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. 

"We Thought You Was a Toad" [week 29]

Hey have you guys seen the movie Oh Brother Where art Thou? If not then, um, REPENT! 회개하십쇼! (thats Korean for repent. I speak Korean) If you have seen it then you might have recognized the tasteful movie quote I put in the subject line. Anyways, the reason I bring up that movie is because of two things: 하나 (Thats Korean for one. I speak Korean) I'm using a random can of axe hair goop I found in the apartment. It reminds me of Dapper Dan. 둘 (that means two in Korean. I speak Korean.) My companion listens to his own brand of spiritual music and two of his songs are featured in the aforementioned motion picture. And to answer your follow-up question: No, he doesn't listen to The Big Rock Candy Mountain :( sad emoji.

HEY! How have you guys been? I ate some raw crab the other day. It was actually mind-blowingly, face-explodingly delicious. You have to put the body of the crab in your face with the legs hanging out as crab legs do. Then you just bite down on the shell and suck the gelatinous meat out until you choke on the shell or satisfaction hits; whichever one comes first. It was so good. This meal was had with Yune Seong Chor. He is a retired doctor and he is a super nice guy. How do you end a sentence with the abbreviation Dr.? Double punctuation insanity?! So this Mr. Dr. guy was super nice. he took us out to eat, then he took us out to eat. I've eaten out then gone to a cafe afterward like every time someone takes me out. It's 부지 (that spells boujee. That's actually a Korean word. I would know... I speak Korean.) Mr. Dr. has progressed so much since meeting him. He started out with thinking he didn't have faith to growing his faith, now to reading the Book of Mormon on his own. What a cool Dr.. (Then what if I want to add an ellipsis after Dr.? Four periods? That looks unaesthetic.)

We met with Jang Gyeong Mi about every other day. She is awesome. I think she is my favorite friend. She taught us how to "hiya" after punching someone. Koreans say "Gee hop" 기합 (그 타너는 한국말 이예요. 저는 한국 말할 수 있어요) when punching people in the face. How do the locals greet each other when punching their fellow men in the schnoz in your culture, dear reader? She is so fun. We are reading the Book of Mormon illustrated stories with her right now. It's a jolly good time. 

Today I'm going to play some more basketball with the boys. It's gonna be wicked-pffff I mean righteous! 

SCRIPTURES!

2nd Nephi 31:20 Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life

HOPE! that's where it's all at. How can you achieve something you don't hope for? You don't! That's how. So hope your pretty little hearts out. 

PICTURES!

There's a couple pictures with me and my companion holding up some cute lil eggs that the primary kids gave us. 

There's a picture of some cherry blossom pedals in the river that almost look like a heart. 

There's some Dragon Ball Z key chains I have on my phone. 

A tree. 

My companion sitting inside art. 

Oh P.S. to my Coon family. You know how Everett says ROTATION at volleyball? I do that now. I did it a ton in the MTC. Now everyone love/hates me. 😁 that makes me happy. It's also where I git my inspiration for PICTURES! and SCRIPTURES!

Flub-a-dub-dub! [week 28]

Hi! My name is Truman Renfroe. I'm a missionary for the church of Jesus Christ of latter day Saints. And I'm serving in the Korea Seoul South Mission. My mission is cooler than your mission.

I watched conference all this and last week. Wow. It's like it was meant for me and all my fellow missionaries and prospective missionaries. Just serve. Wow that sounds like a title to a terrible youth album song. (I know putting terrible and youth album in the same sentence is redundant, but that's OK I didn't want there to be any confusion.) OK but conference! Wasn't it amazing? Man I loved it. I thought it would be sad to not have crepes and Legos, as is the tradition in my home, but I was able to focus on every jot and tittle 100% of the time. It was so good. I'm going to re-listen to it at least twice all the way through by next conference. I can't wait. OH! I still have to watch the Sunday afternoon session. That'll be splendid! 

My cousin just gave his farewell talk and is going to serve in the Zimbabwe mission pretty soon. Go him. Also Joe Torman and Joe Nielsen are serving their missions pretty soon, AND my cousin Ben is serving a mission right now. What a bunch of cool cats and kittens they all are. 

Yeah conference was great. Serve a mission and be a good person and come closer to Christ and do t stress because God has a plan just for you. 

A super cool guy named Joshua 증 watched conference with us and he had a plethora of piñatas, and questions. And sister Banks had a plethora of metaphorical baseball bats to beat the ever living metaphorical saltwater taffies out of the piñata questions. Metaphorically that is. That didn't make sense, let me explain. 

Piñata=question

Baseball bat=answer

salt water taffy=disgusting candy that comes out of a cardboard emaciated donkey like blood comes out of a real emaciated donkey. But in this metaphor it also equals the happy ending of having all the questions answered. 

Ah... Clarity. 

Yeah Joshua wants to attend in person in six months, and he said he would watch the other three sessions on his own. What a stud. 

Today I'm going to play basketball with the office elders. There's three of them with me and my companion that makes five. After I write "my companion" this emoji 💕 shows up. That's special. 

Allright I love you guys. Serve a mission and watch conference. Love you my companions. 💋💖💕💗💞

PICTURES!

There is a church with a mural of Jesus. There are a TON of churches here. You can see three crosses from any given window with a big view. 

A selfie of me with a picture of ME!

There is a statue of a Christmas minotaur.

The picture of the wall with random stuff on it has a funny sign with a stressed mom and her bratty kids. That is frowned upon.

There are some Yukio cards. Neat.

Basket ball with the 선교사 😁

안녕하세요 제 사람들 (annyeonghaseyo je salamdeul) Hello My People! [week 15]

Hike on P-Day to another Buddhist temple

Hello everyone. How are you on this fine day? I am doing pretty well. This week I went on an exchange with Harmon 장로님. What a nice guy. We taught two English lessons. The first one was with an old guy and the second was with an old gal. They were both super enthusiastic about learning English and very open to The Book of Mormon. The old lady spoke fluent Korean and Chinese and now she is learning English! She liked me because I could guess what she was trying to say in English really well. I taught her the words feminine and masculine when she was describing Biden and Trump. She thinks Biden is handsome. She also knew more about American history than me which makes her SUPER smart. 잰 도 (the old gal) inspired me to learn Korean with a renewed enthusiasm. She was super excited to learn. 

The rest of the week consisted of lots of Facebook finding and language study. Fun times. 

My favorite scripture is Moroni 10:32. Read that.

PICTURES!

The only picture that needs any explanation is the candy and Mountain Dew. I got the drink for free! When a clerk says "service," that means it is free. I had to tell my companion this because I knew this Korean tidbit and he didn't. So yeah! Free Mountain Dew, and some sub-par, on-sale chocolate. Delicious!

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?

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