Updates

I haven't updated Mike's blog for a while, and I'm sorry. Would anyone like me to start doing it again? All i need is one person to let me know that they regularly read it, and I'll be happy to pick it back up. Thanks! -Torie

Now! Cue the dancing bears!

Hi!

So another transfer has passed. I'm still in the country of Taebek. Still alive. I just survived about a seven hour bus ride (to and fro) of Seoul. Yeah, that wasn't so much fun. My companion poor Elder Grose is dead to me now, he has moved on and gone back to the hustle bustle of the city. My new companion is Elder DeCamp - he's almost done with his mission. He has two transfers left. Hopefully it'll be a good couple of transfers!

Anyway, yesterday was quite the interesting day out here in Korean Land. We were coming back from a new investigator's house when we stopped and talked to a guy. He said he wanted to learn English and about God, so he gave us his number and we kept going. Ok. Cool.

After that we went and met one of our members (a 75 year old man that doesn't have a family out here) that wanted to take us out for lunch because Elder Grose was leaving. He's a funny guy that likes to talk alot about the gospel and what he hs been studying lately. He speaks amazing English. He took us out for Japanese food (Chris and Jessica... do you eat sushi all the time? and fish eggs? I had some strange foods there yesterday and it made me wonder what you two're eating over there daily...). It was really good, and a lot of fun to spend some time with him there. After that, we had another appointment to teach a children's english class just as a service project. Originally we were supposed to take a bus down there, so we headed off toward the bus stop. We got there, and started waiting around just a minute or two for the bus. Then a car pulled off the side of the road, the man rolled down his window, and asked us where we were going. I have never seen this man. As we were getting into the car, I asked Elder Grose "Who is this guy?". He didn't know either.

So let me lay out what is going on in my mind for you here. I'm in Korea. I'm in a small town - I had just returned from eating sushi with a 75 year old Korean, when a stranger pulled over and gave us a ride about 20 minutes away.

...What?

We talked to him while were in the car, asked hima few questions to try and get to know him... He wouldn't tell us his name (he just said that he's a guy that lives in an apartment nearby), but he gave us his number and was really really nice to us as we left.

It was weird.

Now I'm going to fast forward to the night time. Elder Grose and I had an appointment with one of our investigators that we haven't met for a while. We were at the branch president's house eating dinner (another farewell thing for Elder Grose), so the branch president's wife gave us a ride to the church. Her youngest daughter jumped into the car with us, and she was just having a good time there with us. We pulled up to the church, and the little girl got out with us, and the mom drove away.

Yeah, we were expecting her to come back soon, too.

She didn't.

So we had a good meeting with our investigator and our branch president's 4 year old daughter. We ate some kimbahp together and had a grand ol' time - the little girl seemed to enjoy it when I'd make faces at her.

After our investigator had to go, we grabbed a taxi and headed back to our branch president's house. We dropped her off, and he gave us a ride back home.

Needless to say, it was a weird day indeed.

But! That's just another day in the life of the babysittin'-Korean Land-lubbin' missionary! Stay healthy and happy everyone else!

-Elder Webster

Apricot launching monkey-faces.

Hi!

This past week has been good. I don't remember a lot of it again. Unfortunately, the baptismal date we had sent didn't go through. We're still trying to work with her, and we still think she has plenty of potential, but her big problem now seems to be coming out to church. So, at any rate, things have still been going well.

We had a great day yesterday with a lot of cool things. We got to meet an old investigator that actually ended up finding us, and another old investigator gave us a call. One of them doesn't have any English interest, just wants to talk with us, and the other wants her kid to learn English. So it's great to get both sides.

I also feel like my Korean has been progressing more and more again. It's starting to get better. The people out here in Taebek have a pretty thick accent sometimes, so they're next to impossible to understand. But, that is definately getting better. I've been trying to improve my language study time that I've been given, and I've seen a lot of benefit come from that.

This has really just been a week full of appointments and contacting. We saw a really great blessing on Sunday of seeing quite a few people come out to church. We haven't had that many since I got here. We've been trying to work a lot with less-actives, in trying to strengthen them up a little bit. We're still working at that, we have quite a few plans for this next week.

Also, I've come to realize that within the next week is transfer calls! Quite amazing really. I can't believe it. This transfer seemed to move away fast in a slow-motion real time. a bit odd. But anyway, it's been really great serving with Elder Grose for this time. I got the package that was sent - packed full of... a lot of food! Thanks so much for that. Thanks a lot for the scriptures, too. They're really, really nice. I had another set in mind that probably would've been cheaper, but these're wonderful.

I can't think of a whole lot else to report on. Still doing great, still having a great time. I hope all is well out there with you all. Hope you're still alive, at the least! :D Have a fantastic week, and beware of those apricot launchers. Stay healthy and happy!

-Elder Webster

Rainy days and slippery transfers.

Hi!

I'm still in Taebek. Still alive. This transfer has gone by fast. I only have two more p-days, both of which will be taken up doing other stuff. Next week we have temple day, and the week after that will probably be Zone Activity. Then! This transfer is dun-fer! Scawy. Surprising to think how fast this has gone by.

But at any rate - the weather here has been pretty crazy. It's rained a lot since we've been here - monson season. It rains about every other day, although since I'm up in the mountains here it's been soo nice. The weather has been really cool and great. Even better, a very low amount of mesquitos! It's been quite amazing indeed. My companion hasn't been enjoying the rain as much as I have, however. It's his birthday, though, so I bought him a bag cover so that the stuff in his backpack won't get wet. Useful AND cheap!

Our investigators have been doing great. We set a baptismal date with one of the sisters we've been meeting with. Originally it was the 19th, but she had to move it to the end of this month - 26th. I'm really excited for that. She has been accepting everything we teach her with no problem. I think she's one of the purest people I've met. Either that or she doesn't want to talk about any of the problems she might have. xP

Anyway... I can't think of a whole lot else to talk about. I snapped a few more pictures of Taebek and all of its greatness. I'll get a video or something of all the rain that we get here - it's really just crazy! Oh, and I dunno if the package has been sent or not yet, but I've realized a couple more things that'd be nice to have. I don't have a power converter (if they're expensive don't worry about it. My next companion might have one ;) ), and I was also thinking that a pair of hair clippers would be nice to have. The Korean haircut style is really ugly, and no matter what you tell them, they also just end up giving you the Korean style, so... Yeah, a buzzer would be good if that isn't expensive either! If it is, don't worry about it.

Anyway, still alive! Hope everyone out there is doing well. Stay happy and healthy!

-Elder Webster

자! 태백으로 가자!‏

Hi!

I'm currently e-mailing you from the wee little town of Taebek. I found out it isn't farther north of Wonju than I thought, but in fact actually south. Still to the east, though. I'm about three hours bus ride outside of Seoul. Not a very fun experience. But! I have a new companion - again. His name is Elder Grose. The last transfer really slipped away with Elder Hess, but it was a whole lot of fun to get to serve with him. I enjoyed it a lot, and I'm excited to learn a lot with Elder Grose. He sounds like he's really good at Korean, too!

Anyway, for last updates out of Wonju - I got to meet some of my favorite people yesterday. We met with Mia, she prayed again for us at the end of the lesson. She's also really been wondering a lot about how she can gain a stronger faith in God, and she also wonders how other people have gained it themselves. I'm really excited to hear about her progression. I took one of her name cards, and I'm going to stay in touch with her as much as I can. She told me to come back to Korea and work at her english academy after my mission. ;)

We also got to meet with a lady named Mona. She's about 60 or so and seems to be really prepared. She had a sister die about a year ago - she used to be Catholic, but after she died, she isn't really sure what to do with herself. so, she stopped attending church and really "lost her way". So the last time we met with her, we explained an overview of the Plan of Salvation, and yesterday when we met again we talked to her about the Spirit World, and the Celestial Kingdom. She really enjoyed it, and I think she'll be moving along really well as Elder Zabriskie continues to teach her.

Other than that, Elder Cameron and 14 other missionaries are dead now. Their corpses are being carred to America probably as I type this. A tear shed for those lost! I'm excited to see what this next transfer will bring - our new mission president will be coming in. I got to see President Cho one last time before he left - it was really cool. I think the new mission president will change a few things around - I think it'll be pretty great.

Other than that, not too much else. Elder Zabriskie had a drunk man dance for him last week, the drunk man even made him rub his abs. Then he did a peck dance for him, and then we left. Maybe not as good as Elder Jones' story, but I almost starting rolling on the ground laughing.

anyway! Things are still going great. Hope all is well back home! Stay happy and healthy!

Love,
Elder Webster

A day late...

Hi!

I'm e-mailing a day late because we went to Seoul yesterday. We had a mission conference because this is the last transfer of our mission president. Him and 15 other missionaries will be dying this coming transfer. It's a big loss! But, I'm excited for the new mission president that'll be coming up.

The trip to Seoul was pretty awesome. We went to the temple, of course, and then for the rest of that day we got to wander around and do basically what we wanted. Elder Hess and I went with Elder Cameron and Zabriskie to a few popular shop places. We met a lot of really great foreigners, and two members. We went into a place that sells foreigner goods, and this guy walked in. He was a little bit intimidating at first, he just looked at all the missionaries in there and said "Hey. Are you guys hungry? How many are there? Do you like chicken? Come next door." and then walked out. But of course, we all followed. We found out that he served in the Seoul mission about 20 or so years ago, and just wanted to give us food because he saw us. IT was really nice, and a lot of fun!

After that, we were walking around in a popular shop and I heard "Hey missionaries!" Turned out to be another member - a father and his daughter. They are in the military, and are just enjoying their stay in Korea for a little while. We gave them directions, they wished us well, and we went our opposite ways again. It was really amazing - and the fact it all happened on the day we went to the temple was even better. It gave me a good boost and just made the day great.

The next day we had a seven hour meeting with president - because it was his final words, he gave a really great talk. We also got to hear all the dying missionaries' final words, too, which was all just really great. It was a good meeting, and we had live transfer calls there, too. So we got to find out where everyone was going. I was anticipating leaving, and indeed, I am! I'll be moving to a place called Tebek 태백. Which is still country, but even MORE east and farther from Seoul. I'm going out to the boonies, indeed. But it's all up in the mountains, and I've heard it's just wounderful! I'm excited. Not looking forward to moving, but I think it'll be a lot of fun. I'm a little bit nervous to be moving from my first area - the elder I'm serving with is one transfer above me, so the Korean thing will be interesting too. But, I've only heard good things about the area! So I'm really excited. Elder Hess is going to the office and, although he isn't looking forward to it, I think it'll be pretty good for him.

Anyway, short e-mail this week. That was the most exciting stuff that happened. I took out some money from my personal account - I owed the mission a little bit of money because I bought a few things. It was only about $50. That's about it! I'm still alive and all things are going great. I hope everyone is still doing good out there! :D Stay happy and healthy!

-Elder Webster

Badmitton, new investigators, and the close of a transfer!‏

Hi!

This transfer is almost over. We have two P-days left! I'm not really sure where all that time went. And this keyboard sucks, so forgive spelling mistakes. anyway, there're a lot of missionaries leaving this next transfer - about 15 or so I think. So because of that, there'll be a lot of areas closing or minimizing. Too bad! That means that my little area of Wonju might be shrinking.

But speaking about our little area, we had a really great time playing badmitton the past week. Now, if you're thinking about the badmitton that the Fox and the Hen played from the Robin Hood cartoon... you're wrong! koreans play badmitton as a sincere sport - it's ridiculously intense. I'll ahve to get a video of it sometime I think - the next time we go and play. One of our investigators - Mia - is the wonju representative in badmitton. So, hopefully we'll get to watch her play. She's been doign pretty well with her progression, too. We taught her again recently - it wasn't the best lesson (mostly because Elder Hess made me be the one to lead the lesson, and there wasn't a lot of time), but we taught her a little bit about Mosiah chapter 2 - King Benjamin's sermon. It was pretty alright.

In other news, we've been finding a couple of new investigators, as well. We finally are seeing a little bit of more harvest from our English class. She's an older lady that is having some difficulty because she had recently lost her youngest sister. To be honest, when I heard that I kind of felt like Ammon because I got excited because of her difficult situation. i know that she's ready to accept the message! It'll be a lot of fun to teach her I think.

Other than that, not too much else has happened this past week that I can remember really. I've thought of a coulpe of things for my next package - I've decided I really like those Nature Valley bars. They're easy to grab if I happen to miss a meal or am late for one. So if you could send some of thsoe again, muchly appreciated! I can't think of anything else that I really need. I bought a SD Card reader, but... I'm not in wonju right now! I'm actually in a place called "Dong-hey". We're on a Zone Activity right now, and we're headed to (as Elder Cameron said) "the world's largest cave in Asia". I've been awake since about 5:30 already, so this day might be deathly, but I'm excited for the activity! I'll be sure adn take a lot of pictures and show you next week. Next week we'll be headed to Seoul for another temple day and the mission conference - our mission president is going home, too! This next transfer is going to bring a lot of changes I think.

Anyway, stuff is still going well. Still really enjoying my time out here in the country, the language is getting a little bit better too! I hope everyone out there is doing great! Stay happy! Be healthy!

Love,
Elder Webster