there was stake conference, I was serving in the ward that performed as a choir, and it happened this stake conference as well, because I happened to now be serving in the ward that performed this time. The last song was "Come Unto Jesus", and the choir director shared with us the special meaning that this song had to her because there were still people in her immediate family that she needed to help come unto Jesus. So when the time came to sing in the conference, she began to cry as she conducted and we could all feel her love for the Savior, it was a tender, spiritual experience~

-Yesterday after stake conference, we had a pretty cool experience. We were waiting at the bus stop for a freeway bus that would take us straight home, which is a lot more direct than the subway(you have to transfer subway lines 3 times and then take a bus to get home from the place we were at). But right then, one of our church members who was also leaving stake conference pulled up and offered us a ride home, but they didn't have enough seatbelts to accommodate us(they offered to have one of us ride in the trunk) and as missionaries we have to use seatbelts while we ride in a car, so we thanked them and told them we would have to pass. But during that interchange, the bus we needed drove past us. We weren't worried because we knew it came every 20 minutes or so, until we looked at the monitor and saw that there was almost 50 minutes left until the bus we needed would come again. So we tried to remember the council we got from President Whiting(A member of the quorum of the Seventy) that we got last year. He said something along the lines of "nothing is a coincidence, the Lord will lead you to those who are prepared. No matter where you are as a missionary, you are there for a reason." We tried to keep that perspective in mind as we submitted to taking the subway. After the subway we had another 45 minute bus ride, and during that bus ride a 60-year old couple got on and sat in the seat across from me. I said hello, they told me I was handsome, and we started talking. As it turns out, they were our neighbors! They live in the apartment across the street from ours and they gave us their number and want to have us visit their home. So even though we had to transfer to different kinds of public transportation several times rather than riding in one comfortable bus, I felt the guidance and love of the Lord through that experience.

-We had a baptism in our ward this week! 이세용 (Duncan), who had been meeting with the other missionaries in Suji after first meeting missionaries in Gangnam, was baptized this weekend! We had a wonderful turnout, and even someone we are teaching came to watch!

-We found lots of new people to teach this week! Usually women will meet with Sister Missionaries and men meet with the Elders, but because there is only Elders serving in our area, we have started teaching several women recently. Most of them have interest in learning English as well so we help them with that, but they also all have a open heart and are searching for a religion that truly helps them feel closer to God. I'll keep you updated on how everything goes next week.

Have a great week and happy Valentine's Day!

Love,

Elder Bigelow

In my big email I talked about stickerboarding, we also did it one other time this week and it was the most awkward experience of my life. So this like 16 year old girl came up, and the question on the board was "which of these questions can you answer?" and there was 4 different questions in English. So she picked the Where do you Want to Travel? question, so I asked it to her and she said America. So I was like "hey I'm from America!" then she just nodded and kept standing there (most people walk away at this point). So I was like "do you like English?"~ another nod and she still kept standing there, so I said "Do you want to learn English?"~ another nod, but still no movement away from the board. So I said "here, take this." and gave here the English pamphlet that explains our program. SHe said "thank you", but she just kept standing there! So she just stood there for a few seconds, then looked down at the container of cookies she was holding, then back at me, then back at the cookies, then looks at me and then puts the container forward and offers me a cookie. So I was like "thanks!" but then she still just kept standing there! So after another few seconds I said "bye!" and then, finally, she walked away from the board. The other missionaries were laughing at me so hard...

Sidewalks are straight ice

Hello everyone! 

The weather is still cold here, no snow this week but now all of the sidewalks are straight ice, I haven't slipped yet (I can't say the same for my companion), but there have been plenty of close calls~

Lots of really cool things this week, we've been able to find several more people to teach, and we had a really special experience on Saturday. There is a sister in our ward that does member missionary work better than any of us missionaries can do full-time missionary work, she's a huge help to us. And she helped to organize a "youth English class"( we have a basic, intermediate, and advanced english class but they are mostly adults and sometimes it's hard for teenagers to have fun in those kinds of classes). We have been doing that for a while, and the sister in our ward invited her niece to come to the English class. Their family is not members of our church, but they had a really fun time during English class. The mom (the sister in our ward's sister-in-law) didn't really have any interest in learning English so she would wait outside for the hour during English class. So the sister in our ward thought it would be a great idea if my companion and I practiced teaching with her during that hour. We teach about our church and we want to properly convey just how important this message of hope through Jesus Christ is, but sometimes the the fact that we are doing it in a very difficult language makes it a little more, well, difficult. So, whether members of our church or not, we like to practice teaching a lot with native Koreans so that when it does come time to teach somebody with real interest, that we will be prepared. So we taught about the Plan of Salvation, God's plan for us that tells us where we came from, what our purpose in this life is, and where we will go after this life. And especially since my companion has only been learning Korean for 5 months, this was a great opportunity for him to practice teaching. So we taught this woman, and when the discussion was over, I asked "Well, how did it go?" And she said "I don't know if this teaching helped you to learn Korean at all, but I'm certain that this helped me more than it helped you. Thank you." She then set up another time to meet, and asked if she could have some material to read in advance. I don't know whether or not she will be interested in learning further, but the fact that we could say "Yes, God has answered our prayers, and he will answer yours if you seek him in honest prayer" is more of a blessing than I can explain.

I hope you all have a great week! 

Love,

Elder Bigelow