Seoul Temple

Seoul Temple
The Market

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Week 56 - I Feel Like I Could Take On All of Korea Myself

Title - In "The Empire Strikes Back", right before the battle of Hoth, Luke hops in his snowspeeder and asks his gunner, Dak, how he's doing.  Dak replies, "I feel like I could take on the whole Empire myself!".  And Luke responds, "I know what you mean!".

Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2016 13:49:27 +0900

Hello My Adoring Fans!

This week was really slow.  There was a lot of finding involved and there probably will be this upcoming week as well as we search for new investigators.  But we got to go to the temple!  Nice!

Tuesday was temple day!  It was so great!  There's nothing more empowering and rejuvenating than being able to enter into the House of Lord and do His work of bringing salvation unto mankind.  Afterwards Elder Crisp and I went to the War Memorial Museum which was pretty fun.  Elder Crisp had never been before so he wanted to go.  And so we went.  It's a freakin huge museum in the middle of Seoul that pays tribute to the history of war in Korea (specifically the Korean War).



At the Temple With the District
Top: Elder Brantley, 헉배일, Elder Hong, Elder Houston, Sister Azounia (?), Sister Bell
Bottom:  Sister Allsbrook, Sister You, Elder Cable (Not Pictured (for some reason)


Elder Huckvale and Elder Crisp


In front of the War Museum


Elder Huckvale looking down the barrel of a very large gun.

On Sunday we were able to meet one more time with a less-active member from our ward that we've been visiting every week since I've been in this area.  We wanted to visit him one more time because tomorrow he's moving to a different area across the Han River so we probably won't be able to see him again.  We talked with him a little about his life story (which has been incredibly difficult) and of course got tips from him about how we can more better work with the members of the ward to get the work moving in our area.  He is such an incredible missionary and it's just really frustrating that he decided to go less-active.  I think though that him moving away from Jangwee will ultimately be for the better; it will give him a new start.

After we talked with him at his house, he came Elder Crisp and me and took a taxi to meet up with the other missionaries in our area to do streetboarding.  Classic 최재원 (Jaywon Chwe).



 최재원

We were also able to meet with Songha Kim a few times this week which was pretty great.  He's progressing so well and was able to receive the Aaronic Priesthood last Sunday.  Nice!  I'm so grateful that we've been able to teach him and show him the Gospel.  He's come so far in such a short time!  Such is the way with the Gospel.

Other than that there wasn't that much going on this past week.  Elder Crisp and I are in the finding stage of missionary work.  Just like many of the hard things in this life, especially in the the Gospel, it's difficult, but it's necessary.

I am so grateful to be serving my mission and I am so grateful for the light that this Gospel brings in such a dark and confusing world.  Jesus Christ is the Light which we must hold up; He is the Light that we must all look towards for our hope.  He is the Savior of the world and the Only Begotten Son of God.  I know that He lives.

Love and Miss Y'all!

Called to Serve!

Love,

Elder Huckvale

Friday, February 19, 2016

Week 55 - Great Elder! Don't Get Cocky!

Title - In "Star Wars", when our heroes have escaped the Death Star and are in the battle with tie fighters, Luke shoots his first tie fighter and says something like, "hey, I got one", and then Han says, "Great Kid!  Don't get cocky!" 


Date: Mon, 15 Feb 2016 13:14:16 +0900
Hello My Adoring Fans!
 
This week was great!  It was the beginning of the Lunar New Year this year so we had a lot going on at the beginning of the week because of that.  Nevertheless, we were able to have a pretty great week and were able to meet a few times with 김상하 (Songha Kim) as well as some of the members and less-actives in our ward.
 
Monday was 설날 (Lunar New Year's Day).  Elder Crisp and I didn't have any appointments after p-day ended so with the streets bare of all human life, Elder Crisp and I decided to stay back and organize our area book.  Fun! 
 
On Tuesday we had a really awesome conference at our mission headquarters!  It was so great to gather together with other missionaries and receive training from President Sonksen and the Assistants.  Every time I walk out of one of the trainings put on by the mission I always feel a renewed desire to go out and convert every soul I can find.


Chinese New Year Conference
 
Wednesday was the mission-wide cleaning day and we also got to eat lunch with a member form our ward and his mom who's a devout member of another church but who the sisters and our team visit every week.  His name is 박병훈 (Bak Byung Hoon) and his mom's name is 배혜자 (Bay Hye Ja).  It was super delicious!  Apparently there is a picture of it floating around on the interwebs.  Afterwards we went back and cleaned the house which turned out to be more fun than I thought it would be.  Nothing says "fun" like blasting some Mormon Tabernacle Choir and scrubbing the floors with a wash rag!


Bak Byung Hoon emailed me (Shannon) this picture, and told me that his mom loves to have the missionaries over and especially loves to feed them (check out all that food!).  And then he went on to thank us for sending our sons to be missionaries.  Totally made my day!


Deep cleaning day!  Check out his cool t-shirt!!!
 
Yeah!
 
On Thursday we went and visited our barber who met with Elder Crisp and his last companion once a few months ago.  He's super nice and he really loves his family so we're going to try visiting him more often and teaching him the Gospel!  Nice!  At the end of our short message that we shared with him we said a prayer and it seemed that he really enjoyed it.  He's Buddhist, but he's open to hearing our message and wants his family to be together forever!  It could be good!
 
On Thursday we also met with a less-active from our ward that we visit every week.  We taught him about the Sacrament and the lesson went really well.  We read Alma 36 with him which talks about the story of Alma's conversion and being born again and compared it to partaking of the Sacrament every week.  He really appreciates our visits even though he complains every time we come and I can see him changing as we meet with him.  He's a super great guy and has an incredible testimony and understanding of the Gospel.  His main problem, I think, is that he doesn't feel like he's ready to embrace the Gospel again in his life.  He's also moving pretty soon here so I really hope that I can stay in touch with him after he leaves. 
 
On Saturday we had a lot of really great opportunities to visit with some of the members from our ward and we were also able to meet with Songha Kim and have a really great lesson with him about the Plan of Salvation.
 
On Sunday we had a really cool opportunity to meet with a member in our ward whose husband is a nonmember.  I've been trying to do Family Home Evening at the house but since I first went a few months ago, we haven't been able to work out a time when her husband is there.  It's been kind of struggily, but really awesome.  I think it's been really helpful for us to visit her and consistently try to arrange to have Family Home Evening even if it doesn't end up working out.  This Sunday was no exception.  We had planned to eat dinner with her, her husband, and her two kids, but her husband ended up finishing work later than expected and so we weren't able to.  We were still able to share a short message thought which was a really awesome experience.  We had planned to share a Family Home Evening message on talents so we gave a shorter version of that at her doorway.  She ended up explaining her reasons for asking us to share a lesson on talents and how she's worried about her weaknesses.  Even though I didn't understand most of what she said, I was able to follow the Spirit and share my experience of working with Elder Crisp.  I explained that my whole mission I had worked with Korean missionaries and so I relied on them a lot for everything.  Now that I'm with Elder Crisp, I've had to do a lot more than I was before and I have had to go way out of my comfort zone.  I testified that God loves us and that He will make up for our inefficiencies as we rely on Him and the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  It was so awesome!  After we finished our message, she gave us the food that she had prepared for us to eat and we took it back to the house and deliciously ate it.
 
So, yeah, this week we didn't get to do much in terms of proselyting, but it was still great!  Elder Crisp and I are having such a great time serving in Jangwee and we're excited for what is yet to come!  The Lord lives and this is His work and He leads it!
 
Love and Miss Y'all!
 
Called to Serve!
 
Love,
 
Elder Huckvale


Eating some 떡국 (Duk Gook)- It's something that people eat on Lunar New Year's Day

Week 54 - We Got Him! We Got Him!

Title - In "Star Wars", when Han, Luke, Leia, Chewy and the droids are escaping the Darth Star in the Millenium Falcon, they get in a dog fight with tie-fighters and when they shoot the last tie fighter, Luke yells, "We got 'em!" And then Leia says, "We got 'em!" 

Date: Mon, 8 Feb 2016 13:54:48 +0900

Hello my adoring fans!
 
This week was so fresh!  We were super busy trying to prepare for our baptism last weekend, but were still able to get a lot done and have a great week!
 
On Tuesday we met with our investigator, 김상하 (Songha Kim) and were able to have great lesson.  We talked mostly about the Priesthood and about temples and it was great.  He is so humble and was definitely prepared to hear our message.  He's already had so many spiritual experiences it's unbelievable!  All we really had to do was tell him what he needed to do and he just accepted and did, and he's been seeing the blessings.
 
On Wednesday we had a zone meeting and it was spectacular!  Our zone has changed a ton since last transfer.  We combined with the other zone that is in our stake and now we have 32 missionaries in our zone.  Plus President and Sister Sonksen both came to our zone meeting.  It was pretty crazy.  The training, however, was awesome.  The focus for the training was using time more wisely.  We talked about several things that we can start doing to make sure that we're not wasting the Lord's time.  It was definitely an answer to my prayers and helped me realize how I personally can use my time more effectively as a servant of the Lord.
 
On Thursday, Elder Crisp and I went out and visited a less-active that we visit every week and it turned out to be a really cool experience.  He's about 23 and he served a mission in Busan, but decided to come home a year early due to health problems and family issues.  He has regretted it ever since and has since left the Church.  It's such a shame though because he such a great missionary and has such a powerful testimony and strong understanding of the Gospel.  Anyways, we went to his apartment and he had completely changed since the last time I had been able to visit him (about a month ago).  He had dyed his hair back to black (it was blond) and he seemed so much happier.  Elder Crisp and I noticed it as soon as he opened the door.  He continued on to tell us that after being pestered over and over again by one of his former companions from his mission, he decided to attend the Young Single Adults ward in Incheon and has been attending Church there for three weeks.  What a miracle!  It really helped me to see that even though it doesn't seem like it at times, what I'm doing is making a difference in peoples' lives.  There were many weeks where we went to visit him in vain.  We would occasionally drop off a message card and one time Elder Kim II made him a pie, but he still wasn't coming to Church.  Now he is.  This experience proved to me that it is by the small and simple things that great things are brought to pass.
 
On Thursday night we had Songha Kim's baptismal interview with our district leader, Elder Brantley.  He passed with flying colors!  Elder Brantley told me afterwards that every time he asked one of the baptismal interview questions, Songha Kim would answer it with a verse from the Book of Mormon followed by a spiritual experience that he had had.  So awesome!  The Lord does prepare people receive his gospel!
 
On Friday a member from the ward named 이우영 (Ooyung Lee) took Elder Crisp and I and Songha Kim to the American buffet, Ashley.  It was really awesome.  We were kind of worried because the guy we were eating lunch with is probably the most respected member of our ward and very respected as a whole by Church members in Korea.  I think that he was trying to make sure that Songha Kim wasn't getting baptized too early so he asked him all about the baptismal covenant and other questions about his testimony and so forth and Songha Kim passed with flying colors!
 
Also, Ooyung Lee texted us and told us that if we were late to lunch that would not be okay.  Let's just say that I may have mis-calculated how long it would take to get to Ashley and may have gotten us there 50 minutes early and had to wait inside Ashley until Ooyung Lee got there.
 
But we weren't late!
 
On Saturday we had the baptism and it was awesome as expected.  Elder Kim I came back to perform the baptism.  He was kind of late though so we didn't get any pictures of him with Songha Kim which was kind of unfortunate.  He was there though!  Also, Elder Brantley also forgot the baptismal application that he filled out during his interview with Songha Kim at his house in the neigboring area so him and his companion had to run back to our house to get a new one.  It all turned out well, though, and Songha Kim was able to get baptized and it was an awesome experience.



 
There was also a ton of support from the ward which was awesome!  They brought pizza and chicken! 
 
The next morning at Church, Elder Crisp and I were able to stand in the circle of Priesthood holders to confirm Songha Kim as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and to bestow upon him the Gift of the Holy Ghost.  It was an awesome experience!
 
This week has been filled with so many miracles and I am so excited for Songha Kim and the new journey he is starting towards his Heavenly Father! 
 
Also, today is Chinese New Year which is a pretty big deal.  As a result this week is going to be really busy.  Tomorrow we've got a zone conference and Wednesday is deep cleaning day for us.  Fun!
 
Till next week folks!
 
Love and Miss Y'all!
 
Called to Serve!
 
Love,
 
Elder Huckvale


"Hump Day" package with the greatest tee-shirt ever!  Star Wars logo in Korean!

Monday, February 8, 2016

Week 53 - When One Year Old You Age, Look as Good You Will Not

 Title - In "Return of the Jedi", Luke goes back to finish his training with Yoda and from the time that he last saw him, Yoda has become sick.  Luke kind of gives him a look, and then Yoda says, "when 900 years old you become, look as good, you will not."

Date: Mon, 1 Feb 2016 14:13:22 +0900

Hello My Adoring Fans!
 
This week has been so great!  Elder Crisp and I are working hard to get the work going here and we've seen a lot of miracles and a lot of disappointments.  The miracles outweigh the disappointments though every time.
 
Let's take a look back!
 
On Monday Elder Crisp and I spent the p-day cleaning our house because Double Kim left it in complete disarray.  Classic Elder Kim.
 
On Tuesday we had met with our progressing investigator, 김상하 (Songha Kim) and it went great!  We taught him some of the commandments and we were also able to talk about baptism and some of the concerns he's been having.  It was a really great lesson, but at the end he pretty much said straight-up that he wanted to have a member there next time to hear their testimony about baptism and the Church. 
 
On Wednesday I went on exchanges with our district leader, Elder Brantley which was pretty fun.  We didn't have much time to really proselyte together, but while we were proselyting, some random guy who really likes English talked with us and ended up taking us to a fast food restaurant in Korea called Lotteria to buy us the "real deal" Korean-style hamburgers.  He was so crazy.  Every time we tried to speak in Korean to him it didn't seem to click in his head that we could speak Korean and so he kept trying to speak to us in English and "help" us learn Korean by talking with the cashier at the restaurant.  It was so weird, but a really interesting experience. 
 
On Thursday Elder Brantley and I finished up our exchange and then Elder Crisp and I went out to do our weekly Thursday visits which include a less-active in our ward, a guy that we met at a grocery store, and the guy we deliver food to through the service project we do for the community center.  Unfortunately, all three people were busy so we weren't able to teach any of them!  It was pretty frustrating.  Last of all, we had an appointment at the church building and we started getting worried that he wasn't going to show up at 5:30 when we thought we had decided to meet.  We gave him a call and it turned out that he thought we were meeting at 6, but he was still planning on coming.  We had the lesson with him and it went alright.  I was just grateful that he showed up!  I felt an incredibly huge tender mercy from the Lord that day.  It was so awesome.
 
On Saturday we met with Songha Kim again and had a great lesson.  We met with our ward mission leader, 김영균 (Yung Gyoon Kim) and we had a great lesson.  We taught the majority of the commandments from lesson 4 and Songha Kim agreed to keep all of them with no problems.  It really helped that Yung Gyoon Kim was there because he understood Songha Kim's questions much better than Elder Crisp and I and he was also able to explain things in further depth.  We have such an awesome ward mission leader!  Also, Songha Kim is an awesome investigator! 
 
The rest of Saturday was filled with more cancelled appointments, some pizza from a member in the ward, and some brownies for a member.
 
On Sunday we were able to go on splits with the members to meet with a less-active member and a recent convert which was really awesome.  It was a first for me.  This ward is so awesome.  I love the people so much and I am so grateful for their incredibly strong desire to share the Gospel and help the missionaries. 
 
It has been one year since Elder Huckvale departed from the land of Camas to join in the great work of the salvation of souls.


 
Love and Miss Y'all!
 
Called to Serve!
 
Love,
 
Elder Huckvale
 
P.S.  This week's title is courtesy of Elder Teames serving in the Ohio Columbus Mission.


 Pizza Buffet is back!


Eating at Ashley's Buffet