Seoul South making church history... on a small scale. BUT STIILL!!!! 2 messages

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Scott Clawson <clawson.scott@myldsmail.net>	Sun, Apr 27, 2014 at 9:17 PM
To: Nancy Clawson <neclawson@gmail.com>
Hey Everyone!! This week has been good.  It's been raining the past couple days which makes working... interesting?...  but it's always still good!  We started the week with a bunch of appointments and ended up having 4 new investigators by the end of the week!!!  So awesome.  That's the most new investigators I've had in a week since I first moved to Gangnam and none of those people really ever met again.  These people here will probably meet again though, and one of them is soooooooo prepared it's ridiculous.  Guy is the man, and doesn't even really know it yet.  In our lesson with him, he legitimately asked like 4 or 5 of the questions of the soul that it has listed in the Book of Mormon section of Preach my Gospel.  He's gonna get baptized. Coolest thing about this past week was definitely our guy who is oging to get baptized THIS WEEK!  He's been an investigator for about 5 months, and his family opposes it, but he really wants to get baptized.  He's in his 70s, so it's his choice, and he wants to be baptized, so it's good.  He had his interview and is ready!!! Wednesday we had district meeting which was good.  We had virtually no time for anything that day.  We only got to talk to like 7 people on the street that day, which is like the worst I've had in forever!!!  So frustrating, yet awesome because it was a super effective day.  Several lessons, service.  All good things. Thursday was P-day, it was good.  Went to the temple which is always awesome.  Love the temple.  We played basketball after which was fun too.  I'm still awful, but hey, you gotta get better somehow. Friday, Linda K. Burton of the General Relief Society Presidency came and talked with our mission.  It was pretty cool especially since they were the last presidents of the Seoul West mission before it got shut down.  Also, this was apparently the first time ever that a Woman's general leader came to speak with a mission.  That's what she said at least.  Regardless, making church history!!!  GO SEOUL SOUTH! Saturday we had to get a ton of contacts on the street because our goal for the week was 200 and we were only at like 120.  Not too bad, but we had focus to get it.  I set a goal after President Morrise challenged me to get 200 in a week, to never miss that standard throughout the rest of my mission.  I was concerned this week, but we got it.  I would have been pretty bummed if I missed it.  Only 12 weeks left to fulfill that goal, and since at least half of those will be with Elder Thompson, I'm not worried about it too much. Oh yeah, transfer calls came.  Nothing too huge really.  I'm still with Elder Thompson.  Still here in Dapdong as zone leaders.  We get a new guy in our house, but I don't think I ever talked about the guy he's replacing, so no real news there. Yesterday.  Was crazy busy.  We went to church, and were stressing because our guy who is getting baptized went out to this place called Yongsan, which incidentally is where Obama was this week.  He didn't go for that, but he was there nonetheless.  Anyways he had said he was coming to church that day, but Yongsan is like 45 minutes away, and it was at like 10 that we talked to him.  He made it for the baptismal service of another guy at 1 though, and had his baptismal interview.  I love that man.  So awesome.  I went on exchanges with a young missionary this week, and the guy is a fireball!  Works so hard, is only in like his 4th transfer, and is super functional at Korean.  The biggest part of it all is that he's happy while doing it.  That's the most important thing to being successful as a missionary is that you have to be happy while you do the work, or you're done for. Well, this is the start of my second to last transfer... the end will be here far faster than I want it to.  That being said I hope you enjoy my emails while they last!  I hope I relay information and stories well!  Love you all. 클라슨 장로

Happy Easter!  New Letter!  

Scott Clawson <clawson.scott@myldsmail.net>	Sun, Apr 20, 2014 at 9:24 PM
To: Nancy Clawson <neclawson@gmail.com>
Hey Everybody!!! This week as always has been pretty awesome.  Elder Thompson got sick on wednesday, and had a bit of a fever for a little while, but it broke after he took a quick nap during our dinner time, so it didn't slow us down too much!  It's funny whenever your companion is sick as a missionary, your first reaction is always "do you need some rest?" but when you are sick as a missionary it's more like "NO I DON'T NEED REST!  I'LL REST WHEN I DIE (go home)!"  I'm a fan of that mentality, even when it may not be the more wise choice to make.  Pday last week was fun, we played soccer and I enjoyed it.  I got a wicked big blister on my toe from my cleats cause I hadn't worn them in a long time.  No big deal.  It didn't really get in the way of missionary work at all, just looked kind of funny. Tuesday we had a super cool experience.  When planning for tuesday, we had a ton of time to just go talk to people, which can get monotonous, so we wrote down in our planners that at 2, 3, and 4 there would be miracles.  At 2, we met these two guys that were pretty nice and said they might meet later, but the cool one happened at 3.  We were just out talking to people and we started talking to this one guy, and he said "hey want to come over to my house?  I'll give you something to drink"  So we did, and he gave us this stuff called 미술가루 (mi-sul ka-roo) which is pretty tasty.  The cool part is that he wants us to visit and teach him about the gospel pretty often!  Super Fun.  Guy is a serious alcoholic, but that's okay, still super nice.  We left his house like right at 4, and I don't quite remember perfectly, but I'm pretty sure within like 5 minutes we got another guys phone number too. Wednesday we had district meeting which was good.  There's this one Elder, Elder Chow, and he's a boss.  Handles his district like a champ.  Super good district meeting, and was really focused on the needs of his district.  We met this one investigator that day who has been... fun lately.  Loves smoking, and always gives us stuff.  He finally didn't bring up smoking in a lesson, and we taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ, with hopes that he could apply it and kind of turn his life around a little bit. Thursday was frustrating, we had like 5 appointments and legitimately only one of them actually happened BUT!  It was our investigator who has a baptismal date, and it went well.  He's soooooo close, just needs a little more testimony of Joseph Smith and prophets, and he's good.  Friday, we met this guy that's super nice and wants to take us to this steak house in the future.  I thought I was done with steak houses when I left Gangnam, but I was mistaken.  That's okay thought, there certainly are bigger problems in the world.  Saturday was good.  A ton more of talking to people on the street and then we had English class.  I got to teach the basic class again, which is my favorite because this guy that's about to be our investigator starting next week is like the only one who comes, and he is super open to the gospel.  He came to general conference, and is super willing to pray like every week in English class.  He's the man! Sunday, also Easter, was awesome.  There was a baptismal service, and President Morrise and his wife came.  Also, I was chosen to play accompaniment for a special musical number.  Not on piano, on guitar.  I'm not even close to the best pianist around.  It was good though.  Everybody always says that it was good.  I don't think I've ever been told anything other than good job for something performed in a church meeting.  Also, I counted, and I've only done 2 public performances not as a missionary, one being in elementary school when me and logan played go tell aunt rhodey for a talent show, and the other being at college when I played guitar for the talent show with my friend Carter.  On my mission, I have performed I think 6 times now.  2 chrismas parties, 2 baptisms, 1 mission conference, and 1 fireside for a ward.  I still haven't gotten any less nervous when I play in front of people.  Lamez.  Oh well, there are other things that I'm better at. This week was super awesome.  Loved it. Korean for the week. 기적 (ki-jeok) miracle Have a great week. 클라슨 장로

Oye... =)

Yes Yes Yes, so I am a little behind - AGAIN!  Actually, I am super behind.  Here are a bunch of letters from Scott.  He is back in Incheon - this was his first area when he arrived in Korea so mnay months ago.  It is likely that he will finish things up there as well.  A very nice full circle.  Love love love this boy. 

General Conference is legit!!! 2 messages

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Scott Clawson <clawson.scott@myldsmail.net>	Sun, Apr 13, 2014 at 8:36 PM
To: Nancy Clawson <neclawson@gmail.com>
Hey everyone!!   First off!  If you heard Elder Ballard's talk in conference, dont forget to buy a Preach my Gospel and study it!!!  It's awesome! So this could potentially be like the first full length letter you would have gotten from me in a while.  I hope I don't disappoint!  A lot has been going on recently. So first off that I can think of that's super awesome.  I don't remember if you guys heard about the lady I found the last week that I was in Gangnam, we refer to her as Harmonica.  SHE'S GETTING BAPTIZED!!! Sick!!!  That's so cool.  I won't be able to go probably cause it's like an hour and a half a way, but that's okay, I don't really mind.  My companion from last transfer is going to baptize her which will be really good for him.  I want to testify to you all of the effects of a simple act of service. I don't know if you recall, but the way we met her was she was carrying all these boxes to recycle.  A lot of older people in Korea do that to get money.  She was walking a good ways, and she was willing to let us help her.  During the walk we told her about the church, and about the Book of Mormon.  Actually she asked what I was carrying so we showed her, and she asked for a copy.  I don't think I've given a copy of the Book of Mormon to someone that appreciated it so much.  When we parted ways, I asked if she had a phone so we could contact her later, but she doesn't have a cell phone, so we got her house phone and she got our card.  Didn't think much of it, but that night she called and asked what time church started.  She came on sunday, and apparently is ready to be baptized on saturday.  It's so small the things we do, but they have huge impacts.  This was the week before transfers, on a Thursday, and we get our calls on Saturday.  After I met her, I had this feelng of relief like "you can leave now".  I Don't really know how, but it's crazy how our paths cross people who are ready for the gospel in their lives, and they just drop what their doing to learn.  That was an awesome experience. In our current area of Dapdong, we have some cool things happening, some frustrating things, and some whatever things.  This man that had a baptismal date, that we thought was abducted by his sister who thinks we're crazy, showed back up!!!  The awesomest thing ever!!!  He's back and came to conference on saturday!!!  We didn't get to talk to him after, but he's really close to being ready for baptism.  He has a date for the 4th of May, and I think if all works out he should be ready for that.  I think his sister will be working hard though because the Pope, yes THE Pope is coming to the Catholic church that is literally right next to our church, mid May.  Probably a super good guy, but all the same, it'll make it hard.  Not to mention will keep us from being able to go to our church that day probably. We have another investigator who is bugging us.  He likes to smoke a lot, and is convinced not only is it not a sin, but it isn't bad for him, and that God doesn't care whether or not he treats his body well.  We thought he was like this super golden guy because he came to church like the first week we met him, but he doesn't even really like it.  Also yesterday he lied to us so he could not watch general conference.  Frustrating.  That and he's trying to meet the other elders in our area concurrently, so he can practice English.  Its okay, he'll come around.  We'll help him feel the Spirit and God's love and I think he can enjoy church and life more for that matter.  Also he's a welder and does TIG welding. He gave me a thing of tungsten.  He won't stop giving us stuff either.  May actually play to our advantage in helping him understand why we don't abuse our bodies i.e. gifts from God. This week we've been having a lot of people set appointments and then not show.  Yesterday we had 4 appointments set and no one showed up.  Frustrating, but that's okay, worse things have happened.  We will be making a more concerted effort to meet people in a way so they know what we're meeting for and aren't afraid to actually keep the appointments they set. This week we had interviews with the President which was good.  We got to talk to president about whatever we felt we needed.  Really as of late, I've been really happy with just about everything and it was hard for me to even come up with things to say.  He asked me what I've learned from being a zone leader thus far which was a super good question.  The biggest thing I've learned is that it does not matter who you are, but that you can ALWAYS learn from those around you, no matter who they are.  It's really true and I know it. Conference was amazing.  Iearned so much!!!  So many great messages.  I love general conference, and am kicking myself for all the times I didn't watch it sincerely   I love you all!  There's not rally too much more of note that I can think of.  bye   클라슨 장로

First full week as zone leader! 2 messages Scott Clawson <clawson.scott@myldsmail.net> Sun, Mar 30, 2014 at 8:20 PM To: Nancy Clawson <neclawson@gmail.com> Hey everyone!!! This week has been super awesome.  Lot's of cool things happened.  I apologize because again, I don't have too much time, but I want to still answer any questions!  So of course that is my goal. Last Monday we cleaned our house which was seriously necessary, it was a mess. The sink in the bathroom wouldn't drain, and I'm not the cleanest person, but I really am not a fan of things that facilitate the breeding of nasty disease like things in theoretically clean places.  All good now though!!! Also that day we went and met this one guy in a hospital who got a concussion whilst drunk and is now under close watch cause his brain is so messed.  He is a super nice guy and wants to turn his life around.  His speech is kinda messed up which makes talking over the phone... interesting.  He almost accepted a baptismal date, which was awesome!!!  He's got a lot of potential, and I don't think there's much that could really hold him back at this point!  Super awesome guy Tuesday started the series of days where we had several appointments, the greater portion of which don't actually turn out.  Sad face.  BUT!  We did meet our iraqi investigator and the guy is a boss.  I swear that he's going to be the first member of the church in Iraq.  Unfortunately/fortuantely he is going to Iraq for 3 months where he will stay with his family for a while.  Super awesome guy, and I found out that one of the two sects of Muslim is really similar to the principles that our church teaches.  I love how there is truth to be found everywhere. Wednesday was district meeting which was fun.  It was in this area that we needed to take a bus to, and you know it's hot now because I'm getting headaches all the time from the allergies, and buses are really stuffy too.  Not fun.  District meeting was good though Thursday we had to do weekly planning because on friday we went on exchanges with the APs.  That was surprisingly less intense than I thought it would be, but something awesome happened!!!  For the first time in almost a year, someone corrected my KOREAN!!!!  So awesome~!  It's kind of frustrating cause once you become senior companion, it's like you never get corrected, but when I was with one of the APs who is Korean, he corrected me!  SO AWESOME!!!  I just want to sound Korean... The big focus me and my companion, Elder Thompson, have right now is inviting people to big things when we first meet them.  Making sure we do not forget to invite people to be baptized as soon as time permits, and asking them to do things that aren't easy.  There's a talk that says that if you give someone a baptismal challenge "when they are ready", then it's not a challenge at all.  That's an agreement.  I have a firm theory that because of the mindset of missionaries historically in Korea, that if you ask someone to be baptized on the street then nothing good will happen, but that is exactlly the problem.  People won't ask in faith and because of that things don't happen.  It works in South America.  It should work in Korea, and it's going to start in Incheon.  Big things are going to happen here if everybody goes out and works relying on the lord that the prepared people will be put in our path.  They recognize us as servants of the lord when we do his will, which means being bold, and having faith in him.  That's where this starts. Elder Thompson is a boss and an awesome companion.  We both get to work hard around each other which is awesome.  I love being his companion. Other fun side note, my new favorite church meeting is SPM!  So awesome and stuff gets done!!! Gotta go but I love you ALL!!!@ 클라슨 장로 Sorry! 2 messages Scott Clawson <clawson.scott@myldsmail.net> Sun, Mar 23, 2014 at 8:04 PM To: Nancy Clawson <neclawson@gmail.com> So I don't really have a lot of time because the computer I was working on is being silly and won't let me type.  Hopefully you can get something a lot better next week.  We've been having a lot of fun this week, and throwind down with proselyting.  My companion Elder Thompson is the man and works super hard.  He has taught me a ton already just through who he is, and he knows how to do misisonary work effectively.  We have some solid investigators here, and I've seen a lot of people from my first ward since it's in the same stake.  I'm loving being able to serve lots of missionaries as the zone leader, being able to meet lots of awesome people as just a normal missionary, and being able to feel the spirit as a child of God.  I love you all you're super awesome!  Tell my Mom happy birthday, and keep on keeping on when it's tough!  There's always more, and we can always do better!! Love you all! 클라슨 장로 TAKE IT BACK TO WHERE IT STARTED!!!! 3 messages Scott Clawson <clawson.scott@myldsmail.net> Sun, Mar 16, 2014 at 8:49 PM To: Nancy Clawson <neclawson@gmail.com> Hey everybody! First off I want to apologize for not putting a subject into the last email.  I know you were all heartbroken at that fact.  I will do my best not to forget again. Anyways, transfer calls came and I will be moving back to Incheon where I started!  Not the same area, but back to Incheon nonetheless!  I will be a zone leader there and am pretty excited for that.  I have kind of wanted to be a zone leader more lately just because it's a wider scope of missionaries that I can help to serve.  There's a ton of super solid missionaries there and a lot of my friends.  I'm super stoked for everything.  Also, there's a chinatown  there so I plan on converting all the CHINESE PEOPLE!!!  I kind of wanted to learn a little Chinese for it, I'll probably just do it in my down time.  Also it's probably going to be my last area, so I'm pretty set on missionary-working that area to the bone! Gonna be legit!!!! So this week was pretty good.  Monday night we were walking around and just trying to get some conversations in, and I saw this guy behind me wearing some timberlands.  Not a particularly common occurence in korea, so I commented on it to him, and he takes off his headphones and we talked and he's really interested in the church.  He was a pretty cool miracle.  After that we sprinted off to go do exchanges with the zone leaders because they wanted to. On our way, we were riding on the train there, and there was a kid with a v-shaped guitar.  That is not common in Korea at all.  There's only like 3 kinds of electric guitar here, and that isn't one, so I went up and talked to him, and he was kinda thrown at first that there was a white guy speaking to him in Korean, and then again he was thrown by the fact that I knew it was strange to have a V in Korea, and then again by the fact that we liked the same music.  Haha, fun experience.  Gotta love all the miracles.  That was a fun miracle for me. So the zone leader i was on exchanges with is this Korean and his name is Elder 석찬영 and he is like the funnest, best missionary ever.  He had been sick, but still is just such a boss of a missionary.  This guy is such a boss.  He's the zone leader and in the stake presidency meeting on sunday, he just floored the entire stake presidency.  They were talking about how the missionaries need to be the young men's presidents and how all the members need to be ward missionaries, and all this sort of thing.  He said he was really sick, and it was just like making him dizzy and one of the guys in the stake presidency looks at him as if to like rip into him or something, and Elder 석 shared something that I regrettably can't remember what it is right now, but it just shut everyone up, and the mission presidency were just nodding their heads in approval.   Sorry I love to brag about Elder Suk.  He's my favorite.  Super sad that he's not my leader anymore, but he's still a boss and my buddy!!! Tuesday we went and had a bunch of appointments and all of them cancelled.  Sad face, so we got to go just talk to people all day.  It was pretty fun.  There was this old guy who tried to show us this game where you put your index finger and thumb together and straighten out the rest of your fingers and the other person pulls them apart with their two index fingers.  He beat Elder Suk, and then when Elder Suk tried to open his hand, he just goes ahead and uses all of his fingers.  The guy was such a cheater, and it wasn't even sneaky.  Hilariousness. Later we ate this really spicy octopus for dinner which is now among my favorite foods.  After dinner we went to church to use the bathroom and there was institute and some other stuff going on, so I ended up seeing a bunch of people from my first ward!  Exciting! On wednesday we finished up the exchange and had district meeting.  District meeting was awesome.  Nobody could focus or calm down at first, but it ended up being okay.  I tamed the district down a bit, and we had the meeting, and it was awesome.  I think it was among the best trainings i've delivered.  It was about becoming friendly with members, so that we can have good relationships of trust.  I hope it worked.  Ironically the korean missionaries are the ones that have problems with this.  At least in this district but whatevers.  Just gotta be friends with all the members!  That's one of my favorite things! Thursday wasn't too crazy.  We went and helped this less active/recent convert clean his house.  It had been a year since he last cleaned it.  He had some nice stuff, but just had trash, everywhere!  It was crazy.  Good guy though.  He made it out to church this week too. Also thursday night, we helped this lady carry some boxes around she was trying to go recycle so she could give the money to her church.  She said she would come to church on sunday and she did!  Her name is Monica heo but, the way she says it, it's like harmonica...  heehee. Friday we had lunch at this buffet which was good, the members that took us said we did a good job of eating there.  If you don't eat a ton, it's kinda rude.  I am pretty sure I was a couple bites from throwing up, but it's okay cause I made it! Weekly planning was the same as ever really.  Nothing too crazy.  BUT!  Before we got started this guy TJ called us and wanted to meet.  Guy is such a boss.  Looking for work around Gangnam and wants to come closer to God.  He thinks that we have the right path, and is looking for instruction.  Excited for him.   That night, this guy called us and asked us to come to this big hospital on saturday morning to help give a blessing to his mom who is in a very fragile position and also in a coma.  When we went saturday morning, he basically just asked us to bless her that she will have a safe journey from this world.  That was a really interesting experience for me, especially since he asked me to give the blessing.  I don't think I've ever been around someone whose life was in such a fragile state.  The way the guy explained it, it seemed like he thought if it was a day later, she would have passed away.  It was a really humbling experience. After that we had English class which was interesting because we usually teach the basic grammar class, and the sisters teach the free talking and usually our class is bigger.  Not that day.  We had two in our class, and they had like nine!  It was crazy.  One of our english class members keeps on telling his friends to come.  Go O'neil!  Guy is a boss. Saturday night we got our transfer calls which was interesting.  We were the first people in the mission to get our transfer calls!  That was kind of neat.  I didn't think that would ever happen, but I'm excited for what it brings! Sunday, Harmonica did end up coming to church, and she's so loved by all the members already.  Gotta love Gangnam ward.  Just doing work.  I got a ton of pictures with them, and accordingly will try and send some!   저는 인천으로 즐겁게 가겠습니다!!!! (cho-nun Incheon-eu-ro jeur-geob-ggae ka-ges-sum-ni-dah) In korean it makes more sense but it directly translates to "I'm going joyfully to Incheon" But hey, Korean doesn't always work in English.  What can I do?!?! 클라슨 장로 (no subject) 1 message

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Scott Clawson <clawson.scott@myldsmail.net>	Sun, Mar 9, 2014 at 8:58 PM
To: Nancy Clawson <neclawson@gmail.com>
Hey Everybody!!! This week was good as always. Monday, I think the highlight was finally cleaning the house.  Thing was so dirty, but we kept on being dumb and not cleaning it.  So mad at myself for that, but I guess my life will go on.  Fun part about it is that we totally don't even live in that house anymore!!!  Me and my companion moved into Gangnam on wednesday which has been a journey to say the least...  For the first like 4 days we didn't even have a fridge or stove.  Certainly made food fun.  We ate out a lot. We went to this music store which was fun.  Whilst there this really really awkward thing surfaced where two of the missionaries in my district are like, in love...  Not cool.  Being district leader I got to have the task of dealing with that.  I think it's mostly taken care of for the time being, but may resurface in the future.  I'm mostly worried about what it's like for their companions!  Can you imagine how stressful that would be?  Being the companion of someone who is in a relationship as a missionary with another missionary...  Not cool, so I'm now doing my best to help the missionaries make the situation as appropriate as possible.  I think that would be the first kind of experience I've had like this in my life, and hopefully the last, because outside of missionary work, I don't think that it's even a problem anywhere! That was my birthday pday, so it was an interesting gift to get on a birthday!  My companion did get me ice cream though.  Delicious.  Keeping the tradition from last year!!!  Woohoo!!!  We also got food from this place called Lotteria which eveyone else says is really nasty, but I really enjoy, but it wasn't as good as usual... sad face.  That's okay though! We did meet our new investigator though!!  Guy is a boss.  Super genius, speaks english and really likes the church.  Recognizes that it's the closest thing to the original concept of christianity... maybe because it is the original christianity...  Anyways, the guy invented a microscope that you plug into your smart phone and is trying to sell it to Nuskin or something.  Crazy smart.  Tried to give me this book about Hindu, and I really wish I could have read it just because it's the same invitation that we give other people about the Book of Mormon, but as missionaries we aren't supposed to.  I told him and he was really understanding.  Guy is a boss, and has an incredibly cute dog!  We're meeting him again tomorrow! Tuesday was fun.  We met with our awesome investigator Bob for the last time.  He was doing this program where you only meet them for 6 weeks because it's english and gospel, and his time was up so to speak.  Kind of a crude way to put it, but I guess that's how it goes... He's a great guy and if he reads the Book of Mormon, I know he'll come back to the missionaries. We also met with one of our recent converts and he asked us to come help him clean his house in the future!  Excited to finally help a member with service!!!!  This is the first time that this will have happened for us!!  We also met with another recent convert who said that he can't come to church anymore.  It was a sad meeting.  He's convinced that life in Korea is pointless and said that coming to church in Korea especially is pointless.  My immediate response was to turn to Elder Kelson and say "well let's go home then" and then the guy is like "What?! no".  And then I explained to him that if it were pointless to come to church here that we would not be here.  The church wouldn't be here, and I would not have a certificate signed by the prophet that says that I am a servant of God.  That was a heated moment for me...  I don't like being told I'm pointless. Wednesday we had a finding activity in this area Seocho and none of the missionaries from seocho even came to it!!! So lames...  It's okay though!  No worries.  After that me and my companion took a bunch of our stuff to the new house in Gangnam!!  We had dinner which I guess in Korea your supposed to have this stuff called jjajangmyun when you move into a new house.  I like it, but the restaurant was awkward because they were playing eminem... :( not missionary music... Thursday we had a zone training meeting which was good.  We had a district leader counsel which I think was one of the most effective counsel meetings I've seen as a missionary.  Super awesome.  Loving it here.  I like seeing why I'm in certain positions at certain times.  Makes me feel good.  After zone training we had to hurry back to gangnam for this really depressing appointment with a guy who doesn't love his family.  The guy is like 80 and doesn't have any motivation to care for his family aside from bringing them into the world... sad face... Friday was mostly just conversating with people on the street.  One of my hobbies.  We did weekly planning which was fun.   Saturday we got our fridge and stove!!!  We can eat now!!!  So awesome!!!  I never thought about what it's like to not have those...  Important things in our life nowadays...  We also met this guy who was leaving for Iran that night!!!  Crazy!  He was baptized forever ago, and just hadn't been in contact with the church since he originally moved back to Korea from spending time in the middle east on business.  Guy is a boss.  He gets back in  April so I may or may not be around to see what happens. Church was cool yesterday.  We had more foreigners there again.  I got to do a fair portion of translating for these guys too.  Interesting part is we have this rule where we aren't supposed to speak anything but Korean at church on sundays, so I felt like I was being a bad missionary, and then talked to my zone leaders about it and they said that it was okay.  Good thing.  I don't like feeling bad... We are supposed to get desks today which we haven't had for study yet...  Excited for that but accordingly I gotta go!  Hope everyone has a great week! 좋은 주 되싶시오!!!! 클라슨 장로

생일 죽하합니다!!! 5 messages

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Scott Clawson <clawson.scott@myldsmail.net>	Sun, Mar 2, 2014 at 9:08 PM
To: Nancy Clawson <neclawson@gmail.com>
Hey Everyone!!! So I have very little time and I'm going to try and get in as much information as possible so if there are a whole bunch of typos, I apologize!!!! So this week was another good one!  Also my birthday finished it off, but that's not too big of a deal haha. Monday was cool.  We had pday which was good.  Went to a bath house.  I'm not particularly fond of those at this point just because it's nothing special to me really anymore but it was still nice.  After that we were walking to our house to find something else to do and we walked by this music studio and one of the missionaries in our house, Elder Watts, plays drums and had been itching to play drums for a fair amount of time so we looked into it and ended up goofing around in the studio on the keyboard, guitar, and drums for a little while.  It was pretty fun.  Kind of strange cause none of us really play the same kind of music, but it was still good especially since Elder Watts got to have fun with it.  I felt a little bad because Elder Kelson isn't a musician really, but he said it was fun.  He is a fantastically charismatic singer though.  No shame in that man.  I love it.  I'm still the worst singer in our house, but that's okay, didn't expect much less than that for the greater portion of my life.  ^^ Tuesday was cool.  We met with our awesome investigator Bob who was great.  This week we finally got him to take a book of Mormon.  It took forever, but I know that if he reads it with real intent, he will find out that it is true.  He's a good guy, but seems like he likes to hide that a little bit sometimes.  Tuesday Murphy came by Gangnam and gave me my fantastic birthday present of old school 3D glasses.  You know the kind with the red and blue plastic lenses.  Super awesome.  I think it was one of the best things I could have gotten for my birthday.  It really is crazy though.  Just wearing them around the house is a trip. We also met with this guy for dinner that night that kind of considers us like little brothers.  Super good guy.  We had pig feet for dinner.  it was fantastic.  Bet you wouldn't have thought that pig feet are tasty but they are!!!  The guy brought a friend of his who is a deacon in his church and he was a really nice guy too.  I actually think that guy is more likely to be an investigator in all honesty. Wednesday we had zone conference which was awesome.  I love being able to be at meetings with president.  He's the boss.  We learned a ton of cool stuff that day.  I love being around a bunch of people who have a lot I can learn from.  Fan of that thing these days.  Learning. We had to leave a little early for a baptismal interview for this guy that was super prepared.  He ended up getting baptized which was awesome.  Go other people in the district!  We're working on them in Gangnam too.  The bishop is looking for em to happen.  Hope we can fulfill a bit.   Thursday we had service which was fun.  We worked at this kitchen for old folks which was great.  This guy told my companion how to do the dishes like 14 different times at least.  It was kind of frustrating because he wasn't really doing anything on his own.  In fact kind of making the process less efficient, but he's a nice guy.  Just trying to help the mindless americans. After that we went to the church because these people were coming to film an intro to the church video in Korean and they were using our chapel for it.  We happily obliged and they were super nice people!  Made things lots of fun.  Friday was mostly nothing special but we finished up being on exchanges from the day before which was cool.  I like exchanges.  Cool things happen Saturday we had english class and one person came.  That was fantastic.  It was a holiday though.  Afterwards was when we had dinner with this guy visiting from america on business.  It was fun.  THere were these people at this other table staring at us, and they were saying things about us and so I acknowledged it said we were missionaries, and then said we were mormon missionaries, and they immediately avoided any further interaction.  it was pretty funny actually haha.   Sunday was cool.  It was my birthday and testimony meeting which was a fun combo!  I bore my testimony and it was kind of neat because everyone kind of sat at attention.  That was kind of a cool feeling for me.  Still not good at public speaking really... This other family invited us over for dinner and didn't know that it was my birthday because I'm not one to really announce that sort of thing, but they invited us over nonetheless.  It was the first counselor in the bishopric, and literally I walked into the church shook his hand and the first thing he said was "hey come over to our house tonight for dinner."  Super fun.  They gave us a ton of food.  It was fantastic.  And they sang happy birthday to me.  Also for you other missionary parents,  nerf guns are like the best birthday present ever!  Our house is ridiculous now.  Unless they have a hard time focusing then it's a problem.  SUPER AWESOMELY FUN THOUGH!!! 생일 죽하합니다!  (saeng-il chuk-ha-ham-ni-da) It means happy birthday!!! I love you all!!! 클라슨 장로

President is da boss and when he gives you a challenge, you do it!!!!! 2 messages

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Scott Clawson <clawson.scott@myldsmail.net>	Sun, Feb 23, 2014 at 7:33 PM
To: Nancy Clawson <neclawson@gmail.com>
Hey President! So I guess this email is two fold urgent, because I was supposed to mark it for the reasons for mission ending dates, and about when we hit the goal of 200 conversations. For the mission ending date, I would like to start school again directly after returning and I think that it would only work out if I went home in July. Sad thought. I don't want that day to come, but on a brighter note, we hit the goal of 200! Super awesome!! It was kind of strange how much more natural it seemed. We probably had less contacting time, but it was just like the right people were being put in our path, so that we could talk to them. There were some particularly cool experiences, one in particular being one day after we met with a recent convert who wanted to read the Book of Mormon a bit together, and we were walking back to the station to ride the subway home, and we just said hi to this guy, and he turned around and kind of looked at us, and then we talked and we're meeting him tonight! He said he wants to feel what faith is like and notices the difference it makes in people's lives! Super cool, and I hope things go well with him. I'm really excited for what will come as we continue to strive and hit this goal for as long as is possible. Thanks for the challenge president! It really has brought a bunch of miracles! Have a great week! See you wednesday! Elder Clawson Hey Everybody!!!  So this week has been super cool.  If you actually read the email for President it kind of explains why to some extent.  Last week, President emailed my companion and told him that we should go for 200 conversations this upcoming week.  At first I kind of thought that it might be unlikely being that sometimes you kind of have to work up to that sort of thing, but we were mistaken!!!  We just kind of went for it and at one point it seemed kind of out of reach.  Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are typically our bigger contacting days because the weekends can end up somewhat busy, not to mention just the regularly occurring meetings that happen on weekends, and we had 100 conversations at the end of the day thursday.  My companion said something along the lines of "let's just do it" and from Friday to Sunday we got 104 conversations on the street.  It was kind of crazy.  We plan on hitting it again this coming week. Interesting thought about what I said with it possibly being something you ease into, but I thought about that a great deal more this week.  With some things it's okay to just ease into it, but when it's something that is a bit more urgent, and something needs to change, there is no better way to do it than immediately.  I've kind of learned that a whole bunch on my mission.  This week made me feel a lot better about that too.  In the past I had a goal of trying to get 200 conversations in one week before the end of my mission, and now that's happened.  Right now I'm trying to feel out how many I should go for within a week again.  I really do enjoy talking to people now.  You have so many fun experiences.  Random people have a lot you can learn from. Here's a fun tidbit I forgot to share last week, I gave my companion a bloody nose one night!  We were in bed, and when he knelt down to pray I kind of tried to push him over just for fun, and failed.  During my prayer he pushed me over, and it was pretty funny, but that couldn't be the end of it, so I finished my prayer, and then decided to kind of jump on top of him, and my hand kind of just hit him in the face.  It was glorious.   Other fun story this week, so we were walking somewhere and walked past this guitar shop.  I thought, "hey, we can try and make that guy an investigator"  We've got investigators before from stores, so I thought, that could be a thing.  We went inside and talked and looked around a little, and I noticed he had a bunch of PRS guitars.  For those of you who don't know, PRS stands for Paul Reed Smith and is this insanely awesome guitar company.  I've never played one, only just kind of oogled over them, and so I thought I could try it and see if I could impress the guy working there or something.  Not successful.  I forgot that I haven't played electric guitar, like, ever on my mission and as such am not remotely close to used to it.  Failed...  Still going to try and make him an investigator though.  Also I now understand why PRS is so stinking awesome... Just trying to use all the preparation in my life to benefit my missionary work!!  People have gotten baptisms off of screen golf, why not guitar? Saturday was fun.  We had English class and since my birthday is next week, a couple people wanted to take me to dinner, so we did.  Incidentally this other ward member who is from japan but spends a ton of time in Korea wanted to take us out as well.  So what was two meals, turned into one, and then by the time that the meal was over they both offered to take me out again, so it turned into three.  So lovely.   Remember that surprise baptism I told you about a month or two ago?  Where the ward baptized this girl and then were just like "hey this is a convert".  Well she came back to church for the first time in a month or two.  Thankfully.  I've heard she kind of actually knows a little bit about the gospel now.  Nevermind knowing that at all before your baptized...  ridiculous. Still love it so much here in Gangnam.  I was going to say it's my favorite area but everywhere is my favorite area I feel like.  It's all the best.  so great. Here's a good korean word for that! 짱 (jjang) it basically means the best, like in Nacho Libre where he talks about getting up everyday at 5 o'clock and makes the kids breakfast "It's da best!"  that kind of best.  Super fun.  I love it here.  Stupid release date having to exist.  Not making me happy about that Well Everyone have a good week!  I love you all! 클라슨 장로

YIKES!!!!  Once again, so tardy in posting these updates.  Perhaps we are on the downhill slide of this adventure.  Too early for Scott to feel that way though.  =)

February 16, 2014

 

 Happy VAlentines Day!!

 

 

Hey President

서울 pass-off complete.

Well this week was another good one. With regard to the challenge that you gave to Elder Kelson, we will go for it. I know it's definitely possible, being that I think when me and Elder Hale we got like 206 one time, I think Elder Kelson and I could definitely pull it off. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!
Quick side note about that Primary activity that happened, we ended up not having to watch that movie fortunately, and it turned out to be a different movie. It was a super good activity though! There were 11 kids there, and our primary is usually only about 5 kids. Super cool. We're working to try and help this one family come into the church now. 강남 ward is really excited right now. I'm excited to be here while things are going on like this that I can be a part of it.
Elder Kelson and I are doing good together. We are getting along well, and the rest of the district seems to be doing really good too. Elder 임 also seems to be working really hard to get the ward going in 서초 as well which seems to be working out. Thanks for your visit there. The Elders said that it was great!

have a great week! Also I think I missed your birthday last week, but happy birthday!!!

Elder Clawson

Hey there everybody!

Hope you're all doing good this week!  I sure am!  Let's see, since last week...  Well monday wasn't pday because we went to the temple this week which means that we had pday on thursday instead of monday.  Just normal proselyting.  In the process of proselyting on monday, we found this store that sells rubiks cubes for $30 and $46, kinda ridiculous.  Didn't even know that was possible!  I guess when you do it competitively you want that.

A recurring event this week has to do with a particular referral that we got.  A couple weeks ago we got this referral and all it had was this apartment building.  No unit number, no phone number, just what the building is.  Needless to say it has been a journey trying to find this person, and a journey that is not even close to over might I add.  We've spent a ton of time just trying to find out who lives where, but the worst part is that it's gated and blocked with a coded entry, so we just have to type in house numbers and hope somebody is home and that it's the right person.  Not very successful to date.  Actually I guess in this case there are only 3 degrees of successful.  1, no success, still havent found him. 2.  Finding out that said person doesn't live there so we can stop worrying about it.  3. Finding him!  We're still on the first degree at this point.  Working on it...

Tuesday we met with our investigator Bob.  Bob's the best.  He's kind of english interest but we found out that he's not just interested in English!!!  He's the best actually on tuesday he asked about temple work on some level because he saw the temple and he asked about it.  No idea how to explain half that stuff in English, let alone Korean.  That's okay though, we ran out of time at that point and decided we'd study over it and talk about it next time.  Well we didn't talk about it next time because we focused more on the plan of salvation and talked about Adam and Eve and he loved it!  He likes a ton how our church believes that Adam and Eve weren't bad people, but that it was part of the plan.  I just realized in that lesson that were that not the case it would be pretty stupid to have the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the garden in the first place.  

Anyways he really enjoyed that and agreed that if he does come to know the things we teach him are true he will get baptized.  Bob is the man.  

On Pday we went bowling again.  Big surprise.  IT was super fun!!  I did pretty good.  Got a new personal best of 131 which was fun.  Also, my companion Elder Kelson is ridiculously hilarious when it comes to bowling.  He finished off a spare by jumping at the lane, doing a 180 and chucking the ball between his legs and just walking away.  No look back.  Bowling is eventful.  Also our friend Elder Im got a turkey!  Stuff was crazy!

Saturday we got a call from one of the primary presidency people and she was like "hey can you come to this activity we have in like an hour? there will be at least 4 nonmembers there," so we did and it was awesome!!!  We mostly were working with these three boys and they were so fun.  Mostly the youngest, he's like 6 and talking to me the whole time.  Saying things like "it's too spicy I can't eat it," to which I respond "well don't" and then he says "but I have to. maybe I'll just eat one or two pieces"  basically just the cutest kid in the world.  Also he ate 2 huge slices of pizza, and this kid is basically my best friend ever.  I hope he comes to church in the future.  Sooooo fun!

Also, same day we had a meeting with this guy who bought us dinner and then wanted to talk about the church for a little bit.  The guy was so nice.  He was really kind and for whatever reason just wants to take really good care of us.  I hope we can do the same in return.  Also during our meeting with him, we got a call from the office that we will be moving into Gangnam!  WOOO NO more living outside of our area!!! So stoked for that.  mostly just cause we get to spend more time in our area actually proselyting!  It's da best.  

Yesterday at church this one member brought two of his friends who are nonmembers and it was awesome!!  I've met with both of them before well sort of.  One I've met before and the other I tried talking to him on the street once I think and I'm pretty sure that he shut me down.  Lol.

Super fun being a missionary right now.  I love it!!!

답사  (dab-sa)

it means recon.  I use it to describe trying to find that guys house.  

Love you all!!

클라슨 장로

 

 

 

February 9, 2014

Heya folks!

Hope everything is going good for you!  I'm doing good.  This last week was transfers and while I'm bummed that Elder Thorup is gone, and it seemed like we had a lot going, it's kinda nice how things just keep moving on and it doesn't really matter who's there as long as they have the right intentions for missionary work.  That being said, my new companion is Elder Kelson and he decidedly ended my streak of companions that were shorter than me.  He is 6'4 and 18.  Actually, his birthday is the day I entered the mtc.  Not the same year.  That would make him not 18, and erego not able to serve a mission at this time, being that he would only have been 1 and a half.

Anyways so yeah this week has been good with my new companion!  Prior to transfers, on tuesday we had a pretty busy day.  We met with like 2 people that we usually meet with.  One is our american friend who is the phd.  He's such a good guy.  I want to help him back into the gospel, but he doesn't see how it can make him much of a better person.  Not really sure if I disagree with him, but it brings me back to that quote from the tv show numbers where one of the characters is asked "why do you believe in God", and he says, "if you go through life believing in God and trying to act righteously, when you die, God will see your good works and you'll go to heaven.  If God doesn't exist, then you haven't lost anything."  I'm paraphrasing, not exactly sure how that went, but somewhere along those lines.  It was a good meeting though.  I tried to not talk too much because it was Elder Thorup's last time meeting with this guy and was kind of a good time for Elder Thorup to throw in his last words I suppose, and I didn't want to get in the way.  Didn't work out too well though.  I'm such a talker.

Later we met with the other easiest guy to love in our ward who is really struggling.  He had a problem with the Book of Mormon and wanted to give up on it, and more or less did, but then on tuesday he decided that he would give it more of a chance on his own.  Even though there are things he didn't like, he realized that when he was consistently reading the Book of Mormon that his life was a lot better.  Pretty cool lesson for me even as just the missionary who was teaching him that humility with something like that can even help you out a bunch.  The Book of Mormon is da best.  nuff said.

On that note, I found a scripture in 1 corinthians that says that women should not have short hair, and men should not have long hair.  Take that relief society hair cuts!  for more information see 1st Corinthians 11.  Not even joking, this is a real thing, and there's not even any room for interpretation.  Good thing the Bible has been translated like 40 times...

Transfers were fun, my companion is cool, and kinda weird.  He's from Sandy Utah, and is into cars and stuff.  His brothers drive Miadas and go to drift competetions.  He also enjoys cycling, and can do a pretty solid impersonation of Crunk from the Emperor's New Groove.  

On that note, the other elders in our house, there is a new missionary, and his name is Elder Watts.  Guy is a boss at impersonations.  He seriously exactly mimicd andy circus on Smeagle.  Ridiculous. Fun guy.  SoOOOOOO much jet lag.

The sisters from my mtc district are home.  Kind of awkward.  sad to see them go, but what the heck I'm an old missionary!!!!!!

Oh yeah, we have an investigator who goes by the english name Bob!  Guy is so cool.  Loves his family and is so ready for the gospel but is so afraid of his wife judging him for learning about a church that is not the church they currently attend.  He won't say it outloud, but it's pretty apparent.  We gave him a Proclamation to the World and he started saying about how families are really important and how we need them, before we even read the thing, and we're just like "dude, just read the stinkin thing, we already know all that and have some more to share".  HOpefully he read it and figured it out.  Also likes the whole eternal families thing.

Saturday after english class it was snowing and we were looking around for somewhere to eat dinner and we walked by this one restaurant and what did we see?  Our english class members eating dinner!  So we stopped in and said hi and then they bought us food.  They're so awesome.  It was pretty fun.  English class is seriously one of the funnest things that we get to do ever.  Its da best.

Sunday was awesome.  This one ward member brought a whole family to church this week.  Such a boss member.  if you can't all members of the family that brings her to 7 referrals in the past 5 months.  I think she's really trying to show how missionary work is really supposed to be done and she really does love the gospel.  I hope the rest of the world can catch on some time soon.  I hope even more that I don't forget that thought.

I love you all you da best!!!

짱 이에요!!!^^ (jjang i-ei-yo)

클라슨 장로

February 2, 2014
Hey Everybody!!!

Transfer calls came again and I will being hanging out in Gangnam for at least one more trasnfer as district leader but not training.  Just taking somebody that has been just finished being trained and making his life so much more fun by experiencing the weirdness that is Elder Clawson!  My new companion's name is Elder Kelson and we aren't companions yet,  but we will be starting wednesday!!!  Exciting.  Kind of funny, so my hopes for transfers were to go back to the zone that I started in and be zone leader, but that didn't happen obviously, not bummed really but Elder Thorup is going to that same area where the zone leaders there live and work!  How lame is that.  He's not the zone leader, but he still gets to go to the place that I wanted to go.  I was frustrated at first but I'm okay with it now.  Always have to end up cool with transfers. 

Other crazy news about this transfer, the sisters that I was in the MTC at the same time as are going home this transfer!  How crazy is that!?!?  I'm so stinking old it makes me sad.  I still have served more transfers than the rest of the missionaries in my house have collectively.  Not complaining, just saying, I love being out here.  Every second of it.

This week was that lunar new year holiday and it was pretty cool.  We kind of get slowed down with regard to missionary work here when the holidays come around.  Not Christmas or things like that.  That's entirely commercial but the big Korean holidays are good excuses for people not to like us.  That doesn't stop me from talking to random people on the street though!!! They can't escape!  Is that a strange thought process?  probably.  I apologize.

Last p-day was okay.  We went to this cemetary and it was pretty dead.  Hopefully we can have a little bit more fun today.  That's our plan.  Anyways, back to last week, sorry I got distracted, but yeah the holiday!  So the day of we had a mission conference which was pretty fun because we got to see a lot of other cool missionaries and such which is always fun, but always frustrating because then it's impossible to get things done in some regards.  Good and bad.  We got these new signs to proselyte with when we go to work as a district or something and they seem solid!  The only time that we got to practice with them was on the big holiday so no one was outside to be found, but that's okay.  Still some good times and good conversations to be had and always lots to be learned.  The day before we went to our bishop's house and he fed us for the holiday and the dude is apparently a beast of health!  He said he can do 300 situps straight and used to be able to do 6000!!!!  yes 6000 jump rope repititions straight...  I feel humbled...  He's so cool though.  I love our bishop, the guy is the man.

Saturday this member of Seocho ward (not the ward in which I serve but the neighboring one) fed us, the missionaries from seocho, and from another area.  There were 12 there in all.  That's a lot of missionaries...  crazy...  Also was the single most sarcastic Korean that I have ever met.  Most Koreans don't really get sarcasm too well but this lady was just drilling us with it!  I really thought she hated me until she tried to hug me when we left for English class, where we got more food.  I was stuffed that day.  

Yesterday was cool.  Me and Elder Thorup basically just did a bunch of contacting which was fun.  Our ward members were a little bummed that Elder Thorup is leaving, but they're solid so they'll just keep on going.  I love gangnam ward.  I feel really blessed that I have yet to have a ward that I didn't get along with pretty much everyone.  I can't understand anything that our ward mission leader says here because he's a nuclear engineer and is thus a genius, but that's a small problem haha.  He uses the most ridiculous vocab.  IT makes every meeting interesting.  

Sorry I'm mostly out of time.  I'm looking forward to everything this new week brings!!! A new transfer all this cool stuff!  Love you all.  You're the best.

학생 많다  (hak-saeng mant-da)

it means there's a lot of students, because the place I'm emailing from right now is FULL of students.  ridiculously, absurdly, incredulously large amounts of high school students...

Have a great week!

클라슨 장로

January 26, 2014

Hey everyone!  

This week has been super cool.  So last week for p-day a bunch of people wanted to go shopping for suits and stuff, and so we went to the place where you do that.  I'm really burnt out on the buying suits thing now, so I just kind of stood around while everyone else did their things.  Afterwards my companion bought a side bag that is pretty similar to mine (you're kind of not supposed to wear back-packs anymore so that's a thing...) and that makes him the third companion of mine that has gotten a similar bag to mine while we were companions.  Well the first one at least did it at the same time so we were both to blame, but the next two...  grrr

After that we went bowling again, and I bowled my first game over 100!  How sick is that?!?!?!  I'm really bad at bowling, but I got a super sick strike that I may send a video of at some point in the not too distant future.  legit.

Tuesday was crazy!  So we started the day with 3 appointments which only like one and a half of them turned out...  So this guy we met first was... fun?  He met us and then was about to take us to another area/zone of the mission which isn't okay, but we dodged that bullet fortunately.  He took us to get lunch at this chinese restaurant which was tasty but during the duration of it his mood totally changed.  He went from happy and goofy to quite and kind of sullen.  After he took us to get hot cocoa and made it super weird by like interrogating us about our intentions.  He was worried we were going to teach him about the gospel.  Man, what a concept, missionaries teaching you about the gospel, that's foreign-_-

We calmed it down a bit, and he decided he would just let us practice Korean by letting us teach him in Korean.  I wasn't there when they met him on thursday though, which was apparently frustrating cause all he did was just correct my companion whenever he talked.  No chance at feeling the spirit when you can't even get a full sentence of doctrine.

While we got hot cocoa I was reminded of another investigator that we had met a couple times so after that meeting I gave him a call and he said we could meet later that night, so we did!  It was awesome.  The guy is super nice and told these people at the cafe that we met at to be really nice to us cause we're good people.  Still not too sure why this guy isn't baptized, but we'll figure out in not too long.

That afternoon we met with our American less-active phd friend, who is way too smart.  He has this logic about growing a bunch and compares it to being on an olympic running squad, but doesn't take the time to realize that there is indeed a lot of growth that he is mission out on.  Super nice guy though!  would never speak an ill word of just about anything!

Last on Tuesday we met with our recent convert who has been struggling a lot recently and he was really distraught.  He couldn't focus long enough to get just about anything of a thought together, and me and my companion were pretty much just at a loss.  I swear I had like 3 of 4 thoughts come into my head that I swear were the spirit but just kinda bounced off of him like nothing.  Then finally the thought came to have him serve people.  He had the priesthood but had yet to pass the sacrament.  He said he didn't want to come to church, but I asked him to give it one more chance, and come to pass the sacrament on sunday.  He agreed.  Fast forward to sunday, he passed the sacrament and was the most consistently happy I have seen him in a very long time.  Super awesome.

Wednesday was crazy.  The sisters in our area were sick so they couldn't come to district meeting or english class.  District meeting was good.  It ended up how I wanted with just everybody talking to each other about how to use the Book of Mormon better and it was awesome.  English class however.  There were like 14 people there, more than ever before and only 2 teachers.  That was hard to handle.  I swear that nobody could get their due.  It was tough, but cool.  Lot's of cool people came and there's still potential for growth!

Thursday we went on exchanges which was kind of tough.  We did good work and then we met with some of the Seocho elder's investigators and it was kind of disheartening.  They were such nice and awesome people, but didn't seem to notice how the gospel could help them.  Newlyweds trying to start a family, and are too busy to make it too church.  They really are super awesome and would make awesome members of the church.  But don't see why sacrifices would help them come closer to christ and be happier in general.

Friday was awesome!!!  So I had forgotten but the Relief Society Ward Missionary Coordinate (tell me that's not a mouthful) had invited both the Elders and the sisters for lunch, and i forgot about it until like 10 that day.  We scrambled to get people to come, and ended up getting our American friend to meet us there.  He speaks little Korean and she speaks NO english.  The food was good but that's not what was cool.  Our friend ended up asking about her conversion story after some discussion, and she shared it, and I translated.  It was really awesome.  In that story was the answer to like everything that he has thought about with regard to the church.  If he denied what she shared that day, it would just be pure stubbornness and there's no way to deny that it was inspired.  There was no way we could have planned it, and even if we could, it couldn't possibly have been better.  That member is amazing.

Saturday was cool.  Kind of all over the place again with appointments and such and then english class which was fun.  

Sunday was another crazy day.  So we set goals for conversations we have with people on the street.  Our goal for the week was 170 and we had 113 going into that day.  In planning on saturday, I looked at our schedule and we had no appointments so we set our daily goal for contacts at 57.  I've never set it that high since we switched from proselyting gospel contacts to conversations.  A little different of a feel.  After like an hour of "conversationing", we weren't doing too well, and I was a little discouraged, but Elder Thorup picked me up, and by the end of the day after a lot of work, we ended the day with 62.  Super crazy.  We met a ton of really cool people in the process and got like 3 phone numbers.  Missionary work is awesome man.

Transfer calls come on saturday so next monday I'll have news theoretically!

This week is 설날 (seol nal)which is a huge Korean holiday it means lunar new year so happy 설날 everyone!!!

사랑해요!!  (sa rang hae yo)

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January 19, 2013


HEya everybody!!!

This was another good week.  They're all good.  Always will be pretty much.  We had a ton of appointments, but a lot of people decided that they didn't want to meet really, but that's okay, we'll be alright.

Fun story, Tuesday there was this one appointment that we had that I even called the guy the night before and he said he was super down to meet.  We went to the predetermined location 15 minutes early, and he never showed, so we went to eat lunch.  After eating lunch, we were cleaning up and not moving around too fast or anything because we've been somewhat frustrated with the lack of appointments lately, but then I felt like we should go out and talk to people on this one street and go this specific way to get there.  Never in the world would I have called it a spiritual impression, but I bet you could guess where this story is headed.  While we were out trying to talk to people there was this kid I was talking to and Elder Thorup was kind of trying to start some conversations with some other people but no one was biting.  Then we saw this guy that I had talked to a couple times before, walking our way.  He went up to Elder Thorup and was like "Hey Elder!  How you doing?"  He's American by the way.  He was coming from the hospital I guess because his leg had been bothering him, and the first time I saw him he was goofing around on a bike, doing like BMX trials stuff.  We talked to him, and found out he's actually a member of the church or was at least raised one.

His father had in fact served a mission in Korea so he was asking about what we do as missionaries really.  We ended up walking and talking and ended up at this crossroads where it would be super easy to go to the church, and he was like "which way do you want to go?  What way seems RIGHT to you."  I asked if he had been to the church here in Gangnam and he said no, but I'm not sure I believe him because the correct direction to turn to end up at the church would have been right (hence the uppercase letters in the quote)  At the church he wanted to play some ping pong and we ended up hearing his story and he's a super cool guy.  Turns out the guy has a PHD in psychology...  who would have guessed.  The guy I met goofing around on a bike has a PHD.  Super cool guy and has really grown a lot in his life.  There's too much for me to type in one email about this guy, but I just see ways that the gospel could bless him so much.  He's kind of too worried about other people's progression and as my companion put it has a little "third person pride".  That's when someone else points out that other people have flaws and are prideful to some degree, but then being kind of proud of their ability to point that out.  STILL!  One of the coolest dudes I've met.  and really nice.  and good at ping pong.

Wednesday was cool.  We had President Interviews and district meeting.  All week I could not come up with anything to train on and it was really starting to irritate me.  I was trying to work on something with the Book of Mormon cause that is what our mission's focus is supposed to be this month, but nothing was really coming.  President had been really big on having shined shoes lately and I had shined my shoes on Monday, but Elder Thorup didn't know how so he hadn't done it yet.  I wanted to prepare for my training in the morning before study, but I thought I should shine his shoes for him instead.  I felt pretty good afterwards and I still had nothing for my training.  When it came time for district meeting, I had this epiphany that I needed to share about love.  Well maybe not an epiphany, but more like inspiration haha.  It was a pretty good district meeting and I learned a cool lesson about love and service from it too.

We also went to this guys ginseng shop that day (ginseng is HUGE in Korea, also very expensive) and we talked to him a bit.  I guess he had only had one customer that day, and then we came, and he bought us some 김밥 and he 3 customers totaling at over $1600 in sales while we were there...  coincidence? I think not!!!!  Cool experience though.

Thursday we went on exchanges with the other Elders in our house which was fun.  I had some cool experiences with Elder Williamson.  Also I heard some fun things happened in Gangnam while I was in Seocho for the day.  

Saturday I got to eat 보신탕!!!!  I'm not going to tell you what that is.  Hehehehe.  It's pronounced bo-shin-tang though.  Let me know if you figure it out.

Sunday was cool.  We went to church expecting 3 appointments with potential investigators none of which turned out, BUT we put one of them on the progress record, and we didn't get to meet with the PEC or ward counsel, but bishop looked at it, and he knew one of the names on it!!!!  So he called the guy!!!!  And he's coming to church next week!!!!  Super boss.  Our Bishop here in Gangnam ward does work.  Enough Said. 

Well sorry I gotta go, but I love you all!  You're the best!

여러분은  짱 입니당!!!!  (yeo-reo-bun-eun  jjang im-ni-da)

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