Week 62 - Both Are Hardworking and Will Serve You Well

Title - In "Return of the Jedi", C3PO is delivering a message from Luke Skywalker to Jabba the Hutt.  In the message, Luke tells Jabba that he can keep the Droids as a gift and that "both are hardworking and will serve him well".

Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2016 14:29:31 +0900

Hello My Adoring Fans!

 

This week seems like it was really slow, but there were actually a lot of random things that happened.  

 

Oh also, I've been in Korea for a year!  How crazy is that?!

 

Anyways...

 

On Tuesday we got to go to the temple!  It was so incredible (as usual)!  After the temple we headed out to the office to do a workshop which was really awesome.  We received training from the Assistants to the President on improving how we give commitments to get baptized as well as how we can better-work with the members in the ward.  The training was really great.  We did some roleplays and it was really humbling for me.  I realized that I'm not as good at doing the things that we were trained on as I thought I was and that I still have a lot of work to do.  It's good thought because now I know exactly where I need to put my efforts towards.

The District - Sister Campbell, Sister Allsbrook, Elder Huckvale and Elder Shepherd

 

On Wednesday Elder Shepherd and I decided that he could be senior companion for the day.  He did a great job!  I could tell that it was really stressful for him because he'd never had an opportunity to to it before, but yeah he did a great job!  We spent most of the day visiting potential investigators and hunting for less-actives that the ward asked us track down.  Afterwards we streetboarded and at night we went to English class.  

 

On Thursday we went to visit a less-active sister in our ward who's son is also less-active and we used to visit frequently until he moved.  When we went to her house, her son was there.  We were really surprised and excited to see him.  Apparently he's resting right now because his new job that he got has been really stressful on his body.  Anyways, we talked with him about his mission and talked about his divine potential.  It was really great to see him again, but I'm really hoping that he goes back to work.  After we met him we met an old guy whose elementary school is right next to the church building in another area.  We made an appointment to talk with him this week.

 

On Saturday we went out to one of the subway stations in our area to do some group proselyting activities, but we were outrun by some people campaigning for congressman or something.  It was really interesting.  People campaign in a way different way here than they do in America.

 Campaigning in Korea.  Much different than the US.  :)

On Sunday we met with 이상호 (Songho Ee (our recent convert who ran away from the music night last week)) and the lesson with him was interesting.  One of the members in our ward is moving to Texas this week so we had a farewell party for her and her family at the church building.  We had a lesson with Songho and were planning on taking him to the party, but he left after our lesson.  The party was really great though.  We were able to talk with a lot of the members and say our final goodbyes to the sister who left.  It was great!

 

Transfer calls are this Saturday and I've been in 장위 (Jangwee) for four transfers now so I could be leaving, but I don't know.  Anyways, my time in Jangwee has not been the easiest time of my mission.  In fact, I'd say that it's definitely been the hardest.  I think though, that I've definitely grown more in these past four transfers than I have in the rest of my mission.  There's opposition in all things for a reason.  

 

I know that Jesus Christ lives because through the hard times and the disappointments, He is the one that's stood by me through it all.

 

 

Love and Miss Y'all!

 

Called to Serve!

 

Love,

 

Elder Huckvale

 One year ago!  What a baby!!!

Celebrating one year with Japanese food (in Korea!) using his super cool light up lightsaber chopsticks!

Being reflective.  :)

A member sent me the rest.  So AWESOME!!!

 

Week 61 - Run 이상호! Run!

Title - In "Star Wars", when the heroes are about to flee the Death Star, they witness Obi-Wan Kenobi being killed by Darth Vader.  Luke, in his rage, begins to shoot towards Darth Vader and Obi-Wan's voice comes into his mind, saying "Run, Luke, Run!"

Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2016 13:26:10 +0900

Hello my adoring fans!

 

Well, this week has been really interesting.  Let's just say that there were a lot of weird experiences for Elder Shepherd and I.

 

Let's take a look back now, shall we?

 

I forgot to talk about this last week, but last Sunday a crazy guy randomly showed up at church in the middle of Sacrament meeting.  He sat down next to me, talked to me a little bit, we exchanged numbers and then he left.  

 

Then we got a call on Tuesday morning from the same guy telling us that he wanted to meet up at the Ministop convenience store near the church building for lunch.  So we went and he bought us a ton of junk food and took us back to his house and we ate and talked a little bit.  He asked us for a Book of Mormon and so we gave it to him and we taught about it and committed him to read and pray about it.  

 

He called that night at like 4 in the morning, but we didn't answer.  For the next few days he kept texting us and saying really crazy things and then he got mad and then he apologized.  Overall it was just a really weird experience.  I'm pretty sure that he's got some sort of mental disability.  He came to church again and stayed for about 15 minutes and then left.  It was just weird.

 

That was weird experience number 1 for the week.

 

Wednesday was really good.  We started out by having district meeting which went really well.  I felt inspired to do a district meeting on the importance of having personal revelation in missionary work.  As I was studying for the meeting, I realized that there is a three-step pattern for relying on the Spirit.  The first step is to qualify for the Spirit.  A week prior to the meeting, I asked Elder Shepherd to prepare the training for this segment.  He did a really great job.  He was a bit nervous, but there was a point where he just decided to just go for it and it went really well.  He talked about the importance of obedience as well as partaking of the Sacrament weekly as we qualify for the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  The second step is to recognize the promptings of the Spirit.  For this section, we talked about how to recognize the promptings of the Spirit and it came down to knowing the difference between right and wrong as it's described in Moroni 7.  The third step to going beyond following the promptings or acting on the promptings, but relying on the promptings of the Spirit to do the Lord's work.  I committed everyone in the district (plus the zone leaders who were also there) to pray before starting every activity.  This is something that I've been trying to do and it really has helped me to feel the Spirit more in my life and recognize that I am a literal instrument in the hands of the Lord in doing His work.  After I finished the training the zone leaders talked about the Atonement which was also really good.  I left them with a lot more time than they were expecting, but they used it very well.  

 

After the district meeting I started my exchange with one of the zone leaders, Elder 홍근영 (Hong).  The exchange went really well.  We talked a ton about leadership and also working with the members of the ward.  He gave me some really great ideas that I'm hoping to implement as I carry out the work of the Lord.

 

On Friday we went streetboarding and we went to this really random place that we had never tried before, but it went really well!  We were able to meet some really cool people and have some awesome opportunities to share the Gospel.  Elder Shepherd gave out a Book of Mormon and a pass-along card to somebody, but didn't get his number, but he texted later that night and we're going to try and meet him!  Awesome!

 

On Saturday we had a really special opportunity to go with the youth in the ward and our recent convert, 김상하 (Songha Kim) to do baptisms for the dead at the temple!  We got permission to go from President Sonksen as long as we didn't participate in the ordinances (so that the members could).  Nevertheless, it was really awesome and it was so cool to be there with Songha Kim for his first time!  He is progressing so well in the Gospel!  It has been so awesome to see the change that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has wrought upon his soul!  

 

Sunday was a pretty crazy day.  It was Easter, but it was also ward conference, and our bishopric got re-organized (which I didn't know was going to happen).  Our bishop for about 5 years (who's in his thirties) got released and the first counselor became the bishop.  He's been in the bishopric for like 12 years now so I'm sure that he'll do a great job.  박병훈 (Brother Park), (we visit his mom sometimes and I also Skyped from his house on Christmas), became the new first counselor.  Our old bishop, 방재원 (Jaywon Bong) is probably going to be put in the stake presidency when it inevitably gets re-organized in the near future.  I sad to see Bishop Bong to get released, but I'm also really excited to start working with our new bishop, 배성훈 (Sunghoon Bay) and the new bishopric.  I think that this is a really great opportunity to strengthen our presence in the ward and to get the members excited for missionary work.  

 

On Sunday night, we were able to go to the Easter music night that our mission's putting on in a different area.  We decided it would be good to take one of the recent converts in our ward, 이상호 (Songho Ee) with us to give him a good opportunity to feel the Spirit.  He has a mental disability, so it can be hard for him to recognize the Spirit.  Everything seemed to be going alright, Elder Shepherd had to tell him to get off of his phone a few times, but halfway through the performance, he just got up and a left.  We followed him out of the building, but I think that he realized that we were following him and then he just started booking for the main street.  I seriously could have never imagined him being able to run as fast as he did.  We let him run a little bit before we decided to run after him.  By the time we had caught up to him he was at the main street and I said "You all-of-a-sudden left!" and he said "Yeah" as he hailed a taxi, hopped in, and sped off.  I called him, but he didn't answer.  Elder Shepherd and I walked back to the church building in complete confusion and frustration.

 

After we got back, I have to admit that was a little bit frustrated because I just didn't understand why he did what he did.  I also couldn't figure out why so many weird experiences had been happening to Elder Shepherd and I this past week and why we're still struggling to find new investigators.  As I was thinking on this, the music night continued and they played the Mormon Message "None Were With Him" by Jeffery R. Holland.  It helped me to remember that the Savior knows exactly what I'm going through because he's already faced it.  He's faced everything imaginable; every terrible thing.  Because he faced it all alone, I don't have to face anything alone.

 

So even though this week was strange, it was good, and somehow the Lord found a way to turn it into a learning experience for me.  He always does.

 

Love and Miss Y'all!

 

Called to Serve!

 

Love,

 

Elder Huckvale

Pics - Elder Huckvale didn't send any this week... but lucky for us, other people did.  It was a good week.  They must've known it was my birthday, so there ya go.  :) 

 

Both above pictures - member in Korea posted on FB.  

Something about a missionary workshop involving ward members and competition.

Picture that Sister Sonksen (Mission President's wife) posted on FB saying, 

"Elder Shepherd and Elder Huckvale.  Such good and worthy missionaries." :)

Picture that a Return Missionary, ShinJin Lee, sent to me on FB.  He said that he had finished his mission and went back to visit and ran into Elder Huckvale.  

He said... "I just wanted to send you a photo of wonderful Elder Huckvale.  I went to one of the music nights and saw Elder Huckvale.  He looks really good and happy, and so kind as well!  I really loved him during my mission.  He is so great and leading the area so well!  His trainer (Elder Jeong) is my friend and he said so many positive things about him!!!"  Talk about warm fuzzies to my momma heart!!!  

Week 60 - Decide You Must How to Serve Them Best

Title - In "The Empire Strikes Back", Luke has a vision that Han Solo and Princess Leia are in trouble on Cloud City.  His first reaction is to go to their aid, but Yoda doesn't think it's a good idea.  So Yoda says, "decide you must how to serve them best".

Date: Mon, 21 Mar 2016 12:21:44 +0900

Hello my adoring fans!

I am really tired today because I had to wake up at 5:30 this morning to go down to downtown Seoul to get my foreigner card renewed.  Since then I've been struggling a little bit to say sentences in the proper order so if I type anything that doesn't make any sense I'm sorry.

Me and my Sisters at the Global Center this morning.

Anyways,

This week was pretty interesting, we're starting to find some good potential investigators which is really awesome.  Then there was my first district meeting, some singing, followed by the ward mini MTC night and then the Easter Music Night.  Super fun!

On Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday night, we went out with the sisters and visited a bunch of members to invite them to the Easter Music Night.  Sister Allsbrook in our district made some "Mexican wedding cookies" and we brought those and did some "Easter caroling".  It was pretty fun for us, and it really surprised the members which was funny.  We pretty much rang the door bell and then when they opened the door we started singing "He is Risen".  After we sang a verse or two we would give them the cookies and the invitation to the music night.

On Wednesday I had my first district meeting.  I think that it went pretty well.  I decided to talk about how we can use the Easter season to share about the Book of Mormon and the message of the Restoration of the Gospel.  Sharing the Book of Mormon on the street is something that I really think that we can do better on as a district so this provided the perfect opportunity to work on that.  In the middle of the meeting, I felt prompted to share an analogy of a prism.  The Restoration is the white light and when it shines through the prism, which is the Book of Mormon, it creates a whole spectrum of colors that represent the various topics and questions of the soul that are answered through the Book of Mormon.  The Book of Mormon is the key to relating all of what we teach as missionaries back to our special message:  the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

On Friday night, our zone and the other zone in our stake got together and we went and did an activity to promote the Easter Music Night.  We went out to a street corner and had some missionaries passing out invitations and giving out cookies (which we had to make 50 of) and the rest were singing hymns about Christ.  It was really cool and it really helped to spread the message of Easter and give people more of an idea of what we're doing as missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Elder Shepherd and the struggily stove

On Saturday we met with one of our potential investigators named 김다운 (Da Oon Kim) and got to know him a bit more and then we talked with him about our purpose as missionaries, his purpose as an investigator, and what we hope to accomplish together:  baptism and confirmation.  After that we shared some personal experiences from the Book of Mormon and committed him to read Moroni 10 and pray about it.  He's really cool so I'm hoping that we can continue to meet with him and ultimately help him to prepare to be baptized.

After we met with him we had our mini ward MTC.  There were many setbacks and along with that, there wasn't much of a turnout which was kind of disappointing, but I think that we did the best with what we had and we were able to overcome the hurdles to make it successful for the people that came.  We spoke English, talked about American manners, briefly discussed the missionary purpose, and did some roleplays (of sharing the Gospel with others).  Plus, Elder Shepherd made french toast sticks using the struggily stove at the church.

On Sunday we had the Easter Music Night which was so awesome!  There were a lot of arrangements that they sang that were made by missionaries in our mission!  It was so crazy!  There is so much talent in this mission!

Anyways, this week was really great.  I think that things are going to start slowing down a little bit now that the Music Night's over for us, so we'll have a lot more time to proselyte and share with everyone the good news that Jesus Christ's complete Gospel has been restored to the earth once again!

Love and Miss Y'all!

Called to Serve!

Love,

Elder Huckvale

 You can recycle anything in Korea.  (Funny.  We need this in our house.)

Week 59 - Let Go of Your Hate

Title - In "Return of the Jedi", while on the planet Endor, Luke Skywalker (not Huckvale) turns himself in to the Empire and confronts Darth Vader (Luke's father).  Luke believes that there's still good in Darth Vader.  Luke is trying to convince Vader of this by telling him to "let go of his hate".

Pics - The massive banana bread cookie; they got a new flavor of Mt. Dew!  

Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2016 13:37:36 +0900

Hello my adoring fans!

 

This week felt so long yet it went by super fast!  Elder Shepherd and I are still struggling to find new investigators, but we're going to try some new methods of finding this week so hopefully we'll be able to get some return appointments and get the work moving! 

 

This week, especially with the Easter season approaching, we are really trying to get the members excited and involved in helping to share the message of the Resurrection of the Savior with their friends and family and invite them to the mission's Easter music night. 

 

On Monday we had dinner with the Stake President, 송병철 (Byung Chur Song) and his wife and afterwards we helped them to choose someone they could invite to the music night and then roleplayed inviting that person with them.  It was something that we learned about from a different set of missionaries and it worked out really well.  The stake president told us that what we were asking them to do was really easy.  Classic stake president being an incredible missionary.

 

On Tuesday, since Easter is this month, all of the district leaders in the mission went and participated in the Missionary Leadership Council with all of the zone leaders.  It was so awesome!  The greatest part of the meeting was when the Assistants to the President gave a training on the importance of love as being a leader.  Apparently our mission is really low on quality leadership these days so it was something that President Sonksen really wanted to talk with us about.  He also talked about developing a sarcasm-free mission (this may be difficult for me).  Especially when I was a younger missionary, I think that when I thought of a leader I just thought of someone who inspired other missionaries and just worked really hard and raked in a ton of stats at the end of the week.  I realized at the meeting, though, that love is what makes a leader.

 

On Wednesday we had our zone meeting which was pretty good.  There wasn't much training, we just talked a lot about Easter and what ideas we have that we could use to share the message of the Easter season. 

 

On Thursday we went out and visited a bunch of people from our ward and also did our service project.  For a service project, we go to the community center and get food and deliver it to people in the neighborhood who are tight on cash.  We usually stay a little bit longer and share a message with one of the people we deliver food to named 이동희 (Donghee Ee).  Last week and this week we decided to bring 김상하 (Songha Kim) with us when we went to visit him.  Since we've been bring Songha Kim, we've been able to have much better conversations with Donghee Ee and have been able to help him see how the Gospel can really change someone into something better.  On Thursday night we also went out and visited a member family in our ward and shared the same message with them about inviting their friends to the Easter music night.  We brought them cookies as well which they really enjoyed!

 

On Saturday and Sunday we had stake conference which was pretty good.  Songha Kim came to both sessions and really seemed to enjoy it.  President and Sister Sonksen both gave talks in Korean!  It was really impressive!

 

That's pretty much it for last week.  We also did a lot of baking. I tried to make some nutella-banana cookies but it just turned into banana bread.  It tastes good though!  This week we've got a few appointments lined up and we're going to throw together a mini MTC for the ward Family Home Evening on Saturday night. 

 

All in all things are going great!  I'm so excited to be out here in 장위 (Jangwee) serving the Lord and His children!  Especially during this Easter season I am so grateful for the Atonement of the Savior and His Resurrection from the dead.  Because of Him there is no reason to ever be sad or depressed.  In the end all things will be overcome through Christ.  Hallelujah to His name! 

 

#hallelujah

 

"There is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ" -Mosiah 16: 8

 

Love and Miss Y'all!

 

Called to Serve!

 

Love,

 

Elder Huckvale

There's a new flavor of Mt. Dew in Korea... and these two are excited!!!

Week 58 - A District Leader, Huh?

Title - Derrick is not sure what this title means... so just make something good up for yourself.  :)

Date: Mon, 7 Mar 2016 12:52:45 +0900

Hello My Adoring Fans!

 

This week has been pretty interesting.  It feels like it's been really long.

 

Since Elder Crisp was getting transferred this week, we went and had three member meal appointments on Monday.  I think that I already talked about the first one with the bishop.  After that, for dinner, we ate with Brother 박병훈 (Byunghoon Bak) and his mom who isn't a member, 배혜자 (Hye jaw Bay).  Afterwards, we went to a house in the neighboring ward to perfrom our district's mini music night and we ended up eating again.  Three in one day!  That's a record that I don't want to break. 

 

On Tuesday we had another meal appointment with a member named 남규빈 (Gyu Bene Nam). 

 

On Wednesday Elder Crisp and I gathered all of his stuff and headed to the church to wait for my new companion, Elder Shepherd who would be arriving by taxi.  Elder Shepherd came and Elder Crisp took his taxi and headed off to the bus station to go to his new area.  I was kind of sad to see Elder Crisp go because I'd served in the same area as him for 3 transfers, but I'm really excited to work with Elder Shepherd.  I think that there's a lot that I can learn from him. 

 See ya, Elder Crisp!

Elder Shepherd is from Georgia, and he is starting his 5th transfer.  He came to Jangwee after serving in the foreign branch near the U.S. base in 동두천 (Dongdoochun).  Elder Shepherd is incredibly nice and super positive.  He's struggled a lot, especially with learning Korean, but he remains positive and continues to work as hard as he can to learn the language. 

 

On Saturday we had a really busy day.  Apparently Elder Shepherd's family is housing a foreign exchange student from Korea and his parents really want to give back to Elder Shepherd for all of the help that his family has been giving to their son.  Anyways, we met them at the church building and they brought a ton of foreign food like bagels, Nutella, peanut butter, and Oreos.  After that they took us out to the meat buffet which was really awesome.  They really appreciate all that Elder Shepherd's family has done for their son. 

 

After we ate lunch with them, we ran over to the Church to do the final new member lesson with 김상하 (Songha Kim).  The lesson went great.  It is so awesome to see how much he's progressed since he first found the church only a few months ago.  He got his temple recommend on Sunday and is going to go to do baptisms for the dead with the youth in a few weeks.  He's also been really great to have at lessons.  He has such an awesome testimony of the Gospel and he understands his weaknesses and insufficiencies very well. 

 

After we met with Songha Kim, we were planning on teaching English to the woman we met last Saturday but she didn't show up so we decided to go visit another recent convert in our ward named 이상호 (Songho Ee).  It was raining pretty heavily so we were really hoping to catch his dad when he wasn't working (his dad owns a carwash shop so he can't work when it's raining).  We went to Songho's house, and his dad was there, but he left right after we came in.  Really the only thing that we can do to help Songho at this point to is to help the dad so we we're really trying to teach him the Gospel.  We're going to try calling him more often (which is something that I struggle with) and try and build more trust with him.  As we do so, we're hoping that it will open his heart to the message of the Restoration of the Gospel.

 

On Saturday night we had our bi-weekly ward Family Home Evening which was so incredibly awesome.  Elder Shepherd and I taught the message which was about repentance.  We used a backpack and had one of the kids wear it.  The people in the audience would draw papers out of a bag and they would have bad or good actions on them.  When a bad action was drawn, we would put a hymn book in the backpack.  By the end, there were like 15 hymnbooks in the backpack. We illustrated that through the Atonement and as we repent, Jesus Christ will lift the burdens that we our carrying off our shoulders and we can become free.  It was a really cool object lesson.  After the message we played a Korean game where someone wears a blindfold and tries to find people that are standing still.  When he finds them, they make a pig sound and he has to guess who they are.  It was really fun except when I did it they changed the rule so that the other people could move.  Apparently it looked really ridiculous.  Gosh dang it.

 

Wow this week has felt really long.  It's been great though and I'm really excited to be starting another transfer in Jangwee.  We've got a lot of really awesome potential investigators and so we're hoping to see a lot of miracles this transfer.  I know that Jesus Christ lives and that it is through his Atonement that we can become free from all of the bad things in this life.  It is because of His selfless, long-suffering, perfect love for us, that we can become free from everything through Him,  even the bands of death.

 

Love and Miss Y'all!

 

Called to Serve!

 

Love,

 

Elder Huckvale

The Bishop playing the ping pong game, with Elder Shepherd on the floor.

Week 57 - 김상하 (Songha Kim) Felt a Distrurbance

Title - In "Star Wars", when Princess Leia's home planet of Alderan is blown up by the Death Star, Obi-Wan Kenobi says, "I felt a disturbance in the Force".

Pics - The Music Night in 장위; Elder Brantley, our beloved district leader (soon to be zone leader); Elder Crisp, the Bishop and Elder Huckvale

Date: Mon, 29 Feb 2016 15:20:14 +0900

Hello My Adoring Fans!

 

Well this week was a little bit crazy.  Not much on the lines of proselyting occurred, but we able to pick up a new investigator.  This week was filled with many struggily scenarios as well as really cool experiences. 

 

On Tuesday we performed a mini music performance in our neigboring area at one of the member's homes as a district which was a really cool experience.  This music thing is something that we had been planning on doing for a few weeks now, but we were now just able to perform it and it went really well.  The theme for the performance was "the Plan of Salvation".  The members and investigators that attended really seemed to enjoy it.  After the performance I started an exchange with Elder Cable from the neigboring area.  We had a lesson with our recent convert, 김상하 (Songha Kim) which went pretty well.  He's doing great! 

The Music Night in 장위

 

After we ate dinner at the home, we headed back and I went to the dry cleaningers to pick up a suit that I had left there.  The next morning I went to put on my suit and found that the pants had disappeared!  Elder Cable and I walked all the way back to where the dry cleaners is trying to track down my pants, but they were no where to be found.  Aw jeez.  There's like these old people who go around picking up stuff (particularly cardboard) to turn in for a profit, and I'm pretty sure one of them snatched my pants up off the street.  Dang it.  I still don't know what I'm going to do about this one honestly.

 

On Wednesday the sisters in our neighboring area called and said that their Chinese investigators wanted to go visit the temple with them and they could only go on Wednesday or Sunday and President Sonksen said that he couldn't give them permission to skip Church, but he could give them permission to move District meeting.  As a result, our district meeting on Wednesday was delayed to Friday morning during studies which was kind of struggily.  It worked out alright though.

 

On Thursday we went out and did a ton of visits of less-actives in our ward as well as recent coverts and potential investigators.  We brought a member along with us to go with us on some of our visits including when we visited one of the recent coverts in the ward that Elder Crisp baptized named 이상호 (Songho Ee).  We were really hoping that we would be able to talk with the dad and hopefully share the Gospel with him, but he was too busy when we got there to meet which was kind of struggily.  Songho Ee has schyzophrenia and he takes some pretty heavy medications so it's incredibly difficult to teach him a lesson sometimes.  Thursday night was one of those times.  Afterwards we went with the same member to visit a less-active family in our ward and we ended up eating dinner at their house which was pretty good.  The wife, 황진분 (Jeenboon Hwang), really quickly whipped some of this really delicious chicken soup stuff and we talked with them a little bit.  The member who was with us did most of the talking.  After we finished eating, we shared the First Vision with them.  At the end we committed them to allow our district to perform our musical thing with them and they agreed.

 

Last week we were really struggling to find families in the ward that we could do the musical performance with and I called a part-member family in the ward that Elder Crisp and I have been working with.  The name of the member is 신주연 (Juyun Sheen) and she agreed to have the mini concert in her house on Saturday night and so I went and told our district leader, Elder Brantley, and he informed all of the other missionaries in our district.

 

On Saturday morning I got a call from Juyun Sheen and she told me that we weren't going to be able to do the concert at her house that night.  I was a little frustrated, but I maintained a smile and I told her it was going to be okay.  I also reminded her that with transfers coming up, many of the missionaries in the district could be transferring so I wasn't sure if we would be able to do it after this weekend.  She told me that it still wasn't going to work out.  After I hung up I was pretty frustrated.  I called Elder Brantley and told him the news and he proceeded to tell the other missionaries.  Aw jeez. 

 

Then there was a miracle.

 

On Saturday we met and continued to teach Songha Kim the new member lessons and the lesson went really well.  We thought that he was going to punk us after he didn't show up for half-an-hour, but he came it was all good.  Afterwards there was a really cool miracle that happened.  We went down and apparently an elderly woman named Anna Kim who lives near the church came to learn English.  She used to attend our English class, but started going to the neighboring ward's class when our ward temporarily stopped doing English class last year.  So we were like "We'll teach you English" and we quickly grabbed Songha Kim and brought him with us.  It was so awesome.  We taught her English for half an hour and then taught her about the Gospel.  It turned out to be a really great lesson and Songha Kim was able to share his really awesome testimony of the Gospel with Anna Kim.  We invited her to be baptized and she was really caught by surprise, so then we had to further explain to her that she didn't need to say yes right now, but as we met with her, she could be prepared to be baptized.  It turned out to be a really spiritual lesson and a really cool miracle that we saw.  It was especially cool because Songha Kim came late to the appointment.  He is a super spiritual guy so Elder Crisp suggested that he may have felt a disturbance or maybe he just really thought that we were meeting at 1:30 instead of 1.  Nevertheless, it twas a miracle.

 

On Saturday night we got our transfer calls.  Elder Crisp is getting transferred all the way out to the boonies to a place called 태백 (Taybek) and I'm staying in Jangwee and becoming the district leader.  My new companion will be Elder Shepherd. 

 

On Sunday there was another miracle.  On Thursday when we went to Songho Ee's house, his dad (who runs a carwash/repair shop) told us that if it rains we can visit him.  On Sunday it snowed.  After we went out to visit Juyun Sheen, we called Songho Ee's dad and he said that we could come and visit.  We quickly called up a member (who we just happened to have a dinner appointment with that night named 배성훈 (Sunghoon Bay)) and he came and picked us up on the side of the road and took us to Songho's dad's repair shop.  The lesson could have gone much better than it did.  Sunghoon Bay and Songho's dad ended up talking most of the time about Songho and how he's been struggling a bit at Church and we weren't really able to teach much about the Gospel.  I shared a verse from the Book of Mormon and bore my testimony of the Savior and His power to lift our burdens through the Atonement.  We ended up giving him a Book of Mormon, but then we had our dinner appointment to go to so Sunghoon Bay offered to take Songho with us and so we did.  We ate dinner with Sunghoon Bay and his family and Songho and then Sunghoon Bay took us to our ward mission leader's house to do our mini music night.  The mini music night was a huge success.  We were able to have three families from the ward come and they seemed to really enjoy it.  It was a little bit tight though with the three families and the ten missionaries in our district.

 

Today we went and ate dinner with the bishop at a Korean food buffet.  It was very delicious.  Now we've just got to make room for the next dinner appointment we have tonight for dinner with different member.  식사!  Alright!

 

Anyways, this week had some very struggily moments, but there were also some very awesome moments.  So is the way as a missionary.

 

I am really excited for this transfer and to be able to continue to serve in the Jangwee ward with such awesome members.  This is the true Church of Jesus Christ restored to the earth and this is His work.  He lives and He is at the head of it.

 

Love and Miss Y'all!

 

Called to Serve!

 

Love,

 

Elder Huckvale

Elder Brantley, our beloved district leader (soon to be zone leader)

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