First Week in the Field! [week 12]

안녕하세요! How are you all on this fine day? I am doing fan-darning-tastic! (Darn is the strongest euphemism I can use, but if I could have put a good old flip in there that would have sounded better) ANYWAY, this week has been mighty swell. I got to teach two lessons. Or my companion got to teach two lessons while I watched. Well I helped a bit in the English lesson, and I learned a lot. We taught a guy named Dipen (in English), and a guy named Rooney (in Korean).

President and Sister Sargent!

We talked about temples with Dipen. His main question was "Why can't we say the same prayers that members of your church use in other religion's temples?" We told him about sealing power and how the temple is set apart and is a sacred place and lots of good scriptures were read, but I don't think we made a ton of progress with him. We are meeting with him again next week. Oh, I almost forgot, I suggested we pray to know the truth in the middle of the meeting, and then I suggested we have a minute of silence to let the spirit work on us, but no one wanted to speak first, so it turned into 25 minutes of silence. That was really neat. 

Dipen has a strong desire to know the truth, but he is wary of choosing one church. He doesn't know how we can claim to have the true church when so many other churches claim the same thing. Elder Titensor, (my new companion) said he has taught all of the lessons at least once to Dipen, which would include the Restoration. So I think if Dipen continues to desire the truth, then he will be baptized eventually.  He was a cool guy.

I am not sure exactly what we taught Rooney. (I love that band: Rooney) I know it had to do with the gospel of Jesus Christ and his earthly ministry. I LOVE Rooney (I'm talking about the person now) he had an 애기 (pronounced eggie, which means baby) and a three-year-old daughter and a wife. His apartment was full of family pictures and baby toys and educational posters for his kids. You can tell he got interested in the church because he wants the best for his family. What a nice guy. He was constantly holding his baby and smiling at him. I think he will join the church for sure. He is in a place to feel the promptings of the spirit.

Elder Sean Titensor and Elder Truman Renfroe

My new companion is elder Titensor. He is super cool and obedient to the rules. We both like lo-fi hip-hop, and punk rock, and anime, and the author Brandon Sanderson. He just got done being trained, and now he's training me, so he is a top-notch Elder. He's pretty good at Korean. I'm going to learn a lot from him. He is an upstanding young man!

I met the Sargents in person. President Sargent is so super fun and nice, but definitely more intimidating in person. Sister Sargent is super nice and loving and fun as well. I love them, they are good presidents (or President and First Lady? First Sister? IDK.)

Dickey and Renfroe, eating at the Sargents' house

Binks and Prock, at the Sargents

President Sargent showing us cool stuff

Some friends of the Sargents sent them these Mandarin oranges from their own tree

My new favorite food is 떡 (dohk). It's delicious rice that has been processed into a kind of hard, cheesy texture. I had it deep-fried. It was so good!

Well I think that's all fellas. I love you guys!

PICTURES!

The pictures of the city are pictures of the city.

The sleeping fellow is Elder Titensor. He fell asleep while studying... 

The two food-looking triangles are rice balls. One was tuna the other was mysterious. They are also the same food as in some Asian video games, and they are used as health potions (e.g. Spectrobes, Naruto, Pokémon Go). Yeah, I'm that cultured on Asian culture. 

I Got Out of Quarantine! [week 11]

 Hello! 안녕하세요 여러분. 어떻게 지내세요? Guess what!?! I got out of quarantine today and it was a most joyous experience. Most joyous indeed. INDUBITABLY JOYOUS FOR A SURETY, WITHOUT A DOUBT! Me and the quarantine 선교사 (Sonkyosa missionaries) got to go to a sushi buffet with some other elders. It was a jolly good time. Then me and Elder Binks split off from Elders Prock and Dickey, and we wandered around 대전 (Daejeon) for a couple hours it was great! Lots of stores and sculptures and art galleries and big buildings and people. EVERYTHING! 

I'm talking to this guy named 규 (Kyoo) right now, and he is a chill fellow. I met him on HelloTalk, which is a language exchange social media, and we are going to play some 장기 (Janggi, Korean chess). Then after I destroy his face at Janggi, I'm going to resurrect his face with the Book of Mormon. 규 seems pretty cool. He agreed to meet already now we just need to figure out when. 

Elder Dickey has found TONS of people on HelloTalk. He found this woman who is Iranian, and she is super interested in the church. You can tell she could feel the church is true. Unfortunately, Elder Dickey found out that if she converts to Christianity, her government will sentence her to death. So he sort of had to stop teaching her forthwith. 

I saw four baptisms over zoom, that was awesome. Three on the 12th and one on the 5th. It was very nice to watch. The kids on the zoom call went crazy! They all wanted to get in the camera and say nice-to-meet-you. And they make head hearts and peace signs. They are happy little guys. 

We had Korean etiquette training yesterday. It was most informative: 

• Give and receive everything with both hands
• Don't put your hands in your pockets when talking to someone (especially oldies) 
• Stand up and bow when someone older than you walks into a room
• Don't point
• Use exact titles
• Don't hang up the phone until after three seconds of silence (hanging up has always been a struggle for me, so having set rules on how to do it is nice)

Elder Prock beat me at Janggi... again. The score is 3 to 1 now. 

OH! I forgot to mention this a few emails ago, but my uncle Eli sent me a bunch of super cool wood cuts of Christmas ornaments and tie pins for the mission. He made one for each member of my MTC district and for my mission president, and he made a Plan of Salvation puzzle in Korean for me to use when  teaching. 

He is a super cool uncle! I remember when he went on his mission to England, and I wrote him a letter or two. I thought of missionaries as superheroes back then, and I looked up to Eli so much, along with my other uncle who went on a mission to Japan, uncle Kevin.  I love those guys! I never had any doubt about going on a mission because of theirs and my dad's example. I'm glad I get to be out here to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. It has brought me so much happiness and peace, and I'm going to spread it around. 

Alright! I love you guys! Have a good week, merry Christmas! 

Truly Truman 

PICTURES!!!

I went to two art galleries today. One in an underground mall, and one in an above-ground-not-a-mall. The picture with the tiger was the above ground place, and the bird and horses and nice smiling lady were in the underground mall.

The two cute chubby monster statues were also in the mall.

The plate of delicious food was from the buffet. This was the first good meal since the MTC, and the first really good meal since my mom's cooking. 

Fun Facts About My Companion: Elder Prock

Elder Mason Prock, from Mesa, Arizona

• Where do you fall in your family?  I am the youngest of 3 kids
• How many siblings? Order of brothers/sisters: I have 2 older sisters
• What do you want to study/work after the mission? I hope to go to law school and eventually go into sports law.
• What is your favorite thing about Korea?  The Korean people are so amazing and are so incredibly kind!
• Favorite color: Green
• Favorite candy bar: Twix
• Favorite book: The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
• Favorite movie: The Dark Knight
• Favorite gospel quote: "Forget yourself and go to work"
• Favorite scripture and why? Jacob 6:5 because it shows us  how badly God wants to be close to us--we must make the effort to come unto Him.

DO NOT anger the haircut lady [Week Eight]

Hello, everybody! How are you all doing on this fine day? 

I am doing pretty alright. It's been a good week. Made some new friends whose names I cannot recall at this time. And I learned some Korean words, and I got a haircut.  For those of you about to come to the MTC (*cough cough* Caleb), DO NOT anger the haircut lady. She is a scary lady! She got to the salon and started angry-talking us where to sit. Some idiot elder told her that he "was supposed to get a haircut yesterday at 2:30 and you guys weren't there." And she was like, "Yes, we were. We got done early and waited for a half hour till 2:45, and you guys didn't show up!" She was talking smack about that elder (and her husband) when she wasn't yelling at us to rotate seats.

So yeah, don't mess with her or she'll talk some serious smack on you and give you a bad haircut. 

I showed Elder Prock how to play Janggi (Korean chess) this week, and he beat me the first game, (because I was going easy on him) and the second game (because he isn't terrible) and I'm about to beat him in an ongoing game. Fun times. 

I brought the Janngi pieces, but we had
to make a Janngi board out of cardboard

I'm leaving in a weekish. Either next Monday or Tuesday. I don't have my flight plans yet, but I do have my visa. (HUZZAH for visa!) We had an early departure meeting because this coming week is Thanksgiving. And what we learned at that meeting was that we should follow the instructions given on our itinerary.  Really useful info from that hour-long meeting. Just incredible what you can learn in one hour. Actually, it was uplifting and they psyched us up to get into the field, so that was good I guess. 

OH! Brother George Clooney (the choir director. I found out his real name but he will always be George Clooney, Jr. to me) told us if there was one week to show up to choir it would be this coming week, and he dropped some subtle hint-bombs that there would be an apostle or one of the presidency coming next week for Thanksgiving. Exciting!🤪 

PICTURES!

OK I'll tell you their names in the order their faces appear, but I'll tell you in the order as If their faces are Korean characters. So left to right in conglomerates of 2, 3, or 4. Going either 12 / 34 / 1 / 2 / 3 / 12 / 3 / 12...

Just kidding, I'll just tell you their names. The girl that's wearing a blue dress and a green coat in two pictures, and a blue vest in the others, is Sister Rich. She's cool. Southern accent. She's going to Canada ; Japanese speaking.

The fellow with glowing eyes and throwing up gang signs is Elder Belt. He is Native American and Japanese speaking. He has some cool rings. Super cool guy.

The guy standing next to Elder Belt and Sister Rich with the huge smile and yellow tie is Elder Binks. I love this guy! He is super cool and we are going to the same mission. I hope we are companions after we both know the language because he is a nice dude.

Elder Binks, Elder Belt, Sister Rich, Elder Prock in background

Elder Fisher is the guy with the super short tie, glasses, and a dark plaid jacket. He is so chill and funny. We are going to the same mission as well.

The three sisters on the left of the two dark blurry pictures are sister Johnston (top) fenberg (right) and Peterson (left) they are all super nice. They are all going to Korea Seoul. Sister Hong is not in any of these pictures, but she is in this group as well. 

Everyone else in these pictures are irrelevant swine whose names I don't know. (Except for Elder Prock my companion who is in all the pictures)

Sisters Johnston (top) Fenberg (right) and Peterson (left)
Elder Fisher in plaid jacket, 

The picture of the temple is the temple.

The picture of me is ME! 

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