Welcome Home

Last Letter Home

Hey for those of you that can come, just to let you know my farewell is on the 24th at 9:00 at the chapel on Dalton Drive in Springville, Utah. for those of you still on missions my email at home will be kilometers5@gmail.com. Love you all!!!

I have been reflecting a lot on these last two years of my life and what they mean to me.

These last two years of my life have been one of the hardest, tiring, stressful years of my life, but I wouldn't change them for the world. I never never sweat, bled or cried so much in my life, but every drop was worth it. I have lost weight, precious time and even some of my English, but all in order to find something else. Something better. My mission has changed my life. 

First off Korea. I will never be able to look at the Korean flag without thinking of my wonderful time here. At first it was hard learning a difficult language, adjusting to such a different culture and becoming a missionary. I'm not gonna lie it was hard. but going through that has made me a way better person, and into the person that I needed to become. I love this country, culture, food, language and people. Korea has a sacred place in my heart. I will never forget Korea and the relationships I have made here.

But the biggest thing that happened on my mission was I was able to find my Savior. Through all of the scripture study, prayers,experiences and promptings I have come to know more of who Jesus Christ is. I know my Savior lives that he loves me and everyone else with an indescribable love. He suffered and died for all of our sins and made it possible that we can all be resurrected and return back to our Heavenly Father. Heavenly Father loves us and because He does he gave us the Book Of Mormon and Modern day prophets to guide us. That book has given me so much help in the hard times and joy in the good times. I know it is a true book of God and we can get closer to God by reading that book. I know that this church is true. I have no doubt about that. I love my Savior and Redeemer. I Love this work and this church with all my heart and I was glad to be able to serve a mission. I wouldn't have done it any other way.  

Love you all!!

Elder Miles Diede

May 5

We had a meeting today and we email now so here it is.;)

Well this week was a week like any other. We did not have very many lessons planned when it started and it ended that way. It can be a little bit frustrating sometimes because we don't have very many solid investigators and no one that we meet on the street really wants to meet us again, but they listen to us on the street when we talk to them for the first time. but we are meeting a lot of really cool people and seeing cool miracles every single day. I'm pretty sure these next couple of weeks will have  and see the most miracles that i have ever seen in my life. 

The one investigator that we did meet with this week was an interesting one. We meet him in his office(he is a building security guard) and he likes to get on his computer when we are with him, which makes him not focus very much. We are working on getting him to come to the church and meeting us. He kept his commitment to read in the Book of Mormon and read the introduction page and a little into the testimonies at the front. He is a really sweet old man, we just have to meet him in an environment that is more receptive to the spirit. 

My studying this week was studying more about desire. The Joke in our house is that I am trunky, and i think it is because I talk a ton about desires and I share lots of them and want to know and ton, but also because the other elders like watching me squirm realizing im coming home soon. :)  but its ok im not trunky and I know it Elder Miller knows it and God knows it so what else really matters.  My studying was also focused on Patience which turned out to be a miracle later because I went on exchanges with Elder C., a district leader in my zone from hawaii, and he wanted to be trained on that same subject.

We had a really good exchange and we did lots of missionary work together. He is doing his job of district leader very well. The district there is very close, they are all very good friends, which sometimes can get in the way, but I talked to Elder C.i a little bit about that. I don't see any huge concerns with Elder C. or the district. Elder C. is a blessing to me. He shared some of the things he has been going through with me, not in any specifics but enough where i could understand. He is literally the definition of love for me. This big huge Hawaiian teddy bear just loves everyone. He has blessed my life these past 2 transfers. He is my miracle for the week.

so i will call you 9 am my time on monday, i will write you my testimony next week too!!

Love you lots

Elder Miles Diede

Priesthood Blessings

This week was not bad at all. We didn't get to meet any of our investigators for a sit down lesson this week .  We did however get to give our recent convert the priesthood this week. It was a really sweet experience.  We have passed him over to the ward really well. Our young mens president is taking care of pretty much everything he has got him started doing Duty to God and is starting on working on getting him to the temple. He is doing really good and is participating really well in sunday school and young mens. He loves going to church so much, but not for us for actual church and the members there.

We had a mission tour and Pres. Ringwood came and talked to us. He talked about Moroni 10 and desires and mercy. It was super spiritual and it gave me a lot of things to think about and ponder. 

study this week was focused shifted gears at the end of the week because of the Mission tour. At the beginning of the week my studies were just the normal reading the Book of Mormon,Jesus the Christ and all of that good stuff, but then it changed to learning more about mercy and desire. When they talked a lot about that in mission tour it stuck out to me and made me want to study it more. So i wrote down a lot more of my desires this week and it made me grow more. Maybe only another inch, but hey that is one more inch i needed.

I went on exchanges this week with a district leader and it was pretty hard but fun. He has a little bit of a problem not talking about the gospel when he is talking to people on the street, he talks about his life before alot. I noticed that and brought it up with him.  We talked a little bit about removing bits and pieces of the things that are holding you back from serving with your all. We talked about burning the bridges back to home and putting everything from your old life in a shoebox  and pulling out that shoebox after your mission and picking out the things you need and leaving the things you dont in the box.  He seemed to like that a lot and he is going to make a list of the things that he can change and start to change them. I liked the exchange, it gave me ways I can change as well.

My miracle this week was that Elder Miller and I became way more close this week. Nothing that Elder Miller did, but there just seemed like there was a wall between us, but now that wall has crumbled more and we are able to work alot better together.

Love Miles

also i may email 1 day later next week.

picture- Meat Buffet(this place is my favorite restaurant in korea)

DMZ and Piano Guys

This week was a pretty great. For investigators this week the only one that we met was Zaur, our middle eastern friend. We talked with him about who God is, prayer and the Book of Mormon. He was really interested in prayer. We are not really sure what his interest is but he is really open with us. He is not one of those normal Muslims that try and convert you, he has interest in the differences in Christianity. Then we got our recent convert all set up with the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and the ward gave him new scriptures and set him up for seminary. he still loves church and is ding good he is just super busy with test time. 

Ok time for you to get jealous 

One cool story i read this week was the story of Lehonti and his demise. Amalickiha plays the role of Satan in this one. He tells Lehonti to come down from his safe point in his camp and come meet him. That was the mistake. He came down from the place he was protected at and fell into the trap eventually getting poisoned and having his enemy take over his army. We are the same we cannot come down, even an inch, of where we are safely living within the gospel standards. If we do Satan takes hold and kills us by degrees. I have made some new goals this week that will help me try not to come down at all and stay at the highest level of work and living possible.

1. We went to the JSA and got a private tour from the military. We literally stepped in North Korea!! It was super intense and you could feel the tension in the air. We saw a couple North Korean guards

 and had a great view of the north Korean propaganda city. It was SO cool! definitely a once in a lifetime experience.

2. My recent convert who was baptized 2 weeks ago was confirmed this week and is doing super good. he is all set up to start seminary and get the priesthood soon! I was a little bit worried with him for a while because he wouldn't pick up the phone, but he is doing good!

3. Time to get Jealous;) so you know the Piano guys right? 2 of their members served in Korea and they came to Korea for a tour. The did a fireside for our mission and it was super awesome. They are all super funny.It was cool that they came, but the cooler part was that I got to see all of the friends that I have made during my mission one last time, as well as a lot of the ward members from some of my other wards. Man I love the people I have served with and around and the people I have served. The best two were my recent convert from one of my other areas and the kid that I trained from New Zealand. the fireside was super spiritual, it is amazing how the right type of music can bring the spirit in the room in about 2 seconds. gotta love it;)

Love you!!!!!

Great Week

Hey

 

Sorry i was late i was meeting a really good friend for lunch:) see picture.

 

This week was a pretty great week  for us. I felt like it was a little bit of spiritual warfare because we went from mission leadership council to actually doing the training, which ours went super well. It was a super spiritual meeting and we all did a good job at involving everyone and getting everyone to talk. Then we went from that to going on exchanges with the assistants and had a day break and then dived into General Conference. It was a very packed spiritual week this week.

In the midst of that we managed to pick up a couple new investigators. One is from some middle eastern country whos name i have still not been able to pronounce right and the other is a amn who first wanted to know how they heck two foriegners could speak Korean so well. We met with him and he is pretty interested in what the Book of mormon is. he does not go to another church, but he has quite a bit of religious interest so he knows quite a bit about our church. They both look like good prospects to meet in the next couple of weeks.

my studying this week have all almost been focused on what event was coming up next. I did alot of prep for general conference this week and it payed off. I think that this is the general conference where I have gotten the most revelation and more things stuck out to me. 

There is not much else that I feel like i need to say. Life is good, our zone is good, I have no concerns. Being a missionary is literally a huge miracle in my life. I love it and wouldnt change it for the world. 

We get to go on a sick tour of the DMZ on wednesday and I am pumped!! Love you lots!!!

 

Have fun with the pics!!

 

Miles

Happy Easter

Hey!!

It was a very sweet week this week. 

First off Elder Miller is super awesome to work with! He is from Orem/Hawaii. He is 1/2 Tonga so i get another hard working Polynesian companion.  i love him lots and we work super hard together!! I'm glad that he gets to be my last companion on my mission.

So good news! Our investigator was baptized this last week! It started out a little bit scary, because he didn't come to our meeting before church, then sacrament meeting then Sunday school, so we were freaking out that he wasn't going to come. He also wasn't answering his phone, but one of our members finally got in contact with him. So we got Elder Weight to come down and baptize him.  It was super stressful. He came and his baptismal service went pretty smooth. It would have went better if he would have come to more of church, but hey whatever works. His parents didn't come to the baptism which was a little bit of a bummer, but we talked a little bit about missionary work so inviting his friends and family will come soon. our bishop was really strict about pictures and Elder Weight came a little late so we didn't get any in white pictures.

We didn't get to meet with any of our investigators this week, they were all busy.

I read a ton of Jesus the Christ this week! I was trying to get it so I could read all the way through and get to the Crucifixion and Resurrection on the days of the week that they happened, but i ended up skipping earlier bits of the book in order to read the Easter week stories.  Also I read the stories in the bible along with it. I love this Easter season and the chance we get to share it with everyone! I know my redeemer lives! He suffered for all of us and made it so we can live forever!! I love this gospel!!

My miracle this week was honestly just working with Elder Miller. We have two different styles, but they both get the job done really well. Sometimes they don't mix very well together, but we are doing lots of fun work and we are looking at one of the busiest weeks of my mission this next week. I'm super excited for the next couple of weeks. Also getting a baptism on Easter:)

Love you lots!!

Miles

PDay Activities

DMZ

DMZ

Cleaning Font

Eating chicken

Hello

First transfer calls. Elder weight is leaving, but literally the next area over so superclose. I am getting a new companion named Elder Miller. i have no idea who he is...

This week was a pretty great week. Im really bummed that Elder Weight is leaving but i am excited for Elder Miller to come as well. Some times changes are hard but for the best. 

So 정윤서 is doing great, unfortunately he was not baptized this last week, because he could not meet with us this last week, so we couldn't do the baptismal interview or finish teaching him all of the lessons. He came to church on Sunday and we finished the lessons completely and he is all ready to go for next week. There is literally no way that he wont get baptized next week. We have permission and all of the lessons done. Im excited for him, but I think that this extra week will help him prepare a lot more and not have his baptism rushed. All is well with him.

We met a couple of new investigators this week that hopefully will progress lots in the coming weeks. We have a lot of potential to look forward to this transfer and Im excited for Elder Miller to come here. We are going to hit the ground running.

I have been reading Jesus the Christ and lining it up so i get to read the Eastern portion during Easter so i am super excited for that. Also i have been reading in the Book of Mormon and studying conference talks. I have also been thinking a lot about questions and concerns I can bring with me to conference to get them answered. I know they will be answered.

I went on exchanges with an Elder in my zone who has big anger problems this week and it was kinda rough. While we were on the street he let his anger get the best of him a lot. I had to pull him away from a couple of people, because he was getting pretty mad at them, but we talked more about it and some other things that i think he needed to hear and it turned out pretty well. my love for him grew during this exchange his is still the same old elder but i figured out how to deal with him and help him a little bit more. It was an exchange that was really hard but I actually really enjoyed.

We went to kinda see the DMZ again this week. We originally planned on going to the actually DMZ but it was closed because of a forest fire, so we went to the Unification Observatory instead. It was still super fun and we still saw propaganda city in North Korea. it was super fun!

Love you Lots!!!! Miss you!!!!

Miles

Yet Another Memoriable Eating Experience

Hello!

We had a pretty great week this week! We had an investigator that was planned for being baptized this week but we ran into some problems getting permission from his parents. so we were not able to do it this week,but his parents didn't say that he cant go to church they was just worried about what their son was doing. Long story short the father came to the church and talked with our amazing Young Mens president, and talked to his son some more and he is scheduled to get baptized this next week! Super awesome miracle! I was looking at him on Sunday and he fit in to our young mens so well. He looks like he just belongs in the church! Im excited for him!

Our other investigator that was going to be baptized has not answered his phone very much lately, he has been grounded so it has been hard to meet him, hopefully he can get baptized next month.

I read the awesome story of the Anti Nephi Lehis burying their weapons the other day and a lot of things came to my mind. In one of the verses it says that they buried the weapons "deep" in the ground. I think they buried them deep for a reason. They made it so they couldn't retrieve them again, even if they wanted to. I think that is how we need to be with sin, when we throw our sin away we need to throw away everything that comes with it, burying them deep! Not ever going back to old ways or habits but putting them away. That was a really cool insight to me, especially since I have been thinking about keeping up mission habits and not falling into some of my old ones, that is going to be one of my goals.

Our zone took a really big fall this week with progressing investigators and baptismal dates. We had a couple people who were really solid drop off because of parents or a college professor, who didn't like us. We did see some awesome things happening in 이문. One of the Elders have a baptismal date. Im glad that they can see the visible success, because they all work really hard.

I ate Dog this week. Super good. different but super good. see attached picture. 2 words...korean...culture....:) it was really good.

Love you!

Miles 

Elder Weight and Elder Diede

Woof :(

Fantastic Week

Hello 

We had a pretty fantastic week this week.

Our high school investigator came to church this week and is looking really nice to get baptized next week.  He was fellow shipped really well and fits in with the young men class really nicely. it is always a good sign that when the members are all asking him about baptism and he takes it really well and actually goes and tells people he is getting baptized. We will meet him a couple times this week and finish up everything and get him all prepared for the service, we shouldn't have any problems. He is looking solid.

Then our other investigator with the baptismal date will have to have his date moved back. He did not come to church because he went out of town and will not be able to come next week so he will have to be moved to next month probably. kind of a bummer, but he still looks good to get baptized the only problem is getting parents permission and when he can get baptized. We will continue to work with him and push him.

My studying this week has come out of chapter 5 in PMG doing several different personal study activities and reading in the Book of Mormon. One thing I learned is Moroni is so awesome. i already knew that but the amount of trials and hard times he had to go through is amazing, and still being firm in the faith and not denying Christ...he definitely knew that it was true.

I went on exchanges with Elder Perry, our AP this week. It was a very good exchange. i think we both learned a lot from each other. we talked a little bit about correcting others and he answered a lot of my questions. it was good to go on an exchange with him. We were talking to each other at the Christmas Conference and we both decided, that we had never really talked to each other or served around each other but we have a mutual respect for each other. That was my miracle this week.

Love you lots!!! Only 2 months left!! see you soon!! I dont remember playing gangnam style 70 times before i left....but hey Hayden is a little different.

Love Miles

 

 

Working for the Lord

Hello!!

 

This week was a pretty decent week for Elder Weight and I. We definetly had some fun working together this week.

First off for investigators we had our 15 year old investigator who is looking really solid to be baptized this month. We met with him and talked to him a little bit more about reading the scriptures and prayer, and talked a little bit more about what baptism really is. He came to church and had a great time!  He was super happy and bubbly and talked to everyone! He really likes sunday school and young mens! We have some great fellowshippers  that are doing well with him. We hope that he can be baptized on the 22nd. Then our 18 year old investigator is also doing well. We went and played soccer with him and the members loved him(because he was really good)  We didnt get the chance to meet with him outside of that. We also have some fellowshippers that are working hard with him as well.

My study this week was all in 3rd Nephi. It was good to read the teachings of Jesus Christ in that section. I kind of coupled that with a little bit of studying in the Christ like attributes to be like he is. I also read more in Chapter 5 in PMG and got alot of insights.

My miracle this week was going to Mission Leadership Council. It honestly was  like spiritual gunfire. There was so much spiritual information that it filled me to the brim and then some!  Focusing on the Book of Mormon this month is going to be so much fun, so I am super excited. The STLs and us gave a super good training this wednesday. It was so spiritual and I hope it inspires the missionaries in our zone, I remember when i was a younger missionary and how much Zone Training meetings affected me. but that was a great first time experience.

 

Fun times!! Congrats Hayden!!!

 

hey those classes sound good to me ill tell you what religion class i want to take and stuff ill do a little exploring next week.

 

LOVE YA!!!

Miles

Good Week

This was a pretty fun week for Elder Weight and I.  We met lots of fun and interesting people this week.

We have a new investigator, but i have not met him yet because i was on exchanges with Elder Zimmer when we had an appointment with them.  My exchange with Elder Zimmer went really well. He is a really interesting person and definetly has a different style than I do. It was honestly probably one of the hardest exchanges that I have ever done. He is doing really well as a district leader so far, he is still trying to figure things out a little bit. His first district meeting went well, it was a little hard to understand, but it was his first one so he can go nowhere but up! He really cares about people in his district and area, he just struggles to understand them well. He is becoming a good District Leader.

We also met a really crazy guy that we probably wont meet again. He was talking all about how he can see spirits and the Book of Mormon was stolen from the Buddhist bible..Crazy guy. Our district has met a lot of weird people and people who want to bible bash lately, its kind of insane.  

For my studies this week I finished Helamen and started into 3rd Nephi. i cant wait until Christ comes down, I actually have not read that in personal study for a while so i'm looking forward to it. 

My miracle this week is how hard our zone worked this week. We ended the month with 9 dates but we were up to 12 at one point it was super cool. This is a really hardworking zone and i love it!

Ask me later about my 2nd hand shoe story its too long to type. Pretty much a pair of shoes that i got as a gift fell apart as i was wearing them....

Love You!!!

Miles

Very Happy

Sorry we got on late and dont have much time.

This week has been super awesome! I was thinking as I was trying to fall asleep last night that I really have not been happier! I get to serve in my first area, I get to serve with Elder Weight who is super cool and we are already seeing lots of miracles in our area and in our zone. We have 10 baptismal dates in our zone this week and all of them are for March so hopefully if all of them go through we should have an explosive baptism filled month.

For our investigators this week, We met with our 15 year old investigator with a baptismal date and taught him the Plan of Salvation through a puzzle. It was fun and we timed ourselves afterward to see how fast we could put it together. i gotta say that kid has the Plan of Salvation down! We ate some 육개장 together and that kinda bribed him to come to our lesson so we may have to keep doing that in the future.

One of our 18 year old investigators also meet with us this Saturday and we had a fantastic lesson with him as well, teaching the same thing. he understood very well and accepted a baptismal date. Hopefully he will be baptized on the same day as our 15 year old on the 15th.

The only bummer with both of them is they both didnt come to church after saying they were coming...

For studying this week I finished up Alma it was pretty good I didnt get really alot out of it but I have been having really good companionship study with Elder Weight it has been really nice.

My miracle this week was even though it was holiday weekend we met SO many nice people literally every day we got food on the street and some very good potential investigators! I am loving life and loved to meet all of the people that I love in this ward again Great experience! On holidays there are no one on the streets so that is a miracle. We also had a mission conference where we got to see Meet the Mormons there! REALLY FUNNY!

 

As a Zone leader I just go on more exchanges, do Zone training meeting and other trainings, go to mission leadership meetings , stats and care for my zone.

Everything is doing great! Thanks for Everything!

 

LOVE YA!!!

Miles

 

Good luck with the mission call i hope it comes...Honestly my hope is you come to Korea.

 

Transfer to 동대문

So Transfer calls took a very unexpected turn....because we have to go to transfers today I have about an half an hour email now and i will start to email again around 2 o clock my time. Kinda late there:(  So I am going to 동대문 again. It was my greenie area when I first came to Korea so I am super excited to go bacK! I get to begin and end my mission there!! I also am getting a little bit more of a chance to serve because I am becoming a Zone Leader. I am super excited to be able to serve my zone and the people there!! so not alot of time today and i have to write my mission president first so hopefully ill talk to you or ill send you an email when I start again;)

LOVE YA!!

Ok Here it is!!

 

So i am now sitting next to Elder Weight and it is already a fun time. He is from Salem and went to Salem hill my sister school so it should be fun. It is a really surreal experience to be back in my first area again. There is a wave of memories coming back to me as I was walking down the street. I am really looking forward to the chance I get to serve here with Elder Weight. I think we will help us both grow alot as we get to serve more people here in this zone.

 

Life in 춘천 was pretty normal. All of our lessons that came this week were from us saying goodbye to all of our investigators and less actives. There isnt really any new news for any of them.It was really sad to say goodbye to so many people I love but new experiences await!!

 

This week for studies I am in the exciting war bits of Alma. Captain Moroni always impresses me and is a great hero to look up to. One thing that really stood out to me this week was how much Captain Moroni "fortified" his people and cities. He knew the importance of arming his people in both the spiritual and physical ways. I drew a pretty cool picture of what i thought a fortified city would look like. Also a part that stuck out was how Lehonti was poisioned by degrees. satan does the same to us poisioning us slowly and slowly. If we dont catch it fast it can get bigger and bigger and eventually lead to deadly consequences.

 

My miracle of this week honestly was being able to come back to my first area. It has been my dream to come back since I left. I am SOO excited to be back here and am able to be in a geat place to serve!

 

Love you Lots!! Stay Happy, Healthy and 수고!!!

 

Elder Miles Diede

February 8, 2015

Hello!

This was not a bad week at all.  It was just a very normal week and we had a little bit of success and Elder Bodan and I had a lot of fun together.  

We started our week off with the Buddhist temple with our Chinese investigator. It was tons of fun and he told us lots of stories. I think i will have to study about Buddhism a little bit more, it is kind of like mythology. could be fun to study, for fun i think. 

We did not get to meet any of our investigators this week but we did get to meet with three new ones.

1. a 40 year old from Canada who is getting married really soon. he is a non practicing Catholic, and is very open with us. He knows a little bit about our church and is will

2. A 30-ish year old who lived in the Philippines for a while. He bought us lunch, we showed him around the church and he even took us to his office and we met all of his co workers and even his father. They all liked us a lot and because they are all developers they were giving us advice on how to improve the church. it was kind of funny. 

3. A grandpa who we felt the spirit pretty strongly when we were in the lesson with him. At first he wasnt really listening to us then we kinda switched tactics a little bit and he started listening. It was a cool switch. 

 All three of them have a lot of potential to be really good investigators, but the big problem Elder Bodan and I are facing is investigators not meeting us again...so we will see what happens. 

My studies this week were alot focused on Alma talking to his sons. There are a lot of good little tidbits in those couple of chapters and I pondered on them a lot. Also I did a couple of PMG activities and wrote down my testimony and did a 100 grateful things. That helped me a ton. Seeing my testimony on my wall everyday strengthens me alot.

Elder Bodan says my miracle is surviving with him as my companion for another week but my real miracle this week is that I felt more prompted on where to walk this week and by doing so we found a couple of new investigators, so that was a plus for me.

Love ya lots!!!!!

Miles

Streetboarding and Squid

Hello!
This week we had a lot of planned lessons, a lot of them punked but we did get a few lessons in this week.
 First we met with Sean, we taught him a little more about where the Book of Mormon came from.  He liked it and is reading so he is progressing the only problem with him is he is always studying so he has no time. We ate lunch with him and our food was really slow to come out so we had a good talk about the gospel before the food came. IT was a pretty good lesson, he just needs the time to meet with us more and come to church.
Then our Chinese investigator. He will actually go back to China in about 2 weeks so it is a little bit hard to get anywhere with him but he wants to meet with us as much as he can before he leaves. We are actually spending Pday with him today so it should be fun. We talked a little bit last time how he went to Buddhist temples in China, so we showed him some pictures of our temples and he really liked them a lot.  We invited him to church and even said there will be Chinese people there, but for that reason he doesn't want to come to church. He says in would be awkward.
Lastly we have a couple of new investigators that we are still trying to figure out and get to know.Some seem like they have some good potential.
I studied and focused a lot  in Alma 32-34 this week. I love the comparison on Faith to trees and the Word to a seed. Again this is my favorite missionary companionship of Alma and Amulek  preaching to the Zoramites and correcting some of their behaviors like their method of Prayer. Also there is a couple verses in chapter 33 that uses the wording " Faith unto Repentance" 4 times in 3 verses so that sounded important to me and added it to my study about repentance. I felt the Spirit many time this week especially during study.
 cool experience this week: I have had a lot on my mind lately about coming home. I am honestly scared out of my mind to come home. There are so many things looming over my head and I don't know how I will get it all done. I thought about this for the last couple weeks and lucky for me it was fast Sunday this last Sunday so I decided to fast about it and also to get a blessing from my companion. Long story short that was one of the sweetest moments I have ever been a part of. I know that my companion spoke through the Holy Ghost and I received answers to my prayers and fast. It wasn't the "how to solve my problems" solution that I got, but just the confirming that it would be all right. I definitely felt the spirit and felt like I got a hug from God. Also this experience made me think a lot about those I really love and those who have given me so much support.(You were definitely there;) Thinking of them and how they have helped me was a great crutch that I could lean on. Its been a rough couple of weeks probably the hardest of my mission but the most worth it so far. I have cried because of hard times, feelings I have felt and promptings I have received. I Love this gospel so much.

Thank you so much for all the support I Love you lots!!

 

Miles

 

Streetboarding

Squid I cooked

 

January 25 ,2015

Another challenging but worth the work week.  It seems to me that it is getting harder and harder everyday.  Elder Bodan and I have been working hard but there is something that is holding us back or keeping us from having more success.  It a little bit hard but were both pushing through it so were both doing good. We love each other and having fun working with each other. I still love working here and it is a great source of happiness but It can be so hard to see people reject your message.
There is not really anything new with our investigators, almost everyone has stopped picking up the phone or has become to busy to meet with us. WE did have a couple of lessons this week with a few investigators but a lot of those kind of just turned into the investigators asking questions and getting stuck on things like where is the preexistence or they just couldn't understand the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil. It was kind of frustrating this week with the investigator pool.  It has been kind of an empty couple of weeks these last couple of weeks, we haven't found too many good people to meet...but hey that may mean we are close and we will keep working!
This week for study time I read bits and pieces in Alma. I read the stories of Ammon teaching King Lamoni and Aaron teaching King Lamoni's father. Being in Alma, and seeing these great missionaries example makes me want to be a better missionary and to see and experience the things they have. I dug a little bit deeper and i figured out I have experienced a good majority of what these Book of Mormon heroes have gone through. I haven't been cast in prison, bound and starved for a couple days but I have experienced the despair, heartache and some of the happiness and miracles that they experienced. That was a cool thinking process that I got to be a part of.

I didnt really have a big-ish miracle this week, but I just had little things to keep me going throughout the week. A well placed joke by Elder Bodan or a man who would actually give me more that 2 second on the street were all my miracles this week. Also the other miracle is that a member from Taegu just moved into our ward and she can kind of play the piano, so the ward took advantage and called her to be the ward pianist, so I do not have to plunk out the songs in sacrament meeting anymore. That was one stress lifted.

I am still super excited for Nauvoo and doing some refting trips would be fun! I would just love to hang out with family and friends too....but there will be plenty of time for that.

Love you lots

Miles

also school stuff i dont know. For a major i want to pick something i enjoy doing and i dont want to hate going to work every day for the rest of my life. That internship i did for sports marketing was a blast, so i have been thinking about doing that, but i dont really know anything about it or what i want to be...i have no dreams or hopes as far as a career or school other than do good. taking a korean class would be fun, but i may just have to move on. i did get a letter sent to Grand. Turner.

January 18

It was a hard week this week, and not very much happened.  

One day I felt like I needed to call our hospitalized investigator to see if he picked up the phone and he did. He had just gotten out of the hospital and charged his phone that morning. He had said that because the hospital was boring he had been reading the Book of Mormon, which is a miracle in itself because he went into the hospital because he was going blind. He said he is about half way done with it and is praying about it.  The only bad part is that he goes into the hospital again today( i think) to get another surgery. So he has said we can visit with him next week hopefully.

We met with our Pakistan investigator and he is a tough one. He has a lot of deep questions and we are trying to teach him simply but his questions he asks are not simple questions. Elder Bodan and I will talk about him this more and think about dropping him, he just is not very prepared to accept what we are saying.

This week I got to read one of my favorite stories in the scriptures, the story of Alma meeting Amulek and both of them going and contending against Zeezrom. I love these two missionaries and the way they work together to confound Zeezrom. I loved it a lot! I found some cool points. I have also been working on improving my prayers so I have been studying a little bit about that as well. 

Playing the piano this week was in one word...laughable. In more ways than one. I found out a couple days before the stake presidency was coming to visit us. That made me a little bit nervous. Me playing was better than not having the piano, but not by much.. I was glad I could laugh at myself and everyone could laugh and forgive me..

Im super excited to go to Nauvoo that will be cool!!!!!!

LOVE YA LOTS!!!!!

Miles

 

 

Elder Boden burning a shirt

Elder Miles the Younger

It was a fun week for us out here. We had some let downs and lots of little happy moments that made it a pretty interesting week this week. 

One letdown this week was our investigator who was in the hospital has not had any contact with us. He is in a hospital where they will not let anyone but family visit and his phone is turned off. So we honestly have no idea how he is doing. We just have to wait until he comes out of the hospital.So we will just have to wait on that one...

On the bright side we had one of our investigators come to his appointment with his two friends. When we first looked at the situation Elder Bodan and i were both kinda bummed because usually multiple people in one lesson is hard and it doesn't end up being a lesson, but it turned out to be one of the best lessons we have had together. They all went to the Catholic church to go and study the scriptures and learn about God, but they said they didn't like it because the people there just wanted to hang out and play around. They said right in front of us that they don't think that it is true.  We shared the first lesson with them and then answered a lot of their questions. They seemed to like our church a lot, so they will  be great investigators.

My study today was a lot in Mosiah.  I read and ponder alot about the conversion story of Alma the Younger.  thinking about that brought me back a little bit to repentance. I found some cool stuff on it. I have also been studying the Christlike Attributes more and focusing on applying them to my life. My attribute this week was humility and I saw some blessings come from striving to be more and more humble this week.

My miracle this week was that an investigator that we have been trying to meet with since I got here came to church on Sunday. He slipped in late and left right after so we didn't have a huge amount of time to talk to him, but it was good to finally meet with him. We should be meeting with him this week. I hope we do!

I got a calling in our ward this week.......I am the new ward pianist...it was pretty awful this last sunday...but i will be practicing really hard this week. good news is it gave me more of a desire to play piano and practice again!

Love you lots!!!

Elder Miles Diede the Younger

pic. walking on a frozen river

 

 

Sportn Korean Glasses

Like to the Look

Contest winner- Elder Diede

Making Dumplings

Pork Intestine soup-  Favorite

Funny English

It was kind of another week where the wheels are turning but your not going anywhere. Those kind of weeks are definitely bound to come. It was slow with investigators this week, our investigator with the baptismal date went into the hospital again and the hospital didn't allow us to visit him on the weekend so we will try and visit again this week. We have been keeping in contact with him talking through the phone but haven't seen him in person this next week.  All of the rest of our investigators either couldn't meet or punked their appointments. We did pick up a new investigator, but im not sure how much interest he really has in the church. I'm getting the vibe that he just likes us and because we remind him of his sons he wants to meet with us.

so because it is new years we make 떡만두국(dumpling soup) with the ward. I ate TONS!!! also cool fact: If you make pretty dumplings later done the road you will have pretty daughters....im pretty sure your gonna have some pretty granddaughters. not being prideful or anything....;) also after I ate a ton of that we had an appointment and he didnt listen to us and took us to a resturaunt and bought us 순대국밥(pig intestine soup) Super good but I was SOOO full!! I was keeping the food down with my chin. But I did throw up this week once..on purpose. Elder Bodan and I did a food challenge. the challenge is drinking 30 of these yogurt things. I surpassed the mark...see picture.....

This week for study I was in the Book of Mormon, I read from Jacob and started a little bit in Mosiah. Well, it is a lot easier to understand the Allegory in Jacob 5 now. It took a little bit of hard studying, but i got most of it down I think. Also something cool this week was I was reading an older Liahona an there was a guy who asked pretty close to the same question that I asked you last week about repentance. It answered more of my question, but lets definitely talk about that more later! That was a cool "mini" miracle this week.

So Trasfer calls also came. I am staying with Elder Bodan...no surprise. The kid that replace me in my last here is coming to be Elder Batschi's comp so I will talk to him tons!!!

One of my other miracles this week was that I get to stay with Elder Bodan again for another transfer. Elder Bodan is a blast to be with and he teaches me alot. I am also super excited to have Elder West come here so he can tell me how my old area, recent convert and investigators are doing. I am excited to see the miracles this next transfer!!

Love you lots!!!!!

Elder Miles Diede