The beach, baptisms, and punching Satan in the head.

Hi!

We went to the beach today as a zone. We went out to Gangneong (I don't actually know how to spell that in English. We went to 강릉). It was awesome! I found a lot of really super awesomely cool stuff. Like a puffer fish. Yep. I own a puffer fish now. Elder Cameron owns a starfish. Mines cooler, because he almost stepped on it. I got a lot of really funny pictures of the zone, so I'll be sure and send those off next time.

Anyway, as for this past week... Mr. Beh, the wonderfully cool guy that we've been meeting with for the past while, got baptised this past Sunday! Congratulations to him. I was so happy. His sister got to witness the baptism as well - although she says she doesn't want to get baptised yet... she will. She was crying the whole time during the service - we talked to Mr. Beh about it yesterday and he said something to the effect of "I think she was crying because in my past I've made a lot of mistakes. Now, I don't have any more mistakes". He also keeps telling us "I will must not drink! I will must not smoke! I will must not drink tomorrow, and I will must not smoke tomorrow, and the day after, and the next day!" He's a riot. I got the privilege to perform the baptismal service - I think I almost took him swimming (not really. Just had to dunk him twice. :D).

On Saturday our wonderfully cool Helena and Seo took us out to lunch at Outback Steakhouse, too. They won't be able to meet with us for a while, but they wanted to say thank you for the message that we shared with them and how nice it was to meet with us. It was really great of them. I kind of realized at that time that, even though we may not get to meet with people all the time, for very long, very often, or even at all after the first visit, the impression was still made. Especially in Korea, because it seems like everyone remembers when they see a foreigner. But anyway, I hope to meet with them again soon - or at least ensure they meet with missionaries later. They know that we are transfering, but we told them that the phone number stays the same so be sure to call it anyway.

Other than that, though, I've personally discovered something over this past week, as well. Maybe rediscovered. Good thing life is a constantly learning experience, otherwise I don't think I"d survive! First of all, Korean is really hard. The second thing is that the gift of tongues is really apparent - for some reason over the past weekend, I've been able to speak pretty well. At least, say kind of what I wanted. Some of the time, anyway. Also that sometimes it's easy to get distracted, but that's only when I need to start pushing a little bit harder! So that's what I've been working on.

Sorry for the short letter - I often can't remember what has been happening over the past week! I don't get enough time. I've been keeping a pretty good journal, though.

Oh! But one thing for sure - thanks everyone for the birthday wishes! That was really nice. The other Elders in my apartment gave me a cake - made from choco-pies. With Q-Tip candles. Some of them didn't taste very good, but I got it all on video, so it was really funny. I'll send that out next time, too.

But hey! Other than that... I don't remember a lot. Things are still going great - we're still doing our best to spread this gospel to those Koreans! And yes, I'm pretty sure I'm still alive.

Anyway, that's it for this week! Pictures probably next week. Stay happy! Stay healthy!

Love,
Elder Webster

I don't really have a witty tag-line for this week.

Hi!

How is everyone? This week flew by, huh? It all kind of rushed into a blur. But a good one. With like, blues and yellows and greens of swirlies. Yep.

Anyway, transfer is coming up. Again. People are actually getting moved - the word on the street is that Elder Woods is the one going. Hopefully I get to stay! I'm still not used to this whole... Korea thing to be moving anywhere yet. I'd love to stay here for a good four transfers. But, that might change by the end. :)

Things are still going great out here in Wonju. We're still working hard - especially on Mr. Beh. He's the one that we have a baptismal date set with.... for next week! President Cho wanted us to bump the dates back, because he's been doing everything that he should've been doing - so why wait? I was hesitant at first... but I think I can understand now. At least if he isn't ready, he'll be ready by the end of the month (the goal for the mission is to get one baptism per companionship per month). Unfortunately, we haven't been able to meet with him but once since the beginning of this week - his phone has been off, and he didn't show up to our appointment yesterday. I'm getting a little bit worried, but I think we're going to head out to visit him tonight. We also got a baptismal date set for his family - I think it'd be wonderful if they could all be converted to this gospel!

Oh, and speaking of baptismal dates, we've reached a miracle here in our zone. Elder Cameron - our Zone Leader - told President that we'd reach 7 baptismal dates in 강릉도. Apparently President laughed (don't take that bad - that's just how he is. He's really quite nice). But hey! Guess what? With our powers combined... we have *trumpets flare* 7 baptismal dates! It's really encouraging - we've also been doing really well with contacting and teaching lessons - I think we had something like 360 people contacted this past week and... a lot of lessons taught. I don't actually remember. But at any rate - for being out in the country, it's been going great! Elder Lemons and I usually get about 10-15 a week.

So there's my pat on the back - and that's where the bar has been set, so it'll be awesome at the next transfer to shatter that goal again.

But, of course, with the good comes the bad. Helena and Seo, the couple that we've been meeting with for a good while, has potentially dropped us. Because Seo is going to school now, Helena has to help more in order to support them. Therefore, she teaches at a 학원 (kinda like an academy school), and then does private English lessons from 5pm-11pm. Crazy! So... the circumstance is understandable, but we get to meet with them one more time on Saturday - so we plan to learn their whole schedule, figure out what we can do to best help them, and then just go from there.

This next week we'll be working hard to increase our teaching pool - a lot of our investigators have been having a hard time meeting lately. Therefore! We get to do more street contacting and door-knocking. Hooray!

But, the weather here has been getting amazing! Today and yesterday have been absolutely perfect - today the missionaries went out to play Soccer. I kicked Elder Lemons' knee with my shin, so... that wasn't so fun. But! Everything else was. I'm also learning Tai-Chi from one of our new investigators. He'll be teaching us each week, and then we teach him about the gospel. Asia is awesome. :D

Anyway! Not a whole lot else to report. I've been getting everyone's letters - so thank you for that! It's been hard trying to find time to write back, but I'm really working on it. I haven't gotten any packages as of yet, but have been informed they are in trasit.

Things are going great! Still happy, still alive, and still can't speak Korean very well. But that's ok, but I'm still a movie star to little kids. "아~! 항국말 잘 하시네요!" No. No, I don't.

Stay happy! Stay healthy! Remember to read your scriptures and pray.

Love,
Elder Webster

Elder Hamster reporting!

(This is from last week. I forgot to post it. Sorry! -Torie)

Things have been really great this past week. It's starting to pick-up. I've realized (although however long I've been out here too late) that I can't be as passive as I usually am in this work. Therefore, I've really started picking it up and becoming fully engaged. I can't turn back now, and everything I do rides on faith.

Our progress with Mr. 배 (Beh) has been really good. He's still working on his Word of Wisdom thing - we're going to teach him a lesson tonight that will help him to set goals and do what he needs to do to accomplish them to bring him closer to his baptismal date of the 31st. I think it'll be a great lesson tonight!

We've also been teaching Han Chang Hoon as well. He's the guy that drinks and smokes a lot, and does nothing but that and drive taxis. We actually played a game of Chok-ku with him this morning (look that game up on Wiki or something - it's so awesome. It's volleyball with your feet!) - and last time we met we taught him about the Book of Mormon and how it's a record of the ancient Americas. He had a hard time believing that the Lamanites are a direct descendant to the Native Americans, but... either way, I know the spirit touched him with incredible power. We taught him about the Word of Wisdom as well, and how he can't smoke and drink like he does (do you see a re-occurring theme here? Smoking and drinking is a very big problem in Korea). We told him to replace his drinking with cooking, exercising, and guitar (he plays the guitar! He's let me play it a couple of times when we visit, too. He enjoys it, and I love it!). So the part that really affirmed to me that he was feeling the spirit was at the very end. Usually when we leave we ask "So what will you do tonight?" To which he responds with "Drinking... and then.... sleeping." (he speaks ok English, so we talk to him in English a lot). BUT! That particular day, he said "Maybe... exercise, and then.... sleeping".

Hah! Take that natural man. Anyway, I think he has a lot of potential, and I'll let you know before I leave Wonju when his baptismal date is. ;D

Not a whole lot else to report. I've banned my Choco-pie addiction because I think I gained weight from it (maybe it was from the four boxes I ate....?). Oh and also, we have visitors that come to our apartment every morning, too. They like to just walk right in - it seems to be a theme for our apartment. We feed them, though, and they come back each day.

Two pigeons. Yep. They land on our balcony, and one morning we left the door open, so they decided to walk in and investigate. I'll send a picture of that sometime later - it's funny. We're making good friends with them.

Oh yeah, and about the title. I keep getting called Elder Hamster. When people try to pronounce my name in English, it comes out Hamster for some reason. Go figure. It's happened from three different people already, so yeah... Nice to meet you, I'm Elder Hamster.

Anyway, not a whole lot else to report I don't think. Things are going great! I hope you're all remembering to stay happy, stay healthy, keep reading your scriptures and to pray!

Love,
Elder Hamster

Choco-pies, the girl next door, and some other updates.

Hi!

The past week has been kind of tough out here in Wonju. I've discovered the one of the hardest parts about missionary work has nothing to do with the work - it's having to exist with a person for every moment of your being. Yeah, so that's been kind of tough. But, still very much alive.

I've begun buying these little gems of Korea called "Choco-pies". The mart right outside of our apartment has them on sale, 24 for three dollars. So I decided to get them one day.

I ate half of them in the first hour.

The next box took about a day. I bought two more packs since then (the other missionaries ate one whole pack D:). So, I've discovered I'm quite addicted to these little precious pieces of chocolate and marshmallow goodness. You can freeze them, put them in the microwave, and put peanut butter on them! In that order! Quite delicious indeed.

Coincidentally, I've also discovered that I've lost about 15 pounds since I've been here. Go figure. :D

Anyway, so more updates. The girl next door. Elder Woods and Elder Cameron have been teaching a girl that lives right next door to us. She's about 17 American age (have I explained that there's a difference between Korean and American age? Koreans are 1-2 years older than American age. They are the age of one when they're born, and increase in age every new year. So I'm 21 technically. And when I come home... I'll still be 21! The age of 20 is non-existent).

She's really cool - although... still very much a 17 year old Korean girl. She likes to mess with us by trying to touch us. We showed her the white handbook rules (in Korean) and showed here that she isn't allowed to do that. She also made a habit of walking into our house when we'd leave the door unlocked. It was like a big surprise every time! Very, very hilarious, but still not allowed. So we kicked her out every time. One time she just walked in and sat in our entrance way until someone came out. Elder Woods had to kick her out.

So yes, that's how she's been so far. It's been -really- funny talking to her and seeing her. She invited us over for lunch the other day - pretty good food too! She's learning about the gospel and seems to be accepting it ok... We've all told her that we want to see her get baptized, so I think she's going to be working a little bit harder now.

This past Friday was a really cool day for me out here, too. I'm not sure if yoos guyses remember Tank, but we've been teaching him on and off. He saw missionaries about two years ago, but for some reason or another they stopped contact. We recontacted him and have gotten to be pretty good friends with him since. He's a drummer, a snowboarder, and speaks pretty ok English. When he met the first missionaries, his wife had just left him. Then a few weeks ago, so second wife had left him. CLEARLY these're signs trying to tell him to be more humble and listen to our message with more intent - that's what we've been trying to tell him lately.

But anyway, we finally got to teach him Friday. I actually got to talk to him quite a bit since he speaks English - I told him about prayer, about how Heavenly Father has an eternal perspective in regards to our life, and other things like that. He really enjoyed it. I've been getting really good trust with him as I've been the one talking to him the most recently. So, we asked him to pray and to make time to meet with us again. It was a really awesome lesson. I also found out he knows Dream Theater. Maybe next time I'll teach a lesson based around Scenes From A Memory. :D He also says he can mimic how Mike Portnoy plays, so... if I ever get the chance to hear him, I'll be sure and record it for everyone out there.

We've also started meeting with two old ladies that have been coming to English class. One of them really enjoys hearing our messages, so she got interested and wanted to hear more - plus she wants to learn more English. The other one I think mostly just wants to learn more English, but the message we shared with them last time got her interest peaked a little bit more.

And one more cool investigator - Mr. Beh. He's the crazy guy I told you about a few weeks ago - we met him in the hospital. He's recontacted us, and to make a pretty long story short... he set up his own baptismal date! He wants to work for March 31. We told him ok, and he said he'd work his hardest to achieve his goal. Last time we met with him, we told him about the Word of Wisdom and how we can't smoke or drink. He sighed, said ok, reached over and grabbed two packs of cigarettes and crushed them both in his hands. It was so cool to see. I couldn't really believe it at first - I wasn't really sure what was happening. Then it all came to me. I really think he's going to be great!

Last week I realized I forgot to send the package address. I got it this time, so here it is:

SOCKOR
John Lucas
Unit 15622 PSC 303 Box 97
APO-AP-96204-5622

I think just tell the post office you're sending a package to an army base in Korea, and the shipping cost will be like sending it in the states. It's really cool of this guy to do it for us! Put the return address name as my name, and it'll get to me ok. But fill out the rest of the stuff like what's above, there should be lines and boxes to put all that stuff in. I've also thought of one more thing that would be nice - some shoe inserts. Like Dr. Scholls or something. My feet don't hurt, I just think having those would be more comfortable. Maybe a little bit warmer sometimes, too.

anyway, still alive! Not much else to report. Except no one else wrote me this week. Slackers. D: Repent ye heathens! :D

So stay happy! Stay healthy! Keep praying and reading your scriptures!

Love,
Elder Webster