What's Cooler than Aliens?!

9/16-22
Monday (월요일) was the start of a very, very slow week in terms of missionary work. The big holiday of 추석 (Chusak), the Korean thanksgiving was coming up so everyone was busy and preparing to travel to visit family. As such, our normal PDAY was moved to Friday. Today was supposed to be a regular proselyting day but it is unreal how deserted the streets already are. After emailing home, we received a call from the church headquarters informing us that we needed to receive a temporary phone from our zone leader ASAP. I'm not totally sure what President Morrise has decided in terms of upgrading phones but for now our "temporary phone" is the biggest piece of crap. And when I say biggest, I mean it's even bigger than the Zoon-iPod-wannabe. It's really crappy. Anyway, once we received it we spent the day proselyting. By the time 4PM rolled around we met up with the elders in the district for a meal appointment.

Our appointment was with 안기훈B (Brother Ahn), a recent RM from the Seoul mission. He texted us saying, "If you want to be a good missionary, come to my house at 4 for some training." Haha bless his heart. He made us ramen noodles and taught us about the importance of being spiritually prepared at all times. He is adorable because he misses missionary work so much. Even though we don't really need his help, Sister Han and I always find some excuse to call and ask his advise or opinion on something to keep him in the loop- he loves it. After our "training" ended, all the missionaries made our way to 임은미S (Sister Lim's) house. Her and her two young sons are members but their father is not. She invited us over to have a FHE (family home evening) activity. We played pictionary and ate some delicious food- it was a fun time. By the end of the night, the two sons decided they wanted to nickname me, Alien because they thought I was crazy... And probably cool too because what's cooler than aliens? Haha that activity was a good way to end a not so productive day.

Tuesday (화요일) was another one of those 5 hour proselyting days. Sister Han and I found a little town called 입복동 that was pretty far away and secluded. I was curious to know if anyone had ever gone tracting there, so instead of wasting time in the records, we set out and made plans to walk every street. First, we tried door to door approaches but failed because most of the apartments were locked and forbid all uninvited visitors. We were able to find some smaller apartments where we did talk to a good amount of people. Unfortunately a majority of those people were half naked, drunk men. I put my poor companion through so much. I felt bad so before we head home I bought a bunch of these delicious little yogurt drinks. They are a MUST if you ever come to Korea. Anyway I bought like 30 for only ₩1,200 (about $1.20)! What a steal! On the long bus ride home, we were able to finish l of them between the two of us and with the help of a few people sitting around us. We made friends pretty quick when people saw what we had haha. The rest of the evening was spent trying to visit some less-active members and passing out English flyers with the elders. No success yet but at least we had a busy day.

Wednesday (수요일) was the first day of the Korean thanksgiving holiday. Similar to America, today is the preparation day set aside for cooking, cleaning, and preparing for family or traveling to family. As for us missionaries, we just had our normal district meeting. Elder Benson trained on faith. It was good. It made me really reflect on the prayers that I offer everyday. In my notes, I ended up only writing questions for myself to answer: Do I have faith that God is listening? Do I have faith that He hears me? Am I focused? Am I specific? Do I listen for the spirit? Do I wait for an answer?

I guess I have been working at such a fast pace that I think I have forgotten to really stop and reflect on the prayers I have been offering. It was a good training. When the meeting ended it was time for me to teach Elder Benson the first lesson- all by myself. I have little faith (ironic considering the training we just received) so I withheld the pass-off book from him that he was supposed to sign if I passed. I proceeded to teach and it was okay but no where near where I want it to be. His one piece of advise after was to just speak with confidence. He said he understood the idea and felt the spirit- I was just lacking conviction. Ugh! Next week I'll do better!

When Sister Han and I finally left the chapel, it was almost time to meet with Estee, one of our investigators. She arrived late but it worked out because we were able to grab dinner with her just before English class.

Since it is a holiday we didn't expect many people to come to English class. Instead we decided to combine all the classes and play games. It was super fun! We started with hangman. Everyone took a turn and somehow a few of the Koreans stumped the Americans- EMBARRASSING! It was fun though. Next we split into teams for pictionary. The Koreans would not stop making fun of how competitive I was... It's like Ricky Bobby says, "If you're not first, your last." right?

Thursday (목요일) HAPPY 추석 (Choo soak)! To celebrate this important holiday, we gathered as a whole mission for an all-day activity. We left the house at 8AM in order to arrive for the activity at 10AM. First was a training from President Morrise and a testimony meeting. Next was lunch, then a number of demonstrations of tradition cooking and games. It was semi-interesting. Then it was time for the real fun!

We were invite to change into PDAY clothes (the part I had been waiting for all day). First we all hopped on the subway to head to a nearby park. It was quite a sight seeing ALL the missionaries crammed onto the escalators and on one subway. When we were all accounted for, we made a circle around a huge flag pole with a huge Korean flag wavering proudly in the air. There we all sang the first and forth verse (and chorus) of the Korean national anthem.

Next, President Morrise had an idea of assigning each district a scripture story. We then were challenged to try and tell the story in only three still images. Later we gathered together to guess who had which story. Maybe that sounds lame but it was a lot of fun! After taking our pictures we had about an hour to walk around and play basketball in this park. It was SUCH nice day. I decided to take a seat on the warm asphalt- talk about relaxing. I was on the verge of a nap when the time came to pack up and head back to the church.

Dinner was served and we ended our day with a talent show. At first it was more like a concert with all the singing and piano playing. But no worries, it then livened up with some hilarious skits, a traditional New Zealand song/dance, numb-chucks, and an amazing gymnastics performance by an elder training for the upcoming Olympics. It was the best way to end the day!

Before we head home, we were asked to change back into missionary clothes and get home as fast as possible. At that time, it was already passed 9:30PM and most everyone had to travel over an hour to get home. My companion and I finally arrived home by 11:30PM! I was so ready for bed, it was one of those times when my head hit the pillow and that's the last thing I remember... It was an great day!

Friday (금요일) was a very special PDAY... Drumroll please... Yay for deep cleaning day! -___- After our normal studies, my companion was allowed to call home for an hour in spirit of the Korean holiday. Me on the other hand, I had no choice but to start cleaning... By the time she got off the phone I had already attacked the bathroom and bedroom. The last two rooms to clean were the kitchen and changing room. It went by pretty quick once she started helping. After cleaning, Sister Han wanted to go shopping. I followed her around for about two hours then we finally came back home with two more PDAY hours left- perfect for a glorious nap! The house reeked of bleach so before I unfolded my mattress, I opened every window in the house and grabbed my comfy Texas sweatshirt (thanks again Andrea!) to have the best nap ever! Even though I don't feel very productive this week, I'm exhausted from all this running around trying to stay busy and boy was I rewarded with an awesome nap.

By the time it was 6PM my companion and I were headed out the door to meet the elders and a couple members for dinner. It wasn't delicious or fun. The members were much more interested in talking to the native Koreans.  So us Americans and one German elder were left to entertain ourselves. After dinner we went to eat ice cream at Baskin Robins- a popular place here. It was yummy and probably the best part of the night.

Saturday (토요일) was a weird day. For starters; it is my 200th day on the mission- crazy right? Also, since the normal schedule was a little out of order, today we were supposed to have our weekly planning. Instead of planning in the morning, we decided to end our day with the allotted 3 hour block. Before we did, we attempted to visit three less-active members. With our luck, only one was home to let us in. We spent about 2.5 hours at her house. She is very old and not able to make it out to church due to her physical state. She has 5 children (4 daughters and 1 son) whom all live near by but unfortunately only one visits on a regular basis. During our visit today, one daughter happened to stop by with her son. She comes over daily to check up on her mother and clean things up. She is very sweet. Her son happened to be the same age as me and was completely fluent in English. His grandmother commanded him to practice speaking to me haha. It blew me away hearing him speak- he has perfect pronunciation and absolutely no accent. It was fun to have a normal conversation for once. After we talked for a while, it was time for him and his mother to leave. When they did we asked this grandmother if we could practice teaching her the first lesson. She accepted, so we proceeded. I tried really hard not to use any notes but that caused most of my sentences to sound like questions. I also kept looking at my companion for reassurance that I was making sense. I'll just end by saying, it was a good idea in theory. I felt that I did well, considering the Korean I knew, but after we left I was grilling my companion to figure out what she understood. Fail. At least I'm trying right? Once we were back home we ate dinner, made cookies, and planned for the coming week. Not much else to report.

Sunday (일요일) was a good day. Since church changed to 2PM we had an appointment with our only progressing investigator! Her name translates to literally mean bible. She is 18 (Korean age) and a junior in high school. She is adorable! Today we taught her the first lesson about the restoration and it went really well. My language skills are improving little by little!! When it came time for me to teach about Joseph Smith, with zero notes I recited his account of the first vision. I was proud and she even clapped her hands while saying, "woahh!" I think she was more amazed by my Korean than what I actually said but hey, she was amazed nonetheless.

Directly after, we met at the church for our normal street boarding with members of the ward. It was okay. Next was church. The speakers spoke super fast and used huge words so I literally understood nothing- it was a bummer. After church we ate dinner as a ward- delicious. Our evening consisted of visiting less-actives again. One was home and actually let us in! She was really sweet except for the fact that she doesn't have much interest in talking to foreigners. I sat quietly while Sister Han and her had a fun conversation ha. I tried to jump in but she pretended not to understand me. Oh well. Overall it was a good day.

Well, that's a I've got for this week. Sorry if it was boring. Looking back, the only fun thing was the celebration of the Korean thanksgiving. Well, have a great week! 사랑합니다!

슬론 자매
Sister Sloan

On our way to the Korean Thanksgiving celebration.  Look alive Elders.  Haha

The mission gathered to sing the Korean National Anthem to celebrate Korean Thanksgiving.

Elder Brekwoldt from my district.  He's German, if his name didn't already give that away.

Sister Hendricks and one of President Morrise's assistants.

Elder Payne...aka the 7th best gymnast in the world.  He has special permission to continue his training in order to prepare for the upcoming olympics in Brazil.  Cool, huh?!

Suwon 20!  All the missionaries that started their mission in the Daejeon Korea Mission and are now in Seoul South Korean Mission.