From Elder Fife

I am back at the place where we used to write home, before we moved to our new apartment.  It is a lot cheaper here and the right bus happened to pull up as we were walking to the bus stop, I took that as a sign and here we are.  They just turned on some nice classical music, which is a big change from the 15 year old boys playing video games and yelling, like it usually is here.  Today is a good day. 

 

So, Korea.  We had such a good time.  I was kind of disappointed at first that we had a later flight going there, and an earlier flight back, so we had a little less time in Seoul, but it all worked out great.  Walking down the street after spending the morning in the Temple an American in a suit and tie came up to us and asked if we were coming from the Temple, and just started talking to us.  He said he was listening to Elder Oaks as he walked...that just made me really happy.  Well Scott turned out to be the greatest secret in Seoul.  He is studying law for a semester between his graduate program at the U, and it just happened that he served his mission and was district leader in the area we were in, so not only did he speak the language, he knew where absolutely everything was.  He said he had nothing to do because he started class the next day, and then spent about 7 hours hanging out with us and helping us find everything that we wanted to in the city.  Cold Stone....yeah we don't have that in Vladivostok.  At the end he took us to a Korean Barbecue so that we could roast meat on the table in between us, and try all the famous Korean foods.  Kim chi is actually pretty good.  Well it was a good little vacation, but now it's back to work on Churkin.

 

A little girl named Anna was baptized on Saturday.  She comes to church with her grandma who is a great member and one of the sweetest and most sincere ladies I've ever known.  Anna and her babushka are the only members in her family now, but she has such a great testimony and light about her, definitely a remarkable 8 year old.  The Spirit was so strong at her baptism, and it was great to see children coming to gain a testimony of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ through their loving family.  Kids are the best, we don't have enough of those. 

 

Last night I was on a bus (it seems like most of my stories start that ay nowadays.  It used to be "so there I was"...)

 

So there I was, on a bus last night...it was crowded so I picked a place to stand and just stood there until we got to my stop.  I was standing next to the cutest family I've seen in a long time.  They were a nice middle-eastern family, probably from Uzbekistan.  The dad was just playing with their 1-year-old son the entire time and I got to make some faces at him too.  It's definitely unfortunate that we, as missionaries, can't hold or really play with children.  In a year and a half my nieces and nephew had better watch out, because I will be WAY ready to play the uncle game again and start spoiling kids. 

 

So I got a little gutsy at English Club this week.  I decided to teach them about modesty.  I think it's kind of a foreign word to most people now, and the chances of it turning into a really awkward or unsuccessful conversation were about 10 to 1...but odds have never stopped me yet.  I explained to them that to check their modesty they should play the "head, shoulders, knees, and toes" game.  That means that you put your hands on top of your head...make sure there's no tummy showing, next shoulders to check and see that they're covered, skirts and shorts to the knees, and you should even be all covered when you touch your toes.  I set out some "For the Strength of Youth" booklets out and told them that there was more good stuff in there.  To my surprise about 5 people came up and took the booklets.  Some in English and some in Russian.  It was really neat.  It pays off to be gutsy.  We'll just see how people come dressed next time.

 

Well this week was really filled up with kind of irregular things, but they aren't really worth writing home about.  I'm just glad that we're all home from Korea and can seriously get back to work in Vlad.  Have a great week, and a happy Father's Day!

 

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Elder Fife