December 13, 2008

Hey Parents! How are you? Im doing good, haha today has already been a stressful day but being able to email makes it alright. It's raining really hard today and so we tried to call a taxi to pick us up and drive us to the library and it was a hassle and we ended up walking here so it really didn't even matter but yeah anyways.. This week has been pretty good though. Thanksgiving dinner at the mission home was amazing. And the whole day was actually a lot better than i thought it was going to be. I was nervous that i was going to be homesick but we ended up doing the exact same thing that we do everday (outside of dinner) so it really didn't even feel like a holliday which was good. I think christmas may be a little bit different because Koreans actually celebrate it and some of the stores may even be closed. I can't believe that Christmas is only 3 weeks away, it's pretty trippy. The work is still moving along i guess. I feel like we are sifting through a giant sand dune looking for something the size of a quarter sometimes but its good, we'll find the prepared people eventually. Both of our really good investigators have dropped off the radar for the time being. One is a college student and he has finals for the next few weeks so i don't know if we'll be able to meet him until like Christmas and our member's husband that we were meeting is really busy too because he's a teacher and he has been grading end of term papers or something for the last couple of weeks. This has definitely been the longest time of my mission that we havent had real progressing investigator but we've definitely been out on the streets looking so we'll find some prepared people eventually. Haha me and my companion tried to make cookies for some of our investigators the other day and that was interesting. It took us like 2 hours and only a few of them turned out decent enough to give people. The sister that we gave them to really liked them though so it was good. Oh yeah and i have yet another disgusting food that i ate to report about. This time it was snails. Haha we were at a really expensive buffet with a member on tuesday and they had snails so me and Elder Folsom ate some. It was by far the nastiest thing that i have ever eaten, it made dog seem like a delicacy. Don't worry though i recorded on my camera and i'll be sending my card home to Melissa for Christmas so you can see it then! I swear by the time i get home i will have eaten just about everything you can imagine, next on the list is live octopus. I won't tell you all the details about that one until after i eat it though because supposedly if you don't chew it up until its completely dead the little suckers can get caught in your throat and suffocate you to death, haha i can't wait! Mom you asked about opening the Christmas presents thing and yeah i don't think i will open them until after we talk, hopefully that will cheer me up some. I got all of the packages yesterday because we had a meeting and the mission home and it's pretty exciting. Haha you said that Melissa showed you all up in the present department and i don't know what she sent but on the box it said that it was 500 dollars! She better have been exagerating on the customs because i will trip out if it was that expensive, that is 안돼요 (on dayo!!)! You asked about the christmas decorations and yes they put up trees and lights. Most of the appartment buildings have the lights up on the front gates and trees already and some businesses have trees up already. Haha we have been listening to a little bit of christmas music the last couple of days and that has been fun. Last night when we got home we sat and drank tea together and listened to Kurt Bestors christmas CD, that's our fav. so far. Speaking of tea, Momma you asked about what we drink and we drink a lot of tea when its cold and other then that just water. The water is fine if you have a water filter which all of the missionary houses do. Sometimes we drink soda if we go out to eat but the members here think that coke is against the word of wisdom and the beast us if we drink it around them. Haha Elder Crow said that his gospel principles teacher in his last ward said that President HInkley said it was 안 돼요 to drink coke, yeah the members are a little crazy sometimes. Anyways thats all i have to report so i'm gonna head but thank you for the emails, i got a ton this week! I love you and i hope you're having a good week. Happy Holidays!

Love Elder Musso

November 27, 2008

안녕 가족! 잘 지냈어?? (Hey Family! Are you spending you time well??) I am doing pretty good here in the orient. This week was the last week of the transfer and that is always pretty exciting. Me and Elder Woodbury are staying the same but Elder Blauer transfered out and Elder Crow, my favorite missionary in the whole mission, came in. He was in my district for the 3 transfers that i was in ì‹ ê°ˆ, and im so stoked. Our house will be a blast this transfer. Other than that things are pretty much the same as always, we are still dropping investigators so we are still doing lots of contacting, haha and we are still having a hard time finding new people. It's all good though, there are some prepared peeps out there we just need to find them. I don't know if Melissa gave you that paper of Sanctification that i sent but part of my sanctification is being optimistic and it has helped so much. It's definitely hard sometimes, Sunday was one of the most frustrating days of my mission but life is so much better when it's lived through positive eyes. Haha on Sunday night me and Elder Woodbury were pretty frustrated so we sang count your many blessings and that helped a lot too. Ok before i tell you anything else about my week i have some enormous news for you!! So on tuesday night we went over to my favorite member's house and ate and he served in the states so not only does he speak amazing english, but he knows a thing or two about american food and he made us steak, which was amazing. But of course you need side dishes and so guess what he made? Yeah... Mashed potatoes. I tried my best to get out of eating them, i tried to slip them on my comp's plate while the member wasn't looking, and if he would have had a dog i probably would have given them to it but nothing worked out and i ended up eating them, a whole portion of potatoes! I was thinking about it and i don't think i have even touched potatoes for at least the last 10 years. It wasn't as bad as i though it was going to be, i didn't puke at least but it was still a little rough, haha aren't you proud of me though?? By the time i get home i will be able to stomache anything. Anyways enough about that. Oh i have some other great news about food. We got a call from our zone leaders over the weekend and they told us that we are zone is all getting together tomorrow at President and Sister Burton's house for thanksgiving dinner! We are stoked. I don't know if Sister B will be able to find turkey, i don't think they have it in Korea but whatever she cooks will be amazing. I won't be eating sea weed and rice all three meals after all. All the rice has been paying off though, i am up to 155 pounds these days, haha i don't know how i swear we don't eat anything but i think that the Lord is blessing me for my service! Mom remember when you told me that i wouldn't gain a pound out here? Before you know it i'm going to be to fat for my suits! Anyways, this has been a pretty random letter but i don't have much else to report. I have been learning a ton about patience and trials lately though. Sometimes its hard for me to understand how Heavenly Father could say in the scriptures that His work and His glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man when we have those days like Sunday where nothing goes right and i feel like i am on the verge of giving up. It never ceases to amaze me though that when we endure to the end of those long nights and keep going how every time, after the trial of our faith, we are blessed beyond comprehension. Missionary work truly is an emtional rollercoaster like nothing that i have ever experienced, but i think that it's at the times of your lowest lows that you learn the most and your faith really comes through. These last couple of transfers Ether 12:6 has become soo important to me and i really have gained a testimony of the fact that if we do endure the trial of our faith patiently, the Lord will always bless us with the witness, of course it will be in His own way and in His own time, but it always comes. Being a missionary is such a blessing parents! That's all i have to report for now though so i think i'm going to end but I love you and i hope you have an amazing thanksgiving. Thank you for all the prayers and support, it truly is such a powerful though to think of you praying for me. Have a good week!

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November 19, 2008

Hey Parents! How in the world are you? Im doing pretty well. This week has been another good one, haha i know i say that every email but there really aren't any bad weeks as a missionary. Winter has definitely set in here though, and it happened soo fast it was crazy. On sunday we were fine in our suit jackets and long sleave shirts but then we woke up on monday morning and about froze to death on the way to the gym! It has been around 0 degrees celsius every day this week since then. Haha it is rough im not gonna lie, we bundle up with our big coats, scarfs, and gloves but it's still cold. The wind has started to blow down from sibera and it blows all day long. It will definitely take some getting used to and we may have to try some other finding techniques besides street contacting all day but we should survive. We also had interviews with President Burton on friday last week and that was a lot of fun like always. He is an amazing man and it's so good to be able to talk to him one on one for a while. He didn't give me any hints about transfers though but we'll know whats happening on friday night, im pretty sure that im not going anywhere but we'll see. We dropped a coulple more investigators this past week so now the the number of invesigators that we have dropped in the transfer is up to 20! I really think that has to be some kind of record. Haha me and my companion have been beasted by someone everyday since sunday which has definitely been interesting. On sunday night we called a man that we had met for the first time earlier last week and i guess he had told his pastor about meeting us and of course the pastor didn't like the idea very much so the guy yelled at elder woodbury on the phone for a little bit, haha we don't know exactly what he said because elder woodbury didn't understand any of it but it was funny. Then on monday night we were contacting on the street that we contact on every day and this ì „ë„ì‚¬ (i don't think we have these people in america but they are kind of like missionaries except they don't work everyday and they get paid to go out on the street and command people to repent and believe in Jesus) beasted us for like 20 minutes in fluent english, that was interesting. Then on tuesday we met a jehova's witness on the street and that is always a riot, haha and to cap off a wonderful four days of beastings someone saw our flyers for our english class and called and yet at me in english for a couple minutes about cheating people and decieving them by teaching english as a service project. So those were probably the bad highlights of the week but there were definitely some good ones too. We have been meeting one of our member's husband (i can't remember if i have told you about him or not) and he is a cool guy but he doesn't believe in God and he is super smart and uses vocabulary that we have a really hard time understanding so it's been a little rough meeting him. We met him on friday morning though and taught him the restoration and he asked a lot of good questions and seemed interested and at the end of the lesson we had his wife pray to close and she was a little bit hesitant when we asked but she ended up doing it. After she prayed she told us that she had never prayed in front of her husband before so that's why she was a little bit nervous, but she did way good and prayed for her husband and stuff it was super cool. Then her husband was like "Wow! What was that i just felt? It was like something came down from the cealing and rushed through my whole body!" He went on to talk about how warm and happy he felt and we explained that it was the spirit. It was so amazing to see someone feel the Holy Ghost first hand like that. I mean all the people that i have baptized have said similar things but i have never been in the room when it happened. It really was such a miracle to see that happen to this man after just a couple of times meeting him. Experiences like this make all the bad times so worth it, they really are such a blessing. The sister missionaries are teaching this couples daughter too and so we are hoping to get both the dad and the daughter baptized on Christmas. We have another investigator that's doing pretty good as well. He is a college student, i think i told you about him a couple of weeks ago but he is the one that said that he will believe the book of mormon the first time we taught him about it. He has been really hard to meet, we were going to give him a baptisimal date last night but he punked us, he is really good though. Well thats about all i have to report about the week but i'll answer you questions really fast Mom. I already covered the winter, it get super cold but the wind is the killer. We will still play soccer every week, we play in the gym so it doesn't matter how cold it is outside. A couple of the usuals are moving to Canada this month though which is a bummer. And i am not exactly sure how Koreans celebrate christmas. I know it's not half as big as it is in america but i don't know much else about it. Christmas will be on a P-day for us though and that is exciting! Can you believe that is only a little over a month away?? It's pretty trippy.. Haha k well that's all i have to report so i am going to go but i love you and i hope your having a good week!

Love Elder Musso

P.S. Haha you all better think of me on thanksgiving because i will be out on the street all day freezing my ears off and i will probably eat rice and sea weed for all 3 meals!

November 13, 2008

Hey Parents! How are you doing? I'm doing way good, today has been an amazing day. We went to the temple this morning and we had a meeting with President and Sister Burton in one of the chaples for an hour before and they talked about the temple and getting answers and things fro mthe sessions it was way good. The session was good like always and after we got our mail and i had 4 packages waiting for me! 3 were from you mom and 1 was from Melissa, i was stoked! Haha i felt a little handicapped carrying them all home on the subway but it was worth it. I haven't had time to open them all up yet but i'm sure there are treasures in there. P.S. on the subject of packages, tell Melissa not to worry about the Halloween package, i got that at the beginning of October. Anyways.. This week has been pretty good. It's all just the same stuff on different days but this week we've already gotten 5 lessons with a member which is a big deal. The standard of excellece (which are the mission wide weekly goals) for lessons with members is 5 for a whole week so we are pretty stoked. Haha 3 of them were with our grandpa recent convert and i swear he slept like half of the time during the lessons but it was tight, he is a straight up all star. Well parents i know this is super short but i need to start wrapping this up, we are at a different place emailing because the library was booked and an old man is breathing down my neck. My companion is a stud though, you asked about him. He is kind of quiet but he works hard and has a good attitude and thats the most important thing. I'll write you another email about my christmas stuff in a second but i love you and i hope your having a good week! Sorry again i know this is a lame email but i'll tell you more next week.

Love Elder Musso

November 6, 2008

Hey Parents! How are you? Im good. This week has been fun and i really think its been the fastest week of my mission. I heard from a lot of missionaries that when you go senior comp that time starts to go by lots faster and its so true! The trasfer is already half way over and it really seems like i just met my companion yesterday. Everything is going pretty well, this week has been a little bit slower as far as new investigators go but i guess you can't totally dominate every week. We were a little bit bummed though, we picked up a guy last week that spoke fluent english and seemed like he would be really good but he told us (in english) yesterday that he liked us and he thought that the members of our church were good because that actually live according to our beliefs, but he had no interest in the book of mormon, and he told us not to teach about it. I don't know why but it was rough! We hear pretty much that same thing on a daily basis but its a lot different hearing it in your native tongue and understanding every word. He's a good man though so maybe he'll come around later. We don't really have any real prospects as far as baptisms go because all of our investigators are so new. Haha i think we have taught the first lesson more in the past week than i had in the past 2 transfers. Hopefully some of them will progress well though and maybe we'll get some of them baptized next transfer. Let's see what else do i have to report about my week.. I'm drawing blanks, this week was pretty much the exact same as the last 9 months have been. Haha about the Presidential election though, i only have a little bit to say and i will be honest, i feel pretty ignorant being out of the political loop for the last 9 months, but i really don't think that much will change, Obama talks big now but i think he will get to washington and realize that the president doesn't have as much power as he thought. However, haha Parents you act like its the end of the world but for heavens sakes the guy doubled Mccains electoral votes, if that many americans like him (granted the electoral college is a little bit 안돼요 with the winner take all allocation system but still) he must be doing something right. Enough about that though. Mom i'm proud that you went and taught with the sister missionaries! It's even better that you were super busy and went with them anyways. Teaching lessons with members really is so important, and i know that the missionaries probably have no problem getting members at lessons in utah but its a pain here. The last couple zone conferences that we've had have talked a lot about member lessons so good work! Mom you asked about thanksgiving and i'm not sure what we will do yet, probably nothing. Because thanksgiving is on a thursday in america that means it will be friday here so we will just be out street contacting all day like normal. I don't know what the deal will be as far as how long we can talk on Christmas yet, we will be calling on Christmas here though so it should be Christmas eve night for you. You asked about how we get around our area and yeah most of the time we just walk everywhere. If we have to go somewhere far we will take a bus, but our area is pretty small so we can generally walk everywhere. When we go to Seoul though we always right buses or the subway. The sister missionaries don't walk around as much as we do, they cover whole stakes so they are always on buses or hte subway. I'm not sure if a video from whitney's camera would work, i don't know why it wouldn't but you should give it a try, that would be tight. Well parents i think im going to wrap this up, my time is almost up and i still need to write President Burton really fast. I love you though and thank you for all of the prayers and support, you're amazing! I hope your having a good week!

Love Elder Musso

P.S. Dad about your talk in stake conference, I would definitely use President Uchtdorf's talk from priesthood session about lifting where you stand, i loved that one.

October 30, 2008

Hey Parents!
How are you? I'm doing pretty good. This past week has been amazing and so my spirits have been higher than normal lately. It sounds like everything is going good at home. I can't believe that it's already halloween though! Thanksgiving is right around the corner and after that we'll be getting ready for christmas. That's pretty trippy to think about, i remember when i was with Elder Andersen and we would talk about him going home at christmas time and that seemed like an eternity away and now he has less than 2 months! Anyways enough about that, it's always wierd for me to think about how fast time is going by. Haha it sounds like you had a good time at the jimmy buffet concert parents. I wasn't aware that you were jimmy buffet fans buty i'm sure it was a blast. I can't believe that Stacie defered her call! I am really excited though, i wish i was there to meet her brosif but haha if he can stand up to Dad and Weave's scrutiny i'm sure he would be up to my standards as well. You need to make sure to keep me posted on what happens with that whole situtation. Anyways things are going really well here in 한국. I think last week was kind of the trial of our faith though, we dropped like 5 investigators, did a ton of contacting to no avail and it also rained for a couple days straight. But Elder Andersen came down on monday to do exchanges with me and since then things have just been booming. Honestly we have been soo blessed these last couple of days its ridiculous. On monday we reached all of our goals and on the way to visit a member we ran into a guy that had lived in the states for 20 years and moved back to korea in 2004. He had met a few members of the church and had really good things to say about us. We talked to him for like an hour and taught him about our beliefs about Christ (he heard somewhere that we believed Jesus was just another one of our prophets and not the savior) and he seemed really interested and we are going to meet him again tomorrow. That may not seem like to big of a deal but i tell you what after talking to like 500 people last week on the street that had no interest we were excited to say the least. We had a really good day on tuesday as well, we met another new kid that seems interested in the church and then yesterday we randomly ran into another person on the street that spoke fluent English and really wanted to learn about the church. So we already have 3 new investigators in 3 days and the last couple of weeks its almost been impossible to meet 3 new people in a week. Sometimes it really is overwhelming how much the Lord blesses us and i really don't even feel worthy of some of the stuff that happens. It really is just all about faith though, Moroni 7:33 becomes more and more real to me every day that i am here. Haha me and my companion were joking about how all of the people that we have met lately are fluent at english, and i hope that Heavenly Father isn't just giving us investigators that are amazing at english because our korean is so bad! Lets see, other than that i don't think i have much else to report.. Oh yeah i think you asked about my companion though, and he's good. We get along really well and it's been a lot of fun. He reminds me a lot of myself and he definitely still has the new missionary drive about him (haha look at me talking like im a super old missionary when i'm only 2 transfers older than he is!). The language is still rough sometimes but its definitely getting better. I finally feel like i can understand whats going on most of the time, i never understand everything especially all the vocabulary people use, but i can't usually catch the gist of things. Anyways my time is almost up so i need to go but i love you all and i hope everything is going well back home. Thank you for all the prayers and Mom thank you for the email, haha everyone was doing pretty good at the writing game but this week there was only one from you and one from Melissa. Those two are always the most important but yeah.. I love you and i'll talk to you next week!

Love Elder Musso

October 23, 2008

Hey Parents! How are you? I'm doing pretty good. This last week was a bit of an adventure but it was good, and being a senior companion so young has already proven to be a huge learning experience. We haven't had any serious problems yet as far as completely not understanding people which is good and hopefully we won't have any in the future either. My new companion is a stud though. Haha he is really quiet and kind of geeky but when we hit the streets he lays it on people! Usually when i contact i just like to hang out with kids and get to know them and shoot the breeze for a while before i talk about the church, but he just goes right into it and always bears solid testimony. It has been really fun to watch. We don't have a ton of investigators right now, well we did until last week but we had to drop 6 investigators. The last few missionaries that served here did things a little bit strangely so it seems like all of the investigators that we were meeting with my last companion weren't progressing at all so we dropped all of them. Anyways back to my point about not having lots of investigators, we have been doing a lot of street contacting and stuff which is okay but it definitely gets old after a couple of hours. We went to a university in our area a couple of days ago though and met some really cool kids so hopefully that will be good. I think one of the hardest things for me to do is a missionary is to stay positive after people tell us ë°”ì˜ê³ ë“ ìš” (i'm busy for your information) or ë¼ì„¸ìš” (i can't really translate that, there isn't a word for it in english but its messed up!) on the street when we try to contact them. Praying always helps though haha and i usually like to tell my companion after something like that happens that the people are sons of our Heavenly Father and he loves them just as he loves us, i know thats really cheesey but it helps. Oh Mom you asked about the soccer game that we had and it was really fun. We got straight up smoked but it was still a good time. Some of the guys one the other team were amazing. This one guy that was playing midfield would drop like 50 yard bombs right to peoples feet every time he got the ball, it was incredible. They were all old and slow but they play every weekend together so they were good. Haha they all smoked like 4 ciggarrets at half time and they had a bunch of beer for after the game. Only in Korea would you see people getting drunk at 7 in the morning! My feet did fine too, i still can't shoot with my right foot but i can run around on it fine which was good. Haha my ward was pretty dissapointed with the new missionaries though, neither of them have ever touched a soccer ball so they put them on the bench the whole time. My ward is pretty intense i love it. Mom you also asked about my appartment and roomates. I'm still in the same appartment but the korean elder transfered too and Elder Folsom got a new comp. The new kid is way cool and we have a good time. I didn't really learn how to cook any Korean food from elder ê¹€, i watched him make my favorite soup once but i haven't tried it out yet, it will probably be a mess. Lately pretty much all we have been eating is rice and sea weed. It's gotten pretty old im not gonna lie. I have done pretty good with the food up till now but i have really been missing american food lately. Our bishop gave us a 100$ gift card to a wal-mart type of store though so we should get lots of food today. You asked about my P-days as well mom and yeah they should be on thursdays throughout my whole mission. Oh and i never did apply for the absentee ballot, i never had enough time on the computer and it probably wouldn't have gotten here in time anyway. Haha from the sound of things though Obama is doing just fine with out my vote. I can't believe the elections are already in a couple of weeks, it seems like they were just barely doing the primary votes. Mom the last question you had was about the definition of Musso and my blood type and yes i have used both of them. Our grandpa made me a korean name according to the definition of Musso and its 권성조(gwun sung jo) and he is pretty excited about it. He doesn't even call me Elder Musso anymore its always elder Gwun. I have talked to a few people about my blood type and thats always pretty funny. My blood type doesn't match my personality at all though which doesn't make sense. Haha Koreans are crazy about it they think that it totally defines who you are. Supposedly Japan is way into it as well and during world war II they even made up battle groups according to the soldiers blood types. Well thats all of your questions Mom and my time is about up so i think im going to wrap this up. All is well in the land of an hundred rice bowls and i hope everything is going good at home. Thank you for all your prayers and support, you're amazing. I love you and ill talk to you next week!

Love Elder Musso

October 16, 2008

Hey Parents how are you?? I'm doing way good. Today is transfer day and i just got home from picking up my new companion in Seoul and he seems to be pretty cool. Haha this transfer was definitely a bit of a shocker though. My companion has only been in korea for like 2 months and i am his senior companion and it is a bit overwhelming im not gonna lie! Not only can i not speak korean but i am way younger than most people are when they go senoir, most go on their 7 or 8th transfers and this is only my 5th. My mission President has this crazy notion that i am absolutely amazing at korean and all this stuff but im definitely feeling a little bit incometent but i know that if me and my comp work hard and have faith the Lord will bless us. My companion's name is Elder Woodbury and he is from Mesa. I don't really know much about him yet so i can't tell you anything other then that but i'll keep you posted on how everything goes. We watched conference this weekend and it was amazing! Honestly saturday was one of the best days of my life, all we did was watch conference and priesthood all day long and all the missionaries in our zone came to our church it was a party. I can't believe that i never watched saturday conference back home, there is now way that i would miss it now. I loved Both of President Utchdorf's talks but i think my favorite was President Eyrings talk on sunday morning. It was exactly what i needed to hear and i can't wait to get the ensign next month so i can go through and study it. It is so incredible how through the spirit you can get answers to all of your questions while you watch conference. One of my questions was about humility and i learned so much about it just from listening to the choir sing I Need Thee Every Hour on saturday. I love that hymn its become one of my favorites that last couple of months. Anyways.. Other than that i don't have much else to report about the week. Oh but my big soccer game isn't until this saturday and i am pumped about it. Haha my ward is so intense it is going to be great. I did play last saturday a little bit though and my toe felt okay, i couldn't really kick very well with my right foot but i was fine with my left. It really has been so fun to be able to play every week and my ward absolutley loves me because i am a soccer player. Haha they asked me to coach them the last couple of weeks when we play on saturdays and so i have been making them do some of the drills that we did in high school its pretty funny. Well parents thats about all i have to tell you for this week so i think im going to wrap it up but i love and miss you. Thank you for the package with the journal and the treats haha the mail is definitely getting fewer and far between the longer that i am here. Thank you for all the prayers and support and i'll talk to you next week!

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P.S. How are the blessing books and the referrals coming??

October 9, 2008

Hello Parents! How are you? Im good. Today has been an amazing p-day so far. We woke up early and went to the temple which was good, i haven't been in like two months so i was really excited to go. After the temple we can to a place called ì—¬ì˜ë which is like the manhattan of seoul and we ate mexican food! It really was one of the best things that has ever happened to me. Right now we are at the world headquaters of LG and its pretty cool too. It's fun to get out and do stuff like this on P-days but it always is a little bit stressful trying to get everything done by 6. This past week was reall good though. Haha our 85 year old investigator and his son got baptized on sunday and that was one of the happiest moments of my life. President and Sister Burton came to the baptism and it was really good. The old man was sooo excited after it was really fun to see. I don't really know what else to tell you about it but attached some pictures so hopefully you'll like them. Haha the one of Elder Terry me and him is after his baptism, he wore regular clothes to church and then came out after the baptism with traditional korean clothes on it was tight. Other than that nothing to remarkable happened. Oh yeah before i forget though, Mom i will tell you about my feet. I went to the doctor on monday for my follow up appointment and they said everything is fine. It still hurts a litle bit but by next week i should be back to normal. Next saturday i ward is goign to the world cup stadium in suwon to play soccer against some business though and i better be able to play. Haha the ward will not be happy if i can't play, it's going to be a big game. We didn't watch conference last weekend because of the translation and the time change but we will see all of it this weekend (in english) and i am soo excited. You mentioned President Uchtdorf's childhood and yeah i agree it's crazy how similar his story is to Oma and Opa's. I remember reading that in the ensign a couple months ago and i ment to write you about it but i forgot. I am stoked for his talk though, i think he has become my favorite aposlte. We are getting transfer calls this weekend too so it will be a good weekend. I can't remember if i told you this already or not but President Burton told my companion that he is leaving for sure this transfer so i will have a new comp which will be fun. I have definitely learned a thing or two about patience this transfer and i really love my companion but he has been serving in 수지 for 7 months and i think he is ready for a change. Mom you asked about the whole missionary letter thing and yeah i really like getting the letters from my friends, haha i have like never even talked to some of the kids that you sent letters from though. I don't mind if you want to send all of them but if its a hassle then you can just stick to the original group that you were sending. It sounds like things between stacie and her boy toy are going well. I'm not gonna lie i hope things work out and she gets married, that would be tight. Haha i bet the next couple of months for her are going to be pretty dramatic. Well i really don't have much else to report right at the moment and i think i answered all of your questions Mom so i am going to head. Sorry this one is a little short but i just don't know what to write.. I love you and miss you though! Keep the prayers coming, especially some about me learning Korean would be wonderful! I'll talk to you again next week.

Love Elder Musso

October 2, 2008

Hey Parents! How are you?? I'm doing amazing right now actually. This last week was a way good one, the weather is cooling down, haha and Korea is just the place to be right at the moment. So i am going to get right to the good stuff because i have some pretty exciting news for you... The old man and his son that we are teaching are getting baptized on sunday! Haha i really don't even know what happened it really was just a straight up miracle. Last week we met him on friday and he was still going off about getting baptized in North Korea but we taught him about temples and he was really excited about that. Then after church on sunday we sat him down with a member and the member threw down like the most amazing lesson i have ever heard. Haha me and my companion just sat there while this guy was sharing scriptures and writing on the chalk board and somewhere along the line he asked the guy to be baptized on sunday and he said yes!I really have no idea what happened because this old man is the most stubborn person ever but yeah something changed his heart. After that he called his son and told him that they were both getting baptized and they were both really excited about it. Our ward was pretty blown away when we told them, haha the bishop about fell over he was so amazed. Sunday really will be a historic day, President Burton said that 하국노 will be the oldest person to ever get baptized in Korea. It's going to be epic! I'll for sure send you some pictures next week. Lets see.. Besides that my week was pretty much the same as always. We are still having a heck of a time trying to get people to meet with us. We go out on the street everyday and get at least a few phone numbers from people that say they want to meet and we call them and set up appointments but they always punk us! My planner is literally full of numbers but none of the people will meet us. We did meet with the family that a member in my last ward referred to us though and they are really good, im excited about them. We had our interviews with President Burton this week and that was good like always. He told Elder Terry that he will transfer for sure and he also told the Korean Elder in our house that he is going as well. Im excited that i am going to get a new companion ( it's not that i don't like my companion but it's always fun to change) but i think it will be hard for my comp to endure to the end here in 수지. Haha he's kind of lazy as it is and i think it will definitely make it worse for him to know that none of the work that he is doing will affect him because he's leaving in two weeks. Mom you asked about how much walking we do everyday, that's all we do. I have only knocked doors like 5 times in the last 5 months because it isn't effective at all. All of the people have video cameras on there doors and so they never even open up to see who it is. Street contacting is good i guess, sometimes i wonder if there isn't a more effect way to get new investigators because it is almost impossible to get people on the street to meet with you. But then again Elder Terry contacted 하국노 on the street and him and his sone are getting baptized because of it. I already mentioned the weather a little bit but yeah it is definitely starting to cool off. The beginning of this week was really cool and we actually wore our suit jackets one day but it has gotten a little bit warmer since then. Yes i got your package Mom, and thank you for sending it! If i wouldn't have gotten anything that day i would have gone the whole transfer with out any mail and that wouldn't have been tight. You asked about what kind of treats i want in the next package and i dont' really care everything is good. Melissa sent me some beef jerky a while ago though and that was way good, be sure if you send some that you don't write beef jerky on the customs slip on the package because they will take it when it gets here because of the whole mad cow disease thing. I can't really think of anything else that i want or need besides that though. Oh and real quick yes the leaves do turn colors here and it is beautiful. They are starting to change a little bit but it probably won't be really pretty for a couple more weeks but i'll send some pics when they turn. Well my time is up so i need to go but i love you and thank you for the letters! I hope you have a good week.

Love Elder Musso

September 25, 2008

Hey Parents! How are you? I'm doing pretty good. I am actually in down town Seoul right now because we had to go to the hospital this morning (i'll tell you more about that in a minute) and so we just came to this library that is by the hospital. This week was pretty good though. It has just been the same old stuff. Our investigators are all doing pretty good, it seems like the old guy that we are teaching is finally progressing towards getting baptized and a member from my old ward reffered a family to us so we are really excited about that. Member referrals are amazing, President Burton told us that only like 5 percent of regular investigators get baptized but 40 percent of member referrals get baptized so hopefully this family will be in that 40 percent! Haha this week i went on exchanges with elder andersen in his area and it really was like the most fun day of my whole mission. It was just like my first transfer and we dominated seoul together. It was so nice to have a companion that is better than me at korean and can actually help me learn new things, i was only with him for one day but i think i probably learned more from him in one day than i have from my other companions in the last 3 transfers. He is going home in like 3 months though it's pretty crazy. Lets see i don't have much else to report about the week so i guess i'll tell you about my hospital visits. So on tuesday i went and had an ingrown toe nail cut out and it was alright, i didn't think it would be a big deal at all and i thought that i would be fine to be out on the streets walking all day like we normally do, but it has hurt pretty bad. Haha i have had to wear sandals with my shirt and tie because i can't put my church shoes on, i look pretty funny gimping down the street in sandals trying to street contact. The doc told me not to walk around for a few days haha but i felt like Ether where he saysthat he couldn't be constrained from preaching the gospel because of the spirit which was in him. I couldn't help it i had to get out and do something! I went back this morning so the doc could look at it again and he said that he's a little worried about it getting infected so he gave me antibiotics and told me to go back on monday. I don't know when i'll be able to wear shoes again, hopefully soon though. We have interviews with President Burton tomorrow and i think i'll ask him to give me a blessing so i should be good after that. Don't worry Mom im fine, haha i probably shouldn't even be telling you this but i don't really have anything else to say so yeah.. Well i'm sorry this is short but i think im going to wrap it up, you didn't send me any questions so i dont have much to say and we are going to the korean version of disney land today (haha i'm going to make my companion push me around in a wheel chair) so i don't have much time. I love you though and thank you for the emails and the prayers. Can you believe it's almost October?? We are going to be talking on the phone in no time! I miss you all and hope you have a good week.

September 18, 2008

Hey Parents! How are you? I'm doing way good. My new area is still amazing and the weeks are still flying by it's crazy. This past week was pretty fun, it was a little hard with the holiday because we pretty much didn't do missionary work for 3 days. On saturday we had our sports day and that was a lot of fun, our whole zone got together at our church and we played dodge ball and ping pong. After that on saturday night we had our weekly planning meeting and so we really didn't do anything all day. Sunday was pretty fun. It was a little bit hard being away from home on a holiday. It shouldn't have been because it isn't even our holiday but everyone went to the home towns to spend time with their families haha and we just had our companions! We had a dinner appointment on sunday night that was really fun though. A guy in our ward was the mission president of the pusan mission and right now he is the mission president of the mtc in seoul and he invited us over to his house to eat. We went with the other two missionaries that we live with and then two others from the area next to us it was a good time. On monday we had zone conference and the mission home and that was pretty good. It got a little boring towards the end of it though because they were just drilling into our heads the importance of teaching with members. Lets see what else do i have to report... Oh my companion is still good i guess. We get along really well but its hard because he and i don't exactly have the same thoughts about being obedient. He likes to sleep in and not exercise in the mornings and i don't think he has been to be on time a single night yet but i have talked to him about it so hopefully he'll step up his game. Oh Dad you asked about the language.. Haha it's rough! Naw its coming along i guess. I still don't understand very much but i think i do okay with talking. All the missionaries and members love to tell me how good i am at korean for my age in the mission but i don't know what they are thinking because i can barely even have a conversation! I should go senior companion in the next couple of transfers though and that will really help my korean. Dad you also asked about money and eating with members. We get 140$ on the 1st and 15th of every month and that usually is plenty. Haha last pay period i had like 2 dollars in my account at the end because me and my companion went to outback and got ribs but that was the first time that i've done that. (P.S. you have no idea how amazing it was to eat ribs after eating rice and kimchee every day for the past 5 months!) We don't eat with members all that often, no more than once a week. Usually we are to busy at night and the members are super busy too. It has been way nice living with a korean though. He cooks for us all like every meal and it's super cheap. Usually i spend about 20 dollars a week on groceries but this week i will probably on spend like 10 because we are always just eating rice. Haha this morning for breakfast i ate 김치 찌개 which is kimchee stew, who would of thought before i came on the mish that i would have been eating rotten cabbage stew for breakfast? Suprisingly though i have developed quite the taste for kimchee, there definitely isn't anything like it. Anyways i am running out of time here so i am going to answer your questions Mom. Yes i would love for you to send me an absentee ballot (haha i have to support my boy Obama!) but can you still get them? I am pretty sure i registered to vote when i got my motorcycles liscense so that shouldn't be a problem. I don't really care what kind of journal you send me anything will work. My new area isn't exactly sky scrapers because it's not in Seoul but it's lots and lots of appartment buildings which are all 20-30 stories high. It's crazy to me that a 30 story building isn't even tall in Korea and the highest building in St. George is under 10 stories. My area is pretty busy though, especially at night. During the day it's a little bit hard because all the men that live here work in seoul so it's just women on the streets. We went to the one member's house for dinner on sunday but it wasn't really for the celebration. They have their big meal for breakfast and then they have a ceremony where they honor their ancestors. I'm not exactly sure what they do to honor their ancestors but i know a lot of people go to their parents graves and do something. I'm assuming they just remember them and give them thanks but i really don't know, it was always kind of awkward when we asked people about their ceremonies. Well parents i need to go my time is up here but i love you! Haha thanks for beasting everyone Mom, i got some good emails this week. Oh yeah Dad real quick about the pictures thing, i am going to send my memory card to Melissa tomorrow so she should get it in a week or so and i sent her some like a month ago too i don't know if you have seen those ones or not but giver her a call and ask her. I hope all is going well back home and i'll talk to you agian next week!

Love Elder Musso

September 11, 2008

Hey Parents! How are you? I'm doing way good. My new area and zone are sweet i love them and my comp is pretty cool too. Today is kind of a trippy day though because it isn't our p-day this week but we are emailing and shopping today. On saturday sunday and monday it's korea's thanksgiving and so we are having p-day on saturday this week. I guess that everyone leaves the city and goes to their parents houses out in the sticks so we aren't really going to be able to do anything this weekend. Saturday should be super fun though because our zone is getting together at our church and we are going to play sports for a few hours. I can't remember if i told you this in my last email or not but there is a super nice turf soccer field right next to our church that we are going to play on and im stoked! Haha i don't know what we're going to do all day on sunday though. There will probably only be like 10 people at church and then we have no appointments the whole day and President Burton said that he doesn't want us to go and knock doors because Koreans are super intense about the holliday. I guess we will probably just end up walking around all day. This past week was a lot of fun. We were in a 3 some the whole week because the Korean elder in our house had to go to the army for the weekend in busan and that was fun (I don't know if i have told you about the whole army thing here but every kid has to go to the army for 2 years and after that 2 years that have to go back for 3 days a year for like 5 years). Our investigators are pretty good, it has been a little bit hard to meet with them because everyone is getting ready for the holliday though. Haha one of our investigators is the coolest person that i have ever met though. He is 87 years old and he has a beard down to the middle of his chest. He loves everything about the church and he wants to get baptized but he says that he won't get baptized anywhere but this lake on top of a mountain in north korea! Haha i guess the elders have been trying to talk him out of it for like a month and a half but he is set on it. We are teaching his son to though so hopefully when his son gets baptized it will have a ripple effect on him. I will make sure and send a picture of him, you have to see him! Yesterday we had combined district meeting at the mission home (the mission home is my stake center now so all of our meetings will be there) and it was so funny to have Elder Andersen be my zone leader. Haha he is such a geek i love it. My zone is amazing though i'm excited about it. I don't really know much about my ward yet because we haven't met most of the members because of stake conference last week but the ones that i met seem tight. Some of the guys in our ward get together on saturday mornings and play soccer in our gym and we played with them, it was a blast. Haha they were soo stoked that i'm a soccer player, it definitely scored me some browny points. Well parents other then that i don't have much else to report so i think i am going to wrap this up. Oh yeah i have 2 questions for you though. What is my blood type? Koreans think that your blood type defines what kind of personality you have and some people have asked me and i don't know what it is. And what does Musso mean? Haha our super old investigator wants to make me a Korean name but he wants to know what Musso means first because all korean names are made by chinese characters that show their meaning. Can you believe it's already been 7 months though parents? Time really does go by faster and faster every day. I'm going to be home before we know it! I love you though and thank you for your prayers. Oh haha and Mom i think you need to beast the rest of the family for me because you're the only one that has been writing me lately and it's not tight! I hope you have a good week!

Love Elder Musso

September 4, 2008

Hey Parents! How are you? I am doing way good, i just met my new companion and got to my new area and it is amazing. I'm in a place called suji and it actually is right next to my last area and in the same city but it's all good i'm stoked. My area has a brand new church that is giant and the supposedly the ward is really good too. When i talked to President Burton he said that this ward is the closest one to an American ward in the mission. Ever since the new church building opened last year they have been baptizing people like crazy here so it should be good. My companion's name is Elder Terry and he's from Provo. He seems pretty cool but it's hard to tell the first few days with new comps because you don't really open up to each other for a while. I'm in a four man house now and one of the other missionaries in my house is Korean so that should be pretty interesting. The apartment is pretty ghetto but it should be alright, haha we were super lucky in my last house to have mattresses though i think in every other house in the mission there are just little pads that you put on the floor to sleep on. I'll send a video of the house and the church to Melissa in a week or two so you can see it. Oh yeah another cool thing about this area is that Elder Andersen is my zone leader now! Haha we are both pretty stoked about it and hopefully we will get to go on exchanges with each other this transfer. Hmm other then that i don't have much else to tell you, this past week was pretty uneventful. We did a lot of walking around trying to find people to talk to this week. All the college classes started again this week so we went to 3 different universities but didn't have much luck. I feel bad for Elder Dryden and his new missionary (Elder Dryden is training), they are going to have a heck of a time trying to find new investigators. Street contacting is pretty bad when you don't have people to talk to and i swear i had talked to every person in my whole area in the last 4 months. It definitely will be nice to have a fresh start. Well i don't have much else to report besideds that so i will answer your questions Mom. The temple sessions are in both english and Korean. When we go on p-days with other missionsaries they do the whole session in english because they have all the senior and military couples there as well. When we go with our wards though they do it in korean and we just wear headsets. The mission home is on the other side of Seoul from the temple and it is like an hour subway ride away. The misison home is in Songpa which is the south eastern part of Seoul and the temple is in Shinchon which is the north western part. It'scrazy to walk up to the temple from the main road. You go up this hill with a bunch of random apartments and things and then all of a sudden the temple pops out. Haha in the picture that the church has of the temple they must have done some serious photoshopping because first of all the sky is almost never blue in Seoul and the temple is surrounded by other buildings. As far as the whole bargain shopping thing goes I haven't done a whole lot. Most of the really cheap stuff is in the subway stations and i'm not there all that often so i haven't gotten anything. In Seoul there are huge markets with really cheap stuff two but i haven't been there yet either. I have heard that there are 1 dollar ties at this one subway station though i need to go get some. And about the weather.. The rainy season ended at the beginning of august and then we had the "dog days" which are the hottest 15 days of the year and now it has started to cool off some. It is still pretty hot during the day but it gets really nice at night. Next weekend is Korean's thanksgiving and supposedly after that it will cool off a lot. Well parents my time is running short here so i'm going to wrap this up but thank you for the letters and the prayers. I hope all is going well at home. Can you believe it's already september though?? Christmas is right around the corner! Haha i love you and i'll talk to you next week.

Love 무소 장로

August 28, 2008

Hey Parents! How are you? I am doing good. This week was straight up amazing. Elder Bednar was so good, haha and no he didn't beast us. It was a lot different than i thought it was going to be. To start off he asked like 15 people what the questions of their souls were and then he just went through and answered all of them. It was way cool because he was asking questions the whole time and we could say stuff whenever we wanted, i was expecting it to be like one of his conference talks but it was really just a big discussion. I wish i could tell you all that i learned but i don't have nearly enough time. I think that one of the things that stuck out to me the most though was when someone asked him about how we can tell the difference between the spirit and our emotions. He talked about the scripture it moroni 7 that says that good thing comes from God and then he said just be a good boy and work hard and the spirit will guide you. That was really powerful for me because it's hard to tell if we are really following the spirit or not sometimes, especially when things aren't going our way. He also talked alot about faith that went along with his talk from this past conference. I can't really explain what he said in writing but yeah it was really good and i learned alot. On sunday we went to see him speak again with our ward when he spoke to the members but it ended up being kind of lame. There were so many people there that every single seat in the chaple and the over flow rooms were filled so we couldn't even listen to him. I was a little bit frustrated because it took the whole day to go up there and back but it was so cool to see how excited the members were to be there. There were soooo many people it blew my mind. I heard that he did the same thing in the members meeting though and he just answered their questions of the soul the whole time. It is amazing how powerfully and fluently he can speak off the top of his head like that. The only thing i heard about the members meeting was this, he said that when we say "amen" at the end of our prayers it isn't the ending of the prayer its the beginning because it is when we start to act. I have found that to be way true the last few months. I have learned that we can kneel and pray to recieve blessings all day long but Heavenly Father doesn't bless us until we get out and work for the blessings. Other then that my week went pretty good. We are still kind of having a hard time finding new investigators but we gave another one of our investigators a baptisimal date this week. It is to a girl named 소서노 ( so so no haha she has a funny name i know) and she is doing really good. We have only been meeting with her for a couple of weeks but she came to Elder Bednars meeting with us and felt the spirit so she wants to get baptized. When she came to church on sunday we introduced her to a girl that is her same age and they seemed to like each other so that is a really good sign, it always helps if people have a solid fellowshipper. Oh about that Mom you asked about how the ward does with fellowshipping and they do pretty good i guess, it has been a little bit hard because there aren't many college kids in our ward and that is all that we have been teaching. Sometimes it's a little frustrating trying to get members to help us out but its cool i guess. Haha if the missionaries brought an investigator to church in our home ward the members would swarm them but the culture here is definitely different. Transfers aren't until next week and i will know if i am staying or going on saturday night. I still want to go somewhere new pretty bad but it would be okay if i stayed because then i would be here for ê¹€ì •ìˆ˜ and 소서노's baptisms. In my inerview President Burton said i could transfer but i will just have to wait and see. Oh and about the whole emailing thing i am pretty sure i can't email anyone but family. I am going to ask President but i think it's 안ë¼ìš”. Well parents my time is about up so i am going to go. Hang in there with school Momma I'm sure it will get better, haha it doesn't suprise me that you are to nice though. I listened to Elder Ballard's talk from last conference this morning and it made me miss a ton you Mom. Thank you for all you do, your amazing. I love you and i will talk to you next week!

Love Elder Musso

August 21, 2008

Hey Parents! How are you? I'm doing pretty good. This past week was stressful but good. It's always alot of work getting the baptisms together and making sure that all the ward comes and brings food and everything but it ended up being really fun. I baptized ì •ê²½ì„­ (the short guy in the pic) and Elder Dryden baptized ì´ìŠ¹ìž¬. Um haha i don't really know what else to tell you about it, oh i didn't mess up on the prayer again though and that was good. It's scary to have a bunch of people watching you like that. I'm sorry in advance though this is going to have to be pretty short because we are going ice skating in suwon today. Haha i am pretty stoked to ice skate, its been forever since i have been. Me and Elder Dryden are wearing regular clothes too and its pretty wierd. I haven't worn jeans and a t-shirt for like 3 months! Everything here is going pretty good still though. This week is going to be really hard because we baptized our two best investigators and combined we taught them like 8 lessons a week for the last couple of months. We have been having a hard time finding new investigators lately too but hopefully it will get better once school starts in a couple of weeks. We have interviews with President Burton yesterday and that was fun like always. He's amazing, i love him. Tomorrow will be a pretty exciting day because we are going to see Elder Bednar, i am a little bit nervous because he will probably beast us but it should be really good still. It is a perfect time for him to be coming too because i think we are all in need of a spiritual boost, i think august is the hardest month for missionary work because it's so hot and everyone is on vacations. The weather has started to cool down a little bit though and that has been really nice. Next month is supposed to be beautiful so i am excited for that. We went on exchanges with the zone leaders on monday and that was really fun, and it's always good to get a little bit of a break from my companion. Haha i love him and he's way tight but 24 hours a day for 2 and a half months is a long time. Transfers are two weeks from today though and i have a pretty good chance of going somewhere so that will be good. There is always a chance that i could stay which would be a little rough but i'm sure i'll survive. We have a couple of really good investigators right now that will probably get baptized next transfer so that would fun. Haha we are meeting with this girl right now and it's sooo wierd. We have been meeting her with ì´ìŠ¹ìž¬ because we aren't allowed to meet girls alone but yeah it's pretty bad. Haha it's crazy how awkward i have gotten after only 6 months. Well i need to start wrapping this up but i will answer your questions really fast Mom. I already covered the baptisms but haha i said we were broke at costco but don't worry about it. We have enough money to buy food just not from costco, it was super expensive and everythign is in bulk so that doesn't help. We get new missionaries every transfer so now i will have 3 sets younger than me in a couple weeks it's pretty trippy not to be the youngest one in the mission. Well parents i need to run, sorry this is short but Elder Dryden is waiting for me. I love and miss you! I'll talk to you next week.

Love Elder Musso

August 14, 2008

Hey Parents! How are you? I am doing good. This week has been really good. Can you believe i am already 1/4 of the way done? I was trippin out pretty bad about it yesterday i'm not gonna lie. Haha it seems like everyday i am here i don't want my mission to end even more. When i first got here i was looking forward to time going by fast and getting home and starting my real life but now i just want to be a missionary forever. It definitely stressful at times and it's always a lot of work but it's so much fun and i really have never been happier. I used to laugh at Elder Andersen when he told me he will probably cry on the airplane home but now i'm starting to realize what he meant. Anyways enough of that, haha 18 months is still a long time. On tuesday we had zone conference and it was so good. President and Sister Burton focused on the Savior the whole time and it was really powerful. It was all the way out in ì¸ì²œ though and it took us 3 hours to get there and back but it was still amazing. Our baptism is still on for this weekend and it has been a battle getting everything ready but it always is. Haha the week before a baptism everything that could possibly go wrong always does. One of our investigators is really solid and he is pretty confident about everything but the other one is a little nervous. He has a testimony and he did realy good in his baptisimal interview but he is just scared of enduring to the end i think. It should be good for him though because he is really taking the coventants seriously. All of our other investigators are good. We gave another one a baptisimal commitment for the 30th so we are excited about that too. Haha once again this guys only concern with getting baptized was the day of the week that it was on because he had to make sure he wasn't working. We really have been soo blessed to find such amazing investigators lately. Other than that i don't have much to report about the week. Haha oh yeah i reached a big milestone in learning Korean this week though. I had a conversation on the phone for like 10 minutes in Korean and understood almost everything the person was saying and i set up an appoinment to meet him. Haha this may not seem like much but Koreans are insane on the phone and it's so hard to understand them. The language is still coming along, slowly but surely. Learning Korean has given new meaning to the term line upon line precept on precept. Korea is amazing though i love it, haha i think i am going to start praying that Stacie will get called here. That would be tight. Oh wow i almost forgot, Whitney is having a boy?? I'm so stoked, i'm not gonna lie i wanted it to be a boy all along, he will be such a stud. It's a bummer that i won't be there to see him born but it's cool i guess. What are you going to call the baby if you name it Hudson though? Haha Huddy? I think you should name him Seong Jae or Jung Sup after some of my homies here in 한국!Whit are you starting to get big yet? You need to make sure to send me some pics of your belly that will be funny. Anyways i don't have much else to report besides that so i think i will answer your questions mamma. Yes Koreans say their last names first. and yes i am Musso Elder. All korean names have 3 syllables and the first one is their family name. There are only like 5 or 10 that are really common and there are only a couple hundred last names in all of korea. The most common ones are ê¹€ (kim) ë°• (park) ì´ (Lee) and ì • (jung). Then the last two syllables are their first names but we never really say just their first names. I guess that Koreans only say first names when they are talking to their friends or family but we almost always say both names. I already told you about ë°• but yes its very common haha and every korean is obsessed with Park Tae Hwan. They were pretty bummed that Michael Phelps beat him though. The Olympics have been really fun though, everyone here is extactic about them, haha and yes Dad we try to use the olympics when we contact. I think i am going to try your approach about the people being family with Michael Phepls though, haha i liked that one alot. Our next transfer is on September 4th so today we are half way through this transfer. The next 3 weeks should go by way fast though because we have Elder Bednar and interviews with President Burton still. I already covered the baptisms but i will fill you in on all the details next week. Well i am about out of time so i am going to wrap this up but i miss you and love you! Good luck with school Mom (haha i could start calling you grandma, how does that sound??), i am sure your going to do awesome. THank you for your prayers everyone and i'll talk to you next week.

Love Elder Musso

August 7, 2008

Hey family! How are you? I'm doing really good. Today has been the best P-day ever. We went to the temple this morning and that was amazing like always, and then on the way home we stopped by a costco in Seoul! It was soo crazy, there were white people all over and it looks just like the one back home. We bought a package of muffins and a huge thing of peanut butter. We would have gotten a lot more but we are broke and couldn't afford anything. After costco we went to a church that they are building a few blocks away and it was so cool. It's the biggest church building in all of asia! It really is massive, it's 5 stories tall. It isn't all the way done yet but supposedly elder bednar is going to speak there on the 24th. I took a video and some pictures of it and i'll send them home in couple of weeks so you can see it. Other then that this week has been just the same old stuff. Our investigators are doing good though. We are still scheduled to baptize two of them next saturday and we are going to give two more of them commitments next week. It has gotten really hot lately so contacting has been pretty rough, haha yesterday we just walked around for 5 hours because we didn't have any appointments but usually it's not that bad. The rest of this transfer should be really fun though, next week we have zone conference with Elder Havilands zone, in two weeks we have interviews with President Burton and Elder Bednar is speaking to us on the 22nd, and then on the 24th he is speaking to the members and we are going to go with Ryan to that and then the transfer is pretty much over. The time is really starting to fly by so fast. I was thinking about it a couple of days ago and it really tripped me out that it has already been 6 months. It was a little bit frustrating because i still suck at Korean really bad and i feel like i am already running out of time. I really will be home before we even know it. Well that is really all i have to report for this week and we have to hurry because it's already 5 and we have an appointment at 6 but i will answer your questions really fast Mom. Haha yes we have toilets here, well in most places. In our house and in the churches and stuff there are all toilets but in the subways sometimes they only have the hole in the floor kind. I haven't had to use one of those yet but i think i need to experience it before i come home so i will make sure to let you know how it goes. The olympics are all ready all over the news and the people are always talking about it. Haha i don't really remember what the olympics were like back home but it seems like the people here are a lot more stoked about it than i ever was. In English class last night we talked about it for like a half hour. Bush stopped by korea on his way to the olympics and that was a huge deal as well. Everyone hates him and the our government because Korea is importing American beef and all the Koreans think that it has mad cow disease. Thousand and thousands of people protest in Seoul about it every night it's pretty funny. We were on the subway today and some protestors came in and gave everyone flyers about it, have you seen anything on the news about it back home? Haha it's pretty stupid but it's fun to talk to people about it. I already talked about the Elder Bednar conference a little bit but yeah all the missionaries in our mission and the seoul mission will get to hear him talk and if we can get an investigator or recent convert to take us we will get to see him again when he speaks to the members. Well parents that is about all i have to report, i'm sorry this is short and pretty lame but i don't have much time today. I love you though and thank you for all your prayers. Good luck with school mamma, I miss you!

Love Elder Musso

July 31, 2008

Hey Parents How are you? Im doing pretty good. This week has been the same old stuff, lot's of contacting, lot's of studying, and some teaching. Our investigators are doing pretty good. Our two with baptizimal commitments are okay. One of them is kind of being difficult and we may have to move his date back a week or two. He is so stubborn sometimes it's frustrating. He says that he knows that the book of momron is true but he says that he doesn't believe in Joesph Smith yet, we keep telling him that it is impossible for the book of mormon to be true with out Joseph Smith being a prophet because he translated it but i don't know he is a pretty trippy guy. He has been praying about it everyday for the last couple of days so hopefully he will get an answer soon. Our other kid that is getting baptized is still amazing. He didn't smoke for 3 days straight but then yesterday he smoked 1 ciggarete which was kind of a bummer but he promised he wouldn't smoke before we meet him again tomorrow. This week we had a combined district meeting with our zone and it was pretty fun. There are now two missionaries in my zone that are younger than me which is pretty crazy, it still seems like i'm a greeny. At the meeting we found out that Elder Bednar is coming in August to speak to us and the Seoul mission and i'm really excited about that it should be really cool. Haha i'm a little nervous though, Elder Bednar is pretty intense he will probably beast us. Um lets see i don't think much else really happened other than that.. Haha i think every week i have less and less to say because it really is just the same stuff, i have been taking progressively less pictures too because i have seen everything in ì‹ ê°ˆ so i there is nothing that is worth capturing anymore. It sounds like things are going pretty good at home. Mom i am excited to see how school goes for you i bet that will be fun. If Stacie goes on a mission will she wait until January to go? That will be crazy for you to have two kids on a mission at the same time, maybe she will get called to 한국! That would be tight. How is work going Dad? Is it super slow or are you doing okay? I don't understand why the economy is so bad all of a sudden, it definitely wasn't great when i left but now it's horrible. Haha i'm sure Barack will fix it when he takes office though eh Dad?? K so i don't really have much else to tell you so i will answer you questions now Mom. Nick wrote me a way good email last week and it was super good to hear from him, i know you will probably read this brosif so thank you that ment a lot to me. I am still with Elder Dryden and it's going pretty good i guess. We get along just fine and we haven't fought at all but it's just a lot different from what it was like with Elder Andersen. Elder Andersen was super intense and energetic and he made me do stuff so i always felt like i was progressing, but Elder Dryden is way chill and quiet and he doens't make me step out of my shell ever so i have had to motivate myself to progress. We are working hard though so i guess that's all that realy matters. I already talked about our investigators so won't go into that anymore but i can't exactly figure out the schooling system in Korea. Supposedly the kids are on summer vacation right now but they all still go to academies to study everyday. The academies are ridiculous, during the school year the kids go to school from 8-3 and then from 3 till like 10 they go to the academies and study more. So the kids all say it's summer break but they still study just ast much during the school year. I think their colleges are similar to ours as far as semesters go but the college students are the same way as the highschoolers, they all still go to college and study for like 8 hours a day even during the summer. Haha i always try to tell our investigators that they need to chill out and have some fun during the summer but they don't listen to me. I don't know how they do it i would go crazy studying as much as they do. Well that is about all i have to report for now so i think i will wrap this up. I love you though and thank you for the emails in prayers. Your amazing and i'll talk to you next week.

Love Elder Musso

July 24, 2008

Hey Parents! How are you? I'm pretty good, im soaking wet because it's raining like crazy outside but other than that im really good. Im still in ì‹ ê°ˆ which was kind of a bummer at first but im over it now, this next transfer will be amazing. This past week was really good, our investigators are doing way good and we picked up a couple of new ones that seem like they will progress really well. We gave a kid named ì´ìŠ¹ìž¬ a baptisimal date for August 16 and he was totally cool about it, haha his biggest worry about it was the day of the week that it is on. He really is amazing. I don't think i have ever mentioned him before but he is 25 and he is going to college to be a mechanical engineer. It was pretty crazy how we met him actually. We were contacting in the down town of our area a while ago and we ran into a guy with a ping pong paddle in his hand so i started talking to him about ping pong. We talked for a little bit about that and then i started to tell him about the church and he didn't really seem interested so we gave him a pass along card and told him to give our card to someone that wants to learn from us. We always do that to people that don't have any interest and nothing ever really comes out of it. A few days later though we were walking down the street by our house and this guy yelled at us from across the street and started asking us about our program. He said the he was friends with the guy we met and that his son wanted to learn from us. So we met his son and he has been doing so good ever since. He is a smoker and we taught him the word of wisdom last week and he has been cutting back 2 cigarettes a day and saturday he will be done for good he says. He told us yesterday that he has a testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and it was so cool. His little sister is coming back from studying in Russia for a year this weekend and so we are going to start meeting with them together and i have the feeling that she will get baptized too. There really have been so many little miracles that have happened in the last 3 months that i have been in Korea. I was reading in Alma the otehr day where Ammon and King Lamoni run into Lamoni's father while they are on the way to get Aaron out of jail. As i was reading this i though wow that is a really big coincidence that they just happened to run into the king and because of that he ends up converting to the gospel and so do thousands of his people. The more i thought about it though, and as i looked back on some of the extraordinary things that have happened to me i realized that there really aren't any coincidences in missionary work. Every cool thing that happens really is a blessing from Heavenly Father even if it is something as small as someone giving a pass along card to their friend. Let's see, other then that i don't really have much to report about the week, oh yeah there was a typhoon this weekend though and that was pretty crazy. By the time it got to where i am it turned into just a tropical storm so it wasn't super windy but it poured rain all day friday, saturday, and sunday. It was pretty fun but it made contacting really hard. Supposedly there is a bigger one coming again next week so we'll see how that goes. I'm running out of time here so i'm gonna answer your questions Mom. We find out about transfers on the saturday before transfer day so we know who is coming and who is going. Transfer day is always on thursdays and everyone that is transfering goes to a big subway station in Seoul to meet their new comp. It was so cool last transfer when we went, haha when we walked up there was just a see of white shirts and the middle of the station. I bet it really freaks the Koreans out but it was way cool to see. Everyone in the mission has P-day on thursdays except for President and Sister Burton and the APs. I don't know why but their P-day is on fridays. I cant really think of anything that i need as far as a package goes, i think i am doing good. I will let you know a little bit later if i need anything though. Well parents i need to wrap this up my time is about gone but thank you for the emails and the prayers. The work here really is going amazing and it's such a blessing to be able to watch peoples lives change as they are converted to the gospel. Haha the language is still rough but i think that i'm getting better slowly but surely. I love you and i will talk to you next week!

Love Elder Musso

July 17, 2008

Hey Parents! How are you? I'm good. This past week was pretty much the same as the past 5 of this transfer. We just walk around all day and contact and then teach at night. Haha we have been meeting with our investigator that is getting baptized like every day lately and that has been pretty fun though. He is a pretty trippy guy but we have really grown to like him a lot. This week i went on exchanges with the district leader in suwon and that was prett fun. It's always nice to get a change of scenery, even if it's only for one day. We also had a combined district meeting in suwon yesterday with everyone in my zone and President Burton came. It was good to see him like always, something about talking with him always pumps me up to get out and do work. Everything in my area is pretty good too, i am definitely getting ready to transfer though. It's hard walking up and down the same streets every day for 3 months and i swear i have talked to like every person in our little town. This next transfer is going to be really big because there are 10 missionaries going home and 8 coming in so hopefully i'll move. If i don't it will still be okay though, next transfer we should have 2 or 3 baptisims here and it would be cool to be apart of that. Oh yeah guess what happened this week? We were walking around one day and started talking to this college student in korean and he was answering our questions in english and so we told him that he speaks amazing english (haha we tell every person that even if they can only say hello but this kid was way good) and he was like yeah im from america. So we started talking about where he was from and he was from strongsville! He went to St. Ignatious in high school and he was just studying here for the summer. It was pretty crazy, haha his accent made me miss Ohio. That was probably the only crazy thing that happened, it seems like i am just starting to get used to things here and so i don't have as many stories to tell. Oh yeah i did learn something this week from the district leader though. When we were on splits he was telling me how the like to go visit members and give them food and how they like to bring ice cream or something for their investigators so i have been trying that lately and its so fun. Haha like everytime we've met ì •ê²½ì„­ we have brought him his favorite ice cream and he loves it. Oh and yesterday we were walking to the bus in suwon after our meeting and i had a package that Melissa sent me and it had some salt water taffies and i gave them all away to some kids we were talking to, they loved it. It's crazy how something as small as giving candy to kids or taking food to a member can increase your charity and love for them. The Korean people really are so amazing, the part in my partriacle blessing that talks about me growing to love the people i serve is definitely coming true; i really do love them more and more every day. I think that is about all i have to report so i wil answer your questions now. My shins are doing better now. I havent really been excercising a lot in the morning and so they have chilled out some. I tried to put the arch support from my soccer shoes in my dress shoes but they make my shoes way to tight so i don't know if i will be able to do anything as far as that goes. I think i will be fine as long as i dont jump rope that's what made them act up again. Our leaders have been telling us to get a service project for the past couple of weeks and we have been trying but we haven't been able to find one. We went to the city office the other day and asked them if they had anything we could do and they said no, so right now we are just doing english class for service. The people are mostly middle class here. ì‹ ê°ˆ is a pretty old city so there are a lot of old nasty appartments but it's okay. It seems like the money in Korea isn't as evenly distributed as it is in america though. Most of the people are just middle class and all about the same and then there are a handful of ridiculously rich people that drive the nice cars and live in way nice appartments. The economy here is really bad right now though so a lot of people are having a hard time getting jobs. The people all have health insurance from the goverment which is a good and bad thing. It's good because everyone can get medical help if they need it but people also go to the hospital for the most ridiculous things because its so cheap. Haha i swear if people here stub their toes or something they would go to the emergency room. I haven't been sick at all which has been really good. I think that we can get everything we need in the drug stores and sister burton is on top of her game with taking care of all of our health worries so i should be fine. Well parents that is about all i have to report from this week, haha i am sorry i know i end my emails pretty abrubtly but i always have to hurry and get them sent before our time is up, the computers shut down after exactly an hour. Thank you for your letters and prayers though they really help. I love you and i hope all is going well at home!

Love Elder Musso

P.S. i need an election update, haha you need to step up your game with that! Oh and Whit i will start thinking of some names for you baby, i could probably come up with some pretty sweet korean names if you want!

July 10, 2008

Hey Family! How are you? I am doing pretty good. Today has been a way stressful day though which isn't tight. We went to 수ì to play soccer with our zone again and we got bad directions from some of our investigators so we were lost for a while and had to get a taxi it was bad, and now we have to hurry and email so we can go home and shower and make it to an appoinment by 5:30. Haha i guess i am probably so stressed because i won't have much time to write Melissa, i guess my letter may only be able to be 5 pages today instead of the usual 8, so Melissa i know you'll be reading this and i apologize in advance for that. Soccer was pretty fun today. I couldn't play all that well because my shin splints have gotten really bad so i kind of just gimped around the whole time. It was good to see everyone in the zone though. Well i don't have much to report this week, it was a pretty uneventful one. Actually i do have one piece of good news though. We gave one of our investigators a baptisimal commitment on sunday and i was pretty happy about that. His name is ì •ê²½ì„­ (jung gyoung sup) and we have been meeting with him for a long time. I think we met him a week or two after i got here. His baptisimal date is for august 16th. All of our other investigators are good. It's pretty hard though because we have some that i really like and that i have become really good friends with but we will probably have to drop them because they aren't willing to come to church. It doesn't make sense to me why it is so easy for some people to come to church and then so hard for others. Well i guess i only have 10 minutes to write because the place is shutting all of there computers down so i am sorry but this will have to be way short. I will answer the questions really fast though. The girls mom is still pretty wierd, she avoids us every time we go to their house. But the day is pretty good though i like him alot. Koreans usually go on vacation to the south to pusan and all of those cities. They don't go often though because the men are always working and the kids don't really get summer breaks from school. We are actually really close to china, just right across the yellow sea. There are lot's Chinese people here and we like to talk to them they are pretty cool, we actually have a chinese investigator that we meet every saturday. And yes i have eating ë¶ˆê³ ê¸° (bool gogi) it is one of my favorite things in the whole world, but im not exactly sure what fire meat is. Sorry i need to wrap this up but i love you parents so much. It's good to hear that you had a good time with uncle mike and aunt becky over the weekend, im pretty jealous that i wasn't there though im not gonna lie. I'm going to hold you to that trip to myrtle beach haha so you better be serious about it. I miss you and please keep praying for me i know it's helping. I'll talk to you again next week!
Love Elder Musso!

July 3, 2008

Hey Parents! How are you?? I am doing really good. I just got done with taking a Korean test so i am actually at the mission home right now which is always fun. Haha the test i took was super hard but i passed so it's all good. Lets see... I don't have much to report from this week, it was pretty average. Our investigators are all doing pretty well, we don't have any really promising ones though. It's been a little bit hard the past few weeks because we baptized our three best investigators so we have pretty much had to start over with the whole process of finding people. It's been pretty rough to contact lately too because its summer break for all of the colleges so we don't really have anywhere we can go to get lot's of contacts. We went contacting for like 5 hours one day last week and only got 25 contacts, it wasn't cool. Other than that everything is pretty good though. Elder Dryden is pretty tight, we get along well. His personality is like completely opposite from Elder Andersen's but i guess that all of my companions are going to be different. We haven't been able to pick up the slack that Elder Andersen left when he transfered but we are working hard so hopefully our numbers will start going back up. K i really don't have anything else to tell you about my week, sorry this email will probably be pretty lame but i need to hurry because we have to get home, but i'll answer your questions. Haha i am not exactly sure where they get the dog from. I know it's not like a persons pet or anything they have a special kind that they breed just for food but i'm not sure if they have like dog farms or something. I actually ate pig intestine yesterday too and that was pretty interesting. Korean's really eat some crazy stuff, haha 6 months ago i don't think i ever would have dreamed that i would be eating dog and pig intestines. Our church building is actually right by our house, it's like a 2 minute walk away. Our church meetings start at 10 and yes we usually have to go out and contact after they are over. I don't know what but saturdays are usually insanely busy but sundays we can't get appointments to save our lives. At night we either have to be in the house by 9 or 9:30. If we are teaching a lesson we can be home by 9:30 but if we are just out contacting then we are in by 9. Right when we get in the house we plan for the next day and talk about our lessons and stuff and then we make all our phone calls and confirm our appoinments and then we just write in our journals, study a little bit if we have time then go to bed. Haha the whole phone calling thing is a joke, Koreans talk sooo fast on the phone and i swear they speak a different language. I'll do an imitation for you when we talk at christmas time. Our study is always in the morning. We do personal study from 8-9 comp study from 9-10 and language study from 10-11. Study time is like my favorite part of the day i love it. Before i came on my mission, and even in the mtc studying for 3 straight hours would have been torture but now it flies by and i always wish we had more time. During personal study we are supposed to study the scriptures for 30 minutes so lately i have just been reading the book of mormon, and hten for the last 30 minutes i either read conference talks or study preach my gospel or something like that. During comp study we make our final plan for the days, talk about our lessons and investigators and practice teaching and stuff. And then during korean study usually i just study vocabulary and grammar and lately i have been trying to read the book of mormon in korean too. Yes i can open your pictures on the computer, there is a way to put them on my translator too but i haven't had time to figure it out yet. Well parents i know this is short and pretty lame but i need to start wrapping this up. Thank you for your letters and prayers though they really help. Haha dad you need to step up your game though, you haven't written me for like 3 weeks! The church is true though parents, it doesn't matter how mean some koreans can be one the street, there is no doubt in my mind that its true. There is no way that missionary work would be progressing like it is all around the world and there is no way that i could be learning Korean like i am if the church wasn't true. I love you and i'll make of list of things to tell you for next week so my letter will be better. I hope all is going well in America!

Love Elder Musso!

June 27, 2008

Hey Parents! How are you?? I am doing pretty good. This last week has pretty much been the same old stuff, lots of street contacting, lot's of studying, and some teaching as well. We're having a hard time finding new investigators lately though because usually we would meet quite a few college students but all of the colleges are on summer break until september so we have no where to meet them. And not only has it affected us getting new investigators, but also our number of contacts as well. Last week we went to the down town of our area and contacted for like 4 hours and only got 30 contacts! It's hard trying to talk to old men all the time like that, they never really want to talk so even if you say high and try to shake every one of their hands only one out of ten or so will actually stop to talk. Other then that everything is good though. Our investigators are okay, we don't have any really good looking ones right now but that all can change really fast. After we baptized Ryan and the two girls we have pretty much had to start over. Yesterday we had zone conference in ìˆ˜ì› and it was amazing. We had a little health thing for like an hour from the area doctors and then President and Sister Burton spoke and then the assistants did training. President and Sister Burton really are the best, everytime i talk to them they like recharge my batteries and make me stoked on missionary work again. The both talked about the Savior and faith and Sister Burton talked a lot about Moroni 7:33. I love that scripture it has become one of my favorites. Let's see i don't have much else to report so i will answer your questions Mom. My clothes and shoes are doing pretty good. The rain is really rough on my shoes but we've been lucky it hasn't been raining all that much, i think it only rained a couple of times this last week. Elder Haviland seems to be doing really good. He is way excited about being a missionary. Haha it really was soo good to see him, i was pretty stoked. He is serving in ì¸ì „ which is the western part of the mission by the airport. It sounds like things are a lot different for him because he is in the city and i'm out in the sticks but he said that he really loves his area. I have only talked to Elder Hadley once but he sounded like he was doing good too. Oh yeah i forgot to tell you that i saw Elder Hutchings at transfers it was fun to see him too. He is serving in the beverly hills of Seoul so it sounded like the people were a little mean but he likes it i think. The whole money situation is good. We are only allowed to spend the mission money on groceries and transportation and stuff like that but we always have enough so it's fine. Haha it's funny that you asked about food this week, I have quite the story to tell you! In Korea it is kind of a tradition in the summer to eat ë³´ì‹ íƒ• (bosheentang) which is dog soup. One of the members in our ward loves the stuff and i was talking to him on sunday and i asked him when he was going to take us out to eat it. Haha i was really just joking around but he got all excited and told me that he was talking us this week. So on tuesday night we went to this shady little restaraunt and ate ë³´ì‹ íƒ•. Usually when they eat dog it's only in a soup but he not only bought us the soup, he also bought a huge thing of just straight up dog meat! Haha when the waitress brought it out i really thought i was going to die but it actually was pretty good. It was a little bit too chewy for my liking because they leave the skin and fat on it but it definitely wasn't bad. The picture that i attached is my first bite of dog! Haha my time is almost up here so i can't tell you more about it but make sure you save that picture i'm going to want to keep that one! I want to tell you about something that i learned this week really fast though. We were talking to an investigator this week about happiness and as we were teaching him i realized something about the gospel. He said that he wasn't happy and we read him Mosiah 2:41 and promised him that if he would keep the commandments and live what we teach him he would be happy. He still didn't really believe us so i decided to tell him about my situation. I told him that i am in the middle of no where, in Korea. I can't speak any Korean, i have no money, i can't talk to my family, i can't talk to my girl friend, and i was soaking wet (it was raining really hard that day). If you look at my life from a worldly perspective i have absolutely nothing to be happy about, but i have never been happier in my entire life. I know that i am doing what i am supposed to be doing and i am doing what God wants me to do. Because i am doing he is blessing me and i truly am happy. The gospel really is the only way to find true happiness in this life, i know that now more than i ever had. The church is true! Sorry i have to get off my time is up, haha i hope that makes sense. I love you Mom and Dad i really do. Thank you for your prayers. I'll talk to you next week!
Love Elder Musso