Christmas Letter

  Elder Theurer-  Family met him in Nauvoo

 Sister Fan dance

  MTC District in Seoul,  My Collection of  Cheep Ties

so......hi.

 

It was really good to talk with you on Christmas. I was the only one in the house who wasnt a cry baby. I cant beleive you told me about Thor 2...I hate you.

 

Well I will tell you what we did for Christmas!! Because we live far away from Seoul we slept at the temple on Christmas Eve. Then the next morning our Christmas breakfast was McMuffins at good ole McDonalds. Then we went to a Conference. First we had the spiritual part where President and Sister Christensen talked alot about feelings and giving. Sister Christensen shared a video called West Jet Christmas, its good look it up! Then President focused on the wisemen. Its kinda cool that the wisemen took about 18 months to 2 years to find Christ. It sounds slightly familiar to something im doing right now. Then we had a great lunch filled with sandwiches, soup and LOTS of fudge, pretzels, cookies, brownies all baked goods filled with love!

 

Then we started the fun part. It started with Pentatonix, Little drummer Boy. Look that up too. Good treat that president gave us. I love Pentatonix. Then we had lots of talents and videos shown and we laughed alot. The Korean sisters did a fan dance for us it was pretty sweet I have a picture of it for you to enjoy.

 

Then we came home and opened presents. I love all the candy and the 100 verses to bring you closer to Christ book is awesome, but the most favorite present is the basketball hoop as you can see from the videos:) The pajamas are also sweet I love rockin the BYU gear! the slippers keep my feet warm and the Twinkies had the Sweetest comeback ever.

 

Well I have lots of pictures for you, speaking of pictures, I showed mine to our branch president....he said they were lame and I need more and better, more stylish pictures.Help? Also the Korean sister missionary said Malorie and Shayna were the cutest. Koreans love your blonde hair.

 

Other than that not much else to talk about! Christmas was the only big thing this week.

Well I love ya I hope you enjoy all of the pictures and movies send me some in packages and through email. I need a good picture of Gavin and Hayden everyone thinks that they are both older than me. LOVE YA!!!!! HAVE A GOOD NEW YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Miles Diede

 

December 22,2013 Chop Stick Champ

Ok So 4:00 your time, I will call you then, I have about an hour to talk with you! I will call the house phone. I can bear my testimony but in english not in korean. I have seen Studio C alot. But not divine Comedy.

 

This week Elder Smith left and Elder Edwards came. Im sad to see Elder Smith go. He is probobly one of my favorite house mates. I loved him! Elder Edwards is pretty nice he was a Zone Leader in the MTC he was a little Power hungry back then I guess we will see what being a DL does.

 

Because Elder Smith was leaving we had a couple of appointments with members! We had an appointment with one guy who used to be a fat karate teacher with long hair. He showed us a news recording where they interviewed him at his academy. Then he showed us a Michael Jackson concert comparing his hair. So we watched Thriller and Billie Jean.....

 

I just want to let you know I am dang good at chopsticks now. I can steal food from other peoples chopsticks so fast. We ocasionaly put a cady or one piece of food in a bowl and whoever gets it eats it. I am pround to annouce that I beat three koreans at once!! Also we had a meal with a members and a sister said I am the best foriegner using chopsticks she has ever seen! You can tell Brother Graves I am really good now.

 

Then we had a Christmas party with the ward. I got to dress up as Good ole Saint Nick, the one and only Santa!!! Sorry I dont have a picture at the moment I have to get it from the Sister missionaries. I gave out cookies to little kids and presents to ward members. Then we watched the Music from the Christmas Devotional and then the missionaries did a skit. We did something called squatty bodies, which is a mix between the midget dance we did at the Family reunion and Helping hands off of Whose line is it anyways. I was the arms for Elder Murdock and we were doing the Life of a missionary. So we woke up ate breakfast, cereal i threw at his face. then excersized brushed his teeth, slept during Personal study, then made a mess of lunch eating curry, rice and kimchi. The ward members loved it!!! They thought it was so funny!!!

 

Then yesterday we picked up a new investigator we are teaching him English, we taught him the names of numbers yesterday. He is 20 years old and has a SUPER bad lisp so he is so hard to understand. He is a funny akward guy so it should be pretty fun!

 

Well not much else. I cant wait to talk to you on Wednesday. I hope you have a really Merry Christmas.Always remember the true meaning of Christmas. The Savior came into the world there is a saying here in Korea, 기쁘다구주오셨네 The equivelent in English is Joy to the World. It really is a Joy. Without the savior we wouldnt have the lives we have today. I have grown to KNOW my savior more and what he has done for me. I guess that is what a mission is for. LOVE YA!!!!!!!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love

 Miles

December 15,2013

 Dear Family,

 That 21 day plan is awesome I have never heard of it before. I am absolutely sure that the plan will work. It is really cool that the members are becoming more involved with member work, i wish they had the same kind of stuff over here because we could really use member work. It really makes missionary work so much easier when members help. Do the plan it will be a great experience.

 

Well Transfer calls were this week and I will be staying in Wonju with Elder Batschi! Elder Smith will be leaving and becoming ZL in my greenie area. Then an Elder from my MTC group is coming here to become DL. All of the Elders in our house are now in their 4th transfer or less! SCARY!!!!!!!

 

Well this week I had a pretty cool expereience. We were Knocking on doors and a guy came out to talk with us. At first he listened to us and then he started talking more. He started saying that he knows about the Mormon church and we cant teach him any more than he already knows because we dont speak Korean well. Then He started going off about how the Bible is the only word of God. As he was speaking I felt the spirit SO strongly. After he finished Elder Batschi and I bore Testimony of the Book of Mormon It was so Powerful. I literally couldn't breathe. but long story short He wouldnt take a Book of Mormon, but after he shut the door we wrote some stuff in the cover of the book and put it on the doorway. I dont know what will happen but we will see.

 

It snowed quite a bit here this week! The coldest it has gotten is -7 degrees not including the humidity or wind....so it got ALOT colder. I freezer burnt my face because of the wind. The snow is awesoe though. It makes it hard to talk to people because they all have hands shoved in their pockets and faces down but its still pretty fun!

 

Also this week I got the door slammed on me twice by two little kids. not a great experience.

 

I had the great pleasure of going to the bathroom on a squater. See picture.

 

Koreans love my English pronnunciation. The Korean sister in my District says I am the best one and now I am now the official Wonju Missionary English Teacher.

 

I will also dress up as Santa Clause for our Ward Christmas Party. Elder Smith and a member we had a dinner appointment with told me I need to get fatter. So they gave me a plate more than everyone else to eat.

 

Thats it! Love ya Lots! Can wait to talk to you on Christmas! 4:00 MST.

 

The pictures are the squater, a re;igion sign on a door, the stocking, me catching Elder Smith and Me and Elder Smith taking  nap on Pday.

December 8th

Hello!

Not much else to talk about this week. other than we finally found an investigator..kind of. He has a super good christian background and served a mission in the philipenes for one year. We taught him in a fast food place because he didnt want to meet in our church. It is kind of just a this is what we believe and then him telling what he believes but an investigator is an investigator. We shared Moroni 10 with him and he completley agreed with it but he refuses to take a Book of Mormon. He says the bible is the only word of God and shared a scripture in Revelation 20 something that says dont add to the word. But that scripture was written before the bible was even compiled together and the 4 Gospels were written. Its kind of a dumb argument but it is a really frustrating one to deal with.

We had Zone training meeting this wednesday and it was a super good training about the Book of Mormon. Our zone leaders talked to us alot about placeing book of mormons in hearts not on shelfs. It is so easy to give them out, you can give them like candy all day long, but it doesnt matter unless they read the Book and pray about it. They then felt like giving our zone a commitment on Placing 1000 Books in hearts in December. It is a super cool commitment.

Then one of our ZLs Elder Farr came to wonju on an exchange. He is someone that i met in my first area and he is super nice. He came and I did passoff with him and passed off! Passoff is a language progress program you just have to teach lessons in Korean to your DL for all 4 lessons your ZL for midway and final and APs for final. its hard but a good way to track progress

Then when Elder Smith came back we went to go eat food and the lady gave us TONS of food. After about finishing half Elder Batschi and Murdock quit, so Elder Smith and I had to eat the rest of ours plus theirs.( in Korea it is Extremly rude to leave leftovers). I was so FULL. I hand to hold all the food down with my chin.

Alright really funny strory time.  There is this weird guy here that we see every now and than. Whenever Elder Smith sees him the guy chases after him and tries to hit him. One day we were walking through the market to go to dinner and i hear "Oh crap thats the crazy guy, you take lead!" We walk about 10 more steps then the guy sees us. Elder Smith and Murdock take off running. And the guy starts chasing him, just laughing the whole time. It was probobly one of the most HILLARIOUS things i have ever seen in my life.

Well not much else..... lots of contacting. heres a pic of my tree and Elder Batschi being weird.

Im glad I can be a help to the family even being across the ocean. Love you and everything you do!!!!

KLOVE YA BYE!!!!!!

Elder Diede

Thankful for American Food

 Elder Smith is the one sitting next to me. Elder Murdock is the walrus elder Batstchi is the other

Elder Smith makes fun of my pillowcases.......its funny. Well not really a teaching week since we have no investigators but it was a good week nevertheless! I defeinetly remember how frustrating and fun doing the pipe bells were and I am still convinced that President Hinckley used my thithing for 4-wheelers. I was actually thinking alot about Bishop the other day. I glad he is there. He helped me alot to prepare and grow(probobly the most by waking me up to play ball):)

 

Anyways so this week Elder Batschi and I decided to go try to prosalyte at Yeonsai Univesity in Wonju.....not a very good idea. We thought that there would be more than just the campus there because we cant prosalyte on the campus, but there is literally nothing else other than the campus. We did go knock on some apartments and found a super nice guy that we think will meet again. but it was really beautiful up there I have lots of pictures. I sent some with this email.

 

It is now getting to around 0 degrees here. It is SOOOOOO!!!!!!!! Cold! Plus Wonju has cold wind that will rip your face off! So funny story....a good aproach here is to talk about the weather. So we did to this one guy. He then laughed and asked us if we were cold. Obviously we responded yes. He just laughed and said " It hasnt even started yet." so im kinda scared what more winter will bring. It is snowing a little bit now but not much really heavy snow comes late December.

 

One night me and Elder Smith decided to combine our beds together and see if it was more comfortable......it wasnt, but it was a fun night of sleeptalking and accidently touching each others faces.

 

Then we had Thanksgiving. We went to the Army base and ate with an American member family there. I got to say I miss american food.  There kids were all going crazy and showing us various magic tricks and cool puzzle boxes and being little kids. I remember how cool missionaries were as a little kid now I see it a different way. We had a good Thanksgiving complete with Turkey, ham, mashed potatoes and stuffing. We talked for a while then we played some minute to win it games. Member army families and really goofy and not the gruffled people you think of, like the two nonmembers that were there. It was a really fun night and they gave us lots of leftovers! They were the nicest family I hope I meet them again.

 

Then the next day was my 6th Month mark. Crazy how time flies. We are going to a buffett to celebrate tonight.

 

Lastly other high lights I met a Korean who went to the Uof A in Tucson, and Irish guy who met my friend on his mission there, a guy told us he couldnt come to the door while we were knocking because he didnt have clothes on you know just the missionary life.

 

LOVE YA!!!!!!!!!

 

Elder Diede

Look who Elder Diede ran into....Gangnam style

This week was a very different week.

On wednesday we took a 2 hour bus ride to get to our zone leaders area to have zone training meeting. I met Elder Jang, the korean that lived in my greenie house again. He is so much fun to be around. Also alot of people I havent seen in months. Then we took the bus back again and visited an active investigator. He comes to church but doesnt want to take the lessons. We talked with us for a long time. He does Chinese and Korean caligraphy and makes fans, so he gave us a fan and wrote a scripture on it for us. For me he wrote part of Heleman 5.12. It is super cool, picture attatched. Then on Friday we started our trek to back to the big city of Seoul. The way was completly blocked with traffic so I spent 3 hours on the bus there when it normaly takes 1 1/2 hours. We had a temple session scheduled at 7:20 and because of the traffic we got there just in time to drop our stuff off and get changed. I was straving throughout the entire temple session. I was sitting next to Elder Schofield who I served with in my last area and he kept looking at me and smiling because my stomach was making beached whale noises. After the session we went to go get ramen from the temple vending machines but they were all out so we got permission to go run to a gas station and buy some food.

We slept at the temple that night because the next day after eating a hardy breakfast of McDonalds we crossed the Han river into the South Mission. We had an amazing conference Elder Whiting and Elder Evans from the 70 and Missionary Director spoke to us. The gave us alot of good advice, told us some stuff that I am literally sworn to secrecy about and definetly brought the spirit to us. After the conference was over I found Tim Light and talked with him for a while. I sent you a pic or two. He is an amazing missionary and I only talked to him for about 10 minutes.

Then after we all left everyone went to the bus station in Gangnam. Thats right Gangnam style place. Where Psy and all the rich people live. Elder Smith and I bought some Kimbap and Kimchi which was the best we both had eaten in our entire missions. and it was from a bus station. Then we had the 4 hour bus ride back to our zone leader area. By the way before i forget one of my Zone Leaders played at Weber State with Damian Lillard the NBA Rookie of the Year. We took a break in the middle of the trip because it was so long. I talked to Elder Smith the whole time. It was super fun.

We then had stake conference the saturday session. This same basketball playing zone leader gave an amazing talk in korean. Then we traved to another Area to sleep over called, Donghae. The two Elders There are hillarious. There were not enough Yos so me and Elder Smith and Elder McFarland shared two. During the night Elder Smith stole my sheet. Then he woke up realized he stole it and tried to put it back on me. I also realize that I now speak Korean mixed with English in my sleep. Super weird. Then we traveled back to the Zone leader Area on a bus that drove along the Ocean, I didnt have my camera, but i will see it again.

I have literaly seen almost all the different parts of Korean this week, the city,  mountains, rich people place, ocean I just havent been to jayjoo island.

Then we had the sunday session which was a broadcast specificly for Korea, where Elder Cook and Elder Hales spoke. It was dubbed with Korean so I have no clue what they said but it was still super spiritual. The we traveled back to our area and all I have done is talk to people on the street also I got the first experience with knocking on doors. Its fun.

Well Love ya Bye

Elder Diede

What is he eating???

Silk worm larva...had to eatit.......actually not bad. look up bundagee or korean silk worms. They tasted like crunchy bugs....but they were like soggy kinda and gross but and ok flavor. Texture is awful.

A member from sanggye look on facebook for friend request

Women parking only..........

our view from the 18th floor

Well where to start. My life is always moving. I guess that is normal for missionaries, but I think especially for me. Imemailing you from 원주, Wonju. I am in the biggest city in the countryside of Korea. In Order to get out here I took a 30 minute subway ride followed by a 2 hour bus ride. Before that story lets finish up the last days in 상계,

For Pday we had a mission wide soccer game. I got to talk with all of my old Zone buddies and Elder Franchina. It was fun to get out and run again on my knee. it is doing alot better. It still a little sore but its all good. Then we went to a bathhouse with a couple of Elders. It was a fun day.

Then the next day we got to go to the temple, I love going to the temple it is the best! The Seoul Temple is just beautiful. I also picked up your package and a package I got from aunt Emalee. Thanks for the candy, the 3musketeers and Fast Breaks are the best. I love how they were mummy wraped it was funny. Tell Aunt Emalee thanks for the Kit Kat bar too. I love President Hinkley's quote too....Lose yourself and go to work!

Then transfer calls....i got transfered. So I shipped all of my stuff out to the country. So now about my new companion. His name is Elder Batschi pronnounced Batchee. He is one of the only 2 missionaries taller than me. He is from Washington likes snowboarding and is just a fun guy. We scare people walking down the street.  We went into the MTC at the same time, so we both kinda dont know Korean. We are opening up a new area together so we have no Investigators and a pretty much empty area book, but it is going to be fun to find people.

It is SOOOOO COLD HERE!!!!! Im out in the boonies so its so much colder, but I do get to see it snow on the ocean maybe. It is a fun area not to many people who are intrested so far but I will be a fun place I live with Elder Smith and Elder Murdock,(Hayden.Mitch Murdocks Cousin ask him about it) They are both fun people Elder Smith has been in this area for 7 transfers so he know what he is doing.

There is a bracnch with about 20 active members here so its fun and we get to do lots of less active work!

Today is pepero day here in korea I will lwt you research more about that! That it!! Love Ya!!!!

Elder Miles Diede

 NEW AREA  Right in the center of  Korea.  Wonju, Korea

Gate 0n PDAY

Elder Rhodes

 

Boom. Mapleton Swag. (MMH beat SHS)

 

I watched the video. That is a sick play! That coach is a genius. I havent gotten it yet i will tomorrow. our office says send one asap ,I think by thanksgiving is fine. 

 

Happy Birthday Gavin.  

 

So about stats normal people usually count Mormon.org cards given to people, for contacts. We almost never go door to door, you only do if you are in the boonies. WE count Books of Mormons given out so we get 4 contacts a week usually, the mission standard is 140. We just teach street lessons and get return appointments and stuff. fun stuff. We pretty much try and talk to everyone on the street. Good.

 

This week nothing new. Except I read a talk called the 4th  Missionary look it up. its amamazing. This talk has already changed my mission. I thought about it the other day and I wondered if I am just going through the motions or am I being the best missionary I can be. I kinda revamped everything I have been doing and i am seeing what happens. My relationships are better, the work is smoother and Korean, still super hard, but coming easier. I finally realized that I cant let anything or anybody make me mad unless I let it make me mad. Im already a way calmer person and get stressed alot more. 

 

It is starting to get really cold here, so cold. humidity and cold shouldnt mix. 

 

This week we didnt do much but visit members and do random tasks Elder Kim wanted to do. Also we had a ''Halloween Party'' We did a haunted house that absolutley failed but it was a good idea. We had lots of fun and I think the ward did too. We taught a couple of normal lessons that were ok.

 

We get to go play a mission soccer game today and go to the temple tomorrow super excited!

 

I have nothing else to report.

 

사랑해요

 Elder Miles Diede

 

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.

Good picture of us doing a kimchi squat lesson on the street.

September 8, Chocolate and Investigators

안냥하새요!!!!!!!!!

Her letter probably along with your letters, if you already sent them are probably already here. I only get mail twice a month. but if she is talking about the one i sent in the MTC I got it and I sent her one back. I wish they would do something to hasten the work here more. It is super hard to work with members but there is that language barrier. That storm you experienced I have 2 weeks of that straight here during monsoon season, plus the aftershocks. so fun.....

This week has been pretty amazing.so amazing. We went to an awesome flea market, there is stuff for so cheap and you can barter it even lower. Tons of fun to see all the cool trinkets and stuff. Then we went to a buffet specifically because it had a chocolate fountain. We ate tons of it and put it on Ice cream and oranges and bananas, so good! Then for FHE we played signs, Koreans love that game.

On Tuesday we Taught a new investigator and his wife that we talked to on the street. So We taught him and his wife in a food court and it went well. They both went to seminary so they both have really strong religious backgrounds. but they just are so open and love to let us talk to them. We are going to meet with them every Tuesday. We also picked up an investigator from English Class. His name is 민경호 or Ming. We talked with him right after English class and he really wants to know about our church. He told us exactly what to teach him Gods words, about Joseph Smith and how to pray. This week picking up three investigators is amazing, and we have so many more potentials.

This week we were on the street, when both of us got a really bad feeling that we should leave the place where we were at. It was kind of a scary moment, but we left and went somewhere else. There was a more drunk people than normal and I think that is why. Usually I love talking to drunk people, but this time it was scary, I didn't know what would happen, but then we were guided to another spot where we had tons of success gave out a few Book of Mormons and received lots of numbers. It was good to follow a clear spirit to a place I think we needed to be.

Nothing else really too special.

Our ward mission leader owns all the subways in Korea so he brings us sandwiches and cookies or we go there for our meetings. I got to eat Pig liver, lung and colon/blood sausage. it was actually pretty good i knew what it was before I ate it though so no surprise. We fed a bunch of pigeons one came and then 50 came all pecking around our feet. We played Golf card game and the loser gets shocked by our bug zapper racket. We went to a members house and ate because there is something called the 100 days for babies. If they live 100 days they celebrate and give gifts and food to people. Then we went to a meat buffet and we each ate 2 pans of this meat. around 3.5 kilos each. That is pretty much each I hope you like the pictures! Love ya!!!

  Chocolate FINALLY.  Koreans don't like sweets, so we had to stop when we saw it.

 Feeding the pigeons, You feed one, millions will come. If only people would work like this.

What! Spaghetti Sandwiches

Hello Family!!!

 

Last Monday we got to go to the temple. It was really fun. I wish I would have gone through in Korean, but the speaking would be too hard. English is good too. Then it was Elder Franchina's 300th day on his mission so we celebrated by going to an American style buffet. The we went to the huge market and bought some ties, they are super cheap here and sparkly. Koreans love em. Then the korean that lives in our house bought a golf driver to learn how to play golf. He love the sound it makes as it swooshes against the grass. He goes outside and swins for excersize time, so funny! This koreans name is Elder Jang. He is our DL and we joke around with him saying he is so hansome and humble because, he is super prideful but he is the funniest person I have ever met. He has been obsessed with learning how to golf and sing I believe I can fly. In his broken english it is so funny!!!

 

We went to go eat dinner with the stake president and while we were going there Franchina was prosylyting on the bus like always, and this guy offered to show us to the apatment complex. The whole way there he walked incredibly close to him and tried to hold his hand. We didnt do anything because that is Korean culture, but this guy really liked my companion. Then at the apartment he told us he was a makeup artist and he loved Elder Franchina. Short story short we are never calling him again. It was so funny!! The sisters were dying laughing when they found out.

 

The next day we went to go visit a recent convert and teach him the doctrine of Christ. I went into the lesson not caring because he has a minor disable and never listens to us he is always shucking corn or peeling garlic. I didnt even know if he knew our names let alone the gospel, but that day he listened and afterwards we asked him to pray and he did. He blessed me and Franchina by name, blessed our familys that we can work hard. I was stunned. After that prayer I just felt so much love for him!!! I really know that he is a child of God.  Then afterwards we ate at good old McDonalds. We all ordered a McDouble, Chicken, and Bolgogi Burger coming to a total of 5 bucks each. We took the mcdoble opened it in half and put on the whole chicken. Then ate it. The Bolgogi burger is super good as well, but only korea has it.

 

With Sam this week we made a smoking goal. he will be clean in two weeks and baptized in three hopefully. Thanks for all the gum because i cant chew it in public I gaveit all to him. He was so excited and it has really been helping him. He says American gum is alot better than Korean gum. Later that day we visited a member resteraunt and ate there. Sister Goodwin, a sister in 동대문 Decided that there were too many noodle in her bowl and she was so full. so she held up a bunch of noodles and jokingly said that someone needed to ring them out. Franchina didnt even hesitate and rung them out. We exploded with laughter. She then procceded to dump noodle in her bag when she wasnt looking. so funny.

 

Fast Sundays are my favorite here because that is when the success happens. Investigators came to church, people want to meet and we find really good contacts. We met some many foriegners yesterday. From Kenya, Uganda, Chile, Brazil, Honduras, Pillipenes, Dominican Republic, the UK, Americans and of course lots of koreans. We are meeting with the Kenyan, Uganda man and guy from Chile soon. We found so many potential investigators and were wiped clean of Book of Mormons, all 6 we had on us. It was a great day!!!

 

Kind of a scary story. Our Carbon Monoxide alarm went off and our alarm was on the celing and Monoxide sinks so there was alot of it in there, so we called President aired out our house and went to the church and played scum. At about 11 we went back in. We called President again and he said it was okay. I honestly didnt know if I was going to wake up or not. So I did my repentence for the day and was peaceful going to sleep! but im fine and it was a good experience. We all cheered at 6:30 when we all woke up!

 

Now a better story. I was remembering the times when I was a little kid and you would always relate the gospel back to everything. I hated it. but We were having Companionship inventory one day and we were talking about that. It was super spiritual, then we went and taught the gospel part of English class. We abandaned our whole lesson plan and decided just to talk. it was super powerful, and now we are meeting with one person and the sisters are meeting with another. I now know that this gospel literally is EVERYTHING! Im so glad im out here!! Thanks for everything!!!

 

LOVE YA!!

Elder Miles Diede

 

ps Remember how you said not to make the spaghetti sandwiches on our missions. 

TOO LATE.