2nd Christmas in Korea

Hello everyone and Merry Christmas! I'm about to Skype with my family, so I'll keep things short for today!

I hope you all had a great Christmas and found some great opportunities to serve others! I had a great 2nd Christmas in Korea, being a missionary on Christmas is the best. Since Christmas was on a Sunday, we had a combined church meeting with the ward that shares the building with us, making a congregation of about 300 people. I was able to participate in the choir, and I loved celebrating the reason for the season with all of the church members. Then after that, my companion and I went with some other missionaries and visited church members and sang Christmas songs with them for the afternoon. The only problem was, every house we visited insisted on giving us food before we left, so our bags got heavier and our arms got more full as we continued from house to house. Then at night, we were invited to a church member's house for dinner. And it turned out that they invited both of the American families in our ward, so we had an almost American Christmas party to finish off the night. I've enjoyed lots of love from the Suji ward members, we even got some new socks to replace ours that inevitably get holes in them.

Other things this week:

We also had a combined Christmas party on the night of Christmas Eve, complete with a play done by the missionaries- We wrote a play about missionaries that went to find the baby Jesus on the first Christmas. It's in Korean, but I tried to include a link so you can view it if you would like~

We were also able to start meeting somebody new this week, his name is 최석원 (Choi-seok-won). He actually used to be a pastor in a Christian congregation. But he felt like churches were all about money and gaining influence, and the churches weren't able to help him with the problems he was having in his life. So he came to us with a desire to both learn English and to have some of his spiritual questions answered, he's a super nice guy.

I hope you all have a great week, and I'll check back in next year!

Love,

Elder Bigelow

Time as a missionary is precious

Hello everyone!

Last week I was sick and I mentioned that it was all over. But it turned out that I was just the halftime, because I contracted tonsilitis the next day.. One of my tonsils swelled to the middle of my mouth and the other tonsil soon joined it, and didn't leave a whole lot of room for me to breathe, and my voice sounded pretty funny. So that took me out of the game for several days, and I eventually was told I should go to the hospital(Korean hospitals are pretty different from American ones, there are not really separate "doctor's offices"). So I went to one of the biggest hospitals in Korea in Gangnam, and got some medicine which has worked like a dream and I'm feeling a whole lot better now, my voice is even back to normal.

It's kind of a bummer  to only have 2 years to serve a mission and then have to spend several days sick in bed, but I think it's a good reminder for me that the time as a missionary is precious and we can't let any seconds go to waste.

But on the lighter side of things: We taught our children's English class for the second time this past weekend, and the first time we did it, I introduced a rotation of show-and-tell. So I taught them what it was by bringing something that I liked, then saying a few simple sentences in English about that item. Then I told them that they would all take turns doing show and tell (followed by a look of terror on their faces), then I assigned on of the boys to bring an item the next week. So last weekend, I was very worried that he wouldn't remember and we would have no show-and-tell. Then as he walked in with his favorite soccer ball, I breathed a sigh of relief. But when the next child walked in with a stuffed animal, followed by a girl holding a souvenir, followed by a boy with a top, followed by a boy with a fully functional drone, it became very clear to me that the whole "take turns bringing items to share" part had gotten lost in translation... So, every single student brought their show-and-tell, and we had an entire class of English show-and-tell! They're the best~~

I hope you all have a great Christmas! I'm excited for the time that I get to spend with the Korean people here celebrating the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ and for the time I get to spend inviting them all to come and partake of his infinite love and mercy. I hope that you can all take a minute and consider what Christmas means for you and for all of us. Love you all!

-Elder Bigelow

You'll never get to be a spectator

Hello Everyone!

This week was the end of transfers, where we find out if we will stay in the area or be moved. Training a new missionary takes 12 weeks, so I will stay with Elder Curtis here in Suji for 6 more weeks! Elder Curtis is great and so are the members here, I'm super excited to be able to spend some more time here.

I was a little bit sick with a cold for a lot of the week so there was some time that had to be spent inside, but now I'm doing fine and I love being able to go outside as a missionary.

One thing we did get to do outside though was Christmas caroling! We are sharing a message about Jesus Christ and this Christmas we are focusing on the theme of "Light the World" (found at mormon.org) so we gathered about 25 missionaries, and most of us sang while a couple people stood out front and told people that stopped to listen about how we can try to be like Jesus Christ this Christmas season.

We also had Zone Training this week, a time where we get to learn from our mission leaders how to be better missionaries. I had been in charge of that meeting for the last 6 months, so I  made the comment about how I finally get to be a "spectator" again. But they had me to the translation for the meeting, so it turned out that I actually didn't get a break this time... But one of the Korean missionaries came up to me after and said "you'll never get to be a spectator".. She also thanked me for the translation and said "Because of your help, I was able to receive guidance and inspiration from the training." I think for me, that is what makes learning Korean all worth it. I've been so grateful to learn a new language and use it to be able to help people come unto Christ, it's just amazing.

To finish, I just wanted to share a scripture that I came across this week and I really liked:

John 16:10: "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much"

I know that as we continue faithfully doing the things that may seem mundane or simple (praying every day, reading our scriptures, going to church), that we are preparing and will be more prepared to be faithful in those things that may be  harder, but will bring the greatest of blessings.

Have a great week everyone!

-Elder Bigelow

Advent Calendar

Hello everyone! I hope you are all enjoying your December! Our church is putting a lot of effort towards helping everyone around the world remember Jesus Christ (and the example he showed) this December (found at mormon.org). And in Asia, they even created an advent calendar, that contains ideas for ways we can serve others. Each day, you scratch off the number, and the calendar talks about one way that Jesus served others, followed by a specific suggestion for how we can serve today. And as we scratched off the very first number on the first of December, the calendar told about how Jesus fed those that were hungry. And of course, the challenge was to "deliver food to the missionaries." I'll just say that there are 200 people in Suji who all saw that on December 1st and I'll leave it at that...

Also this week, my companion and I started teaching a children's English class. There are a lot of members of our ward in this area that have kids that all go to the same school, so they came and brought several of their friends to a free English class taught by us. Keeping 15 children under control is a little bit complicated when you are speaking a language that they do not understand, but we focused on learning English through lots of fun games. We played a game where each letter of the Alphabet was written on a piece of paper, then I would announce a word, then the kids would have to pick up the papers and get in a line to spell the word. They had a blast, but I noticed something quickly that one of the adult Korean men called the "Korean Disease". That is, the need to be organized and have a system. I gave them all of the alphabet cards, and they laid them out in perfect alphabetical order, and did the same when it was time to clean up. Those kids were the cutest though, it was so much fun.

This week, our investigator 이정수 (Lee Jeong Su) passed his interview and got accepted to a very prestigious high school, so he has a little bit more free time now. And he had a lot of questions about baptism, so we invited him to watch a baptism with us that happened yesterday

 in our building. He has a Buddhist religious background so a lot of it was very new to him, but after he remarked that it seemed like a very special experience. So we're excited to keep working with him, he's super cool~

That's it for this week, I had some cool pictures but it's not quite working so I'll leave it at Have a great week everyone! Go check out mormon.org!

Love, Elder Bigelow

Chicken, Chicken

Hello everyone! Here's the picture of our giant leaves I promised- These things are everywhere. (we had our first snow of the year this weekend!)

Korean food lesson: There is a work for "chicken" in Korean (the one that you eat), but Koreans also say the English word "chicken." The thing is, they mean completely different things. If you say "chicken," (the English word), you are expressly referring to Korean fried chicken(which is delicious) and saying the actual Korean word for chicken refers to all other kinds of chicken. So a church member asked my companion this week if he had eaten "chicken" in Korea yet. We went to eat a chicken stir fry dish one of the first days here, so my companion of course said yes, not knowing the difference. But then I had to tell the member, "no, we didn't eat "chicken" chicken, we have just eaten chicken." The member thought it was just the funniest thing that you could mix up "chicken" chicken and other chicken, and he loves to share the story with everyone else  at church. Good thing my companion Elder Curtis is a good sport~

Last week, I told the story of the restaurant owner in the middle of nowhere that drove us to our appointment when we had gone way off course. Well this week, we went back to the middle of nowhere (this time on purpose), and visited the same restaurant. We wanted to bring them cookies to express our gratitude, and eat there while we were at it. So we gave them some cookies, sat down to eat, then realized that this was a VERY expensive duck restaurant. We get money for food as missionaries, but we have to be frugal, because it is not a whole lot. So we were  a little bit worried and I think the owner noticed that and said, "I'll give you guys the cheapest thing and make it a meal" I want to show you the picture to show you just how hard of a time the person washing  dishes has- always so many side dishes..

Also this week to celebrate thanksgiving, we had a Thanksgiving party in our English class. We played charades, and even "pin the feather on the Turkey". 

And to top it off, our ward members surprised everyone by buying a real turkey and doing an entire thanksgiving dinner, including mashed potatoes,  gravy, stuffing, green bean casserole, and cranberry cheesecake. The event was a big success all thanks to our church members.

And in order remember the Savior this Christmas season, our church has created a video and a program to help all of us reach out and serve others this Christmas season. It's really great and you can check it out at  https://www.mormon.org/christmas

Have a great week everyone!

love, 

-Elder Bigelow

Gigantic

Hello everyone!

Things are going well over here, it's getting colder, and all the leaves are changing colors, and the leaves here are GIGANTIC, I'll try and grab a picture with one next week. I love Seoul, but it is nice to be in a little smaller city where we're surrounded by mountains and can have cool parks like this

But Seoul does have its fair share of sights to see, including lots of modern art. Behold~

On a less peaceful note, we were walking home this week and saw a giant puddle of blood next to the sidewalk... We were pretty worried at first, but there were others around, so we figured that whoever it was had gotten help of some sort already. We thought it was somebody that had been hit by a car, but then there was a trail of blood that led all the way into our apartment complex and almost to the front door of our building. We haven't quite figured out what happened, but if anyone hears about some strange things going on in Yongin, Korea, let me know~

This week we went to visit a member who lives in the outskirts of the city. We had a picture of the map (which is the best navigation technology we have here), and we rode the bus early just to make sure we would be able to find it. We walked down a mountain road like the map said, but didn't see it. We kept walking down the road for about 20 minutes, and as we went further into the mountains we could feel the weather getting colder as we walked. We kept seeing no houses, so we decided to go into a restaurant that was out in the middle of nowhere and ask them for directions. After the owner found the address on his phone, we realized that we had been walking for 20 minutes down the wrong side road, and that we would have to walk another 20 minutes back, including another 10 minutes down the right road, making us very late to our appointment. Then, the restaurant owner insisted that he would drive us to the house, and dropped us off right on the doorstep. I love living here with such nice people, and ever since that night I've felt like it would be a good idea to visit his restaurant again to thank him. So when we have time this week to go to the middle of nowhere, that's our plan!

We also met with 이정수 (Lee Jeong Su) again this week at a member's home, he is studying to enter a very prestigious high school and passed his test this week! Now he has an interview on Saturday, and he thanked us for his prayers on his behalf. He seems a little nervous about baptism, especially the part about going under the water... But he's great and we'll keep working with him.

Elder Curtis is doing great, he eats Korean food really well and we did lots of teaching practice with members this week which has helped him a lot.

I hope you all have a great American Thanksgiving, eat lots of Turkey and remember to be thankful! Love you all!

-Elder Bigelow

I might need professional help

Hello everyone! I just finished at the immigration office here in Seoul with my companion, this is my fourth time being here since coming back to Korea in July. I think they'll start calling me by name here pretty soon...

Things are going really well over here in Suji, we've started trying to memorize all the names of the 200 church members here, and I can say it's a lot easier to memorize Korean names than when I first got here, but I can say that it's going to take a while. But one thing we did do this week is make hundreds of cookies! It's always good to give people a little treat when they do something nice for you, so cookies or brownies are a common choice for missionaries t give as a treat. The problem is that you have to make cookies every time you want to give them to somebody which takes a long time that could otherwise be spent doing missionary work. So something that I've been wanting to do and finally tried was just making hundreds of cookies and then freezing them so that we can use them for weeks whenever we need them. So we did it once, and now don't have to worry about it for the next month or so. We're going to have to pray for no freezer burn though...

I like speaking Korean most of the time even when I'm with my American companions, but since my companion Elder Curtis has only been learning Korean for 2 months, there is still a lot that he doesn't understand yet, meaning that I have to speak a lot of English. But I think the desire to avoid speaking English has become so deeply ingrained within me that instead of using American English, I almost exclusively speak with a British accent. I might need professional help.

Our ward is really into sporting activities, so on Thursday nights they have basketball, on Saturday mornings they have soccer, and on Saturday afternoons they have table tennis. They are all super fun, and it gives us a great opportunity to get close with the ward members and invite those that we meet to get close with church members. But this week has made me wish that I spent my 9 years on a soccer team playing soccer instead of playing in the dirt. Live and Learn..

Training is super fun, I love it. I love being able to share with Elder Curtis all the amazing foods, sights and smells of Korea and it makes me realize how grateful I am to be here. It is pretty stressful though when the ward asks "who is the most senior missionary?" and then you look to your right, then to your left, and then you realize that it is actually you and then they start explaining how to cook the food that they are handing you. :)

We met with a 16 year old named 이정수 (Lee jeong su). He had met with missionaries before and yesterday was our first time meeting him since moving here. A member invited us to meet in their home. and we taught about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We talked about how a belief in Christ leads us to want to follow him and to follow his example, specifically through repentance and baptism. Then we invited him to be baptized, and the situation was right and he said yes! We will keep meeting with him, and I'll keep you updated!

Have a good week everyone! 

-Elder Bigelow

Wow, that looks refreshing

Hello everyone!

This week was definitely the busiest of my mission, and it was full of adventure~

This past week consisted of saying good bye to a lot of the people I've met living in suwon, I have a bunch of pictures but they don't all fit in one email so you can refer to the link to my Dropbox. 

This is 장경식(jang gyeong shik) and his family. They started coming to English class about 4 months ago and I have been teaching them in the basic English class since then, and they have become my family here in Korea. They're all so funny, and they told me that they would take me on a tour of Korea once my mission is over. They're the best!

And this is 김대현(Kim Dae Hyeon), the 11 year old that we have been meeting with. We always played Uno with him for 30 minutes, then taught a lesson. He is planning to get baptized later this month. We showed him a picture of baptism and he said "wow, that looks refreshing" He's also the best.

Then at the end of the week, I moved to Suji수지, an area in the city northeast of Suwon. Since both ELder Case and I moved there, we just took 2 trips by bus and carried all of our belongings. Then on Saturday we went to the mission home to meet our greenies(brand new missionaries)!

My new companion that I will be training is Elder Curtis:

He's from Woods Cross, Utah and is 19 and is the most easygoing person you'll ever meet. He is studying to be a nurse. I'm super excited to work with him, I think we're going to have a lot of fun.

All four missionaries here in suji are new to the ward, and the Suji ward actually has about 200 members, one of the biggest around here. So it was strange to meet 200 people all in 3 hours and frankly a little bit overwhelming, but I love the challenge. I'm excited to be here, I'm excited to teach Elder Curtis all the Korean I know, I'm excited to work here in SUji, and I'm excited to be a missionary.

Fun story of the week: I have been saving all my coins in a piggy bank since I started my mission. And this piggy bank doesn't have a hole big enough to take coins out, only to put them in, you have to physically make the hole bigger to get them out (a really good method for saving money). Anyways, I never took money out, just put all my coins in for a year. But it weighed about 10 pounds and I didn't want to have to add that to the weight as I moved, so I decided to cash the coins in at the bank for paper bills. I was hoping that it would be at least 30 or 40 dollars after that long of saving coins. But when all the coins were totaled, it turns out that it was a few coins short of 100 dollars(in the Korean currency equivalent). Dinner is on me from now on.

Fun story of the week pt. 2: The better I get at Korean, the worse I get at English. And it's not like I forget grammar or words (I do forget hard words sometimes i.e. dissolve), but the noticeable decline in language ability comes in the colloquial phrases that I tend to mix up or omit certain parts. So yesterday in my attempt to say "I'm excited to have some alfredo pasta pretty soon here" I said "I'm excited to have some alfredo pasta pretty here"... I can no longer function in an English society.

Have a great week everyone!

Headed to Suji

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a good Halloween! Our ward did a Halloween party last Saturday and we were in charge of decorations because we're the only people who have actually celebrated Halloween. It went really well, we even had a bat garland and a giant candy corn (apparently Koreans have never heard of candy corn and thought it was a beehive...), but unfortunately my camera was dead at that point so photos are pending.

Also news for this week: I'm getting transferred! I've been here for 6 months, and on Saturday night we found out that I will be moving to 수지 (Suji) this week, which is actually in the city right next to Suwon. It is also in the same stake, so I think I will still be able to see some of the ward members. Because I was leaving, I gave a short testimony in Sacrament meeting and told the members that because of my surgery, it was already my second time serving in that ward, so I didn't think that coming back for a 3rd time would be out of the question... They took it as a promise~

Here's the twist though: my companion, Elder Case, is also getting transferred. And he is also getting transferred to Suji. And we will continue to live together. But we will not be companions anymore. Starting on Saturday, we will each train a brand new missionary. So I will be a trainer! I'm a little bit nervous, but also excited for the opportunity to be a trainer. I'll let you all next week how it goes!

Also here is a picture of me with 최기성(choi-gi-seong). He is a recent convert who completely turned his life around this year. He works out of town so he can't meet with us often anymore but he calls us almost every day just to check on us:)

Other things this week:

-With the 8 missionaries in our district, we have one that can play the cello, one that can play the violin, and one that can play the ukulele, so this week we decided to do musical proselyting. We picked out a few songs, then went to a park in our area and did our own little performance. It went really well, lots of people stopped to listen and we were able to share our message with lots of them

-When we meet with members, we often talk about Korean accents (because they vary by region) and also different American accents. And since we have 2 missionaries from Utah, one from California, and one from North Carolina, we are able to cover a good percentage of American dialects. I'm getting really good at the California surfer accent~

-Yesterday while we were travelling, my companion left his bag on the bus yesterday.. Not only did it have all his materials and a brand new camera, but it also had his passport, because we were going to return it to the mission office. Lucky for him though, we are living in Korea and the percentage of honest citizens here is a whole lot higher than most other countries. So, this morning we went to the bus station and picked up his back, new camera and passport and all. ~Korea is the best~

I think that's it for this week, I'll talk to you all next week!

-Elder Bigelow

Elder Bednar!!!!

Hello everyone!

This week in sacrament meeting, there was something called the Primary Program, where the young children sing songs and share brief messages, always the best Sunday of the year. Last time it happened while I was a missionary though, there was only 3 kids in the ward so the missionaries did it too, but this ward has about 15 kids so I just did translation this time. But when one of the 9-year-old kids was sharing a brief message, he was quoting an old church leader, so their title was Elder ____ (some name I can't remember) But when the kid tried to say the person's name every time, he said "Elder Bigelow" instead... It was quite endearing and it means that I have been here for quite a while :)  The sad part was that he felt like he had really messed up and cried after, so this story has quite the sad ending but I figured I'd share it~

As we were walking this week, we met a man who stopped us and asked what the "Latter-Day Saints" part of our church name meant. It was a perfect opportunity for us to explain the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days, as well as introducing the Book of Mormon. After we explained it, he said something along the lines of "Wow, I never knew about the Book of Mormon, or that there were people following Jesus Christ on the American continent either... If this Book is true, this can't be taken lightly! I'm a leader in my Christian congregation, but if this is true I am going to have to tell all of them about it too... I can't just believe all of this right away though. I'll try reading it, and then I want to meet and talk about it." For all those that have been a missionary, you will understand exactly how great of an experience we thought this was. Now, I don't know how things will work out with him, but I'm grateful that The Lord put us in his path so that we were able to meet this man.

Jared didn't send this but I pulled it off the blog
 written by his mission president.  He has a
fun personality demonstrated by this photo bomb.

And the highlight of this week was a visit to our mission by Elder David A. Bednar, a member of the quorum of the 12 apostles. We met in Seoul, and were able to spend roughly 3 hours with him. It really was life changing- He spent most of the time answering missionaries' questions, as well as letting us ask questions and helping us to find the answer to them. My favorite part of it was something that he said along the lines of:

" You will likely never have another opportunity like this in your life. You are here for three hours in an audience of 250 people, meeting with one of the 12 apostles, 2 mission presidents, and 2 members of the Quorum of the Seventy, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. So if there's one thing that I hope you learn from this meeting, if it is only one thing, I hope you understand that you don't need an apostle to answer your questions. You have the promise of the companionship of the Holy Ghost, and a promise from God that you can receive answers and revelation from God." Cool, right?

He also spoke a lot about becoming agents who choose to act and become what God would have us be, rather than just being acted upon as an object. I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to learn at the feet of one of the Lord's chosen apostles, it is something I will never forget~

(PS there should be a picture of us with Elder Bednar on the mission blog soon)

Have a great week everyone!

Love, 

Elder Bigelow

Scooping rice

Hello Everyone!

It's taken a few weeks, but here is the photo from our Zone Training this month! I hope I never leave this place, it's the best  

Some of the missionaries in our area serve at a soical welfare center once a month, we help serve meals to Elderly people, it's super fun. As these people go through the line, they get their rice, their meat, then the side dish, followed by the kimchi, and then grab a bowl of some kind of soup and then enjoy their meal. So as missionaries, we put on our caps and our breath guards and gloves, and put the food on their plate for them. My first time there, I was in charge of the meat, the easiest task. I did that for a few times, and then last time I was upgraded to scooping soup, a much more difficult task. The tofu sinks to the bottom, and if there's not a good ratio, people aren't happy. I did okay though, no huge mistakes. As of this last week though, I have been doing this service project the longest, I was assigned to scoop the rice, the most difficult of all the tasks in the kitchen. The rice must be stirred once it finishes cooking, but it's also extremely hot. I suffered some first degree burns on my hands, but I only got yelled at once for not stirring the rice well enough, so I'm counting that one as a success. I love serving here~

As far as missionary work goes, we have still been working with 김대현 and he came to church for the first time yesterday! We will have to postpone his baptism because he hasn't been able to come to church for a few weeks, but he is progressing really well. We gave him a Book of Mormon Stories book and he carries it around whenever he meets with us, he's my favorite.

Looking forward to this week, we will have the opportunity to hear from Elder David A. Bednar, an apostle of the Lord. We have been preparing for this for quite a while now, and I know that this week is going to be life-changing.

Talk to you next week!

-Elder Bigelow

Trying not to let all the power go to my head

Hello everyone!

The seasons have changed again, Spring and Autumn in Korea are only about 6 days long. But last winter was the coldest in 14 years, and last summer was the hottest in 24 years, so I'm excited to see what this winter has up its sleeve..

My fever disappeared on Tuesday, just in time for a super busy week. On Tuesday, we had Mission Leadership council, where some of the missionaries gather and receive training which we then teach to the rest of the missionaries. We talked quite a lot about preparing for Elder Bednar, a member of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles who will be visiting us next Wednesday.

Then Wednesday involved figuring out how to best relay the information to the rest of the missionaries. It actually included a whole lot of translating, because we got lots of handouts, but all of them were in English. And I love Koreans and want them to understand too, so we had to translate quite a bit. I'm not exactly certain they could understand our amateur translation, but it's the thought that counts, right?

Then on Thursday we met all the missionaries in our zone to have our monthly zone training. Actually as missionaries, to protect ourselves we follow lots of pretty specific rules, some of which include calling to ask for permission to use the computer, leave the house early, or change out of the missionary attire. And since I am currently serving as the only Zone Leader, I am currently the only one that can give permission for  all the missionaries to do that. So I take that responsibility very seriously, but I also realized this week how funny of an idea it is, especially to those who are not missionaries. I told someone that we have been teaching while we were practicing English that all of the missionaries in 5 different cities have to call me if they want to change clothes or use the computer, and he couldn't stop laughing for a solid 5 minutes. I'm trying not to let all the power get to my head~ :)

Also this week we were able to watch General Conference, a biannual broadcast from the leaders of our church. I really enjoyed all the talks that were given, I don't think I can choose a favorite... But one that I really enjoyed was from Elder Ballard, who quoted the Savior in saying, "Where Will You Go?", a question the Savior posed to those who decided to leave him when he taught some things that may have been hard to follow. And Elder Ballard posed the same question to us, asking where we would go should we decide to abandon the truth we have obtained. And the simple truth is, there is nowhere else you can go to find the restored church of Jesus Christ in the latter days, and I'm eternally grateful for that. To watch General Conference: https://www.lds.org/general-conference?lang=eng

After General Conference ended, we went with a member of our ward to Seoul to visit 강우석(Kang-U-Seok), a young man in our ward who has been fighting brain cancer for several years. He is in recovery after his 3rd brain surgery, but the tumor is growing back again so it looks like all we can hope for now is a miracle. But my companion and I were able to give him a priesthood blessing of comfort and counsel, and it was a very tender moment for everyone that was present.

 I feel selfish because I've learned so much more than anyone I have come here to teach, but I'm so grateful for the blessing of being a missionary

Have great week everyone!

Love, 

Elder Bigelow 

Trying not to let all the power go to my head

Hello everyone!

The seasons have changed again, Spring and Autumn in Korea are only about 6 days long. But last winter was the coldest in 14 years, and last summer was the hottest in 24 years, so I'm excited to see what this winter has up its sleeve..

My fever disappeared on Tuesday, just in time for a super busy week. On Tuesday, we had Mission Leadership council, where some of the missionaries gather and receive training which we then teach to the rest of the missionaries. We talked quite a lot about preparing for Elder Bednar, a member of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles who will be visiting us next Wednesday.

Then Wednesday involved figuring out how to best relay the information to the rest of the missionaries. It actually included a whole lot of translating, because we got lots of handouts, but all of them were in English. And I love Koreans and want them to understand too, so we had to translate quite a bit. I'm not exactly certain they could understand our amateur translation, but it's the thought that counts, right?

Then on Thursday we met all the missionaries in our zone to have our monthly zone training. Actually as missionaries, to protect ourselves we follow lots of pretty specific rules, some of which include calling to ask for permission to use the computer, leave the house early, or change out of the missionary attire. And since I am currently serving as the only Zone Leader, I am currently the only one that can give permission for  all the missionaries to do that. So I take that responsibility very seriously, but I also realized this week how funny of an idea it is, especially to those who are not missionaries. I told someone that we have been teaching while we were practicing English that all of the missionaries in 5 different cities have to call me if they want to change clothes or use the computer, and he couldn't stop laughing for a solid 5 minutes. I'm trying not to let all the power get to my head~ :)

Also this week we were able to watch General Conference, a biannual broadcast from the leaders of our church. I really enjoyed all the talks that were given, I don't think I can choose a favorite... But one that I really enjoyed was from Elder Ballard, who quoted the Savior in saying, "Where Will You Go?", a question the Savior posed to those who decided to leave him when he taught some things that may have been hard to follow. And Elder Ballard posed the same question to us, asking where we would go should we decide to abandon the truth we have obtained. And the simple truth is, there is nowhere else you can go to find the restored church of Jesus Christ in the latter days, and I'm eternally grateful for that. To watch General Conference: https://www.lds.org/general-conference?lang=eng

After General Conference ended, we went with a member of our ward to Seoul to visit 강우석(Kang-U-Seok), a young man in our ward who has been fighting brain cancer for several years. He is in recovery after his 3rd brain surgery, but the tumor is growing back again so it looks like all we can hope for now is a miracle. But my companion and I were able to give him a priesthood blessing of comfort and counsel, and it was a very tender moment for everyone that was present.

 I feel selfish because I've learned so much more than anyone I have come here to teach, but I'm so grateful for the blessing of being a missionary

Have great week everyone!

Love, 

Elder Bigelow 

Elder Case

Hello Everyone!

I hope you all enjoyed your week and I hope you all enjoyed your general conference! We will watch it this week on Saturday and Sunday because of the time change, and I couldn't be more excited!

Other exciting news this week: I got a new companion! We went to Seoul on Wednesday to drop Elder Christensen off, and now I'm serving with Elder Case. I really don't think I've met a happier person in my life~ He just loves everyone and complements everyone, I'm really excited to serve with him. And I haven't even gotten lost once, that's the most surprising thing. Anyways, Elder Case is the same age as me, is from Utah, Speaks Spanish and American Sign Language, and now Korean and Korean Sign Language. So I'm trying to learn Korean Sign Language from him, I've only got the alphabet down so far though...

Also now that Elder Christensen left, I'm in charge of translating from Korean to English during Sacrament Meeting for the members of our congregation that don't speak Korean. Which isn't too bad, until someone shares a story about nuclear power plants and molecular interactions... At that point I just kind of laughed at how lost I was~ 

I've been a little sick for the past few days with a fever that has been up and down, so I've had to rest quite a bit but I do have some American brand medicine that does a pretty good job at keeping it under control :)  We've got a busy week ahead of us though, so I'm hoping it will be gone by tomorrow~

Probably the highlight of this week was being able to set a baptismal date with 김대현(Kim Dae Hyeon). He is an 11 year old that we have met with a few times, and he decided that he wants to be baptized on the 23rd of this month. He's a super good kid, and I'm excited to see all of the progress he will make!

That's all for this week, I hope you all have a great one!

Love, 

Elder Bigelow

PS Last week in English class the lesson was about body parts, so we spent the entire class naming a ton of body parts

And then this week, one of my English class members showed me a diagram she had made with all the body parts we talked about

Artistic, right? ~My students make me so proud~

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