March 2, 2015 (Week 11)

March 2, 2015

Hey!

Posing with a Palace guard

This week has been more regular of a week, so that's fun. Most of this week has been proselyting. We do that pretty much all the time outside, since we have only one investigator. In our area we have a smaller pool for people. We can't talk to females, (something with Asians loving whites) people are off to college in other areas, and the men work pretty much everyday until 7-8. We have talked to a bunch of old men so far pretty much. We meet a couple cool people though. One guy has a PHD from UNC in piano theology, so he played us "You Raise Me Up" at his studio thing. Another guy was Christian, but hated how corrupt it had become here and stuff. He was basically a Mormon, just wasn't baptized. Hopefully we can teach him soon. though.  We have one investigator (bong soak gyou) 방속규. Elder Brantley used to teach him, so he went with Elder Whitlock to kinda transfer him over to us. He is pretty chill though. He is the one with the hopefully 3/21 baptism.

For most of our studies is role playing, which I hate. I know that it is good practice and all, but I still don't like doing it. It's just my personality I guess, but I'm always hesitant to speak, so when I am the only one teaching, and I can't understand Elder Whitlock half the time, it is hard to relate and get a personalized message out. Role plays have been getting better, but I still feel awful. Elder

Whitlock says I'm fine, and I know I can do it, but I still feel like I could do better. That's the most frustrating part. I don't want to role play until I'm better, but I get better through role play. But personal study I finished Jesus the Christ! YAY! Great book too, definitely worth it.

The food here is amazing though. Koreans do fried chicken right, let me tell you. That is so amazing, but so unhealthy. We also go to a 5 dollar buffet down the street. We get rice, kimchi, some jae ju (?) and sauce and it is heaven. We always leave there happy. Elder Herron and Brantley make delicious meals though everyday. We have had waffles, pancakes, spaghetti, soups, breadsticks etc. Every meal is awesome, especially members meals and pears. The pears here are to die for. They are my favorite thing right now. I could eat them all day.

Member dinners... We had one on Thursday, and since addresses in Korea suck, we proselyted while trying to find our members house early before the meal. While wandering around, a random grandma saw me without a scarf, so she kept insisting on giving me one. We went in and she offered me like 4 scarves, so I just took one and man, it is a life saver. Bless that sweet lady. She was so nice. we also met a member on the street who bought us some honey/lemon drink, which was the sweet nectar of the heavens. Oh my goodness, that women was a saint.

We still got kinda lost trying to find the members house that night, so we had to have them come and get us haha. One day maybe we will find it. But for the dinner was spaghetti, pogum bop (복음법) and ice cream after. We also had some meshin, don't know how to spell that. It is some delicious Korean drink that is beautiful. That was a good meal. Except we sat crossed legged, so my knees and hips wouldn't work after that. That was brutal. Let's hope my knees adjust quick.

Church was pretty good, I still didn't understand 99% of it, but we also had some random investigator here. He talked a couple months ago with other missionaries, so he just showed up yesterday. He had a ton of questions, but wouldn't trust a foreigner missionary, or a Korean one (he thought he was too young to understand), so the ward mission leader guy came and basically just planched the guy. He was so crazy.

Palace

So, that's been this week in Korea. It doesn't sound like a lot, but it has been pretty great here. Love you all.

One request, will you fill me in on real world news? I just barely heard Obama declared war on ISIS... that would of been nice to know the world is falling apart. I hate feeling so secluded.

Love ya,
Elder Mortensen