September 28, 2015 (Week 41)

September 28, 2015

Bowling, with the President

This week was pretty slow. It's Korean Thanksgiving this week, so everybody was getting ready for that, so we couldn't do much...
After email Monday, we went and shopped and got a hair cut... terrible idea. I said "this style, but half the length" and she took that as, nearly buzz cut... so now I feel like I have no hair, except in the back... not really sure why she did that, but I just sat there in horror until it ended... so if you don't see any pictures of me for a while, that's why, haha.  After that, we taught So Bo Hyun. He is 29, owns a chicken house (that's what Koreans call restaurants...) and is super cool. He understands The Book of Mormon only if he prays beforehand, and then he understands great. He read from the start to 2nd Nephi 22, twice, once with praying beforehand. Super cool. We set a baptism date for the end of October, so hopefully he can pull through. Later we went to a shopping place, so we picked up a couple things. I picked up the Seoul hat and Elder Sullivan picked up a hat that said 외국인 (foreigner). Pretty funny, maybe not to you guys, but to us it's kinda funny.  After that, we had some tacos. We found a good taco house and will be going back often for sure. After p-day, we just jundoed. Nothing too special.
Tuesday....we met a guy named Jay for lunch. He has lived all over the world, and pretty good at English, and man, he swore a couple times about people ripping him off.  That was super weird. I haven't heard casual swearing like that since I left. That's going to be super trippy coming back to in America. It was a good lesson with him, too bad he is moving down south.... just jundoed after that. We when down to a college hotspot and met some cool people, but its weird seeing a lot of young people. I'm used to seeing only old guys. We met a Mexican named Armando. He is here for a convention, and we helped him find a Starbucks so he could meet his buddy from work. Funny guy, he kept saying "I am Armando, the Mexican Buddha" really weird guy. He's from Mexico City though.  Later we met a family . They want to learn English, but have a little interest in gospel. Hopefully we can swing them toward the gospel.
Wednesday we had the most awkward district meeting ever. Elder Bybee maybe said like 30 words, and just had us discuss things and role play by ourselves.  Super weird, we were all kinda wondering what he was trying to get us to do. We kinda sat there lost for an hour.... later we just jundoed, then met some less active who is Korean, but hates Koreans. He lived in America for a little I think, and just wanted to vent, so he called us up.  Kinda good to talk with him, but he doesn't even live in our area. It was a really weird meeting. After, we did some more jundo, met our recent convert, who wanted to talk about how to deal with a prideful friend. Pretty good talk, kinda realized how prideful I've been so far on my mission. It may not sound like it in the emails, but realizing now, I've been pretty proud about some things.  Good lesson for him and me.
Thursday we didn't do much but jundo.  Nobody can meet this week due to Thanksgiving, 추석. (Choo Suk).  That night we did street boarding, and man, it was crazy where we went. Sometimes it felt like we were at like an amusement park. So many people. All the college kids were going places, some guys were trying to street dance (emphasize on the trying part). Kinda distracting.
Friday was super fun. We went bowling with president, missionaries from Gireum (all my old friends) and some other missionaries.  That was fun. I was in a lane with Elders Bean, Yetter, and Sullivan.  That was a fun time. I won with bowling a 142, then a 122.  Got super close to a better score, just 1 or 2 pins away from a strike and whatnot.  After, we all went to the office, and had a conference.  Talked about Thanksgiving here and what it means. We watched some cool videos, that just get you pumped about Korea. Great place. That was pretty fun. That night we went to the Han river, in the middle of Seoul. Pretty cool.  Sat there looking at the Seoul South mission. Pretty cool view.

Saturday we cleaned... the entire day. Me and Elder Sullivan went at it hard. That took forever. The house feels a lot better now. For dinner, we went out to a pizza buffet, because all the smaller shops were closed, and we decided to go big for the holiday.

Night Shot of River Han

Sunday we studied, went to church, then did a lesson and planned. Pretty much, nobody is out this weekend, so we just got much needed work done in our house.  We've got a good line up and ready to work this week. I'm tired of being in the house.... that's been my week, had a good time.

Love you all,
Elder Mortensen