Better Week

This week was good. I have been trying to figure out alot of stuff this week and what I can do to personally change it.I went on 2 exchanges this week. I went on an exchange with one of the other elders in my house his name is Elder Schofield. He came to Korea with me, we talked alot about what I could do and how I could make it better. I also went on an exchange with my zone leader his name is Elder Luker. He was Elder Kims past companion and he knows exactly what I am going through. He pulled out all of his old planners and we talked about what he did to deal with it because he has been the same way his entire mission. It was a very fun exchange. He is in a threesome so I was also with a greenie. When we were talking to people on the street I went with him for a little bit. Seeing him struggle and say funny stuff that he didnt know he was saying reminded me of my time for that. I was amazed with my self about how much I have learned already. Not just korean, but teaching and people skills too. It gave me a little confidence that I could be put with a greenie, even though i REALLY DONT want to.(knock on wood) When I was on the exchange we taught a man from Pakistan who was one of the nicest guys i have ever met, with the sweetest beard but he was very blunt and inturupted and not open to us. We talked alot about prophets, he believed that there needed to be 24000 prophets and jesus was only a prophet and was number 15999 or something like that. He was SUPER nice, but not open.

 

Not much else other than exchanges has happened this week. My camera wont hook up so I cant send you pictures right now, except this one Elder Schofield sent me. It is right outside a resturaunt these kind of tanks are everywhere. But we have not fought a ton this week and we have been doing ok missionary work.

 

We did something called streetboarding yesterday. We just set up Easels with posters on them and talk to people thats just about it. One fight we had this week was about the way to talk to people. I absolutley HATE just waiting for people to cross the street and start following them, or running up to them when they see you running! I think it gives a really bad impression. I think as representitives of Christ, we need to be different than other salesmen who just bother people we can just be robots with the same things pouring out of our mouths. Like Elder Holland said these people are not a stat they are sons and daughters of God. So that is one thing I will not agree with him on and will not do again. I did it just for him yesterday, but it wont happen again it is not effective people yell at you or just ignore you. My goal for my mission is to find an approach that will "baptize people on the streets"(obviously not really:). but that is one thing I wont apply. I wont follow people around for 5 minutes when they tell me to go away. I think our church is different that way and thats why it works.

 

but life is good....LOVE YA!

 

Elder Miles Diede   

 

SharkK Tank  in store windows.

Rough

Well one word to describe this week. Rough. My companion is very self absorbed, loves to think that I can read minds and when I dont do something as perfectly as he wants it then he sulks for a long time then calls me to repentence.  He loves to do this thing which I like to call " I more spiritual than you time" Honestly I have no clue what is going on half the time. The past two days we have not left the apartment for anything but church and he said maybe 5 words to me. Then As I was trying to plan with him, I ended up doing everything then getting down on my knees to end the day. I waited for 2 minutes and he didnt get down yet. Then after another minutes he started reading off scriptures to me. After the fourth one I left. He is honestly the hardest person in the world to figure out. He has a reputation in our mission for being full of energy but thats because those people havent seen the real him. I want our companionship to work, but the only things he will do is talk to members and sit and read.

 

When I talked to Elder Rhodes our district leader in a private meeting I cried for the second time on my mission. He told me that there was a reason I was companions with him and in this area. God knew that I could overcome these trials and be able to be successful because of it. I also talked to our zone leader Elder Luker, who was companions with him before. He said we will go on an exchange soon so we can talk about it. I also talk to Elder Schofield alot who was an elder in my group to korea to get some sanity.

 

My letter is really short today because I have done almost nothing this week. But I do know that God has put me in this specific place for a reason. From all of the companionship problems I already know how to better function with normal companions. I know it will be hard to work with him over the next couple of weeks and probobly next transfer but I can do it. It may not be the way my companion likes it but I will get missionary work done. I will not sit in the house for 5 weeks. Now is the time that I need to step up and take control. He is going home soon but I will not let him ruin my mission!

 

Love ya!  sorry for such a sort of depressing letter. but not much to say. On the bright side I saw a resturaunt with a live shark in it. hopefully i get a picture soon. Thanks for the mail, I hope I get it soon I could use a pick meup.  Also good news the combined mission conference we are having has a general Authority speaker so we will see who it is....

LOVE YA!!!!!

 

Elder Diede

Ping Pong

 

 Dear Family, 

I have played TONS of Ping Pong. We are actually playing again today. My companion is teaching me how to cook some Korean food and our mission is putting together a cookbook, so we can have stuff later. It is a great idea.

 

This week has been kina rough at first. It is difficult to adjust to all of these new things that come with a new area, whole different way of doing missionary work and being with a companion who has a different culture and is a perfectionist. We do a whole different style of prosylyiting, I like it but it is different from what I am used to and need some adjustment time I am not getting. It is hard to help in lessons with a Korean because obviously they can speak perfectly so why would they put the lesson on someone who cant speak very well. We had a little disagreement about the way we both prosylyte. He was picking at the little parts of my korean and I was expressing my ideas about how he can not justput the gospel in peoples faces, just to talk to them about it. Long story short we talked about it and everything is all good we realized where each other was coming from it was actually a great experience.

 

Speaking of great experiences. An Elder in my house got a colonoscopy this week! Super funny! It was great to make jokes with him about it and we all laughed as he suffered to drink the colon cleansing stuff. He was so funny the entire time. His name is Elder Rhodes i love him. (by the way it is a secret so if you ever meet his family dont say anything) We had to make a strategic way home so he could go to the bathroom every 10 minutes. It was hillarious. Finally at our last stop before we got home. He went into the bathroom and immedietly came back out. It was a squater, and he couldnt go on it. That was probobly one of the most hillarious points in my mission so far. I also went on an amazing exchange with him. He called me the Magic Prosylyter, because that day we set 2 return appointments and got a few numbers. And I never thought id say this but the 2 return appointments were both taller than me. One guys hand when I shaked his hand ENGULFED my hand. It was Huge. Then We taught an amazing lesson to a new investigator The spirit was so strong. He accepted a soft baptismal commitment.

 

Enough about him. This week I had alot of spiritual stuff. We had Zone Training Meeting, I had an Interview with President, and on top of that General Conference!!! My favorite talks were Edward Dube saturday morning, Elder Uchtdorf in priesthood and Elder Ballard I think Saturday Afternoon. Then the whole Sunday Morning Session was Amazing!!!!! I encourage you to do what Elder Ballard talked about Hasten the Work. If everyone in the family finds one more person from now to Christmas that is 7 more converts! It is hard in Utah but from what I hear you are already striving to do missionary work in the ward. 

 

These two pictures are at a Service Opportunity we had at a garage sale thing and Elder Kim scream on the floor after a guy called and said he wanted to meet with us.

 

Love Ya 

 

Elder Miles Diede

 

New Companion Kim Gunn

Hello!!!

First awnsering questions. I havent seen conference yet. I get to see it next week because it has to be translated. I get snail mail probobly 2 times a month. sometimes 1. I have not been to the mission home yet. I see President every now and then but not too often. I hope you had a good Bday and I hope Hayden does too. Boom Hayden Colts are the best. ps there is no team called Logan they played utah State.;)

 

Well To start off I will recap my last couple of days is 동대몬. Our last Pday we went on a hike. It was a really fun little hike and at the top there was a pagoda with a magnificent view of Seoul.( pictures coming) Then we went to a flea market and just browsed around. That night at FHE my three favorite people from the ward came and we played a game called Yah EMo No. I took a video but it is too big to send. sorry. I will have to teach you when I come back it is SUPER fun! For Tuesday and Wednesday we cut out hearts and did stuff for members. Two couples had babies in our ward this week. Then I got to teach my last lesson to Sam. We taught him about tithing and then he took us out to Icecream. There is a flavor of Icecream here called shooting star and it is so good!!! it has pop rocks everywhere in the icecream. That concludes my last days. I will really miss that house and the elders I was with they were so much fun to be around.

 

Then Transfers. I got to meet my new companion named Kim Gunn. We have the biggest height difference in our companionship seeing as he is one of the shortest in our mission. He is a very energetic Korean whoes laugh kills me every time, he squeaks and it is hillarious. He is a super good missionary, but because he is Korean people wont talk to him and he understands all the insults that people say. So i do lots of talking because koreans love seeing foriegners speak Korean. I have developed a new style of proselyting. It is a Thy will be Done attitude. That is kim gunn and my motto for this transfer. I have become the most happy entergetic talker on the street. Elder Kim says I am one of the best 전도ers he has seen, not by the Korean language but how I act and make the person feel. I think Elder kim is amazing at member work so I think we are pretty well off. It is a little different adjusting to a new house they do stuff alot different. I am also living with Elder Schofield and Elder Rhodes. Also the Sisters are Sister Aurous from Germany and Sister Kwon from Korea, both super nice. I Live on the 7th floor of an apartment and my area goes to the outskirts of the north end of Seoul. its really pretty. Elder Kim is a master chef so he is teaching me how to make Korean food! I eat Korean food every meal now, no more cereal.

 

We do a service activity at a welfare center every Friday. This week we washed dishes. Next week is a garage sale. Its actually pretty fun, and Elder Kim drills me on Korean grammer and vocab the entire time. The ward here is super great. When I was giving my intro talk Sister Kwon went before me and I made a joke about how sister kwon was WAy better than me at korean and they all laughed. The ward here is 2x bigger than my last ward and we have a good Youth pool so that is where we are concentrating on finding investigators. Its working pretty good. Other than that life is still the same, just livin it up in Korea! Doin the greatest work ever!

LOVE YA!!!!

 

Elder Miles Diede

 

 

Sept. 29 First Transfer and First Korean Companion!

Well big news... Im getting Transfered! I was 100 percent sure I would stay in 동대문, but President had another plan. I am going to an area called 상개,  or Sang Gae. Then I get a Korean Companion! His name is Kim Gunn. I havent been with him yet but the times I have talked to him at mission confrences and activities he seems like a great guy. Cant wait! The area I was just in will now have 5 elders total. Crazy. We had to move 3 new desks in our house yesterday. But good new is I won our transfer guess game so I got Free Chicken! Super good!

This week We taught Sam once. We talked to him about praying and regognizing his awnser. He says it is so close but when he reaches out to grab it it dissapears. Hes so close. Then we taught 전도영 once and I gave him a baptismal commitment. He accepted. His only concern was that he wouldnt believe when he was 30 years old. He is golden it just sucks that I have to leave. We also met a grandpa who the oly english words he knew were the F word and Good Luck. He used them alot. Then we met him later to give him chocolate. funny guy. Last guy we met a taught was a SUPER depressed guy. He just flat out told us he was losing literally everything the next day and he wanted us to pray for him to recieve money. Funy thing was he wanted money but said it was too easy to get a job so he would get money first and then a job. He told us right in the middle of the lesson, I dont want to die. i dont know what to say to that. It was a super weird lesson. We just told him about the peace he can recieve through our message.

Last highlight of the week we had a minute to win it game night for our stake. I have a few pictures Im asking others to send me more. It was super fun to get to know alot of people from our stake. President and sister Christensen came and they played alot of the really fun games. Thats why I love president. The game night turned out to be really succesful. Thats just about it. Ohh... one more thing. On Sunday the bishop comes at 7 for meetings and opens the church gate. We go in the church around 9.15. Well this sunday we walked into the church with the bishops son and there was a homeless man lying on the bench. After the bishop came out of his meeting he shooed him out. The man was asking for money and saying he hurt the entire time. I know we are a doors open church, but we cant be a homeless shelter. Elder Ffranchina and I talked about that alot. Well Thats all my news! Next week I will have lots more news!!

Love Ya

Elder Miles Diede

New Area PIC  Click to see a picture of the area. Google Earth is Amazing!

Chew Sak Holiday

Hello!!!

 

Lots of pictures this week just for you Malorie. They will come in multiple emails. This week was a holiday called chew sak. Everyone travels to their hometowns, eats lots of food and spends time with their family. Missionaries have a mission conference, clean their house and eat lots of food. Before Mission conference we had a mission-wide fast. I love fasting because it helps us out a lot. The purpose of this fast was so we can remove all of the anchors and ropes holding our mission back so that we can quickly go forward.  Then at mission conference talked about getting our daily bread. We talked a lot about Manna and how it only lasted one day. Same thing with our missionary work and the little miracles we receive here everyday. That is one of presidents favorite phrases, " recognize the little miracles everyday." He said we need to only focus on the task at hand somtimes and then move on not try and take on the whole thing at once. If you get a chance look up Elder Christoferson's Daily Bread videos, they are super good.

 

After the mission fast we ate tons of good food, but to open our fast we went to a buffet. This buffet we ate so much chicken. Before we realized we were full they brought another plate to us. In Korea you have to eat everything on your plate or they charge you extra. So we played rock paper scissors or kai bai bo you had to eat. We play Kai bai bo for literally everything. After mission conference We had an entire day to clean, but we had been cleanng over the past couple of weeks during free time so it only took us 4 hours to finish. then we went to 동대문 market and I bought a 200 dollar suit for guess how much....50 bucks. It is an awesome Korean style suit and yes it is shiny. picture attached. Then the next day was PDay so we had a party and played basketball and watched the best 2 years with 2 other zones. Tons of Fun!! There isn't much else that has happened this week We only taught one lesson, to Sam because of the holiday, but he was clean from smoking for 2 days because his family doesn't know he smokes and he was with his family. but then he didn't answer our calls to come to church the next day. We should see him tonight.

 

Transfer Calls are this Saturday so I get to see what happens. We have a guessing game our house is playing, super fun. They are putting 2 more elders in 동대문 so i think Elder Franchina and i will split and I will get an older missionary while franchina trains again. Elder Franchina thinks im going to train but that is scary and im not ready for that yet! Love Ya!

 

Elder Diede

 

 They have to eat all the food on the plates or they get charged more!

 

Miracles happening

Dear Family!

(I dont know what you mean about Tire, did you talk to him alot? does he come to Korea or MTC? Give me KC and Lilys email.Go Cougs. )

THESE PAST TWO WEEKS HAVE BEEN ABSOLUTLEY AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! in the past 10 days we have picked up 8 new investigators. Here is a brief description of all our investigators.

Sam- Korean-speaks british English, as soon as he stops smoking he will be baptized.

John and Suzanna- a Pastor and Evangelist, very interested ( we are going to baptize his whole congregation)

전도영- Korean, super interested, bought a bible to be prerared when he met us.

J, Lucky, and 김증수- all friends, one lived in provo for 4 years speaks good english, one is ok at english loves bball and the other isgay.He hit on my companion..

박성인- he just showed up to church one day!

시후-a 13 yr old boy

민- English class student, really interested

한상민- bank manager, has family problems.

I think seeing success and seeing people we talk to on the street call us is awesome! the work does pay off! I feel so great. Today the bass was really fun! We ate subway and then played minigolf and got american products. This week Wednesday through saturday is a Korean Holiday called chew suk. We will be cleaning in our house and playing games all day because no one is on the street. so much fun.

The Pday before that we went swimming!...in the bathhouse. We had fun relaxing and pretty much hot tubing and we played cards in the sauna. i thought everyone how to play golf and they love it. One day this week we had Lesson Heaven. We taught 4 planned lessons and gave 2 on the street. It was amazing! We had two huge rainstorms this week and we took pictures in one of them. so much fun!

Then this week we had training follow up with the APs and President. An Elder sang I know that my reedemeer lives. President got up and sid, " Is there really anything else we need to know other than that?" President is so good at bringing the spirit into the room with one sentence, but still gets in on jokes on Elders. We told our Korean in our house Enya is a Unicorn. and he said he would ask president. So we called president and he got in on our joke. When Elder Jang asked President, he said Enya was a unicorn. I love president he is the best.  Then Sister Christensen got up and gave a good talk on how to avoid disguragment. She related a story to Abe Lincoln, Gavin you would like it, and she is sending it to me soon. Then we did talking to people traing with the APs. It was fun to meet with all the greenies again especially the Korean that came with us. I could actually awnser his questions when i talked to him.

Later that week, we got asked by a ward member to go and help with baptisms for the dead. So we went. I was in the confirmation room and Elder Jang was confirming in so fast korean. Then he turned to me and said. your turn. It was so hard but I confirmed 20 or so name in korean. It was cool to do. Then after everyone got confirmed we went out to the font to watch and I was asked to baptize the last half of people. I did alot in English cause we had to go fast, but I did quite a few in korean. It is cool how it is the same gospel, just in a different language.

Then this sunday we had 3 investigators show up to church. We only planned for two we didnt know what to do. So we went on splits with members and I taught Sam about tithing and baptismal interview questions. It went really well. Then we planned to study during the night time but we both had the prompting to go out a talk to people. Not 10 seconds later we meet a guy that was super interested and bought us drinks(cider and coke of course) Were having lunch with him tomorow. Then we meet another guy who were meeting next week. Then we went home spiritualy uplifted.

Well not much else has happened but pure miracles this week. It has been a great week and I have felt his presence in my life always these past two weeks.

See ya next week!

사랑해요!!!!

Elder 디디.