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!