June Updates - Last as a Missionary

June 3

What up?! everything is goin great out here. Super weird I only have five weeks left, I think. I'm now serving in an area called 대신. It's pretty lit because we have Nampo in our area. But it is a struggling Branch. There is only about seven people that come to church even though this used to be a huge Ward back in the day. Just lots of drama. Super sad but all we can do is keep working on it.

My comp is named YongHo Lee. We served on Jeju island at the same time and I knew his older brother when he served in this mission. He's an awesome guy. It's super weird that I only had two Korean companions my whole mission. My first and my last.

We white-washed into this area so we are starting everything from scratch. We got a referral from some other Elders and met with a guy in the hospital that we are now teaching. We also teach him English but it's super hard because he knows none and he's old but oh well.

Not to much else to share. Hope ya'll have a great week.

June 17

Three weeks left. we had a super good week. on Wednesday we went down to Nampo and did a district proselyting activity. We set up two rows of chairs facing each other and invited people to come do English conversation to get more people to our English class. it was super funny.

Yesterday we had Busan Stake Sports Day. They rented out a gym and some soccer fields and we spent the day up there. there was also little league flag football games going on on the fields right next to us which was super weird to see here.

We played soccer against all the old men in the Stake and smoked 'em. then we went inside and did arm wrestling and races. i didnt do the arm wrestling because i didn't want to hurt anyone haha j/k. but I did do the race and found out im super out of shape. I think I pulled something. but it was great to see all the members from the other wards I have served in.

I'm pumped to see you guys in a few short weeks. have a good one.

The Lone Update for May

Today is transfer day and I've been running all over the place with all my bags so its been pretty crazy. I thought I would be staying in 광안 (Gwangan) since I only have one transfer left but I got the call to move Saturday night.

I will be serving in 대신 (Nampo) with elder Lee Yong Ho. We are whitewashing in. It's gonna be good. It's still in the same zone and I have already served in this district.

We are gonna have to be first and second counselor since there is almost no members but it will be good.

Not too much else. Crazy transfer call day. Hope you guys have a great week.

April Updates

Visiting the Black Panther again

April 8

Heller!

We are on our way out the door to go to the beach with our zone so I have to email on the phone. This week was really good. Was great to watch conference again. Pretty crazy that it's my last one on the mission. Nothing else really interesting happened this week. Maybe I'll have some fun stories next week.

Have a good one

April 15

Whats up!

Today is transfer day but no one in our house got transferred so its just like a normal Pday for us. Actually most of our mission stayed the same which is really weird. I will probably finish my mission here in Gwangan since I only have this transfer and one more after it. Which is okay since its a really nice area.

Enjoying dinner with some friends

This week went by really fast. I cut like our entire districts hair this week. And I let elder Evaga cut mine so it looks sad but it will grow back...hopefully. My friend Yoo Jae Young from Geujoeng come and took us out to dinner on Saturday. And he brought the convert who Elder Haskell and I met.

Yesterday one of our members brought his nephew who is a non-member to church and he became an investigator. He is a really cool kid and he's a sophmore in high school. He seemed like he really wanted to go home during Sacrament but the last two hours he really enjoyed it. And when he stood up to introduce himself in Priesthood he said he's gonna come to church every week to prepare for baptism.

Nothing else really exciting happened this week. I think I am just used to weird things now so I dont even realize it when they happen.

April 22

Hello, Im still alive. not too much to write about today. Pretty normal week.

had a great day at church yesterday. We played soccer with our district on Saturday and our investigator came and also came to church yesterday. We had an inactive member come to English

The District

class and at first I didn't know he was even a member but then he started talking about his mission that he served about five years ago. Then we found out that the book and teaching materials we were using in our class were all made by him. And I actually know his family because they are in Hogye ward where I served. We are working with him to come back out to church but he just has some problems with our ward members. skrrt!

Well hope yall have a great week.

March Updates

March 4th

With Elder Cantarero in Gwangan

Today is transfer day so I'm on the train right now heading to Deagu. At Deagu we will meet up with some other missionaries and I'll leave with them to Busan. I was super surprised when I got the transfer call. Especially since I'd only been in Gimcheon for one transfer. So I was shocked when the AP told me I'd be going down to Gwangan (not sure if that's how you spell it ), in Busan.

I'm pretty pumped though. My comp will be Elder Cantarero. My homie from El Salvador. And I will be in a four-man house there. The other Elders will be Elder Stout, who was my companion on Jeju, and Elder Evaga. So is gone be lit.

Even though I wasn't in Gimcheon for very long it was still pretty sad leaving the members. Not too much else went on this week. Should be more interesting next week.

Oh and one of the members went and watched Black Panther and told us that the part they filmed in Busan, part of it was in Gwangan, where I'm moving to right now, and most of it in Nampo, where I lived for four months.

Hope you all hab da great week. I rub you or...

March 11th

Stretchin with the ladies

Super fast week. Gwangan is a super sick area and it's a lot nicer to have all the other missionaries super close. Our house is super fun. Every tuesday we have our service project and in Gwangan we go to a house packed full of old ladies that just chill there all day. We lead them in some streching activities which is hilarious. Then they give us strawberries and soda. Its super random.

We have been meeting with our recent convert a lot. His name is JeSon Lee and he speaks like twenty different languages. Every time we meet with him he is just getting back from a Russian or Chinese or Thai or some other language class. He also speaks to Elder Cantarero in Spanish and its like fluent.

On Wednesday I went on exchange to Haeundae, which is like the richest part of Busan. While we were walking around we saw Rolls Royce's and Lambos drivin around like its nothin. It was fun; also because all four of us Elders in the house are in the same MTC group.

I really dont have too much to write about today. this week flew by and I cant remember anything from it. and I'm 20 years old today so I feel like an old man. gonna need a walker or a cane pretty soon.

I think we're goin down to play soccer on the beach today. idk. but I hope yall have a great week.

March 18th

Chillin at the meat buffet

Shupa past week. deah ah so many peoplrs in Gwangan. We been hab the lot of fun dis week. last the zone went down to Haeundae for my birthday. We planned to go down there and then look for somewhere to eat, but all the buffets where either closed or too expensive. So we all went to McDonald's. But that was Gucci. They brought cakes and candles that we lit up in the McDonald's. Someone also brought the confetti popper things and kept poppin them off inside and everyone was sorta getting annoyed. But we are foreigners so no one cares. Then we went down to the beach and played soccer. good times.

We had interviews a few days ago that went really well. President Joeng is a funny guy. But I still dont know when I am comming home haha. And we have facebook and kakao talk now so its gonna be super useful here in korea.

Our recent convert came back from seoul yesterday and came to church. He's such a homie. Also we have a guy from Ethiopia that comes to church every week. Im still super bad at translating.
I dont really have to much to write. I can never remember what I did during the week. All the weeks sort of just blend together so I dont know if I've said it or not. 

March 25th

Dunking on fools

The weeks here are starting to go by really fast. maybe because my time is winding down. I cant remember too much that happened this week. We mostly have been looking for investigators. And working with our recent convert.

We had zone conference on sunday which was good. I had to speak which I hate doing at these meeting but it went pretty good. We also had to do a proselyting activity in the pouring rain. It was raining so bad you could barely see in front of you. But it was still fun cuz I got to go with elder stagg.

We are about to head out and go down to Nampo with some other elders. Not exactly sure what we are going to be doing down there but we will see. Hope you all have a great week and do activities and fun stuff and stuff.

Love,
Elder Mica Matua

Playing some screen baseball

Enjoying life in Korea with the flat mates

That Gwangan lyfe

February Updates

With our good friend Jafar

4 February
Good week. We met with a few people and got punked by a bunch. We spent a lot of time calling old numbers out of the member book. Because it is still super cold, and there is not many people on the gimcheon streets.

I went on exchange with the Andong Elders after district meeting last week. We got back into their area at about 5pm since it is take so long to get there. I went with Elder Vanwart who is in his third transfer. He's from Idaho and played rugby so I got to hear all about his team who is top 25 in the nation LOL. But it was a really good exchange. We also met with their recent convert who is about 13 years old.

Yesterday we met with our friends from Iran again. They are literally my favorite people in this whole area. They brought a new friend this time named Jafar. But Koreans can't make the F-sound so he introduces himself here as Japan. He is 50 and has a wife, kids and grandkids back in Iran that really want him to come back but he has to make money so he has been slaving over here for over a year. Our meeting went really good tho. I taught them Korean, they taught me some more Farsee, and then we talked about Jesus. It will be easier once we get pamphlets in their language.

Tomorrow we will have zone conference down in Hogye, my old area, so im pretty pumped about that. Other than that not too much else goin on. Its cold.

Have a great week.

The District and friends in our tradition Korean garb

11 February
Busy week. We had zone conference on tuesday which was combined with Ulsan zone so we had to all the way down to hogye. But it was super fun riding the train down there as a zone. And it was also super cool to be back in me old area.

The conference was ehh but they did tell us we would be getting Facebook and Kakao talk which is pretty chill. Then after we all went to a meat restaurant and almost put the place out of business.

Wednesday morning I went down to Gumi for an exchange with Elder Winter until Thursday morning and then went from there strait to Andong for an exchange with Elder Koo Chanwoo until friday afternoon. While I was in Andong we went to the sister's investigators junior high graduation. So many koreans. It was pretty funny. The students danced to psy's gentleman. One of the sisters from our mission who went home three weeks ago also came. And it was a good thing we all went because the girls parents didnt show up. Apperently the mom ledt years ago and the dad comes home only every couple of days so she basically lives alone.

On Saturday we went and met with a less active that week meet every week. He is about 80 years old and lives by himself in like a junk yard. Its strait up the trap. His house looks like something out of a Dr. Seuss book. We just go in, make sure he's still alive, check his food and water, share a message, and then try to teach him how to use his smart phone. But its no use. Its like trying to teach a 4-year-old how to operate a space shuttle. He's still trying to figure out how to get out of an app. Instead of pressing the home button he clicks the lock button on the side and turns it off. Then sits there for a good 30 seconds and then turns it back on. And gets frustrated when he see's that the app is still open. He'll do that five or six times before his pinky finger accidentally hits the home button and gets out of the app. It was funny the first two visits, now I just feel bad.

Yesterday we met witb our Iranian friends Hasan, Saeed, and Jafar again. They are always super fun. They facetimed their families in Iran for us to talk to them so I got to use my limited Pharsi. I have come to realize that Pharsi and English are a thousand times easier than korean.

We are on the train right now on our way to Susung to buy some Hanbok, Korean traditional clothes. We have to wear them on lunar new year this week.

Hope all you little riderz have a great week.

Hiking with the Elders for P-Day

18 February
This past week was lunar new year so all the Koreans were celebrae'in. We were too. We all went down to susung last week to buy some HanBok, Korean traditional clothing. They are usually a few hundred dollars. If they are really nice they can be over a thousand. So all the missionaries went down to the market and got second hand ones for ten dollars. They're probably more like fifth or sixth hand but it's chill. Mine smells like an old Korean man even tho I drenched it in febrez. Our whole district wore them to district meeting and then after we went and did district proselyting in them. We stood in the middle of downtown gumi and danced around and played games with people walking past. The we would ask if they wanted to take a picture with us and instead of using their phone we would use our camera, then get their contact info in order to just "send them the picture??."

Then on Thursday I went on exchange with elder Smith from west Jordan. Super cool kid. We met with our friends from Iran and most of the lesson we tried to figure out Saeed's age in Korean age, American age, and Iran age. It was super hard because they use a different calendar in Iran. It's not even 2018 there, it's like 1396. The months are different too.

After we met with them we went to the branch presidents house for dinner along with the sisters. The sisters also made us wear our HanBok to dinner so the branch president and his wife made us do a Korean ritual thingy where we bowed to them and others stuff. I had no idea what was going on.

Then on Friday our whole district went up to Andong wearing our HanBok for another district proslyteing sesh. Andong is two hours away so we went to the andong bus terminal at 7 to get back before 9, but when  we got there they said the bus is all sold out and the next one isn't until 8:30. So we took that one and had to sleep over at the Gumi elders house.

We are on the train right now headed down to Susung to go on a zone hike do I cant send pictures right now but I'll do it later today.

This is what my suit looks like now - gah!

25 February
his week actually went by pretty fast. On Monday we went down to Susung again to go hiking with all the elders in the zone. I am super out of shape. We went with some american soldiers. The Susung elders cover the korean ward and also the military branch so they invited some of the members to come with us. There was a restaurant at the top of the mountain that we ate at and saw some korean guy almost fall to his death. Luckily he only fell about ten feet and landed on an edge, if he been just a little bit further right he would have missed the edge and splattered in front of all of us. Then some American guy ran up there and started yellin at us cuz he thought we were messin around and made him fall or somethin??....

Tuesday we had interviews with president Jeong which was good. Every transfer when we have interviews we have to prepare what they call certification. We must prepare memorized scriptures and all the bullet points from the PMG and then teach a lesson with them to the mission presidents wife while our companion is in his interview. I basically kill it every time.

Then on Wednesday I went on exchange with Elder Winter from my MTC district. It was pretty lit. Did our service project with father gabiel and washed some dishes for old people. We also ate a ton of pizza school pizza. We had district meeting on thursday and we have to watch a bunch of videos about online missionary work. We are getting facebook and kakao talk soon so they are teaching us how to do proselyting and lessons over facebook. It should be really useful here in korea.

Friday we had english class which is always fun. We found out that one of the korean ladies that comes to our english class is teaching a less active american member in our branch piano. Also sister kang nari came because she was on exchange with our sisters and it was so wierd because we were trainees together in dogye and now she leaves next week. and the sisters in my MTC group left last transfer.

We had a good day at church yesterday. Then the branch presidents family had us over for dinner. He's a super funny guy. He started playing The Script super lound on his speakers, even during the prayer... thats about it. this week is the last week of the transfer so we'll see what happens next week.

Hope you all have the great week