Suwon Madhouse!

Elder Ely and me at the Temple

Another week seriously just flew by! I am trying to piece together all that happened, so bear with me.

So last Monday wasn't really our p-day because we went to the temple on Thursday; when that happens, Thursday becomes p-day. After emailing on Monday, we went and sticker-boarded at the most populated place in our area and it was a MADHOUSE! Gosh it was so much fun, and it was honestly pretty successful as well--which never hurts. On the way back from the Suwon Subway Station, we had to stop for this Korean TV Drama that was being filmed, so we were just hanging out at a little back-road intersection for almost an hour. It was pretty cool to see all of the TV action behind the scenes. We had to wait quite a while which meant... a perfect opportunity for a street lesson! And we took advantage. Elder Ely talked to one friend and I talked to the other; they were actually extras for the show (haha), but we had like a GREAT talk and we left them with some of God's word. Man, what a good time. Who would have thought an hour delay for a TV Show would be a good thing?

The awesome Elder Lee!

The other good thing that happened this week: We went to the TEMPLE!  I was able to see my friend Elder Lee from the MTC. Yeah! The temple was great and it was super fun to re-connect with old MTC friends.

Probably the coolest/funniest thing that happened this week was our appointment with our investigator Young Tuk Park. It was such an awesome lesson. We watched the Restoration video for some review and to see how he felt about Joseph Smith.  At the end of it all, we tried to commit him to pray about Joseph Smith and his response was so priceless.  He said "No. Why would I need to pray about that?" I really couldn't believe he was saying that. Even after the great lesson and everything, he just shot it down.  After an extremely painful moment of silence where we didn't know what to say (thinking he was rejecting the lesson) he said, "I don't need to pray about it, you guys already told me that he was a Prophet. You guys are also missionaries, which means you cannot lie, so like of course I am just going to believe what you say!" (hahahaha) After scaring the crap out of me and Elder Ely, he comes in with like the cutest, most innocent answer! Obviously we needed to do some more teaching/explaining, and after more explanation he agreed to pray about it. It was an experience filled with whirlwinds, but a great one nonetheless.

Oh, and I almost forgot: for New Years we had no plans, but early that morning our bishop texted us and invited us to come to the church at 7am. Not knowing what was going on, we put on some exercise clothes and just booked it to the church. When we got there, we hiked this mountain right by the church with a bunch of ward members.  We sat on the mountain top and watched the sun rise on the new year.  I thought it was a little strange until I saw literally like 5,000 other people sitting on the hill. I guess that is a normal thing to do for New Years.  It turned out to be super cool, and afterwards we had the traditional soup Koreans eat for breakfast on New Years!

Well a fun and fast week here in Sinpung. Love you all!

More Korean Fun Facts:

• 80% of Koreans go home in an elevator
• Korean members almost never cry in testimony meetings, not quite like the Manti 8th Ward
• My apartment is all Utah boys except Elder Ely, who is from Georgia
• So far I like Korean winters better than Utah winters
• Rice Cake Soup (Tteokguk) is the traditional New Year's soup we had.  It is almost white and it means something like have a fresh start and good luck in the new year.   Pretty good too!

Elder Jenkins

Recent converts we continue to work with: