Hello!
So, it turns out that I've been transferred! I'm in 포항 now (not an island), which is a city that's kind of in the northern part of our mission. Obviously, I've only been here for like 3 hours, but it seems like it's a fairly small town - probably somewhere between 서귀포 and 영도.
My new companion's name is Elder 이영호 (Yeoungho Lee), and this is his last transfer as a missionary, so we'll only be together for the next 6 weeks. But I've heard a lot about him; my last district leader says that he's the best missionary in the whole world. I don't know what that means, but it sounds like I'll be able to learn a lot from him! (Oh, and he served in 서귀포 I think like a year ago) (I've heard that he's a bit older; I think he went to college for like 3 years, and majored in Japanese, so that'll be interesting...)
Not too much to write about this week either... we couldn't get a hold of 영군수, so we didn't meet with him, but we were able to meet 전충식 this week. Honestly, I kind of think that he just met us because I'm leaving, and he wanted to say bye, but hey, if we got to meet with him, all's good! He bought us a cake, haha. He's a really nice guy - I hope he keeps meeting with the missionaries.
Oh, as far as 서귀포 news goes, an American missionary is coming. Elder 허 and I were worried what would happen if a Korean came, since our investigators are interested in English, and our English class desperately needs the 서귀포 elders to participate in it.
So, I've come to 포항, and I'm replacing Elder Harris, who was in my MTC district. He is (in his own words) "so pumped." I talked with him for a while, and it seems like they keep pretty busy here; Elder 이 says there's not a ton of people here, but they're working pretty closely with a few less actives, and a recent convert. That's good - I feel like most people come into an area, and have to start by looking for people to meet with, but we seem to have a good pool to start with.
Hm... that seems to be about it for this week. Next week will probably be a longer email - I'll have met a lot of new people, and will have a little more time then.
Thank you for all the prayers you do for me, and for all the missionaries all over the world!
Love you!
- Elder Luke
Notes:
포항: Pohang. Pohang is a city of about 520,000 people (about 3x the population of either Yeongdo or Seogwipo), located on the east coast of the Korean peninsula. The area of the Ponang Branch of the church borders on the north boundary of the Busan Mission, so he went from the very south area of the mission the very north. That area of the country looks rather sparsely populated; Pohang seems to be the northernmost city of any size along the coast in the Busan mission, but it's about 60 miles from the mission boundary (and thus the Pohang branch is about 60 miles long by 10 miles wide). Pohang is headquarters for POSCO, one of the largest steel companies in the world.
서귀포: Seogwipo
영도: Yeongdo
영군수: Yeong Kunsu, one of the people they were teaching in Seogwipo.
전충식: Jeon Chungsik, the person they taught for several months in Seogwipo (see photo).
Elder 허: Elder Heo, his companion in Seogwipo.
Elder 이: Elder I, his new companion (usually Romanized as "Lee," though the pronunciation should be like "ee" [without the "L" sound]).
전충식: Jeon Chungsik again.
Here's a few pictures: the first is of the last district meeting of this last transfer. We had a couple of what we call "Sister Training Leaders" visit us on that day.
The next picture is of me and Brother 전충식. Sorry that I don't look that good in that picture, haha. But that's the best one we got.
Note: The writing on the upper right of the cake box says "In aquiet early afternoon, Take an agreeable tea Time Listening to Classical music, Our soft cakes With Plenty of Sweet cream will Delight such amazing Time." The lower writing is harder to make out -- it says something like "The glass slipper ... to fit just right as ... for today. prince charming is smiling in favor of me and I feel like dreaming."
You've got to love Asian English. :)
I've got more pictures, but I'll send them later. Byeee!
One last thing...
I don't know why I remebered this, but I wanted to share it.
When I met 전충식 for the last time, he asked for my home address, so I gave it to him. He says he wants to write to me after my mission, and come over to Idaho.
He says he wants to be a farmer and raise potatoes - he said this while miming picking up a potato and adding, "this is delicious potato!", in English.
So if you get a letter written in Korean (though I kind of feel that he might not actually write it...), I guess just hold onto it until I get home.
Haha, thanks!
- Elder Luke
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