Taebeck!

Hello! Not much to report this week... Taebeck is really slow. Elder Mills (one of my roommates) likes to use the word "stagnant" when referring to this area. It's kind of funny. And kind of not, because it's totally true.

Elder Jang and I met with a REALLY drunk guy this week. We went to his house and sat on the floor with him and just visited. He has a sad life. He lives in two states... wasted drunk or sleeping. His house is a wreck, and the only food in the fridge is an expired bottle of milk. He lives off alcohol, cigarettes, and the occasional ramen (that's pretty much my diet, minus alcohol and cigarettes). His bathroom is a hole in the cement, and his house is so dirty. It made me so sad! There's not really anything we can do for him... But we did agree to visit with him every week because he's so lonely. One thing I took away from that is the incredible blessings that I have in my life. I often forget the basic things... food to eat, health, a toilet that flushes, friends.... He has none of that! What money he has he spends on alcohol. Sad.

Church is a little bit of a different experience here. Not only is no one here, but the "guidelines" that I kind of saw in Utah are totally different. One of our branch counselors will usually ask questions from the pulpit and turn sacrament meeting into a discussion. It's SUPER funny. So sacrament meeting is a little less spiritual than it could be, but we still get to take the sacrament which is the most important part.

A mouse got into the rice at the church... Our branch president found it early in the morning on Sunday and called us over to help get rid of it before the members came for church. So we killed it, and then the branch president sifted the poop out of the rice and we ate that rice a couple hours later. Yum. But I'm not sick today, so I think it'll be alright. Koreans are big on not wasting anything... Which is good in some ways, but definitely not good in regard to mice in rice. Nailed it.

We talked with the Branch President on Saturday about the area and stuff. It wasn't a very good meeting... He has no hope! He pretty much told us to stay at the church and study all day every day because knocking doors and proselyting is worthless. Which isn't true! We definitely get rejected way more times than not, but it's worth it even if we just find one person here during our stay in Taebeck. So that really frustrated me. And it's kind of a problem, because my companion really likes the idea of resting all day every day. He's close to the end of his mission, and he's lost all of his fire. So it's going to be a trick to work at all. I'm praying really hard for charity, so I can just love these people even when they make me SOO frustrated.

It's finally getting cold... I love the cold. So much.

I love you all!

Love, Elder Edwards

Conference​!

Hello from Taebaek!

 

We traveled really a lot this week, which put me 50 bucks in the hole from all the stupid bus fares. But this week was good! We had our zone training meeting on Thursday, which was good. They gave us a calendar detailing things going on in the zone this month, and we don't have a temple day this month, which is a major bummer. There's also nothing going on in the mission, so we will stay in Taebaek at least until the end of the month, and not travel to Seoul at all. It feels a little bit like a banishment.

 

We got to travel to an area in our zone to give one of our members' daughter a priesthood blessing. That was really cool. It made me so grateful for the power of the priesthood and for the blessing that it is in my life. The priesthood is real and it's the power of God!

 

It's interesting to see the differences in this little Taebaek branch compared to a ward back at home. Here, there's a total of 4 priesthood holders... two are the 1st and 2nd Counselors, one is a lonely priest, and the last one is our branch president who lives in Seoul, which means he has to travel 6 hours every weekend to attend here. There's nobody here! But it gives me hope to see these faithful saints striving to keep their covenants and to keep the faith. I love them so much.

 

We finally got to watch conference this week (yesterday and Saturday). We had to watch it a week later so people could translate it into Korean and make discs and send them out here to good old Taebaek. The branch all got together and watched in Korean, while Elder Fronke, Elder Mills, and I watched on a tiny computer screen in the clerks office so we could watch it in English. It was interesting to me the difference in environments between watching at home or in the conference center compared to watching in a cramped clerks office. It made me just a little trunky for a little bit. But conference is still the same and still amazing! I loved Elder Uchtdorf's talk about doubting your doubts before doubting your faith. The church is still true, God is still eternal, and the doctrines are still perfect even if people make mistakes! They are the mistakes of man. I feel like so many people get hung up on something someone said, whether it be a fellow ward member or a leader of the church. The mistakes of man don't undermine the truthfulness of the gospel! What a great talk.

 

I loved how they used Matthew 11:28-30 a couple of times in that conference. "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." WOW. That hit me so hard. How grateful I am for Christ and for his Atonement. Through him, our burden can be lightened. What an amazing promise.

 

The language comes ever so slowly, I still eat lots of rice and kimchi, and Korea is still awesome!

 

Love, Elder Spencer Edwards

태백

Hello! Sorry this one is a day late, P-day was weird this week.

 

I'm officially in Taebaek. I totally lied. It's like a 2 hour bus ride from the ocean. But, it's still in super beautiful country! 

Some sweet windmills on the bus ride here.

Taebaek is.... interesting. It's so so small. And everyone in the town already knows the missionaries... not in a friendly way. More of the "you've talked to me 10 times on the street now, get out of my face" way. So proselyting here is really hard, which means that we try to knock doors. But in Korean culture, there is a little camera type doorbell thing at every house, and they check that before they open the door. So as soon as they see missionaries, they stop talking. Super ineffective. And Elder 장 (Jang) and I are opening, so we have no investigators and no former investigators to go off of. (There were already 2 Taebaek elders here, but we are opening Taebaek 2, so now there are 4.)

 

 

Taebaek branch is tiny. We had a total of 17 people to church on Sunday, which is pretty average according to Elder Mills (the area senior). So there is no ward mission leader, no priesthood meeting, and the 4 priesthood holders are one lone priest, and the branch presidency. And half of the branch presidency is less active. There is just an overall feeling of hopelessness here. The baptismal font is used as a storage closet. And there is a lot of gossip going on in the branch, which is leading to some really rude feelings. One family doesn't come anymore because they got offended by some stupid thing. (The church is still true! Even if people are imperfect!)
 

So Taebaek is in some hard times right now. It's honestly really a depressing place. I'm fine though. No worries. We (the Taebaek elders) are all working really hard on trying to find a solution and learning how to help this floundering branch.

 

Sorry... This email is totally depressing. I'm happy! It's definitely different work here, but I am still working to build the kingdom of God, and as I do that I know God will bless us. The country here is amazingly beautiful, my companion and I are getting along just great, the other Taebaek elders we live with are awesome, and everything is okay.

 

I love you all!

 

Love, Elder Edwards

 

P.S. Elder Fronke is a brand new greenie who is being trained by Elder Mills in Taebaek 1. And he's totally from Cache Valley and Grandpa Farrell was at his setting apart! (or maybe Melchezidek priesthood ordination... I can't remember.) (Also, I butchered the spelling of that priesthood name that's higher than Aaronic... Don't judge me. I tried really hard.)

 

A normal sized spider in Korea. NASTY BIG.

I'm thinking about making some sort of art museum called
"Elder Jang in paradise." These are almost all pics of him :)

 

Transfers!​!!

Hello Family and Friends! This week was awesome. People are still speaking some strange language here that I don't understand, but I love it. Missionary work is cool, I guess.

My district in our english flyer. I totally look like

the main teacher surrounded by my assistants.

We got transfers on Saturday!! How it works is the APs and President call every single missionary (even the ones not being transferred) on Saturday night and tells them whether they are staying or going or training or whatever! It's awesome. And dreadfully terrifying. Maybe that's just cause it was my first transfer. (This transfer was 9 weeks long, due to the mission split... I don't really know why.) Usually new missionaries stay with their trainer (or dad, as we call it here) for at least 2 transfers...

Me and Elder 구 at 추석  conference.

But we are getting a ton of new missionaries on Thursday, so they need a lot of trainers. So I am losing Elder 구! :( He will pick up his new son on Thursday. He will stay here in 장위, and I am going to a place called 태백 (Tay-beck...?). It's on the coast (east coast? maybe?), so I'll get to see the ocean! My new companion is an Elder 장철진 (Jang-Chorl-Jeen). I don't really know anything about him... But I'll meet him on Thursday! I'm SO excited.... I'm sad to lose my dad, but super excited for something brand new! Everyone says 태백 is freezing and that it's in the middle of nowhere South Korea... They also say it's one of the hardest parts of the mission. But I like the cold! And I like being in the middle of nowhere! And Elder 장 and I will work hard! I'm SOOOO excited.

So this is my last P-day with Elder 구 and Elder Singer and Elder Reynolds. I love them all a lot, and know that they will be great! I'm really grateful for their friendship and for how awesome they are. It will be hard to leave, but we go where the Lord wants us to go!

Me, Elder Reynolds, and Elder Singer on the subway.

 

Life is good here. I got a haircut last week, except not from Elder 구, cause it was too nerve wracking. So I went to a barber shop. Elder 구 sat off in the corner and read the bible or something, and I sat in the barber chair. I knew the word for "short", so I just kind of pointed and tried to communicate what I wanted. And then she cut my hair. Every once in a while she would ask me a question about how I wanted it cut or something, and I always answered "yes". I had NO idea what she was saying to me. Luckily my hair turned out alright. Maybe I'll just stick with Elder 구 cutting it.

My awesome ward mission leader. (And Elder 구).

Life is great. We don't really have any investigators right now, but they'll come. I'm grateful for rice, I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve, I'm grateful for kimchi, and I'm grateful for Korea!

I love you all!

Love, Elder Edwards

 

This is one of the most adorable little girls I've ever met.

This is one of our stake members playing that cup stacking game.

Koreans get WAY serious about games. Super competitive.

He kept butting in front of little kids so he could play again :)

The family is my Bishops family. He served a

mission in Busan, South Korea about 9 years ago.

 

No Letters... Wrong Address.

Well, Spencer has been in Korea for almost two months and hasn't received any mail. Turns out we had the wrong address. :(

 

For those of you who have sent letters, thank you!! Please know he's not ignoring you... he just never received them.

 

Here is the right address (and is now corrected on the blog):

 

Elder Spencer John Edwards

Korea Seoul Mission

Gwanghwamun Po Box 210

Jongno-Gu

Seoul-si 110-602

South Korea

 

Oh. And he would love mail. :)

 

~Laurel

추석! (choo-sok)

Hello everyone! I'm still in Korea and it's still kind of hot and I'm still happy!

This week was the 추석 holiday, which is the second biggest holiday of the year here in Korea. It's celebrating the biggest harvest of the year, and basically people get together from all over Korea and eat food and talk about their ancestors. It's basically an American Thanksgiving with weird rice cakes and kimchi.

Because 추석 is kind of crazy, and because there are different people in different parts of the country, it makes the proselyting side of missionary work pretty ineffective. So this week we were only allowed to proselyte on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. It was really weird.

President Christensen ended up holding a mission conference on Thursday, and afterward we all hung out as a mission did fun things together.

Friday, we had weekly planning and then "Change Day". Basically, President Christensen wanted us to spend all day cleaning our apartments. Which we did. It was a LONG 8 hours, but fun at the same time. We found some things in the fridge that can no longer be classified as food, which almost made Elder 구 throw up.

 

Our new clean fridge with ZERO food.

And we finally moved out this ancient oven that had been chilling in a corner of our house for at least a century. Probably not a century, but definitely a long time. There were some nasty big spiders, which we dispatched of quite neatly with very little girlish screaming. Ugh.

Our oven.

On Saturday, we had a giant Zone P-day, which was super fun. We played ping-pong and signs, and watched "The Best 2 Years"! That was really weird. I definitely see that movie from a different perspective now that I'm actually a missionary. But it was super fun!

They still had us email on Monday, so that's why I'm emailing today. 추석 was really fun, but I'm super excited to get back to real missionary work. It's funny how much happier I am when I'm doing the things that seem "less" fun, like proselyting. But this is what the Lord sent us out here to do, to find and teach and convert! And he blesses us as we do so.

I'm grateful to all of you out there that are praying for me and helping me along the way! I love you all!

Love, Elder Edwards

Pig guts. Bleh.

This week was good. Weird, but good. I also got pretty cold last night, which was amazing.

 

We had a training meeting for all the new missionaries this week, which was really fun. It went for like... 6 hours. But it was really good to hear from our mission president and his wife. Their names are President and Sister Christensen, and they are super awesome!!! It was also good to see some of the Elders from my MTC district.  It's weird that we were together every single day for 2 months, and then never saw them until now. But it was super good to see them! And there is a mission conference this Wednesday, which I'm super excited for!

 

I cut Elder 备's hair today.... That was a disaster. Maybe he can get it fixed next P-day or something. Oh well. But I guess that ends my dream of being a professional barber someday.

 

Koreans sense of personal space is SO weird. Elder 备 and I were 傈档ing to a guy and he really liked me (because I'm American). So he held my hand and stroked it the whole time. EW. That was really gross. But he was really funny, so I guess that's okay.

 

We went to a restaurant with a potential investigator today. I asked Elder 备 what we would be eating, but he wouldn't tell me. So needless to say, I went in there pretty nervous. They gave us this big bowl of soup and it totally looked like octopus tentacles or something. NASTY stuff. But I ate it all, for the sake of not offending this investigator, because it's his favorite food. Man, I wanted to throw up so bad. Found out later that it was pig large intestines and various parts of the pigs face: cheek, ears, nose, skin, etc. Ugh. I felt sick for a solid day after that one. And to top it all of, the potential investigator ran out on us and I had to pay for his food. Dumb. But at least I have a cool story out of that one.

 

Romans 10:14-15: "How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? ... And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!" I love this scripture. How can people believe if they don't know? Well, we'll tell them. The missionaries are SENT out by God, and we have a sacred calling to preach his gospel (3 Nephi 5:13). How great is our calling!

 

I love you all.

 

Love, Elder Edwards

 

Laurel here. Just wanted to share a part of the letter Spencer wrote to us. Spencer makes me laugh!

"Elder Singer got blood on his white shirt this week. I totally told him to soak it in cold water. I felt like some kind of cleaning pro. Thanks Mom. I think there might have been a step after the cold water though... I can't remember. So now the stain is brown, not red. Nailed it."