Senior Companion, Diet Variations, A Good Sunday

RoseE writes:

"Dearest Mum and Dad,

I love you.

Mum, I am so proud of you for kicking trash and taking names in the bagpiping, most particularly in adverse conditions (then again, if there weren't adverse conditions, it wouldn't REALLY be a Hadden Family outing).*

I'm glad you had fun with the package!** Mind you, I'm never sending ceramics ever again, but I may put together more crazy snack foods and stuff at some time in the future.

And a note for Emily: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! I put together a birthday present package for you two weeks ago, and sent it . . . well, today . . . so it's late as all get-out but at least it's coming, though it may have to be a wedding present instead. Le sigh. But I love you, and I hope your birthday was freakin' awesome.

Here is the News of the Week:

First off: Is Cat Wilson still alive? I haven't heard from/of her in ages, and have been wondering these past few weeks. I hope she and her family are doing well and having fun and all that jazz. I love her and miss her.

Other things this week: well, I took a big leap and became a Senior Companion for a couple of hours. This week, some of our Koreans had to take the Michigan Test, which is an English test they need to pass if they want to go to the US and study at BYU. Sis. Pak Ji Yeon only took it because elder Lee Song Gi dared her to, but that left me companionless for the 1.5 hours of the test. But Sister Pak Song Hee was taking it too, so her greenie, Sis. Beh In Yeong, was also at loose ends. So I was informed "You're going to be companions with Sister Beh."

"Okay," said I. "Cool."

"What are you going to do?" asked Sister Pak Ji Yeon.

"I dunno. Ask Sister Beh," I told her, wondering why this was complicated. I'm a new missionary. Other companion makes the decisions. End of story.

"No, you're the senior. You get to pick. What are you going to do?"

"Wait . . . WHAT?"

Because, despite being a Korean and speaking Korean very well, Sister Beh is still in her first transfer and I technically outrank her . . . so we went street jeundoing. And since she didn't know what to say to people and I didn't know how to say it, we weren't exactly Alma and Amulek***. But we opened our mouths, and we worked, and we made fools of ourselves and had fun. And I will never have to do that for the first time ever again.

I discovered that feared Korean institution called the Meat Buffet. Missionaries run and hide at the words. It's actually a pretty cool meal concept, and quite charactaristically Korean: at your table there is a gas stove with a fry pan on it, and you pick up cuts of meat at the buffet (predominantely thick-cut bacon, but any part of the pig will do), grill it on your stove, cut it up and eat it wrapped in lettuce leaves with garlic and kimchi. Kinda fun. It was kinda fun for me because we didn't have very much time there. But from what I hear, meat buffets are where even strong-stomached missionaries have been known to heave, or to have to go home to their apartments afterwards and lie down for a few hours, because given enough time the members will make you eat to the point of tears, on the assumption that you need protien, poor starving thing. I survived with grace, ate mostly vegetables, and even had room to indulge in the complementary after-dinner ice cream cones from the freezer full of ice cream (not containers of ice cream--just full of ice cream). So that was good.

I also discovered Mr. Pizza this week (Motto: Love For Women. I don't know why. It's on all their signs). But last P-Day the Three Pusan American Sisters (Sis. Beckstead, Ogelvie, and myself) landed there to have a hawaiian pizza and a salad bar, and unlimited dessert of Yogurt with Stuff You Can Mix In It. This is SO GOOD. They had different kinds of raisins and nuts and cereal, and two bottles of flavoring syrup. I tried both. One was cherry, and the other . . . hm . . . was clear-colored, and thick and sticky, and sweet, and tasted really familiar but I couldn't quite put my finger on it . . . HONEY! Oh yeeeeeeaaah, I remember honey! Good stuff.

We also had to go bowling with the Snakes# not once but twice. I am not very good at bowling and am becoming progressively less good at dealing with the Sujeong Snakes. Too much giggling.

But over in Yeonsan, little Yoon Hey Jung has been kicking trash in her tae kwon do performances and competitions. We've gotten to see her a couple of times now: she's good! And watching Tae Kwon Do is so much fun. My favorite is the choreographies--they're beautiful, and I love knowing that this ancient martial art, is now, in time of peace, more dance than weapon. But the biggest news for Yoon Hey Jung is that she brought her friend Yoo Mi Ra to church yesterday!!! All three hours! And in Young Womens they worked on Personal Progress, and MiRa got her own PP book, and Elder Lee Song Gi taught youth Sunday School and had everyone participating and thinking and laughing, and . . . yeah, that's pretty much exactly what we want to have happen, right there. When days like that happen, the missionaries just sit back and watch the miracles roll in without having to lift a finger. I adore the whole Yoon family.

Today I managed to give myself a crown braid. Cool.

I also found some TimTams## this week! They were way too expensive but I bought them anyway. Now I need to buy either hot chocolate or milk so I can slam### them.

And one of the other elders in the mission is selling me his electronic dictionary, so I will finally have one of my own and be able to look up words without bothering Sis. Pak or resorting to "MinJeong's Handy Korean/English Dictionary" which considers 'edutainment' to be a real English word.

And . . . I'm out of time again, 'cuz we have to go take a Zone Picture. But this is my last P-Day of this transfer, so the dice will roll again on Friday and we'll see what fate has in store in the continuing adventures of

RoseE"



Blogmom Notes:

* bagpiping: The Salt Lake Highland Games were last weekend, and the Salt Lake Scots, for which I, Blogmom, play, took first in both categories--in the driving rain.

**package: RoseE sent us a box from Korea. I took pics of everything and will post them . . . . soon.

*** Alma and Amulek: two missionaries from the Book of Mormon. Alma went to a city called Ammonihah to preach the gospel, was cast out by the people, then sent back to Ammonihah by the Lord and was met by an Ammonihahite named Amulek, who said, "I know that thou art a holy prophet of God, for thou art the man whom an angel said in a vision: Thou shalt receive. Therefore, go with me into my house and I will impart unto thee of my food; and I know that thou wilt be a blessing unto me and my house." Together they preached the gospel and were really amazing at it. See the Book of Mormon, Book of Alma chapters 8-16.

#Sujeon Snakes: some sisters in Sujeong ward whose main interest in life is getting a husband.

## Tim Tams are a chocolate biscuit made by Arnott's Biscuits, Australia. A Tim Tam is composed of two layers of chocolate malted biscuit, separated by a light chocolate cream filling, and coated in a thin layer of textured chocolate.

### Slamming Tim Tams is sucking milk (or tea) up through a corner of the aforementioned biscuit, and then cramming the rest in your mouth. See a demonstration here.