7 Summers (& sexism)

 8/18/25

Had a pretty good week, I think. Korean is going in one ear, and English and precious memories are going out the other. I always get to Monday unawares of anything that occurred during the week. Hopefully that's how the gift of tongues works.

I don't think I've ever mentioned this guy, but there's a man in our english class who's possibly the most sexist man alive haha. Every single english class he'll drop and absolute bomb on the track in front of everyone and what makes it worse is bro loves me so he says I'm like his son. Anyways, on his way out of class Friday, I yelled at him to let him know he was a handsome guy, a compliment he refused to take by saying, "I know I'm not handsome because my wife really isn't pretty." Bro said that with absolutely no hint of sarcasm and walked out. Didn't really know what to say to that, but pray for his wife and all of the women who have to talk to this guy in English class.

We met with a mysterious man and his "band," which we came to find out was not a musical band, but rather an "english speaking band," which consisted of him and two grandmas, of which only he knew any english. We went and ate intestines with them, washed it down with some delicious liver, and then headed to a bread shop. I don't know why it was super fun to hang out with these old people but it was a blast. Technically english interest, but I was segwaying the gospel so hard, and they were pretty interested actually. 

A Cafe we went to for an appointment this week started playing Morgan Wallen song after song.... that's the first time I've heard country music in Korea btw. Pretty sure he's dropped an album since I left cause there were some I didn't know. 

For your wheelchair man update, 원종근 형제님 met with us at a restaurant near his hospital for some of the most nasty soup I've ever had in my life. Fortunately, I had 원종근 there to accidentally pour an entire pitcher of water directly into my bowl, destroying it completely, so I didn't have to eat it. He a real one.

Spiritual Thought: I finished "The Saints" this week, and the first volume ends off with the murders of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum. Reading Saints really brought to light just how rough they had it, and also that it was no secret to them that they would be murdered. They gained nothing earthly from the gospel other than enemies and dead friends, which makes it quite obvious to me that they truly knew the divine origin of the Church. If it wasn't for the eternal worth of the knowledge they gained from the gospel, they would have gained nothing. If the church wasn't true like they said it was, they would have given up the charade years before their murders.

"And now, if we do not receive anything for our labors in the church, what doth it profit us to labor in the church save it were to declare the truth, that we may have rejoicings in the joy of our brethren?"  - Alma 30:34 

Love you all! 

Current Weight: 187.4 lbs 

Uncle Status

 August 11, 2025

Finally gained uncle status this week. Shoutout to Brad and Hallie for that.

Met with wheelchair man a couple times this week in the hospital. He kept giving me icecream, which I kept having to strategically return to his freezer without him knowing. I don't know how much Ice-cream he thinks I can pound, but apparently a lot. Also realized that whenever I say Jesus or God in a prayer he repeats it, so you best believe the next time I prayed I said both names as much as possible. During said prayer, however, I felt his one usable hand grab mine, and then place it in a hand doggy pile in the middle of the table with him and Elder Rust. I just kinda went with it and kept praying, making sure to mention Jesus as much as possible, because I love hearing him repeat it over and over teeheee. About 20 seconds after placing my hands there though, I heard his wheelchair start wheeling away, and felt his hands slipping out of our hand-holding party, leaving only Elder Rust and I holding both each other's hands across the table in this prayer. Well I'm not super crazy about holding dude's hands, so when I realized our teaching friend was gonna go on an adventure, I pulled my hands away slowly, leaving us fighting laughter for our lives. I quickly closed the prayer and then waited for him to return. Other that him spontaneously pulling his pants down, that was about the extent of that visit. He came to church again btw.

Korean Burger King is pretty gas. 

I got to play bowling twice this week and actually locked in. Finally gained uncle status this week. Shoutout to Brad and Hallie for that.

 "Whoever you think you are, I AM." If you don't know that quote, you’ve never heard a real talk, look it up.

My mission president came to town and took my comp and I to lunch. It was delicious and very fun! Until he hit me with a suprise interview, but I'm chilling. That was good too. 

As you may know, our English class here is chuck full of people who are absolutely cracked out of their minds at English. We usually have about 10 people show up for class. Elder Rust and I joke that it's because of Sister Missionary interest that we have so many people come to class, and unfortunately... we may have been right. After transfers, our first class only had 2 people in it... we hoped it was a fluke but the Friday class followed suit. Let us pray that it's just vacation time. 

Spiritual Thought:   I watched an inspirational message this week about a wife whos husband was KIA in Afghanistan. It's called, "Life is Incredibly Unfair - In Our Favor" if you want to watch it. My favorite thing she said was that we like to use the word "or" a lot. I can be happy *or* sad. I can be joyful *or* heatbroken. She explained that the atonement of Christ gives us "and." Trials are still gonna suck, but we can have light in darkness knowing that the future holds many beautiful blessings. As Elder Holland said, some blessing from living the gospel come in this life, some come in the next life, but for those who follow Jesus Christ, they come. Every day is a good day to know about the gospel 

사랑해요 

Rugby

August 3, 2025

 Had a guy, who neither of us knew, call us and tell us to meet him at subway and snag a sandwich. He was super cool, fluent in English, and when he asked me if I played sports and told him rugby, he got super excited about it. Come to find out he was the commentator for the 2019 rugby world cup lol.  Pretty cool, and extremely random. He's the only Korean I've ever met who has played rugby before, and he just so happened to be the commentator for the world cup. We've got another appointment with him for Thursday, I'll try to take a picture with him. 

We got transfer news and Elder Rust and I will both be staying here in Sejong. Of the sisters, one is dying (going home) in two days but the other one will stay. (RIP Sister Morrison.)

Highlight of the week was a member meal last night where two older gentlemen and I invented one of the most fantastic feats of human inginuity I have ever seen. Ice-cream with water melon and oreos. Sometimes I wonder if God is proud of me, and other times I know He's up there like, "that's what I'm talking about." 

Went on an exchange this week to the steepest town in Korea. Hiking around that bad boy was on par with Iwo Jima. And of course, it was the hottest day of the week. Me and the Elder I was with both soaked our pants from sweat dripping off of our face while we walked. Didn't know that was possible did you? 

Wheelchair-melon man came to church rahhhh! I love this guy. His smile when he sees us for the first time is always the highlight of the day. Also the only English he knows is "hallelujah" and "good day" so he spams those at the most random moments, at all times.

Spiritual thought:  I know I have barely talked about any of my companion at all in my emails, but I'll let y'all in on the secret that I don't get along with my current companion very well. It's been a tinge bit hard and I lowkey feel like if I didn't have a guitar I would have exploded and died by now. Anyways... there have been two especially contentious days in the last two weeks, and while thinking back on them to learn what I did wrong and how to do better, I realized I had not studied my Book of Mormon during my P-study. I always have, but those two days I just studied different stuff. The prophet Joseph Smith said that, "a man would get nearer to God by abiding by [The Book of Mormon's] precepts, than by any other book.” A precept that does not exist in the Book of Mormon is any encouraging contention. It is so hard not to let the adversaries tactics work on me, even when I acknowledge that's the cause of contention I feel, but I know that God has given all of us many rescourses to overcome and become more Christ-like. I know that the Book of Mormon has been of unspeakable worth to my own progress. I testify the Book of Mormon does exactly what the prophet Joseph Smith said it does, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. 

Love you all! 

Current weight: 188.4 lbs. 

Wheelchair Man & Goodbyes

July 28, 2025

 We visited a man in the hospital last night, who neither of us knew, who's entire left side of his body is paralyzed. He was hilarious and actually really enjoyed talking about Jesus. You would think that being 50% paralyzed would stop a korean from feeding you, but you'd be dang wrong. Bro did some calisthenics to get onto a wheelchair and then used one arm and one leg to wheel over to a fridge where he grabbed us yogurts and ice cream to dine on while we talked. Once we were done with those though he wheeled right back over to fridge and grabbed a korean melon. He handed it to me but then immediately took it back because he apparently wanted to give it a good wash in the hospital bathroom, to where he once again one-leggedly wheeled his chair over to. Now I'm not an over the top germaphobe, but I'm also not stupid (sometimes) don't want to put stuff in my mouth that was washed in a hospital bathroom. We couldn't see him in there but I could hear him washing the fruit, so I turned to my comp and mouthed, "if I eat the fruit I will surely die," and in one of the most comedically timed moments of my life I heard a loud *crash* and watched the fruit roll on the floor past the door, at an impressive rate of speed, followed suit by the wheelchair. Aint no way I was eating that bad boy now, even though he did wash it again. He also kindly delivered it to me packaged in the massive wad of toilet paper that he used to dry it with, and yeah there were little wet pieces of toilet paper all of it haha. 

You would also think that a half-paralized old guy would be an easy guy to get away from, but he followed us out to the elevator where we said a goodbye, and then right before the doors closed got in with us. At the 1st floor we said another goodbye and then once again, last second, exited the elevator. A third and sincere, hug included, goodbye was then given in the hallway, but when we started walking he followed in pursuit to give us another heart-felt goodbye outside of the hospital. It was worse than my mother with a random friend in a grocery store, and that is a comparison I wouldn't throw around lightly. We finally were walking for our subway station when we heard the sound of a wheelchair accelerating down the ramp outside the hospital. When I looked back he had given Jesus the wheel and had full on X-gamed the ramp outside the hospital. I heard a loud, "I love you!" Which was eminating from an in-hot pursuit wheelchair chasing us down. Anyways, needless to say the love of Christ was administered to a man in need. I love you too wheelchair man. 

I ate some serious food this week. Had 불고기정식 for the first time with our bishop and it's probably one of my new favorite foods. 

Yesterday, we had three of our friends come to church. There's honestly not many better feelings than seeing someone show up for the first time, but seeing them show up a second time is, in fact, better. Our friend 민지안 has attended for a whole month now. Dang I'm proud of him, he's making great efforts to learn. 

I'm gonna be real honest with you, one of the things I miss the most about home is Riverside 1st ward (the undisputed goat), largely because I just miss worshiping God in English. The korean lyrics in the hymns usually carry like half the meaning of the english ones, and I can't really understand what the talks are about. Yesterday though, since we had a young teaching friend come, we went to the priests quorum, and wow... that's a vibe not even a weird language can take away. I felt home. They spent the first 20 minutes planning their camping trip and making jokes. It was pretty fire. They invited our friend camping, of which I was thinking, "It is bros 2nd time here," until he responded that he would love to go lol. Love, share, invite babyyy. I will be better next time.

Lots of sports again on Saturday. We've been able to meet a lot of people through sports and one of the kids we met on Saturday came to church on Sunday morning, very awesome. 

Spiritual Thought:  I got the terrible knews this week during my P-study that my Uncle Eric had passed away unexpectedly. He was such an amazing man who concecrated his life to the fullest through challenging callings and endless service to his family and friends. I wonder if he could have had a single regret, his conduct was always that of integrity and love. 

It makes me think about how ready I am to go at any moment. What kind of image would I leave? Not gonna lie, I'm not very fond of what I think it would be. I studied one of my favorite talks again after I heard about my uncle, "Let us be Men" by Elder D. Todd Christofferson. I love this talk and noted that my Uncle Eric followed nearly every letter of counsel you could find in it. 

"Though he will make some sacrifices and deny himself some pleasures in the course of honoring his commitments, the true man leads a rewarding life. He gives much, but he receives more, and he lives content in the approval of his Heavenly Father. The life of true manhood is the good life."

He sacrificed a lot for family and the Gospel in his life, but nobody doubts that he lived in the approval of his Heaven

ly Father. The gospel of Jesus Christ is such a blessing. I'm so blessed to be sharing this message with people. We will all live again! 

Please pray for my wonderful Aunt and her children! 

Love you all! 

Man vs. Dog

 July 20, 2025

Caption click bait. Finally got my toe cut up so I'm chilling now, ingrown toenails are an abomination. 

Had interviews with the mission president this week. I really like our new President, he's such a cool guy. He genuinely looks like a 25 year old but it's just Korean genes because he's almost 50. Also did the interview in Korean 100%. (It was a long interview.) 

Asked a guy on the street what he did for work and he said, "Do you know spacex?" Lol buddy, do I. 

Speaking of space, pretty sure we landed on the moon for the first time this day in 69' (in America's time zone).

We lined up one of our days with sports appointments with a bunch of different friends, and it just so happened to be the rainiest day of the week, but we did it anyway. I played nearly 10 hours of basketball in one day and I am feeling it still. Our teaching friends are so awesome right now.

We went with two of our friends to eat after basketball, and my comp found a grasshopper in his soup. It wasn't supposed to be there. I was laughing my because he went to talk to the shop owner who said, "it's shrimp," and then heard my comp say, "다리가 있어요" meaning, "it has legs." Its all good though because they gave us dumplings for free... that my companion can't eat. Another day of reaping the benefits of his genetic inferiority. They were tasty indeed. 

Had a delicious member meal this week and then after went to their house to do a practice lesson. Their apartment was so nice, definitely the nicest one I've ever been in. It was on floor 50 and it is huge. This was during a massive lightning storm too, so we could watch it from up there. 

Spiritual thought:   James 3:9, 11 "Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?"  One of my biggest flaws is that I pick and choose when to speak about people how Jesus would speak about them. This chapter explains that true discipleship requires consistency in charitable speaking. This is no easy task for me, but I love verse 9; Remind yourself of everyone's identity as a child of God, made in his image, and being kind will be a whole lot easier. 

Current Weight: 191.4 I'm super victim weight now 

Miracle of Health

July 13, 2025

 One of the memes I used to love said:  Men when their legs get amputated by a train: *man on a wheelchair going down the RedBull Mega Ramp *

Men when they get the common cold: *man  dying. * 

This meme was made in truth. I think I have covid right now because every time I get it, my back hurts super bad. But yeahhh... missionary work is a lot harder sick. 

Yesterday was Elder Rusts birthday, which I largly reaped the bennefits of because most of the members gave him cookies and he's allergic.

Miricle of the week: Waking up yesterday I felt like I got hit by a train and did nottt want to go to church, but I did anyway. I prayed for strength and didn't realize until after sacrament ended that I felt completely healthy. I felt great until I got home after church and it came back. I'm so glad I got the strength to help the ward during church.  It was fire. It was such a gradual improvement that I didn't notice until I felt completely fine, which I think was a test to see if I'd remember to be thankful for it.

I don't remember who it was, Sister Larsen I think, but someone said in their emails that if you bake snickerdoodle cookies for Koreans, they will quickly become addicted. Well we have a bunch of new members that needed visiting so we gave that a shot.  They absolutely do get addicted. It's hilarious. Apparently they don't have cookies that are soft here in Korea. What an absolute fumble on their part.

Korea has some absolute buns healthcare, not gonna lie. I have a fat ingrown toenail which has been pestering me for like 3 weeks and I've already gone to the hospital three times for it. Every time they just swab it with some Chlorhexidine and then swipe my card. I'm using personal funds btw. I'm about ready to fly my dad out here and fix this in 3 minutes flat. I got a ingrown toenail fixed the day before a 30 mile backpacking trip one time and was completely fine the whole trip. 

We had a fire first lesson with someone the previous Elders had visited a few times. He wanted to meet for English and when we thought the lesson was done we stood up. He protested and said, "We haven't read any Book of Mormon yet." which was a suprise, but we sat right back down and gladly did. Super cool that this guy was so eager to read the scriptures with us. 

We played basketball with our Jewish friend John this week. We don't think he's ever going to have much gospel interest but he was going to have a bunch of friends playing too, so we tried our luck and showed up. It was literally the most diverse basketball game I've ever played lol. There was a guy from Russia, Korea, Zambia, and of course the U.S. It was super fun and we were able to get 4 numbers from his friends on the court, as well as a two kids who we played with before his friends showed up. Super awesome. I was having a conversation with all of them and stopped them all mid convo to thank them all for learning my language, because all of us were speaking in English. I thought it was pretty cool that I was speaking to 3 people from different, non-english speaking countries--in English. They hadn't realized until I pointed that out and they also thought that was cool. 

Following the lead of Elder Parsons (Blackfoot friend), I made a top 30 movie list, which was hype. We sent 30 minute audios to each other explaining the what and why and both of us cooked honestly. If anyone wants to make one and send it to me I will gladly tell you why you are wrong. 

Spiritual Thought: 

Last week on the phone I told my Mom a story of Elder Rust and I at the church. We were super tired but were about to start out language study. I knew I wouldn't stay awake so we decided to go on a walk outside and wake up a bit. Outside of the church a man ran up to us and told us he had met with missionaries 7 years ago, but had lost contact with us. He wants to meet with us again soon. The geometry of the alley that we were walking in made him seeing us at the intersection very unlikely, which I accredit to a little bit of help from Heaven.

My mom said that it was because we were, "where we were supposed to be" that we were able to meet him. We didn't take a nap when we for dang sure wanted to.

It reminded me of the story of King David and Bathsheba. Some people say that David's first mistake was that he didn't look away, that he didn't disregard the temptation. I think his first mistake was in the first verse:  "And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem."

David was supposed to be with his army going to battle, but he "tarried still at Jerusalem." David wasn't where he was supposed to be, which opened up more potential for temptation. We're still gonna be tempted, even when we're doing everything as right as we can, but if we're where we're supposed to be we'll have a much easier time making the right decisions. 

Current Weight: 193.1 

Love y'all 

거미가 진짜 무서워요 (God Bless America)

 July 6, 2025

This has been a wild week. I did a lot of stuff. It's still hot as crap out here, I have been drinking sooo much water, great heavens.

Something about the humidity must make the spiders go crazy or something because I have had several spiders fall from trees right onto me this week. They'll just sit there hanging from a web on a tree and wait for a poor child to smack face first into it on their bicycle, which is lowkey funny to watch until it's your turn. They're also in my apartment and I wake up with about two more bites every morning, so lets hope no poisonous buggers make it in. There's also a spider outside of pretty much every window of my apartment, so opening them isn't an option anymore, lest the beast usher in 10,000 years of darkness. Spiders are the greatest hinderence of the Lords work in these latter days.

Some koreans told me the other day that america had moved an F22 over here, which is lowkey fire, but they didn't really know for sure. It was funny though because they talked about it like it was a dragon legend or something, which it kind of is. Anyways, I saw ittttttttt! The legends were trueeeeee. I was about to get on a bus and it ripped over me RAHHHHHH  AMERICAAAAAAAA. what the heck is a kilometer? First time seeing an F22 in person so it was hype.

We went finding by the lake this week, and it was actually super fun (minus the spider that swung into my face) and it was super pretty outside. We try to do our finding later at night now so we don't die from the heat, and this place was so beautiful. We talked to quite a few people and got a good amount of contacts. Unfortunately we got a threat letter from the parent of one of the kids we talked to, so that was cool. Basically they told us that we were a cult and that we were destroying our souls by going to our church, to go back to our home country, and then said if we keep talkin to peoples kids they will "take action." Big talk coming from someone who didn't help pay for that F22 flying overhead. Must not know whose airspace they're in, silly guy. They also must not know that I just graduated high school and am basically the same age as their child lol. I'm sorry for trying to condemn your child to an eternal damnation by asking him if he liked ping pong. I will be more careful next time. 

They then continued to send us a list of churches that they apparently approved of, and said that if we go to these ones we won't destroy our souls lol. Well you aint gonna save em either buddy. When people start bashing the chuch I've realized that I can just start asking them questions instead of saying my thoughts. Once you start asking them questions about their doctrine they realize they literally have almost no answers for anything. Where did we come from? Why did we need to come to earth? Why do we need bodies? Why are there so many churches? What happens to people who die without the gospel? What do we need to return to God? They have no clue what to say to these questions lol. Give it some thought! Let me know when you want the answers! 

I went to the wilderness this week and helped a family farm. I love this place it's so fire. The greenery is very pretty, and the family I worked with is super entertaining. 

Stayed up way to late on Thursday because I was trying to explain time dilation to my companion. I think he actually figured it out though.

Fourth of July:

God Bless America. By devine design God aligned my schedule to have the most fire exchange of my life on the 4th. I was with Elder McBride and Elder Ko and we had so much fun, and got a ton of work done. Elder Ko is a native and I want to be his next companion so badly, mostly because he's the most legandary person I've worked with but also because I want to get goated at Korean. 

Despite him not being from America he was down to do a quick 4th celebration with us, which was us lighting up sparklers and singing God Bless the USA in a church parking lot. Elder McBride also listened to my vision for a funny video and executed it amazingly perfectly literally first try. One of the funniest videos I've taken on the mish haha. God Bless America.

We also went to a resaurant that was basically just every kind of bread you can think of. It was industrialized like crazy. They had probably 60 guys in the back making bread of every shape kind and size as fast as they could possibly go. It was dirt cheap so I bought an embarrassing amount. it was delicious.  

I then broke into the church using the sparklers we bought because we didn't have a key the cold water bottles in the church fridge were not getting spared, I was coming after them one way or another. 

We went hiking with our friend Johny and the sisters. Johny has a cat that lives in the woods apparently. His name is socks. When we got to the trail he started meowing and this cat ran out of the woods to great him. He then proceeded to feed it and then take pictures of us with the cat. He made a group chat and sends us updates of socks daily as well as messages from socks perspective. It was fun though, amd he had a shooting range for slingshots in the woods that we did for a while. 

Elder Rust, I have discovered, was living under a rock for 19 years. He hasn't know a single song or movie I've quizzed him on, besides don't stop believing haha. He didn't know "Don't stop till you get enough" by Michael Jackson that was playing in the store, eye of the Tiger on the bus, or any Bruno Mars songs. He hasn't seen almost any of the avengers movies, interstellar, top gun... Basically I have no clue was bro was doing his whole life. Like Elder, I didn't listen to Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars, or Ed Sheeran either; but I did, in fact, walk into some local business within the last two decades. I don't know how it's possible. He'd do good in a pandemic cause bro can not catch on 

Love him though, he's just got some homework waiting back home. 

Spiritual Thought: 

While calling my Dad last week we talked a lot about King Benjamin from the Book of Mormon, and some of the things that he taught his people. I love the end of chapter 4 because after giving the people a lot of do's and don'ts he realizes that he would an eternity to explain every sin you can commit, so he basically says, "Aye y'all... don't be stupid." Which like I'm paraphrasing, but that's basically the jist of it. God has given us agency so we can choose right and wrong, but he's also given us the ability to distinguish right from wrong, and the Holy Ghost to help us do it.

When we stop asking what God would allow and start thinking what would He prefer the heavens are opened to us. 

"And finally, I cannot tell you all the things whereby ye may commit sin; for there are divers ways and means, even so many that I cannot number them. But this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish. And now, O man, remember, and perish not."- King Benjamin 

Love y'all, have a good week. 

Current Weight: 194.5 lbs