The Curse Is Lifted 10/5/2026

We had transfers last week and holy, we finally did it.  After exactly 474 days since my last 4 man, we are SO back. President saw the absolute grind we were running and I guess decided that it would be best to send us two more elders. (we didn't have dinner half the days) I bought a spikeball set a year ago and finally today got to use it. It's been a tender last few days. 

My new companion is a dawg and we're running it up harddddd. I love going to bed feeling like I did hard work.

Keep grinding, I gotta go.

Go watch conference!

Eternal Gas 9/28/2026

 I added a bunch of people to this email list last week and I thought it would be funny to share this story as their first taste of being on my email. If you don't think farts are funny you're just dumb (respectfully) because you're choosing to live life with the same amount of farts but less joy. 

The subway stations here in Korea are these massive empty stone rooms with multiple floors under the city. Lots of room for people, but  there weren't many people because it wasn't rush hour. We had finished finding on the train and were walking to leave the station when we heard a massive fart, from seemingly the edge of eternity itself. The perpetrator (perchance even victim?) was nowhere to be seen, but the echo through the massive, empty subway station was impressive. 

Had a lot of success finding and teaching this last week. Of course, lots of contacts (역시 대전), but much more importantly, a lot of really great moments of getting to bear my testimony. I have been sooo fired up about the restoration recently and it's so fun teaching people about Jesus!

Korean Thanksgiving was this week and I don't think I've ever done so much contacting in my life. It was utterly insane, I think I wrote the equivalent of a 20 page paper in Korean over the course of the day, but it worked out great. We are back in contact with a lot of great people. I also tried on traditional Korean clothing for the first time of my whole mission. 

I was playing a game with one of the Korean sisters I'm ward sharing with right now at a member meal on Thanksgiving. I would say a word I know in Korean to her and she would try to translate it into English. I was lowkey cooking and then the member, an old guy who I didn't think knew hardly any English, decided he wanted to compete with her. He beat her every time! It was so funny.  We were hypinggggg him up. My comp was laughing so hard because this old guy just secretly had crazy ball knowledge like 상대성 이론 (theory of relativity) 핵잠수함 (nuclear submarine) 약탈하다 (to plunder)-- to name just a few of the ones he knew. The Daejon members are insaneeee!

In one of our teaching appointments, we asked our teaching friend if he had read the introduction to the Book of Mormon like we had asked him to the previous week. He responded by pulling out his Book of Mormon with a book mark all the way at 1 Nephi 9. That's what we love to see, individually seeking spiritual knowledge, baybeee! Unfortunately, our member who was there started teaching him about outer darkness and started listing the people, by name, who are gonna end up there. Pretty crazy, cause I was always under the impression that Jesus was gonna be the judge at the last day but yk, we ball. 

I went to an area called Seosan to have an exchange with the district leader there this week and it was something. A man was building a cabinet on the street and we stopped to help him. I showed him my wooden dog feeder that I made for my dad and BAM! instant friendship. It was crazy though cause we were in the streets almost the whole day and literally 90% of everyone said they were Buddhist. A statistical anomaly. One lady even testified of a miracle where she had her paralyzed leg healed. It was a pretty sick miracle. I don't think it had the affect she was hoping it would have on us cause the Book of Mormon has already solved the problem of religious diversity, thankfully. 

Spiritual Thought: 

In honor of my dawg Elder Wolfert, who returns home this week, I'm just gonna echo the testimony he bore recently that no matter our capacity, when we choose to act, God magnifies our efforts. I saw that all this week, and as I read my journal from the start of the mission I was kinda shocked at the miracles I was seeing and things we were accomplishing even back when I didn't speak a lick of Korean.

Weight: 187.968

Miracle 9/20/2026

 Last week was busyyyyy. So much contacting and teaching. We had at least one member lesson every day, something I haven't done once since my 2nd transfer. Pretty miracle filled week.

On a bus I had one of the most spiritual conversations with a guy sitting next to me. It was fire and then boom, all of a sudden he hits me with "crap this is my stop" and jumped up. Bruhhhh nooo! I was gonna get his number but I just had to give him a name card as he got off. I said a fervent prayer because nobody ever responds from a card, but I could see him reading the card as the bus drove away. Twenty-five tense seconds later, someone sent me a text with their name. Let's goooo!  Absolute miracle. Later, when I was explaining this fire miracle to my comp he said, "oh no. Was it just one text?" And immediately my brain put it together that the text message was actually from the guy my companion was talking to at the front of the bus. I'm just a fool and a loser and I fumbled that guy, fr. 다음에 

President came to our ward and I got to talk to him about fighter jets and Flight Sim for about 10 minutes. Then at the Mission Leadership Conference the next day, he gave me a shoutout when he gave a fighter jet analogy to the whole room! Unfortunatly, it was the worst MCM ever cause the 뼈해장국 restaurant was closed. President came to me and gave me a personal apology because he knows how important that is to me. 

Spiritual Thought: 

"The work of devils and of darkness is never more certain to be defeated than when men and women, not finding it easy or pleasant but still determined to do the Father’s will, look out upon their lives from which it may seem every trace of God has vanished, and asking why they have been so forsaken, still bow their heads and obey."

 - C. S. Lewis

Current Weight: 186.69

신천지 (cult) (x3️⃣?) 9/13/2026

 On the way to district council I saw a 30ish year old women at the front of the bus reading her Bible. This isn't the first time this has happened during my mission and it's always been a golden opportunity, so I went up to the front to talk to her and I asked her what her favorite Bible verse was, and then shared my favorite too. Then I taught her a bit about the Book of Mormon and got her contact. Getting her contact was suspiciously easy though, and I was just thinking, "why is this so easy?" Anyways, after our number exchange, she leaned forward right into my ear and whispered "신천지 " which is the name of a church in Korea that's infamous for chasing people down, cornering them, and even locking a few LDS missionaries into their church one time haha! 

I don't say the word "cult" lightly because, believe me, I've heard it plenty of times, and it gets pretty old, especially because people just use it any time they disagree with somebody and have nooo clue what they're talking about. That being said, this is now the 3rd time I've run in to Sincheongi and all three of them have looked around, leaned in, and then whispered that name in my ear in a sketchy voice with a really weird smile. Not quite what you would do if you're trying to beat the allegations. One guy on the train even said, "이단" to describe themselves, which means cult, so I guess they're chill with the description. I keep blocking her number but her calls keep coming through so I don't know how she's doing that but--crikey. 

On a brighter note, I got to do an exchange with my last comp Elder Galligao. During that exchange I found 3 separate people on one bus ride to a members house and of those 3, 2 are planning to meet us this week. Hopefully they're not just undercover missionaries. 

We did probably 15 hours of teaching appointments last week and 8 member lessons. It was a good week for the teaching. A lot of really weird questions were asked though haha. One of our members used the Book of Mormon to answer a question in an absolutely fire way and I didn't know he had that kind of ball knowledge and now my respect for him is UP!

Last night we had a member appointment at the Stake President's house and he put all of the missionaries at one table while the big adults sat at the big table. I felt like I was at a family reunion as a kid again when we had our little-tikes table. Not to mention they made us Mexican food. I was weak. It was fire. The sisters even brought a friend from America who doesn't speak Korean so we got to yap it up in English the whole time.

I told my comp I missed my dog and BAM. Two border collies in 3 days. I haven't seen a single border collie my whole mission and then I got to play fetch with 2 of them in a three day period. God cares about the little things, fr.

Spiritual Thought: 

I'm plagarizing this thought from a talk I listened to a long time ago but I can't remember who it was. 

Any historian with a brain believes that Jesus Christ was an actual historical figure, and almost everyone agrees that Jesus Christ was a wonderful person. The principles in The Sermon on the Mount are almost undebated among people as good and one of the best teachings of all time. Some people say Jesus was a good guy, just not the Son of God, but that option is not open to them. Jesus didn't leave that option open. He's either who He says He is, or He's an evil man. 

Cult (Again!) 9/6/2026

 Last week was a doozie. I'd tell you all about it but I better not. It was a long week though lol. 

Trying to fit more appointments into our schedule, my comp and I ended p-day an hour early last week so we could travel to the other side of Daejon to meet a guy. We were planning on eating with this guy so I fasted from lunch and dinner to eat a ton, but when we arrived and called him he said he "couldn't meet"  Bruh. Now I had to do finding for 3 hours with my 배꼽시계 (bellybutton clock) going off the whole time. I was kinda pressed about it but then he called back 30 seconds later and said, "Hey! But you can still go visit my family. They're at my house." We figured we might as well, so we made our way to the 18th floor of an apartment building and when we got there the door was already open, letting me peer into a pretty normal apartment. I knocked on the door and a lady came and invited us in excitedly. The second we turned the corner into the room the vibe was... not ideal... you could say. The tiny "house" looked more like a clinic than anything, coffee machines everywhere, a person getting a massage on a table to the left, and everyone was wearing white lab coats. They sat us down right in the middle of all of them, put two mysterious drinks in front of us (we didn't touch them) and another lady walked in from a mysterious door to my right wearing a lab coat, snapping on a latex glove that was lubed to the max. By the grace of God, she said hi and walked right past me to a different room. Well obviously this was no "family," at least not by birth, and to quote Admiral Ackbar, "It's a trap!" 

They yapped at us about why we should join their pyramid scheme for about 30 minutes and I was taking mental notes about what NOT to do when I'm being a missionary cause holy, they didn't let us get a word in that whole time. Ended up telling them about the Book of Mormon and leaving for our "appointment." We survived though, and then I got someone's contact outside the apartment building, when we left, by telling him the story. He thought it was funny. haha.

I feel cursed recently. I'm over a year and a half into my mission but I still avoid talking to women younger than 30 at all costs, but everytime we went on a bus or train last week there was no one but women in sight. I had to force myself to talk to 3 in a row on one bus ride. It was horrifying. Got that contact though! 

Spiritual thought:

My oldest sister Elise bought a house a few years ago and I randomly remembered the story of her getting the house from the previous owner. When he showed the house to the previous interested people, they all kinda scrunched their noses and looked disgusted, but my sister could see through the old paint and carpet and really saw it for what it could become. After much cleaning and renovation, it looks beautiful in there now, and I have slept many a night there as a pit-stop for SLC concerts/ just to hang out with Elise. I like to imagine Jesus looking at us the same way she looked at that house. He focuses on our potential and understands far better than anyone what we are capable of and what we need to do to achieve it. 

Current Poundage: 31.5lbs (moon gravity)

Fat 8/30/2026

 Just a super crazy busy week again. We worked until the last minute planning a training for zone conference and then in the morning the AP's texted us that we won't be giving one this month.

The members are so cracked here and our fridge is overflowing. One member sent me cinnamon toast crunch and another one invited me over to cook me my favorite food. Praise!

We had mission leadership conference and because we weren't busy enough we got assigned the training. It went well though and I got to eat 뻬해장국 with Elder Worlpy and do our (6th?) farewell before he goes home. 

We had some really good lessons this week and we had 4 friends and a new member make it out to church. 

Spiritual Thought:  We talked about the brother of Jared at MLC and I've always loved the verse where God basically just answers his prayer with, "idk, what you want me to do about it?" I've been paying closer attention to how God teaches the people found in the scriptures a lot more and I noticed that He frequently just asks them a question so they can figure it out on their own (obviously with some help).

 An answer given is easily forgotten but an answer earned is remembered for a lifetime. 

Poundage: 187.6

The Dragon Warrior 9/24/26

 Last week while waiting for a bus, I started talking to an old man who was sitting down clutching his cane. After a while talking, he told me he was on his way to do water therapy at the hospital, so I asked him if he was ok/if he was in pain. In response, he shakily stood up, threw his cane about 10 feet, and started doing karate as if he was 50 years younger. I got juked so hard.

I wasn't expecting it, but I got transfered againnn. This time to Daejon. I can already tell you this will be the busiest transfer of my whole mission. This is probably the busiest area anyway, but as you know, I have a curse that keeps me from living in a 4-man apartment, so this area became just a 2 elder area. I'm starting to think the curse is actually real because, if anything, they needed more elders here, not less. There is no apparent reason to make this area a 2 man whatesoever. So the other team of elders got kicked out and my new comp and I took on all of their teaching friends, tallying up to a total of a little more than 100! On top of that, we're the ZL's, so by the time I finish my work every day, I just have to go to bed cause it's 10:30 haha. The new comp is a dawg though. I'm excited to grind this transfer. 

I added in my email to my president today that if there's ever an elder who gets a little too prideful and thinks they're a cracked missionary, that I highly recommend sending said Elder to Nonsan haha. Last Monday, my comp and I tried to give out as many Introduction cards as possible. We gave out two. Why? We only saw 4 people the whole 2 hours. Right now here in Daejon we aren't doing any formal finding time because we're already swamped out of our minds, but every time I step out of the apartment or church, I find a new teaching friend. People just listen to you for as long as you want to talk to them! I'm having culture shock. P.s. - I'm on my way to go shopping right now and just got a guy's number! Haha! It's toooo easy here. P.s.p.s. you can not make this up, I just got another in the meat isle. We're on the train now and my comp is probably about to get another. Three contacts before I could finish writing this email! Sheesh!

We went to Seoul last week for a special meeting with an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, Elder Bednar. I was kinda sad though cause I thought that all of my MTC district in Seoul died in the last two transfers, but lo and behold, Sister Perdro lives. I forgot that her mission got a little longer because she got her leg obliterated in the MTC (역시 Polynesian volleyball). I got to say hi to her... but only from the bus window. We weren't allowed to say hi to Seoul missionaries because that would be evil and disobedient, as can be learned in the holy scriptures:

Alma 17 

And now it came to pass that as Alma was journeying from the land of Gideon southward, away to the land of Manti, behold, to his astonishment, he met with the sons of Mosiah journeying towards the land of Zarahemla.

2 Now these sons of Mosiah were with Alma at the time the angel first appeared unto him; therefore Alma did rejoice exceedingly to see his brethren; therefore, he did blast right past them without saying a word, ignorong them steadfastly as he did continue his journey to Manti because if he said hi unto them that means he's a disobedient loser.

Spiritual Thought:   To get to Seoul we had to take a charter bus leaving from the church in Daejon. It was gonna leave right at 9:30, so if you aren't on by then you're just kinda screwed and can't go to the devotional. We were already at a disadvantage because getting anywhere from Nonsan is a pain, but we snagged a bus and made it to Daejon, thankfully with about 30 minutes of wiggle room. Unfortunately, our bus driver shmooved right on past the terminal he was supposed to stop at and took us all the way to the wrong side of the city. Daejon is huge so any options we had to get back to the church was gonna take 45+ minutes... 15 minutes after the bus leaves. 

I figured our only hope was a taxi so we ran to the taxi pickup at the front of the bus terminal, which usually has 20ish taxis waiting for anybody to come get in but, as luck would have it, none were there. Super unusual, but we knew one would come any second. Five precious minutes went by fast with no taxi. It was getting ridiculous. I made the difficult, conscious decision to avoid using any 쓰고 싶은 expletives and instead, said a prayer. "God, if you want us to be at this meeting, I need a taxi right now." The second I opened my eyes a taxi screamed around the corner!

Unfortunately, the ETA time of the taxi was about 5 minutes past 9:30 so we were still gonna miss the bus, but I felt suprisingly super calm and knew we would catch the bus somehow anyway. My now comp, who was my ZL then, texted me and said the bus got delayed going to the church. We ended up getting there about a minute before the bus left. Clutchhhhhhh! You know we serve a good God. Say your prayers! 

Current Weight: 188.6