Sam by the Sea--March 9, 2015

안녕하세요 (Hallo),

Dalk Kalbi

It's been a full week! It can be at times a bit stuffed with things to do, and sometimes we just want to forget about any other responsibilities and get out there and work. Well, this week, we went about as far from the office as you can get. We had MLC {Mission Leadership Conference} on Tuesday, with all the preparation and worrying that that entails, and hurried to pack and throw everything that we would need in the car so that we could get out of Seoul as fast as possible. It turned out that the beautiful sunshine of Monday had turned into cold rain in Seoul and heavy snow and fog once we got out of the city, but we made it to Taebaek at about 10pm safely and prepared for the next day. Wow, Taebaek! It was great. Beautiful and clear and very country, although it was windy and 10 degrees below. We saw lots of miracles! We found plenty of people to talk to, set more appointments than we usually do in Seoul, and met some very kind people. People seemed to be less busy, understandably, and we were able to talk with people for much longer than I am used to, so in that regard it was a lot of fun. We met a group of people from China that seemed to be kind of rude as we introduced ourselves in Korean and they just walked by, but as they were farther away we yelled out and asked if they were Chinese and had a great conversation. We also met a visiting family from India, and talked to a fruit seller that gave us each a persimmon. We met a less active member who is definitely a Korean grandfather, but who reads Chinese literature in the library all day every day, and has a very heavy Southern twang... somehow {since Taebaek is in the north.}. We had country-famous Taebaek dalkkalbi and made great friends with the owner. {Dalk Kalbi is spicy grilled chicken with vegetables}

Driving up to Kangneung ended up being a bit of a crazy drive with a lot of big trucks, and we passed many "사고 많은 곳"- places with lots of accidents. {사고 많은 곳 translates with google as "many places to buy." I assume that means markets, and maybe people get in accidents there? not sure what this means.} We stopped a bit past Donghae since my feet were falling asleep, and grabbed some air at what turned out to be a beautiful ocean lookout point. It really was very pretty out there- something just seemed to be different. I don't know if there is just some constant city noise or what, but it just seemed to be quiet and a little bit closer to the source. We found lots of people and lots of fun in Kangneung. We had a good exchange with the missionaries there, and the elders have a huge house out there- since everyone was coming in for the conference 8 slept there our first night there, and 11 comfortably the next. The conference went well- it's a lot easier to work with 40 people than 200 {as at our Seoul conferences} and the missionaries seemed to enjoy it. We watched "Meet the Mormons," which I had never seen before, and I loved it. Very inspirational- it made me want to do big things, break barriers, and help people. It talked about the idea that "God is the author of diversity," which I liked. I had the traditional ddeokguk- the rice cake soup that makes you one year older at the new year.

More than anything else in Kangwon Do, we just found good, hard work, in which there is more satisfaction than in anything you can do as a missionary.

On Saturday we started out in Kangneung, made the 4 and a half hour drive back (long due to the traffic), ate pasta with sweet potatoes, and went to an appointment with Sonideocksu, the digital artist who studied feminism in Germany for 10 years. We went with the sisters to introduce her over to them, and it ended up being a pretty crazy appointment. Her friends that we didn't know took pictures of us meeting that she later sent to us, we discussed the Relief Society for a solid half hour {Relief Society is the LDS women's organization}, and she got up and showed how she used to chase people down that didn't want to talk to her and give them massages so that they would want to talk with her, demonstrating on me- all over chamomile tea. On the way back we met a group of hikers who were Buddhist but liked us, so one of them played "Amazing Grace," "Auld Lang Syne," and the Arirang on his traditional mountain flute. We then talked to a guy for an hour sitting outside a cafe who said that he would believe in God the day after he got a billion dollars about faith and acting, and ended up really far from our home because we stayed to talk with a guy on the bus that went the wrong way at a crossroads. We got home, ate cereal and blueberry muffins, and planned for the next day. We're reading the Book of Mormon every night as a house from 10:15-10:25, and it's been nice to get organized before bed. On Sunday we had more sweet potatoes (Gogooma) at a member's house, and we've been figuring out that they go well with every meal- grilled, fried, or raw.

We're loving life and just trying to squeeze every moment we have out of this experience- it goes by too fast. We're trying to figure out what will happen to the mission in the next few transfers- our complement (maximum number of missionaries) is now about 230, but we'll be at 156 in a few transfers, which means that almost no new missionaries are coming in and a lot of areas need to be consolidated. It's a great time to be a missionary, and all of my love always-

E South