Monday, August 12, 2013

August 12, 2013


안냥하새요,
Letters and packages can just go to the P.O. Box that you already have.  I don't know how much it would cost to send me camera stuff.  I don't really need it for anything but emailing you.  If you want to send it then that's cool but otherwise I'll try to find it when I have time.  We don't have a lot of money for sweet treats and Koreans don't like them much.  If you ever want to send me stuff then sugary stuff is good.  You are allowed to make videos but I may not be able to play them on this really old church computers.  Do it any way though, sometimes we go to computer labs.  

Cool news about Dad's calling.  We have a whole family of missionaries!

I assume you found Masan on a map and know where it is but we are on the ocean.  There is a lot of topography and we live in an apartment on top of what is basically a mountain.  Every time we want to go back home we have to hike back up it and I have never reached the top with any energy left.  Our apartment is fairly big for Korea but it's pretty trashy.  We don't have any hot water in the sinks but the shower tries to make up for that by burning us alive.  There's no air conditioning but at least we expected that.  I thought it was just that Korea didn't have much air conditioning but I guess every one has it but the missionaries.  We have fans though.

The other missionaries names are Elder McBride, Elder Moon, Sister Ellsworth and Sister Choi.  The member call me Stapler changno-nim.

The work here is kinda frustrating.  Koreans tend to be really busy so we rarely meet with even our best investigators.  I haven't had an actual lesson yet or met most of our investigators.  Hopefully it will get better in a few weeks.  The students are all studying for the big standardized test right now.  Finding is hard as well. Missionaries have a bad reputation here.  Other churches like to send out missionaries and they are all crazy. They tend to stop you in the street, ask what you believe and then attack it.  I hate this practice intensely.(the sin not the sinner)  We had a run in with some yesterday.  They were actually pretty pathetic but we found out later that they were from this one really scary cult church.  I guess that counted as a lesson so I lied earlier.  He was trying to convert us as much as us him.  Apparently they have a book about Mormons and how to confound them.  Whoever wrote it had never tried it on actual Mormons before because they were easily answered.  He came with some questions about verses in the Book of Mormon that seemed to contradict the Bible.  When we explained them to him he tried to pull out the anti-Mormon book to look up more questions but my companion started asking questions before he could.  He was much more thoughtful after that.  We have another appointment but we'll see how it goes.

One good thing about my area is we have the best Ward Mission leader in the world.  He is a convert of about 5 years but still shows us lifelong members and full-time missionaries how to do the work.  He is busy but he does most of our fellow-shipping and always comes to all of our English classes.  He has all sorts of inspired ideas and makes sure we don't forget anything or anybody.  He also speaks really good English and gives us food.  I thank Heavenly Father for him every night.

Could you do something for me?  Send me some of your favorites scriptures and some thought about them. Could you try to find some that even non-Christians could understand and relate to?  I would love to be able to share my family's favorite scriptures in spiritual thoughts.

Another request.  I didn't bring any recipes.  I would like some easy ones that don't need much dairy.  We do have milk but we try to go easy on it because it is more expensive.  I also haven't been able to find any shortening.  Is there a good substitute?  I would especially like sweet recipes.  As I mentioned before we don't get a lot of sweet things.  Most of what we eat is rice and eggs and ramen.
I have more to say but I'm out of time.  I love you,
Elder Stapley

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