Wow, Thanksgiving!

We were severely lacking in the turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, jello, rolls etc etc department, so we ordered chicken!  It was soo good!!!!  (I'm just trying to make myself feel better about it...But it really was delicious!)

Our Thanksgiving

A couple weeks ago for FHE (us missionaries in the ward do it with some members and our investigators) for our activity we played 'spoons,' but we didn't use spoons... We used chopsticks! ...So I guess we probably should have called it 'chopsticks'....It was pretty difficult explaining the game in Korean, but somehow we managed!

 

Recently we've gotten two new investigators who are absolutely awesome!!! We gave them the English names of Spencer and Jason.  They were both referred to us by a member in the ward who was studying at BYU last year (served a mission in Anaheim, CA a bit before that) and came back to Korea to go to the military service cause it's required for Koreans.  But he's been here a few weeks and he got us these two amazing investigators.  People we couldn't have found or set things up the way they are, without a member behind it.  Member missionary work is SOOOO important!!! (just wanted to put a plug in for that)  Spencer wants to learn English, wants to learn about the church and gospel, and wan'ts to go on a mission of all things!  Jason after talking with our member, wants to go to BYU-Hawaii to study really really bad.  So he wants to get better at English with us and to work with us to strengthen his very very small testimony and to become a member.  They're super funny and great to meet with! I love them soo much!  Whenever we meet them, I never want to transfer out of this area because they're just the best!!! I have such high hopes for their progression!

 

The coffee shops around Gwangju (my city) are all putting up Christmas trees and Christmas lights, but the Christmas spirit is nothing like in the states.  Totally different and kind of bizarre. It's just like any other holiday here.  Weird...

 

Anyways, love you all! Have a great Decembery week!

Out of email time!!

So I don't have time, but here's a delicacy we ate this week!

~~~~SOOOOO COOOOOOOOLD~~~~

Sorry it's been so long! Wow I'm just such a slacker when it comes to the writing part of my blog entries.  I promise it's not because I don't like you! (Well....maybe a lit-  just kidding, just kidding!) It's just really hard to type everything in an hour time slot!

Well let's see...how much have I not told you about....  We had a Halloween party! That was fun and it had a big turn out of church members and their friends and their (the friends) families.  (I mean, yes the members' families too of course, but just to clarify I wanted to just-...well you get what I mean)  For the party I dressed up as Draco Malfoy. Super easy costume for a blonde missionary with a green necktie.  But slicking my hair back was a task! Elders Wagner and 박인오 had to both be in on it to help it work (even with a bunch of gel and hairspray!!)

After English class! The girl on the left is 박유진

Jumping around here and there, one of the sisters in our ward leaves on her mission TODAY!!! (November 17th)  Her name is 박유진 (so I guess like 'Yoo Jin Park' in English... you have no idea how hard romanization is; for Korean names especially!), and she's super cool! Fun fact about that, she will 귀환 (finish her mission) about 1 month before me! So, if my last area of my mission is back here, it'll be as if I never left to her, haha.  She's going to the SLC Temple Square Mission.  So if any of you are ever at Temple Square and see a Korean sister (there's only 3 of them counting her), you should talk to her and see if she knows me, cause hey, wouldn't that be legit?!

Me and my new companion 하용식!

We had transfers (about 2 weeks ago...) and I got a new companion! He's a Korean and his name is 하용식 (Ha Yong Shik). He's pretty cool! Everyone told me that your first Korean companion is really different and difficult.  At first it didn't seem like it could be that different, but it really is.  Not tooo much really, but just the feeling in the companionship and the way you do practically everything is just a little different than you're used too.  The culture really does play a big part in all of the difference!

We had a ward activity last-last Saturday, and it was a chilly kind muggyish day.  And the first part of the activity was a 식사 (meal).  So they fried 삼겹살 (Korean bacon) over a fire, had cuties and 감 (persimmons) and also lots of rice cookers.  The cookers were just sitting out on these picnic tables and it was just sooo.....Korean.  The second part of that activity was making pottery.  All of us 10 missionaries in the ward wrote our names on the inside of our Ward Mission Leader's bowl, so that way he remembers us forever!!!

Lastly it has been soooooo cold!!!! Gosh, and it's only going to get colder! Ahhh!!!!

Just a bunch of Korean girls that wanted me to take a picture of them after English class

Hope you're all doing great!!! You're the best! Thanks for being patient with my lack of emails lately!!!