January 4, 2016 (Week 55)

January 4, 2015

Hmmm... 10 minutes to write about my week... Challenge accepted haha

Elder Too-Tall Mortensen

Monday we didn't do much. We went around and picked up supplies for newspaper hockey for family night. That was pretty fun.  We used a ton of newspaper to make hockey sticks and ball, then you play hockey with them.  So that was our P-day and night.  P-day out here you can't really do much, although today we might visit the cup museum... just cause, haha. So it was kinda fun to just chill around the house.
Tuesday was cool. We were going out for another day of walking around, when a guy we met called us back and said he could meet right then.  So we met him, and he was interesting.  This 50-ish year old guy, talking in old-man Korean slang (sooo freaking hard to understand, sounds like German with throat slurs all the time...) anyway, he explains how he saw God and Jesus in a dream, and found his faith in them that way. But he got into a fight with his pastor (pretty common here, actually) so he quit attending church. He was really nice, but was pretty loud about no need for prophets.  Then later that night after dinner, a guy from a month ago called and wanted to meet, So we went all over town trying to meet him, finally sat down and talked.  He is really nice and sincere, really seems to want to learn until we pull out pictures...  He gets really distracted by pictures, especially the one of Moroni with the gold plates... "wow he is so big. He is very strong", etc. He's really nice though.   On the way back from that, we talked with a guy for a minute before he invited us to get a drink with him (you would not believe how many offers I've had to drink beer or coffee with people... ) So we sat down in a gas station and had a nice 40 minute chat about God.  Pretty cool, he gave us his number and address and said to come visit him. It was a really cool day.
Wednesday was less-active searching.  We went looking for like 6 less actives in one little place, so that took a while, nobody really answered. Not much else happened this day...
Thursday we went and visited a ghost town, now that it is vacation for college kids.  We went up by the campus and there was nobody. It was kinda weird. It felt like a downtown place, but nobody really there... but we went and tried to visit a bunch of other less-actives, but no luck on that either... Kinda sad.

Sunrises, especially the first in the
New Year, are important in
traditional Korean culture.
The Jeongdongjin and Gyeongpo
beaches in Gangneung
are popular places to enjoy a sunrise.

Friday we got up early and went to see the sunrise.  That was super cool to see it on the beach for the New Year.  Kinda cool, we just sat there, without really thinking, just admiring it.  I love those moments, just a moment of bliss where the world doesn't matter.  After we had 떡국 which is a traditional soup. and everybody gains a year when they eat it, so now I'm 22 in Korean age, what up! After that we met a kid who was super nice and happy, lives in Seoul by himself. His dad died of smoking and his mom is a drunkard... super sad story but he was really nice.
Saturday and Sunday were pretty regular nothing too new....
Love you all, take care,
-Elder Mortensen