September 18, 2008

Hey Parents! How are you? I'm doing way good. My new area is still amazing and the weeks are still flying by it's crazy. This past week was pretty fun, it was a little hard with the holiday because we pretty much didn't do missionary work for 3 days. On saturday we had our sports day and that was a lot of fun, our whole zone got together at our church and we played dodge ball and ping pong. After that on saturday night we had our weekly planning meeting and so we really didn't do anything all day. Sunday was pretty fun. It was a little bit hard being away from home on a holiday. It shouldn't have been because it isn't even our holiday but everyone went to the home towns to spend time with their families haha and we just had our companions! We had a dinner appointment on sunday night that was really fun though. A guy in our ward was the mission president of the pusan mission and right now he is the mission president of the mtc in seoul and he invited us over to his house to eat. We went with the other two missionaries that we live with and then two others from the area next to us it was a good time. On monday we had zone conference and the mission home and that was pretty good. It got a little boring towards the end of it though because they were just drilling into our heads the importance of teaching with members. Lets see what else do i have to report... Oh my companion is still good i guess. We get along really well but its hard because he and i don't exactly have the same thoughts about being obedient. He likes to sleep in and not exercise in the mornings and i don't think he has been to be on time a single night yet but i have talked to him about it so hopefully he'll step up his game. Oh Dad you asked about the language.. Haha it's rough! Naw its coming along i guess. I still don't understand very much but i think i do okay with talking. All the missionaries and members love to tell me how good i am at korean for my age in the mission but i don't know what they are thinking because i can barely even have a conversation! I should go senior companion in the next couple of transfers though and that will really help my korean. Dad you also asked about money and eating with members. We get 140$ on the 1st and 15th of every month and that usually is plenty. Haha last pay period i had like 2 dollars in my account at the end because me and my companion went to outback and got ribs but that was the first time that i've done that. (P.S. you have no idea how amazing it was to eat ribs after eating rice and kimchee every day for the past 5 months!) We don't eat with members all that often, no more than once a week. Usually we are to busy at night and the members are super busy too. It has been way nice living with a korean though. He cooks for us all like every meal and it's super cheap. Usually i spend about 20 dollars a week on groceries but this week i will probably on spend like 10 because we are always just eating rice. Haha this morning for breakfast i ate 김치 찌개 which is kimchee stew, who would of thought before i came on the mish that i would have been eating rotten cabbage stew for breakfast? Suprisingly though i have developed quite the taste for kimchee, there definitely isn't anything like it. Anyways i am running out of time here so i am going to answer your questions Mom. Yes i would love for you to send me an absentee ballot (haha i have to support my boy Obama!) but can you still get them? I am pretty sure i registered to vote when i got my motorcycles liscense so that shouldn't be a problem. I don't really care what kind of journal you send me anything will work. My new area isn't exactly sky scrapers because it's not in Seoul but it's lots and lots of appartment buildings which are all 20-30 stories high. It's crazy to me that a 30 story building isn't even tall in Korea and the highest building in St. George is under 10 stories. My area is pretty busy though, especially at night. During the day it's a little bit hard because all the men that live here work in seoul so it's just women on the streets. We went to the one member's house for dinner on sunday but it wasn't really for the celebration. They have their big meal for breakfast and then they have a ceremony where they honor their ancestors. I'm not exactly sure what they do to honor their ancestors but i know a lot of people go to their parents graves and do something. I'm assuming they just remember them and give them thanks but i really don't know, it was always kind of awkward when we asked people about their ceremonies. Well parents i need to go my time is up here but i love you! Haha thanks for beasting everyone Mom, i got some good emails this week. Oh yeah Dad real quick about the pictures thing, i am going to send my memory card to Melissa tomorrow so she should get it in a week or so and i sent her some like a month ago too i don't know if you have seen those ones or not but giver her a call and ask her. I hope all is going well back home and i'll talk to you agian next week!

Love Elder Musso