Elder Benny Yamagata: The Temple!

So to start off, the temple was definitely different here in Korea! They didnt have us do a Korean session which is good because I wouldnt have understood much, but everything else was crazy! How we dress, where we went, how big the rooms and everything are! It truly was different! Afterwards we were able to hang out in Seoul for the rest of the day, so we decided as a zone to hike up Bukhansan Mountain near Seoul to get some pictures on the top and see how cool it would be! We quickly realized that was a bad idea.... It took us around 1 1/2 hours to get there, and then to find out it was a different mountain than we originally thought! We thought it was some small hill near seoul, but this was a huge mountain with rock climbing and everything. But we were strong and decided to go the distance, since we were already there! It took us a little over an hour to climb to the top of the mountain, which was at 800m from the base! The last 200m was almost completely straight up and down and we were forced to use small ledges and cables to get to the peak! At the end of our crazy trek, which tired us out from lack of food and water, there were only 10 out of the 25 of us that went! It was incredibly painful near the end, but we persevered. And we were rewarded!!! The sight was amazing and so beautiful, but unfortunately that day was foggy and so we couldnt see much of the city! Either way we had an awesome time taking pictures and yelling off the mountain! We rushed down quickly to the bottom to get back to our area on time (spoiler: We were late) We had put our stuff in lockers in the subway and stupid me put the wrong password in so it locked us out and we had to wait for maintenance to come and open the locker, at which point we were already about 10 minutes behind schedule. Then other things compiled to make us over an hour late back to our area. We ended up jundoing for an hour and then going home for planning. Still a great day though! Pictures to come!

Wednesday we had district meeting that we were abruptly kicked out of! Someone came in and told us they were filming stuff in our chapel to give to the surrouding churches introducing them to us and who we are etc. It was surprising but we agreed wholeheartedly and had the rest of our meeting outside in the nice sun! It was a really nice day so none of us complained! After that I went on exchanges with elder elwood where I spent the whole time trying to encourage him to do work. He's in my older dongi (group) and has been here for almost 2 transfers now, but he still doesnt like doing much from what I have seen. But eventually I was able to get him to talk to a couple of people and start doing some work before an appointment we had set up the day before. Unfortunately though, the people didnt show up and wouldnt answer their phones, so it was a big bummer that night, but just had to pick back up and go work some more before going home!

Thursday, Jundo life! Moving on!

Friday was kind of difficult for me. Early on this week I had been getting irritable with some of the people in my house and with my companion. Eventually, something he did or said ( I really dont remember at this point) And I ended up going for a walk and just doing some nice "companionship inventory" down the street. I dont know why I was super stressed but It all just came out, I didnt yell or get mad at him though. I was mad at myself for not being able to control my self better and let out my feelings in a controlled manner, instead I just let it boil up to the point of explosion, but it was more like a boil over. Either way it pushed us back about an hour for weekly planning and then after we jundoed for about 3 hours and stuff before going home. By the end of the day I feel like me and Elder Smith were a lot closer then before!

Saturday we were supposed to have 2 appointments, both cancelled. Jundo life!!!!

My first fast sunday in country was definitely interesting! Never have I had so many answers to prayers in one day! I was blessed to have so many revelations come to me during and after church as I studied and prayed fervently throughout the day! Lets just say this upcoming week hopefully flies with missionary work!!!

My other fasting prayer was answered today as I checked to see if I got into BYU. I was declined, but I was able to accept it with my head up and without being so hard on myself! I am glad I have finally found out so that I can focus more on missionary work while Im here!!!

Hoping everyone had a great week and that all of you had a wonderful fast sunday! Korea is amazing and I wish all of you could see it!

I love and miss all of you!

Elder Yamagata