April 27, 2015 (Week 19)

April 27, 2015

Alright, this week...

Getting ready for the hike

After email and what not, we did shopping, then played Settlers of Catan (quality investment, I'm happy with it) and got some pizza delivered. It was quite fun, kinda nice to just relax and play games like some regular people. So P-day was a little boring, but it was a nice break. Today we got out of companion and language study to go hiking, on one of the best mountains in South Korea 북한산 . Should be sweet, I can't wait for that.

So we are planning on doing a new street boarding, trying to make it more effective. We want to do "why does God allow bad things happen to good people", so we got the presidents permission to look up the news to find current disasters going on in the world. That was weird. We went onto CNN, and I felt out of place looking up current things. Four months with no news can be weird. CNN is still depressing, but it was cool to catch up on things.  That plan kinda got sidelined, and Elder Whitlock wants to do a trivia about the bible, such as when it became, how, and what books are lost, then try to tie it back to the Book of Mormon.

Pass-off this week has been frustrating as ever.  I'm now 0 for 4 on trying to pass off the 4th lesson. Some times I will start to panic and know I will fail before I even start. The next, I get lost in Elder Whitlock's  Korean as he tries to help me out.  Or I get caught up on trying to explain fast offerings.  So its been frustrating trying to get this pass off done and out of my life. I honestly don't care anymore about pass off, whether I do it or not.  I'll just learn the lessons on my own.  But then I get pressure from the  zone leaders and from Elder Whitlock to do it, so I'm just going to get it over with and out of my life hopefully fairly quickly.

We met a guy named 이 성 수 this week.  He is Buddhist, and was nice, but not interested. So nothing there with him, but he told us about the temple he goes to, and so we checked it out that night during jundo. It was pretty sweet. It was tucked away from the main road, into a foresty area. So it was like dead silent, you couldn't hear any cars.  So we checked that out for a bit, then went back to jundoing for the rest of the night.   While waiting for Elder Whitlock to go to the bathroom, I was sitting on a subway bench, when a random guy came up and told me "thank you, you are a nice guy".  I don't think he realized how much that helped me, and he was an answer to a prayer of mine.


Wednesday was mission tour, so we met in our same church, with three other zones.  Elder Ringwood came and spoke with the president.  That was cool.  He memorized the missionaries names in like 5 min, really cared about us, and was super powerful. It's not just his General Conference talks that rock, but just him. We all got to shake his hand and say hi, and he complimented me on my green tie.  He gave a super good talk, which seemed to help me more than all of General Conference.  The lunch in between sessions was fantastic.  The relief society here brought out everything you could imagine and then some. We all got leftovers cause they made so much.  One of the best meals ever.   After the conference, Elder Ringwood talked with Elder Whitlock for like an hour, and after that, Elder Whitlock had a new feeling about him. He was trying to be nice to people and was talking with everyone. That was the best jundo time we've had in a while. We also met Jason, some Korean who lived in Tennessee and is great at English. We got an appointment for tonight with him, so should be exciting.  I also got the package, and all the comics you sent. Thanks! That were fun to read, and the toy has provided a lot of entertainment.

Thursday we had nothing so we jundoed for 7 hours. I felt like I was back at Comic Con walking around all day long, haha.  My feet started to die by the end, but it was cool to do that all day. Later in the night we tried to find a less-active's house. South Korean addresses suck. We had a map, their address, even asked a real estate person, and we still couldn't find the place for like 2 hours. and when we got there, it was a private area, so we couldn't even go in.  Super frustrating.  I hate the address system here, they've changed it like 3 times already.  I'm a true missionary though now.  I've spent more time in the field than MTC.  Family trips without me, friends engaged, and I now have holes in my socks.  Those socks suck, they are no bueno.  Hopefully my other clothes last longer than that.

Fun fact, the South Korean national flower, Rose of Sharon, is found in Songs of Solomon, chapter 2, haha.  Interesting note.

We taught 이 병 길 this week.  He was pretty open, but felt too much pressure to accept the Book of Mormon. He is 31 with only a video game life, so it's kinda sad.  I participated though, and it helped me feel a ton more confident, it was awesome, that definitely helped me for later on when we taught 이 지 승  again.

이 지 승 is the devil worshiper. We talked with him in the church, where he felt drained (no duh) but after he told us about the devil stuff, Elder Whitlock showed how that only brings a chained feeling, and through God we can receive strength always. 이 called the devil his lord, and still decided to follow the devil. Super sad, we want to help him so much, but we don't know how much he will listen to us.

"Fish" soup?

Dad, I don't know if you remember giving us the missionary promise by President Hinckley, but it's been in my scriptures for years.  I finally pulled it out again and read it, since it applies to me now. man, that helped a ton, so thank you for that.  If you don't remember, he gave it in November of 1995. good talk.

Well, running low on time, just know I'm still fighting, and I love you all,

Elder Mortensen