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Monday, May 25, 2015

Week 17 - The Weak-Minded

Title - Obi-Wan is doing Jedi Mind Tricks on the Stormtroopers, and he calls them "weak-minded".  

Also, I asked him about "sticker-boarding" from his last email... 
We just put questions like "What's most important to you in you life?" and then we have different categories for them to choose like "family", "free time", and "money".  It's just stuff like that. 

And, a little bit more about the bath house.  Still have lots of questions on this one.  :)

The bath house (목욕탕) was really interesting.  It was weird though.  It's just like this big room with like showers, pools, saunas, and giant bathtubs in it.  It was weird.  It was really refreshing though.
Not sure what this picture is about... but he didn't send us any until we asked, so this is what we got.  
Not sure who the glasses belong to at all.  :)


This week has been pretty sweet!  We're starting to find more people to teach which is choice!

Anyways...

Last Monday we got the chance to confound the wicked.  Elder Jeong and I were walking back to the church at the end of P-day to get our groceries that we had left in the fridge and Elder Jeong says hello to some guy and the guy told us not to try and jeondo to him.  Then he started talking to us and it turned out that he was fluent in English so I talked with him in English and Elder Jeong talked with him in Korean.  So we start talking and the guy kept telling us that he was a professor of philosophy and all this stuff.  He told us that he couldn't believe in our church because we didn't believe in the Apostle's Creed or something.  I don't even know what that is.  Anyways, he kept asking us questions and then Elder Jeong would just pull out a scripture from the Bible saying that what this guy was saying was false (infant baptisms, the trinity, etc.).  Then the guy would remind us that he was a professor of philosophy again and say that he didn't want to argue but then he would ask us another question in an attempt to shake our faith and then Elder Jeong would disprove him yet again.  So yeah, he was started to get mad and so I just told him that I didn't want to argue with him later and that we just wanted to share our message with him and asked if he could meet later.  He said no and I gave him a calling card with a picture of Jesus on it in case he wanted to call him later and he said "I cannot carry this".  I said that it was just in case he needed help or something.  He refused to carry it and then he left.  Why wouldn't he want to carry around a picture of Jesus...?  Experiences like this just really help me to remember that this is the true Church.  They draw near to God with their lips but their hearts are far from him.  Anyways, yeah, that was a really cool experience.  We confounded him.

On Wednesday we had a district meeting and afterwards Elder Jeong and I had appointments with two really good potential investigators.  The first was a referral that we got named 경진수(Gyeong Jin-Su).  He's in his forties about and has a wife and a three-year old daughter and is really good at English.  Anyways, we had planned to teach him about the Restoration but we decided to follow the promptings of the Spirit and ended up teaching about missionary work and all of the sacrifices that we make as missionaries.  It was a really good conversation.  I felt the Spirit really strongly.  At the end he agreed to be baptized on June 16.  He was going to come to church on Sunday with us but he had something come up.  He is a really good person though so hopefully we can meet him again.  The other guy we met was 현진효(Hyeon Ji-Hyo).  Elder Jeong met him last week after we were approached by that drunk guy.  Anyways, so we met him again and we had a pretty good conversation.  I taught him the first part of the Restoration but apparently what I said didn't make any sense because I kept going back and correcting myself in the middle of the sentence.  Anyways, so Elder Jeong had to go over a lot of what I already said, but the lesson still went well.

On Thursday, we had 12-Week follow-up.  So as a new missionary, we all have to do a 12-week training program where we learn the basics of missionary work during our first two transfers.  Since we just finished our first transfer, we had 12-week follow-up to talk about how it went and to give us further training.  The training was really good.  I got to hear a lot of things that I needed to hear about the significance of my calling as a missionary and how important it is to do all I can to always be teaching and testifying.  It was really good.  Plus, I got to see all of the people from my group that came to Seoul with me and I got to tell them about the story when I threw up at a member's house about a month ago.  Good times.  So after the 12-week follow-up, I felt myself become even more determined to do the work and found myself talking with people and wanting to help them.  It was pretty awesome.

On Friday we got to go to a member's house on base for dinner.  It was the Hill Family!  They are the ones who I couldn't meet because I didn't have my foreign card (Classic Elder Huckvale).  Anyways, that was really good.  We got to eat American-made hamburgers!  Choice!

On Sunday I had a really cool experience with making the Sabbath Day holy.  Our focus this month as a zone is finding out how we can make the Sabbath Day more holy for ourselves so that we can help our investigators make it a better experience. 

So on Sunday morning, I decided to devote most of my personal study time to reading Jesus the Christ which was really great, it helped me focus on the Savior and the Atonement.  Then during Sacrament meeting, I read from 3 Nephi 11 (When Jesus comes to the Nephites) which was awesome.  I was able to feel the Spirit and was able to get more out of Sacrament as I prepared to partake of it.

So yeah, being a missionary is awesome!  This week especially, I have found that through prayer and faith, God will help us to do amazing things and help us to overcome our weaknesses.

Till Next Week!

Love and Miss Y'all!

Called to Serve!

Love,

Elder Huckvale 

Monday, May 18, 2015

Week 16 - He Will Be With You... Always

Title - D thinks it's a play on "the Force will be with you... always."

Hello Everyone!  
 
This week has been pretty crazy with so much going on.  It was fun though, we did a lot of stuff.
 
On Wednesday, I went street-boarding/sticker-boarding for the first time!  It was pretty intense.  A few weeks ago, Elder Jeong and I made these boards with a question on them and then different options that you can choose from and you like put a sticker on the option that you want.  So we went to a place called 왕십리(Wangsimni) and then stood on the street-corners and went around asking people to put stickers on our board.  Then we would try to see if we could meet with them later.  Most people said no, but it was still pretty fun.  We were able to contact a ton of people when we did this.  
 
Thursday was really fun.  The BYU Wind Symphony came to Korea to put on a special concert to try and improve the Church's image in Korea.  So all of the missionaries were able to go including some of the Seoul South missionaries.  I got to see Elder Eads and Elder Stapp who I was with at the MTC which was really cool.  And the concert was awesome!  The BYU Wind Symphony is so good!  They did the concert with a choir of foreigners that live in Seoul and they weren't as good as the symphony but they sang this really sick gospel song about being a witness or something.  I don't remember. So anyways, the concert ended at like 10:30.  Luckily, President Christensen cleared it in advance but it felt super weird being out on the streets after 10:30 and we didn't get home until like a quarter to 12. Elder Jeong and I took a less-active from our ward named 이영히 (Ee Yung-Hee).  It was really hard for me to go with Ee Yung-Hee because he is really old and really slow so I was kind of complaining in my mind when we had to take him everywhere, especially because we were already really late getting home.  Elder Jeong, however, was a really good example to me of showing love for others and having charity for them.  He helped Ee Yung-Hee to go up and down the stairs, holding his hand as he did it.  It was really awesome for me to see that as a young missionary and have a stronger desire to truly help and love those that we teach.  Elder Jeong is such an incredible example to me.


 Running into Elder Eads (his MTC Companion, who's in the Seoul South Mission) at the Symphony


 
On Friday, I went on exchanges with our new district leader, Elder MacFarland, which was pretty fun.  We had a pretty interesting experience when we were jeondoing on the streets.  Elder MacFarland started talking to this drunk guy that was smoking outside of a restaurant and the guy invited us in and wanted to buy food for us.  We had already eaten Taco Bell, so we didn't eat anything, but we still went in.  When we went in, we sat down at this table with a bunch of rich Korean guys who are all really high up at Hyundai.  They were all drunk, but it was cool because it was really funny.  They tried to give 소주(Korean whiskey) but we told them that we didn't drink alcohol so then they just bought us Coke.  It was really funny.  So then we left the restaurant and gave some of them Book of Mormons and our calling cards.  During the rest of the exchange, Elder MacFarland and I talked a lot being a missionary and learning Korean and stuff which was really good.  He's heading home at the end of the next transfer.  
 
On Saturday, after English class, we ended the exchange and then Elder Jeong and I jeondoed for the rest of the day.  While we were walking home, Elder Jeong and I started talking to some guy sitting and waiting and then this drunk foreigner walked up to us and started swearing at us.  It was weird.  We just kind of walked away after a few minutes and went back home.  While we were on the bus, though, Elder Jeong talked to this guy that had a ton of gospel interest!  It's really incredible to know that God blesses us after He tests us.  
 
On Sunday we didn't really do much.  The office missionaries had a baptism that we went to right after church which was really good.  It's always really good to be reminded why we're doing this work and that baptisms are possible, even in Korea.  After that, Elder Jeong and I went to a dinner appointment with the Hills family (Different Hills than last time).  So that was pretty fun.  
 
Serving a mission is such a blast!  I am learning so many things that I know will help me so much in the future, most importantly of all is that I cannot do anything without the help of my Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ and His Atonement.  
 
Love and Miss Y'all!
 
Called to Serve!
 
Love,
 
Elder Huckvale

 Making authentic fried rice.  (Waiting for him to come home to make us some!)
Stormtrooper posing with "foolish" (says Elder Huckvale) Elder Bean.  :)

Monday, May 11, 2015

Week 15 - Chad...Now That's a Name I've Not Heard in a Long Time (Part I)

Title - In Star Wars (duh), Luke is searching for Obi-Wan Kenobi (without knowing who he is).  Obi-Wan had been going by the name "Ben" for years and years... Luke is trying to find him and he's asking around.  He runs into "Ben" and asks if he knows who "Obi-Wan" is, and he ("Ben") responds, "Obi-Wan (Ben), now that's a name I've not heard in a long time".  Make sense?  Alluding to the fact that on our Mother's Day phone call, we all kept saying "Chad!!!!" and he's not used to hearing that anymore... he's only used to hearing "Elder Huckvale".

Note from mom - We got to talk to Elder Huckvale on Mother's Day!  It was so amazing!!!  He sounded AWESOME and he's loving Korea!  He hasn't eaten anything weird - we asked (no pig intestines or squid... yet!); he sleeps on a mat on the floor; he has a regular toilet not just a whole in the ground (important thing to know!); and is just having a great time!  Also, we asked him if all the Korean's loved him because of his red hair, and he said that they don't believe that he's truly American because he's not tall.  (I guess to be American you have to be tall.  Oh well.)  We had him do a giant family prayer in Korean at the end of our phone call and it was so cool!  We didn't understand any of it, except for the "Jesus Christ's" and "Amen", but it didn't matter!  The spirit was still there and so strong!  Love our boy!!!

Happy Mother's Day folks!

I got to call my family an hour ago!  Noice!

Anyways, this week has been awesome! I made it past my first transfer!  Yeeeeeah.

Alright, let's start with last Tuesday when we had P-day and my family probably thought that I was dead...

We have an elder and a sister from our zone leaving this week to go home and the sister couldn't have a zone activity on Monday because she had to go do something else before she could go home so we got permission to have P-day on Tuesday.  It just also happened to be a Korean national holiday known as Children's Day.  I think that it's like Mother's Day or Father's Day but for children. I think they have it because kids are in school like all the time so they don't really get to spend much time with their families during the school year.  So anyways, we went to a massive park for our zone activity and there were so many people there it was crazy.  We just kind of like played games and ate chicken.  It was pretty nice to go out and be in the sun playing games and stuff, but I got roasted because I didn't put on any sunscreen.  Classic Elder Huckvale, when are you going to figure out this whole sunburn thing.  So after that we taught English class and all of the people there were really worried about me.  I was all like "I'm okay, this isn't the worst it's been.  It's all good."  They were still worried, but it's cool.

On Thursday I went on exchanges with my district leader, Elder Bean, which was pretty fun.  It's always good to see some different ways and to hear some different thoughts about doing missionary work.  
On Friday, Elder Jeong and I met up with this 13-year-old kid who we met a few weeks ago after one of our appointments.  His name is 이준웅 (Ee Junung) and he brought his friend with him.  We talked with a little bit to get to know them and then we showed them the Restoration video.  It went pretty well.  After the video we asked them if they wanted to be baptized on June 14 and 이준웅 agreed but his friend said he didn't know.  We got our first baptismal date though!

On Saturday, the Young Women in the stake did like this fundraiser thing in the parking lot of the Sindang church building where I'm serving.  It was pretty awesome.  They were selling food and clothes and stuff to raise money for the young women program.  There was a kid there who was like 7 or 8 years old who was trying to sell his Yu-Gi-Oh cards.  He was a really good salesman.  He kept trying to tell the missionaries that they could give them to boys when we are proselyting as a pass-along card.  I didn't buy any but some of the other elders did.


Then earlier today, I got to call home which was awesome!  It was weird that they called me by my first name.  I love my family so much!

This week has been great!  I am really beginning to notice that as Elder Jeong and I do all that the Lord has asked of us, that we can accomplish amazing things!  We're shooting for 10 baptisms by the end of my second transfer!  If we remain faithful and diligent, it can be done!  Anything is possible with the help of the Lord!

Love and Miss Y'all!

Called to Serve!

Love,

Elder Huckvale

 Seoul.
 Macy asked if he was sleeping on the floor and to see his bed... so here ya go!
 His apartment.  They hang their clothes on those racks to dry.

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Week 14 - He's No Good to Me Dead

(So, first off know that we didn't hear from Elder Huckvale on Sunday night, when we normally do, so we "may" have assumed he was dead or something.  :)  We finally heard from him Monday night - which would be his Tuesday lunchtime.  Apparently they had to bump PDay a day. Good to know he's not dead.  :) )
 
Title - What Boba Fett says to Darth Vader when he's about to put Han Solo in Carbonite. 
 
Also, I asked Elder Huckvale about his best and worst things this week... and he said his best was sharing his experience and testimony about Joseph Smith (see below) and his worst... nothing too bad.  He said the rejection is hard to deal with, but there was no "worst" so I guess we're doing ok.  :)
 
 
Well then it's a good thing I'm not dead!
 
Sorry everyone that I didn't get my e-mail out yesterday.  I think that my family was a little worried.  Anyways, yeah, we had p-day today instead of yesterday because one of the sisters in our zone is going home this week and she couldn't do a zone activity yesterday because she had to do something.  So...we had p-day today.  Yeah.
 
This weekend is the end of the transfer!  I hear that once you make it past your first transfer you'll be able to make it your whole mission.  So yeah that's pretty cool.  
 
Anyways, this was a great week.  My testimony has grown a ton this week, especially my testimony about Joseph Smith being a prophet and the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  
 
So let's start with Monday...
 
Somebody tried to Bible-bash us!  Last Monday we had an appointment in the middle of the day so we got permission to move our p-day to the night time.  So we headed out to a park in 왕십리 (Wangsimni) to meet one our investigators, 변정용 (Bieon Jeongyong), who hangs out there with other old guys and plays games.  We also had an appointment later in the evening in the same area so we were just hoping to catch 변정용 and some other people that we've been teaching at the park.  So we weren't able to meet with him, because, as in the past, he was busy playing a game when we arrived, so we just taught other old guys at the park.  While Elder Jeong was teaching this one guy, a girl from another church walks up and just stands next to him waiting for him to finish talking.  She was waiting for like 5-10 minutes and then she just interrupted him and asked him if he believes in living apostles and whatnot.  He of course said yes and then she started talking about how apostles had to see the resurrected Christ.  When she said that Elder Jeong asked her where that was in the scriptures and she didn't know...pssshhhhhh.  She was getting really mad.  She never even told anybody what church she was from.  She just made a fool of herself.  Then another girl from her church came up and pulled her away.  Opposition!
 
Anyways, on Tuesday some guy yelled at us from down the street to give him a Book of Mormon after we had given one to another guy and were walking away.  We thought he was pretty golden but we haven't been able to meet with him...so yeah, I don't know.  The other guy that we gave a Book of Mormon to was a homeless guy and some of the other elders who were following a ways behind us saw him using it as a pillow to sleep on.  Yeeeeaaaaah.
 
So anyways, nothing really happened on Wednesday, but on Thursday we had dinner with the Day family who are American members.  Choice!  Before we went there, Elder Jeong and I decided that we were going to talk about Joseph Smith and sharing the gospel with our non-member friends.  So the dinner was good and then we did the spiritual message.  So I talked about Joseph Smith, recited the First Vision, and then Elder Jeong gave his part of the message about sharing the gospel.  Afterwards, I started to bare my testimony about Joseph Smith.  I told this memory I had from when I was in the MTC.  I remember waiting for a devotional to start, and I was just looking around and I saw all of these young men and women who were preparing to go to every corner of the world and I thought to myself:  This is all because of the inspired question of a young boy.  When I said this, I began to cry.  I could feel the spirit so strongly.  It was awesome.  I know without a doubt that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and through him, the true gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was restored through him.  
 
On Saturday, one of the AP's in our mission, Elder Perry, called me up and asked me if I would be willing to bare my testimony in church because it was Fast Sunday the next day.  I gladly said yes.  I had also felt that I needed to bare my testimony on Sunday previous to that phone call.  So on Sunday, I went up and bore my testimony and it was awesome.  I bore my testimony about Joseph Smith and about God loving all of His children and wanting them to receive His true gospel.  The members in our ward really struggle with missionary work, so I was hoping that I could help to encourage them.  After I went up to the stand, Elder Jones (who lives in our house with us) came up to the stand as well, followed by Elder Perry, and Elder Jeong.  It was so awesome!  Elder Perry told me afterwards that the ward was really moved and that they were saying that it was one of the best sacrament meetings they've had in a while.  Elder Jeong and I are really going to put a lot of effort forth this next transfer so that we can bring the ward together and also get them excited to do missionary work and work with us.
 
I am having so many incredible experiences and am growing so much!  As I have come to realize my weaknesses on this mission, I have been able to humble myself before God and been able to strengthen my relationship with Him through prayer.  
 
This is the true, restored gospel of Jesus Christ.
 
Joseph Smith was a prophet of God.
 
This is the Lord's work on this earth.
 
Called to Serve!
 
Love and miss y'all!
 
Love,
 
Elder Huckvale
 Gwang Hwee Moon Gate

 "They're regrouping" (says Elder Huckvale).  Then he told us that (unfortunately) Buddhism shares the same "logo" as the Nazis.
Taco Bell before English class.