New Place is great!

Here was my thanksgiving dinner pig back bone soup...delicious!!

Elder Bodan is the one in the middle.

this is called 제육덮밥 just spicy meat over rice.

 Dear Family,

My new comp is Elder Trevor Bodan from Missouri. he is super cool and funny I like him alot. He and I had a fun very first experience together when he took the wrong train and we crossed the river into the South mission. we got off at the very next stop got back on and all was fine. I like him alot. My house mates are Elder Batschi as you know and Elder Boyack, he is from Tuscon. (where exactly did we live in Tuscon so I can tell him?)

Well life here in 춘천 is great! It is quite a bit different from my last ward but I like it alot. There is a HUGE size difference. The ward here is very nice and I like the area. It is a college town so it makes me think of my days at BYU alot and makes me realize how much i miss it and how much it is going to rock me going back home. Also one perk off that is REALLY cheap food. I got one of my favorite spicy meat dishes for 3 dollars! Elder Bodan and my house are pretty nice guys, Im excited to work with all of them. I think it will be a good run here. 

As far as investigators go I haven't met a ton of them yet. I met a really cool Chinese guy. He seemed like a pretty good guy. We didnt have alot of time to teach him because he had to go back to his apartment to sign something, so I just got to introduce myself to him and say hi.

I also met another college aged student. WE taught him the Plan of Salvation at kind of a rapid fire pace because we were running out of time. It seemed like he understood it all pretty well. He had a couple of questions that we answered and we gave him the pamphlet so he can read that. Cool kid.

I am told that there are alot of cool people here that have alot of potential so I am super pumped for that.

For studies this week I read a ton of Jesus the Christ paired with the Bible. I have found that when I am just reading Jesus the Christ by its self I tend to not focus as well because it is hard to understand, but if i am reading it with the Bible it makes it easier. Also because it was Thanksgiving i did the normal Thanksgiving thing of writing down and studying gratitude. That was fun.

My miracle is this Sunday was the Primary program here. I saw the primary program in 금촌 with about 30 kids in it then the one in 춘천 with 3 kids in it. Even though there were way less kids the Spirit was still as strong, the same songs were song and there still was that screaming kid who sings really loud. I wrote down in my notes that day that the church really is the same everywhere whether you are in America, Korea or Zimbabwe, and you can feel the Spirit in all of those places.

Also i LOVE the ward members here already. They are SO nice and really happy people.

Also Recent convert update: He received the gift of the Holy Ghost and apparently the Priesthood this last Sunday. He is being fellow shipped really well there and the ward loves him! He is also helping the missionaries there teach the other investigators I had there helping 2 of them get baptismal date!!! he is already starting to influence lots of people!! Love it!

Love you!!

Tell the grandparent goodbye for me. They are going to have to give me their email and keep me posted on Africa!!

Baptism and Transfer!! 춘천

Hello!!!!!
This week was a great week first I want to say I am being transferred to 춘천(chuncheon). Which is out in the other countryside again. My new companion is Elder Bodan, who people have described him to be as a little me so it will be fun. I am also living with Elder Batschi again! do you remember him and his mom? I will definitely miss this area though. I have learned a lot here. I am actually really sad to go but I know that I need to go to . (i bet you get that a lot from people transferring.) I realized on Sunday how much I really do LOVE this ward. I have had a lot of stressful times here, and a lot has been because of miscommunication with the ward, but i will miss them so much. I took lots of pictures and got emails to stay in contact with a lot of people. Kind of a Bittersweet day.

We had a baptism!! (what a way to go out with a bang) Our high school aged investigator was baptized on Sunday and i had the awesome pleasure of baptizing him. He had a good time, even though our font broke a little bit and it was a little less than warm water. I had a couple of cool experience from that opportunity. As I was putting him down in the water I thought about what we are helping to start. He could later down the road serve a mission, serve in multiple callings in the church and be a tool for other people to come to the church. Also finding out that our bishop and 1st counselor were both baptized around the same age as him and look what great men they have become. The second experience was how well our ward especially the young men stepped up and welcomed him into the ward. They did SO well at fellow shipping him. The last experience was as we were changing in the bathroom he kind of stopped talking for a little bit and said, " Hey Elder Diede...I was thinking as I was going into the water...My sins are gone...I'm clean!" I was able to say yes they are. It was a super spiritual experience. Our first counselor came up to us after and said he has only seen a couple of people with a testimony like his when they were baptized. He even bore that testimony at the service. It was a very cool experience. Great Baptism.
Our Investigator who lived in America is also doing well. We met with him, he was kind of sad that Elder Keil and I are leaving. but Elder Savas and Elder West will do well with him. We talked about how the church is organized and he liked it a lot.We also talked a little about the gift of the Holy Ghost and other spiritual gifts. He said he will start coming to our church every other week so he is improving.

On the study side I have been reading alot of conference talks in the Liahona lately. I like the talk by Elder Ballard that says Stay in the Boat. I have also been studying in Alma as well specifically about how Amulek lets Alma in and they become one of the best(my favorite) missionary companionships ever. They worked so well together and always taught with the spirit.

My miracle is something that started with my little brother giving a challenge and making a promise to me. The deal was I do not think about sports, go on a sports fast so to say and my brother would fast for me as well. and the promise was i would get and investigator with a baptismal date who would soon be baptized. Well I did my part of the deal and so did my brother, even fasting right after football practice. We gave him a baptismal date that week and now it has come full circle and completed. I'm so grateful for my brothers faith and the challenge that he gave to me. It has been a HUGE miracle for me and I have cried thinking about it. It is one of those experiences that has changed me a lot. My brother will make a great missionary with his huge faith.

We also got to do service at a bean festival picking up trash. People from all over Korea come to this thing. The Koreans LOVED to take pictures of the foreigners serving. I felt famous having literally 40 cameras pointed at me and the other 3 Americans at once. Also we got a lot of free food and Elder Savas was interviewed on TV. it was a great way to let people see who we really are and we love to serve.

GREAT WEEK!!!!!
Miles


New Area Chucheon, S Korea

Good Investigator week!

This week has been a pretty good week for me. Nothing super special happened.

I have some good news. We talked with our high school aged investigator and he said he could persuade his mother to let him get baptized. Well long story short this last Friday we talked with his mom and got permission for him to be baptized.  It has been announced in church. we have arranged for everything to make the service go well and he will be baptized this sunday. Im super happy that this has happened!  hopefully some good pictures next week:)

James our other investigator came to the baptisimal service we had this past week for the sisters investigator. He really liked the service and is excited for his baptism on the 13th of December. The only problem is he wont come to church unless it is with his family so at the moment he cannot come to church. Also im not exactly sure if he knows exactly what all baptism entails. We will talk with him about that next week.

We also have another investigator who is progressing and is continuing to meet with us. He is 20 years old and wants to become a firefighter in America or a cop in Korea.  He likes learning English alot, but he does have alot of interest in the Gospel. We taught him the entire first lesson and has accepted it pretty well. He has started to read the Book of mormon and has read a couple pages into 1st Nephi and is continuing to read. He is doing good!

For studies this week I thought alot about how we can help our investigators recognize the Spirit in their lives. I have thought about how they cant just sit there and wait to feel it, they have to put in the work. So I will talk about that in District meeting a little bit. I am super excited for it.

My miracle this week is that both of our investigators with a baptisimal date came to the baptism that we had this weekend. They both liked the service and are both excited to be baptized. It is really exciting to see that success in our area. It makes missionary work even more fun. The only problem is Transfer calls are this week and I am almost for certain leaving 1 because ive been here for 5 transfers and 2 because im in a threesome. so.,....that kinda sucks.. 

 

LOve it to Death!!! Tell the Grandparents Hi, keep on keepin on!! Love ya!!!!

 

Elder Miles Diede

November 9, 2014

This week was full of lots of miracles and had some disappointing times too.
First the disappointing news our high school investigator with a baptismal date will not be baptized this week. He talked to his mother about baptism and she did not like it, she says that she can get baptized when he is older. We have not met her yet, we were supposed to yesterday, but he  told us not to come. We are still meeting him this Tuesday to get the rest of the story, but that was a really frustrating thing this week. 
Minus that situation we had a really hard working week. We set the goal to get 300 contacts this week to try and pick up some new investigators. We were all surprised at the end of the week when we ended up with 415 contacts, 4 new investigators and 8 lessons all to investigators. All of our new investigators are pretty solid investigators. One of them we have already met twice. One that has been really good about this is it has given us all more teaching experience to teach together. Role playing it in companionship study is alot different that teaching an actual investigator. I think our companionship teaches well together. I wouldnt have thought that because we have 2 older missionaries and one younger, but Elder Keil does a really good job taking the questions we ask to him and teaching with all his heart, maybe not with the best Korean but i definitely feel the Spirit.
We gave another investigator a baptismal date as well.  He is the Korean who has lived in America. He will be baptized on the 13th of December. he really accepted it well. The only problem with him is that he does not want to come to church alone. He wants to come with his family, mostly his wife, but his wife is the pianist for another church so he says it is hard, but he is doing well.
For studies this week I have been studying a little bit more about making commitments in Chapter 11 in PMG. That has been something that I have been struggling with lately

. Especially with this week doing lots of contacting, that is doing alot of committing too. So i picked up a couple of good ideas that I have been starting to use to improve giving commitments and following up. I also studied a little bit for district meeting to give a good presentation there.

My miracle this week was just this week. We saw plenty of miracles and we beat our goals. We just had a really good week of missionary work.

Love it to death!!!

 

Love Elder Diede

Investigators Doing Well

Happy Halloween

Water balloon fight with Elders

This week has been a solid week. A stressful but solid week.

We met with two of our investigators this week twice.  First our high school aged investigator met with us on Tuesday, came to our Halloween Party on Saturday and came to church on sunday. On Tuesday we watched the Restoration video with him to kind of review. He payed attention really well. After the video was over we talked a little bit more with him about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. He realized that he needs to read the Book of Mormon more and he said thet that lesson was different. He said it was more serious and he felt it. He came to our Halloween party and had a good time with the members. He even brought a friend to the party and they did a game in front of alot of the ward members. On sunday I woke him up for church and we went and met him at his house. He came had a good time.( he told every ward member who talked to him that I woke him up) We taught him the rest of the commandments after church. He is getting ready for baptism and is still planning on the 15th. The bishop interviewed him as well, I dont know what for, but he did. he is doing well, we are going to meet his parents and go to his house this week.

Our other investigator we met with on Tuesday and on Sunday. We taught him the full restoration throughout the two lessons. We did alot more HTBT with him because we didn't know if he knew our purpose as missionaries. he kept calling us pastors and saying he wants to help us start our own churches. He read the  introduction page and thinks the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smiths experience could be true so he his doing well. No big concerns with him.

I studied for my investigators this week and read in the Book of Mormon and the New Testament. There wasn't really anything special about my study this week...except that Corianimur was kind of dumb for not repenting and letting every single one of his people be destroyed...

My miracle this week was getting to meet two investigators twice this week I have never had that happen to me before on my mission...super cool.

I went on an exchange with Elder 구 this week. We had a good time talking about things I wanted help with. We talked alot with being satisfied with peoples work when you know they can do better. We had a good talk and a good rest of the exchange.

LOVE THE WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!

Hard Week in Korea

We had a good and stressful week this week.  We had alot of weird experiences and met alot of really strange people.

We did have a couple of really good lessons. The first with our High school aged investigator. We had a really good meeting with him teaching about prophets and the Word of Wisdom. We all taught together in really good unity and were able to have him understand all of the points that we needed him to understand. This was the first time he met Elder Savas and they seemed to connect together very well. He did not come to church again this week and that was really frustrating but we did meet him that night on the street. He kept apologizing and hugging me saying he was sorry he slept through the alarm and our phone calls. We walked him home confirmed our next appointment with him and followed up on the Word of Wisdom, which he is doing well with. We are still planning on getting him baptized on the 15th.

We also picked up a new investigator named James. He is a Korean but he lived in America for over 30 years, so he has told us that Korean is not his native language, we are not exactly sure how good he is. He has had lots of hard experiences with churches here in Korea and is really interested in service opportunities in our church and bible study with us, but he is a really solid nice guy.

This week I did alot of self reflection and figured out alot of ways that I can improve. Doing so I studied alot in Chapter 6 in PMG. I also did alot of study for district meeting, which is going to be alot about enduring to the end and doing it happily. it should be a good one.

Honestly my miracle this week is that we all got through the week without going insane. We met the weirdest people from a man selling a fan for cigarettes and telling us to wash our faces with salt to a couple of Jehovah Witness people that wanted to Bible Bash. Also it has been really stressful because our ward members have not been communicating with us, but are expecting us to do things that we cant do  and pushed back all of our baptismal dates back 3 weeks because they want to have 1 baptismal service. They cancelled the sisters baptism without the sisters knowing all because they didn't want to make treats and this family wanted to go out to eat, so they didn't meet with the sisters to finish up their lessons. DUMB! humh....Eternal Salvation or Food. The choice is yours.... One sister in our ward is causing alot of problems. I really want to work with her and not against her, but they way she said it must be done is  either  not in align with our rules or is based completely on her personal opinion, so it is tough. It has been a stressful week..lets leave it at that.

 

Still love it. Honestly it sucks that we are moving wards. I hate it. That really puts a cherry on top of everything. but hey when your not happy you can always fake it right...

 

 LOVE YA!!! i really am happy just super stressed out. I thought email would fix it but i think it just made it harder. Love you . love the blessings the gospel brings. Ether 12:6

xoxoxoxoxo

 

DMZ VISIT

Hello

This week was a pretty fun week for us.

First the DMZ we went to a couple of different points of the DMZ. One was a look out point where we could look out at propaganda city and look through binoculars to see North Korean people. You could see barbed wire everywhere from the tower we were on and signs that said Mine field all over the place. Then we went into an attack tunnel that North Korea had dug to get to Seoul. They tried to disguise it as a coal mine by putting coal on the ceiling but you could see dynamite hole created for artillery pointed towards Seoul. I literally was right next to the actual line that starts the DMZ...but super protected so don't worry. Sadly we couldn't take pictures in the tunnel or i would send lots. It was a super fun trip!!!!

Having the firepower of all three missionaries is amazing. It will take a little bit of work to get us to all connect together more and how to work more as a companionship, but seeing this amount of work get done is amazing.

We met with two of our investigators this week. We met with our 19 year old investigator on monday. We talked to him about keeping the sabbath day holy and why it is important to come to church. We commited to come to church, but i guess it didnt stick as well as we thought because he did not come to church this week. We found out later that he had hurt his leg playing soccer so his dad wanted him to rest and not leave the house. The good news is he has still been praying and reading the scriptures every day. We changed his baptismal date to next month on the 15th. We will now work hard to get him ready for that date. Next we met with our pilot investigator. He, like expected went off on lots of tangents and asked alot of very hard questions. I think we all did a good job with him, Elder Savas was a really good help with him. He testified really well and helped answer alot of those hard questions. We pretty much told him how we have found answers to our questions in the Book of Mormon and he can do it the same way. So we committed him to reading and praying. Pretty good couple of lessons.

For studies I read a bunch about the Gospel of Jesus Christ for district meeting. I thought about the Parable of the Sower and Alma 32 where it talks about seeds. I am planning on talking a little about the two comparisons in the parables and using gardening as my own parable for the Gospel of Christ. I am really excited for this one and have planned alot to make it inspiring for both the Americans, the Koreans and cant forget the New Zealander.

My miracle this week was we saw alot of energy from our ward. After church a member of the bishopric sat us all down in a room and had us all say names of people we were going to go visit had us make a message card and be upstairs in 10 minutes for lunch. After lunch we went with members to go visit the less actives of investigators that we picked. It was REALLY stressful at first because noone knew what was going on not even the Korean elders and sisters and it ruined alot of plans that missionaries already had like lessons. We are now going to do thi8s every Sunday which is really cool, it was just really insane and stressful because no one knew what was going on.

Fun crazy times in this crazy ward!!

LOVE YA LOTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Miles Diede

these pics are North Korea from the lookout tower, behind the camera line and the sign.