THE SPIRIT OF SUWON
- Natalie Christensen
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
Happy New Year!
How in the world is it already 2026...? That number doesn't even look real to me. 2025 was a big year for me. I turned 18, I graduated high school, and the year I started my mission. That feels weird to say concidering I have only been out in the field for a little over 4 months now. It may not seem like much time but man it feels like those 4 months have just flown by. Astonishingly my 19th birthday is in two weeks as of writing this. Not only that but the transfer ends in less than 3 weeks. Time flies when serving The Lord I guess.
Hello Again President Baek
Well this week we had interviews with the president and it went well. The first thing he said to me when I walked into the room was something along the lines of,
"Well after our long car ride I've gotten to know you a lot more."
Which is so true. That roadtrip was just a yap session with all 4 of us. So the interview I had with President Baek wasn't awkward at all because I had gotten to know him so much already and he had gotten to know me quite a bit aswell. After I had chatted with him I had to do like a practice roleplay with Sister Kwak. I had to teach the first lesson in Korean to her and I was not that prepared. It was a bumpy road but I got through it. In the end she gave me some advice and then just snapped a picture of me. Because my companion and I were the last ones to be interviewed and he still had to do the role play with Sister Kwak so I got to chat with President Baek for another 30 minutes.
For anyone who is serving a mission or anyone who has is it normal to see the president as often as I have this first transfer? My last area I saw my mission president like twice. I'm not complaining, President Baek and Sister Kwak are awesome.
The Spirit Of Suwon
So this is kind of random but I just have to throw this into the email before I forget. There are a lot of people here in my area. I mean to the point where if I see someone and talk to them and I don't get their number I most likely will never see them again. However it has absolutely baffled me that me and my companion have bumped into this drunk, druggy, old dude at least 5 times this transfer while walking around. However the crazy part is that this guy has also bumped into the trio companionship I am living with right now a couple times too. Hes also insanely weird. Or maybe just insane. He just shouts Korean at us and just waves his hand. But its not like a normal wave its more like hes swinging his wrist around with none of his fingers fully open into a palm. Oh and he reaks of alchohol and cigerettes, its kind of sad. No one knows his name, No one knows where hes from, or even what he even does all day, but somehow we see him and never in the same place. Before writing this email we went to get groceries at the store and he was there in the store. Elder Coder from the trio we live with has given him the name "The Spirit Of Suwon." For context Suwon is the city we live in and because no one knows who this guy is we just assume he's a ghost. The urban legend we came up with was is if you say the phrase "화이팅!" (Hoo Wahee Ting, which translates to "Lets go!") 5 times he will magically apear. We tested this theory out as we left the grocery store tonight and after we said the word 5 times we turn a corner and The Spirit Of Suwon appeared. Freaky stuff.
Conclusion
Anyway, great way to start the year and hopefully it continues to be great. Today was our deep clean P day and they gave us 6 hours to clean the apartment. However with 5 of us Elders we got it done in 3 hours. One thing that’s great about deep clean P days is that we get our P day extended until 9pm. So we were bums and just slept the whole day lol.
Hope you all have a great start to 2026!
Love yall!
Elder Christensen
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