New Life

So I don't think I'll have any time to write next week while I'm heading over to the mission home, so I think we can safely consider this my last email as a missionary. (*sad music* *sobbing*) No pressure, right? So I'm going to do something different from the regular weekly update. This week I'm going to start by telling you first about our friend, 김면진 Kim Myeongjin "MJ", who was baptized yesterday on Easter Sunday. 

MJ first met the missionaries 3 years ago here in Busan in the church's neighborhood, not too far away from where his house is. It started out with the missionaries just playing ball and eating together with him but eventually he started receiving the lessons and coming to church. But he felt he wasn't ready for baptism; he still wasn't sure about some things and he wasn't really willing to keep some of the commandments. He still met with the missionaries though, up until he left to go to Australia for about 8 months. And by the time he came back to Korea he had lost contact with missionaries and didn't really think much of it. So a year or so passes and around the same time that our mission had finally finished moving old paper records onto our phones, an elder found his record and decided to call him. So they met for the first time and played a little ball and ate together just like he did when he first met the missionaries. And after awhile the missionaries started asking him more about what he learned back when he first met the missionaries. He remembered all the things the missionaries taught him, not in detail bu enough to remember that they were good and helpful, and how at the time he didn't think he was ready for baptism (and still didn't think so). But that one elder asked him if they could start teaching him the lessons again, just for "practice" and to see if he could start thinking differently about the lessons. And then I transferred in! And we taught him all the lessons again. The only thing is, MJ is a really logical thinker. If he can't see cold, hard evidence for something it's hard for him to accept it. And so we took a pause on the lessons, and we focused solely on faith. And we pulled out ALL the stops to teach him about faith. We used every metaphor and parable we knew. We watched videos that simply summarized and explained things. We even blindfolded him one time for a lesson to teach him how we don't "see" our answers, it takes keen listening and earnest seeking. But most of all, we just taught him that we won't get a witness until after the trial of our faith. Action. And he acted! He started reading the Book of Mormon when we invited him. He started praying. He found a way to come to church on Sundays and started coming when he could. And he finally decided that he'd be willing to receive baptism on the date we decided. Before he was baptized he was very honest in telling us that he still wasn't completely sure about some things, and that keeping some commandments would be hard to agree and live with. But he was also very honest in telling us that he would try. He had the desire and commitment to try his best. And that's faith people! We find out after we test it all, after we put it on the line. There's a million real-life applications to this principle but in it's most simplest: don't knock it 'til you try it. Kim Myeongjin was baptized on April 21st, 2019 on Easter Sunday, the day to represent Christ's resurrection and the reality of eternal life, and now the start of his new life. It was amazing to learn and teach with him, and I know that this is only that start, all he needs to do is keep taking those light steps of faith.

It's been a privilege to serve in the Korea Busan Mission the last two years. It would take more than a weekly email to tell you all the things I've learned or felt but this feels like the epitome of it to me. It's been amazing to witness other's change and conversion. And even more so, to watch my own self change, grow, and convert. I'll share probably my favorite scripture and finish this up. It's in Matthew 16: 24-25. 

"Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it."

I didn't do my work or will for the past two years, it was someone else's (more specifically, God's). I use to be the type of person that really just looked out for themself. Just focusing on me, my problems, my interests. But I've since looked back plenty of times and realized: I wasn't happy. Part of my efforts to personally find out of becoming a missionary was right and if the church was true was really at first just trying to figure out how I could be happy. And I felt that this was a way to find out. I started not really knowing what to expect but with a few things I hoped to accomplish and a promise to try my very best, just like my friend MJ. I lost myself for two years and I can say that I found a lot more than what I had to begin with. I'm still Gavin Metcalf but it feels like a different, more happy, new life. And I know that all it took was the simple act of trying. Keep trying! And if you haven't tried yet, just try it. You'll be surprised what you find~ ^^ 

   

-Elder Metcalf

Time is running out" (no, but really)

HELLOOOOOOO

Okay, being completely honest A LOT of things didn't go too well this week. I mean our plans our usually pretty wrecked but this week's plans felt like a freak of nature compared to some warped schedules I've had in the past. But you know what? THAT'S OKAY! I feel kinda stressed out about our time slipping right through our fingers when I have such little left (hence the quote from Pres. Nelson this conference), but I know that that's nothing I can control. One scripture I heard mentioned two or three times this conference was D&C 123:17 which says... "Let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed." I know I'm coming out swinging with the spiritual nugget for this week but I feel a lot of comfort from this scripture and I thought it might be helpful to reiterate it. Time is ticking but I still have things that lie in my power, I still have things I can do, and I can trust God to keep helping us out. What ever you may be worrying about, just do what you can do and stand in assurance, waiting for His arm to be revealed.

And now for the time you've all been waiting for... THINGS THAT HAPPENED THIS WEEK:

- A member very kindly invited us over to his house for Monday evening. This man's name is 류승동 (Bro. Ryu) and he has become on my list of most respected members of the church that I've met in Korea. I won't give you his whole background (that would take too much time), but I will tell you that he served as the Bishop for the Sujeong Ward (the name of our area before it was merged with two others) for 13 years. And this man is as wise and faithful as it gets. I mostly enjoyed this visit because we had a really mature talk about enduring to the end, and he gave me a lot of advice for after I go home. One of which was very simple: learn or develop your talents, and then use it to serve the people around you, without first asking them "Is there anything I can do to help?". Service keeps us engaged in the work of God, gives us joyful experiences, and deepens our conversion. He talked to me about so many other things but that was just one of the things he shared, I liked it because it was different from the typical advice of just "read your scriptures" or "go to the temple" (which are also very good and important, no hate). He's great. Very thankful for the opportunity we had to visit them.

- We met a man who was "very interested in our church". The twist was... he wasn't. It was honestly one of the more frustrating appointments I've had on my mission. For many reasons that I won't bother going into (because that too will take up a lot of time), it was really a test of patience. He dominated the conversation but after managing to get just a few seconds to speak I asked him if he had any sincere interest in learning about the gospel and living according to it. The answer was NOPE. so I told him we won't be meeting with him anymore. Sometimes we need to be straightforward but it's important to be kind we we have to, because who knows, maybe this guy to have interest later on. Off to find more prepared people~

- We had interviews! In our house! For some reason Pres. Jeong wanted to hit two-birds with one stone with house inspections and interviews. It was interesting... And it was my last interview ㅠㅠ I love my mission president and I was really thankful for the love he's shown me and the advice that he gave me in my last interview.

- We got to meet one of the people we teach, Lee, ate some lunch with him, and then we had a lesson at his workplace. He had some questions that were directly related to the Plan of Salvation so we started introducing all of it to him and he was very intrigued. HOWEVER, he had some questions that we just couldn't answer. And I can't even remember it to be honest; I even remember in the moment that I couldn't really understand what he was asking but I felt like that lack of clarity was partly the Spirit telling me to tell him that his question really wasn't important and in the end wouldn't be very helpful for him either. It sounds really harsh but he took it super well actually! He even said he was "greedy" for demanding answers to such a question haha He's really sincere in his interest, which was refreshing after meeting that other guy earlier this week.

- WE WENT TO AN ISLAND. But it wasn't 영도, it was a place called 가덕도 Gadeokdo. Someone who lives there attends the English class that we teach at in our neighboring area and invited us and the other others to come visit him for the first time ever. We originally weren't going to go but we after being asked by him personally we weren't really in a position to refuse his kind invitation ("I'm sorry, visiting you is not an effective use of time"). And it wasn't super effective for us but it was a good experience, and it was helpful for the Elders that served in that area. They had a really nice talk about the gospel with this man and asked him to start taking the lessons with them so it could turn into a really good teaching opportunity for them!

- And we hitchhiked home! It was a miracle because we didn't have enough money on our cards and we weren't going to be able to keep our schedule. Thanks random fisherman.

- We had family home evening with the youth and it wasn't a disaster but everyone showed up late, they didn't really understand the activity we prepared and didn't really listen to us when we were sharing our message with them. I feel so bad for all the times I didn't listen to my teachers or youth leaders haha I know what it feels like now.. But we still have cool points in their books and we doubled our attendance. Success.

- We met with one of our less-active sisters and she introduced her friend to us! He was super friendly and very willing to talk to us. Member missionary work compared to street proselyting is like night and day in terms of effectiveness. And we got to go watch her receive some Traditional Korean Medicine treatment. It was really similar to chiropractic stuff actually. Not what we were expecting to do that day BUT it was a great opportunity to meet our member and her friend~

- We watched all of General Conference (somehow, with all of our time getting stabbed)! And it was amazing. And we had three people we teach come to watch it at church! 

I'm running out of time! Thanks for reading and writing! Have a great week!

-Elder Metcalf

AND PICTURES

1) A balanced everyday lunch for the Busan Elders (ramen with eggs, PBJ, coco palm) 2) Our english class coordinator Bro. 유재영 Yoo (he's hilarious) 3-6) Island adventures

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1-4) More from the island visit 5) The food we got fed (I don't know what it is either, we just don't ask questions around here) 

AND MORE

1-5) He took us to his house/garden in the middle of nowhere (it was like Tarzan) 6) Hitchhike home with my boy Elder Sperry riding shotgun. I was in the back sitting next to some dead fish.

AAAAAAND MORE

1) Proud dinner we made 2-5) Meeting Sister Gwon and her friend at a traditional Korean medicine place (we got free traditional tea too, and "therapy cats") 

MOOORE

1) We had lunch with a less active member here in our ward. He's studying law at a nearby university right now. 2) The most beautifully distracting part of conference: this guy's well-groomed mustache. I know I'm not the only one who saw it... 

We fasted for 33 hours by accident, ate way too much meat, and hiked a mountain (not in that order)

HELLO!

I'm slowly running out of creativity to name and write these emails so I'm going for the massive clickbait strategy. But it's all stuff that actually happened so at least I'm an honest clickbaiter. Sorry world, you'll only have to deal with this for three more weeks.. Anyway! We're having a fantastic time here in the Busan Mission, in the Busan Zone, in the Busan Ward (this is as Busan as you get). As usual, everyone we're trying to teach is inconveniently very busy but we met the people that we were supposed to meet this week. Our schedule is hectic but it's guided by heaven. And also, my trainee Elder Sperry is an angel. I don't know if I've mentioned that already but he's the celestial companion that everyone wants. Obedient, diligent, happy, humble, makes dad jokes all the time. He's the best. I'm sad I won't be here to complete his training but he's already a legend so there isn't much to train him on. It's a wonderful last transfer for a lot of reasons and he's one of them~

AND NOW, STUFF THAT HAPPENED:

- Last P-Day we went out to 영도 (AGAIN) but this time just for fun. A member was going to be fishing on the South end of the island and wanted us to come watch with his wife (who is someone we're currently teaching). We were down so we took a bus, followed by a train of some sort, followed by a rocky walk on the beach to arrive at the pretty seaside boulder in Busan. They fed us ramen on the rocks and we left shortly after. Beautiful view. The place is called 태종대 Taejongdae.

- We earned the youth's trust by having a super fun scavenger hunt for Family home evening and related it to following the prophet's words and watching General Conference. We hope to have better attendance next time since we're at least 10% cooler now. It was Elder Sperry's idea by the way, because he's just that brilliant ladies and gentlemen.

- HIKING ZONE CONFERENCE. The weather was beautiful and so was the cherry blossom scenery, which called for the perfect time to go up a mountain and be enlightened by our mission's leaders. We talked all about faith this time around and before that we had time to study about it on our own. I like teaching about faith a lot actually because it's the first thing that anyone needs to start living the gospel and finding out if it's true for themselves. And more specifically, I enjoy learning and teaching about ACTION, because faith is nothing is we don't even act on the things we're learning or just passively believe in. I like what it says it Matthew 17:20, "If ye have faith as a grain of a mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you". I don't think gaining faith or exercising it is just a one moment thing but a culmination of our our little acts of faith, which results are apparently seen after a long period of consistent application. It's kinda hard to believe that faith the size of a mustard seed can move a mountain but I know that all the small and simple things we do to try and believe and act are what miracles are made of. We keep trying our best and one day we'll look back and see that our mountain has moved a little. just some of my thoughts on faith~

- I had to go back in to the office twice this week to help with mission financial secretary stuff (because the current financial secretary was unavailable) but the internet was down at the HQ so I actually couldn't do anything. oops. But I got to see a bunch of missionaries on the way; it was nice to say some good bye's before I leave soon. 

- We got a referral from President Jeong! But he originally got the referral from Brother Heo (from the MTC Korean Branch Presidency). He's a professor at a nearby university and he's looking to go to America to work as a professor somewhere in Utah! He needs to take an interview to get a visa and he has to know English pretty well to pass the interview and Brother Heo suggested he get some help from the missionaries (that's us). So President Jeong drive us to the university campus himself to introduce us to the man directly. He's super nice and he looks like he has an awesome family too (hopefully we'll get to meet them). And afterwards he brought us out to dinner and fed us SO MUCH MEAT. We were so full that the next day we didn't even eat lunch. He was very kind to us but the meat was not very kind to our bodies. 

- A less-active member's husband took us out to eat after we helped him translate something his daughter sent him from America. He's not a member and the missionaries have been meeting with him for five-ever and so we've been trying to meet him recently and see if we can "practice" the lessons with him since Elder Sperry is such a young missionary and it's a good opportunity for him to speak Korean. We didn't get to talk to much (because so much) but he seems to like Elder Sperry and I so we might be able to see him again.

- We gave a less-active sister a set of scriptures the other day and she was super happy to get them. She's always on the move (she works as a one-on-one English tutor) and so when she has time between appointments she likes to read. The copy of the Book of Mormon she has is too big so I gave her a smaller size to carry around. And the best part is, she said that she would come to church next week! She's been thinking about it for a while and she finally is going to try coming out again.

- We referred someone a member introduced to us a couple of weeks ago to the missionaries that live in that area (he's the guy who works at a cafe and gives us free smoothies when we visit him). He was super glad to meet the new missionaries and I'm sure they'll be able to meet him outside of work one of these days. 

- We had mission fast this Saturday and Sunday and Elder Sperry and I goofed and started our fast too early. We ate breakfast Saturday morning and didn't eat until 5PM the next day. DON'T DO THIS. It even tells us not to do it in our missionary handbooks so we were dumb but it was full of miracles. We got to visit a family that got referred to us a while back but they've been CRAZY busy. But we contacted them out of nowhere when our schedule was empty and they invited us over. They're super sweet and I might be the last time I see them but its good that they met Elder Sperry so they can continue to meet the elders here after I leave. We also got to meet a man that is usually out of town but came to Busan for the weekend. And we had minimal time to proselyte but during 15 minutes while we were waiting for that man to show up, we walked around a met a super nice guy who gave us his contact. AND we ran home to get to our house on time and all of the subways and transfers lined up to get us home right on time. It was awesome. And I felt so focused and clear the entire time. But I wouldn't do it again, I think we almost died. 

AND THAT"S ALL FOR THE WEEK! Thanks for reading and writing! have a great week! 

-Elder Metcalf

PICS:

 

1-5) Watching fishing last P-day at 태종대 

MORE PICS:

1-5) More pictures from last P-Day (Sister 강명숙 is cooking us ramen while Elder Sperry makes sense of the situation)

EVEN MORE:

                  1-6) Hiking zone conference at 금정산 in Busan. We got to ride the cable car down too.

LAST ONE:

1) Some 빙수 bingsu (Korean shaved-milk-ice thing; its awesome) 2) Adventures in late night 영도 3) Getting ready in the morning 4-5) We got rained on at the very end of our fast, but it still didn't get us down 6) Some one took a picture of us on the bus (we got his contact) 7) A picture of us proselyting on the street, taken by one of our members who was heading to work that morning 

Pretty flowers and many visits to an island

HELLO~

*haha small talk* Okay great let me tell you how the week went!

STUFF THAT HAPPENED:

-We went to 영도 (Yeongdo, it's an island apart of area) on Tuesday to help and visit one of our less active members. She ones a street food stand that sells 붕어빵 (fish shaped street pastries). We helped set her shop with her in the morning we hadn't seen her for a while so she was very happy to see us, and treated my new companion and I to a buffet of 붕어빵. We both ate 6 each, one of each flavor. And they were flaming lava hot because they just came fresh off the grill. We did the rest of our studies for that day in a nearby convenience store and then carried on with the rest of our day. We left with our tongues burnt but with our member's heart touched so it was a success~

- We have to help out our neighboring area's elders over in 괴정 Goejeong every week Tuesday with their English class now! Both the elders there are Korean so they need some native speakers (a.k.a. my companion and I; we are the "English professionals"). And we found a new investigator! He came for the first time that week to their English class but he actually lives in our area so we had an appointment later that week to start the 30/30 program with him. And he's a great guy! He's 29 years old, starting a job driving subways soon but he says his dream in life is to become a good father so I think he found the right people. We'll be meeting him again next week!

- We found another new person to teach this week! He's actually someone that met the missionaries last year and he's actually already read the entire Book of Mormon and somehow all of the Doctrine and Covenants too. So he's go a lot of knowledge already but we're hoping to help him act upon the stuff that he knows.

- A member fed us some expensive meat and ice cream because I'm leaving soon and my companion is brand new. He brought another member from our neighboring area (who happens to be the English class coordinator for the class that we do on Tuesday). The kindness of Korean people does not cease to amaze me. I just wish their love would manifest in other things other than food sometimes because after almost 2 years all this rice that I've eaten is starting to show haha 

- We had a "moldy ham miracle". I'll summarize to save time but we went inside to make dinner one night and the ham that we were going to use was moldy. Determined to use ham for our dinner tonight we got our shoes back on and ran out to find the nearest supermarket selling ham and we ended up going to the supermarket close to our church and we saw a guy that we had said hi to on P-day (we do our weekly shopping there too). We had a short conversation with him after finding our ham and ending up getting his contact information. He just started working there and he's super nice. He lived in Australia for 7 years so he has an Australian accent too. We'll probably see him again today!

- We visited 영도 again to teach Brother Park Myeongho's wife (who's not a member) and the first counselor came too and we had a really spiritual lesson on the Atonement. The first counselor started crying as he was bearing his testimony. And they both came to church the on Sunday! yay happy endings~

- We went to 영도 the next day too! A member fed us lunch and brought us to the old elders' house to pick up a house bill that we needed to give to our office. They're all angels folks, I'm telling ya. 

- We went to 영도 AGAIN the next day to visit a family that invited us over to lunch. They're a SUPER helpful family and they invited us over because Elder Sperry just arrived. He shared an awesome spiritual message with them and they were very impressed with the amount of Korean he knew. That's my boy~

- We had an interactive lesson with our friend 명진 MJ using a blindfold. We took him to the second floor and told him to get to the parking lot without touching anything and only listening to our voices. but the trick was that one of us was leading him the wrong way and one was leading us the right way. I wish I had the time to write out the whole dialogue we had with him but he learned how to find his answers a little more and to put off Satan and doubt. He's still scheduled to be baptized later this month so we'll keep you updated.

GOTTA GO. Sorry to be so brief. Having only a month left still doesn't feel real haha Thanks for reading and writing!

-Elder Metcalf

PICTURES

1-5) P-day adventures last week. It's a really strange and expensive sunglasses store called "Gentle Monster"

MORE PICTURES:  1-3) More strange sunglasses

EVEN MORE:

1-3) The cherry blossoms came out early this week and they were EVERYWHERE in 영도. It was a blessing to go back and forth from there so many times this week I guess 4) Convenience store lunch and studies with Elder Sperry

AND MORE:

1) An ancient sign on our church that I never noticed before (our building was built almost 60 years ago) 2) Our members friend gave us strawberry smoothies when we visited him this week. There is no end to the food that we receive. 3) And he also gave us brownies. THERE IS NO END. 4) The members that took us out to dinner and ice cream earlier this week. We took a picture in Baskin Robbins.