May 1, 2008

Hey Parents! How are you? I am doing way good. The last couple of days have been pretty overwhelming but i finally got my trainer and got to my area just barely so all is good now. So i guess i'll tell you all about the last couple of days because you probably want to hear about it. The flight over here wasn't too bad, i slept for like 7 hours because i took some of those sleeping pills and the rest of the time i just studying and talked to my companions and stuff. We got here at like 5 on tuesday night and met the mission president and the APs. They are amazing. Really President Burton and his wife and so awesome, i love them already and i have only known them for a couple of days. After we talked for a couple of minutes we took our bags to the car and sister newby went with President and Sister Burton in the car back to the mission home and they sent us on the bus with the APs. Haha it was so funny we talked to like every person on the bus and most of them wouldn't even look at us because they didn't want to talk to us but it was still fun. We rode the bus to the olympic park and the ap's gave us each a book of mormon and some pass along cards and told us to run and talk to every person and try to place the BOM. Haha we did this for like a half an hour and we talked to every person that we saw but no one was very receptive. Then we caught a taxi the rest of the way to the mission home and of course we tried to talk to the taxi driver about the church as well. Haha we actually had a pretty good conversation with him because he couldn't just walk away. When we got to the mission home we had dinner and then just went to bed. Tuesday night was the longest night of my life. I slept way good until 3 but then i just layed awake until 6. On wednesday we woke up and had a Korean breakfast that the ap's and office elders cooked for us, and yes i ate kimchee. I don't know why everyone made it sound so disgusting because it actually wasn't even that bad. After breakfast we had interviews with President and then we went to the bank and set up our bank accounts. After the bank we met with one of the ap's investigators and talk to him about the word of wisdom and then we went to lunch with him. Lunch was good, haha we ate more kimchee and some rice and stuff, and after that we had meetings with the ap's and President Burton. After the meetings me, elder hadley and elder Choi taught another investigator while edlder haviland and elder meade went and street contacted. We taught this guy about the restoration and the book of mormon and it really was like the coolest thing i have ever done. It was soo amazing saying the first vision to him, and the spirit was so strong. I have probably said the first vision like 50 times in korean but it was so awesome to tell a real investigator about it. After the lesson we had dinner then we had english class. Haha this was way fun. I just sat and talked to 3 Korean ladies about their familys and utah and school and everything so they could practice speaking. After class we went up to the mission home and went to bed. I actually slept pretty good last night, the jet lag is still pretty rough but it's getting better. Haha its crazy to think that it's 3 on thursday here and midnight on wedensday there. Anyways today we woke up and went running with elder choi and then had breakfast with the trainers, the office elders, and president and sister burton. Then we had a couple of meetings and then we had a testimony meeting and President Burton assingned trainers. My trainers name is Elder Andersen. Then we got on a bus for about an hour down to shingar which is the southern most zone in the mission. We got here and took my bags up to the apartment, haha we had to lug them up 6 flights of stairs, and then we set some goals and came straight here. Its so crazy to actually be a missionary. People stare at us every where we go its kinda funny. This area that we are in is supposed to be one of the more rural areas of the misison and it is still way metropolitan. There are big apartment buildings everywhere. My trainer seems to be really nice. Hopefully we will get along well. I am excited for this week. We have 3 teaching apointments tonight, a couple tomorrow and like 5 on friday. It looks like we are going to stay pretty busy which is definitely a good thing. Haha i have tried to talk to people as we have been walking places and been on the bus and stuff but its pretty rough. I really don't understand anything anyone says, and i don't really know how to start a normal conversation. The people usually just ignore you if you walk up and start preaching to them so i am going to need to learn how to talk about normal things pretty quick. Other than the language everything is really good though. The food isn't as bad as i thought it was going to be, my mission president is amazing, and all the missionaries sound like they really work hard. Our apartment is okay, its actually pretty big for only having me and my companion live in it. Well parents, other than that i don't have much else to report, oh but i will be calling you on mothers day, probably in the evening. I don't know exact times yet but i'll let you know all the specifics next week. I love you though, and dont worry im doing fine, haha its insane that i am half way around the world but yeah everything is good. Tell Melissa that she should stick to emailing me. The mail situation is pretty sketch, you can only send mail to the mission home and we are a good hour away from there so i probably wouldn't get it for a couple of weeks after it gets to the mission home. I don't think that there is anything wrong with her emailing me, im just not supposed to write her back. Thanks, i miss you and i'll talk to you next week!

Love Elder Musso