Hello everybody! On-yung Ha-se-oh for the phenetic Korean folks!
So this first week has been fun and I've learned a lot already.
The first day we got here we started learning the language and it's
pretty gnarly! For Lindsay and Mom, if you guys learned Korean and we
could speak when I get back that would be way fun, however Sasha already
told me that she will make some Korean speaking friends at UCI so that I
can have some randoms to talk to a little bit as well cause everyone
knows that it's way better to talk to random people right? That's what a
mission is about right? just kidding. Back to the first day, we
basically just got oriented and stuff getting familiar with the
territory, which being here for a week I seem to know my way around a
lot better.
The food is still pretty good, occasionally they have biscuits and
gravy and thats probably the thing that I look for the most in the
cafeteria. The lessons are tough but we learned a whole lot in a hurry
when we first got here. I didn't know that my brain could hurt at that
level. When Dad said that it wouldn't be harder than hell week, he must
not have known how gnarly Korean was, but it's okay, now that we're
more into learning the gospel side of things and not learning as much
Korean really, it has become a lot easier. It's a whole lot more
enjoyable when the teachers tell you stuff you can understand (During
Korean instruction they basically don't speak any English).
I like my roommates and my companion, but there are obviously some
things that bother me about them, but that could just be because I'm
easily bothered when I'm sleepy and I'm basically always sleepy here.
6:30 to 10:30 is a tought schedule to live by but I've been adapting and
getting by. When we first had gym time, I played basketball and it was
a lot of fun, and I was a lot better than I expected to be. You shoot
to play, and I played pretty much the whole time so that can be a bit of
an indication for you I suppose.
Our classroom instruction teacher does a really good job! Her name
is sister Judd (Judd Cha-mae-neem) and she served the the Taejung
mission, which is Brother Lanier's mission so that's pretty cool! Fun
fact for ya! Turns out I'm like the only one who was not aware that the
Seoul West mission was closed so now there's just 3 missions in Korea,
but from what I gather its for no lack of success in the country. Also,
people in Seoul speak the fastest Korean of all the missions, so if Mom
and Lynz do learn Korean, I should be able to beat Lindsay in a
speaking race, because I know she will want to have one what with her
incredibly fast speech patterns.
The toughest adjustment for me has by far been the lack of guitar
in my schedule!! Needless to say that was like the only thing I used to
do, it's tough to just drop it and try and not worry about it at all,
but I still get stuff popping into my head constantly throughout the
day, so I guess I kinda brought it with me in a way. Yesterday I saw a
worker at the paper alteration desk, where they do laminations and
shrink your patriarchal blessing and stuff, with a guitar and he could
barely tune it. It kinda hurt to see, but I had to just bare with it
and keep going throughout the day. Fun fact number 2! Turns out I
didn't need my temple clothes after all, so eventually, I'll probably be
sending that back to you guys.
As far as things I would like to be sent up this way, I'd like some
more gym shorts if that's at all possible. I did in fact get the
package that you guys sent me and thanks so much for everything that was
in it! Also, it would be pretty sweet if you could send up a pair of
my vans just to kind of chill and hang out in for P-days, as well as for
the service portion of things during the week. I see a lot of other
people wearing just kinda normal shoes, and It'd be nice to have a touch
of home to wear when I can. Also my companion ended up getting only
slip on shoes, and I'm soooooooooo glad that I didn't get any, because
I've never heard somebody talk about their arches hurting as much!
doesn't really bother me that he does, in fact it's kind of fulfilling
in that I didn't make that mistake and decided to get laced shoes! It
doesn't help him though that his feet are flatter than just about anyone
I've ever seen. Mine pale in comparison to his, it's kinda gnarly.
Also some people find my vocabulary to be interesting what with the
rads, and gnarlies, and neat too. Neat I guess comes off really
strange to a lot of folks but whatever, it's so fun to say right?!?!
Well I'm running out of time, and I'm sure there's a bunch more I'd like
to say but alas i only have like 30 minutes. That in mind, parentals,
it'd be helpful if you used the dear elder service to send me letters
before tuesday so I can know what to right about come P-day! I'm liking
it more and more here everyday, and am really growing a lot, especially
in my testimony. Hasn't been too many spiritual experiences what with
the Korean overload but, they will come I promise you. I love all you
guys that read this but I'm gonna name a specific few! mom, dad, lynz,
nate, bosco kevin, and sasha
love,
Elder Clawson
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