Elder Perry Style

"Well, I would propose to her, but we wouldn't be able to have a baby right now." -a weirdly mature primary kid in our ward who's maybe nine or ten years old. It was an odd conversation.

We learned this week that one of our investigators with a baptismal date, 김양석 (the 41 one years old, working on third bachelor's degree, attending church every week one), lives just on the other side of the line dividing the Incheon 1st and 2nd wards. So of course we planned to refer him to the 1st ward elders, but our ward mission leader said not to worry about it and is attempting to get permission from the bishopric to have him taught and baptized in our ward. But we feel like there's really no pressing reason to do that and it's just the wards competing for investigators. (And this area has something of a rough history with beef between the wards: About a year and a half ago Incheon went from having six wards to two, and I hear the debates over drawing the new boundaries were pretty ugly.) It also doesn't help that the 1st ward elders currently have an investigator who lives in our boundaries but will get baptized in a week or two in their ward, by their ward leaders' command. We don't think our ward members know about that and really really really hope they don't find out. Right now we're planning on referring 김양석 anyway. Seems like the right thing to do.

It's gotten way hot recently, so much so that one day last week President Turner told all the missionaries to not even be out on the street if we have no appointments. We also have no air conditioning in our apartment, so the sweat just never ends.

On account of Elder Eddy going back to the land of the free and home of the brave in exactly 11 days (not that anyone's counting), this upcoming week looks to be packed full of farewell meetings with members and investigators. We'll be busy. Should be fun.

Sorry to disappoint; this email was much too long to be termed "Elder Perry Style." Maybe next time.

사랑으로,

리스 장로

2016年7月25日

I guess I'll start with 이장석, since everybody reminded me to tell about him. I hope I didn't get y'all's hopes up with that, because it's really not a good story. He was baptized the 19th and of course attended church that Sunday and again the Sundayafter that. Then the following week he informed us that he would soon need to be admitted to a hospital in Seoul for a few months due to a mental disorder and wouldn't be able to attend church or meet with us or even have access to his phone. A few days following that, our zone leaders texted us saying they believed they had just seen him on the street and tried to say hello but he ignored them. That was obviously weird, so we assumed they had mistaken some stranger for him. Then maybe a week or two later they tell us they saw him again in the subway, at which point we're trying to still believe it was some mistake. Well then last Sunday (7/17), we went to his house to ask his parents about which hospital he's staying at and whether it'd be possible for the missionaries in that area to visit him. His mom answered the door and seemed to have no clue about any hospital or even who the missionaries were. She didn't have the door open very wide, but we caught a glimpse of 이장석 bolting in the opposite direction. She told us to wait a minute and closed the door, which was reopened after a moment by the man himself. He only spoke for maybe 30 seconds, telling us he was in the middle of a meal and he'd call later. Later he texted saying he'd have no time to meet with us the following week and he'd be going on vacation soon. No mention of a hospital. We've got no clue what prompted all this.

So that was a bummer, but the past week wasn't too bad. Highlights: Monday-To celebrate our one year anniversary, my 동기 (group with which I entered the MTC and came to Korea) had a reunion party for P-day, which was pretty nice. I hadn't even seen good ol' Elder Sabey since getting back in country. Tuesday-Had our first interviews with President Turner. He's pretty solid. Friday-Had our last lesson with 조세종, an investigator we've met with three times now who's about to move to the Seoul mission. He's progressing really well, completely contrary to what our expectations were after first meeting him. Then that night we met with a potential investigator who turned out to be a very fiery Bible-basher from another church. During said discussion (which was taking place on some benches at a small park), the totally certifiable less-active mentioned in last week's email saw us while passing by and came and sat down to teach with us. But unfortunately, the other guy asked him to leave. Elder Eddy and I both feel like it would've been good for him (the less-active) to help us out.

And there were lots of meetings with members and investigators, but nothing too noteworthy. Today for P-day, since Elder Eddy and I both served in Gimpo, we're gonna go visit 장순창, the member whom I kept emailing while in America. Should be fun.

Love you guys,

리스 장로

 

Happy birthday, Jeremy's mission

A lot of this week's noteworthy happenings seemed to be in connection with less-actives:

1. Monday night we met with 전봉휘. That's a funny story, but it'll have to wait.

2. Later in the week we met with David, who had been baptized seven-eight-ish years ago by a missionary who it seems wasn't quite as obedient as he should've been. Consequently, David loves inviting missionaries to go hang out with him and break the rules. But he promised Elder Eddy he'll come to church before his mission ends (which would be in one month), which is progress, I suppose.

3. When we met again with 김경수 (the guy who served a mission but got swindled or something by a stake leader), he offered to cut us up with an ex-acto knife to test how much forgiveness one can offer through the Atonement, and he seemed pretty sincere. But I love that guy so much (not sarcasm).

4. 김종인: Just met this guy this week. He injured his back years ago and so wanted us to help him rearranging some furniture in his newly-moved-into house and doing some farming (not sure how his back's still up for farming but not taking a bus to church, but....agency, I guess). That was pretty cool, but afterward when we tried to have a gospel discussion he instantly went off about how pollution and global warming are killing this planet and NASA's scientists better get on finding a way to shoot all of our trash into space and colonize Jupiter and Saturn (but zero mention of Mars, surprisingly). Although in a way this monologue was pretty miraculous: just a day or two earlier I had learned the names (in Korean) of all the planets, and then wondered why I'd really ever need to know them. (Not that I had wasted a whole bunch of time on it; you can learn all their names really really easily with a little knowledge of 한자 and mythology.) But then there we were. That's actually something I've seen a whole lot on my mission. Like a whoooole lot. It seems every time I learn new words, no matter how common or uncommon they may be, they suddenly pop up in all the weirdest places, and those odd 'coincidences' make it super easy to remember them. I've decided that's part of how the gift of tongues works.

Outside of that, we weren't able to meet with super-golden 김돈 again; he says he was still busy but will finally this week be able to meet us. We picked up a new investigator, 조세종, who's pretty solid but will move to the 서울 mission in a week. President and Sister Turner attended our church yesterday, which was pretty cool. President Turner's Korean isn't too bad for how recently he arrived, although he did use a translator of course for his sacrament meeting talk. We have our bi-transfer-ly interviews with him tomorrow. (Speaking of bi-transfer-ly things, we will henceforth only be going to the temple that often (as opposed to each transfer), because a member of the North Asia Area Presidency thinks we go to the temple "too often." Because, you know, that's a problem that a lot of people have. But I'll follow my priesthood leaders.)

Remind me to write about 이장석, the guy who got baptized right when I got here, next week, because it's a story too long for the time I have remaining. In other news, while you guys have your above-100 heat indices, the past few days over here have been real cool. I would even have called Saturday morning 'cold.' Of course it's usually pretty warm, but the summers here definitely have nothing on Texas.

사랑으로,

리스 장로

Happy 7-11 Day (alternatively titled: "Donald Was There")

사랑하는 여러분,

It definitely won't be possible to keep that length up, sorry. I didn't read or write basically anything out of that one last week. Concerning the guy who chased us down on the street, he lives in the first ward, so not our area, but I asked those elders about him and they say he's been coming to church. The golden investigator will be able to meet again sometime this week.

The ward is easily the biggest I've served in yet. About 130 active members. It used to be two and a half wards, but the boundaries got redrawn about a year and a half ago.

The past week was pretty cool. On account of 추지웅 장로님 transferring, Monday and Tuesday pretty much consisted of appointments with lots of members who wanted to say goodbye. When 전운봉 (the member who owns the bakery from which we bought Elder Eddy's birthday cake) heard about our cake getting eaten he went ahead and gave us one for free despite our best efforts to pay for it. It was delicious. Wednesday a girl in primary got baptized, which was pretty cool. We got to be a part of the confirmation. The group that left on Friday consisted of 18 missionaries (and only 5 came in), including my trainer Elder Ellsworth.

On Thursday we tracked down a less-active guy; he was home and super excited to see us. He's mid-twenties and was baptized last year while living in Canada. 김영환 (but he just goes by Kim in the English-speaking world). Right now he helps his grandparents on their farm every weekend, but pretty soon he'll be starting school again and plans to be coming back to church then. Also, he might refer the rest of his family to us, which would be pretty awesome.

And some other stuff happened, but nothing too noteworthy. Yesterday I was thinking that the most frustrating part of missionary work is that it ought to be so much easier than it is. Ideally, it should be as simple as: "Here's this book. Read it. Pray about it. And when you get an answer, then nothing else matters. Just do it. Do all of it." Then of course the missionaries would have to spend some time explaining what exactly "all of it" is, but people should be totally willing to do it. If you just got a witness from God--aka the omniscient, omnipotent Creator of the very universe--that this is true and correct and what you're supposed to be doing, then how much can any sort of obstacle matter? But instead people come up with the craziest reasons to not get baptized or to go inactive or even to not take those simple steps in the first place. I don't get it. But I guess that's life. And besides, I don't remember the last time something worth doing was easy.

Love all you guys!

리스 장로

P.S. The guy in the picture would be 이종순, an investigator who was referred by a friend who just went to the New York New York South Mission. (Also, said friend (who came from our ward) got to pass the sacrament to all twelve of the Apostles while in the MTC!!! What??)

P.P.S. This Friday marks one year from when I went into the MTC, which is much more time than what I feel like has gone by.

If you happen to see America around, tell her happy birthday for me.

사랑하는 가족,

It's been a pretty crazy week. Monday and Tuesday I was on an exchange with Elder Dray in a neighboring area. He's only a greenie, so I fiiiiinally got to be the missionary doing most of the communicating, which was a blast. (The Korean's basically all back now. It's hard to remember exactly how well I was doing before I left, but I might be back to that level. It's actually harder with a Korean companion as they tend to take over all the communicating.) We had two lessons scheduled, but both cancelled, so we were basically proselyting all day, and it was a ton of fun. About dinner time on Tuesday we were walking down the street when somebody starting calling out to us from way behind us. He ran up and seemed really, really eager to talk with us and pulled us into a nearby cafe, so I assumed he was some 전도사 (basically somebody working for another church who just wants to Bible-bash). But then he dropped his life story on us, saying he used to be all about drinking and hitting up nightclubs (and was even on a pro soccer team but got kicked off for drinking too much), but then last year he "met God" and gave that life up. (Not that he actually claims to have seen God, but he came to believe. "Found Jesus.") Then he spent a few months just out on the streets preaching at people (and spent so much time doing so that his wife divorced him), but he doesn't do that anymore. But since that time he's been attending different churches looking for one to join, but he doesn't like that they're all established by the pastors themselves and really just want to get big and make money. He also said he feels like most people don't really have a direct relationship with God but instead just believe their pastor's words. So we pretty much taught the first lesson right there. He liked it a lot and said he'd come to church. I'll have to ask the other Elders whether he did.

We spent a large chunk of Wednesday (while 추지웅 장로님 (Elder Chu) was absent) painting the walls at a member's new house. Last night we were there again (partly having dinner but first moving a piano in the 24th hour of our fast) and saw that he decided to repaint the walls a different color. But it was fun.

We met the Turners on Thursday. I was kind of surprised to see that he seems to have an approach of "Okay, how are things done around here?" rather than just coming in and changing things. Perhaps he wants to see how things are done currently before making whatever changes he feels are necessary. They want all of our parents to know that you can follow their blog at koreaseoulsouthmission.blogspot.com. They say they'll post all big group pictures and such. This is the first impression I recorded in my journal: "They're not from Texas [they're from Indiana], but one could easily see that being the case; he gives off a pickup-trucks-and-football, donate-monthly-to-the-NRA, shed-a-tear-and-yell-"Freedom!"-upon-seeing-a-bald-eagle kind of vibe." Very different from the Morrise's, for sure.

After that meeting I got to meet 김견수 (I did romanize everybody's name two weeks ago, and it was terribly painful, so I think I'll go with nicknames instead. Call this guy "Most Mormon ex-Mormon Ever."). He's quite a character. About twenty years ago he served a mission, but then soon after a bunch of his family's money mysteriously disappeared under such circumstances that made some stake leader appear guilty (I'm a little fuzzy on the details), but nobody did anything about it. He's been inactive ever since, but he still reads and knows the scriptures and loves the gospel (the wallpaper on his phone is the cover of PMG). He works at our apartment complex, so we see him around now and then. This past week we had dinner with him and a lesson (which he somehow managed to turn into throwing shade at said stake leader from way back when while still testifying of the Church's truthfulness). He's got a whole lot of energy.

Friday night we had a zone proselyting activity (basically everybody switched companions and then went contacting) which was not to be stopped by torrential rain. I'm glad it wasn't, though. It was real good.

As far as transfers, Elder 추지웅 will be headed to 이천 (Icheon), which is clear on the other side of the mission and the one area more rural than Gimpo. Elder Eddy and I will stay here until he goes home next transfer.

Elder Eddy's birthday was yesterday, so we had bought a cake on Thursday, but hadn't found any time to eat it so it was hanging out in the church's fridge until yesterday, when somebody went ahead and ate it for us at some point during church. That was sort of a bummer.

김돈 (Nickname: Gold Money. Explanation: The Chinese character behind the name 김 aka Kim aka this investigator and basically every Korean's last name means gold, and his first name, while actually of course being derived from a Chinese character, is the same as the pure Korean word for money. Also, he's super golden, so Gold Money. There's actually no nickname necessary because he's lived overseas a lot and has an English name (Tony Kim), but I like the nickname. Anyway:) still hasn't been able to meet with us, but we text him a fair amount and he's emailed us two weeks straight now. He says he's still reading the Book of Mormon everyday and also lds.org a lot. In his email this week he even talks about how he was reading in the book of Abraham. But he also says he thinks he'll want to wait for his wife to come around so they can join the Church together.

Thanks for the list of areas, Dad. I actually recognize all of those areas, and while the first one on the list, Man Su, doesn't exist anymore because about a year ago the ward boundaries were reorganized here in 인천 (Incheon), the area I'm in right now encompasses that area. Ask him if there's anyone I should say hey to! Also my MTC companion is in the area he said he went to twice.

For the record, everyone who warned me of the Korean summers has clearly never lived in Texas. Yes it's hot and humid, but it's gotta be way worse in College Station. Even now in July there are days we don't even break a sweat, whereas even back in May one would be drenched every day back home. I feel sorry for you guys.

Big congrats to Jacob on the Eagle project! And yes, basically all Koreans have to do the training (the ones who have already served in the military, that is), but they don't all do it at the same time. And while 추지웅 was doing it he was actually still in our same zone but slept at some other Elders' house.

사랑으로,

리스 장로

P.S. Attached picture was at aforementioned member's house last night. The sister on the floor, far right is going home this week, so that's what the flag is all about. She's had people sign it throughout her mission. It's pretty nifty.

P.P.S. I believe that just might be record length for an email.

Week 1, Again

제 사랑하는 부모님들,

It's been a crazy week! So I'm in 인천 2nd ward with Elders Eddy and 추지웅. The ward is awesome and both of my companions are even awesome-er. Elder Eddy's gonna be headed home in August, and Elder 추 (Chu) just started at the same time I went home. Contrary to what I had thought before coming back, we are the only Elder companionship in our district, so there's only three of us in the house, not five. Although you could easily fit five in our house; it's easily the biggest missionary house I've ever seen, and real nice. 20th floor. View attached. All the MTC teachers had told us the first time around that the jet lag is worse coming home, but I'm finding that's definitely not true. I think it's primarily because as a missionary you have to fight through it all day, whereas going home you can sleep anytime you want. I've been waking up hours early a couple of days this week. But I'm just about over it.

I came just in time for 이장석 (Lee Jangseok)'s baptism. He's a really shy guy but he and I became pretty chill pretty quick. He met with the missionaries years ago but dropped for whatever reason, but this time around it only took him about a month and a half. The service was real good and well attended. We also have another investigator who just on Thursday accepted a baptismal date for July 17th. His name is 김돈 (Kim Don). 55 years old, and he actually was met by our new senior office couple on the flight to Korea as he was coming back from visiting his Mormon brother-in-law. He's basically as golden as they come. He used to be a Christian but says he hasn't believed in God or even smiled for years ever since watching his parents suffer from dementia. But when we met he said he was happy again and said that while reading the Book of Mormon he again felt like God does exist. So that's exciting. Two other investigators of note would be 이종순 (Lee Jongsun) and 김성민 (Kim Sungmin), both early 20's. The first is real great but has trouble understanding the Book of Mormon and needs a bit more motivation to change his life. The second is a guy who's spent a lot of time thinking about and studying Christianity and really likes our church's beliefs but never comes to church because he sleeps in until the pm everyday.

As I said, we had our zone conference (well it was actually two zones together, but you get the idea) yesterday. It was basically a handful of small trainings given at various places on a mountain with stretches of beautiful hiking in between. And there was a pretty awesome fortress at the top. It was great to see everybody (and tell Heidi that no, nobody had forgotten about me but rather yes, I seemed to have become a sort of legend; people whom I didn't even know seemed excited about me being back). In regards to Dad's question about what President told me: My companions actually picked me up at the airport, so yesterday was the first I'd seen him. So all he's said specifically to me was a little shout-out at the opening of the conference and a quick "Welcome back and goodbye" as everyone was giving him hugs at the close of the conference (on account of that being the last we'd see of them before they go home next week). Also I can't believe the Cavs won. I'm upset. Also happy Father's Day.

In other news, my Korean is definitely worse than it was, but I'm finding that with a little warming up it's improving again quickly.

Love y'all,

리스 장로

P.S. Did y'all know anyone by the name of Jenkins when we were in WA? I just learned yesterday that Elder Jenkins, who was in the MTC with me and also happens to be from Manti, was born in Pullman while his mom was at WSU.

It's kind of old news by now, but...

In case any of y'all haven't heard yet, I got hit by a car a while back. Below, I've given a nearly overly comprehensive account of the incident, including as many details as possible, so as to cover every reasonable and unreasonable question I've been asked about it. If you don't want to read the long story, let this suffice: I'm fine. I've been in Texas to recover for nearly a month and will probably be here for another month or two. Now the long version:

삼일절, Tuesday, March 1, about 8 pm plus or minus three minutes. My companion and I had just finished teaching a lesson to 이한, 김포's incredibly likable but incredibly frustrating eternal investigator who's been meeting with the missionaries for nearly two years. We were on our way home, waiting at the 원당 사거리 bus stop, 서구, 인천시, 대한민국, when this car came flying off the road. I got hit and thrown through the glass wall at the back of the bus stop, a certain metal pole of which stopped the car's momentum. (Some pictures of the stop are attached.) However, the driver didn't stop flooring it, burning out his tires as I jumped up, sprinted a safe distance down the sidewalk, and laid down in the snow. (It wasn't currently snowing, but had snowed the previous day.) We don't actually know what exactly was going on with the driver; later the same night we heard he had had an emotional/mental breakdown and was in jail, but a few days later we heard he was claiming there was a mechanical issue with his car. In any case, after destroying his tires, he got out and began apologizing to everybody who'd been hit, and a week later he called me just to apologize. Three other people got hit, one of whom had a pretty bad cut on her face, but other than that nobody seemed to be hurt too seriously. My legs and left hand got cut up real good, so I got like a million stitches at the ER (or about twenty, but I think it rounds up). Right now it's looking like I'll have some awesome scars. They took some x-rays which showed no problems, so I got to go home at about 2 am. So for about a week I carry on with doing missionary work, walking around like usual. My legs hurt like nobody's business and then some, but they said they weren't broken, so...

Well they had told us to return to the hospital a few times over the next few days to get all the lacerations washed and whatnot, because I suppose that's not something one can do at home. So the next Monday morning we head to the hospital (a new hospital; I had been transferred on Saturday) expecting a routine visit, but when this new doctor saw how swollen and bruised my ankles and knee were, he said we needed an MRI. (Actually, when he saw my ankles and knee, he told me to lay down and, with absolutely zero warning, stuck the largest needle you've ever seen into my knee and sucked a bunch of blood out. Then he said we needed an MRI.) So we got that done, and it turns out there's a fracture on the plateau of my right tibia (in the knee) (which is apparently something that can't be seen on an x-ray, so let's cut the ER guys some slack), and when it came to technical medical vocabulary, my Korean wasn't quite good enough to fully catch what was wrong with my left ankle, but they said it was pretty messed up one way or the other. Basically, they put splints on both of my legs and told me not to walk for a few weeks. So I called my area doctor (in charge of all missionaries in Japan and Korea) and mission president and filled them in, and they said I'd need to go home for a few weeks while I recover. So on Wednesday, March 9th, I flew back to Texas.

And I've been here ever since. I got released the following day, so a) I'm not currently required to follow all missionary rules, although I am still trying to stick to the daily schedule as much as possible; b) when I do head back to Korea, the time I've spent here in Texas will be added on to the end of my mission, so I'll still get a full two years; c) I'm not currently "Elder Rees", and I don't get to wear the name tag. I've been getting along alright. No, I haven't been completely bedridden; I've been getting around fine via wheelchair and crutches and now, as of today, just one crutch. Progress. I'll likely be ready to go back in two months or less. Thankfully for my sanity, there's a really great Korean restaurant in town.

Other miscellaneous answers to random questions: Yes, I have and brought home a few pieces of the shattered glass, but no, they're not the ones that were actually in my leg and hand; I found them in my coat pockets two days later. My companion was unhurt. No, I didn't see the car coming until a split second before it hit me. Yes, the driver's insurance is covering everything. Yes, I will be able to go back to the same mission. Yes, I'm fully aware that scars earned on my mission will be a hugely valuable asset while dating at BYU.

Just glad I didn't get seriously injured or worse.

사랑으로,

남윤돈

Pictures!

Last week we went to this spot on 강화도 (Ganghwa Island, part of our massive area) that's the closest point in our mission to North Korea, so they've built this observatory slash North/South Korean relations museum slash monument to the hope of peaceful reunification.  

We could look through these telescopes across the river, and it was kinda super weird to see people over there just walking around living their lives. Even saw some people riding bikes.  

And after that we went to a nearby mountain on the island where one can hike to a little cluster of old, beautiful Buddhist buildings. So that was pretty awesome.

Jeremy's face!! A rare sight.

North Korea, wut.

North Korea, wut. 

A Buddhist temple, presumably.

A Buddhist temple, presumably.

A Buddhist temple, presumably.

A Buddhist temple, presumably.

A Buddhist temple, presumably.

Lastly and importantly: Little Texas.

"Almost 6 Months? 벌써?"

It was a pretty fun week. We almost had an incredible P-day last week. On account of the weather still being unbelievably beautiful, we (just our companionship) planned to go rent some bikes and ride along a beautiful trail along the beach, but just as we got on the bus our ward mission leader called and said he wanted to feed us. So I suppose the trail will have to wait until spring, as it's cold again. Thankfully I'll probably be in 김포 for a while. Today's P-day activity is staying and home and updating/organizing records all day. Is an iPad really so much to ask for?

In other news we temporarily dropped 이한 due to lack of progress. He's been meeting with missionaries for a year and a half now, but his wife is opposed to religion, so we told him we won't meet again until either we meet in his home with his wife or he attends church. He'll come around I'm sure. And we'll still see him at English class.

Not even sure if I had mentioned this to y'all, but our super-awesome investigator 유덕균 had been scheduled to go into the military in February, but now he's postponed it a year, which is super awesome! Not only does this mean we don't have to rush towards baptism, but we also have much less worry about him getting baptized and going less active right off the bat.

My ponderizing verse this week is Mosiah 2:21, if anyone was wondering.

Now in response to all y'all's questions:

• Our official "Progressing Investigators" stat is at 1 right now. But two new investigators came to church yesterday just out of the blue (one of which used to attend church all the time, but because of Korean business culture, in which teams will go out drinking together and one doesn't really have the option of not drinking when their boss wants to buy them something, he never got baptized, although he doesn't drink outside of that and actually really likes the Word of Wisdom), and an investigator that some Elders in another area have been teaching is about to become ours this week on account of moving. Then there's a bunch of people who want to meet with us and do occasionally but just don't have much time (the #1 problem in everybody's life in Korea). And then there's some people who want to hang out with us and/or like practicing English, but don't want to talk about the gospel. So maybe that kind of gets at answering your question.
• This past week we taught a lesson to the two who came to church yesterday and met with 유덕균 once. Also taught 4 lessons to members. So 1 introductory lesson.
• Our mission president is the bomb.
• The language is coming. Whenever I do evaluations with zone leaders (or one time I met with the APs) for the in-field Korean learning programs we have (12 Week and TIP; just realized I don't think I've ever mentioned those before; their explanations will have to wait until another day), they're always surprised at how quickly I'm learning, but I've still got a loooooooong way to go, of course. And Koreans always tell me I speak Korean well, but that's seriously unavoidable. It's difficult to even have a conversation with someone on the street for 3 minutes without them saying, "와, 한국말 잘 하시내요", or "Wow, you speak Korean well!" Sometimes it happens after just saying introducing yourself, just because it's so rare for non-Koreans to learn Korean.
• I haven't really made any New Year's Resolutions since we make new goals every week in our Weekly Planning. I suppose just work hard, love the people, and obey the rules. And I'm handling the cold fine.