Elder Garrison Lott

[Mom Note:  Another week with just a personal family letter and no blog post. Elder Lott is doing well, and loving the South Korean people, his companion and serving the Lord.] Question of the Week: South Korea has very low birth rate. It is unusual to see large families? Answer: Large families-yeah, no.. large families are not very common. Usually families have 2 kids. In the church you'll see 3, sometimes 4. And then there's a family or two with 7 or 8, hahaha they're insane!! I love going over to their house and just seeing all the kids running around (usually there's even more because they have friends over). Here an interesting article about the history of Korean family relationships.  It's a little long, but for those that are interested:  https://asiasociety.org/education/value-and-meaning-korean-family And also a link to what the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes about families:   https://www.mormon.org/beliefs/the-family ...

[ Mom Note: Only a personal letter this week, but Elder Lott did answer the question of the week for the blog.  😀] Question of the Week: Is chess popular in South Korea, or are there other board games that are commonly played? Answer: Yeah, it's a bit popular here but more than that is a Korean version of chess called 장기(changgi) . it's a lot funner and more complicated, but it's great!! And another game called 바둑(baduk) . Which I'm going to learn from one of our friends that we're teaching~ let's go!! Picture from: commons.wikimedia.org/baduk.jpg

This week was great!! Not much time to write, so just going to say that this is the true church of God. Revelation for our day and age is real. I love Korea!!! Love you all!! Hope you all have great weeks!! Love, Elder Lott Question of the Week: I've read that Koreans gesture palm down with 4 fingers instead of pointing at things with an index finger. Do you see that, or is it another custom that has faded? Answer: Umm, that one isn't really huge. But one that is similar to it is beckoning (is there a better word for that??) like calling someone over by waving your hand is always done with the palm down. The palm up is flipping them off pretty much (: So that's a mistake and a habit that you quickly break when you come here. Us eating homemade 밥 버거 's ( Rice Burgers !! Not what you'd excpect but super good!!)

Another great week and a busy one! This week was Stake Conference! And temple p-day! And a lot of other great things!!! Just a flood of spirtual goodness!!! I'm loving working here in 김포 [ Gimpo ] with Elder Malasky (: It's always a good time!! (: So just one great thing that happened this week happened at Stake Conference. During the meeting, I see a young man in the congregation a little ways away, and I recognize him but can't exactly place how I know him. And I was trying to think about all the wards I've served in and which one he was a member in. And then after the meeting, after it's gone out of my mind and I've moved on to other things, he comes up to me and calls me by name without looking at my tag and then it dawns on me who it is!! He was a person I met on the subway maybe one month earlier while on exchanges in 청라 [ Cheongna ] that I proselyted to then referred to the Incheon Elders!!!!! And we talked for a bit and he's loving meeting with t...

So this week I picked up my new companion, Elder Malasky!! He's from Syracuse Utah!! A really hard worker and a great guy!! So, there were a ton of miracles this week, but I'll just share one. We were proselyting to a 학생 [ student ] at a bus stop and I was letting Elder Malasky take the lead and it continued on to the very crowded bus. And as we're talking to him and explaining a few things to him, this women behind him starts whispering into his ear and telling us that we're 이단 (the Korean word for a cult or fake religion that does really bad things) and other slander like that (we get stuff like this all the time out here so I wasn't paying attention to the specifics). So I take a moment to compose myself, translate to my companion (I decided I couldn't protect him anymore from what some people say to us), and tell her that we believe in Jesus Christ and then just continued trying to talk to this kid to really no avail. Well, a few stops later she gets off...

So this last Saturday we received transfer calls!! I'm staying!! and Elder Gill is going to 이천!! [ Icheon ] Lucky guy!! I envy him a bit haha, 이천 [ Icheon] was a great place (: And my new companion still isn't in Korea. I'll pick him up on Wednesday. So there's that, haha. But besides that we had a great week with a ward picnic and a super dope couple of lessons. One of the best ones was on Sunday night. We 갑자기 [ suddenly ] got a 식사 초대 [ meal invitation ] during church for that evening so we instantly invited one of our investigators and one of his closest fellowshipers. That lesson was the best lesson I've ever been a part of. As we were reading out of the Book of Mormon ( Mosiah 18 ) the spirit was so strong, and it was just a beautiful experience.  So much more to tell, but I'll do that later! It was a great night!! (: Love you all!! The Church is true!! Through Christ's atonement we can be clean from sin and find the strength to overcome any ch...

So this week was doooooope!!! And just got better and better as the week went on! Ending with General Conference (I'm sure you've all already heard so much about it, but again it's great!!) and two investigators coming and having a great time watching!! I cannot describe how amazing it was, but I can testify without a doubt that this, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is Jesus Christ's church on the earth today. It is lead by Him, through a living Prophet. 바로 Russell M Nelson 회장님. We can and do receive revelation in these days, and as we follow it we will be blessed! Love you all and hope and pray you have a great week!! Love, Elder Lott Question of the Week: South Korea won the International Crown (golfing) held in Incheon last week. Golfing seems very popular there. Have you seen very many golf courses in South Korea ? Answer: It is pretty popular, but because of lack of land and how many people there are it is only for the rich of the...