Monday, December 26, 2011

My First Baptism Christmas Day

Well, hello again there!

Seeing as how I have already talked to ya'll once today :) it was a pretty eventful and awesome day/week.

But seeing as how I already told you about all of that (including how Korea is and all that) I'll just tell you about Sunday!

Long Story Short: I GOT MY FIRST BAPTISM OF MY MISSION! IT WAS AWESOME.

Short Story Long: So ya we got to the church early on Sunday and shoveled all of the snow out of the parking lot at the church and it was awesome. We did it soooooo fast. It was surprising because I usually hate shoveling snow but this time it was pretty dang fun I have got to say! Got that all done then went to sacrament meeting and sat down next to two of our newer investigators. Took the sacrament then hustled downstairs to make sure the boiler was on and started filling up the baptismal font. Started getting it filled up and that was all great then we went back for the last part of sacrament meeting. It was a good meeting! I really enjoyed it. So then we went and got our investigator his baptismal clothes (I had to get mine on as well) and went in to do the baptismal service. We sang a song heard some good talks by the members (I didn't understand all of them very well, they were talking kind of fast... :(,.....But they were still good the parts I did catch). Then it was time for the baptism. Me and 황성규 [Hwangseonggyu] went to go get into the baptismal font and I explained to him how we do the baptism really fast (but I forgot to tell him to bend his knees...important in a sec). So we got into the font and got all set up, I raised my right hand to the square, said the baptismal prayer, and then............

BAM!

So ya, I baptized him. And BOY oh BOY did I baptize him. Hahaha, So you know how I forgot to tell him to bend his knees? Well, ya so I kinda just picked him up and threw him in the water like a foot under, then just hauled him out (I am used to temple baptisms that are really fast, so I kinda forgot and just killed him a little bit... He described it like a wrestling body slam afterwards....But hey, the witnesses were like "he was all the way under" so ya, that was it. Besides the fact that everyone was laughing a little bit it was good!) 

So we got changed and I was talking to him in the bathroom and was like "how do you feel?" He was like "I feel amazing" SO it was good! We went back into the baptismal service to finish up and me and my Ward Mission Leader and his son sang a song. Then Elder Dodd was like "we will now hear God's words" (because the word for God, and the word for Bishop are similar haha). So we did that and ya! It was way good.

Had an awesome week, I love ya all tons! I hope you enjoy the pics that will follow!

Elder Dodd - Hweongseonggyu - Elder Crowther
Elder Dodd - Mom - Hweongseonggyu - Ward Mission leader - Elder Crowther
This is the mom and son that Josh has been teaching since he arrived in Korea.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

WELL MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

It has been crazy here in the big old Korea. We have had quite the week I have got to say filled with all sorts of fun stuff (including interesting things I have eaten) so let me tell ya'll about it!

Last Monday was just your average P-Day, worked hard did a lot of 전도 and ya. Talked to quite a few people and got the week started off on a good note! Other than that not a whole lot to report I have to say. Monday's are usually pretty slow

Tuesday we had district meeting and it was great. We had a combined district meeting and we learned about how to speak the language better and stuff. I have got to say that it was pretty legit. I really have had a hard time with the language of late but I have some plans to turn that around here in the future. SO ya. We were going to meet with one of our investigators but he dropped and we didn't get home till later than we had expected ffom district meeting so it was hard. Had kinda a slow day

Wednesday was pretty interesting. We met with one of our investigators who we've been meeting for a while (after street contacting for a while anyways) and had a good lesson. Talked about commandments because that's all that we haven't covered recently. So we went over law of chastity (which was hard); word of wisdom (which he has a problem with) and so on. So we still have some work for that but stay tuned! We then met with another investigator who's baptism date is the 24TH!!! SO this could be very exciting I have got to say! Had a good lesson then we went to teach english class. I taught that while Elder Dodd met with an investigator. But seeing as how only one person came (and it was a less active) I met and talked with him about the church! SO that was a good lesson and good chance to get a feel for what is up with him.

Thursday was good! We managed to have 2 really solid lessons (both actually with the same member) and it was an awesome experience. Our first lesson was with our proffessor friend who unfortunately isn't progressing very well at all.... so ya, we got out and met some people during the day and then we met with one of our new (very promising) investigators. He is such a cool guy I love him. We had a good lesson where we explained about the scriptures that we had shared last time (Plan of Salvation stuff). It was a really good lesson I thought! 

Friday we had an interesting experience with everything. We went and met people and all (street contacting is very popular can't you tell?) and then we went over to a member's house and ate (right after we had ate before). We met to try and meet with his neighbor and he straight up denied us. The dude had a very I'm better than you because I went to UC Berkley and ya! kind of attitude about him so I'm not to heartbroken about it. Anywho we then went to meet with another one of our investigators at the church and had a good recap of the first lesson! It was quite an enlightening experience for him haha! 

Saturday, we had all these plans and then they just kinda went to crap. So we went and met with a member ended up staying at her house (with like a thousand other people) for like an hour and a half talking. Then we ran to the church taught a lesson to the guy with the commandments problems. So we talked with him about it (the WoW one in particular seeing as how we had done all the others beforehand) and he said he had no problems. We commited him to live it and then ya! There was a wedding out our church so we went downstairs and helped them with that and ya! that was that!

Sunday, WOW this was a busy day. So you have to understand first of all that 광주 stake was having a very big goal to get 1000 people in the stake to partake of the sacrament and if they did they might be able to appeal the first presidency for a temple in the 광주 area. SO they did it! WAHHH!!! We had 210 people at sacrament meeting in comparison to our usual 130-140 which for Korea is still a huge ward! So we were busy running around trying to meet people and talk to them and ya! It was a blast. We were just meeting and talking and meeting and talking for hours! haha. So we did that, went out and 전도'ed some more (I met a guy who spoke english and was catholic so i basically went and asked him a bunch of scriptures quoted them to him asked them what they meant (all out of the bible) and told him all about how the Catholic church started and how the doctrine changed over time (Council of Nicea and so on) talked about Ezekiel 37:15-19 (The stick of Ephriam and of Judah) and basically just explained to him stuff that no one else but our church could explain! It was pretty legit I have gotta say. I really wanna find someone who thinks they know the Bible well because BOY have I got some news for them. It was fun :)) So ya then we went to a member's house and ate and that was the night!

So fun things I've eaten this week:
Raw Cow (which is actually really good),
Cow Liver,
Octopus,
Squid

So ya! It has been quite the time this week. We had a crazy week but it was awesome. I got to listen to Jeffery R. Hollands "Safety for the Soul" talk and that has been the best!

I love ya all thanks so much for all that you do! Have a Merry Christmas!!!

Love,
Elder Crowther (Josh :))

Sunday, December 11, 2011

안녕하세요!

Well, hello there!

It has been a while since I actually sent an email to just everyone like I was doing in the MTC so ya! I figured now would be as good a time as any to start the tradition back up (Mom/Dad, don't worry I will still answer your emails!)

So ya this week was RIDICULOUS! Oh my goodness we worked hard and we were totally blessed for it! I had a rough last week but if we keep working like this I don't see how we aren't going to see success. It will be fantastic! Anywho let's get started with my week:

Monday was pretty average (Good in that it was P-Day but like missionary work wise, I did get a hair cut though!). We taught our good old proffessor (I don't know how to spell) 교수님 and he straight up told us that because he had been so "busy" he hadn't been trying to actually get an answer (thank you 교수님 [professor] that is what we guessed you were doing). So anywho we read with him out of Alma 32 the end of the chapter where Alma gives his whole discourse (that's a good word right there) on faith. We talked about it with him and we successfully "likened the scripture unto him." Told him that he needed to "experiment on the word" 시험하라고. He was more or less receptive to that but then told us that we couldn't meet till next week (this week) on Thursday. SO we are hopefully going to have a good meeting with him and considering that 반학 [Banhak] is coming up he has no more excuses to not read like we've been asking him to.

Monday night during planning was when the real magic kicked in. We planned and BOY OH BOY did we plan. We actually made some concrete decisions and decided to "fuel the pipeline" or start building our missionary work from the Key-Indicators (stats) and so that is what we did.

Tuesday: We bailed after individual study for District meeting in 충장 [Chungjang] and had a pretty good meeting. Our whole district was kinda in a slump so we talked about how to get out of said slump and set some good goals for the week on how we can improve!

Then we hopped on a bus (with like 150 people on it) and headed home. We then met with one of the 이전 구도자's [previous investigators] who we had been meeting off and on for a while and basically just laid everything on the table. He has been telling us for a while he wants to change so we told him how (this is the guy who said he got baptized and all but he DIDN'T)! So yes, we got him a baptismal date (the 18th but he didn't come to church so we are moving it to the 25th) and are trying to build that 변화하고 싶은 마음 [desire to change]. Then we went and 전도'ed for an hour, came back to the church and met with one of our newer investigators who is pure GOLD. He is a engineer at a dental implants company and he is so cool. We met him with one of the members from our ward and it was just straight up legit! Taught a really good part of the second lesson and bore some good testimony of that! Then we went our and 전도'ed some more for the day and that was that. Had another boss planning session and got Wednesday all set up!

Wednesday: We went out about midafternoon and just visited some less actives/recent converts. One of them was home and he is way cool! He is actually going to BYU-I which is cool (there are actually quite a few up here going to BYU-I I am pretty surprised. I actually had one of them look up Victoria because she is nervous about going to an American school so I figured it might be nice for her to have a friend that she at least thinks is cool!) So anywho ya, we met with that son of the mom and son combination and had a boss lesson! We met with the guy that referred them and it was just awesome. Afterwards we went out and got expensive Chinese food and it was DELICIOUS. Then we went to English class that we teach on Wednesday nights and had this CRAZY guy who is like a veteran and everything meet with us and then a less active. Had a good class went home and that was the day!

Thursday: Ohhh man, so we just did all of our studies and stuff and then it was off to the LC Tower (formally known as the ONLY place in our area where we can effectively 전도). So we 전도'ed for a while (talked to like 34 people it was pretty cool) then we went to the church to meet with the crazy veteran guy. He apparently like served in Vietnam and stuff and was telling us a bunch of his war stories for a while. It was crazy, we did leave him with a good lesson and got him the pamphlets to the gospel (because he likes the Gospel Principles book I figured the more fundamental literature he has about our church the better). Then we met with one of the investigators that I found through 전도 (which is kinda cool because he is the first one we've found through 전도 here in 첨단). We taught him the 1st lesson and gave him a baptismal date. Then immediately (바로) we went and met with the guy who we met on Tuesday who is gold. Now let me explain a little bit WHY he is gold :). He is a father of 2 and WAY focused on his family. So as we taught him the 2nd lesson (same member came) and we talked eternal life. The member gave a really REALLY awesome explanation about sealing and stuff like that in the temple and how we can get eternal life. We gave him a soft baptismal commitment but were unable to set up a date with him. He was so excited, though, when we were talking about families being together forever. GAH it was awesome!

Friday: Again another busy day of 전도 worked HARD. Talked to a bunch of people and then ya. We went and ate and then it was afternoon and time to meet with the kid I met through 전도 again (We meet him twice a week). Taught him the whole 2nd lesson but our member wasn't the supportive at all (he's an awesome kid, I love him a ton but he doesn't focus when we teach with him) so ya. We taught him and went home. We just worked hard all day.

Saturday: Long story short we just worked ALL DAY. We did meet with a member family that Elder Dodd knew back in one of his other areas. They absolutely loved him so they came to 광주 to visit, we talked to them then went and taught an investigator who has to go to the 군대 [army] on the 17th. THen we just 전도'ed We had an appointment at 6:40 but it fell through so we couldn't really do a whole lot. We just busted our butts trying to contact people and ya that was that!

Sunday: Good church meeting. The investigator we met on Saturday came as well as the kid I met through 전도. It was way cool. I taught about eternal families in English gospel principles class and it was just awesome. We had a Filipino man there with us who spoke in sacrament. He has been in Korea for 4 years and decided early that week to go back and be with his family. So we had a really tender gospel principles class and it was awesome. Then we went to ward council. We were there for like 2.5 hours and I did not understand A THING. They speak to fast hahah. So ya, got some language work to do still. I did actually understand a little bit. The members have this goal that next week (the 18th) if they get like 1000 people out to church then they can get a temple down in 광주 [Gwangju] and it would be the second here in Korea. So they are working WAY HARD to try and achieve that goal. Goodness gracious they are working hard. So ya, we went and put up some of our English Fliers (광고's) and then we just came home and that was the day. It was just a straight up BOSS week. I loved it completely. I died every night haha. But it was totally and completely worth it.

So that was my week, it has been a good hard working week and I have been amazed what I can do with the Lord's help if I just put my head down and work. It was awesome. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Loving it out here, this gospel is true. I know it :). I can't even begin to tell you how hard I was asking for help this week. Thank you for your prayers and I hope this next week will be just as good! Love you all!

크라우더 장로 (also formally known as Josh Crowther but I haven't been called that in so long It's gonna be wack when I actually hear that again)

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Two months in Korea

Welllll HELLOO there Poppy san!

How ya been big sir? I loved hearing about home, sounds like Coach Crowther is back in action there eh? Great to hear that the girls are doing good at home! so Alissa is a straight up boss then huh.... 9 steals... first game... that's pretty good! haha :) But hey you gotta remember I had a pretty good first game of the season too.. Well at least senior year anywho. That's good that she's an animal keep her quick and she will be a beast, she's so big haha. Just gotta keep her fighting hard.

Kellie is a defender too eh? Dang that seems to be a Crowther family special, I wonder where we get it... Dad... what'd you do??!? haha ;) SO ya she getting better at her ball handling and all that good stuff? If Kellie builds some good offence she's gonna be a boss I gotta say!

Jenna is getting some Varsity time! Good good good. She just needs to get a left hand and she will be fine. When she has that just get her in and let her play around the rim and noone will stop her at all! It's impossible when you can do that. Get her some go-to moves and she will be a giant in the middle. Also maybe teach her how to draw fouls a bit. That's be good, especially if she learns how to convert with contact. That'd be straight up legit.

Our area is seeing some progress but still not a whole lot. We have got 4 investigators who we are teaching and 1 of them I feel like is only meeting us because of the 30 mins of English we teach him. It gets frustrating. But we did get one of our investigators a baptismal date on Saturday and he is probably the closest and most sincere of the investigators that we have. Things have been pretty hard especially considering the crash that we had at the end of last transfer. Which reminds me, I am now a transfer old! So ya, I guess I am slowly but surely getting older out here haha.

So now to kinda give you my insights from the (almost) two months I've been out here. I love the work, it is hard... extremely so... and discouraging a lot of the time... but for some reason I keep getting up each morning to do it. SO hey, I guess that right there is a blessing in and of itself.

I'm pretty happy in that I love the members out here and the food and the fact I'm in Korea and all that good stuff but I'm not gonna lie, there are days (especially when everything just tanks, investigators drop, appointments fall through) that I just get mad. Somedays I just think "why the heck don't people want this?" "why don't people care if they have a father in heaven who loves them?" "why are people so content to just live without purpose here?" It bothers me a lot.

Things you could pray is just that the investigators that we have will have the will to know. To actually want to find out for themselves if this is true and then to do it. I really want to see some success soon and it's been a trial thus far already.

Things you can do :) MAIL! Oh my goodness I need mail! I have loved the letters ya'll have sent me, it has been so awesome. I especially like the inspirational quotes one - it has been really nice. I loved hearing from you all and it totally helped my whole day to just get some mail (I haven't gotten any from friends not on missions though) (BUT I did get some mail from Elder McCloskey (a.k.a Chasey boi) and that was pretty fun).

I am loving it here, but that definitely does not take away from the fact that this is not by any stretch of the imagination easy. I hope one of these days I'll see some success.

Anywho that's me. I love ya and am so grateful for all that you do for me :)
Love ya and I hope to hear from you soon!
Elder Crowther (Josh)

_____

Dear Mom,

Yes, I know I know, I'm a fatty! I am working hard to get rid of it though believe me. I ain't gonna stay a fat boy :) So I sent you the email that I sent to Dad to which kinda has all the stuff in it for the week. But it is good to hear that Katie bug is keeping the shoes clean! It really does make a difference (even though you may not think so it really does haha!)

That is so scary for Heather! Oh my gosh, that is ridiculous. I don't have to worry about too much of that here seeing as how 9 times out of 10 people are intimidated by me because of my size (and then apparently by Korean standards I am pretty cute too so according to Elder Dodd there are some guys who get intimidated by that haha) It is pretty funny I have got to say!

I hope you all have a great Christmas, I didn't think I could get homesick but Christmastime is kinda hitting home. I was so grateful for the Christmas package that I got I can't even tell you. I loved the Reeses Puffs! Gah I eat my last bowl of them tomorrow. Also the Smurfs cereal was actually pretty good. I am enjoying it :) I hope you will keep me in your prayers and I really am excited to talk to you all on Christmas!

Love you so much Mom. Thanks for all you do. I wish I could give you a hug this Christmas but I guess it'll have to wait.... :(

Love,
Elder Josh Crowther :)

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Working Hard and Gaining Weight

Dear Mom/Family,

Well, hello there, how the heck are you doing?? I am just loving it out here in the grand Korea. So I hear you need some pictures eh? Well, I have been working on that. I have actually not taken all that many so I was less than inclined to send you the MTC pics that you already had. My bad!

So ya let me tell you about my week.

Started off on last Tuesday and we have really been working on trying to do something nice for the members and it has been pretty ridiculous. We have been working on trying to leave the members like little messages at their houses so that they can like remember us and maybe possibly give us some referrals. That has been a lot of what we have done this week. I have been pretty busy I must say.

I remember very well the stuff that they taught us at In-field. I try to use it every day but I find that I don't get to as often as I like. We talk to our ward mission leader pretty often, but we haven't really gotten much help from him outside of a couple meals at their house (which is nice I have to say). But ya, so we have done a lot of visiting members this week and we actually did last Monday get a new investigator. He is way tight and is missing the upper part of his right pointer finger but that is besides the point.

I had an interesting experience this week. I have been studying a lot of the vocabulary for the last couple days and I saw a significant improvement in my ability to hear and understand people. I actually have gone to a couple members houses where I actually understood 100% of what was going on. I didn't necessarily get 100% of what was said but it was pretty dang awesome I have got to say.

So this week we have 3 progressing investigators and it is pretty sick. One of them is the son of the mom I told you about last week (unfortunately she is not progressing). He has been praying and reading the BoM like a boss. He is so cool we even got him to come to stake conference. The next is the investigator we met on Monday, we met him again this week and he straight up told us he would like to come to our church this week :). He is so cool. Lastly is the investigator who we aren't sure if he was baptized or not. So an update on that. There is no record at all. Like none. Nada, zip, zilch. So we aren't exactly sure what happened (maybe he didn't get confirmed) but maybe we are going to have to baptize him again. So ya that's that.

Our other investigators have just kinda piddled out so we are kinda on a downward slope there hoping ot improve that soon so that we can get back rolling again :).

So ya that is that out here.

But dang I have got to say: we have a 3 year old dog othat I am going to get to meet :) I am pretty excited I have got to say. But ya....

So I have a confession to make....
:(

I am 82.7 Kg. Like weight... that's like 185 pounds. I am a fatty.... Gah, so I am very diligent in working out in the mornings LET ME TELL YA :). Sounds like the girls are all doing awesome. I love to hear that they are playing some good old Basketball. Oh and tell Kellie when she can consistently make layups she can start trying half-court shots :).

Oh and one last story. So I was on a bus yesterday and these two old ladies started talking to me telling me that I was cute.... So I began talking to them and I talked about the gospel and stuff. But goodness gracious you should have heard that bus.... IT WAS SO QUIET!! OH my goodness it was crazy. Every single person on that bus was listening to me. It was nuts. So apparently people like listening to the giant white American guy on the bus who was speaking Korean. It was pretty funny. But on a side note, Koreans and how they find people attractive is completely different here. It's like a checklist, and apparently I pass the checklist. So ya... I get talked about a lot. It's fun to listen to hahahah!

I hope that all is well at home I am kinda sparce on information this week sorry.... ;(

I love you all so much and I promise I will try to do better next week!
Love you all enjoy the other email!
Josh (Elder Crowther)

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Rough week

Wahhhhh!!!!!!!

We have a dog!!?!???!?!??!?!?!

YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYY!!!!!!! Why on earth did you not let me adopt one eh? I wanted a dog all while I was home and you never let me get one... goodness.........

I am so excited, goodness gracious. Take good care of her and get some puppies :) That means you've gotta get another dog. I would like to have a dog :) That would be fun. Gah, that is so cool. I am excessively jealous of all ya'll back at home now. Jeez.....

So, interesting week in the MTC eh? I am so excited that Tyler and Cory are in the MTC - that makes me laugh. I will have to send them some Dear Elders. They will appreciate that I think :). So ya it is ridiculous, like all my friends are on missions now! It is so crazy! I love it.

So this week for Thanksgiving we are probably going to 전도 all day haha. I dunno, Thanksgiving isn't that big a holiday here from what I am getting, so my guess is we will probably just chill.

Now let me tell you about this last week.

It was HARD, oh goodness gracious it was hard. We just had a really hard week. We dropped like 4 of our investigators so we are really back at stage one again. We are going to try and work with the members much more this time around because we need referrals. Most of our investigators so far just weren't ready yet or had different interests in mind, so it is kinda difficult. We are working on a program where we are going to try and visit like all the members like as often as we can and leave them like little messages on their doors and stuff so that they will remember that we exist and maybe start trying to do some more missionary work. It hopefully will be a good idea but we need some prayers!

However, despite all of our hardships this week, we did have a great experience with the son of that mother and son that I told you about a couple weeks ago. He is way tight and we've been playing basketball with him and kinda built a good relationship with him. He is a good kid and we invited him to Stake Conference which he came to! So he is so good and he really heard some good stuff at Stake Conference (but I will tell you about that in a sec). We also are just trying to meet more and more with the members (our investigators that is) and hopefully that will help us build some friends amongst the members with our investigators.

Now lets see... Stake Conference was boss. This was like a super awesome stake conference because it was like the first time in history that the Prophet wanted to specifically address the people of Korea. So my stake conference was presided over by the prophet who also gave us an awesome talk. Also, L. Tom Perry spoke to us and some other lady who's name I forgot to write down.

L. Tom Perry, talked about the restoration and history of the church and I think that was way good for our investigator because it really gave him some background as to what everyone was really talking about. He talked about the restoration of the priesthood and baptismal ordinances and how important those were. It was way, way, way awesome!

Then the Prophet spoke; he talked about the "Rescuing the Lost Brigade." Gave a lot of different ways that we could do that and talked a lot about how people really can change. It gave me a lot of hope for the future. It was awesome because I think the members really got it into their heads that they need to be working at this as well as us.

All of this was boss for our investigator because let's be honest, how many people get to hear a Prophet of God on their first church visit? It was way cool, I just hope that he grew from it and wants to know more, he has been reading the Book of Mormon so hopefully we shall see him progress even more and maybe even be baptized!

It has been a rough week, please send some prayers my way. Also, please pray for my investigators and ask God to guide me to some of His prepared children.

I love you all so much, thanks for everything!

Love you,
Josh (크라우더 장로)

Sunday, November 13, 2011

An Alien and an Oyster

Helloo!!!!

Well lets see how to describe things here in 대한민국...... pretty good :) It is going good. Hahaha, it has been a busy week full of ups and downs (as I am discovering that every week does) and so i've just gotta say another fun week in the mission field.

To start off before I answer any questions I have just got to say................... THANK YOU FOR THE PACKAGE!!!!.......

So ya I got your package and thoroughly enjoyed it's contents (If you know what I mean :)) I gotta say it was the third thing that I got here in Korea! So it was pretty dang exciting to get it :) I kinda freaked out. Hahaha. So yes.

It is officially.... not winter yet.... It's getting colder for sure but I have to say that it isn't really winter as in like the winter that I know yet :). Although I have heard from numerous people that it gets pretty ridiculous. So I will be thankful for the coat (the same one that I think every missionary in the world has ;)) so ya!!!!

This week we actually found 2 more investigators! It was pretty exciting and we got numbers off of 2 more people who are actually looking really good. We scheduled an appointment with one and the other was a guy that I met on the street the other day :). He did his army time and everything and seemed like an interesting and cool guy. So it has been a good week in that respect.

As to getting people to come to church though it has been rough. We got no more than we did last week and actually had to withdraw a baptisimal date from one of our investigators cause he didn't (we found out that he really doesn't have much gospel interest at all, only the fact that we teach english). But one of the new guys we found is really cool, he was gonna like become a monk like 2 days after we met him because he was so concerned about trying to be pure and good. But he is putting that on hold to study with us for a couple months and then he will make his decision. He's way tight though, we talked about some stuff and in the course of our discussion (lo and behold) I found out that he is studying French! So he was WAY surprised that I could speak a little bit (he can't speak at all but still) and ya it was just a boss time in all ways. He's so good :) So ya! That's pretty much it for that.

As for the lessons and stuff things are about the same as they where last week because we didn't have any come out to church. But the hard thing is they won't get any better because next week is Stake Conference over here and so people proabbly won't come......

Hard......

But yes, as to transportation for you Mom. We take buses, we walk, we occasionally take taxi's (that's interesting) and ya! We are pretty safe. Especially because the fine for hitting a person from another country (specifically America) is pretty dang high. So people are pretty safe around us :). But ya...... Let's see.......

Oh ok, this is my fun experience this week. So we went to a restaurant with one of our investigators, it was his mom's restaurant and we ate....... OYSTERS!!!!! Ohhhh man it was good. They were like fresh too. So they got them, they were still alive, then they put them on the fire in front of us and watched them slowly die and then we ate them! :) It was fun. They had like this oyster thing that like wasn't in a shell it only had half. So they put it on the grill shell down and we watched it writhing in pain trying to get off it's shell that it's attatched to. Then it died and we ate it, it was pretty delicious I must say. I was like a carnivorous beast. It was fun :)

But yes, that was my week I am attaching some pics (we ate at a Korean buffet this week. It was nuts they had like Pain au Chocolate's there and stuff. It was delicious.)

Love you all, I know this gospel is true :)
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Monday, November 7, 2011

November

*note from Kris: Josh sent an email just for me this week, but included more general stuff in his email to David, so here are some bits from that:

I will start with the language seeing as how I'm going to answer the other two questions later. Language is actually going pretty well. I am slowly but surely beginning to understand more and more and it is starting to make sense. In fact, I even went to a member dinner the other night and I actually understood everything we talked about. Talked for like 1.5 hrs and it was just like, " HEY - I know what's being said!" It was pretty good. I still struggle if it is all 逢切奄 sprung on me [the Korean]; I kinda have to focus really hard to get it. So ya!

Me and Elder Dodd are doing awesome. We have recently decided we really like Ping Pong and need to beat the Koreans (because we play all the time) in a royal beating. So we have collectively decided to play a lot more ping pong. but we teach well together and we do really well. It's kinda funny because he's my district leader too. So that works out well. Our district is really small just 2 sets of elders but we do well. The other Elders area is struggling but they are gonna do awesome, I just know it.

First Zone Conference is on Thursday of this week. I will let you know more about that :). OH and I get my Korean nametag so I will send you a pic later :).

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Happy Halloween

Dear Ya'll!

First of all I would like to say HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

I hope you are all going to have an amazing day as Mom said filled with candy and chili and costumes and ghosts and fun! It is gonna be an awesome day for you I already know it (Probably because it's going on right now!)
As for me I am just here in 첨단 slaving away as usual! We are actually having a Halloween party tonight that we aren't 100% positive if we are going to be able to go or not but hopefully we will and If we can that'll be way sick!
Well yes, I am going to tell you about some experiences that I have had this week so lets get started!!

First of all we have my investigators. It has been a hard week and a good week at the same time with the 구도자's We have had alot of stuff going on. So first of all we have the Mother and her son that I told you about last week. We were only able to meet with them once and unfortunately we didn't get to teach a lesson because the Mom (the one with the real interest) wasn't there. So we chilled with her son got to know him a little better and just kind of hung out. It was disappointing but we still did get to go and they still want to meet with us so I guess taht is good! It is actually his birthday today so happy birthday to him!

Next off an investigator we got off of a 소개. He is way cool but we aren't sure about his interest in the church or not. Some days are really way good and others not so much. For example, we actually commited him to be baptized on the 27th of November. It was an awesome lesson, the spirit was there and he seemed really excited, so we invited him to come to church. So here we are: two smiling happy missionaries and what happens? He doesn't come to church, he's backing out of an activity that we invited him to and ya.... We are kind of confused but we shall keep working with him. Hopefully we will see some success there. He is a really good kid with a desire to change. We definitely figured that much out, we just gotta help him understand that coming to church and stuff is going to definitely increase the speed of that process. He's a way cool guy though (bought my companion a cake for his birthday on the 26th of this month HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELDER DODD!) but ya.

The next investigator that we have is a professor at a college. He is way cool, a really really nice guy with a big heart. He is Catholic and shares a lot of our beliefs but he has been reading the Book of Mormon and he is starting to really like it. It's way cool, but hopefully we can help him out. It would be so good to see him gain a testimony of the BoM and not just like it. Hopefully we shall see that happen soon :) Prayers for him!

We do have one guy who is way cool. He is a student at a university who is a brilliant guy with history. But he kinda isn't 100%. He really wants to join the church though and we are working to get him prepared. We had him interviewed by the bishop here and the bishop basically said that it is ultimately our choice as the missionaries. We will be working with him a lot. He's a nice guy, just not sure yet. But ya! Prayers for Elder Dodd and I; we need some guidance with him.

So those are our investigators at this point. We are working hard and things are going well between us (it's funny how a good companionship inventory can do that). We have had a couple hard days (namely Saturday and Sunday. All of our appointments on those two days just like crapped out. We had a guy fake us twice! GAH) But ya, loving it out here.

The language is coming slowly, but still it is coming. Our mission has this pass off thing that president wants all the missionaries to do so I can't really do as much of the study that I want (in fact I can't do any till I finish) so I am working on trying to get that done! it has been good though, I am learning quite a bit. I really just need to get off this 12 week program thing that I am currently on (MTC Infield Program, it's like they are trying to like break us into the field and stuff and have us start taking the lead in stuff. But my companion when he saw that I could speak a little bit (Brother Davis, Sister Corrigan just FYI they are all amazed at our 동이's Korean abilities thank you so much!) he just made me start doing stuff I didn't need to get broken in I just was like LETS DO IT!). I have 2 hours of comp study, then an hour of language. Most days we don't get out of the house till like 1. But recently we have had a lot of morning apts so I haven't been able to do my language because of the two hours of comp study.... It's hard...

But ya I am learning I can promise you that much! If you can send me more pics of fam and basketball and really anything at all that would be nice. I am putting them on my translator (which I am using a ton thanks so much!) and I can kinda show them to people. It's nice. Gotta build that relationship with people then people really do open up with you it's way cool. This will be a great P-Day I feel so I love ya all! OH if you wanted to email me a zip with some more music (Like Josh Groban'esque stuff I got some from my companion but anything there. OR like tons of cool arrangements of hymns, Let zion in her beauty rise, how firm a foundation, I know that my redeemer lives that kind of stuff) I would be gratefull I could use some more tunes (we listen to music while we study and contact formers and stuff some more would be nice :)) But ya!

Love ya all so much thank you for everything you do for me! I hope to hear from ya'll soon!

사랑으로!
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Monday, October 24, 2011

Reporting In

Dear Mom,

Well, goodness gracious I open up my mailbox to like 6 emails!!! HOLY COW! That was pretty exciting I have got to say. It has been crazy to say the least so I will answer your questions then tell you about 2 of my investigators.

My first day in Korea was spent at the mission home, that was pretty nuts. We just kinda chilled and got a bunch of orientation. Not a whole lot went on, we interviewed with President Furniss and I have decided that he is just straight up the best. He is so cool and so powerful yet at the same time he's just like a really close friend already. It is way awesome and I have a feeling I am just going to come to love him more and more.

My first area is called 첨단 [Cheom Dan] it is the 광주 [Gwang Ju] city and it is WAY cool. [NOTE FROM KRIS: If anyone knows the English verison of these names, we would really appreciate it if you'd let us know! - Follow up: Thanks to Helena who gave us the names of these cities!!] I love the apartment, it is small but we have a sweet shower where I can shower as long as I like and we have our own washer so all is well there. Weather isn't all that bad at this point although my guess is that it is going to get really really cold REALLY fast.

Next up YES, I am much taller than about 90% of the people that I've seen. The only ones that have been taller are the ones in my mission and the occasional GIANT Korean person. So ya, and do people stare... Yes... They don't stop.... like ever... OH and they also run away when they see us coming (at least the students do, especially if we have talked to them once already). We don't do much knocking doors, just street contacting because we would like have to get permission from an apt manager to knock doors because everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) lives in an apartment here. There aren't any houses that I know of.

When my companion and I teach it actually is really balanced. Apparently according to Elder Dodd I speak and understand better than any new missionary he has known so when we teach it is really balanced and we try to play off each other. My problem largely is understanding what the 구도자's [investigators] say because I have to like understand accents and stuff. So ya that's fun!

My day is spent like as follows:
6:30 Wake up
7-11 Study (We have 2 hours of companion study most days because of the infield orientation stuff the MTC gave us)
11:30 ish We eat lunch
12:30 ish We are out to appointments and 전도 [street contacting] and visiting members and stuff.
5 We eat Dinner
6-9(9:30) More appointments 전도 and such.
10-10:30 Try to stay awake till Elder Dodd gets out of the shower (I fail at this a lot)
10:30 BED

My ward is the 첨단 ward. We are the only elders in the ward and they are a sports ward. Like epically competitive and ya, we actually had a big stake activity this last Saturday that I have a funny story from. When we were at the activity we were doing a game where we did piggyback ride races. Long story short, I took two steps, leaned too far forward, and now I have a gauze pad on my right knee because I straight up died. It is actually pretty gross, it like leaks this fluid all day and is kinda nasty. I am getting better though; as long as it doesn't get infected at all I should be fine (at least that's what Sister Furniss says) so I should have a pretty sick scar when I get back. But ya!

So the two investigators I wanted to tell you about are a mother and her son. They are SO cool. She grew up with a member and he has explained about the church to her all through their lives together in school and all that. She is WAY interested in the Gospel (Interested enough infact that she took us out to dinner at OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE. It was like amazing I have got to say). She is so awesome. She basically said that she knows in her head that the LDS saints are good people and she just wants to know in her heart. SO! We have just got to get her to feel that awesome spirit. I am so excited and we should get to meet with them pretty soon actually so I'm excited!

That is about the gist of my week. I love ya all so much and thank you for the Christmas present! I love it so much, it is a big help. I am using it often and it will be a big help in the future (especially after I finish pass-off which is this program that the Mission President gave to us so that we can learn Korean better, I think I'll get to use it even more after I get that all done!). It has been fun and I am looking forward to some letters one of these days! Hopefully one of these days mail will come! Oh, and if you are happening to be sending me a package soon I could use some cereal, it is CRAZY expensive here and it is what we eat for breakfast hahahahaha!
I love ya so much and I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Elder Josh Crowther

[Josh sent a separate email to his dad answering his questions. Here is some of that:]

Daily diet is pretty sketch, a lot of rice but we eat with members WAY often. In fact, we eat with members ALL THE time. It is pretty nice. I have already eaten like squid and stuff it's pretty odd.

Language is coming slowly, I have to do pass-off first but then I think that it will really take off because I will understand more and can learn new words instead of just memorizing stuff. It is pretty scary to speak Korean but I think it will get easier. My understanding is coming, it is definitely better than it was but ya I just gotta keep at it!

I teach all the time! We see the other missionaries on Mondays and Tuesdays (Mondays because it's P-Day and Tuesdays is District meeting) I actually met a missionary who is a friend of San Ha's! So I somehow gotta get a hold of that kid :) If you could help me out that'd be awesome!

It takes about 2 weeks to get letters to me (I think I'm not sure. I haven't gotten mail yet). The letters first go to the mission office, then they forward them out so it is a bit delayed but it still does work. My companion got mail just the other day so I know it does work!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

First P-day in Korea

Dear Family,

Well, here I am on my first P-Day in Korea!!! It is pretty sick if I do say so myself. A lot has been goin on and I am not exactly sure how to get it all in! So I shall do the best that I can :).

So first of all my new companion. His name is Elder Dodd and due to the fact that we are having like security issues or something (I am not really sure as to what it is just sketchy) I can't tell you a whole lot about him. He's way tight though and we are doing a lot of really good work.

We've been out just working like good old missionaries do. It has been pretty sick if I do say so myself. I have just loved every minute of it. My legs are already getting way sore from so much 전도'ing but I am loving it. I have been speaking a lot of Korean, not so much to my companion as to ward members. I am making friends in the ward with people like the Bishopric and such, it is pretty nuts. I am also making some friends among the young mens organization, so lots of the priests are pretty tight and we are going to be playing basketball/soccer with them on Saturday I think. That has been nice.

We have been eating at a lot of members houses and it has been really awesome. I frankly love Korean food so much it is just boss, but then again I haven't really gotten to anything to weird yet, so lifes ok there. It has been pretty safe. I could have tried squid at church on Sunday but I backed down (they can't tell me what it is otherwise I'll trip). I just need to not know and I think things will be fine because they kill everything with sauce which is way nice. I love it though.

We have met with 4 investigators up to this point (we are diligently searching for more) but the last 2 we just barely got and they were a referral from a member. Oh my gosh, they are so awesome! She is kinda hesitant to get started learning about the church but she does want to learn so me and my companion will work on it! Ahhh, she and her son are so cool though, love them!

The thing that I think that I am coming to realize more and more is that Korean is really hard haha! It has been ridiculous trying to learn more and right now I am just trying to get my mind used to hearing a lot of Korean so that I can actually contribute a little more. But I do street contact by myself and that is definitely helping (I think some old man thought I was an idiot and couldn't understand ANYTHING so he basically just told me that Americans are all Fat....He was hilarious....)

So yes it has been pretty sick out here. I am looking to keep working hard and hopefully this Wednesday we will get to see some of the fruits of our labors. We teach an English class so it'll be nice to see if anyone we contacted actually comes :). So ya!

Loving it out here, I hope all is well at home. I'm sorry to hear that Alissa was getting picked on, tell her that if I was there I would give those boys a firm talking too....... Hope she gets better. Wish all the girls luck for me as they start basketball. I hope that Jenna and Kellie start :) Ahhhh that'd be so cool.

Love ya all so much, I know the church is true! Take care of yourselves!

Elder Crowther

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

I'm in Korea!

Hey Ya'll

Well I am officially here in Korea now! I made it safely and life is going great! Already have had some fun experiences here but I will tell you more about that in a sec.

Just wanted to say thank you to all of you and all that you have done for me, I am sorry to mom and dad but NEITHER of you picked up your phones. I hope a message was ok with you both.

In the airport me and my companion went and contacted a guy! It was so cool, we talked to him about the church and what we do and everything. He was so nice and awesome I loved it! I get to do it in Korean tonight so we shall see how that goes.

So ya plane flight was crazy long, and not that comfortable but it was chill anyways. Got here in about 12.5 hrs, we traveled like 12000 miles to get here it was pretty ridiculous! I was crammed into that lttle seat for a very long time!

I slept like a baby though. Last night was WONDERFUL oh my goodness gracious it was just so wonderful I can't even describe it. Sleep is something that I will forever treasure I think. Gah!

So ya, I want to say I already LOVE my mission president. He is soooooo cool! Wow, I got to sit by him on the bus ride from the airport back to our mission. We talked about all sorts of stuff and he is just the coolest guy EVER! I look forward to getting to know him more!

So this morning we went to a Korean bathhouse. Basically it's a big room with a bunch of guys showering and sitting in pools and doing the sauna and all sorts of cool stuff. It rocks, I love it, best way to wake up in the morning. Gah, it was so good.

I'll let you know more about my adventures on Monday (Because I'm sure that there will be more) but ya I love you all. The church is true and life is AWESOME!

Love,
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Picture: Mark and Julie Ann Furniss (Josh's mission president and his wife)