Monday, December 29, 2014

Christmas in Korea

December 28, 2014

Christmas was pretty good, we visited a lot of the members, and they gave us a ton of food.  No kimchi or rice, unfortunately.  We now officially have no investigators.  There were two here left from the previous missionaries, one left to go to the US, and the other just informed us that he doesn't want to meet anymore.  So basically all we do now is visit members and less actives.

There are quite a few less actives that we visit, one super old guy who is North Korean who lives in a rest home, and a guy who lives in the middle of nowhere on the side of a mountain, as well as a couple others here and there.  

That's so cool that you got to talk to a missionary from Korea.  She has a friend in Gimcheon and you didn't find out who?  I can't believe you :)

So as far as missionary work here, there's not much at all to talk about.  It's pretty boring, very little to do.  But because of that, we have been able to visit members fairly frequently, and they seem to like us a lot.  We planned the Christmas party [we played some games, sang together, and ate dinner, basically that's it.], and they liked that a lot too.  So if we keep this up, we're never going to have to go shopping again :)

Have a great week, I love you so much!

Elder Hines




Gimcheon

December 21, 2014

My companion is great, he's super funny. He's from Oklahoma City, but unfortunately doesn't have a cool accent :)

Gimcheon is great, no complaints, except how cold it is and that the elders before us left us with only one investigator.

So yesterday we went out to eat as a branch after church. Yeah I know, pretty weird, but I guess that's just how Korea is, they don't see the Sabbath the same way that we do. The food we had was what I like to call "mystery mash." It was a ton of bean sprouts, with random stuff mixed in, mostly seafood. It had crab legs, with the shell (which was super annoying), oysters, and the spine, brain, and other organs of some unknown creature. Yeah, pretty disgusting. I just tried to think of the organs as crab meat, since they were white and a similar texture, and that help a lot, especially since the lady sitting next to me kept putting more on my plate. The brain wasn't half bad, kinda salty actually. Somehow I managed to get full and not feel too much like throwing up.

We have bikes in this area, it's one of the only areas in the mission with them. They are pieces of garbage though. The brakes don't work, the seat is terrible, the back tire has to be pumped up before every use, and they sound like they are going to fall apart any day. So we probably won't be using them too much.

I already told you about Skype, so I will call you around 8:00pm for you. Talk to you then, I can't wait!

Love, 

Elder Hines

Thursday, December 18, 2014

First Transfer!

December 15, 2014  

I got transferred to the city of Gimcheon, and my new companion is Elder Payne. We are whitewashing the area, which is pretty stressful. I assume you don't know what that is, so I'll explain. Normally when people transfer, one stays in the area and the other leaves. But for various reasons, usually if the area isn't doing very well, the president will take both missionaries out of the area. So Elder Payne and I don't know the area at all. Elder Suter and I whitewashed Tongyeong, so I guess I get two whitewashes in a row...fun. My companion has been in Korea for almost a year, he came to the MTC last year in November. He is from Oklahoma. I like him a lot, he's pretty funny, and seems like a really hard worker. Elder Suter stayed in Tongyeong, and is actually training again. He's just such a good trainer :)

I've heard a ton about Tie Guy. He's in Busan though, so I haven't had a chance to visit yet.  I can't wait though, it sounds like heaven on Earth :)

I got your package yesterday, thank you so much! I'll definitely put those delicious seasoning mixes to good use :) And Elder Payne got from his parents a paper Christmas tree to put on the wall, so our new house is going to be very festive with those window clings as well :)

I love you too!

Elder Hines

Monday, December 8, 2014

Ward Conference

December 7, 2014

So I'm not sure if it was snowing this morning in the city of Tongyeong, but it was on a mountain next to it. We left at 5:00 this morning to get to the top before the sunrise, I'll send you some pictures. It was basically a blizzard for a lot of the time we were up there, it was the most snow Elder Suter has seen in Korea before. It was really fun, but I'm pretty tired now.

For lunch today we went to a meat buffet. Meat buffets are really cool because they have a ton of meat set out like a normal buffet, then you go and get what you want. In the middle of the table is a grill and you just cook the meat yourself. They are actually pretty popular in Korea, which is funny because Koreans always think Americans eat a ton of meat, but there are no meat buffets in the US. Koreans stereotypes of Americans are pretty funny. We were eating at a place called Mom's Touch for lunch (chicken sandwiches) and a guy sitting next to us leaned over and asked, "Is that small for an American burger?" It was about the same size, but made me really self-conscious of how much I was eating for the rest of the meal. 

I ate a whole octopus for the first time at the meat buffet, when I had it before it was just the legs. It wasn't too bad as far as flavor goes, just really chewy and hard to eat.

Ward conference was really good, we had almost double our usual church attendance, there were 44 people there! The musical number was pretty good. The people singing were pretty off-tune, but I thought the piano part sounded okay :) It was nice to finally be appreciated in this ward, since almost no one else has musical knowledge.

Have you seen the "He is the Gift" video yet? If not, you should watch it, it's pretty amazing.

There are two senior couples in this mission, one in the office, and one at the military base in Daegu. There are three districts in my zone, and six zones in the mission. There used to be five, but Jeju was just made it's own zone last transfer (Jeju is the island south of Korea). We have a gospel art book in our apartment, but we haven't used it for teaching before.  

Have a great week, I love you!

Elder Hines

Elder Hines and Brother EYH

Tongyeong at night



Elder Suter & Elder Hines

Early morning hike











Pretty sure this was staged to gross us out. Ew.

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Thanksgiving in Korea

November 30, 2014

Thanksgiving was actually really good, I wasn't homesick at all. We had a "Fall Party" for English class, which happened to be on Thursday night, so that worked out well. We introduced them to American traditions, I think they liked it a lot. The sisters even obtained a pumpkin pie through means that can't be discussed over email since it could possibly have been illegal. Just kidding, it just felt that way since they are so hard to come by.

Okay, here's updates on the investigators:

EYH comes to church every week, and he meets with us once a week, but he doesn't feel ready for baptism so we're just waiting on that. Which is fine, I'm happy just being friends with him, I'm confident that he will be baptized eventually.

EM got busy and stopped meeting us, but he said he can start again this week, so we'll see how that goes.

KS is as awesome as ever, but we're just waiting for him to start his senior year of high school so he can try asking his parents about baptism with a chance of success.

We starting teaching a new investigator recently, KS. He is 16, and just showed up at English class two weeks ago. We have been teaching him twice a week, and in the last lesson we had with him he accepted a baptismal date for December 21! There's a good chance it might not work out, since we have to get permission from his parents, but it's awesome he accepted it. He has literally no Christian background, so we have to go really slowly when we teach him. He doesn't even know words that seem simple to members of the church, like "prophet," "apostle," or "holy ghost." And he has hearing aids, so he's hard to understand, which makes it even harder. But that's okay, it's good practice for me :)

Lately I've been trying to focus less on the language and more on teaching and the gospel. And the lesson when we gave a baptismal date to KS, I was able to say almost everything I wanted to, without having to struggle to find the words. The more I realize that my ability to speak doesn't matter, the less frustrated I am, and I'm more satisfied with the lessons I teach.

Want to hear about something disgusting I ate recently? A lady from English class gave us some oysters. Apparently Koreans think that they taste best when you eat them raw, so we tried some raw. It was probably one of the most disgusting things I've ever eaten, worse that raw beef and pig intestine. Yeah, we're only cooking those from now on :)

Ward conference is this upcoming Sunday, and the missionaries [Elder Suter, Sister Johnson & Sister Hill], along with the 4 primary children in our ward, are doing a musical number. It's the first verse of "I am a Child of God," and then all three verses of "Teach me to Walk in the Light." I'm playing the piano, and they had me make a transition between the two songs. Once again, the things I learned in AP Music Theory came in handy. I'm pretty sure I've used my knowledge from that class more than anything from any other class I took in High School.

They only wait to give us letters if we will be going to the mission home sometime soon, I actually got your letter on Thanksgiving, they just forwarded to me by mail. Of course I still want you to write me letters, why would you think I don't? I haven't heard anything about another 5K, hopefully not, it's too cold for that.

I hope you have a great week, I love you!

Elder Hines

Monday, November 24, 2014

Four Months

November 24, 2014

It's so weird that it's been four months already. It feels like it's gone by really fast, but at the same time feels like forever.  

Yeah, I use chopsticks all the time, forks are almost non-existent here. There were never very hard for me to use, but they're starting to feel pretty natural to me. I haven't had Korean BBQ, never even heard of it actually. I'll have to look into it :) Etiquette for bowing?  Well, when we greet people, we shake hands, and the most respectful way to do that is with your left hand touching your right arm and bowing as you shake hands. It probably sounds weird, but that's what everyone does here. For transportation, we walk as much as we can to save money, and take a bus if we need to get somewhere quickly. So lots of walking :)

This week I went on an exchange with Elder Jackson, one of the Zone Leaders. It was really fun, I had a great time. The best part was that he actually complemented my Korean ability. I haven't heard anything like that in a while, just because Elder Suter isn't that type of person, so the things he said were really motivating to me.

Last week a member bought us pizza for dinner, and it was from Dominoes, so I was pretty excited for something American. Then we opened the box and it was shrimp pizza . . . I really don't understand Koreans. It was actually pretty good, it just didn't feel like I was eating pizza, just some Korean seafood dish.  

Today for p-day we went to Changwon for an elders-only Thanksgiving p-day. It was really fun, we played football for a couple hours, and then went to a buffet for lunch. The buffet was really fun, and I ate some really weird things. Elder Jackson had me try a raw beef dish that he really likes. It was delicious, bright red and frozen in the middle. It actually wasn't as bad as I was expecting, but not good enough to eat it again. And then Elder Suter had me eat something called sunde, and wouldn't tell me what it was until after I ate it. It wasn't too bad, just tasted like sausage. Apparently it's pig intestine. Yum. Elder Suter said he thinks it's really good. It's more the thought of what it is that's gross though, not the taste.

If you have questions, don't hesitate to ask, I'm starting to run out of things to talk about, if you haven't noticed.  

Have a great week, I love you!

Elder Hines

Elder Hines & district




Sunday, November 16, 2014

Terrifying, But Fun

November 16, 2014

We're having a zone p-day today, so I don't have very much time to email, but I'll tell you what I can :)

We went to that island last week for p-day, and it was really cool. I sent you the pictures of it. We even got to do a little bit of a hike in our suits :) There was a cool Buddhist temple/sanctuary or something like that at the top of a hill. I'm pretty sure it was just a tourist thing, but it was still really interesting. Hopefully the pictures do it justice.

On Tuesday, I did a companion exchange with a missionary who just got here. It was super scary, since I barely had more experience than he did, and suddenly I was supposed to be the one who knew what he was doing and could communicate in Korean. It was terrifying, but really fun too, since I found out that it's actually possible for me to survive in Korea without someone who is more experienced. At least for one day... :) 

As far as missionary work, this week has been pretty lame. All our appointments have been falling through, so we haven't really had a lot to do. That's okay though, it just gives us opportunities to find more people, right? :)

Have a great week, I love you!

Elder Hines

From the top of the ferry
A bay on the island we visited









The first Korean dish I've made completely by myself.  It's called 볶음밥 (boggeumbap) if you're wondering.
Exchange with Elder Quiroz :)


At the bottom of the undersea tunnel


Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Amazing Teaching Experience

November 9, 2014

This week has been pretty good, mostly because of one of my investigators, EYH. So when we met with him on Wednesday, he asked us what our biggest problems right now are. Elder Suter said not having very many people to teach, and I said not understanding Korean. He told us he would think about it. On Saturday after English class, he drew out an outline for a flier, and told us he would tell all his friends about English class. He kept telling us that he will be the "Korean missionary." So on Sunday, he typed up the flier after church and made a bunch of copies. At the bottom of the flier, he put "Korean missionary phone number" in English with his number below it. Then he drove us in his car to a bunch of different schools and put up the fliers with us. And every time ​someone passed on the street, he told them about us and gave them a flier. Then he took us out to lunch after that. He kept telling me that he would help me with Korean, and that he is sure I will be fluent in the future. He said by the time I am fluent in Korean, he will be fluent in English, and then we can communicate in both languages. It was so nice of him to not only ask about our problems, but actually follow up and do something about it.  

We only got to teach JJ once this week, but it was an amazing teaching experience. We taught the Restoration, and I have no idea what was different, but I was able to say everything that I wanted to, and for the most part didn't even stumble over the words. I just somehow knew exactly what I needed to say, and was able to say it. It was the best I've ever taught, and I hope that somehow I will be able to continue to teach like that.

I got to give a talk in Sacrament meeting yesterday on charity. It actually turned out pretty well; I think I went for a full 15 minutes, which was really surprising. It was probably just because I was talking so slow though. :)

I know I already told you how lame it is that people were saying that "mandu myul mang" is so delicious, but I thought of a good comparison to help you understand what it would be like. It is basically the Korean equivalent of what Dad used to feed me and Colton for lunch when we were little sometimes--white bread with American cheese in the middle, microwaved on high for 30 seconds, and served with a side of goldfish crackers. If people really said that it is delicious and a missionary staple, they must have had an interesting diet.

Yeah, as far as making pizza and hamburgers, that would be super expensive for all the ingredients. Elder Suter and I are at a major loss as to what to eat. Elder Suter was an office Elder before training me, and so he always got fed by the president, and he said he doesn't remember it being this hard to figure out what to eat before that.

No, we never work with the less-actives. Any who we have tried to meet with have just been really opposed to talking with us. That's just how Korea is though, tons of people go inactive, and then just get annoyed when the missionaries bug them. 

We always take a bus when we go to mission headquarters; it actually isn't as hard as it looks to get there. It would be super expensive to take a boat, buses are fairly cheap. As to the route, we go north from Tongyeong through Masan, and then east to Busan. I don't know how much that helps, but that's as descriptive as I know how to explain it. 

We have a washing machine in our apartment, so we can just do it whenever we need to. And dryers don't exist in Korea, so everything just has to air dry. We email at the church in the clerk's office (is that what it's called? I can't remember the English names for some things anymore).

That's all I got for this week, we're going with the sisters in our area to an island today, I'll send you pictures next week. Hopefully it's pretty cool :)

Love,

Elder Hines


Bridge connecting Tongyeong



Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Lots of Teaching Going On

November 3, 2014

The church building is decent size; I guess it would be pretty small for American standards. It's two stories, but still pretty small. I bet you could find it on google maps. Have you tried looking at Tongyeong on google maps before? It's in Tongyeong Mujundong if that helps at all, that's like the city district or something like that.

I'm glad my suffering made a good story for you to tell. To answer her question, the first time it was hot enough it cooked the eggs ever so slightly, but the second time it had already cooled off a little, so it was completely raw. Delicious. I guess it was a blessing though, now whenever I come across undercooked eggs in normal food, it's not that big of a deal because I know it could be much worse.

Do you really think it looks beautiful? [Tongyeong] When I first got here, I thought it was so polluted and crowded with people that it was kind of ugly. But after going back to Busan for the 5K and then transfer meeting yesterday and seeing how dirty and crowded it is there, it makes me really appreciate Tongyeong.

So we started teaching a man this week; his whole family is Christian, but he isn't. He said it's because when he was in the Vietnam War, he saw so many people die who were Christian, so God must either not care about them or not exist. Anyway, this was a really scary experience for me because it was the first time teaching that I felt like what I said would actually have an impact, whether good or bad. In all the lessons I had taught before this, they were always really understanding and receptive, so if I messed up it wasn't a big deal. But he ended up coming to church this week, so it seems to be going pretty well.

We started teaching another man, maybe in his 50s or 60s. He is really cool; he was meeting with the missionaries a long time ago, but then stopped for reasons unknown. So he knows a lot about the Book of Mormon. He showed up at English class one day and told us he wants to study the Book of Mormon with us. Well, I guess . . . if you really want to . . . :) The first time we taught him, he kept talking about how it is so cool that we are missionaries. He says that we are "real" missionaries, like Paul and Matthew.

A member took us out to eat last week, and we had something called 삼계탕 (samkyetang). It was really good, it's a soup, and they bring it out in stone bowls so the liquid in it is still boiling. Each person's bowl has a whole chicken in it (a small one, of course) with vegetables. You take the chicken out and pull the meat off and put it back in the soup, and then eat it. It was super delicious, but the weird thing about it was that it had huge pieces of ginger and garlic in it.

We are continuing to teach EYH, and he is just as amazing as ever. Last night when we were teaching him, he kept telling us how he feels like he is not alone. He says he feels like Elder Suter and I are like brothers to him, and he really likes the bishop too. He said that he knows he always has the Holy Ghost to rely on. We started talking to him about baptism, and before we even taught him anything, he said he doesn't want to because then if he goes and drinks alcohol again, he would feel really bad like he was breaking a promise. So he already understood baptism really well. We explained that we don't want him to get baptized before he feels ready, and that we will help him prepare. He always says that he must abide by the Book of Mormon, because if he follows what it says, he can "be successful and make lots of money." He says that it is his dream to become rich and then help all the poor and sick people. The way he puts it is that if he has money and is in a high position, he will be able to "block the cruel people" from harming the "poor and sick people." He's such an amazing person, meeting with him is always my favorite part of the week.

Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Hines


Tuesday, October 28, 2014

One Egg or Two?

October 27, 2014

This week has been pretty good. We had a mission-wide 5K in Busan yesterday, that's why I didn't email until now. It was pretty fun to see everyone. I ran it in 24:02, so I was pretty proud of that, especially since I just spent 9 weeks in the MTC sitting around almost all day :)

We spent three days painting some rooms in the church and then a concrete fence behind the church with the bishop. That was a chore. But the bishop really appreciated it; he even thanked us in Sacrament meeting for it. But the good part of this story is what the bishop fed us for lunch two of those days we were painting. The first day, his wife made a ton of ramyun, and gave each of us a huge bowl of it. I wasn't complaining, I was pretty hungry after painting for so long. So I was looking forward to this delicious steaming bowl of noodles, when the bishop pulled out the eggs and cracked three of them straight into my bowl . . . and there went my appetite. I just mixed it in really well so that it wasn't as noticeable, but still the thought of three raw eggs mixed in with my soup was pretty disgusting. Elder Suter said it was even hard for him to handle, apparently completely raw eggs like that is pretty abnormal, even in Korea. The next day, he fed us the same thing, but didn't put any eggs in. So I was pretty excited that I would get to just enjoy it this time. When I was about half way done, he's like, "Aren't you going to have some eggs?" So I reluctantly cracked one in. It was terrible. The worst part was that I had already enjoyed some of it without the eggs. Oh well, that was last Friday and I haven't experienced any side effects yet, so I should be OK.

The idea you found, "Mandu Myul Mang" or whatever it was, isn't like a Korean food or something. It sounds like something some missionary came up with because he didn't know what else to make. It sounds like it has even less nutritional value than ramen, and doesn't sound very appetizing either, so it's funny that people were talking about how delicious it is. We only have an hour for meals, preparation and eating included. So if you come across anything else, let me know please :)

"Preach My Gospel Missionary" just means following the things that Preach My Gospel talks about, it's not very complicated :)

I love you too :)

Elder Hines

Mission 5K

Undersea tunnel connecting the main part of Tongyeong City to an island.
Elders Hines and Suter at the sculpture park. This bay is right next to Tongyeong. It was here that General Ee Sunshin fought off a huge Japanese navy with his turtle ships.