Chastity Rice... Happy Pi Day from Seoul!

Good day everyone! Hope you all are doing well! 

This past week has been pretty fun. We've had a focus on the Book of Mormon, so we've been trying to give out a bunch of them to people on the street. This Friday we gave out 9! That's 9 people that have the chance to come closer unto Christ, and it's awesome. A lot of them probably won't get baptized, but they have that opportunity!

Also this week me and my companion ate 보신탕 (Dog meat soup). The meat had a lot of ligaments and other not-delicious parts of it, but the other parts of it were pretty good. Of course, I'd much rather have some chicken or a different variety of meat, but now I can say I've had it.

We went to the temple this past Tuesday... It was a great experience, but the train ride there was the most crowded place I've ever been in, ever. I was worried I wouldn't be able to get out where I needed to... As it is, I only got out of there because everyone else had to get out there as well. Note to self, try to avoid taking a train when everyone else is going to work.

Our investigators are all doing pretty well. Kim 2 missed our appointment a couple days ago... We've set up an appointment to meet with him later this week, and this time we know how to avoid that happening. It's hard cause he works all day, every day (In Korea, that's normal). 

We're going to meet with Yi tomorrow after studies (he's the person we helped move in a little while ago). We're gonna try and teach his family English, and also the Gospel. He really likes missionaries so it should all be good.

We also have another Kim (We'll call him English Kim) that wants to learn English, but can't always come to English class. We're gonna do the same program with him as with Yi, but he needs to find a friend or family to learn with him... He's a super cool guy though.

And an  update on Kim 1, he came to church this week! We were able to contact him and set up an appointment for after English class. We bought him some food, and overall he's just being normal again... We think he's just been studying super hard for a test.

A lot of others can't really be called investigators yet... We've just been talking to them a bit.

And as for the title of this email... I've been learning the fourth lesson (The Commandments) in Korean, and the words for "Law of Chastity" (순결의 법- Sungyeorei Bop) and "Chastity Rice" (순결의 밥- Sungyeorei Bap) are super similar, and while I was practicing with my companion I accidentally said the latter. Now we like to make jokes about Chastity Rice in our apartment sometimes.

That's it for today, hope you all are doing swell in all of your miscellaneous places! Keep holding to the rod, and you will obtain the fruit that is most desirable above all other things.

Good luck to you all,

~Elder Skinner

F 층입니다 / 신천지... The Fth floor, and cults! Elder Skinner's Adventures in Korea! Inbox x

Hello, everyone... Good wishes all around.

My zone is going to the temple tomorrow! That'll be super fun, cause I can go through a session in English... Last time I had to go through in Korean. Granted, I had a translator, but it was still weird. I'll send pictures next week!

In other news, during transfers me and Elder District Leader went out to meet a less active in 남양주, and in his apartment the 4th floor was replaced with the Fth floor... We went up there just to hear the announcer lady say "F 층입니다". :P The reason for that has to do with the Chinese... In Chinese, the word for four (Si, sharp downward tone) and the word for death (Si, downward then upward tone) are very similar, so the number 4 is considered unlucky. Kinda like how a lot of buildings in America skip the 13th floor.

The less-active himself was pretty cool... He speaks really good English so that helped. ;)

In other news, we talked to a guy and his wife a couple weeks ago outside his workplace, and we set up an appointment with him on Friday. We were kinda worried about it, but we did it anyway... He ended up just preaching to us about his church, which is called 신천지 (Shincheonji). According to some of the other elders, it is one of the craziest churches in Korea.

Basically what they believe is that in Revelations 7, it talks about 144,000 people who are sealed in the Kingdom of God (or something like that). So their goal was to get 144,000 people to join their church, then they would all be saved. Then they got more than 144,000 people, so they decided that you had to make it into the top 144,000 in order to be saved. How do you do that? You bring people into the church. So all the people in this church are going around trying to get people to come to their church, because well, their salvation depends on it. So that's interesting.

Also on Saturday, the ward held a 'Karaoke night', where some of the members got up and sang karaoke, including the bishop. It was lots of fun, and afterwards a few of the missionaries sang "Saviour, Redeemer of my Soul" which was spectacular.

As for our investigators, Bei is still being Bei... He's kinda flaky at the moment, we've been trying to set up a time to go eat with him but he apparently has no time.

We didn't meet with Kim 2 this week... We're gonna try and bring a member to talk with him this week, and help him come closer to Christ.

Speaking of Kim, We've been worried about Kim 1... He hasn't been answering phone calls and he didn't come to church yesterday. We can contact his mom, though, so we're gonna try getting to him through her.

Plus, good news for Jung... His former fellowshipper came back from America this week, so now we can go and teach him lessons again! Maybe this time he'll be able to keep commitments and progress in the gospel.

Interesting note... Our team picked up a less active yesterday. Basically he just randomly came to church and sat down next to my companion and talked to him... So yeah, that's an interesting little thing there.

This is a really long email... So I'll close off today with a scripture: 1 Kings 3: 5-14. It's long, so I won't put it in here, but basically it talks about Solomon, when he first becomes king, and he asks the Lord for a wise and understanding heart in order to judge the people. I know that if we ask the Lord in righteousness to help us through our trials, and to make our weaknesses strong, then he can do it. I also know that if we ask in humility, not asking for riches or fame, then he will multiply blessings upon us that we won't have room enough to receive.

Good luck everybody; live the gospel and make it a great experience.

DFTBA,

~Elder Skinner

Ward Karaoke Night!

 The places upon which we sleep

I got some popcorn!!

Cows! And houses with yards! Elder Skinner's Adventures in Yangpyeong!

Hello everyone! How is everyone doing in the miscellaneous places?

Korea's still going along just fine! People have started coming back from New Year's, and we've been able to talk to some people.

We've been traveling quite a bit this past week, as our area is one of the biggest in the mission. We've been out to Deokso a couple times, Maseok another time, and one time we went all the way out to Obin, which is in Yangpyeong. For those without a handy map of Korea, it's about an hour away by train. There, there's a lot of farming, and it's one of the richer areas in Korea. I got probably closer to a cow than I've been my entire life. Plus, there are Houses! With Yards!!!!

Also yesterday, we talked to a guy on the street for a bit, and he bought us some milk... We talked a bit about our message, including our belief on heaven and hell... He seemed to accept that one okay. He said we could call him later (Which never happens!) and he'd buy us 개고기 (Dog meat). We think he's a great potential investigator.

As for our other investigators, we've only met with Kim 2 this week, we taught him about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon in the train station. He's super shy, but we can tell he's really interested in learning about the gospel.

This past weekend was Stake Conference, and we had a lot of good messages there that I kinda-sorta understood. We also got to sing in the choir! We sang two songs, "Behold, a Royal Army" and "기도했느냐" (Did you Think to Pray). It was a cool experience.

In other news, we're heading into Seoul today to go to Costco, which will be a fun experience for everyone. All sorts of cool things you can't get anywhere else in Korea, for cheap!

One last thing before I go, to all the missionaries on this list, excepting Brian, Ethan, and David... Add me to your email lists! I want to know what's going on in the other parts of Korea, South Africa, Benin, and Vancouver! It only takes a couple of seconds, and you have my email right here (^^^^^).

With that, good luck everyone, have a good time and remember that God loves you! There is nothing that is impossible through the atonement of Christ! And above all, Jacob 6:12.

~Elder Skinner

PS. Here's a picture of us with Kim 2!

The pizza has corn on it! Happy New Year from Seoul!

Hello everyone! 새해복 많이 받으세요! Happy new year!

This week has been filled with Koreans celebrating New Year, which means not a lot were on the streets for us to talk to, but it was still good!

Some special New Years stuff going on this week... This Friday was cleaning day! We cleaned ALL of the things! Some of the stuff in our fridge has been bad for a number of years... No one knows how it got there. We blame the sisters.

We also had an awesome New Years conference with half the mission! I saw all of the elders in my MTC district that went to the mission, and are still there. We saw Meet the Mormons, and a movie talking about the Book of Mormon, and its influence in the theological world. It was all very interesting.

Another fun story this week... We called someone in the area book and he said he could meet with us on Saturday, at 7. We ate dinner there, but we had an hour before we were supposed to meet him, so we just wandered around (as we were out in the country, an hour's bus ride from our apartment), and who do we see there but our good friend we were supposed to be meeting an hour later! We talked to him at a bus stop and he seems really interested. He will now be referred to as Kim 2... Kim is a very common name in Korea.

Our other investigator friends have been awesome as usual... Yi (the family we helped move in last week) has been busy moving in, and his son just got back from Thailand, but he'll be coming to English class pretty soon, probably Tuesday!

We got some chicken from Jung the other day, but we haven't been teaching him, and he's always busy. We're gonna keep our eye on him, but right now he's not an investigator.

Everyone else has been gone for New Years, but we've had a lot of success this week! Our house is keeping everyone around us up at night because it shines so much! :D

Don't forget to be happy!