Week 40: It's Gonna Be May

I got a haircut and Mr. Hair made me look like a K-Pop star

umopaplsdn

The proof is Ramen

Carve the Knife

How?

Stop the Problem

Standard Content but Jumbled order 

Reflect and reel

Discover Upsidedown

So Sunday was a crazy day. We started by picking up a couple Mongolian members to bring them to church. Then I had to both translate and give a talk in Sacrament meeting, which was a stressful experience, but it's OK because temporary companion Elder Horne is good enough at Korean to at least translate my talk. But I gotta say, translating is a hard job, and I don't want it again anytime soon. Kind of like my part-time job as district leader. Really responsibility is terrible. But it's OK because Branch President and his wife fed us after church before our music practice. It went well. I love the clarinet time in Wonju. Never transfer me. Then at night I had to do the district leader call-in report which was really weird. Also before we got home we found a wallet on the street and delivered it to the police. It was fun. We found a guy on the street who just called them, and the police just drove up and picked it up. That's how little crime there is in Korea. They have time to do that. 

Saturday was a little jam packed. We had to leave the house right at 10 to pick up some kimchi from a sister in the branch who wanted to have us deliver it to Brother Pan. But like, secretly. She also gave us kimchi and bagels. She's so kind. Then we had English class and Family Home Movie Night featuring "The Other Side of Heaven," and I was writing my talk in any free moment I could get. 

Friday was really just weekly planning at the church. Then we ate and had streetboarding at the market. Oh yeah. We did that without our suitcoats because during dinner we got a text that said we could take our coats off.  Then on our way home an older man talked to us for a long time about being open to learning about other people's beliefs. Which was pretty fun, he took a Book of Mormon, but he said he'd read it if he ever finished the Quran. Then we got a call from Branch President telling us that two people couldn't make sacrament meeting, and since our new district leader still wasn't transferred to us, I'd have to give a talk on Sunday. It was not a fun night. But we did get a call from Sister Lee saying she made kimchi she wanted to give us and Brother Pan. That was nice. 

Thursday we dropped one of Elder Horne's investigators in the morning, did studies in the afternoon, had an out-of-the-blue appointment, that was just an investigator from another mission who was visiting his girlfriend in Wonju. And then we took a bus and visited a member who lives far away. He's so good for coming to church. 

Wednesday was Transfer Day. We were meant to give away Elder Diamante and get an Elder Lee in return. But instead Elder Lee was in surgery, so he wouldn't be in Wonju until the next Monday. So instead we started our week in the transfer as a trio. It was a fun time, and to commemorate the occasion my planner pages were flipped upside down. But only for this week. Like the exact time we were a trio. It was spooky. Kind of cool. We did a service project and met Sister Cheon's new greenie, Sister Kim. This was also when I got the idea to write a backwards email. 

Tuesday involved a lot of Elder Diamante's lasts. Last streetboarding, last dinner, last English class, etc. He got a lot of presents from people, mostly involving telling him to get married, or to use this silverware set with his wife. Overall a good day. Until, you know, about 10 at night when the APs called and told me about my new temporary district leader responsibilities. I had just gotten off a really good phone call too. It was a sad moment. 

Monday was nice. We bought letter materials and I got a plant. It's cute. And that's my week backwards^^ Sorry it's long and the stories are short

Best wishes, Elder Newton

P.S. I took pictures. Of myself!

I like this framing and this outfit. And the haircut. I love myself really.

This is my succulent. Send in name suggestions

I liked the aesthetic

Also I love the selective color function still. Isn't it cool?

Week 39 bonus photo post: Cherry Blossoms, which by the way don't grow on Cherry Trees

Week 39: Aesthetics and a busy week without news

Discover Gyroscope

Wobble and Whizz

Fine point, but firm balance

Stop the problem

How?

Shout

The proof is Mob

Gyroscope

Yeah, I didn't get transferred, and neither did my companion. And we just kind of did missionary work. But here's another picture email, I guess.

So this one is kind of old, but I discovered my camera had a selective color feature. I like it

So we were planning on going to the beach, but it rained, so we saw Paralympic Ice Hockey. It was amazing. Like. So intense. I loved it. It was America versus Canada and so we got American flags, and when America won we heard the national anthem. It was cool

I got a picture with the tiger guy!

Aesthetic ft. Elder Shumway

Spoilers for my next email …

And yeah. I really am newsless. We're changing up our musical numbers for next month? That'll be fun. When they get good I'll send a video maybe. In the meantime have a good week! 

Best wishes,

Elder Newton

Week 38: Weeks continue and there's so much but also I never know what to write about

Discover Room

Fumble and Flick

Illuminating bulb but blinding light

Stop the problem 

How?

Dye the Egg

The proof is harvest

Room

Yeah, I know the poem doesn't make sense. But it's tradition so...

And yeah, it was Easter this week! It was great! It all went by so fast. We had a pretty sick party with egg dyeing and Balloon rabbits. I really like the balloon animal thing. It is a lifelong skill. Also very versatile. 

We did home teaching last night? Which out here is really just a band of missionaries (both in the group of animals sense and the musical group sense) and Branch President. Elder Diamante sings "You Raise Me Up." Then we do clarinet duets that you wonderful people have on video.* You're welcome. And to finish off we did, um, the two-part song about family prayer. What is that again is English?† I'm bad at hymns. But it's fun. We went out into the middle of nowhere, like basically farmland, to one of our members. She was nice and gave us Cheese KimchiBokkimbap (I definitely misspelled that) which was delicious, but also a little unexpected. It may have made us late home, but it's OK.

And also I went on an exchange with Elder Horne! That was fun. There are pictures, but I haven't had time to pick which ones to send, so that'll happen next week. Sorry. But yeah, we taught a 70-year-old man English/ the gospel. He was nice, and very happy to learn the word cool. He also gave us special seeds and said he didn't quite believe our Mormon book yet. But he was nice.

Also we had an appointment for lunch on Saturday and when I asked the kid if he ever wondered why there were so many churches he basically gave us the great apostasy lesson. We even had a nice discussion on Martin Luther. That was hard. I may have only actually understood 30% of that part, but I faked it pretty good. I think. He seemed to understand in the end we needed a restoration and not a reformation. And yeah. 

Hope you liked my random stories I guess. See you later or something. Remember Jesus and the real meaning of Easter! Or something like that. Byeeeeeeeeeee

Best wishes,

 Elder Newton

 

* President Gim and Elder Newton, clarinet; Elder Horne, piano

† "Love Is Spoken Here"

Week 37: CONFERENCE

Discover Clock

Tock and Tick

Straight hands but Curved face

Stop the problem

How?

Burn down the Kitchen

The proof is fertility

Clock

So yeah everyone, I watched/ listened to conference this week! I may be a day ahead, but I'm a week behind on the Prophet's words. But it's okay, they were still good. During the week in the mornings we listened to Women's session. I really liked Sister Linda K. Burton's talk on certain women. That morning I even read the story of the woman who reached out to the Savior's garment, and she was described as a certain woman. I liked that connection, and I remembered it even more after that same story was told twice in conference. 

And yeah, also I have an update on my magic investigator. Well, kind of two.

1. I think I am now his daughter's slave. She is very bossy and makes me do a lot of things. But they are fun things, like playing pretend and taking pictures, so I don't mind.

2. It turns out the man has already been a member for 15 years. That was a fun lesson. I'm glad we hadn't gotten to the baptismal commitment by the time he told us. He is a less-active member though, so we get to strengthen his faith now. But honestly, he's great. He came to Saturday conference sessions and everything. 

And other than conference this week, not a lot was super exciting. We baked cookies the night before, and they were really good. Elder Horne had some choco chips from America. 

Ummm yeah, I dunno. Here's some pictures?

박의창! I facetimed him on Sunday.* He's in Utah now

Sunsets are pretty

I like Bokeh. Different night from the last picture

District (Elder Shumway, Elder Horne, Sister Lynn, Sister Jeonhan-ala, Elder Diamante) and Branch President at Conference

Cherry Blossom. I'm trying to get one with a bee, but those pics are hard

Anyway, I love you all! Listen to conference again. I know that's what I'll be doing this week. I love conference. 

Best wishes,

Elder Newton

​

* With his mom, at church.

Week 36: I'll come up with it later

Railbiking with Elder Shumway and some church members. Elder Shumway is wearing grandma pants, also known as refrigerator pants.

Discover 수박 

Round and Ripe

Warm day, but cool snack

Stop the problem

How?

Tend the wound

The Proof is 박의창 (RIP)*

수박

So this week we've been doing Operation Keystone again, but this time for the Gospels. (I hope I explained Operation Keystone last time we did it.†) It's been pretty laid back, like only two chapters a day, so I like it. We also got a district commitment to do one of them PMG activities. It's a fun one, and I'm learning how to testify and stuff. It's on page 199 or something if you also want to do these things. And of course I'm reading the Liahona whenever I can because it's the lightest reading material I have out here. 

And yeah, so this week we had a little bit of a miracle. So I'm just gonna talk about that. Sorry to all of you who like having me ramble about nothing, but this week I have things to say.

So this week we've been preparing for the Branch Easter Party a lot. It's been a little intense. We made individual invitations because the branch is kind of really small. So we were making those invitations 하다가 when we realized we needed paper, so Elder Shumway and I ran out to our Less Active-owned Alpha to grab some. On the way there's a huge hospital, and right at the front of it this man stopped us and asked for our number. Now I don't know about other missions, but out here, usually we're the ones asking for numbers. So I am very interested, so we talk for him for a second. Turns out he wants us to teach his daughter English and he lives way out in this corner of our area, but since we have basically no investigators or appointments always, we agree to go out there next week and do our 30/30 program. (It's where we teach English and then snag them into hearing our message for half an hour.) Anyway, we part ways, and I mostly forget about this man.

This takes us to Sunday, when like at 5 minutes to 10, this same guy just waltzes into church with his daughter. She's really cute by the way. She laughed at me as I tried to sing the Korean hymns. (In my defense, we sang fast ones yesterday.) But anywho, this guy just stays for 3 hours of church, gets taught the Plan of Salvation while his daughter is in nursery, and is basically any missionary's dream. Like he was attending church before he became an investigator. So yeah, he's my little miracle.

Also yesterday we played the clarinet as a home teaching message to a family who's moving to Provo kind of soon. It was fun, but alas, there is no video. Or pics. I'm a failure. But here's other pics!

Elder Diamante!

All of us at lunch in our (sadly not pictured) 할머니 바지 (grandma pants). L-R Newton, Diamante, Horne and Shumway.

Elder Shumway was happy about this here food truck

Sometimes my companions remind me that people at home want pics of me, not just aesthetics

But here's an aesthetic pic of the district in the place where we met Miracle man. (Elders Shumway, Diamante and Horne; Sisters Lynn and 전한아라)

And yeah, that's about it!

Best wishes,

Elder Newton

* "He's one of the members. He's leaving to America tomorrow. For school and stuff"

†  He didn't, but "it was a thing where we read the Book of Mormon in like a month"