May 30, 2016 (Week 76)

May 30, 2016

Alrighty,

Receiving "Mountain Top" Inspiration

Monday we did email, played basketball, then played some billiards. Pretty weird. We played 4 ball billiards, not the usual pocket ball.  Pretty fun time though. After that we had ice cream waffles (waffles, smother some ice cream in the middle, eat like a sandwich.  It's great.)   After P-Day we went and met 최세민 (Choy Say Meen) our buddy that came last week, but it turns out he has 0% interest in gospel. He wouldn't watch a movie, let us pray, talk about church. He just sat there playing games on his phone wanting to just talk and hang out.  So he dropped pretty fast, but he enjoyed Family Night, so he might stick around for that.  That night we played clothes volleyball. We sit in chairs, 5 on 5, and have a ball made of clothes and play volleyball, pretty fun.
Tuesday we met 고영욱 (Go Young Ook)  and 이동훈 (Lee Dong-hoon). 고 (Go) doesn't really have a lot interest anymore. We tried to bring up prayer, help his smoking and his commitment level to all of that dropped a lot, so we probably wont meet him a whole ton anymore. We'll still keep in contact, but pretty much dropped as an investigator... kinda sad. 이 (Lee) is doing good.  He says he believes in God 70%, and feels lacking still, but we are trying to work with him to get him to see that that is good enough. Good guy though. After, we dropped off Elder Keil to go in to Seoul, then just proselyted the rest of the night.
Wednesday sent Elder Hall off to his new area, right next door.  Then we did studies, cleaned and picked up the new comps. Elder Swan is pretty cool. He is from Cottonwood Heights, likes Jack Johnson, sports, and plays piano. (Sound familiar?)  Pretty cool, we get along good, haha. We just did tracting all day, then did some streetboarding at night.
Thursday was just more walking around, a good nice welcome to Gangneung for Elder Swan, haha, but it was good.  We talked with a couple less-actives, then had English class.
Friday we had a couple people punk us, but we had a good time anyway..

Billiards Activity

Saturday we met 한웅 (Han Ung) (the meaning can be translated as "one bear"... pretty cool name, haha)   We met and talked, seems pretty interested, but still got a little ways to go. He's pretty hesitant about believing in God and miracles.  Then we had English class, visited less-actives, and tried drawing proselyting... not that good, but we did talk with a Latvian person here with the Olympics... pretty nice guy.
Sunday we had church, then met 남기철(Namgicheol).  He is 25 and goes to the Catholic school. Really nice guy.  We had a good lesson with him.  He's pretty open and accepting kind of guy too. Kind of shy, but nice.  That was a cool time for us. We came back and had another not so good activity. Some activities they think of are not the best.
Overall, we met some cool people this week.  The new companion is always fun.  We're just livin' the dream.
-Elder Mortensen

May 23, 2016 (Week 75)

May 23, 2016

Allergy Season Hits!

Herro, it's me is again!  Nice to meet you...
Well, I'm staying here!!! Five transfers in a row... Elder Hall is moving next door, in the next city, so I'll see him quite often. I'll be with Elder Swan.  He was in the MTC with Elder Hall, and I guess he's a pretty sweet dude, so I'm pretty excited.

Monday we didn't do much, hit up another buffet. That started off a hectic food week.   That night we met with our ward mission leader, and had a lesson with Go Young Ook planned, but some other college kid that we met the other day came early for family night, so our ward mission leader invited him into the lesson as well, so we had a somewhat decent lesson. It was mainly me and Go talking, and Elder Hall and the ward mission leader with the other kid, Choi Say Meen. Overall good. Go opened up about his smoking issue, and other things, hoping to build off of that finally.  Family Night was fun. Kim Dong Bum didn't show up though, dang.
Tuesday, nothing really worth reporting. Found some less-actives and walked around.
Wednesday, had district meeting, then we helped out Go Young Ook with English. I really hope he comes around soon. Everytime he gives us a little inkling of hope, we try to build off of, but it hasn't amounted to much.  He's on the edge of getting dropped every week.   That night, we did "talk with a foreigner" activity, trying to talk with people and build up English class.  It went alright, nothing super exciting.
Thursday- we went up to Joo Moon Jin, and that sucked. Not a lot off people.  We went knocking on ghetto apartments looking for a less-active.  Overall not that exciting.  We met Sheem Jay Ho, our taxi driver.  He is doing good, he accepts our message well.  Hopefully he can read and pray this week, even though he is busy.  English class was alright,
Friday nothing much happened, met Choi Say Meen again, after waiting forever, then went to do "snack activity" again.  That went over pretty well, although a lot of students just come and eat all the snacks... little twerps...
Saturday we had our usual thick bacon party at the church. I didn't feel good after that one.  We got yelled at by a random person living in a former less-actives place.  So many less-actives that move, it's crazy...
Sunday we had church then a meal out in Peong Chang, the olympic site.  Really good meat there. I ate way too much again.  We all felt fat.

Well, gotta go, my computer freaked out for a little bit, so I can't say as much this week,  but still here, going good, take care, '
-Elder Mortensen

May 16, 2016 (Week 74)

May 16, 2016

Hey Family,

Skyping

Well,  Monday nobody came to Family Night, so we took the time to plan out better activities, how we can bring new faces into the church, for members to meet and connect with.

Tuesday was a rain storm that was impressive. It lasted the entire day.  We went up to the main college, then met 고영욱 (Go Young Ook) after a little bit. talked with him casually about cigarettes and marriage, and we think we found his issue. When talking about smoking he said he could stop whenever, but when we talked about it, he gave really lame reasons why... so we are going to talk about the Atonement with him tonight with our ward mission leader. hoping it goes well..    after him we met 김대환 (Kim Day Hyun). He is 25 and a college student at the Catholic school. He was cool, kinda wanted just friend status, but he was cool with us teaching him.  He says he'll come to church. nice guy.
Wednesday we had district meeting, then we went and did "snack proselyting".  Basically having people eat snacks, tell us their favorite, and then letting us talk with them.  Korea gets pounded with a lot of advertisements, and that stuff, so we are just trying to get creative with something that will spark some interest in them. It turned out fairly well.
Thursday we went and spent some time at the main college and the area around it. We tried to visit 5 or so less actives, but nobody was home, and man, it was getting hot.  It was impressive. I can't wait for the summer though, should be pretty hot.  After the college visit, we just had English class.
 Friday we planned, then hit up the small nursing college in the area... (yes, another college)  We met some nice people there.  Then came back, and tried to do a family-themed survey, but it didn't turn out to well.

His Next Education Step?
"The Suspicious Magical School"

Saturday we went on exchanges.  I went with Elder Keil.  Basically it was all just chatting and letting stuff out for both of us. It was a good time though. We met his investigator, then taught English class, then did "foreigner proselyting."  We pretty much have them talk in English with us. Nothing to hot with that one.  A lot of high school girls trying to talk and ask if we thought they were pretty... awkward... but hey, 고영욱 (Go Young Ook) came to English class, so that was cool!
Sunday we had church, then a branch activity to pick cherries off the tree in our parking lot. That was pretty fun time. Nothing else too special happened.

Well, take care,
Elder Mortensen

May 9, 2016 (Week 73)

May 9, 2016

Mother's Day Skype Selfie

Alrighty...

 Monday we went and shopped, Elder Hall had to buy a memory card and download pictures, then we hit up some big sale place that was advertised all over town... man.. that place was a rip... nothing really good there except for a couple five dollar T-Shirts... me and Elder Hall picked up a couple just because haha.  That night we just had Family Night... Kim Dong Bum is still coming out to it, but he threw his phone with his wash, so we can't really call him for the time being... good time though.
Tuesday we went to a tiny little college in our area, the smallest one within our area. We walked around it for about 20 minutes. And made a complete trip, haha. We met some cool people there, but nothing too special. We talked with one guy who loooooved Marvel.  He's already seen Captain America Civil War three times, and was seeing it again that night. Man, he was weird. We couldn't talk about anything other than that and Grand Theft Auto.  We sat down with him and tried to teach the restoration, but he didn't really care.   After that we went up to see another college.  This one is about the size of a Weber State, big, but not like USU or BYU status. Not a lot of people there either. We talked with some people, but most college students are heading to their homes for the holiday weekends.  Bummer...  That night, we went to find less-active Lee Jeen Ho, and ended up meeting Eem Johng Myung, another less active.  He moved into the other less-actives house.  He was really nice.  He met the church through English class as a teenager, then got baptized, then sadly felt like God didn't answer his prayers, so he turned Buddhist. Dang it... really nice family though.. cute two little sons..
Wednesday we had zone training.  That was alright... The, we then went down the Catholic college and met some cool people there, but with Thursday through Sunday being holiday break, not too many people were sticking around. We got cancelled on by a couple people there too.
Thursday we had children's day here, so we went down to the park by the soccer stadium and handed out fliers to the families there. There were a lot of people, that was cool. All of them with their families, which gave us some hope for Korea, and how business-oriented they are some times.  Later we met Kim Day Hyun, the student me and Elder Megargel were meeting with.  He called us the night before (at midnight... so many late phone calls...) but agreed to meet us since he was back in town.  He's doing good, good to chat with him.  He's back in Seoul, so not sure hows hess doing right now.  After that was English class.
Friday we met Lee Dohng Hoon.  He is 29 and studying music at the Catholic school.  Really cool guy, not sure why we wanted to meet him, but he agreed. We taught the restoration, and he was the first person I've been with that says "I don't know if this is legitimate or not".. most of the time its just "ya, ya cool".  Super cool, hopefully we can meet him again.  That was the highlight for the day.
 Saturday we had music night,  which meant cleaning up, moving things around, making it all good, and hanging out with all the Seoul missionaries, namely Elder Brantley and Elder Saunders. It was good to see them again. They are doing good.  We had president interviews.  After that we had the music night.  About 100 people came, I'd say... really cool, and really spiritual night. The district presidency was all in tears by the end of it.  Hopefully this can kickstart our area.
Sunday we had district conference, then we talked and then went to knock on doors. Nothing too special.  It was cool though, for MCM (ward mission leader meeting) our leader came in and sat down and just said" alright, well things aren't working right now... what can we do? " and proceeded to help us get new plans rolling, try to work with members more.  Really good meeting.


Well, love you all.  Happy Mothers Day.
-Elder Mortensen

May 2, 2016 (Week 72)

May 2, 2016

Biking Elder

Monday we went hiking.  Talked about in my email last week.

Tuesday we met 고영욱 again. We started to talk with him, and realized he doesn't have a solid, correct understanding of the principle of faith, so we decided to step back to the basics.

Wednesday we had an awkward district meeting.  There were only 2 elders and 2 sisters, so it was a little small.  It was kinda fun though, not as many people watching me sweat for the whole time... Man, I dislike speaking in groups.  We did some streetboarding.  It was alright.  Six missionaries standing at one little corner was a bit much, but it was the busiest place, so not too bad.

Thursday we had lunch with 3 members, and the missionaries. It was a nice buffet, although due to sister/elder relationships, the 4 elders sat at a table to themselves... so pretty much a free meal for us, we couldn't talk much with the members. Then we had a couple appointments stand us up, so we came back and met a less-active. He is pretty fluent in English, so we had a good chat, talked about some Korean baseball players in the MLB. He mentioned one guy that pitches for the Cardinals.. and his nickname is "Stone Buddha", because he always stays calm in the game, haha... I love to learn fun stuff like that.  We talked about the restoration and the priesthood, trying to help him come back and get it finally.

Zika Warning Sign

Friday we went and flyered about our music night next week. We handed them out to businesses around the church, seeing if they will take them  and advertise it. It went ok.  That night we sat in a little room with 박종성 and his friend and mom.  The friend and him lit up some smokes, and the place just wreaked of beer and smoke. We taught the restoration to the mom though, she was nice enough to listen.

Saturday we didn't do to much, just the usual.

Sunday we rode a bus up a hour away to meet a guy. He's nice guy, not too much interest though.  That was most of our night.

Well, talk with you later,

Elder Mortensen

April 25, 2016 (Week 71)

April 25, 2016

P-Day with Buddha

Ok, a little bit of time to hopefully fill you in on people:

고영욱. ( Go Young Ook):  We met him a week and a half ago. We had a good talk with him over pizza, which gave room to get to gospel topics after the meal.  We shared the hope of God's light video, and kinda got firm with him coming to church.  He kept saying he has re
search to do, but then talks about how he cancelled his research on Saturday to meet us.  That was a good talk, but he didn't come to church yesterday, but he is on the border.  We can feel him coming around slowly.

 김동범 (Kim Dohng Bum):  His work has been super busy lately, so he says he never has time to meet... but he still manages to make it out to Family Nights, so it's not a total drop, but it's been frustrating trying to meet him.

 심재호 (Sheem Jay Hoe):  He gave us a taxi ride once, then we met on Friday. We showed him the church, taught a little English, then shared the Book of Mormon with him.  He seemed really interested, but afraid of the pressure that churches give. But he came to sacrament meeting on Sunday!  That was cool to see. Hopefully we can meet him this week, taxi schedules are weird. (They work 2 days, sleep the other day, work 2 days, sleep the next)

Nobody else really too key to report on.

Monday we didn't do much, just chilled around and bowled. I got pretty good with the backspin on bowling... I hit over 100 using it!   That night we just had family night.

Tuesday I went with Elder Poliscky on exchanges. He is interesting. He'll literally will talk your ear off about random mission stuff for days.  But it was a good exchange. We did studies, then walked up to do streetboarding,  ate dinner, then taught the 89 year old recent convert.

Wednesday had district meeting, then headed up to 주문진 (Joo Moon Jeen) to confirmed the whereabouts of some less actives, met some cool people.  It's always hit and miss up there.

Thursday was great!  We took a gamble and hit up the Catholic college in our area.. We're not sure if we could proselyte on there or not, but we decided to go, since it was raining and nobody would be by the lake, so we switched plans.   It was a good call.  We met a ton of cool college kids, set up like 4-5 appointments for the next week. I love college students, a lot more open to talking and discussing stuff.  That was a good time up there. Surprisingly, not a lot of Catholics go there.  We thought it would be a BYU-kinda setting.  We came back and had English class.

Friday was alright, had weekly planning, then nobody showed up to our last time of English at the service place (because nobody comes we cancelled it...) Then we met 심재호.  Really nice guy.   That night we got punked (cancelled on.. don't ask me why we call it "punking") so we walked around the rest of the night.

Saturday was the busiest day.  We cleaned the church, then had English Class.  That was alright, still having a power struggle with the grandma that thinks she runs English class (she is comparable to Yzma from "The Emperor's New Groove": "living proof dinosaurs once roamed the earth" ) Then we went to the lake.  It was only young couples or families on vacation... kind of a bummer.

Sunday we had church, then lunch, then we headed out and found some less-actives. It was pretty cool to meet an actual less-/in-active member and know they exist, not just moved. That night we did streetboarding as well. That worked out pretty good.

Monday we hiked Seorak San... one of the tallest ranges in Korea.  Pretty big hike.  Most of the way at the top was just a million stairs, it was awful... sweet view though.

Well, take care,
-Elder Mortensen

April 18, 2016 (Week 70)

April 18, 2016

Elders Mortensen and Hall

Monday we went and emailed, and my stomach killed.. The other elders ate some lunch, then we went back to the house. When we got back, I threw on some soccer shorts, then promptly threw up a couple times... That was great timing... so my P-Day I just slept while the other elders hung out.  I felt better afterward, so we went and had Family Night. That was pretty fun

Tuesday we had studies, then English class. Nobody showed up for our class, again, so we called Michael, our buddy that lives 40 minutes out.  We had some bad luck with him drugged up, so he was in a bad mood, and kinda dropped us there.  That was rough.  Hopefully he is just in a bad mood right now, and will come around, although, due to diabetes, he can't really feel his legs anymore, so we're not sure if he'll get better... kinda sad.   After we tried to do some music proselyting, but it was election week, so politicians were all playing music, so that didn't work out, but we met Sheldon, a nice man who knew his bible pretty well and had a fun little chat with him.

Wednesday we said bye to Eder Ellingford and picked up Elder Policky.  He is Elder Halls trainer.  After that, we helped a member move some furniture around, then headed out for the day.  We met our buddy Pak Jong Sung, but he was drunk at our appointment, so we didn't get too far... Nice guy though.

Thursday we had English class, and tried to do surveys up at the college. We met some cool people there. English class is still the same.

Friday was freaking long... I got a million phone calls and suggestions for the district meeting next week, and I'm not sure what the heck is going on half the time. We made it through that, then headed out.

Saturday and Sunday we didn't do much besides the usual...

Well, that's about it,
-Elder M

ortensen