Another Episode of Missionary with Missionary [week 22]

Well hello you lovely lot. welcome to another episode of missionary with missionary. Episode 42: the answer to life the universe and everything. So since we have last corresponded, many things have corresponded. My companion and I got ourselves a nice man to commit to being baptized on march 26th of 2022. What a cool guy he is. His name is 병춘 Byung Choon He is in his fifties and speaks fluent English. He lived in the states for 20 years. He has been binge-listening to the Book of Mormon and is through Second Nephi after only one week of reading. What a cool guy. 

There is an election going on in Korea right now. There is a red side and a blue side. There are cars with huge megaphones on top, driving around screaming to "Vote for the blue guy" or "No vote for the red guy!" And there was a cool rally type of deal on the way to the grocery store there were tons of people lined up on the sidewalk dancing to a political song written about their politician. There were two of them one block apart. One was red and kind of hyped-up angry sounding, and the other was blue and chill out sounding. It was neat. I want to say who I want to win, but I haven't read so much as a news paper or Wikipedia article about Korean politics, so I'm going to not vote. President Nelson seems to be a solid guy. I'll listen to what he has to say. 

Oh! Guess what? We got transfer calls yesterday. I'm going to be leaving Nonsan, and moving to Boondong! My new companion's name is Elder Carter. Seems like a nice guy from what I can tell by his picture. He is the Zone leader for the Gyonggi zone. That means I'll get to go on some sweet exchanges every once in a while. 

I had a lot of pizza this week. Let me tell you about that. This is interesting. 

• SO! The first stuff we had was grocery store pizza. It was frozen, so we had to unfreeze it by putting it in a microwave oven. And THEN we ate the pizza. It was a couple clicks under ok. Like if I was very hungry and everything tastes better, then it would be like a 5/10. 
• Then we got free dominos pizza the same day from a friend of the last missionaries that served here. It was DELICIOUS. I wish I was more hungry. It was more of the shepherd's-pie-type pizza. It has more cheese and less potatoes than shepherds pie, and it has pizza crust and is served in flat triangles instead of thick squares. 
• AND THEN! The next day we met with some other elders after district council and went and got some pizza. It was gross. The normal pizza was lacking in all three basic ingredients: being bread, cheese, and tomato sauce. And the crazy Korean pizza was like one centimeter of bread and an inch and a half of cheese. It tasted good as I was eating it, but then one elder said it was like Play-oh, and I realized he was right. Play-Doh Pizza. AND THEN!!! We had pizza the next day as well. It was a solid 6/10, oh and we also had more another day when we brought a teaching friend some food. So like five times in one week. It was a culinary adventure to be sure. I like the shepherds pie pizza and the marinated beef pizza the best. The normal American pizza isn't good here. They make their own stuff better. Holy smokes let's talk about something else.

I am super excited we got someone on date for baptism. There is also a teaching friend that seems to like me more than my companion, so I'm going to be like "I'm leaving which is so sad. I'll never see you again... unless you invite me to your baptism." It simply won't fail. It's mathematically impossible for that to not work. I have the spirit on my side, my rugged good looks, and my charming Korean baby- level speech proficiency. I speak like a toddler, but that's actually pretty good. I wasn't sure I'd ever be able to communicate anything, but I can.  So it's all good in the hood. 

I love seeing how happy the church is making these people that I am teaching. It makes me happy too. Hmokay, I love you guys. Have yourselves a splendid week. 

Truly Truman

PICTURES!

The black and white circles on the brown square is a board game called GO. It is the second oldest board game in the world (with the same rules as those at the time of its creation) To backgammon. Sennet is the Oldest Board game in the world which is an Egyptian board game, but no one knows how it was played. The picture was taken at the end of the game and lots of the stones were taken off the board to help with scoring. It is one of my favorite board games ever! I love two player strategy games. pretty awesome and nerdy huh? I can't choose between GO, chess, and Shogi. then there is also Korean chess 장기. nerdy stuff, but I love it. I gave my companion a 20 point head start, and I haven't counted up the stones yet, but I'm pretty sure I won. The game is played by taking turns placing stones on the board and trying to surround your opponents stones with your own and capturing them. It's so fun. 

There is a picture of two 3D printed Kirby's. They were in a Baptist church that me and elder Titensor went to. It turned into a jolly fun bible bash. I don't know why we went in the first place, besides to say hi to the pastor, but it was still a weird idea. 

There is a picture of me with my new DRIP! For those of you not in the know, drip is a stupid word all the kids are saying these days to mean bling, or fashionable stuff. Anyways. There is me with my new Hello Kitty phone case and a super-duper cheep watch that looks expensive from a distance. There is tons of unauthentic stuff you can buy here. Like supreme T-shirts and Adidas and such. It's all made by some cool third party or something. 

There are some false Idols. Very cool. Really pretty. I would be more respectful of the religious statues, except they put gift shops in all of the Buddhist temples, so they seem to be on the same page as me anyway. 

There is a picture of a sign that prohibits being mean. I love the signs here in Korea. I can never tell how serious the signs are. I think the graphic designers just had a good sense of humor or didn't take themselves too seriously. 

The group picture is of my district. Those studs. 

There aren't many physical keys here. It's all electronic, but these keys are physical as you can see. And if you look closely...they are crazy keys. They just look wild. I wonder how the locks work if there needs to be pins pointing in every direction? Hmmm interesting. 

안녕하세요 fools [week 20]

Well hello! before we get started, I would like to apologize. This is not a BCC email, which means there will be a "reply all" option.  Oops. You can click it if you want . . . but please don't. It was an accident, But it is a happy accident BECAUSE when putting in your contacts, (which takes a while on a phone that doesn't allow google contacts) I miss some of you because I added you to my list after I left, and that means you're in an inferior contact manager. 

If you really love receiving my emails, and you didn't get one last week or the week before, then send a reply message to me, and you will automatically be put into the more convenient contact pool on my phone. If you don't like receiving my emails regardless of all the info above you can send a reply asking me to please stop. This probably won't happen because who reads emails they don't want to read? When I got annoying missionary emails I just deleted them or didn't check my email for months at a time. That's all of the announcements we have prepared for this meeting. I now turn the time over to the fun Truman Renfroe.

*     *     *     *     *

OK! enough of the shenanigans with all the boring email nitty-gritty. It's time to hear about cool spiritual experiences and crazy Korean cultural stuffs! So the other day, my companion and I did some 길 전도 (street proselyting) and we played basketball with some 11-year-old boys. This last Saturday was the second time playing basketball with them, both occasions were chance meetings, so it was probably divine intervention and they will most likely be members within the next week or so (but not actually).

Then we talked for 20 minutes to a Korean man who said he respects us and the work we do. He came to us just to say how much he respects us, which was super nice. Then when we asked where he lives, what his number is or even his name, he was just like, "No, no, nononono, I no want your religion." Weird, but it's cool we have his respect. 

Later on, this jolly good 길 전도, (not sure if I'm spelling that correctly, but neither are you! I love being linguistically superior) we met a super cool Baptist pastor. He spoke perfect English, and was super nice. He handed us a pamphlet, and when we tried to make it a trade, he said (in English) I already have one of those. So we chit-chatted about his church building whereabouts and what our favorite Korean and American foods are. He spoke fluently, but whenever we asked a question like "do you like Korean pizza as much as American?" he would say in a super high, relaxed, raspy, drawn out way: "NOOOOooo." It was super fun to talk to him. He respects missionaries as well. He had missionaries over to his house once to give his American buddy someone to talk to. I like him! 

After meeting these cool fellows Elder Titensor and I walked on home, and on the way we passed by a restaurant that the Russians of Nonsan (there are more Russians in Nonsan than most other foreigners) like to hang out around. We have talked to them before, and this time we met a new Russian guy who speaks Russian and English. The other Russians we have met only speak Russian and Korean, which makes sense. Anyways this cool English-speaking Russian was named Vladimir and he was either slightly drunk, or just very extroverted. We talked about how all people can be friends and about political matters a little bit. Or he waxed political and I listened because I don't get the news out here on the mission. All the Russian guys we have met are SUPER handsome. That's not something I say, because I'm a dude, but these guys were a threat to my chances of getting any young lady to take a look at the Book of Mormon. I like them! But I'm not going to be going on a double-date with them any time soon. 

A funny and cool spiritual experience I had was this: I was teaching and preaching this person on hello talk (a language exchange social media) and I start seeing some red flags. Like "hmmm this person compliments me more than is normal" (and it's already normal to compliment me A LOT because I'm just so amazing.) And this person's English varied in fluency depending on the day. So I asked my companion and he was like, "Yeah this dude is not interested in the church, its a scammer." I was so saddened, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to give up on this "seemingly eager" investigator. So I went to the Gospel library to be uplifted, and the first article I saw was titled "How to Recognize Satan's Counterfeits." I read it and came to the conclusion that I was being scammed by a stinky counterfeit Satan-follower. That was a cool revelation huh? I thought that was pretty cool. 

PICTURES!

There are two pictures of the Larsens. They are awesome, they came and taught me and Elder Titenser how to cook some delicious 움식. It had dok and onions and it was yummy.

There is a picture of a Styrofoam squishy thingy on the side of someone's car. In Korea just about all the cars have door-ding-preventing squishies on the side of their cars. 

There is a picture of my phone hooked up to a keyboard and usb -> usbc converter which I got for ￦8000 (about $6). Sweet right?!?

Okay, I love you guys. Stay in school, don't do drugs, read the Book of Mormon. 

Senior Missionaries are the Best! [week 19]

From a Facebook Post on February 10, 2022:

Day 5/10 of the life is good challenge, where I post a thing I'm thankful for then challenge someone else to do the same thing.

Unhui Larsen, Me, and Elder Titensor

I am super thankful for the senior missionaries  here in KSSM. Elder Dale Larsen and sister Unhui Larsen came over to my apt and showed me and my companion how to make a delicious healthy Korean dish called Mandu dok gook. They were so super really very nice!

I invite sister Sandra Jackson Haglund (KSSM's beloved 할머니) to the life is good challenge. No pressure though, I know how busy the office gets.😁

저는 부부 선교사들을 너무 좋아해요! 그분들은 진짜 친절해요!

Well hello my faithful followers of the weekly email! [week 19]

How are you all doing on this swell day? I am doing just dandy fine. 

SOOOOO you want to know what is going on over here huh? Okay, I'll tell you. It's going to be quick this week, though. So last Tuesday, Elder Titensor and I visited with a teaching friend whose name is really hard to put into writing, because I have heard like four different names between nicknames and different names for different languages. So we are going to call her lee, or 리. Anyways, we met with her, had some tea (she loves tea) and walked to a cool old-style Korean house on the top of a hill. Then we went and got more tea, and this is where it gets cool! We were just talking about the Book of Mormon as we do, and I had to get translation help form elder Titensor every once in a while, and I saw an opening to invite her to be baptized, so I asked her if she would commit to being baptized in two weeks after reading out of the Book of Mormon and learning it is true, and she said YES! 

Nothing is definite yet, but It still makes me happy. She said she says yes because she wants to be happy all the time like me when I talk about the Book of Mormon and just in general. I was super happy when she said that. 

I love being out here and just doing missionary work. I usually write about fun Korean stuff, but the missionary work is the best part about serving a mission. If you are at the age where you are deciding whether or not you are going to go on a mission . . . then you probably don't check your emails. But just in case you do! I have to tell you that going on a mission will be the best choice you can make at this time of your life. 10/10 would recommend. 

I will deliver some absolute zingers next week in the picture department, but this week there shall be no pictures. :( 

I wonder what cool emojis you can make with 한굴? 

ㅕ)     ㅑ)     뾰 

IDK. Ok I love you guys. Good bye. 

Post-script: my mom's Facebook post on February 7th, 2022:

There are many wonderful things about Elder Truman Renfroe serving a mission . . . one of the things I am so grateful for is the time difference between here and Korea. Truman calls us on Monday morning for him, but it is Sunday evening for us! It is often the only day of the week when we are all home together, and we ALL get to talk to him and see him and hear his enthusiasm for teaching people about Jesus Christ.  Here Mollie is showing Truman the Martha Washington sock puppet she made for her history class.

I loved this paragraph from Truman‘s most recent email:

"I love being out here and just doing missionary work. I usually write about fun Korean stuff, but the missionary work is the best part about serving a mission. If you are at the age where you are deciding whether or not you are going to go on a mission . . . then you probably don't check your emails. But just in case you do! I have to tell you that going on a mission will be the best choice you can make at this time of your life. 10/10 would recommend.”

Every week, we ask Truman what he would like us to pray for with him: this week, he asked us to pray for his teaching friends (people he and his companion are teaching). 

Facebook friends, will you pray for them, too?

Facebook Post: Power of the Spirit [week 18ish]

Me and my companion by a cool lake. 

I love being out here in Korea. Being able to see the happiness in the people we are teaching about the gospel is the best thing I have experienced. In Alma chapter 17 Ammon and his brethren are all super hungry and suffer much and yet they are all so happy and full of the spirit. I have it better than them because I get to try Korean food, but the point is I get to feel the spirit work through me and things have never been better. I know we can all feel the spirit work through us towards others or work in us in our own self improvement. What is a scripture or personal experience that exemplifies the power of the spirit?

Melissa Foster Thompson:❤️❤️ awesome! Thanks for sharing!

Sandra Jackson Haglund: You both look so happy. A great photo!

Song Xi Xin: 谢谢你们 为我们服务 "Thank you for serving us"

Eli Jacob Coon: I think when Moroni raised the title of liberty. The spirit and the power that was present was beyond any comprehension. The battles and the wars were not only strategic but led by the spirit

Amber Siler Campbell: This is one of my favorites. The word of the Lord can really direct us in all things. He really is that powerful when we hear, heed, and hearken, like President Nelson teaches.

Jack Livingston: I have many scriptures 사랑하는 Renfroe 장로님. One that I'll share is in 2nd Nephi 4:21. This verse is Nephi talking about how he has felt our Heavenly Father's love for him. I know and can promise everyone that Heavenly Father loves you all!! And you can pray and ask to feel of that love, anytime, and anywhere, and you'll be able to feel it!

국윤진: 랜프로 안녕 "yes hello 😁 lol"

Becca Coon Renfroe: This is one of my favorites. Alma chapter 4 verse 15. Even though Alma began to be very sorrowful about afflictions, persecutions, and inequalities… I love that conjunction “nevertheless.” The Spirit of the Lord did not fail him… And it will not fail me! And it will not fail you! 😘😘😘

안녕하세요 me homies? [week 18]

촌아칩니다! Gooood morning or whatever. I'm on the other side of the planet so I can say "good after midnight" and you can't correct me! ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 

So! What did I do this week you ask? Well thank you for asking! On the day of Tuesday, Elder Titensor and I met with a teaching friend named 아리 (Ali).  She is from Cambodia and she has a different name there. I've heard like three names that people call her, so maybe she is an identity-thieving con artist. Anyways, we had some tea and talked about how we are missionaries and we teach English and about the restoration a little bit. She is super nice! And super short. It was fun talking to her. I didn't understand all of it because one of the three languages she speaks is not English. She speaks fluent Korean and Cambodian and one other language I forgot. She is super nice. Later in the week she took us to a 삼겹살, he most delicious Korean restaurant you can go to. She is so super nice! And kind of weird, but who cares! She is nice and wants be friends and took us to eat expensive, delicious food!

At the end of the day (the literal end of the day, not the stupid colloquialism that people use when they are about to say something profoundly moot and obvious {there is a good bit by Gary Gulman about "at the end of the day". You can probably find it on YouTube}) ANYWAYS 앟마튼, at the end of the day I talked to 이승규 장로님 (Elder sung kyu lee) and I was in an especially chipper mood and he asked, "How is the Korean coming?" And I was like, "Awesome-euh!" (Which is "awesome" in a Korean accent). He was silent for a few seconds and then said, deadpan as can be, "I'm speechless-euh." He is a funny dude. We about my can-do attitude in learning the language. He ended up talking me up in district council the next day, and saying how cool my positive attitude is. I like him! 

On Sunday two teaching friends came to sacrament meeting! Wooooo! This is super hard to get people to do because it's over Zoom. But they came to the church building and we watched sacrament meeting on a TV. Good times. 

Allright! I love you guys, you are all the best. Have a jolly good week. Over and out! 사랑해요  I love you.

Truly, Truman 

PICTURES!!!

I pretend to feel disgusted with myself for sending you memes, but they are fun. I usually send pictures that I take the day I write, because that is Preparation Day. But this P-day is kind of another work day, because I'm trading companions for a day for training purposes or something. The only picture that needs explaining is the bottle. It's a delicious scrum-ba-dilly-umptious tea. Best served warm. Would recommend. 

Year of the tiger!

안녕하세요 여러분 (Hi, Everyone!) [week 17]

Hello everybody. How are you all doing on this fine day? 잘지내신가요? I am doing right well. 잘지내요! OhhhhKay, what did I do this week that is worthy of notation creation? WELL! I'm glad I asked, because the answer to that question is "a lot." 

My companion and I met with Mollie at a Cafe and talked about what its like to be in Korea and religion and such. She went to Williams Baptist academy something or other. She is definitely Christian and I can assume she is Baptist, but she mostly just seems to believe in Christ. 

We also met with our friend 서종봄 (so Joeng boem) we ate udon. It was absolutely delicious! And we talked about cooking and War and video games. All things I don't know much about. He speaks perfectly understandable English which is nice. And he is a returned missionary. 

AND THEN  we met with a Cambodian girl named Alli with an ah instead of an a and a Lee instead of whatever you were thinking. 앟마튼! Which literally translates to ANYWAY. We talked to her about the different cultures she has experienced and teaching her English. She is already trilingual with Cambodian, Korean, and I think Vietnamese. She was super nice! We need to baptize her.

AND THEN  we met a guy named 방춘성. Bahng choon soeng. He bought us some absolutely delicious chicken. The Korean fried chicken is superior to American fried chicken. I'm just as patriotic about our country's fantastic obesity inducing junk food as the next cowboy, so when I say the Koren chicken is better, you know I mean it, and that I will always have a spot saved in my heart for American food to clog up. What was I talking about? 방춘성. 그래서 (pronounced ku ray so, but kinda sounds like Kay so, and It means so. It works out in English too) we talked to this guy about religion for the whole meal and he didn't seem uncomfortable or like he was just forcing himself to be polite at all. He was just a super duper open-minded guy. I like him a lot! We met all three of these people last Saturday. It was the best day of the week. 

Then the next day we taught 윤채린 and her dad 윤석붕. Yoon Chae rean and Yoon soak boong. And 석동진 soak doang Jean, a super nice member was there. We taught English then talked about the book of Mormon. It was very successful. We gave them both a book of Mormon and invited them to read a scripture out of Third Nephi. 

It was great to meet all these great people and share a message about the restored church with them. 10/10 I would recommend going on a mission. 

PICTURES!!!

There's a cat that thinks he is so cool but HE IS NOT!

There's my companion getting stolen on one of those beat outdoor gyms.

There is a picture of me making a heart because I am filled with love

There is a 할머니 harmoni  or "grandmother" pushing her cart and being awesome. When I called home Monday morning, I told my mom that all the harmoni's push around their carts kind of hunched over, wearing big, purple, puffy coats . . . this lady was the first person we saw when we went out that day.  Her coat is pink, but her pants are purple. You get the idea. 

A selfie and a meme... I guess I ran out of ideas.

I got my First Baptism! [week 16]

You guys are not going to believe what happened this week! So I was on my way to the missionary house doing missionary things. I was the missionariest missionary that ever missionaried! ...

Just kidding. No baptism.

But what did happen is my companion and I found some great people to teach. Including a cute American from Arkansas. Her name is Mollie and she is cute and she is an English teacher and she is also very cute. Good thing my heart is locked or I would be more focused on how cute she is than how cute her eternal SOUL will be when she is baptized! 

We also kept teaching the 윤s (yoons) I forgot their full names and it's disrespectful to only say their last name so don't snitch. Shhh🤫 the daughter seems like she could be baptized. She believes in God and wants to know more. The father is just happy to let his daughter explore her interests and learn English for free. I like them. 

We played basketball with some guys. One of them just plays basketball with missionaries sometimes and we get to know whoever he brings over. Oh and me and elder Titensor lost three out of four games... I'm 6 foot 4! Losing is unacceptable behavior for a representative of the church. On offense I could just stand under the hoop and Titensor passes the ball high and I can shoot over and over while the guys on the other team try to leap for a rebound. I'm not even jumping this whole time. So how did these super short Korean fellows get the drop on me and Titensor??? They were NINJAS! and it was icy... and I'm not that good at basketball... and I went easy in them to get them to like me and be baptized. 

I have been getting better at the language. I made up some sentences that Koreans could understand. It was good stuff. 

It has also been a good week for teaching and learning. I know it's because of my family's prayers and the help of the Savior. I love you guys, and I encourage you all to read The Book of Mormon and pray every day. It helps.

PICTURES!!!

All the pictures with a bridge or water were taken today at a lake.  That was fun.

I ate an octopus! It was scrumptious.

The statues were made by a friend from hello talk that I am both hello'ing and talking to. Aren't they awesome?

Allright love you guys, that's all folks.

Truly Truman. 

Fun Facts About My Companion: Elder Titensor

Elder Sean Titensor, from Bountiful Utah

• Where do you fall in your family?  2nd oldest 
• How many siblings? Order of brothers/sisters: 3 siblings, 1 older brother and 2 younger sisters
• What do you want to study/work after the mission? Physics / aerospace engineering 
• What is your favorite thing about Korea?  The church members
• Favorite color: Green
• Favorite candy bar: Milky Way
• Favorite book: The Dawn of Wonder by Jonathan Renshaw
• Favorite movie: Your Name (2016 Japanese anime film)
• Favorite gospel quote: the words to the hymn, "Be Still, My Soul" 
• Favorite scripture and why? 2 Nephi 1:23 "Awake, my sons; put on the armor of righteousness. Shake off the chains with which ye are bound, and come forth out of obscurity, and arise from the dust."  I like the imagery used in the scripture and it has been a motivation for me.

요! Yo! [week 14]

 안녕하세요 여러분 어떻게 지내세요? What's up my fellows? (That's not a literal translation, that's just me saying "what's up my fellows?") This week has been a good time. On Tuesday we ummm... I forgot. On WEDNESDAY we uh... well I forgot that too. It's in my journal, read that when I'm dead if you want to know what happened those days. I do remember the cool things that happened this week, just not when, so let's just talk about that. One time (some time this week don't ask for specifics because IDK) a guy honked us down and asked if he could take English lessons from us and we were like "네!" That means yes! 

Today for preparation day, Elder Titensor and I went to a 목욕탕. (Mogyoktang) for those of you who don't speak Korean, I will describe to you what a 목욕탕 is, so you may better grasp the tale I am about to tell. 목욕탕: imagine a cluster of hot tubs underground, with soothing music, saunas, and . . .  everyone is naked, because they are not hot tubs, but are in fact public baths. That's it, that's a 목욕탕. It was neat. Don't you worry about nothin' though, this was a gender specific  목욕탕. (As they all are in Korea nowadays) Unfortunately because of Korean privacy laws that prohibit sharing pictures of people which include their face, I cannot give you any of my 목욕탕 pictures. Also everyone was naked so I elected TO NOT take pictures.

It was the first time I tried a sauna, so that was cool. Also I like to be clean, and I like hot tubs. So it was like a win win win LOSE sort of situation. Just kidding, it was chill. It's pretty normal here. Missionaries are allowed to do it, because they used to not have showers in certain apartments, so it used to be a necessity. I actually think it's a neat bit of Korean and Asian culture. I would give this Preparation Day eight out of eleven thumbs up. Three out of three and a half stars, for sure. 

And this other time, we taught a 13-year-old girl and her dad English lessons. It was the first "find" of the transfer in me and Elder Titensor's area. It was my first find in my entire life! I'm super excited to teach them English and about the gospel. Missionaries in Korea are not allowed to teach English unless we incorporate a gospel principle because we are licensed to proselyte, not teach English. That's a good thing. It's easier to teach people who are hungry for English about the gospel if they can't have English without the gospel! That's called logical math magic.

This week has been awesome because of the people we found to teach! I haven't written about how dry this area has been because it goes against my positive nature, but it has been hard! But now we have two people to teach and two more on the way. I'm so happy! 

OH! there was also a member meal I went to this week. I understood absolutely nothing which was said, but it was still one of the best nights in Korea, because of how nice the people were. And the family atmosphere that was there was awesome. I love those members!

OK, I love you guys! You're all awesome. Thanks for your prayers and encouragement. Love you. 

Truly, Truman
PICTURES!

I saw some vintage cameras and I was like "huh neat." and I took a picture. There it is.

That picture with all the handsome and pretty missionaries is me and my MTC pals in front of the temple. I thought we were doing a smolder picture, but we weren't. I like it.

Outside of a Taekwondo dojo there were two little girls all dressed up in their 기 (gi? Idk) and they were making these cute snow bears. 

There's a picture of me hugging my brother for the last time in 2 (maybe 4) years. It makes me sad. He's my best friend.

The painting... idk if I showed this before, but I'm showing it now either way because it's my favorite painting of all time. 

It was painted by my high school art teacher, Andy Berg, you can find more of his stuff on Facebook. I hope it's OK I put this here, Andy! I love you and your work.🙏  

If you read this whole email and your thinking "man when will it end?" I apologize, but if you read anything, read what Andy said about his painting. Here it is: 

Feb 16, 2021
I just finished this painting called "The Carpenter's Gift. "
In this painting, a little girl holds onto a rudimentary straw horse, while the carpenter extends his hand, to see if she is willing to give up the valued possession. Behind him, he holds a gift, a delicately carved wooden horse, that he longs to give her.
Sometimes, Jesus Christ asks us to give up some of our favorite things. The straw horses that we cling onto that only offer a crude resemblance of something important, but never last. They offer temporary comfort, excitement, or pleasure but eventually unravel, fray, and decay.
But, unbeknownst to us, the second we offer up our sacrifice, His gift is given. A gift of substance and heart, that is everlasting. A gift crafted by the hand of the very creator of the universe, and specifically tailored to its recipient. The most wonderful gift you can imagine. 
"But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for those them that love him." 1st Corinthians 2:9 
"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and dust doth corrupt... but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven...
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Mathew 6:19-21
What is your straw horse? Are you willing to give it up for the Carpenter's Gift?

Merry Christmas 메리 크리스마스! [week 13]

안녕하세요 여러분. 어떻게 지내세요? 

Hello guys, how are you? I'm doing just peachy-keen, thanks for asking. 

This week has been pretty wholesome. Very high quality. Super nice. 너무 좋아요. Anyway, last Tuesday I went to district council. The zone leader is super cool. He got 6 baptisms as a trainee. He asked us all to tell everyone why we came on a mission and that we should be honest. He said he used to hate the idea of going on a mission, then he told an awesome story about how that changed. It's too long of a story for this email, so just take my word for it. I said I have always wanted to serve and my reasons for being here keep getting better the longer I'm out.  GO ME! 

On Christmas Elder Titensor and I went out and about and delivered presents to all of our branch members and teaching friends. We bought candles and Elder Titensor wrote a nice note in Korean and I origami-fied the notes and we gave them out to people, plus candy for kids.  The things Elder Titensor wrote on his note were: "We love you, Jesus Christ  loves you, if there's any service we can do let is know, Merry Christmas, during the Christmas season if you focus on Christ you will find more happiness." 

We got some good, teary Korean gibberishy (because I still don't understand what is being said) reactions.  It was swell. 

This picture is from a baptism on Christmas day--we traveled up to Daejon to be there for the baptism of Brother 뢰건명.

Left to right it goes elder Harmon, Jito, Me, then Brother Rowae Kon Myong, then Elder Rau,
then elder Doe (front) Titensor (back), then idk, then elder dickey.

We also got to eat cake and pizza that some members provided. The cake was DELICIOUS, and the pizza had potatoes and corn on it, so the first two bites were disappointing, but then I realized it was just shepherd's pie in disguise. And I LOVE shepherd's pie! It was a Merry Christmas after all!

The delicious cake.

Right now I'm in a waiting room to get some booster shots or something, and there is a Korean game show on, and it the most highqualityentertainment I have ever had the privilege of laying my eyes on. I can't wait to watch more when I'm a fluent RM. 

This week I have grown a lot more than I have helped anyone else grow. So it was a great week for me. I grew closer to the Savior and improved on the language. I can't wait to help others out with the Gospel. That's why I'm out here, so I'm looking forward to that the most. 

Alright, I love you guys! Thanks for your prayers and kind words. You're all the best!

PICTURES!

I went to a Buddhist temple. It was amazing! I loved it, it was easily my favorite Korean cultural experience. 

There's those big, murderous, colorful statues. They were huge, I should have taken it next to myself so you could see the scale. 

The picture with me and the huge statue in the background is a Buddha statue. It's the tallest stone Buddha statue in Korea at eighteen point something something meters tall.  

• From the article in that link: "The statue, which is widely known as “Eunjin Mireuk Buddha” as it is located in Nonsan’s Eunjin village, is 18.12 meters in height, the tallest in Korea.
  
  This Buddha statue is wearing a cylindrical coronal on its head. Its large head and face with strong features make it all the more impressive. Unlike Buddha statues in the Unified Silla Dynasty, which pursue refined and ideal beauty, it boasts enormous size, massiveness, and bold beauty.

The green lanterns are in the ceiling of one of the rooms in the temple. Very pretty, the smoke detector kinda ruins the magic, but whatever.

There's a picture of me with a funny tongue sticky outie statue behind me.

The picture with all the happy-looking, super handsome, (but ugly in comparison to ME) elders is us at a noodles restaurant. SCRUMPTIOUS! Left to right it goes me, Elder Titensor, Elder Jito, and elder Harmon.

The picture with the figurines behind glass are some One Piece action figures in a super nerdy nerdy museum called robot museum. You had to buy a drink to get in (I got hot chocolate because it's cold) and you go in, and there was a room absolutely FULL of robot action figures. Then there was another room full of one piece and other anime action figures. It was so nerdy and awesome! I taught Elder Titensor how to play GO in there. 

The flowers on the street are projected.  There's tons of projected advertisements and art on the streets at night. 

The torch statue I just thought looked cool, and I had room for one more picture on this email, so there you go!

Allright love you guys! I'll schedule this email to send tomorrow morning for me so I don't notification bomb you all in the middle of the night. Love you! 

Truly Truman.