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. 

Life is Good Facebook Challenge [week 19ish]

I love these guys! Elder Jack Livingston is a good guy! So is Elder Jonah Del Priore and Elder  Joe Griswold. All great guys, and it was cool to watch them grow as a companionship. They weren't really best buds towards the beginning of MTC and by the end they were the closest of friends. I'm grateful I got to know these guys before they went to the Korea Seoul mission. I wasn't challenged to the life is good challenge, so I challenge myself today! The future posts are probably going to be shorter than this one though so I can write them in English and Korean. 

Feb 4th, Day 1: I'm thankful for my MTC 동기 (peers)

February 7th: Day 2 of Life is Good. I am super thankful for my siblings! I challenge Brigham Renfroe to participate in the 10 day challenge.

저는 여동생과 남동생이 너무 감사합니다.

February 8th: Day 3 of the life is good challenge. I am thankful for the people I am able to teach, here in Korea. I love them all so much. I won't challenge or post pictures of them for their privacy, but know that I love them!

제 가르침 진친구들을 사랑합니다!

February 9th: Day 4: life is good challenge. I am thankful for delicious Korean food. Today I challenge Adam Stucki to the life is good challenge. I love this guy! He was my roommate and he is on a mission right now. What a cool guy!

저는 한국 음식을 좋아하고 감사합니다!

February 11th: Day 6/10 of the life is good challenge in which I say something I'm thankful for, and challenge someone else to do the same thing 10 days jn a row.

Today I would like to say thank-you for the 몰몬 경. (Book of Mormon) and all the other great resources the gospel library has to offer. I look forward to personal study more than anything other than meeting with friends to teach. Good stuff. Today I invite 이승규 장로님 (a top notch missionary) to participate in the life is good challenge if he so desires.

저는 몰몬경을 사랑합니다!

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?