Isn't it Abraham Lincoln's birthday soon?

Hmmm, I wonder why my tall, white, American brother Scott hears people pointing out a foreigner on a regular basis... 

Hey President!
This week has been pretty good as always. For study I worked on a lesson that I had for gospel principles class quite a bit. It was on honesty and there was a lot I learned myself from it. I realized that there were things that I had been seeing blessings from that I wasn't even aware of. Not so much as a missionary since some of the things I learned had to do with downloading music versus buying it and that sort of thing, and that's obviously not too much of an issue as a missionary haha.
Our investigator is doing alright. Since he was primarily an English interest investigator, we tried to make an effort to make the english part of our lessons good, as well as the gospel side of things. The english went well, and I know that I felt the spirit, and I think that he definitely should have. We had definitely done everything we could have to help him feel it. I think he's a little slow to accept things just because he's never been religious, but there's potential there in any case.
A huge miracle that I saw this week came in the form of that gospel principles class. I somehow was able to fill up the allotted time without any real hitches. They did give me less time than originally expected, but I had to cut out a whole lot of my material from my lesson, so I guess that was a case where faith preceded the miracle.
Thanks for all that you do for us president!
-Elder Clawson

Hey Everybody!!!!
Another week here in this wonderful country, and somehow this transfer is almost over.  Not quite sure how that worked out but it did, and all the sudden in a little bit there's going to be a bunch of 18 year-olds hanging out here in the mission.  Crazy...  Also really funny story, remember that girl Hayoung?  Well if you went to school with me you certainly do, this statement is more towards my family and home ward then.  She is in Korea right now, in the same ward as my companion's parents.  That's so crazy to me!  Hayoung, stop following me!  Also, Hayoung is going to the same mission as Logan.  So, Logan, if you get this forwarded to you, look out for a crazy Korean sister named Sister Lee.  Hayoung, if you see an Elder Williams once you get to Boston, don't slap him please.  Besides that's against the rules. hehehe
Other news from this week that has been fun, my companion served in this zone before so he knows a bunch of people from this other ward in the stake.  The bishop of that ward has a major in oriental medicine, and with my companions back problems, he had the opportunity to go to that Bishop's house and have oriental medicine practiced upon my companion.  He had a bunch of needles and such in him.  At first I was really sceptical about it being that I am me and am sceptical about just about everything like that, but apparently it worked on some level, and has somewhat of a degree of legitimacy to it.  Now my companion has a bunch of bandaids with little needles coming out of them in his ear so that the effects of said medicine practice last a little longer.  His ear is super sensitive now and it's kinda funny to me hahaha.
Really crazy thing about this experience is that the family totally knew about our home area and such!  They lived in Korea town a while back, and this is the really crazy part to me.  I told them that we lived in the Redlands temple district, and they said that they were at the Redlands temple open house!  I was tripping out because we totally were too!  It's not that much of a connection, but there's a solid possiblity that we were at the same place at the same time, 6000 miles away from here.  crazy...  It was really weird to me.  Plus the Bishop's wife wouldn't say it at first, but I found out that she's super good at English.
On Saturday we had dinner at the ward mission leader's house, and his family was super fun.  We went there straight from practicing for that musical program next month so I still had my guitar.  Naturally, this resulted in me playing for them.  Whenever this sort of thing comes up, I always play the same song, just because it's the one song that everyone ends up being impressed by.  I played that song, its kinda like August Rush, and since nobody really plays like that, it always solicits a good reaction I suppose.  Anyways, it did that time, and now I have the great fortune of being able to play that song as a solo at that music thing next month.  I really need to start hiding my abilities as much when I visit members hahaha.  Not really though I guess, I suppose it's a good thing to share ones talents, especially since it was a really cool family.  It's really interesting because we have dinner at the bishop's every now and then and the environments in those two houses were just so different.  The Bishop's home truth be told is a lot nicer of a house, but the environment is so awkward.  You can practically taste the tension in the family when you're there.  The ward mission leader's home, while a much more humble place, has so much of a happier vibe to it.  Everyone gets along and the children enjoy each other's company.  I guess it's a huge testament to the fact that there certainly are things that are of greater value than money.
For things that you can learn in Korean this week, by the way, I am still taking requests, I shall do a phrase that white people tend to hear a whole bunch
외국인 있다  (wae-gook-in eed-dah)  Literally translated to "A foreigner exists"
Pretty much this means "look, a foreigner".  If I walk by any female under the age of 20, 100% chance, they're thinking it if not saying it.  You hear it alllllllll the time, and it's really fun that nobody knows that we understand Korean sometimes.
Hearing about Dad's differentiation between suffering and struggling is pretty cool.  It's something that I think is really applicable to missionaries.  A really good example of this that I can think of is Jackie Chan!  When he gets tied to a chair, he doesn't just sit there and all the sudden is free.  No, he starts wiggling around like crazy and moving until he's finally in a position that he can get himself free, or at least in a more maneuverable position.  We need to wiggle around and work, so that the opportunities to get away from our problems will present themselves.  We have to struggle before the opportunity at clarity and knowledge will be presented to us.
I love you all, I'm sorry this email isn't as good as usual, but I feel like this week was somewhat lackluster in some regards.  Maybe next week will be more fun!
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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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Mission rules get you investigators!!!!

Who ever guessed that following rules is a good thing?? =)




Hey President!
This week has been fun, kinda long but fun nonetheless. For study, I ended up mostly studying for a lesson that I was going to have to give in Gospel Principles class. I ended up not having to teach it this week, but two weeks from now. I kind of look forward to delivering that lesson though. I think it will be a good indication of my progression on some level.
We found an investigator who seems really cool this week! We met him Saturday, and I like to call him the investigator we found from Elder Lee's stomach. He was a referral from his parents who own this chicken shop that is super good. Anyways, he has a lot of English interest, but he never really had religion growing up, so I think he has a lot of interest in the gospel too. To tell the truth, I'd say he is the investigator who seems most prepared on the first visit that I have came into contact with yet. I'm really excited to continue teaching him.
One miracle this week happened not 15 minutes ago. We were sitting here emailing, and this man comes up to us and asked about the church. He had met missionaries in the past, but apparently wants to meet again.  I think if this man could become an investigator it would be something that can end up really fulfilling and something that will truly help me feel the light of Christ in my life.

See you on Saturday President!

-Elder Clawson
 
Hey everyone!!!
This week has been really fun and I'm not sure that a whole lot has gone.  Nothing super crazy except for that man that just walked by and asked to meet with us.  That was super cool, and I think was quite the convenient of miracles to come about.  I suppose that is actually kinda crazy.  Kind of amazing the things that drive people to come talk to you.  I think that the craziest thing about it kind of comes as a result of the mission rules.  This could be one of those crazy stories that people talk about in all they're lessons and stuff about following mission rules.  If we were just emailing in P-day clothes, than this guy probably would not have noticed us.  Obviously I'm a white kid in a see of people who don't usually expect white people, but that's not as uncommon as a missionary.  We legitimately could pick up an investigator just because we were following the rules, and were wearing missionary clothes instead of p-day clothes.  Come to think of it, that is really crazy!
Sorry this email is coming kinda later than usual.  We had an appointment for lunch and the zone leaders needed something from us really quickly.  I thought I had answered some questions about the new area, but I guess not.  It's a fun area I guess.  Our house is super nice and I love it.  I get along with my companion really really well, but he's older and has some trouble getting motivated to work, but he's got a good heart, so I want to help him out a little, its just so hard because he has had a lot of tough experiences, so I just think that he needs to see some miracles and he can have things go right for him through hard work.
My companion also knows how to do some really cool workouts that result in things that I really want!!!  Namely, he knows workouts that make it so you can jump higher.  I can't get huge buff, but if I could come home and dunk, how cool would that be!  I know that shouldn't be something that my goals are based off of, but temporal health keeps you sane.  I promise it does.  I notice it's easier to be happy when I work out consistently. 
side note, our new city is called gunpo, so if you want to check how bad weather is here, feel free to hahaha.  
It's crazy to think that in a few days I will have my 6 moth anniversary as a missionary!  How nuts is that?  Kinda not that crazy considering time always flows at the same rate so I guess it's kind of to be expected but hey, its crazy sometimes to me hahaha.
I love hearing about you guys at home and I swear sometimes it seems like everything is going better without me there, but I know there's reason for that.  I love hearing from anyone by the way.  You don't have to be family to talk to me, I like mail from anyone haha.  Also with regard to my birthday, I don't need anything super special.  If it is at all possible to send a Yoohoo my way, that would be really appreciated.  Just saying.
When I heard it was super bowl sunday, I was kind of blown away.  I knew that it was going to come, but sometimes it feels like time hasn't really gone by and that it's just a couple days after I entered the MTC still.  Kinda like it's all  just a big dream and I have no idea why time is still going by.
For Korean time, I think I may have to just start doing vocab, because I can't think of anything very fun to do all the time.  It's hard to come up with stuff for this but I will continue to try.
힘들다  (heem-dur-da)  to be difficult mentally
heehee, I feel like this is particularly applicable considering i just said hard a bunch of times.
This is a good word for the day.  A good word for missionary work too.  Not just as a missionary but altogether.  Missionary work is hard, but its fulfilling.  The work is so much less hard when members take some of the burden.  The way I see it, there is somewhat of a finite amount of difficulty with the work with regard to a single investigator.  When members share just a little bit of the difficulty, and invite friends, family or whomever to meet missionaries, to hear about the word, and their potential.  I know that missionaries everywhere appreciate referrals, so if you would, take the time to share this happiness with those you love.  I know you will get just as much back in return, if not more.
 
I love you all, you're awesome!
 
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Woohoo!  First Investigator Found in the New Area!!Yayyyyyyy!!!

Hey President!
First full week in the new area! For study this week I've been reading that book I told you about. It seems that in a lot of regards that it is tuned more to state side missionaries but there are still good things to learn from it. I think something really cool I learned was not to judge anybody regardless of their circumstance. The author said that he even had found investigators in gangs. I also have been reading the gospel principles book and studying because I have a lesson next week! Exciting!
We picked up an investigator this week! He's this 16 year old student, who is strangely outgoing. He had lots of questions the first time we met about a whole bunch of different things. I was skeptical at first but he seems to be pretty promising, also he's our only investigator so I have to think good thoughts for him haha.
I think finding that investigator is a huge miracle we saw this week. We were starting to become somewhat sceptical about this area and a little confused, but I think that this is just the start of a much bigger work to come. I really hope we can continue to find new investigators in this area. I know there is someone here that I was sent to help out.

- Elder Clawson

Hey everyone!
So here goes by another week in the land of the morning calm! It's really cold in this emailing place and this keyboard is kinda bad, so my typing skills are somewhat sub-par right now. For that I apologize. However, this has been a fun week regardless. I found the first food in Korea that I don't like this week! It's called 순대국, (soon-dae-guk) and it is really nasty. It may have just been the place I went to, but once I explain more what the food exactly is, you will understand. So it is a soup, that really doesn't taste like much of anything, except for the pieces in the soup that are wrapped in pig intestines. The stuff that is wrapped, is some combination of pork and rice, that is cooked in the blood of pigs. Needless to say it is somewhat nasty. Through out the whole meal, I had this continuously sinking feeling that I was eating poop. Not a good feeling to have, especially in a country like Korea, where it doesn't really matter if you don't like something, you pretty much just have to keep eating it, or else you're really rude. That being said, I've gotten really good at eating foods that I don't like, but all the same it was disgusting.
I feel like a bunch of stories this week may be centered around food... On to the next one, we went to this soup place with a recent convert before we taught him one of the post baptism lessons. The soup was reall good, but I have discovered my latest pet peave. Being treated like a child, because I am white. It was ridiculous, people are walking around thinking I can't understand what they say, and given the chopsticks that are easier to use because apparently I cant eat right. I'll have you know I'm pretty good at using chopsticks by now being that I've lived here for over three months. That and the fact that people think that I have no clue what anything means, or that I can't speak a lick of Korean can get irritating. Stop trying to baby meeeee!!!!!!
Enough rage comments... The soup was really good though! And pretty cheap too!
Oh, other really fun news! My companion has no money whatsoever for this entire pay period. It's only two weeks, but it can be kind of a problem when you have to live off of your companion and members for two weeks. Fortunately we get money again on thursday I think, but it was kind of entertaining to me for some reason or another hahaha. At first it seemed like he was really worried about it, and obviously it would be upsetting if a banking problem was making you be broke for two weeks. It certainly has made for an entertaining first bit of the transfer that could make us go eat poo soup... But someone else bought it for us so we saved money in so doing!
Mom in response to your cello-ness and progression therein, I don't care how good it is! I want to seeeeee!!!!!! Remember how bad I sounded when I was first learning guitar? I know you do because it was amplified hahaha. It's fun to see things in their growing stages, otherwise I will just think you were all the sudden awesome at cello with not much effort (not to say that would be a bad thing, but it certainly would cultivate envy). And I feel you on the awkwardness of the bow, I feel like most instruments, proper technique is awkward at first. I know it was with guitar, and certainly with piano. Heck, I can't even use proper technique on piano still! Also, I'm starting to practice piano a lot more because my companion likes to play too. It's pretty fun! At our church we have a baby grand because its the stake center, whereas most normal churches just have upright pianos. It's so nice to play on!
Another fun story, yesterday I woke up with a rib out of place. That was fun... I didn't notice how irritating it was until I was at church, and I couldn't do anything about it. So irritating. Also my companion has a straight neck, instead of a c-curve, so I somewhat felt his pain for a little bit. I was complaining so much that it got on my nerves. I can't imagine how much it would have annoyed him hahaha. When we got home from church though, I was able to have it put back in place, which was amazing, and now I'm all better! It was super relieving. Stinking Korean beds...
Korean time!!!
I can't think of anything super profound, so I will tell you about this thing called honorification, whichis exaclty what it sounds like. If there's something that is of a higher status than you, or someone you should be polite to, you honorify them.
This is done by when conjugating a verb, putting 시 (shee) into the verb ending. I'm sure this is really abstract and confusing right now so I will demonstrate with the phrase that equates to hello
안녕하세요 unhonorified an-young-ha-sae-yo
안녕하십니까 honorified an-young-ha-SHEEm-nee-ka
It's really confusing if you don't speak Korean at all, but it makes sense to me haha, maybe I can explain better in person later hahaha.
That story about the Baker family is so incredible! It really is amazing the love that the lord shows to those who have decided to concecrate their lives for two years to his service. In fact I think the Lord's love is amazing in general, but the blessings that can be seen are just unreal. I can honestly say that I don't think i've experienced anything that compares to that, but I can say that I know how the love feels. I think every missionary does and that will be a powerful experience that can be used to share a lot of love with peple in the mission field. Truly amazing.
Well I think that's about it for this week, I'll do my best to write good letters as you know. Also, I plan on writing some letters home, and Sister Aussef that's definitely no fun to hear about your hand. The socks you sent are awesome though! I look forward to hearing more about awesome exploits in parts of the world that happen to be less Korean haha

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Christmas pictures!!

We have a whole bunch of new pictures!! Most are from Christmas =)

This is soup Scott made all by himself- I think it looks tasty, but I'm not entirely sure!

 The lady in the picture made the scarf for him- AWESOME! Also that is a really cute orange bag in the background if you're reading this Scott *cough cough*

 We all like Christmas a lot

He just pretends to make a Grinch face, we know he's fibbing...

 See??? Super jazzed =)

 And apparently has a new set of priorities =)

 Nevermind, there's my same old brother ;-)

 All the guys in Lindsay & Tony's families got different mostly red ties. This is Scott's wedding tie. He's so cute!

yay!!! new area!!!

We continue to be so proud of this kid- always amazed at his goals and the things that you can tell are so important to him. He is obviously still our Scott, but has grown so so much in the past 5 months. The countdown till Mother's day and our next chance to talk to him over the phone begins!! 109 days =)

Also don't forget Scott's birthday is March 2nd- I'm sure any cards from his adoring fans would be appreciated! 
-Lindsay

Hey President!
This week has been good as always.  For personal study, I've really been going through PMG and the Liahona issues a lot recently.  I think on some level I just got a little burnt out on the scripture language for a little bit and just wanted some more modern wordings.  It's been super good, it was the first time I read an issue of a church magazine all the way through which was super cool.
As far as investigators go, coming into this new area, we had one investigator and he got baptized on saturday, and comfirmed sunday.  He is a pretty great guy, and I think he really wants his head to be set in the right direction.  He has some problems, I think they mostly just fall to the fact that he speaks English really well and doesn't really understand what swearing is that much in English, but aside from that he's pretty great!
One miracle that I saw this week occurred yesterday in church.  I had never blessed the sacrament before in Korean, and the fact that I was able to say the prayer correctly really was a blessing.  I was pretty nervous at first, but it turned out to be just fine.  I think as I serve here in 산본, I might need to look a little more to little things for miracles, just because the ward is so small and we have no investigator pool whatsoever.  I look forward to progressing the area more!

-Elder Clawson

The news is out!

I'm in a new area!  This new area as you may have read earlier is called 산본.  I'm somewhat tempted to not tell you guys how to actually pronounce it.  It's a little more fun that way, and then Brother Lanier could be able to read it and like blackmail people so they could know how to pronounce my new area, but I feel like that's a little bit ridiculous.  It's pronounced san-bon when directly romanized.  It's a fun area and we have ZERO investigators.  It's so great!  Just gives us more opportunity to try and meet more of Heavenly Father's children I suppose.

This area is pretty great I suppose.  It's ridiculous the amount of apartment buildings that they have here.  My last area was pretty city-ified for the most part, and this is too, but I would aline it more with a suburb.  SOOOOOOO many apartments, each of which having a couple hundred apartments probably.  It's crazy.  CRAZY awesome.  I don't know why I keep on throwing in those moments of random excitement, it's kind of beyond me haha.  So yes, this area has a whole bunch of apartments, our house is really nice though!  Random tangents for the win.  Our house is a little smaller than the last, but I like it more.  It's warmer, and has a washer-dryer combo for laundry!  So cool!  I don't know if I had said so before, but usually you have to hang up your clothes to dry in Korea, but not here!

My new companion's name is 이준석.  He is what is called 교포 which means that he is Korean, but lived in America or just elsewhere aside from Korea.  He is more than fluent in Korean, and speaks English just as well, so that's super convenient for me.  His name is pronounced ee-joon-suk in romanized Korean.  He would go by the last name Lee in america, so he shares the same last name with just about half of this country.  He's been out in the field for a year longer than me, but since he spoke Korean before his mission, he only had to stay in the MTC for like half the time that I did, so he's like 11 months older than me in the mission.  It seems like the two of us will get along pretty well, and it's just te two of us in our house again.  I might get a little frustrated if I only live in two man houses my whole mission.  The thought has entered my mind yes hahaha

The new ward is pretty tiny.  Yesterday at church we had about 30 people I think.  That's why my compnion and I ended up blessing the sacrament, giving talks, and he taught gospel principles class.  I get to teach it in 2 weeks...  So exciting!!!!!  Truth be told that might be a little bit of a nightmare hahaha.  Oh yeah, we have no investigators now, but we had one 3 days ago.  I got another walk in baptism that I feel like I did nothing for haha.  He's a pretty cool guy though, same age as me in Korean, and I guess in American age for the next couple months until my birthday, we would have been in different grades though.  We do a whole bunch of calling old records right now just to try and find someone to talk to that we might be able to possibly, maybe, perhaps meet.  And then get punked...

Fun news!!! There's this lady in the new ward, who I swear is a Korean rendition of Janet Williams!  It's crazy!  I first saw her and was tripped out for a second, I was thinking to myself "you speak Korean too and shrunk 4 inches and now have children that are 2 and 4 again?"  It was an interesting experience to say the least.

For Korean time I think I may have to do a bit of contemplation...  I'm going to teach you my least favorite word in the Korean language!

빨리  (bah-lee)

This directly translates to "quickly", but it is usually contextually used more to mean "hurry".  I have come to discover that I hate the word hurry... I just feel like it's something that shouldn't be in a missionary's vocabulary.  Anyways sometimes I say it to make fun of myself though for my unreasonable feelings towards the word hahaha.  Koreans also like repetition so if you repeat it a couple times that's pretty Korean too hahaha

I can't think of much else to talk about the new area, it's pretty awesome and I hope that it continues to be pretty cool in the future.  It may be hard here, but you can't grow from something that is overly easy.

Have an awesome week and I love you guys!  You're all awesome!

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How do you pray for a crazy person???

Clawson, Scott Hey Presdient!
This week has been super awesome! It's kinda made it a little harder to accept the fact that I have to leave, but it's the Lord's will not mine, so I'm not too worried about it.
As training comes to a close I become more and more grateful that I could serve with Elder Hunter. I look around at other missionaries, and while there are so many other amazing missionaries, I don't think there is a single on who could have been a better match for me than Elder Hunter, and I'd like to think I'm the same for him. There's no question in my mind that the Lord is involved in the decision making process, and it is not just something of man.
Study has been pretty cool this week. I studied Jesus the Christ again, and it's just as awesome as ever. I know I've said it so many times before, but it is still just as awesome to learn more in depth about the savior and his ministry. I have a question real quick though. I recieved this book from my family to read, called "How to become a Great Missionary". It's not in the missionary reference library, but I wanted to know if it would be okay to read. It seems like it could be very helpful, but I just wanted to get your okay before I went about reading it.
One miracle I saw this week that was really incredible happened on Saturday. We were having a lesson, 30-30 program, and I was going to get a Book of Mormon from another room real quickly, and all the sudden there was this random man, standing in our church. He asked when we worshipped, and that he wanted to worship with our church. It was incredible because just like that we had another potential investigator show up out of no where.
I really want to thank you so much for this opportunity I have had to serve in 계산. This area is amazing, and I know that my new area has just as much potential to be amazing. I just have to make it that way.

Thanks so much President!

-Elder Clawson


Hey der hi der ho der bob... slash family
So right now you might be wondering, why that subject line?  Well your first thought may be correct, but the reality of the matter is probably just as fun.  Last night, right before we were about to retire to bed, a ward member called and told us that a friend of hers was in a mental hospital, and she was asking us to pray for her.  That was definitely a first to say the least.  I decided to pray about it just cause she asked me to, and I thought my prayers would help as much as any.  After I prayed and Elder Hunter finished praying as well, I turned to him and asked "How do you pray for a crazy person?"  It really is a good question.  I mean it's not something that falls under your everyday list of things you may pray about.  Do you ask to make them not crazy, to find their mind, what do you do?  Any suggestions are welcome.
Also there is another thing that may or may not be more pertinent than learning how to pray for a crazy person, but as you could assume if you've read my letter to president, but I'm being transferred!!!!!  It's kinda hard to leave this area, especially since in the last two days even, a ridiculously large amount of things have come up that are awesome, but it's okay, such is life as a missionary, and then you go home...  So the area that I'm being transferred to is called 산본, pronounced san-bone.  I'm going the with an Elder who is from America, but it Korean and speaks fluent Korean and we're white-washing the area.  If you don't know what that means, it's when you put two new missionaries in the area at once, instead of leaving one who was there the transfer previous.  I have no clue whatsoever what this new area is like, so it'll be interesting to see what happens.  Also my new companion is almost dead in the mission too, so that'll be interesting to try and combat.  Regardless, I look forward to a new area and serving with new missionaries too though!
So the grandma that we had been teaching a while back that we handed over to the sister missionaries is indeed getting baptized this weekend, and had I not been transferred I would have gotten in the water to baptize her, but because I'm going to a different area, the opportunity now falls upon someone else.  As long as it's not the brand new missionary that Elder Hunter will be training (Yes he's training again), I will be just fine.  Call me un christlike, but he can't learn to love her enough in the 4 days between arriving in country and he baptism to baptize her.  Regardless of who does the dunking, the change that has been brought about in this woman, is miraculous.  There is nothing I have ever seen like it.  She used to just sit in lessons with her head down, and he eyes would glaze over, and she would just feel bad about herself.  Now she is always smiling and laughing.  She has found true happiness, and there is nothing that compares to having been able to see the change that has come about as a result of meeting with her.  I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to take part in that wonderful process.
I was thinking about it this past week, and people always told me that Koreans are super nice and such, but for a while I felt like they were so mean.  Really when I think about it, having some random crazy american come up to you on the street aand ask to shake your hand and if they can share a message that will bring happiness into your life, is pretty intimidating, and warrants being angry at this crazy american.  The fact that any of these people even take a second to consider shaking your hand is incredible.  I know for a fact if I had some guy come up to me in broken English, ask to shake my hand, and tell me he is sharing a happy message, I would write him off as crazy immediately.  The people in this country are so nice it's unreal.  I don't get it.  It makes no sense, but it's really convenient for me hahaha.
As far as Korean time goes, I can only think of one thing, and I'm not entirely sure how to spell it.
그녕  (kuh-nyung)
It doesn't really have a literal meaning.  It's kinda tough to try and explain, but it means something like "just cause".  I probably use it wrong all the time, but that's okay, it makes me look like I know what I'm saying more hahaha

I got the package from mom and dad, and susan as well!  Thank  you guys sooo much!  I appreciate it a lot!  It took me a while to finally eat some of the mac and cheese because we never go shopping, but I finally got milk and butter, so I ate some and it was awesome!

I have also gotten the letter from the young women, truth be told like 3 weeks ago, I'm just super bad at remembering things.  In response to all your questions, yes Korean is hard, yes I love it here, and probably to most other questions, yes.  Also, members of the self-named "couch", I got your letter too, it was super fun, and I'm so impressed that you took the time to personalize a letter just for me! 

I don't have much time so I have to go, but I love you all, and you're all awesome

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Scott hasn't sent us pictures of his live body in a couple weeks, but here are a couple pictures of his cardboard body. We had three Elder Clawsons at the reception and we gave one of them to his friend Bosco. He will be taking pictures of their adventures together. Just like flat Stanley. Very Fun =)