To the Land of the North

{Jan. 8, 2012}

Hey everyone,

 

So you have your Korean girls again eh? Sweet. What part of Seoul are they from? Are they good at English? How long will they stay with you guys? I'm second on the ward missionary list?! What the heck? That's way crazy. It is kind of weird to think that I'll be home this year, even though it's still a ways away.

 

Well I did get transfered. It wasn't too big of a surprise. My new area is called Won Dang (원당) and it's in Buk (북) Stake. Buk means "north" in Korean, which can also be translated into "cold." It's way colder than my last area in Incheon. I'm not exactly sure where it is geographically. All I know is it's north outside of Seoul. Maybe your girls know where it is. But maybe not. It feels like my mission is taking a repeat. It's cold like my first area, and it's kind of out in the woods and not too many people, so it's kind of hard to contact on the street. One difference from my first area is that there's tons of appartments here. That's pretty much all there is. Ha. But it's not bad. I like it so far. My new companion is Korean. His name is Elder Cho and he's from a little town near Busan. I'm now a district leader. That's been pretty fun. Not too bad. I'm just on the phone a lot more and I have to give trainings every week. My district is way good so that's helpful. I have 3 other areas in my district and one of them is a sisters area. It's kind of weird to be a leader in a place I hardly know and to lead people I hardly know. But so far so good. Elder Stanley is in Gireum, my second area, now and he's also a district leader. So maybe someday we'll be able to serve together. We've certainly crossed each other's paths quite a bit.

 

We had a baptism yesterday! My second "walk-in baptism." It was actually two, a member girl and her older sister, who is considered the "investigator." It was way cool because their dad got to baptize them. It's kind of weird because I don't know them at all, but it was still really good and I was excited. Hopefully I can get a few baptisms that I actually have to work a bit for. I think those are a little more rewarding and you progress right along with your investigator. Things are a little slow right now in our whole district, but there's tons of potential. I'm excited. It should be a good transfer. The ward here is great. There's around 70 or 80 active members, so my companion and I are busy running around trying to meet all the members.

 

So yeah. That's what's been going on here. Life is pretty good. Hopefully you guys have a good transition back to school and work. Haha. That's kind of an upside to having no vacations. You don't have to dread going back to "the real world." But I guess that will come eventually. Anyway. I'll send you a few pics. Talk to you next week!

 

Love, Elder Dorius

 

PS tell your Korean girls happy new year for me. If you can. Haha. 새해복 많이 받으세요!  (sae hae bok mani badeusaeyo!)

Pictures!

1. This was me and my last companions last week at our sledding activity.

2. A few people in our zone.

3. Our whole zone, if you can see everyone.

4. Our family investigator. So fun.

5. Our other investigator. Also fun.

6. And yesterday's baptism plus some of the ward. Way fun.

7. Oh yeah. And the sledding hill. Also way fun.