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;)