안녕!!

02.20.2011
7:55 pm MST

Annyonghaseyo Yoreobun,

Okay, so first..I just want to say that I am not a very graceful Korean eater. This week, I once almost knocked over and broke a plate during the lesson, and just yesterday this Investigator gave us seaweed soup. Earlier yesterday, I had to take all of the dried seaweed off of my companion's bibimbab, because I love it, and I told her the only thing I can't stand is wet seaweed. So, of course..God decided to give me wet seaweed for dinner. With clams or something or other from the ocean. I don't know. Anyways, I prayed as hard as I could that I would be able to eat all of the soup without gagging or making a funny face. As she put it in front of my face, all I could think was..Ocean.. Ocean..Ocean, It smells exactly like the seaweed from the ocean. So, I took about 5 bites, and the seaweed slipped down my throat without a problem..but then..the aftertaste was the most bitter taste I've ever tasted. Besides Korean medicine. But, I decided that I would try to tough through it, I grabbed a little sea creature..and then I grabbed another one..and then I took another spoonful of seaweed..and I gagged. can you believe it!? The investigator proceeded to ask me if it was difficult to eat Korean food...uh...*bashful face* my trainer explained that I am learning. The investigator laughed and said that I can't eat spicy food. And she proceeded to tell me not to eat any of the spicy food. Fhew! The spicy food on the table was black octopus in pepper paste, and some spicy tuny stuff..and surprisingly enough she said the seaweed soup was spicy, which I adamantly agreed with..even though it wasn't at all. But..I couldn't eat it. I'm so disappointed in myself. My trainer thinks that all of the fruits of my desperate plea to God to help me eat it..went to her. She usually can't eat it either, but she ate it all up. She said it was probably because one of us had to, so God decided it would be more appropriate to give her the ability since she's older. HA! In any case, I'm glad its over.
Anyways, as for other things that happened this week, um I had valentines Day. And that was really great. Can I tell you about it? ? Okay, I will. So, on Valentines night, we went and visited a less active lady in Samsung ward, because she insisted in church the day before that we had to come over and eat dinner with her. So, we go to her apartment and she swings open the door, and I honestly don't know what to look at first--her gold thermal pants, or her 5 gold teeth, or the 4 big gold rings she has on. She grabbed my hand and pulled me into the house, I took of my shoes, while she ran in the apartment, grabbed a puffy black jacket, put on bright red lipstick to match her fingernails, and grabbed a big fur scarf (I was hoping she'd grab the fur scarf with little lifeless animal legs dangling down..but alas..it was not so). She then grabbed my hand, made us put our shoes back on and told us we were going out. She held my hand as we got in the elevator, and I don't recall parting from her for the rest of the night. I've never met such a fiery lady, she steered me around with her little hand until we got to this yummy noodle place, called namu suk, or tree soup? I don't know if thats the right translation. She let go of my hand while she ate her seafood noodles, and me my don katsu. We went back to her house after, and she started to tell us how sad she was because she is alone, and her husband is dead, and she doesn't know if the church is true because she can't understand the scriptures anymore. It broke my heart, to see how broken hearted she was..over everything. Even though, on the outside she was so happy. We are going to study with her on Saturdays, so she can know whats going on on Sundays during Sunday School and Relief Society. Pretty Romantic Valentines, eh? heh.
Okay, so I don't know why I didn't mention this first--but we had an APOSTLE come to the mission. Elder Cook came on Saturday and spoke to all of the missionaries. And yeah, mom Elder Choi came. We got to shake their hands in a line, and I don't think they recognized me because they both just shook my hand and said nice to meet you..and I wanted to say-nice to meet you? I've met you like 30 times! But still, it was a great meeting. There are a lot of things that I could tell you that he said, but I will tell you the apostolic blessing that he left with us. He said that he promises that this is where I am supposed to be at this time, he said that being on a mission, what I'm doing right now, is going to bless my family, present and future, and that every important, eternal thing is going to be blessed for the tim I am sacrificing now.
Okay, I realize this email is getting long, I promise I'm not taking tons of email time..I'm just like..really fast at typing. I've become very humble on my mission. psych. So, I'm just warning you that I"m only about half way done, so if you've made it this far, then bravo and I love you, and if you want to keep reading, then I love you even more than I did when you stopped reading a little bit ago.
So, I know that you keep asking about my companion, Sister Megan Warner. I wrote some things down. Here they are. Favorite bands: Hanson (infamous for MmmBop, right?), Linkin Park, Skillet, Vertical Horizon, and They Might be Giants. Her favorite musicals: Phantom, Les Mis, Scarlett Pimpernell, Lion King, and We will Rock you. TV Shows: Arrested Development, Bones. Movies: The Fall, The Ultimate Gift. Misc: She doesn't like Zooey Deschanel, but she likes her sister Emily. She wants to be an astronaut. She can tell which airplanes are in the air when they fly over. She doesn't like chickflicks, She is half yellow, half white..and now do you think I'm talking in racial slangs..or in the personality test lingo? Both apply pretty equally. She works at a space center place in Utah valley, and she runs the ship, Pheonix. She always points out the constellations to me. And I love her. She is great.
Okay, know I'm going to give you just some things that happened during the week. English Class funny highlights: We talked about Music during english class, and we were going around talking about our favorite artists..and one of the Elders said J-Lo and Enrique Inglesias (sp?), and then two Korean guys said something I don't know..and then one of the members just started singing Celion Dion songs..for like 1/2 minutes. It was..great. And then we talked about Karoake, and it came up that we don't have Karoake in America and one of the Koreans exclaimed, "What?! Does the government prohibit it?! How boring!" My distress over this issue coincides well with this Korean man's exclamaition. Why are there not Karoake places in America-how boring!
Oh, and do you want to know which races I've been guessed as this week? On my way to English class, I tried to talk to these two girls, and then a swarm of little Korean kids playing soccer surround me and started to yell out different races at me. But the only ones I caught..because these two kids kept repeating them over and over were..Africa, which he kept saying--Aaa-Puh-Ri-Ka, and doing a dance around me..similar to what you would imagine a little asian kid thinking an african dance was like, and then the other kid kept yelling and pointing at me saying-Indo! and putting his hand up to his hand and moving it back and forth..like in the bollywood dance on Just Dance. I also spoke to these Two Uzbekistanians while I was contacting, and one of them has Korean ancestry..but they said I don't look like anything, I just look like "a European face." So, I'm glad that people are still constantly sitting on the edge of their seats, even in Asia trying to figure out what race I am. So fun. But, I've also had a suprising amount of people ask if I am Korean, because they keep saying i have the Korean Neukim, or feeling around me.
Another funny thing that was during Enrichment at the President's house-all of the Korean ladies came over, and they came and sat at the table and one of the ladies said-Do Americans always eat like this (Refferring to the sitting at the table with chairs) and then she said, It seems so difficult, why don't we just sit on the floor. All of the Korean ladies, adamantly agreed, but luckily..we still got to sit at the table. with chairs.
Some of the things that I am still getting used to, or that are still surprising or new to me are: Sitting on the floor for long periods of time. Washing our trash off, and then seperating it, and taking out the food trash, and seeing dogs with colored tails, ears, or things drawn on their face..like eyebrows.
I'm almost out of time. I have started reading the book of Mormon, and underlining whenever it says Jesus Christ, and I highlight when it talks about things that he has done or attributes, and then when he directly says something. I'm really enjoying it. One of the biggest things I've learned from it this week, is that God commands..a lot. But as much as he commands, he also always provides, and or strengthens. I don't have a lot of time to share much more, but one of the things that I liked this morning is Moses 7: 40-44. I think if you go and read it, you will be able to tell why I like it. It is so beautiful.
Okay, well time to go..

Happy Birthday, Richard, Aunt Sherry, Grandma, and anybody else..

Saranghaeyo, Cutler Chamae