Oooops... We forgot to post last week... BUUUUTTTTT That means you all get an added bonus of Scott in your life this week!! We love and miss him dearly, but there's only another couple weeks till we get to speak with him ON THE PHONE!! Other notable things: we are concerned that he continues to address his Mission President in such a casual "Hey President!!" manner, but trust him. Maybe... Let's all hope he really does send us a video of him speaking Korean though!!! Thanks for your continued interest in our sweet young man!!
Hey President!
It was so cool that you could come to our church meetings this week! It
was awesome to have your spirit and Sister Christensen's Spirit there
too! I know it helped with our other investigators that were there.
For my personal study recently I've been reading the missionary library,
and finished Our Search for Happiness, and am moving on to our
Heritage. From what I've read in Our Heritage it seems really cool and
I'm already learning a lot of neat things about the church that I didn't
know about prior.
Our investigators seem to be doing pretty well. One of our
investigators that was at church yesterday, the older man that you and
Sister Christensen were talking to, seems to be doing really really well
in my opinion. He seemed to really enjoy the whole thing, including
the baptism and meal after. I'm really excited to see the progress that
he will make in the future and hope to see him in the baptismal font in
not too long!
Training continues to go really well, Elder Hunter is doing great as
always. He pushes me hard which is very good for me and it really helps
my Korean. He says that by the end of the two transfers I'll speak
better Korean than him, I don't believe it, but he's adamate. His
spiritual influence is so awesome too, he does such a good job, and I
know he's an awesome missionary and he's seeing the fruits of his
labors.-Elder Clawson
Hey family and other folks!
Yeah that's right! I got my first baptism! Even though really I didn't
even do anything to be completely honest, but nonetheless, I still got a
baptism! Anyways, this week has been pretty good and actually went by
pretty quick too! So I guess I have neglected to tell everyone the
nature of what it's like here in Korea. First, the area I'm serving in
is in Incheon which is substantially less cold that seoul. I'm getting a
coat today but previously I haven't really had too much need for one.
Also tomorrow I'm getting a new suit too because we have to wear suits
everyday, and to be honest, I'm tired of wearing the same suit everyday
for over a month, now approaching two. Anyways, so our house is just me
and my companion. It's cool I guess, sometimes I wished that we had
more people and other times I'm glad we don't. There's good and bad to
it I guess. If I had to compare my area to anything I'd probably say
its like LA pretty much. Probably most similar to the garment district,
not in that everywhere people are selling things, but in just the way
it looks and such. In that way it kinda reminds me of home and
sometimes I have to remind myself that I'm in the opposite hemishpere
from everything I've known prior. I guess 계산 is more like a suburb
though. It doesn't take too long to get to real city though. One of
our neighboring areas has like 30 story tall buildings all over the
place and what not. It's pretty sweet, the difinition of city and
suburb are substantially different for me now than they were before
hahaa.
To answer some questions of yours, no I am not losing weight, in fact I
am gaining wait. I hate it! So if you go to have a meal with a member
and you don't eat like a mountain of food, they think you hate them or
something! I didn't eat much before my mission, and now there's all
this crazy food, which really isn't that crazy, that I have to eat even
more of?!?! It makes no sense and a lot of sense at the same time.
Culture here is crazy but that's okay. The last package you sent is
totally intact and having some of provo around was pretty sweet hahah.
We did have thanksgiving dinner actually. It was at the home of an
American family who are members and wanted to host a bunch of
missionaries some they had 20 something people in an apartment. Granted
it was a bigger apartment, but that's still pretty small here in
Korea. It was pretty awesome having some american food though. There's
no costco around us so we can't really get anything from there, but
maybe later it will be in my area. That's fun to hear about your
thanksgiving! I missed home a little bit thursday even though I know
that I probably went to sleep before you guys even woke up. That's
super cool to hear about the turkey bowl! That was something that I
really really missed. I've played football once here, and I was pretty
much at the bottom of the heap of people. When you have a gang of
college athletes in your mission all playing, it gets tough to keep up,
not to mention me being without cleats when other people have them, but
thats okay it was fun. Sorry dad, I don't know where your cleats are
but I'm pretty sure that the air mattresses are towards the front of the
rafters, kind of by the face of the house but I'm not sure, sorry I
can't be of more help with that.
Also I'm not sure where the sprayer is either, if I had to guess I'd
say the storage unit, but its probably behind somewhat of a wall of
stuff.
Also, what up about being the only one from our ward serving in the
eastern hemisphere! I know its all the lord's work but still!! haha, no
not really, everyone else hopefully is just as happy about where they
are. I know that I am! There's times that I just kinda one be sitting
back home, but usually i'm pretty happy being here. The bishop here
plays guitar too, electric guitar! I talked to him once and he liked
some of the same players that I like so that was kinda a funny thing to
hear about hahah. Also, there's this guy that's supposedly following
the mission president around and is kind of a creeper, but he's from
fullerton! Despite all stalkerness it was kind of cool to see him too!
haha, fun little tastes of home all over the place.
One problem that I have begun to face here is kind of entertaining, and I
accidently dug myself a bit of a hole as a result of it. So a couple
of weeks ago, we were at a members house, and they found out that I play
guitar, and said that I should perform at their Christmas talent show
thingy mabobber. I said sure, that will be fun, I'll just need to
borrow someones guitar. They said that I should get it soon so that I
can practice. Here's where the sarcasm comes in, I started saying that I
don't need practice. Koreans don't get sarcasm folks. It's a problem,
but I'm learning to stop it. Mind you all of that was in Korean, so
that was kind of fun for me to learn to be me just as much in Korean as
in English hahaha. Mom, maybe I will be less sarcastic when I get home,
were you praying about that when I put in my papers? hahaha
Oh yeah, totally forgot about this for a while. While we were at
thanksgiving dinner, president authorized the family to let us watch BYU
football games. We watched a couple, both of which BYU lost, but there
was a couple shots that I totally saw Desi doing the cheerleading
thing! It was so weird, I'm just sitting there, and I'm like, oh
there's cheerleaders, wait, isn't desi a cheerleader? Oh theres desi,
this is kinda strange...
It was super funny and it was pretty cool to see the game, and watch it
with two people who will be playing on the BYU football team when they
return home hahaha.
The area here is doing super, super awesome. Everyone works so hard and
the ward is really dedicated to missionary work. Our previous ward
missionleader even has a guy that he's trying to turn into an
investigator. He basically runs the equivalent of a hot dog stand, and
is a super nice guy, it'd be really cool to see him get baptized and
then he'd give us even more free food! We have another baptismal date
next month and were hoping to get two more in the next week or two!
quick Korean time real quick.
so this one is more of a concept than a phrase really. basically if you
conjugate something in middle form (do "yoh" as an ending instead of
"im-nee-dah"), and then instead of just ending in "yoh", you end in
"yong". so if your saying hi "an-nyang-ha-say-yoh", you would change it
to "an-nyong-ha-say-yong". Basically this just makes everything really
cute. it turns from "hi" to "heeyyyayyyayyy", it hard to do with out
voice, maybe i'll send a video of the difference at some point.
Love you guys, stay awesome, and keep Korea in your prayers. I pray for you every night!
클라슨 장로
Thursday, November 29, 2012
yay!! over 100 days as a missionary
Hey President,
Hope all is going well at the mission office! This week in study, I started to read Our Search for Happiness, and I really enjoy it! I think I'll probably be done with it soon, and I look forward to gaining more insight from it. I also have continued to read the Book of Mormon and try and apply it to the investigators. I think because of my lack of understanding of what exactly the investigators are saying, I don't really understand their needs that well, and that's something I hope to improve upon in the future.
Our investigators are doing pretty well from what I can gather. We had 4 investigators that either went to the celebration last night or stake conference yesterday. One of the investigators is a members younger brother and I feel like he's someone that really shows a great deal of promise as an investigator. He's a really nice kid and it seems like he really likes his brother and wants to follow his example and be baptized.
Training is still going really well. I think I'm doing pretty well with the language, or at least as much so as I could be being that I've been around the language for just a little over 3 months. I think I'm getting a great deal better at using the spirit in my teaching, and have really been working on teaching people. This is something that I think Elder Hunter really excels at and is doing a great job at passing on to me.
Have a great week!
-Elder Clawson
Hello everybody!!!!
hows life going for everyne? Great? awesome, that sounds really good. I honestly don't know if there's too much I'll be able to respond about from previous emails right now, I usually end up just talking about Korea all over the place in these emails, so if I do that too much and you want me to talk more about things you've emailed me about, by all means let me know. Otherwise, I will continue in my narcissism with Korea and the awesomeness therein.
First of all, this week has been stinking crazy awesome. So when I first got here, we had like half an investigator, because he was going to get baptized regardless of how good or bad of missionaries we were, he was a referral and had been active in attending church since april. Now, we have like 9 investigators, and I think that 4 of them have a really good chance at being baptized. Tuesday, we had 7 appointments for lessons. Granted only 5 of them actually happened, but even still, it is getting crazy busy over here. People say that Korea isn't a very high baptizing area of the church, and I believe it, but hey, we could be getting there. President is awesome and has a great vision for this mission. Under his direction I think the baptisms here really can shoot up. Remember that one time my roommate from school said that he thought Japan was just about to shoot up in baptisms like Brazil did a while back? Well he was right, but thats not the point, I think that Korea is getting on its way for that too!
Church here is a business and a lot of what people think of your church is very contingent upon the money your church has, the size of your building, and how many members it has. That being said, once we get this country going, I legitimately think that we may have to on some level, start slowing down people's interest as a result of the people who join a church for its business. That's a trial for a later date and the mission will worry about it then. For now though, I think we're really on the right track and can get up our baptism count. Even the goal isn't numbers, it definitely helps to measure some things, and helps with self esteem a whole lot, but lets be real, thats never been a problem for me, hence calling these emails narcissistic.
We have a baptism on Sunday!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited, even though again, we didn't really do anything for it, but we still get to count it as a number! I guess my first non member baptism is a pretty good milestone. That's something my companion from the MTC was big on was milestones, so I've kind of picked up on it a little bit hahahaha.
Also big thing to Koreans! I would really appreciate it if you could send me some pictures of like our family and stuff, just things that help me seem more personable to the people of Korea, and instead of just having a tag to a name, they can put some personality to it too! So if you could do me a huge favor and send some pictures of growing up-ness and the family, that would be super sweet! You can send them through the email and I'll just put them on my camera and can go print them and put them in a photo album I can show investigators and members! I promise I'm making an effort to be better about pictures, but we know I suck at pictures so bad. I've never been much of a photographer.
I'm going to do Korean time now for lack of mind to think of anything else at the moment.
역시 (yuk-shee)
This one is fun, it more or less translates into "typical." It can be used in a lot of circumstances where if I were to ask where someone learned English, and they responded in high school, you could say, oh typical. It gets really fun to use when you're kind of making fun of people though. For example, my companion, and one of his roommates from the MTC, use it all the time. Say one of them misses a shot in basketball or soccer by a super big margin, the other will say 역시. I think you can gather the general meaning of it, if you need more clarification, let me know!
Oh, other way fun thing from this week, we went to whats called a 김장! we made Kimche! It was really fun, and I'm actually starting to like Kimche, I don't know what that means with my progress as a missionary, but I still can't eat enough to keep up with other missionaries, let alone Koreans.
The work continues to be tough here, but that's just missionary work, its not easy. Salvation is not easy because salvation is not a cheap thing, and boy is that ever true. David A. Bednar sure had it right, provided thats David A Bednar. If I'm wrong so be it, but the point remains, people are slow to accept the gospel here, and it can be irritating. We have two, rather had two, younger investigators, about 17 and 18. Both of them expressed a whole lot of interest in the church and meeting with the missionaries. Both of their parents have forbidden them from meeting with us. It's so sad to see things that way, but I guess its just the way it is. One of them said that it doesn't matter the cost, if he gets kicked out of his house, the day he no longer needs a permission slip, he will get baptized. I wish I had that kind of faith in anything. I want to thank everyone back home for being the awesome people that they are and not forbidding their kids from going to the mormon church. It's sad to see, but it's culture here. I hope as the church becomes more reputable and people become more generally familiar with the way the church ACTUALLY is, this sort of thing will happen less often. I love being here, and I know it only gets better as I actually get to being able to speak to people, and understand what they're going through.
I love you all and keep me updated on things from back home! Wedding stuff is particularly entertaining, and Lindsay! I haven't heard from you since I was in America! I wanna here from the person who I will shortly hereafter no longer share the same last name as! You're really busy though, I understand
Love you all!
클라슨 장로
Hope all is going well at the mission office! This week in study, I started to read Our Search for Happiness, and I really enjoy it! I think I'll probably be done with it soon, and I look forward to gaining more insight from it. I also have continued to read the Book of Mormon and try and apply it to the investigators. I think because of my lack of understanding of what exactly the investigators are saying, I don't really understand their needs that well, and that's something I hope to improve upon in the future.
Our investigators are doing pretty well from what I can gather. We had 4 investigators that either went to the celebration last night or stake conference yesterday. One of the investigators is a members younger brother and I feel like he's someone that really shows a great deal of promise as an investigator. He's a really nice kid and it seems like he really likes his brother and wants to follow his example and be baptized.
Training is still going really well. I think I'm doing pretty well with the language, or at least as much so as I could be being that I've been around the language for just a little over 3 months. I think I'm getting a great deal better at using the spirit in my teaching, and have really been working on teaching people. This is something that I think Elder Hunter really excels at and is doing a great job at passing on to me.
Have a great week!
-Elder Clawson
Hello everybody!!!!
hows life going for everyne? Great? awesome, that sounds really good. I honestly don't know if there's too much I'll be able to respond about from previous emails right now, I usually end up just talking about Korea all over the place in these emails, so if I do that too much and you want me to talk more about things you've emailed me about, by all means let me know. Otherwise, I will continue in my narcissism with Korea and the awesomeness therein.
First of all, this week has been stinking crazy awesome. So when I first got here, we had like half an investigator, because he was going to get baptized regardless of how good or bad of missionaries we were, he was a referral and had been active in attending church since april. Now, we have like 9 investigators, and I think that 4 of them have a really good chance at being baptized. Tuesday, we had 7 appointments for lessons. Granted only 5 of them actually happened, but even still, it is getting crazy busy over here. People say that Korea isn't a very high baptizing area of the church, and I believe it, but hey, we could be getting there. President is awesome and has a great vision for this mission. Under his direction I think the baptisms here really can shoot up. Remember that one time my roommate from school said that he thought Japan was just about to shoot up in baptisms like Brazil did a while back? Well he was right, but thats not the point, I think that Korea is getting on its way for that too!
Church here is a business and a lot of what people think of your church is very contingent upon the money your church has, the size of your building, and how many members it has. That being said, once we get this country going, I legitimately think that we may have to on some level, start slowing down people's interest as a result of the people who join a church for its business. That's a trial for a later date and the mission will worry about it then. For now though, I think we're really on the right track and can get up our baptism count. Even the goal isn't numbers, it definitely helps to measure some things, and helps with self esteem a whole lot, but lets be real, thats never been a problem for me, hence calling these emails narcissistic.
We have a baptism on Sunday!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited, even though again, we didn't really do anything for it, but we still get to count it as a number! I guess my first non member baptism is a pretty good milestone. That's something my companion from the MTC was big on was milestones, so I've kind of picked up on it a little bit hahahaha.
Also big thing to Koreans! I would really appreciate it if you could send me some pictures of like our family and stuff, just things that help me seem more personable to the people of Korea, and instead of just having a tag to a name, they can put some personality to it too! So if you could do me a huge favor and send some pictures of growing up-ness and the family, that would be super sweet! You can send them through the email and I'll just put them on my camera and can go print them and put them in a photo album I can show investigators and members! I promise I'm making an effort to be better about pictures, but we know I suck at pictures so bad. I've never been much of a photographer.
I'm going to do Korean time now for lack of mind to think of anything else at the moment.
역시 (yuk-shee)
This one is fun, it more or less translates into "typical." It can be used in a lot of circumstances where if I were to ask where someone learned English, and they responded in high school, you could say, oh typical. It gets really fun to use when you're kind of making fun of people though. For example, my companion, and one of his roommates from the MTC, use it all the time. Say one of them misses a shot in basketball or soccer by a super big margin, the other will say 역시. I think you can gather the general meaning of it, if you need more clarification, let me know!
Oh, other way fun thing from this week, we went to whats called a 김장! we made Kimche! It was really fun, and I'm actually starting to like Kimche, I don't know what that means with my progress as a missionary, but I still can't eat enough to keep up with other missionaries, let alone Koreans.
The work continues to be tough here, but that's just missionary work, its not easy. Salvation is not easy because salvation is not a cheap thing, and boy is that ever true. David A. Bednar sure had it right, provided thats David A Bednar. If I'm wrong so be it, but the point remains, people are slow to accept the gospel here, and it can be irritating. We have two, rather had two, younger investigators, about 17 and 18. Both of them expressed a whole lot of interest in the church and meeting with the missionaries. Both of their parents have forbidden them from meeting with us. It's so sad to see things that way, but I guess its just the way it is. One of them said that it doesn't matter the cost, if he gets kicked out of his house, the day he no longer needs a permission slip, he will get baptized. I wish I had that kind of faith in anything. I want to thank everyone back home for being the awesome people that they are and not forbidding their kids from going to the mormon church. It's sad to see, but it's culture here. I hope as the church becomes more reputable and people become more generally familiar with the way the church ACTUALLY is, this sort of thing will happen less often. I love being here, and I know it only gets better as I actually get to being able to speak to people, and understand what they're going through.
I love you all and keep me updated on things from back home! Wedding stuff is particularly entertaining, and Lindsay! I haven't heard from you since I was in America! I wanna here from the person who I will shortly hereafter no longer share the same last name as! You're really busy though, I understand
Love you all!
클라슨 장로
Monday, November 12, 2012
Still adjusting to Korea =)
This letter was just so so much fun. As a family here in Rancho we read the letter together, out loud. At one point he literally predicts my thought process & comments (I will add what I said in {funny brackets}to show what excellent siblings we make.) Fact. We love love love that you can already see his love for the people, especially how much he cares about the people that help take care of him. We are all so grateful for those people and already have a Target bag full of random Reese's products with images of Lane Kim "Connecticut Yank in Puson" in our minds. Thank Heaven for missionaries, Americans in Korea, and the Gilmore Girls. We are so very lucky that we have a missionary that writes good, well rounded, fun emails.
This past week I studied from preach my gospel in the teaching skills section. Some of the things in that section I could still use some work on so I've been trying to improve my teaching skills. I really think it has helped me especially with regards to teaching people not lessons. That is something that I have been really trying to work on so that I can help people gain a testimony more than just to learn.
Our investigators are doing well. We now have 8 I think with 4 of them progressing. One of them really has a genuine interest in the church, and under different circumstances would probably be baptized. His family, however are 장로교, and he has family that are clergy in that church. He's moving to a different area soon to go to church however, and we think when he moves that we may be able to get the missionaries there to baptize him.
Training is all going well. Elder Hunter continues to be a great trainer and sets an awesome example. My knowledge of the Korean language is still obviously lacking but I continue to learn. Elder Hunter helps me to learn to do things on my own so that is really helpful. I think I could almost order a meal at home plus and get it on my own now! The gospel side of things is going really well. Elder Hunter really has his mind set in the right place and it effects me in a positive way.
-Elder Clawson
Hello everybody!!!!
There's always a whole lot to talk about as a missionary, just comes with the territory!! So i was going to send a bunch of pictures, and then realized that all of them are just the faces of other missionaries and such, and I doubt you want to see that. Not to say these people are bad to look at, I just don't think it's particularly important for you to see pictures of random people you don't know. Also, yes I suck, I have no pictures of Korea really, except that one in the airport, that exists. And mom! You saw a picture of me in Korea with the mission president and his wife so ha! Your cello may not exist still, but I certainly am in Korea!
On to the rest of the week. So one thing that was really fun this week, we we're proselyting and I started talking to this guy carrying a downhill mountain bike frame around and he had the forks in his backpack. Bosco I'm not sure about this but it was an easton from. I've never heard of that, yes the same easton as hockey sticks and such. You know more about that sort of thing. Also, said guy may try and add you on facebook Bosco. Do what you please with him, but he's really nice so thats that. super nice guy who rides downhill in Korea, now my friend, possible gospel interest, pretty solid at english.
I think the next day, we were proselyting in a similar area, and as we were walking home, there was a store that was totally playing a Sanjae Lerche song! I have no clue if that's how you spell his name, that's what happens when you're not french I guess. {Awwwe! I LOVE Dan in Real Life!And Sondre Lerche, he's just so good.} Anyways yeah! Heard that song and it was super cool, nobody in America knows this guy, but apparently people in Korea know his music, it was kinda really cool and nostaligic. {I should watch Dan in Real Life again- it has been a while...} Knowing Lindsay she's probably watched Dan in Real Life in the past month or so, maybe she's too busy, acutally no, she's too busy, she hasn't watched it, but she might now that I said that. {What a creeper! How does he know what I'm thinking?!? I love that kid...}
The package showed up in perfect condition! It is a way awesome package! You guys are the best, if only yoohoo was very shippable. I'm really having some yoohoo/nacho cheese bugles/sriracha/monster/del taco withdrawals. The food here is nuts. Enough said. I can get by and eat, but apparently in Korea everyone eats like they have the appetite of a tyranneasourus rex. I do not fit in in that regard haha. I'm trying to think of what I've eaten. Lots of rice, a little meat, kimche every now and then. I can do normal kimche, last night we had a dinner appointment and I genuinely thought that the Kimche was good!
That dinner appointment was so awesome. It was with a family from our ward and they are so awesome. They lived in the US for about 10 years and moved to Korea just pretty recently. I feel bad for their kids, they're American kids, they look Korean,they speak Korean and English, but culturally they're American. They are all just the most amazing family, but the father and mother felt that they needed to move back to Korea for some reason. I think to some degree, they may have moved back to be the amazing support family that they are for a lot of missionaries. They have 5 kids ranging from like a year and a half old to 14. The dinner we had was super nice, they even had funeral potatoes!!!!!!!!! Cheese is super expensive in Korea so I felt kind of bad that they made that for us. On that note I just remembered something! So I don't like candy, but their kids do! If you could, it would be super super cool, if you could in the next package you send, send some reeses, maybe some other candies too. They really like reeses though. The father was just released as the ward mission leader, and he is seriously one of the greatest men I've ever met. It would mean a lot to me if you could send that so I can reciprocate the love he's shown me even just a little bit.
I can't think of anything right now that I want for me in my next package, thanks for finding those cleats mom, you remain the best. It's the purple, pink and green cleats by the way, I think I have a pair of football cleats too, but I don't really want those.
So dad has expressed interest in a phrase/word of the week, I must brainstorm for a minute as I conjure up a fun word or phrase to leave with you.
왜 그래???? (wae gguh rae)
So in Korean there's like for levels of speech. There's king form, high form, middle form, and panmar. Each of those is varying levels of respect. panmar is the lowest, you use it for people that are of lower social status than you, your children, people younger, or if you're super friendly with someone, or you just want to be really rude to someone. That phrase is panmar (반말). literally it means "why is it that way?", but in reality its more like "really?..." So contextually, you would use it if somebody did something stupid, or is really weird. So like when on the young mens trip, half the young men decide to go jump off the cliffs at copper canyon in speedos, you could say 왜 그래. My companion taught it to me, when people were being rude to us while we were proselyting. White people reading this, DO NOT USE THIS TO PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY UNDERSTAND KOREAN. It can be super rude so practice great disrection when saying this. If it's somebody that's way younger than you, by all means go for it, but do not use it on anyone close to your age or older than you.
So I guess I have some more time, so I'll talk a little about peole for a bit. My district is pretty awesome, we have six people in our district, and they're all really awesome. We're the only district in our zone with sister missionaries too. They're both really awesome, and are super fun to be around. The other 2 missionaries are the district leader and a guy from my companions mtc district. We all get along pretty well, except when scattergories gets involved, then I tend to take it a bit too seriously. It's a problem, but I'm growing past it hahaha. My zone is pretty sweet too, we have 16 missionaries total, and 2 guys who will play football for BYU when they get home. One is a safety, and is like 6'2, maybe 185, I don't know hes pretty cool though, and a way good singer. The other football player, is wait for it... 6'10! It's crazy, basically when you walk around with him its one of the most entertaining things cause everybody just stares at him. It's way great. There's like 4 missionaries who go home after this transfer in my zone, so it will be fun to see who comes in as well.
Well I love you all and will talk to you in a week!
클라슨 장로
This past week I studied from preach my gospel in the teaching skills section. Some of the things in that section I could still use some work on so I've been trying to improve my teaching skills. I really think it has helped me especially with regards to teaching people not lessons. That is something that I have been really trying to work on so that I can help people gain a testimony more than just to learn.
Our investigators are doing well. We now have 8 I think with 4 of them progressing. One of them really has a genuine interest in the church, and under different circumstances would probably be baptized. His family, however are 장로교, and he has family that are clergy in that church. He's moving to a different area soon to go to church however, and we think when he moves that we may be able to get the missionaries there to baptize him.
Training is all going well. Elder Hunter continues to be a great trainer and sets an awesome example. My knowledge of the Korean language is still obviously lacking but I continue to learn. Elder Hunter helps me to learn to do things on my own so that is really helpful. I think I could almost order a meal at home plus and get it on my own now! The gospel side of things is going really well. Elder Hunter really has his mind set in the right place and it effects me in a positive way.
-Elder Clawson
Hello everybody!!!!
There's always a whole lot to talk about as a missionary, just comes with the territory!! So i was going to send a bunch of pictures, and then realized that all of them are just the faces of other missionaries and such, and I doubt you want to see that. Not to say these people are bad to look at, I just don't think it's particularly important for you to see pictures of random people you don't know. Also, yes I suck, I have no pictures of Korea really, except that one in the airport, that exists. And mom! You saw a picture of me in Korea with the mission president and his wife so ha! Your cello may not exist still, but I certainly am in Korea!
On to the rest of the week. So one thing that was really fun this week, we we're proselyting and I started talking to this guy carrying a downhill mountain bike frame around and he had the forks in his backpack. Bosco I'm not sure about this but it was an easton from. I've never heard of that, yes the same easton as hockey sticks and such. You know more about that sort of thing. Also, said guy may try and add you on facebook Bosco. Do what you please with him, but he's really nice so thats that. super nice guy who rides downhill in Korea, now my friend, possible gospel interest, pretty solid at english.
I think the next day, we were proselyting in a similar area, and as we were walking home, there was a store that was totally playing a Sanjae Lerche song! I have no clue if that's how you spell his name, that's what happens when you're not french I guess. {Awwwe! I LOVE Dan in Real Life!And Sondre Lerche, he's just so good.} Anyways yeah! Heard that song and it was super cool, nobody in America knows this guy, but apparently people in Korea know his music, it was kinda really cool and nostaligic. {I should watch Dan in Real Life again- it has been a while...} Knowing Lindsay she's probably watched Dan in Real Life in the past month or so, maybe she's too busy, acutally no, she's too busy, she hasn't watched it, but she might now that I said that. {What a creeper! How does he know what I'm thinking?!? I love that kid...}
The package showed up in perfect condition! It is a way awesome package! You guys are the best, if only yoohoo was very shippable. I'm really having some yoohoo/nacho cheese bugles/sriracha/monster/del taco withdrawals. The food here is nuts. Enough said. I can get by and eat, but apparently in Korea everyone eats like they have the appetite of a tyranneasourus rex. I do not fit in in that regard haha. I'm trying to think of what I've eaten. Lots of rice, a little meat, kimche every now and then. I can do normal kimche, last night we had a dinner appointment and I genuinely thought that the Kimche was good!
That dinner appointment was so awesome. It was with a family from our ward and they are so awesome. They lived in the US for about 10 years and moved to Korea just pretty recently. I feel bad for their kids, they're American kids, they look Korean,they speak Korean and English, but culturally they're American. They are all just the most amazing family, but the father and mother felt that they needed to move back to Korea for some reason. I think to some degree, they may have moved back to be the amazing support family that they are for a lot of missionaries. They have 5 kids ranging from like a year and a half old to 14. The dinner we had was super nice, they even had funeral potatoes!!!!!!!!! Cheese is super expensive in Korea so I felt kind of bad that they made that for us. On that note I just remembered something! So I don't like candy, but their kids do! If you could, it would be super super cool, if you could in the next package you send, send some reeses, maybe some other candies too. They really like reeses though. The father was just released as the ward mission leader, and he is seriously one of the greatest men I've ever met. It would mean a lot to me if you could send that so I can reciprocate the love he's shown me even just a little bit.
I can't think of anything right now that I want for me in my next package, thanks for finding those cleats mom, you remain the best. It's the purple, pink and green cleats by the way, I think I have a pair of football cleats too, but I don't really want those.
So dad has expressed interest in a phrase/word of the week, I must brainstorm for a minute as I conjure up a fun word or phrase to leave with you.
왜 그래???? (wae gguh rae)
So in Korean there's like for levels of speech. There's king form, high form, middle form, and panmar. Each of those is varying levels of respect. panmar is the lowest, you use it for people that are of lower social status than you, your children, people younger, or if you're super friendly with someone, or you just want to be really rude to someone. That phrase is panmar (반말). literally it means "why is it that way?", but in reality its more like "really?..." So contextually, you would use it if somebody did something stupid, or is really weird. So like when on the young mens trip, half the young men decide to go jump off the cliffs at copper canyon in speedos, you could say 왜 그래. My companion taught it to me, when people were being rude to us while we were proselyting. White people reading this, DO NOT USE THIS TO PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY UNDERSTAND KOREAN. It can be super rude so practice great disrection when saying this. If it's somebody that's way younger than you, by all means go for it, but do not use it on anyone close to your age or older than you.
So I guess I have some more time, so I'll talk a little about peole for a bit. My district is pretty awesome, we have six people in our district, and they're all really awesome. We're the only district in our zone with sister missionaries too. They're both really awesome, and are super fun to be around. The other 2 missionaries are the district leader and a guy from my companions mtc district. We all get along pretty well, except when scattergories gets involved, then I tend to take it a bit too seriously. It's a problem, but I'm growing past it hahaha. My zone is pretty sweet too, we have 16 missionaries total, and 2 guys who will play football for BYU when they get home. One is a safety, and is like 6'2, maybe 185, I don't know hes pretty cool though, and a way good singer. The other football player, is wait for it... 6'10! It's crazy, basically when you walk around with him its one of the most entertaining things cause everybody just stares at him. It's way great. There's like 4 missionaries who go home after this transfer in my zone, so it will be fun to see who comes in as well.
Well I love you all and will talk to you in a week!
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Sunday, November 4, 2012
Herro!!!
From: Scott Clawson <clawson.scott@myldsmail.net>
To: clegmaker <clegmaker@aol.com>
Sent: Sun, Nov 4, 2012 6:58 pm
Subject: Herro!!
Hello everybody!
So I've deemed it appropriate to copy my letter to President and send it home to you, there's nothing too crazy, but I think it'll be helpful in answering some questions to everybody!
Hey President,
During personal study this week, Elder Hunter has printed off a bunch of talks for me that helped him out at the beginning of his missions, so I've been reading a lot of those. They really have helped just to stay motivated and focused. I'm sure you understand better than most how tough it is for new missionaries seeing that you get more every six weeks. It really is tough to stay motivated and keep from letting tiredness get the better of you, but I know its definitely doable.
We have the same investigators as before. All 3 of our investigators seem to be progressing, one more than the other two, but progressing nonetheless. Our most progressing investigator has been actively coming to church for months and we're just making sure he has all the lessons taught to him because he is going to be baptized the day that you come visit 계산 ward! The other two are doing well but haven't come to church yet. I feel they'll get there, they just need a little more time.
Training seems to be going well. Korean is coming along and everybody has been telling me that I'm good at it for some reason or another. I was able to pass off first lesson last friday. It was tough, but I'm proud of myself for passing off. My district leader has told me that because of my skill with the language, he is going to be very tough on me with pass off. Not so much in my meticulousness with the language, but in my ability to keep things simple, and teach people not lessons. I'm super grateful to him for that and am excited to continue to pass off as time goes on. Elder Hunter is awesome and works soooooo hard. He's a great trainer and I am deeply thankful that we could serve together.
Thanks so much President!
Elder Clawson.
How is everybody?!?! This week has been tough, and a lot of work. I'm going to just say what comes to mind when it does so this email is probably going to seem all over the place, but hey, that's missionary work. So, that Chakham place you talked about mom, thats whats called a 고기 부페, or meat buffet. I don't eat enough in Korea apparently. My companion, Elder Hunter, justs puts food away like it's nothing, while I just sit around and eat a little, and everybody's like "what's wrong, do you feel sick" no I just eat like somebody who is normal and doesn't eat copious amounts of food by some inexplicable means. So yeah I don't eat enough still hahaha. With regards to the cold cereal, AWESOME IDEA! I was actually going to talk about that in this letter. Fun coincidence right?!?!
But more about my companion I guess. He's from Alpine, Utah, but lived in Cleveland before that so he likes the Cleveland Indians. He plays baseball and post mish will probably go play at this school in Hawaii. Again, he eats a lot of food, is a way good guy and really doubts his skills with Korean, even though he's super good.
Mom, about Gangnam style that you emailed about last week, so yes I have heard about it, but there are some things about your story I need to correct. So Gangnam is an area in our mission, and is a pretty affluent area. The guy who made the video is a comedian, and he was actually making fun of Americans and American music with that video. No one in Gangnam really dances like that for the record as well hahahaha. The song is making fun of American songs like California Girls by Katy Perry, that song New York by JayZ, Beverly Hills by Weezer, and so on and so on. He figured Korea didn't have anything like that so he would make a song on his own. Turns out to be way more successful than anything else that was serious. Go figure hahahaha.
On Saturday we had our first service project, which was pretty interesting. We were moving like 5 tons of coal blocks from one place to people's houses in this kind of poor area of our area. I never recognized it before, but the way that we have service projects organized back home in hillside ward is unreal! These people were okay, but it could have gone soooooooooooo much faster if we had our leaders back home in charge of it, not to mention the youth from back home. They decided to make this stupid long assembly line to move the coal instead of just having people carry it which I guess is kinda reasonable. The problem was that in the harder uphil parts, they had the young women and young men. Now one thing to know about Koreans is that they study hard, every last one of them, but not one of them has lifted a weight in their whole life. They had to keep taking breaks so they could rest. Also when they took breaks they just had everybody stop instead of just some people at a time, which I think would have been better just so they could have work going on all the time, and said assembly line was a little crowded in the first place. Anyways, it was a good service project, but a touch of Hillside organization would have cut the time in half.
Saturday we also had this singing thing we got to do. We were singing Hark all Ye Nations for this meeting thing of what nature, I'm not sure but we sang nonetheless. Another thing about my companion, he cannot sing. I say I can't sing, but man it is hilarious to listen to him try and sing. I was singing tenor cause I can kinda do it alone, and pretty decent when there's people around me, and there wasn't too many singing it so I decided to do so. My companion was singing melody and there was this one time we practiced and as soon as he started singing everybody just started laughing pretty much. Bless his heart for trying, but it definitely was hilarious on multiple levels.
Another thing about Korea, there are a lot of cars and I don't think people change brakes very often. I seriously want to change like half the ward members brakes but I don't think anyone has tools so I'm not sure how well that would work. If I get a chance to I'll let you know, but also, I'm not sure if Hyundai's have weird brake systems or something, if so, let me know. Fun fact for you guys, Hyundai, means modern day so next time you see one bear that in mind! Also Samsung makes cars here, I'm pretty sure it's just Hyundais with different tags on them though. They have Kia and Daewoo here too, but let's be serious who takes daewoo seriously as a car manufacturer, Heaven knows that I don't.
BOSCO! That's a big bummer about Mitch Luker. I'm gonna guess that he wasn't wearing a helmet though so take that as a warning for yourself! If you ever ride a motorcycle without a helmet, I may come home from Korea just to slash said motorcycles tires. Hope everythings going well for you bud. I'm not sure when your having your surgery on your other shoulder, but let me know and I'll pray for you bud! I'm a missionary, my prayers have special powers hahahaha.
MOM, you did not buy a cello, no pics no proof. I'll believe it when I see it! Also I played guitar for the first time in Korea yesterday, I suck now hahaha. I guess I can buy a guitar and play it while I'm here though!!! How exciting is that! Really exciting for me in case you didn't know.+
Also, today we're playing football! American football! Kinda excited/kinda confused on how to feel because everyone apparently takes it way too seriously here. I mean I'm a good athlete, but there's two guys who have scholarships at BYU when they get home, and I think 2 with scholarships else where. It might get a little too serious for my preferences, but we'll see how that goes. On that note, Mom! Something that would be way amazing for you to send me would be my soccer cleats. They have cleats here but they're all way expensive so that would be sweet. I think they're in my closet on top of the lower hanger bar thing. Don't rush it, but they're pretty light so weight shouldn't be too much of a problem.
The work in this area is tough, but it is moving forward. I've heard mixed reviews about my zone actually. I've heard that everybody wants to be here but I've also heard that it's like the hardest zone in the mission, I'm kinda confused on what to think, but will work hard nonetheless. There is nothing I've ever done that is this tiring, but that's okay. I know the harder I work the more blessings I, and my family for that matter, will recieve. I'm excited for my first baptism to come, but even more excited just to get to know the people of Korea. Side note, Kimche is okay, not bad, not good, its just kinda there. I wouldn't choose to eat it but its a cultural thing so I guess I will. I know that as I continue to strive to help these people that I will see blessings from my work. I love it here, but it is getting cold. I guess I'll have to buy a coat soon hahahahaha. I love all you guys and stay safe!
클라슨 장로
From: Scott Clawson <clawson.scott@myldsmail.net>
To: clegmaker <clegmaker@aol.com>
Sent: Sun, Nov 4, 2012 6:58 pm
Subject: Herro!!
Hello everybody!
So I've deemed it appropriate to copy my letter to President and send it home to you, there's nothing too crazy, but I think it'll be helpful in answering some questions to everybody!
Hey President,
During personal study this week, Elder Hunter has printed off a bunch of talks for me that helped him out at the beginning of his missions, so I've been reading a lot of those. They really have helped just to stay motivated and focused. I'm sure you understand better than most how tough it is for new missionaries seeing that you get more every six weeks. It really is tough to stay motivated and keep from letting tiredness get the better of you, but I know its definitely doable.
We have the same investigators as before. All 3 of our investigators seem to be progressing, one more than the other two, but progressing nonetheless. Our most progressing investigator has been actively coming to church for months and we're just making sure he has all the lessons taught to him because he is going to be baptized the day that you come visit 계산 ward! The other two are doing well but haven't come to church yet. I feel they'll get there, they just need a little more time.
Training seems to be going well. Korean is coming along and everybody has been telling me that I'm good at it for some reason or another. I was able to pass off first lesson last friday. It was tough, but I'm proud of myself for passing off. My district leader has told me that because of my skill with the language, he is going to be very tough on me with pass off. Not so much in my meticulousness with the language, but in my ability to keep things simple, and teach people not lessons. I'm super grateful to him for that and am excited to continue to pass off as time goes on. Elder Hunter is awesome and works soooooo hard. He's a great trainer and I am deeply thankful that we could serve together.
Thanks so much President!
Elder Clawson.
How is everybody?!?! This week has been tough, and a lot of work. I'm going to just say what comes to mind when it does so this email is probably going to seem all over the place, but hey, that's missionary work. So, that Chakham place you talked about mom, thats whats called a 고기 부페, or meat buffet. I don't eat enough in Korea apparently. My companion, Elder Hunter, justs puts food away like it's nothing, while I just sit around and eat a little, and everybody's like "what's wrong, do you feel sick" no I just eat like somebody who is normal and doesn't eat copious amounts of food by some inexplicable means. So yeah I don't eat enough still hahaha. With regards to the cold cereal, AWESOME IDEA! I was actually going to talk about that in this letter. Fun coincidence right?!?!
But more about my companion I guess. He's from Alpine, Utah, but lived in Cleveland before that so he likes the Cleveland Indians. He plays baseball and post mish will probably go play at this school in Hawaii. Again, he eats a lot of food, is a way good guy and really doubts his skills with Korean, even though he's super good.
Mom, about Gangnam style that you emailed about last week, so yes I have heard about it, but there are some things about your story I need to correct. So Gangnam is an area in our mission, and is a pretty affluent area. The guy who made the video is a comedian, and he was actually making fun of Americans and American music with that video. No one in Gangnam really dances like that for the record as well hahahaha. The song is making fun of American songs like California Girls by Katy Perry, that song New York by JayZ, Beverly Hills by Weezer, and so on and so on. He figured Korea didn't have anything like that so he would make a song on his own. Turns out to be way more successful than anything else that was serious. Go figure hahahaha.
On Saturday we had our first service project, which was pretty interesting. We were moving like 5 tons of coal blocks from one place to people's houses in this kind of poor area of our area. I never recognized it before, but the way that we have service projects organized back home in hillside ward is unreal! These people were okay, but it could have gone soooooooooooo much faster if we had our leaders back home in charge of it, not to mention the youth from back home. They decided to make this stupid long assembly line to move the coal instead of just having people carry it which I guess is kinda reasonable. The problem was that in the harder uphil parts, they had the young women and young men. Now one thing to know about Koreans is that they study hard, every last one of them, but not one of them has lifted a weight in their whole life. They had to keep taking breaks so they could rest. Also when they took breaks they just had everybody stop instead of just some people at a time, which I think would have been better just so they could have work going on all the time, and said assembly line was a little crowded in the first place. Anyways, it was a good service project, but a touch of Hillside organization would have cut the time in half.
Saturday we also had this singing thing we got to do. We were singing Hark all Ye Nations for this meeting thing of what nature, I'm not sure but we sang nonetheless. Another thing about my companion, he cannot sing. I say I can't sing, but man it is hilarious to listen to him try and sing. I was singing tenor cause I can kinda do it alone, and pretty decent when there's people around me, and there wasn't too many singing it so I decided to do so. My companion was singing melody and there was this one time we practiced and as soon as he started singing everybody just started laughing pretty much. Bless his heart for trying, but it definitely was hilarious on multiple levels.
Another thing about Korea, there are a lot of cars and I don't think people change brakes very often. I seriously want to change like half the ward members brakes but I don't think anyone has tools so I'm not sure how well that would work. If I get a chance to I'll let you know, but also, I'm not sure if Hyundai's have weird brake systems or something, if so, let me know. Fun fact for you guys, Hyundai, means modern day so next time you see one bear that in mind! Also Samsung makes cars here, I'm pretty sure it's just Hyundais with different tags on them though. They have Kia and Daewoo here too, but let's be serious who takes daewoo seriously as a car manufacturer, Heaven knows that I don't.
BOSCO! That's a big bummer about Mitch Luker. I'm gonna guess that he wasn't wearing a helmet though so take that as a warning for yourself! If you ever ride a motorcycle without a helmet, I may come home from Korea just to slash said motorcycles tires. Hope everythings going well for you bud. I'm not sure when your having your surgery on your other shoulder, but let me know and I'll pray for you bud! I'm a missionary, my prayers have special powers hahahaha.
MOM, you did not buy a cello, no pics no proof. I'll believe it when I see it! Also I played guitar for the first time in Korea yesterday, I suck now hahaha. I guess I can buy a guitar and play it while I'm here though!!! How exciting is that! Really exciting for me in case you didn't know.+
Also, today we're playing football! American football! Kinda excited/kinda confused on how to feel because everyone apparently takes it way too seriously here. I mean I'm a good athlete, but there's two guys who have scholarships at BYU when they get home, and I think 2 with scholarships else where. It might get a little too serious for my preferences, but we'll see how that goes. On that note, Mom! Something that would be way amazing for you to send me would be my soccer cleats. They have cleats here but they're all way expensive so that would be sweet. I think they're in my closet on top of the lower hanger bar thing. Don't rush it, but they're pretty light so weight shouldn't be too much of a problem.
The work in this area is tough, but it is moving forward. I've heard mixed reviews about my zone actually. I've heard that everybody wants to be here but I've also heard that it's like the hardest zone in the mission, I'm kinda confused on what to think, but will work hard nonetheless. There is nothing I've ever done that is this tiring, but that's okay. I know the harder I work the more blessings I, and my family for that matter, will recieve. I'm excited for my first baptism to come, but even more excited just to get to know the people of Korea. Side note, Kimche is okay, not bad, not good, its just kinda there. I wouldn't choose to eat it but its a cultural thing so I guess I will. I know that as I continue to strive to help these people that I will see blessings from my work. I love it here, but it is getting cold. I guess I'll have to buy a coat soon hahahahaha. I love all you guys and stay safe!
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