Hello and Goodbye Elder Matua

On Tuesday, July 10, we welcomed home Elder Mica Matua from the Korea-Busan Mission. Tomorrow, July 18, we say goodbye to our latest missionary - Elder Kenyon Matua has been called to serve in the Ukraine-Kyiv/Moldova mission and reports to the Provo Missionary Training Center tomorrow.

We have enjoyed our short time together as a family. It is the first time in six years that our whole family is together along with two new additions, our daughters in-law Mariah (Kingston) and Kaylee (Chase). For one week we have laughed at Mica's stories as a missionary in Korea and reminisced of our times together over the years as we give Kenyon our best missionary advice and testify of Christ.

This past Sunday, Kenyon and Mica both spoke in Sacrament meeting. It has been bitter-sweet but we know that one day our family will be together forever because we believe it is possible through our Savior Jesus Christ and it is an essential truth in the Plan of Happiness.

We will miss Kenyon dearly these next two years but we're so happy that he has chosen to serve the Lord and are confident that he will love every moment of this new journey!

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