Howdy! (September 12, 2016)

Wow, I realize it is 12:40 a.m. in America. It's been a crazy p-day! I am serving in Kyong Ju. My trainer's name is Elder L. He is awesome! And Allie, I can't believe you met so many of my friends from the MTC and are training Sister P! That is so awesome.  I'm writing so late because we had to go register for a foreigner card today, so we rode a bus a little over an hour away to Ulsan, then just got back, went shopping, and now we are sitting in the church emailing. Wow, this place is crazyyyy.

Happy birthday to Allie tomorrow!! What a CHAMPION! AHHH, I'm so happy to be closer to you than I have been in a year, Allie! You are the coolest. I bet your Korean is sooo good. You are right, I pretty much have no idea what is going on. People speak super fast, using lots of weird forms of vocab I don't know. But it's alright! I am improving and enjoying! :)

Grantsville Power Picture! Except we were missing Sister Mandy Wilson & Elder Nick Beazer :(.

OK, so...

It was sad to leave the MTC and say goodbye to my awesome MTC friends and teachers! Monday morning we didn't have to go to the airport until 7:30, so that was nice. The flight from Salt Lake to Portland was nice and short. I sat by a man who was from the Phillipines; he was going to be on both flights with me. He had been an Area Seventy, and had recently been released. Super nice, neat guy!

Our awesome teacher at the MTC. I love our district!

My other Main Teacher at the MTC. Awesome guy!

Me on the airplane!

The flight from Portland to Tokyo was sooooo long. Wow. International airplanes are big! They give you a blanket, and eye covers, etc. It was cool. But there was free movies, and so everyone around me was watching movies. The plane was dark, so I couldn't really read, and so I just tried to sleep...haha it was long. But the airplane food was pretty good! We got to Tokyo and had a 4 hour layover. We kind of got situated, and then found an airport sushi place and got some Japanese sushi! It was super good! Haha and we all kind of hung out in Tokyo for a while.

Tokyo Airport, with Japanese Sushi!

I love this elder! and I love Sushi!

Another sushi picture!

Finally we had a 2 hour flight to Korea. I was out the whole flight. We were all super tired. I remember getting off the plane and just being hit by the wet air! I don't know if it was because we were by the sea or what, because now I don't really feel it! That first night was kind of a blur; we came out of the airport and President and Sister Barrow and the APs and office missionaries were waiting there. President Barrow is a super smiley, nice, fun guy! Haha he is great. And Sister Barrow is super nice.

My first morning in Korea!

That night our whole Dongey, or travel group, slept in a room above the church that had a bunch of bunks and mattresses. I could not fall asleep for the longest time. I was feeling super nauseous and things. But I eventually fell asleep for a few hours and felt much better when I woke up. We all got ready and went downstairs to a room to meet and do introductory things. Eventually we were introduced to our trainers...They have this awesome ritual where they read about the area, bang a gong, and then the trainer runs in! It was pretty fun. They announced all the trainers first, and then we went and did a proselyting activity. We each worked with 4 trainers, "jungdoing" for about 30 minutes with each one. I really had no idea what anyone was saying, but I would testify here and there, and I gave away a Book of Mormon! Already I am understanding a lot more than the first day, but I still only understand very little of what anyone says. I am learning, though!

The local young women and their leader made me a cake for my birthday and did a little surprise birthday party! They are the best! They brought us in a room, suddenly held out a lit cake, and started singing!!

My trainer is J. L! He is from the Daejeon Mission area, from Seychong. He is super hard working and pretty good at English! He is 20 years old in Korea, and the first missionary from his family. We are serving in KyongJu, and I love it here! That first night we played some basketball with an investigator, which was super nice just to unwind and relax a bit. We played in this little park outside, which was cool. I don't remember everything we have done exactly, so I will focus on some highlights!

We have like 9 or so investigators! I haven't met most of them yet. Most of our investigators are met from jundoing, or proselyting. We just walk around and meet people, explain who we are and why we are here, and testify! It is difficult, but good.

Saturday night we did a special jundoing activity with the awesome sisters in the area. Sister L. and Sister A, from Idaho. They are awesome! We went to a popular area in the mall and had a sign with a few soul questions on it (Does God know me? What happens after this life? etc.) and asked people to put stickers on the question they wondered about. Since I couldn't say much, I mostly just held the sign while everybody else would show people verses in the BOM that answer their questions. It was cool! And I testified a bit.

Yesterday, Sunday, I got to give a talk in sacrament meeting. Wow--church is very different  here! The church is the 2nd floor of a building, and it isn't very big! There were probably 40 or 50 members here on Sunday! They were all super nice. And after church we all ate together! The day before, Saturday, Elder L and I had been proselyting, and we met a young man, probably 25 or so, and invited him to church. He came! During Priesthood, we, and the ward mission leader, taught him the 1st lesson. It was really cool. He was super nice. I would kind of know what topic they were talking about, so sometimes I would add a little testimony, or explain something. I also know the First Vision in Korean, so my companion explained that "this is what Joseph Smith wrote about the experience" and I said the First Vision! It was pretty cool. We also watched the 20 minute restoration video. Afterward, we gave the young man the Book of Mormon. He was super grateful, but said he doesn't believe in religion, sadly. We will see what comes of it!

Here are some cool cultural differences:  We eat on the floor! There is a little table that we pull out, sit Indian style, and eat. We ate like that at a member's house, too! And at a restaurant. It killlllls my knees, so I am working on my flexibility.

I LOVE KOREAN FOOD.  I know this sounds funny, but especially ramen, haha! Showering is interesting! The bathroom just has a shower head connected to the sink, and it is all tile. There is a drain in the corner, so you just shower in the middle of the bathroom, haha!  We go running almost every day around the block. This week is a super big Korean holiday for fall, so as a mission we have a 5k/10k run on Friday! Wahoo!

Also we teach English and Korean classes to Koreans/foreigners. The Koreans are super good at English, so the whole class is in English, so I could really help with that! Then at the end, the Sisters share a special thought in Korean. Then yesterday, we taught a Korean class to 4 men from Pakistan and Egypt. They were all super nice guys. At the end, me and my companion were in charge of the spiritual thought. I taught most of it; it was pretty cool. They are all Muslim, so it was a 19-year-old kid teaching a bunch of probably 30+year old Muslim men about Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. The subject was the Spirit, but based on their backgrounds, I testified more about Jesus Christ, and how God loves us and wants us to be successful. One of them abruptly asked, "What is your God's name?" And was sort of intense about it. I explained that we normally call him Heavenly Father because his name is very sacred. Anyway, I explained what the Spirit does (helps us learn, protects us, guides us, helps us to feel God's love) then testified that, if they would open their hearts and minds, they would feel the Spirit at that moment. I felt the Spirit pretty strongly. I shared 2nd Timothy 1:7, and closed. At the end, they left the room, then one of them came back and told me, "that was a very good presentation." Haha, they were so nice.

Well, I love you all, but I better go. :)  Take care! Remember how much God has a hand in our lives. We often don't even realize it. But He is truly our Father and wants us to be happy.

Love,
Elder Beckett