Johannes 3/23/2026

 Johannes got baptised yesterday!! It's been an awesome priveledge to learn about the gospel with him. He was a little scared to be baptised a week ago, but yesterday he was beeming pretty bright. Already feeling the joy of the gospel baybeeee. Our other two friends on date both came to church and to the baptism. I think they had a great time, especially with the cake. They were able to meet and have some really good conversations with all the members after the service. 

I gave a small talk and sung and played a song on my guitar, and let me tell you, korean culture is so different than American culture. I had like 16 backup singers in the crowd who were singing the parts and then they applauded. (there goes the spirit )

I'd write more for you all, but I believe I have come down with the male-cold. I must conserve my energies if I am to survive, God willing. 

Spiritual Thought:  "Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?  Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life."

When faced with doubt and trials, always remember that the answer is Jesus Christ. A solid foundation in Him is absolutely necessary to survive spiritually, especially now. I always think, "to whome would I go?" There is nothing more rewarding than the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Current Weight: 190.19 ...oh dear, I have hit 190 again

Jesus Came Back? 3/16/2026

 Our President sent us some wisdom in the mission chat this week about how we need to focus on the present. He used 1 Nephi to show that the daughters of Ishmael, when faced with trial, immediately started looking at their past trials and speculating about future ones they hadn’t even lived yet—a rather foolish move. I agreed with my President’s wisdom, but it’s a lot easier said than done, haha. My whole mission, nearly every time I find someone cool, they move. This week that happened twice—the guy I found last week moved to Seoul, and another guy moved to Spain yesterday. I’m cursed. (I’m sorry, President, I did not learn the lesson.)

On a brighter note, we had two General Authorities come to church yesterday: Brother Webb and Elder Kim. Our teaching friends were able to come, and it was an awesome experience. Also, the Church’s translators are goated out of their minds—they are sooo fast at translating. It’s fun understanding both sides of the conversation now because I know how it works, and the people speaking English don’t realize how difficult they’re making it. When Brother Webb and his wife would speak, they thought they were making it easier for the translator by saying a little bit at a time, but in reality, it made it much harder because the grammar is flipped—so the translator desperately wanted them to finish the sentence, haha. They’re absolutely goated though; that was cool to see.

One of our members tricked us into eating out on Sunday. I know that sounds unlikely, but trust me—we really got bamboozled.

Wholesome moment: We were walking down the street behind a couple carrying a heavy bag together. They approached a pole in the sidewalk and both had a massive brain fart and couldn't decide what way to go because they were linked together haha. We lowkey laughed at them but they were laughing hard too, so it was chill.

We got stopped by 3 하나님의 교회 missionaries on the way home and talked with them for an hour. They didn't mention Jesus once that whole time. They're so lucky I didn't know any of their doctrine then, because if they ever try to stop me again they getting cooked alive (Jesus' second coming already happened and he died again? Fortunately, Heavenly Mother is still kicking?) I hate it when they say to "읽어 봐" the Bible when I've read it twice, and then they won't even let me share one verse from the Book of Mormon. Bad news guys, they proved the Book of Mormon is false because the prophets knew Jesus' name before he was born, and if you're thinking to yourself, "wait... don't prophets lowkey be 'proph'esying? Isn't that kinda what they're for?" You'd be wrong unfortunately. 

I asked a British guy what bus number to take, and he recommended bus number “go %!/* #%$>@!” Fortunately, bus 15 clutched up and came, so we just took that one instead.

We had an Elders Conference this week, and it felt like scout camp. We got to the church and then immediately left to go hike a mountain and received some really awesome trainings at the top. I also shouted “회개하라” (repent)  at the top of my lungs to the city below.

We have our mission tour this week, and unfortunately for me, my district got selected as one of the districts that will do a supervised district council in front of the General Authorities. I think it’s going to be Elder Kim’s wife who sits in on ours. Wish me luck.

Spiritual Thought: Brother Webb shared a cool story about his youngest sister, who passed away recently from cancer. When they discovered that she had cancer, it was already too late. He asked her if she had ever asked, “Why me?” She replied that she had asked, “Why not me? I was sent here to Earth to face experiences that will make me more like my Father in Heaven and my Savior. Why wouldn’t it be me?” Sister Webb is an absolute legend, and I hope she’s enjoying paradise right now. What an awesome lesson taught, and an amazing mindset.

Current Weight: 188.29 

Long Lost Friends 3/8/2026

 We had our Stake Conference this week and were able to help 3 of our teaching friends come. That building was packkedddd and it was pretty fun. I felt like a mom with honey cheerios, though. I was feeding my teaching friends mints every time I saw them nod off.

I've been banished to the south of the mission for a very long time, but now that I'm back up north I actually saw some of my friends from the very beginning of my mission at Stake Conference. That was super crazy. Some of them knew me my first day here and they could only speak to me in English. I've been dreaming of meeting them again for so long and it finally happened, and this time we talked in korean! Dreams come true, baby. 

Johannes is getting baptised this Saturday so it's been a grind trying to get his interview done and get everything ready. Brother is so elect for real. It has been so awesome having 3 guys on date because we usually just meet with all of them at once and they have all been able to help each other get ready for baptism. Not to mention, we usually get some GAS food when we meet. 

On the last day of the transfer, Elder Dastrup and I stayed up for another hour pillow talking and he ended up flipping a 180° putting his feet by his pillow to go to sleep. When the alarm went off in the morning he got up to shut it off and walked full speed directly into the wall haha. Bro was pretty discombobulated. 

On the morning of transfers I busied myself with swapping my bathroom and closet for the other ones at 5am because I am not about to let another junior companion have the walk-in closet and master bathroom. I thought I was being slick with it because when my new comp got here all my stuff was already moved. Unfortunately, old habbits die hard and he has seen me open his closet and walk into his bathroom confused about 3 times now, so I'm pretty sure he knows what's happened. Dangit. 

Finding has been hecka miracle-filled this week. I have finallllyy found some friends who are dudes my age. It's so much easier to teach someone when you can also play basketball with them.

Spiritual Thought: Your environment shapes your outcome, so make sure you have the right environment. Especially when choosing friends. Friends are almost always the make-or-break factor that I've observed with teaching friends. Humans are pretty weak, and if you're not surrounded by people with the same goals as you it's really easy to choose the easier (worse) path. 

Current Weight: 187.22

The Visitors 3/2/2026

Ello everyone. I hope you all had a good week. We got trasfer news on Saturday night, Elder Dastrup will be leaving and my new comp will be Elder Keate.

This week was good, Johannes Kim finally came to church.  Bout time for real. His baptismal interview is this week so hopefully that all goes well. I also invited our friend 유병우 to be baptised this week but he said no. Well, technically he said he'd be baptised next year, but brotha is oldddd so I don't know if we've got that much time to work with. Trying to get the most clutch buzzer beater.

Elder Dastrup and I got on a bus to go to the church but it was completely empty. We sat allll the way at the back of the bus and I sarcastically said to him, "what a fantastic finding opportunity." In miraculous answering, the bus driver reached his hand up and waved a Book of Mormon at us. I couldnt believe it. I went up to the front of the bus and talked with the driver about the Book of Mormon for the whole ride to the church. He had apparently gotten the BoM from some elders a few months ago. 

I was standing at the front of our district council last week as we were looking over our district statistics when Sister Anderson whispered, "He's here!" while staring out the little window on the door into the hallway. I was confused for 5 seconds until that gay piano guy who molested me a month ago walked into the room. Props to him for being so bold to walk into the middle of a meeting with 16 missionaries I guess, but also bruh what are you doing???  I told him I would talk to him in a minute but that I was in the middle of a meeting. True to tradition, we found him on the 3rd floor playing piano and explained that he can't come without an appointment again. Next time he trespasses I'm calling the cops on my momma. 

That's not the only visitor we had last week. While my comp and I were waiting for our turn at president interviews, an extremely special needs red-dot walked into the church. Now normally you need a key to get in the church, but the door was unlocked because missionaries were coming and going all day for interviews. He came in and made a beeline directly for the muffins that are provided for the missionaries at interviews. I have never seen a better visual representation of "you shouldn't have!! " Deciding he wanted to go to the bathroom before stealing a muffin, he ran around the corner into the bathroom where I heard a toilet flush but never a sink, and then came around the corner with his hand and pants sopping wet. Now, call it greed if you want, but I ain't had my muffin yet and this man was about to touch my muffin with pee hands, and I was not about to let that happen, so I interviened. He was now a biohazard. I explained that there was only one muffin per missionary and that not everyone had come yet. This upset the visitor. I asked him to leave but he just sat down on the couch and eyeballed the muffins. I asked him again to leave and he said, "아이고 배고프네!!" Which means "man! I'm so hungry!" While eyeballing the muffins. My comp and I have been quoting that all week. 

Finally, I got him out of the church and locked the doors, but only about 30 seconds went by before we heard angry slams against the door and a blood-curdling scream. I went and talked to him through the door and man... his knuckles were bloody from punching the door so many times and he was screaming for a muffin. Bro really wanted a muffin. Next time I'll make sure they buy more. 

Spiritual Thought:  One benefit of learning a monstrocity of a language is that it forces you to teach simply. Watching such simple teachings change someone's life is truly amazing. The gospel is so massive, but its core is so simple. Jesus, faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. Love you all! 

Current weight: 188.6 

Oi! 2/23/2026

 I'm enjoying my PBJ with an apple, chicken nuggets, and kimchi on the side. I have never felt so free.

This was a really good week, highlight was definitely my exchange with Elder Wolfert. He's my oldest friend in the mission and we lowkey could probably not be comps together, we have way to much fun haha. That being said, we popped off on the exchange and hit (most) of the goals we set. One of the goals we set was to find a person with explicit gospel interest. I was talking to a kid at the subway station and he was kind of responding to me, but was way more interested in his phone. Eventually I told him that I was a missionary and he suddenly his interest peaked and looked right up at me. He asked what church I go to and we were able to talk about our favorite stories from the Bible and got his number to meet with him later. That was pretty fiya. 

One of our old man teaching friends met a random brother in our ward that day and told me about it, so I scrambled to call that member and snagged a member appointment with them. An Elder in our mission put someone on date on a bus last week, so with that inspiration in mind, one of our unofficial exchange goals was to put someone on baptism date and we actually did it! So now 윤태준 is on baptismal date and came to church! let's goooo.

When we invited him to be baptized, we did it in English, and without hesitation he just said "yes, yes, yes," and Elder Wolfert and I looked at each other thinking "ain't no way he understood us correctly," so on the drive home we were whispering in the backseat and debating whether or not we should make sure. Eventually I just went for it and asked him again in Korean to make sure he understood, and he just said, "네 네 이야기했잖아," which basically means "we've already talked about this, fool." 

We met with 김인철 too and went over the baptismal interview questions together. I feel like he's really prepared for baptism, but he won't come to church for some reason. He'll meet with us during the week and study with us but won't come to church. I dunno. 기도해 주세요

I finally met our 3rd guy on date yesterday. He's a really cool guy and it was an awesome time with him talking about the gospel. 

Spiritual Thought: Whenever we finish exchanges, we always share with the other missionary good things they did, and things that they can improve on. I used to never give feedback for improvement because it felt so awkward, but when I recieved feedback it was so helpful. Elder Wolfert obviously needs a lot of improvement, so I made sure this time to really lay it down on him. I've definitely learned how important humility is though, it is necessary to improve. Be open to feedback.

Current Weight: 188.16

Wait!! 2/16/2026

 Finally got to meet with one of our friends. I'll just call him "Yoo." Yoo is a pretty old veteran and he uses a notebook instead of his phone for a calendar. For that reason, he has missed the last 4 appointments we've set with him. Finally, we met this week and studied the Book of Mormon together. He kept saying, "Wow, that's some good stuff!"  We planned with him to go to church together on Sunday. We were gonna meet at entrance #3 at the subway station at 9:30. Well, when that time came around he was nowhere to be found and wouldn't pick up his phone. At 9:45 we decided to go cause we had to get to church on time but right as we got on the bus he called and said, "Waitttttttt!!" We got off the bus right before it left and waited another 4 minutes before he finally came. We didn't have time to bus anymore, so I got us a taxi and we got to church only about 2 minutes late. It was fun to have him there.

On the way back from church, I met a man on the street who wanted to go to church. There's two wards in this area, and the other ward was gonna start in 10 minutes, so we walked back to the church with him and he attended sacrament meeting.

I made an absolutely rookie mistake finding this week. We were on the skyline train and I was talking to a guy sitting next to me. The station we came from has this kiosk that dispenses little papers with famous sayings on them. I usually grab two everytime I go there so I can try to understand the korean. I asked this guy if he liked the sayings on the papers. He did and was really impressed because he thought I had made them, so I tried to clarify that they were someone else's quotes, and that I had just printed them. Unfortunately, however, instead of "printed," I said I had "birthed them." The worst part is that he got off immediately after I said that, so I couldn't fix my mistake, and now there's a man out there that thinks I birthed two 명언's. Tragic. 

We also met with our super worldy friend this week, the guy who wants to show us his bank account all the time. Read him the "treasures in heaven" verse, which I thought was kinda funny. I don't think he understood it that well though... but hey, he bought us some gassss chicken. (We went back the next day) 

Spiritual Thought: "The game is over, the score is set, and we're all out on the field arguing which jersey to wear." 

I don't know who said this originally, but I love it. Don't get caught batting for the wrong team. We know how things are gonna play out.  

Current Weight: 187.22

Hello, Peter! 2/9/2026

 Friday was one of the best days of my mission for sure. When I first got to Korea, there was only one Korean in the whole country that I knew, and his name is Peter. He was my next door neighbor for a year during high school because he did a foreign exchange year in Blackfoot. The last time I ever saw him was right after I got my mission call. I was like, "Yo Peter, I got called to Korea!" and we got all hyped up. He asked, "Do you know how to say hi yet?" I did not. He took the missionary lessons with his host family for a while and enjoyed them, so when his time came to return to Korea, the missionaries here started meeting with him.... but then dropped him. Long story short, I have been praying to get transferred north enough to meet him and finally did! So I got his number and permission to call him. He said it was super weird to have someone from Blackfoot speaking korean to him haha. 

We met him on Friday and he started talking about the gospel without prompt from us. He asked if he could take a Book of Mormon and if we could share some of our favorite verses and explained how he's trying to grow his faith and become a better person. Absolute legend. It was super weird talking to someone about people and places from home, and he showed me a picture he had taken of me with a gun when we had gone hiking together because it was, "just too American. I had to take it!"  He also snapped some of my friends from home a picture of me, which felt apostate but hey, I didn't do it. 

We had a member appointment we were supposed to go to, and even though it's bad manners, I felt like we should take Peter. So I called the member for permission and he said yes. The member was an absolute legend, bought us unlimited meat and shared his testimony with us. Could not have been more ideal. I referred Peter back to the correct Elders and now he's going to be meeting with them again.

Met a Greek guy and we talked for almost 2 hours standing in the freezing cold. He was a pretty cool guy, built like a greek god too. He was an orthodox Christian, which explains the 2 hour conversation part. It takes about that long to explain their reasoning behind the trinity. He cited about 134 different creeds, historical dates, and individuals. We just pointed at the Bible when Jesus is like "Hey guys, I have a Dad and we're not the same person." Simple as. He told us that we need to "search and study harder" but wouldn't even take the BoM, something I found ironic. Remember kids, if your 목사님 ever tells you not to read and pray about a book about Jesus, for heavens sake 제발 please take the book and pray about it. 

Zone Conference was fire, didn't know hardly anyone there though. R.I.P Elder Monney and Cluff ㅠㅠ

I just made a full court kick basketball shot 1st try!

Spiritual Thought:  Elder Monney talked in his farewell testimony about Moroni saying he would meet us at the "pleasing bar of God," something the scriptures described earlier as terrifying, and dreaded, and horrible and... you get the idea, not very fun for the wicked. His point was you can live in a way to look forward to the Judgment of God. We can't be perfect, but we can have complete confidence that we have tried our best and God will be pleased with us.  Current Weight: 185.57