I am just so proud of this kid!!! Why he thinks we don't read the letter to his president I don't know, maybe you don't... ? Anyhow, the countdown to Mother's day begins & we just can't wait to hear his sweet Korean voice again! Happy Easter dear friends & supporters!
Hey President!
Man, three weeks in a row that we have had the opportunity to attend some of the same Sunday services! That's exciting! On top of that the news that I'll be training this upcoming transfer is really exciting too! I hope I can fulfill the expectations that you have for me, and help the new missionary I will be serving with be the best that he can be too.
This week for study I've just been going through things for study as normal I suppose, trying to accomodate the needs of investigators and looking for what they may need. It was interesting because today I ended up in the addiction recovery section of PMG and I didn't really know why. I had intended to study for one particular investigator of ours, but I'm not sure how that pertains to her really.
In regards to that investigator, it's that same one I've talked about the past couple weeks, and my opinion of her has changed greatly. It seems at this point that all she wants to do is throw scriptures from the Book of Revelations at us. I think it might actually be fortunate that Elder Lee won't be there to understand all she's talking about. It may lead to use being able to teach with the spirit much more present, and for that opportunity I thank you.
I think one miracle that occurred this week is that I have somehow averted being sick, amongst Elder Theobald getting sick, as well as Elder Lee seemingly coming down with something right now. I'm not sure how, but for some reason or another, I have had the great fortune of avoiding any real illness of any kind on my mission thus far, yet have seen a lot of other missionaries that have had to deal with a lot of health problems. It truly is a miracle in my eyes.
I look forward to seeing you on Wednesday, as well as meeting the new missionaries!
-Elder Clawson
Hey Everyone!
So I have a sneaking suspiscion that no one actually reads the part to my mission presdient so I have a hunch that there's a big secret that you all don't know about yet! I kinda wish that I knew how to make the font all bigger and stuff so that it's all fancy for the next statement that I am about to make, I AM TRAINING!I figured it out in case you didn't notice. Anyways, yes I am totally training. Fun story actually, it was really anticlimactic the way that I found out. So Saturday night they call everyone in the mission and say what's up with them, and since we're in a somwhat new area sort of and our number is really confusing to try and find, we thought it might be really late before we found out what was happening to us. Well, we waited up for a while, and no call came, not even at like 11 o'clock, but we live in the same house as the zone leaders, so they already knew, I just asked them not to tell me. Well I gave up at 11 and asked one of them to tell me. He said "Elder Lee, you're going to bongcheon and Elder Clawson you're staying and training." No inflections what soever, no emotion or anything, just "... you're training." SOOOOOOO LAAAMMMMEEE!!! I guess it helped to get rid of the nerves about it a little bit though, so that was fortunate. The next day president was supposed to speak in our ward, so I asked him about it and he apologized and said that it was just a misunderstanding between him and the APs so that's okay. I kinda want to mess with the APs on wednesday at transfers, but I shouldn't. Also, I don't find out who my companion is until wednesday at the trainers meeting thing where we pick up the greenies.
Other fun stories this week, I feel like there aren't that many so I may have to drag it out a little bit on the stories that I do have. One of which being that this kid we met and are starting to meet likes to play bass and I said I play guitar so his first thought was that I play bass too, which I don't really think I do, but that goofy august rush style playing really lends itself to playing bass so I'm not as bad as I thought! I have inadvertantly learned how to slap the bass, so now I can tell people in a very loose interpretation of the word that I can "slappa da bass". This week that kid wants to meet again, but he has an electric guitar too, so he might bring that. It will be the first time in the entirety of my mission that I have played an electric guitar. That'll be so fun!
Other things relating to music, this week we had another music thing that we had to prepare for, and I was really underwhelmed with how the ward prepared for it to be honest. It was something that we had organized in the last area last transfer, and since we still kinda have some tenure so to speak over that area since there are no members to help the sister missionaries teach, we got permission to help with it still. Anyways, it was originally supposed to be this talent show thing that was supposed to help the youth of the ward since they were having trouble staying active and expressing interest in the church, but the bishopric totally changed it. Instead it was about 15 minutes of things that the missionaries and one recent convert had prepared that were related to the original thing, and then an hour and a half of random things about Korean culture, that the kids paid legitimately no attention to. I learned a lot so I wouldn't say that it was bad in it's teaching aspects, just that it was bad with regard to the targetted audience. I think there was just a lot more room for things to help the ward where they needed, instead of where they wanted.
Another experience that came up this week occurred on the subway back home from a thing that was called a mission tour. We were coming back to our area and we were on exchanges so I was with a missionary who is from Cambodia who really struggles with the language since he only has had material to learn from english, instead of cambodian, so it brings a whole new level of difficulty into the mix. On the subway home, the other Elder set his backpack on the ground, and this drunk dude got on the subway, and got all upset about his backpack being on the ground. I really didn't want to get yelled at a whole bunch the entire train ride home, so I tried to sooth the situation a little bit, and it worked way better than I thought, because the moment I said anything in Korean this guy got soooooo stoked. It was pretty funny because he kept on speaking to me in english, well if you want to call it that, and I only spoke in Korean. I was not going to be stared at and thought bad of by everyone on the subway so I made sure that everyone around me understood every word I said hahaha. It was pretty funny because there were these two guys that came on the subway that were talking about me at first, and then as soon as I started speaking Korean, they somehow slithered away and kinda tried to hide from me, and I will teach you what they said!
잘 생였다 (chal saeng-yeot-da) It means attractive!
Yeah that's right, they say I'm attractive! Well really they say it about just about anyone who's white so it's not that big of a deal really. It doesn't really mean I'm attractive it just means that they noticed that I'm white and that I look different. It's really interesting the different reactions that you get from all the people in Korea. It's impossible to explain, you'll just have to visit one day when you have more time or want to go on vacation or something.
This week has been pretty good, and I always look forward to my correspondance with America, so thanks for taking the time to read this. I hope fortune smiles upon both you (all the readers) and me as we go through this week, and especially the new missionary that I will be paired up with come wednesday. A week ago, I wouldn't have thought I could train a new missionary, but given the experiences I've had in the past couple days, I know that it's do-able. I know that regardless of Korean ability, and really anything else aside from desires, that there's nothing the Lord won't give us strength to do! I love you all and have a great week!
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