춘천으로 탈출

Due to the need for trainers in the mission right now, I've officially escaped the role of SNS Elder after a short transfer and a half. President says I'll return eventually, but we'll see what happens. For now I'm looking forward to training this winter in chuncheon. 

Chuncheon is considered country side and is pretty far from Seoul. I couldn't be more excited! Chuncheon is also famous for its 닭갈비. I don't really know how to explain 닭갈비, so I'm not going to. I'll leave to chuncheon this Thursday.

Highlights 

Mission Tour! Elder Esplin and Elder Cook of the seventy came to the mission. Elder Esplin forgot his scriptures the first day so me and my companion had to go into Presidents House and get his scriptures and take them to him haha 

I saw 박선재 at stake conference! He's the person that we baptized in the YSA branch and this was my first time seeing him since his baptism!

Prophecied by Elder Velazquez: Training in Chuncheon 

This is 손상중 ^^ he made us FaceTime his mom to prove to her that he was serious about bettering his life haha. "See mom, the missionaries I told you about are real!" - 손상중 (direct quote)

Spiritual Thought 

2025 general conference Niel L Anderson 

As you seek the Lord’s forgiveness, be patient as you wait upon His full approval. Consider this scripture:

 “They … humble[d] themselves … in the depths of humility; and … did cry mightily to God; yea, even all the day long. … [But] the Lord was slow to hear their cry because of their iniquities.” “Nevertheless the Lord did hear their cries, and began … to ease their burdens; … and … they began to prosper by degrees.” 

Be patient as the Lord gives you His blessing and approval by degrees. In the Lord’s time, you will feel His voice telling you, “Let these things trouble you no more.” One day, as you continue to turn to the Savior, your Heavenly Father will take “away the guilt from [your heart], through the merits of his Son.”

I really liked this message from Niel L Anderson at this last general conference. I think that when we sin and break our trust with God, it is only fair that He be slow to hear our cries at first once it gets hard. But as we continue to choose him again and again, working to receive a remission of our sins and also building a foundation strong enough to where those sins become abhorrent to us, He will at least lift our burdens and help us to prosper by degrees. And eventually, we will be able to look back without the same sadness and guilt that we used to feel 

젠슨 장로

Off to 송파 (Songpa)

I spent the first half of this week saying a lot of goodbyes in 속초. Some were more heartbroken than others. Mr Jin made me promise to call him every single week...  unfortunately I won't be able to keep that. But I'm sure he'll be fine once he meets the new missionary. We got a call from 방명현 the day before I left and I thought it would be to say goodbye but he just asked if I ate lunch yet and then asked for me to send him somebody's phone number. Some people never change I guess. We had 5 meals with different people on Tuesday and Wednesday before leaving on Thursday, and there was also a lot of people I wasn't able say goodbye too (sorry Daniel and 김청래). 

식사 with Lily

Mr. Jin farewell party

On Thursday I came to 송파. The difference between this place and 속초 is night and day. Way more young people here, and way more people in general. We actually get referrals, and it's actually people who are able to meet with us! We've already had some good lessons and been able to set up more for this week. I don't know many of our teaching friends yet, but apparently we had some that came to church and I just didn't see them. For some reason they like coming to church but they avoid the missionaries lol. We'll see what we can do about that. This area will take some getting used to for sure. My new companion is elder beardall. This is his last transfer. He's way cool and shares all his snacks with me. He loves gaming, especially minecraft. This should be a wonderful transfer.

Me and Elder Beardall

Sorry that's all I have time for gotta prepare for cardfest  (where you hand out as many cards as you can after pday between 6-8, winner gets ice cream)

I JUST ATE DOG IN SOUTH KOREA 😱 (real this time)

DISCLAIMER: If you like dogs skip this email 

First of all, for everyone who might hate me after reading this, I'm very sorry

It all started after district council on Wednesday. Actually let's just start before district council. On the way to district council we were about to get on the bus, and there was a grandpa standing there, waiting for the bus as well. He was wearing one of the usual grandpa vests, so I said "wow, your vest is so cool!" And he said "really??" So we began talking. But then our bus came and we sat in different seats so we stopped talking. But a few minutes later he stood up and I just assumed he was getting off. But then he took off his vest and starting walking over to me. He said since I thought his vest was cool he wanted to give it to me as a gift haha. I tried to deny it but he insisted. So I took it and then we talked more and I got his phone number and we're actually gonna meet again on Wednesday! And I got a free vest  it's actually super beat though and smelled quite terrible when he gave it to me lol but I washed it so it's all good now. I plan on wearing it when we meet with him haha

Anyway, then we got to DC and did that and stuff, and then we had to decide what to do for lunch. Most of us were low on money, but luckily we found a stray dog, and you know the rest is history! 

Jk haha that didn't happen. But we did eat dog soup for lunch. It actually tasted and felt pretty similar to beef so we asked the worker but she assured us it was dog. It's becoming more and more rare to find though and is becoming illegal soon I think. Maybe it's already illegal idk. Super nutritious though actually. One of the words for dog soup is 영양탕, and 영양 means nutrition, and 탕 is soup. 

On a sad note though, I'm getting transferred  I will miss 속초 and all the friendships I've made here. I will be returning someday. I'm getting transferred back to the city, to a place called 송파 song-pa. I don't really know where it is geographically but I think it's somewhere around Seoul.

김태완

Enos 1:12 And it came to pass that after I had prayed and labored with all diligence, the Lord said unto me: I will grant unto thee according to thy desires, because of thy faith.

If we want to receive answers to our prayers, we have to pray with more diligence. Take some time this week to think about what that could look like, and then try it!

젠슨 장로 

The Plan Continues

I'm staying in sokcho another transfer so you know what that means...the plan to get every English class student in the area continues  we've seen some good progress with that plan recently, cause the people at our Friday English club like us so much that they started telling their friends and now they're just setting up random appointments for us to meet with their friends haha. And even though we haven't had a chance to teach many people the gospel, I know that our efforts to serve people and teach them English are not being wasted. Because the harder we've tried on it, the more people that have come to our church English class, and the more people that have listened to our spiritual message after class. And we give them church invitations in class often and I think one of them will definitely come to church soon 

Other stuff 

Teaching important things at English class

(Just received these old pictures from Gangnam:) 

Old pic from gangnam but I just got it cause it was a film camera

Not really sure what this thing is but I took a pic on it

Buzz 

Spiritual Thought:

Alma 57:21

21 Yea, and they did obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness; yea, and even according to their faith it was done unto them;

I like this verse because it talks about the 2000 stripling warriors, and how they were able to obtain the miracle that none of them died in battle. And the way they did this was obeying all commands with exactness. I know that when we follow God's commands with exactness, we will be able to see more miracles in our lives. Also the Book of Mormon videos for this part in the Book of Mormon are way good so you should all watch them!

젠슨 장로 

Also we got transfer news and I'm gonna be getting a new companion, and becoming a trainer and a DL  am I cooked?? (yes)

Beach, Bathhouse, and Branch

Awesome week 였습니다

Highlights:

Made it to the promised land 속초️

New comp! (Elder Morris) 

Sketchiest bathhouse (wouldn't recommend)  

The Sokcho branch - 

The new branch I'm serving in is awesome! There's about 13-15 members, and they're all super nice. I got to meet most of them on Sunday and also played some pickleball and ping pong with them on Saturday. Also I heard a family in the ward has a blueberry farm, so we're gonna check that out sometime as well

They just added more elders to 속초, so me and my companion are starting from scratch, and have no teaching friends or even prospective teaching friends, or any contacts whatsoever. So we're gonna be doing a lot of finding the next few weeks

Miracle - we got someone to commit to coming to English class this Thursday!! Which doesn't seem huge, but it brings our English class from 0 students to 1. Let's go, God is good!

Read the Book of Mormon this week!

젠슨 장로

New Area (Sokcho)

Sokcho Chapel