Elder Skinner's got Seoul! How about you? Sept. 20

That's right everypony, I'm in Seoul! This week's been pretty intense with transfers and all but we're getting into the hang of things and it's looking to be a great transfer ahead of us.

To begin, this Tuesday we ate a popular Korean food called Soondaeguk! I was kinda hesitant (I'd had just plain Soondae before, and it wasn't that great :P) but it turned out to be pretty okay! So to everyone still in Korea, try some 순대국!

As my companion is training, we went into Seoul on Wednesday so he could go to that meeting, and I was able to proselyte a bit in my new area with Elder Hong. We had a great time, considering we had no idea where anything was!  But it was great anyway. Also, later that night I was with Elder Bluhm and Elder Yi, buying a bag for Elder Yi, and it turns out the lady we bought the bag from joined the church about 25 years ago but has become less-active! Elders and Sisters, miracles happen!

The next day I met my new companion, Elder Bybee. Thing is, this is his last transfer in Korea! O.o so I don't get to spend a lot of time serving with him but that just means I'll have to make it the best transfer EVER. Hopefully he's ready for it. >:) He's from Clearfield, Utah, and he's hoping to be a professor of Egyptology when he gets back.

The Area: It's a lot of city (obviously). There are quite a few universities here, along with plenty of foreigners from just about anywhere you can think of, so we get some diversity there. I haven't explored much of it yet but it seems like it'll be lots of fun. We also have subways, so that's exciting. Also in our area we have a Taco Bell, Burger King, Expensive Ashley's, and a foreigner store where we can get Root beer, so as you can imagine I'm pretty excited.

Not much to report this week, and not much time, but I'll make sure to have plenty of adventures this week to share with y'all. Attached is a selfie with my companion. Y'all have a great week now, ya hear?

~Elder Skinner 🐙

Hangul Molla! Elder Skinner gets one important phone call! Sept. 13

 That's right my faithful followers, I'm getting transferred!

But before I go into that, how are things going out there in the world? Hope you all have had great experiences this week.

This week has been fun for us. Not too much excitement but a normal week was just what the doctor ordered after a couple of fun and exciting adventure weeks.

This past Monday we took some visitors and went up to the beach to play Frisbee. It was fun, relaxed, just kinda nice overall.

 

Then on Wednesday we had Zone Training. The whole zone came to Gangneung to visit. Interestingly, while my companion was in a meeting, the planets aligned and I was able to go out and proselyte with my MTC companion, the Great and Powerful Elder Dye! It was fun to catch up a bit and enjoy his company. He then stayed here with us for a day while his companion went on exchanges with the zone leaders.

After zone training I went on exchanges with Elder Hong. I learned a lot from him, including that it's probably not a good idea to take bike selfies. I don't know, it seems like it'd be fine, but oh well. ;)

 

On Friday we went with the other Elders to eat Chuncheon Dakgalbi, which may now be my favourite food evar. Like, EVAR. It's that good.

Saturday we went out to the countryside to have a district fireside/dinner with the whole district. One of the Seoul Temple missionaries spoke, talking a lot about missionary work so of course it went great, plus the food was delicious. They made lots of meat and subsequently forced me to eat a whole lot of it. It was good though so I didn't mind.

Then I got the one phone call to rule them all... Transfer calls! Elder Bluhm is transferring (we all knew that would happen), but then the APs told me I'd be transferring too! I haven't been in Gangneung that long so it was kind of a surprise to hear that I'd be leaving. I'm going to Seoul, in the Shinchon (신촌) area. It's the area with the Temple in it!

I'll let you know how things go there next week, but now I've gotta go! I'll talk to you all next week, hoping you have a totally tubular week!

~Elder Skinner

Elder Skinner goes to Seoul! Sept. 6

Afternoon, everybody! Hope you all had a great week.

So this week has been pretty busy for us in Gangneung. Beginning this past Monday we were in a threesome with Elder Dixon (another Elder in our area) while his companion went back to Military training for three days. During that time we went up to the University in our area (Gangneung-Wonju University) since summer break is over, and we had some success in finding people up there, as well as putting up some flyers for English Class.

Then on Wednesday we took a three hour bus ride to Seoul! We took our P-day there, climbed Namsan, ate some Korean Pizza (not quite as good as American pizza but it was still good), and went through the temple. We stayed the night there, then the next day we had Mission Conference! President Whiting (President of the Asia North Area) came and talked to us, gave us some advice and tried to set us slackers in line! Not really but we were really glad to hear what he had to say.

 

Another 3 hour bus ride back, another normal day on Friday, until we got a new roommate! He's from a ward in our mission (녹번- Nokbeon) and he's going to Washington to serve his mission, but his Visa isn't in yet so for now he's hanging with us, until he can go to the MTC. He's fun, but he's also a new missionary and is still getting used to things.

Saturday we watched Meet the Mormons with the branch, which, as always, is a great movie. They seemed to enjoy it!

And now we're here. Sorry not a whole lot of Missionary-work related news, but we're still helping people come unto Christ, and especially this week since it's looking like a normal week, we're gonna work super hard and find those people the Lord wants us to teach.

Love you all, hope you have a wonderful week!

~Elder Skinner

Moosen Mario? Elder Skinner and the Ashley's that Wasn't Really That Good!

Hello everyone! Glad to see all your bright, smiling faces looking at this email. Hope you all had a great week.

So many of you may have noticed that I didn't send out an email last week... so I'm gonna start from two weeks ago.

So on the first Monday we went to Ashley's- an American-Style restaurant that is pretty popular among us missionaries. All in all, it wasn't really that exciting.

Went out to a few new areas of Gangneung as well, trying to do some exploring and finding new spots to proselyte. Gangneung is a pretty cool place, by the way!

On Tuesday we got a typhoon... Just a little small one, but they still called it a typhoon. Basically it was just windy and rainy. Nothing too abnormal. We still stayed mostly inside though. ^^'

This week we met a potential investigator at English Class. He had come early, so we got to talk to him a bit, and he tells us he had done some research about our church (we were sort of apprehensive at this). It was all good stuff, though- he found out about the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity, which after we explained them a bit he said 'you guys are true Christians', which was nice to hear. He also found out about FLDS, which was an interesting discussion but it all went well. ^^

Saturday turned out to be pretty crazy... We had a couple appointments with people we met on the street (both ended up cancelling), English Class, and one of the members called to invite us to dinner. We went out to a new area in the afternoon after lunch (a pretty neat spot but I don't really know how to describe it ^^') and went out pretty far to the member's house to eat a lot of really spicy food, then consequently ran back to the house. Just so you're aware, (spicy food x a lot) + running = not a great idea. We got home in the nick of time though so that was good.

And as for the title of the email, it's become a phrase around our zone to say 'Moosen Mario' (무슨 말이에요?) Which means 'What did you say?' but saying it with an American accent ('Mario' in Korean sounds more like the Italian pronounciation). Mostly fun for the Korean missionaries reading this but still kind of interesting!

But that's it for this week... Hope you all had a wonderful one as well! I'm running out of time but I love you all! Keep on doing good things!

~Elder Skinner