Howdy! So, this week was spent mostly in a city called Gwangju. It is one of the 6 biggest cities in Korea. We had two meetings there and since we live on the exact opposite side of the mission, we had to go a day early. In fact, traveling was kind of a nightmare. To start things off, we left our house at about 9:30 in the morning. At the train station, Elder Lee hopped on a train, but found there were people in our seats. We kindly asked them if they had mistakenly sat in the wrong spot or something like that, but they assured us they were right and pulled out their tickets to show us. Well, to make a long story short, we were on the wrong train heading in the exact opposite direction of where we needed to go. Unfortunately, by the time we realized that the train was already moving and we were trapped. At the very next stopped we hopped off and turned around, but it's a good thing those people were there, otherwise we would have gone all the way to Seoul without even realizing it.
Once we got turned back in the right direction and everything, we had to switch trains in Daejeon, between two different train stations. So we had to hop off, take a bus across the city and take another train from that terminal. Well, the only trains they had available for the rest of the evening were what are called KTX trains. Basically, these are the luxury express trains and they are twice the price of normal trains. It was a little hard to see our money drain that fast, but we needed to get to Gwangju, so we had to pay the extra fee. The good news is, I basically felt like I was riding first class on an airplane. It was sooo nice :)
Then, when we got to Gwangju, we called the Elders that we were supposed to be staying with to ask them how to get to their house. (neither Elder Lee or I had ever been to Gwangju before in our lives). Guess what. They didn't know. So we basically had to navigate our way through this big city by ourselves late at night. It was...adventurous... :) And finally, at 8:45ish we made it to the house we needed to stay at. All in all, it was the longest traveling day of my mission, totaling just over 11 hours. And we had to make the same trip back 2 days later. Needless to say, I could use a short break from gallavanting from here to there to Timbucktu and back. :)
BUT, the meetings in Gwangju were SO GOOD! We had Elder Scott D Whiting of the Seventy come and speak to us. He is really cool. He served his mission in Japan, so he understands what it's like to be an American missionary in Asia. Then the next day we had a trainers and trainees meeting where we evaluated how training is going and what we can do to improve.
I'm a bit short on time today, so I won't share the petty details of the week. Going to Gwangju was the main excitement, so you aren't really missing out on anything else.
Also, next week (Wednesday through Friday) is the Korean holiday Chuseok which is essentially the Korean equivalent of Thanksgiving. So, our P-day is being switched next week to Thursday because proselyting will be less effective during that time. So, I'm not exactly sure when I will email next week. It might be the same time, or it might be a bit later, so don't freak out if my post isn't up at the normal time.
Alright, I love you and hope things stay great for you all in America. Also, one more thing. The weather finally cooled down, so that's a blessing!
Okay, until next week.
Elder Jakob Tyler Fund
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