CHRISTMAS ROADTRIP (17)

Well, Hi!

     What a weird week it has been. I don't even remember actually doing that much missionary work. Mainly because of the amount of random meetings and other mission wide events. All in all though it was a great week. Way fun too, I got to meet a ton of missionaries.

Korea Zone Conference

Here was something notable that happened. About a day before zone conferece my companion, who is one of our zone leaders, tells me and the trio who we are rooming with, that we will be preforming a musical number in front of everyone at zone conference. Now I would be surprised but after the whole "White Christmas" ordeal that happened I kind of just figured that in Korea you just tend to cram things in about a day before they happen. So we prepared that musical number and it went well. Elder Sasing was on the piano, Elder Koo was on the Guitar, and the rest of us were singing. The song we sang was hymn number 1203 "What Child Is This?" in Korean. I think we did well, but it was kind of weird when I went up to the microphone because my usual stage fear was actually completely absent. Jeez maybe lip syncing White Christmas was that last hurdle of fear.

One other funny thing that happened was during lunch. After everyone sat down and began to eat they started to announce the birthdays that would be happening this transfer. They are also holding a decently large cake up front. They began reading off the names of the people who had birthdays and for some reason I didn't even comprehend my birthday is actually a lot closer than I thought. So they call me up to get a picture with this cake along with 3 other missionaries. But in the moment I am absolutely dumbstruck by the fact I forgot my own birthday. I mean I was literally standing up there thinking,

"Wait, when is my birthday again?"

Yeah, I guess thats the sign of either becoming a missionary or maybe just old.

Other than those things Zone Conference was about what you would expect. Just general trainings on how to be better at the work while also explaining how the rest of the transfer will go. Kind of sad that THE Christmas zone conference didn't have anything crazy special. Well, other than a unique way to deliver gifts to the missionaries. We had a senior missionary dress up as santa and deliver the packages lol.

(Note from mom: Tate didn’t get a package 😭)

Christmas Road trip 

    Some of you may be wondering what Koreans do for Christmas. Ill be honest with you, not much. I mean most people acknowledge that it is Christmas and you can get a couple people to say Merry Christmas but out on the streets nothing is different. There are no Christmas lights, there aren't really any Christmas songs getting played in stores, and the vibe is just not festive really.

Anyway, the way I spent Christmas was not all what I thought was going to happen, but still way fun none the less. I think I spent a total of 6 hours in the car with the mission President and his wife driving to and from a baptism. They are hilarious people. The whole ride there Sister Kwak would try to speak to me in English but would sometimes mess up and President Baek would make fun of her a little bit, to where she would turn to him while he was driving and basically smack him in the face. I thought she was going to cause us to crash a couple times lol. They're just a goofy couple and I love it. It takes me back to my family's road trips where we would all just mess with each other. Some famous one liners were made from these interactions. Such as 

"Gwen's fishing store."

"That was a Reindeer!"

"Does it get cold here? You're gonna die."

"Is that a treasure chest? Pull over ima open that!"

And of course how could we forget the famous phrase that my mom had said involving her eye. Actually... its best if I don't share that one. ;)

Essentially Christmas was one big roadtrip and it was really awesome to get to know my mission President and his Wife more.

Conclusion

That's all I got! Another week albiet a little different. Christmas basically wasn't real lol but I still spent it with some really great people. People who I believe I will make great relationships with. Thanks for reading! And here is to a happy new year! The Big 2026 is absolutely insane to look at and its even more insane to think that ill be living in Korea for this entire year. Whoa that hits ya. Anyway stay safe!

Love yall!

Elder Christensen

January birthdays including Presidents wife sister Kwak

Roadtrip with President Baek and Sister Kwak

Very cold in Korea! Tate with his companion Elder Yoo