Catching up: August 20 - September 17

Top of Lote Mall in Goejoeng

20 August

Another great week. Elder Stagg and I went on exchanges on Thursday with the Yeongdo elders. I went over to Yeongdo with Elder Becket. We planned to meet up at the Lote department store on Thursday morning. Elder Stagg and I got there a little early so we started walking around the store until they arrived. Then we heard someone yell,"Elders!" We turned around and saw a man with ripped up skinny jeans, a black v-neck, sunglasses, cross around his neck, and long shaggy hair sitting on a curb. We went over to talk to him and he explained to us that he is Yoengdo's recent convert and he is waiting for them to go to lunch. Elder Stagg and I talked to him until the other Elders showed up and we exchanged.

The man, Brother Park, took us to the top floor of Lote DS to a buffet. We had a good time with him and it turns out he used to be in a really well known band in Korea years ago. After we finished lunch and got in the elevator Mr Park started rockin' out on an air guitar, the whole fifteen floors.

Later that day we had another appointment with a group of kids that the Yeongdo Elders had met a day before and they had invited the Elders over for dinner. The group of kids turned out to be two brothers, their cousin, and the oldest brothers girlfriend who all lived together to go to school. When we walked into their apartment room it was tiny. it was like ten feet by ten feet but half the room was taken up by a big long table with three huge computers and gaming units set up where they play League of Legends and Overwatch together.

They were some of the nicest people I've ever met and were super funny. We had a good time with them and then we shared the Prince of Peace video with them and they really liked it and we set up another appointment.

During our meal with them we got several calls and texts for emergency drills. We have been working on our 72-hour kits the past few days and I hope nothing happens because I can't live on three packs of ramen for three days.

Celebrating one year as a missionary in South Korea

28 August

I am emailing a day late because we spent all of yesterday preparing for an event we are having on Saturday. So our president gave us an extra little p-day. Both the Busan and South Busan Zones are putting on an escape room/house for all of the youth and their friends in our areas. Its called the House of Laban and its super cheesy.

This week went by really fast. We have spent a lot of time looking for investigators because we only have a few and the ones that we do have are sort of... unique.

Last Tuesday, Elder Stagg and I were doing language study in our apartment when I heard the sound of a siren. I thought it was just our neighbors watching a movie or something so I didn't think much of it. But as the sound continued Elder Stagg and I looked up at each other at the same exact time. Then we both ran to the window. Our apartment is pretty sound proof and we have like three sets of windows, so when we slid all of them open we hear this loud siren going off through out the entire city. We both sat there for a little bit and then got our cameras because we didn't know what else to do. We totally thought that we were about to get bombs dropped on us. We weren't sure what to do. Then we got a call from our zone leaders which made us even more nervous. When we answered our zone leader sounded really panicked and was like, do you hear the sirens? where are you guys?! Are you in the bomb shelter?! the we were like, WHAT? NO! then he said, good because its just a drill.

That wasn't even the craziest thing that happened to me this week though. I think I had the weirdest experience of my whole mission on Saturday. It started with us getting a call from a man who claimed to be Iron Man and wanted to meet. He ended up being a Korean man from Argentina so he had a thick Spanish accent. He wore a huge microphone around his head wherever he went. He took us to this catholic sanctuary, where he lived, and where there was huge graves of catholic missionaries who had been beheaded. While we were there I became the Black Panther and Elder Stagg became Spider Man and we joined the "Mormon Avengers". Turns out he had already recruited other missionaries in our mission to the Mormon Avengers and he called them while we there to ask if we were fit for the job. He made it clear to us that the job would be dangerous and once we are Avengers we are Avengers for life. And he is also a scientist who is trying to prove the Bible right scientifically. We found out he got baptized last year but he told us that he is a "Mutated Mormon" because it is okay for him to smoke the pipe. After we joined the Avengers and he trained us, he took us back into town, taught us the secret hand shake and then disappeared.

And that's what a 'normal' day is like here. I feel like the only normal day we have is Sunday and even those get pretty weird.

One of the amazing guards in the escape room

3 September

Pretty crazy week. we spent most of it preparing for our stake youth activity. All the missionaries from the Busan Zones got together and put on a big escape room/building in the Kumjeong church. They had to get from point-a to point-b passing levels of puzzles and killing guards with their Nerf guns. The main goal was to kill Laban, find the gold plates, and escape with Zoram. It was super cheesy but the youth said they had a lot of fun. Elder Pak Insu and I were guards right at the begging of the maze. It was fun but really awkward when the Nerf guns malfunctioned and we stood there in an awkward silence and then just fell to the ground like we got shot.

On Wednesday our recent convert took Elder Stagg and I out to dinner down at Nampo. After that we went over to get ice cream at Baskin Robins. While we were eating the ice cream this tall guy with huge puffy hair came and sat at our table with us. He didn't say anything at first which was really awkward but then started speaking to us in English. turns out he was visiting from japan and didn't know any Korean so he asked us where he should go to visit. After we talked with him for about a half hour we found out that he is a member of our church and just got off his mission in japan. Our recent convert, Lee JunHo, tryed to explain to him where he should go for sight seeing. It was funny to watch a Korean guy and a Japanese guy try to communicate with each other in their very broken English. Then the Japanese guy asked if he could sleep at Lee JunHo's house and Lee JunHo said,"No I live with my parents."

It was getting late so Elder Stagg and I had to leave but Lee JunHo and the Japanese guy went to go get something to eat together. When Elder Stagg and I got home we get a call from Lee JunHo and all he said was," Elders, the Japanese guy is sleeping at my house, okay bye."

We are meeting with this old man named Yoo JeYoung. We really likes our church but he has some very interesting beliefs. He loves to start teaching us about random things in the middle of our lessons so they tend to be pretty long. Last time he taught Elder Stagg and I how to punch correctly if we ever get in a street fight back in America. I thought he was gonna have a heart attack in our church.

The work is going well here, I hope you guys all have a great week.

Typical meal for us here in Korea

10 September

I'm sitting in the Samsung Service Center and the guy next to me smells like dead fish... but anyway not too much happened this week. We are down to only one actual investigator so we have just been doing a lot of finding. Finding is like the biggest problem in our mission. People just don't have too much interest. So President Jeong has advised us to come up with creative ways to proselyte.

We have tried a lot and most of them have been fails. Elder Stagg and I made a board to invite people to English class. It had a big spin wheel on it with some questions but when we went out on the streets to use it someone spun it and the wheel just broke off and fell to the floor. it was super awkward.

Last night us and the sisters went down to the beach to try to do "song proselyting." It was a fail. Elder Wtagg and I have ukulele's but we don't know how to play them. but we did anyways. We "played" the ukuleles while the sisters sang. eventually we put the ukes down and just sang but I don't know if that was much better. We got a few people to stop and talk to us and a few drunk guys to be our audience for a little but besides that nothing. We are going to try again next Sunday but as a district.

Nothing much else going on here. A few more warnings about north Korea and we have heard a lot about the storms in the US. All Koreans feel they need to tell us about it since we are American. We also saw a news article with a picture of our old mission president, president barrow, on his air boat helping people out in Texas.

The work is going great here. Everyone be safe and I hope you all have a great week. may the odds be ever in you favor.

Chillin at Lote Mall again

September 17

This was the last week of the transfer calls. Elder Stagg got called to Yoengdo which is just the next area over so we will still be in the same district. I will be stay in Goejoeng and my companion is the one and only Elder Haskell.

On Thursday we had mission tour with Elder Yamashita from the Seventy. Him and his wife both came down to speak to us. After that I went straight up to Yoengdo to go on exchange with Elder Avilla. We met with their investigator who's wife and kids are actually living in Provo, Utah.

The next morning we went and played soccer with a bunch of 40 year old guys and got wrecked. Mostly because we ran from the house to the field which is on the top of a massive hill. Then I went back in time for Goejoeng English class.

In our English class we only have two people come and they are both old ladies. The sisters teach one in basic and Elder Stagg and I teach the other. At the end of our lesson we were talking about food and we asked if she liked McDonald's and she replied, "I love make donuts, I make donuts all the time at my house." Then she promised to bring us home made donuts next but Elder Stagg and I were laughing so hard we couldn't reply.

Last night we did our district singing proselyting down at Nampo. It was really hard but pretty fun. Elder stagg had to pass out flyers while the other missionaries sang because we cant.

Besides that nothin much else goin on. Im pretty pumped for next transfer. Its going to be a very interesting one with Haskell. But we are hopin to get a lot done.