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
No comments:
Post a Comment