July 6- Uncle Bob!

So this week we were down by the river. Actually, from now on you can just assume that every story that I tell takes place along this same river, because that seems to be the case. We were walking along when we passed the cabana full of Grandpas playing Chinese chess and we said hi. Elder Huffman and I have sort of become obsessed with Chinese chess ever since we got our own board and pieces to play in the house. So usually when we pass by, we'll stop by and watch one game and talk strategy with the Grandpas, but they never let us play. Last week, I asked if Elder Huffman could play one game and they agreed and they beat him pretty badly. We just left thinking they didn't really want us to play. But this week, we passed by their little cabana and when one yelled "Hey come back here!" So we walked back and he told me to sit down while he set up all the pieces and then we played together. I think its safe to say we are officially in the Grandpa's Chinese Chess Club!!! WHOOOO!

That was a great miracle this week, but the coolest thing was our newest investigator Uncle BOB! So really close to our house, we have a little shop called Uncle Bob's burger that sells what they call a Bab Burger (rice burgers). It is like a little burger joint, but instead of buns for the burger they have big clumps of rice and instead of a ground beef patty they have some type of Korean grilled meat like Bulgogi or dackkarbi. In honesty, it's nothing like a burger, ha, but delicious nonetheless. Anyway, while I was away on exchanges, Elder Huffman and another missionary got talking to the owner of it who is only 26 and the only worker there. He has seen us and the sisters pass by pretty much everyday and always wondered why we were in Korea and what we were doing. We went back this week and he is such a nice guy. He doesn't have any religious background but seems to really be curious about our message. Because he is so unfamiliar, we have to take things really slow but so far he's accepting this really well. And he is our 형 (older brother) so it's culture that he has to buy us food or give us food, hah. We are so excited about him though. I honestly do love all my Grandpas and full grown adult investigators, but he is the first somewhat young investigator I've had in what seems like forever. So, it should be really good!

This experience got Elder Huffman and I thinking about our other burger guy. The one who makes actual burgers that taste like Shake Shack burgers. He has known missionaries for a long time and has been invited to learn about the church and said no in the past, but when we asked last week he said that when the shop is slow we can come in and have a lesson. We were so excited! He told us to come by Friday because Fridays are always slow. So we did and ate there to celebrate the 4th. He was super busy while we were there with other people so we weren't able to teach him. I was a little bummed out, but right as we were about to leave I turned to the guy sitting at the table next to us and just said 여기에맞집있죠(this place is the best right?) He laughed and agreed he then asked if our church was the one by the park and I said yea, how do you know? He then told me that he had gone there a really long time ago to learn English but that it was a little scary learning with students good at English. We talked about the english program where we do one on one gospel and English and he said he wanted to do that. It was cool to see that we needed to be there that day but not for the reason that we thought. We plan to teach Moon, (the burger shop owner) this week when he has time.

I feel like I haven't talked about English class in forever! I'll give you an update on the makeup of my class right now because it's really funny. We have 3 kids that are about 10 years old that come named Ryan, Jessica and Jacob and they are all amazing at English. We also have Mr. 노 (Mr No) who is about 70 and good at English and then Mr Lee, who is in his 50's and speaks very little English. Mr. No acts like a Grandpa to these 3 kids, which is so funny, especially to see them switch back and forth from English to Korean. Then Mr Lee always wants to know whats going on so he asks Mr No and then they just have a full on Korean conversation in the middle of English class. This week the topic was hopes and dreams so we did an activity where we had a bucket in the middle of the table and everyone had to write something on their bucket list and put the slip of paper in the bucket. Then we pulled it out and would talk about it and guess who wrote it. They loved it! Mine was to meet Jimmy Fallon and be a guest on his show and nobody knew who Jimmy Fallon, was but Mr. No knew David Letterman.

So our 4th of July party is officially set for July 19th! We did lots of planning for it yesterday. We decided to do doughnut on a string game, bottle ring-toss, 3 legged race and teach them the hokey pokey for food. We are going to do muddie buddies, banana bread, caramel popcorn, smores and mac and cheese. It should be tons of fun! thanks for all the love!

peacenblessins From금천,with love. Elder Nixon