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

April 11, 2016 (Week 69)

April 11, 2016

Hey,

(Former) Elder Jung?
and Elder Mortensen

Monday, we didn't do much. We ate at a buffet then toured around downtown, since the other elders are gone for conference. So, we watched Korean politics on the street corners. (They have a cheesy theme song playing, and a bunch of college students/ supporters dancing around the intersection... pretty funny to watch.) At the end of P-Day, when we went back to the house... We realized we didn't have keys on us, so we were locked out of our house. We went to the church, tried to use the ladder, but it was too short as we live on the 3rd floor. We finally called a locksmith to come and get it open. That took a while to get done... freak.
Tuesday we went around to visit members to try and get them thinking about friends and family that they can invite to a music night we have.  The only problem is that they weren't home. So yeah,  that was fun. We just went all over the city for that one. We then we met 고영욱.  He really didn't care to talk about gospel, wanted English practice and to hang out.  It's kinda frustrating. We're debating dropping him, or keep trying to work things out with him.
Wednesday we went and had zone meeting, then a skills workshop for a couple more hours. That meant we sat at the church for 6 hours almost. Then we had dinner then talked with some members. That was about all for that day.
Thursday we made papers for our member visits, then went around finishing that up. We came back and had English class, as fun as ever
Friday nothing special.
Saturday and Sunday were just conference. Really great talks. Elder Duncan, Elder Bednar, Elder Christofferson, Elder Holland, and Elder Renlund. Great talks. Poor President Monson though, he looked rough.   Sunday, Elder Dixon (died my first transfer here) and Elder Jung (died my second transfer) came to Gangneung and said hi. Elder Dixon is here with family touring around Korea for a couple weeks. (I might steal his itinerary for when I come back, haha.) That was good to see him. He's a good friend.   We all ate a loooooot of meat for dinner that night. It was a good weekend, good time with friends.

Chow Time

Well, love you all,
-Elder Mortensen

April 4, 2016 (Week 68)

April 4, 2016

Ok, what happened this week....

Random Corn Gift

Last P-Day we ended up eating chicken and playing some games. pretty boring, but plans got switched around, so we couldn't do much else. After, we had a chat with our ward mission leader about less-actives... and man... he has a hard time remember anybody,  less-actives, investigators. It's pretty hard getting anything from him.  He offers to help teach, but doesn't remember our investigators names!  Family night was after that.
Tuesday, we went and made/delivered Thank You notes to members for coming to the Easter party. We're trying to focus on working with them more. Hopefully by visiting them more often, we can get better relations with them.  After that and English class, we headed up to a little town north 주문진.  We wandered around looking for less-actives all day.  Not much happened with that. The layout here is a nightmare. We came back and met 고영욱.  He came looking distressed and talked about how his uncle has cancer, and that his research project got denied by the government.  Sad, but it humbled him enough to pray. That was cool. It's been hard getting him to see the need for  religion, and hopefully that will help out. (His uncle is doing good now, all went well with surgery)
Wednesday, we had a really boring district meeting..... so boring..... then we went around town again to talk with people and visiting some members.  That night we met the lady that we knocked on her door. We had dinner together at some burger place down by the sea.  Pretty good meal, she seems to have some potential too. (It took 14-ish phone calls to get everything worked out with no males coming to the diner too.) That was cool.

Chillin' on the Roof

Thursday, we went to find some less-actives that we know exist, then went up to the college to meet some people. We ran into 고영욱 and talked for a minute. That was cool, but nothing else really cool up there, just fun to be in a town full of college students.
Friday we planned, then did English class, then rode 3 buses, got told 4 different ways to go get to the lake, and eventually ended up riding our bikes 30 minutes both ways to get to the lake to visit some people. So frustrating having bus drivers telling us to cross the road to get the right bus, then hopping on, just to be told that it was wrong again... good night.
Saturday was just walking around some more, and Sunday was church then getting cancelled on by people... good times.

Well take care,
-Elder Mortensen

March 28, 2016 (Week 67)

March 28, 2016

Ok, this week....

Tandem Bike Ride

Monday we rode around the famous lake in our city, on tandem bikes! That was pretty sick! I got to sit in the back and play with the camera most of the time. That was pretty fun. We did that, then went and played on the beach for a little bit. We took some pretty cliche pics, just for the fun of it haha After, we met Kim Dohng Bum, and talked about the Plan of Salvation.  He won't commit to baptism, because he wants to work on Sundays... So, get him to quit smoking, drinking, and lottery, and pretty soon he won't have to work on Sunday! Pretty good lesson, sad that he won't commit just yet. Pretty fun day overall.
Tuesday we went, taught English class... lame....   Then we met 이수훈. He is a 15 year old kid, and it was really awkward.  He came late, and when he came, he said hi to us and this girl that was in the same intersection. Turns out his sister was waiting for him too. He acted really weird, so we couldn't figure out if 1) it was him and 2) what to do.  So we gave them a church tour, and then bought them ice cream and invited them to the Easter party and church.  The most awkward lesson of my life. They were really weird.  After we met Go Young Ook. He is our 29 year old buddy. Super cool, had a good lesson about the Plan of Salvation.
Wednesday, we had district meeting then I went on exchanges with Elder Kim She Hyun. Good guy, we didn't do much.  It was raining, we had to catch the other elders to give them their phone, he had to do district leader stuff, then we had movie night.  Once again, Kim Dohng Bum and his buddies came.. (They're more reliable than the members here... I love these guys!)
Thursday, we rode buses up to Sok Cho, then rode them back and had English class. Not much else happened that day.
Friday, we had planning, then English class, then we taught Go Young Ook again. This time he had a lot of English questions, and didn't seem too interested in gospel topics.  It seems like he does this for Korean practice for us, doesn't really personalize it. Love this guy, but he's a struggle as an investigator.
Saturday, we did Easter stuff. We prepped, taught English class, then prepped more, and actually did it. As the "assistant to the district leader" (since he lives an hour away in another area), I kinda do things down here.  I realized I hate talking to crowds and having to lead the show, but it went over well. We played water balloon games, then a bunch of Minute-To-Win-It games.  We had about 20 people come, 4 non-members (One sister brought her sister, and Kim brought his buddies :D) Super cool.

Playing at the beach

Sunday was church, then we rode a bus 40 minutes to meet Michael.  He lives in the middle of nowhere,  in his 50's, lived in the US for 20 years, so fluent still at English. We had a great talk with him. He seems pretty interested. Can't really explain him, but he is a REALLY interesting guy. That took

up most of our night.

Well, take care, happy Easter,
-Elder Mortensen

March 21, 2016 (Week 66)

March 21, 2016

One of the Natives?

Ok, quick email, my computer froze up for a little bit, so I don't have a lot of time left...

Things have been kinda slow lately, people have been busy, but we managed to meet 이상준 for the first time with Elder Hall... that was good.  Things are just kinda going right now...  

Monday- We made hockey sticks and played newspaper hockey for family night.  That was pretty fun.

Tuesday- We studied, then had English class, then we went back to the church to work on Easter invitations for our activity we have planned. We did that, ate chicken, then tried to clean the carpet, since we scuffed it up during family night. That took a little while to do.

Wednesday - I was with Elder Cazier on exchanges. We didn't do much, had tacos, talked with people, then had movie night. We had  Kim Dohng Bum come to that as well, that was pretty good.

Thursday - We rode buses to Elder Cazier's area, then rode it back, ate dinner, then had English class... what a lovely day.

Seamarq Hotel

Friday - We planned, taught English, then I went with Elder Ellingford to a couple of his appointments because of schedule conflicts. We taught at the SEAMARQ hotel (look it up... cheapest place is 5000 a night.) Super nice.

Saturday - We met Lee Sahng Joon for the first time in a couple weeks, he is doing good, didn't do much after that it seemed.

Sunday - We walked around.

Yeah, that's about all for my week,

-Elder Mortensen

Cleaning Scuff Marks