(Gasp!) Handwritten Letter [Week Five]

 

The top one says anyeonghaseyo which means "hello"
The middle one says sarangayo which means "I love you"
the bottom one says renpuro chongnonime
which means "Elder Renfroe"

Postmarked October 28, 2021

Hello, my family!  How are you on this fine day?  I just wanted to write you all and tell you how thankful I am for the nice notes you all wrote on those memes.

The MTC is great!  We have a devotional every Sunday and Wednesday.  Three of them were direct answers to my prayers.  one of them was about our relationship with Heavenly Father, another about the love and character of Christ, and another about daily repentance.  I have felt the spirit so strongly here at the MTC and I have felt it because of all the time I am giving to the Lord.

I sure love and miss you guys!  You all better email me or message me or send a letter.  I love you guys.

Truly, Truman

Korea vs Japan [Week Four]

Annyeonghaseyo! 

It's me, Elder RENFROE! The MTC has been a jolly fun time. I have  been playing volleyball almost every morning for my daily exercise. I'm alright because I played every year at family reunions. The Korean districts played the Japanese districts. The Japanese Elders got to the MTC last Wednesday. Almost all of them were reassigned already because Japan is not open to foreigners yet because of COVID-19. Korea is still open and ready to get PREACHED! My district has been looking forward to having a feud with the Japanese missionaries, so when they got to the gym to play volleyball it was really competitive on the Korean side, but the Japanese were just trying and failing fun because we destroyed them three times in a row. There were some cool Japanese elders and sisters, I met this elder named Elder Shisui. I don't know how to spell his name, but he was awesome! He was wearing a Naruto shirt, so you know he's one of the real ones. 

The KSSM MTC district! Elders Del Priore, Livingston, Griswold,
Prock, Renfroe, Dickey, Harden, Fallon, and Greene

Me and my companion went to the temple again today. That was a good experience of course. 

My district is doing good at Korean, we just learned about "glue" which is how you can make things past tense or make sentences in middle form of speech. There are three levels of speech in Korean. As missionaries we will mostly be using middle form and a little high form. Low form is for best friends and your spouse, so not for the missionaries. 

Elder Harden keeps winning at chess...that makes me mad. 

I just found out that the devotional with Elder Holland was moved to like two weeks after we leave instead of being on the last week we are here, so that is a bummer. We get great devotionals every Sunday and Tuesday from good speakers, so it's still a good time. 

There is a group of dudes in my building that sing their sweet little hearts out every night. They used to sing while in the showers, but someone told them to stop (because it's weird to sing with dudes in the showers maybe? IDK) So now they sing in the stairwell so the entire building can hear them instead of just one floor, so that's neat. 

I got a package from my mom that had a couple things I forgot, some DELICIOUS cookies, and printed memes with nice notes from my family on the back. OH! and my Grandma Patsy sends really nice and beautiful letters to me every week. I'll attach a picture later tonight. They look so cool. 

I really love being in my Korean classes. The instructors are all so good at teaching because the Holy Ghost is helping them out. I learn about what being a good missionary is all about in Brother Waggner's class, and my faith in the gift of tongues is always strengthened in Brother Harley's class. Sister Cho is the best at teaching Korean, and Sister Kim can invite the spirit better than any of them (if the district is ready to receive it). Then Brother WoolWine is really smart about Korean, and good at teaching us a lot in not that much time.

I can't wait to get in the mission field and get to know the people, and maybe help them out in life with the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's the goal. I love you guys! Pray for me to receive the gift of tongues.

Truly Truman 

Elder Renfroe

Provo MTC! [Week Three]

Hello everybody! I just got to the MTC last Wednesday (October 13th). It's been pretty  cool here. My companion, Elder Mason Prock, is even cooler in person. We have been to many many classes of Korean and such. 

Elder Prock and I went
to the Provo temple yesterday

I wrecked like three kids at chess in the rec room. The only guy who could beat me was elder Harden from my district. 

Today we had a "go and do experience" where we were given a broad focus about the character of Heavenly Father. Then we were given some resources and were told to go study on our own for two hours. The testimony meeting in our district afterwards was super strong. 

Love you guys!  Next week's email will be more exciting. I haven't had any spare time for this email.

Truly Truman

All packed on October 12th!

Before school. 
With a foot of snow from yesterday

Calvin, 4th grade, 10 years old

Mollie, 8th grade, almost 14

Brigham, 11th grade, 16 years old

We stopped to meet my friend TR Campbell
at Seoul Korean Restaurant in Layton

What a great guy!  He's helped me a lot

See you in two years, Mom and Dad!

Haha, I took my dad's coat and left mine.
They switched them around at the front 
of the Missionary Training Center

Home MTC [Week Two]

Hello Everybody! It’s the end of the week (yes Sunday is the end of the week because God made the world Monday through Saturday, then rested on the LAST day, so there) and you know what that means… You get an email from your favorite missionary in the whole wide world! 

My last Sunday at home

Good ol' Harry Potter Clue.  The only version worth playing.

I am still at home-MTC which is a jolly fun time. Almost every day me and my district meet with Brother Waggner and Brother Harley. Brother Waggner is super chill. He starts out the class with 10 minutes of showing us elders cool pictures he took in Korea. Then for the next two hours and fifty minutes we have ourselves a practice session from Preach My Gospel and do role-plays to practice being missionaries. Brother Waggner does a good job of keeping us all engaged and interested. He reminds me of my high school art teacher Mr. Berg (yeah, he’s that cool). Brother Harley is ALSO  a very cool teacher. He is very excited to teach us the things we will need to know to teach other people about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He is more business, but that is more because Waggner is less business than anything. We learn out of the Preach My Gospel (PMG) handbook for the most part in both of those classes.

The other teachers we only see once or twice a week. Sister Cho and Sister Kim. They are both Korean, and both so incredibly, so super nice! Sister Cho is teaching us Korean twice a week, plus any time we schedule a one on one lesson. She speaks perfect English, and I assume Perfect Korean. Sister Kim teaches us the same stuff as Brother Waggner and Brother Harley. We have lessons out of PMG, and practice proselyting. Her teaching style encourages us to share our testimonies and invite the spirit more than the Brothers' classes (they still do this just not throughout the class), and her classes do help us invite the Spirit. She is one of my favorite teachers for that reason. My district is her first group of American English speaking boys she has taught, so I think we are more rowdy than she is used to. I can also tell that some of my district thinks she isn’t very engaging, but I think it mostly has to do with the slight cultural differences and a language barrier. Her English isn’t perfect, but we can always understand what she is literally saying, just not always what she is trying to say. But this is GOOD! We are supposed to be learning Korean, and learning to talk with people who don’t speak English as their first language. 

So yeah! I have some great teachers, and I am really excited to go to the Provo MTC this Wednesday. I can’t wait to attend all these cool classes and workshops live, and meet new people and see my district IRL. I am so grateful to be able to feel the Spirit every day, and learn more about my Savior Jesus Christ. I cannot wait to serve and teach the people in Korea! I love them already. I love all of you as well! Thank you for reading my emails and staying in touch with me. 

Truly, Truman

Last time to see my mom's best friend, Cori

Olivia Byram was at the Corn Dog shack when we went

Also, the guys working there gave me my food for FREE
because I am a missionary and when we went the second 
time, the guy handed my food and said, "Do your best,
and the Lord will bless you."  I love being a missionary!

I'm a Missionary! [Week One]

Hello all! 안녕하세요? I just thought I would send you lovely lot an email. Feel free to write back and tell me how swell I am. Today is day seven at home MTC, and it has been a jolly fun time. I've had about eight hours of zoom meetings a day, and the rest of the day is full of studying, meetings with my companion, practicing the Korean alphabet, and I eat on occasion as well. It's GREAT! I love having a purpose all day long. I never have to wonder if I'm wasting my time. I'll get a ten minute break out of the blue every once in a while and I don't know what to do with my life so I have a banana and read some of the Book of Mormon (another testament of Jesus Christ). 

So yeah good times. I got to meet my MTC companion, Elder Prock. He is a bodacious dude, He is as committed to the work as me if not MORE. I am super glad for that, It's easier to go at the same pace as your companion than slower or faster. He plays baseball, He is from Mesa Arizona, and he is shorter than me, and he always shuts me down when I comment on how cute our Korean instructor is. That's a good companion right there keeping my mind in the right spot (but she's still cute).

So I met my companion, you now know him, and I met the rest of my district. I could write a ton about them, but I'll give you the shorter version. 

• Elder Greene is a smart dude with huge eyebrows (like Rock Lee level eyebrows) and I think he is a convert to the church. He is serious.
• Elder Dickey is from Arkansas and he looks like a ladies man. He's kind of quiet in group meetings, and more extroverted in small group rooms. He likes shoes. 
• The best way I can describe Elder Harden is un-weird. He just seems like a nice normal dude that everyone would get along with and like. He built his own computer. 
• Elder Del Priore is the guy who raises his hand whenever he can (I am in second place after him for the teacher's pet award) . We get along really well and have a lot in common. I have talked to him the most after my companion. He likes anime. (I forgot his favorite, but my favorite is Naruto, thank you for asking)
• Elder Griswold, I don't know very well yet, but he seems like a popular sort of guy. He isn't shy, but he doesn't talk much either. I thought he was a grumpy pants until we did an exercise together and it turned out he was a funny guy. He has nice hair.
• Elder Livingston is really nice! He makes everyone feel included and special. He was in theatre in high school, and he was good at math. 
• Elder Fallon loves drums... And he is a member of the Church of Jesus Chris of Latter Day Saints and serving a mission, so that must mean he is a very righteous dude! I know the least about him.
• Then there's me! I am the oldest, loudest, biggest, and most handsome. 

Earlier Today before the first Sunday session of Conference, a righteous guy named TR and his wife Amber came over to my house for crepes. He grew up in Soda Springs and he went to Seoul, South Korea for his mission as well. Since I have been a missionary the spirit comes whenever somebody bears their testimony to me, and they usually tear up when they talk about the thing that they feel the most blessed about. TR (who doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would cry for no reason) teared up when he told me about the people in South Korea who came to him to hear his message and be lifted up with the help of and in the eyes of the lord. This was a really cool message for me and made me look forward to serving in Korea even more. And TR was a super cool person. His church calling is being an Addiction Recovery Facilitator, which is sweet in itself. He and his wife were easy to get along with, and he told me some cool stuff about being in Korea.

This is TR--such a cool guy!

  

I don't want to make this email too long, but I have to mention some great people who helped me get to where I am.

My Mom and Dad are at the top of the list, and I love them very much. They have helped me through every tough time in my life and I wouldn't have a testimony if it wasn't for them. 

My Stake President, Wade Clark, is the most in tune with the spirit person I know, and he doesn't have a mean bone in his body. He is really great and helped me enter the mission field as a strong member of the church.

Me and President Clark--haha, he is doing a weird face--
he usually looks like he is about to laugh

Chad Harris and Karen Bartlett taught me how to work hard and well, and they are both good friends now. I have some good memories with those great bosses. 

My cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents are at the core of my testimony. Their examples have shown me how powerful living by the gospel can be. I love them all and I wish them the best.

All my friends from working at Lava and living in Soda and going to Rexburg. I am going to miss you guys!

The MTC has been a great experience for me. I have never felt the spirit more fully and consistently, and I can't wait to get into the mission field and spread Jesus Christ's Gospel. I already love all of my future companions, and mission leaders and most of all I love the people I am going to teach in Korea. I can't wait! I love you guys. Thank you for your support and friendship.

Truly, 

Truman 

My favorite scripture