Hopeful beginning to a new transfer

It's crazy, this week was actually super long and not crazy fast. That hasn't happened for awhile. But it's probably just cause it was the first week of a new transfer, in the same area, with the same companion. Not a ton has changed to be honest but I will fill you in on what I do have:

Our area missionaries have changed! But only one. It's actually kinda biggish news though, at least for the Ulsan Zone. So my Zone Leader, Elder Geddes has been moved from Shinjeong to Hogye, remaining as zone leader and being co-Zone Leaders with Elder 이해성 (Lee Haeseong, who was here last transfer as Hogye A-team). Zone Leaders don't get moved around very often so that's kind of an interesting change. He's a good missionary and a fun housemate so I'm excited for the rest of the transfer. Our sister team has become a two-area sister teams now so their schedules are wrecked for at least the next transfer. But it's all good because they're still doing great, they have a ton to work with. And my new District Leader is Elder Kirkham! Elder Kirkham served in the same house as me in my very first transfer so it's like having my uncle as a District Leader. The rest of the district is awesome too. Looks great for the future.

The rest of our week was pretty same-old stuff. We tried to visit less-actives, and we were able to see both of our investigators this week. Actually, one of the days of the week was a little less run-of-the-mill. On Saturday we had the opportunity to accompany our youth and our youth investigator, 주관 (Jugwan), to their weekly youth activity: roller skating. The missionary inside me was screaming that it was crazy ineffective but it was completely worth it. We got to get closer with the youth and youth leaders and we were able to make Jugwan feel a lot more comfortable. He's a little quiet and doesn't really push his way into the group but by the end of this transfer we're hoping to get him some baptismal covenants and a well fellowshipped group of youth. We sealed the deal with basketball afterwards too (he loves to ball). A bummer that he couldn't come to church this week but he's still doing awesome. More updates later...

Okay, here comes the super cool inspiring missionary part of the weekly email. Or at least i think it's pretty cool. So we had a short district meeting this week to get the information on what's going on during the transfer. Our Mission mom attended the meeting too by the way (부담...)  and we were told that it is now a new "rule" to get three contacts and give one Book of Mormon everyday. Now, doing that in Hogye is a little difficult because the only area that you can really proselyte in is full of people who have seen the missionaries a billion times, so 전도 has never really worked out the way we hoped. Our Mission Mom, Sister Kim, heard this and told us that night to go to a bus stop right after the meeting until the end of the night and get our contacts and Book of Mormon that way. So we were already discouraged by the new "rule" and now we were even less excited about our Mission Mom's advice but we had to try in faith to see what would happen. And it happened. We sat at a bus stop from seven until nine and got three contacts. And walking home we met a man who was curious about our book as we were talking with him and was completely willing to take it when we offered. MIRACLES. We got humbled big time. We're going to try and keep that new "rule" every day and follow our Mission Mom's advice and go to the same bus stop every night we can (same place, more consistent exposure to the same people = easier to approach). More news on that later too...

That's all I can write for now! Thank you for reading! Buh bye~

-Elder Metcalf

1) Elder Geddes (it was his birthday on transfer day so we treated him at some buffet place in downtown Ulsan) 2) The current batch of Hogye missionaries 3-4) My beloved Zone Leaders

1) Our investigator 현주관 (Hyun Jugwan) 2-4) Roller skating antics with the youth (they're SUPER fun) 5) Elder Minson went too hard on the skates and ripped his wheels out of his skates trying to pull of some Tokyo Drift stunts

Quiet Miracles

Hellooooo~

The last week of every transfer is famously known as the fastest weeks of a missionary's life (at least in my experience; sorry to all you missionaries out there who have it long). And it didn't change at all for this transfer. I honestly couldn't write this email without looking at my planner because I can't even remember what happened. It seems to be an increasing problem as time goes by. Or I might have some sort of missionary memory disease. If I start forgetting my companion's name I'll write out for help. I'm going to just look at my planner now...

Remember that drunk dude who picked us up last weekish? Yup, we called him. And then he called us back. And then we totally got an invite to his house for dinner this last Monday. Woooooo!! And I don't know if the man was still under the influence at that time but his personality was *exactly* the same. So much for our hopes of a more reverent man, haha. But that's okay, he still has potential, and his personality is pretty darn funny so it's all good. We got to meet his wife too, and she's super sweet. We weren't able to really talk about anything religious but they were definitely curious about what these two white dudes eating dinner at their table were doing in Korea. So we were able to explain what we do and who we are and they didn't kick us out so we're good to go. And they liked us enough to invite us again, and meet the other missionaries, so we got another appointment with them! They wanted to meet the other missionaries all at once so he invited us over to his apartment, fed us all chicken at a nearby restaurant, and then gave us grapefruit tea in their house. The sisters grabbed some plans to meet with his wife and this man still loves having us over and talking with us so it could turn into something really good. The real trick is going to be figuring out how we can sneak some gospel in there somewhere and spark his interest in that realm of things. His name is 안병술 (Ahn Byeong-Sur) and his wife's name is 정영순 (Jeong Yeong-Sun). More updates will come in the future...

We had interviews this week! It's actually not very much to talk about. Every interview my mission president did in my district was about 15 minutes (because this is the biggest district in the mission and he had meetings directly after the interviews). But talking with my mission mom was super fun, Sister Kim. it's nice because she actually does kinda have a motherly feel to her; very encouraging, very fun, very positive. We were able to talk about the mission too and what I think about it. I told her I've been really enjoying the mission and everything included in it and ever since I've been a trainee I've wanted to train, but when I'm *ready* (which by my definition might be never, hah). But then she told me that in the summer when half of our mission gets decimated and we have a complete half of new missionaries coming in is when I will be training. She didn't say "maybe" she said "will". So that was intimidating. I'm not sure what percentage of that statement I can take to be "100% *will* happen" but either way it was another wake-up call to start working hard, getting the right mindset, and pray harder to get good in Korean. So you can half expect a heart-attack from Elder Metcalf sometime within the summer of 2018.

Okay, I got to start wrapping this up so we're going to going into the speed round of things that happened this week:

- We met with a less active who's son is a recent convert and who also happens to be our mission mom's little brother. He's pretty less active. Like drink three bottles of alcohol in front us while we talk less-active. But he's *super* kind and generous, and realizes the importance of the gospel in his kids' lives so he's been thinking a little more lately about turning it all around. FUN FACT: He fed us so much that I felt the meal for two more days after actually eating it.

- We met a potential investigator who works at a company called "Atomy". This man and the rest of his crew were trying to sell us some stuff big time. It was kinda of funny actually. Two different sides, trying to share two different things, and both sides just hoping that they actually came to meet because of interest in what the other side has. Awkward. No sure what we're going to do with them...

- We met Elder Minson's recent convert this week. He came up from Busan to see Elder Minson because the man has been having a really hard time lately and Elder Minson seems to be one of the very few sources for help and support in his life right now. This guy is crazy generous. His only objective to coming up here was spending time with Elder Minson and treating the heck out of him. It was literally just us walking around for three hours, talking with him, and him spontaneously buying stuff for us. He got me stuff too, and I don't even know him. We felt kinda bad that he spent so much money on us after the whole thing but we knew it was his way of showing love so we tried our best not to feel sorry. 

- Our miracle 현주관 (Hyun Ju-Gwan) came to church again and we were able to teach him about prayer. I was a little worried last week that he didn't really have much interest in the church itself from last time we met but then we tried inviting him to bowling with the other youth on Saturday and he was like, "Nah, I'm not really down for that, but I'll see at church tomorrow". So he's prepared. More updates will come in the future about him...

That's about it! Thanks for writing/reading! Have a good last week of January~~~

-Elder Metcalf

1) Super friendly street cat who came and chilled with me while I waited for my companion's bag to be sewn. 2) Some gifts from 안병술 (the one that invited us over to his house), his wife made them (she's an artist) 3) The fanciest, most expensive, and only raw fish I have ever eaten. Dinner with Elder Minson's convert 박면호 (Park Myeon-Ho). He flipped a coin and headed into the nearest restaurant and that was that. 4) Some pants that Elder Minson's convert bought me because he thought I need some exercise pants. They fit perfectly. And they are also "made for the Asian body", so this is the evidence that I have become one of the Koreans. 

Also TRANFER NEWS!!!

I'm staying in Hogye with my same companion. Easy-peasy. Also I wanted to share a quote that I almost forgot to add. I was studying about conversion this week and I came across probably one of my favorite quotes I've found so far on my mission: "[Conversion] is a quiet miracle" - True to the Faith. I can't begin to explain how thankful I am for the quiet miracle that has occurred in my life and that continues to happen. Remember that conversion doesn't stop at just being a member. Love you all, 화이팅~

Final stretch of the transfer

Oh boy, it's been a really long week and a really short week at the same time. But a lot has happened (of course) so I'm just going to start writing now...

On last P-Day we went to 불국사 ("Bulguksa" - Some big 'ol Buddhist temple in Gyeongju). It was a stressful rush to get everyone there actually. The Buddhist temple was kinda cool, and hanging out with all the missionaries in the zone was fun, but that's not the cool part. The cool part was, I totally met a guy from Iowa! It was amazing to find a man on the same side of Earth with me who could vibe with me on the finer things of the great Midwest state (we literally just talked about how flat the place is and how miserable the weather is, and how these peeps in Korea might never believe us). His name was Brandon from Fairfield, Iowa. If you see him, say hi for me~

Sad times this week when nobody showed up to both of our English classes. We were going to have a "last" English class to announce that we were going to stop English class and start anew in a few weeks but no one will show up for us to announce the cancellation. Ahh, the irony...

We had our last district meeting of the transfer this last week and it was definitely the best one of the transfer by far. Instead of trying to shove in as much as possible (talks, teaching practices, evaluation, goal setting/follow-up), the meat of of was just a open discussion/lesson on how to be "perfected in Christ" (Moroni 10:32-33). It was nice to study it on our own before the meeting and then have an actually edifying experience sharing with each other and making the whole idea of "the perfect missionary" a lot simpler. I mean of course it's not possible to be completely perfect but when you make Christ the center of your effort and attention, it becomes less of a rocket science problem and more of a simple algebra formula. You put in A with B and you get C. You deny yourself of ungodliness and just love God and His grace is sufficient, and through His grace be made perfect. Some great final testimonies heard from my district leader Elder Snyder and from Sister Coon, who are going home at the end of this transfer. Baller missionaries.

The whole week during our big blocks of time we were either working on this video business for advertising our English class, out hunting for less actives, or trying to fulfill various favors from members or the other missionaries in our area. A lot of walking happened. Sadly no less actives actually found though. But it was kinda neat this week when it snowed. It snowed like three times. It didn't stick or stay for longer than an two hours or so but I still wasn't expecting snow in our area. Also a fun fact: the coldest it has ever been in Ulsan is -10 degrees Celsius (not counting windchill) which was our weather for this last Thursday (if not Wednesday or Friday). 

Okay final stretch. We had a miracle this week. His name is 현주관 (Hyun Jugwan) Elder Minson and I have been trying to work our hardest to find people in various different ways ever since we whitewashed in  5 weeks ago. Looking at old records, trying to work through the members, trying to find less actives or part member families, classic street proselyting, and more. But we still haven't been able to find a new investigator... until this weekend. One day a few weeks ago we were out near the more sparsely populated corner of our area coming back from a less-active house visit. We crossed the street from the apartment  and saw a kid with a nice bike so we greeted him. Long story short, he thought we were nice people, and when we asked him if he'd like to play basketball or something with us sometime he was down and we traded contact information. So we organized with the young men, the other team of Elders, and two other potential investigators a day that we could play some ball and it happened. Everyone came out, including Jugwan, and Jugwan was able to hit it off with the young men. They got super friendly, we went out to eat, and after we were all done eating, the young men went out together to a 노래방 (karaoke room; which is the thing you only do with homies, so this kid was thoroughly fellowshipped within a matter of two and a half hours). He came to church the next day, we were able to teach him the first lesson with one of the youth, he accepted a Book of Mormon and he's our new investigator! Woo!!!

And even more good news: PJ and 박상민 (my two investigators from back in Gyeongsan) got baptized yesterday! I tried hard to get permission to go but my zone leaders had some different ideas so I was able to head back up to Daegu... But I was able through the phone on video call! The quality was terrible but it was still amazing to be able to see the ordinance and see their faces shortly after. I love the heck out of them and I'm excited to see their progress in the church.

I got nothing else! Thanks for reading/writing! Bye~~~

-Elder Metcalf

1-4) Pictures from Bulguksa

1-2) SNOW!!! 3-4) Me poppin' my best kimchi squat at the edge of my area. It's a good a contender for the cover of my missionary rap album that will come out never

I ate some 돈까스 ("donkatsu" - pork cutlet) that was bigger than my head. I was challenged. I finished it. I wasn't proud of it. 

Beginning the new year

헬로 헬로~~~

This transfer is going by freaky fast. I've already passed two major holidays and it's felt like two hours. Hard to believe that four weeks ago I was white-washed into this area. But I guess that's a good sign that we have an okay handle on the area now (for the most part). Here's what happened this week...

We're currently working on a way resurrect our English class and Family Home Evening program here in 호계. As of right now it's super dead. Maybe one of two people coming to both activities regularly. So we're making plans and starting anew! We're also trying to work on angle from a social media standpoint too. It's a bit hard though because a lot of things are still restricted in the Korea Busan Mission. So the plan is to produce some well-made videos, get permissions to publish and put them on social media, and then get some good impressions from some people and help others see that we're normal people trying to serve in Korea. I'm not really at the spearhead of this operation so I can't give the whole vision in an elegant manner but it is the 21st century and we all agreed that it wouldn't be a bad idea to try finding people through more effective ways that making people uncomfortable on the street. It's got a lot of potential, and I'll keep you posted on where it goes...

There really isn't much other than that actually... We had district meeting this week too; we're still focusing on members. Hmm... No wait; I have a fun, little story to tell! Okay so one night Elder Minson and I had decided to go visit a member who hasn't been coming to church lately. we had planned to go right after dinner but during dinner he texted us and told us not to come. So we finished dinner and walked outside, and as we were walking back to the church, we got to chatting with this man on the side of the street. He actually greeted us first. But the catch is this: The guy was fairly drunk. The area our church is located is smack-dab in the middle of a bunch of restaurants and bars and neon signs everywhere. It's kind of ironic actually. But anyway, this guy had seen and chatted with missionaries before so he was interested enough to just small talk with us right then. After some small talk he had decided that he likes these two American boys and wants to meet up again and eat dinner together or something. So we get to exchanging information, waved him goodbye and got to walking again. So we had arrived to the front of the church, and just as Elder Minson was asking what we should do next, a car pulled up. It was our friend that we had just met moments ago. He told us that he would drive us to our house, but our house was only a minute away so we told him that we didn't need it. But then he told us that he wants to treat us, and take us to his house to chat more. You'd think that we would have given some more thought into stepping into a car with an intoxicated driver but we were missionaries, and the Spirit gave no red lights, so we went! He drove us to these brand new apartments, walked into the convenience store nearby, grabbing whatever caught his first interest. stuffed it into a bag, handed it to us, and drove into the parking garage of this apartment building. We go up a handful of floors and this guy starts giving us a tour of his whole house (it was a nice place). He feeds us, he takes a video for his wife, he chats some more with us, and then tells us to call or come back whenever we wanted. And then we walked home. It's hard to find people out here so Elder Minson and I labeled it a miracle, and we're looking forward to meeting him again and seeing is he likes us while he's sober. And more importantly, see if he has any interest in what missionaries are doing in Korea. Fun stuff.

And in other news, on working on getting permission to go see both of my old investigators (PJ and 박상민) get baptized on the 14th. It's gotten really hard lately to get permissions to go to baptismal services more than an hour away but I'm praying really hard to see if it can happen. They are two of the most special people I have met in my life and it'd be a privilege to be able to see them come closer to Christ through baptism. Crossing fingers over here...

That's all I have for this week. Today we're going to 경주 (Gyeongju - the oldest city in Korea) with our zone for P-day and maybe going to a Buddhist temple if the rains dies down. Should be fun~ Thanks for reading/writing! 바이 바이~~~

-Elder Metcalf

1) Elder Minson, disguised as Elder Lee, Elder Gil, Sister Kang, Sister Stott, and myself. 2) A life-changing quote found in a Korean restaurant (the stuff they write in English here is hilarious sometimes) 3-4) We set out on the quest to find the best tasting ramen for last FHE. I'm not proud of how much I ate. And we still don't know what the best is by the way...

새해 복 많이 받으세요~

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!

All the holidays are done with now! They don't really feel too much like holidays as a missionary but it's definitely an easy way to "mark" the time going past. But even then, it's so hard to keep track of time. As a missionary, I feel like I've been given some sort of crazy fast Ferrari-rocket ship type thing with two years worth of gas but the thing is so dang fast that it actually lasts two minutes. The "markers" are more like the cars on the other side of the road that just whizz past as you drive. The year mark is coming too soon... But anyway, it's been an good week, I'll fill you in:

We had district meeting this week and I was able to have some nice quality reflection time. During district meeting we were asked to choose two of our ten goals to make specific plans on how to accomplish. I like the goal making process, not because I keep all my goals (I achieve like 1% of them, like most people do) but because it gives you a chance to step back, see where you're at, reevaluate, and at least be able to recognize and find some changes to be made. My goals that I made specific plans for were 1) "getting closer with members" and 2) "praying more sincerely". 1) because I've noticed that I'm not too gung-ho about being proactive with member relations and member missionary work is something we're trying to focus on and 2) because I can often catch my self repeating the same things and lacking a truly open and sincere heart when I pray. So I was able to set up a plan of atcion to try and change those things. And the thing is, it's always goal to keep my goals (whoa goal-ception) but my biggest expectation from it is too at least change a little or correct to a different direction in someway. It's been such a blessing to have a goal centered life as a missionary and I've progressed far ore than I would have ever expected without considering the long-term scheme of things. YAY GOALS.

After district I was able to go on exchange to 신정 (Shinjeong; main city Ulsan) with Elder Deakin. Elder Deakin is actually in his 3rd transfer, whereas I'm in my 5th, so this was my first opportunity being senior companion! It wasn't that much different actually. There is difference in the level of language but aside from that, just the same two white dudes trying to share something to people on the street. But that being said, there were still some differences. Probably the biggest one I noticed is that (especially between two foreigner missionaries) is that the younger out of the two really listens and expects the older on to lead. on this exchange I also had the chance to meet another young missionary who is in his first transfer who was also on exchanges. Younger missionaries seem to be spongey, and I can look back and see that I was definitely the same way and sort of still am. The exchange mostly made me just think of the type of senior companion I want to be when that day comes. Showing good example, teaching things, and all that jazz. It was a fun time, and was nice to feel what the big city feels like again. 

The only other big thing that happened this week was New Years. This morning I got to wake up ealy and head to a mountain with some members to watch the "new sun" rise for the year of 2018. It's culture here to watch the sun rise like that every year, and on top of that you need to eat 떡국 (literally translated into "rice-cake soup") otherwise you don't gain your year. Which reminds me of another Korean specific thing: I may be 19 but in Korea I just turned 21. Weird right? I'll try and explain... As soon as you're born in Korea, you're automatically 1 years old. And every end of the year, you receive another year, all at the same time. You have your specific "birth  day" still but you don't actually age until New Years. Cool stuff. Anyway, there were about a bajillion people but it was super fun to spend time like that with the members and watch a beautiful sunrise. We got to go to our Branch President's house afterwards and chill too. I felt like a normal human being again for a hot few minutes, haha.

Here's a few smaller things we did this week:

- We got to visit a members house (김충배 "Kim Chungbae") and and the rest of his family and we got super friendly with them. They liked us enough to come out and watch the sun rise with us this morning. But we got back super late that night because we underestimated exactly how far his house was from our's. Ooops.

- We tried 전도ing in a place on the very edge of our area because it's literally the only place where there is a sizeable amount of people. We didn't see too much success but there were some cool parts of the area that have an older Korea feel too it (lots of alleys).

- We threw a party for the youth after seminary this Saturday because it's their last day of the course. (Did you know they only have seminary once a week on Saturdays in Korea? Not even fair...) We baked them a bunch of pancakes and introduced them to whipped cream. They love it. They think it's so cool. 

That's all I've got! Have a Happy New and thanks for reading/writing! Buh bye~~~

-Elder Metcalf

1) Traditional exchange chicken (Elder Reiley in the back, Elder Geddes on the left, and Elder Deakin behing Elder Geddes) 2) The prepared pancakes which I helped slave over 3) Top of the mountain with some of the other missionaries and members (It is so darn windy up there)

1-2) A heck ton of people. I couldn't even capture the true representative of just how many people were on this mountain. Cars backep up to the bottom of the mountain too... 3-6) The slow sunrise...

1) THE 2018 SUN 2) Some Elders trapped on top of a windy mountain, and are actually two years older than they really are, but the sun was cool so they look pretty happy.