What the 6 months?!?!?!?!

I don't know how many of you know Scott really really really well, but those of you who do are not at all surprised that he both wants to be in charge & also would be amused by someone punting a pigeon. We are pleased that the latter has not yet happened and that he wants to be in charge so that the appropriate focus can be put on work. Still so proud of and amused by him.

Hey President!
This week has been really great, what with the conference and just being another week. I'm sorry that we had to leave a bit early from conference, we had an appointment that we wern't sure if we could make it if we stayed much longer.
For study this week, I did a lot out of Alma, which was great! I don't think I had really delved as deep into Alma as possible, and had missed a lot of great scriptures. One thing that was great was Alma 5. I had never really read that as something to learn from before. Just a really really long chapter, but it is so awesome! I'm not super great at remembering exactly what things are about in the scriptures, but I do remember there was a lot of insight from the scriptures there.
That appointment we had wasw the investigator who we met last week. He's super nice, and such a genuine guy. I think he really has a lot of interest but isn't quite sure of it himself yet. That, and I heard that some of my investigators from 계산 are doing well at conference, so I think this has been a great week in that regard.
One miracle that we saw this week came in the form of a man we called, and then we met like 20 minutes later.  I'm not exactly sure how much gospel interest this man has, but I have come to notice that meeting anybody is really a miracle here.  Missionary work is tough, there's always a constant reminder of that fact it seems.
Thanks for being awesome President!
-Elder Clawson
Hello everybody!!!
What the heck?  How have I already been gone for six months?  It makes no sense to me.  Granted, I am still a baby in the mission field, and really as a missionary in general, but that's so stinking fast.  I came to the conclusion this week that I want to train next transfer though.  Ideally a Korean missionary, not someone from America or something.  I've noticed that people who end up training foreigners early end up having somewhat awkward Korean and my companion has reaffirmed that to me.  I also finished pass-off things, I don't know if I said that before, but it means that I'm supposedly ready to be senior companion or really is just an indicator that I want to be senior and such.  I really do.  It's nice being junior, not having to worry about everything, but there's some things that seem so nice, like being in charge, especially with a new missionary.  You probably pretty much do what you want, and it's entirely up to you on whether or not you want to work hard.  That being said, sometimes in this area with my companion and such, it would seem that he doesn't really have the same desire to work as hard as I do.  It's kind of understandable what with him having some health issues, on top of other problems, so I guess I can't pass any blame on to him since I don't full understand his circumstance.  All I can do is love him!!!
This week we had a conference for what in Korean is called 설날.  Literally it means "new day" I believe, and is pronounced (seo-lar).  It's the celebration of Chinese/lunar new year, so I find it kind of silly that it is pronounced kinda like solar.  hahaha  Anyways, conferences are super cool, and we have two more in the next month and a half!  Well sort of, one and then what's called a "mission tour" which I still am not quite sure what it means.  I would try and explain, but I really have no idea, and it's not that important to me to know what the exact nature of it is right now.  I'll figure out when i need to.  All I know is that there's a Japenese guy from the first quorum of the 70 coming, so it'll be super cool!
The conference that we had on saturday was super cool!  It's always super cool just getting to see all the people from around the mission so that's way nice, and then we had this awesome speaker guy come, and kinda tell us a little bit about the culture a little more.  It was this guy from the military who has lived here for a while, so he speaks Korean ridiculously well, and knows the culture better than just about any other white guy in the world.  He was a super entertaining teacher, and taught us a whole lot that was really valuable to learn about Korea, learning Korean, and how to be better missionaries.  The dude was awesome.
Also fun story about conference, there was an elder who read something about Balaam from the Bible, and didn't know who he was.  It was a reference to Balaam in 2 John or something, and the Elder asked President who Balaam was.  President addressed it a little bit in conference, and I was the only missionary who knew about the guy with the talking ass!  It was fun for me hehee.
Fun fact about Korea, the pidgeons here, are soooooooo stupid.  Yeah, pidgeons are dumb in the first place, but these guys take it to a whole new level.  I don't even understand how these guys are still alive.  I have recently discovered that if you so desired, you could totally punt a pidgeon.  I have not done it, I promise, but I have wanted to.  You can easily walk within like 2 feet of any pidgeon, and it won't move.  Sooooo dumb.
I have not gotten the package that was sent for my 6 months yet unfortunately, HOWEVER, we are going to the temple tomorrow so there is the possibility that I will get it tomorrow as well.  Also HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELDER BECK!!!! Sorry it's a little late, and that there's not really much more that I can do than give a shout-out in an email, but nonetheless happy birthday!  Temple days are always super cool, I think I always end up too tired on some level though.  There is however this cool guitar shop close to the temple so I get to look inside at all the cool electrics that are brands that are international companies from through a window.  Waste of time to go in and check it out, especially since I have a guitar at the house.
Oh yeah, fun things related to guitar, the ward wants to put on a music night, pretty much based around me and my companion!  I'll play guitar, my companion will sing, and our recent convert will play piano, or some shuffling thereof, pretty much with me at the guitar though.  It's going to be super fun, they want us to do some more mainstream songs, so that's why it's helpful to have the recent convert, because we can get sheet music, lyrics, and whatever else we need.  It's going to be super fun!  I'm excited!
Korean time!  Another very important word to know!
순데국  (soon-dae-gook)  It is important to know, so that you never eat it!!!!!  Nastiest food ever, it's pig intestine soup, or as me and my companion call it, pig intestine soup.  Don't eat it. Ever.
Another really cool thing that is starting to happen on temple days, is one of my favorite little meetings that the mission has.  It's basically like the missionary's farewell address from the mission.  All the people going home at the end of this transfer get to impart some of their wisdom to us, and I always enjoy it!  Granted this will only be my 3rd one, but there's always something to like from them in my opinion.  Infact I learned probably the biggest lesson on my mission to date at the last one, and this is something that I think everyone can learn from.  I think I may have already said something about it in the past, but One of the biggest lessons that I've learned, is to not let other people's judgements of others, keep you from seeing the good in them.  Now that I say it I'm pretty sure that I've already mentioned it  in an email, but that doesn't make it less significant to me.  If that is the only lesson I learn on my mission, it will have been a big one, and that sounds great to me.  Fortunately I've still got 18 months to learn here.
I love you all, and congatulations to Elder Baker!  I'm so glad that everything has gone well for him and that he will soon find himself well in the service of the Lord!  There's nothing better to do!  For everyone else, don't forget that you don't have to be on a full time mission to serve as a missionary!
Have a great week!!!
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