Pretty sweet birthday

Hello everyone! And thank you for the birthday wishes, I'm having a pretty sweet birthday here in Korea. I actually just had lunch with my trainer (first missionary companion) Zak Johnson, he has been working in Korea over the summer and heads back to America tonight. I'm 19 in America now, still 20 over here though.

Also, the sister missionaries from our ward surprised me with an ice cream cake yesterday, so I've felt lots of birthday love here in Korea :)

We did quite a bit of things things week, I'll try and cover most of them:

1- Bowling in Korea. On our preparation day, we went bowling with some other missionaries (my first time here), not whole lot to say about it but it was a whole lot of fun.

2- We tried out a new service project this week, which consisted of cleaning up cages at a puppy adoption center, followed by taking them out to play. It was a ton of fun, but we didn't actually get a whole lot of interaction with other people so it will probably be just a one-time activity..

Pretty cute though, right?(especially the dog I'm holding)

3-Interviews. We got to meet with our mission president for a little bit this week and talk 1-on-1 about how we're doing and ways we can improve. President Turner is fairly new to the mission, but him and his wife are fantastic and I've loved serving with them so far. We talked a lot about training younger missionaries, especially with language ability, because there are a lot of new missionaries coming soon who will need someone to teach them.

4-Stickerboarding. Missionaries here often do something called stickerboarding, where we offer people a sticker which they stick on a board that says something like "What's the hardest part of learning English?" Or just any question we want to. We use it often to advertise our free english class, and this week we did it at a very busy train station on a Friday night with 6 missionaries. I think the picture will have to wait until next week though..

5- Baptism. My companion taught somebody about our church when he lived in Seoul last month and she chose to be baptized last Sunday. We were able to attend, and being able to see the joy radiating from everybody present was such a privilege.   

I think that's most of the big events for this week! We had some thunderstorms this week and it's still super hot, but I did actually get a very special birthday present from a church member yesterday. He had a plug-in A/c unit that his family wasn't using anymore, so he brought it over last night and our house is officially A/C equipped *two thumbs up*

Thanks again for the birthday wishes and have a great week everyone!

-Elder Bigelow

Random service opportunities

Hello everyone!

I was wrong when I said that last week was the hottest of the summer... My companion and I are tempted to go sleep at the church every night because our house doesn't have any air conditioning. But we're surviving.. And we're happy.

Some things from this week:

My older Sister Corinne got married this past weekend, so congrats to her! The subject in church yesterday was marriage and family- Without fail, all the Korean people freak out when they hear both how many kids Americans have and how young they get married. I think the average marriage age in Korea is close to mid 30s.. One tradition in Korea is to make sure that before the couple gets married, they try to buy a house and several other things first, so saving up for that can often take a long time.

We also had several experiences with foreigners who were very good at Korean:

Missionaries met a guy named Tamer from Egypt a while back, and we were able to meet with him again this week. He's lived in Korea for 16 years, so he is fluent at English, Korean, and  his native language Arabic. He is a devout Muslim and has been his whole life, and he is just the nicest person I've ever met. He loves his family and is working for a better future for his kids, and he just believed that none of us should judge each other and just love everyone. One thing I've been privileged to do while serving as a missionary has been to meet so many great people, both inside and outside my faith, that teach me how to be a better person, I'm grateful for that.

The other foreigner who was amazing at Korean was Mark Peterson, a professor of Korean at BYU. He was one of the first missionaries in Korea, and he spoke in Suwon yesterday. We were able to bring someone named 한동균 (Han Dong Gyun), who we have been teaching for a while now. He enjoyed it, and as we have been meeting with him, he has grown to love the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

One thing that I have been grateful for this week is opportunities to serve others. As missionaries, we try to serve other people at every opportunity, but a lot of people tend to be very independent and refuse any of our help. But this week, we were able to find random service opportunities, whether it was helping somebody on the street lift a bookshelf, or helping a church member move some very fancy and very heavy orthopedic beds. And although I've sweat this week more than I ever have, the times when I have been able to serve others have been the happiest.

Have a good week everyone!

-Elder Bigelow

The Lord's work really is the greatest

Hello everyone!

This week has been pretty good, although (hopefully) one of the hottest and most humid weeks of the summer. The past few days have cooled off though, even rain for most of the weekend. I feel like Americans are a lot more nonchalant about than rain than Koreans are though. I think it's because there's pollution in the air so it creates acid rain. So the story is that if you let your hair get wet, it will fall out. I'm not 100% sure of that validity but I'm choosing to carry an umbrella just in case.

One other thing you have to watch out for in Korea is the fans. Since most of the houses don't have air conditioning, we use electric fans to keep cool, especially at night. But all Koreans mkae sure to put their fans on the "rotate" setting so the fan moves back and forth while you sleep, as opposed to the fan blowing constantly in one direction. Why? Because if you have the cold air blowing over you constantly, it can lower your body temperature and you could die in the night. That's the story, and a lot of Americans laugh when they hear it. But again, I'm going to do as the locals do, you can never be too careful with electric fans~

This week was really good! We had some training's which helped me get even more excited to be a missionary again. One of the major themes that we discussed was what being a missionary really means. We are promised that we can find more joy and satisfaction than we ever have as we serve as full-time missionaries, so I was able to really tell everyone during the training that we gave that it was true. I said that while I was in America, I did lots of fun things that missionaries don't do (eat my mom's delicious cooking, hang out with my family, watch movies (people have been trying to make me tell them about the new movies nonstop)), but that at the end of every day I went to bed wishing that I was a missionary again. Because even though I have to wake up early every day again, or settle for my own mediocre cooking again, or try and talk to lots of people that don't really have any interest in talking to me, life is better this way. I know that missionary work really is the work of our Heavenly Father and I realize that again every single day. And no matter how hard it can be at times, being engaged in the Lord's work really is the greatest.

One other cool thing that happened this week was that a man named 한인산 (han-in-san) visited our church. This man was the first full-time Korean missionary ever from our church. He served in the late 50s and helped translate the Book of Mormon from English to Korean after his mission was over. He gave a great talk about what going to church really means, and it was such a blessing to learn from one of the pioneers of the church here in Korea.

Have a great week everyone!

PS here is a picture of me and Elder Christensen (we're still learning how to take selfies)

Back on plush chairs in Korean computer rooms

Guess who's back to emailing on plush chairs in Korean computer rooms? This missionary right here~~

After an early start last Monday morning, I rode a plane from LA to Seattle, then had a short layover before taking off to Korea. I didn't get to see the other missionaries coming to Korea until the plane had already taken off, but I did get to talk to them once we got to Korea.

Upon our arrival, we met the new mission President, President Turner and his wife. They are both super great and funny and I'm excited to serve with them for the next 15 months! President Turner served a mission in Korea in the 70s so he's learning Korean again but he's already pretty good so he'll do fine. 

That Monday night, we had a meal in the mission President's home with the other new missionaries arriving, then breakfast with them the next morning. Then while the brand new missionaries got some more training, I headed over to the "transfer spot" (where missionaries who are moving locations meet their new companion) and got to see lots of old friends, many of whom were finishing with their mission. I got assigned back to 곡반정 (Gok Ban Jeong) in Suwon, which is where I was living before I left, which was super exciting news. My new companion is Elder Christensen, he is from Layton, Utah (which is actually where I got surgery a few weeks ago) so we have a special connection already. He's great and has 3 months left on his mission. He actually served in Suwon before, and got called back to replace me when I had to leave so luckily he knows how to get around the area pretty well.

I studied a lot of Korean in America but there wasn't much opportunities for speaking practice, so I was definitely a little rusty when I first arrived. I think I'm okay now though, the language learning process is back to normal and I love getting to speak Korean every day. And adjusting to life in Korea wasn't nearly as hard as when I came the first time, it's kind of like just coming home again. Although one thing that has changed was the percent humidity. Most houses (including ours) do not have A/C so it makes for a fun time. Mornings are deceptively cool but by noon, going outside makes your face glisten like you've been working in your attic for 20 minutes on a summer day..

It was also great to see the members of the ward here again, I got to introduce myself a second time and the missionaries even performed a musical number, which will now be a monthly thing I guess.

Sorry that may have been kind of brief, but just know that I'm excited to be a missionary again, engaged in the most important kind of work there is.

Have a great week! Sorry there's no pictures this week but now there's only two missionaries in our house so there's nobody to take our picture...