Boolin' in the Boo

The Boo is what we call the 본부 ("bonboo" or in English: headquarters).

It's been busy, is the short summary of this email.

We had at least one meeting every day of the week and for one of those days, we had meetings from 10 to 5. You mix that in with my new assistant training, figuring out how to do things, preparing for the meeting, and other miscellaneous items of office work and you get four dead elders.

But it was fun! I led and prepared like half the meetings and I don't really know what I'm doing yet but being thrown into the think of it was interesting. I felt like I was having an out-of-body experience this whole last week; like I went on autopilot and a different Elder Metcalf switched on and took care of all the fun new responsibilities. It's definitely not the missionary work that I'm used to but it'll get more comfortable from here on out now that the first week ("in-and-out weel", transfers and meetings week) is over. 

FUN FACT: Elder Reiley, the new office clerk and tech elder that came in new with me, counted up the hours of sleep that we missed and we lost at least 15 hours towards all of the stuff that we needed to do for the week. So we actually did 8 days of missionary work this week. And you can bet your buckets that we are going to SLEEEEEEEEEP today (bless up for P-day)

Other small cool things that happened this week:

-Our Asia North Area President, President 최윤환 Choi Yunhwan, visited our HQ in the middle of our meeting and held a short meeting with all of the leaders of the mission. He sat us down and said that he received inspiration to visit us out of nowhere, and then asked us what we wanted to learn. People listed a ton of things and as he began to talk about each one he started to show us how they were actually connected. And the connecting factor was Jesus Christ. He promised us that as we focus ourselves on becoming like Jesus Christ, developing Christlike attributes, the rest falls into place and we become more understanding people. So that was wild. Thanks President 최 for making my crazy week somehow even more crazier. 

-There was a typhoon but it dabbed on out and missed our mission boundaries (sorry to any of the other missions that got hit)

-I met an investigator this week (I bet you didn't think I was able to do real missionary work this week) ! His name is 박진제 Park Jinjeh and he's a real nice fella. He's got a baptismal date already and he's working on getting released from his calling in his other church. We have to teach him really simply because it's hard for him to understand complex stuff a lot of the time but he's totally accepted everything we've taught so far and he agreed to come to church for all three hours next week. 

-Other stuff I can't remember because the week was so jam packed~

That's all for now! The future holds a lot and I'm excited to see what exactly it is. Also pretty excited to do real missionary work this week. Hope we find some eternal homies on the street the next few days. Love ya~

-Elder Metcalf

PICS

1) I helped an elder transfer on my first day and he had 9 boxes to send to his next area (I have no idea why so many) 2) My new companion Elder 김태훈 Kim Taehoon (he is a missionary work FIREBALL) 3) My new tech assistant/office assisant/roommate/cutiepatootie Elder Reiley 4) My other roommate and office assistant Elder 정태경 Jeong Taegyeong (but he's actually Robocop) 

MORE PICS

Forgot to add Elder Jeong

1) My mission president/Korean father President Jeong 2) Us going to go pick up the new trainees at the airport 3) Some tasty food (i don't know what this is) 4-6) Elder Reiley taking on his secret identity and trying to fly away like superman or something 7) Family lunch today at Costco

Stuff HAPPENED

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE EVENTS THAT OCCURRED THE LAST WEEK OF THE TRANSFER:

We worked hard. Sweated. Met investigators. Made two new ones who we're both already good friends with (Lorenzo and Mason Ware). Somehow found the perfect amount of time to plan and clean before the transfer ended. We gave our awesome investigator a baptismal date for early October; he's really interested in hearing about our beliefs and attending church (Daniel, my boy). Lot's of members were met as well. Had a last district meeting with our baller district.  

AND THEN WE GOT WHITEWASHED ㅠㅠ 

Elder Staker is going home and I have been sent to 온천 Oncheon Ward in Busan, working as the President's Assistant in our mission. We packed our packed our bags the night of the call, and left right after church on Sunday to get down to Busan to receive training on how to do my job over here in the HQ (it took a LONG time, and I can't even remember what I was trained on)

Sooooooo, I don't have a lot of time to write because there was so much to do today and there still is a lot to do. This week is going to be wild. Hopefully, I'll have more time next week to recount what actually happened. Alrighty, bye~~~

-Elder Metcalf

1) The BEST WML in the world Bro. Gil (길희근b) 2) Our investigator 김인경 and Elder Staker's recent convert from an old area Bro. Kim 3) Heading to a recent convert's house with our member fellowshipper 김동민

MORE PICS:

                                                                                 The District

No time but we did stuff this week and I got a few pictures to prove it

YO

We had two appointments this morning for P-day and a whole bunch of other errands, so I REALLY have no time to write this time around, so I'll give you the fill-in real quick~

- We met a new investigator for the first time this week and he agreed to come to church the following Sunday! His name is Daniel and he was attending NYU in America but had to come back for mandatory military service (but instead of military, he's working at a voting center as a community service). He had some friends in high school (he attended middle school and high school in America by the way) that were members of the church. AND his neighbors were also members and took him to church one time. He's super cool and we plan on meeting him this week too.

- We met our American investigator, Will, as well. He had A LOT of questions about our church and we were luckily able to answer. He's super respectful to the missionaries and he's WAY into families so we shared a lot of the family-centered things about our religion and he seemed to enjoy it. We're hoping to hook him up with a Book of Mormon next time we meet him (we finally found one to give to him this week).

- We set up an appointment with our Bible studying buds this week but only one showed up. BUT THAT'S ALRIGHT because he was the one who has the most interest. His name is 김인경 Kim Ingyeong, and we taught him like ALL of the commandments and he accepted ALL of them. He also tried fasting while he prayed and studied over the Book of Mormon last week. Unfortunately he said that he was just hungry when he tried (which is hilarious, because it's so him haha) but he's still committed to find the truth. 

- To cover the rest of the week's events we had a TOOOOOOON of meal appointments and my body hates me for it. For some odd reason, both of the congregation's meal appointment schedules matched up to just wreck us out of nowhere for this week. We usually don't have this much so it was pretty strange to have this much out of nowhere. But the members are so nice that it was all that terrible. We're just hoping that we don't have as much so we can have more time to meet some important investigators before Elder Staker goes home. 

That's gonna be it for the week. The next week is the last week of the transfer so it's bound to be CRAZY busy. But it's nice to not worry about the transfer call; since Elder Staker is going home I'm pretty much guaranteed to stay. In finishing, the heat is hot, and the church is still true. Amen~

-Elder Metcalf

1) Elder Staker proselyting to two old men at the same time #whatalegend (FUN FACT: one of them gave him a fan just cause) 2) Just a picture of Elder Staker and I on the way out of the sisters' house (we were supposed to clean it after they whitewashed out apparently, so we did weekly planning and lunch there) 3) Our awesome investigator 김인경 

INTERESTING TITLE (also we ate dog)

Yo, yo, yo everybody~

Yup, we ate dog. It was Elder Staker's first. It was my second time. But apparently I ate it wrong last time because you're ACTUALLY supposed to eat it in the summer. It supposed to be good for your health or something in the season. Also it was tasty. I have no regrets. Sorry fido. 

NOW FOR THE WEEKLY UPDATE. WHAT. DID. WE. DOOOOO.....

- We bought a bunch of Korean stuff to prepare Elder Staker to go back to America. (Only two weeks left...)

- The stars aligned and we got four new investigators this week! Two of them were some fellas we found in our area book that we met this week and were down to meet again (one of those guys wants us to come to his house and do an FHE type thing with his family). One of them was a college student we met on the subway. He's super nice and he's aspiring to become a fashion designer and he's also down to meet again. The last guy was someone Elder Sayer and I met last transfer that took us out for dinner and wants to introduce us to his family (WHOA, another family). So we need to try and figure out how to make that happen; hope that we can set up some appointments with them soon~

- We went back and forth from Busan for MLCM (Mission Leadership Council Meeting?). It's a meeting where all the zone leaders and sister training leaders in the mission meet up and discuss the things that are going well in the mission, the things that we could improve on in the mission, and our mission goals. Our mission is currently trying to get 100 baptisms before the end of the year and we're up to about 20? at this point. We're hoping to just focus on Christ and develop our faith to be able to achieve the goal and one of the basic ideas that we came up with is just to think positively about it. No one's going to want to strive to accomplish a goal if the people around don't even think well about it. So we're going going to focus on PUMPIN people up, showing our faith by actively striving for the goal, and letting people know that they CAN achieve goals. So that was a good constructive meeting. But then we got a bunch of new rules given to us and that was no fun... Oh well.

- We visited a hospital to eat lunch with one of our members (he's a doctor). We were able to help edit some report he had written in English (his English is better than mine actually). And then we went to go visit a less active member who had been stuck in the hospital for awhile. He's doing good; he was grateful that we spent the time to come visit him. Nice people~

- We had our MCM meeting with our ward mission leader over some traditional summer dog soup. He's the actual best. And then while we were eating some dude just said hi to us, thought it was NUTS that some white kids were eating dog in Korea, saw that we were missionaries, and then gave us his number and told us to visit him right after we were done eating. MIRACLES. So we went over there and he wanted us to talk to his son who he mentioned was really into religion. BUT turns out that he's not really into any religions outside of his own. Yup, that happens. BUT. The dad and mom were super interested in who we were and how our church was different and showed a lot of respect to us as missionaries. Our WML did a baller job of talking to the people and explaining our purpose really well too. They left us open to come over again if we wanted to so we'll just have to see next time we're in the area. Turns out you can do missionary work just by sitting down and eating some dog.

- We met with our triplet of friends (an aspiring pastor, a Jehovah's witness, and a less active catholic) who are all studying the Book of Mormon to see if it's true. Only two of them were able to show up and out of the two of them, one made the commitment to try fasting this week as he prays and reads to find out if this stuff is true or not. He's a baller, and we're hoping and praying over here that he gets his answer. 

- Just a small add-on that isn't crazy important but we came up with a bomb spiritual message for the family that we visited with some gummy worms. We gave them each a worm attached to a string and told them to become "fishers of men" by feeding it to the person next to them. It was cute. The kids loved it. Just wanted to share~~~

AND THAT WAS THE WEEK. People were met. Places were walked to (a lot). And sweat was... sweaten? sweated? sweat? It's hot, is point. Loving the work out here and looking for the eternal friends out on the street still. Hope that our bodies don't give out before the end of the summer. Next week is interviews. Catch you next week~~~

-Elder Metcalf

1-2) 보신탕 "boshintang" or other wise known as DOG SOUP (thank you 길희근b) 3) Us in one of our investigators houses (the air con was up SO HIGH, it was fantastic) 4) A bonus picture of me getting slapped in the face by a raccoon a few weeks ago after I gave it the opening to give me a smooch #waituntilafteryourmissiontosmoochpeople #thisiswhatideserve

Your efforts are your's, your results are God's

HELLO EVERYONE~

It's still hot in Daegu (suprise).

But aside from the unavoidable heat, the week has been well. Busy as always! Here's the fill:

- PJ came back to Korea to take a test and then head back to China sometime this week. I thought we already said our goodbye's last time but it was nice to see him one last time. Hope to see him sometime after the mission. Love ya PJ~

- One of Suseong's eternigators, Harry, got in touch with us and this time he REALLY wanted to know the truth of the Book of Mormon. So he invited us over to his house with another member and he asked us each to share how we gained our testimonies of the Book of Mormon. It was SUPER cool to hear all three of us share some really sincere testimony, share the truth that we know, and then recommit him to read the Book of Mormon and ask God if it's true. But he had already committed himself to reach it front to back before we even finished talking. It might take some time but we hope he gets his answer ^^ BUT he has been an investigator for a really long time in this area, so we'll just have to sit and wait...

- Every Tuesday we go out to the edge of our area and teach a man named Keith. Keith is a really unique investigator. He's from America, he's had a handful of careers in life (rancher, military, lawyer, writer, English teacher, etc.), and he is also very interested in religion. I could go on about him but the point is: this man has some wisdom to share every now and then and the thing I wanted to share this week is one of the thoughts he gave to us during our spiritual conversation. He told us, as we were talking about the details of our work as a missionary that: "Your efforts are your's, your results are God's." And after thinking about it for a bit, I feel like that statement is true. We are tools in the hands of the Lord. And as his tools, we do the direct work. BUT it is Him who guides us, and it is His hands who use us as the tools. Like a doctor using a scalpel in a surgery, you can say the scalpel did all the work as the necessary tool but the doctor is the one who performed the procedure. He's the one running this show, and I hope I can always remember that.

- We taught both of our ward's recent converts this week (이진산 Lee Jinsan, 문민식 Moon Minshik). They are SOOOO good. They just accept everything and want to endure to the end. Still trying to figure out a way to teach 이진산's mom though. She's not always there when we visit so it's a tricky business... Hopefully more later!

- We got two new investigators this week! Erik is a fella that we found through our Area Book. He met the missionaries exactly once, about 4 years ago, and then moved to China. We called him sometime last month, and he had just moved back to Korea #perfecttiming #miracles So we met him this week! We gave him the first lesson and he's down to hear more. Our other investigator is actually an American, and his name is Will Kowalsky. Elder Sayer and I met him for the first time last transfer on the way to an appointment. He is super interested in religion and mentioned multiple times how important it is for families to have a foundation in Christian religion. He was down to meet us but since we had been so busy at the beginning of this transfer, we hadn't met him until this week. We taught him the first lesson as well and he's down to hear more too!

- Zone Conference happened here in Daegu with our neighboring zone in 창원 Changwon. It was my first zone conference as a zone leader and it was held in our zone so it was HECK busy. Being a zone leader isn't the funnest, by the looks of it so far. But it all went well. And I got to see pretty much all of my old companions. I even got to see my follow-up trainer Elder Seely and the recent convert we taught in Gyeongsan 박상민 Park Sangmin. It was a grand reuniting. I love those guys. 

- We taught one of our progressing investigators 박성호 Park Seongho this week and we finally got around to asking him to be baptized. He's already reading the Book of Mormon and praying on a regular basis but his only problem is church. He refuses to wake up to come to church on Sundays haha He said that ever since he was young, he's taken Sundays to sleep and rest all day, nothing else, so because he's done it for such a long time he says he can't change now. And this is a legitimate excuse here in Korea folks. So we gotta figure out a way to commit him to come to church without pushing him away with "pressure". More on him later!

- We got dumped by one of our other progressing investigators, 김민식 Kim Minshik ㅠㅠ He told us he can't come to church anymore because he doesn't want to make relationships with people, he has no time and he doesn't really want to change yet. So that was super sad. He doesn't really want to meet with us anymore either because he needs time to "study himself". We just asked that he keeps trying to pray and read the Book of Mormon to make a relationship with God before he completely gives up. Hopefully we'll be able to keep some contact with him as time goes on~

- We had a summer ward activity. CULTURAL FUN FACT: Every summer there is a period of time where it is the very hottest and in this time period there are three stages. We've already passed the first stage, and we hit the second stage this week. Each stage includes a thing you're supposed to eat in the hot weather to make you more healthy, and the menu this time around was 삼계탕 samgyetang (chicken soup). Each bowl has it's own miniature, steamed chicken and it's darn TASTY. So we all ate those together as a ward and even some of the military members came to give it a try. EXTRA FUN FACT: the third stage is eating 보신탕 boshintang (dog soup). Our WML is looking to maybe take us out for it next week. DOG SOUP ROUND #2 (maybe)

That was the week! We're still staying alive in the heat and trying to find the prepared people. And we're dipping into August which should mean that the heat will start peaking soon and dying off (thank goodness). Hope you all are staying cool in America and such. Don't eat the heat~

- Elder Metcalf

1-4) We went to a raccoon cafe for a P-day last week. It's cafe. With raccoons running around in it.

                                                             1-6) More P-day pics~

1-3) We did a teaching practice as part of our presentation in zone conference. We asked them to propose to each other (our topic was "extending commitment invitations") 4) Also I forgot to mention that I had Elder Smith on exchange with me in Suseong this week. We taught our investigator about Joseph Smith by showing him a movie.

1-2) PJ! 3) 박상민 Park Sangmin and all four of the missionaries that witnessed his conversion