Week 58

November 19, 2017

Well you guys should all be very excited! i am going to the place in Korea that every one knows in the whole world! Gangnam!! Haha yes indeed the super famous song Gangnam style by Psy. This should be interesting! 

Well this week was great lots of ups and downs but that's life. I say a great quote at a members house last night that said "life is not about waiting for the storms to pass, but learning to dance in the rain." i believe that and want to get better at dancing in the rain! 

So Monday was the best best Pday ever!!!! We played card games all day as a district! I taught them hand and foot and village idiot and speed and it was a blast! super fun! and then for family home evening we had volleyball night! The people invited this time were a lot better! like a ton!! So it was way fun, and we destroyed our competitors! It was a super super awesome fun day and it felt just like my life at home! Sports and card games with people I love! 

Tuesday was an adventure. We had two of the most spiritual lessons I have ever had! One was with a fairly new person. We had met him once before and he showed very little interest or potential. We had given him a Book of Mormon and decided to give him a second chance. When we met he talked about how he had read an entire Mormon wiki online and started the Book of Mormon and was really interested! He even asked if he could bring his friends next time we met! It was awesome and we taught him a short version of the restoration! 

Wednesday we had an EARTHQUAKE!!!!! My first one ever happened as a missionary in Korea, who would have thunk? Well I would have died had it been serious. we were in the middle of district meeting and the phone alarm rang and the earth started to shake and everyone in our district (including the 70 year old senior couple) hit the floor and got under the table super quick. Meanwhile I just sat there and had no clue what was going on because I had never felt something like this. Well it was only a 5.5 so nothing to worry about Mom, I'm fine. 

Thursday was a fun day! We had a service activity on the base and we served a free thanksgiving meal! It was fun and we got to meet a lot of cool people! I was the photographer so I just walked around taking pictures! We served with some return veterans from the Vietnam war. They were amazing. They held themselves up and they were so proud and they had been through very hard times and they were awesome men. Serving in a military branch has brought me a much much greater appreciation for our servicemen.

We also had a great meal with a amazingly sweet lady and it was a lot of fun! 

Friday and Saturday were very tough... but after all the pain came one of the best nights of my mission! 

So just to sum up the days we had 8 out of our 9 appointments cancel, and they canceled when we got there, so it was not fun. But on Saturday we had a Thanksgiving meal with some awesome members! They had lived in America for 26 years and they wanted to make us feel like we were back at home! They were amazing members and like translated for conference and they met the prophets and they raised two awesome daughters! They even lived in Vegas! It was a fun fun night! 

Sunday was my last day and it was bitter sweet. I am always sad to leave, but its getting easier, plus I didn't have the opportunity to stay as long as I liked. Hopefully I'll go to my next area and be there to stay! 

So I wanted to end with the other lesson we had on Tuesday. It was with Won Jung Ho our super awesome investigator scheduled to be baptized. He asked the question "have we ever given something up for the church?" Of course! our lives for 2 years. We started talking about the things we gave up to be here and the things we are missing out just for him. There was a lot of tears and the spirit was so strong. It really helped him and he has come a long way. He texted us the night before church that he had been reading Moroni 10, watching the video about Thomas S. Monson and the bible videos. He then said see you at church. He is progressing so well and really changing and his heart is becoming soft and open. 

I spent the first year of my mission outside every day for 10 hours with no one to teach. This transfer I got to spend almost every day inside teaching. It was amazing and this man that I have been teaching for the past 12 years had opened my eyes and brought to my eyes the light and the change the gospel can bring in someone! 

Elder Goon 

Week 57

November 12, 2017

Oh kay I am sorry that recently I have been super bad about emails, I'll do better from now on I promise. 

So to start this week... we had the first annual (and probably last) TURKEY BOWL!!! Our mission has some pretty dang good athletes and me and myself put together a "council" and drafted players and teams and we all got together and played a big game of football to celebrate Thanksgiving, it was so fun and reminded me of the good old times where me and my 5 best friends would go out and play 3 on 3 and my team would always win ;) but I was more than exhausted after!!!!!

Nevertheless, Monday night we had a huge miracle. So every Sunday we have a dinner with all the single unaccompanied military people. I have gotten really close with a member named Troy. As we were walking and talking on the way to the dinner last Sunday a coworker of his stopped him and said I have been impressed my whole life with your religion, can I have a pamphlet or something and learn more. Well he said...actually... (as he turned and looked at me haha ;)) 

So we met with him on the next day Monday and He. Is. Amazing. I learned that God really is preparing people and we just have to be examples in everything we say and do and always be ready to share. Just so you can see how amazing this man is he said these few things. 

1. The thing that impresses me most about your church is your ban on alcohol 

2. I think society is letting the family principles and traditions fall and that's not OK.

3. I always was confused on why Christians have the belief that Christ performed all these miracles when he was on the earth, but haven't seen divine intervention since. I am happy to learn that somewhat recently God did reach out again to Joseph Smith. 

I learned a lot from him and felt so good meeting with him and it was amazing for me to have met a prepared son of God. And he brings up great points... and really the gospel is simple and makes sense. God hasn't changed and he is still her for us and has a church and a prophet and a plan for us. All we have to do is read the Book of Mormon, pray about it, and when we get the answer that it is true be baptized and don't give up.   

Anyways on Tuesday and Wednesday we were super busy with doing language evaluations with the new missionaries in our district. We also taught Korean class like always on Tuesday. Nothing special on those days. 

Thursday we had Zone conference and it was awesome! I had one of the best spiritual experience I have ever had in my life while watching the new #lighttheworld video. I was just watching Jesus Christs' life people and I realized how much he has lifted me, and how much more he will lift me and all that he has done for me so that I can lift myself to a higher purpose and a higher meaning. 

Friday I had to go and renew my foreigner card because I have almost been in Korea for a year. That was 6 hours of my day because the place I had to go was so far away!! But when we left at 10 in the morning it was not raining... after 2 hours on the subway it was a tiny bit sprinkling, after my appointment it was a little wetter, and then after another two hours home it was coming down hard.... we had about a 400m sprint to the bus stop... we geared up and took off and not one second after we stepped out of the subway station a literal hurricane hit!!! It was absolutely crazy and it was blowing signs on the street over and trash cans and people and me and Elder Perry just kept sprinting and by the time we got to the bus stop I was drenched and it was fun...

But after wards we met with 원정호. (won jung ho) and had one of the best experiences on my mission!  He is our best progressing investigator and is scheduled to get baptized in the coming weeks. HE IS AWESOME. We had such an amazing lesson that really made him have a strong desire to get baptized. It was a great lesson and he is an amazing man! We taught tithing and fast offerings and he committed to follow the commandments... but he was nervous because he had to do it forever. And isn't that the question of all time? Can I keep going? Is it worth it? Is there really something at the end? Can I do this? 

YES you can! We can do it and all God asks is that we keep trying. Just keep pressing forward no matter how imperfect we feel or how many mistakes we make along the way. Just keep trying and that is the hope the Gospel brings! When we keep trying, no matter how many times we fall, eventually we will walk back home and be with God again. I was able to testify of this to him, and I had a great witness myself. I distinctively remember as I said these words, I took a second to take a breath and in that short second of silence I heard in my ear "the words you say are true" and then an absolute warmth and peace come into the room. It will be something I never forget. 

After the storm, comes the light and the peace and the calm. 

Saturday was awesome. The sisters had a baptism and 원정호 (won jung ho) came to that because he wanted to see what he was getting himself into. It was so beautiful and such a spirit filled morning! 원정호 (won jung ho) had a great time and was even more impressed and he said something so great! We were going to take a picture and I asked if he wanted to step in and he said "No I'll just wait for my baptism next week." My heart was so happy and it was a great moment! By the way he did end up getting in the picture! 

And Sunday was fun, we had a huge meal with all the young single adults in the Korean ward and it was a real good time!!!! 

Man this week was awesome and a mission is great! Seriously this is the best time ever! 

Have a good week and see you later

Elder GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON

Week 56

November 5, 2017

Well this week was super super fun!!!! 

It started with the best Pday of my life!!!!!!!!! 

It wasn't Pday but it sure felt like it!!! because we received our smart phones and attempted to set them up but unfortunately after about 20 minutes of usage the phone stopped working and we were stranded. So basically this whole week was spent trying to get them fixed up to the point where we could start using them again. So essentially this week we had to do missionary work with no phones... Let me just say that I have so much respect for all the missionaries that ever had to serve without phones on their missions. I truly believe that technology is a gift from God that helps us to do missionary work. 

But after that fail we played volleyball on base with a military family for family night, and these people came and challenged us. They were good.... but not good enough.... me and my companion and Sister Patrick went SOOOO hard and we beat them. It was basically a 3v6 because the teammates didn't know how to play volleyball. We were hitting crazy hard and my jump serve came out and it destroyed them!!! So fun!!!

Tuesday we had a meal appointment with a member. he took us to a Brazilian steak house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was so so good and I ate soo much. He challenged me to a contest and I won! Lets go. then desert was a super super awesome baked pineapple in cinnamon. SO DOPE.