"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