January 15, 2009

Hey Parents! How are you? I'm doing good. This transfer is starting to go by really fast but i am starting to count down the days till the end of the trasnfer a little bit. Being in the same area for 6 months and with the same companion for 4 is definitely a little bit much. We had a pretty good week last week though. We taught more lessons than i have since my first transfer and we got more new investigators in one week than i have my whole mission. Also our all star investigator is getting baptized on saturday and we are super stoked about that. The kid really is amazing! I actually talked to him like 5 minutes ago because he is here at the library studying. Korean students are insane, it is their winter vacation for all of january but all of the students still study like 12 hours every day! 태환 is tight though, we had his interview with the district leader yesterday and i think it was the fastest one ever, there were in and out in like 25 minutes. Our ward mission leader has been pretty much non existent lately though so me and my companion have to plan the baptism and call all the speakers and people bringing food and stuff and that has been a little bit stressful but it will be good. It has been a long time since we have had a baptism. It really is crazy how some people are just so prepared to hear the gospel. This kid has been so gold since the first time we met him and he accepts everything so well. It has been such a blessing to teach him. I think i may have told you this but he is like set on going to BYU after he graduates next feb. too. Haha we are praying that he will get in, i think it's probably pretty hard for foreigners. Other than him we don't have a ton of good investigators. Our army boy isn't doing so hot. He punked us on tuesday night and didn't really sound like he wants to meet all that much. He is super nice but it seems like he thinks that he is to busy for the gospel right now which is a bummer. He has a testimony though so hopefully in the future he will meet the missionaries again. I think that has probably been the hardest thing for me these last couple of transfers. We have had 4 or 5 investigators that have told us that they know joseph smith was a prophet and that the church is true, but they still wouldn't come to church and get baptized. Its rough, especially with the ones that we become really good friends with. We just trust that the Lord has a plan for them though and that we have planted a seed. Anyways.. Oh yeah i almost forgot to tell you.. Tomorrow we have a zone conference with the Asia North presidency that we are way stoked about. The president is Elder Evans, he's in the first quorum of the 70. It should be a really good experience. The weather has been so stinkin cold lately that i think that all of the missionaries could use a bit of a spiritual recharging. I have been studying and praying a lot to prepare for it so hopefully i will learn a lot. Haha i was happy to hear that Eric emailed you. I can't even tell you how wierd it is to call him Eric, i think he'll always just be Elder Andersen (I know that you will be reading this and it sounds like you're "livin the dream" at the BY my friend!인내하세요,준비된 여자들을 찾겠어요, 와이팅!) to me. Mom you asked me about having a foreign exchange student from 한국 and that would be tight! I would love to have a homie to speak 반말 with when i get home. And think about it, if he stayed in utah for a year and went to church with you he is like gauranteed to get baptized that could be a sweet missionary experience for you. Well parents that is about all i have to report and my time is up so i'm gonna go. Thank you for the emails (Pap you've been slacking lately!), i love you! Thank you for the prayers as well and please keep them coming, we are 고생ing in the cold, i swear sometimes my lips are so frozen i can't speak english let alone Korean!

사랑해요!> > 무소 장로

January 2, 2009

Hey Parents! How are you? Im doing good. It's actually friday right now and not p-day but the library was closed yesterday because of new years so we couldn't email, which is pretty strange because no one even did anything for new years here, there weren't fire works or anything! The big party is chinese new year and thats not for a couple more weeks. This past week was fun though, it's been a little bit hard to focus and get to work because we have had a bunch of ward parties and stuff but things should be back to normal next week. Yesterday we went hiking with our ward mission leader and that was a lot of fun and then at night we went over to the high priest leader's house and had a new years party. Our ward is so tight i love them. We still can't get 5 lessons with a member a week to save our lives but i think a lot of that has to do with our lack of investigators and not our wards willingness to help us. They are definitely busy but i would like to think if we had the investigators they would help us. We have dropped a couple more people so far this week but we have one kid that is straight gold! I think i might have told you about him already but he is the high school student and we met him on wednesday night and he told us that he had decided to get baptized so we set his date for the 18th. He brought his little brother to meet us on sunday and he seemed really cool to so it would be awesome if we could baptize them together. It really is such a blessing for me to have been able to meet this kid, he has been a miracle since day one. I can't remember if i told you this or not but we didn't even start talking to him on the street when we first met him. We were walking and he came running out of a resturaunt to talk to us and he had our card and his cell phone in his hand and he said that he was just dialing our number to call us! He is amazing. Our other kid with a baptismal date is doing army training for the next two weeks so we won't be able to talk to him or meet him. It will probably be a litte bit of a stretch for him to be baptized on the 18th like we had planned but hopefully he is still praying even though he's in 군대. Other then those two we don't have a whole lot going but we have been contacting for like 5 hours a day every day lately so we will find people. We don't always find as many as we would like or as quickly as we would like but they always come. Oh yeah i forgot to tell you that we had transfers again this week. Nothing changed, i am still with my comp and still in 수지. I wanted to go pretty bad, being in the same area for 6 months is a long time, but it will be a blessing to stay. I already know the ward and the area and not to mention the baptisms that we'll have. 3 transfers with one companion will be a little hard. Elder Woodbury and i get along really well but it gets a little monotonous at times, haha we have talked about just about everything there is to talk about. It will be good though, it would be a bummer to leave an area in a low spot like we're at. Anyways parents that's about all i have to report and my time is about up. Happy new year! I like dad's new years resolution about scripture study and prayer, they really are the source of soo much knowledge and power. There's no way i could survive without them out here. Thank you for the prayers and please keep them coming, we need them! I love you and hope you're having a good week!

Love Elder Musso

December 19, 2008

How are you? I am doing lovely. I can't believe that another week has gone by and we are only a week away from christmas! Time really does go by faster and faster every day. Everything is going pretty well though. This week we were hoping to have lots of lessons because finals are over for all of our investigators but it has been pretty much the same as always. We get really tired of getting punked, i don't know if i'll ever get used to it but we try to be patient. We haven't met our college student with a baptisimal date for like a week and half because his tests but we are meeting him tonight and we're excited. He is amazing. I can't remember if i told you about 손대환 last week or not but he is such a stud! He is 18 and we met him on the street a few weeks ago and he has been golden ever since. It is so fun to meet with him because i actually feel like we help him with english (a lot of the time people just want to practice speaking with us so we just talk to them for a half an hour) and he loves everything about the church. If we can get him out to church on sunday we will probably be giving him a date for baptism too. Other than that we don't have any super good investigators, a lot of them are new and it seems like we have been meeting a lot of people that don't really have any interest so we drop them pretty fast. Ever since Elder Crow came in we have been building some serious ì • with the members, they love us these days! This transfer we have been baking cakes for all the members on their birthdays and they love it. They still aren't really helping us teach that much though which is kind of a bummer. They are all so busy it's ridiculous. Most of the men work like 70 hours a week. Hopefully we'll start getting more help in the future though. Yesterday we went to a members house to have lunch and it was amazing. The family are straight up all stars. Both the parents served missions and the husband was born into the church ( he is probably one of the first people to ever be born into the church in 한국), and his dad was there and he was the first mission president in the Busan mission. Right now the grandpa is the patriarch in the first stake that i was in and it was so fun to talk to him. It was amazing to see how the church is being established here; all of the grandkids are 3rd generation members of the church. Anyways.. Haha oh yes i forgot to answer one of your questions last week Mom. You asked if i had gone to the public bathhouses yet and i hadn't until last week. I must not have told you but once President Burton got here the bathhouses have been off limits but our water heater broke on day and so we only had icy cold water and the assistants said we could go to the 목욕탕. It was amazing! I don't have enough time to do it justice here but i'll tell you more about it next week. Oh and before i go i should probably tell you the plan for the phone calls. Me and Elder woodbury played rock paper scissors to see who would call first and he won so i will probably be calling you around 9 or 9:30 which is around 5:30 your time. Haha don't worry about the time thing it will be alright, i think if we talk for an hour to an hour and a half that will proably be fine.. My time here is up though so i need to go, i love you though! Thank you for the emails, and i cant wait to talk to you next week!

사랑으로 무소 장로

크리느마스 잘 보내세요!

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!

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„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