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| Hiking Mt Bukhansan |
Hiking was sweet. We did a little hike up to a beacon lookout spot, (sorta like the beacons in Lord of the Ring) and so we could see all of Seoul pretty much, at least across the river and into the Seoul South mission. Pretty sweet view. Our side of Seoul is literally just a bunch of buildings in the middle of a mountain range. Nuts to try and imagine, but it was kinda sweet to see. After that, all 8 elders went to a donkas buffet. Donkas is meat that has been breaded and fried. Suuuuper delicious. I had probably 6-7 of them before going. That was cool to just hang around with all of them. After P-day we had a meeting with Jason. He's the one that lived in Tennessee for a year, then came back. He hates it here, and wants to go back to America. Kinda funny, a lot of Koreans are really bored with how un-diverse it is. They would love to go to America for that reason alone. But he was pretty cool. Because of Confucious beliefs, he bought us hot chocolate at the Santa House. We pass by that cafe all the time, and dreamed about going there. Pretty pricey for just a hot chocolate but its cool. We got to sit outside on a patio using chairs and tables like Lani's has. I'll try to take a picture next time.
Tuesday was pretty bad. Jundo was awful, nobody would even give us the time of day to talk to them. Everybody, even 88 year-old barely walking people are busy here. So we did that for like 3 hours, before planning to meet 성제. We met him at streetboarding. He had heard the usual polygamy, bad stuff things about us, so we just wanted to meet him and set him straight. We finally met up with him, then he was pretty lame. He talked about how we forced him to meet, and how he didn't have any interest at all. He asked how long it would take, we said just like 30 minutes, and he asked if we could make it shorter. We told him he didn't have to be here, so he just left... we were both pretty upset that he confirmed, showed up, and then bailed. That night we went less-active hunting again. It's a nightmare to find houses. The house numbers for the 2 people we found, the room number did not exist and the apartment doors were locked so we couldn't get in... super annoying. However on the way there, we ran into a less-active named DK. We talked with him, then set up a Sunday appt. I'll talk about that later. After finding no houses, we decided to take a random backstreet, and hope people had more time. The third guy we talked to is named 오수연 . He is an old man with a lot of time. He started talking about he believes in religion by good works, and knows churches are corrupt here, so he doesn't trust them. He then said he prayed the night before for feeling bad about not going to church. He said he then had a dream about an angel who took him up to heaven, but God said he wasn't ready for there yet, so he got put into another beautiful place (terrestrial world?). That place had amazing flowers, and wanted to stay, but the angel showed him how corrupt and dark the world is and how it needs help, and he isn't ready. So he got put back down to earth to find the truth. He said when he saw us walking by, he felt compelled to talk to us, but he didn't know English. So when he said his one English word, then we started in Korean, he felt it was a miracle... however, he feels that tithing and church attendance are not necessary... so ya, pretty sweet guy, just talks a toooonnnn. Took like an 1 1/2 hours to talk to him. That was a sweet ending to the day, though.
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| Donkas |
Wednesday was just "eh". Lunch was some delicious 떡복이 but Elder Herron left the little fishies in too long, so we had it while trying to avoid eating fish haha. District meeting was Elder Whitlock talking about how Christ is the end, and once we endure/come unto Christ, that is the goal. After we reach Christ, it is no longer enduring, but being happy and living the gospel. Pretty good... after that I went on exchanges with elder 이종채, our zone leader. He is hilarious and the nicest person you will ever meet. We started we a little bit of jundo, then went and read in the visitor center with a less-active. I felt soo slow trying to read, but after a while I got better. By the end my mouth couldn't take it anymore though. It's like trying to read a tongue twister book for like an hour... soo hard. It was cool though. After that we went to go pick up some rice from a members house that they wanted to donate. That was pretty heavy to try and lug all the way back to the church, and then their house. At the church we met with 이호재. He is a recent convert who showed us the video of old pop stars singing for Africa, haha so bad, it was pretty hilarious. Maybe you remember that video? Then the fun happened, Elder 이 was teaching commandments again, and since I'm still not comfortable teaching that, every time he tried to include me, I had no idea what to say or do, so I felt pretty inadequate. That night Elder 이 tried to help me, but I was just stuck in my mind. In the morning we did training for each other. He was training me on how to stay positive, and helped me out a ton. After studies, we went with his investigator to get 순대국 (soup-like intestine)...... still not a fan. good memories, definitely not wishing to have it anymore though. The meeting was pretty good, didn't understand most of it though, haha. So hard to try and focus and pick up Korean...... a little more jundo followed, then we closed our exchange.
After the exchange me and Elder Whitlock jundoed again, and got 6 appointments set up, in one night. It was pretty great
After planning, while jundoing we ran into the zone leaders around dinner time, so we got something with them. After dinner, we ran into a less-active from 의정부, where Elder Whitlock had his baptisms. He had been less-active for 20 years because he felt like God was discriminate because he changed the Lamanites color. We helped set him straight on that, and set up a time to talk with him again. Super nice guy. On the way back from that, we ran into 이지승 our devil worship investigator. Turned into another hour long talk on the street, but by the end he was willing to read scriptures, and talk about our religion some more. So he is making progress, hopefully he can keep it up.
Saturday was fun. We met with 이용훈 a senior in high school. He is super quiet and lonely. His dad is currently dying in a hospital, so we think he met us to have somebody. Super sad story. We taught him the first lesson and got to know him, and then after the lesson, he bought us drinks, and walked with him to the subway station since he didn't want to leave us. That took a while, but good meeting. After that was English class. Pretty alright, nothing too big. After that and family home evening, me and Elder Whitlock went and got stuff for Elder Brantley's birthday on Sunday.
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| "Volcano" cake |
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| View from Bukhansan |
Love you all,
Elder Mortensen
이대산 장로 (look up each word in my name) 이 대 산 [This Versus Mountain] [Chapter by] (hopefully it translates good and you get it)
Job 27:5 (2-6)
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