[ 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 :)

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,

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Elder Messick

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

[ 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,

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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. ]

[ 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,

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Elder Messick

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

[ 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,

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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,

메시크 장로
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!!!