[ BIG WEEK HERE. SO MUCH POTENTIAL!!! ]

Sup everyone!! :) Well another week has come and lots has gone on!! I don't know how to tell you all of it. I will try to just give you the good stuff I guess.

Well I want to just start right off with our investigators because I am just so excited about all of them. And lets face it that's the whole reason why I'm here. So first is a lady named Oh-Seung-Hee. She is 40 years old and we met for the first time on the street. I randomly gave her an English flier. We met and she actually has tons of gospel interest. She stopped going to church 4 years ago cuz she didn't like the feeling and thought it was weird. Well this lady is like the happiest, smiliest person I have ever met. I can't even imagine how happy she will be after she is baptized. So we meet with her (40) and her 16 year old daughter. She came to church for all 3 hours yesterday and was underlining stuff and taking notes! SO good :) She is really for the gospel I know it!

Another investigator is Kim-Nam-Me. He actually wasn't able to make it to church this week but we met with him on Thursday and our ward mission leader was with us. We talked a lot about his questions and concerns and helped figure it out. It seems as though he was worried about what his co-workers with think and say. Hopefully he can get over that soon :)

We are finding like crazy!! Our investigator pool right now is around 15 people!! It's too hard to explain about everyone and their situations, but hopefully we can get them progressing quickly :)

We had a big conference this last Friday where the General Authority, President Ringwood, came to speak with us. His training was unbelievable. He spoke so powerfully and with the spirit. Plus he is a GENIUS! He just got the fire back in me that I was needing. I think that is why we are seeing so many miracle.

For example, one miracle this week. We were walking on the street and there was a guy about 50 ft in front of us walking the other way. He was smoking, in all black, and had some tattoos. You know the stereotype I am getting to. Anyways, I have the initial thought... greattttt another rejection, but quickly I changed. I turned to my companion and said hey check this out this guy is getting baptized! Then we cross paths and i start talking with him. He turns out to be a reallyyy nice guy and wants to meet next week :) See what faith can do!!

Things are going really well. I have nothing to complain about ever here! I love it all :) I love the Korean people, the Korean place I live, and yes I even LOVE the Korean food :) But more importantly I love sharing a special message about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ to those who are ready to hear it. I love my purpose. I love you guys and all the support you give me. Thank you so much. Take care this week. I love you!!


--
Love,

메시크 장로
Elder Messick

P.S. Happy birthday grandma Lori I love you!!!!

P.P.S. thanks to Jacki for the SWEET package :) you're 대박!!!

[ Love love my comp!! Harry Potter ]

[ Korea is SICK!!! ]

[ The one I'm sitting on the floor with is the mom that reminds me of you mom. :) My fav fam in the ward :) ]

[ Out at dinner hahah ]

[ She is getting baptized after her wedding in November :) ]

[ HEY. BIG CHANGES!! ]

Hey guys!! Well as you know its on to a new transfer and yes of course I have a new companion. On Monday night I got my phone call from the AP's and the conversation started like this "Well Elder Messick we decided to put a little twist in your life..." At this point my heart about dropped and I thought they were going to white wash us out. I got so sad. Hahah but don't worry that wasn't the case. SO the twist is I am training AGAIN and I am being District Leader, DL, at the same time! To say the least I have had a veryyy busy week haha.

Um ya before I get going into my week just wanted to say thanks so much to you mom and dad for the EPICCC package I got. You're the best. Also, Jody thank you verrryyyyyyy much for that package you sent. :)

We have been busy this week with investigators and stuff like that. But yesterday was really cool. So the sisters in our district haven't been finding too many investigators lately so I planned a big get together in their area to help get some investigators. We contacted on the streets there for 2 hours and set up some lessons and got phone numbers for them. I hope it was successful. After it was all over we went to their church and they made all of us pancakes and french toast! It was really fun. :)

Um, so a little about my companion. He just turned 19 right before the MTC, his name is Reese Jackson Berry. He is already SOO good at Korean it's crazy. Uh his hobbies are rock climbing and unicycling. Oh and he is from Logan, Utah.

Our investigator Kim-Nam-Me came to church again this Sunday. That's 4 weeks in a row!!!! The only problem is we can't meet with him outside of church to give him a baptismal date! He is just so busy haha. He is doing well though :)

Another good success is a lady I met on the street like 2 weeks ago from an English flier. We meet her and her daughter every Saturday and she just is the happiest lady ever. They are alwayssss smiling. It just makes me so happy. It's so true how when you are happy it just wears off on others. Anyways, on Saturday she had a question about the priesthood and our ward mission leader explained it perfectly! Hopefully we can get them progressing quickly and toward baptism. :)

My last day here with Elder Bacarro was really fun too! We did a big streetboarding session together in our area! but there isn't much to say about that haha. I have pictures for ya!

I am going to spend some time chatting now cuz I just am in the mood for that today but know that I love all of you. Stay safe please. This is the best two years of my life and I am doing it with no regrets. I love everything about it, no matter how busy I am hahah. :) Have a good week!!!!


-- Love,

메시크 장로
Elder Messick

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY THAO ON THE 21st!!! :)

[ Everyone I came to Korea with! ]

[ My buddy Elder Rife, went to BYU-H together! ]

[ Everyone who has served in Geum-Cheon ]

[ I don't know if you knew this but I now am 5 ft tall... ]

[ My Korean comp from Geum-Cheon Elder Yoo ]

[ Delicious lunch my Bishop's wife took us to ] 

[ I ate RAW beef :) never knew you could do that! Haha ]

[ HEY GUYS!! ]

Wow, this transfer #10 came to an end so fast. I can't believe that my comp is going home to the Philippians in 4 days. I will be getting a new companion on Wednesday and I am so excited to change things up. Right when we start to get in a routine as a missionary things always change, but it's good. :)

So last transfer I stopped into a Nike store to look for something and I met this really cool guy. Well when he gave me his number it was wrong!! Anyways, I ran into him this week and got his number again! It was just one number different so I think I wrote it down wrong. He wants to meet us this Wednesday and said he is going to bring his friend too. It could be big potential!

Saturday was a really cool day!! So in the morning I had to go on exchanges to help the area next to us with their English class. Both of the missionaries there are Korean so they can't teach the class. Anyways, while I was there I met a guy while contacting on the street who is just incredible. I ended up talking to him for 20 minutes and taught him almost the entire restoration. He had a friend who gave him a Book of Mormon about 7 years ago but was too scared to read it. Anyways, he accepted another copy and really wants to learn more. He has an appointment with the missionaries there for next week.

Then after English class, I switched back with my companion and on our way to a dinner appointment we met a reallyyy cool girl on the bus who helped us find where we were going. She LOVES English and reminded me so much of our investigator Woo-Eun-Bean from Song-Pa. I am excited to meet her again and tell her why I came all the way to Korea.

Then after the dinner we had another cool experience. There were two guys on the street and they were speaking another language that sounded familiar, Tagalog! I told my comp he HAD to talk to them! Haha! Well he did and we ended up talking for quite some time. It is so cool how when you just talk to EVERYONE you find those that the Lord has prepared for you. Ya I get rejected A LOT, but that is ok. They just aren't ready yet so I just gotta keep talking to people to find the ones who are. :)

Our investigator Kim-Nam-Me is doing really well!! He has now been to church 3 weeks in a row. He comes with his 4 year old son which is sooo good. But we can't meet with him after so that's a bit tough. We need to meet with him outside of church to try to set a baptismal date, but he just has been really busy. He has been taught all the lessons and had been a little reluctant to accepting a date, but he will soon I'm sure.

Other than that our week hasn't been too packed with things because my companion has been packing and we have been saying hi to members and what not. But family know that I love you so much. I am so happy every day that I get to be out here serving. There is nothing better I could be doing. I love it!!

Have a great week!!
--
Love,

메시크 장로
Elder Messick

[ Our zone dinner with the stake relief society pres. she hooked us up!!! ] 

[ My first time eating pig foot meat! ]

[ Just one of our awesome ward members ] 

[ This guy LOVES English. We help him out every week after church if we have time. ] 

[ All my friends haha ] 

[ Dad, here is a pic of our chapel for ya :) ]

[ SUP FAM!!! ]

Lots of cool things always happening here in Korea! I just love it. Always something new. It's funny because as missionaries sometimes we feel like we just are doing the same thing every day, but really if we look back at the day it just is so different every single time.

Well as you clearly knew from the emails you sent this week, yes there was a typhoon here this last Tuesday, but I as well as everyone in my whole area, are perfectly fine :) It didn't get us too bad, luckily. As for the people down more south they got hit pretty bad from what I hear. We didn't get much more than just lots of wind and rain. On the main day of the typhoon, it actually was our temple day so I was safe and sound in the house of the Lord. It was a great time of course.

You can't see that well but this was just the craziest rain storm I think I've ever been in. Puddles were literally over my shoes when we were walking. I was laughing the entire 15 minute walk home. SO FUN!!!!

Well Elder Baracco is getting ready to go home! It's so crazy that he only has a week and a half left. He really has been a hard worker with me. I have pushed him a little, but I know he likes it. It helps him from getting trunky and going home with no regrets. We get along so well and have a great time in all we do. :)

I never really mentioned anything about this. So the first week I got here I was going through our Area book and Member book checking out some less actives. Well I saw a picture of this one girl of who I thought I saw at church the day before so I figured I would call and introduce myself. Well it was super awkward because it wasn't who I thought it was!!! Haha. We were able to talk though and build a good relationship. On her record the status was "unknown" so it was way good. She hadn't been to church in about 2 years. Anyways, we have stayed in contact and she actually came to English class on Thursday!! She is leaving for a 6 month study in Austria and guess what she asked me. She asked if she could get the address nearest to her city where she is going. I was soo happy to hear that to know that she wants to come back to church. I will send a picture of me with her at English class.

Another cool thing about coming in contact with someone. I randomly got a text the other day from Lee-Say-Won. Do you remember that name?? She was my investigator back in Song-pa. Well she told me how her parents are moving to some area and she wanted the address to the church there. Once again reading that just made my day! Some day she will be baptized, I just know it.

Last little thing with coming in contact with people. So I was with some people helping another area with english class when I heard one of our members mention a name that I knew, Jeon Boo Kyoung. Well that was the girl that I home taught at BYU-H. It turns out she is living in the area right next to me and I will try to get in contact with her this week from the missionaries there. I am excited to hear how she is doing. :)

One of the days this week the Senior office Elder missionary came to our area to check out our house. It's a bit small and gets poor air circulation and had a bad report before I got there saying we needed a new house so he came to check it out. We spent some time with him and seeing what we could do to make the house better. He even had us go to the real estate place and see if there were any other places in the same price range. it was pretty cool and fun to do that. Dad, I'll be honest, being with him made me think about you a lot and just how awesome of a dad you really are. I love you Dad!

The sister missionaries in our district had an AWESOME baptism this last Saturday. He is an 85 year old man. I got to meet him since my companion did the baptismal interview and to be honest, he LOVED me haha. He is just he funniest old man. He really has a strong testimony. He can't remember very much, but he does know it's true. In his testimony at his baptism he talked about how he hopes this church grows bigger and bigger every day and fills the Earth. What an amazing guy he is.

Do you remember Lal Thlan Hlua, the man from Myanmar? Well we met with him again and it was really great! He really wants the church to come back to his country. I guess our church left years ago because of government problems and doesn't want to go back until it is legal. From what I understand he doesn't really want to be baptized until that happens. He has asked me for books that expound on the Book of Mormon and church history books. He is a really nice cool guy, but not sure what we can do to get him to take that next step.

We had David and Kim Nam Me come to church yesterday. Elder Bacarro is really pushing David to be baptized this coming Sunday, his last one before he goes home, but he said he will let us know today on his final decision. If, well when, he is baptized he will then attend the English branch in Seoul. His English and Korean are both not up to par, but at that branch there are lots of Filipinos and they have a gospel principles class in Tagalog.

I am looking forward to another week of miracles here in Bu-Cheon, Korea. I am grateful to be a soldier in the Lord's army. I know that as I serve with all my heart, might, mind and strength that we will be sufficient to fulfill the Lord's purposes. Have a great week and stay safe and healthy. I love you all!!!

--
Love,
메시크 장로
Elder Messick

[ A funny statue thing I found ]

[ Out at dinner with our investigator Park-Sang-Young ]

[ Our LA Kim-Jeen-Ah ]

[ Dinner at the bishop's house :) ]

[ They have a pet bird!!! ]