Fun Facts About My Companion: Elder Carter

Elder Kyle Carter from Morgan, Utah

• Full name: Kyle Tim Carter
• Where do you fall in your family? second to youngest 
• How many siblings? 4 siblings 
• Order of brothers/sisters: sister, brother, sister, me, brother
• What do you want to study/work after the mission? professional pilot 
• What is your favorite thing about Korea? the food
• Favorite color: blue 
• Favorite candy bar: salted nut roll
• Favorite book: The False Prince
• Favorite movie: Crazy Stupid Love
• Favorite gospel quote: “Brethren shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren; and on, on to the victory!"  ~ Joseph Smith, Jr
• Favorite scripture and why? 2 Nephi 26:24-25. Christ offers the sweet things of the world and He offers them for free

W'sup, Fools? [week 30]

Just when I think I've got this sending emails business down, I realize there are yet more people who I have been missing because of the missionary level phone. 🤪🙉💀... that makes me crazy. Well! For those of you tuning in for the first time, Welcome along! To another episode of missionary with missionary. Episode eleventy-two. And hello to me! I am your host and my favorite person. Truman is the name I used to go by, but now my name is Elder Renfroe. Put some respect on my name! (I hope I'm not quoting something I shouldn't be because I just heard kids saying that in high-school) I'm serving in the Korea Seoul South Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of latter day Saints. Put some MORE respect on my name!

Well let's get this farty started. Uhhhhh I'll write more about that later. 

Later...

OK! For the realizes now.  So let's see what I did this week. Last preparation day I played some basketball with the boys. That was fun. Then the sisters came. Lose lose situation, but still fun. THEN they invited us to play soccer with them. That was super awkward. It was a sisters activity. Why can girls crash ball with the boys and it's OK but it's super awkward when you switch it? Not fair. That's sexist.

Let's talk about how the old guys at church smelled on Sunday. For the most part, not like you would expect (like oldness). One guy smelled like Play-doh. Another guy smelled like pine needles. Oh goodness. Did you know that Koreans don't need to use deodorant. They just don't sweat or they just don't stink or some other crazy dark magical wizardry. But there's a trade off, and her name is "the Kimchi fart." She is next to lethal how bad she smells. Zero out of zero: would not recommend. All of the thumbs not being used to plug any and all vital sensitive smelling and/or seeing organs, will be used to make a thumbs down to communicate- NAY demonstrate the disgusticity of the kimchi fart. The good news is Kim chi doesn't smell bad anymore. Nothing does compared to Mrs. Kim Chi fart. 

I'm about to have spaghetti and it reminded me of an awesome story, so STORY TIME! once upon a time, I was chilling  with my roommates at BYU-I and one of them was like "How do I break this spaghetti without it exploding everywhere?" And I was like "Twist, don't bend." And all of my roommates were blown away. Their brains were breakdancing trying to engrave this vital information on the fleshy tables of their brain hearts... not really. But that's what I like to think. Thanks for the random kitchen wisdom, Mom. 

I have a teaching friend who is so nice and fun to meet with and she is doing good at reading everything we send her way. I like this lady. She is super nice. And there is a cool guy who plays board games with us every once in a while. He likes history and has a cool accent. I like him. 

SCRIPTURES!!!

Oh wait I almost forgot about the general authority who came and did a mission tour. {Stupid distracting kimchi cabbage farts always distracting me from my true potential. 🌪 (can you guys read emojis? Or is it one of those annoying rectangles with an x? I hate those.)} So yeah. 

Elder McCune and his wife came over and they talked the Sargents up (my mission president and his wife.) A TON! We had zone conference and interviews and three or four trainings with those fellas. It was awesome. One elder told us about a dream he had and asked if elder McCune could interpret. It actually sounded like this Elder who had the dream has a spiritual gift, but elder McCune said he doesn't have the authority to interpret personal revelation. What a cool experience for everyone involved. 

OK now SCRIPTURES 

Mosiah 2:17 

17 And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God

17 그리고 보라, 내가 이러한 것을 너희에게 이야기함은 너희로 지혜를 배우게 하려 함이니, 너희가 너희 이웃을 섬길 때 너희는 다만 너희 하나님을 섬기고 있는 것임을 너희로 배우게 하려 함이니라. (That's Korean. I speak Korean. No big deal)

I love that when you are in the service of your fellow beings you are only in the service of your God. I like service. Its my specialty. 

PICTURES!!!

Today I want to share a special bit of culture that only Korean missionaries get to experience. And you guys obviously are going to experience it. The pictures from my Korean text book. They are simply... well just see for yourself. Witness y'all. Feast your eyes. OK it's only funny if you've been on a mission for a while and haven't had any source of entertainment (like besides the best entertainment which is the Book of Mormon). But basically all the pictures in this textbook are sexist and anti fat people. Anyways behold or whatever, that's all I got. Sorry this email was full of fluff and not much else. Not much new has happened, but I hope my sparkling personality and miraculous humility were enough to keep you entertained. Love you guys stay in school don't do drugs go on a mission. 

"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 😁

What's crackalackin? [week 27]

My BUDDIES! heh-hehe-HEH-hello! What's crackalackin? Hey you want to know a secret? Well too bad I can keep a secret, so you don't get to know my super juicy desirable secret. 

OH-KAY what did I do that was worthy of noteworthyness? Let me cogitate for one second. OK last Saturday we had ourselves a party. We played high-school assembly-esque party games. Like the put your hand in this cardboard box and tell us what cold spaghetti feels like game. And we played some get to know you games and some charade variants. The people that came is what made it weird. Because if your with a good group of friends you could play candy land and still have a euphoric experience. We had missionaries of every age rank and gender, and teaching friends of every age rank and gender. So there were like mini cliques within the event, but it still ended up being fun. I got to know a cool yet different teaching friend named Makenzie. She is an English teacher from America, she likes theater and ice cream, and she was absolutely incredible at charades. Good job Makenzie. And I got to be better friends with 이선현. (Elder sun hyeon.) It was a success. 42/42 for sure and for certain. 

There is all the party people on the gym on the green floor. It was lit. 

I have a neighbor Harmonie (grandma 할머니) who had kids that lived in America, and they were taken care of by their neighbors, so she wants to return the favor by feeding any Americans on her floor. She made us some delicious curry. It was so good. 

Guys help me out. Is "lip service" an English phrase? A Korean said I was giving'em "lip service" when I was brown nosing. If it is an English phrase then its going to be used at every possible opportunity because it's the most incredible thing I've heard in my entire mission. If it's like a konglish phrase, then I will also still use it all the time, but with a Korean accent. 

It's good to be able to speak well enough to laugh with Koreans. That's my love language. LAUGHING. So it's nice to be able to laugh and get to know some people here. I think it's the first step in missionary work. Making friends. 

Alllllright I love you guys, you have a jolly fan-flippn-tactic week. Watch conference! I'm going to next week because thats when the Korean version comes out. I'm still watching it in English though. OK love you bye.

PICTURES!

My new best friend, "Lil Aang." He has all the answers. I got him at the Buddhist temple last week. Maybe I'll take more pictures and send them on over in another email... OK that's what I'll do, but that means I'm going to make this email the "reply all" type because it takes 30 minutes to add all my many faithful followers the other way. So be careful of what you click. 😚

The next picture (Well who knows what order these will be in after I send them?) Is some scrumptious cold meat sticks. I live Korean food, but so many fast foods and really tasty looking stuff is served cold or at room temperature. I always take most street food home to microwave it before consumption.

There is a picture of what appears to be a hot dog in a large bun with some frosted flakes and cheese on it. It's GRRRRREAT!

Then there is a selfie of me being super cheerful and patriotic. God bless America 🇺🇸 and South Korea too