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.

Happy New Year!

{Jan 1, 2012}

Hey everyone,

 

Thanks for all the Happy New Year wishes and birthday wishes. Haha. Yes I am one year older now making me 22 years old in Korean age. Pretty strange. It will be nice to come back to America and gain one more year in my life. In a way. Ha. Sounds like the party was fun as usual. Even though the real party animals were having a night on the town. Crazy. I can't believe everyone is growing up. Everyone is graduating, driving, and dating. And Mary is engaged?! That's pretty exciting. Although I got a letter from her not too long ago and she told me she had a boyfriend and was probably going to get married. Hmm...well maybe I'll get an invitation. It's the thought that counts. Tell her congrats for me. I LOVED hearing from the whole fam, even though it was only in an email. Those were so fun to read. I could even hear everyone's voice saying the things they wrote. So fun. It was kind of funny to be 16 hours ahead of you because I knew exactly what you all were doing. So in case you were wondering, I was at our bishop's house having a traditional New Year's Korean soup for lunch while you were celebrating New Years. Pretty cool, right?

 

Well this week was ok. I've had better. We had our fair share of appointments falling through and lots of plans changing. Our family investigators were busy this week so they couldn't meet again, and we only met with our other investigator once. And on top of all that it was super cold. So it was a little frustrating, but those things happen. We had a cool little miracle slip in at the very end of our week though. On Sunday night, we got a call from a random number who was a member in a totally different stake, but had a referal for us. They were going to talk to the referal and see how their schedule is and such and then let us know so we can meet them. All I know is they're brothers, one is 17 and one is 15. So that was pretty cool. It was a good way to finish off the week. We also got in with a less active we've been working with and had a pretty good time and built a better relationship that night. Oh man, and we did some "inspired" door knocking and ended up knocking on an inactive's door who let us in and visited with us for a little while. That was way cool. So I guess the week wasn't too bad. I was just thinking about more about the less fun stuff rather than seeing all the miracles.

 

So there wasn't any sledding this New Years? That's strange. Want to know what we're doing for P-day today? We're going sledding! Haha. At least hopefully we are. There isn't much snow on the ground, but I guess there's a sledding place in our zone so our zone is doing an activity there for our last P-day of the transfer. Yup. Another transfer is over. We're getting transfer calls tonight so I'll let you know next week what happens. I kind of have the feeling I'm leaving, considering I've been here for six months now and I've been with my same companion for two transfers. But we'll see. I think I know what's going to happen, then President gets me every time.

 

Well that's about it. I better go "hit the slopes" before we run out of time. Talk to you next week. 

 

Love, Elder Dorius

Merry Christmas again!

Hey everyone,

Merry Christmas again! I guess it's Christmas Day for you now so it's still allowed to say it. It's pretty much done and gone away here. Sad. But it was a good year. It's always interesting to spend holidays in a foreign contry. Ok who sent my recorder?! I was so surprised to see that haha. You guys did well with all the gifts this year. Thank you very much. I'm really excited to play Pass the Pigs. That was a nice little surprise too. I'm glad you guys like the socks. We got some from our ward too but their not nearly as cool as those ones. Just plain dress socks. I just sent off some pictures so hopefully you get those. As you can see, my companions and I had some fun with the Santa suit before we had to put it away. Haha. It was really funny and I think my ward loved it.

Well there's not much new to report on here. Our zone went caroling last night in the bitter cold outside a huge department store. That was fun. People probably thought we were just a bunch of crazy white people for standing out in the cold and singing in Korean. But that's nothing new. Oh I got my visa extended today. Yay! I can stay in Korea for another year. Those are pretty much the only things that have happened since I last talked to you. Hopefully you like the pictures because those will make up for the lack of words in my email. My memory card is about full again because I took quite a few videos from the Christmas conference. I'll just send all those at once on my card instead of trying to put them on an email.

So yeah. I think that's it. Hopefully you guys had a great Christmas and have a Happy New Year! Oh I did find one thing I need. Some deoderant. Is that how you spell it? If not just sound it out. I would appreciate some from America because there isn't really any here. Sorry I didn't catch that sooner and you could've thrown it in your Christmas package. But if you could do that I would greatly appreciate it. Ok. Now I think I'm done. Happy Holidays! Talk to you later.

Love, Elder Dorius

1. Here's Elder Stanley and I at the Christmas conference.

 My uke.

 The first official legit snowfall of the year.

 Here is Santa getting chased down by the missionaries.

 And then getting taught my the missionaries.

6. And then proclaiming the Book of Mormon is true. Ha.

 

 

Sooo...for you that haven't noticed the resemblance...Elder Dorius was Santa for the ward Christmas party.  The fact that Elder Dorius was chosen to be the Santa Clause was so funny to us.  We just didn't really think he had the build for it.  It sounded like he had a great time...but a lot of the little kids were scared of him.

 

 

 Santa going down the "chimney"

2. Getting ready to hand out gifts

 The ward

 And here's a picture with all my gifts. I didn't end up opening them until that night when we got home. Haha. But it was really nice. Thank you to everyone who sent something! 

 

.

That was me when I was sick. Bleh.

Pictures

Here's some pictures from the top floor (47th) of one of our member's apartment. Way legit. This is the most southern part of our area and is the newest part. The last one is some funny "grafitti" we found on a wall. I laugh everytime we walk past it.

It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas‏

Hey everyone,

 

Well it sounds like everyone has had a good week. Lots of singing and caroling and Christmas preparations. That's always fun. One thing I learned was that shops and places around here play Christmas music too! I thought that was only an American thing but I guess not. So it's been kind of fun to hear some Christmas music while we're out and about. However, some of the songs have been "Koreanorized" but it's still fun. Here's the deal with calling home. We can't use skype. Only calling. But we can call from here either on Sunday the 25th (Saturday for you) or Monday the 26th (Sunday for you). It will most likely be in the evening time for you guys. What works best for you? I'm good with whatever but we're kind of thinking about calling on Sunday just after chuch, which would most likely be around 8ish for you guys I think. Something like that. Also what number should I call? If you guys want to talk about it and decide just let me know.

 

Here's some other fun news. On the 22nd, we have a mission Christmas conference and there's a big talent show and skits and stuff like that and Elder Stanley and I are going to play Pachelbel Meets U2. We're actually going to meet up today in Seoul to practice so I don't have tons of time to write becuase it takes both of us a little while to get there. But anyway, we borrowed a way nice cello from one of our members and I have to carefully pack it into Seoul (no pressure) and we're going to have a little jam session. I'm excited. Just like the good ole days.

 

Thanks for praying for our investigators. We're going to try to give Richard a baptismal date this week. Possibly tonight. Or Wednesday. Depending on how the lesson goes and the Spirit and all that jazz. He almost came to church yesterday. He was planning on it and then all of a sudden got tired or something and fell asleep. Slightly frustrating. I'm sure Heavenly Father knows just as well as anyone how frustrating it is when people don't do what they're suppose to or what He knows is best. So hopefully if he has this desire and commitment to get baptized, that will help him put forth the little extra effort to do the right things and keep the commandments. We weren't able to meet our family this week because of some training we didn't know about so nothing new there. But hopefully they're praying about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith.

 

We've been getting fed like kings this week. For some reason, a lot of our members wanted to feed us this last week. I think between Wednesday and Sunday we didn't have to cook or pay for a single meal. It was awesome! And I just like getting to know the members a little more and building good relationships. Doesn't get much better than that. So that was pretty much our week. Can't complain too much. It's snowed a couple times this week but not enough to stick. It's still pretty cold but my six layers do well for me. And I bought some cool Power Rangers hand warmers. They help fight off the cold.

 

Well hopefully you have a good week. I'm glad you finally got my package. I was a little worried I accidently sent it by boat. I have a Christmas package pretty much ready to go. I just need to ship it off. Don't forget about calling. I need to know what time you want me to call and what number to call. I can take care of the rest. Talk to you later.

 

Love, Elder Dorius

Christmas Pictures‏

1. Look how big our tree is!

 

 

 

2. That's our threesome. And our huge tree.

 

 

3. It has a big Christmas spirit.  :)

 

 

Here are your answers‏

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!