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.

Happy Birthday

 Happy 19th Birthday Elder Diede

 Longest escalator I have ever seen

 Zone Service Project

Hello family!

 

Yes i have put on weight. Thank you for that. All from the MTC. Its all going away soon just by regular eating and walking. Well this week on my birthday I spent lots of the time playing basketball. The hoop was probobly around 9 feet so I dunked it a couple of times in games. It was funny because we had a crowd of 15 or so people watching so they would yell and scream when some one did something good. When I dunked it the koreans got so excited it was funny. A very nice ward member took us to get a cake a bakery for FHE and we chose what looked like a chocolate cake, but when we bit into it it was sweet potato! Good still. Later that night we were planning and the other elders that live in our house came in with a baskin robins box. I opened it and it was the cutest little cake ive ever seen.Our korean Elder Jahng said " I dont want to kill the cake! its murder!" It was a full icecream whale with Poprock icecream on top and cherry in the middle.

 

The next day we went to go do service at the bishops shop,washing his jewlry shop windows. He told us that missionaries were not allowed to clean, which is wrong because we can. Then he gave us stuff called duckboki which are REALLY spicy ricecakes, but not very good ones. I was literally dying as i was eating them because it fills you up quickly, and it is so HOT! Our bishop is a very hard peron to work with. We ask him what we can do to help the ward, or for refferals and he says he wants baptisms, thats all. Thats not they way it works. We need member help and the bishop doesnt really understand that. but We have an investigtor supposed to get baptized next week( his name is Sam, he speaks british english) but he cant stop smoking. He is fun comes to church, and is giving up cigarettes slowly. but almost there!

 

While we were contacting on the streets we ran into an old investigator than Elder Franchina and his comp had to drop. He got mad at us. He said he never wants to talk with us again. That is the down side to the work, but after words we bought some korean BBQ. chicken shiskabobs, Super good but Super spicy. Your mouth is dying, like your inferno chicken, but it is so good you keep eating. and food is SUPER cheap, except fruit. We dont eat alot of fruit, but the Asian Peach is literally the est piece of fruit I have ever had. They sell fruit everywhere so I can always get it.

 

We have been getting rejected ALOT latley people wont ever take our cards, but that just means the prepared person is close. We talked to a church preacher that really wants to learn about our church. Elder franchina and I have talked about baptizing his whole congregation! We meet him on friday and he speaks super good english. in English class i am know the person everyone turns to, because according to the Koreans my english pronnounciation is the best and I speak pure american english, maybe its because i have been polluted by korean fully yet.

 

Every nght we play Asian Scum, i will have to teach everyone when i come back. It is so much fun because we yell and scream at each other, at that point it is everyone for yourself. Its a card game but they have led to chasing around our house, standing up on chairs and breaking one chair. SUPER FUN!!!! We went to a meeting with the ward mission leader and found a street sign that said good-bye and the longest escalator i have ever seen!

 

Tomorow we get to go to the temple. Im so excited. It is Franchinas 300th day here so we are celebrating and going sightseeing!

 

Hope you like the pics!

 

LOVE YA

your missionary,

 Elder Miles Diede