Sunday, February 21, 2016

February 22, 2016 (Week 62)

February 22, 2016
Twins?
Well, how's it going?

We'll mix it up this week a little bit:

People:   이상준: met him, had a great lesson. He said he didn't understand Alma 7:13, which was exactly what we wanted to focus on, Christ and the Atonement. So we taught that, reviewed the Plan of Salvation, and how Christ fits in it.  He took it pretty well.  Still getting him to have a sincere real conversation prayer is a struggle. Doing good though. We can see him grow a little bit more each time.

김대현: (18 student/spam friend): He came to the ping pong tournament we had (He is dang good too...) then we met on Sunday.  We had a good lesson with him.  Finally got around to having a solid lesson. When we meet, he gets sidetracked by stuff, but this time we got through a good lesson!  Too bad he leaves next week.....

김동범: (Chinese buddy): After our Sunday lesson with him, he came to family night with his buddies, then we met last Saturday and ate together... We talked about how he smokes, drinks, gambles, lottery, etc., and that we don't do that... Hopefully we can convince him that that is a waste of money and health, and will help him out if he stops. Really nice guy still, love him, just need to get him to see there is more to life...

That's about it this week...

From the Cup Museum
P-Day we went to the ONLY CUP MUSEUM IN ASIA.... Elder Megargel has been dying to go there, so we finally went... Kinda cool, kinda weird... I didn't realize how many cups there are in the world....

Wednesday went up to Sokcho, went with Elders Judd and Cazier, celebrated my 1 year in Korea by going to a buffet, haha.

Saturday we had a ping pong tournament that was fun.
Sunday the other elders baptized the 89 year old guy... super golden guy too... have to talk about him later.


Love ya,
-Elder Mortensen



February 15, 2016 (Week 61)

February 15, 2016

New Junior Companion??
Sorry if this email is short, not really feeling like typing today....

Monday we cleaned the house... all day long... that was fun...
Tuesday we had P-Day... which meant we sat in the house and played  board games. Then went to the church and ate chicken and board games with the elders that came down from Soak Cho.  Then we had singing practice because we are the most musically untalented group in the mission and need a lot of help... haha.   That night we had 11 elders in our house, since they had to come in for the conference in the morning, and travel was too long...
Wednesday we got up early and went to a bathhouse since we didn't have time for every one to shower at the house.  That was pretty fun, but after a little bit you get a little bored... you just sit there like, man this hot tub is pretty great, but why am I still sitting in it?  But it was still a good time.  Then we had the mission conference/ another zone conference, because our zone is kinda just excluded from the rest of the mission... So we talked about New Years in Korea, then we had lunch, and some more talking... not the most exciting conference, but hey, lunch was pretty good (닭갈비) which is pretty much fried chicken vegetables and hot sauce that they cook in front of you.  After that we went around finding some less-actives, then had movie night.  We watched Ephraim's Rescue, which was pretty good.. but cause of the New Years holiday nobody came... lame....
Thursday we were with an office elder, who is touring with the AP's, around our zone, since they're already out here. So we walked around, had 4 appointments fall through we were hoping for.  So we did that, went and saw the beach, then had English class.  That was the usual...
Friday I was with Elder Jung, and we went and visited his 89 year old investigator.  He used to be Jehovah's Witness, but loves the church. He was supposed to be baptized, but because our branch president hasn't had our water heater fixed, it had to be postponed... :(   We walked around and got canceled on by a couple more people...
Saturday we met 이상준 and taught him the Plan of Salvation, and he took it pretty well. We're definitely going to review it, but he is pretty good with remembering to read the Book of Mormon.. then we had English class and planning. Then we met 고영욱.  He didn't want to talk with us about religion and only wanted English help, but after meeting, he asked for the Book of Mormon, and agreed to keep meeting for both English and gospel topics! That was great.
Seoul Skyline over the River
Sunday we had church.  I gave a terrible 20 minute talk on honesty in sacrament meeting, right after blessing the sacrament... That was fun. I like this ward.  After that we met 김대현 our 17 year old that has a tough life.  We met and talked for a little bit, then he invited us over to his house... Suuuper tiny house, his mom had three drinks already out, and she is super handicapped.  But he just loves her and was really nice to her, and acted like the perfect son.  It was a pretty sweet experience.  He even gave us his Spam and cooked it for us. (Spam is expensive here.) Man, I just wanted to give him anything at that point. That night we met our Chinese buddy and talked with him about the restoration. Super cool guy.

Well, love ya,
-Elder Mortensen

Sunday, February 7, 2016

February 8, 2016 (Week 60)

February 8, 2016

Lovin' the snow
Ok, well this week in two words  설날 & snow.......
설날 is the lunar new year, so Korea kinda just shuts down for a week to party with the family. Plus, we got 20cm of snow this week, so this past weekend hasn't been much besides just shoveling.
Monday was the trip into Seoul, then we came back, and went to Family Night, since our bus trip took longer than expected. For Family night we played board games this week, since we were coming late, the other elders didn't show, and we didn't have much planned anyway. We had our 3 Chinese friends come though, which is cool. (all three are pretty fluent at Korean. I'm pretty sure they are technically Chinese, but lived in the little pocket of Koreans there... sorta like Koreans in Los Angeles, where they are American, but learn only Korean.) One of the guys, Kim Doeng Bum 김동범 we met on the street, then he brought his friends, so that was fun.
 Tuesday we went and taught the other elders' 89 year-old investigator, since they are in Seoul, and he needs daily contact to keep things fresh. It was kind of a weird awkward lesson, but he is super nice and says he is willing to leave the Jehovah's Witnesses in a heartbeat now that he believes in Joseph Smith. He even took the whole, Jehovah is not God speech pretty well. So we stopped by there, then came back to get stood up by a guy... We confirmed the appointment that morning, he said he wanted to bring a friend, that night, he said he was on his way, then about half an hour later we called him to see where he was, and he was just chilling at his house... nice.
Wednesday we had zone meeting, then I went on an exchange with elder Kim She Hyun (translates to Kim Vision, haha) 김시현.  We went right over to 이상준s house, and reviewed the restoration since he said he had a little trouble understanding some parts. So we did that, then went a little bit into the gospel of Jesus Christ, and he accepted a 3/19 baptismal date! Super cool, he said that he's been praying and reading, and his parents have no issues. (Hopefully we can meet them, too.)  After that was dinner, and movie night. We watched The Testaments, and our Chinese friend Kim Doeng Bum brought his friends again, and throughout it, he was like "hey, that's Jesus... isn't there also a Jacob in the New Testament? (due to translation, James is Jacob, kinda like Spanish...) so we talked, and he read the entire Bible, and took a Book of Mormon, and we talked about it a little.  Super cool, he seems to have interest in the church.
Thursday, we studied, closed the exchange, then rode and hour up to his area, then an hour back to our area, then had dinner and singing practice, since we have a musical number this week for the mission conference... great... the most musically untalented district (us) got selected....  English after was just as fun as before....
Friday we planned, then had singing practice, then we tried to visit our couple from last week, but they were out of town... So we went back, had dinner and tried to find some more less-actives, since nobody is on the streets anymore...
Saturday we shoveled. The snow came down pretty hard Saturday. We got almost a foot of snow probably.  So we taught English, shoveled, went out for a couple hours, then shoveled the church and other places nearby.  That led to a lot of "thanks, but we don't drink coffee" discussions, since they always offered it... Man, if we were to drink coffee and beer, missionaries here could have unlimited free drinks for life.  That was about all we really did that day.
Sunday we only had one hour of church, due to everybody being out of town. But our buddy, Kim Doeng Bum came to church, and brought his other friend! That's super cool.  He's brought three friends now! We talked a little bit there, and the members all talked with them, which was cool, but a bit overwhelming it seemed... having 7 members surround them and talk with them... But cool to have them come.  After we sang, then went and shoveled other places, since one, there was nobody really out, and two, it got people to like us, and three, people were more willing to talk it seemed.  So that was fun, but kinda tiring. We met up with the sisters and sang some more (we need a lot of practice...) and then had dinner.  Yeah, that was about our day.
Man with a load of bricks
So, pretty fun week this week.  Today we cleaned our house, tomorrow is P-Day, and Wednesday is a mission conference (well just another zone conference, since we are out in the boonies of our mission)
Love you all, take care this week,

-Elder Mortensen

Read 1 Nephi 17:51 (kinda need to read a little bit before the verse to understand it better, but kinda funny how Nephi simplifies life for us... God can do all these things, how simple is it to help us out with our tasks in life?)