Knowing who God is

Heeeelllllooooo~

Just a quick follow up from last week's email: 박상민 has disappeared again... ㅠㅠ Which totally isn't like him, really. We saw him last Sunday, had an awesome talk, set up an appointment on Tuesday, had to move it the next day for work, and then vanished. Radio silence. We just hope he didn't get into another motorcycle accident. But we do think his phone got broke again or something because none of our calls or texts are being recieved. We're just going to keep praying for him and let the Lord decide what happens next...

This week was one of those weeks. We had a full planned day on everyday of the week and everything we had fell through. Investigators, members, 전도 activities, all of it. I don't even think we got a contact this week to be honest. BUT. We did have one awesome thing happen this week. We in fact had a single thing that actually went through this week and it was an appointment with an older man named 정주봉 (Jubong Jeong). He contacted us and wanted to come to one of our English classes. So he came and his English skills were a little on the low side, and he didn't seem all that opposed to Christian beliefs so we decided to ask him if he would like to do our 30/30 program. He agreed and we met later this pat week, reviewed the alphabet and sound changes and taught him about who we were and what the Book of Mormon is. This man had some awesome questions too. I can't even remember them all, but whenever he'd mention some other principle and we told him that we would definitely explain it later, he humbly accpeted it. In fact, he humbly accepted our whole lesson. He listened intently the whole time and was truly interested in our church and the Book of Mormon. It was a great lesson and both I and Elder Seely can already imagine him in white. Excited to meet him again and grateful that God gave us a nice experience this week.

In other news, I came to a realization this week. Amidst my constant thoughts of what I can do more and being hard on my self, I had a thought come into my head during personal study. I don't see myself the way God sees me. I don't understand Him enough to truly trust Him and realize that the whole world isn't on my back. I just didn't love myself. So I decided that for the next few weeks that I'm going to be studying the character of God. Trying to really understand Hm, establish my trust in His hands, and stop getting in my own way so much. The scriptures talk a lot about the mistakes of putting your trust in the arm of the flesh rather than God and that is something that I think I've really been sleeping on. I always seek to acknowledge all his ways but I always manage to try and acknowledge my own abilities first. I'm really excited to see what I'll find out, feel, and change. I love the humbling process of the mission...

That's all I've got this week! Thanks for reading/writing! Buh-bye~

-Elder Metcalf

1) A waterfall (not a lot of water when we went) that we went to last P-Day 2-3) Waterfall antics

4-6) More antics

7-8) Elder Seely and I found some wigs in our church

Tests of faith....

Hello hello hello~

This week started out a bit wild to be honest. I'm just going to jump right into it...

So on Tuesday I had the chance to go on exchanges with our Zone Leaders in our neighboring area (same district). We had plans to teach our golden investigator 박상민 (Sangmin Park) and intoduce him to one of our zone leaders (since they would be the ones interviewing him, and possibly attending their ward since he recently moved). On top of that, we were teaching the Law of Chastity (never taught it before) and we had invited a newly wed couple who was visiting their parents to accompany us in the lesson. And I was the one to lead the area and this lesson, so you can imagine the amount that was riding on this lesson..

But when it came time for the lesson, he wasn't there. We waited longer, I made some calls and texts. And by the time it was thirty minutes past due time, it looked like he wasn't coming. We totally just got punked by our golden investigator! It was a suprise to all of us. More on this later...

So I continued with the exchange. The newly wed couple fed us lunch and chatted with us for a bit (they were fluent in English so that was really nice). They were also on their honeymoon too by the way. The set the golden standard for righteousness by coming out to help the missionaries on their own time. Goals, big time. Anyway, I got the chance to go on echange with Elder Jenkins who is not just a great missionary but is hilarious. It was a fun time and we got some good work done proselyting the entire college campus in our area. And I find that whenever I'm on exchange I like to grill other missionaries on how to do good missionary work. I have what feels like a constant crisis on whether or not the missionary work is effective, how it can be more effective, what am I missiong, how could I be more useful in the Lord's hands, how can I better know what He wants me to do... The list goes on. But aftert talking about it with Elder Jenkins, it's literally every missionary's crisis. Everyone is trying to find the perfect balance. We talked about Elder Holland's "Be Ye Therefore Perfect, Eventually" talk and just came to the conclusion that it is natural to struggle in finding out what to do and when you finally figure it out, you're always going to have something else to contemplate. It all boils down to just trusting in God, doing what you already know what to do, and having the faith that he will shape you and lead your paths. 'Twas a good exchange.

Back to talking about 박상민... I had called him the night that he stood us up hoping to hear what's up, that maybe he slept in or something. But when I called I got no answer. When my companion Elder Seely came back from exchange and informed him of the situation, we called him again, and still got no answer. We called him every day of the week hoping to get some contact, but it was never recieved. We were pretty bummed out to say the least. 박상민 had progressed SO well. We were absolute homies on top of that. It didn't make sense that he would just drop us out of knowhere. We came up with different theories, we prayed every night and every opportunity we could for him, we thought and talked about him for the majority of the week. By the end of the week on Saturday, we had resolved that we were going to find some way to contact him. We decided that we should try a different phone to call him and see if he would answer. So we called through the sister's phone and he answered! He had gotten in a motorcycle accident on the way to see us on Tuesday and he broke his phone! He had got it fixed literally hours before we called him that night, but he was totally fine and totally still loved Jesus and the missionaries. He came to church the next day and he is still keeping all of our commitments and is going to sacrificing a lot of time this week to meet us so we can prepare him for baptism. Our golden investigator was still alive and golden!

We had been rattled a bit that week but early on, Elder Seely and I resolved that it was in the Lord's hands, whatever may have occured with him, and that the best way to deal with it was to continue in faith and do our regular missionary work. I don't know what the future holds when it comes to situations like these but we found comfort in trusting God and doing what we already knew we had to do. Amazing experience.

Sorry it was long but that's what I got this week. Thanks for reading/writing~

-Elder Metcalf

1) My exhange companion and zone leader, Elder Jenkins 2) Elder Seely and I getting close trying to share an umbrella in the rain (we forgot ours...)

추석 and General Conference

Hello hello hello~

This week was not a traditional missionary work week, that's for sure.

So this last week in Korea was 추석 ("Chuseok") which is more or less Korean Thanksgiving. Everyone takes a whole week off to celebrate around it and usually travel to families' houses and set up camp there for the whole holiday. This being said, it's supposedly pretty difficult to get missionary work done on the holiday (investigators all gone, no one out, everything closed, etc.). So President Jeong decided that instead of missionary work on the actual 추석 day (which was Wednesday), that we would instead do some super deep cleaning of our houses and have the rest of the day up until six to have a P-Day with our district! It was fun stuff. We met up and hung around in the city looking for whatever place was actually open to look at. We also went to this huge park in Daegu and spent some time with our district and one of our sister team's investigator. It was a nice change of pace in missionary work. Although I gotta admit that their were a TON of families out that day, I feel like we could have totally done missionary work if we wanted, haha. But like I said, it was nice to chill from the regular stir of things, and I still felt like I was kinda doing missionary work with the investigator there so that put me at ease as well...

We also had sports zone conference this week! But it rained, so we didn't really get to do much... But it was awesome to spend time with other missionaries. Got to see my mission dad and little brother again. Also got to hang with my fellow Iowan missionary, Elder Golden (from Des Moines). Words can't describe him but he's just great. Not much more to say about zone conference other than that...

General Conference! It was the bomb. I absolutely loved it. I was lucky enough to have watched it all this week. Over here in Korea, we watch it a week late for the translation to come. But since we were all Americans in my area, we got to watch it all spaced out through the week and finished up yesterday on Sunday. Also, being a missionary and watching conference is like experiencing the Spirit on some spiritual enhancing drugs. A poor way to explain it but I don't know another way how. I felt really spiritually in tune and prepared to listen, that's the most simple way i can put it. Ahhh, and boy it was awesome. I love the hopeful messages, and the love of the gospel, and I especially love all the talk of the Book of Mormon. It's a pretty rad book, you should get on top of it if you haven't already. There's an indescribable feeling you get when you regularly study and ponder it. It just feels right. No wonder it's the keystone of our religion and the keystone of testimony. Saturday morning session was definitely my favorite. And if I had to pick my favorite talk as of now it would probably be President Uchtdorf's talk at the beginning of that session. I feel a lot of insufficiency as a missionary and it was exactly what I needed to hear. I love the line, "deliberately put one foot in front of the other", as well. It seems like the vast majority of times we feel an obstacle, the only thing holding us back is ourselves. I'm going to be imagining "deliberate steps" this week and getting some quality work done for the Lord. 

I love being a missionary and thanks a ton for reading and writing. Make deliberate steps!

-Elder Metcalf

1) Shenanigans with some painting illusions 2) Elder Seely about to devour some 설빙 3) Gyeongsan missionaries eating some 설빙 4) DAEGU (+Daegu tower)

1) Classic balcony photo op 2) Our district (minus our zone leaders, who are also in our district), a random family, and the Suseong Sisters' investigator 3) Their investigator also fed us pizza, she's too kind 4) Iowa boiz up in the Korea Busan Mission

ONE MORE (I just thought it was funny. I don't know who he is but Mr. Pizza loves the ladies enough to put it on his plates...)

Missionary purpose

Hellooooo again

It's been an awesome week to be honest. i'm just going to go ahead and go straight into it...

We met our amazing investigator earlier this week, 박상민 (Sangmin Park), and taught him the Word of Wisdom. But before we even did that, we did a quick review of everything that we've taught him thus far (Restoration, Plan of Salvation, the Gospel, other commandments) and asked him what he thought or if he had any questions/concerns. And his answer was one of the best things I've heard so far as a missionary. He said, "It's so easy". He talked about how before he met the missionaries, he didn't believe in God at all. But now, knowing what he knows, he says he's sooo much happier. He loves it every time we meet. And whenever we teach something he just thinks to himself that it all makes sense. This all being said, he accepted the Word of Wisdom beautifully, something that would usually be difficult. He's been smoking for ten years and when we told him he had to quit he was a bit wary, he wanted to quit next week. But the thing is, we told him that he had to quit to recieve baptism. His response, "Well, I'm quitting tomorrow then.", and he hasn't smoked since! His faith is an amazing thing to witness and he is no doubt 100% prepared to hear and accept this gospel...

Another amazing thing that happened this week: I got to go back to my training area to see Spomartial Kim get baptized! He was so ready. When he gave his short talk before he was baptized, he started to cry, and the Spirit filled the room. He truly knew the importance of the promise he was about to make and was truly grateful that he had the opportunity to get another chance to accept this gospel fifteen years later and meet the missionaries again. He's an amazing man and I'm excited to see how he and the rest of his family will progress. 

With these two things happening this week, i had a chance to reflect on what my purpose is as a missionary. I could just regurgitate the old "Invite others to come unto Christ by helping...", which pretty much sums it up but when i try to define it myself, it's all about simply changing lives. When we teach and share the gospel, our goal is to help others accept and apply it to their own life, to change it for the better. There are people out there waiting to hear it like 박상민 and Spomartial Kim, and I've had the indescribeable opportunity of a lifetime to watch it take effect in their life and change right before my eyes. And not only is this time as a missionary meant to change others life but the missionary itself, and it definitely has. I actually know ho Christ is, why this is so important, and what I really need to do. We lways have more changing to do, and we have a lifetime to do it, to prepare for another life after this one. And there's always more change to come, both in others and in myself. I love being a missionary. 

That's all I really have for the week, other stuff happened of course but I'd say these were the most noteworthy. Thanks for reading and writing!

-Elder Metcalf 

1) Our investigator here in Gyeongsan, 박상민, he's the actual bomb 2) Spomartial Kim, or Brother 김정세, and all the missionaries involved in helping teach and fellowship him (minus Elder Kirkham who was in a far away zone, so he couldn't make it) 3) Brother 김정세's new family in Jungni Ward (added note: the short older man standing next to me is 도태환, my other investigator in Jungni who's scheduled to be baptized later this month, he's super sweet ^^)