Thanksgiving

Much of this week was spent in Tagu. We had Zone conference where elder Choi came and spoke to us about having the spirit with us in all of our work, it was really good. I then went with Elder McKenna on splits that same day and met with Elder Bae from the second quorum of the 70. Basically our whole day that day was with 70s (Leaders in the LDS church) It was quite the day. The next day was Thanksgiving. We got permission to have a Turkey bowl (football game) before eating with the foreign branch. They made us an amazing Thanksgiving dinner. Extremely American. It was really neat to be reminded of what America is.

We also had a really neat experience last night with a old investigator. I was calling through some old records and I got in a conversation with a 27 year old about receiving answers to prayer. We talked for about 20 minutes when he finally just asked if we could meet at the church right then. We ran over there and then continued our talk for about an hour. It was really fun. He had obvious ally thought about this. He said that lots of missionaries have called him but that Americans and Koreans alike can't answer his question. We went though much but I felt like I was able to see more of the "iceberg". I talked about what we do before prayer to receive an answer. Studying, pondering, and such things. I gave him Alma 32 from the Book of Mormon to read and he said he would and we will meet again on Sunday. I really liked him, questions are amazing, especially since our church really can answer them. He thinks his questions are unanswerable but hopefully he can have an open enough heart to see and hear the answers. It was a good week like usual. Hope all is well back home, glad to hear about BYU. Did anyone else make it in the top 25 besides TCU?

Elder Morrow's 6 months and mini General Conference

Another week gone by. This week was Elder Morrow's 6th month mark so we went to dinner and burned a tie(soaked in bug spray for pictures). Ha, I have never done stuff like that but it is pretty common for missionaries to burn something for important events. This week we got punked a few times but we also saw a few good things happen including meeting with a less active and she let us in to talk. It may not sound like much but most of the times less actives are harder than investigators. We also had a really neat Korea-wide stake conference via video broadcast. President Uchtdorf and Elder Holland spoke along with 2 other 70s. It was really fun for them to speak directly to Koreans and we even got to hear it in English. They have been pushing Koreans to stay in Korea and build up Zion in the nation of their birth. It was really good. It felt like a mini general conference. It was comforting for Koreans to know that their leaders really know their problems and even their culture. President Uchtdorf talked about eating Kimchee in Seoul on a day or 2 lay over. It was fun. I love our leaders. Still going strong. 2 weeks until the end of the transfer. The mission moves fast. I love it.

I love the work

This week was a good one as usual. We got punked (tricked) by our investigator, people blocked our calls, we got rejected at the door pretty harshly in perfect English, and didn't meet anyone new. I love missionary work! No sarcasm.

It really is fun but sometimes we see the worst side of people. It's kind of like dad says about seeing the worst side of renters. I'm sure these people are great and have lots of friends but we just see a different side unfortunately but it does make me really like those people that let us in and talk to them even if they are not interested. This week was president interviews and we talked a lot about the English program because my ward wants to push it and while I don't want to stop it I don't want it to be a main focus for us. He agreed and gave me some stuff to tell my ward which worked like magic. President Jennings is amazing.

We were able to meet that old man that we met knocking doors again and taught him the first lesson. He really understands he just needs to look for and receive that personal revelation and then we will see him progress. It's so fun teaching the truth. I really love missionary work. Its crazy that I am a somewhat of an old missionary. I just keep going.

Halloween party in Korea

This week was a good one. We spent a bit of time preparing for our late Halloween party for our ward. Usually the ward plans and does most of the parties but they wanted this one to be American so they gave it to us to do. It naturally wasn't huge because the ward size isn't that big but the goal of it was to get members to invite families to come. We had about 4 little girls come that weren't members, their parents didn't come. The party went pretty well. I made sure everything was as American as possible. We had candy fishing, pumpkin bowling, donuts on a string, bobbing for apples, a cake walk, an eating contest, and carving pumpkins. It seemed like everyone had fun and we got a lot of complements. We had to make things like cookies, donuts, and root beer (which turned out really good but still Koreans think it tastes like toothpaste). Elder Singleton and Olsen came from Youngchun to help us out so everything went smoothly.

Yesterday we had some really neat experiences as we found 2 new people that we will be able to meet again and keep teaching. One of them is an old lady in the branch who is really nice to missionaries and everyone simply thought she was baptized because he husband is one of the strongest members in our branch. We were able to teach her the first discussion but we are pretty sure there is a reason she is not baptized so we will teach her. I really stressed baptism while I taught and the importance of the authority to baptize being restored. It went pretty well and we had a member to help teach which is always nice. The older lady absolutely ardors all the pictures of my nieces and nephews. She looked and talked about them for about a half hour. Cute little kids. Oh, I need root beer extract with a recipe for sparkling water on the box. It is the best way here since dried ice is only used in science and the yeast hasn't worked. Yesterday we were also able to meet a man while we were knocking doors. It actually works sometimes. Wow. Korea is doing good. We are doing good. Thanks for the love and prayers.

Cleaning day at our new apartment. Everything you hear about missionary apartments is true.

I'm settled in Chinhae (just east of Pusan)

I am now settled in here in my new area. I am with Elder Morrow from New Mexico. He is in his 3rd transfer. Our branch is pretty small but the members are really nice. I will probably be here for a while so I have been cleaning the house with all the free time I have. It was pretty bad but I've seen worse missionary houses. It's a problem when everyone knows they are going to eventually get transferred. The area is similar to CHINHAE but the members are about 1/4 of what my last area had. This week we had to buy bikes because the ones they were using before got stolen. I also updated my lenses in my glasses, now I have completely Korean glasses. about $25 for everything and no waiting time. They don't have any of the eye Doctor stuff that is in America. They have a machine that goes over your eyes and in about 3 seconds finds your prescription and prints it out. Pretty cool. We have a couple of investigators that may be good but I have only met one because of time problems. Koreans think they are so busy. It's insane. I would actually say that they are but they take the excuse and use it for everything. Our district is just my team and Elder Singleton's team. It's as countryside as Korea gets. I like it out here. We are both really looking forward to this transfer. We will both learn a lot. This is the first transfer where I have a companion that can't speak Korean as well as me. I definitely will learn a lot. I'm excited.