Princess Disease [week 31]

Fun fact the word for brat in Korean literally translates to "princess disease."

Well I had a cultural experience with my fellow missionaries. It was swell. We ran around in robes called hanbok and looked at Buddhist statues at the Hwaseong fortress in Suwon. I liked it. It was cool. We rented these traditional costumes from a costume shop and most of the elders chose the peasant hanbok, but I chose the  one that a king would wear.  I guess I am a brat (see what I did there?).

I also went on an exchange with a cool guy named 이현호 Lee Hyun Ho. Pretty nifty huh?  It was a grand swell week. 

Stay in school don't do drugs. Also the advice that every old senior missionary gave at the cultural event for having good families is: 1- to not have a TV, and 2- to be united with your spouse. Those oldies are so full of wisdom. Literally three for three said basically the same thing when asked: "what is the key to a successful family?" Pay attention to the media that comes into your home. Books, music, TV, video games, etc. So um, yeah let's do that. 

Alright love you guys. Makes some choices that will unite your family. Over and out. Love ya bye. 

SCRIPTURES!!!

Read D&C 111:11 I'm memorizing it lets see how close I am. "Therefore, be ye as wise as serpents and yet without sin, and I shall pour out blessings for thy good Faster than ye are able to receive them." 

Check it and report back. Pronto stat asap

PICTURES!!!

Some wild Korean stuff and me. 

There's a happy lookin dragon. He must've just finished off some human beans ahahaha hahaha hah... get it? BEANS!?! There is no graffiti in Korea. It's crazy. The cities are so clean and safe. 

There's a dog in a stroller. I see this more than I see kids in strollers. 

Combined Zone Conference [week 23]

From Sister Sargent:

Combined zone conference for Suwon and Gyeonggi zones!

“There is PEACE in Christ!”

We are focusing this transfer on:

• Alma 32:37: And behold, as the tree beginneth to grow, ye will say: Let us nourish it with great care, that it may get root, that it may grow up, and bring forth fruit unto us. And now behold, if ye nourish it with much care it will get root, and grow up, and bring forth fruit.
• Preach My Gospel 4 (How do I understand and recognize the spirit?)
• Preach my Gospel 11 (How do I help people make and keep commitments?)
• Quentin L. Cook's talk "Personal Peace in Challenging Times"

Thanksgiving at the MTC [week 9]

Hello 안녕하세요! How is everyone doing on this fine day? Sorry this email is a couple days late. 

SO! let me tell you what happened on Tuesday. Michael A Dunn from the 70 came over and gave a super motivating devotional.  He is the guy that told the story about the Olympic bikers in conference. His sports analogy on Tuesday was about cross-country skiing. I forgot the athlete's name, but her cool quote was that her biggest fear "is crossing the finish line with energy to spare."  His devotional was super uplifting and motivating.

Then on Thanksgiving Day, Elder Gary E. Stevenson came and gave a devotional. It was so cool! The big take-away from his talk was to be grateful for four things: the missionary purpose, change of heart, the restoration, and the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. 

Then we watched a movie called Ephraim's Rescue. I think it would have been a really bad movie, (so very, terribly, really cringy and bad) but I haven't seen a movie in two months . . . so it was the greatest cinematic experience of my life! 

AND THEN, we did a service project with an organization called "fighting hunger" for two hours, led by Sister Sharon Eubank. The MTC bagged over 250,000 brown sugar oatmeal meals. It was a jolly good time. I was on "holding the bag under the funnel" duty. I talked to sister Anna Fenberg and Sister Peterson for two hours. They are the coolest sisters. We talked about spiritual stuff and movies and mission life and such. They said my Disney spirit character is "Dug" from the movie Up or "Crush" from Finding Nemo (that makes me happy😊).

AND THEN, we went to a musical number where the lead fellow from the Piano Guys (Jon Schmidt) came and played some Taylor Swift tunes. Some of the missionaries were absolutely losing their minds when they heard his songs. As for me I will give it a solid thumbs up. It was good. 

Blurry photo of Jon Schmidt himself

AND THEN!!! We were excused to go look at the Christmas lights. We got to stay out until 9:30 instead of 9:15, I am kidding you not. This was my favorite part. I just got to hang out and take pictures and laugh with my new besties from my district and the other Asian districts.  Best day EVER!

Elders Renfroe and Binks

Elders Renfroe and Harden

Elders Fisher, Belt, Dickey, Bailey, and Gallup, and ME

On Sunday, sisters Fenberg, Peterson, Hong, and Elders Binks and Fisher, all played a musical number. I think it was arranged by Elder Binks, but I am not sure. It was easily the best musical number I have seen in the MTC. I'll post it on Facebook. It brought two and a half tears to my eyes. I am going to miss those guys.😭

MORE PICTURES!

The Carpenters Gift is a painting done by my high school art teacher, Andy Berg. It represents God wanting to give us blessings, but we first have to let go of some of the things we hold onto that aren't Christlike.

The selfie is me and elder belt

Elder Renfroe and Elder Zac Belt, called to Nagoya Japan

The group picture is the Japanese district. Elder Asiasiga is the guy in the front doing the bow and arrow pose. He is super cool and chill and spiritual. AND he has a Naruto hoodie, so he is of the highest caliber. 

Elder Lucius Asiasiga in front, going to Japan Tokyo North

The selfie with lots of people is me and Elder Binks, and Campbell, and sisters Johnston, Hong, Peterson, and Rich. I love those guys!

Sisters Johnston, Hong, Peterson, and Rich.  Elders Campbell, Binks, and Renfroe

I Iove you guys! And I love my MTC buddies. I'm going to miss them just as much as I miss all of you! Don't forget to brush your teeth and read The Book of Mormon. 

Truly Truma- pfffff I mean

Elder Renfroe

Top: Me, Elder Fisher, Elder Pestana, Elder Prock, Elder Dickey, Elder Harden
Bottom: Elder Griswold, Elder Binks, Elder Del Priore, Elder Campbell, and Elder Livingston

Griswold, Fenberg, and Peterson

This is what I like to do for exercise--
the basketball gym is too competitive

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!