August 8, 2016 (Week 86)

August 8, 2016

King for a (P)Day

Monday we emailed then worked... nothing too special that day. We streetboarded and about died of heat, etc.
Tuesday we went to the temple. My goodness that was good.  I can't wait to just chill in the Celestial Room for days, not feeling rushed because of missionary life.  After we went to a couple museums about Admiral Lee and King Se Jong. Pretty cool, not much to the museums though.  Sweet guy though. They are like the George Washington and Abraham Lincoln for Koreans.
Wednesday we had district meeting, then I went to Gireum [served there June 2015 - September 2015] with Elder Houston. That was a trippy time. I slept in my old house, cooked there, walked around, man, it was like being home again. Good times there.  We taught their investigator then had English class. That has changed a lot since I was here.
Thursday we taught that same investigator, then switched back from exchanges. It was a good exchange. It's always nice to go with an older missionary who knows what's going on.  After that we kinda wandered around, visited the Elders Quorum President... There's a sad moment when he admits he doesn't read his scriptures except at church. We helped him with that, great guy, though.  Super funny, loves the missionaries.  I kinda realized that it is 10 times harder to stay active in Korea than America.

Grilling Steaks for a Ward Party

Friday we met Juhn Hoon. He's 25, and pretty good at English. He has a little church interest, but a lot of friend interest. We'll work with that though for the time being.   That was the highlight there.
Saturday was doing English, then sitting around for waaay too long at the church. We planned for a party at 5:00, but didn't start until 630. We did have some English Class people waiting, so we just sat there and talked with them.  We met a cool guy there.  Then we ate for a couple hours..
Sunday we had church and then dinner with the Digmas. They are a Philippine family here.. great family.

Love ya,
Elder Mortensen

August 1, 2016 (Week 85)

August 1, 2016

This week was a lot of meetings...

Elders Brantley and Mortensen

Monday was P-Day. We played games with the elders from the other district nearby, namely Elder Brantley. That was fun. We played "resistance" a game where you try to find out who is the spy in the group. Kind of hard to explain, but once you understand, it's pretty fun.  After that I sent off the package.  It should be there in 40-60 days. No opening the black bag or letter until the wedding day.  The rest you can check out.
Tuesday we walked across our entire area. We went up to the very north, and started walking down. We met some sweet people, but mainly just hot weather.  Man, there's 1) It's hot, 2) I'm sweating, 3) I'm out of sweat so I'm just sticky, and 4) I'm walking in a pool.   That's the heat degrees here.  You usually hit level 4 by about an hour or so.   But during that time, we met Robin.  We talked for a minute, then he revealed that he is Sheen Chun Jee. Basically the strangest church in Korea.  Their members don't say that they are members until you meet 3-4 times, and they can trust you.  But they've done a lot of weird stuff in the past, so no churches allow the members into their churches. Pretty much the weird people get up in the middle of a worship service and Bible bash the pastor.  Then, in order to join, you study with a teacher in the middle of nowhere for 6 months.   That's the basis of their church. We've been prohibited from meeting them as investigators, so probably can't meet him anymore, dang it.
Wednesday we went and had district meeting. It wasn't bad, just very quiet. Just me speaking the whole time. No fun.  After was English meeting, part 1.  We want to change up English class, so we met, but nobody really gave comments, so it was just 2/6 missionaries planning.  The other missionary helping, sister 김지연 kinda called out everybody for not caring. So that was fun. Then we met June, our 60 year-old guy that I have little patience for.  The lesson went decent this time, until we asked him to pray one time a day.  Then he got in a fuss about how you need to sincerely pray, not just by our wishes.  That's what we are asking you to do! Pray sincerely.  After was English class.
Thursday we had another meeting, then nothing too much else. Weekly planning, service activity, etc.

Carts Selling Yogurt and Drinks.
Korea's Version of an Ice Cream Truck

Friday we had President Sonken's president come and talk to us.  That was cool.  Talked a lot about working with members. But it was weird.  I saw so many missionaries I don't know.  I've been so far out of the loop.
Saturday, nothing special
Sunday we taught Gospel Principles class after getting last minute notice by the sisters.  That worked out ok.  That night we went to see the mission president again with an investigator,  Melvin.

Well, good week, hope you do well,
Elder Mortensen

July 25, 2016 (Week 84)

July 25, 2016

Elders Mortensen and Benson
Traditional Korean Wear

This week.. well, we went to the missionary mall for ties/jerseys/ everything you can imagine.  I picked up some jerseys and whatnot.  I saw all the same ties that all the missionaries have, so I didn't buy much.   After that was a music night activity. We had Elders Pelina and Bradshaw come and play for us again, and it was great. We had 10 or so members come to the location, had about 40 people just sitting around listening at all times. That was sweet. We met some super sick people.   That was a good day.

The next day we had President interviews.  It was a pretty good time.  His advice was, "get ready". We have 6 or so zone leaders and AP's leaving, and half the mission will be training in the next 3 months.   But after that we went out and proselyted the rest of the night.

Wednesday was District meeting. After that, we met June. He's a 60 year-old, frustrating guy. He says he wants to learn, but never gives us a chance to talk.  I have a pretty short temper with him. We will meet one more time, after setting some guidelines of what we are doing here.  After was English class. That was good time.  I just chat about America the whole time, hamburger prices/restaurants,  sport salaries, where everything is, accents there, etc.

Thursday we had the service activity, then met with David. We went over the Plan of Salvation, and it was pretty good. We had member there but seemed to me a bit too strong. He kinda took over at times. It's hard sometimes, getting the member to participate, but in the best way.  But it was a good lesson.  We're still working with his wife, and how to get her approval.  After that was just some more proselyting.

Friday we had planning, then we met 구장효.  We sat there forever waiting for him.  He finally showed up, saw the church for 2 minutes, then left. He said he would come back on Sunday. (He texted later and said he can't join a church that doesn't have a cross... what the heck?) Then we street boarded again...way too much.  After that was missionary coordination meeting..

Saturday was exchanges with Elder Benson. He's a great guy, pretty funny.  We didn't do much besides proselyte, but it was a good time to talk with him and just break from the usual.

Random T-Shirt

Sunday we had church.  David came for Sacrament Meeting again.  Then we went and had a big zone activity (already on Facebook).  That was cool, but we got put on regular street board station, while everybody else had face painting, or cookie decorating, or name writing... everybody just kinda left our station.. so it wasn't the best...  but oh well,

Well love ya,
-Elder Mortensen

July 18, 2016 (Week 83)

July 18, 2016

Ok..

Beach in Gangneung

Well this week was a lot of meetings, zone meeting, English class meetings, church, fireside, so not much really seemed to happen this week. Also, a lot of people just kinda didn't answer.

We did met David again, taught the Restoration and Gospel of Jesus.  He came to church again too! He is doing good, just his wife is big into her church, so might be struggle down the line.

I'm settling into the ward. It's going pretty good.  The good news is that its only 40-50 members, so you can actually get to know the, not like 100+ wards.  It's kinda funny though, I've been seeing a lot of missionaries I was with before I went out to Gangneung, and they all ask about that area.  All I say is that it's the best... Unless you've served out there, you can't really understand the vibe of out there.  But Do Bong is a good place.   I'm the oldest missionary in our district, so I'm the leader here... :P not fun. We have some good returned missionaries to help us out though, so it's been good so far.

That's really the only big update for the week. I got to see

Dobong Church

a lot of old missionary buddies here, but slowly realizing that a lot of my buddies have gone home already... Pretty trippy to think about..
But yeah, nothing too special to report otherwise.

-Elder Mortensen

July 11, 2016 (Week 82)

July 11, 2016

Ok... well, this week has been interesting.

City of Dobong

Monday we went and celebrated July 4th by eating at McDonald's, then went back and played some games.  It's was down pouring for a week straight there, so not much else to do.   After that we had pass off, then Family Night.  Family Night was playing American games, like limbo, three-legged race, spoon egg race, and baseball.  Good day. We also sang the national anthem for the start of it haha...

Tuesday we had a branch party and koo koos... it's a sushi/ everything buffet... suuuper good. Especially the cow beef on top of rice, that's the best, I probably had 2-3 plates of that alone. They also had waffle maker, ice cream, chicken, spaghetti, tons of sushi variety (spam, sushi, fish, shrimp, beef, bacon, octopus.....)  super good meal, sad to say bye to the Gangneung folks.  After that was getting the English banner we made... 4/6 missionaries on there have now left,  but hey, we got our faces on it, haha... We did that, hung it up, said hi to So Han Suck, the 89 recent convert, then said bye to Jung You Suck, our ward mission leader. After that, had dinner with Go Young Ook, said bye to him, then came back down and met Juhn Dong Hoe, our referral.  Man that talks a lot.   Met with a lot of people, but it was a good time.  Sad to say bye, not sure when I'll be able to go back.

Wednesday I got back into Seoul. I forgot to switch my wheels on my luggage, so I kinda struggled with that... (I had packed in 70% of stuff, then realized I didn't switch out the broken ones yet, and just went with it. That won't happen again. Trust me on that one.)  But I met Elder Du Plessies, and Elders Peterson and Benson, my new housemates. I got to know the place a little, then met a 60 yr. old man that wants to read the Book of Mormon in English, but is terrible at it. So we kinda reestablished what we want to do.  After that was English class.  Not bad, I guess that are some scout troops around here. I met a couple leaders... who knew?

Thursday we had a service project feeding food to the elderly.  I got put on dishes duty the whole time.  Man, I'm getting pretty good at cleaning dishes. My wife will love me, haha.  That was cool. We did that, then met Robin.  He is a missionary of some other church, but once he heard about the Kingdoms of Glory,  he started to be really surprised, and wanted to meet.  He is sincere, but requires 4+ examples in the Bible to believe it. It's a struggle, especially with the Plan of Salvation. But, he is cool.  After that we went and visited a couple less-actives with the bishop.

Friday we didn't do much, tried doing music proselyting, but everybody we met was super busy, so didn't work too well.

City Logo

Saturday we met a couple cool people, who came to church the next day!  That was cool.  One has a date now  I'll follow up on that later. Gotta run, but this place is great!

-Elder Mortensen

July 4, 2016 (Week 81)

July 4, 2016

Ok.. well, I'm leaving Gangneung City, going back to Seoul. 도봉 (Doe Bong) area.

Elder Mortensen and ??

Transfers came. We are getting closed down.  The new senior couple is coming here and they are playing around with zones again, so they closed our area.  Elder swan is going to Gireum (my former area, ) and I am going right next door to Gireum, same zone 도봉 Doe Bong.  Super bummed to leave here, this is my second home now. I love this city.  I've heard good things about Doe Bong though. Elder Hall was there before me, and I know a couple other people that have been. My new companion is from South Africa, not sure how to spell his name.. (white guy though... dang... haha)   this may be my last area, too...

This weeks highlights....

Gangneung branch is the best branch in the world.  They are just a little sweet family. (for example.. the other Elders went less active visiting with the Elders Quorum President, and they came and picked us up after they were done, dropped by the Branch President's house, and they went in quoting Alma going to Amulek asking for food. So the Branch President's wife, and another sister that came over cooked us up a meal on the spot, so much fun last night. )  If anybody gets to come to here, blessed are they. It's worth learning Korean to just talk with these people.
 

Branch Photo with Visitors

Investigator wise, nothing too special, hopefully they meet us before we leave.

Sorry, nothing too special, just a whole lot of emotions right now.  Literally all I think about it how much I'll miss this place.  This literally is a little city of heaven.

Love you all,
Elder Mortensen

June 27, 2016 (Week 80)

June 27, 2016

"I will love you in really and in dream" - Some random shirt I saw.   Really bad English.  Mine is slowly getting there too.

Monday we went to a war museum type thing.  There was an old war ship that we got to tour all over, then a submarine from North Korea that they found that we got to walk through, then a couple planes and tanks and stuff.  Pretty cool place, that was a fun day.

Tuesday we did a couple projects, one included making a Nerf gun shooting board,  the latest of projects to try and get people to talk with us. So we got that all made, then tried it out. It worked pretty good, we got a few people besides 15 year old girls to do it.  A lot of guys bragged about doing military then missed.  It was kinda fun.  Nothing much else happened that day.

Wednesday we had district meeting, talked about "grateful in any circumstances" and just continually giving thanks. It went over ok.  Then did teaching stuff with Sister 조혜원 (Jo Hey Won).  After that we went and headed up to the college area and tried to talk with some leftovers from summer vacation.   Yeah,  nothing too special again...

Thursday we cleaned the worst house ever.  Imagine our family room, covered in months old food, stains, cigarette ash.  Some of the food was just covered in old flies that had died on it,  and a mountain of clothes that had never been touched.  It was nasty.  This was one of our members houses. He had moved out, so we threw out about half of his stuff since it was old, then helped him move to his new house. So dirty, it's amazing.  After was meeting some guy that has his religion, and like most people was commanded to not change his religion.  Nice kid though.   After we went to meet Gayan, from Sri Lanka. It was a good lesson.  He really wants to learn about everything, including who God is.  Cool guy.  He is funny.

Friday we planned, then went and cleaned his new house, then threw out a lot more of his clothes, since they smelled awful and were super old, and he had brand new ones he has never worn.  After we did Nerf gun activity again. It was pretty good.

Air Show

Saturday we had English class, then met Thomas.  He understands everything, just doesn't really apply it to him... that and he is 15, so still a little young to fully understand.  After, we went to Kim Young Hee's house (Branch President) and had a wonderful dinner.

Sunday we had church, everybody that said they would come bailed, but it was ok.  Some new couple came and gave their love tale for half of sacrament though. (They met and married within 3 weeks at BYU Hawaii... good night...) We tried to meet some people afterwards, but they all fell through...

Well, take care peeps!
-Elder Mortensen