Presidents, normal old people, and lots of Chicken- Elder Skinner's adventures continue!

Well, everyone, another week has come and gone, and Elder Skinner's still in Korea. How's everyone doing this week? Hopefully you're in a nice, comfortable position as you're reading this email.

This week out here in Korea went pretty well overall. We got paid one day late because of some presidents, and that day happened to be our P-day... So we had to improvise in order to purchase our food, but in the end it all worked out. I think. 🙄

On Tuesday we met with three friends and investigators. The first fed us Kimchi Stew (it was good), but since he's technically the other Elders' investigator (whoops) we didn't teach him anything. The food was good though. Second was Mobby, from Zimbabwe. He's our new investigator, and he's willing to accept the Joseph Smith story which leads to only one outcome, and that is his baptism. Third was Brother O, who took us to a vegetarian place and then dropped us. He was nice, but it's something to remember that we got dropped at a vegetarian restaurant.

Then for my birthday, we went to lunch at Subway with a branch member who's getting married and moving away forever. Subway in Korea is about the same quality as the US (half-rate at best) but twice the price. I guess it wasn't the worst thing I've ever eaten, though. For dinner we got burritos, and even after all that the other Elders we live with tried to buy me surprise Chicken, but guess who knew their scheme from the beginning? (This guy)

But then we had our Chinese people class, which admittedly went a lot better than the first one. The participants even got together afterwards to eat Korean-style Chinese food. I consider that a success, and more potential baptisms, which is obviously the only reason we're even out here (No it's not).

Afterwards we met the most normal old person either of us have ever met in all of Korea. It's tough to describe, but old people in Korea generally fit into three categories: 1. Old and grumpy, doesn't listen to anyone else. 2. Old and happy, talks a lot and doesn't listen to anyone else, and 3. Old and just doesn't listen to anyone else. So when this one not only listened, bu reacted and talked in a normal way, we were a bit thrown off.

Then I got a cold. *cough cough*

On Saturday, our English friend David bought me and my companion almost $50 worth of Chinese food and then just left us to eat it on our own. It was honestly very awkward and we tried to convince him otherwise, but in the end me and my compan

ion ate as much as we could and still had about half a plate of chicken left to go.

Overall, things are good out here in Korea! I know that as we have faith, the Lord will bless us with our righteous desires if we show faith in Him. I'm working on a Korean sacrament talk on repentance, so I know that the Atonement is real, and that as we rely on Him, we can press forward with the assurance that He is pleased with our efforts (D+C 123: 17). I love you all and hope you have a great week!

~Elder Skinner

Adventures on the G-Line

Morning, everyone! How was everyone's week this week? Mine's been pretty good, and cause there's a lot to talk about I'm going to jump right into it.

Monday: Normal P-day, except everything was closed down for the holiday. We had to carry our groceries home and stayed at the house most of the day. Afterwards, we had the rest of the night to contact people.

Tuesday: New Years conference. We received some training regarding the work, Korea, and Korean traditions regarding New Years. We had the rest of the day to contact.

Wednesday: The War on Dirty Apartments. The entire afternoon was dedicated to deep cleaning the apartment. As expected, there was a lot of work to do, including opening a door where the handle had broken (thankfully there is another way into the room, and it was just an extra room to begin with), and dumping out some REALLY old Kimchi from the fridge. That may have been the most disgusting-smelling thing I've ever experienced. I have a video.

We also gave brother Son a complete set of scriptures in Chinese, and his own scripture case. He was pretty happy.

Thursday: Exchanges with Elder Judd. It started off pretty normal, but at dinnertime I called Sister Sonksen (Mission President's wife) about an infected finger and she told me to go to the hospital. So there we went, and they told us to come back tomorrow because it was too late >_>. Should have called ahead of time, I guess.

Friday: This time with Elder Wyckoff, I go once again to the hospital. We wait for a really long time (Elder Wyckoff read the entire books of Judges and Ruth in this time), but we get in and the doctor tells us it's no big deal and gives me some meds and antibacterial stuff. I'm to come back in two weeks if it's not better.

We begin less-active hunting, looking through records and area books and member books to try and find all the information we can. The work continues to this day.

We teach a Gospel Principles-style class in Chinese. We just had so many Chinese people talking to us that we decided to put together a class so that we can teach all of them together, even though we don't know Chinese. Pilot run status: it's getting there, but it seemed good!

Saturday: Valentine's Day Party. Most of the day is used planning and setting up for this party, working with the band we ended up having, and baking cookies. The party was a huge success, but we were going hardcore trying to keep it all together and running smoothly. I firmly believe we had some help from above in keeping this afloat.

We taught English Class participants about Valentines day. As I am a missionary, and 'love' isn't in my vocabulary, it was a bit awkward.

 

Sunday: Church. I give the opening prayer. Many people come, including two less-active sisters, one of whom is from Germany. Special musical number, and training from church leaders regarding keeping the Sabbath Day holy.

Less-Active hunt continues.

We meet a cool Russian guy on the street. He has an interesting view on God- he was wrong, but he wasn't too far off the mark. He's not interested in meeting, but we taught by the spirit, it went super well, and if we see him again we can give him a Book of Mormon in Russian.

Hope you have a great week, full of amazing adventure and joy! This week's commitment is to laugh at something this week. Make something a little bit more happy, and I will see you next week!

~Elder Skinner

The most wonderful thing about Tiggers

Morning everyone! Happy new year!  It's the year of the Monkey.

I'll be honest, not a lot happened this week, so this email's gonna be a bit shorter, but that doesn't mean I don't love you all and want you all to pay attention to me and my needs! I'm kidding, of course.

We met a new investigator named Jay, and he used to live with an LDS family in Seattle, so that's pretty neat. He seems to accept everything well but he's just one of those Koreans that I just can't read. We scheduled a return appointment, though, so at least he's willing to continue to learn more.

We also ate pizza with Son and talked about the Holy Ghost (as he was going to receive it on Sunday). That all went well, but if you're ever ordering Korean pizza, just get pepperoni... haha!

As if to make up for the Korean pizza, however, we found the most delicious chicken place ever. Korean chicken, unlike Korean pizza, is undeniably tasty.

We met with Tony, and we still need to sit down and formally teach him stuff, but he is growing to like us, so there's that. We're gonna meet him with one of the senior couples in the next week or so.

Other than that, all was pretty normal... This week's looking to be a bit more exciting, though, so be prepared for perhaps a longer email next week.

Today I learned how to compare the Gospel to Baseball, and I thought you all would enjoy it, so here it goes: Let's say you are a baseball player, and you have a professional baseball player you really admire and look up to. Now imagine if he told you exactly what you needed to do to become a star baseball player like him. I believe we would trust his advice, and do at least some of the things he advised. That's a lot like faith- as we follow the example of Jesus Christ to become the best people we can be.

Not everyone will be a perfect runner, hitter, fielder, etc. on their first try. That's why we need repentance. As we change our training style to more closely follow the advice given us by our star baseball players, we should change our lives to more closely follow Jesus Christ.

As we grow and learn, we eventually make a solid commitment to play baseball and sign on to a team. Once on that team, you are expected to train, play, and act in all aspects to help yourself and help the team to win baseball games. When we are baptized, we make a similar commitment to serve the Lord with all our heart, and act in all ways as a servant of Jesus Christ.

Our coaches, in return, help us and guide us as to how we need to train and play to be the best players we can be. On that token, we are promised the Holy Ghost, that will help and guide us throughout our lives to grow closer to Christ. And then, of course, we must continue training and practicing to play in the Major Leagues.

I hope you all have a great week, and remember the blessings the Gospel has brought in your lives! See you all next week!

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Seoul Mission

When life gives you lemons... Baptize them!

Good morning, brothers and sisters! I hope you had a wonderful week and are sitting in a comfortable chair or some other comfortable thing as you read this email.

This week, I went on exchanges to Dongdaemun! During that time, me and my ZL got bible-bashed by two Presbyterian church guys... It's a fun story, but the person my ZL set up an appointment with that night had called two of the Elders from his church to come and share opinions on church with us. All with the best of intentions, I assume, but perhaps it was a good thing that I didn't bring my English scriptures, lest some larger conflict should have arisen.

For P-day, we found some Superhero keychains that light up and make noise, so we bought matching district superheroes. Apparently, I'm the Green Lantern.

 

One of our more interesting investigators moved to Incheon this week, and for once we had a normal conversation with him on the phone... It actually made me sad a bit but the work moves on, right?

 On Saturday we barely made it into English Class with our nametags intact, as we very nearly had a tier-1 emergency with the English book. As it was, we put it all together in time, and all worked out reasonably without hitch, so that's good... Right?

Also at English Class on Saturday was the other Elders' investigator, Ted, from Ethiopia. Yes, he did come to learn English, but afterwards the other elders gave him a Book of Mormon in his native language (I don't even remember what it was), and he was super stoked about that. He's gonna read it.

And as you all know well, we had a baptismal service yesterday! It didn't come without its problems- I won't go too much into detail, but there was some drama before the baptism- but in the end, Brother Son was able to get baptized! He's super happy about it, despite his expression in the photo below. ^^

 

I had a pretty interesting thought while reading Alma today... From the war chapters, wouldn't you know.

Alma chapter 44 details the way the Lamanites reacted after they found out they were surrounded by the Nephite armies. At first, their leader refuses the covenant of peace, and the battle continues. However, later, as he finds that his armies are being destroyed, he returns and accepts the peace treaty. Moroni allows them to leave peacefully as they make this covenant and deliver up their weapons to him.

The Lamanite leader could have saved a lot of bloodshed if he had from the get-go accepted the conditions Moroni put forth. As it was, the offer was still available when he was ready to accept it, but many more soldiers would have gone home to their families if he had accepted the terms. It is very similar to the Gospel- We can always accept the terms of the covenant, but the longer we postpone repentance, the longer we needlessly suffer, and the harder it becomes to hold out. Nevertheless, Moroni accepted the Lamanites' surrender, showing that the arm of the Lord is ALWAYS extended to us, no matter how long we put it off.

Love you all, and have a wonderful week! Long email is long, but thanks for reading!

~Elder Skinner

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Seoul Mission

Elder Skinner's unimaginative email title

Morning and Afternoons, brothers and sisters!

I don't have much to say this week.

This week's been pretty good, but the thing is I forgot to write down what I did on my way to emails... So I don't remember much of it. I'll share a few things though.

We met with our Chinese friend Son, who is progressing towards a baptismal date on the 30th (we moved it a day to fit with the Branch's schedule). We're super excited for him, and by all accounts he should be ready then!

We visited a few less actives, but those efforts were met with (1) No one home (2) Moved out or (3) They're active members of another nearby ward... That one was an interesting story, though it was kind of awkward when we visited them... haha

We got transfer calls on Saturday and none of us are leaving, so that's pretty cool.

But that's about it for today, so I'll close with an insight I gained this morning from Personal study. It's short, but powerful... Alma teaches that repentance was so important that the Saviour completed the Atonement in order for us to have the opportunity to do so.

I love you all, and remember, we are a people of inclusion! This week, make an effort to do something nice for someone who feels left out and I can promise blessings from it.

Promising more exciting news and updates next week and attaching 7 Gigabytes of prayers and blessings,

~서정민 장로

Elder Skinner

서울시 종로구 자하문로 152 1동

서울 선교부

Seoul-Si Jongno-Gu Jihamun-Ro 152 1-Dong

Seoul Mission