Allo! Privyet!

So, I'm in Korea now.

I sent you an email to tell you I was here safe, I hope you got it-nobody wrote me to tell me they did so I hope it got to you. It was really good to talk to you on the phone in the airport.

Well, this is much different than being in the MTC. The best part about this email time is that I don't have a ticking red clock in the corner of my screen. I am very happy to be here. I figured it out, and our total travel time was 28 hours. We left the MTC at 6 AM on the 24th, We flew to LA, and then Tokyo, and then into Seoul--and while I was flying over Japan I got to eat sushi-be jealous Lexypoo if you read this (and if she doesn't-somebody please tell her to), and then we got to Daejeon on the 26th at about 1:30 or 2 AM by a bus that had tiger stickers slapped onto the sides of the seats--shweet--I knew that their was a reason I loved tigers so much-its in my blood.

I was pretty tired, but we still had to wake up at 6:30. But its okay, it helped me get over jetlag pretty quickly. We stayed in the mission home until Thursday just doing training, and going to the immigration office and such. I did my very first 전도ing on Wednesday night, so that was pretty wild. I just smiled a lot, and a lot of old ladies laughed at me, which is fine. They said a lot of things I didn't understand, and one asked me in Korean if I was having fun-which luckily I understand in Korean--and I said yes! and then she said--where is your God? and I said 한을에 (the sky)! she laughed and laughed and then asked if I really believed in God. and I said 네, of course I do! She laughed and laughed some more, patted me on the back, and took a pamphlet from me. This was probably my best 전도ing experience so far. haha.

Mostly ladies just ignore me completely, even if I walk with them, or they stick their hand out at me in my face, but sometimes they let me walk and talk with them and they say a lot of things I don't understand so I just smile at them and bear my testimony. woo hoo hoo, I bet these Korean people are getting a kick out of me. But, I feel good--I don't mind it at all, because I think about Mom. And I think about how all of these people are like her, as in-at some point if Mom didn't have the gospel in her life, and some young foreign misisonary came up and tried to tell her about how God loves her--maybe she would walk away too, or think that I was crazy, or laugh at me and tell me I'm cute...but I know how much happiness the gospel has brought into her life, and I know because she has this gospel--that I am where I am. And that gives me the courage to want to share the gospel with every Korean lady that I see. Because I know that they have the potential to be like my mom, to be happy like my mom, and the potential to bring the same happiness to their children and friends that my mom has brought to me through the gospel. So, thank you Mom for being the force behind my sometimes faltering courage to talk to people.

I just realized that I haven't gotten to all of the exciting things, like where I am serving or who my trainer is.........drumroll please...I am serving in Daejeon. Surprise! haha. It is my greeny area- I am serving in 삼성 and 선화 ward. Anywhooo, so I don't know what ward funny lady is in, but I hope that I will see her soon, let her name which wards I'm serving in. Now, my trainer is Warner 자매님. She is from Alpine, Utah-she enjoys musicals and ROTC--and I enjoy her. She has taught me a lot, and she saves me all of the time in the middle of my haphazard contacts when I so eagerly run up to somebody to talk to them, and then have no idea what they're saying, or if i do know what they're saying I have no idea what to say back. It is very easy and comfortable to be her companion, and I am very thankful for that. I live about 5 minutes away from the mission home and the office, so we go there sometimes. Last night, I got to eat one of my favorite Russian dishes because we have an office Elder from Russia-but he's Korean, and he's a chef-so I was very very happy :) oh i mean ^_^ I forget sometimes that this is equally a part of the Korean language. ㅋㅋㅋ. Besides that, missionary work is great, I feel so blessed to be out here. We put punk'd all the time and our appointments don't show up-but its okay, then we get to 전도.

So, on a more spiritual note-I will share with you a couple of the things that I realized this week, or that I learned. I decided that I wanted to study about "plain and precious things." I mean, I hear it all the time in the scriptures, but I realized I didn't know why those things are so great, or why God rejoices in plainness. I mean if He rejoices in it-then shouldn't I strive to have it? So I studied, and what I found is that in 1 nephi 13 it talks about the great and abominable church-and how satan is the founder of it-took out the plain and precious things of the gospel. And I thought-why would he want to do that? So, i found in 2 nephi 25:20 that it says: I have spoken plainly that ye cannot err. If things are plain, we understand better, we do not err as often. When the plain things are taken away, and replaced with more complicated things, it becomes much more difficult to see the clear distinct path to walk on. I started to think about how I could achieve plainnness, and I came across Isaiah 40: 3-4 I think: and it says something about while you are crying to prepare the way for the Lord, that the valleys will be exalted, the low places will be made high, and the crooked places straight, and the rough places plain. And I realized that this isn't necessarily just referring to the geography of the world--I beileve that this is talking about my soul. My valleys--my insecurities, my weaknesses, etc--will be lifted up, my mountains--my pride--will be brought low, and my crooked places--my sins, my bad habits, etc.-will be made straight, and my rough places--self explanatory--will be made plain. So I realized that is while full-heartedly preparing the way for the Lord that the Lord will shape my soul, and put everything in its right place.

And for the last few minutes, I'll tell you a few stories.
-In English class one day, This man walked in, stared at me for about 30 seconds with a blank look and barbecue sauce on his face, and then asked-"are you Islam??" hmm..lets see--so are you asking me if I am the entire religion of Islam or if I am Muslim? I said, "No, I'm American." And he laughed, and relaxed and said, "Oh I thought you were Islam." Then, during class, he sat across from me and just stared at me with the same blank look and same stale barbecue sauce on his face. I love him! I hope he comes to English class every week! Then in the same English class, we were talking about favorite books, and I listened for 5 minutes to a Korean man try to explain to us that his favorite book was a Student Study manual. Only in Korea. Seriously.
-We went to a part-member house to share a lesson, and when we got there the Mom was really drunk, and the kid was off the walls. We tried to share a message with them, but it was near impossible. Then at the end, the kid gave a prayer and kept changing the pitch of his voice the entire time. It was a good wake up call to me, that lessons definitely don't always go the way that you want them to.
-The first lesson that I ever taught, my companion was asking the lady if she prayed this week, and the lady said no. My companion asked about it, and tried to encourage the lady to pray, and the lady said- Don't you have to believe to pray. I don't think she wants to meet with us agian. It was my first lesson, my first sadness and slight frustration and confusion as a missionary over somebody not accepting or understanding the gospel. It was a good reality check for me.
-I contacted my first 하나님의 교회 member this week, I got a hand in the face. that was exciting.
-I'm already about 1/6 of the way done with my mission.

well so, how is everything at home? Any new news about anything? I look forward to reading your emails next week now that you know my P-day is on Mondays. It is Solar this week, so it sounds like we have to stay in the apartment all week, because we can't go out proselyting and everybody is going home for the week to visit family.

Anywho, it is probably about time for me to go. I hope that 여루분 are doing well.

사랑해요!!!