Four Weeks Down... Bang!‏

Alright! So.. I’ve decided I'm done with having these mass emails from Korea be terribly confusing and down-right unorganized. This week, you're gonna hear about all of my crazy-oriental adventures. Can you handle the truth??!

Alright so, first of all, when I emailed you last Monday, it wasn't actually our P-day. ....HA! Betch'a didn't see that coming! Last monday, we were given an hour to email, but we actually had our P-day on Thursday because we went to the temple in Seoul!! ..But, before we get to that, let's start where I left off.

First! Tuesday was soooooo rad!! We had a meeting at our mission home in Ogeum, called the "12 Week Follow Up" where we got to see everyone from our mission that is being trained right now! ..A.k.a... my friends! Haha! It was soo cool, and everyone is doing so well! It was so fun. We all got together, reviewed how our trainers are treating us, and learned how to make lesson plans (although Elder Chow already showed me and I had like 7 already prepared which was super nice).

After the 4-hour meeting, we headed back (about an hour and a half) to our church and went straight to an activity with our Young Men which was allllll the way upstairs. ..haha. We played board games and drank Milkis from bowls! Hahaha. We don't use cups that often here in Korea, other than at home or in restaurants. It's always bowls for some reason, haha. Milkis, by the way, is like ...Milk-soda. ..It's straight up divine. We played a game called BANG! that night and it was by far the greatest game I have ever played. I learned they have it in America too, so if you can find it, buy it! It's SO fun! It's an old-timey western-style game with cowboys and stuff, and you shoot each other and lose lives, and unleash indians on each other and stuff, all through cards. It was hilarious. I was the first to murder, and the second to die. Holla!

Next, on Wednesday I went on Exchanges with Elder Hafen in Kaesan, and switched spots with Elder Empey who came to Bupyeong (my area) with Elder Chow. We just walked around a lot, and talked to a lot of people, and had a good time! We heard Ke$ha on the street which was.. well.. ... I don't even know what to say ... ..and mom! You know that picture you sent me of the girl with the GINORMOUS cotton candy by her face?? WE GOT SOME!! It was only $2 and twice the size of my head!! I'll send a picture for sure. SO good, haha, and SO large!! 

Next, on Thursday we “unsplit” at the Temple and had a killer time. The temple is super beautiful, and super tiny. All of the rooms are connected, which is really odd, and really cool. Right after that, we stopped by the bookstore (which is across from the temple) and I was able to pick up a Korean-English combo Preach My Gospel, which is totally awesome. Get one of those if you can. They're sweet. After that, we headed to a soccer field in Bupyeong with a buhzillion other companionships and played a huge pickup game of soccer with a lot of Koreans who were already playing on the field! It was SO fun!! My feet got destroyed  after an hour and a half or so (..I just have old lady feet), so I sat out on the sideline, but got to talk to a few people and even place a Book of Mormon in the meantime! Missionary work never rests! Later, we played a "USA" vs. "Korea" game, and got beat 3-2. ..They are SO good at soccer! It's HUGE here, and you can meet a lot of people while you play. It's sweet. ..Next, since we were starving afterwards we went to Lotteria, owned by Lotte Mart, which is like Korea's Walmart, but bigger. The food was... ....terrible! Haha. It was the first fast food meal I’d had since I came here, and threw me off way bad. It made me feel so horrible that I pretty much vowed to try and never eat fast food again. Yuck! However, fun fact, they only serve Sprite (it's called Cider here) and Pepsi (called Cola) in fast food places. ..Pretty much nothing else exists! It's wild! ..After we ate, we headed to a bathhouse on the 10th floor of this sweet building. It's brand new, and was sooo nice and relaxing. I even got a haircut while I was there! How convenient! ..Haircut, shower right around the corner, get dressed.. like, swag. Elder Gibbons and I were talking about how we should open one in America! Haha. Also, we weigh ourselves every time we go (since there are scales there) and I've lost another 3kg this week! I've lost 2.2kg almost consistently each week I've been out, and have lost almost 20lbs so far! Ha! Take that MTC Cafeteria!!

Then, on Friday, I'm pretty sure we did something cool... ...Maybe not. Haha. All I know is that at some point this weekend we had McDonald's delivered to our house (had to do it eventually.. it might as well have been right after I vowed to stay away from fast food), and I punished a Big Mac and a large fry. ..And when I say punished, I mean punished. This was the first Big Mac that I actually ate everything on! Ha! I finally decided it was time to man up and eat those pickles and onions, and can I say, it was DELICIOUS. ..I think I finally understand why people put those ridiculous vegetables on their sacred slabs of meat. ...It's like.. actually.. ..good.

Saturday was a big day for us, as we prepared for the Sisters' baptism on Sunday! We spent half the day or more cleaning the baptismal font, and recording silly videos while we did it. You'll get those eventually I'm sure, but it was rad. When we finished, coincidentally the Young Women had built us a cake upstairs, along with some complimentary sushi! SO delicious, and quite the reward for our hard work! We came home that night, and relaxed, and Elder Chow broke out his super old Voice Recorder and we listened to his days as a greenie. It was awesome. Then, I thought to myself, hey! I have one of these! So I whipped mine out, and we listened to the messages from my family (so considerate of you, and awesome!) and Elder Chow and I freaked out as the sound was CRYSTAL clear through my speakers. It sounded like my family was in the room with me!! It was SO nuts!! I loved all of the messages, and am now recording on almost a daily basis (It's been like.. two days.. haha) a small journal entry for each day, hoping that that'll be easier for me to do than write in my journal, because I sincerely struggle at that. So, wish me luck!

When Sunday came around, we were pretty stressed, but stoked for the baptism. One investigator, who was supposed to be baptized this day, pushed back her date and we are really, really sad about it. She's really scared and unsure of what to do, and keeps bailing on appointments we've made with her and her dad. It's really sad. She used to be progressing, and now we're really unsure what we should do with her and her father. ..But, we'll pray and figure it out for sure. Anyway, everything went super well, and Elder Chow performed the other baptism, which makes his first! How exciting!! Later, we had some snacks together, and just hung out for a while. ..Then, we had a dinner appointment with a really rad member of our ward, and left around six to get there.. but.. got the wrong directions and went through 3 areas of our mission before we turned around.. haha. It took us 2 hours to get there! It was crazy!!

Anyway, I'm running out of time, but love you all! The key to the mission is positivity. If you can see how blessed you are, you will love every single day! You all rule to the moon and back, and I can't wait to hear more from all of you. You're the raddest!! This church is true, and I know we are out here sacrificing ourselves for the right things in life. I love you so much!

Elder DeMille