Good day to all! I love you. Thank you for your love, prayers, and support. I sincerely know that you care, and thank you for that. You mean so much to me as well!
It has been a crazy week with getting the new missionaries oriented, comfortable, and productive. The computers were down for a good bit, so there has been lots of running around and figuring out alternate methodologies and such. They are a bit nervous, and still adjusting, but doing great.
Another group of Korean missionaries came in this week, comprising five sisters and three elders. They are really fun, and I've spent a lot of time with them already. One of my teachers taught me some phrases in a heavy Busan (southern Korea) accent, and they are all from around there, so we've been having a great time. Only a couple really speak any English, so it's been really enjoyable to do orientation with them and lead them around and such, and has included lots of gesturing and acting things out. I just love them. I can't wait to just be able to talk to and love the people of Korea. 10 days now! We got our travel itineraries today.I will leave here at 3:30 in the morning on the 30th, and get to Incheon at 6:30 pm Korean time on the first of October for a new adventure.
This same teacher I have been working a lot with. He is not one of our teachers, but is acting as a zone resource, and has spent a lot of time with our class. I told him a story in Korean the other day, and he asked afterwards if I had studied Chinese. Funnily, he said that my speech patterns are very tonal, like Chinese, and the Koreans have expressed similar sentiments when I have asked them. Apparently this makes me sound like I am from northeastern Korea, where the speech is a bit tonal. Anyway, I'll need to listen really carefully and try to imitate the speech when I arrive.
This is a great place. I've made some really good friends, and have gotten a lot closer to the missionaries in the group younger than ours this week.
Brother Kim was baptized this past week. A word of explanation on our investigators: On Fridays, we teach people who speak Korean from around the area. These are generally return missionaries or BYU students from Korea, but not all are members of the church, and these are very rewarding lessons. A week before we came here, one of these investigators was baptized. Last week, we Skyped with a sister in Korea and her mother, and that was really cool. We may do that again tonight. When I refer to investigators, however, they are a training tool of the MTC, and we teach them until their baptismal date, in spite of that really not being the end at all of the conversion process, but really the beginning. Anyway, that's how it works. Brother Kim, one of these investigators, was baptized this past Monday, so we have been practicing street contacting and tracting with our teacher instead, which has been a lot of fun. Also fun, kagahohohada is to tract in Korean.
Spiritually, it has been a very uplifting week. I really have seen some incredible tender mercies of the Lord and miracles this past week, when some things just shouldn't have been possible or feasible, but worked out better than I could have thought. The Lord is in the details, and He helps us out very specifically with whatever we need and ask for. I really have seen that this week.
I had written that I wanted to share about Korean culture each week previously. I, unfortunately, have largely forgotten about that, but will do so when I remember. This past Thursday was Chuseok, which is the Korean harvest festival, based on the lunar calendar, and a huge holiday in Korea, comparable to Christmas but more in the spirit of Thanksgiving. The saying goes, "Teodo malgo, teoldo malgo, hangauiman kateushipshio," which roughly translates as "Not too much, not too little, just enough."
Okay, well, I love you all, and wish you the best for another week! God be with you!
Much love and anticipation for fermented cabbage,
South Changno
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