JUST A SMALL TOWN MISSIONARY

Hey everyone,

Sorry this email is a couple hours later than normal. We tried going to the library today to check out their computers but when we got there we found out the computer lab is closed on Mondays. Of course. But it Scott and Cori are in town I'm guessing you're still up and playing games. 

Thanks for the questions. We do a little door knocking but not tons. We do most of our contacting on the street. We can bring up the gospel right during the first contact. That's usually the goal. We just introduce ourselves as missionaries sharing a message about the restored gospel and give them a flyer and try to get their number or something. It's not too bad. In Seoul there are tons of people to talk to, but they're always "busy." Even too busy to take a flyer. In Tae Baek there are fewer people but they are generally nicer. They at least stop and talk and are nice enough to take a flyer. My companion says I have foreigner power. Haha. For some reason people are intrigued by my small head, skinny face, and horrible Korean. Our apartment is pretty close to our church. Maybe like a 5 to 10 minute walk. So that's nice. Our English class is a pretty good lead. Everyone wants to learn English in Korea and classes are never free. So people usually call about it. Because our branch is so tiny we try to work with a lot of less actives. I'm sure the other areas do too. I study three hours every morning: 1 hour personal gospel, 1 hour companionship gospel, and 1 hour language study. It sounds like a lot but it really isn't. I feel like I need a few extra hours to study. I don't feel like my Korean is progressing much. But I just need to be patient and work harder. Everyone tells me it will come. So there you go. Nice questions.

It's funny you asked those questions because I wanted to talk about them in my letter. We had a little miracle during our street contacting the other day. So all week I've been praying to find a new investigator and nothing was happening through out the week. The first half of the week we had really bad numbers and our appointments were falling through. So I was getting a little discouraged. But on Saturday we were out contacting people before one of our English classes and this guy actually came up to us and asked us if we taught English. We told him we did and invited him to our class that was in about 30 minutes. He ended up coming. He's way good at English so I talked to him for a bit. He just moved here about a week ago and is a soccer coach and because of that he can't come to our classes. He was really interested in English and he also wanted to hear about the gospel. So another thing we do is called 30/30 where we meet and do English for 30 minutes and then gospel for 30 minutes. So we're meeting on Thursday. Boom. Miracle. Have I mentioned how much I love my English class? They're the best. Last week I taught the AP students. We were talking about how the weather can affect your emotions and one of them pulled out ceratonin. I don't even know how to spell it. It was sweet. Do you remember Mr. Cole and Rachel? They're pretty faithful English class members but not investigators. Anyway I love them. They want to take us out to lunch again and our markers were getting bad so Rachel brought some from her school. They're so nice. Ah I wish they would take the lessons. Anyways. We have another investigator that's pretty solid. He's 17 and loves being with us and accepts everything we've taught really well. So we're hoping for a baptismal date this week. We'll see. Well I need to go. I'm burning precious P-day time. I mean you guys are great and all but grocery shopping is calling my name. Woot. Talk to you next week.

Love, Elder Dorius 

Changing of the Guards‏

Hey everyone,

 

Yes!! I totally knew it was going to be Chile! That's so awesome. I'm way excited for him. You should tell him to pull out all his old notes from when we were in Spanish class together. haha. I also enjoyed hearing about the other mission calls. Way to keep stalking my friends and keeping me updated. Let's see...for Garrett I'm going to say Boston. I had to think about that one a little longer. Maybe I'll guess Brazil or France too. You'll have to let me know.

 

So you heard about Japan huh? They got pretty shook up. We heard about it earlier this week and then we had dinner with a few members (which was the whole branch minus the branch president) and we saw some footage on the news. It was crazy. They said around 10,000 dead or injured. Something like that. That's good the missionaries are ok. I bet they'll have their hands full over the next couple weeks. As far as I know Korea is fine. I don't think it got to us, so we're good.

 

Transfer day is on Wednesday. We're actually on the train heading to Seoul right now. If it's your last P-day, you can take your companion to Lotte World which is an amusement park here in Korea. My companion sent out a text to everyone last week seeing if anyone wanted to go but no one really wanted to so we were just going to stay in Tae Baek and go to the coal museum. Oh side note, I went to the dinosaur museum in Tae Baek last week when I was on exchanges. It was sweet. I'll have to send some pictures next week. Anyway, one of the other missionaries going home texted my companion last night and said he was going to Lotte World so we decided to pack up and go. So I'm pretty excited. But it gets better. This aforementioned missionary is Elder Stanley's trainer. So me and Elder Stanley get to go to Lotte World together. Woot!

 

So as far as transfers go, I'm staying in my area and getting a new companion, obviously. The mission president told my present companion that my future companion is probably going to be a Korean. But we'll see. So basically I'm taking over the area. It's a little overwhelming and I'm a bit worried. But I figure it's like the changing of the guards. I don't know much about Buckingham Palace security, but my guess is that the guards aren't the main line of defence. They probably have cameras and other high tech equipment to keep things safe and running. They just need someone to stand there and it's my turn to stand there. Buckingham Palace is going to be safe regardless of who's guarding. The gospel is going to go forth regardless of who's serving. It's the Lord's work. I have to keep reminding myself that and go to work. I just hope I have an awesome companion that knows how to do missionary work and wants to go to town. 

 

Well like I said I'm on the train and I need to email my mission president before I run out of time. Tell everyone I say hi. Enjoy the remainder of your spring break!

 

Love, Elder Dorius  

Hey everyone,

Thanks for the pictures. It looks like you guys had a lot of fun with the Korean girls. It would be way fun to meet up with them again sometime. Preferably when I'm better at Korean so I can actually communicate with them in their native tongue. Kadin those are pretty nifty shoes. I'm pretty jealous. When you wear black dress shoes 24/7 you kinda forget how cool shoes can be. Except my shoes are still cool. Ha.

Is spring break really next week? What the heck? Wasn't Christmas like two weeks ago? I swear time stops when you're a missionary. Do you guys have plans for spring break? Are you going to do the usual Vegas trip or are you just going to relax? You have been busy with SUPAF and soccer and now the triathalon. 

Well this week has been pretty good. We've picked up a few new investigators through our English program. We're teaching a way fun family. They have a boy who is the twins's age and then a little girl, I'm not sure how old she is. We have a good time at their house. When they found out I play the piano, they basically dragged me to their piano and made me play something. Everyone loves it. Mom, you were right. I never knew I would play the piano so much on my mission. Thanks for making me stick with it. It's been a blessing. So yeah things are picking up a little bit. We enjoy having appointments. We haven't taught too many lessons yet just because all of our investigators are new and they're doing the English program. So hopefully they don't drop and we can start teaching the gospel more. Mom I have sympathy for you and your class. Teaching is so hard. It really is such a gift. Unfortunately I don't quite have that gift so I don't know what to tell you. Sorry. Maybe you should just speak English and look American. That's what I do and it works for the most part. Haha. 

We had to make a couple road trips this week. On Wednesday we went to 강릉 (kang nung) for combined district meeting and then this weekend we had District Conference. It was way good. Our mission president spoke. Luckily my trainer translated most of the meetings so I was able to get a little bit out of them. I'm still getting used to how small the church is here. There were maybe 50 people at the conference. More or less. We have to do a little extra work sometimes and build up some of the members's faith. It can be hard sometimes, but the members are great and they love the missionaries.

Well I can't think of much more to report on. As of now I'm on exchanges. They have a special training meeting for all the trainers, district leaders, and zone leaders in Seoul so I'm with my zone leader's companion. I'm taking over my area for the next couple days. It's good practice for next transfer because we're pretty sure I'm going to stay here and take over the area. I'm a little worried. I'm still not very familiar with the area. We might have a couple rough weeks coming up but if we just do our best and work hard everything will work out.

Thanks for the emails. Enjoy the warm weather. Send some over here! Talk to you next week.

Love, Elder Dorius