When what to my wondering nose should appear?

Worries, substitutes and the miracles of kimchee

So our teacher, Elder Stice, was gone this week, so we had a substitute: Kim Jae Tek Chango-nim (or, Elder Kim for you non-Korean speakers). He is from Seoul and served in my mission! He told us some stories of what mission life is really like there. We should expect a lot of our companions to be Koreans – which is kind of exciting and kind of scary at the same time!

After we bugged him about it all week, he brought in some genuine homemade kimchee!!!

You know that stuff I had in the restaurant?

That was nothing! This stuff was H. O. T. spicy!!!!

In Korean they have two words for hot. There’s the word for really, really warm: topda. And then there’s the word for hot and spicy: mepda. This stuff was mepda beyond belief! Sis. Miller had a bit of a head cold with a stuffy nose before we tried the kimchee… it was all gone the next day!

I also noticed today while I was doing my laundry that the clothes I wore that day? They still smelled like kimchee!

Flight plans are coming soon! I’ll let you know the details!!

Lovin’ it!!!!!!

A gustatory sensation!

I did it!

I went to the Korean restaurant and tried some Korean food! Someone suggested I try something that's not too weird. They recommended fried rice. So that's what I had.

It came with a cute little orange at the end, which was not only yummy, it was cute!

But then came the thing I was most worried about. The side dish of kimchee! Here's what it looked like:

And here's what it tasted like:

The lady at the restaurant told me it was MILD. I'm still tasting it! WOW! But it was AWESOME!

She also told me that the more kimchee I eat, the better I'll be able to speak Korean. Maybe that's why they call it the gift of tongues!

Do I dare?

Everybody says that I should try Korean food before I go into the MTC. It's supposed to be spicy, and they have this cabbage thing called kimchee. People always smile when they mention kimchee, so it MUST be good. Or maybe that's what they say instead of "cheese" when they take pictures.

One of these days I'll be brave and try it. But probably not today!