Elder Breinholt's Apartment
Elder Breinholt's Kitchen (and Stud)
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Pictures of First Apartment In First Area
LETTER: September 22, 2013
Well hello my family! How are you doing?! HAPPY BIRTHDAY KENAH!! :) I can't believe you're in Young Women's now! That blows my mind! You're getting too old too fast! :( The reason that we emailed on monday was because friday was a big cleaning day, so we didn't have time to email! Anyways! This week was awesome! We got introduced to a lady who basically is golden! Well, it depends on how she responds, but based on what she told us, she's golden. I'm not sure how long this email is going to be this week.
Alright! So monday after I talked to you guys we went to the church to prepare our activity for FHE, because we didn't have too much time to do that. Then we went to a 식사 with the Childs! We had Brazilian food. Wow let me tell you, it was freakin amazing. Like dang. It was some type of like black beans with meat and rice then salsa and some other green side thing. Wow it was good. Like who would have thought I'd be in Korea eating Brazilian food? So freakin cool. Haha I love 평택. It rocks. You should look at pictures of it on google maps or earth or something. :) haha. Well after that amazsing 식사 we went to 가정의 밤. Which is family home evening. I have pictures from that haha we played a super cool zombie game thing. Elder Atkin shared the thought on the stripling warriors. It was super good. Long but it brought the spirit. Anyway, one thing that I learned is that we all need to be like the stripling warriors. They trusted in their parents and in the lord and they never feared. We need to always trust Him and recognize that he knows what's best for us.
Tuesday was pretty tiring! We had to go up to 수원, for my foreigner card, aka my green card haha. So then we went all the way up to the mission 본부. PS if you haven't noticed, I'm trying to teach you some Korean as we go. ;) The reason we went up there was because it was my training follow meeting. So everyone from my MTC 동기 (I'll behonest, i don't know if that's the right spelling) was there. It was so good to see all of them again! Like seriously, I miss those guys a lot. They are the best. I got to see my old comps. :) haha they all are doing so good. One thing that President Morrise taught us that I really liked was that there is a word very similar to patience that is even better. It's perserverance. Perserverence is patience, enduring, but doing something about it. We suffer things well and push through. I really liked that. We can't complain if we aren't doing anything. because that's just wanting things to happen without putting forth any work. And that's not how god works. :)
Wednesday we had district meeting! It was awesome! I studied faith that day and then I shared the spiritual thought in district meeting on faith. I really wanted to go for something other than the Alma 32 chapter that everyone talks about so I shared a paragraph from true to the faith then read the story in luke 8 I think about the lady with the issue of blood. Such an awesome story. but like her, we have to have the faith to drive us to do something. Our faith has to get us to want to move and act. Even if it is something super small like touching the hem of Christ's robe. Because often times, that's enough. Just acting enough to grab the hem. Or take one more tiny step closer to christ. And then we get more and more blessings and light. After that we had english class! And since there were like 2 people therre because of 주석, we played a game. Haha you stick a word on someones back and try to get them to say it and once they say it they're out, but try to get others out. So that was fun. :)
Thursday was a party day! Haha we had a mission wide conference because of the 주석 holiday. 주석 is basically Korean thanksgiving. It's a super huge holiday. Literally everything was closed. We go up to 영든포 I think that's how you spell it. Anyway it is the biggest church in Korea. It's so huge. And it has actual AC! Also, it has a two story parking garage. So that blew my mind. Haha we had a bit of spiritual time with President Morrise before it started on thanksgiving and being grateful, but really that's not what I learned the most actually. We watched a video that was on KSL I think so you can look it up. It's about this kid who has nothing so he steals something from a lady and then he gets caught but someone pays for it. Then like 40 years later that same guy is in the hospital and his daughter can't pay the bill and one day she gets the bill saying she owes nothing. And there was a note that it was from that kid. So what I learned is that giving is the best gift. Always giving of our selves. I also learned that we never know what will touch someones life. Often times it is something we didn't think would like our example to others of one small act of kindness. So a lot of the time, our actions speak louder than our words. Just like mom always told me. :) Then after that we got to talk to everyone. Including the missionaries who left the mtc a few weeks after we got there. That was so awesome to be able to do. Haha I missed all of them so much! I would love to be companions with any of them sometime. Anyway, after that we kinda had some cultural enlightenment then we went to the park. Elder Pruner took pictures, but he has his camera and doesn't have a thing to email them with......so I won't be able to send those. The ones from Friday either. I'm so mad. Anyway. at the park we got around like a super super huge flagpole and sung the Korean National Anthem. Haha it was kinda weird but it was awesome. Then we hung out at the park and kinda chilled then went back to the church. That was a lot of fun. :) Then at the church there was a talent show which was actually a lot of fun. Haha there was one kid with nunchucks it was amazing. Haha I loved it. And then we got home! At midnight! Haha that took forever. Long day. But it was so fun. :) Oh! Also, that was my mission 3 month mark! So 1/8th done! That blows my mind. Like what the heck.
Friday! P-Day! We got up and cleaned our apartment all day! Haha seriously it took freakin forever! I got to organize the tupperware cabinet. I threw more than half of it away. We have more tupperware than anyone will ever use in their life haha. Then we went to a 고기 buffet! So delicious. Hodges 장로님 took pictures...but he doesn't have my email.........so hopefully I can get those to you next week. I'm going to give him my email today. I've been meaning to for a while. I'm so sorry. I'm a failure I know haha. But anyway! Literally an hour after we finished the 고기 buffet. Ps 고기 means meat. So after that we went to a 식사 With the boggs! She's from mexico so we had mexican food! Again, who would have thought that I would be in Korea eating mexican food. It was super good. Then they introduced us to their neighbor Jennifer Stoy. She rocks. She's 50 years old and has lived all over the world. She lived in Italy for a long time and basically all of the European countries. She's been catholic her whole life, but she said that wasn't cuttin it for her anymore so she was looking for something else. This is the golden lady by the way. She literally told us she was looking for more. Because she was kinda lonely, she's never been marriede, and doesn't like her pracher haha. We taught her about the Book of Mormon and how it is an account of God's dealings with the people in America. We asked her to read the 소개장, aka the introduction. Haha she was super interested and was totally fine with the Book of Mormon. Haha she rocks. We are going to meet her again Thursday! I can't wait to teach her again. Oh and she was going to come to church on sunday, like yeah she's that cool. but she was up all night with some sort of tooth thing, so she wasn't up to it. :( But she'll probably come this sunday. :) And that was our day!
Satuday! I studied for Julie. She wants to see how the Bible and BoM teach the same thing, so I'm trying to find one verse or so in each book in the Book of Mormon and then find a same one in the bible. I found some decent ones. Don't have em with me though...wait yeah I do I lied. :) Matt. 25:40-Mosaiah 2:17; James 1:5 - 2 Nephi 4:35; 2 Kings 5:13 - 1 Nephi 16:29; Joshua 23:8-11 - Jacob 6:5 and there are others but no time. :( Sorry! Then we went on the lunch with 신세게. Or Shin Say Gay. He's super cool. Like the most stylish Korean I've ever seen. He went to BYU Hawaii so his english is super good. Haha he took us to a 부대찌개 place which is a traditional Korean Dish. Look it up haha. It's super delicious. He said that was probably the spiciest thing we had in Korea. It wasn't too bad though. Got the nose runnin for sure, but if you eat it with rice it's totally doable. :) Then we did weekly planning since that wasn't done of Friday cuz of P-Day. THen we went and met 최순필 and his family. They are the ones we met not last satuday but the one before. The one whose family lived in the same place for 300 years. Anyway, he is super funny. We just got to know him better and his family. But right when we were about to share our message, I'm not too sure what happened, but they basically said oh you don't have too much time you gotta go. I don't know haha it was weird. Sowe didn't get a chance to share a mesage with them...but we sure as heck will on October 5th! Oh hey by the way we get transfer calls this saturday! What the heck! I can't believe it's almost been 6 weeks. Blows my mind. But yeah.
Sunday was busy as usual. We got up went to the churhc and greeted members like usual. THen we planned for our lessons that we were going to teach, but we only ended up teaching one to 하유진. He's the 10 year old. Apparently he told 박희정 that he loves church and his mom is cool with him being baptized so next sunday we are going to get a baptismal date! Heck yeah! :) We taught him about the restoration. I got to teach about Joseph Smith so that was fun. Good Korean Practice. :) Then we went to a 식사 with the Watts. They are super cool. He is a pilot! So that is super awesome! We had funeral potatoes! Super delicious! I loved it. And ham. Heck yeah. Last thing. I really gotta go. Then I shared the message. It was on Alma 36. We all have things in our life that we aren't proud of or things we wish we wouldn't have done. Well if we don't, we will. And so I shared that no matter where we are at we can always recover and have Joy even more exceeding than our pain with the gospel. I love it. Anyway, gotta go! Love you so much! Happy birthday Kenah! You're the cutest 12 year old I know!
Love,
Elder Breinholt
Love,
Elder Breinholt
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
SEPTEMBER 16, 2013
This week was great! Monday after I emailed we just kinda chilled and had a relaaxed P-day. We went to Home Plus and bought some aloe drinks because they are delicous. Anyways, then we went to FHE and I shared the message! We built scripture cases. My message I shared was on 2 Nephi 19:2 and how everyone has dark times in their lives. But when you trust in the Lord, He will always shine light on your path. Sometimes it isn't very much, but its enough to keep going. And yeah that was monday!
Tuesday! nothing really too exciting happened. We went and worked on a survey thing for the english branch and cleaned our room in the church. Then we went and met up with the other elders in our district to have dinner at a place called noodle tree! It was pretty dang good! I haven't had Korean food I haven't liked. THen again I haven't had the seafood yet. Haha but that was super fun! THen we had to go up to the headquarters to stay the night because we had mission tour! And speaking of mission tour! That brings me to wednesday. :) It was freakin awesome! I loved it. So one thing I learned. This will blow your mind. There are 85,000 church members in Korea. Any given average sunday there are only 10,000 people who attend church. So that'll blow your mind. Anyway, for mission tour I got to see some of my MTC friends! That was awesome. :) I'll send you pictures with them. Alright. So President Morrise talked about something that I really liked. He said to be of good cheer. Even in hard times we can be of good cheer in the Atonement and hope of the savior. And I really love that. That we choose to be happy or miserable no matter what is going on in our lives. That's something I really believe. No matter your situation you can choose to be happy. Obviously there are sad moments, but the majority of it can be happy. Anyway, another thing he said is that we dneed to be urgent, but not in a rush with our work. Look at the savior. He had 3 years to have the influence he's had on the world. He still took time to teach important lessons that could only be taught by patience and waiting. Like raising Lazaraus. I don't think that's spelled right. Presiednt Ringwood (The area 70) talked about charity. Well he talked about a lot of things but that's what I liked the most. :) He said it is a girft, a priviledge that comes over time. And also that it is the ablility to see and love people the way Christ does. We have to work at it. And it will be given to us little by little. But yeah that's somehting that I really liked. :) Oh then we came back from there and had english class. It was really a miracle that we were back that early. So after that we taught that and talked to the people and that's where that video was recorded. Haha I'm glad you liked them. :)
Thursday!I went on that split with Elder Wedam. It was a super awesome day. A miracle day. We got up and did our normal thing, then we went up to Osan. We were trying to find our Bishops house, but just to show you how good the records are here, it wasn't the bishops house.... haha then we went to another apartment complex to try and find another person...but they weren't home. So then an angry security guy kicked us out because they don't like people just ringing bells all day in apartment complexes here. Anyway, then we went down to the actual city of 평택 to meet his investigator actually at Camp Humphries. His name is Sean Clarke and he's actually getting baptized in 2 weeks! He's so cool. He's from new york. On our way there some dude from Sri Lanka came up to us and started telling us about how he loves Jesus and he converted to Christianity and he sees his whole life as a miracle. Great story. Anyway, one cool learning experience. He's missing his middle finger, ring finger, and pinky on his left hand. And rather than saying oh God why could you let this happen to me, he sees it as, "Thank you god for allowing me to still be able to pinch things at least." So amazing right? And then he asked us for our number. Super super cool. Then we taught Sean which was way cool. I could actually contribute! It was all in english haha. Anyway, this guy, is asking us, so like...is there a commandment that stops you from doing anything dangerous? Cuz I really wanna do some sky diving. And we were like no there's not haha. And he's like oh okay good good. That's relieving. And he's asking us about temple sealing and when he can do it. So amazing! Love this guy! Keep in mind they've only been teaching him since I've came here. Then that night on our way home we were just walking, this guy comes up to us, introduces himself as Peter, all koreans have an american name too right? Haha so funny. Anyway, he's tellin us oh yeah I went to your church a long time ago! But now I'm really really busy and haven't been able to go! But I'm gonna go not this sunday because it's a huge koren holiday but next. And we just talked to him and then he asked us for our number. So amazing. I love it when things like that happen. Ah.
Friday! We got up then went to our scripture study class we do with 박희정 and 용환. It's a lot of fun. Haha i learn a ton of korean! Because i only understand like 1/100th of what's actually said. haha still strugglin with it. But that's alright. Anyway after that we went and got lunch with 용환 and did our weekly planning! Haha that was a lot of fun! Anyway, the rest of the day I don't really remember what we did. Haha we probably went ot dinner after weekly planning oh! Wait we had a 식사 with the Quigley family! They are super cool! THey've been here for almost 3 years! GO home in december. Well between october and december. We had beef stroganoff. It was super good. Then they gave us a ton of american food. So amazing. And yeah!
Saturday was pretty good too! We got up and did our normal thing. Then we went to lunch at Pizza School. Haha I don't know why we choose to go places like that. Just cheap. Anyway. it was pretty good! Then we talked to a cool man on our way home! Haha he was super nice. Then we went to what was supposed to be a baptism, but the family rear ended someone so we sat there kinda waiting with some people and it never happened. Haha so we just helped teach the other elders investigator 김종하. we taught her about the restoration. THe progress she has made is amazing. Really. She's probably going to have a baptismal date soon! Anyway, then we went to a t식사 with Julie. She's an american citizen actually haha. Anyway she's awesome. She's super rich and always gives us food. She took us to a Korean restaraunt and oh!! Dad tell Brother White that I told the taxi driver where to go with no problem. Also, I even talked to him. Well I asked him easy questions and didn't understand what he said back, but hey. Haha so that was awesome. Anyway, I'm sending you pictures of the meal we had. Holy cow she ordered a ton of food. I went into this thing still full from lunch, not good. Haha but we did it! We have all the left overs in our fridge right now actually. Haha Julie rocks. She had a questiona bout Doctrine and Covenants so we taught her about it. THen she asked about coffee. She understood everything but that. She's a super smart lady so she's like oh there's a study that says one cup is good for you each day. And since she doesn't have a testimony yet she can't see past that. But we were able to set up a meeting schedule with her. So that'll be super good. We are going teach her about how the Book of Mormon and Bible are similar. She's the kinda lady who won't listen to our commitments. She only follows her own. Like she'll commit herself to read the book of mormon, but not because we asked her to haha. anyway, I can't wait to teach her. :)
Sunday! We went to church! Then after the members made a meal because of the holiday 주석 which is korean thanksgiving. Anyway, that was delicious. Then we taught 하유진. he's a 10 year old kid who 박희정 referred to us. So she helped us teach him. IT was really fun explaining it in such simple terms. Because when you get down to the basics, the gospel really is basic. anyway, we taught him about propehts and how god is our loving heavenly father. God really does love each and every one of us and he cares about us. He wants to hear from us just like our father on earth wants to hear from us as often as possible. We have prophets who help guide the church. They receive direct revelation from God on what is best for the world to hear. After that we went to another 식사. Haha isn't it great how many we have? Anyway it was with Brother Christensen. He's a super cool guy who is here for a year. He's from Colorado. We had some super good chicken and rice stuff. Kinda like the one mom makes but different....Anyway that was my week! So heck yeah! I love you guys! I hope things settle down down there! I can't believe all that's happening! Jace, get better poor buddy. :( Same with you Janae! I miss all of you like crazy and sometimes I wish I could be there partyin with ya! But I can't. :( So I'm here! Just teaching cute little Koreans about the gospel. :)
Love,
Elder Breinholt
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
First Pics from Korea:) Yahoo!!
3rd Email from K-Town!
Alynn sounds like she's doing super awesome so that's good! So proud of my little sister. :) Anyway, this week was kinda slower than last week, but it was still good. Being a missionary rocks. Oh we went to the temple on thursday I think...or was that last week. It was the 5th. So... this week. Haha I lose track of time. It all kinda blurs together. Miracle for the week! We got a referral on sunday that I think I told you about, and we went and visited her on saturday! She was like a straight English interest and we thought she was going to be the only really interested in learning. But when we got there the Husband was there with us the whole time and we were talking and by the end we thought that they really loved us. They were totally cool with the 30/30 thing where we speak english with them for 30 minutes and 30 minutes after we share a message. Both of them were really cool with it! So we can really see them becoming more than just english interest so we are pretty excited about that. :)
Monday we had a super awesome Family Home Evening (가종의 밤)! We built bridges with rubberbands and chopsticks and had a competition to see whose would win. Obviously mine and 박희정's won. She's the one who is a super awesome recent convert and who posted that video i think haha. Anyway, we had the competition on paper cups so they held about 25 hymn books before the paper cups gave way. We tied it in with how we all need a strong foundation and that foundation is the savior if we want to stand against the hard trials of life. Without Him in the center of our life, we will crumble. Just like that one mormon message says. It's called mountains to climb. watch it. its amazing. Anyways, that was super awesome!
Tuesday we went to the church and met with 김용환 and just kind of talked to him. We made like member message card things and some other things for less actives and stuff. Then we went to a 식사 with the Jo's. They are so cool. They are the family that gave us the referral. So amazing. I can't remember if I said this or not but they lived in Lindon and Orem! So that's awesome! He's like oh yeah I would always go to Purple Turtle and get shakes! haha he's so funny. He was just takin pictures in the middle of dinner. Koreans rock. Ohhh they had Donkas....돈가스 maybe. Anyway, it's Pork breaded with like bread crumbs and than you have this sauce with it...ohhh it's so good. Literally so amazing.
Wednesday we went to the gym that our apartment complex provides! Super cool right? And then Elder Wedam made banana pancakes and they were so good. haha first real breakfast I've had in a long time. Then we had to leave pretty early to go up to Suwon for combined district meeting. That was super awesome! There is only one other person from my 동기 (maybe that's how you spell it, not sure) dongi, from the MTC. And there is one area where 4 of them are in the same district haha so crazy. But yeah we got to meet everyone else in the zone and the zone leaders who are pretty cool! And we met a bunch of Korean Elders and Sisters who rock of course. haha I love em. We had Pizza school for lunch which was ehh. It's alright haha. Anyway, ohhh haha on our way up there. Some crazy old guy comes up to us and is like oh handsome boys! So handsome! You guys look so happy! in english right. Then he traps me into a conversation in Korean. Haha he talked and talked and talked. Haha he said oh the Buddhist Church, Catholic Church, Protestant Church all believe in the same jesus. Like what? Too funny. Then he went off about something on world war two. The only reason I knew that's what he was talking about was cuz he kept saying Japan, Hawaii, and Sunday. haha I didn't know what to do. But yeah! There's a taste of the Korean crazy life. :) After that meeting thing we came back and got ready for English class. We didn't get back until like 5 so we had to eat then we only had 1 hour until english class. Anyway, yeah so we prepped for that then had english class! Which was awesome! Haha I love it! There's this one old guy who comes who works for a golf course so I talked to him about that and how he likes it. Then after we talked with one of Elder Pruner and Wedam's investigators. I don't know if I told you about him. Get this. He's a black guy. Heck yeah. He's so cool. His name is Sean and he literally is golden. He has a baptismal date for the 28th of this month! Soo amazing!
Thursday we got to go to the Temple!!! So awesome! I freakin loved it. I told another Elder to send the pictures to me because I felt dumb having them use like 4000 cameras. So those pictures will probably come next week. But we had to get up at 5 to get up there by 8:30! Holy cow. I learned that 평택 is super small. Therre were soo many people up in actual Seoul. Dang. It blew my mind. The subway, you literally couldn't move. Haha kinda cool. Anyway, the temple rocked. It's super cool. It's in the middle of the city and you can't see it until you are right there. You see the sign and bam it's right there. Anyway, we went with the 인천 zone so I got to see some of my buddies that are in that zone! They are basically all Koreans. Ohh so the senior couple in our district rocks. Haha I think I told you about them. Their names are the Riding's. They are the military relations couple. Anyway, they brought us sandwhiches and chips and all american stuff. They always spoil us. Haha it was soo amazing. We ate it in what would qualify as the temple cafeteria I think haha. But yeah that's our district! Then we went home! Haha that took like our whole day out so we didn't do anything. I don't remember when we got home, but it was late.
Friday! We got up and did our normal study stuff then we went to our Scripture Study class! I'm pretty sure I told you about the teacher last time. haha she speaks soo fast. Anyway, it is a good chance for me to improve on my listening skills. I wrote down so much 단어. So that was good! Plus we got to learn about some super cool things in the Book of Mormon! Like all the things that say in the beginning oh and this man was the king in Jerusalem. I don't really remember haha but we found it in the Bible and that was awesome! After that we went to lunch and did weekly planning! And that took us until like 5...so then it was time for dinne! Haha for dinner we went to a 식사 with a family who is getting ready to go to the temple! The dad was finally baptised a little over a year ago so now they are getting ready to go! It was super awesome. They are an amazing family. Plus they gave us this delicious Aloe drink, which if you ever see an aloe drink, buy it. It has little like aloe globs in it, it's super good. haha anyway. The mom was like asking all of us questions which was super awesome to get a chance to speak in a 식사 haha because it doesn't happen to often! So that made me feel really good about Korean! Well kinda. Haha not really, but I felt good. :)
Saturday we got up and studied! Same ol same ol! haha every day. Anyway, we had lunch then headed down to 평택 the actual city. We did a little Jundo (street contacting) but no one was really interested as we went to apartments to find less actives. None of the less actives were home though...so we don't know if any of them even live there. Haha but that's alright. Then we met that family I talked about earlier! They have a little 11 year old daughter and 14 year old son. They are super awesome. So just a little about that guys family history. His family lived next to this airport in some town in the Taejon mission for 300 years. 300 years! This family lived in the same place. But then the government came and needed it to expand the airport so they paid the family what they deserved. And yeah! So if you have any cool stories about our family history let me know! But yeah! They rock! And that was Saturday really!
Yesterday! I almost forgot to write in my journal so I would have had nothing to tell you guys! Haha just kidding. Yesterday was awesome! We went to The Osan Branch where neither of the speakers showed up so they had anyone who ever served a mission get up and sing called to serve haha so cool. Then they had a bunch of new members bear their testimonies and then they had the missionaries. Right as it was my turn we ran out of time so I didn't have to. :) haha that was super lucky. Then we went to the Korean Ward and taught 김나영 whose parents moved her baptismal date to October 3rd since that's apparently the only day it can happen. :( So we are gonna try to make it happen that day! They keep moving it, so dumb. Anyway. We taught her about the restoration and watched the restoration movie. After that we had another 식사 (Pyeongtek rocks also, we have one like everyday either this week or next week. Heck yeah) and that was super good. It was with the american members so we had American food and ate with forks! Haha my mind was blown! I had salad! So that was amazing! After that we came back and studied for a little. I came across something that I really liked. It's Isaiah 9:2 also 2 Nephi 19:2. It says: The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. The reason I like this so much is because Christ is our light. He will always come for us, always "shine" on us so to speak if we excercise even the tiniest bit of faith. He will never stop helping us. No matter how inferior, imperfect, or weak we feel, he is always there shining his light on us and guiding our path. I think that the way he does that is through the scriptures. As long as we are reading, he will guide us to him. I just really like that scripture. No matter how dark our path may be, he always makes it bright. So amazing. And yeah! That was my week. Korea rocks. :) Everything about it. I love the people here, they are so amazing. :) So freakin funny. I love Koreans. Haha and that's it! I love you! I hope you're doing well!
Love,
Elder Breinholt
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Second Letter From KOREA
Haha I'm sorry that it took me so long! There was nothing I could do about that! Dang time change and everything. Haha it's still so weird that it's like 12 PM here and some other time on Sunday there. Haha I think like 9 maybe? Who knows. :) Oh that's so cool that you ran into someone who went to Korea. I think like everyone is coming here now. Probably because it rocks. Anyways, where did she serve? Haha that's so cool that her aunt and Uncle are President Morrise! What are the odds. Yeah...like our whole mission is really rich. So many people speak english and they just want to practice so it's hard to learn Korean, but it'll come. :) I haven't bought that translator yet, hopefully today so I can buy that picture thing too. We'll see though. Plans always change. Haha that's one thing I've learned. Nothing ever goes as planned. But that's alright. That makes things interesting. We get around by walking everywhere! That's how like our whole mission is. It's so populated. haha there is only one town smaller than ours and that's Ansang, which is in our district. When we have to go farther away we take a subway. Our area is huge so to get to the South of our area we take a subway. Sometimes a bus but not really. The taxis are really cheap so if we have to get somewhere fast that's what we do. Oh yeah the people aren't afraid to stare. It's so funny. You'll make eye contact with em, they'll hold it for a few seconds, then I look away, they still look then they decide to look away. Haha crazy old Koreans. So funny. There are a lot of foreigners here though so it doesn't happen too often. Yeah the ward members feed us! We passed around the meal sheet in the English branch and there were like at least two a week so that's awesome! And we haven't passed the one around in the Korean ward yet so we will be getting fed often. :) Benefits of having two wards! We had a 식사 this week and after she gave us potatoes and some fruit. Which, fruit is super expensive here because it's their dessert so that was so awesome. That lady rocks. Plus the food she made was super good. The culture is so funny. When you're eating once you finish your rice they're like oh you finished your rice! here have some more! here have some more of this. And if you eat a lot of one thing they'll be like oh here have like 10 pounds more of that haha it's so funny. They just give more and more. Which hey, i get to be full so I'm not complaining. :) So weird that she's home! Serious it feels like she left yesterday. And same with JT! I can't believe he comes home soon! Oh and Derek, it feels like yesterday I was saying he has forever before he leaves. I know it's going to go by super fast because it feels like yesterday (wow I just used that two sentences in a row...) that i was emailing you guys from this same place! So that's kinda scary. The language is still super hard, but I can usually keep up with the conversation in lessons, but at church and when we did this scripture study class, yeah no way. Haha sometimes they just talk so fast. It's like when Aubrey talks super fast and you can barely understand her and she's speaking english. Just imagine that in Korean. Yeah no! Haha but it helps me to process the words faster so that's good. Something I started doing is if someone says a word often and I don't know what it is I write it down. I learned that there are like 5000 ways to say because in Korean and also the word through. So yeah! That's fun. Haha it's cool.
okay so our week. Monday we went shopping and hahaha we walked past this iPhone repair shop right. The sign in english said "iPhone repail shop" Gotta love Asians. :) I took a picture of it...but I have no way of sending it. I promise to buy one this week! I didn't buy anything actually...nothing was callin my name. We then went to FHE that night which was awesome. haha we played some games and It was a lot of fun! We have it for our recent convert 박희정, who by the way gave us a referral. I can't remember if I told you that or not. So heck yeah. She rocks. And we also have it for investigators and really anyone who wants to come. But some investigators will come. The other Elders have a super cool golden investigator named Sean. I think I told you about him, but I got to talk to him a lot that night and it was good getting to know him. That was monday!
Tuesday we went up to Suwon (수원) because I had to apply for my foreigner card. And we spent three hours there waiting. Bleh. I really wish they would invent air conditioning haha. Well like central AC like wehave the the States, but oh well. It was fine. That took up like a lot of our day. So we were super tired. Anyway on the way back we talked to a crazy man on the subway. No idea what he was saying, not even sure he was speaking Korean. Haha there are a lot of those kind of people by the way. Oh gosh the saddest thing. So there are quite a few old people whose backs are permanently messed up from rice farming. They are like 3 feet tall, okay maybe 4, and when they walk they walk bent over because that's just how their back is now. every time i see one of these people i cry a little inside. It really is the saddest thing ever. Oh! Haha Tuesday we talked to a super funny lady. She lived in the US for 20 years and just moved back so we taught her in English because she is a little more comfortable in English than Korean. We would ask her something and she would give this 10 minute long explanation where the answer was in the last 30 seconds. So that was funny. But that was the last time I will see her probably because now that she is going back to school, she won't have any time to meet and that won't end until December and I will most likely be gone by then, but if not I will for sure pick her back up. She's so funny. She just won't pray. She's like, I thought about praying. So that's good. In her little black lady english. But then I prayed and she was like, yeah...I like that. I hope she's prayed! But who knows.
Wednesday in personal study I read 1 Corinthians 13, that chapter rocks. It's all about charity and how we need to love everyone around us. I don't know why I'm studying that kind of stuff so much haha. Probably because that's my job for the next 22 months! Heck yeah. Oh we went to lunch and a super good place. We got this fried rice stuff that was super good. Every time I eat I've accepted the fact that my mouth is just gonna hurt. For some reason Koreans don't drink until the end of the meal haha so imagine being at a members house eating food that is always as spicy as that Shin Ramyun and not being able to drink. I cry a little inside, but that's okay. I'm getting used to it. After that we had district meeting.I have written down that I read Alma 26:29-31 and that it's a good scripture. I think that it's about missionary work because that whole chapter is. Then we plannd english class and had it! English class rocks haha it's so fun. We just talk to a bunch of Koreans who can barely speak english. But it's fun. :) There are some awesome potential investigators there! So I'm gonna work on getting to know one. his name is dennis and for some reason I really liked him from the moment I saw him. haha he's funny. So I'm gonna work on getting to know him.
Thursday we did our studies. One powerful thing thing I learned about the book of Mormon. Whenever anyone has an objection to anything that the church teaches, the ultimate source they have to go to is the Book of Mormon. Because if they can say that the Book of Mormon is true, than their objection will go away. If the book ofmormon is true, than the rest of it is true. That's why there is such a focus on that. We made some member cards also than we went to a 식사! This is the one I mentioned earlier. It was so good. But we sat on the floor which was a little different. Haha so asian I love it. Oh one tender mercy from the lord. She fed us apples after. oh my I think I ate two whole apples. They were so good I couldn't stop. I love those things. Then we taught 박희정 about temples that night too! She seemed to be interested so hopefully she works towards going. She is our english class coordinator now.
Friday we were supposed to have another 식사 but since her son was sick so she gave a member (That kid you accepted on facebook, thank you a lot.:) ) 50 dollars to take us to a restaraunt. This is why I love Korea. That's so cool. Anyway, we went to this Gogi Buffet. Oh my. So good. Haha you cook the meat in front of you and they have everything. I mean its a buffet so it's not the best meat, but it is way better than Chuck up a rama. All food in Korea is super good. Anyway, you cook it in front of you and just eat it with these delicious raddish things and kimchi, and whatever else. haha so good. We had duck which you dip in mustard that was so good too. Ah I love it. After that we went and did weekly planning and then we skipped dinner nd did that scripture study class. Haha she was talking so fast. It was a joke. I couldn't understand anything.
Saturday we had to wait around for the people. The phone people. Our phones stopped working on Friday night so we had to call the mission office. Then we had to wait for the phone people to bring us a new sim card.So that was fun. haha because of that our plans were wrecked for the day. So we sat and worked on the member map because that needs a lot of work. I prepped my lesson that I taught yesterday which was like 5 seconds long haha it was just one baptism and confirmation. Anyway, then we went and had dinner and printed off some pictures for our english flyer. So heck yeah. Then we went to the church to finish that and that was Saturday!
Yesterday we had to be out the door by 7:30 because we had to pick up a girl to bring to the english branch at Songtan Station which is like an hour walk from our house. So we picked her up and brought her to church which was super awesome! It was fast sunday of course so I got up and introduced myself, which was actually a lot more nervewracking than in korean. anyway, it wasso good to have church that I could understand. haha i felt a lot more uplifted. It's hard to sit in church when you can't understand 95% of what is being said haha. But that's alright. it is good. After church we taught 김나영 the rest of the commandments and I pitched in my little bit. :) So yeah! Then last nightthis super awesome family the Jo's who lived in Lindon and Orem actually fun fact for ya.They gave us a sogay. A...referral. They are so awesome. They just gave the other elders a referral like 2 weeks ago and now they gvave us one. How awesome. They told us the whole reason they came back to Korea was to give the missionaries referrals. They are amazing. If only everyone in the world was like them 1/2 the world would be members by now! But yeah! That was our day! And week! I hope you all are doing well. :) I love you so much and miss you a ton! You rock!
Love,
Elder Breinholt
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