Elder Scott Snell:

June:
We have this member in our ward who is working on his mission papers and so we have been helping him prepare. Almost like a mini MTC beforehand. It has been really fun. It brings back memories of when I was first learning how to teach and how hard it was even in English. To tell you the truth I have taught a couple of times in English, once on my mission and it was pretty rough. Anyway he is doing a good job. He is about 23, his parents aren't members and he is a stud. He joined the church when he was about 16. He already served his 2 years of military service for his country and now he is going to go do 2 yrs for the Lord. I don't know how Koreans do it. We are coming to the end of the transfer here pretty quick, we are on our last two weeks.

I just realized that this area is the farthest I have been away from the ocean since I got here. The first time I haven't been able to walk to the ocean. That will be a little different when I get home eh? The whole north and south thing here is not doing too well. I am not worried though and you shouldn't be either. The church is pretty aware of everything that is going on. We have been told to be ready with everything in case something does happen. Remember Mom the Lord takes care of his Missionaries. The ex-president just committed suicide last week or so, so that and the whole north thing are being talked about quite a bit but we don't understand the language good enough to talk about that stuff so that is good.

Other then that the work is moving forward and our Branch is really starting to pick up. They are beginning to talk a lot more about member missionary work which is really good cause when I first got into Korea it was almost impossible to get a member referral. We now are working on about six of them for the sisters. Still nothing coming for the Elders but the men in Korea are stubborn and we will keep working at it.
We had Zone Conference last week that I had to lead and give and training thingy at. It was really good. It turned out really good and a lot of people came up to me after telling me thanks for the good and fun training. I had a nail and screwdriver and the strongest person in the room race one of the sisters who had a hammer. Yeah needless to say that the sister won. I likened it to working diligently but also working effectively. It went over really well. Some tools that work in some areas don't work in others.

Yesterday we got to go to the fire side of one of the guys who helped with the translating of the Book of Mormon into Korean. He is a really cool guy, a little hard to understand cause he is old but it was a pretty decent fireside. He talked about how he was
inactive for 13 years or so and when the missionaries would come over, his wife, who was not a member, in fact, didn't even know he was member of the church always got mad when the "Cult with the big nosed foreigners" came by. It doesn't sound as weird in Korean. Finally, one missionary came and she didn't know why, but she liked this one. He was just different and she couldn't explain why. She was later baptized and her husband was reactivated. Could you imagine how different things would have been had the missionaries given up? That missionary also ended up being the Pusan Mission President in 1988-91. He is now a professor at BYU. His name is Peterson. Nice guy and still good at Korean.

It was also the birthday of the twins in our ward yesterday and so I made them a Banana Bread cake sort of thing. It was banana bread just in a cake shape with frosting on it. It turned out good. The frosting is getting harder for me to eat without getting a headache.

I really do love this work. I am having a great time. I love gimhae and my comp. He can be difficult sometimes but is great. I will probably have a new one when I email you next week. I am pretty sure that he is out and I will be staying.

It is the start of a new transfer. I took my last companion to the mission office last night so he could get ready, he is now the new Assistant to the President. I did a pretty good job at training him, eh? I hate to see him go, I really enjoyed him but we probably wouldn't have ended on such good terms had we stayed together for another one. Three is too long for most people to stay together. I got my new companion this morning, his name is Elder Sprosty, like sprosty the snowman. I know, lame, I am sorry, I am working on it. He is from Vernal Utah, you know, one of the three families there. We were actually in the MTC together for 6 weeks and then he came to Korea. I knew him a little bit. It is a little weird being the senior Zone Leader over someone older then me. But it should be an interesting transfer. I think we will do ok.

My mission is the best decision that I could have ever made. I never have and never will regret it. Speaking of missionaries, we had to send 17 missionaries home today. That took a big chunk out of the mission and also a big chunk out of the people that I know now. I lost a lot of good mission buddies in that group. Now, all of my senior companions are gone. Talk about weird. I was able to meet Elder Thompson's parents for a little bit as well. They came to pick him up. My area has shrunk to a 2 man area rather than a 4 man area so I have a little more ground to cover and a little more weight on my shoulders than last transfer. It will be a lot of fun. I am excited for it, Elder Sprotsty and I will have fun this transfer I am sure.

July:
We celebrated the 4th with a BBQ under the Church. Our church is suspended in the air with a parking lot under neath. We found some hamburger patties that weren't too expensive or big either. They turned out pretty good, the Branch President bought a new grill for us to use cause he said he needed one anyway. It was really nice of him. It was only like a little $30 one that fit about 4 burgers comfortably but it got the job done and we were able to have a pretty successful 4th. We live in the area with the airport so while we were eating we had planes flying over head and it was just like we were at the air show. Not to mention we live right next to the Fire station and it was just like the parade minus the candy. I felt like I was back in America for a split second.

We had our zone meeting this last week. It went really good. We have a new Zone motto that is "Washin' the Coffee Mug". There is a story to it, don't worry. There is a missionary in our district and his dad is a recovering Alcholic. When he was back in rehab when he was younger, his counselor was a ex-drug lord. He told his dad how, when he was into everything as deep as you could get, he lost it all, his money, cars, and family. He was miserable and realized he had to change. So the next day he said he was going to fix everything get his life and family back. After about an hour he was back smoking. He realized he couldn't do it all in one day. So he decided he would start small so the only promise he made to himself was that he was going to wash his coffee mug after he used it. He did it and then the next day he put it in the cupboard. Well, eventually he got his life back on track and now he helps at the rehab center. We can't try and tackle it all in one day, we have to start with the little things and work our way up. So that is our motto. We are starting with the small things and working our way up. It is going well. I really love this work.