It's been a super fun week! I was way busy and super tired so I didn't write as much as I probably should have. We are e-mailing at this sweet little place thats sorta like a library. My first area is called anyang (spelled different than anyanghaseyo. 안양 as opposed to 안냥. sounds almost the same. I'll answer all of your questions in your e-mail and the bulk of stories and adventures will come by letter.
I have had some periods of homesickness kind of. It was a little bit of a rough start. This is my companion's first transfer as senior and he's training and he's the district leader so its a little crazy. We're figuring things out. He is way good at Korean though and he is an awesome teacher. We are working pretty hard and should be working harder as we figure things out. He's from california, super nice, plays guitar, and loves to skate. Went to the Y for a year before the mission.
We do lots of tracting 전도 contacting. It's kinda hard but people are really nice when they do talk. Korea is a pretty plugged in place. 99.9% of people have smart phones. Makes things easy if I can't understand, they just pull up the translator! But also semi awkward to start converstions. Also I poke out like a sore thumb. super tall white kid. I think a scare people sometimes. We aren't allowed to talk to women and we accidently went to a place where a school just got out. There were tons of high school girls saying Hi to us as we briskly weaved our way through them. Kinda awkward. Koreans are very giggly.We eat lots of kim-chi soup and pasta and rice and we are going to costco later to get some mad muffins. We eat pretty well. Street food is way good. Today I started to feel a little comfortable talking to people. We talked to a bunch of really cool guys on the train. We live in the same appartment as the Zone Leaders and as we were traveling somewhere I was with one of them. Elder Woodford. I was a little nervous to tap a guy on the shoulder and he said with a huge smile " doesn't matter, its salvation" That has really motivated me to talk to lots of people. We are here to bring people eternal happiness. Why be scared! that is our purpose. I'm stoked to work. It'll be hard, but I am seeing that it's when I work hard that 3 things happen. I fulfill my purpose helping people come closer to Christ, I have a lot of fun, and the time goes by fast. Church was sweet. We live in a pretty big ward. We ate after church with the members. Super nice and happy. You can really tell church members apart. They seem a lot brighter spiritually. and happy for sure. My comp has yet to see the root beer exctract in action. He will be stoked though...My korean is ok. I can talk to people kinda, and get phone numbers. Still working on the days of the week though... So thats coming together. I haven't said anything terrible yet. We teach this awesome kid tonight, we met him in english class. We're are goign to teach him the restoration. I can't tell you how important PMG is. Super simple and super deep. Just like the Gospel. Which it is. so yeah. I dunno what time it is there but its like 12 here on monday. I think I'll miss your e-mail this week. I miss you all lots but I don't have time to think about it. I'm not toally sure what my address is... I'll send it next week. I'm a little torn about mail. I totally want to hear from all of you but I don't want to be distracted. I will send you my normal letter laden with adventures and a good e-mail.
We walk lots. Korean transportaion is super cheap but everything is pretty close. Buses are way fun. Roller coaster all the way. I've only seen one tiny fender bender so far so I guess it all works. My foot is fine no mail yet. My mission president is awesome. Way laid back in a strict sort of way. He puts a lot of trust in us. We don't have any extra rules. Only the white handbook. Which would be good for the guyzos to read and know. This really nice lady just gave us some coffee. We were too busy to notice until she set it down. ...awkward.
Korean culture is dope. Such good food. I'm stoked to eat more. You can buy this giant bags of candy for 3000 won. So I did. Theres this crazy ghost town by where we live that is all getting renovated. Scary to walk through.
K love you lots, more to come in paper. I miss you, this is the hardest thing I've done so far. It will get harder. I will always push forward with faith. After all, it all means nothing unless we endure:)
Love,
Elder Mumford
Looks like you are learning to type Korean, Julia! Amazing!
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