Transfer 2, Week 2 (week 8)

Hello :)

So today was another typhoon! And it actually felt like one too. It was over by 1:00PM, but not much damage in our area. The work is slowing a little bit, but our weekly activities are still progressing well, such as our 봉사활동 service assignment at the Senior Welfare Center. We meet a lot of really nice people there, and we get to put out the image of the Church to several hundred people every week :) So on Thursday, we got really lucky while visiting our members. We were planning on just visiting our Young Men's President, but they instead invited us over for dinner! Then we were supposed to meet at the Bishop's home just to introduce my new companion, and they ended up inviting us over for dinner too! :D I don't know what anything they fed us is called, but it was all delicious, and both were very unexpected appointments. The next day we had our weekly district meeting, and I got to see one of the Elders from my younger 동이, or MTC class. His name is Elder Dumbrell from Australia, and he is being trained by Elder Chandler who is our new District Leader. It was a great meeting, and I learned something really important there. True doctrine and principles will always be true, but the application will differ over time, circumstance, and situation. One example is the white handbook to which we must be 100% obedient to. We don't use it after our missions in that respect because that is how missionaries know, understand, and apply those true principles, thereby laying claim to the associated blessings. So that's something I'd like to challenge you all to do; learn true principles and learn how to apply them prayerfully, and look beyond your own understanding and wants, and the blessings will come. After our district meeting we went to a place called Han's Deli, which was super delicious, then a place called Can.More, and had a dessert called Choco Bing Su, which is basically shaved ice with chocolate cereals and syrup, milk, ice cream, and bananas :D so in other words, kind of like heaven. To close, our Bishopric is planning an activity in about 7 weeks, and is geared towards missionary work, so as I find more out I'l pass along the details, but its supposed to be great! Love you all, pray always, love one another, read the Book of Mormon, and in the words of Mickey Mouse "See ya real soon!"

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Transfer 2, Week 1 (Week 7)

week of the transfer, we made guesses as to where everyone was going
to go. But, because I'm in training, nobody expected that I would be
transferring. But guess what?!?! I'm not :) My trainer 이삭 장로 (Lee
Saac) is! That's really unusual for a trainer to leave a trainee, but
they needed him to be a new zone leader in a zone they are reopening,
so today we went to Busan (부산) and I picked up my new companion 김인규 장로
(Ingyou Kim[Elder Kim]). He was training another Elder in an area
right next to mine, so I‘ve met him before, and he's super fun. I got
to see off a few Elders that I had met along the last transfer, and
all of the ones that are leaving are great, you can tell that they
worked hard and have become completely different people in many ways.
Oh, and I met Kersey 자매님 finally too. She's way cool, and we tried to
figure out where or if we've ever met before. So, because Elder Kim is
new in the area, that means I get to kind of be senior companion
unofficially for a week or so. Not in a bragging way at all, because
I'm going to have to learn a lot of Korean really fast. But anyways,
all is well here, just really busy, lots to do, lots to plan for, just
like real life! Anyways, I love you all, hope you have a good week,
and I will mail again next week! Remember to read the Book of Mormon
together, pray sincerely, and most importantly love each other!
Love,
EHi Family :) So we had a surprise this week! Because this was the last
lder Christopher Ichiro Honda
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Week 6

Guess what?!? Its the last week of the transfer!!! :D ARggggg! I'll probably be staying in Jinhae to finish training plus 1 more transfer, so I'll proably be here till end of November. THe last transfer has gone so fast, I can't believe ive been in Korea for 1.5 months! The typhoons weren't bad, actually kind of a joke, but I hear it may have been different in other parts of Korea. My companion and I were able to be part of the bishop's daughter's confirmation yesterday, it was great! And during the same meeting, a little 2-3(?) year old girl came up to me and started putting Mickey Mouse stickers on my hand, she's super cute! Today, we went to a cave in 밀양 where there is ice in caves and under rocks, and the air blows through the rocks and makes a really comfortable breeze! This Saturday, we're planning on going on a hike up a mountain range with the Young Men, and we will take an investigator with us, so hopefully I can send more pictures next week. The language is getting a little better every day, even if it's just 2-3 words, it's progress, and I feel more comfortable being in such a different place. And, as you can tell, 아시다시피) my English is getting worse, which is a good sign! We've been working a lot with members and the ward council to find people and get the ward invovled with helping investigators and less active and recent converts make friends and stay involved, and for planning many activities for the next month or so.  We got a service project at a Senior Welfare Center on the other side of Jinhae, serving food and teaching English. It's great, and we're waiting to see how it can help our work too. The English class has become a big part of our Wed and Sat nights. The people who come come prepared, and enjoy learning, and make it very fun to teach. And, as evident by the length of this letter, we've successfully had 6 P-Days in a row as a district/zone, which makes it a lot harder to write emails and letters, but know that I love you all! Its really hard out here, especilally with just feeling like I'm contributing, but I've seen the growth, as have others and they have said. Anyways, I'll write again about this time next week! Remember to say your prayers, read the Book of Mormon, and do the things you should! My prayers for you all!

Love,

Elder Christopher Ichiro Honda

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In Week 5, Look, Pictures!

Hello! ^v^ So last week we went to 외도, or Way Island. The pictures in here aren't from there, but I can put them up next week! The work is still going well, busy, and still hard to speak, but there is a noticeable difference every day in how much I can say, so that is good. Right now we are getting ready for the storm, and it's brewing up well. We were fortunate to be selected for a service assignment at a welfare center, we serve food and clean up a cafeteria area for senior citizens on Thursdays every week now. School just started, and apparentdly many Korean students are in school from 8AM to 9PM, so it is very hard to meet with most of them, and they were our focus because it was easier to meet with them. My mind is blanking....ahhh, I don't know....Ah thats right, yesterday we had Stake Conference, and I couldn't understand a word of what was said. They speak fast and use reallllly big words, but it was good because we got to meet a lot of people, see some old missionaries from other areas, and one of the members from a neighboring area that I met is receiving the Melchizedek Priesthood! Other than taht, just looking for as many people that will listen to us (not very many right now) and tring to learn more about everything thats going on here. (Molly-Oil vial is still good, no leaks :] I would love the soundtrack, and I can listen to it ^v^ and I hope your mouth gets better soon, I pray for you, take pictures of Chipmunk cheeks please ^v^and thanks to the people that all send message, I really appreciate it ^v^ ) If I have time and I remember anything I will try and send another message, love you all, hooe all is well, keep praying, do the thing's youre supposed to , and love each other!

Love lots from

Elder Christopher Ichiro Honda

Week 4-Sorry it's short and late!

Im really sorry this is late and short; we had zone P-day on Monday, and by the time we had finished there was no time to e-mail, but pres. Gilbert was nice enough to let you all know that I'm safe. I'm really sad to hear about Yaya's passing, I will pray for family. It's really rainy here today, worse than Florida was. We've already set time aside next week for more writing letter time; up to 1 hour for email, and maybe 2 for handwritten. It's hard to write long letters because we only have about 8 hours to go shopping, clean, write, and travel to the church so we can email, among all the other activities. Oh and there should be a letter in the mailbox in about 1-3 days for you :) Gotta go, love you all, behave, work hard, and say your prayers!

Love,

Elder Honda

Week 3

Hey Mom :] I have like 2 min so I thought I would say hi ^v^ I feel old as usual, 20 hasn't felt much different ;) P-day is on Monday for me (right now its 4:30 in the PM). Its about 34 degrees Celsius with 100000000000%humidity. Worse than Texas and Florida put together.  :] hope the week goes well!

Love, Elder Honda

Week 2 in 부산, from 밀양

Hi Honda family! 

Once again, I am away from my area for P-day, this time in Millyang because we are visiting the elders there. So much has happened this week! The bishop's daughters were baptized on Thursday, and lo and behold, they asked me to talk about baptism (literally 5 seconds before). Apparently even though I didn't speak fast or amazing sentences, everyone, including the children stopped to listen which was surprising because that was the first time they were attentive that night, and many said that they felt the Spirit. So at least that part of my Korean is well :] The language is still tough, sometimes I feel like from The Other Side of Heaven where he kept saying he was the Lord's outhouse, but I at least I know I'm not saying that. ;) I have been teaching an English class once a week on Saturdays, and soon on Wednesday's as well, and it is very tough to teach English; I've never noticed how hard it is to learn it. But anyways, it is very fun, and we meet many people through the class that we may be able to teach eventually. On Tuesday, we got a new investigator! His name it 천선규, or Chun Seon Gyu (spelling?). He took us to lunch, then we took him to the church and taught him the first lesson. He seems very excited to learn, even though he is active in another small congregation. We haven't been able to meet with him yet, but hopefully we'll be able to soon. Another investigator we have is 김익수 (Kim Iik Su). He is 17, and is almost ready to be baptized, but his parents are super against him being baptized, so all we can really do is hope and keep preparing him. On Thursday we had a zone meeting, so I got to see many other Elders and Sisters again, and met a few new ones too. My companion for the day was Elder Memmott, one of the Zone Leaders. He is super nice, very good at Korean, and feels almost like a brother for the short time that we were together. The meeting was in 마산 (Masan), for 4 hours, and we learned a lot about how to use English class to find and teach people the Gospel, some cool visual lessons, and a message from Gilbert 회장님. On Wednesday the exchange began, and while we were waithing to meet a man named 곽데수(English name: Carter), a woman walked up to us and said she wanted to study the Bible with us. What a surprise! So we explained about our church a little bit, then we met with Carter. We wandered around town a bit, then he took us out for 팥빙수 which is like Korean shaved ice with the an beans on top. Then we got to give him a blessing, and I got to do the anointing in Korean! On Friday, we went to a farm to help out 김귀수 and her family a little bit. She is very old and hard of hearing, but it was very fun to help. We just carried bundles of....something green....I have no idea what it is, but we carried probably 2 dozen bundles from the farm to her home. Her family is less active, but they came to church yesterday! We also taught a Preach My Gospel class to a young man hoping to go on a mission in a year or so, hopefully more will come too. For dinner that night we had 떡고기 which was fire red and hot, but was really good. In it was 만두, like gyoza, 오뎅 which is like kamaboko, and 떡 which is a little like salty mochi and really good, and a family size Baskin Robbins to celebrate a late birthday. Yesterday was really slow, but we got a lot planned for the week to come. How is everything at home? I hope you all aren't working too hard, and that the end of summer is wrapping up well. Work hard in school Alex! The package hasn't come in yet, but I will let you know when it does. I gotta go, my 동반자's turn to email. I love you all, work hard, remember to say your prayers, read the Book of Mormon, and love each other! Love you all, miss you all, and can't wait to hear from you next week!

Love, Elder Christopher Ichiro Honda

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