Dear Family,
Hello from 연 수! Things are just rollin' along here, and I can't believe Christmas is already coming up next week! Holy Cow! This week has been quite a whirlwind. Here's the low-down in Korea as of today:
Yum Yum
Koreans are absolutley fixated on food. I've never seen anything like it! Every meal is very important and a lot of what makes Korea Korean are the cultural habits of eating. And they're all so thin...
1. If you visit anyone in their home or office at work they always give you something to eat, and they normally give you something to take home as well. In our visits to investigators, less-actives, recent converts and members I've had sweet cashew bread, toasted oysters, tangerines, Korean bacon, apples, fried pumpkin, rice cake in bean dust, and much much more! (I just barely escaped having to eat steamed fish flesh last week. God answers prayers.)
2. The guest must eat. And eat a lot. Most of my prayers here are to be able to finish my meals! I've really really missed Ammon's wonderful habit of finishing my meals for me. It is very rude not to finish your rice and especially rude to not rave and compliment the food. Koreans eat so much and have amazing heat-resistant mouths! I don't know how they do it. They can slurp a massive pile of steaming hot noodles in 47 seconds. And they really do slurp. Large bites and loud slurping is not rude at all. That's the fun part.
3. Kimchi is really served at every meal. I've had Kimchi for breakfast, lunch and dinner--my native companion has made sure of that. She is the biggest eater of them all. My favorite kimchi is white kimchi. It's so refreshing and tastes like a very mild dill pickle. So good.
Spiritual Food
I absolutley love one of our investigators. On my second day we taught him the first lesson and I shakily and nervously recited the first vision in Korean. Oh goodness, the spirit was so strong! He is so prepared and is already so amazing. He is always a gentleman and is always pulling out our chairs and pouring our water and making sure we are taken care of--he is very soft-spoken and thoughtful. We asked him to be baptized last week and he accepted but seemed really nervous. He's still unsure about tithing and the Word of Wisdom. He doesn't smoke or drink now, but it is a huge cultural thing here in Korea, and not smoking or drinking can possibly hurt your chances to get a good job or impress a professor. We're really praying he doesn't get too scared to take a step forward. We really love him.
I should probably go, we need to take the subway to our Zone activity today (woo hoo!).
I love you all! And I'll talk to you soon!
Love, Sis Washburn
