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

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

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

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