-i just put hi. its lame, i know.
Well, I hope everybody had a really good week. I think that this has been one of my best weeks in the mission. I don't really know why .. but everything just seems to be going really well. Clearly, I still can't speak Korean-but I'm not as afraid as I was when I first got here. We still don't have any investigators-but we have some promising people, that I am growing to love very quickly. Last night we Kakahoho-ed for 3 hours, and we got 131 contacts in. It has been raining a lot here, and I love rain-especially when its not hot monsoon season rain.
Lets see...I'll try to do this more efficiently than last week. I'm sure you were all dying by the end of my little novella. dying with happiness, right? ha. .. .
So, on monday after I emailed, we went ice skating with our district. it was fun. And I didn't even fall down once. Asa! but I also wasn't very daring with my skating. We played tag..which was scary at times.. because i'm not very good at skating. And half the time, I was mesmorized by this little kid that couldn't have been older than 3, but had the mullet of a 47 yr. old man, and a matching blue velour sweat suit of an equally-aged woman--anyways, so this kid was like..really good at skating. He was doing all sorts of spins, and triples, and jumps, and I couldn't take my eyes off of him.
On Tuesday, we went to district meeting, did other stuff, but my favorite part was when we saw this really old lady carrying around a big ol pot of dirt in a little thing with wheels. She let me pull it the rest of the way to her house. it was really heavy..and I have no idea how that little lady thought she was going to get it all the way home. It felt good to help her, and it felt even better when she invited us in for coffee after. psych, don't worry. We said we can't drink coffee, and she was really sad.
On Wednesday, we went to a recent converts house, and she made us ramen-and I love spicy ramen, right? Yes..I do..but there was tons of octopus, or squid in it..I'm not sure which..it was just a little of purple and white tentacles, and pieces...but-i ate every bit of it, even all of the many pieces of kimchi floating around in it. can you believe it? Zach was right when he said sometimes it is like a battle eating Korean food. We also went with sister Furniss to get her haircut, so my trainer could tell the hair people how to do it--and while I was waiting I taught my first street lesson to this kid sitting next to me..and it was so cool, because he was talking about how he prayed to God when he was younger and asked if He was really there--and he said he never got an answer.. and we talked about it for a while, and we talked about the Book of Mormon and a bunch of other stuff before he had to get his haircut, and I just thought-being a missionary is sweeeet, when else is it pretty much your whole purpose to talk to people about their deepest beliefs, and you get to hear people open up pieces of their soul to you? I got half way through another street lesson after he left, but then the lady got snatched up to get her haircut, but at least I got to talk to her a little.
That night, we went over to a less-active family house..and i love them. They have a daughter that is Richards age, and I'm sure we'd be best friends if I had the time to spend with her. Her name is Daseul, or Dana if you want her english name. She was converted when she was 15, and she's fiesty. On Saturday we had English class, and it was the only day that we had to leave early for a dinner..and magically had 3 investigators show up, and Daseul Chamaenim, who've I've been trying to get to come. But I was talking with Daseul before I had to leave, and I asked if she'd be my companion during church because we thought we were going to have to do splits. She said yes, and then asked if all 3 investigators were coming-and I said..uh, I don't know-just the one in the red vest. Then Daseul grabbed my hand and squeezed it and said, did you ask the other two..and I said..uh, I don't know..maybe my companion did. And then she pushed me off my chair, and said very forcefully, go and ask them to come to church!! hahaha. She is great, so I did, and in the end nobody ended up coming, but I was still thankful for Daseul pushing me to do it. And we didn't end up having to go on splits, but Daseul was still pretty much my companion for all of church. She's planning on going to BYU-H in the fall.
Oh gosh, i'm blabbering. I'm sorry.
Let me try to slightly organize myself right now..kind of. I just want to write about a couple of things. A couple of simple things. In that Moses scripture I mentioned last time, it talks about how Enoch's heart swells as wide as eternity, and I just want to write about a few of the moments that happened this week that made my soul feel like it swelled as wide as my known eternity. The first one was while we were at Ko Seo Joo's house eating the squid ramen, and we were listening to beautiful classical music. As I was chewing through a piece of squid, I drank a sip of mango juice. And then looked up, and I noticed that Ko Seo Joo's face was twitching under her right eye. My companion started to talk to her about things she'd been going through. In an instant, her face changed and the twitched turned into tears. I just sat there with half eaten squid and mango juice in mouth, feeling hopeless. My heart swelled in a way I can't explain, and all I wanted to do was cry with her.
Another moment was when we went and ate ShabuShabu with a member who is single, and she served a mission in Busan in the 90's. We had a good dinner( and at the dinner, I willingly ate lots of kimchi and even some of the little squids in the soup, and a shrimp with the legs and shell. I'm getting tough). Anyways, we went to her house after the restaurant and we talked to her for a bit, and asked if we could share a short message with her. Her eyes turned..so eager, and she just clasped her hands together and leaned closer to us, and said yes! I've been waiting. Seeing her eagerness, and her hunger to hear words, in fact..just the eagnerness to hear, and to be fed just opened something inside of me.
I'll only have two more, don't worry. On Saturday, at English class, I was sitting there during the opening exercises with two potential investigators on the left side of me, and another long time investigator(that apparently we've been trying to get for a long time to come), on the other side of me, and Daseul chamaenim sitting behind me. I sat there, and Kim Ye Ji, the investigator to the right of me grabbed my hand, and I just..swelled with a little pulse of eternity.
The last one was yesterday at Sonhwa ward. We went to Sonhwa after church for ward council, which we found out was actually next week..bt we somehow got roped into the longest, most seemingly pointless choir practice with our ward..and as I sat there, with everybody singing with their Korean boldness, I couldn't help but be really, really happy. After choir, they pulled out the rice cakes, and the rice drink-and we feasted on little Korean snacks. Somebody was playing the piano in the background, and it was pouring ran outside, and my soul just pulsed..and I was perfectly content with everything. It was one of those perfect moments where everything just makes sense.
Anywho, enough of my gushy soul-talk. Mom, yesterday we got a call asking if there was a "Lia Chamaenim" hahahaha. Nobody knows that I am "Lia Chamae" I am supposed to be Cutler Chamae. Some guy named Lee Inky? Matthews name, asked one of the sister missionaries in the south if there was a Lia Chamaenim in the mission, and she eventually found me, and he said he knows me? I don't know him..but apparenty he's going to be sending me a letter soon. ? I think he is around your age. 50's ish.
Well, this is probably all way more than you all wanted to hear, but it just spills out. I will try to send pictures.
Bye.
Love, Cutler Charmander
3 elders that richard will be serving with in LA, I took it in the MTC, but forgot to send it earlier.
The next one is of a girl, that I think some of you getting this email know. She was my host baby in the MTC, I hosted her on her first day.
The third one is of a leaf at Hannam.
The fourth one is of the side of my desk.
The fifth one is our very friendly bread.
The sixth is for ben.
The seventh is of English class.
A couple more pictures of me and my companion. Because I'm sure you all are dying to see my face again.
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