Oh it's starting to look a lot like... Korea?

Hi!

Things are still great here. Still very much alive. Last time I checked, anyway. I only check about once a month. Monthly check-ups. Yep.

So anyway, much good is going about here in Korea Land. We're doing a lot of hard work and having a ton of fun. These past couple of days have been 설날 - or Korean New Year. Nothin too exciting went on - mostly just a LOT of food. So much. On Monday I'm pretty sure I ate my weight in delicious Korean munchies. They have this soup call 떡 (duck. Not actually anything to do with a duck, however) that is really good. It's tradition to eat it for Korean New Year - much like how we eat turkey or ham for Thanksgiving or Christmas. But anyway, it's a soup with smashed up rice.. slices. Not quite sure how to describe it, but it's good! I had one bowl on Sunday, and then an investigator or Monday invited us over for food, so there's another bowl, then later that night we had dinner with a member, and there's the third... And then! On Tuesday (yesterday), I had one more bowl with another member. Four total - it was really good. The member from Tuesday is apparently infamous for trying to kill the missionaries by overfeeding them. Yesterday wasn't so bad. Still felt like I was going to pass out, however.

Anyway, we're doing great with our investigators over here too. We met a newly married couple (not actually sure how "newly" they are, but they're young, so.... newly married!) that are perfectly prepared! It's been a lot of fun teaching them - they keep making comments like "Oh yeah, that makes sense..." or, "You know I've always been wondering about that." Ok, as if they aren't going to get baptized... ;) We'll be teaching them the third lesson (Jesus Christ's Gospel) today and we get to teach them about baptism! Yay! No commitment yet (that we have planned), but they're progressing wonderfully.

We haven't had the chance to meet with our other investigators due to the holiday - a lot of people went out of town and whatever else, so that was kind of difficult. But, this upcoming week we'll get back into the swing of things.

So over the past week I've made a list of things in my mind that I'm still getting adjusted to in Korea. Here it goes, from what I can remember:

-Everyone points with their middle finger. It was confusing at first.
-The Buddhist houses or temples use the same sign as the Nazi symbol. it just makes me laugh inside.
-Spitting is ok.
-If you're talking to someone and their phone rings or they see a friend, they'll leave you mid-sentence.
-They love healthy stuff - foods and exercise - but everyone smokes and/or drinks.
-The driving laws - or massive lack thereof. Yesterday and the day before we were walking about, both times heading back to our house. At this particular intersection at night, it apparently attracts the crazy taxi drivers. The gist of the story is that what I've learned about driving in Korea is that it's quite alright to blow through an intersection - red light or not - if you honk your horn or flash your brights as you go through. That's all you need.
-Dryers.
-Hot showers.

I think that's about it. We do sleep on the floor, on these nifty things called a 요 (yo). It's just a fold out padded thing. But since the floor is heated, and they have freakishly comfortable winter blankets - it stays quite warm. Plus, the storage is great!

I've been snapping pictures but haven't quite had the time to get them on the computer yet. Sorry, but I'll try and do that soon. Today is a packed schedule - we're going for a little walk to a cool Buddhist temple with a member and hopefully an investigator.

The members here are great - they all really enjoy the missionaries and totally understand when we screw up in Korean (and by we I mostly mean "I"). But most of all - they do a wonderful job at fellowshipping the people that we invite to church! It's really fun to see. It's almost like an attack mob. I think they coordinate before each sacrament. "Ok Red Alpha, you'll move in from the left and compliment her outfit. Blue Tango, take the rear just to make sure she tries to leave early. Orange Foxtrot, go for the head on and ask her name and about her family. Ok, she's getting up. SWARM SWARM!"

Yep, just like that. I overheard it.

Anyway, sorry for the quick message. Not too much else has been going on. It has been snowing quite a bit the past week, but then it warms up and then melts again. And then it just gets cold, and then it snows, and then it warms up.... And so on. The weather here is much like Utah. I don't know everyone kept saying it was so cold here - it really isn't much different from what I've seen. Although I think the snow is slightly acidic from pollution and other wonderfulness in the air... Don't eat yellow snow, and don't sing the "If all the raindrops were lollipops" song. I don't think it's lollipops, because those would hurt. But, that's the first thing that came to mind.

Anyway! Church is still true. I think. It's hard to understand Korean, so unless the Second Coming already happened and I haven't been informed...

'til next time! :D

Stay happy and stay healthy!

Love,
Elder Webster

Another day, another... investigator!

Hi!

It's another week here in Wonchu Korea. Feels like it's been a month. Things have been going great. I'll give a quick update on some of our wondrous investigators we have here:

정진택 형재님: He's the wonderful man that had the problem with the word of wisdom - but is now seeking to overcome it. He is still continuing to drink less - only two small shot glasses when he is invited to drink the bottle for himself. He's having struggles with it - he says it isn't as much fun as it normally would be - so last time we met with him we taught him prayer, and how if we pray, we can receive strength to overcome our obstacles. Our help us with English, or whatever else he may need that God has planned for him. We committed him to pray before... everything. We meet him again on... Saturday I think. Or Monday. I forget, but either way I hope he did it!

김숨남 잠애님: This was the strange bible basher lady that invited us back for dinner. She actually ended up canceling (too bad, too, because she was going to feed us sam gyup sarl [bacon kind of stuff]) because she was sick. We haven't had the chance to call her back or to stop by yet, but we've been meaning to bring her some tea and/or cookies.

Tank: New investigator! He was a former that... for some reason just stopped meeting with the missionaries. I'm thinking that after the missionaries left, his record got lost in transit. We meet him tonight for food - AWESOME! He's the coolest guy - he plays the drums, tai-kwan-do, swordplays, numchuks, snowboards. And above all, he knows English! He teaches a class somewhere in Wonchu. He's such a great guy - when we went to go visit him, he wasn't home. But his family, after learning that we were the missionaries, immediately invited us in, sat us down, talked to us, called up Tank and told him to come over here, and then made us food. It was crazy fast - way good food too. So anyway, we get to talk to him tonight and see how he is doing, why he stopped meeting, etc... I'm really excited.

Helena (yes, a lot of people have English names here, if they know English): She was interested in the English class that we teach, and she called about that. We told her that we have this program called the 30/30 program. We teach English for 30 minutes, and then share a message for 30 minutes. She was keen on it, so we meet her tonight, too. Also very excited! She sounds great, and her English is wonderful.

Another less-active that I forgot the name of: We meet her today, too. We have to find out why she stopped coming to church and what is putting her off. Her brother doesn't like that she was going to our church, so we think that might be the problem. But! We'll find out today.

As you can see, we've been doing a lot of less-active work. Also, this past Sunday, we had another increase in church attendance - about fifty or so people with a LOT of kids. We're getting a pretty strong youth group here.

We've also been meeting with a family, and teaching them English. The mother is burlkyo (Buddhist. Funny side-note: burlgogi is that delicious meat that we ate at Sam Hawk. Burlkyo is Buddhist. burl means meat. So... the Buddhists here are the Meat Church. Ahahah!), and the kids don't seem to know very much about anything. So we teach them English, play games with them, and just have fun mostly. They're really a wonderful family, and the mother is a very nice lady. She always gives us food when we come over. But anyway, we talked to her that we're going to continue doing this - sharing a message after each lesson, but we'd have to stop if they didn't seem interested or if they didn't care at all. So we told the mother that if she was interested, she could come over and sit with us during the message. She told us that she wasn't (after much Korean beating around the bush), but that her kids were. There is one little girl in particular - she has such a wonderful mind. She's incredibly smart - she has been asking questions like "How did you come to believe in God?" and "How do you know that God is there?".

.... o_o

That's the kind of stuff that a golden investigator asks, let alone this little girl! So, needless to say, I'm excited to go meet with them.

Other than that, things have been about the normal here. We're still talking to as many people as we can, someone laughed at my Korean the other day (>.<), and we're still doing wonderful work here in wonchu.

The weather has actually been about the same as Utah - it snowed once on Sunday but hasn't since. It was a very heavy downfall, but then melted within a couple of hours. It really hasn't been that bad (heated floors help).

Uhm... I think that's about it. It sounds like things are still going well at home - I can't really think of anything else to report on. My companion has been sick so he's going a little bit crazy, but we've still been doing really great here.

Oh! Actually yeah, one more thing. I've discovered that there is a problem with my bank card. I tried to go withdraw money the other day, just to pick up a few things that I wanted, but with no luck. I'm not sure if I was typing in the wrong PIN, or... what. So, Linda, if you could please try to figure that out for me? We tried to call the mission president to see if I could get onto the website from here, but, there wasn't any answer. It isn't anything I need, so don't worry. Just nice to know I can have access to it when I need it.

Anyway, things are still good here! Thanks to everyone that e-mailed me back. It's really great to hear from you all! :D

행복하십시오!

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Mike's Addresses

Here's Mike's address in Korea:

Elder Micheal L. Webster
Korea Seoul Mission
Gwanghwamun PO Box 210
Jongno-gu
Seoul-si 110-602
SOUTH KOREA

Here's the address for packages:

Korea Seoul Mission
7 Cheongun-dong
Jongno-gu
Seoul-si
Seoul-jikhalsi 110-030

I think I got on the wrong flight...

There're strange people standing all around me, and they're constantly staring at me. Little kids look at me, smile, get their parents attention, and then start laughing...

I think... I think I've entered the Twilight Zone!

Oh wait. I guess it's just Korea.

Close enough.

Anyway, I'm alive. Stil. Yep. Last I checked.

So here's me wonderfully amazing plane ride story:

We left the MTC at about five in the morning and headed up to the SLC airport. We got there on time, and had about an hour remaining so we all just kind of dwaddle around. Most people called home. I decided to wait because I wanted t call during... well, the time that I told eople I'd cal. (the keyboard sucks, forgive the typos)

So, around the time to board came, and we discovered that our gate had been changed. So we went to that gate. Then we found out the time got pushed back, so we waited. Then we found out the gate changed again, so went we back to the original gate that we left from. Then the time got pushed back again. Yay. So we waited more. I believe it was finallyabout 10 or so when we took off. We arrived in San Fran... 5 minutes until we had to make our next plane. Awesome.

The stewardess was kind enough to allow all of us that were making connecting flghts to go first, and I think she contacted the plane we were to board and told them to wait. So we ran from one side of the airport to the next in our best efforts to make this plane. We arrived!

Ten minutes after the flightwas supposed to leave.

But! It hadn't left yet! Whaaa!

So we boarded as quick as small... quick things, and settled in for a 14 hour plane ride. Which wasn't so bad. I dozed, and studied, and dozed... and dozed. And stared at this cute little kid siting in the next aisle over. I'm mailing a small Korean child home.

Anyway, we got into the 인전 airport and waited around fr our mission president who was supposed to come pick us up.

And we waited. I called this part of the day "Patience".

An hour went by so Elder Barlow decided to try and call the people that we were supposed to get in touch with if no one was there to pick us up. We then realized that... hey, we're in Korea. So we ventured out to figure out how to use the payphones.

We decided that the MTC teaches you wonderful things, like how to bear your testimony and teach about God's prophets.

...But they never tell you about how to buy a calling card in the Incheon Airport from an awkward desk girl.

So that tookabout another hour. Luckily a guy standing behind us spoke excellent english, and he helped us out. We bought a calling card (also had to get some Korean money), called the numbers... about six times each with no response. Then we called a different number, and got President 조. Hooray! He said that we were supposed to come in at 5 in the morning the next day. We were supposed to miss that flight (we had previously called the travel agency and told them we'd been delayed), and get pushed back to sleeping over in the airport.

So another hour passed, and we finally got picked up by our mission president.

Whew buddy.

After that, stuff happened. WE got all settled in, training happened, and I got mine very own, squishy and cuddly companion. His name is Elder Lemons and he is from California. He's freaking amazing at Korean, and does most of the talking while I stare intently at the person we're talking to trying to figure out what they're saying.

I'm in a town called Wonchu (원주), about an hour to two hours southeast of Seoul. It's smaller, but still very big. I'll get some pictures sent soonish.

Elder Lemons is very supportive and desn't put me into very many awkward greeny moments (suchas the "Hey look a door. You're turn!"). We've actually only been kaka hohoing once (door knocking. Coolest Korean word ever.) We've been wrking a lot with the members and with the less-active investigators. Our goal here is to turn this branch into a ward. That means we need about double the people that we had - but this past Sunday we had ten more people than had come out to church last Sunday. So, we're already making great progress. We're quickly seeing the fruit of our labors in trying to talk with everyone and trying our best to make contacts.

In fact, we've already had two crazy people approach is! It's been wonderful. We've turned them boh into potential investigators.

Story 1: We were talking to this older man, when all of a sudden a taxi pulls up right next to us. He yells for us to come over, and hesticks out his phone and shows us the number of the other two elders in our apartment - "Do you recognize this number?". Elder Lemons says yes. Then he commands us "Get in!" so we get in and start talking t him. Apparently his kids are less-active members and the other two elders in our apartment called him the previous night. So, we've been trying to meet up with him for a couple of days with no luck so far- but we'll call him today.

Story 2: We were in the hospital visiting this really nice older lady that had been paralyzed. We gave her a book of Mormon and she had been reading it. She's really really sweet, and I enjoy visiting her (Korean hospitals are gross by the way).

So on the way out, we were talking to the Info desk guy - we see him often and he sees us, so we were just chatting for a minute. Then we started talking t this other lady, and all of a sudden a guy approaches us, looks at both me and my companion, and says in pretty good English "Allow me t introduce myself".

So we started talking with him - and it turned out his father had been in the hospital for about two weeks - something with his brain and heart that I didn't quite catch. So we gave him a Plan of Salvation pamphlet to read and have also been trying to get in touch with him. His father got moved to Seoul, but we've still been calling (or he calls us. Usually about two or three times each day).

Those're our potential investigators fr now - it's so awesome. Elder Lemons has an investigator that he has been meeting with, so I've gotten the chance t know him too. He has a word of wisdom problem, and is trying to learn english so that he can be a teacher. He's the coolest guy I've met. So two times ago that we met with him, we explained the word of wisdom. Now, when I say explained, that was all that we did. We wanted to focus on other things, but all that we did was talk to him abou the word of wisdom. He didn't really understand or believe it to well. But that night, he had plans with his friends to go out and drink and have a good time.

So, the next day, we met with him again. We did the normal stuff, helped him with his English, and taught him a little bit more stuff. Then he told us his stroy. When he went out with his friends, instead of getting sloshed, he only had three small cups.

... Wait what? Yeah that was my response. We didn't tell him to keep the Word of Wisdom at all, but he said that he remembered what the Mr. Elders told him about, and he kept to it. He got home and his wife noticed that he didn't drink, and he said "The Mr. Elders told me about it, and I remember their words."

Coolest. Thing. Ever.

Oh yeah, and we do get called Mr. Elder a lot.

Now I need t illustrate how crazy cool Korea is:

You take your shoes off when you enter someones house, step up on furniture, or pretty much whenever you need to stand on something you sit. The floors are heated.

When we get rejected, the people laugh and smile, but still tell us no (real conversation: "Hello!" "No." "Ok bye!") Or they'll run away.

We take taxis most everywhere, and they're really cheap. NO ONE in Korea can drive. It's a free ball game. If you're late, run the red light if you can make it. Most of the roads are as big as one car, and if you need to stop just turn on your flashers and pull over. Use the crosswalks like you're playing Frogger.

The food is WAY good. I've already eaten: a whole fishthat was just deep fried(eyes,head, bones, skin) Small eel type things, and some other stuff that I had in mind to tell you guys but just forgot.

Ok one more story! We met our first bible basher too. I think she was a Baptist. She let us into her house, and Elder Lemons talked - literally - the whole time. My Korean is so bad! Ididn't really understand most of what was going on, but we were really trying to convince her of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. She told us that we need to just throw it away and stop preaching it. And that she felt bad for us because we were preaching false things, but we are such good and pure people. The conversation went really nowhere, but she was the NICEST lady. So,I told Elder Lemons to tell her that if she ever needs help with anything, let us. Andwe got her number. Then she gave us drinks. That's just kinda how Korea works. We just argued for like forty minutes, then she offered us to come some other time and eat, and then gave us drinks. We have a dinner appointement with her on Saturday. It'll be interesting.

Anyway, that's all I can think of. The members here and really great - very supportive and helpful. I enjoy this place and have been loving my time here! I don't have my mission address, so I hope someone ou there does and can get it to everyone else.I'll get it soon. So anyway! My P-day is every Wednesday. I'll keep you updated. Off to my first shopping expeience!

행복하십시오!

사랑합니다
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One day remains!

I officially have one day left. I'll be leaving tomorrow at five in the morning - reporting to the travel office and then heading up to the SLC Airport. Hooray! Everyone is really excited. We all said our goodbyes to all of the missionaries that left to all of the other places - Busan, Daijon, and Seoul West. We've taken on a threesome companionship - one of the elder's other companions left and he was left alone. It's been kind of fun - it's cool getting a new take on things and new opinions.

Anyway, things have been still going well. We've all still been working hard - all of our teachers said goodbye and we got a lot of pictures with them. My teacher that got fired the first month or so that we were there actually came back and visited us. It was really cool! I forgot that he had us do this activity where we were supposed to write down something that we wanted to accomplish before we left the MTC. He kept it and gave it to us when he came and visited. I got his address (he lives in Provo), and he said he's actually going to be going to Korea in the summer. That'd be fun if I could get a member lesson with him. ;)

Anyway, we taught our last lesson this past Saturday. It was a simple task mostly - we taught another native Korean that turned out to be a real investigator. That was a lot of fun! He said that our Korean... actually wasn't so good. It was really funny. After the lesson, he shook our hands and said "When're you leaving again?" We told him Wednesday, and he replied in his English (which wasn't that bad) "Oh. Well then, in that case, you'll need to take... good luck." And he shook our hands. I was laughing pretty much the rest of the day because of that. :)

The tutor said that that is just how the Korean people are. They'll say, if you haven't seen them for a while and run into them again, "Oh wow, it looks like you've gained a lot of weight since I've seen you last." or "You sure do have a lot of pimples, huh?"

It's going to be fun. :D

But yes! I'm very excited to be going. This snow here has been crazy. Our third companion - Elder Davis - is wondering if our flights will get out. I've really been enjoying the snow. Although it is cold... I talked to a Korean lady in the temple this morning - she said we're getting well prepared for the winters in Korea.

... Hooray!

But anyway - I'll be sending stuff home. I've got a package that'll be going out today for sure. It's just some small stuff and... other stuff I found out I don't need. I discovered that I can't use that Plan of Salvation puzzle that I got. The First Presidency issued a message that told the missionaries to only use the picture that is given in the Preach My Gospel lessons. So, I don't want to lose it or break it. (PS, I found out death is spelled wrong xD)

I'm getting ready to go! I found out I can call when I get to the airport in San Francisco - before my flight departs for Korea. So, mom, I've still got your cell number so I can give you call. I'll be calling off of a calling card. I'll be calling around 10:30 or so - within that hour or by 11 at the latest I think. It'll just be during my layover time. So, keep your phone nearby and keep yourself unoccupied! And make sure you answer all of the "unknown" calls that you receive. 'cause that's probably me! I'm not sure how long I get exactly - I've heard 30 minutes. I'm also not sure -who- exactly I can call - but definitely a call coming to you mom!

Anyway, I've got a load of pictures heading home. Only about sixty or so. xP We've got it from Christmas, and just pretty much ever since I've been here. I hope you enjoy them. I'm not really sure where the tape is going to end up that I've been recording - I know at least to Torie and Amanda, and then to Linda, so whoever has it could get it to everyone else. Yeah... I guess just work that out on your own.

Not a whole lot else to report from this end. Thanks so much everyone for your delicious food and great letters. I'm keeping everyone's addresses in a book so I can be sure to write you, but will be sending the letters I've received up to this point home. Mostly just wondering up the weight issue - and my lack of space. I'll be sure and write you and get everyone my address when I'm in Korea. I found out there's a trick you can do so the letters you and I send won't have to go through the translators office. All you have to do is print what I'm going to write for you. It'll be nifty! So... be excited. I'll also send everyone ridiculously bad translated Korean stationary.

Anyway... really not a whole lot else to say. I'm ready to go! My language skills aren't, but I'm leaving anyway! So, I love you all. Thank you all for your prayers, letters, support, and everything else that you've done for me! It's really helped me out. Plus, if you write me a letter, I remember you in my prayers easier, so... If you want the blessings of a servant of the Lord... Send me letters!

Oh yeah, one last thing. I got to go to the temple again today. Everyone go! The Provo temple has been refurnished in little ways - the Celestial Room is pretty amazing! Even more than it was before, I mean. ;) So! Go to the temple! And read the scriptures. That's always a good thing to keep up, too. :)

I love you all! Sarang hamnida! Stay safe, and be happy!

Webster Changro