-insert creative title-

YeeeeeHAAAAAAAAAAAAA! It's you it's you it's you! It's REEEAAALLY You!
Uhh...
Whee!! -throws him and pulls the string-
'There's a snake in my boot
HA! It IS you!
Please stop saying that...
Prospecter said this day would come! ... GASP! Sweet mother of Abraham Lincoln! The Prospector! He'll wanna meet ya!
-Bullseye pops the box out of ... the other box-
Say Hello to the Prospector!
It.... It's a box...
He's mint in the box! Never been opened!
Turn me around Bullseye, so I can see... My the prodigal son has returned!
YeeHA! It's you its you its you!
Ok... I'm officially freaked out now!

Hey howdy hey y'all! I know this quote is full of possible connections to Gospel related topics, that just kind of happened, I was trying to think of a quote for the day and that was the movie my companion mentioned and that was the first quote that came into my head and then one thing led to another, I wrote it and felt I had to add this disclaimer, and that brings us to where we are now!

So! I have a really great story, but it requires some background information. So, awhile ago I had told the story about those other church's missionaries, preachers, ministers, whatever the right word for them is. Here we call them JeonDoSa-s. Now, the missionaries in Korea are quite different than us. Quite different. I could go on about stories about run ins that we've had with them, the meetings they have, and yatta yatta yatta, but today I'll just give a little background on their missionary work. These people are the Bible bashers. These are the people that will seriously target people on the street. They'll walk toward them, then pass them, turn around, an then overtake them, corner them with three or so people, and immediately whip out their little argument books, and go to town, most of the time yelling and arguing until the people just take off. Now, that has been my experience when I see that happen to others. So!! That's the background.

More background, although I've been learning Korean for a year now, Listening is incredibly hard!! Incredibly! Still working on it... So! We get an invitation to a ShikSa. Ameal appointment, at a restaurant. Yeah, restaurant. We were excited. It was a buffet, and you know me. I love food. So, we go to the restaurant, and we wait outside it until it's fifteen minutes past the appointment time. And we're right outside, talking to people, and I look at the text again, and realize that she had said meet IN the restaurant. So we panic, oh no! and rush in. We're talking to the hostess and trying to explain our situation. We stated the name of the person we were meeting. I'm pretty sure that I explained everything as simply as I could. I thought I did a good job. But, because we were foreigners, they had kind of ignored what I had said and were talking to themselves debating what was going on.

They finally came and talked to me, but they talked really really fast. I could only make out the word "GyoHwe" she said it two or three times. That means church by the way. GyoHwe, church. So I jumped on that. Yes! Church! We are missionaries! SeonGyoSa! We are missionaries! They all then said, Ahhhh~~, then they said come this way. So we follow them. I'm here thinking, ah, good our member told them we'd be coming, thank goodness. Now this restaurant has lots of dining rooms, they open them up when it gets busy and it was quite busy! So she lead us to a particular one, almost all the tables are ful except for a couple in the center, and she seats us down and she walks away. Now we're really confused, our member wasn't there, but we just sat down and just thought she had made a reservation for us. Now, when we came into the room, it had been full of talk and laughter and just restaurant noises. That kind of changed. As soon as she left, and the other people in the room saw us take our coats off, it went quiet. I mean dead quiet. I'm looking around at everyone and see they all have just a dead serious look on. Death glares. Glaring at us. One lady put her hands up in an X and just started shaking her head.

All of a sudden a whole bunch of memories come flooding back, mostly the part where the hostess kept asking us Church? Are you church? Two LDS missionaries in a room full of JeonDoSas... Heh. We immediatley grabbed our coats and just booked it out of there. Scared me half to death at the time, but five minutes later we were with our member retelling the story and we were just busting up laughing. It was fantastic :)

Wow, really long story. It was funny though, believe me :) I'll just close with this scripture, one of my favorites. Mormon 9:18-21

18 And who shall say that Jesus Christ did not do many mighty miracles? And there were many mighty miracles wrought by the hands of the apostles.

19 And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say unto you he changeth not; if so he would cease to be God; and he ceaseth not to be God, and is a God of miracles.

20 And the reason why he ceaseth to do miracles among the children of men is because that they dwindle in unbelief, and depart from the right way, and know not the God in whom they should trust.

21 Behold, I say unto you that whoso believeth in Christ, doubting nothing, whatsoever he shall ask the Father in the name of Christ it shall be granted him; and this promise is unto all, even unto the ends of the earth.

I know this is true with every fiber of my being. I know that previously I had thought that miracles were those incredible manifestations of God's power, manifestations that would shock and leave people in awe of the power of God, and they are! But some of the most incredible miracles are not those that move mountains, but those that move hearts. The true miracles in this life are the ones that heal souls and mend heart. The true miracles are those that affect us for the eternities. Repentance of past wrongs, forgiveness for the prodigal sons, love for the sinners, understanding of shortcomings. These are the miracles that we all should strive for with all our hearts. As we look at the world around us, how many miracles has this world seen? Countless ones. And yet, they are forgotten. They are ignored. They are swept under the rug by those impetuous ones whose hearts are sown with doubt and unbelief. Search and strive for those miracles that change eternity's course. These are those that matter most. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Good Luck, God Bless, and God Speed,

Elder Annen

Lilo and Stitch!

You shouldn't play with guns!
Oh, OK.. -hands it over-
-gun starts beeping- Oh! I forgot! It's your birthday! Happy Birthday!
-gives it back-
Nuh nuh! Nuh nuh! Merry Christmas! -throws it to him-
Theres no Christmas! -right back-
Happy Hannukah! -starts their whole toss back and forth game-
-change scene-
Shouldn't we get Stitch?
Trust me! This isn't going to end well!
-change back-
One potato!
Two potato!
Three potato more!
Four potato!
Five potato!
My..
...mother..
...said...
...that...
...you...
...are...
...it. ...
HA! I win! .... -BOOM-


Well Hey howdy hey! A late Merry Christmas to y'all and an early Happy
New Year!! I wasn't sure which movie to put for this one as there were
a lot of movies that came to my mind when thinking about Christmas.
Really wish I could have quoted "It's a Wonderful Life" but I'm afraid
that was one I just can't remember well enough... So sorry... But! I
thought I'd both wish y'all Merry Christmas and give a shoutout to my
Sister in Hawaii all in one shot... Yes it did take me the better part
of three sleepless nights to figure that out, but hey... Small price
to pay ^^ Fun fact about the new year though... New Years here is not
that big of a deal. As in the day that everyone else celebrates the
New Year is not really a big deal. The BIG New Year here is actually
based off the lunar calendar. So, this year, the lunar New Year is in
February. Some thing I though was funny. The name of the LUNAR new
year is 설날 "solnar" which is actually pronounced "sollar"... It made
me chuckle a little ^^

Anyway! things are going well here, in Kangdong. Definitely cold...
Freezing might be a better word for it... Yes! Freezing! We've
actually come out with a new form of proselyting here. (PS the word in
Korean for 'proselyte' is Jeon-doh so I'll use that word, much more
natural to me) Yes, we do what's now called Choom Jeondoh. Dance
Jeondo. You go up to the person on the street and while you jeondo to
him you're hopping from one foot to the other, bouncing around, doing
the worm and busting out a few dance moves Gangnam Style. This way,
you hold their attention, you are able to deliver your message, you
stay warm, and you get some fantastic videos to put on YouTube after
you get home ;) It's a blast.

We have found an absolutely wonderful talk... Talk? Spiel? Words?
Anyway, something that Elder Jeffrey R Holland spoke... Wrote...
Whatever! My English grammar is down the drain so I'll just type like
I talk right now to get my point across. Elder Holland said words like
this in the Jan 2010 Liahona: "As a new year begins and we try to
benefit from a proper view of what has gone before, I plead with you
not to dwell on days now gone nor to yearn vainly for yesterdays,
however good those yesterdays may have been. The past is to be learned
from but not lived in. We look back to claim the embers from glowing
experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need
to learn and have brought with us the best that we have experienced,
then we look ahead and remember that faith is always pointed toward
the future. Faith always has to do with blessings and truths and
events that will yet be efficacious in our lives.... Faith is for the
future. Faith builds on the past but never longs to stay there. Faith
trusts that God has great things in store for each of us and that
Christ truly is the “high priest of good things to come” (Hebrews
9:11). Keep your eyes on your dreams, however distant and far away.
Live to see the miracles of repentance and forgiveness, of trust and
divine love that will transform your life today, tomorrow, and
forever. That is a New Year’s resolution I ask you to keep."

I love the way that he spoke this. I will only add my personal
conviction and wholehearted agreement of what he said. Of course the
past is important. Of course we must learn from mistakes made and
successes achieved. But we must move on as well. We must for forever
and always look to the future. Look for the miracles yet to be. Look
for service opportunities yet to be performed. Learn, Look, Laugh,
Love. Do it once. Then keep doing it. Look forward with faith toward
those wonders that the Lord will yet perform among the children of
men.

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Smile! Laugh! Love! Help Someone! Be
Happy! Stay Warm!

Good Luck, God Bless, and God Speed,
All my love,
Elder Annen