Pancakes, chicken nuggets, ramen, and some 짱.‏

Hello from Korea!!!

So.. you're probably all going to hate me.. (Well.. maybe just my mom and my girlfriend..) because this keyboard is super hard to use, and I'm only going to write a little. However! This week has FLOWN by! ..haha.. not to mention I just FLEW to Korea and am a pretty FLY guy... heheh...

Alright, for real now. 

Korea. is. so. cool.

The flight seemed like eternity (3 hours to Detroit, 14 to Korea..) but was actually super fun. I ended up sitting next to Sisters Bagley and Drischel, and Elder Empey who is now in my zone. ..Well, actually Sister Bagley is in my zone as well! So that's rad. The flight was super super long, but we slept a lot, read our Book of Mormons, wrote in each other's journals, watched "Monster's University" and "The Guardians", and ate really really weird meals on the plane. But hey! It was quite the adventure. ..I didn't get sick until the very very end when we were descending, and at that point I was genuinely concerned I was going to toss my cookies in Bagley 자매님's lap, haha. Anyway, quite the adventure it was. After we got there, they had us hit the Subway with Book of Mormons, and told us to talk to as many people as we could, and to try to place one. ...I soon realized that I seemed to have learned Finnish in the MTC. ...It was seriously so impossible to understand anything anyone was saying! ..Nevertheless, I tag teamed it with an Elder familiar to the area (Elder Light), was able to recite the First Vision in Korean, and place a pamphlet. I talked to around 10 people, and was content! A few of the new missionaries placed their books (I'm pretty sure both Watts and Grossgebauer did) which made us pretty stoked. That night we all slept on the floor on these things called "yo's", which are like.. yoga mats on steroids. Super comfy! It was the best night's sleep I'd had in a really long time. Way better than the MTC beds. The next day or so we did a few orientations, got our passports, exchanged our money, and met our new companions. My new companion is ELDER CHOW! ....HE is the MAN! But get this! A lot of people think we look similar, we both "hung loose" in our new companionship picture, and not only that but..

-We have the same birthday, August 1st. He is exactly 2 years older than me
-We both play the Ukulele. One is sitting on our couch at home (Mom, feel free to send uke music)
-We both had parents divorced, and mom's remarried, and are both currently living with our mom
-We both live with 7 people in our home
-We both played football in high school, and then switched sports.. He's a lax bro, I toss disc.
-We both love art, and we both paint; we have acrylics and a canvas or two at the house
-We are both part asian, he's a quarter chinese, I'm a quarter Korean
-We are both part Italian. ..Swag.
-We both absolutely love hot chocolate. ...like, two cups a day or more.
-And we both have girlfriends. ...Except, well.. He had one, and then was Dear Johned.. so he's rooting for me to get Dear Johned so that we can be even more alike.. haha.. 

-The one difference is that well, he's shredded, and I'm not.. haha. But.. just you wait! Ha!

Isn't that crazy??

Anyway, I'm running a little low on time, but had to share a few more things without too much detail that have happened here. 

First of all, the fruit here is DIVINE. Like, incredible. Best fruit I have ever had in my whole life, although it is quite pricey. Don't worry mom, the fruit was from ward members
Second, the wind is always blowing, which really helps keep my hair nice and beautiful.
Third, they have banana-shaped bread that tastes nothing like bananas but is extremely delicious
Fourth, a member in my ward is straight up an Asian version of Ami Neff and is hilarious (legit, they look the same)
Fifth, it is bitter cold here, but it's the only thing keeping me awake.. haha. If I get warm I just about pass out. The days are long here.
Sixth, I walk an average of 5-6 hours a day.
Seventh, (I don't know why I'm counting) We had a "meat party" on Saturday night, where I couldn't understand anything anyone was saying, but indulged in some delicious boiled meat and was challenged to eat a pepper through rock paper scissors..
…Eighth, I lost, and ate the pepper.
..Ninth, the rain came down and the floods came up as my face lit on fire and I leaked an incredible amount of tears from my tear-ducts.. haha. SO hot!
Tenth, I played "ute" afterwards, the Korean game we have in our basement with the half-cylindrical sticks and little people you move around the board. We played with the whole ward and it was SO fun! (If you don't know what it is, look it up and learn how to play. It's kind of like an ancient version of Sorry, with sticks as your dice. So so fun. I even won the last game for our team! It was hilarious!)

Also, on Saturday I was able to meet with two of our investigators, Mr. Y and J, a father and his daughter. We taught them english for 30 minutes, and then shared a gospel message. I invited them to be baptized, and they accepted!! J wants to be baptized on March 2, and Mr. Y wants to be baptized soon, but still wants to really think about it. The lesson was so so cool. The work is really coming along, and is so real! We even had a potential investigator that we just met on Friday show up to Church yesterday! How cool!!

On Sunday (Yes, today is Monday in Korea. ..12:36pm to be exact) I gave a talk, and offered a prayer in Sunday School!! Like... wow! Hahaha! So intimidating! All the Korean people either talk about my big eyes, my Korean grandma, how handsome I am (..psh.. where do they get that comment? *smiles, and melts all hearts in room..*) How I look like some famous cello player, or how good my Korean pronunciation is. Apparently, even though I can't speak, I have good pronunciation so... huzzah!

Anyway, I'm out of time, but I love you all, and want you to know that everything is great here. If you've sent mail to the mission home, I'll get it on the 21st because we only get mail once a month. But I love you all, think about you all the time, and will write you all soon! Much love!!

Elder DeMille


(The subject line refers to the divine dinner Elder Chow and I prepared last night. ...Like, yum.)