April 28, 2013

Everything is well here in Suwon, but I feel like my days are being
numbered. Transfer calls will be next week and since I've been here
for the past 6 months I expect a call, I'm not sure where I'll go (if
I go at all), but it has definitely been fun serving up here. This
past week we had a ward picnic on Saturday and it was really good to
see some of the ward members get out and mingle together. That's one
thing that is really hard in our ward; we have a lot of members that
are really busy with work and other church callings that they can't
make it out to ward activities. We have about 100 members that
regularly attend church and about 40 were able to come out to the
picnic so that was really good. We played soccer, dodgeball, had a
treasure hunt, and of course ate together. It was a blast and it was
really fun to spend an afternoon with our members. Last week our
investigators were really busy so we weren't able to meet a whole ton
of them, but I talked with a lot of them on the phone and they all
seem to be doing good. It seems like in Korea March and April are
really busy months so our work has kind of been slow recently, but
it's still been really fun! My companion got his visa last week so he
is all clear to go to the U.S. next month to begin his mission so I'm
really excited for him. Tonight we have a ward FHE at the church and
we are in charge of planning the activity. Hopefully at least maybe 30
members show up for it this time, last time we didn't have a ton of
members who showed up which was really disappointing, but we're going
to make it fun so hopefully they enjoy their time there tonight!

April 21, 2013

This week was good for us here in Suwon. We were able to visit one of
my investigators who we hadn't seen for about a month and a half so it
was really good to meet with him. He's been doing good, we visited him
in his Chinese restaurant and ate with him and talked for a while.
He's been super busy with work recently so he hasn't been able to meet
with us, but he said he might have time next month to meet. It kind of
sucks though because I think that by then I will probably transfer, so
before then I will have to visit him a few more times because he's
been my favorite investigator that I have met here. Other than that
this week was a little slow, I've been battling a cold that has kept
me inside for a few days, mostly just a cough and a runny nose, but
the weather outside hasn't helped. It got cold all of a sudden again
and the wind has been blowing more recently than before. So that's
kind of sucked, but the best part of last week was that my companion
and I were able to spend the day in Seoul! He had his visa interview
at the U.S. Embassy so we were able to spend a day up there. I ate a
turkish kebab for the first time in about 7 years and it was sooo
good! It was really overpriced, but I couldn't complain because it had
been so long. I also ate a crunchwrap supreme at taco bell for the
first time in about 2 years so it was just a day of happiness for me.
We visited some popular sites while we were up there and took a few
pictures and just had a blast up there. It definitely was not what I
was expecting though. I was expecting more like Tokyo or Hong Kong,
but it was a little different. It felt a little smaller and less
developed compared to the other 2 which was a little disappointing,
but it was still really fun. I'm looking forward to going back there
in 3 months when I finish my mission and get to spend a day up there
before returning home!

April 14, 2013

Everything is going well here in Suwon, the weather has been kind of
crazy but other than that all is well. We are still in the process of
finding new investigators at this point, but the ones we have are
doing well. One is named Jang Deok Hwan and he is really really really
smart. He's a psychologist and majored in religious studies so he's
really knowledgable on the different religions in the world so it's
always fun to meet with him. His conversion process will most likely
be a pain, but he's reading the book of mormon so that's a good start.
He has really cool theories about religion that are really fun to
hear. One that he told us was about the background of the buddhism and
Christianity, essentially how they came about. His belief right now is
that religion was created as a way for us to live better lives and to
guide us, I'm not entirely sure if he actually believes there is a God
or not though....he says he does, but his ideas sometimes conflict.
Anyways, he was saying if you look at an agricultural society, in
order to thrive they need to work together and share things because it
is a society in which you don't really move around. You grow your
plants and pretty much stay there, so it is good to have a big group
of people gathered together working together in order to thrive. But
in a desert society, you have to move around and hunt for your food,
so it's usually better to be in small groups or go around individually
because resources are so scarce and it doesn't make sense to provide
for a big group of people. He compared this to Buddhism and
Christianity. In India, it was largely an agricultural society where
they shared things so when you look at there religion, most likely it
would be based off of sharing and non violence. There are many Gods
who "share" their godhood and they work together non violently. But if
you look at Jerusalem (a desert society) they had to thrive
individually so their God would most likely be individual and in turn
that's why we are only allowed to worship 1 God. Anyways, 
his ideas were pretty cool, I bet I sound pretty retarded trying to
type them all out here, but it sounded cool when he told us. Anyways,
aside from hearing his theories every week, everything is pretty much
the same, we had General Conference this weekend (my last one as a
missionary) and it was really good. It was kind of sad because about
1/5 of our members actually came out and saw it, but those that did I
hope were at least uplifted in some way. Last week was pretty cool
also because while we were visiting our members and giving them
message cards we got invited in by one of our members who's husband is
a non member and she fed us. It was so cool, we had a great
opportunity to talk with him and get to know him a little bit. He
really likes golf so that's all I talked about with him which was
really cool. Before I left he gave me a sleeve of nice golf balls as
well so I'm excited to use them in a couple months when I get home! I
have 3 1/2 months left which is pretty crazy to think about, time is
moving so fast so I have to make sure I get the most out of my
remaining time here in Korea!