ZONE MEETING AND THE SACRAMENT

Hello everyone! 반가워요. 

I finally have my Korean keyboard working for sure so emailing is gunna be way more fun. This week was super good. I got to go up to 마산(Masan) twice!  One time was for exchanges with the Zone leaders and the other one was for a Zone training meeting.  Masan is super cool.  It's by the ocean and it's got a ton of hills.  The best part is that the missionaries apartment in Masan is at the top of a hill and looks out over the city and you can see the bay.  Super great.  I went on exchanges with Elder Long.  He is from Hurricane, Utah.  We were pretty similar.  He played basketball in high school and so did I! Also we were both trained in Andong and are famous there for singing You Raised me up for Karaoke on New Years.  It was also super weird to be in a big city since I've been in the countryside for my whole mission. 

The zone training meeting we had was all about the sacrament.  We are focusing a lot in our mission this transfer on the sacrament and the peace you can find in it.  We were writing for 10 minutes a short lesson on why the sacrament is personally important to us and I thought of an experience I had just a few weeks ago.  I woke up one morning and I just felt dark.  I couldn't stop thinking about all the things I have done wrong and I couldn't find any peace.  I felt awful all morning.  Luckily that day I had church.  So I went and while I was singing the sacrament hymn "Behold the Great Redeemer Die" The line that really struck me was 죄 위한 죽음이었네 I think in the English that's He died a sacrifice for sin. But when I heard that I felt all of the badness come back for a brief moment and started bawling.  But by the end of the verse I felt better.  While the deacon was passing the sacrament I felt that I should read some scripture.  I turned to 2 Nephi 1:15 which says "Behold, he hath redeemed my soul from hell. I have seen his glory and am wrapped around eternally in the arms of his love." And I immediately felt an immense amount of peace.  For this reason I realized why the sacrament is so important to me.  Without it I would be lost in a dark place with no support or help.  I wouldn't be able to carry on without it.  I know that if we all try our hardest to ponder the about Christ and what he did for us, and also how we can improve, during the sacrament that we can find peace.  We can be forgiven of our sins and have the "veil of darkness" it talks of in the scriptures removed from our eyes.  I love the sacrament and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to partake of it this week.  

Not really anything super new with my investigators.  (유일Yoo Ir, the guy in prison) is still awesome. He just finished the Book of Mormon again this week. We asked how many times he's read it and he thought about it for a moment and then send he can't even remember how many it's been.  I can't wait for him to get out and get baptized.  I hope I'm in Busan when that happens and can see it.

We were so close to meeting with a new investigator named Brian this week but because our church meeting was in the morning and that was the only time he was free on Sunday we couldn't go.  So this week we'll teach him.  He's the man I found on the street that I talked about last week.  He's super cool. 

I got to eat 냉면 (Cold Noodles) again today.  It's soo good. It's like super yummy cold ramen.  Mom wouldn't like it because it's the see-throughish noodles that she thinks look like tapeworm.  But it was soooo yummy. (pic included :) 

And that was my week in a nutshell. We go out and jundo all day.  Occasionally we'll try to visit members and teach them, but their busy a lot so we are out on the streets a lot trying to share the awesome message of the gospel!

I love this work so stinkin a lot!!! Have a good week! Look for opportunities to praise others, and serve. In other words, love everyone!

THE MAN THE MYTH THE LEGEND! AND.....ELDER OH!

ANGEL WINGS IN MASAN 

MASAN PARK

MASAN PARK

THE CREEK DOWN THE MIDDLE OF THE CITY

MY BREAKFAST - EGGS, KIMCHI AND RICE

COLD RAMEN!  SOOOO YUMMY!

HAPPY EASTER

Here is this week's letter.  Below Colton's letter you will see an additional letter that was sent to us from the mission president.  Many of you have asked what is being done to protect the missionaries from the potential conflict with North Korea, this letter addresses those concerns.  Thank you all for your love and support of our missionary!

This week was great! Full of some great things and awesome miracles! We have just been trying to find more people that we can teach.  So we talk to lots of people on the street, or at least try.  

I had an interview with President Barrow on Wednesday were we talked about faith.  One thing he said was that there are days when things click, you are talking with everything, people are listening to you, everything is great.  And there are days when you are hesitant because people don't want to listen.  Those kind of days are were your faith should grow the most.  So I want to share my experience that night that illustrated this principle. 

We got back to our area around one oclock.  We finished our studies and started to jundo on the street at maybe 3 o'clock. We had a good 6 hours of jundo so we started talking to everyone.  After maybe three hours of nobody stopping to listen.  Most people just ignoring us we changed up our tactics, and kept going, but it got even worse.  It was embarrassing how bad these people were denying me.  I really just wanted to stop.  With about 1 hour left I said lets stop, read our faith card (our cards with faith scriptures on them) and pray.  So we went to a quiet'ish place and read the whole card front and back. And then prayed for inspiration and specifically to find one person that would be willing to meet again.  We felt inspired to go down the less busy side of the city and then turn down this one street.  There was a man walking towards us so we said hello and he stopped! First of the night! We found out that he was a less active Jehovah's witness.  He had been through hard times and had gotten through it by praying to God.  He seemed very interested in our message and told us to come to his English Academy any day around 11-3 to meet with him again! We got his number and have been in contact with him, we will be meeting this week and begin teaching him about the Restored Gospel! 

It's amazing that if we just have a little bit of faith what kind of things he can do for us. Matthew 17:20 says "if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you." If we only exercise a tiny amount of faith he can remove any "mountains" in our lives.  Anything that may be blocking us from coming closer to him can just be removed by him according to our faith.  I recently restarted the Book of Mormon and I liked the part in 1 Nephi 11 where the angel says to Nephi "Look!" and Nephi says "And I looked, and beheld..." The Lord gives us a simple requirement. Like look.  And if we heed it and look, then we will behold great things just as Nephi did. I know that through our faith Christ will work miracles in our lives, he will bless us so much according to our faith.  

I also had a fun experience going on exchanges with Elder Sandstrom, he went to Timpanogos High School.  He is a year older than me.  I don't know if any of you know him but he's super great.  We talked about some of the people we know, cuz I guess we knew a bunch of the same people.  Kinda cool.  

Anyways have a good week! Remember this quote from a prophet (not sure which one) "God is a God of miracles, Latter-day saints can expect miracles, if it so be that they exercise faith in him"

Love you all!

I forgot my chord for my camera again but I took AMAZING pictures this week, so you'll see them next week.  These are pictures of me and my comp and the sisters and some members.

April 15, 2017

Dear Parents,

We are grateful to serve with your sons and daughters. Our highest priority is their safety. With the recent media attention concerning North Korea, we recognize that many of you are concerned. The purpose of this email is to update you on the current situation and to inform you of what is being done to protect the safety of missionaries.

In the last several days, the Church has made contact with military, government, and individuals in private industry to better determine any threats to missionary safety. Given the longstanding tensions between the United States and North Korea, there is little evidence to suggest that a direct military conflict is likely to occur in the short term. Despite the deployment of the U.S. Navy carrier group and aggressive rhetoric from North Korea, such provocations are considered to be a show of force and are not an indication of an imminent threat of widespread combat.

The Church will continue to monitor the situation and is in contact with several entities – including the U.S. Embassy in Korea and the U.S. Department of State – to identify circumstances that would indicate the need to move missionaries out of the area. Please be assured that the Church will be at the forefront of moving missionaries should the situation require it.

Additionally, we have been asked to review emergency action plans and to help missionaries acquire necessary items such as food and water in case there is an unexpected response by either side of the conflict that would result in the inability to move missionaries in a timely manner.

We are grateful for the sacrifices you are making to allow your sons and daughters to serve our Heavenly Father. We ask for your continued prayers as we work to share the Gospel with the wonderful people of Korea and for the guidance and protection of the missionaries.

NEW COMPANION!

Hello! I got more time to email this week! So this hopefully be a decent email.  Unfortunately the keyboard won't let me type in Korean so I'll just talk to y'all in English.  

My new companion is Elder Johnstun! He's from Arizona. He has an odd obsession with Canada.  He's never been there but he loves it.  He hung up Canadian, Korean,  Iceland,  Sweden, Norway, and Switzerland flags in the house.  He's super super funny.  He hates peanut butter so freakin much.  But that's ok cuz peanut butter is expensive anyways. 

 He's super good at Korean.  He studies hanja, the super old Korean symbols now because he's pretty fluent in Korean.  He was trained in Miryang a year and a half ago, so the members know him and he already knows the area well. We get along super well. The only hard thing is that we have different jundo strategies and his kinda crushes mine cuz they are opposites.  He has a lot of faith that the people who are prepared will stop and talk to us so if someone doesn't slow down when we start talking to them and telling them we're missionaries then he lets em go. But I like to try to talk to them and get them to somehow stop and talk, both good styles I think but we'll just have to figure out how to work together.

Guess what I ate.  It's called hoe (said like hweigh) It's raw fish. The dude popped it out of it's tank, killed it, sliced it up and we ate it like that, with wasabi.  Have you ever had wasabi? It's killer, it wrecks your nose.

This week we are focusing on the new church Easter initiative, so we've been trying to share the message with everyone.  It's been difficult. Cuz jundoing is always difficult I guess. But if we keep going I know we'll find someone who is prepared.  

Since I didn't talk about this last week.  I went on an exchange the Friday before transfers with Elder Oh Eichan.  He went home last Monday, super sad, he's a legend.  We set out to jundo all day and ended up getting 9 new contacts! One of them became a new investigator! Only problem is he lives in Seoul.  And we have a meeting with one this week. It really showed me that if you have the faith anything is possible, you can find those who are prepared.  

This week we got to watch general conference! We watched it in the Branch President's office while all the branch watched the Korean one in the chapel. One of talks that really stood out was Elder Rasband's talk on the spirit.  I've been trying to learn how it speaks to me.  And one thing he was talking about was heeding the nudges. And just after hearing the word nudge to describe the spirit, it kind of just clicked.  I realized, oh crap, I've had so many of those that I have ignored.  But after so much praying, and fasting, and preparing, and studying I have finally found the answer to the question that I've been searching for for four months! The Lord seriously does answer prayers.  And the spirit seriously does speak to us, a lot more than we realize it I think.  If we learn how to follow the spirit it will bless our lives so much! 

I also really liked Elder Choi's talk, he actually gave us that same advice, look up (don't drink the water because it's Korea and it will do bad things) and align with the will of the Lord and talk to everyone fearlessly! Ah so much good stuff from conference I don't know what else to say! I'm so grateful for an inspired prophet and for inspired church leaders and the help they give me in my life! I know that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet on the earth today! 

Have a good week! Love you all!

Some of our branch youth and young adults

An awesome bridge

This sad old horse at service just fell over and laid there for an hour!

New Transfer!

Hey hey everyone! 

This email is going to be super short because I have to catch a bus in 10 minutes to head to Busan.  I wanted to catch the latter one but my comp is freaking out to get there.  I will be staying here in 밀양  but I am getting a new companion.  His name is Elder Johnston, he's been here about a year and a half I think.  He was actually trained here and is coming back so that's interesting! But he will be district leader and I will be assistant to the district leader haha! 

So so sorry, have to go right now.  Some quick stuff, this week we found a new investigator after we got 9 contacts in a day.  Sad thing is, we didn't baptize Ku Minjoon yesterday.... But this transfer he will get baptized! It's gunna be great! Love you all!