Sunday, December 30, 2012

[ HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013!! ]

The new year is here..ALMOST. It's New Years Eve here and it sure is a cold one!! We have had soo much snow already this year!! It seems like we have already gotten more snow this winter than last and it's not even January! Saturday night was another snow storm. Every time after it snows the temperature drops a lot and gets super cold and it all turns to ice. We got to the church early yesterday and shoveled out the whole parking lot for our members which was quite a bit of work. This morning I had to take my companion to get his foreigner card so he wouldn't get deported. Anyways, I wanted to stop to eat some Subway since there was one in the area. While we were eating we saw 3 car accidents from all the ice on the ground. It's pretty dangerous out there! I'm lucky to not have a car haha!

It's a shorter week to write about since I just wrote on Wednesday, but we still have had quite a bit go on, especially in the lives of our investigators. It just has been amazing to work with them and help them. We set 2 baptismal dates this week, with Jeen Han and Dong Oo. They will be getting baptized on Jan 13th. I am soo stoked for them. Jeen Han seriously is the definition of a golden investigator. He accepts every commitment with a smile and has been reading The Book of Mormon. He already lived the Word of Wisdom so no problems there either :) He is such a shy kid so it's a little tough to help him get fellowshipped by members, but this last Sunday was better than last. And his buddy Dong Oo made it to sacrament meeting and seemed to like it also.

Our other most progressing investigator is Sister Kim and her two children. We are actually with them right now!! Hahah long story. But basically she is just awesome! It's like she is already a member, we just have to get her baptized. I talked a lot with her about it on Saturday and tried to set a date with them for the 20th of Jan but she turned it down. She feels as though she doesn't know enough yet about the gospel and wants to study more. Actually her 2013 goal is to read The Book or Mormon more! Cool!! Anyways, I tried to explain to her we don't need to know everything to be baptized. Life is a learning process. And that's what enduring to the end is all about, learning and growing. And with the gift of the Holy Ghost it is soo much easier to do that. She really liked that and she came to the conclusion of "I will be baptized before you leave just not yet" hahah. So that was great, but just not exactly what we want! We will work on setting an official date with her :)

We had an investigator Mr. Lee and his wife and son take us out to lunch on Saturday which was a blast! They got us pork ribs and it was just a good time. We gave them the General Conference issue of the Liahona in Korean and English and they really liked that. Then their son talked about how he likes basketball so we are going to play sometime and try to introduce our message more with him (that was our first time meeting him).



On Sunday we just us 6 missionaries (since our ward combined there are 6 missionaries in the ward) went and contacted on the street together at a place called 불광 (Bulgwang) subway station. From there we went to visit our bishop and had a really good time. It was supposed to just be a stop by say hello and share a message visit, but it turned in to a dinner appointment. No complaints! Haha. She fed us some delicious traditional Korean food (like seaweed soup, kim chee, rice, pig intestine with noodle, hm what else, Keem which is just like a dried seaweed with oil and salt gosh sooo good it's like potato chips haha.)


I hope you guys have a great new years!! I'll be thinking of you all. Make some great resolutions this week :)

I LOVE YOU!!

--
Love,

메시크 장로
Elder Messick

P.S. Happy birthday to my cute little niece Blair :)

P.P.S. I guess happy birthday shout out #2 to you Kellie :) haha. Love ya.

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

[ MERRY CHRISTMAS! ]

Hey everyone. :) Merry Christmas to each of you :) It was so awesome getting to talk to each of you on the phone this morning. The weirdest part of that hands down was hearing Dallen's voice. He just has changed so much.

So we have had a lot of great things happening here in Nok-Beun! Some really big miracles. Our investigators here are awesome. They just already seem like investigators to me. :)

First off I'll talk about Brother Dong-Oo and Jeen Han. These kids are 20. I explained about them last week a little I think. These kids are golden to say the least, especially Jeen Han. They have both agreed to baptism twice but we don't have a specific date. Jeen Han came to 3 hours of church on Sunday but Dong-Oo had some stuff come up so he couldn't make it. He was just loving it at church. He kept just like nodding his head the whole time and agreeing with everything going on. Before church he text me saying he was so excited to go to church for the first time. The next day he came to our ward Christmas party too and had a good time. He is going to make a great member of our church! Dong Oo has been a little busy with work so it's a little harder to meet him but he called me last night asking a really sincere question. He asked why do we give gifts to other people if it's supposed to be a holiday celebrating Christ's birth. I was really impressed with this question and had a bit of a hard time answering it to be honest. I have real high hopes for these kids. :)

[ Our investigator Jeen Han at the Christmas Party ]



Another awesome investigator is Sister Kim and her twin kids, who are 15, one boy and one girl. She now has been to church 3 weeks in a row, ever since I got here and the ward really likes her. I think they will want to be baptized this month also. Keep them in your prayers. :)

For our Christmas yesterday, we all met up with the zone and planned to do some caroling but it didn't really work out. It was cool to have President and his wife with us all day. I really love them and they really care about us like we are their own children. They put together a big conference for Christmas on Monday where we did skits and a talent show and watched some Christmas clips about Christ. Lunch was unreal!!! We had ham sandwiches. Man oh man did I miss those. It's funny how something I used to just eat like every day for a sack lunch at school could taste soo dang good.





Well I'm pretty sure I updated you on a lot of other stuff over the phone. I need to get goin' now. I hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I love you guys!!

--
Love,

메시크 장로
Elder Messick

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEL! I love you sis.

[ I took Dong Oo and Jeen Han out to eat some kim chee stew. :) ]


[ Member Sheek-saw(meal) ]

Sunday, December 16, 2012

[ IT'S ALMOST CHRISTMAS!! :) ]

Hey everyone!

Well my companion and I are getting into the swing of things here and have pretty much everything in order. Well we did, and then we now have another hill to climb haha. So, this last Sunday our ward was combined with two bordering wards turning 3 wards into 1. It's going to be great! We had about 200 people at church on Sunday, UNREAL! :) Now, we have lots of members names to learn on top of countless other things we now have to figure out. There now are 6 missionaries in our ward, 4 elders and 2 sisters. Just speculation, but I think that the other 2 elders' area will be shut down at the next transfer in a few weeks. Our bishop's name is Bishop An. He was the bishop of one of the other wards for about a year and I think it will be very good for missionary work here.

At church yesterday only one of our investigators could make it, but man she is a good investigator! Sister Kim. She wasn't an investigator before we got here, but they were meeting her kids. She now has come to church 2 weeks in a row and thinks it's all really good. During Gospel Principles class the teacher asked me to explain the plan of salvation for her and she really seemed to like that. She thinks it all makes sense and I'm sure it brought her comfort, since her husband has passed away. I have very high hopes for her and her children.

On Saturday night I had a pretty cool experience. So we were out on the streets contacting when I got a call that some girl left her phone at the church and wanted us to go look for it. Right when we show up at the church, there was a lady from another ward in our chapel so we just said hello. She called me over and said this "I was just thinking, it would be so good if the missionaries where here, then boom there you were." She ended up talking to us about a less-active who she knew who had just moved into our ward a week ago and wanted us to contact her. That night when I got home I gave her a call. No answer. A few minutes later I got a text from her asking who we were. As I went on to explain, she was more than thrilled to hear from us! She asked about church, where the building was, and what time sacrament was. The next day we met her at the Subway station and went with her to sacrament. She said she enjoyed it. I was happy that we were at the right spot at the right time to be able to get in contact with this great sister.

I have been helping my companion a lot with adjusting to Korean life and culture. Taking him out to eat some Korean dishes and helping him to speak as much Korean as possible. Sometimes when we contact someone, I will just stand a few feet behind him and try to let him do the whole thing himself until he needs me then I'll help him out. He really is tearin' it up and is going to be a great missionary.

Sorry but I can't think of too much else to update on.

Oh wait, this week we met 2 new 20 yr old investigators, Won and Hong. They are really cool and are curious about The Book of Mormon. They really like to read, so that's good they will have fun reading this book :)

Well fam, I look forward to talking to you on the phone one last time this Christmas! Remember the purpose of Christmas, to remember the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. Without him, we would be absolutely nothing after this life, but he completed the Atonement and suffered for each of us. He lives today and allowed each of us to conquer death and live again. I love our Savior.

Have a great week fam. I love you!!

--
Love,

메시크 장로
Elder Messick

P.S. HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY TO YOU SYDNEY!!! :)

[ 강남 Style ]


[ My Christmas countdown santa from the Masters family :) ]

Sunday, December 9, 2012

[ WOW WHAT A TRANSFER! ]

Hey everyone. Wow! This last transfer call blew my mind! I have been transferred, as I expected, but the location, definitely caught me off guard. I am back in my greenie area!!! Nok-Beun 녹번! It gets even crazier. I am whitewashing the area, and training there! This is now my 3rd round of training. Can you believe it!! President even made 2 or 3 funny comments about me training so much in the last meeting haha. I am so excited to be back in my greenie area, most likely to "die" where I was "born."

first snow

So I am training another new missionary. His name is Elder Fonnesbeck from a small town in Idaho. He is a really cool guy and it seems like we're gonna have a great 2 transfers together. He is ready to get down and work, which is good because that's what we do out here. :)

My new comp

Our house that we came to was a bit of a mess I guess you could say, so we have been doing lots of cleaning to try to get it better. All we have finished though is the kitchen. We still have to do the bathroom and the floors. Our house is a pretty nice house though and a lot bigger than my last house so it will be really nice. :)

We have a few really good investigators here in this area. First is Brother Kim. He is 29 yrs old and is just so cool. He has a baptismal date set up right now, but we are going to push it back a little bit because we still need to get his confidence in the commandments up a little bit, specifically tithing. He quit smoking and drinking 3 weeks ago and hasn't relapsed once yet. :) He was at church yesterday and things just look good for him.

The next set of investigators is the Kim family. She is a single mother, her husband passed away a while back, and has twin kids, a boy and a girl. The other missionaries had met the kids 2 times but never got to meet the mom. When I came to the area I gave the mom a call asking to meet. We set an appointment for Saturday. They really liked us and she has lots of interest in Jesus Christ. I invited her out to church and she came for all 3 hours yesterday with her daughter. She seemed to really like it and the ward did a great job with fellowshipping. That was a miracle to me to help her come out to church. She won't be coming next Sunday because of a prior appointment, but wants to come on the 23rd!

Lastly, we are meeting with the Park family. Ya, another family!!! This situation was very similar to the one above. They missionaries have met with just the kids 2 or 3 times to help with English, but haven't been able to teach much about the gospel. When we went over to their house on Saturday, I felt like I should ask the kids if it was alright to invite their parents in for gospel time. When I asked the mother if that would be ok, she seemed happy with the invite and went and got her husband. We had a very natural and normal conversation about their beliefs in God and religion. The mother looks especially interested. Again, there is a lot of potential here.

On sunday at church when I gave my introduction talk, everyone was shocked to see me again and couldn't believe I was back in the ward. It was cool being able to talk with lots of members and being able to understand them and have conversations. I am just so happy to be back. Of course I wondered a little bit why I was back, but the Lord answered this question for me very quickly through the scriptures this week as I read D&C 112:19. I just need to go where I am called and the Lord will have people prepared there for me.

I am sooo excited to be in the same ward again as Dong-Sun, the second person I help to be baptized. When I sent him a text on Tuesday night that I was moving back to Nok-Beun he sent this reply. "Today is not April Fool's Day." Hahahah! He is pretty happy that I am back. He has been strong in the gospel, has received the Aaronic Priesthood, visited the temple, and read The Book of Mormon multiple times. His life and how it has changed is a miracle.

The last thing of the week. I was able to see my trainer again. His mission just came to an end and his family came to pick him up. He has spent the last few days going to all the places he's served and on Sunday he came to Nok-Beun. That night I got to eat dinner with him and his parents along with his youngest sister at our bishop's house. It was a very fun night. :)

Me with my trainer one last time.  and Brother Lee our recent convert, now in my ward again :)

Well family, have a great week. I love you all!!!

--
Love,

메시크 장로
Elder Messick

[ The first snow! Man it came down...on transfer day!!!!! ] 

first snow on transfer day


man it came down!!!

[ Christensen family with our Bishop ] 

Christensen family with our bishop.

[ Sister Jeen, she will be baptized in the spring ] 

DSCN7081

[ Kevin. Brother Kim. ] 

DSCN7082

[ Me and my comp ]

DSCN7083

Sunday, December 2, 2012

[ TRANSFER CALLS! ]

Hey guys! Well tonight's the night for me! We will be getting our transfer calls, sending me into transfer #13. Of course anything can happen, but it's looking like I will be heading to my next and most likely last area. It makes me sad to think I will leave Bu-Cheon because I really love this area. I say that about all of them, but this area is just awesome! Every member is just the best!! I will come back here to visit no question. :)

Well I think the highlight of my week this week was Boo. Let me explain. So this was a girl who I home taught while going to school at BYU-H. She was a senior, I was just a freshman so it was a bit awkward, but we did it anyways because it was our calling. She was really quiet and our meetings weren't very long. BUT, after I got my mission call to Korea she totally lit up! She was so happy every time we met and she loved to tell me about Korea. Well she graduated from school and now is teaching at an English Academy in the area right next to mine. This week we had a dinner appointment with a member who lives in that area, so I was able to set up a little meeting to say hi. We chatted and she told me how much we helped her at BYU-H. It was so great getting to see her again. It was strange being able to speak in a different language to her than before. At BYU-H she prayed in Korean and I couldn't understand a word, now we can have a casual conversation without even thinking twice. There is not a doubt in my mind that the gift of tongues is real. On top of that, there isn't a question in my mind that I was called by revelation to be her home teacher, to help her and to prepare me. She will be a lifelong friend of mine.

Another thing that happened this week is with our investigator sister Jeen. She is the investigator just waiting to get married before baptism. Anyways, she had a dog and it was basically like her kid. This week it was hit by a car and she has been having a really hard time with that so we have been trying to comfort her with that. It's given her a stronger desire to keep all of God's commandments, now we just have to re-explain the commandment of baptism I guess!

Brother Kim has been out in the countryside now for 2 weekends so we haven't had a chance to meet, but we will try to meet him tomorrow.

Other than that we did tons of member visits this week giving away these cool member cards that my companion and I put together. It is laminated and has a picture of us and a magnet on the back to put it on their fridge with D&C 76 22 on it. They all love it. :)

Well I need to head, but I love you all so much. have a great week. :)

--
Love,

메시크 장로
Elder Messick

Sunday, November 25, 2012

[ THANKSGIVING WEEK :) ]

Hey guys!! We had a nice thanksgiving here. Lots of members of the English Speaking Branch in Seoul invited missionaries to their houses to spend Thanksgiving together. 11 missionaries from our zone went together to the Ratta family's home. It was fun having everyone together and pounding some good ole turkey and mashed potatoes. Gotta love it :) Next thanksgiving with you guys will be an even greater one though :)

Thanksgiving in Seoul, Korea
Thanksgiving Dinner

Also this week we got to do our usual once a transfer trip to the Seoul temple. The temple is such an awesome place and I am so grateful that I have an opportunity as a missionary to go so often.

Well I guess I have some pretty big news for all of you. About a month ago I got a phone call from the office saying that everyone's return dates are changing because of a change in the MTC. Missionaries going to Korea used to be in the MTC for 12 weeks but because of the change in age for missionaries and rise in numbers they are cutting it back to 9 weeks. This affected all of us and now we have had a change in return dates. After talking it out with the Mission President and figuring everything out, my return date is changed now to March 29th. I feel good about that and look forward to these next 4 months of missionary service.

We have been meeting a lot with Brother Kim (Kevin) lately. He has been to church 8 times but couldn't make it this week because of Kim-Jang (remember my service activity). Anyways, I was pretty bold with him this week as we met about baptism. I was telling him how he is ready and just needs to make the commitment. We shared scriptures on how it's essential and all the blessings that come from it. I told him to be baptized before December 5th, transfer day. It must have hit him pretty hard because he talked with his wife about it. He said it didn't go very well though and she doesn't want him to do it. He invited her to come with him to church once, but said she would go back to Presbyterian church before coming to ours. Pretty rough. But I know and have faith that as he prays more about it he will make the right decision and his wife's heart will be changed. He will be baptized.

Lastly we had a cool miracle I want to share. We were at church when I got a call from a lady named Saruul. This goes back about a month or so ago where randomly this lady came up to me asking if we were Mormons. She told us how she was baptized back in here hometown (Mongolia) at 11 and attended regularly. She then moved here 8 years ago, got married and hadn't gone to church since. She told us how she wanted to come back. I called her the next week but she wasn't able to come. Long story short. During Gospel Principles class I got a call from her saying she was on her way to the church and needed help finding it. She made it for the last hour and a half of church and had her 4 month old baby with her. It was sooo cool to be with her there and see the smile she had on her face. All the members loved her too. The best part was that it was the primary program so we got to hear all the little kids. So cute!

I love you guys and think about and pray for you often. Have a great week and I'll talk to you next!!

--
Love,

메시크 장로
Elder Messick

[ The great and abominable church next to our temple haha ]

Church next to our temple

Sunday, November 18, 2012

[ HAPPY THANKSGIVING THIS WEEK :) ]

Hey guys!!

Well happy almost Thanksgiving to you! It's a bummer we don't get to pound some turkey and mashed potatoes and what not together and not to mention some of Jody Masters' ridiculiously good cream corn stuff, but it's just food right!? Next year I guess I'll get to eat double!

So this last Monday I got to go eat dinner with Brother Choi, my first recent convert in Nok-Beun!! It was an adventure getting there though! Haha. We were taking the subway and we tried to take a new line and we couldn't find it in time so I ended up just paying 10 bucks to take a taxi there. We ate some bulgogi together and had a good talk. He is stuggling with his wife having a different religion so he hasn't been getting to church much lately, but hopefully he can get it all worked out. He is a great man! He said he has "roughly" read The Book of Mormon. That's a start I guess haha :)
Apparently we had some snow here one night, but it didn't stick. We just heard from other people on the street. It looks like it's going to be a cold one here!!! :/

On Thursday this last week we had a big service project with a few zones in the mission. In Korea there is a tradition where at this time of the year everyone makes a BUNCH of kim-chee to make it through the winter season. It's called 김장, or kim Jang (jawng). Anyways, our service project was to make a ton of kim-chee for the less fortunate so they could have some Kim Chee during the cold winter season. It was pretty fun, but I didn't do much kim Chee making. I just was moving the cabbage and pouring the sauce and what not.




Also this week we had our mission's 50th anniversary celebration. On Sunday there was a big conference here where a lot of people came to speak and perform musical numbers. To mention some people, we had the man who was the first Stake President in Korea speak who also translated the first version of The Book of Mormon into Korean, and also President Lee, my last misison president spoke. It was really good but a little too long, it went an hour over.

Mr. Bong. He and I have made some more contact! Of course he still is in a rough situation, some things I really think are a bad idea, but might turn out great. So he has found a new girlfriend, that's the bad part, BUT he talked with her about our church and he said that he wants to take her to our church!!! How great is that :) Also, he wants to grab something to eat together in the next few weeks. We are making small progress with him :)

Thats about it for me. Time is low. I love you all so much have a great week and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

--
Love,

메시크 장로
Elder Messick

P.S. Happy b-day Matt and Mark if you read this :) hahha

[ My old korean comp. He goes home this transfer :( ]


[The "family posterity" my trainer, his two greenies, my two greenies, and Clearwater's greenie! ]


[ A family we ate with this week ]


[ Dinner with 최성택 :) Remember him!?!?? ]


[ The lady who cut my hair hahah. She loves me. Hah. ]

Sunday, November 11, 2012

[ ANOTHER WEEK IN KOREA ]

Hey fam!! Well Romney lost. What a bummer. I am pretty sure I heard his name 25 times in church this week haha. They were talking about how much he has helped the church for us here in Korea and trying to rid the bad idea people have of our church. I also heard though that during one of his speeches the translator did a poor job and made it sound like he and our religion was something terrible. What a bummer. Oh well, best of luck to Obama the next 4 years, he'll need it.... haha

Well this week seemed to be other stagnant one sadly. It's not that we aren't working hard because we definitely are, it's just all of our investigators think they are too busy with work and can't make time to meet. It's kind of a bummer actually. so this week we spent LOTS of time on the streets trying to find new investigators to meet.

Since I am district leader I went on exchanges with two of the areas in the district this week to see how they are doing. I am not a huge fan of exchages to be honest because it just messes up my routine and I feel like it's hard to be productive, but they went well.

We are still consistently meeting Nam-Me but he isn't making a whole lot of progress to be honest. He came to church again, #8!!, but he just isn't getting the big picture. I called him Saturday about church and he was drunk. I was kind of upset to be honest. He is soooo close to baptism but just isn't getting it. Since we have taught him all of the lessons when we meet all we do is read The Book of Mormon together. We are finishing up the story of Nephi and getting the brass plates. I think it is a really good to read together to help them understand what's going on and see how things relate to us.

The Yoo family is doing good, but too busy to meet. We are doing our best. We tried to play soccer with the boys on Saturday, but the oldest one got sick so they couldn't come. They want to play this Saturday though :)

I am really excited for today. I got a random call this week from my ward mission leader in my first area Nok Bun saying that he missed me and wanted me to come eat at his restaurant. So today I am going there to meet up with him and also I called my first recent convert Brother Choi. He is going to meet us there and we will eat together. It should be awesome :)

That's it for me this week. I love you all!! Take care and have fun :)
--
Love,

메시크 장로
Elder Messick

Forgot this pic from a while back. Anyone want to go to the egg church??? hahah

Monday, November 5, 2012

[ 1 YEAR 6 MONTHS! ]

FAM!!

What's up with you!! Not too much goin on with me this week surprisingly. This week didn't go as well as we had planned as some crucial appointments had to cancel due to one thing or another, but they are still investigators don't worry! Haha just we are backed up a week basically.


I feel super bad but I don't have a whole lot to update you on. But I don't have a ton of time since we had that discussion :) Anywayssssss, some things that did happen this week. We were walking from our house to a corner we like to contact at a lot and on the way there a guy randomly said hi to us. We talked a little and I said, hey since it's cold outside lets go chat for a second at our church (it was 2 minutes away). He agreed and we were able to go there, talk for about 15 minutes about the restoration and our beliefs. We were able to clear up some rumors he had heard such as worshipping Joseph Smith and what not. We actually ended up meeting again the next day. He told us how his uncle is a pastor for another church so his parents tried to tell him how are church is crazy but he actually stood up for us and said that he can choose for himself. He has a few major problems right now, two being alcohol and cigarettes, but we want to meet him again and see if he will let us and Jesus Christ help him. I am not sure if he is interested in meeting again, but i sure hope so!

Oh so our ward decided to try out a little fellowshipping activing. They watched the movie UP in korean. We invited our investiagator Kevin or Nam-Me and his 4 year old son. They wanted to come so i called up president to see if we could get permission to go. He said of course you need to be there! haha How cool is that!! So i got to watch UP this week dubbed in korean and is was SOO good haha. That was definitely fun this week! To update you on kevin, he is doing well and came to church again, thats 7 times! When we meet now all we do is read out of the sciptures to strengthen his testimony. We read Alma 32 about the seed of faith and he liked it a lot. Things are going well.

Well I need to get goin to play some football!! Should be tons of fun!

Oh something kinda cool!! So I told you I have an investigator whose daughter is a missionary in temple square. The parents just aren't members. Anyways, if you look on the conference issue of the Liahona or Ensign their daughter is on page 36! Check it out. :)

I love you guys!! have a great SAFE week!!!

--
Love,

메시크 장로
Elder Messick
[ Some of my mission buddies last p-day ]
[ People who I came to korea with. Sis. Richardson is now home!!! ]
[ One of our investigators, Han-Sheen-Gu 한신구 ]
 [ It's fall! ]
[ A cool lake in our area ]
[ THE KEYSTONE :) ]
[ My gospel principles teacher ]

[ ON TO #12... ]

As we would have guessed, I am here in Bu-Cheon for another transfer! That makes 4 here now and onto #12 in the mission. It does slow down, it only goes by faster...


Bu-Cheon is doing really good. I just love it here and I am so happy that I have another transfer with such a good ward. They are all so amazing. And not to mention continuing to teach the investigators. That is always by far the hardest part of transferring, saying bye to investigators, so it's a good thing I don't have to worry about that! We have soo many investigators here. Some have fallen off, but we continue to find. I hate when we lose investigators, but maybe they just aren't quite ready YET!

Hm. Well I think today I want to talk about two kids named 승준 (seung jun) and 영진 (young jeen). I met them on the bus last week. As we were taking the bus home from an appointment there were these two kids that came on the bus and sat in the back, one row behind me. I turned around and just said hi. They were soo nice so I asked if I could come sit by them. We chatted for a few minutes and found out we were the same age (which is a big deal in Korea) so we were automatically like best buds hahah. I was able to bring up why I was in Korea and said some questions we are here to answer which was exactly some things they were wondering about. Long story short, I set a return appointment and we met again last night. We were able to talk about why there are so many churches today (ESPECIALLY IN KOREA) and what our purpose is here in life. They haven't been very religious growing up so it was a little tough for them, but they have mad respect for us so they are willing to listen to what we have to say. Seung-Jun said I am just always so happy and smiley and passionate and wants to be like that. I told him it's all because of the gospel! We will meet again next Sunday :)

Another wonderful thing going on here right now in Bu-Cheon is the Yoo family. We met with them again on Saturday at their home and the whole family was there!! On of the first times in my whole mission. Dad, mom, and 3 boys. We were able to explain about the restoration of the gospel leaving some things with them, like 2 copies of The Book of Mormon, a restoration pamphlet, and the family proclamation. We tried to invite them to church the next day, but they had already made plans, so they said this next Sunday they would be able to come. I can't even imagine the reaction we will get from the ward when a WHOLE family comes. I am so excited about the work here :)

MANY MANY MANYYY more things are going on here in Bu-Cheon but I just can't fill you in on all of it. SORRY! I am doing my best in my journal writing so we will have everything when I'm home. :) Continue to pray for the investigators out here for us. They need the prayers more than I do!! Take care this week and I'll talk to you next. I love you!!!

--
Love,

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Elder Messick

P.S. Happy Halloween!!! Thank you mom and dad for my Halloween candy :)) You're the best!

P.P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACKI!!!!! I LOVE YOU SIS!!!

P.P.P.S. Happy b-day Elder Jordan. I love you man!!!