[ 최성택 RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST! ]

Hello everyone,

Another week has now gone by in Korea. Hard to believe that its already been 2 months for me here in Seoul. I was able to get my mail and got 2 packages from you guys! Thank you sooo much. And those socks are exactly what i wanted, thank you! The cereal is GREAT!

For our pday last week, we were able to play a big soccer game on a great AstroTurf field! We played zone-zone. The Book zone (mine) verse the Seoul zone. And we won by one! It was way fun. Some of the Koreans in our mission are so good! After the soccer game we went over to check out the World Cup Stadium. It was massive. There was basically a whole mall and grocery store inside the stadium! We weren't allowed to see the field sadly, but we did find something else...Jamba Juice!!! Yup, a legit jamba. It tasted exactly the same as America, but better since it has been so long. I thought that was pretty cool.

On the 24th, we had a special music fireside that we have been puting together for the last couple of weeks. It was 4 wards combined and we had people from the wards do special musical numbers and sing and stuff. Before the fireside, we had a one hour open house for investigators to come. It was super successful. We had about 10 investigators come with a bunch of ward members there to explain the things we had put up on the wall (like temples, the restoration, Christ ...). It went very well. At the end of the whole event I had to give the closing prayer in front of like 75 Koreans. Of course I was nervous, but i think it was ok haha. I guess i should at least mention this, but i was told that i shouldn't dwell on it. Before the event started, we spent the whole day dealing with this guy who is crazy. He has been giving the church trouble for about a year now. Anyways, he was just making some really harsh threats and ended up pretty bad. The APs had to come down and help take care of the situation. He was brought to the police station, but is no longer there. It probably will not be the last of him. Be sure to ask me about the full story when I get home in 2 years. It's a pretty crazy one.

At church yesterday, Brother Sung Taek Choi was able to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. I had the privilege of standing in the circle as our bishop gave the blessing. It was very cool to be a part of. Thank you for all of your prayers for him and please continue to do so. I know that as I continue to work hard and strive to find the prepared, the Lord will continue to bless me.

Last night, I went on exchanges with the AP's which was interesting. It was crazy to see how much work they have to do, how many phone calls they get, and just how busy of a life they have as a missionary. They were able to help me out with some problems that were going on and I hope that I will be able to apply their teachings.

I know that all of you are doing great and that makes me so happy. I continue to pray for all of you every week. I know that as you do what the Lord requires you will be blessed. I hope you have a great week and that things continue to go well for you. I love you all. 사랑해요!!!

사랑으로,
Elder Messick
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[ FIRST BAPTISM 최성택 ]

Hey everyone!

Well this was an amazing week here in Seoul, Korea! Yesterday, my companion and I had our first baptism! As I have mentioned before, his name is 최성택, and the official spelling of that in English is Choi Sung Taek. It is pronounced a little bit differently in Korean than English, but that's ok. Also, in Korean the last name is said first. Anyways, the baptism took place yesterday after sacrament meeting (since that's our last meeting). It was such a special experience for me. During the closing song of sacrament meeting I had my arm around him as we sang and my heart just became SO full of joy. I have witnessed first-hand someone who really came unto Christ. He really changed his life around. He had the most sincere intentions and I can tell he will be an awesome member. Elder Christensen was able to baptism him and it was just so awesome to watch the smile on his face when he came out of the water. I am so happy for him and the direction his life is heading.

Sadly, his wife would not attend the baptism. She is involved with another Christian church and so I think she might just have a hard time with coming to our church. However, Choi Sung Taek did say he will try to be an example to her and invite her to come. I think that when she notices the changes in her husband's life and how he has become a better man she might change her way of thinking about our Gospel.

Sung Taek will be receiving the Holy Ghost next Sunday so he has a whole week span from his baptism to when it will be completed with the confirmation. Please continue to keep him in your prayers. I am not quite sure what happens if he smokes a cigarette between now and the confirmation, but I do know that we have to do all we can to keep that from happening!

On Thursday this week, grandma and grandpa's friends Jin and his wife took us out to lunch at a little Korean restaurant. They are so nice. It was so cool to be able to talk about grandma and grandpa and San Clemente with them. They are really nice people and I'm so glad I was able to meet up with them. Before they left, I gave them a Korean Book of Mormon. I didn't get much time to discuss what it really was though. But, I told them that I would make sure you ate at their restaurant, so maybe in a couple weeks you should head over there and maybe discuss a little about the book :)

My companion has been having some health problems lately so that has really been slowing down our contacting efforts. He is having some of the same stomach problems that he was having a couple months ago. Also, he had to have something removed from his foot so it's tough to walk for long periods of time. He is really fighting though it well and I know the Lord will bless him for his efforts.

Other than Choi Sung Taek, we have 3 other progressing investigators. We were able to have one attend church with us yesterday and he even got to see the baptism. I think he liked it because he wants to meet again on Wednesday. His name is Yuri. He doesn't have a whole lot of religious background in his life, so the way our church worked was a little confusing for him to understand, but he seems very sincere and interested.

One other investigator we have is 황승현 (Hwang - Seung - Hyong). He is such a nice guy. We met him about a week and a half ago. He is very good at English and is trying to get into school to become an interpreter. He is 33 years old and has a wife and a little 8 month old baby. Sadly, his wife moved down south for 4 months to live with her mother because she is struggling raising the baby. I can tell that he really misses them and gets lonely. Gospel wise, we have taught the restoration and a little bit of the plan of salvation. We committed him to pray about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. When we followed up on this commitment in our next meeting, he said that after he prayed about it he looked in the mirror and he said that he looked brighter and just feel calm and at peace. Pretty awesome! Also, when we taught about the beginning of the plan of salvation he said that he was very interested and is excited to learn more. I think that he has definitely been prepared by the Lord. He may take a little longer make the decision to be baptized, but i truly feel like one day he will.

The weather in Korea is finally starting to cool down! It's about 65-70 and really quite nice. We don't get blue sky here very often so it's always great when there is some blue in the sky.

Anyways, it has been another wonderful week. I am always so grateful to be one of our Lord's servants. It is a wonderful privilege to be here. I am learning so much about the Gospel, our Savior, and myself. I wouldn't trade this experience for the world. There shouldn't be a doubt in any young man's mind about serving a mission. It is what God has commanded us to do. So many blessing and treasured memories come from this. I am grateful to be a part of building the Lord's kingdom. I love you all so much. Have an EPIC week.

Now its time for some soccer! Woo
--
Love,
Elder Messick

Dad, guess what's just around the corner!? Triple Crown of Surfing. Anyways, when it starts up, do you think you could get me some updates in my email of how that goes. Thanks!

Also, this week i bought a sweet plant! Hawaii style :)

[ BAPTISM JUST AROUND THE CORNER! ]

Well hello everyone!

I am sorry that it has been an extra couple of days since you expected the email. On Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday it was a holiday called 추석. That is pronounced chew-sok. It is basically Korean thanksgiving day. So because of this everything was closed. For this holiday, all of the Korean go to the part of Korea they were born in, eat lots of food as a family, then visit their ancestors graves to pay their respects. It is a very cool holiday. To celebrate this holiday as missionaries, we had a special conference on Monday. We received some very good council from our mission president and had a very spiritual testimony meeting. It was a great time. The conference was at the biggest church in ALL of Asia! The funny part about it is that it's about the same size as the Laguna Niguel Stake Center. Anyways, I just thought that was pretty cool.

Our baptismal date investigator, 최성택, is doing so well. Right now there is no official date though because we are still working on getting him to stop smoking and drinking wine. He has a baptismal interview with the Mission President this coming Saturday. Depending on how that goes, he could possibly be getting baptized on either the 18th or the 24th, maybe later. But, he is progressing so well. He is reading the Book of Mormon and has such a strong desire to do what is right. In fact, he has come from smoking a pack of cigarettes a day, to one or two a day. We call him 4 times a day to remind him not to smoke. Haha! Anyways, I am so happy for him. It is just incredible to watch him change his life around. He looks happy and he just knows that what we teach him is true. Please continue to keep him in your prayers.

I don't know if Grandma and Grandpa ever told you guys about their friend Jin, but I guess he is one of their good friends who owns one of their favorite restaurants. Anyways, he called me the other day and is taking me and my companion out to lunch tomorrow! We were pretty shocked actually. It will be nice talking to someone who has such close relations with my family. Thanks grandma and grandpa! You're awesome missionaries haha.

So I was wondering, how did you like the Korean food in the package? Was it too spicy? I tried to just send like junk food stuff so that you would like it all haha. If you want more of anything or want to try something, just let me know!

Our ward here has been loving my companion and I lately. They keep bringing us food and telling us that they want to have us over for dinner. I think it might just be because we are bringing investigators to church and they can see that we are really working hard. We have spent some time cleaning up our church and doing yard work on it. The ward is really starting to love us. It is great. haha.

Well, I hope you all have a great week. I love you all so much. Again, sorry this is so late, but it is always so great talking to you. CTR!

Love,
Elder Messick
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[ FAST SUNDAY #4 ]

Hey family and friends!

Well another great week has passed here in Seoul, Korea! I have not been transferred, nor was my companion. So, we have high hopes for the next 6 weeks here in Nok Boen.

We started off this transfer by deciding to clean our house! It is a pretty old apartment with some mold so we spent hours just going to town on it. I was doing the kitchen, while my companion tackled the bathroom. It was pretty gross, but definitely necessary. I hope we can keep it clean now!

The next day, I was able to pass off lesson 2 (the plan of salvation) in Korean. I was very excited about that. I plan to do "mid-way" pass off on Wednesday. "Mid-way" includes 4 random principles from the first 2 lessons, a basic contact on the street, a simple version of the first lesson, and reciting Joseph Smith's first vision.

Our investigator with a baptismal date, Chae Song Tek , is progressing very well, expect one problem. We taught the word of wisdom 2 days ago and he has some problems with it. He smokes and drinks occasionally. He has accepted the challenge, but his baptismal date has been moved back one day to the 18th because he was unable to attend church, due to his grandchild's 100 day birthday ( I know lame, they are huge here though). Anyways, please continue to keep him in your prayers. I know that he will be able to reach the waters of baptism because he has a strong desire and a real love for Jesus Christ.

I was able to get a letter from Thao (from the MTC) and she is doing great. Right now, she is in Vietnam but will be heading back to Utah soon. Baptism is not on the top of her priorities at the moment, but I have faith that one day she will know that it is the right thing to do.

I had two pretty incredible miracles happen this week. Since it is a new transfer, our zone leaders said that our goal for the transfer is based on Ether 12:12, which is about, without faith miracles can't happen. Anyways, we were walking on the street after visiting a member and we were trying to just get some contacts. We realized we had made a goal to teach one lesson on the street before we had to go home for dinner. Well, my companion said "ok, we are going to get a new investigator right now before we are home." Sadly, in my mind my first thought was, "ha ya right." But, right after that the scripture Ether 12:12 came to my mind. So, I told myself, "Alright Heavenly Father, I have faith that this can happen, I really do." Well right after that I got a really bad headache all of the sudden so we went to get a drink of water. Literally it was like 30 seconds after this whole thought process. Anyways, as I was drinking some water, this guy comes from out of his office and calls us into his office to talk. He gave us a drink and talked to us for about 15 minutes. We were able to give him a Book of Mormon and will be going back tomorrow to teach about the restoration in more detail. Now, that is the power of faith right there. I can testify to you, because I have witnessed it for myself, that with faith miracles can and WILL happen. I know this.

The second miracle happened on Saturday. We were on the street again, hoping for another lesson. Well, we met this guy at the bus stop and only had about 3 minutes to talk to him. He said he has walked by our church many times and was curious about our beliefs. Well, he ended up coming to priesthood session and brought his 3 daughters to primary! Pretty awesome! His wife wasn't able to make it, but he said he plans on coming for all 3 hours next week. AWESOME!

To wrap up my week, yesterday we had a member of our ward need our help with some translation. Let's just say that was one of the hardest things my companion and I have ever done in Korean in our lives! It was just some raw Korean with no rough English to edit from. It was about an old palace questionnaire thing, so we didn't know any of the vocabulary. We spent 3 hours just trying to figure it out with our translators. Anyways, it was a good experience because I learned a lot and it helped build good relations with the ward.

I am grateful to be here in Korea. Although it is hard sometimes, it is always worth it. I think of that quote a lot that Ryan, Elder Roche, said from Lance Armstrong "pain is only temporary, but quitting lasts forever" I hope you all know how much I love you. I love our Savior very much and I am forever grateful for him. I hope you have a great week and enjoy watching the big waves! I love you!

Love,
Elder Messick

The first 2 are with a member in our ward, Chore Lee, He is the one who lives in the crazy scary hospital. Then the others are just some fun ones. If you zoom in on the picture of my companion and i walking it kind of looks like we are glowing. Pretty cool :)

Pretty great huh!? We are supposed to preach to every creature right...haha

I love you,
Elder Messick

Sorry but I gotta go now. Have a great week! Travel safe!! CONGRATS ON THE GIRL AUBREY!