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