June 1, 2015 (Week 24)

June 1, 2015

Fun in the sun

This week was kinda slow, and yet busy. Sorry if this seems short, we didn't do much, and I'm sick right now, so I probably won't write too much.

Monday was the picnic (my neck is starting to peel now) and that was the whole day.

Tuesday to celebrate Elder Pons B-Day we went to an American buffet called Ashley's. Not that good of food. It was all like lukewarm and Koreanized. Now I know how Chinese feel about Panda Express and American Chinese food like that, haha.  It was a good time though, the guys in our district are all pretty fun, in their own way.   After that, our appointment fell through (we had a lot do that this week) so we had a lot of jundo time.  So we went less active hunting/jundoing around for the whole time. We found like 6 houses, but the outer apartment doors were locked so we couldn't even get in to see if they even live there anymore. Jundo was alright. Elder Yetter did most of it, since I was looking at a tiny map to figure out where the heck we were/where the less-active lived.  Met a cool guy, set an appointment for today with him.  It was super hot, and our necks got fried at the picnic, so we were dying out there in the sun. I've got a pretty good tan-line from my white shirt/watch though, so that's cool haha.   English class followed that, so that just ended our night. English class in basic level is always interesting.  On Saturday they got into a discussion about sacrificial rites, and if that is idol worship, etc. Super weird...

Wednesday, the AP Elder Perry (super cool guy) was in town on exchanges so we played soccer with him.  He is pretty good, so it was super fun.  Soccer is fun anyway, but its better with people who can actually play and motivate me to try, haha.  Elder Yetter usually goes with my raquetball approach with kicking as hard as he can... usually everybody seems to go out hurting because of him, haha.   So we did that, then had 8 hours to jundo.  Some appointments cancelled, so we had literally nothing else to do.  We found like 11 less-actives houses, but once again nobody answered... Super frustrating. Maybe that is why I am scared to have 이용훈 baptized,  because I'm afraid he will just go less-active pretty quickly.  It's super hard going against the current of must-be-busy Korea.  People get so wrapped up with work, they can barely meet us, let alone come to church or read and pray...  That night, in order to build 정 (jung: good relationship/rapport) with the youth, we took out one of them to get some dinner.  We went to the kimchi chigay place, but it was packed so we couldn't really talk that much. He is a Jr. in high school, and just lives at the church.  Literally 95% of the time when we are at the church he is just chilling in the chapel, either with friends or by himself.  He is a funny kid though and is pretty cool guy to talk with.

Korean Funeral

 Thursday 김동언 (member, reads the Book of Mormon everyday with the missionaries) his dad died on Wednesday, so Thursday was the viewing funeral. So we cut out of studies a little bit early to go there.  We took a 30 minute bus ride to get to the place (out of our area). Korean funerals are interesting.  We got there and you go into a big like viewing room.  There is just a picture, some flowers, and some fruit sitting there.  You bow as a sign of respect then light up a piece of wire and put it in a pot. Not sure the symbolism there.  We did that, then ate there, and headed back home. I guess later that night, to make sure ward members showed up, the bishop had us go again that night for another service. In between sessions we had mcm.  That was funny.  Elder Cazier kept dozing off and half the district watched him.  His head would bob down slowly, trying to fight it, then give in.  A minute later he would wake up, look around and see we were watching him, then repeat the process... So funny.  Elder Yetter was dying.  He still gives him crap about that.  The night viewing, we went in there, sang some hymns, had the bishop and 김동언 speak, then sang some more hymns, and then ate some more.  After that, it was like 9:30, and we got a ride home from a member. I got the window seat, and man, I miss having the window down driving in a car.  So much fun, all my stress just went away.

Friday was a combined mission conference.  We went back down to the South Mission (2 times in one week) and got to hear from Elders Ringwood and Maynes.  Good talks.  Nothing too mind blowing though.  The best was seeing everybody from the mission.  I saw buddies from the South Mission, and even Elder Brantley who was clear out on the coast. Super fun to see people again. We hung around there for a while, then headed out for lunch.  We decided to head over to a meat buffet, just because it was a special day.  Such good food.  If only they were a thing in America.  That was pretty good, we were pretty stuffed.  We started doing weekly planning, then headed over to the visitor center for our shift.  There we ran in to the Zone Leaders and their investigator who bought dinner for all of us.  We had more chicken (had it like three times this week) we all were dying by the end of the meal.

Saturday we played more soccer, then I started feeling sick. I guess the meat didn't sit too well with me, still feeling sick today.  Elder Yetter did a lot of calls while I was dying, so that was most of our Saturday.  English class was interesting as ever.

Sunday was alright. Church was telling the members how to clean the church and some business guy telling us how the organization of the church in a ward works. Super boring... That night we did more calls, since I'm still dead, and I finally pulled off the Zone Leader pass off.  Glad to get that over with. Now onto AP on Thursday with Elder Perry.

Today we went into President's office for interviews.  Something happened in 원 주 right before Elder Yetter left, so he was worried about that and our investigators kinda dropping us. We haven't met them at all this week.  So we went in, and I talked with the president first.  He gave me advice for my sickness. Then we talked about pass-off's, and how it's been bugging me the whole time.  Super nice guy, I love him. It was a great interview. I'm sad I don't have him longer with him as my president.  Hopefully the new president is as cool.  Elder Yetter was in there for a while talking about life, and so that took a couple hours, and now we are emailing.

Life has been kinda down this week, but don't worry, I know it will get better. I know I'm hear for a reason, and that it will work out. So don't freak out (mom) if I sound down and sad. I know things will get better.

Love you all,
-Elder Mortensen