I got my First Baptism! [week 16]

You guys are not going to believe what happened this week! So I was on my way to the missionary house doing missionary things. I was the missionariest missionary that ever missionaried! ...

Just kidding. No baptism.

But what did happen is my companion and I found some great people to teach. Including a cute American from Arkansas. Her name is Mollie and she is cute and she is an English teacher and she is also very cute. Good thing my heart is locked or I would be more focused on how cute she is than how cute her eternal SOUL will be when she is baptized! 

We also kept teaching the 윤s (yoons) I forgot their full names and it's disrespectful to only say their last name so don't snitch. Shhh🤫 the daughter seems like she could be baptized. She believes in God and wants to know more. The father is just happy to let his daughter explore her interests and learn English for free. I like them. 

We played basketball with some guys. One of them just plays basketball with missionaries sometimes and we get to know whoever he brings over. Oh and me and elder Titensor lost three out of four games... I'm 6 foot 4! Losing is unacceptable behavior for a representative of the church. On offense I could just stand under the hoop and Titensor passes the ball high and I can shoot over and over while the guys on the other team try to leap for a rebound. I'm not even jumping this whole time. So how did these super short Korean fellows get the drop on me and Titensor??? They were NINJAS! and it was icy... and I'm not that good at basketball... and I went easy in them to get them to like me and be baptized. 

I have been getting better at the language. I made up some sentences that Koreans could understand. It was good stuff. 

It has also been a good week for teaching and learning. I know it's because of my family's prayers and the help of the Savior. I love you guys, and I encourage you all to read The Book of Mormon and pray every day. It helps.

PICTURES!!!

All the pictures with a bridge or water were taken today at a lake.  That was fun.

I ate an octopus! It was scrumptious.

The statues were made by a friend from hello talk that I am both hello'ing and talking to. Aren't they awesome?

Allright love you guys, that's all folks.

Truly Truman. 

Merry Christmas 메리 크리스마스! [week 13]

안녕하세요 여러분. 어떻게 지내세요? 

Hello guys, how are you? I'm doing just peachy-keen, thanks for asking. 

This week has been pretty wholesome. Very high quality. Super nice. 너무 좋아요. Anyway, last Tuesday I went to district council. The zone leader is super cool. He got 6 baptisms as a trainee. He asked us all to tell everyone why we came on a mission and that we should be honest. He said he used to hate the idea of going on a mission, then he told an awesome story about how that changed. It's too long of a story for this email, so just take my word for it. I said I have always wanted to serve and my reasons for being here keep getting better the longer I'm out.  GO ME! 

On Christmas Elder Titensor and I went out and about and delivered presents to all of our branch members and teaching friends. We bought candles and Elder Titensor wrote a nice note in Korean and I origami-fied the notes and we gave them out to people, plus candy for kids.  The things Elder Titensor wrote on his note were: "We love you, Jesus Christ  loves you, if there's any service we can do let is know, Merry Christmas, during the Christmas season if you focus on Christ you will find more happiness." 

We got some good, teary Korean gibberishy (because I still don't understand what is being said) reactions.  It was swell. 

This picture is from a baptism on Christmas day--we traveled up to Daejon to be there for the baptism of Brother 뢰건명.

Left to right it goes elder Harmon, Jito, Me, then Brother Rowae Kon Myong, then Elder Rau,
then elder Doe (front) Titensor (back), then idk, then elder dickey.

We also got to eat cake and pizza that some members provided. The cake was DELICIOUS, and the pizza had potatoes and corn on it, so the first two bites were disappointing, but then I realized it was just shepherd's pie in disguise. And I LOVE shepherd's pie! It was a Merry Christmas after all!

The delicious cake.

Right now I'm in a waiting room to get some booster shots or something, and there is a Korean game show on, and it the most highqualityentertainment I have ever had the privilege of laying my eyes on. I can't wait to watch more when I'm a fluent RM. 

This week I have grown a lot more than I have helped anyone else grow. So it was a great week for me. I grew closer to the Savior and improved on the language. I can't wait to help others out with the Gospel. That's why I'm out here, so I'm looking forward to that the most. 

Alright, I love you guys! Thanks for your prayers and kind words. You're all the best!

PICTURES!

I went to a Buddhist temple. It was amazing! I loved it, it was easily my favorite Korean cultural experience. 

There's those big, murderous, colorful statues. They were huge, I should have taken it next to myself so you could see the scale. 

The picture with me and the huge statue in the background is a Buddha statue. It's the tallest stone Buddha statue in Korea at eighteen point something something meters tall.  

• From the article in that link: "The statue, which is widely known as “Eunjin Mireuk Buddha” as it is located in Nonsan’s Eunjin village, is 18.12 meters in height, the tallest in Korea.
  
  This Buddha statue is wearing a cylindrical coronal on its head. Its large head and face with strong features make it all the more impressive. Unlike Buddha statues in the Unified Silla Dynasty, which pursue refined and ideal beauty, it boasts enormous size, massiveness, and bold beauty.

The green lanterns are in the ceiling of one of the rooms in the temple. Very pretty, the smoke detector kinda ruins the magic, but whatever.

There's a picture of me with a funny tongue sticky outie statue behind me.

The picture with all the happy-looking, super handsome, (but ugly in comparison to ME) elders is us at a noodles restaurant. SCRUMPTIOUS! Left to right it goes me, Elder Titensor, Elder Jito, and elder Harmon.

The picture with the figurines behind glass are some One Piece action figures in a super nerdy nerdy museum called robot museum. You had to buy a drink to get in (I got hot chocolate because it's cold) and you go in, and there was a room absolutely FULL of robot action figures. Then there was another room full of one piece and other anime action figures. It was so nerdy and awesome! I taught Elder Titensor how to play GO in there. 

The flowers on the street are projected.  There's tons of projected advertisements and art on the streets at night. 

The torch statue I just thought looked cool, and I had room for one more picture on this email, so there you go!

Allright love you guys! I'll schedule this email to send tomorrow morning for me so I don't notification bomb you all in the middle of the night. Love you! 

Truly Truman.