Crazy week! We celebrated the Korean "Thanksgiving Day" (Choosuk) by going to Ulsan with a bunch of missionaries and playing lots of football. We also watched Chronicles of Narnia and Wall-E. Very fun!

The next day, our entire Zone went to a meal appointment with the Ulsan District President. We ate delicious food and he explained some of the traditions associated with this very special Korean holiday (such as how the food is placed on the table, how Koreans perform the rituals to respect their ancestors, etc). On Choosuk, all Koreans go to visit their parents' houses (usually they go to the husband's family). Whole cities become empty for a few days as everyone goes back to the country towns they came from...like Gyeongju! :) We had 32 people attend church on Sunday due to people visiting from other cities. Very interesting. Choosuk is a time to remember and honor your ancestors. It's hard to do much proselyting on Choosuk and if you bother people in their homes it presents a very bad image for the Church. Therefore, we had the full p-day and meal appointments and things like that.

We've continued to help Mr. Jung lay cement and fix up his shop in the downtown area. Pretty fun. He promised to come to church next week.

Last night we met with a brother in our Branch and his father at their house and ate dinner together. The father believes in Shamanism and explained to us the significance of the numbers 3 and 12 in Shamanistic theology and Asian history. Very interesting. "Shamanism" refers to the traditional Korean religion before the arrival of Buddhism. Shamanism is actually a part of Korean Buddhism now.

This week is General Conference! We'll be going back to Ulsan this weekend to watch it and stay the night. Should be fun.

The Church is true! Missionary work is hard but worth it!

Love, Elder Bocchino