Seoul Chaser: First Week in Seoul

Dear Friends and Family,

I have no idea where to start with this week. It has honestly been one of the craziest weeks in my entire life. It started with the super long plane ride. I got the lucky opportunity of sitting next to quite the Elder. He got plane sick and at one point spit all over me...luckily, I made it through, so Woohoo! But I was super tired after we arrived in Seoul because I got almost no sleep those entire two days. As soon as we arrived, President Christensen had us hop on a subway and start talking with people about the gospel. It was nerve racking but fun at the same time. I helped hand out three Book of Mormons which is pretty good considering that I could say next to nothing. After traveling to the Mission home was over, we had some nourishing Korean Pizza and then went right to bed.

The next morning, we did some initial training and then we met our new companions. My companion is Elder Julseth and he is from Saskatchewan, Canada. He has been out for about 11 months and speaks Korean really well. We are serving in the 신촌 (Shin Chon) area. This area contains the Seoul Temple and we'll get to go on Friday for the first time. We live in a very small apartment with two other Elders- Elder Bishop and Elder Thompson. Elder Bishop is from England and he has been out for the same amount of time as Elder Julseth. Elder Thompson, on the other hand, goes home in like 3 months. Our apartment is about a 40min walk from the chuch and, like all missionaries say, it is uphill both ways.

So, this city is super amazing and absolutely insane. No one obeys the traffic rules or listens to cops. I've seen bus after bus just run red lights time after time. The motorcycles and the taxis are the ones you have to watch out for, though. I think I've almost been hit a couple of times... Since we have been here, we have done tons of talking to people on the streets and seeing if they're interested in our message. Its super hot and we walk so far each day. After about the first two days, I thought my legs were going to fall off. However, I always manage to make it home against all odds - haha.

I've already had some fun times on the streets. During my second day in the area, we said hello to this guy in Korean and his first response was "I hate Mormons" in English. Luckily my companion was able to save the situation, but I was completely caught off gaurd. We also met a funny man who was spitting all over the place as he tried to talk about his inventions and his theories (also in English). I had to move out of the splash zone and after 20min, when we finally got a gospel point in the conversation, he decided he was busy. It's awesome times like these that make me glad that I'm a missionary! That may sound sarcastic but they actually cheered me up becuase at least I could understand them!

The Korean culture here is becoming more and more westernized. Its actually pretty interesting to think about how different it used to be. The food is still different though! An awesome member named 안경찬 (Angyongchan) took us out to a great Korean restaurant where I was able to manage using chopsticks. We also had hot dogs at the temple missionaries' home yesterday. I've never been so grateful for hotdogs in my entire life. We haven't met with any investigators since I got here, but we will soon. Everyone's schedules are packed with the huge holiday 추석 with is basically like our Thanksgiving. It continues on til about Wednesday.

Lastly, We had an amazing mission-wide conference on Saturday. President Christensen spoke to us about concecrating our time to the Lord. Afterwards, we had a disscusion as a zone about prayer. It was really great to refresh on how important prayer is. Well I'm about to run out of time, but this was an amazing and tiring week. I miss you all!

Love,

Elder Wheeler