I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore...



This one everyone should get... honestly

Well well well.... What is happening everybody?! Oh my Lanta, things
have changed so much since the last time I emailed. Seriously a ton. I
mean like really seriously. Like... You get the idea. I hope. ANYways.
To start off, I would just like to say that I am shocked. You guys all
know that look on someone's face when they're staring off into the
distance thinking about anything and everything besides what is going
on at that very moment? Yeah... Now picture that look on my face, with
my companion next to me, while we are proselyting on the street.
Yeah... Now multiply that by about three days or so and you will
understand what my first three days were like. Oh, and I'm still jet
lagged so add to that picture my mouth hanging open slightly and my
eyes somewhat drooping. Yeah... Great image.

Anyway, to go along with why I was so shocked, was how much I changed
weight wise. Honestly. The first time I weighed myself was absolutely
unbelievable! I had lost over a hundred, well earned pounds! Miracles
really do happen... But not that kind unfortunately. I had forgotten
that fact that the metric system actually exists everywhere outside
the United States and I was just a crazyy, sleep deprived greenie who
wasn't thinking straight. That is what life is like when you are on a
mission outside the US folks, that is what life is like. Also, fun
fact: Koreans(or all Asians... or all people outside th US... I'm
really not sure of every person that does so) age differently as well.
When you are born, you are already one years old. Then, at the new
year, you have another birthday. Therefore, I am now a twenty one year
old! Oh, what's up y'all?! Yeah, fun fact.

SO yeah, quick run down of all the new and exciting things that
occured to yours truely when I first got off the plane. Got off the
plane, which in an of itself was a miracle, because I was pretty
tired, and being the travel leader of a group and being responsible
for getting the many different people to the country with a couple of
them briefly losing passports and/or plane tickets honestly does
nothing for your health nor your sanity mind you. ANyway, got picked
up by our mission president who is the funniest and most legit(ooh,
good word, I honestly haven't used that in a while) funniest and most
legit man I have ever met in my entire life. He is hilarious! He find
the humor in the smallest of things in life. I've heard stories of
when a missionary and his companion were on their way to a zone
conference, when they accidentally got on the  opposite train. Anyway,
by the time they realized their mistake, the meeting had already
started, and they were in a different mission in Korea. The Daejong
mission, to be exact. What did the mission president do when he
received their phone call and they told him the news, you may ask? He
laughed. He busted up laughing in the middle of the conference, and,
apparantly couldn't countinue the meeting for a couple of minutes so
he could talk calmly again. He is so awesome, or 대박! (tae-bak) as we
say up here in the 한국. Moving on. He picked us up and we had our first
Korean meal in the airport not fifteen minutes after we got off the
plane. McDonalds. Yep, they exist here too. Also Seven-Elevens, fun
fact. STayed the night at his house, and yeah..

Next day we had the first Korean home cooked meal. Hashbrowns, bacon,
scrambled eggs and cereal. Surprised? So were we. But that's not to
say that we weren't grateful. We sure were.

I also received a fabulous blessing my second day in the 한국(Han guk).
I was assigned to my first companion, who goes by the name of 죄준규 장로님.
Elder Choi(which is pronounced Cheh. Don't ask, it'll take too long to
explain). Yep, he is a native Korean, and I was the only misisonary
who had the blessing of having a native as a companion. It is
unbelievable. He is a wonderful man and missionary, love him to death.

Alright, I will now cut to the chase. I am sure many of you are
wondering what is the weirdest thing I have eaten so far. I'll tell
you. They appartently have an unwritten list here of exotic foods
based off of rank from weirdest. Unknowingly, I had the number one
weirdest thing for dinner my second or third day here. 순대구. You heard
me right. 순대구. However, I'm guessing that a couple of you have no idea
what that is. It's a soup with chitlits(hope I spelled that right) in
it, also known as pig intestines. And I am happy to report that I
really really enjoyed it. It was amazingly good! Honestly! No
sarcastic comment here! It was good!

We also had many meals with members so far, I won't go into detail
about the food cuz it'll take too long. But, suffice it to say, the
more you eat, the more they love you. Heaven? So far as the food and
members are concerned, yes, yes it is. And it is not hard, cuz the
food.... Oh.... -Ma shi seh yo- delish.

In the short time I've been here, I have already figured out the true
nature of the Korean jokes. Just theories here, but I am almost
certain that they don't exist. You see, when you're sitting at a meal,
and everyone around you is talking and you have no idea what they're
saying, they sense that. They know. They are secretly watching you to
make sure you don't understand what is going on. Once they are
certain, they have a secret sign, that, as soone as someone gives it,
they all burst out laughing, stop, mumble something, stare at the only
white boy at the table, and then burst out laughing again. That is the
nature of the Korean joke.

Ah, ok, ok, now on to more of a spiritual discussion. For those of you
who are reading to be entertained and to have someone to laugh at, you
have been sufficeintly filled, I hope. Now, there are those who wish
to be filled in other ways. I have the amazing opportunity to lose a
ton of weight so that I may fit into my baptism pants again. Yep,
already. Not just one, but three of our Investigators have accepted
the invitation to be baptised, with the date set to the 22nd of April.
I was only present for two of the three invitations, but, ah, they
were absolutely incredible. I really had better not get used to this.
The invitation that I really understood was the invitation to a man
who had been an investigator for the past two years. He had constantly
been reading, comparing, and analyzing all religions that he could
find, for one of them had to be true. He read everything about all
churches, including all of the literature against churches. Yet, when
we talked to him, he told us of how remarkable our church really is.
He, at the lesson, sadi that he was now finally done with comparing
and analyzing. He was now going to trust his heart. He said that he
visited other churches, etc, etc, and as he did so, he could feel his
body rejecting it. He could feel that, no, this isn't right. Then he
spoke of how, when he came to our church, he felt something different.
Not only did his heart and body not reject the church, it yearned for
it. His heart felt that this was right. And so, I was present at the
time when he proclaimed that he wanted to be baptised. It was such a
beautiful testimony. And I didn't understand a word of it. I learned
about this after the fact. But it was incredible; the Spirit was
incredibly strong.

Anyway, this is where I leave you for the week. Hope you all are safe
and happy. Keep pressing forward in this wonderful work that is the
work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I know that this Gospel is
true. I have already begun to see the miracles that come from this
belief.

Good luck, God bless, and God Speed!

Love,
애넌 장로
(Turns out I've been spelling my name wrong this whole time... oh well)

Elder Annen and Elder Choi