Yo!
I hope all is well over in Boise! 영도's weather has taken a turn for the way too cold, and it's only November. We've finally had to start using the heater in our house, only to find that, well, it's terrible. In Korea, heaters are in the floor, so our apartment floor is warm, but the space from the floor to the ceiling is not as toasty as we'd like it to be.
I had to give another talk this week, but it went much better. I don't know if it's because I prepared more for it, or just because I prayed a lot more (I was scared that things would go like last time). Anyways, the talk I gave was on the importance of the sacrament, and I was like maybe 10 minutes long. I'm pretty sure I said the same thing over and over again for those ten minutes, but the members were nice and said that I can almost speak Korean (not really, they just said "good."). This time, the middle form/high form didn't trip me up as bad, and I feel like I expressed myself much better. I think it was the prayers more than any improving in Korean that I did.
Just want to write about a few people we've met.
We met one 박동채 while looking for less actives. I can't remember if I wrote about him or not, but here it is anyways. We were really, really lost, and so we were standing on the side of a road, looking at my camera (we have a huge map back at the apartment, so I take pictures of it so we can have a portable way of figuring out exactly where we are). He walked up, and asked if he could help us. We chatted for a bit, and he sent us off in the same direction.
Later, when we were working out way back, we ran into him again, outside of some restaurant that we think he owns/lives at. He gave us some delicious cider, and we talked for some 10 minutes. He seemed to really like us, and told us to come on over and hang out anytime.
Oh, and he speaks Japanese too. He was talking in Korean, and he said "fu tari" (meaning "two people"), instead of the Korean "두명," so I asked him. Turns out he was born in Japan, and then moved to Korea. He was happy to learn that my Japanese is passable and kept laughing his santa-like laugh and saying, "Ohohoho, nihonjin sokuri mitai desune!" (No idea how to spell that in romaji, but "You are just like a Japanese person!").
Anyways, we called him back yesterday, and when we said that we were the missionaries, he was all like, "Ohohohoho, yes, yes." He's busy now with college (he's a bit older, maybe 50? I think he's studying Japanese), but says to come over to chill with him after he's done with testing. He's a really cool guy.
We also met a man 지영수 - he's maybe 40, and is really nice. I think Elder Platero received some revelation that led to us meeting him. We were out knocking doors (which is terrible in Korea because everyone has a doorbell-intercom with an outer gate, and so it's hard to actually meet people face-to-face), and there was one house with the gate open, and a door open. We kind of checked the house out, but we couldn't see anyone. I wanted to move on, but Elder Platero was waiting to see if anything happened.
Eventually, the man saw us or heard us, and stepped out. He already knew our church, and kept saying things like, "Oh, your church is so good!" and "Ah, your church is true!" So we gave him a pamphlet, and he told us to come by again and talk.
Well, we did that a couple of days ago, and again, Elder Platero kind of made things work. Same deal - doors open, lights on, but nobody responding to our "Hello?"'s. Again, I was ready to go home and eat dinner, but I got a feeling that I just needed to let Elder Platero do his thing. Elder Platero kind of crept through the gate to get a better look in the house, and I guess 지영수 again heard us or something, and so he came out.
He was happy to see us, and invited us into his house. He had read the pamphlet we gave, and was really curious. He's studied the Bible before, and says he really likes Christ. He asked us a bunch of really good questions that he had from reading the pamphlet; "What is the Book of Mormon?" "Where can I buy one?" "Who exactly was Joseph Smith?" Not hard questions, but questions that we missionaries love to hear.
He was really accepting throughout our time together, and he said he's get started on reading to Book of Mormon. He also said to come into his house whenever because he's usually home. We're excited to continue to work with him!
Ooh, sorry for the long email! It's just excited to write about these people that we get to meet!
One more thing. Dad - next time you happen to send me a package, can you send me some pictures of me when I was younger? People seem to want see those, and the pictures I have right now are all within like 2 years. Members want to see me when back when I was adorable.
Thanks for all you do! I'll write again next week!
Love,
-Elder Luke
Notes:
안녕하세용!: Annyeonghaseyo, the standard Korean greeting.
영도: Yeongdo, the area he's in. By the way, the weather recently in Busan has been highs around 60 F, lows around 40 F.
박동채: Bak Dongchae (or Pak Dongche), the Japanese-born guy.
두명: dumyeong, "two people." I'm guessing this is probably 二名 or 二人.
지영수: Ji Yeongsu, the guy with the open door.
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