It's hot and getting hotter!

Hey everyone,

 

It looks like you guys are having fun in the big city. (The family is back East for a national track meet and some sight-seeing) I'm pretty sure I got all of Dad's pictures. I didn't count how many there were but I'd say 10 is a safe guess. Way to represent white people over there! Haha I thought that was so funny. How did you guys get involved with this anyway? Was it just something you signed up for or was it something you had to qualify for? I've been a little curious about that. I'm pretty sure Kylie can easily out run me now. 1:05 for the 400 is pretty solid. My time would probably be 1 hour and 5 minutes. Or maybe just 5 minutes. My bike has been getting me back in shape. We rode out to the beach this morning for exercise and it was so cool! I'll send some pictures.

 

Ok this week has been so stinking hot. What's the temperature like in St. George? It's been in the mid 30's all week here and I'm dying. We had a couple appointments last night and we had to book it on our bikes to get to our last one and when we got inside I just couldn't stop sweating. I was literally dripping for about the first ten minutes. This was our first time meeting with these people too so I was a little worried about how they would think of me. But luckily everyone understands how hot it is and they just gave me a towel to dry off with haha. It's pretty nasty though. Once the summer is done my short sleeve shirts are going to be trash.

 

Yesterday our 18 year old girl investigator came to church. So now her baptismal date is official. She just needs to come to church a couple more times and finish up the lessons and she'll be good to go. She's super solid. She added me as a friend on facebook and so I saw a little bit of my profile thing. That was weird. But yeah we're really excited for her to be baptized. Hopefully it all works out. She'd be a really good example to the youth in our branch. They're kind of punks sometimes. Haha. Typical teenagers.

 

This week was also the last full week of the transfer. We get our transfer calls tonight. I'm getting anxious again. I'm for sure staying because my companion is getting transfered to America and his new companion is going to be his eternal companion. Haha. So we've spent the last couple weeks eating all the best Korean food before he leaves. It's been good. And we have a couple people who want to take us out to eat today so all of our meals are set. Definately no complaints there.

 

How have the Olympics been? I saw part of the opening ceremonies and I was having an internal battle. It looked super sweet but I just tried to keep my head down and study some vocab. And then at a resturant someone flipped on the tv to the olympics and it was some of the swimming. Oh my gosh. That was the hardest thing ever. I didn't realize how much I miss watching sports. Especially the Olympics. They're a huge temptation, but I still kind of want to know they're going.

 

Well that's pretty much been my week. The heat is killing me and the Olympics are killing me. Once we get through both of those life will be better. It's still good though. Oh by chance have you gotten addresses for Mike and Kerry and Dean and Judy? Those are still the only things I need that I can think of. Oh and I had a question for Dad. Can toothpaste expire? I've been using Korean toothpaste for awhile and then I just pulled out my American stuff and it said it expired. I've still been using it. Is there going to be any problems if I keep using it? Old expired American toothpaste is probably still better than Korean toothpaste though. Haha. Anyways. That is all. I think. Have a good rest of your trip and we'll talk to you next week!

 

Love, Elder Dorius

 

Pictures!

1. This is one of my favorite meals in Korea. We'll have to come back sometime and have you guys try it.

2. This was last night between our appointments. We caught a pretty good sunset. I don't know if the picture gives it justice though. But you can kind of see the fields where we cut though on our bikes.

3. Here's me and my bike. Kind of. It's at least me and my helmet.

4. This was on our bike ride this morning to the beach. That's part of my area.

5. The beach!

Crazy Week

Hey everyone,

 

Sorry I'm a little late. We had some issues at our regular email place. The internet was down and we didn't know where else we could email. But we ran a few errands and then we found one. So all is well. Oh geez. Can Kadin not just stay in one piece? Haha I can't believe he broke his arm. He said it's not too bad though. Is it casted? Has his boating trips come to an end? That would be unfortunate. Sounds like you guys had a perfect day on the lake. Ah that made me so jealous. So does your Maryland trip. Hopefully you guys keep doing fun stuff when I get home. We might have some problems otherwise.

 

Well this week has been pretty crazy. I didn't work in my own area with my own companion until Friday. Monday night we had interviews with President so we left that afternoon to get there in time. We started at six and didn't get done until 10 at night and I was the last one to interview. Everyone else had about 15 or 20 minutes, but because it was so late my interview went a little something like this:

"How do you think the zone is doing?"

"Pretty good."

"Do you have any questions or problems?"

"Nope."

"Ok well let's get your temple recommend done."

Boom done. Except he didn't have any of the current recommends left so I couldn't even get my temple recommend. So that was a pretty productive interview if I've ever had one. Then that night we slept in the temple dorms again. Way cool. That might be our new summer home when we go into Seoul to go to the temple and stuff. Then Tuesday was our P-day and we were able to spend it in Seoul. My companion and I both got suits. It's so legit. And we somehow talked the lady down for them. We mostly just talked about what we do and stuff and she felt bad for us or something and cut us a deal. Haha. The blessings of missionary work. That night our district traveled back with us and just spent the night at our place because we had district meeting Wednesday morning in our area. And then right after that I went on exchanges and worked in an area called Dong Hae. Then we met up again on Thursday morning and went on exchanges with another companionship. This time I worked in my area with another missionary. Then finally on Friday morning we met up again and my companion and I started working in our area. So there was a lot of traveling and a lot of exchanging this week.

 

Our investigators are doing pretty good. Our 18 year old girl accepted a baptismal date! She's way solid. She reads everything we give her and she prays. When we were talking about baptism we asked her how she thought about it and she said "when can I get baptize?" It was the best. The only thing is that she hasn't come to church yet so it doesn't officially count, but we also talked about the sabbath day and she couldn't come to church yesterday, but she said she'll try in the future. So we're pretty excited about that. Two other really good investigators came to church yesterday, but they had to leave right before sacrament meeting. We're not sure if they had the best experience at church so hopefully they'll come again. We're meeting them this weekend so we'll have a chance to talk about it. We had another neat experience yesterday. There was a guy from Switzerland traveling around Korea and he was staying with one of our members and they started talking about the church and he had quite a few questions so our member invited him to church and to talk with us. We talked for quite awhile and he had some pretty good questions. I'm really glad it was all in English becuase I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to follow all the things we talked about if it were in Korean. We gave him an English Book of Mormon and he said he'd read it and look up the missionaries when he gets home.

 

Speaking of Switzerland. I heard Roger Federer won Wimbledon. That's what's up. I knew he still had it in him. Apparently our branch president's wife really likes watching tennis so we had a good talk about it.

 

Anyway. Getting back to important stuff. Like the weather. It's stinking hot today. We've been riding our bikes around doing our errands and I'm just dripping in sweat. It's nasty. Hot, sticky summers aren't the greatest, but we've been pretty fortunatewith the rain. Last year it was pouring all the time and so far it's only rained hard a few days. We might have had a mild rainy season this year.

 

Well that was pretty much our week. A lot happened, but at the same time there's not too much to report on. This is the edited version. Oh my companion called the fire brigade this morning trying to get the phone number for the hospital that one of our members is at. That kind of explained why they were so anxious to help us. Haha. Things like that just make being a foreigner the best. Anyway that's about all I have. The only thing I ask for is addresses for Mike and Kerry and Dean and Judy. I feel really bad for not writing them at all so far and they've been helping out so much with my mission. So I'd be really glad if you could get those to me. Other than that I think I'm good. Hopefully you guys have a good time in Maryland. Good luck Kylie with your track meet! Talk to you later.

 

Love, Elder Dorius

Pictures:

1. I forgot to tell you about the spiders. They're everywhere! And they're super creepy. This was the biggest one we saw.

2. Here's the temple at night. Don't get to see that everyday.

3. And here's my suit. I need to get the pants adjusted buy that's what it looks like. Way cool.

Rain is falling all around

Hey everyone,

 

Ah man. That's too bad about your boating trip. I'm just oozing with sympathy right now. I don't know how you guys made it through the week. It was a good time to read the "good, better, best" talk. Haha. We've actually had tons of rain here too. I'd say it's pretty safe to say we got more than you too. Once the rainy season starts in Korea, it doesn't let up much. Right now it's not raining, but this is the first time in the past few days where it's stopped. But, unlike boating, missionary work can't get cancelled. Grandma, I do know that missionary! He's in my mission. I've never served around him so I don't know him very well. I just know who he is. What a small world. Kylie's room looks good. It's quite a bit different from the last time I saw it. Have you guys changed or redone anything else? You guys are going to Baltimore?! I'm pretty sure I never heard about that. Man. That's cool. I don't know if it's better to tell me these things or to just let them slip under the radar. Haha.

 

As for my week, it was pretty good. I got to go back to my greenie area on exchanges! It was a little weird being back. There were some changes here and there so it didn't exactly feel like I was coming back home, but I still remembered where everything was for the most part. We visited one of my favorite members and she ended up feeding us. We didn't really plan on that, but we also needed to eat sometime so we didn't complain too much. She's super nice. She kind of felt like my mom when I was a greenie so it was really good to see her again. I remember when I was serving there trying to imagine what it would be like to actually be able to communicate with her. And now I know. Haha. It was fun. We were also going to try to meet with my recent convert there, but he ended up not being able to meet. I might have to make another trip out there sometime.

 

Our investigators are doing good. I guess. We couldn't meet with some of them this week and they were good the last time I saw them so I'm assuming they're still good. We were hoping for the two kids of this family we picked up last week to come to church, but they didn't. Super lame. Probably because of the rain. We had a couple potentials lined up to meet on Sunday, but they punked us too, so we decided to make some phone calls and we ended up meeting two different people that night. We would ask them when they could meet and they would say, "well I can come right now," or, "I have time at seven. Let's meet then." It was crazy cool. And we even got some return appointments on the street in pouring rain. So I agree with the Henches: "random" things happen when you keep the commandments and do what's right.

 

We also had zone leader's council this last week. All the zone leaders meet together with President and the APs and we report on our zones, talk about the mission, and recieve training. For lunch, we go to the President's house and his wife makes us food, and now that we have an American president, his wife makes us American food. She made something like that chicken over rice dish that Mom makes. Holy cow it was way good. We definately scored with our new president and his wife.

 

Well that was pretty much our week. We're heading back in to Seoul right after this. We have interviews with the president tonight and then we have our temple session tomorrow morning. Our zone is sleeping at the temple! Round two! I'm excited. But I'm about out of time so I'll let you go. Talk to you next week!

 

Love, Elder Dorius

Endure to the End

{July 8, 2012}

Hey everyone,

 

Sounds like the reunion was fun. I'd be fine with going there every year just by the sounds of it. So was Clark AP?! How come I didn't know that? Of course he would be. He's the man. Haha what the crazy? Malea's mission president is Pres. Dorius? Haha that's way funny. Do you know if we're related to him at all? Way to go Danielle for sharing the gospel! That's way cool. I totally know what you mean about how it can be a little scary talking about the gospel to someone who has never really interacted with our church. But with a little study and practice it gets better. Even a habit. My companion is talking about church with someone right now haha. We're riding the train into Seoul today for our P-day and I just went through my greenie area! It was way cool to see it again and to see all the mountains and scenery. The countryside is beautiful this time of year. Yup. I'm right on the ocean. If fact we visited a less active lady last night who lived right next to the beach. We see it almost everyday so that's been fun too. Yeah the location for the 2018 Olympics is in my area. That makes it a little more inticing to come back and visit it. I'll have a few connections and such. We have an investigator who supervises all the construction and stuff for it so we've been getting the update on things. It's been good.

 

Well this week was really good. Our new mission president came to Korea at the first of this month and he came out to our zone and met all of us. He's sweet. I'm really excited to work with him. And his wife is going to be a good mission mom. She's been learning Korean a bit and she bore her testimony in Korean for us. It's been a little different having trainings in English, but it's good. I think he'll have some good ideas to help move the work forward.

 

I think the Lord decided to teach me a little more about patience and hard work this week. It was finals week at all the schools so some of our investigators couldn't meet because they had to study, so everyday was full of finding. It was tough. I also realized that this is going to be a time of strength and diligence because there were a few times where me and my companion just wanted to throw our planners away and give up. Our plans weren't working out and we were getting burned out on finding. But we stuck with it and went out everyday and did the work. And the Lord blessed us. Yesterday was one of the best days of my mission as far as enjoying the work. Two kids we've been meeting with decided to come to church. To be honest, we didn't really expect them to come, but they did. We also have a super sweet couple that has the cutest little baby I've ever seen that moved into our branch a few months ago and the husband wanted to come with us to visit a member in the hospital. He never met him before, but he decided it'd be good to go and visit him. Then he wanted to go visit another less active who lives way far (the one by the beach) and met with her as well. He's just an all around good guy and wants to be a good person. It was so fun. Then that night as we were going back to apartment to eat dinner, we got a call from a family who wanted to come to church and they wanted to meet right then. So we took off to the church and met the dad and one of the sons. Oh my goodness they're golden! They said they'll come to church next week and it sounds like every week after that and the son wants to come out to our youth activities. It was such a cool miracle.

 

Our investigators have been doing pretty good. Our really mature high school girl is doing really well. We met her on Saturday and we actually had a pretty rough lesson. We weren't able to practice it and run through it beforehand, but when we bore testimony about what we were trying to talk about, she seemed to feel the Spirit and understand what we were trying to say. We're hoping to get her a baptismal date in the next week or so. That's probably the most exciting thing with our investigators right now. We're shooting for our other two families to have dates soon and get baptized as families. It's going to be pretty exciting.

 

The weather has been really nice. We thought the rainy season started when it just poured all day long one day, but the next few days were just clear and sunny. It's been a little strange actually. This time last year it was pouring rain all the time. So we're hoping we can get through it without too much rain. We got caught in that down pour and had to walk home in the rain. It was pretty cool and we felt like real men again, but I probably won't do it again. Haha.

 

Well that's pretty much been our week. I could go on about all the doors we knocked and all the people we tried to talk to but I don't want to bore you. Haha. We're looking at a pretty good week this week coming up so hopefully we'll have some good stories next week. I'm going on exchanges this week with the elders in my greenie area so I'm going to see my recent convert again and some of the members. So stay tuned. Have a good week and I'll talk to you later!

 

Love, Elder Dorius

 

Real Men With Black Badges

{July 1, 2012}

Hey everyone,

 

I don't know why only Danielle got my letter last week. That was weird. Did you get all my pictures? I think I've sent quite a few the past few weeks. Those wild fires sound crazy. Are they pretty bad in St. George like that one year? Girls camp sounded fun. So did scout camp. Yes, Kadin, I do know what the ironman there is. My scout troop did it too. Did you go to Mapledell and have the Battle of Mapledell? That thing was sweet. Camps are always pretty fun. Oh my gosh. I can't believe all that stuff that happened to the Moody's. How did they get to go to the sessions Malea was counciling for? That'd be way fun. Especially in Nauvoo. I kind of want to be an EFY councilor. It sounds way fun. But I bet the Moody's are dying right now. It's so hard to wait to open a mission call. Ah. This week I was actually thinking a little bit about when my call came and how excited I was. It's definately an exciting time. I don't know what to guess. I think it'd be way funny if she came to Korea. She probably wouldn't have a problem stopping people to talk to them. The problem would be people trying to stop her and make sure her hair is real or something. Haha. Especially little kids. I've had random people just start stroking my arms to feel the hair on them. Gotta love Korea.

 

Well this week has been pretty good. Kind of long, but good. We had a lot of time for finding, which is a little tougher out here than Seoul. Well that's not entirely true. There's pros and cons. There's just not as many people out here so we can't just go outside and contact for a couple hours. That would make anyone go crazy. So we've literally done every single finding activity I've ever done my entire mission except for one thing. It's definately good motivation to pick up more investigators so we can spend more time teaching rather than finding. However, the upside of contacting out here is that people are generally nicer than people in Seoul. They're more willing to stop and talk for a bit. We've had some interesting conversations. Especially with a couple drunk people. One guy just grabbed us by the hand and walked home with us. Thank goodness for hand sanitizer. We talked to one kid that seems pretty interested. Maybe in the gospel or maybe just in us. We'll see. But he said he had seen "people with black badges" before. After that as I was walking around, I'd see myself in reflections and realized that our nametags really stand out. It's cool. And we talked to some old guys who called us "real men" after we told them about us and what we do. Haha. That was cool too. It's things like that that make serving out here worth it. Funny things happen. But it made me think how different we are from normal people on the street. Yeah we're tall and white, but that's not always the thing people notice. That's probably one of my favorite things of being a missionary. I get to be a "real man" with a "black badge."

 

Our investigators are doing well. The family we picked up my first week here is progressing. They read the Family Proclamation and liked it and we went over the Plan of Salvation and they liked it too. They have pretty good questions about the church in general so we have pretty high hopes for them. We're also meeting with an 18 year old girl who acts like an adult. She's so mature for her age. She's good about reading the Book of Mormon and likes everything we teach. Hopefully she can keep progressing too. Those are probably our best investigators right now. We have a few more people we're working with but things aren't quite as exciting with them.

 

What's the weather like in St. George now? It's been way nice out here. Just another pro of living outside of Seoul. My bike is doing good. My legs are still kind of tired but they're probably getting stronger. We went running a little bit this morning and I didn't feel like I was going to completely pass out and die so I must be getting back in shape a bit. Oh I had a question for Danielle. Well for Jesse actually. What is his neck size on his white shirts? I bought some Korean shirts but the neck is too big for me. In Korean size I'm a 95 and this one is 100. They measure it in neck size and chest size. If he wants it, I'll send it to you guys. If not, I'll do something else with it. Just let me know. Ok well I think that's about it. Happy 4th of July this week! Tell all the Dorius's hi for me at the reunion. Have a good week. Talk to you later.

 

Love, Elder Dorius