Jordan's "10" reply

From: Jordan Stamps Jones <jsjones@myldsmail.net>
Date: February 17, 2014 at 4:24:43 AM MST
To: Steven Jones <sajmba2002@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Week 10 - Top 10 things about the Korea Seoul Mission

Dear Family!
Thank you for the note and for the thoughts. I'm glad the girls are finally showing interest in your mission! I always loved hearing stories from your travels in the belt buckle of the world.
Here is a list of the top 10 things you wanted to know about my mission.
10 - Location. I am in 이문 which is in 동데문. Hopefully that helps... I don't know much more than that myself.
9 - Kimchi. I haven't had as much exposure to kimchi as you may think. We eat at our home a lot and don't have very much kimchi there. The flavor is good, but the burn is somewhat lasting. It is much better here than in the states, though. I haven't seen much variation, but there are very subtle differences.
8 - Study Time. I was even more surprised to use Chinese that soon! We did get Chinese study approved, so that will help out. If it would not be too much trouble, I would love to have my language study Book of Mormon. It is somewhat bulky, so I don't expect it anytime soon and would not blame you if you didn't send it at all. We have been able to get Chinese copies of the Book of Mormon and some pamphlets, but I am not sure what they have as far as study materials.
7 - Weather. The weather has apparently been warmer than usual. My clothes are working very well and I believe everything is going to be great until the summer when I will definitely need a lighter wardrobe. I believe I will be fine so please do not worry about that.
6 - Currency. I think the exchange rate is fairly constant, but we don't look at that very often. I will bring some money home afterwards. It is pretty cool.
5 - Traveling Around The Mission. The subway system is much cleaner and less crowded than New York's, though not as empty as TRAX on a normal day. We walk basically everywhere in our area. It is apparently one of the smallest in the Seoul mission. I am not losing inches because of the food or the exercise. I am losing weight because we run or speed walk everywhere.
4 - People. The people are really great. All of them are really well-educated, not only secularly, but religiously. Almost everyone out of college has a religion to claim, and the atheist teenagers and students are all very well read about many theologies. It was really interesting just a few hours ago, we had a really polite bible bashing with a kid who just comes in sometimes and points out incongruities between the bible and the D&C. It was really entertaining. :)
3 - Companions. He was born in Connecticut. His family moved to Utah. He went to college at Yale. He spent a few months in Beijing as an exchange student. He is really good at Chinese and Korean and has only been in the field for four transfers. He's a hard worker, though easily distracted according to his own words. He's really a great all around guy.
2 - Miscellaneous. Kimchi. We email at an Internet cafe near our apartment that smells like smoke and has air which feels like grease. A normal breakfast for us is cereal, rice, and eggs. A regular lunch is rice, vegetables, and some sort of snack food. Dinner is usually a type of meat, rice, vegetables, and more snack foods. It's a buch of young adults shopping. There weren't vegetable until I came.
1 - The Stamps Jones family. The Sego Lily Ward. The best places for preparing me for this work. Thank you for everything. I love you all and I pray for you always.

Press forward with steadfast faith in Christ.

Best wishes,
Elder Jones