Quote:
Originally Posted by Minsky 
Beer is way better for you.
I'm interested in hearing about the missions. Any horror stories? Did anybody flip out on you in Korea? All of my Mormon friends here give me the same pat answer when i ask them about their missions, and it goes something like this:
"Oh, no. You'd be surprised. Pretty much everyone was nice. It was a great experience."
During such a long mission, I'd be shocked if at least one person didn't flip out.
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Of course I had doors slammed in my face, people cussing at me (most of which I didn't understand), and the occasional threat. But for the most part, people were really cool. It helped that we taught a lot of free English classes as part of our service (in a country obsessed with learning English) and that most older people in South Korea still love the US for its part in the Korean War. Most of the young people just wanted a cool American friend they could practice their English on.
The only real problems we ever had were with drunk college students. One time, two really drunk college kids were yelling threats at me and my missionary companion as we were walking past an anti-US rally on a college campus in a town called Naju. One tripped before he got within 10 feet of me and didn't get back up. The other tried a flying kick that landed awkwardly about 2 feet to my left. A bunch of people quickly surrounded that guy and dragged him away from me. Then people at the rally kept apologizing to me and my missionary companion and offering us drinks. A few guys said they actually loved the US but were there because college girls liked guys who protest. So, at their invitation, we joined in some anti-US chants for awhile while all the Koreans around us were cracking up.
Another drunk college kid got offended that we wouldn't drink with him at a college restaurant one night while we were standing in line to order. He started yelling at me asking me to fight him. I just diffused the situation by taking out my notepad where I write down vocabulary words and asking him to teach me all the cool swear words he just used. He bought us dinner and spent the next 30 minutes teaching us Korean we never learned at the Missionary Training Center.