Week 42 - A New Week

I haven’t received a card from the Gibbs, Bishop Val & Karen, right?! Not yet, and I'm little nervous because of what happened last week. We were at a combined district meeting, which is pretty close to the mission office.  When they passed around letters other missionaries had received. One missionary pulled out a letter that was left behind from his last transfer, which was around Christmas time. Just by taking one look at it you could see that this letter had a hard life, but that was not the worst of it. The date on it said it was sent in July sometime. That was quit a shock to see that it took around four months to get him. Well I wouldn't worry about that happening too often to the mail, it was just a strange sight. Anyway, last week I was going to send you some pictures but... tomorrow is Temple Day. That means that Pday is tomorrow as well, and as a zone we will be going to some temple thing or some other places. So, I wanted to take some pictures during the activity and then I will send them as well. Which reminds me, when will I get pictures? Not to be too pushy but, it is a lot easier to build a 정 (relationship) with the members by sharing them and it great to share with other missionaries. Please and thank you.

So right now my friends, investigators, are doing good and bad, well mainly bad. The two that are really committed to change their lives have a few problems. First there is 조미림 자재님 (Sister, Jo Mi Reem). She is sick right now also, I've never meet her before. Other than that she's doing alright. From what my companion says, " if she wasn't sick she would have been baptized already." And the second is 김문종 형제님 (Brother, Kim Moon Joeng). He would be doing so well if it weren't for his job. The company he works for seems to be a horrible place and has an unpleasant atmosphere. The reason for that is the fact that they constantly force him to break the word of wisdom or if he doesn’t he’ll loss his job. All I can say is, " Unfair!"  So right now that is our biggest difficulty. but he is trying so hard to change his life and to keep the commandments, which makes it harder to see this happen. Right now he doesn't have strong enough faith to stand up to his boss and ask him if he could follow his new beliefs. But now we aren't alone. His wife is seeing him change his life and is taking more care of the things that really matter. So she is also on our side for him stopping as well as his mother. The other day ago he met with us to talk about what is going on in his life. Oh, wait I need to start from the beginning. Well the night before that his company was having a company party and they were going to a 노레방, a place where they do Karaoke.  At this party they were all drinking. So he came up with a plan to get out of drinking. That was, he would sing any song they picked and he could stay away from drinking. At that time we were so proud that was trying to do what he could. But later that night we found out that his boss or the CEO of the company did not like his idea and said that he would either drink or loss his job. So... he had a little then... a lot, and after words he couldn't hold anything down. ㅜ.ㅜ, The only good that came from this, was that it angered his wife, who then called his mother, who came over to yell at him. So, in order to get away from them he met with us, well that is how I saw it. At that time he told us how this was unusual.  He said that before he would drink and they were fine with it. Now, his wife and mother have changed too, since he is changing.

Wow, that was long. Before I forget I'll answer your questions. So my new companion is Elder Dyck. He is from California and we get along just fine. As for the other missionaries, things just get crazy at the house. It's hard to study and some days things are just so strange. The three of them have such similar personalities with me, it's weird. But it's a lot of fun. The only problem is with my companion and his fight against going to the doctors. I don't blame him in anyway, it's just that everyone has told him, including President Lee (이/Ee), that he should go to the hospital. So thats in our plans for today. At this point he has already received a priesthood blessing but he’s still ill. Now for my Vitamins.  Right now I have vitamin C. It seems that many of the missionaries don't like the stuff and decide to leave bottles of it at most of the houses.  Vegetables, fruits and meat- I'm eating all of these, thanks to the members, so there is no problem there.
Well I have to go,  Bye.

Week 41 - New, Big . . . City

So, Last week was transfer calls again, which makes the whole week seem so much longer waiting for P-day to tell you where I am. Well here it goes, as of now I'm in the 강남 와드 (kang nam ward). One of the richest, if not richest area in the mission. This is a big change for me... every thing is huge and there is not a hill or mountain in sight. If you look for it, it will be near the big river in Seoul. So far we haven't been out much, once again my companion (new) is sick .... ㅋㅋㅋ. He seems to be a great companion. As for the area, it's good but the members are all so busy that most of them don't have time to meet or teach with us, sad. However on a better note, they give tons of food to the missionaries, which is awesome. So far this week I have had Meat at least once a day. The other thing that is different is that we don't live in our Area. We live in 소처 (SoChoe) with another companionship. When I first found this out I was a little bit nervous about dealing with the two extra people in the house but, latter I found out that I already knew them.  Elder Ward who was part of my younger 동기 or the missionary group that came after mine and an Elder Arveseth or something- he was in the Inchon zone with me. So the only new person was my companion.

   Now as for the investigators here...?! I've only meet three so far, which is a lot. First is 김 문종 형제님, he is a wonderful man who's willing to try things for himself. He seems to really understand the scriptures. Although, he may have more complex problems that he needs to deal with. As of yet he hasn't fully agreed to baptism since he is wanting to attend church a few more times before hand. He's pretty good at English and is going to the Missionary's free English program.  So we teach a lot in English. As of right now, it seems that he has gone though a lot of changes. He's working on trying to start a family, which he's starting really late in my opinion, and building a stronger relationship with his wife. Currently he and my companion have shared a lot of 정 (information) and he seems as though he is willing to try anything my companion asks of him. Wow, this guy is great. Now another gentleman, 유수형 형제님, is great, but, he is getting a lot of pressure (부담) from his parents. Even though he is about 32 years of age he still respects their decisions. He also seems a little lost, like he isn't all there. This could be from how hard he pushes himself to please everyone around him, especially his Red Queen mother. The last guy... all I know is that he owns a doughnut shop.

   So thank you so much for that, it’s nice to know that my card will now work here now. Anyway before I forget all the questions you asked. Right now I'm at the 우제국 or post office. Usually they have computers that you can use for free. It’s nice to know that no matter where I go I can find the post offices to email home. Next, I only lost my jacket so I thought it would be ok just to buy one. hm.. what else.  So far I can't be a senior companion until after I finish pass off, ugh. Well it doesn’t matter right now.  Senior companion is just a title around here, it only matters if you are going to be living in the Zone leaders area or you are a District leader, Trainer, and so on... Or else it's just considered the same thing, which is how thing are now. It seems like my new companion had a hard time with his last companion, a greeny, and he wants a lot of the responsibility to move over for a bit to me. Well that's the feeling I got from him this week. Please tell Hannelle that I'm excited for her and that she'll do great at USU.

I love You a Bunch Mom.

Bye...

Week 40 - Happy New Year

Well, So far the holidays haven't been that big around here. On Christmas we had dinner at a member’s house, but nothing more than that. Also New Year's Day would have been just as dull,  if it hadn't been for the ward hike they had. Our bishopric called us up the night before to inform us about it.  There wasn't that much time to prepare for it. Especially since we needed an investigator to come with us or we would not have been able to go. So we took an hour trying to find someone to go with us. At first it seemed that no one would be able to go with us, so we weren't going to go. But then we remembered that at the Christmas party one of the members brought a friend with them, who kind of hung around with us. We asked our member a little about their friend to see if they would be willing to go. At first they were a little hesitant, because they weren't thinking about (소개)-ing (introducing) their friend to us. But they asked anyways about how they felt about church and about the missionaries. So, they asked their friend about attending the hiking trip. It was a sad first reaction...” no, I already have plans.”  It was ok with us or at least me, since I thought that we weren't going to be able to get anyone to come in the first place. So we thanked our member for trying and said that it was alright. At that point they either felt guilty or sorry for us, so they tried again. And I guess they explained that without them we couldn't go to the activity, so afterwards they dropped their plans and decided to come. We were so happy. I'm grateful that they were willing to come and I hope that they really think of us as a friend so maybe they will be willing to meet with us in the future. That night we called the Mission President to get his okay, since the trip took us to 태백 (Tae Baek). It was so much fun; also it reminded me a lot of home. I took a lot of good pictures of the view. I never really realized how much I loved the mountains.

   The rest of this week was crazy. First of all, our investigator, the teenage kid, is over his cold or illness, but he is in the hospital right now. Awhile ago he had something happen to his back. Scary right?! But there seems to be more hope from him. Lately we've been thinking that he didn't want to really get baptized, and that the only reason he was, was because of his friend or because we are older than him so he has to show respect to us, you know that kind of thing. But that day, the one he was going to the hospital, we received a text from him saying something like, “ oh no, I'm in the hospital right now! What are we going to about the baptism? What should I do?” (this is a very rough translation)  Well I'm excited for him and I'm praying that he'll get better soon. Also 이두환 형제님 called us again, saying that he wanted to meet with us. I'm a little confused about what's going on with him.  It sounded like he just got back but the second time he told me he had just got back. weird... anyway, he had horrible timing. It was on the same day we went to 태백 (Tae Baek), which was a five hour bus ride, just to get to the mountain. So we weren’t able to meet with him. The worry is that after that we won't be able to get a hold of him.  Anyway we have just been meeting with three new people, but just for English.  They are good so far, since they are all fairly close in age, they ask a lot of questions about missionary work.

   It's been so great working with Elder Han. I think out of all my companions so far I've learned the most from him. This transfer has been great. I’ve really seen how missionary work can be not only spiritual but normal. I think that, that’s what was missing last transfer. We were doing missionary work but I didn't feel like I was a normal person with an amazing calling... but a robot that taught people to believe in Christ. Hey Mom, I just wanted to thank you for the package, it was great. But right now I'm a little confused about my card and how I can use it?! Well I will try and figure it out. I bought a new jacket this week, actually the day before the hike, which was a good thing. The one I had went missing, to who knows where. Now I know that I need to watch my things a little more closely. But the real problem was that I couldn't get cash out to pay for the new one, so now I owe the mission 18 dollars. Well there is still time to learn. So how have you been lately? Are the girls and Stephen being good?  Well I love you bunches and bunches.

Bye...

Week 39 - Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year. So far Christmas hasn't felt like the wonderful kind of holiday I remember, here. We had a special Christmas program at church, my companion and I sang a song. But other than that nothing else. I'm excited to call you today, I still don't know what to say. It's finally snowing here and it's colder than ever. brr~~~ luckily, I’m staying warm during this time. I really liked the package you sent, everything was great. Elder Han enjoyed his presents too. It was cool how the pictures you sent us are from his favorite artist. Ah, I can hardly think right now I’m so excited for today. Well so far this week the kid didn’t get baptized, he couldn't come to the interview so we are going to wait awhile and meet with him again for awhile. He seems to be doing good and he says he still prays everyday, so that is good. Also he says he still wants to be baptized.

Well as for 이두환 (Ee doo Hwan) 형제님, he has either stopped answering our calls or he still isn't back yet. Which is a little weird but that’s ok. umm... there isn't much more to say we’ve been to a lot of meetings this week or away from our area so most of our time was spent going back and forth. I love you a lot and miss you too. I'll be calling in a little bit!!!

Love you!