A Refining Week

Oh boy, it was tough again. Not too many details I will share, but I figured out that all the hard stuff is just because Heavenly Father seems to know what he's doing. Although there hasn't been much outward success since I've shown up here, I feel like I'm being sharpened by it all so I can take comfort in the inner progress. Hoping next week will be better, time to carry on~

There isn't a ton to update this week so I'll just skip right to the SPEED ROUND:

- We're trying to find some young and hip people for our English class that we're trying to start back up. We got some super well-made flyers from our WML and we're hoping to recruit some people these next two weeks.

- We're working on moving all of our paper documents into digital. There is a TON of records in our house. But as we've been going throw we've managed to find people who pick up and talk to us! A lot of them live in different areas or just can't meet anymore but I've had a lot of nice, fun, natural conversations with people in Korean over the phone this last week so that was kinda neat to witness. We' found two people so far that are willing to meet us! ... sometime next month. Back to the grind.

- We were invited to the American Military base to help volunteer for a "Literacy Night" at the elementary school. Still weird to be around all the English speaking and American people. They probably think I'm just really awkward or something but I really have just forgotten how to act around them haha

- I ate Taco Bell for the first time in a year. Shout out to our Military Branch President Gustaves~ <3

- We met with our first potential investigator of this transfer. He's a super busy guy but when I first met him, I walked and talked with him for like 10 or 15 minutes and he said he'd be down to meet up this time so we can help him with his English and get to know each other better. And that's exactly what we did. My inner missionary was yelling at me the whole time to try and push a principle or teach something. I didn't end up teaching anything and was beginning to nag at myself until he said that before the meeting he had with us he was super prejudice against missionaries; he though we were just there to force a church on him and didn't care about helping with English or who he was. He enjoyed it enough to want to do it every week! He might join our English class too. He's on the slow track right now but he definitely has the potential to accept the gospel because he's actually comfortable with us now. We also gave him an English name; you can expect more updates on Benjamin next week~

Just a quick thought to end the email. This week at District Meeting, I wanted to have a discussion with my district members about who we should be comparing ourselves with. The answer is obvious, Jesus Christ, but you'd be surprised how often missionaries forget to stop comparing themselves with others or measuring their success from the things that don't matter. In Jacob 4:14, it says "Wherefore, because of their blindness, which blindness came from looking beyond the mark, they must needs fall; for God hath taken away his plainness from them, and delivered unto them many things which they cannot understand, because they desired it. And because they desired it God hath done it, that they may stumble." The verse talks about how hard headed the Jews were in ignoring the center of the gospel and instead focused on the rules, traditions, and nit picky things of that nature. However, you can liken "looking beyond the mark" unto anything, and in a missionary's case: we look beyond our marks by comparing our success with others. That's not what the mission is for. We all sat down, looked through the Christlike attributes, found one we'd like to work on, a scripture to make your "catchphrase", and what we're going to change. I decided to work on love, using Moroni 10:18's "perfect love casteth out all fear", and decided that I needed to stop focusing so much on myself and put other people, His children, in front of it all so I can do missionary work with confidence and refocus myself back on the mark. I know as we compare our growth and progress to our "marks" we'll be much more grateful, constructive, and happy than we would by comparing it with the far away things that don't matter. Remember the true mark~

That's all I got! Thanks for reading and writing. Buh bye~

-Elder Metcalf

1) Just a chapstick that I used completely to the end. 100%. Call Guinness. 2) Elder Nations getting trapped into a member's massage chair 3) View of a city street at night in the middle of Daegu (poor quality but the lit-up signs go on FOREVER) 4-5) God Bless America

Less wrecked and changes in the mission

This week was a lot easier than last week. I'm still pretending I know what I'm doing the majority of the time but either I'm getting better at pretending or I'm actually figuring something out here. I'll fill you in on the week real quick~

We were able to grab some appointments with members in the evening a lot of this week. We're trying to visit all the members houses, share a message about Easter, record their testimonies, and then put them all together to watch as a ward sometime after Easter. It was looking difficult to try and visit all of them so it was pretty awesome we got to see four of them this week. Hoping to get the rest of them this week and the week afterwards, wish us luck...

We had a good chunk of time to work on the new Area Book record stuff and have some time to proselyte outside so we managed to find a good little handful of potential investigators. One guy we called invited us over right after we called him, so we hurry out to get to his place, show up, and it's a Buddhist college. This man is some sort of Buddhist teacher guy and he's dressed up in his Buddhist wear, invites us in for some apple juice and a religious conversation. I thought he was just going to roast us the whole time but he was actually super nice and respectful. He met missionaries 30 years ago in Seoul, and says he's read the entire Book of Mormon before. He thinks we should focus less on proselyting and finding and just study more about religion while we're on our missions, so he gave us a textbook to read, and in return we gave him another Book of Mormon to read. I'm not sure where that will go but it's instances like these and a handful of others that show the prospects for new investigators.

Speaking of investigators: we taught our older investigator twice this week. I taught him once on exchange with the Zone Leaders (Elder Seol, who was in my spot last transfer and had been teaching him before me), and then again on Sunday with our Ward Mission Leader and an Area Seventy from Seoul (It's an interesting story, but he knows our investigators younger sister and was the man who originally referred the man to us after he heard our investigator's mother's dying words to send missionaries to her son. She got her wish. The Area Seventy and guy who gave us the referral is Elder 배동철 Bae Dongcheor). But unfortunately with all that hype, he still won't accept anything. We'll just have to keep praying and see what we can do.

We have Facebook now!! I still haven't made one because I've had zero time to figure it out. We're using it for proselyting purposes only so don't expect and replies on social media and expect a lot more post of spiritual messages, occasional pictures, and some Korean language stuff. Not sure how it all works yet but we'll see! We also got a bunch of new rules last week. We basically can't do anything with the Sister missionaries anymore. No eating together, no P-days together, no taxis together, no taking pictures together without a member. Basically if an activity doesn't have a center of the missionary purpose, you can't do it. A lot of people aren't excited about it, of course. Expecting more rules to come out soon about social media too.

That's all I've really got this week. It's been harder here than some of my past transfers but I'm feeling some real growth from serving here. It'd be nice to see some progress in my area but I know that my own personal progress is just as important if not more important. Although it's stressful sometimes the stress has that odd comfort behind it, confirming that it's just positive stress. Gotta give it to Heavenly Father, he sure seems to know he's doing haha Alrighty, gotta go now! Thanks for reading and writing~

-Elder Metcalf

 

1) We did deep cleaning at the church for Stake Conference last week (we got our member present for the picture; yay obedience) 2) Our Sisters her in Suseong (Sister Redd-left and Sister Olsen-right) 3) Elder Seol was on exchange with me while we were doing all of the work outside of the church; he loves sawing the branches 4) We cleaned the baptismal font too (don't know why I posed like that, sorry world)

MORE PICS

1) More Elder Seol while we were on exchanges 2) I went on exchange back to 경산 Gyeongsan!! We were so busy that I couldn't really take it all in but it was nice to be back in my old area. They're on a diet right now in that house so they gave me all the candy they could find to get rid of. 3) Elder Adams (serving in 경산) and I heading to Stake Conference

THE GRAND UPDATE: It was stressful...

Hello everybody~~

Long story sort: I got wrecked this last week for a whole bunch of reasons. Becoming senior companion and district leader for the first time while coming into a new area is apparently harder than I first thought. My new companion Elder Nations has only been here in 수성 for 6 weeks, and those six weeks were spent with a Korean missionary who was leading everything so my poor man didn't really get to know a ton about what was going on with investigators or anything involving the area. So I came in with just about the same amount of knowledge that he did about the area. It was like whitewashing all over again haha. BUT! The worst part is over, and all that stress was good for bringing about some more humility and sincerity so it's all good in the end. I'll move on to all the updates of what the heck is going on in 수성 Suseong~~~

So first things first: the missionaries in my district are the actual best. They are all solid. I actually think I was the only one who was having some struggles haha. After going down to Busan and getting some District Leader training, I felt like really the only thing I need to do help this district be awesome is PUMP THEM UP. It's the time of the year where winter is finally starting to die and the spring is coming in. This is the time when all the sadness of the cold goes away, people's hearts start warm up. It happens every year and we're going to get fired up to start it early. We're going to be focusing on seeing miracles everyday. More an the awesomeness of the district later~

I'm going to fill you in on the few investigators we got now. The most unique by far is 장성태 (Jang Seongtae); he is a 60 year old man who used to be a gangster back in the day and now he's pretty sick and got a head injury a couple years ago so he's just a docile, old fella that chills in his office and listens to the Bible. His mother died not too long ago and her dying words were to send missionaries to him. So he's a referral! The Elders met him maybe three times before I came in and he doesn't really keep any commitments but he listens to us and likes having us visit them. His sister who lives in Canada is calling the Elders everyday to ask about his progress because she wants him to be baptized next month. Also and area seventy up in Seoul is good friends with his sister so he's involved too. Not sure how to teach him yet really but it's interesting being the one in the companionship that has to do the majority of the teaching and understanding. We're also teaching another older gentleman who is also a referral. His name is 서정한. I met him for the first time yesterday and he's down for praying and reading the Book of Mormon so that's great. He's an interesting man, not sure what's in store for the future for him either. He's heading to Jeju Island for a bit so I don't know when we'll meet him again. And lastly the only other one is 오세진 (Oh Sehjin); he's a really good friend of the youth here and has been coming out to church for a long time. He doesn't really think much of the lessons he's had and his parents are super against the church so he doesn't like talking about baptism very much. We're going to work on getting close with him this transfer and seeing if we can't warm him and his parents up a little~

The church and the members here are AMAZING! Every Sunday we do three hours of church at the Military Branch and three hours at the Korean Ward. It's awkward speaking in English and whatnot but it feels nice and homey to be around other military saints and understand what everyone is saying again. My convert PJ attends church there too! He's doing awesome and is going to be receiving the priesthood here soon. Everyone in the Korean Ward is super nice. We're working on visiting all the members before Easter so being able to see some friendly faces and introduce myself was a load off for the stress. There was a party afterwards at a members house too and this place seems like a big old family. I'm going to love it here in 수성.

That's all I have time to write! Thanks for reading and writing ^^ Buh bye~

-Elder Metcalf

1) View of the area 2) Commute to church 3) Party at Brother Billy Clites house (the entire ward managed to fit in there) 4) The Elders I'm living with; Elder Stewart and Elder 설진영 (Seol Jinyoung) and my companion Elder Nations

THE GRAND TRANSFER: Amazing people, Whitewashes, Returning to the Motherland, Senior Companion, District Leader, and more

I'M LEAVING 호계!!! We thought for sure I was going to stay here to continue B-Team with a new junior companion, but instead of me staying they just eliminated our B-team altogether. Super bummer, since we had the most baller investigators and potential investigators ever. Super jealous of A-Team, but I know they are in good hands. They even have a specific word in Korean for when you are sad to leave (섭섭하다 - "seobseobhada") It came in handy for the goodbyes given yesterday at church...

But I bet you're wondering where the heck Elder Minson and I are going if we're getting whitewashed out of 호계! Sooooo, my beloved Elder Minson is going down to the biggest, citiest part of Busan: 해운대 "Haeundae". He's going to be the Zone Leader of the South Busan Zone! It was fun being thrown in and thrown out of 호계 together, I'm definitely going to miss him and this place. Meanwhile, I'm heading back to my motherland: Daegu!! I was secretly hoping I could head back and I guess I got my wish. I'm going to be serving in 수성 "Suseong", which is the biggest, citiest part of Daegu. It's super awesome to go there because I already have three converts to up there and I'm in the perfect location to see them all! I'm also serving in the exact same district that I was in before I left to Hogye, but this time I'm going to be the district leader! I'm not really sure how I'm going to district leader yet but I'm psyched to have to chance to serve as one and I know I was given the opportunity for a reason. I'm also going to be a senior companion for the first time, with my new junior companion Elder Nations (I haven't actually met him yet so I will have to fill you in later on him). So that means I'm going to be carrying the team on the Korean language side of things, so that's terrifying. But we're going to have fun, I know it. We're going to be serving as B-team there in Suseong so it's going to feel a lot like the four-man house I was just living in, here in 호계. Really excited, kinda nervous, bust mostly excited. Our transfer travel plans got wrecked so I'm not sure if I'll have any time to do email outside of this today, so stay tuned next week...

A lot to write but actually zero time, so that means SPEED ROUND~~~

-We went to a bunch of cool rocks again for P-day, it's called 대왕암 "Great King Rock?". Tons of fun. I love the Elders up here in the Ulsan district.

-We got asked by the 포항 "Pohang" missionaries to help with an English Camp that they were doing. Super well planned. Well executed. A ton of fun. I taught kids about food and made sandwiches with them. I dressed up like how I used to dress at the deli I worked at before the mission. I don't think I have pics for it though...

-We've been playing basketball and soccer with the same kids for a few weeks now and we had our last day with them on Saturday with some soccer, lunch, and bowling. We told them good bye over text last night. So cute. They love us and will miss us deeply.

-Super sad to say goodbye to 주관 and Jerry. They love us too.

Gotta go catch a train, more pics and stuff later~~

-Elder Metcalf

UPDATE:

I'm alive in Suseong! Traveling wasn't all the bad but the sky was spitting the whole time so that was a little less than ideal. My new companion Elder Nations is a strapping, young missionary from Texas in his fourth transfer. He's ready to work hard and is gung-ho about doing some awesome stuff this transfer. I'm super excited to work here and I don't real have more more to fill in outside of that...

PICS:

1-5) 대왕암 (A bunch of cool rocks and our little antics)

MORE PICS:

                                                                         1-4) Aesthetic

EVEN MORE:

                                     1-4) A super studly cat, and some pics with the best Elders

                                                                   AND SOME MORE:

1-4) Pictures with Elder Lee and Elder Kirkham; walks on the beach with the Ulsan Elders

                                                                 MAYBE THE LAST:

1-3) English Camp in 포항 4) Elder Lee on his B-day (someone is smacking cake in his face)

                                                             THE REAL LAST ONE:

1-4) Last day in 호계 (Pics with our investigators) 5) New companion: Elder Nations