I'm just getting started here...

Hello everyone! As of August 26th, I started my mission a year ago, so this is roughly the halfway point. I really wish it wasn't though, I'm just getting started here..

This week also marked one year since I started learning Korean, it's still hard. :)  Every day I wonder why I still can't understand everything yet, but I just try and think back to one year ago when it took me 3 minutes to read one sentence and then I realize that maybe I have caught on to a thing or two. 

This past year has been an entirely new experience, but I can easily call it the best year of my life so far, and I'm looking forward to the next year that will be even better.

Here's a picture of some real learning going on~

  한동균 (Han Dong Gyun) is learning English so we do kind of a language exchange where we teach him English and he helps us with our Korean before we actually start teaching about the gospel.

And speaking of better, the seasons changed here literally overnight. THe first half of the week was just as hot as it has been all summer, but then on Thursday morning it was about 75 degrees and has stayed the same since. The sky is clearer and life is good! There was also an unexpected downpour in the middle of the week, so we had to buy umbrellas before we left the subway station. IT did create a pretty cool atmosphere at night though~

This week was our ward conference, kind of like a birthday for the ward congregation which was formed 12 years ago. Additionally, two of the stakes are combining next week, so this was the last week as the Suwon stake, soon to become the Gyeong gi stake. Here's a photo of most of the adults in our ward~

(I think I'm the second tallest behind my companion, that's the only time in my life I'll ever be saying that.)

That's it for me this week, have a great week everyone!

Crunchy vs. Crispy

Hello everyone!

 Here's a picture taken from one of the colleges nearby, 경희대학 (Gyeong Hee College)

This college actually does an exchange program with BYU every year, and the students usually end up coming to the ward that I am serving in. They should be coming this week!

My challenge of the week: Trying to explain to a group of English learners what the difference between crunchy and crispy is. Teaching English has caused me to consider aspects or minute details of the English language that I have neither had to consider nor explain before, I love it. Recently we have been working really hard to get more students out to our English class, both so that we can find more people to teach and so that we can help serve more people, so we plan to stay pretty busy with that.

Other fun things for this week:

-We taught some of the teenagers in our ward how to play the basketball game H-O-R-S-E, they then proceeded to beat us at our own game...

-Korean grapes are in season, but you have to be careful because they are wildly different from most of the grapes I ate in America. Not only is there 3-5 seeds inside, but Koreans also don't eat the skin of the grape. So each grape is a mini process, consisting of squeezing the grape out of its peel into your mouth and then making sure that you spit all of the seeds out before you swallow it. It's really good at preventing you from overeating though, complex food is key..

-This week was transfers, so that means that lots of missionaries moved around and some new missionaries came as well. Elder Christensen and I both stayed here, but we had two new Sisters that came and are now serving in the ward. Sister Killpack and Sister Sannar (who came to Korea last week and is a brand new missionary) came, so now we will have all foreigners serving in this area (pray for us:) )

This week, our church meetings were focused on the temple, a building where sacred ordinances within our church take place. There, we do work for ourselves, and also complete those things necessary for salvation on behalf of those who didn't have an opportunity to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ on Earth. What a blessing it is to know that death is not the end for us, nor is it the end for anyone. Just like Jesus Christ, we will live again.

Have a great week everyone!

My work here isn't finished yet

Hello Everyone, Happy Korean (Restoration of) Independence Day. Today celebrates the day when Japanese control of Korea was relinquished and Korea once again became an independent nation 마음으로 태극기를 답시다!

It's still hot over here, but Korea has quite the selection of interesting drinks to beat the heat including:

-Watermelon Soda (Imagine the flavor of a watermelon popsicle but carbonated

-Pocari Sweat- I have no idea where the name from and I hope it's not actually someone's sweat, but it's good for replenishing electrolytes

-Aloe Juice- Normally Aloe is used as a medicine for burn relief, but here it is a tasty drink, complete with bits of the Aloe plant inside (my favorite)

-매실 (mae-sheer)- I'm not exactly sure what it's made out of, but it's super sweet like apple juice and super refreshing

Last Monday I headed to Mokdong  in Seoul to update my foreigner registration card, only to find out that it didn't actually need to be updated yet, so I'll have to make another trip up there at some point. The silver lining though was that I got to meet with two people that I taught when I first came to Korea, one of whom has been baptized since then. Good times

This weekend was also transfer calls, where we find out if we will leave to another area or stay for 6 more weeks (sounds a little bit like groundhog day now that I think about it). Anyways, I will stay here in Suwon for the next 6 weeks with Elder Christensen, then he will go home and I will get a new companion. I'm really glad I'm staying here though, my work here isn't finished yet :)

This week I've been especially grateful for the knowledge that members of this church have about God's plan for us, and that the questions like "Where did I come from?" "what is my purpose in life?" and "what's after this life?" are not a mystery. We were teaching someone this week about Jesus Christ, and he asked suddenly, "Is there really a Heaven? What is it like?" I'm thankful that I could respond with confidence "Yes, there is. And Heaven is living with our families forever." and I especially love sharing that knowledge with those in Korea.

Have a great week!

-Elder Bigelow

20 flavors of Gatorade

Hello Everyone!

 

I've mentioned before that my name in Korean sounds like the name of the "beagle" dog, but this week the interpretation of my name was taken to a whole new level. I don't know how many you are familiar with "the Evolution of Species" by Charles Darwin, but it doceuments his travels and observations about evolution. Anyways, when he rode to the Galapagos Islands, he rode on a boat called the "SM Beagle" Conveniently enough though, the name for that kind of boat in Korean sounds like the second half of my last name. I had several people point that out to me this week, I thought it was quite the coincidence..

 

I keep thinking that every week is going to be the hottest one of the summer, but I just found out this week that it's the hottest summer in Korea in over 20 years so I don't think it'll be cooling down anytime soon.

Our mission President told every missionary that they had to drink some Gatorade or other electrolyte-replenishing drink every day, and we even had a day where he told us we weren't allowed to work outside if we could help it.. Also our house is 90 degrees Fahrenheit every morning.. But despite the heat, I'm loving life over here!

 

This week we had a mission leadership conference in Seoul, followed by a Zone Training Meeting, where we deliver the training we got to all of the missionaries in our area. It went well, and I love being around other missionaries. And both Elder Young and Elder Santana, My companions in the missionary training center, are serving in the same general area. It is strange to think how far we've come after learning the Korean ABC's 11 months ago. Unfortunately, my pictures aren't uploading so I guess you'll have to wait on the photo...

 

One other fun thing I did this week was exchanges, where you work with a different missionary for a day and assist in the work and training in that area. So I got to go with Elder Landgraf, a missionary who has only been in Korea for a month. I love working with brand new missionaries because I think that they have such a great vision for misisonary work that sometimes older missionaries lack. And, I really enjoy teaching language, whether it is English or Korean so I had some fun teaching opportunities.

 

This week, Sister Morris, who was serving in 수원, went home this week due to medical problems. So from now until further notice, Elder Christensen and I have to teach English class by ourselves. WHich usually isn't too bad, but when you have lots of students that are at different levels it can get pretty complicated. The Korean English students couldn't believe that there were like 20 flavors of Gatorade in America, there's only one flavor in Korea so they were in total shock. English class is my favorite :)

 

And speaking of English class, one of our students decided that he wanted to learn about our church, so we ate lunch with him and taught about the Restoration of the Gospel. He was very sincere and really wants to find out if it is true, which is amazing. Our church leaders tell us that we will find greater joy and satisfactiopn than we have ever experienced while serving as a missionary. And sometimes it's hard to trust that promise when you've been walking for several hours in the humidity here with nobody that wants to talk to you, but when I am able to meet people like that, I realize every time that there really is no greater joy than missionary work.

 

 

 

Have a great week everyone! And Happy Birthday Mom!

 

-비글로우 (비글호)장로

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)