First week in Hogye (May 28 Update)

Exchanges with JaeBok

Another great week in 호계 (Hogye). Not too much happened this week but we did get a visit from Elder Oaks. The whole mission met up in Busan and we got to hear from Elder Oaks, his wife, the Choi's, and Garret Gong from the Seventy. They all gave really good talks. and Elder Oaks roasted Texas since that's where President Barrow is from.

On Saturday we played our weekly soccer game with the young men. We have four young men who are recent converts and their families all hate the church, But they are really good members. they have to leave their church clothes in the missionary room and change when they get to church so that their parents don't know that they are coming to church. On Saturday they brought a bunch of friends to soccer. we had about 20 people there. We played non-members vs members. We are actually teaching a few of them right now.

We are still working on finding new investigators and trying to help the ones that we have. Its a really nice area, a lot smaller than Busan, a little bit country. But still has more people than the entire state of Utah. Things are goin good here.

Check out Mosiah 5:15


Love you all,
Elder Mica Matua

Hogye is country!

Pretty cool street art here

Sportin that Granny Yeezy gear

Exchanges with the Zone Leaders

Out and about with Elder Profit

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