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 안ë¼ìš” (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 ë¼ìš” 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
Thursday, December 4, 2008
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!
사랑으로 무소 장로
사랑으로 무소 장로
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„사 (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!
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
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 안ë¼ìš” 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.
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 í•œêµ. 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
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 í•œêµ. 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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
