I Am No Longer Considered A Greenie

Hello family and friends,

This is now my third transfer in country. Time is flying by! Some things are still the same...Korean is still super hard, Korean summers are still super hot and I still sweat all the time. BUT some things that are new however... I am in a new area called 금천 (geumjeong)- this area is absolutely wonderful accept for this gigantic hill that we have to climb up and down everyday from our apartment. I have a new companion, Elder Gehrig. He is a full blood German stud through thick and thin. He speaks English better than I do and has an awesome German accent. He knows four languages; German (of course), English, Latin and Korean! He goes home in three transfers so I might be able to see him off. I would love that. I am also the biggest companion by far he has ever had- go figure.

The coolest thing that is new is the investigator that I have inherited. His name is 진영수 (Jin young soo). Elder Gehrig started meeting with him at the beginning of May so for about two months. This extremely intelligent man has read all the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, seen all Mormon messages, True to the Faith book and many other church stuff that I can't remember at this time. He has read all of this in the past few months...

The best thing is he has the desire to be baptized and knows that he needs to...however... he has been praying day and night for an answer on whether or not he is ready to step into the covenant of baptism. Elder Gehrig and I both agree it is not a matter of if he gets baptized, it is a mater of when. I have never met a man like him before. He is incredible!

This is my studly German companion Elder Gehrig. He reminds me a lot of my brother Brian

I will have to see this when I get back!

I enjoy hugging inflatable Penguins.

The Desire to Change Through Baptism

Hello family and friends!

Wow this week has been absolutely amazing! Last P-day elder Barton and I attended the Seoul Zoo. That place is huge and I have never seen so many white people in Korea than I have there. On the way home I even talked to the first Korean that I have seen that is taller that me. We had such a good conversation that HE asked ME for MY number! How cool is that? That doesn't happen that much in missionary work. He was about 6'9" and loves to play basketball. I think we have the potential to become really good friends. 

Zoo Fun!

Yes, he is as tall as I!

What I really want this email to focus on is our recently baptized investigator named Brother Park or 박정현 for those of you who can read Korean. When I first got to this country we started the first lesson with him. At that point he really had no interest in religion and really he was meeting with us because he had a lot of time and it is not too often in Korea that two white Americans want to meet with you. Needless to say he continued to meet with us. Every time that we would commit him to do something he would say the equivalent to "sure..." leaving us with the impression of having no idea if he would do what we asked or not. When we would follow up with him, to our happy surprise he would not only do what we asked but sometimes do a little more. 

The first time we invited him to be baptized he gave the same answer of "sure" so like any good missionary would do, we took it as a "yes" and planned towards it. Later down that road we had a couple bumps(can't meet, word of wisdom, all lessons not being taught etc.) so we had to push back his baptismal date. The meeting after committing him to read the Book of Mormon everyday was a life changer for him. He told us that he cant explain the feeling that he gets when he reads it. It feels like a "zzzz" feeling all throughout his body. This time when we invited him to be baptized again he gave a firm solid "네" (yes) and we knew from then on that it would happen.

Yesterday at 2:00 p.m. Brother Park was baptized and taking the words from his mouth, he has "changed his life for the better from here on out". Everything that we have taught him has lead up to that point. To take up upon himself the name of Christ, our savior. After his baptism he stood up in front of the congregation and bore his testimony for the first time in his life. My didn't understand every word he said but my heart did. His testimony was absolutely beautiful. 

The timing could not of been better for him because next Sunday he will get confirmed and then a few days after that he will move to mainland China near the border of North Korea. I am going to miss him so much. I have realized that even though I do not speak the language well I do know how to speak the language of friendship and love. That is exactly what I did with him and he will forever have a special place in my heart.

Elder Barton, Bro. Park, Elder Eads

Baptism Day

There is one thing that we get to do each Sunday that allows us to, "change [your] life for the better from here on out" and that is called the sacrament. It is through the sacrament that we renew that sacred covenant with God to always remember Christ's name in all that we do. We will always fall short but He will always be there to pick us right back up and start over- if we let Him.

I love you all and thank you so much for all that you do!

This link will take you to the musical piece that my district and I prepared for my investigators baptism. Yes it is in Korean so I apologize in advance if you don't understand what we are saying. :)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/m6636q50mgoo6c6/P1010519.MOV?dl=0

The fastest week of my life...

Hello family and friends,

I going to quote one of the other elders in my district to describe how I am feel towards this past week.

"I am literally disgusted that is it already Monday" meaning this week has flown by. From 6:00 am to 10:30 pm you can guarantee that I am doing something productive. I don't remember what waking up from naps feels like.

So much has happened in the past two days. Saturday was Brother Park's baptismal interview. We have a plan set in for him to receive baptism two weeks from now. How exciting! While talking with the zone leaders I said that I thought it was amazing that I was able to teach all 5 missionary lessons while still being a greenie. He responded, "that's literally unheard of in this mission." 

After the interview Park, Elder Barton and I all played ping pong. Playing ping pong after all of our lessons has really become the trend. It is such a great way to connect with our investigators. I have gotten really good at it as well. I won three times total against Elder Barton and Brother Park. :)

Saturday night is one night I will never forget. Just like in Polynesian culture, Korean culture really sees a child's first birthday as a HUGE deal. That being said, two members invited us six missionaries to their child's party which was being catered at the nicest Asian buffet I have ever seen. This place blows Golden Corral out of the water. 

The presentation of the birthday was very interesting. The parents and the child were front and center and on a platter in front of the child was various objects that signified different things predicting the future such as small bow and arrow signifying future athletic ability. Other objects were money, college degree and something that signified good lasting health. The baby chose the future intelligence symbol which is very fitting to the culture. So apparently at these kind of celebrations the guests also receive gifts. The host, who was a really heavy set Korean male in a bright pink suit, asked the question, "Who lives the farthest away from here?". Inevitably he comes straight over to the table where the only four white people in the room are sitting. He asked me where I came from and I said, "Maryland!", which is 11 hours behind Korea, literally almost the other side of the world. After I said where I am from he asks, "Can anybody beat that?". Nobody apparently could and all the sudden I am handed a huge beautifully wrapped present. I love these parties! 

In other news I gave my first talk in sacrament meeting. It was so much fun to prepare for. Obviously it was in Korean and I also needed to have it be in high form. The topic was Walking in the Savior's Footsteps. Three of our investigators showed up to church. The other elders investigator also showed up to church. This man is not exactly sane. They met him on the street and invited him to church. When they met him on the street he was wearing a bright red dress. He showed up to church in that same attire. The look on the members faces was something I will never forget. 

As you can see I have a lot of fun here in Korea. If only I had more time to tell you about it but there are places to go and people to talk to. Thank you all for your support. I JUST LOVE YA ALL!

Peek outside my apartment

Birthday Party

Birthday Party with announcer

Four Elders went to a birthday party

Where birthday party was held

Gift that I won for being the furthest person to come to the party!

Symphony Hall where we heard BYU Symphony play

Beautiful inside the hall

Lobby

Happy Mothers Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all those mothers and I guess future mothers!

Earlier today I had the wonderful opportunity to skype my beautiful mother. As a missionary I can skype home twice a year. Once on Mother's Day and the other on Christmas. The forty minutes that I had to see my my mom and her face and hear her voice will keep me going through the hard times here until Christmas when I get to see her again!

I want to use this email to express thanks to my mother. 

This wonderful woman that I call my mother has been an indescribable blessing in my life. Me being 10.7 lbs. she gave birth to me while recently breaking her back. The more amazing part is that I haven't stopped being a pain in her back and she still loves me! :) 

Through the thick and thin she has always loved me. I can never deny that. There are many wonderful mothers in this world, maybe some of them are even considered 'perfect' mothers. My mother isn't a perfect mother; but I know she is the perfect mother for me. 

There is not any other person that I think about more than her on a daily basis. I'm a mamma's boy and I am not afraid to admit it! 

Thanks mom! I love you so much!

Saturday was a baptism scheduled for one of the ward's 8-year old girls. We invited Brother Park to the baptism and he came. Brother Park has an approaching baptism for himself in a few weeks. After he watched the ordinance of baptism take place he took about ten minutes to himself where I saw him pray to his Heavenly Father. In this recent week after accepting the challenge to read the book of Mormon everyday, he says that he knows its basically just a history book but every time he reads he gets this feeling of electricity throughout his body. He knows this is the spirit. Also for the baptism, all six missionaries in the ward were asked to do a number. We chose to sing I Feel My Saviors Love. The spirit was so strong as we sang. After we were done singing, I went to go back and sit next to Brother Park and as I did so I saw tears in his eyes. I knew at that moment he felt his Savior's love for him and that through Him and could forgive and experience the joy that I feel from the gospel each day. 

I wish you could have been there and experienced that power behind what was happening. This gospel is so much more than getting people baptized. This gospel gives all people the opportunity to find lasting and eternal happiness through the atonement of Jesus Christ.

Elder Eads on Skype!  It was awesome

Sisters, niece,  nephews, Mom and Dad talking with Joe!

Ansan Street Arts Festival

Hello again dear friends and family

I will talk about the very interesting experience that my district had in Ansan this past Friday and Saturday. 

This past Fri-Sun, Ansan hosted their annual art festival where people and group of people, performers and artists come from all over the world to show their talent. Knowing that there might be a lot of people there, we decided to advertising our English class by sticker boarding. When we arrived we realized there are over 30,000 people at this festival. Several streets were closed down and huge portable stages were set up as well. The amount of Korean people that was there was insane. We saw maybe 10 white people so as for us advertising something, it was no wonder why we were such a big deal. 

Usually when we sticker board we have to ask people if they want to put a sticker on our board that asks why do you want to learn English. but here at the festival we had a consistent ten people in front of us that we would try to talk to and sometimes have much more than that. As I said in my last email, Korean people especially girls like to compliment foreigners in English. I have never been told I look handsome or that I am tall soo many times in my life than I did there. Groups of girls at times would run up to me sometimes surrounding me wanting me to talk to them. And as soon as we would respond in Korean they would freak out because they didn't think we knew any for whatever reason. 

Saturday for some reason the Korean people really wanted to take pictures of us, with us and all around us. My companion and I took soooo many pictures with people. We all honestly felt like celebrities. The best thing is, a lot of people had genuine interest in our English class. They loved how we are volunteers who host free English classes. To put a number on how many different people we talked to with only a combined three hours of sticker boarding would be about 600+. Since we had a constant crowd around us more and more people would come up to us. It was soooo much fun!!!! 

Friday night the festival ended with a traditional Korean parade. Some how the same spot that we were sticker boarding was right where the parade was going by so we got front row seats! The people were all dressed in white while banging their drums. In the front of the parade we saw dancers playing a clarinet like instrument and wearing a mask that had eyes as lights. I got a video of the whole thing. It was sooo cool. I will have my mom upload it to my blog once she receives it. 

As for the people that we are teaching, the two of them both showed up to church yesterday! The have become so much fun to know. Brother Park will be leaving to China in a month but he has a desire to be baptized so we will make it happen in all due time.

Thank you for your emails. I try to respond to them as best as I can.

Enjoy the pictures!  

Much love!

Elder Eads

Sometimes Korea is just beautiful

Street boarding at festival. Usually we only have a few stickers.

This structure is made completely out of cardboard.

Parade

Lets talk about Korean culture!

Hello family and friends!

One of the things that caught me off guard the most when I first arrived to Korea was the culture. I'll just share a few things that I have noticed. I don't know for sure whether they are completely accurate but this is what I have noticed. Some of them are quite humorous.

Waving and pointing: For someone who is younger it is considered rude to wave or point

Bowing and shaking hands with two hands or the other hand touching your arm. When ever you greet someone it is always appropriate to bow and shake with two hands. This took some time for me to get used to.

Using the middle finger to point: The older Korean people always use their middle finger to point to things or at you. Safe to say the middle finger doesn't have the same meaning as it does in America. haha

Complimenting: No matter how bad or wrong I speak in Korean, the person always compliments me on how well I am speaking. When compliments are given the Korean person will always deny the compliment and say the opposite. 

Sitting on the floor: Here in Korea we do almost everything on the floor concerning eating and sleeping. Me being two meters tall I have a long way to go down.

Kids English Vocabulary: We always enjoy saying "Hello! How are you?" to Korean kids because every Korean child is taught to reply EXACTLY with "Hello, I am fine. Thanks" and likewise if I were to ask, "Where are you going?" Without fail they would reply, "I am going to my house.". They also very much enjoy talking to us. 

Doorways in Korea: I have yet to find a doorway of a house or classroom that I can walk through standing up completely straight. I have hit my head a total of 15 times and counting. A couple of those times knocked me to the floor because I was going a little to fast. Hopefully I can be a fast learner on this one :)

Seeing other white people is very rare: Where I am staying seeing other white people doesn't happen often. No wonder we get stared at so much. However I see people from Africa all the time! I love talking to them, for one, they speak English and are trying to learn Korean just like me and two they have the most interesting lives.

Korean food: Korean food is the most healthiest food I have ever eaten. I have had my fair share of digestion problems in America and all of them have gone away since I have been here. My body just feels so much better its great. The Kim-chi is really helping me out!

Expensive Items: Some things that are crazy expensive here is peanut butter. A small jar of peanut butter can cost around $8. As well as fruit, meat and nuttella. haha

I think it is safe to say that I am just having so much fun here in Korea. Yes it definitely gets hard...like really hard but I know if I stick to it, I can do things that I never thought was possible. I have such a love for the people 

of Korea. Everyone has there story just like I do.

I love you all and thank you for all your support! I love seeing your pictures!

much love,

Elder Eads

This is called sticker boarding where ask random people why they learn English.

This is what the nearby city looks like. It is so pretty at night! Its Jung Ahng

The LDS Korean Temple

This is my companion Elder Barton at LDS Seoul temple

After the temple trip we went a restaurant and I ate snail...It was disgusting...

I also ate Octopus. It was really chewy

Before

After

Ansan is AWESOME

Hello family and friends!

So if you remember, April 16th last year there was a terrible ferry accident that killed many people. The nearby high school's senior class during that time was on a field trip and rode that same ferry in which many of those students died. The picture of the banner is a memorial acknowledgement of those who died which says you will never be forgotten. 

If you don't remember you can go here to read the story about it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_the_MV_Sewol

Last week on Friday April 16th there was a huge memorial concert going on at a park where about 5,000+ people came out in support. It was a magnificent sight to see the love and care those people had. As they listened to the concert each person had a lit candle they were holding. 

Stock photo I found on internet of the event.

As far as missionary work goes, it has been great! When you meet with anyone in Korea, especially since we are Elders, we can almost guarantee that some sort of food will be given to us. Even when we meet at the church building, people still give us food. Its great! Its there way of showing us their appreciation for what we are doing for them. Saturday night we had a lesson with a member and his wife gave us strawberries with milk and honey mixed together along with sweet bread which contained creme and nuts inside. It was sooo delicious! We taught them a great lesson on baptism and enduring to the end. 

On Sunday, one lesson we had was with Oliver. Oliver is a guy from Cameroon that we have been meeting with. Lessons with him we do in English which makes me very excited because that is a language I currently know how to completely speak. When we arrived to his house it was apparent that he had other friends over so Elder Barton and I decided to do this lesson by the Spirit. When we went inside we met Oliver. Because Oliver was cooking he invited us into another room where Jack was. When jack saw us he asked, "Oh Mormon missionaries?" we replied yes we are Mormon missionaries. Jack goes on to explain that he meant to go to his church which is an hour away from where he lives but he stayed up too late to attend. He's been trying to apply for the CPA exam (Certified Public Accountant). I am also an accounting major so inevitably the conversation led to the Enron scandal, checks and balances, mergers and acquisitions and so forth. I haven't had that good of an accounting discussion since the last time I have talked with my Dad who would be very proud of the conversation we had. ha ha. 

When the conversation died down, Jack says out of the blue, "Yeah a year ago when I met with the missionaries and got baptized I didn't know there was another church in Ansan with more missionaries like you..." 

Our mouths dropped... We had no idea for the first 15 minutes of talking that jack was a member. He told us his conversion story and says that he is currently working with his Bishop to receive the Priesthood. He said one day he wants to serve a mission himself like us. 

What are the chances that an investigator of ours randomly has a friend over who is a member? Unfortunately time was short and we had to quickly head off to our next appointment with a member. 

Elder Barton has been a tremendous help to me by doing all that he can to better help me in the language, gospel and ward.  He is such a wonderful example.  He is a wonderful example of what a consecrated missionary is.  And what a blessing it is to me to have him as my companion!  We have bonded extremely well.

Being a missionary is hard work. This is no vacation although this is the most fun and joy I have experienced ever in my life. I have gone skydiving, scuba diving and cliff jumping but missionary work I know has a more lasting affect than anything else I can be doing right now. Not everybody agrees with what I believe or do and that's okay because I know what I am doing and I know that I can do something to help those people in need. 

I love each and everyone of you. Each of you has had a significant role in my life for the better. Thank you!!! :)

Elder Eads

Korea Seoul South Mission

 the church building we attend

This is me cooking my kimchi fried rice . My district elders really like it

Elder Eads selfie with his companion Elder Barton and other apartment mates (Elders)

This the PC bang I am literally at right now.

This is how Koreans move