Just a good week in 호계

I'm running low on creative juices today but if you've read the subject, this week wasn't half bad. Some cool little things here and there. And I got over my cold so I can actually think now, which is awesome. It's really hard to speak Korean and do missionary stuff when your head feels submerged in a high pressure water tank and your head turns into a snot volcano. Sorry for the imagery, I think I'll just move on...

Monday we did soccer with a handful of our youth and some young adults. Even though I was sick at the time it was super fun. Poor Elder Minson got kicked in the face by accident and got his glasses snapped in half. Took it like a champ though. And it was time for us to boogie then anyway so we got out of there. That night, instead of FHE, we went with the sisters to visit a less-active that they found. This lady hasn't let missionaries into her house for YEARS (I wish I knew how many), so it was kinda a big deal. She has this problem where her eyes swell up and tears come out uncontrollably and she's had surgery on it like three or four times but it's still super painful. So that's where the reason why Elder Minson and I came comes in; we came to give her a priesthood blessing. Normally the companion who's actually good at Korean gives blessings but since Elder Minson wasn't in a very good mood that night (maybe because of the soccer ball), he asked me to do it. So I gave my first priesthood blessing in Korean. I still have to find out how she is now but when I do find out, I'll let you all know. Great opportunity to serve, and an awesome experience for me. 

So we have an investigator named Jerry, and he's been here since Elder Minson and I have whitewashed in. He's 24 years old, a little childish and worldly, but he loves the heck out us and missionaries in general because of how they helped him back when he was in high school. We've been trying to get him to meet with us and just have a regular sit-down lesson with him and teach him the "normal" way, but we've figured out that that doesn't work. But we've called him a bunch and we've prayed a lot about how to help him, and we've figured out that we just need to start by first being his friend. So we got him to meet with us this week and eat some lunch with us, play some ping pong with the other Elders and one of the youth's that they're working with, and then we got some ice cream with him. Sounds simple. Sounds like a waste of "missionary hours". But the benefits that came out of it were more a lot than we expected. He's really opened up to us more. He's told us more about his own thoughts and worries. He asks us more questions about missionary stuff and the church. And now he's willing to listen to us since he really sees that we care about him. We're working on getting him comfortable with the other missionaries and members . And we totally got him to come to the church after all the meetings and he was able to mingle a little bit with the lingering members. We committed him to come to church next week. Love the heck out of the guy, and he loves the heck out of us. More on Jerry next week~

We also were able to do a similar thing with our other investigator, 현주관. We balled up with him, some other potential investigators, and the other elders after not seeing him for like two weeks. He had a great time and after everyone else left we decided that we should just go out and eat together, but first go inside the church and talk for a bit since it's been awhile. We started a lesson but honestly the first half of the lesson was just us chatting and figuring out how he's doing. Here in Korea the last year of high school is beyond killer so this poor kid has no room for thoughts outside of school (we trying asking him about the future and what he thinks of church and everything, but they were all super vague answers). So we found our way into a conversation talking about the WAY future (like after we die) and tried to see if we couldn't get his thoughts stewing a little more. He listened well to all of it and Elder Minson taught the Plan of Salvation beautifully and simply. Shared some awesome testimony, opened his perspective a little more, let him know that we think and acre about him, ate some dinner together. He came to church the next day and funny enough, the Sunday School lesson was the Plan of Salvation so he was able to contribute and show up all the other youth on his awesome doctrine knowledge. And right after we taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ with a fellowshipping youth and an awesome returned missionary, and invited him to be baptized. TWIST: he didn't accept the invitation. But we handled the rejection super well and told him that what we're doing here isn't some sort of a pressured trap to get you to be a member of our church, but that we're all about helping you and trying to help you be the happiest through the gospel. Promised him that he can be ready and he can really know if this is all the right stuff to do through prayer and sincere reading of the Book of Mormon. he left the lesson really knowing that we were his friends, rather than just two missionaries trying to tell him all about Jesus to get him into our church. We have him committed for next week on Sunday too. More on him later as well~

I gotta end this email quick so we're going to going into the SPEED ROUND of stuff that happened this week:

-We're trying to visit all of the members every week to help them read the Book of Mormon. We visited a super cute family that is mostly new converts so we taught them the first lesson for one of their "new member lessons". They promised to make an effort to read together as a family this week.

-We visited another member's house and she was super sick still after us giving her a blessing a week or so ago. I gave my second blessing in Korean ever. She's almost fully recovered. I learned to trust the priesthood, not my language capabilities.

-District Meeting. We have to watch a ton of "training" videos on how to use technology as a missionary since we're going to have free reign on them soon this next transfer. Also, there's going to be a lot more rules next transfer. Not a lot of big fans about that, but also not a lot you can do about it. Obedience is how we earn God's trust, or at least that's what i say to myself when I'm not too excited about rules. More on that later too probably.

-Next week is transfers so I might be leaving. Or getting a new companion. Or whitewashing out  because the amount of missionaries out here is lowering and we're a B-team and we don't really have hard numbers to report, soooo that's also a possibility. We'll see next week!

That's all I got! Love you all, buh bye~

(Sorry not a lot of pics this week...)

1) Jerry at Baskin Robbins, he has become my 형 (Korean older brother) 2) An ancient wall/war-mound thing that Elder Minson and I found while trying to visit a member. Good poses from the man himself

설날 and Baptism in 호계!!!

Hallooo everybody~

This week was pretty vanilla aside from 설날 (Lunar/Chinese New Year's) and one of A-Team's investigators getting baptized yesterday! Other than that, it was a lot of going outside to find people (but unfortunately there weren't a ton of people out because Chinese New Year's is pretty darn big here in Korea...). But it was still fun! Someone's out there waiting for two white dudes to teach him about Jesus here in 호계 and Elder Minson and I are obliged to do so. Update time~

On Monday, Elder Geddes (my P-Day companion) and I were left with nothing to do and we couldn't just do nothing since it was a birthday P-Day so we had decided to go to the coast in our area and see what was there to do. But all the buses going there got cancelled, so we just went to downtown Ulsan instead and searched for a gift for Elder 이해성 since his birthday is coming up soon (we got him a sweater a black guy on it; Elder 이 LOVES black people, so it was a solid find). And then we ended the night with FHE, eating pig fat stew with the youth, and watching some snow fall down here in Ulsan. Fun day.

Our weekdays all the way up until Friday (선날) were all just regular days, with some soccer or basketball with some potential investigators thrown in there somewhere. We're still trying to figure out how to make some of those fellas into real investigators, maybe I'll have some good update on them for next week. 

Friday was Chinese New Year's! Our mission asked us to do district meeting, a district lunch, and then a district proselyting activity in a well populated area so we could use time a little more effectively on one of the deadest proselyting days of the year in Korea. District meeting was awesome; definitely one of the better ones I've had in awhile thanks to some great insights from other missionaries. District lunch and proselyting was a ton of fun. Luckily there were still people outside to we were able to talk to some nice people and get their contact information to talk to them later. We ended on all drinking some bubble tea together and then splitting back to our areas to finish up the day. All the missionaries here in 호계 were lucky enough to get invited to eat at our Branch president's house and even more lucky to get permission to have all three teams go to the same dinner appointment from the AP's. They fed us SO MUCH. And afterwards we were all able to sit down and chat together about the our Branch Mission Plan and our focus is going to be going to all the members houses every week, reading the Book of Mormon with them for ten minutes, and inviting to keep reading the Book of Mormon all week long for at least 10 minutes. Branch President thinks that as the members invite the spirit into the home through the Book of Mormon and nourish/strengthen themselves spiritually that they will be more willing and apt to spring into some member missionary work action. We were all on board. I'll have to update you more on the execution of that plan later.

We were also able to meet Branch President's son who just returned home this week on Tuesday, Brother 추지웅, who just served two years in the Korea Seoul South Mission. He is an absolute baller. He's all fired up for member missionary work and he's already talking about helping us all the time, contacting some of his friends to see if he can't find somebody to refer, doing soccer and basketball with our potential investigators, going out proselyting with us, etc. He's going to be such a blast to work with; I hope he keeps his fire going here for a long time.

On the weekend, we were able to have a lunch appointment with all of the missionaries in the area again in a different member's house on Saturday (even more food than last appointment; I think my stomach has stretch marks now), and that was a great house to be in. One of them had a friend who had been meeting with A-Team for quite a while and finally got permission to get baptized from his parents on that day! Since he had all the lessons already and a passed interview, he got the signature that night and he was baptized the next day at church! His name is 김태원 (Kim Taewon) and he's a super cute 14 year old kid with an awesome friend that he can grow up with in the faith now. Awesome Sunday.

And nowwww I got nothing else! Today Elder Geddes are on our own again today. I actually caught a pretty bad cold so we're probably going to just finally actually take a rest P-Day. I got no problem with that. Thanks for reading and writing, love you all~

-Elder Metcalf

1) Snow in Ulsan with the youth (It's not supposed to snow here...) 2) The best 떡볶이 I've ever made (it was SO good; super proud, had to share) 3) Elder Minson at our Branch President's daycare center (we eat there every Wednesday) 4) One of our meal appointments this last weekend 5) 김태원 at his baptismal service

Conferences in Ulsan

Hi everybody!! It was a surprisingly busy week this with both Ulsan/Daegu Zone Conference and Ulsan District Conference, with little things sprinkled in between so I'm going to try my best to think chronologically and update on what happened the last seven days...

Elder Geddes and I, on our weekly P-Day exchange (because both of our companions are still enslaved in the Mission Choir down in Busan) got to go over to the downtown of our area, eat a meal with like half of our zone, and then all go to 디스코 팡팡 ("Disco Pang-Pang") together. What's Disco Pang-Pang? If I'm being honest I still don't really know. But I'll try and get some good imagery going on. Everyone sits in a flying saucer while a DJ spins it as fast as he wants trying to fling you into the middle of the saucer and periodically stopping the spinning to put a spotlight on somebody and try and roast them. There is also another worker there that stands in the middle of the saucer runs around, does backflips, and just defies gravity I guess. It was hard for the DJ to fling us or roast us though since we were all holding on so tight and he didn't feel comfortable completely 100% roasting a bunch of foreigners in Korean. Probably not the most missionary-like thing I've done as a missionary, but now I know. It was good fun though, worth going once at least.

The next day was Zone Conference! We got to do double Zone Conference with Daegu which was awesome because we had the 안동 ("Andong" - the Northernmost area in our mission) come down one night early so they wouldn't have to travel the day of. So we had six Elders in one house for night, which of course was a ton of fun. But an even more awesome point was I got to see my father, Elder Fox! I hadn't seen him for a while so the reunion was even sweeter than last time. It was just nice to sit down and catch up with each other and remember how my training was only seven months ago. Love the snot out of that man, I hope to see him again before he dies and goes home a transfer or two from now. The actual Zone Conference was awesome. We got trained on technology for the first half. We already have smart phones, as you know, but starting next week we'll actually be able to use them! Facebook, Kakao Talk (Korea specific social app), and all of the other applications certified for missionary use will be up and running on February 14th. More updates on that in the future. And the rest of the Zone Conference was all about repentance. It was one of the better zone conferences I've been to. The main message of the meeting was that we are meant to change and become like Him, and you can always start again in the process of doing that, no matter what your mistakes are. it was a Spirit filled meeting and it was nice to have some thoughts turned to the Savior. Also, we now sing "I'm Trying To Be Like Jesus" in Korean every companionship study in the Korea Busan Mission, just to be able to remember it. 

Wednesday, Elder Minson and I cleaned the church for a few hours, by request of our Busan Stake/Ulsan District custodian. It was just nice to do some straight up service. Walking around outside for a few hours just trying to greet some people in the freezing cold is nice but I thoroughly enjoyed the cleaning for that day. It was all in preparation for the District Conference on the weekend. And a general authority was coming too so it had to be in tip-top shape. Elder Robert C. Gay, the Asia North Area President was going to be our guest speaker. More on him later (it was AWESOME). And then we went to a member's academy in our neighboring area by request. She likes having missionaries there so the kids can get used to them when they're young and better accept the gospel later. She's an awesome, hard working member to say the least. And she fed us. And there was another team's investigator there so it was a big win.

Thursday we went to Sister 추하은's ("Choo Haeun" - our Branch President's daughter, one of the main youth in our branch) Middle School Graduation ceremony. She apparently had invited the Elder's before I even was in the area and her parents weren't sure they could make it to the whole thing so all four us us Hogye Elders went to it in support. We came in a little late and when we opened the doors to the gym, literally everyone in the room turned their heads and saw the three tall white dudes at the entrance. We were popular enough to get asked to take a lot of pictures afterwards too. And days afterwards we still have kids on the street asking us if we went to the Sangan Middle School Graduation. So it turned out to be a lot more effective than we thought it was. And every class got to make fun, super well-edited videos for their graduation, so that was fun to watch too. And it turns out that Haeun was already super popular to begin with but has achieved legend status thanks to her American missionary friends and the fact that she's going to America for high school next year. Another big win.

Friday was just weekly planning and proselyting. But we did have two female high school students try to bum a taxi ride off of us (they knew us from the graduation ceremony; we're famous too now I guess). We lied and said we had no money. That usually works. But it's also kinda true so we didn't feel too bad. Ended up working. It was a nice night of 전도 after that.

Saturday was the first day of District Conference. Before that we balled up with a bunch of potential investigators. They all also knew about the graduation ceremony (if any missionaries are reading this, please try graduation ceremony proselyting, it works) so they brought another friend to prove it. It was good BRT. Not sure how to turn them into investigators but there are one of two of them who seem to have some real potential. A few hours roll by and we get the privilege to hear Elder Gay give his first talk of District Conference. It was the best talk I've heard in the field so far. Maybe that's just because I could actually understand all of it (thank you Korean) but the Spirit was piercing in the room. There's too much to share but the central point of his talk was firing up the Korean Saints, to have courage and really *live* the gospel if you intend on trying to find joy on it. He spoke with some of the greatest boldness and love I have ever seen. His talk on Sunday was just as good too. A lot about miracles brought by faith, the dangers of being at ease in Zion, and just so many promised blessings of sacrificing time and efforts for building His kingdom and keeping His commandments. Too many take-aways to list them all but I think I definitely need to work on "sacrificing the world's way" and instead remembering His sacrifice. Thinking like that, there is nothing too big to covet, and nothing that we can render or give-up. I hope to hear more talks like that again as I continue doing missionary work.

Really long, but that's all of it! And I got to celebrate my 20th birthday yesterday during all of the fire talks we heard. And the Sisters in my area made tacos and cake; they're the real MVP's. But I'm still 21 in Korean age. I still don't know how that works. Anywho, gotta go! Thanks for reading/writing~

-Elder Metcalf

1) What Disco Pang-Pang looks like 2) Foxy Papa at Zone Conference

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1) What a Korean Middle School Graduation looks like 2) Haeun and our Branch President (FUN FACT: she got the most flowers in the room, and then some. People like to give flowers at graduation in Korea I guess) 3-4) More Middle School Grad pics 5) 장어탕 Eel Soup; we got it for free the one day we proselyted a bunch. It actually doesn't taste that fishy, it's a lot like tofu.

I did it. I ate dog.

And it was good.

But I'll get to that later... It was a good week! I don't think there was anything super crazy outside of that really. Let's find out~

So Elder Geddes and I have officially become P-day companions. Both of our companions have to go to Busan every P-day now to practice for the newly formed Korea Busan Mission Choir. But since Elder Geddes and I aren't apart of it, we have the permission to just go on exchanges every P-day that they practice now. Which is kinda of nice because it sounds like a hassle to go back and fort between Ulsan and Busan every Monday. Not to mention how hard that would make email or shopping either. But anywho, we spent our first P-day going over to 방어진 (Bangeojin) hanging out with the missionaries over there and going over to 대왕암 (Daewangam - Great King Rock thing? I'm not sure how to translate it...) and got some real good views of some ocean and rocks. Kinda reminded me of Monterey, CA too so that was some nice nostalgia. And today Elder Geddes and I continue our P-day exchange adventures. I think we're going to head down to the big city part of our area and see what we can do. Update you all next week...

And then later that week we had MCM, where I ate dog. Not much too say honestly. It's just fun to say that I've eaten dog now. It was pretty tasty; kinda have a beef taste to it but just a little more soft in texture. No regrets.

This week I got to go on exchanges with District Leader, Elder Kirkham and it was a super fun time. mostly because it was just nice to catch up with him and shoot some good breeze with the man. It's hard to believe that the last time I served with him I was a completely brand new missionary, having no idea what I'm doing, what to say, or what will happen. And now he's about to go home in a transfer or two and I'm going to be hitting my half mark in a transfer or two. TIME BLAST. Aside from the having a good time with Elder Kirkham. We were actually bale to get some good missionary work done at the same time. Despite our area not being the most popping area for finding people, we were able to exceed our goal and get four contacts that day. We also gave a Book of Mormon away to a DJ. I really hope we can meet with that guy later. We also had an aweome lesson with one of our investigators. When Elder Minson and I whitewashed into this area, there were two remaining investigators. One of them is a major goober that is extremely hard to actually meet with. The other is Arthur. A sixty year old father that teaches English at a nearby high school. His English is PERFECT. It's so refreshing to talk to and teach this man can he can understand everything that I'm saying and I can understand everything he's saying...

Anyways lately we've been trying hard to relate God and the gospel to him personally and we've managed to pique his interest with how God is his Father just like he is his son's father. He seems to really resonate with how God relates to him and tries to communicate with him. But we can't get him to pray. So while planning for what to teach him, we thought it would be good to at least see if he's be willing to commit to reading the Book of Mormon. We started chatting with him as we always do for the first chunk of the lesson and then after we prayed and i started introducing what we're going to be talking about today. He was a lot less than enthusiastic. And instead of listening to the things that were running through my head at that moment; things like "Maybe we should just chat with him and let him know my temporary companion a little better" or "Maybe we should just teach something else instead" I focused on the thoughts running in my heart. I told him that this book isn't just something that we tell people to read just because. It's a book that we read because it opens the window for God to talk to us on a personal level. I share my own experience with how it has really helped me in coming closer to God, and how it's not just a homework assignment that missionaries give but a real spiritual opportunity. After I had said my peace and bore my testimony, he said, "You know what Elder Metcalf? When we're just chatting you seem like a good, nice guy. But when you just told me about that book right there I saw sparkles in your eyes. You appear differently when you talk about this." That's probably one of the more gratifying words I've heard in my entire life. I'm really thankful I was willing to listen the the spirit in that situation and be the means for that man to feel it as well through my testimony and through the Book of Mormon. And of course he accepted it (score), but still refuses to pray (maybe next time), but I gained a good testimony on not teaching what comes to your head but listening to the spirit in your heart. Awesome experience.

Other than that we're still just trying really hard to find some new investigators here with our new "rule". We've been getting a lot of potentials lately so I think that might come true here soon. Ahhh, and 주관 came to church this Sunday. I think next time we meet him we're going to invite baptism. He's ready. Now I gotta go. thanks for reading and writing! Buh bye~

-Elder Metcalf

1-4) Pics from the walk to 대왕암

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1-5) More 대왕암

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1-4) Last of 대왕암

The Dog