Oh my gosh!!!! He's in Korea now! PDay has moved to Monday for him, which works out to about 9:00pm Sunday for us!
About the title... Obi-Wan Kenobi says this to Luke when he first begins his Jedi training. Appropriate. :)
His apartment - notice his traveling "flat" Stormtrooper.
The Namsan Tower at night.
Some other tower Elder Huckvale sent us. :)
(I think) Elder Huckvale's new companion, Elder Jeong... and a Korean Feast!
Well, I'm in freakin Korea! What the flip?! It has been quite the exciting/crazy week up here as I try to deal with all of the new things happening to me all at once. I't been fun though and I'm ready to spend the next 22 months here. Woah, that's crazy to think about.
Anyways, let's start with last weekend...
Last weekend, I had to say goodbye to my MTC teachers which I had come to know and love over the past two months which was difficult but still okay. On Monday, we woke up at 3 am, we grabbed all of our bags and left. It was weird to leave, I was beginning to think that the day would never come. We got on a bus, and took a train to the SLC airport and then flew to Seattle. I remember that it was really strange being at the airport for the first time among all of the normal people after being in a compound filled with spiritually-driven youth for two months. Anyways, we got to Seattle, I called my family, and then we began the 11 hour flight to Korea. I was SO tired when we landed because it was like 4 pm in Korea but 12 pm Utah time and I had only slept a total of about 5 and a half hours within the past 24 hours. I was exhausted. So we got off the plane, and immediately I felt the humidity of Korea. We got all our bags and went out and were greeted by the AP's and our mission president President Christensen, and his wife, Sister Christensen, and we said goodbye to all of our friends who went to Seoul South. It was really hard to do but apparently we'll see them at a mission conference thing in about a year so that should be cool. The office elders took our bags and loaded them up into President Christensen's car to take them to his house and then the AP's took us into the subway to show us how to jeondo (proselyte). It was really weird, I still haven't quite figured out jeondoing yet, it's going to be a very big change for me specifically. Anyways, we went to the mission president's house and we spent the night there. I was so freakin tired. I fell asleep kneeling and praying at the bed side and my temporary companion, Elder Kim, had to wake me up. I slept a very good sleep. When we all woke up, Sister Christensen fed us and then we did a training that lasted most of the day. Before we had lunch we met our companions. My companion is named Elder Jeong Jin Seop. He is a native Korean but speaks Engish pretty well. He is a really cool guy and a great missionary. We ate lunch, finished the training and then Elder Jeong and I took my bags and had to take them to our apartment on the other side of Seoul via subways and buses. It was very struggily.
Anyways, it turned out that Elder Jeong and I are white-washing our area, so we don't have any investigators or anything. Dang it. We've been doing a lot of jeondoing. On Thursday, the other elders in our apartment, Elder Jones and Elder Bean, showed us around the area. It was a pretty cool experience. My area is right in the middle of Seoul and is the most densely-populated area in our mission so there were some pretty cool things to see. I took some pictures of what I've seen.
On Saturday, we went to the baptism of someone Elder Wiess and his companion have been teaching. Elder Wiess used to live in Camas and I knew him pretty well so It's been really cool because he's in my area and my ward so I've seen a lot over the past few days. It's really weird because I haven't seen him in like 3 years or something. Anyways, the baptism was really cool and it was a great reminder of why I'm doing missionary work, to help others to come unto Christ and helping them to endure to end. After the baptism, I got to teach English class which was pretty interesting. There's a guy there who is apparently mentally unstable and doesn't believe in the New Testament and only reads the Old Testament. He also claims to be the first emperor of America. He gave me his business card and I put it in my journal because I thought it was funny. Yeah, he attends the class every week.
Sunday was Easter, which I completely had completely forgotten because it's not a big deal in Korea. Elder Jeong and I are part of the Shin-dong ward. Apparently the members don't like to get involved with missionary work at all which is very struggily. When I gave my opening message to everyone, I told them that I want to work with them to do missionary work. Hopefully they listen but probably not. Whatevs. After church there were people handing out hard-boiled eggs. Since it was fast Sunday, I wasn't sure what to do with them so I kept them in my suit pocket. It was kind of weird.
Anyways, things are going great here! I haven't gotten hit too hard with the culture shock and I've liked all of the food that I've tried so far. Today, for P-day, we're going to make the pilgrimage to Costco! All right!
It's been hard but I am having a blast and I know that this is Lord's work and that I have been called to Korea for a reason.
Love and miss ya'll!
Called to Serve!
-Elder Huckvale
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