The joys of traveling‏

Hey everyone,

 

I'm glad to hear everyone is enjoying summer vacation and living it up to the fullest. Way fun. Tell Dana I'm sorry she broke her toe. That is really a bummer. I guess that's what you get when you go to the lake two days in a row. Haha. Danielle, I do know an Alexa up there. Her maiden name is Call. That's so weird she's married now. She was my senior ball date. Haha. But that's cool. It seemed like a lot of my friends got married in July, or else left on missions. It's your 5 year reunion? Haha holy smokes that's stinking old! Wow. Well I don't have a ton of time today. Our zone is getting together and watching The Best Two Years (woot!) so I'll just get to the point.

 

I got transfered. My companion stayed in Gireum and I moved to Monsoo. It's in Incheon which is on the western part of the country. Between my three areas now I've been all across Korea. So that's pretty sweet. My companion is from Utah. He's my first American companion since my trainer so it's kind of nice to have that again. And since he's from Utah we celebrated Pioneer Day yesterday. Yay! This is actually one of Elder Stanley's old areas and my companion served with him for two transfers so it's pretty fun to have that connection too. I can't remember exactly where he is now but I know which zone he's in. It's kinda far from us. So that's cool. You guys are going to find this really funny. Korea has a really good postal company thing where you can pretty much send anything anywhere. So every transfer the missionaries usually just send their luggage to their new area. I sent my luggage Tuesday afternoon and I still haven't gotten it yet. Freak. Well I got one bag. All my winter clothes. Apparently my other one is coming today. I'm getting bored with my same shirt and pants. I at least have 3 different ties to wear. Anyway. I thought you guys would appreciate that. I know I did. Ha.

 

My new area is pretty nice. I'm in a 4 man house but with just the two of us. Compared to my last mold infested shoebox this place is a mansion. The work is hard. We currently have no investigators but we have a couple potentials we're working on. One of them we're meeting tonight. So that was kind of a change afer having several investigators and having appointments regularly. But it's ok. We do lots of contacting and it's good practice. I actually am starting to feel a bit better with the language. It's nice having an American companion in the fact that he doesn't blow my mind with Korean and when he talks I can actually understand what's going on. But on the other hand it's a little inconvienent when things come up that are important and you could really use a Korean. Like when you lose your luggage and have to call the company and listen to a recorded message that lists all the options you can do by pushing any number from 1 through 9. But you know, that's cool too. If I had my journal, it would make a really good entry. Ha. Another cool thing is that I have my same district leader again from when I was out in Tae Baek. So that's fun. The ward is really good. There's about 60 active members that come out regularly. So this area has lots of potential and requires a lot of work and perserverance. Everything is good though. I can't think of much more to say. Oh I haven't gotten that package yet, but we have district meeting on Wednesday so I might get it then. I'll let you know. Keep having fun. School will be back in session before too long. Haha. Talk to you later.

 

Love, Elder Dorius

There's a fungus among us‏

Hey everyone,

 

Sounds like Can Cun was fun. Shocker. Even though you suffered some bug bites and sunburn. That makes me feel a little better. I wouldn't want you guys to have a totally fun-filled, pain-free trip. Haha. But now that I know the Moody's went to Hawaii I'm slightly jealous again. And the fact that you guys are going to party again next week doesn't help. But whatever. That's cool. I guess. So is Kylie going to girl's camp instead of the track meet?

 

This week has been pretty good. It was a little different than most weeks. Remember a couple weeks ago I told you about our house leaking? Well we also had some mold growing. At first it wasn't too bad, but during the past couple days it just took off. It was growing really fast and it was showing up in more places. A biologist would have a hay day in there. Or else freak out because it's so bad. We called our mission president and talked to him about it and he said to move as soon as possible. Luckily the other missionaries in our district are really close to us so we moved in with them. Their house is pretty big but there were three missionaries there already so now there's five. It's a little crowded and crazy. Right now we're just living out of our suitcases and waiting until transfers to get more settled in. We're getting tranfer calls tonight so we'll see where we're at and go from there. So that was fun.

 

The transfer is basically over. Holy smokes. This was the fastest transfer ever. My companion thinks I'm moving but I think we're staying together. I don't think President would make us move again. But we'll see. We both hope we stay together. The other big news is that the rainy season is over. Yay! But now it's way hot and getting hotter. We heard it's supposed to get up in the 30's. Hopefully St. George heat has prepared me well. It is nice to see some blue sky and sunshine again though. How's the weather in St. George?

 

Our investigators are doing good. No baptismal dates yet but we're working on that. We have a whole family that we're teaching that we really like. We teach their daughters English. Last time we met we gave them the Family Proclamation pamphlet and talked about families. This is my first "family" investigator so it's pretty fun and I don't want to mess up. Haha.

 

Well that's about it. Everything is still the same. Except my house. It's now a giant petrie dish. Well not really. It's a small petrie dish. This week might change things up again with transfers. I'll keep you updated. Talk to you next week.

 

Love, Elder Dorius

 

1. This is me saying goodbye to the mold.

 

2. I just love it so much.

 

 

Singing in the Rain

Hey everyone,

You guys are jerks! I have no sympathy for you and the rain. It's been raining here since yesterday evening. I had totally forgotten you guys are in Can Cun until you told me. The pictures were nice but I couldn't look at them too long. Except that iguana was pretty cool. I'm sure you guys had way too much fun with him. Oh Danielle tell Mary that she wrote me awhile ago and I sent her a letter like a week or so ago. So I think the ball is in her court. Haha do you talk to her much? Oh and congrats on passing your test! That's way cool. You're finally a nurse now. Yay! Is the weather supposed to turn out better in Can Cun? You didn't plan another trip during a hurricane did you? Haha.

Well this week has been good. We had combined district meeting and the zone leaders asked my district to do a special musical number. And boy did we ever. I played the piano, my district leader played the guitar and our companions sang. Well rapped actually. It was sweet. I have it on my camera so when I get that other memory card I'll send mine and you can see it. But I think my district leader is going to email his recording to us because it's a good recording. So one way or another you'll get to see/hear it. We picked up three new investigators this week. One was a former investigator who we invited to our English class and said he wanted to meet again and talk about the Book of Mormon and stuff. Another was a referral. He's pretty golden. He actually lived in Australia for a while and met the missionaries there. It turns out one of my district leaders in the MTC was one of the missionaries he met with. It was a cool connection. He's received most of the lessons and he feels like he knows them really well so he wants to study the Gospel Principles book. I have a really good feeling about him. The only problem is that he's going back to Australia in a month or two so if we want to baptize him we'll have to do it quick. The last one is a guy who randomly came to church yesterday. He said the church he goes to is too far from his house so he decided to come to ours. Boo ya. He really liked the hymns so one of our members who was next to him invited him to come to church early next week to sing the hymns. It was really cool. As far as our other investigators go, not much has changed. Unfortunately. We meet them all just once a week and we teach them all English so the gospel isn't making as big of impact as I would like. We're at least staying busy though. My companion and I wrote a song to sing to our members. My companion has a little guitar so we packed that around and performed our song for the first time this week. It's about eternal families. It's cool. That's about all that happened this week. We had interviews with the mission president. He said he can tell that I'm happy and because of that, he's happy. My mission president is great. So yeah. It wasn't exactly a trip to Can Cun but it was still a good week. Have fun with your iguana friend. Hopefully he doesn't eat you. Talk to you next week.

Love, Elder Dorius

It's the 4th of July?‏

Hey everyone,

Thanks for all the emails. Those are so fun to read. I totally forgot it was the 4th of July today until I read your guy's emails. It made me miss Soda Springs too. That place is great. You guys are going to Can Cun without me?! Not fair! I'm way jealous right now. Be sure to pack a swimming suit and a change of clothes in your carry on. It was a good thing I learned that lesson because my luggage got lost when I came to Korea too. Travel just isn't good to me I suppose. But really for Can Cun all you need is a swimming suit and shorts (preferably your own) and you're good to go. Lucky ducks. So is Kadin and Kylie both on student council? You kind of mentioned that but didn't really tell me. That will be fun. Thanks for the music mom. Except you only sent the first page of Road Trip. I think there's 8 other pages. So if you could find those and send them too that would be great. And I did think of something else you can send to me. If you can. By chance do you have any old calendars with pictures of Christ? We had a couple nice pictures from a calendar and bought a cheap frame and gave it to a member. It turned out to be a really nice gift. So if you have old calendars laying around we would like some. I think that's all I need for now.

So this week we have been pretty busy. Because of the rain, we've been making lots of phone calls. We had tons of former investigator records that we called and ended up making quite a few appointments and even picked up two new investigators. We looked through all of our stats from this transfer so far and we've picked up two new investigators every week. We have a lot on our plate right now. It's really good. I think this is the busiest I've been on my mission. Except the only problem is they aren't progressing much. Nearly all of them have English interest so we're trying to build a lot of trust and work our way in with the gospel. It payed off with one family we picked up this week. They were former investigators who actually dropped the missionaries because they asked them to pray, or something like that. So we just did English and got to know them and now they want to take us hiking and said we can teach them scriptures in English. So it's a start but I wish more of them had more gospel interest. We do some walking but we mostly ride the bus or the subway. The rain doesn't really slow down Koreans. They're machines. They just grab their umbrella and go. We still play soccer with my ward if the weather is good. But since it's been raining we play jok-ku which is like volleyball but with your feet and with a lower net. It's sweet.

Well not much more exciting stuff happened. Today we're meeting up with a bunch of other missionaries and playing ping pong and games. Did I tell you they have Catan in Korea? I've actually played it quite a bit. Doesn't get much better than that. Except my zone leaders kill me every time. Grr...Anyway I need to email my mission president and whoop someone in ping pong so I'll wrap this up. Have a good 4th of July and have fun eating your BBQ. And DON'T have fun in Can Cun. Talk to you later.

Love, Elder Dorius

Jung-ma‏

Hey everyone,

Thanks for the email. That was shocking news. I was floored when I read that. But you are so right. Nolan was ready and prepared to move on to bigger and better things. I sent Elder Anderson a quick note and wished him the best. Tell the rest of the family that I'm sorry for the news and hope the best for them as well. Nolan was such a great example of never giving up and pushing through trials with a smile. Come what may and love it.

So Kylie made it to nationals? Shoot that's good. If she wants my oppinion I'd say go run. Girls camp will come again. And plus. It's not even camping. Haha. But it's up to her. And Kadin survived scout camp eh? Now that's real camping. Haha. He probably loved not having to shower for a whole week and playing with his friends. Those were good times.  

Well this week has been pretty good. Remember when I got my call and we reaserched Korea and saw it gets a ton of rain during the summer? Yeah. It's here. Oh my goodness. The craziest part isn't the quantity of water though, it's how suddenly it came. When I got here it was hot and sunny and then we heard that the rainy season started the next day. Boom. Just like that. It started raining and has stopped for a quick breather just a few times. It's called jung-ma. It's basically killed our contacts. Sometimes we can't even go outside it's so bad. And because our house is so awesome we have two leaks. One in our study room, and one in our kitchen right above where we dry our dishes. That's really convienent. So that was fun.

We had a baptism yesterday! Yay! That was actually the first time I met the kid so it was kind of weird, but it was ok. The missionaries before me did all the work and I recieved the blessings. Haha. Our mission president came to our ward and spoke so that was really cool. I had to give a talk at the service and then that day they asked me to play a musical number. It was rough. There's no need to elaberate more on that. But it was a really good service. Our other investigators are doing good. Nothing too exciting. Except that old lady that talks to us forever randomly called one day asking about baptism. Well it turns out she had surgery in her ear a while ago and she can't go under water. Of course. So we called our president about it and he had a similar experience. I guess they saran wrapped the person's head and then put a swimming cap on and they were good to go. Haha. It's the most ridiculous thing I've heard but whatever works. So I guess we'll see what happens. I'll definately keep you posted. Even though it's raining we're still having pretty good success.

Well since you're getting anxious I'll finish up and send this off. I'll send some pictures from yesterday too. Talk to you next week!

Love, Elder Dorius

1. Us and our investigator.

2. Us and our investigator and some of the young men.

3. Us and some of the primary kids. They're so cute.

4. Us at the temple.

Pictures

1. Here's my view outside my window. Isn't it lovely?

 

2. This is my district when we went ice skating last week. Way fun.

 

3. This was on the way to one of our member's house. I'm not in the wilderness anymore. That's for sure.

4. This is at another member's house with a missionary that who's going home. His parents came and picked him up. It was really fun to hang out with them.

 

5. This is at a sweet park we were at today. It's pretty cool. And pretty Asain.

 

6. And this is us being awesome.

Just another day in paradise‏

Hey everyone,

Marissa's going to Texas?! That's so sweet! And it's Spanish speaking. Lucky. Just kidding. Korean is way cooler. Ha. Oh man you'll have to tell her congratulations for me and tell her to send me her address. What else is going on with my friends? You need to facebook stalk them more and keep me posted. Haha. Nice job on the track meet Kylie! Those are stinking good times. That's way better than I've ever ran and probably will ever be able to run. Unless I have heaps of adrenaline surging through by body. Then I might have a chance. Oh scout camp. Good times. Is it at Mapledell again or somewhere else? Either way that should be fun.

So this was my first full week in my new area. It was awesome! My companion is great. This is only his second transfer and he's already better at missionary work than I am. We work together really well. And he teaches me cool New Zealand slang and is teaching me about Korean pop culture. Haha. It's fun. We picked up a few new investigators this week. They all want to learn English and we've only met them once or twice each so we haven't talked too much about the gospel. But one of them is this 60 year old lady who wants to learn English so she can write a letter to a friend she met who lives in Canada. It's kinda weird but that's ok. We met her on Saturday for the first time. We were going to meet her at this place but then she said to go to her house and gave us weird directions and kept calling us to make sure we were still coming. It was kinda frustrating. And because she's so old she just talks and talks. So by the time we got to her apartment we were still a bit flustered. And then it took them a good minute or so just to open their door. My companion was about to kill someone and I was just dying. So we finally get in and sit down and she gives us tomato juice, which both of us hate but slammed it down and got it out of the way. So we do our thing and then she gives us directions to go home again but lo and behold they were wrong and we ended up getting home late. This lady is crazy. But Sunday morning she called us and said she wanted to come to church. And she did. To all three meetings and our lunch thing afterwards. Our ward is the best! Seriously. They welcomed them perfectly. It was so good. Then we set up a baptismal date with one of our other investigators for next week. Boo ya. It was solid. So things are doing good. The ward rocks. We get fed at least once or twice a week. One of our members even went shopping at Costco for us. Yes there is a Costco in Korea. Our investigators are doing good and we're finding new ones to teach. Life is good. The cats aren't as bad as I excpected. They're disgusting though. They just go around the ally ways and eat rubbish (I'm basically a Kiwi haha). But it's so hot here! I'm dying. The only thing I can compare it to is after cross country practice is the morning. It's not quite to a "cross country practice in the afternoon" level, but it's close. Apparently this is nothing though. I heard it's going to get like 5 times hotter and more humid. So that's going to be fun. Today we had to pull out our ice packs and sit back with them on our faces to cool off. It was nice.

 

So yeah thing are really good right now. I can't complain too much. We're still working hard and trying not to die from the heat. Hopefully you guys are staying nice and cool out on the lake. Talk to you next week.

 

Love, Elder Dorius