First week in Gyeongsan

Hello hello hello

Oh boy, the week has already slipped past. I always have a hard time remembering what the heck I did during the week when I think about it...

I'll just give an introduction to my new area, the Gyeongsan Branch! Gyeongsan is located right outside of Daegu (the very end of the subway line in fact). It's a beautiful area with a great mountain view, a river, and a lake. It's a lot less 시걸 (countryside) than I've heard actually, but since it's on the outskirts of the big city it is a little less poppin' in terms of population. But they do have a huge college in the area so it's not completely dead. The Branch here itself has about twenty members depending on the day and they are all amazing people. I'm super pumped to be in an area where I can really work with the members and figure out how to help them. I've actually spent more time planning parties, decorating, and rehearsing stuff than I have been proselyting, haha. It's a little hard to get used to not doing the regular cut-and-dry, "real" missionary work but this area has different needs and I'm prepared to learn how to work in different ways. My companion Elder Seely is a Korean language guru, he has an answer for every one of my questions. He's a great faithful missionary and we are going to kill it this transfer.

Things I did this week!

-Met our main investigator here in Gyeongsan, 박상민 (Sangmin Park), and he's AMAZING. The elders met him not to long ago on the street with his suped up bike (decorated with profanity and middle fingers) and decided to talk to him. He was atheist when they met him and now the man loves Jesus and loves the missionaries. He's scheduled for Oct. 8th to get baptized. He's so cool. He's this super tall, beefy dude, with a voice that sounds like a movie trailer announcer. I'm super excited to see him get dunked.

-I went to DLTM with my companion/District Leader Elder Seely. I got to see some old friends, and I also got to see my Trainer Elder Fox, his first trainee, and his new trainee. It was a little Fox family reunion. I also got to go out and proselyte for two hours while the district leaders were in the meeting so I got to go out with another junior companion and hit the streets of Busan. I went out with 이한슬 장로님 (Elder Hanseol Lee), who just finished half of his training so I got to be a Senior for a bit! Super fun. But there was only ladies on the streets so it wasn't very effective (Elders can only proselyte to men, And Sisters vice-versa in this mission). 

-We threw a camping party for the Gyeongsan Branch. It was fun stuff. We put a lot of time and effort into it and two of our investigators came. We danced too. Wish I would have taken video or something, sorry.

That's all I got for now, thanks for reading/writing. Love ya

-Elder Metcalf

1) My new companion Elder Seely, just cheesin' and waiting for an investigator 2) A picture of the river in Gyeongsan 3) The royal Fox lineage (his newborn child Elder Soap on the left, and my older brother Elder Song)

I'M TRANSFERRING!

A surprising turn of events over here in 중리! So most of the time when you finish up training, the trainer transfers out and the trainee leads the area but I guess God had a different plan going on. Elder Fox is going to be staying here in Jungri for a fourth transfer as District Leader aaaaand he's training again! He's going to have three 'sons' in the mission now; so proud of him. Meanwhile, I'm going to be moving just three districts away in 경산 (Gyeongsan)! I'm a little bummed to be leaving the main city, heading out to the country side, and not being able to see all of awesome investigators but I'm ready to start a new chapter of my missionary life out here! And because I'm still in the same zone as Jungri, I get to come for my investigators' baptisms and see my trainer and little brother! Now over in Gyeongsan, I'm going to be follow-up trained by Elder Seely (who I served with in my district my first transfer in the field, yay friendly face) who is going to be District Leader over in my new district. Ahhhh, I'm super pumped to see what happens the next six weeks.

Anywho, now that I got out the big news, I'll tell you what happened this week. So first off, this week went by like a blur, and we were busy every single day. I can't even remember if we did anything crazy because I feel like the whole week was crazy... Ah! We had Mission Tour this week! Mission Tour is when a general authority rolls through the area and has a conference with the missionaries in that area. Elder Yamashita (and area seventy for the Asia North area) came and talked to us with his wife. It was probably the longest meeting I've ever experienced but boy it was jam packed with some edifying knowledge. Super cool to see all the missionaries together too (Three zones of missionaries got put together), and I got to see a bunch of friends from the MTC. A but of a bummer we couldn't take any pictures or unpack the knowledge because we had an appointment directly after the meeting (we literally had to sprint out of there). 

But the busiest day of all was Sunday by far. We had a lot of incentive to invite people to church this Sunday: we had a baptism for a boy in our ward right after church, a ward lunch right after that, and I was moving areas so it was going to be the last time people could see me. All that being said, we had an amazing turn out. Both of baptismal date investigators (who were super sweet to me, I have to get pictures with them when they get baptized), three other investigators, and two less actives. I was running around church all day trying to talk to all of them. But man was it nice to leave on a good note. We our meetings, and then district music 전도 with members right after that. So I was super toasted after I got home (had to stay up late the night before to start packing too, woops), and I'm a little toasted now to be honest haha. And now right after email I get to head over to my new area and meet my companion. Looking forward for what lies ahead...

That's all I got. Thanks for reading/writing!

-Elder Metcalf

1) Last P-Day we went to Outback to send Elder Lunt off 2) Jungri missionaries with our awesome matching sweaters (I don't know why we chose IKEA but people in Korea just wear IKEA shirts for some reason 3) Last pic in Jungri with my beloved trainer Elder Fox, I hope another trainer won't kill him

Amazing Week

Alright, so I've only been in the field about three months so far so this is subject to change but this has been by far the most successful week of my mission. We were packed everyday with appointments and even had some days where we had four laid out back-to-back. We had maybe two hours worth of time to actually proselyte this week, compared to the way it was in my first transfer where we'd be doing 3 or 4 hours each days. Sometimes we even forgot to plan out meals or language study, but I'm not complaining I love seeing work progress in my area and we've definitely been blessed with success from the hard work we've been doing. We got three new investigators this week and each one of them seems solid so far. There's more great stuff that happened this week but I think the point is clear, it's been awesome. 

But the thing that makes this week really amazing is that I got my first two baptismal dates since the start of my mission this week! They're great people. The first one is 김정세 (Kim Jeongseh), but he also goes by Spomartial Kim. He's a super interesting man. I think I mentioned him and his family a while back but he met missionaries fourteen years ago with his family, got the first lesson, went to church once or twice, and then just fell off I guess. But he contacted our B-Team last transfer for a translation favor and he really likes what the church has to offer. When we mentioned baptism earlier this week  he told us himself, "I think I'd like to do that a month from now.", so he practically set up his own date, haha. And he came with us to Stake Conference yesterday and was taking notes the whole time! Ah, I love him. I don't see any difficulties helping him prepare to be baptized on October 1st, and I am pumped to help him get ready. We're just trying to incorporate the rest of his family now, seeing if we can get them in on the action of eternal happiness... Our other investigator with a baptismal date is 도태환 (Doh Taehwan) and he is a super sweet old man, maybe in his late 60's, who had primarily English interest to begin with but when we started talking about the gospel he was open to it as well. He told us he's never been in a church into he met us and he has some questions and curiosities about the more existential things in life. So he said if he knows it all by Oct. 15th he'd be all about baptism. Super pumped for him too. 

The only thing that's a bummer is that these next six days are the last days of the transfer. Which means: I have six days left in training, six days left with my beloved trainer, and possibly (but I hope not) six days left in Jungni. It's nice that we're able to move around in missionary work because all on the same team out here just trying to bring everyone closer to Christ. Excited to see what I'll be doing next week. Whatever happens, I loved my time here and I know it's going to continue to progress here. I'm still learning a lot and I probably won't stop feeling like a trainee for the rest of my mission. I'm going to continue to do what I can and trust in the Lord for the rest. It's His work and we're just the tools in His hands. 

It's exhausting out here but so gratifying. Still lovin' it. Thanks for reading/writing!

-Elder Metcalf

1) We went to see our investigator at this huge park in our area. He manages all of concerts there and sometimes even performs with his saxophone there. 2) Our concert manager investigator; he took us backstage and introduced us to all of the singers right before this. 3) Me bearing food child after being heavy laden with a buffet member meal appointment. They make you eat so much here... 

1) I shamefully forgot my nametag on P-Day, so I looked like a highschooler again for a few hours (I felt NAKED) 2) Spomartial Kim showing me the 'correct' way to sweep. I still don't know what the correct way is...

Making the difference....

Hello everybody!

This last week was PACKED. We barely even had time to test out other ways we could do proselyting because of how much stuff we had going on. I had to skip some studies at least twice this week too. It's an awesome burden to have though, I love seeing the work progress in this little corner of the vineyard. 

I'll just start out with my favorite part: we got two investigators to come to church! I don't know why but it seems like one of the hardest things I've had to deal with during training has been getting investigators to come to church. Up until yesterday, I've had maybe three Sundays where one investigator has attended sacrament so I was pumped to see not one but two investigators come into the chapel. I was grinning the whole sacrament, so awesome. One of them didn't want to come until he could get all of his family to come but we managed to finally help him understand that he has to be an example for his family. We've been working really close with him and I think his wife and kids might be starting to soften up. I'm excited to see how he'll progress this week. And the other one is this sweet old man that just showed up to English class and said he wanted to come to church with us on Sunday. He asked for a Book of Mormon all on his own yesterday so I'm pretty interested to see how things are going to work out with him as well. 

In other news, we picked up a new investigator who is had primarily English interest to begin with but is super receptive to the gospel. He's super homie too; he wants to take us to KFC this week. Excited for him... We had our last district meeting of the transfer this week. Elder Lunt, our dying district leader, gave us his final testimony and exhorted us to LOVE THE PEOPLE. Sometimes we come at somebody just flinging the gospel in their face, trying to shove them on the track to start progressing, but what Elder Lunt told us is that "you have to feed people temporally before you can feed them spiritually". In a simpler sense, you have to be people's friends first, show sincere interest in their lives and who they are in order to have their hearts softened and ready to hear what we have to say. What did Christ do before the Sermon on the Mount? He fed A TON of people, then laid down the business. Some people might need more than others, some people a lot less, but I know if we go about the work in a manner of love we can have so much more success. 

I also wanted to share something I read this week. My trainer Elder Fox got a huge package in the mail and along with it was some LDS literature. He allowed me to pillage and read some and I got the chance to read a book called "Changed by His Grace" by Brad Wilcox, all about defining what exactly grace is and how we can better recognize and utilize His grace. He talks about how when he was younger he thought of grace as something you earn; like there was a minimum requirement of hard work and labor one has to reach and then receive an increase of grace. But that's not how gracorks at all. We don't meet God somewhere in the middle to gain divine assistance; he's always providing, and we don't need to qualify on some checklist to receive it. He said, "Instead of seeing Christ as making up the difference, I now see He makes all the difference." I thought that quote was amazing. I feel like I'm hard on myself a lot and get into the "minimum requirement" mindset pretty often. But I know if I can remember that it's not a difference that I need to make up, but rather Christ fully proffering to me a gift that I don't even need to qualify for, I can have a lot more peace of mind.

Well, the church is true, the work is awesome, and I'm having the time of my life out here. Thanks for reading/writing!

-Elder Metcalf

1) Elder Fox carrying a pie to District Meeting; this man is crazy about making food 2) Elder Fox and I snuggling on a table in the back of our WML's moving van 3) Another one 4) One of the young men in our ward, 김지태; he was baller enough to come with us to an appointment to meet a less active young man in the ward, love you bud