I got the plague!!!

Hey there! So... here's the deal. I got wicked sick this last week.
More on that later. Let me take you on a step by step tour of how my
week went :)

So on my p-day last week, we went to an old fortress called
Gongsansung which is a really REALLY old fortress from way WAYYY back
in the day :) It was really cool and if any of y'all ever come to
Korea, I'm going to take you on a tour there :) I find that it's
really difficult to describe the sites that I see without spoiling
some of the greatness of them. I realize that it is highly unlikely
that most or all of you will ever see these places, but regardless, it
is hard to put good detail on this blog. I will try to put up pictures
soon, but forgive my vagueness nonetheless :)

Let's see, let's see. Tuesday was cool, nothing especially special,
Wednesday... What did I do on Wednesday? Let me check my planner
really quick. Hold on. Oh, right. We went to the college again and put
up some English flyers there and stuff. Nothing very special again.
Thursday we met with one of our potential investigators. When we asked
his name, he told us it was "Wolf". Yeah... he was a guy that I had
originally contacted on the street when I was on an exchange but when
I had asked to meet with him then he said "I'm busy, call me in 2
months" haha Well, we happened to run into him this last week, so we
set up an appointment. Anyway, I'm getting off track really quickly.
So, we met with him, but.... he's a bit... oh how do I put this.
Unique? Yeah... he's definitely one of a kind and I'm pretty sure he
thinks his life is a video game. Anyway, suffice it to say it was a
strange meeting.
Friday was cool. (sidenote, it has been raining a lot this week, so it
has been pretty difficult to find people to talk to...)
Saturday, it happened. I got hit with the KOREAN PLAGUE!! Hahaha don't
worry, that's just what I call the cold I got. But this was no
ordinary cold. Usually, when I get sick, even like stomach flu sick,
it's turrrible for like 5 hours MAX and then my body karate kicks it
out of my system. Problem solved. This was not the case. Maybe it's
just because my body has never experienced an illness in Asia before..
but for whatever reason, this was one of the worst feelings I have
ever had in my life. I had absolutetly no energy. I was sweating
bullets yet I felt freezing, and I'm pretty sure I was talking like a
lunatic. Plus, it lasted, and got progressively worse throughout the
entire day. I. WAS. MISERABLE.
My companion was very gracious and took care of me well. In Korea,
when people get sick, they eat something called 칼국수 (Karguksu) which
is basically thick noodles, clams and a bunch of other good stuff. So
I had some of that ^^ Anyway, so Saturday was just awful :)
Sunday was a little better and I had enough energy to make it to
church. As soon as we got home though, I collapsed on the couch again,
ready to die. We hadn't been able to do any missionary work the day
before though, and my conscience kept telling me that I needed to get
out and work. (fun fact, when I say conscience, I really mean the
Spirit). I thought to myself, "are you crazy? If you move a single
muscle in your current state, let alone get out and do missionary
work, you will surely die". Still, the feeling like we needed to go
out persisted, so I finally got up and said "Let's go Elder Atkin". At
first he wouldn't let me because he knew I would die, but we did go
out and did some, gosh, what is that called in English?! The thing
where you go knock on doors. In Korean, it is called 가가호호 (Kakahoho),
so I will, from this point on just refer to it as kakahoho, so
remember that. Okay, so we went out to do some kakahoho and ended up
having 124 people answer their doors to us! Of course, not all of them
were interested, but still, that is unprecedented and was a HUGE
miracle. Even bigger miracle, we got a husband and potentially his
wife interested in meeting with us :) So yesterday was pretty good.
I am feeling better now, thank you for asking. In Korea, bathhouses
are everywhere and are a cultural norm. So my companion and I went to
one this morning and I'm pretty sure that was the last push I needed
to rid my body of this sickness :)
Next week is transfer week! I will no longer be a greenie and there is
a large chance that I will change areas!! Woah buddy!
The church is true, just in case you were wondering :) I love you all.
Have a great week!
Elder Jakob Tyler Fund


NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Hey there! This week has been a good one! We have a university in our
area and this week we got invited to introduce ourselves to an English
study group that meets there. They were all really cool and some
seemed to have interest in our gospel message, so we are praying that
we can make use of that! Other than that, this week has been one of
personal progression for me. I have had a lot of questions on my mind
as to how I can be a better missionary and what I can do to better
speak the language and fulfill my purpose. Well, let me just express
how loving and wonderful our Heavenly Father is. One night, as I was
praying before bed, I poured out the desires of my heart and basically
laid everything out on the table before the Lord. Well, the next day
was zone conference, and wouldn't you know it, EVERYTHING that I had
questions or concerns about was addressed and sank deep in my heart. I
know this probably sounds super lame to anyone else but me, but it was
such a wonderful tender mercy of the Lord, and it wasn't even the
first time this had happened to me. I LOVE THIS GOSPEL!!
Moving on, another cool thing about this week. Usually 2 or 3 times a
week, we go 가가호호ing, or tracting(?) I think it's called in English.
I'll just call it door knocking. Anyway, so we go door knocking,
right? Well, this last week, we were pretty behind on our Key
Indicator goals because we had had a lot of meetings and things that
shuffled our schedule WAYYY out of wack. So, my companion suggested
that we do split door-knocking. We would start on different ends of
the hallway and work our way down the doors until we met in the
middle. (Fun fact, 90% of people in Korea don't open the door when
someone knocks on it, they just shout the equivalent of "who are you?"
through their door, and you give your spiel to them through closed
doors, or sometimes their window if you can find an open one (hehehe))
Anyway, at first I was freaked out. I don't know Korean!! I can't do
this! So, I did it. I shouted at people through doors about the gospel
in the middle of the hallway, in Korean ALL BY MYSELF!! I'm a big boy.
Too bad I still didn't understand a word of what the people were
saying back to me, but hey, it's progress!! :)
So yeah, I have to go now, but it was nice talking to you this week...
everybody... :D Have a good one. THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!
Elder Jakob Tyler Fund


NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

CONFERENCE!!

Okay, first things first. I am trying to post pictures. I have no way
of seeing if they actually post or not. Just know that it is really
painstaking and tedious trying to do all this from just an email
account and not knowing how anything looks. So, be patient
understanding with the substantial lack of pictures.
All that aside, this week was pretty standard except for CONFERENCE!!
Wahoo! So, since we are delayed a week here, all the saints gathered
at their respective ward or branch buildings to watch conference. They
space out the sessions and everything just like in America. Us English
speaking Elders watched it on an iPad in the kitchen of our building.
Oh man. Why is conference so great and why did I never appreciate it
nearly as much as I should have before my mission?! All the talks were
excellent (I actually watched every single one without falling asleep
ONCE, aren't you all so proud of me?) but if I were hog-tied and made
to say what my favorite talks were, I would have to say Elder Packer,
Elder Bednar, President Monson (the one with the fire story) and all
the other talks :) hehehe
If everyone could just do me a favor and re-read all those talks and
cherish the golden wisdom that is in them, I would deeply appreciate
it!
Umm... I can't really think of anything else super exciting that
happened this week. N. Korea is threatening to launch a bomb today,
but other than that everything's pretty boring around here...
Isn't it great to be on the Lord's side? I love you all. Have a good
week and please again, forgive my terrible blogging skills.
K, Bye!
Elder Jakob Tyler Fund


NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Oh hey there!

Well, I don't know if I mentioned last week or not, but I went to a Buddhist temple last week. I meant to put pictures up, but I forgot to bring my little thing that allows me to transfer pictures from my camera to the computer. I'm the worst, I know. SORRY!! It was really cool though. Seeing all the crazy architecture and statues really made it sink in that I am in Asia. It's funny how I have been here for a month and a half and I still need convincing :) First and foremost, I have not gotten to watch conference yet. Since we here in Korea are technically existing in the future (16 hours ahead),  we could not watch the sessions of conference this last weekend, so we will go to a stake center this upcoming weekend and have our own session of conference with all the members. I won't get to go to my own building because they are only playing it in Korean there and let's face it, if I had to watch 10 hours of conference in Korean, I would be coo-coo crazy by the end of it :) 

Let's see, let's see. What other news... Oh YEAH!! So I don't know if I have mentioned this before or not, but most cities in Korea have a food that they are famous for. My area, Nonsan, is famous for their strawberries. So, this last week, they had a strawberry festival. This isn't like Strawberry days in PG. This. Was. HUGE!!!!! I will put pictures up soon, I promise, but let me just describe it like this. My companion and I were walking down one aisle of tents that they had lined up with activities and stuff, and I looked down the aisle in a straight line and I LITERALLY could not see the end of the tents. This thing is intense. People from all over Asia and especially from all over Korea come to my little town of Nonsan for this event. We were going to go do a finding activity with my district there one day, but of course THAT was the day it decided to rain, and Koreans are DEATHLY afraid of the rain. They think their hair will fall out or something if they stand in the rain, so NOBODY comes outside and EVERYBODY  has umbrellas. It's pretty intense. Anyway, so we didn't get to spend much time and the festival because we had to do like, missionary stuff or whatever. Pshh :P That was pretty much the highlight of my week. Sorry that I have been so bad at giving y'all details about my life and what not. Oh and one more thing, I used to say that learning Korean was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. Well it's actually second. The hardest thing was learning how to use chopsticks...PROPERLY. I could use them just fine if I did it my way, but it turns out they way I was holding them was about as civil as when people in America grip their forks and spoon like a shovel and cram food into their mouth. So... I decided that was probably not the best thing for a missionary to look like. I will send pictures and instructions on how to properly use chopsticks at a later date. I'll give you a hint though, if you are using the front part of any of your fingers to hold the chopsticks, you're doing it wrong... :D

Have a wonderful week. I love you all!

Elder Jakob Tyler Fund

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.