Hello from 광주 South Korea, at a random library, I think.
To update you with the traveling, we arrived here on Wednesday of last week, and then from there we spent one day at the mission home for training, and then we met our trainers the next day and from then on we were out in the mission field! My trainer is Elder Evans. He is awesome. He has only been out for 4 transfers, so about 4 months in Korea, so the language is still a little bit of a barrier. In our ward there are three sets of missionaries...and three greenies, so this is going to be a progressing transfer. Oh yeah, they don't actually speak Korean here--at least the Korean I learned. What they say is completely true--I can only understand about 10% of what is going on. Those Koreans that recognize we are Waygookians (means foreigner) enunciate a little bit more, and then I can understand more.
We visited the ward yesterday (yes, right now it is 1:45pm on Monday) and things went really well. A big cultural thing in Korea is building Jong, or a friendship/neighbor/well it's hard to explain in English. It's closest to friendship. I had to give a personal information/testimony at the beginning of the meeting and I switched up a grammar form throughout the entire thing. Luckily it wasn't too bad of a switch and it was understandable. The ward is awesome, although small (except they have 10-12 young men...for about 100 people) and the members are great. Our ward mission leader is really zealous and so awesome. He spends church going around and trying to get us referrals and whatnot from the ward members. That is why Jong is so important--through Jong you gain the trust of the members and then they will trust you with their referrals. Oh, and American Elders are at the bottom of the tier in terms of acquiring Jong (Korean sisters, Waygookian Sisters, Korean Elders, Waygookian Elders). I really like the ward and the people who attend--it is great!
The conditions here are...different, but they are great! Firstly, it's about 80-90% humidity all day long here. Oh, and they haven't for some reason invented the air conditioner here, so things are a little sticky. But that's ok! In the bathroom I don't even need to use shaving cream to shave because my skin is so moist! This morning we woke up to a huge wind storm; that's the weather pattern here: cloudy until it decides to rain--and then it RAINS. My companion and I were out proselyting when one such storms came and it was very wet. Food here is great. It is spicy, but definitely good. The fruit is so good (but expensive), and they have some weird things. I guess the weirdest thing that I have eaten is either a squid or a full crab. Pretty good. Most of the time you eat, and then ask. Let's see...oh, so the way that Koreans live is extremely different than the way that Americans live. The cities that you see in Korea are concentrated apartments: so 15-20 stories buildings in clusters of 15-20 create the residency for a majority of the people. The people here build up. It's a lot different in that regards. Also, they don't have giant stores. Instead, everything that you need is guaranteed to be close by because there are small shops of goods all over the place--which is very handy. This way, it really is not essential to own a car, and a lot of Koreans don't.
This week went by and we met some great people out on the street. I also taught my first lesson...ironically in English to a man with an American name of Richard. English is everywhere here. Literally everywhere; however most people only know a few words. Anyways, so Richard was interested in English, he is a member and so we were teaching him English through the Book of Mormon. He told us that he had a really cool experience where he read and felt this "power" that allowed him to keep reading and to continue to study, and to want to apply what he was learning to his life (he read Mosiah 4). We explained to him that he was feeling the Spirit. It was a great opportunity to point out the Spirit to this man. We have also have many "random" encounters with people on the street such as a person who was taught by some Elders while he was on a trip during break (or so we suspect) and then saw us and pulled over his moped and then called the Elders that he had met with and let my companion talk to them because my companion said that he knew them (Koreans are so funny). We hope to teach him as we set up a return appointment.
Last a cool thing is happening in Korea. Our mission president says "the Spirit is brewing in Korea", and has received specific goals for this mission from Heavenly Father. The amazing thing is that the Stake President of the stake that I am serving in took us in yesterday and told us that he had prayed and before talking to each other, they had come up with the exact same specific number for the goal of the area. God is doing His work, and it is a work of revelation.
If you want to write to Korea, then write the mission office address. From there they distribute the letters. I think you should have the address somewhere. I love you all! Continue to be awesome. And remember 1 important message from the Book of Mormon. Go to Alma 19, read the account, and then ponder how important member missionary work is. Abish worked hard, and although things did not turn out exactly as she had expected, in the long run God used her to help the work along. I cannot tell you how important member missionary work is.
Love you all! Elder Strahl
No comments:
Post a Comment