I was chastised by Scott for not being completely up to date with his blog.  So sorry sir!  We did have a big fat wedding recently!  So here are his last two letters and a handful of pictures too.  I love this boy and I really am sorry that Lindsay's wedding was a slight distraction to a 100% current blog.  I will not let that happen again...

From: Scott Clawson <clawson.scott@myldsmail.net>
Date: January 6, 2013 7:08:05 PM PST
To: clegmaker@aol.com
Subject: Katchow, and I've been a missionary for 5 month

Clawson, Scott

Hey President!
This week for studies I've been focusing on investigators a whole lot more, and reading PMG. I was reading PMG a bunch to try and see if anything stuck out for finding, and some other things that I think that I can improve upon, but mostly in finding. I keep reading Jesus the Christ little by little, it's a really great book and it's cool to learn a lot more abuot the savior's earthly ministry.
Learning about the Savior's earthly ministry is especially helpful right now with regards to one of our investigators. She has virtually no church background whatsoever, so we're teaching her from very baseline beginnings. She is a really genuinely interested, but has some problems with drinking. She came to church yesterday, smelling like alcohol, and truth be told you could see her progression from a little drunk to hungover. I think if she can follow the Word of Wisdom, everything after will be much more simple. I think the fact that she came at all was a great miracle.
Training is awesome, and I'm a little sad that it's almost over. I have really enjoyed this time with Elder Hunter in 계산 ward. Everything here is awesome, even though the work is a little hard.
I do have a question with regards to street lessons. We have been told to count any interaction where you get a return appointment as a street lesson, regardless of whether or not, by the definition of the word lesson, it had been a lesson. I've seen other missionaries that count that as a street lesson, and I was just a little confused over what the actual definition of a street lesson is. I figured you are the best person that there is to ask so if you could get back to me about that, I'd really appreciate it!

Have a great week!

Elder Clawson

Woohoo!!!

I'm almost not considered a greenie anymore!! How neat is that? So transfers are on the 15th of January, so I'll definitely be able to get that shirt to Elder Hunter just fine! You guys are the best with this package thing, I feel so spoiled, and so lame that I haven't found anything worthy of seding you guys yet... aside from the blessings of having a missionary from your home serving in the missionary field! But really I want to try and find some fun things to send home in the not too distant future. I am going to the place to buy suits and such tomorrow, so ideally I can find something for everyone. If anyone has requests for something they think I can find in the future, I'd appreciate it.

Well at any rate this week has been pretty fun. So one investigator that we had been teaching that we gave to the sister missionaries in our district no has a baptismal date. She will end up attending our ward which is awesome! She's this really sweet old lady that initially just wanted to learn english but has made so much progress since we met her. The biggest struggle for her was just getting her to come out to church. When it comes to Koreans, they consider the smallest headache to be super sick. They kinda overeact to a lot of things like that, but since she's like 85, I don't thinks it's that much of a problem haha. The fact that she's been coming out is awesome though. It's super awesome to see the progress that comes forth even if I don't get the number to put in my planner. It's kind of sad but there are missionaries who think that way. I think that if that were the case, it would be a lot harder to accept the fact of going to a place like Korea versus anywhere in africa or south america. Did you guys know that Africa has the highest baptizing rate relative to the amount of missionaries there by a huge margin? It's super cool to hear about things like that in my opinion.

The investigator that I talked about in my letter to president is super awesome too. She is this really nice lady and, wants to find truth in a religion, she just doesn't know where to go. We hope that since we were the first to kind of catch her in that mind set, she'll be willing to see the lessons all the way through.

This other investigator that we have right now is so awesome. I know we aren't supposed to play favorites, but it's hard not to. In Korea there's whats called 정 (jeong) and it's when you have a good relationship with someone and its basically just that you become really good friends. So we've known her and her family for about 2 months because her younger sister is someone that we reactivated. The investigator had studied theology in college and that was her major, but she didn't follow that path for some reason or another. Instead she owns this clothing shop that I guess is decently successful. We had been trying to get the opportunity to teach her a lesson for like a month, and she was kind of avoiding it. On Thursday we went over with the intention of teaching her, but she kinda weasled her way out of it. We told her right as she was leaving that we were coming back the next day to teach her. At first she didn't think we were serious but we did it!!! When we came back friday we taught her kinda briefly the first and second lessons. She really likes it and has a lot of similar beliefs! It's so awesome, but the only problem is that she too, loves alcohol. Her and her husband drink a lot, but we think if we could teach her husband too, that he might follow what we're teaching in the lessons just about as well as she could. Fortunately we have a really good relationship with both of them so they value what we say and such. They're awesome, but it's hard to see where to direct our efforts sometimes with regard to what we should teach next.

I don't have a whole bunch of time, but I'll try and do some real quick Korean time, but I'm kind of in a slump of what to think of, so I guess I'll tell you how to say something that's really valuable for when you try and visit Korea!

화장실 (hwa-jang-shil) BATHROOM!

Don't tell me there's anything more valuable to know than how to find a bathroom, it could be very problematic if someone were to lose that battle with the Korean language I'd say hahaha.

I want to share an experience i had this week real quickly too. So we met with our ward mission leader, who we already though was this awesome guy, but our thought in that was reinforced this week. So he actually served in the area that we are in right now. I know I said that numbers shouldn't be the way to measure a mission, but it can still be a good indicator, especially within a mission, and knowing how it goes in the area. He had crazy stats, baptized a bunch of people, but what's even crazier is that from his explanation, all his converts were actually converted. It's especially hard to do that when you're a Korean missionary serving in Korea. Because of culture, it can be incredibly difficult to follow the instructions of the prophets, and Open Your mouth, to spread the gospel. The standard the mission has set for us is to get 140 contacts a week, but it changes based on your area. He had gotten 500 contacts a week, 20 lessons, and didn't go a month without a baptism. I think just the diligence that this shows, especially with a native Korean missionary is unreal. I've met his family and I think one of the blessings of his diligent service is how awesome his family is. I want those blessings for myself, so I will continue to work hard!

I love you all!!!!

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December 30, 2012
Subject: boom da boom boom, and a happy new year

Hey President!
It was great to be able to talk to you on friday! For that reason, on some level I feel like I have nothing to report to you haha. Anyways everything is still going pretty good, normal missionary trials are still present obviously but nothing huge. For study I have been going over my notes journal from the MTC that has my study and my notes from a bunch of the devotionals. It's amazing how I seem to remember a lot of these talks, with regards to the words that were said, but not the spirit that spoke. I really am glad that I was able to write those down when I recieved that inspiration.
We have one investigator in particular that is pretty great. She seemed like she has no needs whatsoever, which kind of scared us, she was just perfect and kept commitments, but now we found out that she drinks some, so that kind of made us feel better about her. Unfortunately that drinking did result in her missing an appointment, but she's really interested in the gospel, so I don't think we'll have to worry about it being a consistent problem.
Training is going great still, almost over though. I'm kind of glad it's almost over, yet sad because that's the only time I'll be a new missionary and still be a trainee. Elder Hunter does a great job despite what he thinks, and I think he'd be great to train again in the future, provided the Lord also wishes it to be that way.
I think a huge miracle I saw this week is just the spirit that all the missionaries brought to the Christmas conference. I don't know really how to explain it or if it even really needs more explanation, but it was great and I really enjoyed it!

Have a great week President!

Elder Clawson


Hey everybody!!!
This week has been pretty great, even though it has also been kinda abridged. Truth be told I don't know why I'm saying it's been great, cause it was incredibly hard, and there were lot's of trials therein, but I still feel like I should say that it was a great week.
First thing it snowed again, on one of the days that we were counting on to be a big contacting day, so we didn't get to talk to as many folks as we had initially intended, but it was still a pretty good day, all things considered. We were handing out flyers for our english clas, and I bet you can understand that the last flyer you give out is always way awkward. When you have a bunch left people are really inclined to take it, but when you just stand there with one flyer, people get creeped out hahaha. The fact that I gave out all my flyers was super cool though, the last one I kinda had to pawn off on this maybe 4 year old kid, but his mom seemed like she had some interest so it's all good. The last time that I was handing out flyers before this time, this guy came up to me and says that I am a bad person and almost everyone around hates me. Fortunately I didn't understand him because he was trying to say it in English, which didn't make sense, and then when he spoke Korean, he was missing so many teeth, that it was impossible to understand a single word he said. Fortunately that didn't happen this past time, so I think that was a blessing haha.
We also started using our latest idea of conatacting which is ping pong contacting! That was legitimately pretty fun, even though I was by far the worst player there. It's really interesting because the level of play when it comes to ping pong in Korea is just so much different. Granted it has never really been one of my strengths, but nonetheless its crazy! Anyways, we did a test run a couple weeks ago, and we made some friends, so this time, we kinda already had an in so that we could meet new people. we don't get a lot of contacts, but we get some, and those we do talk to, we build a better relationship than those that we would just get raw stats from on the streets.
Oh yeah, we had President interviews on Friday too! That was super awesome, President is such a cool guy. It was really funny because there were two elders, one that was with my companion at the MTC and his greenie, who is a transfer younger than me. They both say "for days" a lot, and it bugs my companion sooooo much. They for a pretty good while were doing it just to bug Elder Hunter, and then President came in, and by some way or another, he figured it out, and said "for days" in the same context and it was super funny. If you have any questions on how "for days" works, you'd be better off asking someone who knows how, than me because it's hard to explain via email. Anyways, aside from people making fun of my companion, it was pretty great just as a spiritual experience too. While President is super funny, and just a great guy to be around, he's a super caring, and spiritual guy too. I guess that goes without saying, considering that he is a mission President, but I feel like my mission president is the best one!
As far as packages go, you're doing awesome mom! Everything is great, in the future I would like to request peanut butter though. Peanut butter is awesome, and as far as cereal goes, I think just send cinnamon toast crunch. It's the best cereal, and it's still my favorite, even since I was like 5. It's amazing how that works haha
That's cool that you got a new car mom! I'm sorry the other one had to go, I know just as well as you do that it was a super awesome car, but hopefully this new one will be just as good as the last! Also holy cow about that picture of you guys! You guys all look so great, especially Lindsay! She looked so awesome! Nate's hair is wicked gnarly long too, but that's beside the point, Lindsay was just an awesome looking bride! I'm so glad everything came together so well! Also that tie you guys sent is super cool! I really like it, maybe I can send home some ties from here too, there's this place that literally has tens of thousands of ties. It's absurd.
Also, it is absurd how I am never around or able to remember when there is snow in Rancho. Lucky you guys that its not acid snow!! I guess it's fun to have that experience under my belt though. How many of you can say that you were proselyting in snow that can make you go bald!? Not sure how braggable that is to tell the truth though...
Oh, so I have a fun fact for the day too! Did you know that the English QWERTY keyboard setup is the slowest possible setup that the keyboard could be in? They had to make it as slow as possible because originally people writing on typewriters were going so fast that it just constantly caused the typewriters to jam. That being said, I'm kind of upset because I feel like I would be able to share more information with you guys if it weren't for the dang QWERTY keyboard...
Oh well, it's not that big of a deal.

So for Korean time, this week is kind of inspired by another Elder. At Christmas Conference, he was asked to share some remarks, and he said the word "right?" like 40 times, and therein lies my inspiration
-죠 ( jyo ) -- right
So this goes at the end of a verb when conjugating and is used contextually in a sentence like "You've eaten lunch, right?" or "Your birthday is next week, right?" So that has kinda become a joke amongst our district now. We just end every sentence in korean with that when we speak to each other, and then sometimes just say 죠. It's pretty fun haha.
I'm not entirely sure what else to share, just that its still tough, but I still love it here. It becomes really evident, that you are where you belong as far as being a missionary goes. One, I'm in the only mission in the world where you can go swimming, granted the pools are only like 3 feet deep and its not really swimming, but your still in a pool. Also everyone here is super nice, half the population plays guitar, they all talk really really fast which works really well for me, and is hard at the same time. I look like Edward so that gives me an edge on other people for building relationships haha. I swear there isn't a place that would be better for me to go in this world. It really becomes evident how perfect the mission is for each missionary. On that note there's a saying that's really cool/funny that says that if the church wasn't true, the missionaries certainly would have destroyed it by now. It's so awesome being able to see the work progress and help others progress towards greater happiness.

I love you all and keep Korea in your prayers!

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