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Pictures from Korea

May 29, 2008

Hey Parents! How are you? I am doing pretty good. Sorry about the email last week, i don't know why it didn't work. Wow this week has been another crazy week. This one was even busier than last week! It has been good though. We had zone conference and interviews with President Burton and they were both really good. For zone conference we went on a hike up in the mountains and it was soo amazing. We got to the top and you could see out over Seoul it was way pretty. My interview with President Burton was good except he seems to think that i am an amazing missionary because Elder Andersen and the zone leaders like to talk me up and make me sound pretty sweet. Haha i try to tell him that he will be disappointed when Elder Andersen isn't my companion and i can't do anything but he doesn't listen to me. Lets see other than that, we it was just the same old stuff this week. We taught 33 lessons and did a bunch of street contacting too. Street contacting isn't my favorite thing in the world but i guess that its better than knocking on doors all day. We have only knocked doors once the whole time that i have been here, i guess we aren't going to be doing it much at all because no one lets you in. Lets see, our investigators are all doing pretty good. Ryan is still amazing, he had his baptisimal interview last night and passed so he is ready to go. We were originally planning to baptize him on the 7th but we might have to do it on the 8th because he needs to come to church one more time before he can get baptized and this sunday he can't come because he has to take his mom to a hospital in Seoul because she is super sick and her doctors think she might have cancer. So we will probably just have the ì¹¨ë¡€ì‹ after church on the 8th. We went and talked with the little girls dad on sunday and he said he wants them to get baptized so we set their baptisimal date for the 7th. We were pretty excited but we are still a little bit nervous because we don't know how their mom feels about it. The dad seems all for it, and he said that he wants to get baptized in july when he will have sundays off of work but i guess we'll have to just wait and see what happens. Other than that nothing too exciting is happening, we are teaching just a bunch of other random people. Haha we had a pretty cool experience this week, well actually we have pretty cool experiences every day so i guess this one was a really cool experience. On Saturday night we had an appointment with this new college kid at 8pm and waited for him for a while and he never showed up. We had a goal to get one new investigator and we were planning on him becoming one. So when he punked us we only had like 30 minutes before we had to be home and i asked elder andersen as we were walking out of the church how we were going to get our new investigator. He said he didn't know and then i told him ì‹ ì•™ìœ¼ë¡œ which means with faith. Haha i was really kind of just joking around but right when we walked out of the church and we started to go down the stairs there was a kid walking up the stairs. We said hi to him and told him how handsome he was (haha thats our usual approach to people, they love to be called hansome) and we started talking to him about our english/ book of mormon program (i don't think i've ever told you about this before but when we meet most people we teach them english for 30 minutes and then we teach them about the church for 30 minutes). It turned out that he was really interested so we took him into the church and introduced the program and taught him a lesson about the book of mormon. We got a return appointment with him for a couple of days later and so he was a new investigator. Little things like this really have been happening all the time. It's so amazing how the Lord provides ways for us to meet our goals if we just exercise a little bit of faith. I really am so blessed to be in ì‹ ê°ˆ right now, this place is amazing. Missionary work is definitely work, haha i really don't think i have ever been this tired in my entire life, but it's so worth it everytime we meet with our investigators and see the progression they are making. The language is still rough of course but i seem to finally be making a little bit of practice with speaking at least. I still can't understand anything but i did my final pass off with the AP's today and that went really well. Haha i am now a certified teacher of the lessons in korean. Well parents my time is up so i need to run but i love you, and i'll talk to you again next week!
Love Elder Musso
P.S. The pictures are from the day we played soccer and the other one is of me getting attacked by a dog. Haha actually that dog is our homie, it lives right by our church, we live in the ghetto huh?

May 15, 2008

Hey Parents How are you? I am doing good. I can't believe that its already another p-day, the days are starting to go by really fast. So as you know my zone is playing soccer today and i am so pumped! Haha i really have been feining (i don't know how to spell that) for it. My companion has an italy jersey to so we are both gonna wear them, it should be pretty legit! Umm lets see the last couple of days have been pretty interesting. On monday we went on a hike with our ward after we got off the phone and it was so amazing. Those pictures that i sent are from that. Korea really is so beatiful once you get out of the city. Koreans are pretty hard core about hiking, haha all of the ward members showed up in their full hiking outfits and stuff it was funny. Anyways... Lets see nothing else really cool happened on monday. On tuesday we had district meeting and it was really good. My district is so tight i love it. After district meeting i passed off the second lesson to the district leader (i don't know if i told you about the pass off program or not but we have to pass off vocabulary and scriptures and the lessons to the district leader) and after that we had some teaching appointments. We went to the 2 girl's house that were supposed to get baptized on sunday and we taught them the commandments. It was wierd because the dad is always there with us when we teach but this time it was just us, our ward mission leader, and the 2 girls because the dad was at work. After the lesson the girls mom came into the living room and told us that she searched about the church and google and found a bunch of dirt on the church about polygamy and stuff. She freaked out for a little bit and our ward mission leader talked to her but she said that her girls weren't getting baptized this week and she would think about it, and maybe they could get baptized in a few weeks. I was pretty frustrated at this point im not gonna lie. It seems like everytime something is going good, satan comes in and ruins everything! It was really wierd because we talked to the girl's dad about it on sunday night and he said that he wanted his girls to get baptized, and he would help them go to church every week and stuff but then his wife just tripped out. We'll just have to wait and see what happens i guess. Yesterday though we met one of our investigators named Ryan (haha we give all our investigators american names because we can't ever remember their Korean names) and it was amazing. We were talking to him about prayer and about the questions of the soul that the Book of Mormon answers, and he said that everytime he read and prayed about the questions he got answers. So we asked him if he thinks the Book of Mormon was true and he said that he knows it is for sure. It was so cool! All of our investigators are reading the BOM and some of them think it is true but none of them have ever been so solid. Ryan's amazing i love him. He has had a hard time with coming to church because he studies English all day everyday (it's a long story but he wants to get a job and he applied and they told him that he has to speak english better so all he does is study) but we got him to commit to coming to at least sacrament meeting every week. We'll see how it goes, but if he keeps getting answers to his prayers he should be getting baptized within the next few weeks. Hmm thats about all that has happened in the last few days since i talked to you, but i attached some pictures for you. Dad how cool is the harley crew?? Haha sorry the picture is a little shady because i took it from a long way away but it's still awesome. They know how to keep it real in 한국 just like we do in america! I hear guys on harleys all the time because our apartment building is right next to a busy street it makes me happy. The picture of us at the temple is from saturday. I forgot to tell you on the phone but it was our wards monthly temple day so we went with them. It was way cool but we had to wake up at 4 in the morning to get to the 6:00 session. The temple is tiny but it's so cool how it is right in the middle of the city. Its super loud and crazy while you walk up to the temple but right when you get in it's quiet and peaceful like always. Anyways my time is about up so i need to go but i miss you and i hope everything is good back home. Pray for me, haha i could really use it Korean is insane! I'll talk to you again next week! I love you

Love ë¬´ì˜ ìž¥ë¡œ

A message from another sister in the mission! May 8, 2008

We have the best mission in the whole world and love all that serve in it. Look at these two---who wouldn't want to serve with them! As a senior missionary couple, one of the most rewarding parts of our assignment is to inspect apartments to make sure they are clean, safe, and healthy, and that the spirit is dwelling there. Actually, we think the missionaries do more for us than we do for them! Elder Musso is Elder Anderson's new companion and was only in country one week when we went to visit. They will be outstanding together.

May 8, 2008

Hey Parents! How are you? I am really good. Haha this last week seriously was the trippiest week of my life! It was good though, missionary work is seriously amazing i love it. Wow it feels like i have so much to say that i don't even know where to start. I guess first i'll tell you about our investigators. We gave two people baptisimal commitments this week and one said he would get baptized on May 25th and the other one said he would get baptized but he didn't want to set a date yet. One is actually chinese and he doesn't speak very good english or korean so its pretty hard to teach him. He has a chinese book of mormon and we have watched all the church videos in chinese with him. The rest of the time when we teach we have our ward mission leader write everything in chinese because most of the korean words have chinese roots. Its fun to teach him but we have to teach way slow to make sure he understands so we probably won't get him baptized this transfer. The other guy seems to be doing really good. My companion had asked him about baptism before and he never though he was ready because he didn't have faith but we asked him about it this week and he said that he believes in the BOM and Joseph Smith and everything so it was good. We are teaching a bunch of other people besides these two but we don't have much time so i can't tell you about all of them. Haha i'll tell you one kinda funny story though. We met this crazy old man last week right when we got off the bus from seoul and he told us that he has a liver disease and is dying and he wanted us to heal him. We met him on sunday and taught him the plan of salvation and told him about living after death and how he could have eternal life and everything and it was a way powerful lesson. My companion is an amazing teacher, most of the time i just sit there and look dumb because i don't understand anything but i taught a couple of things and bore my testimony. At the end of the lesson we watched a video clip from Elder Scott that talked about baptism and we decided that we would ask him to be baptized. Haha we are a little crazy i know but we figured that the man is dying so he needed to be baptized asap and he said yes! We were so excited for him and we tried to set a date with him but he didn't want to yet. So needless to say we were pretty excited because we taught a way good lesson and this old man wanted to get baptized, but the next day we scheduled an appointment with him and he didn't show up. When we called him he said that he didn't believe us and he wanted to be healed right then and if we couldn't do it he wasn't going to talk to us anymore. Haha i don't even know if that story made sense or not but it was pretty crazy, one day the man wanted to be baptized and then next he wouldn't even talk to us. I was pretty bummed after that i'm not gonna lie but its cool i guess. People still have their agency, all we can really do is help them feel the spirit. Most of the time when we teach people we teach them english for the first 30 minutes and then we teach them about the gospel for the last 30 minutes. It's really pretty easy to find new people to teach because everyone here wants to learn english. Haha its so fun to meet people on the street i love it. We usually just walk up to people and talk to them about random things or tell them jokes or something just to break the ice. I found out really fast in Seoul that the people never listen to you if you just walk up to them and start preaching. Haha usually we tell people how handsom they are or how fasionable their clothing is or something. Every one here loves being called handsom by americans! Its pretty scary for me though, i really can't talk about anything but the church so my comp does most of the contacting. On tuesday we didn't have any appointments so we went to this university and just talked to people for like 7 hours! It was a long time but we met some pretty cool people. We ate dinner on the campus and during our dinner break the school soccer team had a game and so we got to watch that for like a half our, it was amazing im not gonna lie. I miss soccer so much its ridiculous, but it was fun to watch. They were actually really good i was suprised. Lets see what else do i have to tell you about.. Oh yes the food. It really isn't that bad, well most of it isn't that bad. Haha i don't know why i was so worried about kimchee, it really is the last of my worries. Some of the sea food is pretty shady so i usually try to stay away from it. We went to our ward mission leader's house on monday night and had dinner it was really fun. We ate kimchee stew, rice, kimchee, and some other random vegetables, oh and sea weed of course. Haha you would be so proud of me if you saw me eating all this crazy stuff. I'll attach a picture of us eating at his house though so you can see what it was like. Our ward really is amazing i love it. The bishop and ward mission leader are really like the coolest people ever. There are probably like 50 or 60 members in the ward and they seem pretty solid. This week was fast sunday and they made me bear my testimony first and it was pretty scary but it was good. It was so cool seeing how church is the exact same here, half the world away as it is back home. The church is on the second and third floors of a public bath house its pretty funny. I would tell you more about it but i need to talk about mothersday calling and attach some pictures still so i need to hurry. I am going to call you on monday morning here which will be sunday afternoon there. I am planning on calling around 5 there. Call Melissa and tell her to come over because i won't be able to call her seperately. They are pretty strict about the calling, we'll only be able to talk for like 45 minutes. It will be good though im excited. Well parents i need to wrap this up, my time is about gone but i love you and i hope everything is good at home. Korea is a crazy place but it really is fun. I'll give you all the details when we talk on monday. Haha the pictures of me at the chalk boards are me teaching the Koreans how to be gangsters and speak ebonics.

Love Elder Musso

P.S. sorry i was going to send more pics but our time is up so i will just send them next week. I love you!

May 1, 2008

Hey Parents! How are you? I am doing way good. The last couple of days have been pretty overwhelming but i finally got my trainer and got to my area just barely so all is good now. So i guess i'll tell you all about the last couple of days because you probably want to hear about it. The flight over here wasn't too bad, i slept for like 7 hours because i took some of those sleeping pills and the rest of the time i just studying and talked to my companions and stuff. We got here at like 5 on tuesday night and met the mission president and the APs. They are amazing. Really President Burton and his wife and so awesome, i love them already and i have only known them for a couple of days. After we talked for a couple of minutes we took our bags to the car and sister newby went with President and Sister Burton in the car back to the mission home and they sent us on the bus with the APs. Haha it was so funny we talked to like every person on the bus and most of them wouldn't even look at us because they didn't want to talk to us but it was still fun. We rode the bus to the olympic park and the ap's gave us each a book of mormon and some pass along cards and told us to run and talk to every person and try to place the BOM. Haha we did this for like a half an hour and we talked to every person that we saw but no one was very receptive. Then we caught a taxi the rest of the way to the mission home and of course we tried to talk to the taxi driver about the church as well. Haha we actually had a pretty good conversation with him because he couldn't just walk away. When we got to the mission home we had dinner and then just went to bed. Tuesday night was the longest night of my life. I slept way good until 3 but then i just layed awake until 6. On wednesday we woke up and had a Korean breakfast that the ap's and office elders cooked for us, and yes i ate kimchee. I don't know why everyone made it sound so disgusting because it actually wasn't even that bad. After breakfast we had interviews with President and then we went to the bank and set up our bank accounts. After the bank we met with one of the ap's investigators and talk to him about the word of wisdom and then we went to lunch with him. Lunch was good, haha we ate more kimchee and some rice and stuff, and after that we had meetings with the ap's and President Burton. After the meetings me, elder hadley and elder Choi taught another investigator while edlder haviland and elder meade went and street contacted. We taught this guy about the restoration and the book of mormon and it really was like the coolest thing i have ever done. It was soo amazing saying the first vision to him, and the spirit was so strong. I have probably said the first vision like 50 times in korean but it was so awesome to tell a real investigator about it. After the lesson we had dinner then we had english class. Haha this was way fun. I just sat and talked to 3 Korean ladies about their familys and utah and school and everything so they could practice speaking. After class we went up to the mission home and went to bed. I actually slept pretty good last night, the jet lag is still pretty rough but it's getting better. Haha its crazy to think that it's 3 on thursday here and midnight on wedensday there. Anyways today we woke up and went running with elder choi and then had breakfast with the trainers, the office elders, and president and sister burton. Then we had a couple of meetings and then we had a testimony meeting and President Burton assingned trainers. My trainers name is Elder Andersen. Then we got on a bus for about an hour down to shingar which is the southern most zone in the mission. We got here and took my bags up to the apartment, haha we had to lug them up 6 flights of stairs, and then we set some goals and came straight here. Its so crazy to actually be a missionary. People stare at us every where we go its kinda funny. This area that we are in is supposed to be one of the more rural areas of the misison and it is still way metropolitan. There are big apartment buildings everywhere. My trainer seems to be really nice. Hopefully we will get along well. I am excited for this week. We have 3 teaching apointments tonight, a couple tomorrow and like 5 on friday. It looks like we are going to stay pretty busy which is definitely a good thing. Haha i have tried to talk to people as we have been walking places and been on the bus and stuff but its pretty rough. I really don't understand anything anyone says, and i don't really know how to start a normal conversation. The people usually just ignore you if you walk up and start preaching to them so i am going to need to learn how to talk about normal things pretty quick. Other than the language everything is really good though. The food isn't as bad as i thought it was going to be, my mission president is amazing, and all the missionaries sound like they really work hard. Our apartment is okay, its actually pretty big for only having me and my companion live in it. Well parents, other than that i don't have much else to report, oh but i will be calling you on mothers day, probably in the evening. I don't know exact times yet but i'll let you know all the specifics next week. I love you though, and dont worry im doing fine, haha its insane that i am half way around the world but yeah everything is good. Tell Melissa that she should stick to emailing me. The mail situation is pretty sketch, you can only send mail to the mission home and we are a good hour away from there so i probably wouldn't get it for a couple of weeks after it gets to the mission home. I don't think that there is anything wrong with her emailing me, im just not supposed to write her back. Thanks, i miss you and i'll talk to you next week!

Love Elder Musso

Greetings from Korea! April 29, 2008

Hello Parents. How are you? I am doing pretty good. It's 9 on Wednesday morning and we just got done eating breakfast with the President and everyone and now we are waiting to have interviews. You should see this place it really is insane! There are people and skyscrapers everywhere! Well i need to go we are just supposed to tell you that we are here and safe, but tomorrow is my p-day so i will write you again. I love you.

Love Elder Musso

A way to keep tabs on Elder Musso!

Hey all! This is Whitney! I decided the other day that this might be a fun way to keep everyone updated on Wess and the mission. With most of our family living far away, it's hard for everyone to stay informed, and what better a way to post updates, than a blog! So, here it is! Most everything will just be copies of the emails and pictures that he sends home each week. Hopefully, if I keep it up though, we can have the entire thing made into a book for him when he gets home!!