130 copies of the Book of Mormon

Hello everyone!

As promised, here is a picture of our district~

There are 4 missionaries in Cheongna and the 6 of us missionaries in Gimpo~ We have 5 Americans, one Filipino, one Filipino/Canadian, 2 Koreans, and 1 sister from Hong Kong, and they're all great~

Recently in our mission we have been focusing on the story of Enos from the Book of Mormon and how we can be closer to God and receive answers to our prayers, as well as caring for the welfare of our brethren. So we have studied and discussed it quite a bit in Companionship studies and in District meeting, and we will actually have a special Zone conference tomorrow to discuss it. Tonight we will sleep in our mission headquarters, then in the morning tomorrow we will hike a mountain with our mission President and conduct Zone conference there, we're super excited!

Other things this week:

-Our apartment is right next to a really big sports stadium(this is a picture from our apartment window)

In this sports complex, the Gimpo soccer team plays games most weekends, so every once in a while, we hear a roar of applause and we silently cheer for our Gimpo team that just scored a goal~

-Snickerdoodles: One thing that I've done for the larger part of my mission is make lots of cookies at once and give them to those we visit, teach, or have helped us in some way, just so that we can show our appreciation in some small way. Our ward mission leader bought us some eggs last week (which is really special because there is some chicken disease going around so they're killing all the chickens and eggs are really expensive now), so we gave him some cookies after church on Sunday, to which he said "thank you so much. You know, if the sister missionaries make some cookies it's pretty normal so you just say thank you and move on, but the fact that the elders made cookies.. this is no small occasion.. thank you so much"  One thing I was told to do when I came to this area was to try and improve the ward relationship, and so far things are going very well! In priesthood meeting during church this week, we spent a good amount of time discussing how we can focus ward missionary efforts on the youth, the ward here is starting to take a new interest in missionary work, it's exciting!

-BuPyeong: This week we had a combined missionary activity on top of the largest underground market in Korea where we shared over 130 copies of the Book of Mormon!

That's it for this week I think!  We are still working to find people to teach, we've been really good so far at finding people who cancel :) We'll keep looking~ Have a great week everyone!

Love,

Elder Bigelow

Kimbab and fried chicken

Hello everyone!

This week was great, it started off with Korean Memorial Day, everyone in our apartment put flags on their windows to show respect~

And since Tuesday was my last day in Anseong, the Branch President, his wife, and a member of the stake presidency came down and we had a meal consisting of kimbab and fried chicken, a lot of fried chicken(for anyone who has eaten 네네치킨, this was 6마리 for 8 people plus a large serving of 김밥)

Then on Wednesday Morning, I packed my bags and headed to my new area, Gimpo~ This place is pretty great. We live on the top (18th) floor of our apartment, and there's an airport nearby so we get a plane flying right above us every few minutes

My new companion is Elder Luce, he's from Ohio and he likes music and he's super cool. He has been in Korea for 3 months and works super hard, I think we're going to get along well~

There are now 4 missionaries in our house, and I was asked to serve as District Leader for the 6 missionaries in Gimpo and the 4 missionaries in Cheongna, the area right below us. All the district members are really amazing, so I think the next 6 weeks will be great~

The ward here is also really great, there's about 50 people that attend weekly, which isn't a ton but it's a whole lot more than Anseong so I really enjoyed meeting all of the church members here. And we have enough people to do all 3 hours of church :)

We don't currently have anyone to teach, so we're spending a lot of time getting to know the area, talking to lots of people, and getting to know the members.

I'm really excited to be serving here for most likely the remainder of my time in Korea (I only have 4 months left now ㅜㅜ), I'll let you know how things are going next week!

Love,

Elder Bigelow

Gimpo-the only area in our mission that touches North Korea

Hello everyone!

As it turns out, I will be transferring this week- I will be going to an area called 김포(Gimpo). My current area, Anseong, is the very southeast end of our mission boundary, and Gimpo is the very northeast edge of our mission boundary,so I'm going about as far as I can. Gimpo is also the only area in our mission that touches North Korea~

I'll leave this wednesday and let you know how the new area is next week!

Luckily My mission President gave me a few weeks advance notice of my upcoming transfer,so I had enough time to say goodbye to everyone~

This is the stake President and his wife, they are super busy and live really far away but they came to visit us every week to buy us lunch and help us with missionary work, they are the greatest~

These are some members of our Saturday English class group, I think our English class is the most multiracial in all of Korea~

And this is one of our most faithful English students, Brad. Every day after class he took us to the convenience store and bought us some drinks~

Sorry there's not a lot for this week, but I'll let you know how the new area is next week. Happy Korean memorial day!

-Elder Bigelow

Just because we're bad at Korean, we're not bad at everything

Hello everyone!

Like I said last week, I switched companions and I will be with Elder Fehoko for the next week or so.

He's really cool, he's from Sandy, Utah and has a full ride scholarship to play football at Stanford when he gets back. He's also really good at basketball and Korean~ We went to volunteer at the school for North Korean and Chinese refugees this week, and North Koreans tend to be pretty short, an average of about 2 inches shorter than South Koreans. So there was a group of middle school students that surrounded him and asked his height, if he could dunk(which he can), and then asked him to try to reach up and touch the ceiling. He did so with ease, and their was an audible gasp followed by a round of applause~

Other things this week:

-We had a special "Night of Music" in our stake, it was put on for people who were baptized recently or who are currently learning about the church, it was to showcase the talents of the missionaries, and I think to show everyone that just because we're bad at Korean, we're not bad at everything :)  I don't have any musical talent but the other people in my house do, so we got together a group and performed a song, you can look at in on my Dropbox~

-A couple weeks ago I talked to a guy at a college in our area, he turned out to be Chinese but spoke English very well and is currently learning Korean. We met up this week again and talked over some delicious Oreo Milkshakes, he brought his friend that was also Chinese, but didn't really speak any English or Korean, so his friend translated for him most of the time, then at the end he said something in Chinese. His friend turned to us and said "he says you guys are awesome"~ I think we will keep meeting them after their trip to China this week, and they said they wanted to come to church!

-Before I joined this team, they were teaching a 16 year old kid, who had decided that he wanted to be baptized, so they had been helping him prepare and I joined in last Monday once I joined this team. He was scheduled to be baptized yesterday, and we even helped him get some baptismal clothes ready, but at the last minute he wasn't able to get permission from his guardian and we had to postpone it. It was sad, but we will do everything we can to help him get baptized this week

-Picture from the Korean activity I mentioned last week

Have a great week everyone! I'll know next week if I'm leaving the area or not~

Love,

Elder Bigelow

Finished the Book of Mormon

Hello Everyone! 

This week has been great, and it was highlighted by a trip to the temple in Seoul, it was our first time going in almost 6 months and our area is so far south that we had to spend the night at another missionary's house to get there, but we made it!

In the last picture, Elder Kim turned to me and said "hey, do Asian eyes"

Elder Kim was actually called suddenly and asked by the mission president to move to a different area because he was needed there, so the amount of missionaries in Anseong will decrease from 5 to 4 tonight. That also means I will be switching companions, so I will serve with Elder Fehoko for the remaining 2 weeks here in Anseong. It's sad to have to leave the people we have been teaching so suddenly, but I'm glad I get at least a few more weeks to stay in the area~

And I think the last bit of news for this week is that I finished reading the Book of Mormon! It is the first time on my mission I finished reading it completely through on my mission and I won't write a detailed book review, but let it suffice to say that it's the best book in the world. This is a verse from the last chapter of the book:

32 Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ.."

I'm still pretty young and I don't know a lot, but I do know that I will continue to read the Book of Mormon throughout the rest of my life. Everyone who sincerely reads it will feel something special in their lives and will feel the love of God greater than they ever have before, and now that I've experienced it, it's something that I couldn't picture living without~

Have a great week everyone!

Love,

Elder Bigelow

Surely there could not be a happier people

Hello everyone!

I hope you all are having a happy Mother's Day! The month of May has lots of holidays in Korea, including Children's Day, Parent's Day, and Teacher's Day so it's a great month to look around and be grateful for the people that are in our lives~ I got to Skype my family for the 4th and final time during my mission yesterday, being able to talk with my family always reminds me again why I'm out here away from my family. My family is far from perfect and so am I, but the Gospel of Jesus Christ and God's perfect plan of happiness has been the glue that has held my family together, and so I'm grateful for the privilege of leaving my family for a little bit so that other families can find that same foundation :)

Some cool things from this week:

-Korean P-day: All the Koreans serving in our mission met in Seoul on our Preparation day, and since we have a Korean companion we got to attend too~ Korean people are the coolest

-Farming, episode 6: This week our farming adventure was clearing all the weeds on an elderly woman's farm, we got a giant pile about 5 feet high and I couldn't help but think "I remember when my mom used to pay me 1 cent for each weed I pulled in our yard, if that applied today I think I'd be rich." This is our farming attire featuring our pile of weeds in the background~

don't have any pictures in missionary attire recently but I promise I don't walk around in jeans every day...

-22 people!: We had 22 people at church this week which is super high in this area, some visitors and some people that we haven't seen in a long time. The Cambodian woman that I mentioned a few weeks ago came again this week, so we helped her after church with English and talked about how we could help her get to church in the future. She was baptized about 3 years ago in Cambodia and right now works on an egg farm in Korea, and she has really strong faith, so when her work ended early on Sunday instead of going home to sleep she got ready and got there just in time for church!

-We've been focusing a lot in our mission on utilizing the Book of Mormon to help other people have personal experiences with feeling the Spirit and finding a testimony, so I have been reading myself as well, because you can never go wrong reading the Book of Mormon. This week I read in 3 Nephi, which tells of the crowning event of the Book of Mormon, Jesus Christ's visit to the people in the ancient American continent after his Resurrection. After Jesus teaches them and leaves, this verse of scripture is recorded:

15 And it came to pass that there was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people.

16 And there were no envyings, nor strifes, nor tumults, nor whoredoms, nor lyings, nor murders, nor any manner of lasciviousness; and surely there could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God.

This verse has been a great reminder to me that the greatest happiness in life can be found when we decide to follow the example of Jesus Christ, it's really that simple :)

Have a great week everyone!

Love,

Elder Bigelow

Open your Mouth

Hello everyone!

This week's highlight was a visit from Elder Yamashita, he is Japanese and is in the area Presidency over here, so we had a special training from him. He taught us a ton of cool things, I think the biggest thing emphasized was the word "Act", we talked a lot about how what we actually do is a lot more important than what we can do. 

His wife also engaged us in an origami project, one phrase we use as missionaries is "open your mouth", because as missionaries we are called to share the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with everyone we meet, but it is very hard for pretty much all missionaries, because talking to complete strangers can be pretty hard. So we made some origami lips(with open and close action) to help remind us of our calling as missionaries

-Cool huh?

Other things for this week:

-Helping an older woman chop the logs that we carried for her a few weeks earlier. She usually buys us lunch after we help her, but this time she gave us a giant box full of liquid yogurt, all of which were on their expiration date that day so we're all trying to drink a lot of yogurt right now before it gets into the danger zone..

-골뱅이(gor-bang-ee) It's a type of sea snail or a cousin of the sea snail, but it is considered quite the treat here. WE were fed some this week, except my companion Elder Kang has a slight seafood allergy, so his lips got really puffy and he looked like a fish

-황사(yellow dust) There is this stuff called yellow dust, it's yellow dust(go figure) that blows over from China in the Spring. We had to do several things in a different city this week, so we ended up not coming home to our house in Anseong for 2 days and 1 night. But when we left, we left one of our windows open, the day when the yellow dust happened to be the worst. We came home on Friday night to find everything in our house covered in a thin layer of yellow...

-Pictures!

Have a great week everyone and Happy Children's Day!

Love,

Elder Bigelow