Two updates and a lil Steve for your week

We are terrible parents who get so excited to hear from our Elder, we forget to update his blog. Sorry for the delay...

UPDATE #1
It was a good week in Busan. Its been really hard lately to find anyone and also to meet our investigators but when we get the chance it always goes really good.

Last night we got a call from our district leader telling us that he got us an appointment, for today. All he said was that it was with a less active who hasn't been to church for like ten years and that he wanted to play board games with us, then told us which stop to get off, and thats all the information he gave us. So we woke up this morning went to the bathhouse, came home and got ready, and then got on the subway. Turns out he lives an hour away in a different city, we had to take like five different trains. When we got to the station we walked out and a really nice black sports car pulled up and a guy got out of the passenger seat and said,"Elders, my friends car," then motioned for us to get in. His English name was Stacy and his friend who picked us up was a young man who's English name was brad. He took us to his house. Stacy teaches english and brad is one of his students and is a non-member. His daughter sally was also there. He brought us into a room with a white board and said."okay we will now play jeopardy." We played jeopardy for about and hour but the whole time we were playing brad was asking us questions about our church. It was really cool because it turned into sort of an investigator lesson.

After we were done playing Jeopardy and Scrabble, Stacey told Brad to take us back to the station. He ended up giving us his business card and told us to call him. It was all a really random experience but we ended up finding an investigator from it.

We do have showers in our apartment but we go to the bathhouse every Monday morning. Its like the thing you do in Korea as a missionary. The one we go to is huge. It has got like 20 different pools. Hot pools, cold pools, lap pools, indoor pools, outdoor pools, champagne pools, red pools, sauna's, back massager things. But things are goin good still struggling with the language. That's crazy Terrence got called to Samoa. I thought for sure he would be serving in the Salt Lake Visitors Center LOL.

연 산 is really an amazing area. Even though its hard to see at times the work is moving forward. I'm so thankful to be in Korea serving the Lord right now. I hope everyone's doing well back home.

Miss you guys a lot. Love you.

UPDATE #2
This week was really hard to meet any investigators or even people in the street because was the biggest holiday in Korea, called 설날, like Lunar New Years or something. But we did have dinner at the bishops house which was really fun. He invited us and the sisters over on Saturday night. After we finished eating the Bishop found out my companion plays the piano, so he had us sing hymns for like an hour.

Yesterday, since it was Sunday and our apartment is really far away we had to cook dinner at our church. Is was 6 o'clock at night and we were the only ones in the chapel. Then this random guy walks past the kitchen, waves and goes and sits down in the dark chapel. We had no clue who he was. He started talking on the phone and after about 20-minutes he came up to us and said (in Korean), I have some friends who are interested in English and they will be here in about 30-minutes, can you talk with them? We said yes and he just went and sat back down. Then we went over and talked to him to see who he was. He was about 50 or 60 and we have no idea why he showed up. He didn't seem to know anything about our church or missionaries so we taught him about ourselves. then two ladies walked in (his friends) and we talked to them for a few minutes. They randomly started singing and playing the piano. Then they scheduled to meet with us every Thursday and Friday, gave us their names and numbers and then got up and left.

A few minutes after they left the Stake President walked upstairs to talk to us. He asked us who those people were and we just replied, we don't really know. Then he told us that that man is a member in the Soonjung Ward but no one has seen or heard of him in a long time. But somehow he showed up with his non-member friends and is going to meet with us weekly. We find investigators in the weirdest ways.

We also had mission broadcast and got a new schedule which is exciting. Besides that everything is going smooth here in Busan. The church is true.

Love you guys
Elder Mica Matua

This is a vending machine just on the street we always go to.
You put in coins and press one of the buttons and a
random drink comes out. Its different every time.

This is Steve. He is sooo funny. He loves talking to the missionaries and he takes us out to eat every week at McDonalds. Whenever he finds us at the church studying or something, he comes in and says,"I want to share spiritual message with you guys." Its not really a spiritual message but they are always so funny to listen to because they make no sense.

Steve and a "spiritual" message

The Plan of Steve-ation

Old folks, bath houses, ping pong and more

Our investigator in Changwan was baptized this week

Hey ya'll,

It's been a pretty busy week. We do a service project every week at a huge old person place. We sit in the kitchen washing dishes while about 20 old Korean ladies cook and serve food and one of the old Korean ladies kept smacking my butt. I'm not really sure why. Then we have English class every Thursday and Friday. After Thursday's class I challenged some of the class members to play me in ping pong (most of our class is over 70 or 80 years old). I got wrecked by two old guys who were 80 and an old lady who is 75. They all came to class with their custom paddles in little paddle cases.

For Friday's English class we just read the Book of Mormon in English which is cool since no one who comes to the class is a member. One of the guys actually knows the Book of Mormon stories

This morning we went to a public bath house. They are all over in Korea and the one in our area is supposedly the biggest one in Asia; maybe the world. It was a very interesting experience. You walk in and put all of your clothes in a locker (ALL of your clothes). The only thing you are wearing is a bracelet with a key on it. Then you just go chill in the hot pools with a bunch of old naked Korean guys.

This afternoon we went to Nampo, which is like the biggest outlet mall in the world. There's a tie store that sells really nice ties for two dollars and the guys know the missionaries pretty well because everyone from the mission goes there.

My investigator back in Changwon got baptized yesterday. He called me to see if I could come but the AP's said no. But it's okay, it just matters that he got baptized. It has been a little harder finding investigators in Busan. Everyone is really "busy" and don't want to listen. Another thing that makes it harder is that most people have a really bad opinion of Christian churches here since there is literally a Christian church on everyone corner just looking for money. But we are meeting with a family which is very rare in Korea. The family is sooo cool. the dad is hilarious and he wants us to teach his son English because he has a friend who learned English from the missionaries, moved to America, and got really rich. But his son is really shy and doesn't want to learn English. The family is really good when we teach them lessons. The dad's name is Sung Han and he loves to say the prayer at the end of our lesson. I really feel like this family will get baptized. When we meet with them it feels like we are meeting with one of the member families.

Busan is actually split up into two different zones and many different areas. Ours is called 연 산 (Yunsan). It is amazing. The Ward is really strong but there are like, 500 inactives. Korea is amazing. Sometimes when I'm walking around the city I don't realize what an amazing country this is but sometimes I stop and just take it in. Every day we are walking through huge skyscrapers, and buildings with colorful lights and signs all over them, huge fish and street markets selling all kinds of stuff, beautiful Korean mountains and tons of Buddhist temples. And the best thing is that the people are all so nice and respectful.

My friend Edwin in Changwan

really well. Every time someone asks a question he explains like the whole Book of Mormon.

A lot of work to be done. Hope everyone thing is going good back home. Stay safe.


Love you guys,
Elder Mica Matua

Johnny in Changwan

Robert, the Filipino member in Changwan

Exercising on the rooftops in Yunsan

District meeting in Changwan

Me and the homie, Elder Barnett

Nampo Mall - the place is huge!

Meat buffet with the missionaries in our area

Me and Elder Johnston eating bedar chicken in our apartment

Our apartment - study area

Our apartment - sleeping area AKA study area

Random Korean companies #1

Random Korean companies #2

New home, new comp, new experiences

Soccer with my new Ward and homies

I just got transferred to Busan. The mission home is right down the street from my apartment. My companion is named Elder Johnston, from Arizona. I am so happy for a change and it has already been so good. But it was pretty sad saying goodbye to everyone in 도겨.

Our investigator that we have been teaching is getting baptized next week so I'm pretty sad I won't be there for that. But he just texted me on my new phone and asked how I was. Maybe I'll still get to go to his baptism. He came to church yesterday even though he went to bed at 4am because he said he wanted to hear me speak.

Other than that I am just excited to get to work in Busan. Elder Johnston is a really good missionary.

Hope everyone is doing well back home.


Love ya'll!
Elder Mica Matua

Taxi's, a fat guy and New Years

Happy New Years!

Hope you guys had fun partying this week. New Years isn't too big here in Korea. Their biggest holidays are the Solar new year and Korean thanksgiving. But we did go to Baskin-Robbins on New Years Eve for their 31st deal. Besides that we have been working as usual.

Last week when I went on exchange, I packed an exchange bag with all of my stuff in it. Then we took a taxi to the bus terminal and when I got out I totally forgot my bag in the back of the taxi and it drove off. We tried to call the taxi company but there is like ten million taxis in Chang-Won so they basically told us we are out of luck. About a week later I was on exchange with Elder Fox, Elder Jenkins was with Elder Oh. That night when we met up they had my bag. They said that they were walking down the street and a taxi pulled over and yelled at them to get in. He didn't tell them why and Elder Oh didn't recognize him. When the taxi driver was talking to Elder Oh he motioned to Elder Jenkins and said, "Wasn't there a fat one with you last week?"(talking about me). He drove them all the way to his house, ran in, and came back out with my bag. And then he just drove off and left them at his house.

Yesterday we met with two Chinese guys to teach them a lesson. It was really hard because they only knew a few words in Korean and no English, but it was a fun experience. The work is moving forward. the church is true.


love you guys,
Elder Mica Matua

Pictures from Miryang and Christmas

Since I spoke to you all on Christmas day, here are some photo's we took from our Christmas and from my recent exchange in Miryang:

My first mission Christmas tree - thanks mom!

Elder Oh's first BYU shirt

Christmas fun with the Ward

Study space with Christmas lights

Beautiful Miryang

Another one from Miryang

Love you all,
Elder Mica Matua