Now I just need to find a living Koran to baptize

Hello everyone!

Today is the last  full week with my companion Elder Karlson, next week I'll know who I will be serving next. So I'm trying to soak in as much information as I can before he leaves, I have a feeling that no amount of preparation is going to be enough..

Some news for this week:

We had about 4 or 5 people that we were teaching up to this week, but now we currently have zero. We aren't able to teach these people for various reasons, but now we are going to focus on finding a lot more people that we can teach.

I did get to help lots of other missionaries teach this week though. Whether for sickness of other reasons, we exchanged with several other missionaries and I got to meet lots of great people.

Probably the highlight of the week was being able to go to the temple in Seoul. In our church, we build sacred buildings called temples where we perform ordinances, both for those that are living and for those that passed away before they were able to hear the gospel. And this time, I was able to perform those ordinances for some of my distant ancestors, it was truly an amazing experience. Following that, I performed a baptism for the first time in my life. My companion from the missionary training center, Elder Young, and I were able to baptize each other for Koreans that had passed away, also a really special experience.There was actually a mixup so other missionaries actually got baptized for my ancestors, but I got to do the confirmations and I didn't have to change twice so as long as it gets done that's all good. But since I didn't get to do my own, Elder Young and I baptized each other in the font for Korean people, and we even did it in Korean. It was super cool, and even my first time performing the ordinance of baptism. Then we still had time to go to a temple session, it was in Korean and I decided to do it without headphones this time. The movie part of it was actually really easy to understand because I've seen it a bunch but the non movie part was pretty hard. They still have us do the veil part in English, thank goodness..  It was all a really great experience, the veil was thin in the temple last week. Now I just need to find a living Korean to baptize. But now we have 0 investigators, I think the Lord is emptying the bucket before he fills it up..

Following that, all of the missionaries in our area went to a giant park by the Han river where we rode bikes and played sports for a little while, which was a blast-  

I don't have a ton of time today, but I hope you all have a great week and that you can notice the blessings from Heavenly Father in your life!

-Elder Bigelow

P.S. Does this building ring a bell?   #Avengers2

God's true church is here on the Earth

Hello Everyone!

For those in America, I wish you a happy Mother's Day and a happy Cinco de mayo! And for all of those in Korea, I wish you a happy Children's day and a happy Parent's day! Korea actually made a holiday up this year, on may 6th they just decided to tell everyone not to work so that they would go on vacation and spend money to help the economy. So happy "don't work on May 6th" day as well!

Some highlights this week:

MY first Zone Training as Zone Leader. Once a month, all 25 or so members of a zone meet to work together and receive training on how we can be better missionaries, all led my the zone leaders. Luckily I have a companion who has been at it for a while, but unfortunately he goes home in 2 weeks so I''ve got to figure out how to do it next month with someone that is also new to it..

Also this week, I got to Skype with my family for Mother's Day! It was super fun, it was good to see that they're all just as crazy as when I left.. Good to know that some things never change...

Also this week, the other missionaries in our ward baptized someone yesterday, it's been 5 months or so since I was able to attend a baptism, but it really is a special experience. Being able to attend is always a witness to me that God's true church is here on the Earth, and that it is being led by those who hold the priesthood and are authorized to act in his name. Right now, we are working to have every missionary companionship baptize at least one person by the end of June, we haven't found anyone as a companionship yet but we are looking forward and praying to meeting the person that will be an answer to our prayers.

Things are really going great here, the work here is definitely not easy and I'm not great at it, but I am happy and Heavenly Father makes up for my insufficiency. And I love being a missionary!

Love you all, have a great week!

A reminder that I'm not in Seoul anymore....

The warm and rather humid Republic of Korea

Greetings from the warm and rather humid Republic of Korea! It's not quite suicidal to go outside with a long-sleeve yet, but it's definitely uncomfortable. 

 

Anyways, this week has been pretty good! I did several more exchanges with other missionaries this week, I'm starting to forget who my real companion is.. And among those I exchanged with, I got to serve with Korean missionary for the first time in my mission. I can definitely describe the experience as humbling... When you talk to somebody on the street, it is a whole lot harder to keep up with the conversation when you're the only one that isn't fluent in the language being used더라고요. Korean missionaries are seriously the best though, I hope I get to serve with more of them in the future.

 

This week, I also got to be part of a badminton tournament that someone we are teaching invited us to. I saw lots of badminton players that were on a whole different level than me, and I also got to see the missionary in our zone that was a professional badminton player play for the first time. The people at the tournament basically worshipped him, and he just made badminton look beautiful. The most admirable thing about him though is that he would have been in the Olympics this year if he had not come on a mission, but he gave it all up to serve the Lord, he is such great guy.

 

As far as missionary work goes, we weren't able to teach a whole lot this week, but we were able to meet with some great people. One of the things I have been focusing on is helping others to understand why this message is so important. Because I know the importance of following Jesus Christ on this Earth, but those who are learning about it for the first time seem to have a harder time doing so. But when they do understand, it is truly amazing. The other missionaries living with us have been teaching someone really great that will be baptized next Sunday. So for the first time, I was able to conduct a baptismal interview with him, which is a meeting with another missionary that allows the person to declare before a representative of God that they have repented and are ready to follow Jesus Christ by being baptized. I definitely felt insufficient at first because I couldn't understand every single word he said, but the Spirit of the Lord was present, and that is what is really important.

 

 

Have a great week everyone, and have a Happy Mother's Day!

 

-Elder Bigelow

Beagle hot dog, my search is now complete

Hello Everyone!

This week, I got to experience one of the most unique Korean sports: Screen Golf. So a lot of people here like golf, but the problem is that Korea is a tiny country with a lot of people, so there's not a whole lot of land to build a whole golf course. There are a few in the countryside, but they are very far away. So to accommodate the city-dwelling golf enthusiasts, screen golf is pretty common here. It consists of hitting a real golf ball with a real golf club, but the golf ball hits a screen about 10 feet in front of you. But the sensors in the room pick up the speed and direction of the ball, and so you get a projection of a simulated golf course on the screen in front of you. It was pretty sweet.

​PLease excuse my form, for the record I was by far the worst in the tournament..

Another sport that we play a lot here is badminton. In fact, in the area next to us, there is a professional badminton player that chose to serve a mission. He's ranked 5th in the entire country, but he gave up a lot to come and serve a mission. And he has actually used badminton a lot in missionary work, we have been able to meet quite a few people by inviting them to play badminton with him. There really is so many ways to do missionary work.

I've mentioned before that the first half of the last name "bigelow" in Korean is the same as the Korean word for "beagle". So this week, we found a hot dog restaurant with the "Beagle" hot dog. My search is now complete

This week, I also got to know something known as exchanges, where we switch with other missionaries for a day to help with training and the missionary work in their area. So this week I spent a day with both Elder Sabey and Elder Young. They were both with me in the missionary training center when we all knew nothing, so it was nice to be able to reunite and do some missionary work together. And since I have only been in Suwon for a week and my companion left for the day, we had quite the adventure trying to navigate the city. I'm just really great that my Korean ability is to the point that I can at least ask for directions...

Our area is doing well! We are teaching a few people, and they're all great. This week we're focusing on helping them all prepare for baptism, I think we could have some people that are almost ready. The work here definitely isn't easy, but I've found no joy greater than helping as many people as I can to make the most important steps that anyone can make in this life.

Have a great week everyone!

Zone leader in Suwon

Well as of last week, we are allowed to wear just a white shirt without a suit jacket when we're outside. Which was great for 6 of the days this week, but then there was also the day with torrential downpours... All I can say is, I'm glad that my shoes don't have holes in them yet, because we walked through a whole lot of puddles this week.

Despite that, things are going really well! The beginning of this week was full of goodbyes in Incheon amidst very fancy dinners, I'm definitely going to miss Incheon. One of the guys that we are teaching there even held my hand for a little bit, which is not actually weird here, it just means that you're really close, so I was honored.

Also this week, I got a new start in Suwon! Suwon is a city South of Seoul, it's still a pretty big city, but you definitely can tell the difference from Seoul here. Samsung's headquarters are here, so a significant percentage of residents here work for Samsung. As the Zone Leader though, I get to travel often to other parts of the surrounding areas, which means I'll finally get to see some Korean countryside after all this time in the city.

I'm serving with Elder Karlson for the next 6 weeks, he's from a city near Denver, and only has 6 weeks left before he goes home. We live with two other missionaries, Elder Young and Elder Lant. Elder Young was my companion in the missionary training center, so it's fun to be able to talk about the same things we talked about in the Missionary Training Center, but in Korean this time.

I introduced myself at church on Sunday, there are about 80 members of the congregation here and they are all really great. I'm really looking forward to being here, hopefully I can spend a little bit longer than 3 months here this time.

Anyways, all is going great! The work is busy, the people are nice, the Korean language is hard, this church is true, all is as it should be. 

Have a great week everyone!

The world just became 10X more beautiful

Hello Everyone!

This week has been great! It's warming up quite a bit here, so luckily we can wear just a white shirt from today onward, no more sweating in a suit coat :)

Also this week, all the cherry blossoms bloomed, so the world just became 10x more beautiful. They are only in bloom for about a week or two, I think the name in Japanese(sakura) is a lot more famous, but they are called 벗꽃(beot-kkot) here in Korea.

This weekend, we got to watch General Conference, our church's biannual worldwide broadcast, which was super good! The missionaries sat in a different room and watched it in English, which I was fortunate for, because watching 10 hours of straight Korean that I can't understand very well would have been a challenge. I'm not sure if I had a favorite speaker, but I enjoyed the multiple talks that taught about humility, and especially about being both a perfect leader AND a perfect follower, just like Jesus Christ. This weekend, I was just especially grateful that this church is led by a living prophet today just as in times of old, and the fact that he will never lead us astray from the will of God.

As far as the work goes, all is well here in Incheon! We weren't able to meet a lot of people this week, but everyone in our area is doing well and we're teaching lots of great people. Unfortunately, this week in Incheon will be my last...

We got transfer calls this weekend, and I will be moving on Wednesday to 곡반정(gok-ban-jeong). It is in the city of 수원(Su-won) which is the southernmost part of our mission. I can't seem to stay in one city for very long, but I get to see lots of different parts of Korea which is cool. THe area I'll be in has a lot more countryside, as opposed to Incheon or Seoul which are all city.

I'll be serving with Elder Karlson, who only has six weeks left on his mission. I was also assigned to serve as Zone Leader while I'm there. The 115 or so missionaries in our mission are divided into 6 different "Zones," which helps with organization and distribution of missionaries. So for each zone, there is two Zone Leaders who help train, serve, evaluate, and watch over the missionaries. Usually it is a more experienced missionary called to do so, but I'm going as still a pretty new missionary. I've been a little apprehensive about my ability to help these missionaries that have been doing this for 3x as long as me, but I have faith that the Lord wants me to serve there for some reason that I don't quite know yet, so there I will go. I'll let you all know how it goes next week, wish me luck!

Have a  great week!

-Elder Bigelow

Coagulated cow's blood

Hello Everyone!

I hope you all had a great week, and for those of you that watched our church's General Conference broadcast, I hope you enjoyed it!

As a clarification, I have not actually watched General Conference yet. Because of the time difference, they show it at our church one week later. So I will watch it this coming weekend, no spoilers please!

And after this week, we are allowed to wear just a white shirt without a suit for the next six months, which I think will be a relief since it is really starting to warm up here. And all the missionaries here love to talk about the humid summers of Korea, one of my companions even said "Prepare to never be completely dry for about 4 months." I'll keep you all in the loop...

We do volunteer work at a welfare center that provides meals to the elderly every week, and they give us a free lunch after we do so. And I think that is where I get to try the most new Korean foods. This week's menu items were:

설짓국: A soup filled with some vegetables, along with coagulated cow's blood.

낙지: Octopus. There were octopus that were about 3 inches tall, served in a nice sauce

I did get a little sick this week, although not from eating the above foods. This weekend was accompanied by a small fever, but it's all good now. And before I got sick, we did get to teach a lot of people this week! One young man in particular, we are teaching in English because a English speaking family introduced us to him, so we are teaching him in their home. This week, while we were teaching, he decided that he wanted to get baptized! So we're working towards that in about a month, and we're super excited for him. And we have several others that we are meeting with that definitely could be ready to be baptized soon, so things are going well here!

I hope you all have a great week!

-Elder Bigelow