A Work Well Done: Mugunghwa--August 7, 2015

무궁화, the Rose of Sharon

As I write, the Delta Airlines Flight Tracker shows Flight 198 from Seoul Incheon to Seattle-Tacoma airport somewhere over the Pacific, south of Russia. Elder Sam South arrives home later this afternoon, Friday August 7. His last two weeks have been busy and he hasn't written much. But his final thoughts are worth sharing, I think. I'll post a homecoming note or two with some photos when we get them. Thanks to all of Sam's friends, family and neighbors who have been so supportive for these past two years, and before! ~Dad, Mikle; and Mom, Kristin

July 30: the title of his email, otherwise unreferenced: "I Have Special Experience Because of You"
Hello to family and friends. I'm sorry for the lack of email this week. It didn't work out to email on Monday, it hasn't since, and it's not looking good for the rest of the week, so I just wanted to stop in and say that I hope all is going well. Be safe and have fun to grandfather and mother in Turkey.

I am so grateful for all of your prayers--we need them! It is a busy time and transfer calls are tomorrow. There are a lot of things to work out and big changes with 31 people going home this transfer, but because the Lord is guiding if we can just make sure we're listening it will all turn out all right. We'll just keep doing our best to love and to make decisions to the best of our capacity.

Today does mark two years since I entered the MTC. This is life, and it's frankly impossible to even imagine anything else. Just the thought of leaving Korea is weighing heavily on me, not that I don't love all of you, just that I love this place so much.

Until next week all of my love and best wishes- 사랑해요ㅋ {Google translate = "I love Blah"}

사우스 장로

Thursday, August 6: Mugunghwa

Beautiful morning. In some spare time between packing and final meetings I will try to scratch out how this week has gone. This past Monday we were gone all day for a translation job for URI, a religious coalition with a lot of religiously inclined students from around the world including several Chinese Ph.D. students, a German-Italian from Spain, a yoga instructor from Argentina, a student from Sri Lanka, and many more. It was a lot of fun, and we got to go to some important religious sites around Seoul and translate the presentations there. We talked about everything from a dialogue about cremation and burial practices in a mosque in Itaewon to the number of Buddhist temples in the countryside in the main Buddhist temple in Seoul.

We have talked with a lot of people. People are so kind and we get to learn so much from every interaction. That has been one of the biggest blessings of serving here, is the interaction that we have with others on the street or in church or wherever we are. We do our best to show as much love as we can while still trying to give everyone a clear choice. I was talking with someone recently, and he stopped and turned to me and said the following:

"Koreans don't like it when you follow them like this. Go play guitar on a street corner and give out some treats or something. Go on, give it a try."

But if there's anything I have learned, it's that the Gospel can change people, and we're not going to go back to fishing or give up because people sometimes say no or the weather is hot. There are no summer soldiers in the army of the Lord, and we're not going to stop in favor of handing out pansies.

I ate with Brother Kim and his wife from Sanggye last week. They are so sweet, so, so strong, and rely on the Lord so much. As we shared a cripture with them, they said that they read regularly because they have been doing Family Home Evening every night for the past few months.

We attended a Mission Presidency meeting last week, and exciting things are coming. The work is going forward.

Ate with Brother Kim and his wife, recent converts from Sanggye, and it was so sweet. They are so, so strong, and rely on the Lord so much. We shared a scripture with them, and they said that they do Family Home Evening every night.

We ate one more time with the wonderful Lusvardi family, who have helped so much with many investigators and recent converts. They are wonderful examples, and also helped in a huge way by taking a lot of what I needed to send back with them to America. Thank you.

Brother Lee, who was baptized about a month ago now,

Damon took Elder Miller aside last week and said to him in a whisper: "Don't tell anyone, but I'm going to get baptized for Sam before he leaves." We would have loved for him to have been baptized this week, but we need to make sure that he's not getting baptized for us but for the right reasons, and his baptismal date is in a couple of weeks.

I've been thinking a lot this week about this hymn, "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief," and how every act of service is important because every act of service is aimed towards a child of God. After many of these acts of service, the following verse finishes the song:

1. Then in a moment to my view
   The stranger started from disguise.
   The tokens in his hands I knew;
   The Savior stood before mine eyes.
   He spake, and my poor name he named,
   "Of me thou hast not been ashamed.
   These deeds shall thy memorial be;
   Fear not, thou didst them unto me."

More than anything, that is what I would like to hear one day: "Of me thou hast not been ashamed." I love the Gospel and I've loved my time here as a full-time missionary. I won't have a badge on anymore, but I can still be a full-time servant of the Lord. Korea's national flower is called "mugunghwa," meaning eternal flower, and they really do seem to be blooming year-round. Certainly, though, the flower of Korea will be forever blooming in my heart and in my memory.

I thought we had more time, but we're headed out! All of my love, and see you in a few~

Elder South

"Don't play with cats"--July 19, 2015

Hello to all. <3 I pray that all has gone well this week. We've had a lot of adventures this week that I hope we can sit down and talk about around the campfire sometime, but for now I'll probably just send a few pictures and try to express what a wonderful place this is.

We went on exchanges to Sokcho, Kangneung, and Taebaek this week. The weather was wonderful and it was gorgeous. It was great to be able to get out and talk with a lot of very fun people, eat some great food, and be with the missionaries out there. It's pretty far! We don't have a huge mission as far as things go, but it takes a good 5 hours to get home from Taebaek. Whenever you are out, adventures happen, and we had a lot of very fun moments, met a lot of great people, and really enjoyed our time.

Sam with Sister Sonksen

We were in a very very little town called Tongni where we knocked on an open door, and we looked in to see someone sitting there watching a small tv with a cast on his leg. We talked with him for a while and offered to help with anything because of his leg, but he wasn't all that interested. He scooted himself to another room, but we kept talking with him through the window, so he scooted himself back into the main room and surprisingly adroitly closed the sliding door. As he did we noticed that there were stick insects everywhere on the outside of the house seeming to dance to an unknown beat- they looked very funny. We turned around to see a beautiful scene and just feel that everything was good in the world, even if not everybody accepts that which we are talking about. We got to talk to some other farmers and were received well, and were talking with a fun group of men who were all laughing and making fun of each other, saying that their friends' heads were stones. One of the most outspoken leaped up to make a joke, and in so doing his dentures fell out, which he barely caught and retired sheepishly to his seat. We saw lots of white cranes, had lots of job's tears tea, saw some dried stingrays and lots of squid. We got back on Saturday to the following:

"We have missed you so much. Marry into our family!" - Sister Sonksen

"No, no!" - President Sonksen

Back into crowded, hot, and beloved Seoul, we started again on planning for the next transfers and realized that the to-do list hadn't disappeared when we left. On Sunday we attended a couple of stake presidency meetings with President

, and were able to attend Sanggye ward for sacrament meeting, and it was very very nice to see so many old friends. We walked away with meal appointments for almost every day this week to Nokbeon ward, where we attended a baptismal service. Damon, who has a baptismal date, attended with us and met a school friend who was a member in that ward who we will try to teach with in the future. Really miraculous.

Much less happy was a sister who was on exchanges in Taebaek who got hit pretty hard by a taxi that came around the corner. She was ambulanced to the hospital by doctors who thought she had to have at least broken her pelvis, but she ended up walking home that night. Since we were out there, we spent the morning with the companionship going back to the hospital for follow-ups and talking with insurance and everything. Every taxi has a little black box that records everything in front, and it is really a miracle that she is okay. Watching the video it looks like she was really injured, and I have no doubt that her faithfulness protected her from further harm.

Costco is Costco no matter where you live.

Another elder was bitten by a feral cat, but no complications have arisen. In one of President Sonksen's catch phrases, he counseled us: "We've gotta get a message to the mission: we don't play with cats." In any case, there is never any end to adventures as a missionary, and wild card after wild card keeps us on our toes always.

We are having a wonderful time and are very very grateful to be here. I have a deep love for the land and the people here, and feel to some small degree that love that God has for them. It's a lot of love.

We're learning and growing every day, but there's still a whole lot to learn and there always will be. We'll never have enough time to do everything we want or be everything we want to be, but as we manage our resources and our time wisely God gives us so much more than we could do by ourselves.

Happy birthday this week to Opa Hacken. I love you! Congratulations. To you and mother, have a wonderful time in Turkey. I've only heard good things!

All the best,

Elder South

Missionary my whole life--July 12, 2015

Rose of Sharon, "the flower of eternity" and national symbol
for Korea

Warm greetings to all, and lots of love from Seoul. This is a good place. This is a really good place. We were just doing a u-turn today to get back home, and the thought struck me that this place has really become home. The Rose of Sharon is out and blooming brilliantly and signaling to the world the hope and the tenacity that Korea has and the meaning that it has come to have for me.

There is impossibly much to cram into one email for this week, but I do want to share at how blessed we are, how much the Lord loves all of His children and how much He wants us to be happy. I feel like I have learned a lot about the fullness of life in my time here, at how much goodness and beauty life has to offer. It means a lot to be here, everything, and I am so grateful for the experience. The biggest goal that I had for my time here when I set out was to change through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I don't know if I have, I hope I have, but I suspect that change will be more evident as I venture into different arenas and try to figure out how to focus our lives on what really matters most.

It's a very busy time. More than ever before, Elder Miller and I have essentially become companions with President as we try to do what is right and what is best. He has a hard job and we just want to do everything that we can to make his life easier. With the increased responsibilities with transfers, permissions, and everything, I'm just worried that my limitations will lead to a wrong choice or decision, but I know that as we trust in President and ultimately the Lord there's no reason to fear. When we're going the right way we just need to make sure that we stay on the path.

Increased time in the office and in the car and in interviews and such means much less time out on the streets and in the subways, which is where I really feel that we belong. It is a blessing though to have an increased association with President and appreciate the chances to learn and experience that follow. Also this week were MLC {mission leadership conferece}, where we discussed how to maximize baptismal date and follow up efficacy and how to support missionaries serving in each respective zone. There's a whole lot of good missionaries to learn from, and I have a lot to learn from each of them. We got to go to two zone trainings in the days that followed, was surprised into translating at one, and went around to a few other places for interviews. 

Any spare time we had this week was spent trying to help Brother Lee get baptized this week. We met with him several times, ate amazing mango white chocolate bing su, finished all the lessons, and waited anxiously as he did his baptismal interview. He was ready to go, and he was baptized in a beautiful service on Saturday and confirmed the next day. Many people attended his baptism, including the Lusvardi family, who sacrificed their time to come out and support Brother Lee. We're so grateful to everyone that has helped out, to a wonderful ward, and of course to a God who never ceases to pour out His blessings. Brother Lee has is planning on going to youth camp this summer, wants to serve a mission, and is doing great. He has made good friends with our other most progressing investigator, Damon, who should be baptized in the next month.

Pictures from our ward and the baptism are found below, including a moderately-to-highly awkward video of me trying to accompany our musical number. It was fun to have a cello again, and after Brother Lee's baptism we got to go to another baptismal service where we played another song. He and I were both nervous before and during the baptismal service, but after he was baptized everything felt so peaceful and so right.

Damon is progressing well although isn't having an easy time. His grandmother passed away this week and he's taking it pretty hard. Every time we meet, though, he tells us that all of his bad thoughts are being taken away and that he feels so much better. Although he doesn't yet fully understand what it is, it is amazing to see in front of us Isaiah's words: "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed."

We're going to Sokcho, Kangneung, Taebaek, and maybe Donghae {all to the east, by the sea and in the mountains} this week for interviews and exchanges, so we will be able to get out of the office for that amount of time, but knowing that a pressing wall of to-dos will greet us on our return. I'm grateful for Christ and all that he does for us. This week I have felt strength far beyond what I know that I could do on my own and I am grateful for the assurance and love that a loving God gives.

Luke and Ashley, congratulations {Sam's good friend Luke is engaged to Ashley} . Really. All wishes as you plan and prepare. I'm fast becoming the only member of the bachelor crowd, but that's okay, it's not a bad place to be. I just wish that I could be a missionary my whole life.

I'm fast out of time, but I've been thinking a lot about service this past week. Some quotes that I have liked are:

To give and not to count the cost;
To fight and not to heed the wounds; …
To labor and not ask for any reward
Save that of knowing that we do Thy will. - St. Ignatius Loyola

“How carefully most men creep into nameless graves, while now and again one or two forget themselves into immortality~” – Phillips Brooks

I thought that that quote matched well and interestingly with Jesus' admonition:

"Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works."

All my love. Serve on.

E. South

"Sister S: it has begun!" New mission president--July 5, 2015

If this week has taught me anything it is that being a Mission President would be very, very hard. Also, though, that Mission presidents are able to take on the mantle of God and guide in a way that could only come through the Spirit. We said a sad farewell to the wonderful Christensens on Wednesday, and suddenly realized that we had a very big job ahead of us. 

This is a crazy transfer week. We have interviews with everyone, so we're visiting just about every area, we had "Meet the President" conferences this week, for one day of which we drove out to Wonju in Kangwon-Do, we have eight exchanges to do, but will probably only be able to do 3 or so, and transfers to plan and just helping everyone get adjusted and comfortable. In short, it's a fun time to be here and a good chance to have lots of unique learning experiences. I'm feeling a lot more comfortable driving around Seoul, now, at least.

It's a busy time, but we can look back and see just how many miracles fell into place this week with new investigators, people at church, people calling us and wanting to meet, and just having some time to get out there and work. We've been showered in blessings. We had some really good lessons with Brother Lee this week, some real talks, where we discussed baptism, and he's ready to go. He'll be baptized this Saturday. The Lusvardis, just a wonderful, wonderful family who live in our area, had us over again yesterday, and Brother Lee and his mother were both able to attend. They felt loved and cared for. Damon is also getting close and continues to progress well. We wish we had more time for "regular missionary work," but we all want more time in our lives and we just need to do the best that we can with what we have, and we'll do our best to do that.

President and Sister Sonksen are wonderful. They are fun to be around, have a wealth of experiences to draw on, and are very in tune spiritually. We have our first MLC {mission leadership conference} tomorrow, and we're excited to hear more from them. MLC is always an enlightening experience, and I'm excited to see another style of leadership and see what I can learn. I was just realizing that not a single person in attendance tomorrow will be the same as the first time I attended MLC, including the Mission President- time just goes so fast.

We're excited for this week and beyond. The good news is that we're floating and the work continues to move forward. Hopefully we'll start to learn how to swim here pretty soon.

1. I need thee ev'ry hour,
   Most gracious Lord.
   No tender voice like thine
   Can peace afford.

I need thee, oh, I need thee;

Ev'ry hour I need thee!

Oh, bless me now, my Savior;

I come to thee!

May you have rain and shade this summer. I hope you had a fun Independence Day, and that you continue to find joy in the journey.

All love,

Elder South

Un Monde Sans Etrangers--June 29, 2015

Good day to all. <3 It's warm here, but sounds like not so warm as over there. We've had some nice cool breezes this week, and we're headed out again to Kangwon-do (by the sea) this week, which is always a welcome retreat.

It's been a busy time, and that won't stop anytime soon. Lots of meetings and organization and planning, but trying to have as much time as possible for "normal" missionary work, and to make sure that administrative work never gets in the way of taking an interest in and caring for individual missionaries. We're not really sure what to expect for this week, or beyond- we're just doing everything we can to be on top of cleaning, organization, and scheduling, and trying to be ready to adapt to whatever President Sonksen needs us to do. This past week brought some big changes in the mission, with my upper group going home, which was a lot of people and a lot of strength. Elder Perry is travelling around with his parents, and it was fun to meet them. One returning sister's father does calligraphy as a hobby, and gave some beautiful pieces to the Christensens last week for our conferences. I was admiring them, and as her dad came to pick her up, he brought a beautiful inscription of Moroni 10:32 for me, which I am very grateful for. Elder Perry's dad served with President Christensen here when they were young missionaries, so that was a fun reunion. We're now the oldest missionaries in the mission, which is strange considering how young we all still feel. Fortunately, we had a fun trip to the airport and brought back some fresh and more eager than average new missionaries to start their own journeys. At trainers' training the following day we had missionaries from Korea, America, Australia, Germany, the Czech Republic, England, and the Philippines in attendance.

Kanghyeok, Damon, is doing very well. We first talked with him as we were shopping a couple of P-days ago, and he has really grasped on to the church and has found a lot of help in it. He came to church this week, and set a baptismal date for August 2nd. As he was coming out of Gospel Principles {Sunday School class}, he was thinking a lot about baptism: "wow, do I really need to be baptized?" Once investigators share their concerns about being afraid of the physical under the water part of baptism you know that they're pretty close.

Jaeyoung Lee we have met with a couple times recently and is progressing well. He and his mother are still planning on being baptized in a couple of weeks. He came to an activity at the church on Saturday, and it was good to spend some time with him and then go to his home and meet with his mom and grandmother over delicious ddeokbokki and sweet potato cake. They are so kind and so thoughtful, and really sacrifice so much for each other. They've had some hard times and don't have an easy family situation, but it's incredible to see the Gospel fill that hole in their lives that maybe they didn't know that they had.

On Saturday this week we had an appointment at the church with an older man without a Christian background, and as we met sang a few hymns with him. Elder Miller and I aren't allstar singers by any stretch of the imagination, but he really enjoyed them and it was impressive again to see the power of the hymns. We went outside and proselyted for a while, and people were less receptive, which happens some days. After a good chunk of that, though, we had some very powerful lessons and some great people come to church, so we were just so grateful. There's a Korean expression, 고생 끝에 낙이 온다, meaning in essence that after the storms come the flowers. There's a lot to be grateful as a missionary, on the front lines, seeing all the miracles happen. No one, maybe, has more reason to be more grateful:

"Now have we not reason to rejoice? Yea, I say unto you, there never were men that had so great reason to rejoice as we, since the world began; yea, and my joy is carried away, even unto boasting in my God; for he has all power, all wisdom, and all understanding; he comprehendeth all things, and he is a merciful Being, even unto salvation, to those who will repent and believe on his name."

Why are we rejoicing? Because we have the opportunity to share the Gospel, and to see the change that happens through Him.

We had ward conference this week, and we were running around for a bit trying to figure out translation and stuff at the beginning of sacrament meeting. Eventually we sat down, and heard the people behind us speaking English, so we turned around to ask if they needed translation. The sister looked at me, did a double take, and tried to look at my name tag. As she saw it, she exclaimed, "I TAd for your dad!" We talked for a while afterwards, and it was fun to meet them. She said her English name was Sunny, and they were just out visiting family for a bit. She was talking about working with my dad, and reading my emails- I will say that she had the advantage on me, who had never met her before. It's been fun to see the influence of a righteous dad many occasions even out here in Korea as connections are made.

Some fun quotations from this week:

"No smorking"

"How do you say romantic in Korean?"

"Thank you, you too."

"Everyone is westernized, a couple times I eat bagel, not kimchi jjigae."

And from a nice grandmother who cuts our hair after she finished watching us talk to someone:

"하나님은 점수 줘."  "God is the one who will grade you."

We had a nice farewell lunch with the office staff and the Christensens today. They move into a hotel today, and leave on Wednesday. It has been an absolute privilege to work under their tutelage and learn so much from them, to see an example of just how good people can be. They have been so kind and so loving, and I hope that I can continue to be more like them as they have showed us all to be more like the Savior. Early in the mission, one assistant told me that we should always be stressed, tired, and happy as missionaries. Stressed because we want to be doing better, tired because we're working hard, and happy because there is no greater work to be doing. I am all of those things, but most of all happy and loving to be here in Seoul. All love to you and prayers for your welfare,

Elder South

"Oh my gosh, the Mormons have made it to Korea" --June 22, 2015

Good day to all, and thank you all for so much love and your support. Every week goes far too quickly, but we are just having such a good time and I am amazed every week by the miracles that are possible in the work. It's always a good day.

This week we were happy to have a couple of days to do traditional missionary work, but had big zone conferences every day from Wednesday to Saturday that we attended around the mission in the mornings and then met with new missionaries for a progress program that we have in the afternoon, before going home and preparing a video for the next day's conference. It was essentially an opportunity for President to give rousing closing remarks, and he never disappoints. Each day was inspiring and powerful, and Sister Christensen gave great talks as well. We will be doing similar conferences soon after President Sonksen comes, to introduce the missionaries. It's going to be a crazy transition, that's for sure. We're not really sure what our duties will be, we'll just do our best.

My new companion is Elder Miller, and he is just solid gold. He graduated the same year as I did from Orem High, although we didn't really know each other. It's going to be a fun transfer! It's hard to contemplate President going home- he spoke at a fireside yesterday, and is just booked every day, but still makes time to support and help us, and has his whole time here. President Sonksen will go into the MTC this coming Wednesday, and President Christensen will leave on the 1st. After that, we have no idea what will happen. The work will move forward, and the righteous will be gathered.

Happy Father's day to many wonderful men, and to the righteous support of women without whom fatherhood is nothing at all, and especially to dad- thanks for all that you have done and do. It will be hard to send Elder Perry {current companion} off this week, and a lot of other fabulous missionaries that I have learned so much from- Elder Killpack, Elder Gee, Sister Ahn, and more. But time continues to move forward, and we will pick up 8 new idealistic and tired but hardworking missionaries from the airport tomorrow.

We said hello to someone who we thought was an older grandmother this week as she was weeding in a garden with her hat covering her face, and a young lady sprang up and started chatting our ear off. She said, "I only know one thing about your church: you elders don't talk to women."

Someone walked into our office this week and just opened his life up to us of how his wife passed away from stomach cancer, and how his little brother took his own life a couple years ago, and how although he opposed his wife's involvement in church, he wants now to see what she saw in religion, and wants that for himself. It was a tragic story, but we felt so strongly that God loved this brother, and that through the Atonement of Christ somehow everything will all be okay in the end.

I met a Japanese guy on the street this week that didn't speak a word of English or Korean. I was able to communicate "church," Christ," "elder," "jjambbong," "thank you," and "goodbye." Good thing other missionaries study Japanese, because I sure didn't get very far. A shirt casually screamed "New Nork." A Jewish family from California marvelled that we had made it all the way out here (see subject line). Someone said," This is illegal, following people is illegal. If you don't stop right now I'm going to call the police." All we're here to do is to give people a chance, and with not as much time left as I want, we need to make sure that people get as much of a chance as we can give them. After a long one sided conversation with someone ignoring us, he took out his headphones and said, "I'm not Korean." Our investigator texted us to "have a nice day, bro."

Several investigators are progressing well. Damon came with us to the fireside yesterday, and during the closing hymn, "Abide with Me, "Tis Eventide," the Spirit was incredibly strong. When we're doing all that we can, we get those assurances, those little packets of light that testify and let us know that God is there. We just need to grab onto those and go from witness to witness until everything becomes brighter and finally we will break through barriers of human imperfections and unbelief into a more sure existence.

Abide with me; 'tis eventide.

Thy walk today with me

Has made my heart within me burn,

As I communed with thee.

Thy earnest words have filled my soul

And kept me near thy side.

O Savior, stay this night with me;

Behold, 'tis eventide.

O Savior, stay this night with me;

Behold, 'tis eventide.

Much love to all and prayers for your well-being.

All the best,

Elder South

"I AM SMILE TO BE WHO I AM."--June 15, 2015

Good afternoon to all~<3

We've had a blast this week. I'll talk a little bit about the logistics of how things worked. President mentioned in a talk a while back that when he was a missionary they had had a 100-hour week of proselyting, and that idea stuck with me until our focus this month on discipleship in our mission. As we talked with President, he didn't want us to give out any commitments about this, but said that we could do to same thing, and if others wanted to do so, they could this week as well. We got up every day at 5:30, and were out by 6:30, skipping studies, and meals, and email, and everything. We were back by 9:30 at night, but if we had a lesson, we could be out until 10. It was a blast, and the mission just exploded. We had more new investigators, lessons, and other numbers in our mission than I ever thought were possible, and as a mission had twice our average number of contacts. Elder Perry and I were on exchanges twice this week, and it was fun to get around and see everyone working so hard. In our companionship we talked with 1350 people, had almost twice as many lessons as we've ever had, and just saw incredible, incredible miracles every day. As we've talked with people as the week has come to a close, a lot of companionships are saying that now every other week will be pale in comparison, because we won't have as much time to be out there where we're most comfortable, on the streets, sharing what means the most to us. For meals we went into convenience stores and found people who were eating and sat with them, or just asked people if they would eat with us. We had people buy us slushies, soda, and meals, as well as people try to pretend we're not there, try to get us sick, several people pretend to not speak any Korean or English because they could only speak Chinese (got 'em), had some older men reject the message but then soften their hearts as we shared Alma 7 and had their story of their family members dying come out ("나에게 딱 맞는 거예요") {"It's perfect for me"}, had a scooter bike coming at us at full speed stop us to shake our hand and talk, and just have stories for days. We met some of the most interesting people I ever have, and just experienced it all.

This week was difficult. Not in ways that I thought it would be. The days went quickly, and we were not over exhausted physically. In fact, I have never felt less hungry, less tired, and more driven, for which I am grateful, but psychologically and emotionally I met a lot of people this week that just seemed to hone in on my weak points and pound. I'm grateful for that. I feel that for maybe the first time on my mission I really felt Godly sorrow for others' choices, and particularly sadness for the misunderstanding and misinformation that leads people away from us before they will open their heart. I want, like Alma, to "go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth..."

But "I know that good and evil have come before all men; he that knoweth not good from evil is blameless; but he that knoweth good and evil, to him it is given according to his desires, whether he desireth good or evil, life or death, joy or remorse of conscience.

Now, seeing that I know these things, why should I desire more than to perform the work to which I have been called?

Why should I desire that I were an angel, that I could speak unto all the ends of the earth?

For behold, the Lord doth grant unto all nations, of their own nation and tongue, to teach his word, yea, in wisdom, all that he seeth fit that they should have; therefore we see that the Lord doth counsel in wisdom, according to that which is just and true."

We know that we do not have all of the skills or knowledge that we need, but we do have the desire to improve and serve with everything that we have. I have realized this week that there is just too much to do in missionary work, and in life, and sometimes, we're just not going to have enough Korean, or eloquence, or whatever, and we come up short. Sometimes people walk away because of that, or won't meet us again, but I have felt that when we truly do everything we can, in humility and obedience trying to do the will of the Lord, we don't have to be perfect, we just need to bear our testimony and give people as much of a choice as they let us give. Perfectionism is a battle with which I have struggled with my whole life, but I feel like I am starting to be able to better prioritize and put my strength where it needs to be. Ether 12 gave me great strength this week as it seemed to answer exactly my questions about imperfect faith, weaknesses, and the importance of doing your best even when others don't accept those efforts.

I'm grateful this week for the opportunity to try to act a little bit more like Jesus with everybody that we met. I've never faced as much rejection and negativity, but it doesn't seem like anything when we look at the huge, huge miracles that we saw in abundance every day, from referrals to people coming and chasing us down after brushing by us before, to chains of people prepared and not that lead us when we talk with everyone to the one who needs us. We met people from dozens of countries and who spoke many languages. There were a couple times that we had serious language barriers It was an incredible week, and one that I will always remember. I'm not sure why, but this week really changed who I am as a missionary, and I think that I will always be a better missionary more able to work hard and testify for the rest of my mission experience. After a long lesson on the street outside the church yesterday, I just looked down the street at Sindang dong, with lots of people, lots of cars, lots of lights, and realized that there we were, just sharing the most important message in the world.

I had two main prayers this week; to always have the strength to open my mouth, and to know what to say when I did, and those prayers were answered as I felt more strength than my own with us this week. I was grateful that we were still able to maintain about a 4.5:1 contact to phone number ratio, and a 20ish:1 contact to return appointment ratio, so I hope that we and the whole mission will have lots of people to meet with in the upcoming weeks and that we will be able to continue to see miracles from this time. We tried lots of different things this week, and some worked, and some didn't, from a different kind of subway proselyting to setting up a table outside a nearby high school. We just had a blast, and only spent about 3 hours in the office all week, which was awe-some. This week is what missionary work should be, what I imagined it would be. This upcoming week will be busy in a different way as we catch up with what needs to be done, plan transfers, and have four conferences, but it will be difficult and rewarding in its own way, I hope. As I sit here writing missionaries are sending in pictures for making a slide show/movie this week, and one elder has sent in about 40 pictures, but one sister has him beat with 30 emails coming to almost 200 pictures ㅎ ㅎ  We're not including them all.

Some selected quotes:

"That's your last name, really? I'm sorry, man."

"Don't try to convert me, I'm been Calvinist for 6 generations."

"Surfing seriously harms you and others around you."

"His phone ring in class, teacher say [hand motion], he back phone one month later."

"How long does it take to get to Guro?" "Uh, 33 years."

"I'm in conversation with friend, so I will finish conversation with you."

And, from a t-shirt, and my closing thought for this week,

"I AM SMILE TO BE WHO I AM."

All of my love, and always grateful for you,

Elder South

Thank you much to the Wengels for lots of love and a wonderful card from Grandma South, which means a lot. That is very thoughtful. Also a big thanks to the Catmulls and my family for a wonderful package which got here later in the week and was a great boost to us- I haven't even thought of macadamia nuts in two years