Transfer #6 (May 21 Update) -- Hogye

Final investigators in Yunsan

Sorry we're late updating the blog. We were so excited to speak to Mica on Mother's Day that we've been slacking ever since.

I just got transferred to 호계 (Hogye) up in Ulsan. It is a lot different from the big city Busan. Me and one of the new Elders had to take a 30-min train to a bus station and then take a two hour bus to our area. It was a miracle that we didn't get lost. It was both our first times in Ulsan.

My new area is a lot more country. It takes us over an hour on bus to get to district meeting. The Branch here is really awesome. They have quite a few young men but not any young men leaders so the missionaries are in charge of that. We teach Seminary, Sunday School, and play soccer with them every week. Most of the young men are recent converts and are the only member in their family and their parents hate the church but they still come ever

y week. And they are really good at bringing friends along with them.

Failed final Zone pick before
leaving Yunsan

Yesterday when me and Elder Profit were proselyting we were walking through this huge market and we heard a concert going on. We walked down the street and there was a huge crowd of old people watching a concert of some old Korean singers. As me and Elder Profit walked past we just started clapping. When the song ended the man who was hosting or the Emcee said in Korean, "Everybody get into it like these two foreigners back there." Then he asked us where we were from and when we replied in Korean he was so shocked. When the next group started performing he ran through the crowd, grabbed us and pulled us up on stage and made us dance. It was pretty fun. Hopefully we get some investigators out of that since we're famous now.


Love you all,
Elder Mica Matua

Final pic with the homie Steve-O

Baptisms, elections

Baptism day!

Not too much going on this week.

They are having the elections right now for the new Korean president and its pretty funny. Each of the candidates has their own color and they have trucks that drive around with with old ladies holding out peace signs all over the city.

We had a baptism yesterday of this little girl who's parents just started coming back to church. I had to sing a song for the baptism and is was pretty embarrassing. We had to use the vacuum hose to get the water in the font because someone lost the actual hose.

We got two new investigators this week and one of our investigators is scheduled for baptism next week.


Love you all,
Elder Mica Matua

My attempt at Korean style

Hiking above the city

Korea is actually a pretty place

Flat shenanigans and good progress

P-Day at the Zoo with the homies

This week has been great.

We just got an email from our mission president saying, due to tensions in North Korea we have to go pick up our passports from the mission home and get our 72-hour kits ready. But we just keep on working.

Me and Elder Aurich contacted everyone in the area book and met with so many people this past week. Most of them have no interest but we did get a few good ones. We met with a guy named Mr. Park at the church and he started talking about how good he is at tennis. Then he told us about a tennis court where there are always guys playing tennis and he wanted to take us there so we hopped in his car. When we got there, there wasn't a single person there. So we watched the Easter video with him and left. As we were walking out this old man walked in. We introduced ourselves and it turns out he is friends with our old Bishop. We got his number and invited him to church.

Met a lot of awesome people this week and had some great lessons. Oh and someone keeps coming into our apartment when we aren't home. One time we walked in and our washing machine was in the middle of the floor. The next time they just left the door wide open. And a few days ago they left a "surprise" in our toilet. Besides that this week has been great.


Love you all,
Elder Mica Matua

Zoo with Elder Aurich

At a massive local stadium

Another very amazing lesson from Steve

Recreation clothes

Chillin in the flat

Adventures with Sister Kim

Elder Oh - heading home

We had a really great first week of the transfer. We spent the first two days contacting hundreds of people in the area and were able to meet a few people from it. We met with a man who owns a seafood restaurant by the church who I see all the time who turned out to be a former investigator. He was really nice but he told us that if we were trying to convert him to our religion then we are wasting our time. But we stayed and taught him a lesson and bore testimony.

Last night we were walking home and as we were waiting at a light in front of McDonald's this man approached us from behind. When I turned around I recognized him immediately. It was one of the McDonalds workers that we see every week, since Steve takes us to McDonald's a lot. We started talking and then eventually found out that he had been baptized in our church. We had no idea. We got his number and are going to meet with him next week.

Earlier this week we got a call from the grandma of the Yeonsan ward inviting us over for lunch. She told us which bus to ride to get to her house but when we got to the stop we didn't know which direction to take so we caught a taxi. When we got in the taxi we called sister Kim and handed the phone to the driver. Then you just hear her yelling at him, "I told them to take the bus." The driver had a hard time understanding her because her Busan accent is so thick but we eventually made it to her house. When we got close we just see an old lady in a bright yellow rain coat waving down our taxi and it ended up being sister Kim. We were at the bottom of a mountain. We walked about a half a mile strait up the steepest hill I have ever climbed with sister Kim. She is 86 years old and just power walked strait up the mountain like a beast.

When we got there she fed us so much food. Her husband died many years ago and her kids are all moved out so she lives alone. She is such an amazing member. She got baptized 40 years ago after her son joined the Church and now has been a strong member ever since. We shared a message with her and then said a prayer and when we were about to leave she said, 'I need to go to the market so I will walk down with you guys.' As we walked out of the apartment there were two old ladies standing outside and they asked her where she was going and she yelled, 'the market,' but as we were walking away me and Elder Aurich heard them say, she is always with foreigners, they didn't know we speak Korean. As we walked down the mountain we kept passing old ladies and Sister Kim would randomly say to them, 'We are going to the market.' They would reply, 'together?' And Sister Kim would say, 'You bet!' it was pretty funny. Then she waited at the bus stop with us and yelled at the bus driver to make sure we got to the right place.

General Conference was awesome this past week. I think it was the first time I didn't fall asleep throughout the whole thing. Being a missionary, listening to the words of the prophets is very different. It is really cool hearing the testimonies of people who have so much experience in the gospel. #thechurchistrue #PrinceofPeace.


Love you guys
Elder Mica Matua

Made it to Sister Kim's house

Hiking with Sister Kim

Staying in Yeonsan and Michael Jackson's man

Saying goodbye to Elder Johnston

I'm staying in Yeonsan for another transfer but I will be getting a new companion today. Im glad I get to stay though. I really love serving here.

We don't get to watch General Conference until next week because they have to translate it for the Koreans. I heard about Elder Choi's talk. He is our homie over here in Korea.

This week has been going good though. As we were proselyting we met this guy named Kitte Gar. He is in love with michael jackson. While we were talking to him he just kept busting out his michael jackson moves. He said he practices every morning. when we were talking to him, he literaly, mid sentence,  would just look up to the sky, scream and yell, "NO Michael, 2009, he went up to the sky!" he did that about three or four times. We see him pretty often now while we are walking around the city. I don't even know if he's real.

Not to much happened this week. The Bath house was great this morning. Excited for general conference.


Hope you guys have a good week.
Elder Mica Matua

With my homies from the Ward

Me, Master Steve and Elder Johnston

Getting our grub on

Bath house squad

Zone Conference and a Bible bashing member

Faith like a mustard seed

All is well here in Busan.

Pretty slow week. Not anything too interesting. We had zone conference on Wednesday which is always good. The best part about going to the mission home for meetings is when they feed us lunch. They have a little old lady named Sister Lee who cooks for us and I swear I gain ten pounds every time I eat there.

During our zone conference we were given faith cards. They are just a card with a bunch of scriptures about faith with a mustard seed laminated in the corner. Our president instructed us to read a scripture every time we have a decision to make. Then He sent us outside for 30-minutes to proselyte and use the card as much as possible.

On Friday me and elder Avilla went on exchanges again. On Thursday we had a less active member come to our English class and bible bash us the entire time. It was pretty bad since he was the only member in the class but he was still trying to debate with us.

Besides that nothing else to special. We get transfer calls this Saturday but I have no idea if I will stay or go.

The church is true. Hope you guys have a good week.


Love you all,
Elder Mica Matua

My goofy mug shot

A text reply from our investigator

The mission car

Investigators, military friend and uncle Adam

With our friend in the military

Sounds like it was a big week back home. 

This week we had two visitors. The first was a Korean missionary from Dejoun. He had to come over here for military training and stayed with us for a few nights. It was pretty fun. We went out and proselyted while he was in all his military gear with a name tag on. Then we took him to the headquarters and picked him up when he was done. The hardest part was cramming into a tiny apartment with three people. We also found out that his sister was one of my teachers in the MTC and his dad is currently our stake president in Busan. 

Our second visitor was Uncle Adam. Yesterday as we were about to start Sacrament our investigator walked in and he walked in right behind him. Him and his friend went and sat in the back and I think our Bishop thought he was an investigator because he motioned for me to go sit by him. They had to leave early to get back to Seoul but it was so good to see him. It was really weird seeing someone from home in Korea because I feel like I'm on another planet. 

Also yesterday we got to meet Anam who is our Cambodian investigators older brother, and who is actually a member. He is a really great guy and kept telling us how much he wants to serve the god and how it is his life's purpose. The work is going really great here and I am having a great time serving the lord.

Love you guys,

Elder Mica Matua

We got arrested ... again LOL

My birthday gift from Sister Qaqa hahaha

More sightseeing, Elder Holland and loving this place

More sightseeing with our investigator and his son

Not too much to report this week, just work as usual.

This week Elder Holland came to Korea. He only went to Seoul since Elder Bednar came to Busan last time, so we watched the live broadcast. On Friday he gave a talk along with his wife, Elder Choi, and Elder Whiting. On Saturday night they did a Q & A for the single adults and it was really good.

Elder Holland spoke about how he was invited to speak at a Catholic university in Seoul last week. He said to them, "I'm not telling you that you have to believe what I am saying, but you BETTER believe that I believe what I'm saying." After, Elder Holland explained our church and bore his testimony at the university, the professor jumped up out of his chair and said, 'you guys all better listen to this man, this is very important'.

His talk on Friday was all about how you cannot deny the evidence. He shared the story of Peter healing the man on the temple steps. After Elder Choi gave his talk Elder Holland got up and said, "I'm gonna let you guys in on a little secret; this is one of the speakers in the upcoming general conference, right after President Monson, right before President Uchtdorf, the big three.' Then he said, 'don't tell President Monson I told you or he is going to assign me to Kiribati."

I learned so much from Elder Bednar and he kept saying how amazing the Korean latter day saints are and I get to see that everyday. I am so grateful to be serving in such an amazing place and doing the Lord's work.

Love all you guys and have a great week.
Elder Mica Matua

Overlooking the city

This place is amazing

Pretty crazy

Food is amazing too

Praying for Korea

Exchanges and Investigators

Not too busy this week. A lot of proselyting, but still great. On Tuesday I went on exchanges with our zone leader Elder Labrum over in Gupo. It was really fun and a good exercise because every single road there is a steep hill. and all we did was proselyte. We actually met a lot of people and got a lot of contacts. While we were walking around, Elder Labrum wanted to take me to the dog market. I wasn't really sure what a dog market was but now I definitely do. Its just like a normal street market but instead of tables lined with fish and fruits, there were huge red cages packed full of these big dogs. Also there were tables lined with skinned dogs ready to purchase.

The street has a big red tent cover over the top which makes it look really sketchy. I guess what they do there is illegal, so when me and Elder Labrum were walking in, this old lady jumped up and ran down the street yelling to the other market people to warn them that we were coming. They get really scared when they see two foreigners in suits randomly walk through. And if they even see a camera they freak out so I couldn't get any pictures. but we did get some pictures with the puppies that they were selling for ten dollars out front.

Yesterday our investigator came to church again. He really seems to love the ward and after church he told us that it was the best time he has ever had at church, he has been to very many different churches.

Yesterday after church while we were doing language study, we got a call from an unknown number. It was from a man we met on the street that we gave a contact card to, so we were really surprised when he actually called. He took us to his house and we taught him a lot about our church. We found out that he is part of a different religion that believes God came to Korea in 1870 and gave them a bible. When we gave him a book of Mormon and gave him a chapter to read he gave us one of those bibles and gave us a chapter to read. We left and went back to the church and were thinking of how we are going to help this guy since he is already so strong in his religion. Then last night we found out that our second counselor in the bishopric used to be a part of that same religion and he said he will come with us next time to help teach him.

Korea is a really hard place to find prepared people but I know that God continues to put people in our path. I know this church is true and I am thankful to be a part of Gods work.

I love you guys and hope you have a great week!
Elder Mica Matua

Investigators, Area Leaders and a Beach

A little P-Day action

Another great week in Busan!

This week we were able to meet with a lot of our investigators. On Wednesday we met with a kid named Kim JongChan. He has been taught all of the lessons but he cannot get baptized or come to church because of his parents but he still wants to meet with us and learn more about our church.

On Saturday we met with a man named Jang HanKir, in Korean his name means "one path", or "one way" so I call him One Direction. He wanted to meet with us to learn English and he is actually really good. We met him in a cafe and started our 30/30 program, which is: we teach English for 30 minutes and then about our church for 30 minutes. I showed him my family pictures and he said," Wow your mother is beautiful, and your father he looks like Martin Luther King." hahaha! But the lesson went really good. Turns out, he already had a Book of Mormon from a long time ago and he said it teaches him good life lessons. When we handed him a pamphlet he said,"Okay I will memorize this tonight." We were like, okay great.

Then yesterday we had two of our investigators show up to Sacrament meeting randomly on their own. One of them showed up a few minutes after sacrament and I motioned for him to come sit next to me. He was drinking a cup of coffee the whole sacrament and left for a little while for a smoke break. We definitely need to teach the Word of Wisdom before next Sunday.

Our other investigator showed up while people were bearing their testimonies so my companion, who was playing the piano, went and sat by him. Then a few minutes later I see him walk up to the pulpit. This was his first time ever being at church so I was really surprised. He didn't really bear testimony but he gave a great talk. He talked about how he met the missionaries and how he loves when we come to teach his family. He said, "Elder Johnstun and Elder Matua gave me a present for new years," then he held up his Book of Mormon. He was really proud of it.

Our English class is going really well and we teach a group of crazy old people on Thursdays and Fridays. On Friday we had mission tour with Elder Choi, one of the Asia North area authorities. He was really funny and told us that he was trained to kill someone with one finger in the military so feel free to fall asleep. Him, Elder Whiting, and The Japanese guy, I forgot his name, are over Asia North which includes North Korea. He said Elder Whiting visits North Korea but Elder Choi can't because he is Korean. Elder Choi's advice to us was, "If you don't like it, then just like it." So that is the motto for this transfer.

Hope YoReBoon have a great week.


Love you guys,
Elder Mica Matua

Like most things in Korea, I have no clue what is happening here

 

This is a typical meat buffet

One of our Ward members

Gwangon Beach for P-Day

Playing soccer - Gwangon Beach

Some of our Zone at Gwangon - Bannibals fo lyfe

We visited Costco!

Oh yeah!

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