November 21, 2016 (Week 101)

November 21, 2016

Well, this one will be quick.

Go Young Ook and Elder Mortensen

Tuesday walked....
Wednesday PJ Rogers came and spoke to us. That went for quite a while.  We came back, held English class. Yipee.  I love teaching 6 people that aren't the best at English by myself.  It's wonderful, I love it.
Thursday we had service.  There I fried shrimp, and whole fishes (literally the whole fish. ) It was a pretty fun time.  After, we met Own Say Hoe 온새호.  He is a less active, has been so for the past 5 years.  We randomly met while streetboarding.   So we went and sat with him.  We had a weird chat. It went from how he found the church to teaching me ways to flip people off in Korea, then back to if he reads the Book of Mormon or prays, to telling Elder Jung random slang that Elder Jung's never heard of.  It was very weird, all-over-the-place conversation, but it boiled down to the fact that since he works construction, doesn't have a family, and doesn't really have a close friend in the church, he quit coming. Poor guy. But it was a fun chat.  Hopefully we can help him
Friday we met Go Young Ook, my friend from Gangneung. He is studying in Seoul, so we've met up once or twice. Had a good chat with him.  Glad to see a happy/familiar face right now. After meeting and eating with him, we went and got rejected some more on the street.
Saturday we had MCM, then English class... More of the same old.  Then went and got stood up by yet another person.  Honestly, that was my breaking point.  After he stood us up, I just kinda checked out for the night. I'm so tired of getting nothing more than a handshake "I'm busy" and people running away.  Or people acting as if we don't even exist, we're just not even there.  So we just walked over to the river and took a minute to clear the mind.   That's one thing Elder Jung is good for, a good friend for these kind of things...
Sunday we had church, which resulted in us going to pick up a member that got lost (85 years old, lives alone, has a memory issue). So we ran to the police station, walked with her back to the church just in time to hear the talks.  After that we went and got rejected some more on the street, then prepared for family night. We had a big ward potluck/Thanksgiving night.  Weirdest Thanksgiving you'll ever see... Fried sweet potatoes, sushi, kim pap, curry, and chicken.  But hey, it was fun.  We got about 20-23 members out, from a 60 member ward. Pretty good turn out, especially when the entire bishopric didn't show up.  We had dinner, a little Thanksgiving activity, then played games "pig pig" and "spoons".  Pretty fun games.

Elder "Mo"

Well, that was my week.  Nothing much at all happening right now.

Love you all,
Elder Mortensen

November 14, 2016 (Week 100)

November 14, 2016

Well, this week..

At the Seoul Tower

Monday wasn't too special, played Settlers of Catan, chilled at home.   That night we did streetboarding, and I got wrecked. I couldn't find a friendly face in the world besides the last five minutes of it.  Good night, this world is way too busy.
Tuesday was a lot of walking around, not doing much, but at night we met Bay Gyoung Whan. We met him with a member too! We started to finish up lesson 5, but then got side tracked about weird doubts he has... He believes the Book of Esther is trash, since it doesn't mention anything religious really (pretty true, but a fun read)... Also, in Jeremiah's time, there were a lot of false prophets, how did Nephi know for sure he was a real prophet?  If Nephi's name is Hebrew, what does his name mean? etc. We tried to discuss those, but kinda hard to explain on the spot. Then he said he doesn't have a white shirt/suit to wear to church, so he couldn't be baptized.  Then it was "I dunno if I can commit to come to church every week yet.  So that's where we are at right now, trying to get him comfortable/willing to come to church..
Wednesday we had zone meeting, probably my last one... weird... after that we had English class. Almost done!! I'm so tired of teaching English to 40-50 year olds with no gospel interest.
Thursday we had service, then as we were changing back to missionary clothes, our appointment for that day called and said he was waiting for us, 3 hours earlier than expected. So we hurried there and had a nice chat with him. Han Wang Dong, nice little 70 year old man. We had nice chat and will meet next week, and see where he goes from there.   That night visited a member, then street proselyted.
Friday we met Bay Gyoung Whan with bishop. It came back to the fact that he can't commit yet, so his date dropped, and just kinda waiting for him to find his conviction.  That sucked to hear.  After was just meeting to plan holiday activities, then proselyting. We visited another member, because it was Pepero Day... (imagine in America a Snickers day... go out, buy a bunch of Snickers, and just hand them out to people... weird holiday) but an excuse to visit members.
Saturday was English class, and Stake Conference.  It was a pretty good session, talked about finding joy in life.

Temple with Elder Lowe

Sunday was Stake Conference again, then ward lunch at bishops house.  Then after that was MCM, then 2 hours later.  After we had a meal with the Digmas... Oh man, I felt like I was in America, two member meals in a day!  Good day though.

Well, love you all
-Elder Mortensen

November 7, 2016 (Week 99)

November 7, 2016

Ok, this week...

Monday we went and found another market to check out. I found some chopsticks, a cool sweater, but nothing too special today

Elders Mortensen and Hall

Tuesday was freezing cold.  Man, it got cold fast!  We all almost died.  Anyway, we didn't do much during the day, but at night Bay Gyoung Whan and Sheen Sung Hee said that they could meet.  So we met both of them!  That was cool... Sheen: He says he felt happy at his baptism, was happy when he repented, but nowadays doesn't really care. Pretty frustrating, seeing he had good experiences, but then doesn't care.   Bay: We taught the rest of the commandments, and the only hard thing is just church for him, due to school work. But, he is doing good.
Wednesday  I picked up Elder Jung. It's been super fun with him.  He doesn't really care to learn English from me, so we just talk in Korean the whole time. It's kinda funny, the first couple days he was surprised that I was good at Korean for not having a Korean companion yet.  But, it's been fun with him.  He is super fun to talk with, brings a new life into the house.  He doesn't really care to speak much English.  He does talk with Elder Roe in English, but not really with me. It's kinda funny though, since being on the mission, he's picked up "what the heck" and "dang it" and "flip man".  He says it all the time, it's pretty funny... Wednesday night was English class... Not to sound trunky (ready to go home) But... only 10 more classes!!!!  Happy day!!
Thursday we did a lot of street proselyting, nothing really worth noting...
Friday we went down to Bay's college, where we ate lunch with him and his classmate.  Bay talks a lot about meeting us, about the church, feels like it's a good church to join, pretty fun meal.  The friend only had a foreigner interest it seemed, but maybe there is hope. We came back, did weekly planning, then we visited a member. It was a bit awkward. We hopped in the elevator with their non-member daughter.  It's a weird situation when you go to the same floor.  So, she went in first, then we were talking for a minute, then the mom came out. So we went in, and the father comes out, sees Elder Jung, and goes on a bit of a rant about how the president should make missionaries stay for at least 6 months in an area... Kinda strange when he really doesn't care about missionary work.   Then just got up and started eating with out talking with us. It was a pretty weird visit.

English Translation At It's Finest

Saturday was a lot of English class, and street proselyting. We had ramen with a less-active, that was fun.
Sunday Bay Gyoung Whan came to church.  That was sweet!  Plus, the ward talked with him, which was good.  Keep praying for him, please!   After that,  street work... yay.

Well, take care!
-Elder Mortensen