November 25, 2013

Me, reclining, in front of a cool gate

Gnarly Buddhist Pavilion thing.  It is supposed to be one of the best in Korea.

View from the pavilion

Me, in front of a cool gate

Cool picture on the cool gate

The view from our apartment

I'm so sorry I didn't email last week.  I had hoped that we would have a lot of time to spend on the computer that day but then our plans changed last minute.  One of the missionaries is going home next transfer and we had a zone p-day and climbed a mountain.  We got permission to leave early so we could shop and email but your email hadn't come yet.  I wrote some other emails and got my companion to promise that we would have time later.  We didn't.  There were problems getting back to our area and we couldn't write without breaking rules. I got some cool pictures though.

We do get typhoons here but they aren't anything to be worried about.  The Koreans like to predict typhoons a few times a month that never actually happen.  "Why can't you meet us Saturday?" "Because of the typhoon."  One day we actually got hit but it was super disappointing.  I had found myself missing real storms like in the Midwest and really wanted to be out for the typhoon.  We were.  It wasn't even as good as a thunderstorm.  I guess a few years ago they had one that the missionaries had to stay inside for but that's about it.

We usually teach a few lessons on the weekends but Koreans are too busy the rest of the week to meet usually. We are getting better at teaching lessons on the street.  We can sometimes get one of those a week. That's it.  Some Korean missionaries dislike watching The District DVDs because their stats are so much higher than ours.

Excellent news!  Seung-Hyun is going to get baptized this Saturday!  We practiced for the interview yesterday and he was super confident.  He gets interviewed this Wednesday. We really wanted him to get baptized with his friend Meen-Gwan but we're losing hope that he will actually get baptized so we're just going to go ahead.  Our church building is under construction so we're going to have to go into 창완 for the baptism.  This is perfect timing for me.  I'm probably going to leave the Monday after.

Our two-story church building is getting an elevator.  That's why we are under construction.  The bathrooms will be unusable for the next several weeks.  I sure hope I transfer.

It's not worth it to send a monster package.  I found out you can send by boat and it's cheaper but it takes forever.  Next year that's how I'm going to send you a Christmas package. Sorry but I won't be able to send one this year.  Expect a large letter.  We can't get cheap beef so taco seasoning wouldn't help much.  I have no problems staying warm here. We have some gnarly floor heaters that run through the night.  So I don't really need a blanket.  I remembered I brought my robe anyway:)

I found a note from Mom in my coat pocket last week.  It made me really happy.  It was about your favorite scripture.

I can access lds.org but only on p-day.  If you have good talks to send me I would love them.  I'm sorry that my letters aren't as spiritual.  I am getting less and less time.  I hope to get caught up soon so I can put thought into these.  I'm going to try to write some more in response to the emails I missed.

Elder Stapley

P.S.  A few weeks late I'm going to finish responding to a question in one of your emails.  Bak Hee-Sung is the same as ever.  He isn't making any progress and I still can't understand a word he says.  We try to show our love for him but there isn't much more we can do.  We are cutting back on how often we visit him because of that.

Funny story.  We found a bottle of honey for super cheap in the store.  We have know idea why it was cheap but we bought 900 grams of the stuff.  I was so excited and my companion was excited too but then he got this confused look on his face.  "How do you eat it?"  "You put it on toast or cook with it." "Oh." He went right back to being excited.  I guess he wrote his family about the honey and they did a bunch of research about it.  He is talking about all the health benefits right now.  Now he's got an idea that its some kind of super food.

An English question.  What nouns need the/a in front of them.  Sometimes you don't use either.

Okay so there wasn't that much to talk about here.  Have another picture. This is the view from our apartment.

Love, Elder Stapley

November 11, 2013

Buddhist temple in Miryang

I have very little time today.  The rest of the district isn't as big about email time as I am and every once in a while they have to have a district p-day.  So we went to Miryang and now we have no time.  I won't be able to answer all of your questions well so I might come back to them next week. 
 

That pan is only to be sent if you were going to send a too big package anyway.  It might have been a mistake telling you about that.  Not all the mission houses have ovens and I'm going to transfer soon, anyway.  But the important thing is the glass.

Hope you get my letter soon, Emily.  They said it will be there next week at the latest.  I included a small super cheap birthday present.  Hope you enjoy the English translation on it.

I can print off past emails received and sent.  If I have my way we are going to have a computer p-day sometime soon.  President has loosed the rules on email time.

I took a bunch of pictures today.  I hope they make up for the really short letter.  I also have videos I will try to send.  It's allowed.  These were taken at a Buddhist temple in Miryang.

Love you bye,

Elder Stapley

P.S.  I'm out of time. I guess you're getting a crud ton next week.

November 4, 2013

Hello,

Answers....I honestly don't want you to send anything big in the mail.  It's too expensive.  I would like my mp3 player with music and speakers.  President just barely changed the rules on music and now anything goes as long as it's uplifting.  "I don't want to hear that you're listening to AC/DC though."  So load that thing up with everything.  If you're not sure if it's appropriate put it in anyway.  I'll sit down and delete a bunch when I get it.  Josh Groban, Celtic Woman, soundtracks, classical, religious, Disney, acapella.  Most of what I play will depend on my companion and what we are doing at the time.  Could you also send my small hymn book.  Like I said I don't want you to send anything big.  If your super determined though you could send me a Pyrex pan.  I only tell you that because I'm afraid your going to be stubborn and send me a big package.  I will not be happy with you if you do though.  You could also send me some honey.  Elder Hall got a jar of creamed honey and it was delicious.  If you find any cool extracts think of me as well.  I have root beer extract from one of the office elders and I'm loving it.

Wow that paragraph on things you could send me was way easier to write.  Some missionary I am.

I got your package, thanks so much.  The pictures and letters were awesome.  Thanks for the tie, Emily.  It's my new favorite.

Our investigators still aren't really progressing.  Until they come to sacrament meeting we're not going to try setting another date.  승현 is super excited to be baptized though.  I really want his enthusiasm to be genuine but he is just so eager to please us that I'm not sure he actually believes the stuff he says.  Aargh.  He did bring a friend though and we taught them together.  The friend had a Christian background and understood quite a bit.  He might actually have the most potential.  민권 has finally said that he will get baptized but he has shown even less interest in church than 승현 so that will be hard to help him.  Its difficult because all three are friends and we sometimes meet with them together but they are all at different levels.

We met an old catholic grandpa who invited us in to talk.  He gave us some muffins and challenged me to an arm wrestling match.  He is seventy one but I couldn't beat him.  It ended in a tie at least.  I was actually trying too.  We gave him a Book of Mormon and will go back later.

Today my companion really wanted a hamburger so we and the sisters walked across town and got McDonald's and then went to the ocean and ate there.  There were a ton of jellyfish and we watched some crabs fight over territory or girls or broken promises or something.  We couldn't really tell.  If I don't finish all my letters today that's why.

We don't have daylight saving time here.  My companion thinks it's a stupid idea.

I hate smoke.  In the apartment just under ours, and next to ours, and above ours, there are smokers.  This entire country smells like cigarettes.  It's also one of the highest alcohol consuming countries.  Right behind Russia according to some missionaries.  It's a real problem. 

I have a rather difficult question for you.  When do we use a or the in English.  I really have no idea what the rule is supposed to be.  Our English class is confused about it.

What is that picture of Mom as a missionary about?  Those look like white people.

I found out this week that Koreans consider me blonde.

I left my camera cord home, sorry.  I didn't have any good pictures anyway though.

Love,

Elder Stapley

October 24, 2013

 Elder Jo Chan Yung, my companion

Flower Festival in Masan

Our apartment is in the middle of the picture.

 From the MTC with my
 teachers

I got a camera!  It was the cheapest one at the store but it's still super nice.  I will attach pictures. I hope you are excited when you open your inbox! You should be happy now!

Cool pics sister!  (He's talking about Emily's senior pictures.)  I'm not sure what we will do for Thanksgiving. Probably nothing.  I don't know where we would get a turkey anyway.  They don't exist here.  We can get a whole roast chicken from street vendors though.  Recently with my Korean companion we have been eating a lot of ramen.  It's pretty much the same as in the US but spicy.  It's also over a dollar a pack, I don't understand.  We also eat frozen.. um I don't know how to spell it in English.  It's fried pork cutlet.  Dad will know, it's Japanese.  Today for lunch we went to a buffet.  I ate some noodles, squid and a crud-ton of mandoo, dumplings.  I have yet to have any as good as what we make as a family though.

To bad about that investigator.  It's so frustrating.  You know that if they just do what you say, read the Book of Mormon, come to church, pray sincerely, that they will know the truth, but they don't put in the effort so they never receive the blessings that are just waiting for them.  We are having the hardest time getting our investigator with a baptismal date to come to sacrament meeting.  It's too early and he has to sleep or he has to do something with a friend.  You're not going to get baptized that way!  I don't get it.

My companion is super great.  He is a convert.  He actually lived in Missouri years ago and his family came into contact with the church there.  After returning to Korea his family got baptized.  He talked about it in a lesson with some less actives the other day and it was way powerful.

I am sending a picture of my companion, pics of the Flower Festival here in Masan.  Those were from today. Oh, now its having a cow, I'll send the rest in another email.  I've got a pile.

Much love,

Elder Stapley

October 21, 2013

I'm really sorry but I have no time today.  We just got back from transfer meeting in Busan.  I am staying Masan but my companion became an office elder.  My new companion is a Korean. Elder Jo Chang Yung. He actually trained my MTC companion Elder Luke.  He is super funny and understands English really well but doesn't speak it very often.  I can already feel my Korean getting better.  This is going to be a great transfer.  I won't have time to buy a camera this week but I will next week.

Thanks a lot for the recipes. I use them all the time.  Could I have a biscuit recipe?  We usually walk and take buses.  I got a letter from Grandma and Grandpa Stapley today.  I'll read it tonight.

Thanks! Sorry for this crazy short letter.

Elder Stapley

October 14, 2013

Happy Birthday Mom!  I'm sorry I haven't written.  I really will try to do that.  I keep trying to have a p-day where we don't do anything so I can get caught up but my district just wants to do activities.  They insist on it even if it is a game of uno.  Dang it.  I want to prep on prep day!

 

To answer your question I haven't received any letters from the family yet.  I have received some letters which I will respond to (eventually).  I should be able to get a camera next week.

Conference!  I loved General Conference!  The entire stake, including our whole zone, came to Masan to watch conference.  We got to watch the whole thing in English with the other missionaries and a few more English speakers. It was weird watching as a missionary.  Afterward we were talking to a member who was surprised by how few of the talks were about missionary work.  I was also surprised because I thought most of them had been about missionary work.

If you get Will's letter I also noticed the same trend about internalizing commandments.  If we see them as someone else's ideas we are going to resist them.  (Will is a friend from our ward who is currently serving in Brazil.  This is what he said in his last letter home that Tristan is referring to.)  "Something that really stood out to me in conference is the importance of internalizing goals. You have to want something for yourself. Even if your mission president, your companion, and God all want you to be obedient, if you don't want to be obedient... you're probably not going to be. That's the beauty and struggle with agency. It's all up to us. So, I've been working on internalizing the things that I should do as a missionary... not because everyone wants me to, but because I want to. I want to read my scriptures, I want to work hard. I want to help people gain greater faith in Jesus Christ."

 

(Back to Tristan's letter)

I also really liked when they talked about repentance.  Recently I have been studying the Gospel of Christ more in depth and I have learned so much.  It is the most basic of doctrines but there is always more to learn.  It helps when you are studying with other people in mind.  As I think about how this would help our investigators I learn more that I can also use for me.  Awesome.

I loved Elder Ballard's talk about missionary work, Put Your Trust in the Lord. Here is my favorite part; "Brothers and sisters, fear will be replaced with faith and confidence when members and the full-time missionaries kneel in prayer and ask the Lord to bless them with missionary opportunities. Then, we must demonstrate our faith and watch for opportunities to introduce the gospel of Jesus Christ to our Heavenly Father’s children, and surely those opportunities will come. These opportunities will never require a forced or a contrived response. They will flow as a natural result of our love for our brothers and sisters. Just be positive, and those whom you speak with will feel your love. They will never forget that feeling, though the timing may not be right for them to embrace the gospel. That too may change in the future when their circumstances change." 

 

After hearing that I thought about a section of chapter 10 of PMG.  It is about listening and includes an amazing quote from Elder Holland (pg 185).  Take a moment to look that up.  Okay so, if we are prepared by study and prayer and if we listen with love we will find an opportunity to testify about the Gospel as we talk with others.  Obviously this isn't just about missionaries and investigators (notice the use of the word "friends" in that quote).  My goal as a missionary is to be able to sit down with an investigator and just talk with them.  Help them out and invite them to Christ without them ever realizing that they are being taught a lesson.  This can be your goal as well outside of the mission.  You don't have to use special language when bearing testimony (I'd like to bear my testimony.  I know.....).  Just talk from the heart.  We love the Gospel.  Why wouldn't we talk about it?

Anyway.  I think that is the thought I'll be using in member visits this week. Thanks for the support.  Be happy.  I love you,

 

Elder Stapley

 

October 7, 2013

Thanks for the info on my name and for the recipes.  Thanks to G&G Stapley for the package.  It was way good and we still have some of the food.  They also included a note saying that they had sent a longer letter.  When was that? I haven't gotten that yet.  I haven't gotten anything from you all either.  I have been meaning to write letters for a few weeks now but never have the time.  I'll try to do that today.

My clothes are doing good.  My short sleeve shirts have this weird habit of vanishing for a couple of weeks and then showing up in the wash.  No joke.  One week I had 4 shirts and then did my laundry and hung up 6.  All have my name in them and everything.  I might be going crazy.  The bottoms are coming off my shoes though and I've already worn off the tops of them.  I don't think any of  them will last the whole mission.  Maybe the penny loafers if I find someone to fix them.  Apparently clothes are cheap here though.  Not sure why, nothing else is.  Except pans.  We found a good frying pan for 12 bucks.  I'm currently looking for a pyrex pan to carry with me the rest of the mission.

You asked about my living conditions.  When we were in the MTC we heard about all the tiny apartments that missionaries live in in Seoul.  They study and sleep in the same room and have a tiny bathroom.  We have a lot more space.  We have a bedroom, a kitchen, a study room, another room and a sunroom sort of thing.  And a bathroom.  We sleep on mattresses but that is unusual.  Most missionaries sleep on yos.  I'm not sure how to spell that.  They are just pads on the ground.  I tried them once on exchanges.  They're pretty uncomfortable if you want to sleep on your side, like I always do.  The kitchen is likewise fairly western.  We have an actual table with chairs.  Most Koreans have little short tables that they can fold up and put away.  They eat sitting on the ground.  Our stove is a gas stove and I like it a lot.  The oven is small and untrustworthy and doesn't have any temperature markings on the dial.  We have okay desks and some fold-up chairs that must have been taken from the church.  The sunroom has a cheap recliner that some missionaries got somehow... and somehow got it into the elevator and through the door. There is also an expensive looking leather armchair.  I can't understand how those were obtained.  That's our apartment.

We're going to watch conference next week at the normal times.  We might be able to watch in English since we have a American sister and a French sister who speaks fluent English.  

That French Sister is really interesting.  She speaks fluent French and English but went Mandarin speaking.  Then she married a Korean man and lives here.  She doesn't know much Korean and her husband doesn't know French.  They just speak to each other in English.  Even stranger, their kids speak Korean and French but not English. Crazy.

We have been working with less actives and members mostly this last week.  I know that I seem to talk a lot about us learning to help the members to do missionary work but they really are doing a great job on their own.  We got three unasked for referrals last week and just looking at past records they have always referred a lot.  We talked to one brother who regularly sends out large group texts to non-members and includes a spiritual thought.  Often out of the Book of Mormon or from modern prophets.  I feel like if we had a lot of members who were new to the area.  These members are interacting with the same people that they have for years but still find a few referrals to give to us.  The ward has been really focusing on missionary work.  They had a couple families move out and they have decided not to wait for people to move in.  They are going to baptize more people to replace those they lost.  Wow.

I know that we can have opportunities to share the Gospel if we are willing to act and create those opportunities.  Thanks for trying so hard.  If you study and pray for ways to do missionary work you will be able find those ways.

I love you,

Elder Stapley