January 11, 2016 (Week 56)

January 11, 2016

Gotta Love Korean Artwork...

Welllllllllll yeah,
This week was pretty good. Let's take it from the top, shall we?
Monday was nothing special... I learned how to play Korean chess, and man, it's kinda hard. You have to learn CHINESE characters to play KOREAN chess... Go figure.... so yeah, I can't remember the pieces half the time, but it was kinda fun. It's still better watching 80 year-old men get into it and slam the pieces down, haha.  Pretty boring day otherwise, nothing too exciting with it being winter and stuff.  But after that was family night. That was a game night, which was pretty fun, but the members chickened out cause it was hard. You go on each side of half of a ping pong table and try to blow the ball off the others' sides.  They made some really funny faces, You'll have to try it sometime.
Tuesday was interesting. We traveled down to a little town down south, and turns out it's a P-day type of town.  Not much down there as far as regular people.  Everybody was at a couple parks or tourist places, but we met a couple cool people and then bounced back up to civilization... That's the tough part about out here, there are only a certain areas that actually have a good amount of people. You want to visit other places, but when you could walk for hours with nobody, kinda shoots that idea down. So we did that, tried to visit a less active, then saw a member that is sick right now on the street. He has cancer I think, and he has to go into the hospital in a couple days. So that was cool to see him and try and help him out.
Wednesday was zone meeting. That was pretty good, shared stuff from the mission president seminar, and talked a lot about faith and repentance and how that's want you want, not just people getting baptized to get baptized. We did that, then went on a goose chase trying to meet a guy. We went on a 40 minute walk to some church, only for him to forget that we agreed a minute ago to go there. Then we went up, found some restaurant that he was at.  He sat down, said hi, took a Book of Mormon, then said he had a meeting he had to go to... Freak. That was lame...  not much else that day, just some more walking around.

Yummy Seafood??

Thursday we got cancelled on, and others weren't home, so it was a somewhat long day.
We had a couple meals the rest of the week, went on an exchange with Elder Dixon, (talk about that next week? ) and picked up two baptismal dates, that was pretty cool.  Well, time kinda snuck up, sorry, I'll finish this later.
Love you all,
-Elder Mortensen

January 4, 2016 (Week 55)

January 4, 2015

Hmmm... 10 minutes to write about my week... Challenge accepted haha

Elder Too-Tall Mortensen

Monday we didn't do much. We went around and picked up supplies for newspaper hockey for family night. That was pretty fun.  We used a ton of newspaper to make hockey sticks and ball, then you play hockey with them.  So that was our P-day and night.  P-day out here you can't really do much, although today we might visit the cup museum... just cause, haha. So it was kinda fun to just chill around the house.
Tuesday was cool. We were going out for another day of walking around, when a guy we met called us back and said he could meet right then.  So we met him, and he was interesting.  This 50-ish year old guy, talking in old-man Korean slang (sooo freaking hard to understand, sounds like German with throat slurs all the time...) anyway, he explains how he saw God and Jesus in a dream, and found his faith in them that way. But he got into a fight with his pastor (pretty common here, actually) so he quit attending church. He was really nice, but was pretty loud about no need for prophets.  Then later that night after dinner, a guy from a month ago called and wanted to meet, So we went all over town trying to meet him, finally sat down and talked.  He is really nice and sincere, really seems to want to learn until we pull out pictures...  He gets really distracted by pictures, especially the one of Moroni with the gold plates... "wow he is so big. He is very strong", etc. He's really nice though.   On the way back from that, we talked with a guy for a minute before he invited us to get a drink with him (you would not believe how many offers I've had to drink beer or coffee with people... ) So we sat down in a gas station and had a nice 40 minute chat about God.  Pretty cool, he gave us his number and address and said to come visit him. It was a really cool day.
Wednesday was less-active searching.  We went looking for like 6 less actives in one little place, so that took a while, nobody really answered. Not much else happened this day...
Thursday we went and visited a ghost town, now that it is vacation for college kids.  We went up by the campus and there was nobody. It was kinda weird. It felt like a downtown place, but nobody really there... but we went and tried to visit a bunch of other less-actives, but no luck on that either... Kinda sad.

Sunrises, especially the first in the
New Year, are important in
traditional Korean culture.
The Jeongdongjin and Gyeongpo
beaches in Gangneung
are popular places to enjoy a sunrise.

Friday we got up early and went to see the sunrise.  That was super cool to see it on the beach for the New Year.  Kinda cool, we just sat there, without really thinking, just admiring it.  I love those moments, just a moment of bliss where the world doesn't matter.  After we had 떡국 which is a traditional soup. and everybody gains a year when they eat it, so now I'm 22 in Korean age, what up! After that we met a kid who was super nice and happy, lives in Seoul by himself. His dad died of smoking and his mom is a drunkard... super sad story but he was really nice.
Saturday and Sunday were pretty regular nothing too new....
Love you all, take care,
-Elder Mortensen

December 28, 2015 (Week 54)

December 28, 2015

Elders Mortensen and Megargel

Ok, Monday, we went into Seoul, and had conference in there. Pretty cool, it was only 16-ish people, and we all stayed at the presidents house. We had abelskievers for dinner, since that's a Sonksen family tradition.  Super fun.  We got to watch part of the Christmas message from the First Presidency. Cool talks.  We stayed the night at presidents. I found out that I'll get released on December 22nd next year, so I am officially more than half over... Super weird...

Abelskivers at the Presidents

Tuesday we got up, had breakfast, then took off for the temple.  We got into a session with some other white people, so we got an English session.  That was cool, kinda fun to just chill in the temple. We ate lunch after, then headed back to our area.  Overall a fun little trip into Seoul, probably my only one for the next couple weeks, maybe more pending on transfer calls next month.
Wednesday we went over to Wonju, another city in our zone. We had planned on doing a big zone flashmob for Christmas.  So we practiced for a while, then went over and did the mob, and yeah... there weren't a whole lot of people there... Kahng Won Doe isn't the best place for a flash mob it turns out... but we did the actual flash mob, then went to another place and caroled and sang for a couple of hours. That was pretty fun day.
Thursday was a regular day of missionary work. We went and tried to visit another less active that lives quite a ways from our house, so that took a little while. We did jundo the rest of the time between that.
Friday we had our Christmas party with our branch.  That was cool. We had a talent show, the Elders did a play, (that was interesting) then we watched Christmas videos, and had dinner.  I love this branch still, they are super fun and really nice people.
Saturday we called home (obviously haha) then went out and jundoed all night. We got canceled on by a couple people, so we didn't do much.
Sunday we had church then jundo. Not much else happened there either. It snowed and melted for an hour.  That was pretty fun.

Korean Nativity

Well, sorry there's not much here, it was pretty much just Christmas activities and jundo. Pretty fun week overall. I loved talking with you earlier in the week,

-Elder Mortensen

December 21, 2015 (Week 53)

December 21, 2015

What up?

At the East Coast

Monday: P-day was just going around and picking stuff up to make some Christmas gifts for members. Nothing too exciting, we got to go to another buffet though. That was pretty good. That night we had Family Home Evening.  That was fun. I played Uno with a couple members. Man, they got pretty into it, doing stuff I didn't even know you could do, haha. That was a fun time though. We shared a message about President Monson's talk on keeping the commandments. It's a pretty good talk.  I think it was the second or third paragraph that just summarized commandments pretty beautifully.
Tuesday: We headed out to find a referral we got from the sisters... that was a nightmare.  It was some apartment complex buried out in the middle of who knows where... we went down one path, didn't find it, asked 4-5 people, and they all gave us different responses... eventually we found the place.. only to have 3 women leaving the apartment... soooo ya, that was interesting. Kind of cool though, I got to see trees, and space, and there were some small farms even. First time seeing that in about a year. I love this place, everything is a lot more just spread out. It's like being in South Jordan, then you go to St. George, and you're just like, "wow, big streets, slower feel, I could get used to this".  That's the best way I can describe it.  So we did that, then went to do "pictures with Santa" as a district, which turned out to be 2 Elders doing something, while the rest just kinda walked around. So me and Elder Megargel left and went up to the college in the area. That was pretty cool, we met some cool people up there.  We taught a guy the whole first lesson on the street, another guy about half of it. One guy wanted to meet us again (mainly for English and be friends), but hey, we can work with it.  So that place was pretty cool.  They also have a taco place that sells pretty good burritos for 3 bucks.  So now I have that, and we make burritos at least 2-3 times a week here. It's pretty good. For some reason,  Korea made me love burritos... (sorry, mom!) That was a pretty good night. We met a guy who told us that they were building the Olympics, only to tear it down 2 weeks after its over, because there's not enough people around to maintain it, and use it... pretty sad, just another reason Utah should get it again... haha


Wednesday:  We had 4 lessons scheduled... only 1 met, and that was just to have a hot chocolate and talk... really nice guy.  He's a body builder (so he's pretty massive) and out of town for 4 weeks... bummer.  He says he'll come back and check out our church when he gets back, so we're holding onto that hope.  A lot of people left for school/vacation/going home.  So yeah, kinda of a bummer, but who knows maybe later he'll come back. After that, it was jundoing around, having people cancel.
 Thursday: We had district meeting, which was terrifying. I didn't really have much to go off of from zone meeting, and other things, and the topic was just Christmas... Pretty vague, so I didn't have much, but managed to pull out a decent meeting. I hate talking in front of people, whether it is missionaries, members, or English class, public speaking is not for me... And, I'm fine with that, haha.  After that, we jundoed around and then had an English class.  This edition consists of one table full of old grandmas that are half decent at English, then another table where one guy talks the whole time. It was an interesting place.  One of our investigators came to it, but left before we could have a lesson (he is the biggest flake ever... He's already cancelled like 4 appointments).  That's been frustrating.
Friday: We had weekly planning, and then we went to a place called 주문진. (Joo Moon Jeen).  It's about thirty minutes by bus, and right by the coast.  We went visited a less active (he came out and asked if we were "Mar Eer" which is how the old church name was 말일 .... (it changed 10 years ago...) so he's been pretty less active for years now.  That was one of the first times a less-active has answered and admitted he was baptized though, which was cool. We did that, jundoed, and saw the coast.  That was pretty cool. Now, with going out to the west in May, DMZ in October, and here in December, I just need to find a way to get to the south end, haha (without breaking rules of course) (I heard that there's some place here, if North Korea attacks goes south for emergencies... hmmm.....) anyway, that's pretty cool to say I went coast-to-coast in Korea, haha.  We were supposed to meet the afore mentioned investigator, but he canceled because his back hurt...

World Cup Bridge

Saturday: We did work for some Christmas stuff, then had English class. nothing too new, except nobody really showed up, it was kinda weird. after that was jundo and trying to get gifts figured out.
Sunday: We had church, then we went out and delivered gifts to members, and met some cool people. I walked down "World Cup Bridge", which was kinda cool.  We met some sweet people, hopefully we can meet them again, although this week is super busy.

Today we are in Seoul, we have Christmas party with the president, then stay at his house for the night, then tomorrow we have p-day/travel, Wednesday a flash mob activity in a different city (hour by bus).  Friday is our ward party, Saturday is calling home... pretty nuts...

Christmas Tree Greetings

Well, love you all,
Elder Mortensen

Mark 13:37

December 14, 2015 (Week 52)

December 14, 2015

This week was pretty crazy,

Elders Ashby and Mortensen

Monday we didn't do much, except email and jundo... I think we did other stuff too, but I can't remember and it's in my other planner, haha. Nothing too special though.
Tuesday was temple day. It was my zone, and Gireum zone, so I got to see old friends again. Elder Saunders is finally leaving there, after 10-11 months there, haha.  He got there when I got to Korea. It was good to see him again.  We did that, went and ate a lot of pizza at the buffet, then headed over to the national war museum. That was pretty cool, but a lot of it was closed and we couldn't spend a lot of time there cause of travel and such.  Pretty fun.  Then we had English class.  There I got to see some more friends before I took off.
Wednesday we met Kim Dong Ho, our pastor buddy... It was going well through the whole Plan of Salvation, then he suddenly brought up Revelations again... that led to him, Elder Ashby, and our member getting into an argument, where manners were ignored and voices were raised... Kim got mad when we told him that President Monson is a prophet of God and that it was made known through the Holy Ghost. He got up, put on his winter gear, asked for our proof that he is called of God, then left. Kind of a bummer, and kinda saw it coming, but it was still sad to see happen. He liked to bring up Revelations, and wouldn't ever see our view on stuff in the bible.  Big change from our first lesson.  After that we had dinner with Ee Yoon Heng. We ate, got some snacks after, then he said he had to leave.  He gave me a huge neck warmer, since I was going to the coast, haha. It's super big, but pretty warm. I'll miss him, he was fun to be with. I really hope he keeps meeting with missionaries.  After we said hi to Lincoln, talked with him about his job, and where his family is at. I'm gonna miss them too, they were always super nice to us.
Thursday was transfers. everybody out in the countryside, got transferred into the city, kind of a bummer. Elder Green is going back to his greenie area, haha.  He was kinda shocked about that. I'm now with Elder Megargel. He's from Eagle Mountain, Utah, and has been out a transfer less than me. We hooked up, then headed out. We rode the subway for a while, then the bus for a couple more hours.  And thus I came to Gangneung.  This place is awesome.  There are still people, but not as busy, space in between places, no skyscrapers, it's great. We haven't explored much of it though. We taught English class that night.   I'm now with Elders Megargel, Dixon and Jung Jeen Sup. Elder Dixon is from Australia and dies this transfer, Elder Jung the one after, then there's us, haha. It's a fun house.
Friday was just jundo.  We were supposed to meet with an investigator but he cancelled, so we jundoed most of the night. This place is beautiful!
Saturday we had a district meeting to plan stuff, then English class. We did a lot more jundo after that.

Ee Yoon Heng and Elder Mortensen

Sunday we had church with our 20 members, then had lunch after.  Super fun ward. They actually are friends, not just merely going to the same church. I wish that was a thing everywhere, because everywhere needs help, even Utah. So many people don't know who others are. It's kinda sad really.

Well, sorry, kinda short, but still taking it all in. I love this place, hopefully I can stay here for a while!

Love ya, Elder Mortensen

December 7, 2015 (Week 51)

December 6, 2015

Alright, let's see how fast I can type with cold fingers... (the place where we email from is freezing)

World's Smallest Man

First thing...I'm getting transferred to the east coast of Korea,  Gangneung.  My companion might be either another Zone Leader who is about to die, or an elder one transfer below me... (The AP called a couple days ago asking if I was ready to go senior companion... they've never done that before that I know of.)

Monday we visited a member for his birthday, then came back, ate, and played ping pong and some games with the district.  That was pretty quiet, but I'm good with that.  After that, we went over to Nokbeon again, for exchange number 3 with Elder Apigo, haha.  That was pretty fun.

Tuesday with Elder Apigo we studied, then jundoed for a couple hours, then we bounced back to Shin Chone for dinner with Elder Grey (a temple missionary... Being temple missionary here would be pretty sweet, by the way).  He is a super nice guy.  He has been here for a couple months, and has been learning with us to learn Korean. He's a really nice guy, that was a fun dinner, before getting told that we had to teach English class and give the message, with no prep time... that wasn't cool, but it turned out alright.

Wednesday we had zone meeting.  The whole thing was on the new Christmas video, "A Savior is Born".  The mission is doing a huge initiative to push this video, and getting members involved. Let me tell you, it's kinda hard to get stuff going online when you have no access to the Internet... (Pres. Sonksen said we are never getting iPads here in the mission... kind of a bummer, but I'm fine without one) so yeah, zone meeting was kinda boring, not a whole lot of new stuff.  They've already talked about the new program a lot before this.  After that, we were supposed to meet a couple of people, but they bailed on us cause of unknown reasons... kinda lame, but we got to go to a member meal, which was cool.  They bought a ton of Sahm Gyup Sar (the thick bacon) with lettuce and hot sauce and rice... such a good meal, it was almost like a buffet there was so much.  That was a good time, we showed them the new video, and shared our Christmas testimony.

Thursday we jundoed for a while, then met Kim Dong Ho, our pastor buddy. That was interesting. He started to go off into Revelations about the one man who will be standing at the last day when Jesus comes, and pulling out more weird Revelations stuff... It's so frustrating when people pull out Revelations... it's super figurative and everybody points to random stuff to fit their point of view. We tried to teach him, but Elder Ashby got a little mad with him, and it was overall just a weird lesson. Turns out, he might be part of a church that nobody likes, even more than us... really weird church, they go to over churches acting as investigators, then stand up in the middle of worship service and start proving the pastor to be a fool, just to get more people to join their church. Plus, all their churches are hidden, and nobody can tell where they go.  It's a really weird church...

After that Elder Ashby had more Zone Leader stuff to do, so I talked with Elder Bluhm, who served out in 강릉 (Gangneung)... so I heard a lot about it, not knowing I would be going there in a week. That was pretty fun time.

Friday we planned, then jundoed... not much exciting happened that day.

Saturday we jundoed, and did English class.  Nothing exciting, until that night.  We did caroling.  That was pretty fun time, singing Christmas hymns in the cold.  Right after we stopped that, we got the call that I was leaving.  Elder Judd is leaving too, that's all for our district.  Pretty fun time.

Group picture

Sunday we went to church, said goodbye to people. Then that night we had dinner with Ahn Gyung Chan. He loves the missionaries and had us all over. Really good meal, really nice guy.

Not much else happened this week. Tomorrow we have temple, then I leave on Thursday! I'm stoked to go live on the coast and just become kinda forgotten out there, so to speak.

Take care, love you all

-Elder Mortensen

Mark 12:33-34

November 30, 2015 (Week 50)

November 30, 2015

And yet another week goes by...

Playing Pilgrims

Monday we played soccer, ate chicken (a lotttt of chicken......) then got some food from a member, then we taught Ee Yoon Heng. He is doing good, progressing slowly. He is scared of member pressure (big issue in Korea) so he doesn't want a member at the lesson, and doesn't want to come to church... but other than that he is doing good, I guess. Hard to tell if he just learns, or is trying to honestly find the truth. He's a really fun guy, I hope he finds the truth here.

Tuesday after studies me and Elder Judd went on splits so Elder Han and Elder Ashby could go to some leadership meeting, so we jundoed around for a couple hours (about 5 hours, to be exact) and man, that was kinda cold. I hadn't pulled out the gloves or scarf yet, so it was a pretty cold day.  We met some cool people, especially one old guy.  He had us sit down and asked us what we believe about the afterlife, so we taught him the Plan of Salvation for about 30 minutes. I love people like that. I'm not sure if I'll ever see him again, but who knows, maybe that changed something for him.   After we switched back, we met Kahng Bong Doo. We sat down with him, and that was about all I did. Elder Ashby started going one direction, then the guy took it some other way, and I got lost and so we all just kinda stopped talking. Elder Ashby couldn't understand him either... so yeah.. that was an interesting lesson.  After that was English class! I love English class! It's so much fun! (hopefully you note the sarcasm...:) )

Wednesday I went with Elder Collins on an exchange!  That was pretty fun. We had a district meeting, then we were supposed to meet our pastor, Kim Dong Ho, but he bailed on us, so we had play practice for our play this Saturday.  That was pretty fun, although a lot of time... After that we jundoed around for a bit, then came back to the church so I could talk with Elder Han. We talked for quite a while, but needed. It's good to talk with others and get perspective on things. He was good about it. He's super nice and a good guy and he helped a lot. That night we taught Ee Yoon Heng again, and did the Plan of Salvation. It was kinda funny, he got so caught up on the the concept of hell.  Every five minutes, "so where is hell?" "Hang on, this is Spirit World.." "Is hell a kingdom?" "No, not really. All of these are good places, places of glory." "So where is hell? "We don't really believe in that kind of hell"... It's really interesting how different our church believes, when you think about it. IF (but it's not) IF it was false, we would be the biggest frauds ever. Priesthood, Plan of Salvation, Prophets, Book of Mormon, Temples, we do a lot of weird stuff from the world's perspective.   Sorry for that tangent... It was pretty crazy though, he couldn't understand we didn't believe in a hell haha.

Thursday we changed back, did some more play and choir practice, since we were still really rough. We did that, then had ward mission meeting. That was interesting again. One of the first things the ward mission leader asks is "so why don't we have baptisms?" "uh... I dunno, you tell me." (Our district is killing it everywhere except baptismal dates.)  All of us are doing good, just the dates are not happening. Kinda weird, even the APs called and asked why we have no dates.... so yeah, getting a little pressure on that.  After we went to the Fillmore's house for Thanksgiving, that was fun. President Sonksen gave us permission to go there longer than usual, so we got to just hang out as a mini mixed family. It was super fun, tender mercy for God giving me an awesome Thanksgiving.

Pizza with the group

Friday was pretty much a lot of jundo.

Saturday we had a Thanksgiving play performance. I played the piano. It was videoed, but for some reason it won't email. Sorry....

Sorry, out of time, doing alright though.

Elder Mortensen

John 15:9