ONE YEAR MARK!!!

It's officially been one year since I've left the state of Iowa. And on Thursday (the 26th) it will be the day that I have officially been doing missionary work for one year...

It feels like one month to be honest haha

I thought I would have a bunch of grand and wise words to share at this point but I feel really the same. Don't get me wrong, I've changed a bunch from the mission, but like most miraculous and converting things, it didn't all happen in one moment so I cant really expect to send one super awesome email about all the things that encompass "passing the year-mark". So instead, I'll pass this week talking about that and see what I can think of for next week (because my brain is fried from the first week and I'm trying to finish this email up relatively fast so other peeps can email and we can get on with the rest of our P-day~). So for now I'll just tell you how the first week was!!

I got my new companion, Elder Sayer, and he's a baller. He's from a small town somewhere in Idaho, graduated high school, came out to to the mission, and now he's out here killing it with me in Suseong for at least the next six weeks. We already met in the MTC so we're already pretty comfortable with each other. He wants to work hard, he loves his mission, and he knows how to have fun while doing missionary work. We're already hoping to serve two transfers together.

STUFF THAT HAPPENED THIS WEEK:

- I had to go down to Busan for DLTM. Good meeting. More rules came out. That's a bit of a bummer. But I still love being District Leader, and I love my district, and I'm excited to see what will happen this transfer.

- We found a service activity teaching English at a library with a nice lady who used to meet with the missionaries a long time ago. We're going to be doing it for the first time this next week~

- We meet our awesome potential investigator and he's cool to start taking lessons now so more on that later as well. He has an Australian accent. But he's Korean. Super cool.

- District Meeting. We had an awesome discussion about "Using Time Effectively". I love hearing all their thoughts and opinion over just hearing talks from one person. 

There was definitely more that happened but I'm, super blanking it all right now. But to boil it down: we were so busy we didn't actually get to proselyte until Sunday night. Oh boy. 

Okay, I gotta go, sorry this isn't the best quality. Buh-bye~

-Elder Metcalf

PICS

1) Elder Sayer and I celebrating our first weekly planning session on April 20th (we don't know why either) 2) We got asked to clean the kitchen on Sunday by the relief society, they hooked us up with aprons and everything 3) Elder Staker "ministering" to my companion (FUN FACT: Elder Staker lived in Davenport Iowa, my home) 4) The Suseong boys for this transfer

THE NEXT GRAND TRANSFER (hopefully)

Oh boy, the transfers took it out of me so my thoughts aren't very organized but I"M STAYING IN SUSEONG! I'm still District Leader, still B-Team, but I've got a new companion! I'm now companions with Elder Sayer, who I met in the MTC and is just one transfer younger than me. He's got a good head, wants to work hard, and I think we're going to have a ton of fun this next transfer. It's awesome to still be DL in the best district in the mission with the best people; we've seen a lot of miracles last transfer and we're going to see a ton more this transfer. It's going to be a party~~~

UPDATES FROM LAST WEEK:

-We had a Zone P-day on Monday! All played some sports and had a great time in some random park here in Daegu.

-We restarted our English class! Successfully! Wooooo~ We got some good potential to work with and we're hoping to build it up and strengthen it more this next transfer

-We got two new investigators this last week!! One is a guy named Sam who knows the missionaries from when he was in high school and is now working at a lab in a college nearby us. He's down to meet and talk with us whenever and seems to listen okay to the stuff that we have taught about our church so far. Also he's fluent in English so it's a really nice and natural atmosphere when we meet. The other investigator is 송수영 (Song Sooyoung) who is an old investigator from a year ago. I found his record, called, hit it off over the phone, and had been waiting to meet him this entire transfer. We toured him our church and he loved the experience and when asked to try reading the Book of Mormon again and to continue meeting us, he was totally down. Hopefully you'll hear more about them later~

-We had our last district meeting this week. I wanted to focus it on "change"; how you've changed from last transfer, how you want to change next transfer, and what these changes mean in our overall conversion. It's amazing to see the effect of the collection of experiences a missionary can have in six weeks. I learn from my district everyday and it was edifying to hear from them altogether about the things we've all learned. 

-We met our investigator Ben at our church for the first time! We toured him the church, got a little more closer to him, and committed him to continue meeting us at the church. He accepted! He also wants to take us hiking to some famous mountain around here in Daegu sometime this month on P-Day. Should be fun~

Wish I could say more but at the moment I don't have a lot of time or even thoughts to be honest... BUT I'M PSYCHED FOR THIS TRANSFER! I want to have high expectations, work hard, and rely on the Lord these next six weeks. Thanks for reading and writing~~~

-Elder Metcalf

PICS:

1-4) The District (part 1; Sister Redd, Elder Seol, Elder Vongsayo, Elder Adams)

1-4) The District (part 2; Sister Choi, Elder Stewart, Elder Nations, Sister Oleson)

1-2) The District (part 3; Sister Kessinger, Your's Truly) 3-4) The Zone P-day

1-4) This thing

AND MOOOORE

1) A quarter-pound bacon cheeseburger that one of the Military Branch members fed me 2-3) TRANSFERS/ New Companion

The Gauntlet of Week 5

Straight into it, I'm pretty sure I almost died this week (hence the "gauntlet" in the title). But it wasn't ALL bad, we managed to see some great stuff this week too! I'll begin the explanation of our struggles starting at the very beginning of the week: P-Day...

Beginning this week, I was already a little beat up (I wasn't able to hear out of my left year all last week, forgot to mention it, but it's because my eardrum was blocked by whatever was in there, we still don't know, and the excavation irritated my ear enough to make it throb for the next few days. No fun...) so we're looking for something nice and fun to do for a P-day to rejuvenate ourselves for another week of 봄 time missionary work. We tried going to a park, ended up being a depressing zoo, so we went to the biggest traditional market in Daegu and spent time looking around and shopping here and there. We do the shopping and Elder Seol, our native Korean, wants to eat some traditional market 순대 "sundae" (not like the hot fudge type, it's actually pig blood sausage stuff). We end up following suit with him (because he's our Korean and we weren't going to just stand around and watch him eat while we did nothing). Long story short, I order one too, but they give me more than this sausage stuff, it's a platter of assorted mystery pig meats (which later turned out to be womb, lung, intestine, liver, and concentrated head meat. Pictures and videos will be included.) Four of us eat it. I down mine really easy (I'm really prideful at this point in the mission, thinking I can eat anything now after the hardships of my earlier missionary days) another Elder has a hard time getting it all down, but we finish, it's done, we go home, have a member appointment that night, end of Monday...

The next day, I wake up, I'm not feeling hot. I force down breakfast, do exercise and all that. MISTAKE. I toss my breakfast up right before personal study. I endure the rest of our studies while trying to stay focused and alive, go get Elder Nations some lunch (because there is no way I'm eating), rest while he eats, rest a little more because it's worse than we thought, try doing some contacting, that failed, and we head to our appointment disregarding my current condition. ANOTHER MISTAKE. I'm riding the bus. My companion is silent, recognizing the glass in my eyes. I'm clenching my bag, sweating, staring out the window and I make my decision: it's going to have to go out the window. Hand the bag to Elder Nations, verbalize my plan, and begin the regrettable moment that took place on that bus. I'm still tossing by the time we get to our bus stop, hand the phone to Elder Nations who cancels our appointment a minute before it was scheduled, get off the bus at the next stop. I call our mission mom, who tells me to not eat anything that day, drink only a little water, rest for a bit, get back to work. We plan a split with A-team who has Elder Seol dying from allergies so we can rest for a bit while Elder Stewart and Nations take on the schedule for both teams that day. We finally grab the other Elders, I'm tossing as we're walking back to the house. Long story even shorter: I got home and couldn't get up for the rest of the night. Got back to functionality the next day, and only one other Elder died the way I did. Lesson learned: don't eat unrefrigderated assorted pig organs in foreign countries~

OTHER STUFF THIS WEEK:

-We got a lot appointments cancelled all through out the week. Just one of those weeks I guess. FUN FACT: That day I couldn't do anything and we went on splits, all of our appointments and A-team's appointments fell through. We had some good laughs about our pity-party that night.

-We went hard trying to prepare stuff for our English class. Found some awesome people who have potential for our class AND for becoming investigators

-We visited a man, only for the second time this transfer, to teach him the second lesson. He ended up understanding and listening to everything really well and we were able to commit him to baptism, along with a soft baptismal date! He's a little unique and has a lot of age on his hands but he's got the desire to learn, go to church, and act. Hopefully we can continue meeting with him and prepare him well~

-We had interviews with Mission President this week. It was more insightful and uplifting than most. Excited for next transfer!

General Conference was AMAZING!! I had written down questions beforehand on things I wanted to know/learn from General Conference and I felt like the majority of them were answered pretty clearly. My biggest one was "How can I love better and more like the Savior?". I was surprised when I realized that the entire theme of that conference seemed to all focused on love. The idea of "ministering" really stuck with me; teaching by the individual, according to needs, in unification, and with a single desire to follow the Savior Jesus Christ. I also received the inspiration that I ought to expand my spiritual capacities by searching for what it is I need to improve or give-up in order to feel the Spirit more strongly. So many more answers, so many more thoughts, but no time to list it all. Keep looking through the conference talks, and come up with personal questions of your own to receive personal revelation!

Gotta go, buh bye~

-Elder Metcalf

1-3) Our P-day Adventures at a depressing zoo 

MORE PICS

                                                                              1-2) MISTAKES.

eating pig parts:

IT'S 봄 TIME BABY

봄 "bom" is Korean for spring, and "IT'S 봄 TIME BABY" has been the catchphrase I invented for my district this transfer. Every year during the winter, stats go down, it gets cold and miserable outside, people get sad, etc. But then, spring time rolls around; the weather outside starts to become okay, there are more people outside to talk to, you're feeling good, the people around you are feeling good, and the miracles start to drip out of the faucet like tap water, preparing for the pandemonium of summer. But right now is the time to get fired up, and start seeing amazing things happen, and so it has begun this transfer and seems to finally be really kicking into gear at the beginning of this week. I'll try my best to fill you in~

 So at the beginning of this transfer, I just wanted to focus on getting the district into a 봄 attitude and perspective. So after firing them up about 봄, we made a goal to look for a miracle every single day, and I have had the privilege of following up on that everyday and getting to hear at least four miracles each night when I call to follow-up. It has been hard this transfer but boy I have been so blessed by this district; their faith is amazing and the things they've seen and accomplished this transfer have made some less-than-great days into great ones. So in this spirit of getting pumped and seeing miracles; I'd like to share a miracle from each team in my district, most of them from the past week or so.

경산 장로 (Gyeongsan Elders)- At the beginning of the transfer had no investigators, This past week, they were able to meet with 3 potential investigators and turn one into a full-time investigator. He has 100% gospel interest and no interest in English (which is often hard to find here in Korea). The investigator wants to meet weekly as well, so they already have their next few appointments set up!

경산 자매 (Gyeongsan Sisters)- Were able to meet an old investigator who, a about a year ago, had been reading the Book of Mormon, received all the lessons, was coming to church, had found that the church was true, and accepted a baptismal date. She fell off the side of the Earth for some reason but recently came back through some searching of old records they were moving the records onto their phone. She still thinks the church is true, and has recommitted to a baptismal date!

수성 자매 (Suseong Sisters)- Got a referral from a member out of nowhere a few days ago. But not just any referral; this referral is a FAMILY (this is legendary stuff in Korean missions; super rare to teach a family). This is the second referral they've gotten this transfer (referrals are also on the less-common side so that's pretty darn awesome).

수성 장로A (Suseong Elders A-Team)- Also got a random referral from a member, just yesterday. A member literally just walked in through the front with a guy as we were greeting everybody and said, "I wanted to give you a referral, here he is". I was too dumbfounded to say anything so Elder Stewart hopped in there, toured him the church, talked to him before and after sacrament meeting and is completely down to meet again. 

수성 장로B (Suseong Elders B-Team)- We have been trying to restart our English class in this area before I even got here and about a week or two ago, we got super serious about advertising and finding people. This last week, we prayed hard to find people to recruit for our class and this last week we found three people last week and one of them was an investigator in our church back when he was in high school. We were also fasting to find a new investigator (mission-wide fast) and we think this old investigator is going to  be our new investigator!

It's 봄 time and the miracles are blooming like the cherry blossoms outside! I know we can always find miracles when we have the faith to seek them and rely on God. 

QUICK SPEED ROUND:

-We played soccer with the entire zone's Elders last P-day in the back of a baseball field because we weren't allowed to play on the surrounding soccer fields for some reason. Super fun. My companion had his face smashed by his glasses and left a good dent in his head. He's doing great now.

-We did a lot of 전도 this week. We had a little more pep in our step from the weather and whatnot. Managed to have a good time walking some streets trying to talk to people in Korean~

-We had Zone Conference this week. It was a ton of fun. We got to do a 전도 activity for 30 minutes, and managed to give away 46 copies of the Book of Mormon and 10 contacts. Great talks, great testimonies, and awesome missionaries (as always)

-I did exchanges with Elder Vongsayo in Gyeongsan. Great missionary. Our time got wrecked because of Zone Conference but we had some therapeutic talks and some good 전도 time.

-We met with our investigator that we met for the first time last week! I think I got him to commit to meeting us at our church next time so we can actually start teaching the man soon~

That's all I got! Have a beautiful week and let your 봄 time shine~~~

-Elder Metcalf

1-4) Elders Soccer P-day in the middle of nowhere; Elder Nations and his sick new scar

1-2) 전도'd super far to a cool bridge by the river earlier this week 3) A peek into what our daily planning is in our house 4) We ran out of food in our house so we took our 72-hour kits' ramen packs. Good thing they don't expire~