Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!!

Kind of another slow week. Not really the kind of week you want before Christmas, but i firmly believe when people are rejecting you and you are trying your hardest to get your goals but they are not coming is the point where you are the closest to finding that prepared person that you need to find. I hope that happens soon. 

We did pick up a new investigator this week who is a teacher at a middle school. He does not believe in any religion, but he does think that the christian churches here in Korea are completely money orientated. Which is true.  We talked to him about how our church is not that way, but he got caught up some little things. He knows about our Temples and General Conference. The thing he couldn't get is why we have to spend so much money making the temples big and beautiful and why do the people need to sit in big expensive looking chairs in General Conference. He said it was a waste because God would accept anything and you could give that money to help the poor. We tried to explain that we want to give our best to God and because it is the house of God we want to make it Beautiful for Him, but he didn't really seem to get it. He is a really nice guy, He just wants everything to be completely logical, but he is not confrontational at all so it is good to talk to him.

Our other investigator we met with is a literal walking hospital.. He is a pretty solid and wants to get baptized he just cant because he is always in the hospital and cant quit drinking. (two things that really shouldn't go together) We went to his house and he lives in real bad conditions. He eats really crappy, his house is NOT clean and he has no money to pay for floor heat so it is freezing. He told us he would come to Church, but he did not come.

Alot of our investigators promised to come to our Christmas Party but they did not show up...

I decided to read the Book of Mormon one more time cover to cover with the remaining chunk of my mission and I am using a Study manual along with it so i am getting new insights that I have never really thought of before. I am also planning on focusing on a Christlike attribute every week and study about that as well. I have my studying pretty well planned out for the rest of my time and hopefully carry on after.

So this week we had the Christmas party and I had the great pleasure of dressing up as Jolly old Saint Nick and distribute candy and presents to the kids. It was alot different than me doing it last year because i can speak WAY more Korean than I could last year. My miracle comes from seeing the kids. For one Korean kids are one of the cutest, but seeing them as they received the presents I gave out. Their eyes were SO bright. Makes me think and desire more to share the greatest gift of all with everyone. I want to see more people's eyes that wide when they receive the Gospel.

This is the true Church, True Gospel and He is the gift!! #sharethegift

Love You! 

Investigator from last area, possibly baptism soon

Coming home May 15- Five months from today!!!!

Hello Family!

 This week was one of those weeks that just feels like the tires are spinning and you're not really going anywhere. But it wasn't all bad. I always love the chance to get to go to the Temple, so that was a very needed experience this week. 

Th investigators ran kind of slow this week. When I first got here there was alot of potential and people meeting. But now alot of them fell of the face of the earth. I think maybe it was because they just liked Elder Smith, but we still have a couple of solid investigators. We met with one of our Chinese investigators this week and ate dinner with him. Being at the restaurant made it a little bit hard to teach him but we talked to him a little bit about why he believes in buddism. From the sound of it he doesnt really believe he just goes to the temple because it is culture. Also i dont see why he would not come to church. This last week he went to Seoul so he couldnt make it.

Then our investigator who had a baptismal date kind of dropped us...He is too busy with tests and will go back to his hometown for school vacation so he said that was the last time he could meet with us until March so that nixes his date. We are planning on giving his number to the missionaries in his hometown, maybe they can meet with him during vacation.

We picked up 2 friends as investigators both finished high school and with go to college here. One is really good at English and the other is not. They are both really cool kids. We went and ate with them and they were really surprised that we could eat meat. We explained to them that we could eat meat and talked bout the Book of Mormon with them. We also picked up an investigator from Rwanda. He is decent at English and learning Korean through English so it is a struggle for him. We are working with the office to see if we have church materials in his language.

For study this week one thing that I really liked was doing a PMG activity of What do you want to say, who do you want to become and what is the difference you want others to see in you after your mission is over. I want to finish off this last quarter of my mission strong and do exactly what the Lord will have me do.

My miracle this week was after the Temple we decided to go to the war museum. Through walking around in the museum more than all of the tanks, planes and guns my favorite part was learning about and loving the people I serve even more. There were parts in the museum where I felt an extreme amount of love for the Korean people. I love this country so much!

Love ya Lots!!!

also...im coming home on May 15th so 5 months from today^^.

 

Yummy Soup

 

Physically feeding the Body and Spirit

How are you doing?  This week was a fun but very cold week my fingers have almost fallen off a couple of times. We had the chance to meet with a couple of our investigators this week. 4 of them are progressing now. We have two Chinese investigators who we met with each of them individually. They both like to talk a lot, so sometimes it is difficult to stay on track with them but we successfully taught both of them.  Then we also have another kid that has a baptismal date for the 3rd of next month. The only catch is that he will go back to his hometown after all of his tests are over so it will be hard to teach him everything before then. He told us this after he accepted the baptismal date. The last investigator that is progressing of ours is a 24 year old from Mongolia. We wanted to watch the Restoration video with him in Mongolian, but that is not one of the options so we watched it in Korean with English subtitles, and I think that worked okay. He definitely didn't understand all of it, but he got everything he needed to. We also picked up a New investigator from Pakistan, who is very bold in his comments but he is a good guy that really wants to know what is true. he just asks a ton of really hard questions, that sent us bouncing around trying to explain it. 

For studies this week I read a couple of general conference talks and got some really good insights from that. I also read bits and pieces of the Bible and the Book of Mormon, nothing really too big or anything to report. I also read in PMG about extending commitments. there was a section that stood out to me. It says that with everything we do it should have some type of invitation or commitment. I have always known that but it kind of just stuck out to me more. I will definitely work on that a little bit more this week.

One of my miracles this week was at church. They members really trust me a lot.  They ask me lots of questions and call on me to say stuff in church. I guess I haven't really had that opportunity in a situation where i can understand what they are saying and say an intelligence answer, but I like it. Again I really love the members here. It is cool to be in a really small ward again where you can get to know people a lot better.

The food here is so cheap...and good....i will get fat.......

LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!! #sharethegift

Miles

BTW: I got the xmas package. I am still figuring out when i am going home and when we are calling. LOVES!!!

Duck Meat

Spicy Crab

Ice Cream Waffle-  Oh Yeah!

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.

Staying PUT

Hello !

 

Transfers: I am staying, Elder Keil is staying and we are picking up Elder Savas from my MTC group. Threesome!!! super hard but fun. One cool thing too. i am staying with Sister Kim who i served with 2 transfers in Wonju and 5 now in Geumchon I will be with her for about a year. Sad thing Elder Lanford is leaving. I cried about that one. I love Elder Lanford, but its ok we already made plans to go hiking anf fishing together.

 

To be honest I was really surprised with transfer calls this week. I never thought that I would be in a threesome, but i am super excited to be in one now and to experience new things. I am super excited to be with Elder Savas, because I do not know him very well even though we came to Korea together.

So kind of some sad news. Our investigator with a baptisimal date punked his appointment and wouldn't answer our calls all week. So he did not get the chance to come to general conference or meet and talk about the gospel this week. but on the better side of things I talked with him for a while on the phone last night and we have an appointment to meet him today. Elder Keil and I have talked and have decided to move his baptisimal date back further. We are planning on talking a little bit more on church and why it is important along with a few other things.
We did not get the chance to meet with any other investigators or find new ones. All of the investigators were either busy or never picked up the phone.

For studying this week I thought alot and prepared for general conference, which was great by the way. I cant wait to read alot of the talks when they come out. One of the themes that really stood out to me in conference is taking responsibility for your actions and consequeces and not blaming others or your situations. That plus alot more gave me alot more to think about over the next couple of months, and ways to improve. One thing I have learned to love about conference is it pokes at you and tells you exactly what you need to do to improve, how to change and so forth. That is something really cool to me. 

One miracle for me this week was on sunday I was able to make way better relationships with alot of the ward members by telling fun stories from missionary work, trying really hard to serve all members and doing the dishes after we had lunch. Everyone including me was just more happy!!

 

My friend Jang Chul Jin came to Conference good

to see him again!!!

 

Love ya!!! go to the DMZ tommorow!!!!!

Elder Diede

Another Great Week of Missionary Work

This week has been a pretty great week. We had alot of chances to serve and help people this week.
We got to meet with our investigator with the baptisimal date this week, and kept contact with him every single day. We taught him about the Gospel of Christ and he seemed to accept it really well. He asked a couple of good questions and we had a really good discussion with him. He also 전도ed with Elder Whitehead a little bit because he met him on the street. He is doing well. His date still stands for the 25th but Elder Keil and I both want to make sure that he is getting baptized for the right reasons and not just because he likes us. He did not come to church this week, he decided that he wanted to sleep even after I woke him up by calling him...but hey what are ya going to do. He acts exactly like a teenager, (but definetly not the kind of teenager I was) Kidding of course but it is kind of funny to see how teenagers think now after being one.  We are thinking about pushing back his date but we have to talk about that more. He really likes Elder Keil alot. I think Elder Keil has been the biggest influence for good to him.
Studys this week have been alot focused on district meeting. Specificly on enduring to the end. I thought and studied alot about the difference between waiting and enduring. I think they are two different things, waiting is just kind of going with the flow, letting the things around you change, and enduring is like holding fast, kind of building your stronghold and not letting the world's "bombs" get to you. Im planning on spliting up enduring into a couple of different sections and helping the missionaries not to wait but to endure.
My miracle for this week was this weekend we got to go and help a member move. Elder Keil and I were the only ones who went because he was very adament that they only needed 2 people. We had the chance to talk to the member, who is the first councelor in our bishopbric and some of his work friends who are not members. We didnt talk alot about the church, but we did get to show those friends what missionary work and our church was all about. We also got to build alot better of a relationships with the member family. It was good to do a service project like that again. I have learned to love helping people move...which I guess will be good for being in an Elders quorum down the line.

This next week is transfer calls and i am on the chopping block, pretty close to the knife. I think our district is going to get exploded this transfer. Everyone has been here for at least 2 transfers alot for 4 and one for 6. exploding is gonna happen.

LOVE YA!!!!!
 LOVE YA LOTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GOTTA GO!!!!! hey going to the DMZ next week on Tuesday!!!!!!! North Korea here i come. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Elder Diede

here is flavor fried potatoes on a stick

and the rice fields.

Miracle with Hayden

Family!

Well honestly this last week has been a blast.  We have had lots of fun experiences this week. My week started off by going on an exchange with the Zone Leaders I was supposed to go with Elder 구, but right before going to the subway station to trade off with us the Zone leaders changed their mind they felt that Elder 구 needed to come to 금촌 with Elder Keil. We saw lots of miracles from that change which i will talk about more.

We picked up a new investigator this week off of our call sheets and we met with him twice this week. He has a little bit of a speech impediment so he is a little hard to understand sometimes, but as we get used to how he speaks it will get better.  We taught him the entire restoration in the two meetings and he accepted it well. He even asked a couple good questions about prayer and prayed at the end of our lesson, and did a great job too. We will be meeting him more this next week.
Ok miracle from Elder 구. While he was here He and Elder Keil met with our 16 year old investigator. They had a really good talk and talked about the Plan of Salvation and also gave them a baptisimal date, for the 25th of October. Then the next Sunday he came to church. He had a really good time, and listened really well. Elder Keil kind of took care of him because I was translating for all of the foriegners of our ward. All of the members especially the Young men welcomed him really nicely. Really really cool miracle. We have an appointment for him this wednesday.
This week one of my favorite studies that i did was reading the story of Joshua and the city of Jericho. I was really thinking about Joshua's people. They really had to put away their doubts and just follow Jopshua and the Ark of the Covenant around the city 7 times and then have enough faith to yell at the walls of the city. Because they did follow well the high walls of the city "fell down flat" It helped me realize that I need to put away all of my doubts, as I do so I can conquer the walls keeping me out. Cool story.

My miracle this week was seeing how happy Elder Keil was to see the visible progress of missionary work. When I came back from my exchange with the zone leaders, Elder Keil gave me a hug and was so happy that we had a baptisimaal date, and was even happier when he came to church and sat in the chair next to him. Really made me happy to see him even more happy.

 

I also went on a really fun exchange with Elder Lanford, we played a word game where you had to use a certain word in your prosylyting. Such as my word was whale. and I told the man i was talking to that i have seen his church and it is as big as a whale. SUPER FUN!!!

 

As I have been doing this sports fast, it has helped me feel the love of Christ more and has kept me more focused, I will continue to stay focused and semi fast from it. It has brought alot of blessings in my life.

 

LOVIN LIFE!!!!

 

Love you!!!!!

 

Funny story this week i was playing with the stapler and i stapled my finger......im fin

e;)

 

 

Refining Silver

Dear Family,

This week was a pretty good week.

I dont really have anything in specific to report this week. We did not get the chance to meet with any of our investigators this week. We had appointments with all of them but they all fell through. Kind of frustrating but you cant really change peoples agency. We will continue to  work with them and try and meet with them, all while trying to find new investigators.

This week for studies I was thinking alot about district meeting and what I can share to everyone.  I was thinking alot about how I can help improve prayers. I thought about a specific "gospel gem" that I had heard in Sunday school one time about the process of refining silver. How it keeps going into a hotter fire until the person refining the silver can see his reflection in the silver. Elder Keil and I have been talking alot about suffering and how we need to love our sufferings. ( Elder Keil Loves to suffer and he has taught me alot about being grateful for your trials and stress.) So I will share that in District meeting this week. I also thought alot about gratitude, especially in prayers. It made me think of a family thing we did, saying as many grateful things as your age in our family prayers.( when my dad prayed we were there for a while) but I have set some goals to be more grateful this week!

 

We had Stake conference this week and a 70 and area 70 came. next week the area 70 will come to our ward. i talked to him and the 70 and president for like 5 minutes. Cool to talk to all that power at once.

 Straight from my letter to President.

My miracle this week was my family, especially my little brother. I made a deal with them that I would not think about sports at all for 2 week, I would go on a sports fast and they would pray and fast for me. I have felt the love and the power from that. I Love them so much for it.

 

LOVE YA

MILES

 

Elder Keil and Diede

Elder Diede  and Sister Kim

 

Sqatting for 20 Minutes

Korean Ward Anniversary  See Link

Well this was a pretty fun but normal week of missionary work.  We got to meet with two of our investigators this week. First off we met with our 19 year old investigator and just kind of had a do or die lesson with him. At first he was just being silly and asking funny questions and making inappropriate jokes. Then the situation kind of changed and he started asking real sincere questions mostly about how he can get answers to his prayers. It ended with a good feeling and him recognizing the Spirit and all three of us getting on our knees and praying together with him offering the prayer. It was a pretty good lesson and I was glad we could meet with him. We decided we want to meet him more, but his problem is he punks appointments a lot. So right now we plan to meet him more, but the ball is in his court if he shows up or not.

The other Investigator we taught was our pilot investigator who was a referral from the South Mission. His lesson was a little bit harder because he is more interested in learning English, but still has gospel interest. We planned on teaching him the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but the lesson kind of went every which way and that was our fault for not controlling it and taking it the way we wanted more. We did set up the next meeting with him in a way that it will be easy to talk about the things we want to with him. He kept his commitment and read the Book of Mormon so he is now progressing. We will be meeting him hopefully twice a week but probably once a week.
This week I was doing some study for district meeting on Revelation through Prayer. I am going to use the questions President Christensen asked us at mission conference, why, when, where,what and how do we Pray, as a base for my training. I studied the book of Enos multiple times, found a few scriptures in Psalms to share and studied the prayer we all know most of all, Joseph Smith's prayer. Also Elder Whitehead and I both had the feeling that we both needed to talk about "Being One" This feeling was confirmed when our ward mission leader talked to Elder Whitehead and I in Missionary coordination meeting about the same thing. I will talk to my district about having unity with everyone your companion, district, ward and of course the Lord. I had a really good set of personal studies this week.

My miracle this week was this last Thursday. Elder Keil and I just had a blast together that day. We talked to many many fun and willing to talk people Including an man who loved Elder Keil because he was from New Zealand, and older lady who thought we were super funny because we spoke Korean and a man we taught a lesson to squatting down for 20 minutes(i stayed down for all 20 minutes but Elder Keil got up and had to stretch 3 times). Everything seemed to go right that day.We were both on cloud 9 not just regular happy. It made us come closer as companions. I love that day  a lot.

 

Love you lots!!!!!!

 

Elder Miles Diede

 

Challenge accepted. 2 week sports fast 시작!!!

Happy 추석

Hello

How are you doing? I hope you are having a happy 추석.

 So this holiday is like the Korean Thanksgiving everyone goes to their hometown and eats and goes to ancestors graves and bows to them.

This week as far as investigators go we didnt meet with any this week. They all are just really busy and cant meet with us.  It is really frustrating especially because I am with Elder Keil and this is his first experience with missionary work. He is realizing that we dont baptize everyone on the street, but he still has that mindset and I want to join him on it again.  I want to give him more teaching experience and help him learn how to teach lessons more.  Hopefully the appointments we have set up for this week will not fall through and we can actually meet with them.
Study this week was alot in the Bible this week and studying some General Conference talks from last conference. I really liked studying about Joshua and specificly the two stories about The Priest Carrying the Ark of the Covenant across the river and stopping the river and How they make the Walls of Jericho fall down.

My miracle for this week was I think our companionship relationship has gotten alot better as we have grown alot together. We have helped each other realize weaknesses and strengths more and how to overcome them. It has been really fun to do missionary work with him more. I am super excited for the rest of this transfer.

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

Elder Diede

August 31, 2014

Hello!!!

Well first off transfer calls was pretty surprising our district split. Everyone is staying and 2 more elders are coming( there are WAY too many missionaries :) Also I get to live with a Korean again this transfer so i am super excited.

This week Elder Keil and I picked up a couple of new investigators this week one is a pretty solid investigator and is starting out a new massage place so he can only meet in little 30 minutes increments but we can get alot of teaching done in that little bit. He doesnt believe in an after life so we talked to him a little bit about the plan of salvation. This man decided to meet with us because Elder Keil smiled as he went up and asked him for a handshake. That just shows me how being happy as you teach and meet new people is more important than the words you actually speak. Korean is still obviously important, but you can do it well when you just are starting out as well.

The other wasan american that is really preocupied with alot of the random "stories" he doesnt understand fully. Like secrects in the Temple and Joseph Smith's Court cases. We are continuing to talk about him to see if we should meet with him again, because he is nice, not agressive and said he would read the Book of Mormon. So we will see what happens with him.

For studies this week I studied in the Doctrine and Covenants alot. I havent got a very big chance to read it alot so i was grateful for the opportunity. I also read alot of stories in the Old Testament.

One of my miracles this week was this Sunday the relief society and priesthood topic was on Member missionary work and on Preach my Gospel. The Sunday School lesson was on Jonah and the Whale and they related it to missionary work. i had made up my mind to participate more. The topics and sitting next to the bishop helped me get started and to participate. The teachers actually asked me a couple of questions and I was called on to say the closing prayer as well. It was a cool miracle to see a little more trust and have the ward open up to me a little bit more.

Elder Keil and I are SUPER excited to stay together. We have set a couple of goals to keep us more in tune with the spirit and have a better sense of time, to get out the door faster and to not waste a second of time. Im really excited to learn more from him!

Love YA!!!!!!
ELDER MILES DIEDE

i forgot my camera sorry

Baptisms in Korea!

His name is Kim Min. He is 10, his older sister was baptized a little bit ago. The sisters have been teaching him, the parents are not members, but are seeing how the church is helping the kids. They came to his baptism pretty cool.

 Sisters investigator. 

Hello

First off I had a great Birthday at the Temple and opened the really fun package. lots of cool pics comin your way.

I met Jang Chul Jin the korea I lived with in my first area again. He bought me a cake for my birthday, then later the sisters bought me an icecream cake too.:) really nice!!

We met a new investigator that was a refferal from the south mission. He is a pilot and is wanting to met with us for english, but is completly willing to talk about our church. He has lots of really strong opinions but is pretty open. Elder Keil puts it this way; if we teach him well he can become a good member but if we dont he can start a new church. really awesome solid investigator, we will try and meet him 2 times a week.

We also talked on the phone with our 19 year old investigator and he said dont speak Korean to me and that he hates studying the Book of Mormon. We will meet him on Tuesday and it will be kind of a do or die lesson.

This week I have studied alot on the sabbath day and how to use it in district meeting. I also studied King Benjamins speech and looked for everything about service. While I was going on an exchange with Elder Lanford we were focusing on How to serve people more and it was a cool little focus for a day. I also studied for lessons and how we can help the investigators we have to meet with us and still pick up more.

Well we had a baptism and I got to baptize one of the sisters investigators while Elder Lanford baptized the other sisters investigators and I got to give the Gift of the Holy Ghost as well as a blessing to both of them-- all in Korean in front of 130 people. scary but fun.

I have 2 miracles for this week. One miracle was the baptisms and confirmations we had this week. I had the great opportunity to baptize one and give them both the Holy Ghost. When I was doing the confirmation I started out a little bit shaky then I felt like i got supported by a angel and I finished both of them strong. Really cool experience to help 2 people start their new journeys towards Christ.

LOVE YA ALL!!!!!!

Elder Diede