Transfer-new Companion

I have been transferred back up near Daegu in a city called Gyeoung San. I am now with a 3rd transfer named Elder Morrow from New Mexico. I'm really excited but sad to leave chin hey.

reminders to myself that I am a missionary, I year in Korea

In honor of my 1 year anniversary in Korea this past week, I have come up with a list of things that happen and make me realize I'm a missionary. I Don't know if you will find it funny like I do.
1. Walking my bike across crosswalks with a helmet and a suit.
2. Being chased by dogs on my bike.
3. Dogs in general, they all hate us but not as much as I hate them.
4. Sprinting alongside a bus to catch it at the next bus stop.
5. Feeling awkward without a Book of Mormon in my hand.
6. Panicking if I cannot see my companion.
7. Stopping and looking at every neck tie I see.
8. Saying at least "Hi" to every person I pass.
9. People literally running away from us on sight.
10. Being called everything from angles to Satan himself.

I love missionary work! It really is fun. We are still preparing for our open house for this coming week. Transfers will be this upcoming week so who knows where I will be next week or if I will still be here in 진해. This week we had a stake choir competition. Music is pretty big here among our church. The stake choirs are really serious about it and compete nationally. Our wards took first and second places out of something like 5 wards. Ya, we're pretty cool like that. It was really fun to go listen and sing.
We were able to have a first lesson with a 12 year old that has been coming to church with her friends this week. Hopefully her family comes to this open house. It can be a really good opportunity to introduce people to our church with very little pressure. It should be pretty good.

conference, hike and fishmarket

Pictures: Elder Anderson on a stinkin high mountain, Korean fish market.

I hope everyone listened well to Elder 죄(Che)'s talk and thought about me and then Elder Sitati's talk and thought about Travis. Elder 죄 visited our mission in my first or second transfer but spoke in all Korean so I had a translator. He is a really great man and a real support for the Koreans. I loved general conference. I feel like Conference is completely different as a missionary. We are all so excited for it and every 2 hours fly by so fast. I especially liked the analogy with the heart surgery in the Sunday afternoon session. It's amazing how bold our church is with our doctrine. We are bold because we can be. Our claims are such that we are either right or wrong. No in-between. It is so amazing to be led by a prophet who says that this church is founded upon the rock of revelation. We have so much and are so blessed. Elder Holland's testimony on the Book of Mormon was also really powerful. I can't wait to read them all again. A foreigner in our ward should be able to get them to me with audio as well. Listening to others testimonies really can strengthen your own. It is one of the ways the spirit works through us. This week we had zone conference where we got to hear President Jennings speak. He is a real light to us missionaries and always has the spark that we need to get us moving forward. We have been going through all our old investigators and have found a few that we will hopefully start teaching again. It was a good week. Love you all. Thanks for the prayers and support.

Choo souck- Harvest holiday

Because of the regular P-day along with a Full P-Day and 3 days of 추석 (choo souck) Today we are only e-mailing and shopping. It was a pretty fun week though. I went on splits with Elder Bordman our district leader. We have been in the same district for over half my mission and he has been my district leader for all but one of those. It was fun and we were able to meet with a member's friend and teach them, with the member over dinner. Teaching is fun.

The next day we were called in the morning and were told we had President Interviews in an hour. In an area that is about an hour bus ride away. We got there fine and the interviews went great. We are so lucky to have President Jennings right now. For our full P-day we went and tried to climb the tallest mountain on South Korea's main land. Unfortunately because of the traffic we weren't able to make it there in time to climb the whole thing. I was actually more pleased because half way up the mountain there was a temple that we got to see and then turn around at. It was really amazing. This temple was built in the 1400's and they said it is the highest temple in Korean. I have no clue how they carried all that stuff up there. It was quite the hike. I wish I could have taken pictures of inside the temples. They were amazingly decorated with all sorts of colors. It kind of reminded me of some of the Mongolian things I have seen but I defiantly did not tell them that. Most of our week was spent at members houses eating and talking. The holiday is a harvest holiday like Thanksgiving and is always with the full moon. It is also kind of the end of summer and I can feel it. The weather is really nice right now. A hot sun with coolish air if that makes sense. The leaves are going to start changing which I am really excited for. 진해 is a smaller city and so it has a lot more trees and scenery. I wish I could be here for spring. They have a huge festival which is what the city is known for because of all the budding cherry blossoms. Korea is amazing. I love it.

knocking knocking knocking

Just so you all know this next coming week is the Korean version on Thanksgiving. It's pretty huge. We had a good week. We haven't had much success as for investigators but we were able to have some really good less-active meetings. Two specifically.

The first was on Saturday. We were walking around talking to people and a lady walked straight at us and began talking and didn't stop for about 30 minutes. Turns out she was baptized when she was a young adult but hasn't been to church for 20 years. She didn't know where the newer church in the area was so we walked her over to the building where we were headed anyway (to help clean) and we toured it with her. It was really cool, she was one of those people that can talk endlessly. We got her information because we had absolutely no record of her living in the area. Hopefully we can meet more often with her.

The other one was just yesterday. We had decided on an apartment complex to visit but we didn't know which one. I felt like 109 or 104. We were closer to 104 so we knocked on that but nothing. We then had to decide where to go again. We said little prayers and I went through and numbered all the apartments in my head. 109 stuck out again so we went and did that. Nothing. We were on the bottom floor of the last line (6 story apartments) and were were headed out when the second to last door we knocked on opened well after we had knocked on it. A lady opened the door and I went back to the door and explained who we were. She quickly informed us that she already believes us and invited us in. We had a really good chat with her about our church and invited her back. We got her information (once again we have zero records of her) and were able to leave her with a spiritual message and a prayer. It was amazing to see that we were able to be led to her. We will try to meet her with a member of the relief society later. She seemed like she would be willing to come back. The message we are sharing is true. That is what I know and I'm just trying to share it. This opportunity is amazing. Thanks for the love.

Visitors at the door

Another week in Korea. Right know I am e-mailing from the middle of a Korean war battle ship. Cool huh? Only Korea would have a couple of rooms for computers in a battle ship museum. Anyway. This week was good. I had quite the interesting experience a couple of days ago. We had stayed in a little past 10:30 AM because we were making some things for some members when we got a ring at the door. I went and opened it and there were 2 Korean college age girls standing there. The quickly started talking to each other about how they don't know how to speak English when one of them got enough courage to say "God's Church" I didn't recognize the name until I translated it back into Korean to "하나님의 교회." In Korea if there was one church that we butt heads with most it would be 하나님의 교회. Mostly because they we are linked to them in many people's minds and they are pretty crazy so we try to push away from them. I quickly introduced that we were missionaries as well and introduced our church a little. When they found out I could speak Korean they just went off.

First was Heavenly Mother. They believe that she is currently living is Seoul right now. A little strange. I started questioning that and and asked what will happen when she dies. They replied back with a prompt, "She wont die." Guess that solves that problem. I then asked what they believe about Jesus Christ and if he was the son of God. They said yes to which I then asked if he was the son of Heavenly Mother. They then turned back and said that he was only just a man and that he was in a kind of substitute for God. Ha. It was really nice because I had all of my English and Korean supplies at the house for a friendly chat. My companion wouldn't come over because he knew it would just turn into an argument but because I'm an American and can't understand absolutely everything it couldn't get too heated. I then began to talk about Prophets and turned to some scriptures which they also had well marked. They also believed in prophets but they also said they were in fact prophets. I didn't think I had caught what they said right so I cleared is up with "Your a prophet like Moses?" "Yes" was the reply.

They talked about the Sabbath and how we should be worshiping on Saturday and not Sunday but unfortunately I only had a few things I could say about that but I made sure to study up on that for later reference. We kept going back and forth and eventually I introduced the Book of Mormon and explained what it was and why we need it. I talked about that for a while and testified about how I read it and got and answer for myself. They then said, "That answer was from Satan." That was kind of a rude turning point when I kind of just stopped talking and just kept explaining our church. They eventually walked away themselves. I wasn't going to be the one to tell them to leave. It was fun and really good Korean practice. Anyway, I'm going to go explore more of this ship. Thanks for the support and love.

Faith and Pictures

So..... the family is gone hunting and they expect me to write an email. humph. I guess I shall. This week was a good one like the rest. We were able to teach Ferenando again and talked a lot about faith in Christ and the faith that through Him, he can actually repent and get over his habits. He has always been very religious but it surprised me when he couldn't answer yes to the question, "Do you believe that Jesus Christ can help you through your trials?" It is actually a fairly difficult question if thought about deeply. It is much different to ask, "Can you give up smoking and drinking" than "Can you give up smoking and drinking with the help of Christ." Anyway, we talked a lot about that and repentance with him. On Saturday we were able to be a part of a stake mini MTC (Mission Training Center) for the youth at a different ward. It was really good, especially the 2 hours of real on-the-street time. That's when the youth realized how hard it is to be rejected over and over and over again but most everyone saw at least one person who showed enough interest to teach a little and whatnot. It was good.

So in Korea we carry around a picture book wherever we go. Koreans like it and it is great to build the relationship a little. I think it is funny because nearly every Korean has the same reaction to every picture. On the cover I have a picture of me when I was 8 with my dad in front of the church going to get baptized. SO many Koreans have asked if my dad was a movie star. Ha. Everyone gapes in awe at my gigantic family of only sisters and adore all of the little white kids. No one knows who marry Poppins is. Sorry. Everyone here likes fishing so Alaska is usually good as well as the bears that are 50 feet away from us fishing. The older ladies can spend a while looking and Rachael and Franny's kids. They have never seen anything so big and cute. Anyway, just thought it would be interesting to know what Koreans think of my family. That's all for this week. I lost my adaptor so no pictures this week. Sorry. FYI the silver suit is being sent home for future use.