The Second Fourth of July

Last year, it was all about the American Air Force Base in Gunsan.  I had been in Korea for nearly 2 months and I was starting to forget exactly what it was like to live in America.  The Fourth of July came and went without much fanfare, but then, that Sunday we attended the small branch at the Gunsan Air Force Base and for all hymns (except the sacrament, of course) we sang American patriotic songs.

Now, before you all start going off on rampages about how inappropriate it is to sing The Star Spangled Banner as part of a church service - especially in Korea - , let me just say that it was nice ;)  I'm not a fan of singing those songs in church either, but being away from home during my favorite time of the year and then still getting to have SOME sort of a glimpse of the Fourth was a nice little treat.

So, this year, of course, I'm not anywhere near an Air Force Base.  I had two options.  1)  Leave my area and go to Gunsan, or 2) not.  Haha, I chose to stay and celebrate other ways.  The morning started off with an early bus ride to SeJong where we taught our English Class at the public library.  For the day's sake, I based the English Class around the Fourth and taught them all about American history going from Columbus to the Puritans to the Colonies to the taxes to the rebellion and, finally, the Declaration of Independence.  Then, we talked about how we honor that wonderful day that declaration was signed through our barbeques and parades and fireworks.  To practice our writing, we then all together made our own Declarations of _________ (healthy living, being kind, etc) and signed each others' papers.  Then, I spoiled them all with a surprise and gave them each a sparkler, telling them to celebrate the Fourth by lighting it once the night came.  It was a good English class.

Once it finished, one of our class attendee's/investigator's took us out to lunch to "celebrate the Fourth", they said.  How kind!  We ate deliciously and taught them a lesson afterwards.  Following that, we hung up some English flyers in SeJong and took off back to YuSeong.  To celebrate even further, we had planned to meet the other Elders at a restaurant called House Burger.  We had to eat American food, didn't we?  16 dollars and a MASSIVE and DELICIOUS burger later, we were full.

We had another appointment that night with an investigator (remember Steve?), read the Book of Mormon together with him, and talked with him about how we can get permission from his Dad for him to be baptized.  Still looking difficult.  But, he still is loving church and coming every week, so whether it's because he'll get permission or turn 18, he'll get baptized one day.

Finally, to end the day, I had us swing by a *certain store to buy *certain things.  My companion was a little apprehensive at first, but I was persistent enough and he could do nothing to stop me, heh heh heh.  We got home, I showed these *certain things to the other Elders, and of course, one of them said "YES!  Let's go to the mountain to light them off!" (he happened to be a Korean, go figure, it's not even his holiday) and the other Elder said "no" (he happened to be our District Leader).

So fine, I now still to this date have a pile of unused *certain things.

Anyway, it was still wonderful.  I felt slightly American, had a fun day, and now next time I spend it, it will be the real deal!  2 down, zero to go.

Until next week!

Elder Graf

*Fireworks (shhhh, they're not necessarily in line with the rules...)

A Third

Sorry for skipping last week.  I promise, a ton happens each and every day - but now that I've been a missionary for so long, the every day things of teaching lessons, street contacting, and setting commitments with people is all so exciting, but when I sit down at the computer to write my big weekly update, well, I all-of-the-sudden can't think of anything interesting to write about....

 

.....and I'm facing the same problem right now....

 

But, I know I have family who is just DYING to hear from me.  So fine, haha, I'll write something and hope it sounds interesting enough.

 

Things went rather well this past week here in Korea.  We started meeting with this new guy out in a little town called Daepyeongni (I dare you to try to pronouce that correctly).  He is really cool, super nice, and loves to take us out to eat.  He also is open to listen to what we have to say and happily took the Book of Mormon from us when we offered it to him.

 

The week continued on as Korea lost in their match against Belgium.  Who knew the World Cup was so awesome??  I bought myself a Korean Soccer Jersey a few weeks back and have worn it over my white shirt and tie inside the house whenever it was game day.  No, we didn't watch any of the games.  But, oh, we could hear them.  The ENTIRE CITY was watching.  And whenever anything good or bad happened, you could hear the screams and shouts and stomping and horns and clapping of every single Korean in the country.  Sadly, like I said, they lost in the third game and were kicked out.... but apparently America is still going forward?  I ask my investigators daily for World Cup updates, haha, who knew I was so in to soccer.

 

Speaking of Soccer, Saturday came and we had a massive stake-wide soccer event.  The missionaries were invited and we all headed to KAIST (Korea's MIT) and played game after game at the stadium there.  My skills are nothing compared to the Korean's, but it's still tons of fun.

 

Sunday came, our investigator came to church with us, and the night was closed off with a delicious meal at a members house.  Before we knew it, it was Monday again.  But, not just any Monday - it's transfer Monday - ALREADY!  The call came, and we're staying again.  Skinner and I are super surprised (He's been here since January) but we're really excited for another 6 weeks! 

 

Hope you're all having a fun summer vacation!  Don't have too much fun without me!

 

Elder Graf

Tag along companions

So Elder Christofferson came a few weeks back, right?  Right.  Well he actually came in the first week of the new transfer.  So, all of those missionaries who went home last transfer missed him by one week.  They came to Korea for 2 years, worked super hard, found out an apostle would be coming to speak to them, and then found out it was actually the week after they would be going home and so they would miss it.  To some of these missionaries, that wasn't really all that fair, so President Shin made some arrangements and allowed those missionaries to extend for a extra 3 weeks (if they wanted) so that they could still be around for Elder Christofferson when he came.  Out of the group, two missionaries made the choice to stay (the others were all like "Please - I've been here for two years, I can see Elder Christofferson on TV in October") and President has been using them as "Traveling APs".  What does that mean?  Well, because there really isn't anywhere to put someone for merely 3 weeks, they have been given the special assignment to travel around the whole mission and be with each companionship for 3 or so days in order to give training and/or give them something to do before they go home.

That's when last week, we were joined by Elder Orr in his last stop of his mission tour.  And, instead of 3 days, he was with us all week until the day he went home.  It was tons of fun, and really interesting as well.  Over a year ago when I came into the mission, Elder Orr was in my district.  He was just a normal missionary in the middle of his mission, earlier than where I am now.  And now, he's going home.  Where did the time go?!

So all week long, we worked super hard, found a new investigator, taught tons of lessons, and committed our investigator Jason (code name from a few weeks back) to talk to his dad about baptism again.  If his dad says yes, he could be baptized tomorrow, the kid is extremely ready.  Then, on Thursday, it came time to say goodbye to Elder Orr and send him off to the mission office to go home.  We celebrated with a picture and a chicken buffet restaurant and sent him on his way.  He was a super good missionary - Zone Leader and then Traveling AP - so it was really great for us to spend his last week with him.

Now, for this week, Elder Skinner and I will be joined again by somebody else.  This time it's Elder Williams, one of the other elders who lives in our house.  His companion, Elder Park, will be going to the military for one week (it's required for all Koreans to do one week-long check up military service each year, so even though they're missionaries, they have to take a week off and do it).  So, for this whole next week, the 3 of us will be combining all of our investigators and appointments and doing them all together.  Should be fun!

Anyway, I'm out of time, but wish us luck!  Oh and here's a fun picture of Elder Skinner and I at a Buddhist temple.  We ran into it the other day and couldn't resist taking a picture.

Elder Graf

By the way...

So I forgot to tell you all a few months back when it was announced to us..... And I also forgot to tell you last week that it would be coming up.... So allow me to enlighten you:

This last weekend, Elder Christofferson came and visited our mission!  First, he gave an exclusive missionaries-only fireside on Saturday morning. Then, he spoke at a region-wide devotional Saturday night followed by a special Stake Conference down in the south of the mission where he dedicated the brand new (and beautiful) Stake Center.

SURPRISE!

Of course, it was all wonderful.  Let's start at the beginning...

We woke up bright and early Saturday morning, determined to be the first ones to the church.  We wanted front row seats and we weren't going to let anyone take them from us.  We all showered (some other elders spent the night for the meeting) and were on the Subway by 6:00 AM.  Just under an hour later, we arrived at the Stake Center on the other side of the city and discovered that we were indeed the first people there.  After 30 minutes, others began arriving as well and not before long, the entire mission was there.  We ended up at first sitting down in the front, but then the APs pushed us back 6 rows because the mission choir would need to be in the front.

..........okay fine.

Anyway, Elder Christofferson arrived with his wife and 3 other seventies and their wives.  They all spoke to us one by one until finally it was Elder Christofferson's turn.  For weeks now, all of the missionaries have been debating what he would say to us...  "He's going to slam us all in our seats and rebuke us for not serving diligently enough!"  some would say. "No, come on, he wouldn't do that, he's too nice" others would reply.  "But I heard from a friend who's on a mission that when his brother's cousin's aunt's nephew was on his mission a few years back, Elder Holland came to a mission and practically yelled at them the entire time because the spirit told him that they weren't living up to their mission's potential." to which I would think to myself "I'm surrounded by idiots," but instead enjoyed the show.  Finally the moment had come and Elder Christofferson stood at the pulpit.

What a shocker!  All he did the entire time was open the floor for missionaries to ask questions for him to answer.  At first, NOBODY raised their hands (terrifying, anyone?)  but after the first few questions, the ball was rolling and it was impossible to be called on in the sea of arms.  Even though I didn't get to ask him anything, in the end, other missionaries asked really good questions and it proved to be a wonderful hour listening to and watching an apostle ponder and think and search through the scriptures and share his answers with us.  After the last question was answered, he took 5 minutes and blessed us as a mission and as missionaries, bore his testimony, and then left.  We were ordered to immediately leave the church in order to clear it for other meetings.

However, that was only round one.  Round two was the night devotional, and if you had an investigator to bring, you were allowed to attend...

Our investigator (lets give him the code name Jason) was extremely excited to come.  He is 17 years old and really likes us missionaries.  The only problem is his dad won't let him join the church and so getting him excited about anything gospel-oriented has been a little difficult recently.  However, when we asked him if he would want to come, he responded to us with a definite "It's an apostle, isn't it?! That's a big deal!!" and we were off.

Jason the entire time was paying attention like none other.  He was laughing with Elder Christofferson's jokes, asking me questions when he didn't understand a gospel principle (like what the millennium is), and was smiling almost the entire time.  After the meeting closed and Elder Christofferson was being ushered out of the chapel to his car, Jason told me "Elder Graf!  Quick, take a picture!" and he was opening my backpack to get my camera out.  I tried to turn it on, but there was no battery.  "Ahh, Jason, no battery!" I said, but then got a slightly-against-the-rules-because-they-told-us-to-NOT-follow-him-outside-but-genius-idea.  "Wanna go shake his hand and get a picture outside?!?" I asked, to which Jason said "LETS GO!" and took off busting through the crowd in the chapel waving goodbye.

After shoving our way through masses of people and running around the stuffed-packed parking lot, we caught up to Elder Christofferson as he was being ushered into the backseat of the car.  Jason just went straight up and said "hello!" in English, sticking his hand out to be shaken.  Elder Christofferson turned around and saw him standing there, to which he stuck out his hand and shook it, thanking Jason for coming.  I was hiding 10 feet behind at first, but I then ran up next to them and blurted out "This is my investigator".  What was I trying to do, show off to the apostle??  Haha, whoops.  But then Elder Christofferson shook my hand as well and with a smile said "That's wonderful" looking at Jason, and then back to me "Keep up the great work, Elder."

Alright, I can die now.

Haha, the two of us said goodbye and left his car beaming.  Jason was actually cheering "I shook his hand! I shook his hand!" as we went back to where the other missionaries and their investigators were.  We found Elder Skinner and told him what happened, to which he then took off with our recent convert who was baptized a few weeks back and did the same thing right before Elder Christofferson's car left.  Success on both parts.

Anyway, I'm out of email time now, but as you can see, it was a fantastic week.  Next time an apostle is coming, I won't keep it a secret from you all.

Elder Graf

When all of our appointments cancel...

So we've been doing pretty great these past few weeks.  We've found tons of investigators, taught lots of lessons, committed people to baptism, and our stats are better than ever - we're actually achieving the goals we set at the start of the transfer (P.S, that never happens).  Of course, because things are going so great, President Shin had Elder Skinner and I stay together again through the transfer and we have at least another six weeks to look forward to.

Well awesome! Another 6 weeks of non-stop appointments, miracles, and laughs!  Why not?  Excited and confident, Elder Skinner and I went into this last week ready to keep the flame going.  And then, on Monday, our evening appointment cancelled.  "Oh that's fine," we thought. "We'll just use the time to find people on the streets.  We've been so busy, we haven't had time to do that in a while..." and so we did.  But then on Tuesday, the same thing happened.  "Oh I guess that's fine.  How about we do some less active visits?  We've been so busy, we haven't had time to do that in a while..." and so we did.  Then, on Wednesday, it happened again.  "Okay God, we get it.  We were getting too confident" we prayed/laughed.  "We'll take the humility blow and be as productive as possible...." and so we were.  By the end of the week, we only had 3 investigator lessons (compared to our usual 10), but we had 8 awesome street lessons and 6 less active visits (that's 8 and 6 more than we get, haha) and we had wonderful experiences through them all.  Here's a funny snippet from my journal about 2 different people we met on the street back to back.

We were walking by this guy on the street who looked a little crazy, but for some reason I blurted out "Annyeonghaseyo!" and started to talk to him.  Turns out he was from Vietnam, was lost, and was looking for an internet cafe.  He couldn't speak English, but was fluent in Korean.  Instead of accepting my attempt to help him find it, he right off the bat started to argue with us.  He asked us what right we had to be in Korea teaching the things we are.  I said that we are just missionaries with a message that makes people happy, so we want to share it.  He said "Oh I'm sure!  So what's the message!?  That Jesus lives??"

ummmmmm, yes!

With a smile, I told him that our message is exactly that.  That Christ lives and that through him we can find joy and peace in life.  That's when he erupted.  He went all on this big rant about there being horrible people in the world and how there's killing and murdering and slashing and smashing and bombing and raping and everything.  He said that we religious people believe in miracles, but if God really was, then he would stop the bad people from doing those things.  We tried to bring up the whole agency and choice thing, but he just continued.

"What would I happen if I just snatched this boy up (pointing to a kid walking right next to us), took him to the top of the mountain, and killed him?!" he screamed.  "Would God save the boy!?!"

"Maybe, maybe not" we said.

"NO!" he jumped in.  "Because it happens all the time!"

Elder Skinner jumped in and tried again to explain that God gives everyone the choice.  Sometimes He may intervene, but most of the time he doesn't.  Even though it's sad at first, the child would be with God and the evil people will eventually receive their reward" (Alma 14 anyone?).

Then he just began screaming again.  "SO what if I just grabbed you right now" as he grabbed my shoulder and brought me in "and MURDERED YOU RIGHT HERE!?!?!" making the arm motion of stabbing me in the gut.

"Please don't have a knife" I thought.  Haha, the guy was crazy.

"Then I would die and the world would still go on.  God gave you and all mankind the ability to make choices.  But you will one day receive your judgment"  I said.  Basically, the conversation was going nowhere.  We changed it back to that we know God exists, if you pray to Him you can know too, and said goodbye.  Let's hope that is the first and last death threat I'll get on the street, haha.

The next story happened a little later in the evening.  As we were walking home from a night filled with visiting less active members, Elder Skinner said, "Let's talk to that guy" pointing to a man about 50 feet ahead.  We got there and I gave him the standard:

"Hi, where are you headed?  Oh that's great, we're going this way.  Actually, we're missionaries, have you ever seen missionaries like us before?  Oh I know, there's a lot indeed.  Well you know, the reason why there's so many is because we're sharing a special message with everybody.  Through this message, we can find joy, happiness, and peace in life.  Would you happen to have time for us to speak with you for a bit about this special message?"

When the guy said, "Sure, why not?  But let’s go over there where it's not as loud," I was stunned.  Already, he was starkly different from the first guy.  We went over to a quieter street with him and taught him about God, Jesus, and that because they love us, they have once again given us further knowledge to follow them more perfectly: the Book of Mormon.  He had lots of questions, but they were all faith-driven.  After 20 minutes of talking to him, we ended up giving him a Book of Mormon and said it was a free gift from us to him.

He took it gladly from my hands, but then proceeded to do the most interesting thing.  He closed his eyes, took the book in his hands, and slowly scanned it up and down a few inches from his face, nodding his head and inhaling and exhaling with the slow up and down motions of the book.  Basically, he was yoga bowing with the Book of Mormon.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

A fourth.

Then he opened his eyes.  "This is how I can tell if it is God's words or not."

"Through that method?" I engagingly asked.

"Yes, through this method." and he proceeded to do it a fifth time.

"So......" I said, trying not to laugh "......what do you think?"

After the sixth time, he opened his eyes with a smile. "It's God's word" he proclaimed.

"Wonderful!" I said. "Your method worked!  But, you know, prayer is also a good one too..." and flipped to Moroni 10.  The man left with our book, number, and church address.  Maybe we'll see him again.

-----------------

 So that's a snippet from this week.  Appointments cancelled, but experiences out the ying yang.  Bring it on for another 6!

 Elder Graf

His name is Joo

First, I was telling people  "2 weeks, Since I've come to Korea, it's been two weeks".  Then, that went up to "4 weeks, I've been in Korea for 4 weeks".  Then, somehow, that changed to "6 months, I've been in Korea for 6 months".  As the time continued to go on, I realized that the people were less excited with my Korean level coordinated with the time I had been in Korea.

"Wow, your Korean is great!"  they would say, "How long have you been here?"

"2 weeks!"  I exclaimed.

"WOW!  NO WAY!"

compared with this:

"Wow, your Korean is great! How long have you been here?"

"6 months"

"Ahhhh, I see"

What!?  No!  You're supposed to load me with compliments!  Anyway, so starting around my 7 month mark, I started telling people that I had been in Korea for 3 months less than I actually had.  That way, I received both compliments and understanding when I made language mistakes.  And I worded it perfectly so I wouldn't be lying.  "Yes, I have been in Korea for 5 months"  does not necessarily mean that I CAME here 5 months ago, it just means that, yeah, I have in fact been in Korea for, but not limited to, 5 months.  Yay for honesty!

Anyway, the reason I say this all is because I hit the big 1 year in Korea milestone this last week on May 7th.  And what a celebration it was.  Skinner and I woke up and started our day as normal, but all day long I was keeping my eyes out for exciting opportunities.  Would I buy fireworks and light them off at night?  Would I order the most delicious Korean food there is and have it delivered after midnight?  I had no idea what to do, and I'm a fan of spontaneous things, so I let the day go on and figured I would find something amazing.

That night, we had a family home evening scheduled with a less active family.  The lesson was planned, but we were missing one thing: Jenga.  Our plan was to play the game and then at the end, explain that we needed to have a strong foundation in Christ.  So, Skinner and I really quickly went to the Wal-Mart equivelant over here to snatch the game.

And that's when I saw him.

Right there by the toy section was a cage, and inside the cage was a little baby bunny.  "THAT'S IT!"  I thought, "I'M BUYING A BUNNY!" and instantly was drawn to the cage.  My comp and I were of course on the same page and began justifying our breaking the no-pet rule because this situation obviously was an acceptable exception.  Then, we saw the whole $30 price tag, realized that we were poor, and so fine, bought a fish instead.

So his name is Joo.  Why?  JooNyun means anniversary, or one year, in Korean.  So "Joo" for short.  I put him in my backpack and he spent the rest of the day inside being jostled around inside as we ran from bus stop to appointment to bus stop in order to not be late.  Luckily, he lived, and when we got home, we put him in our garden (oh yeah, we have a garden by the way).  We got a big sink that isn't being used, buried it in the dirt, and put him inside.  Then the next day, we collected about 30 rocks throughout the day and put them in my backpack, bought 4 more flower plants, and when we got home, beautified our fish pond.  Basically, we have an awesome Korean garden with a Koi (goldfish) pond in the middle.  Go us, we're Asian.

So the week was great!  Fun times, big celebrations, and mircales out the ying yang.  Or our investigator accepted the baptismal commitement and will be dunked in the next coming weeks.  We also found another guy that is super solid - things are going awesome!  Who would've thought that all of these miracles are possible?  Wish us luck!

Elder Graf

Camera gone, Pictures missing, Investigators found‏

The other day, we were walking into the subway station from the street level.  In order to get down to the tracks, you first have to go underground one level, scan your pass, and then go down again another level to get to the loading dock.  As we walked into the station, we heard the train arrive and it's doors opened.  With only 15 seconds left before it would depart, we had no choice but to run.  Elder Skinner and I booked it down the first flight of stairs and whipped around the corner running towards the scanning gates.  I opened my backpack pocket, got out my wallet, scanned my pass, and continued to run through.  We then whipped around the corner again and began to take off down the last flight of stairs to the lower level.

And that's when I heard it.

After the loud smack of something falling out of my backpack, I turned around and saw my camera laying flat on the stone steps.  At first, my heart sank, but when I picked it up and it seemed fine, I had no time but to keep running down the steps.  The two of us got on the train, the doors closed, and it took off.  Made it.

We sat down and got settled.  "What was that loud noise?" asked Elder Skinner.  "Did you drop something?"

"Nah, it was my camera - I guess I didn't close my zipper after getting my wallet out and it was shaken out of my bag.  But it's fine, see?"  as I handed it over for him to observe it's indestructiveness.

"Ummm... you sure it's fine?  It won't turn on"

"What do you mean it won't turn on?" I asked, and instantly took it back from him.  After closer inspection, I noticed that the screen - not the glass part, but underneath the glass, was completely shattered.  The camera actually still turned on, but the screen was completely shot, so I couldn't see pictures that I was taking - or if I was even taking them for that matter.

At first I was distraught, but I got over it.  The whole taking mystery pictures thing became fun.  For the rest of the week, whenever I saw something cool, I would just pull out my camera, turn it on, and hope that the picture I snapped turned out how I wanted it to.  Did I get the picture?  Did it look funny?  I had no idea!  And it became a fun little guessing game.  My camera was gone, but I at least still had the SD card inside with the 5000 pictures from December to now on it - and that is all that matter.

Well, then one day, I decided that I wanted to see all of the mystery pictures I was taking and how they turned out.  We were at the church waiting for our investigator, so I popped my SD card into the computer to see and that's when the worst message I could possibly receive popped up:

"SD card damaged.  Needs to be reformatted"

NO. NO.  Something must be wrong, THIS CANT BE HAPPENING.  I tried it again, and again, and again.  Then I put the card in Skinner's camera - same message.  First my camera was gone, but now every single picture I have taken from last year to now (my investigators, the members, the blossoms, the snow, the Buddhist temples, the beaches - everything) is potentially gone.

I panicked for a bit, but then I got over myself, packed it up in an envelope, and sent it to my sister Ashley so she can do miracle data recovery work on it.  If you are wondering for people to pray for, pray for my SD card - it's in a coma right now and I'm just not ready to even think about taking it off of life support yet.

anyway.

The missionary work side of my week was wonderful.  We found SIX new investigators this week.  We barely had enough time on our hands to meet with the current ones we had - now we're going to have to start doing splits with members to cover appointments with everyone.  We're working super hard, having a blast together, and we are setting a baptismal date with our investigator tonight for the 25th of May.  Let's make it happen!

So, pray for the work, pray for my parents to send me a new camera, and pray for my SD card that it will wake up without any memory loss.

Elder Crap