Monsoon Season ...

So this week was a pretty slow week.  Summer is heating up here and monsoon season has kicked off. We get rain on rain on rain a lot of days.  I never realized what humidity was until I got to Korea. Everything here seems super hot and sticky all the time.  I'm sure I'll get used to it, though!

This week I went on exchanges in Seoul with Elder Jeong while my companion Elder Leavitt had leadership training at President Chrisensen's house.  It was great and Elder Jeong is an awesome cook; he made a bunch of really good rice dishes while I was there.  I also got to go hiking last P-Day!  We hiked a local mountain called Chunmasan that was supposed to be pretty easy.  It wasn't.  Koreans don't believe in switchbacks, so the trail went straight up the mountain!  I loved it.  It was such a great workout and such a great way to relieve stress.  The view at the top was amazing and you could see almost all of our area!  

On Saturday we had one of the investigators in our ward get baptized!  His name is Tak Hyun and he's the coolest 11 year-old ever.  I love getting to hang with him at church and he's super smart.  He's going to make an awesome member of the church, and his younger brother should be getting baptized in a few weeks!  It's so great to see young kids progress in the gospel -- I wish I had been half as spiritual as they are at my age.  This week we also re-commited our investigators Hyun Suk and Yoon Jay to baptism this week, so they should be getting baptized on the 6th of June!  Pray for them, they really need it!

We've had members feeding us all this week.  This past weekend the only meal that I ate at the house was breakfast -- everything else was provided by ward members for us!  My parents won't be able to make fun of me for being a picky eater when I get home -- everything here is so nuts when it comes to food, but it's all super tasty. Kimchi is tasty to me now, which I never expected to happen!

I've had some awesome spiritual experiences in the last week. I had the privilege of giving someone a blessing the other night and it is such an amazing thing. Everyone always talks about how the priesthood blesses the people around you and not yourself, but I really don't think that's true. The feeling that you get when you give someone a blessing is so amazing, and it only builds your confidence in priesthood power. Elder Leavitt and I have been focusing on obedience this past week and we're starting to see little blessings in a ton of things, hopefully as we work harder we'll see the blessings start to flow even more.

I love all you guys! I really love hearing from you all. I'm sorry my emails are always so short, I just never have any idea what to put in them! If you have any questions or anything, feel free to ask!

Rob!

P.S. I really apologize for any spelling errors or anything, writing in English is something that only happens during email now!

Photos!

Here is Elder Leavitt and I at the top of Chunmasan!

Tak Hyun and I after his baptism --

Here's Elder Jeong and I on exchanges.  He had me eat this crazy spicy food; maybe you can tell I had been crying before this photo was taken!

Keep Moving Forward ...

I didn't get the chance to email last week because it was Mother's Day and I didn't really have a whole lot of time on the computer. So I'll try to put these past two weeks into one week's email since not a whole lot went on!

Missionary work has been straight up tough these past two weeks, but it should all pay off in the end. Both of our investigators that had baptismal dates haven't been able to meet with us at all for the past two weeks, so they no longer have a baptismal dates anymore and aren't considered progressing at this point.  We're working hard to meet with them again but our schedules never really match up since they're seniors in high school.  (Korean high school is really difficult senior year and most students attend school for 12 or more hours a day.)  We had three appointments last Friday and none of them showed up. :P  Tomorrow we're meeting with a new investigator who's part of a less-active family -- he's my age and apparently a crazy good basketball player.  We also got a new ward mission leader this week, so we'll see how that works out!  He seems really excited about the calling and wants to meet with all the missionaries ASAP.

The longer I'm here, the more I notice that a ton of things here are just way different than in America. I remember everyone telling me how when they were on their mission they wouldn't ask what they were eating; I thought they were crazy for putting something into their mouths, having no idea what it was.  Now I can completely relate to everyone who's ever said that.  Last night I had this freezing cold noodle dish that I thought was just flavorless alfredo served cold, it was apparently mashed beans and a ton of weird stuff.  At the end you had to drink all the rest of the mush down; it was really interesting. The weather has also been crazy.  It's been super humid and in the 80 degree range.  It feels soooo hot out, but the crazy part is that there are sudden down pours of rain that feel just as hot.  It's so strange, but I love it.  Korea is seriously one of the coolest places ever.

I can't wait to hear from all you guys!  Stay safe!  I love you all!

Elder Woodall (Rob :P)

Photos...

1. This awesome dish called Mandu, it's kimchi with some meat mixed in. It's super tasty and really cheap.

2. Last week I made this dish called Kimbob, which is sort of a Korean version of sushi. It's sooooo good.

Hike, hike, hike, hike ...

There was so much cool stuff that went on this week.  I got to go to the Seoul Temple for the first time on Tuesday, which was super cool.  Everything there has a Korean theme to it, and it was an amazing experience.  After the temple we had P-Day, and all the Elders in our district went out to Dobongsan to hike. I have never been on a hike that's had such stunning views, it was way different than hiking in Yellowstone and Yosemite.  The whole first part of the hike we were completely convered by trees and brush, then about half way through we hit this clearing and you would see all of Seoul.  It had rained the day before and the air was super clean and fresh, which made the view just that much better.  The second half of the hike was almost completely vertical climbing rocks and steps through more trees, but when you hit the top you could see over the whole city and the mountains outside the city.  We had some of our Korean friends with us, and they pointed out that some of the mountains way far out north are actually part of North Korea.  It was such an awesome experience and a great workout too.

Missionary work this week was really hard but extremely rewarding!  We had our highest stats yet this week and talked to hundreds of people.  We ran into a less active named Pong Jay Hong this week, we usually go over to his house and visit him, but we ran into him on the street this week.  We've been trying to get him to church, but he never wants to come.  So when we ran into him I may have resorted to begging and pleading, but...he was at church on Sunday!!! We really enjoyed it and he told me that he felt a lot of peace while in sacrament meeting -- hopefully he'll come again next week!  Do you remember that less-active family that I tried visiting 2 weeks ago out in Namyanju?  We tried to visit them again and they actually let us in!  Turns out that Sister Kim's father is a preacher at one of the big anti-Mormon churches here in Korea and he was visiting when we knocked on their door this week.  Apparently he has no idea that they're members of the church, which is probably why they haven't really been attending lately.  Brother Kim used to be first counselor in the bishopric in our ward. They said that they're interested in taking the lessons again and coming back to church.  We're gonna work hard to bring them back!

I'm really loving it here and I feel like I've grown so much over the last 3 months.  I seriously never want to leave Korea.  Being here is such a blessing.

Rob

    Noodle run?

Halfway there ...

Getting closer ...

The summit!

Busy week ...

So this week was super hectic cause we had so much stuff going on in the
mission.  On Wednesday we took a train all the way out to an area called
Wonju that's way outside of Seoul.  We went there for a mission tour that
Elder Whiting was conducting.  This town is seriously out in the middle of
nowhere and there were just a ton of missionaries walking around
everywhere.  Elder Whiting gave really awesome training on how we can be
better missionaries.  He also talked a lot about after-mission life and what
we need to be doing after the mission (it was kind of annoying to hear
considering that I've only been out for just over 3 months now.)  Then, on
Sunday, we had Sister Burton of the General Relief Society Presidency come
and give a fireside on Saturday night in the Seoul South Mission, so I
actually got to go outside of my mission area, which was something that I
hear NEVER happens!  Sister Burton gave a talk about raising your children
in the gospel and it really made me think about how much I want to raise my
kids in this church cause it's blessed my life so much. It really put a
different perspective on what I want family life to be like someday. It was
a great talk and I got some amazing advice out of it.

On Saturday we had a ward picnic out in Deokso with the ward that was
really fun. We played a ton of different games and ate. It was all around
just awesome. Korean people apparently really like exercise dances, so we
did crazy dances for like half an hour and then played a ton of soccor.
After that we had a baptism in our ward for the other elders' investigator.
His name is Park Ho Young and he's this 92 year-old guy who's a serious
stud -- his family members are all members and he finally took the plunge to
get baptized!  He showed up to his baptism wearing a full track suit!  It was
legit!  All in all, this week was really good.

    An eternal family ...

I've also had some really telling thoughts this week.  Looking back at these
past 3 months, I can honestly say that they've been the hardest 3 months of
my life, but they've been worth it.  The experiences that I've had have
helped me grow in a way that I wouldn't have if I had just stayed home.
I've had so many experiences that just give me the overwhelming feeling
that I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing.  I'm so glad for those of you
who pushed me and helped me get on a mission.  It's you guys that keep me
going on days where it gets rough!

Rob

    On the train with the best district in Korea ...