Can Ye Feel So Now?

  Wait! Stop! Turn around! turnaround and go south!

South? but that'll take you past Isengard...

Yes. -insert part I can't remember- The closer we are to danger, the farther we are from harm. It's the last thing he'll expect.

Hmmmm... That doesn't make any sense to me. But then, you are very small...

Hello everybody! So... This was a really a great quote for everything going over here in South Korea. I'm sure you all have heard about the nuclear tests that are being run and the tensions that are building up and so on and so forth, but we had a little bit of fun yesterday, for a zone activity. We went and visited the DMZ. That's right, the DMZ. The border between North and South Korea. Were we nervous? Well, yes, quite. We had had this planned for a little bit though so we thought we would go and visit regardless of all that fun stuff going on politically speaking ^^ Love It! I'll be honest though, we were kind of bored after fifteen or so minutes of it ^^ There wasn't much to see where we went. You see there are actually two or three main DMZ points and we went to the one that iw on the east coast, so there really wasn't anything there. Lots and lots of rocks though. It did really cause us all to ponder on what those people have to live with over there though, it was fun going there, but the ride back was a little more somber than the ride up.

And before I get into this next part, I just want to acknowledge something. Yes. I am fully aware that the challenge I issued to you two weeks ago was worded in the lame format that a lot of people like to put on their FAcebook posts. It was worded that way deliberately. I now ask you, how many of you let that become an excuse not to follow through with that challenge? I am genuinely curious as to how many of you read those words, but did not stop to think about the feeling that I was putting behind them? This is what I think is one of the saddest and most difficult things about maintaining spirituality in this day and age. How desensitized we are to the spiritual. One thing that has impressed me is how often we just say things without contemplating their meanings. To just name a few, "I'd like to bear my testimony..." "I know that..." "I bellieve that..." Have any of us thought of that? Have you thought about the meaning of the word 'testimony'? In a court, for example, the testimony of one individual has great power. One eyewitness to a crime is enough to substantiate a claim. To bear testimony is to, in a sense, put true conviction ib the line. To show to the world that you are putting yourself as a witness to the world of your conviction. 'to know' in my mind means to have no doubt as to something's existence or truth. And to declare that one believes, I think, may be one of the most powerful of them all. I am guilty of thinking to myself before my mission, that if someone says, "I believe..." it meant that their faith was weaker than those who said "I know.." To say that one believes, though, is to act with much greater faith. It is truely to say with great feeling that, "I don't know this, but I have a hope. I have a strong hope 'for a better world' I have a faith strong enough that even though I do not enjoy an assurance of knowledge, I will stand here in fron of you to express this belief, in hopes that one day, I will know." The statement of belief truely seems to me more powerful than many things.

I love you all so much. Please forgive my weaknesses in writing and pay attention to the words that have been whispered to your soul as you read this. For I know you have had words whispered to you. Follow them.

Good Luck, God Bless, and God Speed,

Sincerely Yours,

Elder Annen

When Spirit Converses With Spirit

You Sailor!
Cotton, sir
Mr. Cotton! Do you have the courage and fortitude to follow orders and stay true in the face of an almost certain death? ... MR COTTON! Answer man!
Ah, he's a mute sir, poor devil had his tongue cut out, so they've trained the parrot to talk for him! ... though no one's yet figured how...
... Mr Cottons parrot... Same question
Ark! Plenty of sails, plenty of sails!
Mostly we figure that means yes..
Of Course it does! Satisfied?
Well you've proved they're mad!

What is up everybody?! I hope everyone's week has been absolutely fine and dandy! We're doing really well over here in Korea, We've just had a really crazy announcement, the mission here is splitting up... I can't believe it, we were all incredibloy shocked and excited. I'm both happy for that and also wuite sad. That means a lot of the missionaries I'm good friends with will be in a different mission in a few months... unbelievable really. This was a fun quote for me, sometimes this is how I feel when I talk to people. I feel like the branch president or someone tells everyone over the pulpit that " Ah, he's a foreigner, poor guy grew up only learning english, but they've trained him to speak a little Korean!" and then after I try to speak they're all thinking "mostly we figure that means yes" I love it though ^^

This one is going to have to be a lot quicker than some of my other ones, terribly sorry. Things are still on the slow side in my area, but we're working hard! It's going to be great!

I heard a general authority speak on the subject of John 20:27-29, where it refers to the story of doubting Thomas. Christ makes an interesting comment there, he says Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yethave believed. He points out that the phrasing of this statement is interesting because it seems to place priority, it seems to place secondhand knowledge above actual experience, as though we were better off not having seen the risen Lord, as though it were better that we just believe someone else than finding out for ourselves. But then he makes his point. He says that later on, when adversity comes along, and mighty winds, shafts in the whilrwind, hails and mighty storms come with it, we will doubt even our very own senses. But then he says that the one power even beyond sight, that can Sear doubt out of us, is the Holy Ghost. The other senses can be fooled, messed with, distorted, twisted, but the simple speaking, the conversation of spirit speaking with spirit is enough to sear any doubt out of us. These are now my words that I add. This is why the testimonies of the witnesses are so powerful. This is why particularly the testimonies of the Three Witnesses are so powerful. Have you looked into the story of the Three Witnesses? Do you realize that all three of them left the church? Do you realize that they all became personally disaffected from Joseph Smith? AND THEN, do you understand that notwithstanding their own apostacies, not ONE of them ever at any time denied that witness of the Book ov Mormon. NOT ONE of them ever claimed that Joseph Smith had deceived them, that they were mistaken, there was no angel, there was no voice of heaven commanding them to bear witness of the plates which they see. NOT ONE of them. Do you understand the power behind such a testimony? Their testimony was not one of sight. Their testimony is not powerful because of what they SAW, nor of what they HEARD. Their testimony has power because their souls conversed with God. The Holy Spirit spoke to their very souls. I challenge anyone here and now, if this is not a witness you have obtained, to do so now. Half of you that read this will say that you don't need it. Half of you that know you need it won't do it. And Maybe even after that there will only be a few that care enough to actually try. I challenge you to do so.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Elder Annen

Happy New Year!

Look at that big jerk... Ruined my life, and for what?! A stupid kid! Because of you I am now stuck here in this frozen wasteland!
Waste land? I think you mean WONDERLAND! I mean how about all this fabulous snow, huh? Oh, and wait til you see the local village, cutest thing in the world! I haven't even mentioned all the free yaks milk!
Wait... what did you say?
Uh, the yaks milk! Milk from a yak isnt exactly a picnic, but once you pick the hairs out, it's very nutritious!

Well Happy New Year everybody!! Happy Sonlar and New Years Blessings Many Receive please! That's the literal word for word translation by the way :) And I picked this one because it's kinda cold here in my new area. In fact quite frigid. We traveled to and stayed in Seoul for three days so we could make it to the mission conference/celebration. Which was incredibly fun, we had an absolutley fabulous time and ate deuk-guk. Rice cake soup, traditional for new years.... SOoooo good ^^ But yeah, we travel back, get to our house. Now, we're really high up in our building. And the area's in the mountains. And it is winter time. And it is really cold. And when we got to our house.... The water heater was frozen solid ^^ Happy New Years gift for us... You thing coal is bad to receive for Christmas? Try this one. The house was down to about nine degrees C, and... Well that right there should about cover any and all explanation needed. We finally got it fixed earlier this morning, and man... Don't think I was ever so happy to see the thermostat hit just 15 degrees ^^ Heh. Also fun little thing that happened. Everyone went out of town this week. Almost everyone. So, Saturday, during the conference, I get a call from the branch president. Asks if I can give a talk. I'm thinking of all the travel time we have to get back to our area, and I think, yes, I can do that. Two hours later, he calls again. Do I play the piano? ... I can try the right hand. Great! Here are the four we'd like you to play tomorrow, can you do that? ... My mind is racing, don't know if I'll even have time to get to a piano to practice this stuff once, but yeah, sure I can try. Ah, thanks so much... Hour later, he calls again. I look down at the phone, see who it is, kind of brace myself, and sure enough, ten minutes later I'm also teaching the Elders Quorum... heh ^^ It was quite the fun time. I hesitate to put it this way, but 'luckily' no one was able to make it for Elder's quorum ^^ Too much of a good thing, you know ^^

One of the things that impressed me has been the study of the the book of Alma (in the Book of Mormon) There was one word that stood out to me in the first chapter.Twentyninth verse. It begins, "And now, because of the steadiness ot the church, they became exceedingly [blessed]..." I want to point out to you the word 'steadiness.' I want to first point out what it does NOT say. It did not say righteousness, though that is implied. It did not say perfection, though the fact that they were striving toward that is unquestionable. It says steadiness. This word to me means diligence, it means constant and consistent perserverence. When I one time gave a few words about diligence, I had brought in the story of the tortoise and the hare. I went over the story, then compared the opposing sides of their personalities. Fast, slow. Arrogant, humble. Hair, no hair(yes that actually makes a difference). And we all realized though, that the only attribute that made the difference is truely steadiness, diligence. I think we all can learn this lesson ourselves, to not worry about the speed that we're at and if we're slower or even faster than other people. Choosing to be righteous for one day is fantastic! But if the next day we just go back to where we were before, that effort was wasted. Every day, do a little bit. And then the next day do a little bit more than the little bit you did the day before. It makes a difference.

Love you all!
새해 복 많이 받으세요!
Good Luck, God Bless, and God Speed!
Elder Annen

The Weather! Very Peculiar!

What was THAT?!? HahahA! The weather! Hm. Very peculiar!
Yeah, it looks like the winds are changing. I know what I have to do. But going back means that I'll have to face my past. I've been running from it for so long...
-THWACK-
OW! What was that for?!
Doesn't matter! It's in the past!
Yeah, but it still hurts...
Oh yes the past can hurt, but the way I see it, you can either run from it! Or learn from it!
-tries to nail him agin, dodges-
Aha! You see? Now! What are you going to do?

Heh Lo Everyone! How is everyone doing?! I hope you are all just fine and dandy! I'm doing pretty well myself. Kinda cold, I'm not going to tell you how cold because I know you don't want to hear it. (guess where that quotes from^^) No! I'm told its getting down to about negative twenty degrees Celcius here sometime soon... No, excited is not quite the word I would use right now. This one was from the Lion King, pretty sure I've quoted this one before, possibly even a year ago... But, it's kinda hard to remember that far back. I like this one because of that incredible transforming moment before this quote.

One of the funniest reactions that I think I get from people is their reaction to just the fact that I'm a foreigner. Seriously, especially where I am right now, they will just be shocked to see a white guy walking down the street. Sometimes they even just yell it out loud, "foreigner!!" just in shock. And I think I've found my favorite way to respond to this. I was at the mart, just looking around, I think it was at the different side dishes to go with rice or something. All of a sudden, I kid you not, this woman across from me had been looking down at the dishes, looked up at me and yelled for the whole mart to hear "AHH! FOREIGN PERSON!" "Whe-Guk-Een!!" Everyone in the entire mart turns and stares. And I immedaitely answer, reacting exactly the same way she did. Surprised jump back, eyes get really wide and I say loudly (I didn't have to yell, people had gotten quiet) but I say "AHH! KOREAN PERSON!!" ... ...I don't think I've ever been the cause for so much laughter in my life! People were busting up, I was busting up, the woman was. It was great.

I also had a wonderful miracle happen yesterday. I just learned that a man I had helped teach in my last area had gotten baptized yesterday! Such a blessing. His story is definitely a keeper. The last email I had written was the afternoon before we met him for the second time, so I haven't been able to really talk about him. But anyway. This brother has been coming to church for actually a few months. His girlfriend is a member and he would always come with her. The missionaries had of course offered to teach him many times, but at first he really wasn't that interested. He was just there because he liked the atmosphere, and because, of course his girlfriend was there. He was also a very busy man. He was the president of his branch of the company, and didn't really have a lot of time to meet even if he wanted to. I arrived in the area around his fourth month of coming to church. We were able to meet him the day before transfer calls at the end of last transfer. So we meet with him and find out that while he has learned a lot from coming out to church so often, everything was just in a jumble. He knew about prophets, but really had no idea where they fit in. He had of course heard of Christ and God but he had no concept of what those things could possibly mean, and so on and so forth. So that evening, while we had planned to teach for about 45 minutes, the lesson stretched to about two and a half hours or so. The beginning was just packed with us answering question, starting with prophets, the Godhead, the Church, Apostles, and also telling him somethings we would just have to teach him later. He also asked a lot about baptism, telling us that his girlfriend really wanted him to be baptized. At this point we see where he is, and we focus the lesson on faith and prayer and of course the First Vision. We wanted to give him the desire and the faith for the actions. We had just enough time to watch the Joseph Smith Restoration video, and it went well. We answered a few of his questions after then we all bowed good night, and went our merry way. This was Friday evening. Sunday, we see him at church, and he is quite friendly to us. HE is the one that strikes up the conversations and is talking to us, before, he was with the bishop and the older members and didn't really talk much with us. This change was unexpected to us, but we were happy. We meet him that Monday evening, after I sent my email. We meet, and we exchange 'pleasantries' and the like, start with a prayer, and ask him if he was able to pray since our last meeting. He said no. We were disappointed, we thought our last lesson had gone so well. We started to talk to him about the importance of prayer, and how it was necessary to receive revelation from God. And he jumped on that. Yes! he said, Revelation! You mentioned it last time. What is Revelation, and how do we receive it?! We take this as a good sign, and we talk about the still small voice and the feeling of peace that most people experience. He waved that aside, and said, What about Joseph Smith? Was that just a feeling of peace? We then explain about the others, visions, angels, and dreams. He gets quiet. He looks at us with a very sober, thoughtful look on his face. He starts out interestingly. He tells us, "I'm a heavy sleeper" ...ok... He continues on, "I don't dream. The last dream I can remember was maybe three or four years ago... Last Friday night, I dreamed. I dreamed my mother came and spoke to me about that movie that you showed me." He went on to describe his dream, and ended with "When can I be baptized?" I've rarely in my life, but more frequently on my mission, rarely ever felt so happy for someone else. The Sprirt was incredible.

Then I transferred.... ^^

Hope you all are happy and healthy.
Good Luck, God Bless, and God Speed,


Elder Annen

-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

My Family's in Florida!

Buzz? Uncle Frank?
-flight attendant lady- We're the last ones off the plane!
Where are those guys? -goes to look out the window- Excuse me! But
this is an emergency!!
Yes? Sir?
What city is that out there?
... ... That's New York, sir...
-whispering- Yikes I did it again...
Something wrong, sir?
-still whispering- I'll be fine... Oh no, my family's in Florida and
I'm in New York... My family's in Florida? I'm in... New York :)

Hey howdy hey everybody! It's been awhile. Well, a couple of weeks
anyway. I wish I could tell you guys all sorts of stories about really
awesome things like, just off the top of my head, that we found Jack
Johnson's house that he was here in Korea and that we're going to try
to talk to him in the next few days and baptize him
(ahem, FIRST by the way, first), but... I don't actually know if he
has a house here or not, we still need to find it. Anyway! As is
classic during this season, I just had to quote some Home Alone. I
just had to. I was debating about changing it to "my family's in Utah,
my sister's in Hawaii and I'm in... Seoul" but that would be taking
it too far.

This was a good past week. I got transferred yet again to a place
called KangDong, my companion is an Elder Griffin who apparently,
exciting fact here, was in Proctor's math class at Utah State! So!
That was really fun to hear. He tells me he didn't talk much with him,
but when I mentioned the Van Dyke, he knew exaclty who I was talking
about ;)

This area that I'm in right now is the kind of area where we don't
have any investigators yet so we do lots and lots of talking to people
on the street. We run into a lot of fun people, I will try to pay more
attention to them so I can tell you the stories later. Just a fun
fact, drinking is a huge part of Korean culture, so a lot of the
people we talk to area really happy to see us when we first talk to
them! But then they sober up when we try to contact them again and
then they use words that I don't know and haven't had the courage to
look up yet ;)

But there is a really inspiring story that is told in this mission.
The bishop of a ward in my greenie district had a story that just
keeps me going. His story in a nutshell is that during a really rough
time of his life, he had turned to drinking. One night he's out
drinking and partying with his friends, he runs into the missionaries
on the way from one bar to another. They start talking to him and he
reacts in a way that may or may not surprise you. He started swearing
and threatening and shaking his fists at them, so they of course
backed off. This was in the evening or so. On the way home these
missionaries find him on the side of the street passed out from all
the alcohol he had. Kind of as a joke, one of the missionaries put a
Book of Mormon on top of him and left. As for the rest of the story,
I'm sure you can guess it. After all I already told you he is the
bishop of a ward now. He read the whole book that next week and the
Spirit in that book changed everything. Such is the power of the Book
of Mormon. Don't ever take it for granted. Don't let yours sit on a
shelf or a table somewhere. Read and study it as often as you can.

Good Luck God Bless God Speed
Elder Annen