12/04/11
Hey everyone,
Ok first off, before I forget, I called the bank this week and got my cards figured out. My debit card is all good and the bank is going to mail me a new pin number but it's going to be sent to you guys. So once you get that, just mail it to me or just email it to me. Whatever works. Here's some answers to your questions, Dad: 1. Man Su is in Incheon. I'm not sure exactly where, but I think we're fairly close to the ocean. I think we have a little inlet thing at the southern most part of our area. I'm sure if you just googled "Man Su" it'd find it. 2. One transfer is six weeks, not four. 3. Richard is doing really good. I'll talk about him more in my email. 4. I'll also talk about our other family in the email. 5. No I'm not getting tired of rice. It's just that Koreans don't eat potatoes very often and it's never mashed potatoes. The only times I've had carpet under my feet is at the temple and at the senior couple's house. But even then it was a big rug. Nearly every house in Korea just has wood floors because of the heating system. And it keeps the houses cleaner. I don't know if carpet is more expensive, or if it's just a culture thing. And no I still can't really understand everything people say. Not even close. That's why it was fun to understand everything the kids said. They say funny things. 6. As for Christmas music, I think Elder Stanley and I have it figured out. We might try Pachebel Meets U2. I have the piano music and we're going to try to figure out the cello part. But if you can get the cello part for us that would be really helpful. If not, we're just going to play something from that music you sent awhile back. So I wouldn't worry about going out and buying more music. We'll work something out. Umm as for other requests for your package, I would like some more dried mangoes. Those are yummy. And maybe some recipies. Either real dinner food or desserts. Maybe both. Those are kind of the only things I've thought about. I'm good on everything else.
This week was pretty good. Richard is the man. He's pretty funny. We've got him down to just drinking one cup of coffee a day now. It's awesome because he used to be so dependent on his coffee but now he realizes he doesn't need it and we can probably get him to completely quit this week. He's gotten pretty busy lately though. He signed up for this English academy thing in Seoul and is there Monday through Friday to study more English. But he still makes time to meet us a couple days a week in the evenings, and he texts us about everyday just to say hi or see how we're doing. We talked about the Plan of Salvation last time and gave him a pamphlet to read. He said he grandma told him about all this when he was younger so he already believes everything. That's nice. We're meeting him tonight and are going to teach him about tithing. That was pretty much his only other question about the church. Then we also want to give him a baptismal invitation. We'll see how it works. The only problem is that investigators have to come to church at least three times before they can get baptized, and he works every weeked to save money to go to America, so we're not quite sure how to make that work. We might need a miracle and some faith. So right now that's kind of the only hurdle. Our other family is doing good too. Pretty much the only way they can keep progressing is if they come to church. Each time we've met, though, they ask a few questions about church and seem to have a little more interest. They might just need a little more time. But last time we met, we talked about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and committed both of them to pray to know if it's true. I feel like we're close with helping all of our investigators baptized, except for these little problems we need to overcome.
Oh hey Danielle. Now that my train of thought is broken I'll answer your questons too. 1. I don't know what the temperature is. We don't see it very often but there's some at bus stops occasionally. I'll have to check. 2. We asked a member if it snows a lot here and they said it actually doesn't as much because we're closer to the ocean. But we do get wicked bad wind that just goes right through to your bones. Not fun. 3. You bet we have a microwave. But there's no hotpockets so there really isn't a purpose for them. Ha. 4. Yeah we do quite a bit of cooking. Hence the reason I need more recipies. I've been learning how to cook some Korean food too. 5. People celebrate Christmas here, but I don't think it's as big as it is in America. A lot of the other churches around here have put up Christmas lights to match their giant neon crosses though. So that's nice.
Ok. Well nothing too much more exciting happened this week. We did meet a less active/part member family we've been trying to meet for like the past two transfers. They're from North Korea. They're really nice. They even let us come back to visit them. So that was a pretty good find. I had a pretty funny experience knocking doors. This super old lady opened the door and the first thing she asked was "where are you from?" When I said "America" she just looked at me and said something along the lines of "why in the world are you here?" By the time I only got a few words out she says "I am 90 years old. I can't hear anything you're saying." and then continued to ramble on about something else. Then a really nice guy came and took my card and just took her back inside. I thought it was funny. Old Korean women are the best. They either love you or hate you. Either way they're bound to do something funny. Anyway. This is turning into a book now so I better wrap it up. Talk to you later.
Love, Elder Dorius
P.S. Shout out to Jesse and Dad for their birthdays! Happy almost birthday!
