Week 47 - There Has Been an Awakening. Have You Felt It?

Title - From the first trailer of the new movie, "The Force Awakens".  D is pretty sure it is Snoke who says to Kylo Ren, "there has been an awakening.  Have you felt it?" 

Hello my adoring Fans!

 

Star Wars came out this week and it seems to have gone mostly unnoticed in Korea which is still really weird to me. 

 

But alas I continue to fight the good fight...

 

This week has been pretty good.  We've just been doing every thing this week to prepare for the this Christmas week and the various Christmas festivities that we have planned to do from making message cards and visiting members to wrapping Book of Mormons and going to/preparing Christmas parties.  It's been pretty fun.  I never realized how much I enjoy crafting until now...the real trick is trying to enjoy baking things.

Wrapping Book of Mormons

 

On Monday we had P-day so Elder Kim and I headed out to this huge shopping area called 동대문 시장 (Dongdaemun Market) and it was really awesome.  I got some cheap ties and a sweater.  I got to do some good ol-fashioned Korean bartering to get the sweater which was really fun.  It didn't take that much bargaining skill.  They were just impressed that I could speak Korean.  I'm sure it depends on who you try to buy stuff from though.

 

Anyways afterwards we headed out to the mission home for the Christmas conference and party with our zone and President and Sister Sonksen.  It was so fun!  I really wish I would've taken some pictures.  We did a training for maybe an hour at the office and then went to the mission home, ate dinner, did a Q&A, and then watched part of the First Presidency Christmas Devotional.  They fed us the Christmas morning breakfast casserole (a classic!) and these like pancake balls that were super delicious.  With fork in hand, sitting at a table that wasn't on the floor, a Christmas tree in the background, in the midst of a multitude of English conversations, for a second there I almost forgot that I was in Korea.  It was really cool.

 

On Wednesday we had our district meeting and then afterwards wrapped Book of Mormons to give out to people which should be pretty fun.  Later that night we met with our investigator 이동민 (Ee Dongmeen) and we had a pretty good lesson with him.  He didn't want to meet with us as often this week just to take a break and kind of figure things out a little bit more so we only met on Wednesday.  We taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it went pretty well.  He's still a little hesitant to accept a baptismal date, but then again he's only been meeting with us for two weeks now.  He has a very strong testimony of Jesus Christ and a sincere desire to follow him, but he's just unsure. 

 

On Thursday we went to go visit some less-active members that we make an effort to visit every week.  One of the less-actives we visit served a mission in Busan, but due to issues in his family he decided to return early and has had a lot of regret since then and has really stopped coming to church.  Pretty much every week since I came to the area we've been visiting his house and haven't been able to catch him, but this week we were able to finally meet with him and we had a really great discussion.  I shared one of my favorite scriptures with him, Alma 5: 32-34 and afterwards he expressed that when he read it he felt the spirit!  What a miracle!  Hopefully as we continue to meet with him we'll be able to remind him that the Atonement of Jesus Christ can heal every wound imaginable and that as we excercise our faith in Jesus Christ and repent, partake of the Sacrament, and remain worthy of the companionship of the Holy Ghost, how great will be our joy!

 

On Friday we had English class and in the spirit of Christmas we decided to show the English class the Church's Christmas video and then did a testimony meeting.  There wasn't as big of a turnout as we were hoping for, but our investigator Ee Dongmeen was there and he decided to get up and bare his testimony and it was so awesome!

 

On Saturday we ate lunch with some of the members and they treated us to this incredibly delicious beef.  The husband and his wife own an English institute for elementary school-aged kids so they're both pretty good at English.  They went out the previous night and saw that new Star Wars movie.  According to his words it was "not bad", "so-so", and other phrases along those lines.  You might as well have written me a dear John letter!  Dang it.  My dad saw it and he really enjoyed it so I guess I'll just have to wait a year or so to see it and find out for myself.  It's nothing to give up the work for, that's for sure. 

 

I got 60 or so years to watch that new Star Wars movie, but only two to serve the Lord in Korea.

 

I'm so excited for Christmas and even though I won't be at home, I know that it's going to be awesome!  I hope that all of you (the fans) have a wonderful Christmas and truly remember why it's a holiday in the first place. 

 

I love you all and am so grateful for all of the love and support that you have blessed me with up until now and from now until the end.

 

Merry Christmas!

 

Love and Miss Y'all!

 

Called to Serve!

 

Love,

 

Elder Huckvale

 The future of camping.  :)

Return of the Stormtrooper.  Getting into mischief in the Christmas Tree.  Just like an "elf on the shelf".  :)