Going to Ahn-seong!

Hello everyone!

I guess I'll start with transfer news~ This Saturday we got transfer calls letting us know if we would stay in our current area or move. And as much as I would love to keep working here in Suji, I've been assigned from this Wednesday onward to serve in 안성 (Ahn-seong). This area is the most opposite of Seoul that you can get while still remaining in our mission boundaries. It is at the very southern tip of our mission, and it is primarily a farming city (if you remember the day where I visited an area and cut down sesame stalks with a sickle, it's that place). As far as church attendance goes, there is about 10-15 people at church every week. The stake leaders are considering combining this branch with the ward above it. The problem is that the closest building is an hour away, so if they combine them, the members of the church that haven't come to church in a while have a very small chance of coming back to church because the new building would be so far away. So what they are trying to do is focus missionary efforts there for about a year and try to bring all of those people back to church, and if it doesn't work, combine the two congregations after that year. What that also means is that they are having missionaries serve in the branch presidency, one Korean and one foreigner. The foreigner that has been serving there for the last 3 months is going home, so I am going to replace him there, which may mean serving in the branch presidency but I'm not sure so I will let you know next week~ There's going to be a lot of effort required and I will probably stay there until I finish my mission, but I'm excited to do all I can and see the hand of the Lord revealed in this area~

Other things this week:

-Giant Book of Mormon!: There were missionaries in Japan a while ago that made a giant Book of Mormon out of a door, then took it to a busy subway station and shared with everyone how great of a book it is. It was very successful there, so we thought we would try it out here. This is our finished product:

Cool right?

-More Book of Mormon: There is a woman in our ward that has a doctorate in Korean language and is very celebrated as a blog writer, she even proofreads the Korean translations of the church produced magazines. She just published her second book a few weeks ago, and her first book was her testimony and thoughts on several verses from the Old Testament, New Testament, and the Book of Mormon. In fact, it was the first book that talks about the Book of Mormon to be sold in Korean bookstores. And this week as a parting gift she gave one to the missionaries, personally signed and everything!

-English mistake of the week: I was eating some ramen noodles with my companion a few days ago, and it was a type of ramen with very skinny noodles (many types of ramen in Korea have thicker noodles). So in my attempt to say, "This noodles are really skinny, huh?" I instead said "These noodles are really skinny, honey." Not too long after, my companion's noodles were everywhere because he started laughing mid-bite. I'm going to start living with Koreans for the first time starting this week and I'm a little worried because my English ability has nowhere to go but south...

-Pamphlet kid: There are several pamphlets that the missionaries use to help them teach, and the ones in the Korean pamphlets include pictures of Korean people in them, it goes that way for every language. One of the kids that was featured in the pamphlet as a toddler is now a teenager and is in Suji ward! So of course, I had to grab a picture with him before I left~

Little fishies: We found a place where you can put your feet in a little tub and have little fish eat all of the dead skin and other stuff off of your feet, I would highly recommend it~

Well, I think that's it for me this week. I'm off to the countryside to work in the Lord's vineyard, and maybe even some real vineyards. I'm excited for the challenge, I love the Book of Mormon, I love Korea, and I love being a missionary~

Love,

Elder Bigelow