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Monday, December 28, 2015

Week 48 - Chad...Now That's a Name I've Not Heard In A Long Time (Part 2)

Note - notice the "Part 2" in the title?  There might even be a Part 3 and Part 4 to this one in the future.  :)  This will be for any time we get to "talk" with Elder Huckvale.  And let me just say... skyping with Elder Huckvale was the BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT I could ever get!!!!  It was AWESOME and he was so HAPPY and AMAZING!!!!  What an honor to be his parents!  He is loving what he's doing, and that is just shining through!!!

Ok... now back to normal - Title - In "Star Wars", Luke goes out looking for R2D2 who has run away.  He gets attacked by Tuskan Raiders and then gets rescued by Obi-Wan Kenobi.  R2D2 is looking for Obi-Wan Kenobi, who is now going by "Ben".  When he hears that R2D2 is looking for "Obi-Wan Kenobi", he says, "now that's a name I've not heard in a long time".  
  
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 2015 13:10:55 +0900
I can't believe how much time has passed since I wrote the last e-mail with the same title.  So weird.  The whole time thing gets you when you're not looking.
 
Anyways,
 
Merry Christmas! 
 
I hope everyone had a great Christmas and really enjoyed spending time with their families in one way or another in celebration of the birth of the Savior!
 
Now I will talk about me...
 
On Monday after p-day was over we went out into one of our neighboring areas and sang carols as a zone on a street corner.  It was so fun!  It was kind of frustrating though because it didn't really get the attention from the passers-by that we were hoping for.  Some people stayed and watched until the crosswalk light changed to green and they became able to cross the street.  It was really fun though and the other missionaries and I all really felt the Spirit and had a good time. 
 
On Tuesday we the majority of the afternoon visiting members and heart-attacking the doors of people that we had planned on visiting, but weren't able to get the chance.  It was really fun!  I've kind of figured out especially during these last few transfers that the most effective way to do missionary work is usually to do what a sister missionary would do. 


 
On Tuesday night we went to a different neighboring area and sang Christmas carols which was again really fun, but didn't get the attention of as many people that we would have liked.  There were however, two people foreigners from America that just happened to be in the area that came up and started talking to some of the other missionaries about how much they enjoyed that we were singing carols.  I don't know what the deal is.  Once again though, I had a really great time and I could really feel the Spirit as we sang songs and rejoiced over the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ into the world. 
 

On Wednesday we had a district meeting and afterwards we went out and gave out Book of Mormons that we had wrapped.  It was so much fun!  People loved wrapped things!  At night we had our English Christmas party which was a blast.  For the white-elephant gift exchange, Elder Kim and I brought a Boba Fett figure that Elder Kim won out of a machine.  Represent!  Luckily, our investigator, 이동민 (Ee Dongmeen) who was also there, was able to end up with it.   At the end of the party, we put on a spiritual message and did the "Seminary Donuts" object lesson which went really well.  Elder Weiss volunteered to do it and it was really great.  There's probably no better way of demonstrating the Atonement that I've seen than through this lesson.  It's a really moving experience.
 
Thursday was Christmas Eve so all of the elders in our zone decided to go out to eat lunch together which was a blast.  The place we ended up eating at wasn't the best, but it was just fun to be toghether with so many other missionaries celebrating a cherished holiday.  At night we had dinner at a member's house.  It was a really great way to spend Christmas Eve.  After we ate, we shared our message about the Savior being born and had everyone share a good thing that has happened because Jesus came.  It was really awesome.  After we finished our message, the father of the family asked us to sing a carol so we did and then we sang a carol together.  It was so cool!  It's definitely a tradition I want to start with my family someday. 
 
And Friday was Christmas.  It was awesome.  I started out the morning by waking up and opening the presents that my family sent me which are all awesome.  The coolest thing I got was a pair of light-up lightsaber chopsticks.  They have to be one of the coolest things I've ever seen in my life.  I'm afraid to actually eat thing with them though.  I also got a Star Wars crew-neck from my trainer, Elder Jeong which is pretty sweet.  He's so funny.  Christmas afternoon was spent preparing for the Christmas music concert that the mission was putting on in our church building.  The concert was awesome.  A lot of the sisters that came to Korea with me were in it.  Sister Bell and Sister Jones were both there and they did awesome!  The whole concert was so awesome and it did an incredible job of bringing the Spirit and it was a great way to end Christmas day. 

 Keeping it fresh Christmas morning.

 정진섭 장로님의 스타 워즈 스웨터  (Sweatshirt that Elder Jeong gave him for Christmas)

Elder Kim playing with the light up chopsticks.
 
On Saturday I got to talk with my family through the wonders of modern-day technology!  Wow!  Elder Kim and I went to 박병훈 (Bak Byung Hoon)'s house from our ward and he ordered us Chinese food right when we got there but it arrived right at 1:30 when I had planned to start talking with my family.  I couldn't wait because I ordered noodles and they would stick together if I didn't eat them quick enough!  It only took about 7 minutes to eat it all, but it was still pretty funny.  I can just imagine my family all gathered around the TV screen waiting and then the message "I have to eat the food that we ordered" come up.  Good times.  Anyways yeah it was really awesome and I think it had a little more impact than just talking over the phone.  I am so grateful to have had that opportunity.



 The wonders of modern-day technology (the picture from the other side is way better).


 
On Sunday we met with our progressing investigator, 이동민 (Ee Dongmeen) and had a really great lesson!  We talked about our personal commitment to follow Jesus Christ and about coming to know the truth of the Book of Mormon through prayer.  We then talked about fasting and invited him to fast with us in order to receive an answer to his prayers and he agreed!  He's doing so great!
 
This Christmas was so awesome and was probably one of the most special Christmases I've ever had!  I was going to say most memborable, but I remember all Christmases (Just ask my parents).
 
I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world and I am so grateful, especially at this time of year, that He was born.
 
Happy New Year!
 
Love and Miss Y'all!
 
Called to Serve!
 
Love,
 
Elder Huckvale

Playing some Phase 10 - one of the things he asked for for Christmas.  :)
 
 
 

Week 47 - There Has Been an Awakening. Have You Felt It?

Title - From the first trailer of the new movie, "The Force Awakens".  D is pretty sure it is Snoke who says to Kylo Ren, "there has been an awakening.  Have you felt it?" 


Hello my adoring Fans!
 
Star Wars came out this week and it seems to have gone mostly unnoticed in Korea which is still really weird to me. 
 
But alas I continue to fight the good fight...
 
This week has been pretty good.  We've just been doing every thing this week to prepare for the this Christmas week and the various Christmas festivities that we have planned to do from making message cards and visiting members to wrapping Book of Mormons and going to/preparing Christmas parties.  It's been pretty fun.  I never realized how much I enjoy crafting until now...the real trick is trying to enjoy baking things.

Wrapping Book of Mormons
 
On Monday we had P-day so Elder Kim and I headed out to this huge shopping area called 동대문 시장 (Dongdaemun Market) and it was really awesome.  I got some cheap ties and a sweater.  I got to do some good ol-fashioned Korean bartering to get the sweater which was really fun.  It didn't take that much bargaining skill.  They were just impressed that I could speak Korean.  I'm sure it depends on who you try to buy stuff from though.
 
Anyways afterwards we headed out to the mission home for the Christmas conference and party with our zone and President and Sister Sonksen.  It was so fun!  I really wish I would've taken some pictures.  We did a training for maybe an hour at the office and then went to the mission home, ate dinner, did a Q&A, and then watched part of the First Presidency Christmas Devotional.  They fed us the Christmas morning breakfast casserole (a classic!) and these like pancake balls that were super delicious.  With fork in hand, sitting at a table that wasn't on the floor, a Christmas tree in the background, in the midst of a multitude of English conversations, for a second there I almost forgot that I was in Korea.  It was really cool.
 
On Wednesday we had our district meeting and then afterwards wrapped Book of Mormons to give out to people which should be pretty fun.  Later that night we met with our investigator 이동민 (Ee Dongmeen) and we had a pretty good lesson with him.  He didn't want to meet with us as often this week just to take a break and kind of figure things out a little bit more so we only met on Wednesday.  We taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it went pretty well.  He's still a little hesitant to accept a baptismal date, but then again he's only been meeting with us for two weeks now.  He has a very strong testimony of Jesus Christ and a sincere desire to follow him, but he's just unsure. 
 
On Thursday we went to go visit some less-active members that we make an effort to visit every week.  One of the less-actives we visit served a mission in Busan, but due to issues in his family he decided to return early and has had a lot of regret since then and has really stopped coming to church.  Pretty much every week since I came to the area we've been visiting his house and haven't been able to catch him, but this week we were able to finally meet with him and we had a really great discussion.  I shared one of my favorite scriptures with him, Alma 5: 32-34 and afterwards he expressed that when he read it he felt the spirit!  What a miracle!  Hopefully as we continue to meet with him we'll be able to remind him that the Atonement of Jesus Christ can heal every wound imaginable and that as we excercise our faith in Jesus Christ and repent, partake of the Sacrament, and remain worthy of the companionship of the Holy Ghost, how great will be our joy!
 
On Friday we had English class and in the spirit of Christmas we decided to show the English class the Church's Christmas video and then did a testimony meeting.  There wasn't as big of a turnout as we were hoping for, but our investigator Ee Dongmeen was there and he decided to get up and bare his testimony and it was so awesome!
 
On Saturday we ate lunch with some of the members and they treated us to this incredibly delicious beef.  The husband and his wife own an English institute for elementary school-aged kids so they're both pretty good at English.  They went out the previous night and saw that new Star Wars movie.  According to his words it was "not bad", "so-so", and other phrases along those lines.  You might as well have written me a dear John letter!  Dang it.  My dad saw it and he really enjoyed it so I guess I'll just have to wait a year or so to see it and find out for myself.  It's nothing to give up the work for, that's for sure. 
 
I got 60 or so years to watch that new Star Wars movie, but only two to serve the Lord in Korea.
 
I'm so excited for Christmas and even though I won't be at home, I know that it's going to be awesome!  I hope that all of you (the fans) have a wonderful Christmas and truly remember why it's a holiday in the first place. 
 
I love you all and am so grateful for all of the love and support that you have blessed me with up until now and from now until the end.
 
Merry Christmas!
 
Love and Miss Y'all!
 
Called to Serve!
 
Love,
 
Elder Huckvale

 The future of camping.  :)

Return of the Stormtrooper.  Getting into mischief in the Christmas Tree.  Just like an "elf on the shelf".  :)
 
 
 

Week 46 - Together Again

Title - In "Return of the Jedi", after Han is unfrozen from the carbonite, Han, Luke and Chewbacca are scheduled to be executed and on their way to the Sarlac Pit, Han says, "Together again, huh?".

Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2015 11:44:55 +0900

Hello my adoring fans!
 
This week has been so awesome!  We're seeing a lot of progression with our investigator who we found last week while streetboarding, 이동민 (Ee Dongmeen), and Elder Kim, the members of the ward, and I all agree that he has a lot of potential to get baptized next month!  Excitement!
 
Since this week was we had temple p-day on Monday we just e-mailed and went to the meat buffet with Elder Moore one last time before he had to leave on Thursday.
 
So on Tuesday we went to the temple and it was really awesome (as usual)!  I decided to do the session in Korean and it was so awesome!  I thought it was going to be really difficult, but it wasn't bad!  Afterwards we went to a cheap restaraunt near the temple that is a favorite among missionaries.

I asked him for a pic for our Christmas card... and this is what he sent.  Pretty awesome, huh?????
 
On Thursday morning Elder Crisp Elder Moore headed out to the transfer meeting, but since Elder Kim and I are both staying in the area we stayed home and just did studies.  When Elder Crisp came back with his new companion, we came to find out that his new companion is none other than my last companion, Elder 김태완 (Elder Kim I)!  I was so excited when I found out!  Now Elder Kim I and II are both in my area!  How crazy is that?  Also, we got sister missionaries in our ward.  It's going to be a really good transfer. 
 
On Friday we were able to meet with our new investigator 이동민 (Ee Dongmeen) again and we had a pretty good lesson.  We just have to be careful because he has a lot of questions that are good, but they can easily get the lesson way off track.  We got off track for a while during the lesson, but we were able to bring it back at the end and have a really good discussion with him about finding out the truth for himself and having the faith to receive answers to his prayers.  He is so open and honest and such a great invesigator!  
 
After we met with 이동민 we had English class and Elder Kim and I gave the message and we talked about knowing the truth through the Holy Ghost.  The message went really well and even those who have attended English class for what seems like forever asked some great questions and seemed really interested in what we had to say.  We've been having a lot of cool experiences at English class recently.  At the beginning of the transfer our ward English class had one person coming and now we have like 10!  And new people are coming too!  It's so cool to see! 
 
On Saturday we met with 이동민 again and this time we were able to get the bishop to come at the last minute so it became a really incredible lesson.  We taught him the Plan of Salvation and it went really well.  As usual, he had a lot of really great questions and with the help of the bishop and the Spirit we were able to answer them with simplicity according to his understanding.  At the end of the lesson we invited him to be baptized on January 9th, 2016 and he said that he wanted to know more doctrince before he was willing to be baptized.  He also talked about how he has a very strong desire to follow Jesus Christ and he believes that the Book of Mormon is true, but he's still waiting for an answer.  I showed him the scripture in Alma 32 about the importance of showing faith and believing enough to get baptized without knowing every thing perfectly.    He's still not ready to be baptized yet, but as we continue to meet with him and follow the promptings of the Spirit, we can help him to prepare to enter the waters of baptism.
 
On Sunday 이동민 came to church and we had the primary program!  이동민 seemed to have really enjoyed the primary program.  I think the other two hours of Church were a little bit more difficult for him though.  He still enjoyed it though.
 
Yesterday at the primary program, the oldest kid in the primary and his dad who's in the bishop pric sang a duet of "He Sent His Son" which is probably my favorite primary song and among my favorite hymns.  Their singing was not the best, I'll be honest, but the Spirit was still strong as ever.  I remembered once more the sacred love that my Heavenly Father has for me.  I remembered once more that He sent His Son to die for me; to die for us, so that we could become free.
 
Love and Miss Y'all!
 
Called to Serve!
 
Love,
 
Elder Huckvale
 
Also, Star Wars is coming out this week.  Weird.



 "It's pointless to resist."



장위 와드
 
 
 

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Week 45 - Then I'll See You in the Celestial Kingdom!

Title - Continued from last week's title.  Han is about to go out on a tauntaun to search for Luke.  The tauntaun wrangler says to him, "you'll freeze before you get to the first marker", in which he replies, "well then, I'll see you in H-E-L-L."  (sorry for the swearing).  :)
 
P.S. If anyone would like to send Elder Huckvale a holiday card (or anything), he would love to hear from you.  His new mission office address is...
 
Elder Chad Huckvale
Korea Seoul Mission
Jahamun-ro  152, 1 dong
Jongno-gu
Seoul-si  03046
South Korea
 
 
Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2015 12:05:15 +0900
Hello my adoring fans!
 
This week has been really great!  We were able to meet with a few people that have a lot of potential to be good investigators.
 
We'll start with last Tuesday.  Elder Kim ate some old cereal on Monday night and was sick all of Tuesday so we didn't get to go out, but it was a good opportunity for me to do some extra studying and get more acquainted with our area book.  Also on Monday night Elder Kim made an apple pie because he felt like it.  It was very delicious. 

Elder Kim and his delicious apple pie.
 
On Wednesday we had a zone training where we talked all about ways to share the Church's big Christmas initiative with everyone.  It was really cool and it's getting me even more excited to go our and preach the message of the Savior's birth with everyone I meet.  We're going all out from streetboards to carrying around clunky DVD players to show the Church's new video with everyone (we need iPads).  It's so exciting!  I think that the elders in our ward are going to try and work with the bishop pric and see if we can do a ward flash mob!  How cool would that be?!

구주 나셨네 Preparation (church's new Christmas initiative - A Savior is Born)
 
On Thursday night we went and visited the family that we helped move last week and it was awesome!  We made them brownies and talked with them about our message and about the missionaries that they knew before.  It turns out that they are both former investigators and the wife, Andrea, went to church a few times and attended the ward Christmas party last year.  Nice!  They seem like a really cool family and I'm really excited to pick them up as investigators again.  We're going to go and visit them again this week so we'll see what happens there.
 
On Saturday we went out and ate lunch in a different area with one of our English class members who's a recent convert in a different ward.  So that was fun.  At night we went streetboarding and we were able to meet this really cool guy named 이동민 (Ee Dongmeen) and we talked with him for a while about the Restoration as well as our purpose and life as missionaries.  It turns out that he too is a former investigator who met the missionaries a few times in a different area a few years ago.  We scheduled a return appointment for him the next day.
 
On Sunday, since Elder Moore (one of the elders living in my house) is going home this week, he bore his final testimony during sacrament meeting which was cool to see.  After church, Elder Moore and his companion, Elder Crisp, were able to baptize one of their investigators which was also cool to see.  After the baptismal service the bishop had us all over for lunch and we talked about our Christmas ideas and how we can work with the members and best share the message of the birth of the Savior. 
 
On Sunday night we met with the guy that we met on Saturday and a member from our ward and were able to have a great lesson!  I was so grateful that the member was there because he was able to answer his questions much better and in-depth that we could and he also was able to share his personal story of how he found the Church and decided to join.  It was awesome!  At the end we extended a baptismal commitment and he said that when he knows it's true that that's something that he wants to do.  It was really cool because he had already read some of the Book of Mormon the night before and had questions about the things that we were teaching about!  Nice!
 
I am so grateful to see the hand of the Lord as Elder Kim and I exercise our faith and he blesses us with opportunities to meet such awesome people!  Being a missionary is so incredible!  How great is my calling?!
 
Love and Miss Y'all!
 
Called to Serve!
 
Love,
 
Elder Huckvale

 Elder Huckvale received his Christmas package.  Woohoo!!!  DHL - 1; USPS - 0. 
(Halloween package still MIA - hopefully he'll get it by next Halloween - there's a great tie in there!)

 We may have sent him a "bit" of Star Wars. :)


Week 44 - That Elder Will Freeze Before He Reaches the First편의점!

Title - In "The Empire Strikes Back", Han is going out to look for Luke, who never came back from their patrol.  He decides to go out on tauntaun because it's too cold for the ships and the tauntaun wrangler warns him that he will freeze before he gets to the first marker.
 
Date: Mon, 30 Nov 2015 12:30:20 +0900

Hello My Adoring Fans!
 
This week has been awesome!  It was Thanksgiving (in America)!  I hope that everyone had a good one!
 
Anyways, yeah, it's starting to get really cold here.  I'm not exactly sure just exactly how cold it is, but it is cold and will most-definitely get colder as winter approaches. 
 
So this week on Elder Huckvale's Extraodinary Adventures in the Southern Korea...
 
On Monday we had a pretty interesting experience.  We were out proselyting after p-day ended and we started talking to this guy who turned out to be Mongolian and couldn't speak a word of Korean and maybe about 5 total words in English.  There was a whole fiasco in which we were trying to help him find his way somewhere, but it was filled with so much confusion and strife because neither us nor him were exactly sure where he was trying to go.  There are two subway station that have similar names and we couldn't figure out which one was the one he was trying to get to.  Luckily, some Mongolian people showed up and talked him out of going.  It turned out that he had just come into Korea that day and was going out to explore.  So we just took him back to where he's staying and we exchanged phone numbers and Facebook information so he could add us.  The whole time I was just wishing that my cousin who's serving in Mongolia was there so we could help him get where he was going and help him by introducing the gospel into his life.
 
On Wednesday we had our district meeting which was really awesome.  So I don't know if everyone knows, but today (or yesterday ?) the Church started  new Christmas initiative called "A Savior is Born" and so all of the leaders in the mission met with President Sonksen and received training on it and then we talked about it at our district meeting.  Anyways, it was really cool.  We discussed all of the ways that during the Christmas season we can spread the message of the birth of the Savior and its importance.  At the end of the meeting, we went around the room and everyone in the district bore their testimonies of Jesus Christ and His birth.  The Spirit was so strong.  There's something that's absolutely incredible about missionaries baring their personal testimonies of the Savior.  Awesome.
 
On Wednesday night Elder Kim told me to call some guy named 이후철 (Chris) that him and his last companion met a while back that seemed nice so I did.  It turned out that he was moving the next day and so he asked us to help.  The next day was Thursday (Thanksgiving) and so we went over and to his house and helped his wife, their two-year-old son, and him move.  In Korea we don't get that many opportunities to serve so it was awesome.  He said that we could call him and visit him whenever we can so we probably go over there and bring treats.  It turns out that his wife is a former investigator of the Church so it could be pretty cool! 
 
After we helped Chris move we went out and did some proselyting and it was really incredibly cold and windy.  Happy Thanksgiving!...Struggily.
 
We then had our Thanksgiving feast with the other elders in our area.  Our feast consisted of take-out chicken, apple slices, and bottle of Pepsi, some Sprite cans, and some kimchi.  It was awesome!  Turkey is very rare in Korea so I figured that some other sort of bird would suffice for a Thanksgiving feast.


 
On Saturday we made kimchi again and I actually got to do it this time!  It was awesome!  This time it was with our ward mission leader and his family so we went over to their house and they just had some tubs set up with piles of cabbage heads and a ton of kimchi seasoning in them.  It was fun!


 
Well, those were the highlights of the week.  This week was really awesome and I am so excited for this Christmas season and the opportunity to spend it sharing the good news of the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  He was born.  He lived.  He died.  He lived again.  Now we can too.
 
구주 나셨네
 
Love and Miss Y'all!
 
Called to Serve!
 
Love,
 
Elder Huckvale