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