These people were in Scott's district from the MTC, back in Provo last August.

 

District meeting in the basement and Scott's companion from the MTC.  Fabulous smiles, right?  =)

 

Scott is now documenting all the clubs he encounters that are named after bands that he knows and likes.  The Doors?  Really? 

 

--Original Message-----
From: Scott Clawson <clawson.scott@myldsmail.net>
To: clegmaker <clegmaker@aol.com>
Sent: Sun, May 26, 2013 04:55 PM
Subject: I'm really sleepy and did not even get to fly...

Hey President!
I hope you've had a good week, and it was great to attend the temple with you.
This past week has an interesting place with me because I can't really pick out why it was a good one, but I feel fulfilled nonetheless. Study has been pretty great. I've made it a goal to make it through the whole standard works on my mission. I'm not sure how that will go with the old testament, but I think it's a good goal. I have come to notice that the Bible, specifically the old testament, just seems to have so many spots where it is obvious that it is devoid of the truths that have been taken out as a result of translation and adjustment by those who were in possession of it at the time. Makes you appreciate the Book of Mormon a whole lot more.
Elder Mumford is doing great as always. He decided this week that he wanted to step up for pass off a little more. His words were that he wants to be in a position to do whatever you need him to do, and not let pass off be in the way. Far be it from me to stand in his way. I'm really excited he made this decision since he has such a golden opportunity to pass off what with his living situation, being in the same house as the Zone Leaders, and the District leader. Very convenient in my opinion haha.
We got to meet with an interesting investigator this week, and he always has such in depth questions. It's about the image of God and why would we look like him if we kind of look like monkeys. I don't know exactly what the concern is there, it doesn't seem important to me, but it certainly does to him, so we just do our best to help him out. He has a great deal of genuine hope and desire so we think it's good to answer his questions at this point.
An increible thing that I got to see this week happened over the course of two days. On Saturday, we were in exchanges and Elder Cho and myself met a man and invited him to church. He actually came to church the next day after a 15 minute conversation. Prior he didn't even really have church interest, but he obviously felt something. It was great to see that.
Have a great week and I think I will see you Thursday at the conference.
Elder Clawson
Hi everybody!!!
I'm not really entirely sure where to start this week, I'm kinda at a loss of memory at the moment, so I apologize for that.  I usually remember things, but not today.  Oh well, that'll be just fine, I guess I'll just start with what I did this morning, okay? cool. party.  So today we woke up early and went on this hike with an investigator that the zone leaders have been teaching (we live in the same house as the zone leaders).  They call it climbing a mountain, but I would more accurately describe them as hills.  Nothing too crazy about them.  Just some hiking trails, and apparently people like to meditate on the mountains, but it rained so we didn't.  If that opportunity did present itself, I was going to make an effort to fly.  Not like jump off of things, but I was just going to sit there, and focus really hard on flying for a while.  I know if it was possibly requisite, it could have happened.  It could have happened...  But alas we did not meditate so the opportunity did not present itself.  Maybe another day.
So like I said in my section to president, there was that crazy miracle we saw where this dude that me and one of the zone leaders met on friday, and talked with for just a little bit, showed up at church the next day, and accepted a baptismal date.  Super awesome to see that happen!  Also the guy said when we met him first that he didn't really want to have a church yet.  He believed there was a God, but didn't really care yet.  Apparently something helped him change and he is willing to consider baptism now.  If any of you readers happen to be missionaries in South America, or Mexico, or other places where people get baptized ridiculously often, or the family of said missionaries, I submit to you that those sort of situations don't really come along very often here in Korea.  The fact that this one did is pretty crazy in my opinion, so it is a miracle!!!!!  Well it's a miracle everywhere, it's just more recognizable when these things are few and far between like they are here.
Another fun experience this week came with regards to that other investigator that I addressed in my email to president.  He called us on saturday night (i was on exchanges so by us I mean my companion) and said he wanted to meet on Sunday, but would call us before.  He was very intoxicated at the time so we were taking this with a grain of salt.  BUT! he did end up calling yesterday, and decided that we needed to buy him dinner.  since it was sunday we decided that was not okay, and offered to cook him dinner.  He accepted, and myself being the fantastic cook that I am, made him dinner.  Everything I make is spicy.  Bet you didn't see that one coming.  The only thing that I ate in America that was not spicy was like In'n'out, and pancakes, but I always ate pancakes with eggs or something that was spicy.  I made one of the zone leaders faces sweat like crazy cause it was so spicy.  My companion made the comparison that my cooking is like fire on fire.  I like it though!  And I toned it down for the investigator so his face wouldn't fall off.
Anyways, that lesson was a fun one.  He asks really interesting questions.  The monkey thing was obviously one, and then the other one he asked was how could Christ's atonement be infinite if it was in the past?  How could it cover sins that have not already occurred?  It's really tough sometimes because he looks at things from such a logical perspective, and it gets in the way of his understanding.  I usually do too, but I fell like my testimony of Christ and his Atonement have never really been a problem.  There have been other things that bothered me, but I feel like that has always kind of just been an understood fact.  Not something that we have to learn, so I guess that is a great blessing that I have.
This week at district meeting we had this really fun experience.  The carpets were being cleaned at the church, so we weren't going to be able to have district meeting at the pre-determined location until I, the all-wise and all-knowing district leader (can you taste the narcissism?) proposed that we hold it in the basement!  There was no carpet there, yet there still was a classroom.  It was a warm day on wednesday so that facilitated a wonderful cool environment for a wonderful district meeting.  It was a good experience.
It's starting to get pretty toasty over here.  It's raining today, but that just makes it unpleasant enough to need an umbrella.  I don't think I ever used an umbrella in America, but they are a common place thing here in Korea.  Probably has something to do with the acid rain that we get to experience in all its glory.  If you don't use one people start giving you funny looks.  It's kind of entertaining minus the fact that it solicits balding.  The rain I mean, not the stares from other people.
Here's some fun Korean!
비 (bi)   and   피  (pi)   These are both more accurately pronounced with a long "e" sound than an "i" but that's how it's romanized.  Also they are pronounced super similarly.  Ask your Korean friends to say them and see if you can tell the difference.
The first means rain, and the second means blood.  Kinda fun how things are always like that in Korean.
Sorry this weeks email isn't super fun, but having arisen early in the morning I'm kind of tired, and my memory isn't super great right now for some reason or another.  If you want to get a personal email, go ahead and email me.  Keep things withing the realm of reason though please!  ^^
Love you all!
클라슨 장로

We really DON"T know why he thought this bus was funny, but he did.  =)


Elder Mumford in the, yes the bathroom, and the living area of their apartment.

Elder Mumford in front of Scott's closet


Hmmmm...  Wonder why Scott took this picture.  Scott made a rule a few years before he left that you NEVER turned down a Led Zeppelin song if he was in the car when it was on.  If one comes on, we still don't turn it down, just for you Scott.  Love you. 

Does the peace sign mean something different in Korea?  Elder Mumford is Scott's companion,
 he is right next to him, glasses and a pink tie. 

 -----Original Message-----
From: Scott Clawson <clawson.scott@myldsmail.net>
To: clegmaker <clegmaker@aol.com>
Sent: Sun, May 19, 2013 01:28 PM
Subject: Bet you didn't get a v-neck tan line on your mission!

Hey President!
I'm excited for temple day tomorrow! Also thank you for what you asked the zone leaders to train on this week. I believe it to be very necessary. I am certainly not without flaw in that regard so I'm personally grateful for the reinforcement about getting people out to church.
This week has been much better than last. We haven't found a lot of people that we have declared as investigators yet, but we have found many more whom I would declare as having more potential than those found previously.
Whilst on exchanges this week, Elder Mumford and Elder Newton met with an investigator that we've been having difficulty getting through to, and he finally committed to come to church. Everytime that I have been present at lessons, he has made little to no progress in the lessons, and doesn't understand things. I think part of this stems from what I would call a somewhat irrational (almost romantic) affection that this man has for me. I bring this up because I'm not sure whether it is reasonable or not, to maybe let the other Elders in 안양 teach him to maybe help him more, and also I don't know if his affinity towards me is something to worry about. I am 100% serious about his affection though. I don't understand it, and I would greatly appreciate some input. Obviously it's fine to have a good relationship with investigators, but I don't know if this falls under that category.
Elder Mumford is doing good as ever, and is starting to recognize some of the knowledge I have acquired whilst here in the country a little longer than he has been. I'm not entirely sure in what regard I'm still training him. I'm not even sure if he learns from me anymore, but he says he does, so I guess something is helping him out.
Study has been good, I've been going through the standard works, and I realized how irrational some of the things in the Old Testament seem at times. I don't need to go into detail, but sometimes it seems like things just don't quite add up with what happens. I hope that's just part of the plain and simple truths that were lost in translation.
Have a great week, and I apologize for the lengthiness of the email.
-Elder Clawson
Hey Everybody!!!
How was this week?  My parents are in Hawai'i which means they are slightly closer to me than before, not too much but still a little bit closer.  Don't tell them but I still don't feel like they're much closer.  Just saying...  So I haven't been talking as much in a biblical voice this week, but I have been working on my impersonations of the Finding Faith in Christ video in Korean.  It's pretty fun.  Try immitating voices in your second language.  Totally different ball game than in your native tongue.
So as you could tell from my large email, there was some progress made with out me in the area for once hahah.  Good thing I'm probably being transferred at the end of this one.  If only President read these emails, I would totally give it a wink wink sort of thing, but I think that could actually be counterproductive.  It's not that I don't like this area, I just don't really like staying put very much.  That and mosquitoes... oh the mosquitoes.  I guess it's what you get for living next to a river...
There was a lot of things that happened this week.  I guess a fun one to start it off would be an explanation of the subject line.  So on Friday there was this big stake activity that was kinda like a field day in elementary school.  Lots of big activities and such.  We were authorized to wear normal clothes, and being that the balance of the shirts I possess are v-necks, I wore a v-neck.  I suppose that tan-line may be a stretch, but because of the collars of my normal shirts, my neck is really pale.  It got cooked to a nice glazed red, and else remained in the shape of a v on my neck.  Not everyone can brag that sort of acquisition on their mission!  All injuries aside, it was a very fun event, and me and my companion helped save the big relay race for the championship at the end of the event.  We were behind, but me and him made up the balance of the difference.  That and a guy on the other team falling certainly didn't hurt.  Well it probably hurt him, but you follow my meaning...
We finally got an investigator to church again this week!  If he falls off the face of the earth like everyone else, I will know that church is obviously what is driving our investigators away, erego, they must not attend church right?  No, do not speak such words, for it is blasphemy, and he that speaketh it must thereby draw his heart far from the purpose of the gathering of the children of Israel.  Wow, that just kinda exploded out of my fingers.  It would appear that church attendence is not actually what drives people away, they just weren't ready.  whew, that was a close one.  I almost got beat up by the biblically speaking alter ego of myself.  I'm not crazy... mostly
But really this guy that came to church is super awesome.  He speaks English super well even though he's never visited an English-speaking country, yet still somehow has an English accent.  fun.  He read a bunch of stuff on the internet and just from reading on mormon.org decided that he wanted to quit smoking and drinking more.  He had already beentrying to quit smoking, but it has given him more motivation, and he just wants to be a good person.  super awesome guy.  Also he texts like most people do in English, saying LOL and stuff.  Super awesome guy though, do not forget that!
I suppose since I can't think of anything else right now, I could try and teach some Korean real quick.
보고싶어요 (bo-go-ship-eo-yo)  This is how you say I miss you in Korean!  How fun is that?  It literally means I want to see you, so its a good one to know.  especially when you want to say it to me!!!
Keep working hard in whatever you do everybody!  Not working or progressing in some regard is really boring.  I can promise you that!  Especially with missionary work.  Sitting around is wayyyyyy more lame than getting shut down 100 times a day on the street.  Apply that however you may to your lives, but I know it's far better to grow from mistakes than to sit and regress for fear of failing.  Have fun and stay awesome!  Better yet, get more awesome!!!!
-클라슨 장로
NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Photos!

Much better- smiling, happy, not-suffocating people =)

We assume this is the Seoul temple. The lumpy grass in front reminds me of Dr Suess.

And here is the aforementioned baby lion. So dang cute.

Which Prog Rock band do you think is the three nephites?

So, Mom & I decided that we are quite certain that Rush is not the 3 Nephites simply because if they were they would have music that we like. Currently they do not. Also Scott sent a couple pictures that I will post soon AND I will post a picture of the baby lion that Tony & I got to hold. We know there is a slight animal rights issue to it, but.... He was cute. That's all. 



Hey President!
So this week has been fun, I am a little sad that Elder Witt is no longer with us over here in 안양, but I know he'll do great things in his new position of leadership. He's an incredible missionary, and I'm sure you know that.
Anyways, this week with regard to training, there's been some fun experiences. Elder Mumford has been, well for lack of a better word somewhat doubting with regards to some of the advice that I give him, so he tests it out, and then I end up right, so he's learning to trust in the experience of others this week hahaha. In all honesty I still don't know if there's anything that I teach him at this point, it's either Korean, or I'm not picking up on it. He's awesome and will do incredible things for Korea.
We have lost contact with a bunch of our investigators, but they've been being replaced sort of by other people. We have this one lady who is from China, so her background with religion is so barren. It really is such an interesting and different experience to teach her, one that I am really grateful for.
For study this week, I've been working for investigators, but the break from preparing for a training has been very nice as well. Just reading the Book of Mormon is so great. There's always so much to learn.
I'm having a little trouble thinking of a specific miracle right now to tell the truth, but I know they are there. There are always things to see, and I'm certainly grateful for them, they just maybe somewhat hard to notice at some points. I think it's really great recently how we've been able to work as a threesome these past couple days and just see the power there. It's so great to have Elder Woodford to help out.
Thanks for everything and a great transfer!
-Elder Clawson
Hello Everybody!!!
I don't know if anyone was aware, but it is transfers week again!  Crazy!!!!!  I'm only going into my 6th transfer in the field, which is crazy because I still feel new, but based on the amount of missionaries that are coming in and such, I am actually in the older half of missionaries in the field right now!  That's crazy!  I'm not even half way done or really even very close but I'm among the older both real age wise and mission age wise.  It's crazy how fast, yet slow mission time goes by.  The time right before transfer calls, namely the Friday before and the Saturday of, are like 50 days long!!!! It's awful, and then the rest of the time goes by crazy fast.
So with transfers, there is lots of news right?  Well not really, and yes at the same time.  FIrst off, there is nothing changing in my companionship at all, but the Zone Leaders had a change.  One of the Elders will be spending another transfer here, brining his total here in this area up to 8 transfers, and the other one is the new AP!  So crazy!!  And saddening because he was super fun and we are definitely going to miss him.  Legitimately one of my favorite missionaries in the mission, and I only got to spend one transfer with him.  That being said, they pick up the APs before transfer day, so now me and the Zone Leader that's staying, and my trainee are in a threesome.  It's crazy, there are lots of advantages as well as disadvantages about a threesome.
Total tangent time, but with regards to threesomes, let's talk about the three nephites for a moment.  My companion Elder Mumford is convinced that the band Rush is actually composed of the three Nephites.  I'm not entirely convinced yet, but he's pretty adamate.  There's no irrefutable evidence, but their music is pretty good, so maybe.  Maybe not.  I'm leaning towards the latter to be totally honest, but hey, you never can be too sure.  I'd imagine the three nephites would have more significant things to minister too as well as to write songs about were it the case.
So I get another transfer of being district leader and training over here in Korea.  District Leader isn't that bad becuase we get to organize lots of activities to help out areas, but the trainings are a little stressful.  I gave 4 in the past transfer in a row.  Legitimately the most possible amount you could potentially give in a transfer based on the way things go.  I get a two week break from that though, so that's a blessing.  Our district is going to be so young it's crazy!  Everyone that will be in it at this point is now less than a year in the mission, except one Elder.  So crazy!
I feel like I don't have a whole lot to share this week.  We're going to play soccer in an area that is part of the zone where all of my previous companions were serving.  My MTC companion is going to be an office elder, who similar to the aps get taken to their new areas a little earlier than everyone else.  We usually don't do things that are that athletic on pdays here, just kinda clean, go shopping, and whatever else is necessary for the time being.  Last week we got a bunch of ties.  I got like 10 for 30 bucks!  It was awesome!!!!!
Oh yeah, for those of you who think you're cool, my sister went on a cruise last week, and wait for it.... held a baby lion!!!!!  How legit is that?!?!  Not to mention that she and her awesome husband (my brother in law) got second place in the doubles ping pong tournament.  Tony also got first in the singles tournament, so in case you thought that you were cooler than my sister and her husband, sorry the only people who can say that are Jesus, prophets (and other servents of that echelon), Heavenly Father, and my parents.  I know, it's hard to be related to such awesome people, but we do our best to measure up.
I'm sorry I don't have much to share about the work this week.  There was a lot of contacting done this week, and a lot of investigators falling away from us.  Kind of sad, but it leaves room for others who can have more potential to progress.
I also apologize for the length of this email, but we are a little short on time.  I look forward to talking to you guys every week, and I hope next week I can do a little better job.  This week has been great, but there's always room for improvement!  Make sure to leave room for the spirit to be a part of your lives!
클라슨 장로
반갑습니다! ^^  (that means I am joyful sort of like pleased to meet you)
ban-gap-sum-ni-da

You know those times when you say "this couldn't get any worse" and then it starts raining?

Hey President!!!!
This week has been incredible! So many cool miracles to have seen!
In study this week, I continued to work on my trainings, as well as my investigators. One thing that was really cool, was when I was preparing my training about the things that water typically does in the scriptures, all of them appeared in a literal fulfillment one morning! It was really interesting because our water got shut off for a day, and then it was raining outside at the same time! Really interesting story to tell the truth haha.
One of our investigators is really interesting. He's about 50 and he is divorced, has lots of gospel interest, but has some things that I would call misunderstandings. He has a real problem with stopping drinking or smoking, because he thinks that he will just get punished for it a little, and then be totally fine at judgement day. It's been something we're striving for to try and convince him otherwise so to speak.
Training has been really good this week. I still think Elder Mumford came to train me after all, but there's still somethings I can help him with. He's teaching skills especially have been taking strides this week. Whenever he leads lessons, the spirit is so present. The Korean may not be perfect, but then neither is mine so it doesn't matter.
This crazy miracle we saw last night happened when we came home from visiting a member, and they had given us some food, so we went to drop it off at the house. It was about 8:20, and we weren't sure if we were to go out and 전도 or just make some calls. We prayed about it and Elder Mumford felt impressed to go to a near by subway station, and we found this awesome guy there! Totally out of the way, and not very efficient based on statistics, but this young man was open to us, and needs the gospel. A truly amazing miracle!
Have a great week president!!
-Elder Clawson 

Hello Everybody!!!!!
This week has been super fun, and kinda eventful!  Well let's be real, everything is eventful in missionary work, provided that you're actually making an effort to make things happen!  Regardless it was fun!  That's so cool about the bike ride!  I miss that thing, it was so fun!  I'm sure it was still lots of fun.  I will not let it be forgotten that the last time I participated in it, I was the first one done, amongst Craig, Brother Evans, and all the other athletes that our ward possesses!  Granted, Brother Evans had to go find a lost cyclist, Craig got a crazy cramp, and was lying down like a turtle on the side of the trail, and who knows why everyone else didn't finish before me, but it was way fun all the same!  I do recall wearing really short running shorts and a tie-dye tank top though.  That was super fun!  I miss those days every now and then...
Again, back to this week.  So remember that one time I talked about how I saw a Mom changing her childs diaper, in the middle of a food court area?  Well someone felt it necessary to one up her, and it totally happened in Church yesterday!  I was sitting in Sacrament meeting, and then all the sudden I look back behind me and there's a whole lot of baby leg barren to the world!  T'was a little creepy to say the least, but it made for a good story!  Oh yeah, not to mention the fact that we had an investigator at church for the first time, but I don't think he noticed so that's alright.
I think I talked about him last week, but we still have the investigator who I think has somewhat of a love interest with me.  This is a he by the way.  If it was a woman, I would just drop it or refer her to someone else, but I don't think that's in the cards when a situation like this occurs.  So yeah, that's a thing, still have the investigator who has a man crush on me.  Fun stuff.
Other interesting news, so there's this kid that we have as an investigator, and he comes to English class, but he never pays attention at all.  This week he was playing games on his phone, and he this one game called Stop Kim.  It had the north Korea dude, and he had a missile he was going to shoot.  You have to disarm the missile before he fires it.  Every now and then Dennis Rodman would come in and distract the Kim guy for a while when you were disarming.  Kinda ridiculous that this sort of thing is being comercialized, but hey, why not?
This week, I think I prepared the coolest training/talk I will have ever prepared.  It was super fun to prepare, though I felt bad giving it, because one, i was a lot like a talk, and two it was super hard to translate for the Koreans in my district.  It's what I talked about in the Email to president.  I called it the Trichotemy of Water, and it was about how water in the Bible, refers to 3 things.  Cleansing, quenching, and destruction.  It was really interesting to relate to missionary work.  Especially since I came up with it on a day, where we had no water to our house to clean ourselves (or the dishes for that matter) with, or to drink.  Ridiculous, and to top it all off, it was raining outside.  So absurd...
Oh yeah, other thing, there's this guy in my ward right now, he's the first counselor in the Bishopric, and I'm mostly sure he served in the DaeJeon mission at the same time as Brother Lanier.  Someone hit me up so we can figure this out!!!!
We finally get to go to the temple tomorrow so I'm super excited!  It's been 3 months or so, so I'm pumped right now.  I don't know what I will do if I end up in the south mission and we can't go to the temple every transfer!  I might have to fight somebody!  But really though...
I love you all and have a great week!
클라슨 장로