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

January Updates

7 January

Dear friends and Saints in Jeju

Pretty slow week. It's been super hard to find new investigators here. Especially when its new years and everyone is just partying. but we're doin good here in Seoguipo. We got to go over to the Navy base and play basketball again. This time we played some of the soldiers. We also helped our friend John out with moving some furniture into his new school building and I realized how out of shape I am.

We had interviews with President Jeong in Jeju city this week. It was really quick but its always a good time meeting with President Jeong and Sister Kim.

Pretty boring email but not to much goin on. Hope you guys have a great week.

14 January

Great times with this guy

Super cold week. On Wednesday elder 이인영 came over to Seoguipo for exchange and we barely made it over the mountain. It was snowing so bad. Strait blizzard. I thought Jeju was only supposed to be hot. It was super weird to see the beach and all the palm trees covered in snow.
While on exchange we met with elder 이인영's uncle for lunch and I felt super bad making him walk in the snow storm cuz he's like 75 years old. After that we tried to proselyte but there was no one outside. Except for James Bond. We tried to get him to go home since it was so cold but he thought it was really fun.

Then when we got home and tried to order some food all the restaurants said there bike guys can't come because of the snow. We thought we were gone die. We ended up having to actually cook our own food.

We didn't have too much else go on last week. This week is week 6 the last one of the transfer. We get calls on Saturday, hopefully. So we will see what happens.

Everything's going good in Korea and i hope ya'll have a great week. 안녕

21 January

I don't really have any time to email. I got transferred to a place called Gimcheon in Degu Zone. It's super country side but it will be fun. And I'm District Leader and have some super fun missionaries in my district. It was super sad to leave Soeguipo but I told all the members I'll be back to visit after my mission. We got to hop on the subway right now then onto a three hour train ride. Hope you guys have a great week.

28 January

Gimcheon is soooooooooo cold. and it is like the most remote place in the whole mission. but it is Korea so there is still probably more people in this small city than all of Utah.

My new friends Hasan and Saeed

We actually had quite a few appointments this past week. Lot of old crazy people but a few good ones. We had lunch at the branch presidents house two days in a row.  They kept inviting us over since it was negative a thousand degrees outside. We also met with a police officer who is taking the lessons. super nice guy and he also took us out to lunch. then we met with a guy who runs a study room and he is trying to find a career for me.

One Saturday we met with these two guys named Hasan and Saeed who are from Iran. They really want to learn about Jesus and Christianity. They don't really speak any English and very, very little Korean so we communicated by passing Hasan's phone back and forth saying stuff into Google Translate. I also learned some Farsi or Persian... I think its the same language. Then they took us out to eat at a meat restaurant. They are super cool.

Our district is super fun. We have to travel pretty far to get to the other areas which is sort of hard. But one of the teams in our district has to travel three hours just to get to district meeting and then three hours back.

We pressin on here.

Hope ya'll have a great week. 

I'll really miss my friends in Jeju

December Updates

Once again, we have totally failed at posting Elder Mica Matua's email updates. Here are the email's we received in December.

With James Bond at the Branch Christmas Party

10 December

I'm in Busan right now meeting up with my new companion. I have to catch a flight back to Jeju so I don't have much time. My new companion is called Elder Braswell. We are in the same MTC group so we both already know each other.

This week was super fast. We got a bunch of lunch appointments since it was the last week. We met up with our Filo's and ate chicken. They also brought a few of their Indonesian friends. There was sort of a language barrier but it was fun.

I would write more but I have about no time.

Love ya'll

17 December

First week done. It was a good week but we had a lot of appointments cancel on us. Which sucks because we dont have to many appointments in the first place. So we did a lot of proselyting. Plus it snowed here a couple days so its been really cold.

Decorating for the party

At our English class we only had one person come and also James Bond but he just sits there and acts like he knows what we are saying. But we did start a new English class this past week. Well actually someone else started it for us. Our friend John, who owns a restaurant, his mom Lisa set up a free English conversation class in Johns restaurant. We thought we would just be sitting in and helping Lisa when she needs it but when we showed up at the restaurant Friday morning we found out that Lisa wouldn't even be coming and we were supposed to run the whole class. It was a little awkward at first but turned out pretty good. We had six members show up and they were all young moms but they are really cool.

We have also been preparing our Branch Christmas party. Its gonna be good besides the fact the Elder Braswell and I have to do a performance, and the performance our ward mission leader has in mind is... gonna be interesting. James Bond has offered to do a performance as well but I think the members sort of shut it down hahaha.

We will be heading to Busan tomorow and having the mission christmas party on Wednesday. Hope you all have a great week and Merry Christmas!

31 December

Heppi Christmas and Heppi New Yea!!!
I was pretty sick over christmaz but we still had a good time. Its always good to Skype the big fam on Christmas and New Year. Our ward also had a really good Christmas party. Elder Braswell and I had to sing and we totally bombed it. #fail. James Bond also came and brought the party with him.
We aren't doing anything special today for new years but the district president invited us and our Filipino friends over for dinner tonight.

We don't really have anyone to teach at the moment. We were teaching an old couple and even set a baptismal data with them but they moved to Seoul last week. We referred them to the elders down there and they said they would get baptized there.

Besides that not to much else goin on here in Seoguipo. Its crazy is already 2018. is gonna be a big year.

Hope you guys all have a great week and year.

Loving the Christmas hats

When I get bored at night (Christ)

New Updates: November 12 - December 3

November 12 

With Elder Stout overlooking our area in Jeju

We just got back from a place called sunrise peak with an investigator. His name is Mr. Campbell. an american with a Bulgarian wife and Korean daughter who has been living in Korea for the past like 30 years. They were nice enough to take us to sunrise peak with them which is a huge crater about an hour away on the east side of the island.

This week was really good. Last Monday we went down to Jeju city to hang out with the other missionaries. We went down to the beach and played soccer for a little until Elder Lee kicked the ball into the ocean. We got some fishers to try to fish it out for us but it didn't work. They kept telling us to swim out and get it but we explained that we cant. We ended up using the emergency life saver tube thing. The circle thing that floats and has a rope attached to it so you can throw it out to people. We used that and eventually saved our ball.

We met with a few of our investigators this week. The one that came to church last week is scheduled to be baptized on the 26th so hopefully he will be ready.  We met with our Filipino friends at their house with brother yoon. They cooked us some filipino food then we invited them to the ward dinner the next day. It was funny when we walked in with them because no one know they were coming.

In church yesterday the member who was teaching in 3rd hour made me and Elder Stout get up in front of the ward and do a proselyting role play. It was so awkward, but it was funny. He made some of the youth get up and help us. Also James Bond came to church which is always fun. It has been awesome serving on Jeju and I hope I get to stay here a while.

November 19

Stocked up on tangerines

Another great week on Jeju. Its starting to get a lot colder around here but its nothing like Utah. On Thursday we went over to one of our investigators farms and picked tangerine for a couple ours. It was just me, Elder Stout, and a bunch of old Korean ladies. They would always yell at us if we picked any that were to small or too big or the wrong color, but it was fun.

Also every Friday we go over and half dinner with our Filipino friends at their house. They all live together in a small house on the work site. There is also some Indonesian guys who live right next store and came over to eat as well. They cook us some Filipino food and then we teach them a lesson right before we leave. The stake/district president, Brother Voon, also comes with us and uses his very basic English to communicate with them.

Yesterday I had to speak in sacrament... again. But I think it went well. And then we went to Jeju city for a social media meeting. And James Bond begged to come with us so he rode with us down there. and back. Then last night while me and Elder Stout were walking down the street in downtown, we walked past a tied up plastic bag that started moving. We went back to it and it had stopped moving so we kicked it and it just started floppin around. Neither of us were down to open it up to see what was inside though. Probably a human hand. J/K. But yeah good week. Sogwipo is doing great and the work is movin. Hope you all have a great week.

November 26

With our buddy, James Bond

Pretty fast week. We had zone conference on Saturday which was a lot different than all my other zone conferences since there are only 8 missionaries on the island. President Jeong popped in on us for a surprise house inspection Friday night. Luckily our house was clean. We did get roasted for the 8-XL pizza boxes we had ordered though. Then the AP's slept over and we all stuffed in the back of presidents car for an hour ride to Jeju.

Thursday we played basketball with our Filipino friends and our branch president. We had to find an indoor court since the Filipino's said its too cold outside. We found a navy base with some nice courts and we will start playing weekly with them.

When elder stout and I went looking for the navy base the day before we were stopped by a korean lady that lectured us for thirty minutes about how evil the navy base is and how it needs to be taken out.

We are preparing Soeqwipo's Christmas party which is in a few weeks. Are branch president gave us the assignment and when we asked what we should use for decorations he just told us to use the ones from Halloween. He also asked me and elder stout to perform something but we have no idea what to do so that will be interesting.

Chillin in our flat

The branch here is doing awesome. Its a little bit hard finding people here but we have recieved some awesome refferals. We have two weeks left in the transfer and hopefully I can do another on the island.

December 3

Really fast week. I cant even remember anything that happened. But saturday night our gas ran out so we had to take freezing cold showers sunday morning and cook all our food at the church with james bond. We have also been sitting at home all morning waiting for thd gas guy to come on a p day.

But it was a good week. The old couple that we have been teaching came back from seoul so we have been ablw to meet with them again. Unfortunately they will be moving to seoul at the end of the month.

Finding in our beautiful area

We are getting ready for our Christmas party which will be very... interesting. But helps that we just got a new ward mission leader who is awesome.

This is the last week of the transfer so we will see what happens on Saturday. hope you all have a great week.

What the....? C'mon McDonald's 

New Updates: October 22 - November 5

October 22, 2017

My Goejoeng Crew - I'll miss them

Pretty good week. It started off with my friend Steve from my old area coming down and taking me and Elder Haskell to McDonald's. Then on Wednesday we went to go find a new service project. Our Branch President referred us to this place and gave us their number and address so we called and went down there having no clue what it was. When we walked in the door there was a room full of handicap people dancing along with a program on TV. Elder Haskell and I helped them make some art projects and then ate lunch with them. It was pretty fun and we go back again tomorrow.

On Saturday we went to a play/musical that some other missionaries had put on.  We brought our investigator Yoo Jaeyoung and he seemed to like it even though it was really weird.

Yesterday our Branch had their primary program. It was very interesting since there is only three kids in the primary but they did really good. They all had to sing solos and do a bunch of speaking parts. Then the Primary President sang the last song and decided to sing a hymn in English. She sang "I Know That My Redeemers Rives," hahaha but she did really good too. The missionaries also had to sing in it but we didn't do very good. It has been really good serving in this branch and seeing their faith. They help me to want to be a better member my self.
좋은 하루 되세요!

October 29, 2017

Im writing a little bit early today because I still have to go pack so more of my stuff and go send it at the post office. I am being transferred to Jeju island. I catch a flight down there at 3 o'clock today.

Attending the baptism of the Sisters' convert

This week was pretty crazy. On Tuesday we went to our service project again and worked with the handicapped kids. This time we did yoga, sort of.

Yesterday Elder Haskell and I had a man come to church with us who we met on the subway. His name is Brother Son and he is about 70-something so he fit in really well with our Branch. He ended up really liking church and he also got to see some to the baptism of the Sisters' investigator right after.

Elder Haskell was the one to baptize their investigator and he was super nervous. Unfortunately the boiler at our church broke so the font was freezing cold. It made it worse that Elder Haskell had to dunk her three times because her knee kept coming out of the water. By the third attempt the whole Ward was around the font yelling, 'slowly! slowly!' as she went into the water.

After church we met with all the missionaries in our district at our church. Our district leader gave us our new smart phones and we all set them up together. We went from a flip-phone from like the 1800's to a new Samsung Galaxy and it's so weird.

Well I'm pumped to be going down to Jeju. It was an awesome experience serving down here in GoeJeong. I love all these members and I hope to see them again one day.

I cut Elder Haskell's hair

November 5, 2017

Me and my friend Lee Jaebok

Super busy week. It was pretty crazy getting out of Busan. Sending all my luggage was terrible. I met up with the other Jeju missionaries at a subway station. Lee Jaebok was there to say hi. I went with another Elder and two Sisters and not a single one of us had ever been to Jeju before. They just told us 'hop on the subway. Go to the airport, and go tell the front desk your name.' Those were all the instructions we received but we luckily made it here. The flight was about 45-minutes long and it was so weird being on a plane again.

Jeju is by far the most beautiful area on the mission. It was weird to see palm trees as we walked out of the airport. It is just like being in Hawaii, just not as humid. When we got here we went to the Jeju church to get the smart phones since the Jeju teams hadn't got them yet. My companion Elder Stout and I hopped on a bus to Soguipo. I'm not sure if that's how you spell it. There are two areas on Jeju. They just split the island in half and Jeju area has four elders and two sisters and the other side of the island is mine and Elder Stouts.

The legend, "James Bond" of Jeju Island

The bus ride to our side is about an hour and a half. We got off the bus and walked another 20-min to our house. By then it was about 8:30 p.m. Standing in front of the gate of our house was "James Bond." James Bond is a man that I have heard about my entire mission from any Elder who has ever stepped foot in Jeju. He is about 40-years-old and has a mental deficiency. He follows the missionaries around everywhere. Apparently he was waiting at our house all day. He offered to carry my bag for me and when we got to the house, since James Bond can't go inside, he ran around back to his hang out spot, which is our back window. We went inside and Elder Stout slid open the glass window so James Bond could talk to us. We ordered some pizza since I hadn't eaten since the previous day and we just sat there eating pizza talking to James Bond through the window until it was time to go to bed.

We met with a lot of people this week but my favorites are probably our Filipino crew. A Filipino called Mark was baptized in our branch a few months ago and now he always brings his friends to come meet us. On Friday they came over to the church and played ping pong and we ordered chicken. They always want to order chicken with us since they can't speak Korean to order it. They are a super funny group of little guys.

Me and Elder Stout in our area on Jeju

Yesterday at church Mark came so I had to translate for him and it was so bad. Im pretty sure he didn't understand anything. I felt super bad. I need a lot more translation practice. The advice I got from other missionaries was, 'If you don't know what they are saying just make it up.' But most of the members in Jeju are English-speaking so when I try to do that they just start laughing. Our investigator also came half way through sacrament meeting and knocked down all the chairs in the back on accident and it was super loud.

We also have been meeting with our friend John a lot. John is a 26-year-old Korean who lived in New Zealand for awhile so he is super good at English. He just opended up a resturant and invites us over to eat just about every day. We have also been helping them around their new buildings and restaurants.

Jeju is an awesome place and I am so grateful to be able to serve here. The members are also amazing as usual. I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Mica Matua

My Filipino Crew in Jeju

Beautiful little town in Jeju, sitting on a hand