March 14, 2016 (Week 65)

March 14, 2016

Elders Mortensen, Judd and Cazier  

What happened this week.....
Well, after email we didn't do much, we had an appointment that we were planning on heading to, but he cancelled so we didn't have any plans... We just ended up going and exploring downtown for a little while.  After that we went and taught the other elders' recent convert, since they were in Seoul, and then had family night. Not too bad this week, we actually had some more people come.
Tuesday we went and visited the 89 year-old again, since they wanted us to visit daily. He is great, so willing to learn and listen. Then we had English class. It wasn't too bad, but not much gospel interest. We're going to need to find a way to see if anybody really has interest. After that and dinner, we went to go visit a member, that lived kinda far away. We couldn't find a bus that got close, so we took a bus, then just planned to take a taxi over there. It turns out where we got off, there are no taxis, or cars, or lights... so we walked for quite a ways, since we didn't have much else to do... that took up a lot of the night, then to top it off, the member wasn't even home. That wasn't the best day ever...
Wednesday we had zone meeting.. talked a lot on the Spirit, and the new Easter video that's out. We are supposed use this a lot to get members going, find interest, do wonderful things, but a lot of it is geared toward the US, and Seoul... Our zone can't even really do a combined activity since we are so far apart from each other.  After that, we had a district planning session to try and do an Easter activity that would get the members to come out and bring their friends too. (Turns out Koreans don't really celebrate/care about Easter, so that will be a struggle). Then we had dinner, (chicken... ) and then met 고영욱.  He is doing good, willing to listen and learn, but doesn't seem to feel like it applies to him. We need to work on that, but he is great, a really cool guy.

Cup Museum Bowl

Thursday we walked around, got cancelled on, then had English class.
Friday we planned, then did some English, taught the old 89 year-old recent convert, then met 김동범. He brought 5 of his friends, and we had a cool lesson with them.  Hopefully we can meet with all of them individually, because it's hard to get to know them in a group of 6 friends.  Super cool though.
Saturday not much.
Sunday we went out knocking doors, and actually got let in! It was super cool, pretty rare thing out here! We had a good chat, hopefully we can follow up!

Love ya,
Elder Mortensen

March 7, 2016 (Week 64)

March 7, 2016

Elder Mortensen at the Church

This week... We did the cave and then had family home evening... that's slowly dying like the rest of our activities here... it's just become the branch presidents wife (she runs this branch, she's the best out here) and her 2 kids that show up to anything any more.   We also met 고영욱 before FHE. He is pretty cool guy, had a good talk on how you can have religion and yet believe in yourself... (that's a common theory here... because I believe in myself, I can't have religion....) so we taught him that, and shared Ether 12 with him.  It was a good lesson.
Tuesday we went around meeting people before Elder Megargel left. We went and ate at a sushi buffet with an English member (I'm starting to like these sushi buffets....) then stopped by and said hi to 고영욱 at his lab at the college (he invited us over). We came back down from the college, got to say hi to Q for a minute (more to come about him in a minute) then went and met 이상준. We had an awkward lesson where we just kind of explained what baptism is again, and how it gets us clean from sin, guilt, etc.  He accepted a new date, but not sure how well it will stick. I can't figure out if he truly does understand everything, or just kinda goes with it.  That night we had branch dinner with 삼겹살 and man, that was good, but a lot of food haha.  Never ending amounts of meat. 김동범 came and said bye with his friends then left to go and eat...
Wednesday we dropped off Elder Megargel and Elder Jeong at the bus stop, then came back to the house... and cleaned up the house... I've gotten better at not keeping crap I don't need on the mission (when I get back it will be a different story...(mom) ).   So we cleaned up for a couple hours, then went and picked up Elder Hall and Elder Keil. They are pretty cool. Elder Hall is a really fun and good guy. We talked some, then went to find some less-actives, then had movie night... still no body is coming out to them...
Thursday we went up to the college area, and tried to visit a couple members and up there. We met 이혜찬. We met him at 1:00, but he said he had class so he could meet at 3:00-ish.  So we went around town for a little bit then came back, met him and went to a cafe and taught the whole restoration to him... That was good. Really cool guy, says he is willing to meet and keep talking. Super cool miracle for us. After that, we came back down and ate dinner then had English class.
Friday we planned, then tried to visit some more members, but they were all busy, kinda lame.  That night, called up 김동범 and met him. We had a good talk about Christ, and the Book of Mormon, and how they build faith. Good lesson with him.
Saturday we went and tried to visit some less actives and members since 이상준 went to Seoul this weekend. We did that, came back for English class, then went out looking for more less actives, talking with members (see a pattern here yet? haha). We didn't have any sit down lessons, kind of a bummer.  But Q.... we called him trying to visit and introduce Elder Hall, but he texted back that because his mother-in-law threw a fit, they didn't want to meet anymore... freak that hurt... that's the first time I've had an investigator outright say they don't want to meet anymore.
Sunday we had church, and 김동범 brought a friend to church again. It was great, we were in fast and testimony meeting, and toward the end he asks if he can get up and talk. I was a little shocked, but said yes, so he went up and shared a brief testimony.. that was super sweet, he's willing to talk more than most of the members were... plus they stayed for all 3 hours. That was a miracle for us. after that, we met 김영빈 our body builder guy from back in December, and talked, but he didn't want to meet for gospel, just friends and English class... bummer.  Then we called up our referral we got from the office.  He called us back and said he could meet us right then.  So we met, he freaked out about meeting in the church, so he drove us to a cafe and talked with us. It was really awkward when we try to explain we don't drink coffee or buy stuff on Sunday... so he sat down and started saying weird scripture stuff at us about the life force of God. We ended that lesson and came back for the rest of the night.

Group picture at the Cave

That's been our week.  Elder Hall is great. He's super funny, (he lived with Elder Green and acts just like him. It's really weird.)  But, he also wants to work hard, get to know the members, and speaks only Korean to me when we are outside... good wake up call for me.... kinda got into a rut with of late not doing that, it feels. Great time so far this week,
Love ya,
Elder Mortensen

February 29, 2016 (Week 63)

February 29, 2016

Elder Mortensen at the Cave

Ok, well I got a new planner, so let's see if my real brain can remember what I did this week... (crazy how I rely on a paper planner to remember my life sometimes...)
Monday was boring... we had the Sokcho elders down here... so we couldn't do much... so we played more board games. I guess bored games would be a better way to put it... still not sure why they came down.  After that was good ol' family night. We made pizza and chatted with people.
Tuesday we went on exchanges. I went with Elder Ellingford, which was pretty fun. He's a pretty straight forward, logical, keep it simple kinda guy. Pretty nice to have around, because life gets complicated easy. We taught English class, then went and searched for some less actives... that meant circling around backstreets, slowing centering in, and agreeing that the little broken down shack that you cant even get to is indeed our less actives old house... freak... so that was fun. Then went to a sushi buffet with a member.  That was super good.  I still don't fully trust sushi.  They had some that looked like they just took some meat out of the fridge and laid it on top of rice.  Not sure how people don't get sick.  After was some more less-active hunting and talking.  I'm glad Elder Ellingford is staying next transfer.  He's a fun guy.
Wednesday we had district meeting, then went and did some walking around. We tried to visit some friends, but they weren't available.  We tried to visit a less-active, he wasn't home, but the dad said we could come back and talk about our church some more!  That was cool. Hoping that we can get him like 이상준, haha.  Everybody is confused when we talk about how we found those two people. Movie night we got 김대현 to come out to it.  Although he said he was going to a party after... and would be drinking ... great.
Thursday we taught the other elders' investigator/recent convert. (Baptized last Sunday, waiting to get confirmed status) We had a good chat with him, although its hard to understand an 89 year-old guy who doesn't put in his dentures.  After that we visited our couple in the cafe, Q and his wife (still don't know their real names... awkward.)  They are doing good, had another good talk with them about our religion.  They agreed to take the lessons and learn about our church, that way we can keep the lessons focused.  After that we did English class by ourselves, since everybody else was out of town and didn't tell us... great.
Friday we planned, taught English at the service center (we teach English 4 times a week now..... man I hate English... ) then came back, ate, then had a district planning session to get better activities going on around here.
Saturday we helped move a bunch of luggage (the dad lives in a different city for work during the weekday, since he found a different job in a different city, he had to move it all back here for a day or so) for one of our members, then had English class, then taught the other elders' 89 year-old guy, then their other investigator, had dinner, then called and met 김대현.  Good lessons.  The one with Kim was weird.  He walked up to the church smoking a cigarette, then said he was moving to the club/hangout spot of Korea... (Shin chone) and talked about how he almost forged an ID to get into a club...  Talked with him about that, and the gospel of Jesus Christ, we're trying to get him to see a better path.. hoping the other elders in Shin chone can help him out.   Pretty fun day though, teaching 3 lessons.
Sunday we had church, the other elders 89 year-old investigator got confirmed, and Kim came again, although only for one hour, in which he sat in a class with 3 unbelievably annoying girls, middle school students... freak, that's the perfect way for him to not want to come back.  He had to leave after that too.  After, we went back and Elder Megargel packed and I did calls. Then we had a member meal. That was pretty good.  Plus... it snowed again!  That was a good time!
Today we went to a sweet cave, hoping to do more outdoor stuff now that its getting better weather... freak, winters almost over.

Happy Face

Elder Megargel is moving for transfers, I'm staying in Gangneung.  I'll be with Elder Hall, he'll be in his 5th transfer (same "age" when I was with Elder Saunders)


Take care,
-Elder Mortensen

February 22, 2016 (Week 62)

February 22, 2016

Twins?

Well, how's it going?

We'll mix it up this week a little bit:

People:   이상준: met him, had a great lesson. He said he didn't understand Alma 7:13, which was exactly what we wanted to focus on, Christ and the Atonement. So we taught that, reviewed the Plan of Salvation, and how Christ fits in it.  He took it pretty well.  Still getting him to have a sincere real conversation prayer is a struggle. Doing good though. We can see him grow a little bit more each time.

김대현: (18 student/spam friend): He came to the ping pong tournament we had (He is dang good too...) then we met on Sunday.  We had a good lesson with him.  Finally got around to having a solid lesson. When we meet, he gets sidetracked by stuff, but this time we got through a good lesson!  Too bad he leaves next week.....

김동범: (Chinese buddy): After our Sunday lesson with him, he came to family night with his buddies, then we met last Saturday and ate together... We talked about how he smokes, drinks, gambles, lottery, etc., and that we don't do that... Hopefully we can convince him that that is a waste of money and health, and will help him out if he stops. Really nice guy still, love him, just need to get him to see there is more to life...

That's about it this week...

From the Cup Museum

P-Day we went to the ONLY CUP MUSEUM IN ASIA.... Elder Megargel has been dying to go there, so we finally went... Kinda cool, kinda weird... I didn't realize how many cups there are in the world....

Wednesday went up to Sokcho, went with Elders Judd and Cazier, celebrated my 1 year in Korea by going to a buffet, haha.

Saturday we had a ping pong tournament that was fun.
Sunday the other elders baptized the 89 year old guy... super golden guy too... have to talk about him later.


Love ya,
-Elder Mortensen

February 15, 2016 (Week 61)

February 15, 2016

New Junior Companion??

Sorry if this email is short, not really feeling like typing today....

Monday we cleaned the house... all day long... that was fun...
Tuesday we had P-Day... which meant we sat in the house and played  board games. Then went to the church and ate chicken and board games with the elders that came down from Soak Cho.  Then we had singing practice because we are the most musically untalented group in the mission and need a lot of help... haha.   That night we had 11 elders in our house, since they had to come in for the conference in the morning, and travel was too long...
Wednesday we got up early and went to a bathhouse since we didn't have time for every one to shower at the house.  That was pretty fun, but after a little bit you get a little bored... you just sit there like, man this hot tub is pretty great, but why am I still sitting in it?  But it was still a good time.  Then we had the mission conference/ another zone conference, because our zone is kinda just excluded from the rest of the mission... So we talked about New Years in Korea, then we had lunch, and some more talking... not the most exciting conference, but hey, lunch was pretty good (닭갈비) which is pretty much fried chicken vegetables and hot sauce that they cook in front of you.  After that we went around finding some less-actives, then had movie night.  We watched Ephraim's Rescue, which was pretty good.. but cause of the New Years holiday nobody came... lame....
Thursday we were with an office elder, who is touring with the AP's, around our zone, since they're already out here. So we walked around, had 4 appointments fall through we were hoping for.  So we did that, went and saw the beach, then had English class.  That was the usual...
Friday I was with Elder Jung, and we went and visited his 89 year old investigator.  He used to be Jehovah's Witness, but loves the church. He was supposed to be baptized, but because our branch president hasn't had our water heater fixed, it had to be postponed... :(   We walked around and got canceled on by a couple more people...
Saturday we met 이상준 and taught him the Plan of Salvation, and he took it pretty well. We're definitely going to review it, but he is pretty good with remembering to read the Book of Mormon.. then we had English class and planning. Then we met 고영욱.  He didn't want to talk with us about religion and only wanted English help, but after meeting, he asked for the Book of Mormon, and agreed to keep meeting for both English and gospel topics! That was great.

Seoul Skyline over the River

Sunday we had church.  I gave a terrible 20 minute talk on honesty in sacrament meeting, right after blessing the sacrament... That was fun. I like this ward.  After that we met 김대현 our 17 year old that has a tough life.  We met and talked for a little bit, then he invited us over to his house... Suuuper tiny house, his mom had three drinks already out, and she is super handicapped.  But he just loves her and was really nice to her, and acted like the perfect son.  It was a pretty sweet experience.  He even gave us his Spam and cooked it for us. (Spam is expensive here.) Man, I just wanted to give him anything at that point. That night we met our Chinese buddy and talked with him about the restoration. Super cool guy.

Well, love ya,
-Elder Mortensen

February 8, 2016 (Week 60)

February 8, 2016

Lovin' the snow

Ok, well this week in two words  설날 & snow.......
설날 is the lunar new year, so Korea kinda just shuts down for a week to party with the family. Plus, we got 20cm of snow this week, so this past weekend hasn't been much besides just shoveling.
Monday was the trip into Seoul, then we came back, and went to Family Night, since our bus trip took longer than expected. For Family night we played board games this week, since we were coming late, the other elders didn't show, and we didn't have much planned anyway. We had our 3 Chinese friends come though, which is cool. (all three are pretty fluent at Korean. I'm pretty sure they are technically Chinese, but lived in the little pocket of Koreans there... sorta like Koreans in Los Angeles, where they are American, but learn only Korean.) One of the guys, Kim Doeng Bum 김동범 we met on the street, then he brought his friends, so that was fun.
 Tuesday we went and taught the other elders' 89 year-old investigator, since they are in Seoul, and he needs daily contact to keep things fresh. It was kind of a weird awkward lesson, but he is super nice and says he is willing to leave the Jehovah's Witnesses in a heartbeat now that he believes in Joseph Smith. He even took the whole, Jehovah is not God speech pretty well. So we stopped by there, then came back to get stood up by a guy... We confirmed the appointment that morning, he said he wanted to bring a friend, that night, he said he was on his way, then about half an hour later we called him to see where he was, and he was just chilling at his house... nice.
Wednesday we had zone meeting, then I went on an exchange with elder Kim She Hyun (translates to Kim Vision, haha) 김시현.  We went right over to 이상준s house, and reviewed the restoration since he said he had a little trouble understanding some parts. So we did that, then went a little bit into the gospel of Jesus Christ, and he accepted a 3/19 baptismal date! Super cool, he said that he's been praying and reading, and his parents have no issues. (Hopefully we can meet them, too.)  After that was dinner, and movie night. We watched The Testaments, and our Chinese friend Kim Doeng Bum brought his friends again, and throughout it, he was like "hey, that's Jesus... isn't there also a Jacob in the New Testament? (due to translation, James is Jacob, kinda like Spanish...) so we talked, and he read the entire Bible, and took a Book of Mormon, and we talked about it a little.  Super cool, he seems to have interest in the church.
Thursday, we studied, closed the exchange, then rode and hour up to his area, then an hour back to our area, then had dinner and singing practice, since we have a musical number this week for the mission conference... great... the most musically untalented district (us) got selected....  English after was just as fun as before....
Friday we planned, then had singing practice, then we tried to visit our couple from last week, but they were out of town... So we went back, had dinner and tried to find some more less-actives, since nobody is on the streets anymore...
Saturday we shoveled. The snow came down pretty hard Saturday. We got almost a foot of snow probably.  So we taught English, shoveled, went out for a couple hours, then shoveled the church and other places nearby.  That led to a lot of "thanks, but we don't drink coffee" discussions, since they always offered it... Man, if we were to drink coffee and beer, missionaries here could have unlimited free drinks for life.  That was about all we really did that day.
Sunday we only had one hour of church, due to everybody being out of town. But our buddy, Kim Doeng Bum came to church, and brought his other friend! That's super cool.  He's brought three friends now! We talked a little bit there, and the members all talked with them, which was cool, but a bit overwhelming it seemed... having 7 members surround them and talk with them... But cool to have them come.  After we sang, then went and shoveled other places, since one, there was nobody really out, and two, it got people to like us, and three, people were more willing to talk it seemed.  So that was fun, but kinda tiring. We met up with the sisters and sang some more (we need a lot of practice...) and then had dinner.  Yeah, that was about our day.

Man with a load of bricks

So, pretty fun week this week.  Today we cleaned our house, tomorrow is P-Day, and Wednesday is a mission conference (well just another zone conference, since we are out in the boonies of our mission)
Love you all, take care this week,

-Elder Mortensen

Read 1 Nephi 17:51 (kinda need to read a little bit before the verse to understand it better, but kinda funny how Nephi simplifies life for us... God can do all these things, how simple is it to help us out with our tasks in life?)

February 1, 2016 (Week 59)

February 1, 2016

Another view of the New Years sunrise

Ok, I guess I actually have something to report this week, haha.

Monday we didn't do much, but as we were walking to email, we were stopped by a guy who wanted to talk about our message. Turns out he was a Jehovah's Witness, and wanted to find our "trump verse" that proves clearly that Joseph Smith is a prophet. We tried to explain that there wasn't really a verse, but just prayer and God will tell you. Then, we talked about how God has a body, and the Spirit is a spirit, but in the personage of a man, and all that... didn't get very far with him, but he was really nice. That night we tried to visit a less-active and her son answered the door and got mad and seemed to start to cry(?) about the fact that we knew his moms name and address. We tried to explain she gave us the address when she was baptized, but he didn't like that and said it was illegal. Not your average visit, but was kind of interesting.  That night we had a couple Chinese buddies come to Family Night at the church. Two of the three understood the game, but the one just kind of sat there like in a stupor the whole time.  Overall, a pretty fun time.

Tuesday we met 이상준 in the morning.  He is 20, and his sister is a less-active. He didn't know about the church, so he agreed to let us teach him.  We taught him the Restoration and he has already read the Book of Mormon a little and the pamphlet.  Super cool kid, hopefully we can meet him again.  After that, we just went around the city looking for any sort of service project to do... not much came of that.

Wednesday was some more proselyting after district meeting.  But that night we had movie night, and showed Joseph Smith.  We are trying out new activities to get people to bring friends to the church, or get investigators or people on the street to come over.  That was good, a couple members came, hopefully that can keep building though.

Thursday we had a member meal, so we went over there and ate pretty good and shared a quick message (President Uchtdorf's Women's Session talk, "summer with great Aunt Rose) pretty good talk actually. I was impressed.  After that we tried to find some less actives in the area, met a couple cool people, then had to come back for English class... not much new there.

Friday was sweet. One, it finally snowed. Two, we had another buffet.  Three, we met some great people. A couple weeks ago we met a guy who said we could visit his house, and so today we finally got around to it. It turns out, he and his wife had seen the other elders pass by everyday, so they were pretty curious about our church and what the heck we were doing.  So we had about an hour chat with them about the church, and they seemed really interested and wanted to read the Book of Mormon. That was a pretty cool miracle for us. Then we "slided" our way to the buffet (cause there was snow!) to celebrate Elder Megargel's 1 year mark.  That was pretty fun.

Saturday, we studied then went to the church and shoveled out snow from the parking lot, then had English class... After English we finished the parking lot since there was a fair amount of snow still. We did that until dinner, then went and proselyted and tried to find some less actives.

Sunday we had church, then met 조재현.  He studied at USC for college, so he is still pretty good at English (He is in his 40s?).  The first thing he said was that he was atheist and wanted to just get coffee with us... great... What a perfect way to start off the lesson.... But as time went on, he told us that he was wondering about God, and a lot on the Plan of Salvation questions.  So we had a pretty good talk about that.  Then we headed off to Seoul to stay the night at presidents house. (3 hour bus ride later....)

More Snow Art

Today I got my foreigner card renewed.  Now we are off to a burger buffet then back to home.

Love ya,
-Elder Mortensen