Week 80

Just ate at a $70 buffet in the tallest building in Seoul. I feel like I may throw up right now. Our Ward Mission Leader is amazing, and he got some well deserved praise from the stake presidency last week, for how well last month went. So he thanked us by getting us gift certificates to the biggest buffet I've been to in Korea. Sadly he couldn't join us because of work, but I kept him updated with pics every time I got a new plate. Obviously not a miracle by any means, I just want to let you know what state I'm in as I'm writing this e-mail. I'm full to the brim with all kinds of food, and I'm pretty sure if I lay down or stand up too fast I'll instantly throw up.

Ok, now that the ward and branch schedules have flip flopped we finally got to go to all three hours of the English Branch for church. It was pretty awesome... but 8 hours at church is pretty gnarly. I'll gladly go back to just the usual 3 hours when I get back home. During priesthood Elder Lochridge starts making pretty funny comments about someone sitting just a few rows in front of us. I lean over and whisper, "Elder, you're no longer surrounded by people who don't understand what you are saying. You're gonna need to reset that censor of yours." He realizes everyone has understood everything he's been saying. He turns red, and we both start laughing. Some of our tact goes out the window sometimes.

This week was pretty amazing though. All of our investigators have been meeting pretty consistently and our doing well. A couple of them are really close to baptism. Getting my call to Korea, I didn't think I'd get to interact with filipinos, but there are literally dozens of them in the English Branch. (Yes, they are all disappointed that I don't speak Tagalog).

At the end of this week and the beginning of next, marks another huge Korean holiday where we're not allowed to do normal missionary work. They're celebrating the lunar new year, and Seoul is gonna shut down for a few days and we're not allowed to visit people. Also, I won't be able to email until next wednesday. So don't be alarmed when I don't email until then.

Elder Lochridge has a pretty nice digital recorder, and so I rerecorded that song I sent home before, and a new one that I wrote. I'll try to get that out to you guys this week or next week. It sounds a lot better.

Alright, I gotta get some other reports out. Love and miss all of you. Seriously, send me pics. I was way excited to see some pics from Ryan. Oh! I forgot to mention that I was talking to Elder Ringwood of the Seventy on Sunday (he's our area presidency), and he just kept staring at me really puzzled. I told him that mom met him when he spoke in La Crescenta. He kept nodding his head, and said he really enjoyed speaking there. With the puzzled look still on his face, he finally asked, "You don't happen to be related to Sean Reyes?" When the answer was of course yes, he exclaimed, "He's in my home ward." He gave me some updates on Sean running for Attorney General and all that. It was way cool.

Ok, I'm off to the temple tomorrow. You will all be in my prayers. Thanks for the emails. Keep me updated!!!

-Elder Reyes