망했다- Jan 19, 2026

 Hey its finally snowing outside!

We got our transfer calls and I'll be moving to 신갈. I'll be training a new Elder named Elder Dastrup. His profile picture is out in a desert, a very good sign. I'll also be the DL up there, not looking forward to that much though because the AP's, all 4 of them, are in my district.  신갈 is actually right next to my second area, so this will be the first time in my mission I get to go back and see an old area. I'm excited for that. 

The weather has been strangely nice this week so we took advantage of that and hit the streets a lot more. It was pretty nice to be teaching outside without being on the verge of death for a minute.

We played basketball with church tour guy and one other friend that I've been trying to meet for ages. It's about time. It was pretty fun. I'm lowkey pressed that I have to leave Iksan right after meeting church tour guy. He's such a cool guy.  Elder Auguste better not fumble this, especially since church tour guy and 김유희 could 100% get married.

I did interviews with President and, as usual, he basically just taught me some weird words. Here's one for you guys:  훌훌 털어버리다   Basically means brush it off and keep moving, good stuff.

Holy shmokes the pollution was bad this week! The only lights I could see were the cars and businesses right at the base of the building I live in... there's supposed to be a whole city out there. I will definitely be honoring the Moser tradition of getting cancer, that's for sure. Thanks china.

I had a 20 minute conversation with a guy sharing the spinny exercise thingy at the park. What I would do for a picture of that... not as weird as the time I sat straddling monkey bars to talk to a ridiculously strong grandpa who was straddling the ones accross from me though.

Spiritual Thought: 

The fact that there's tens of thousands of 18-25 year-olds out there that, for the vast majority, are living a by very strict set of standards with absolutely nothing keeping them accountable but their love for God is a testament in and of itself that the church is true. I have been absolutely banished here in Iksan for over 4 months now, and I just think it's crazy that my companion and I went to work every day, went to bed and woke up on time every day, and did all of those thing of our own free will because we have our own witnesses of the gospel and want to do our best. It wouldn't be hard at all to go to Busan for the day and get away with it, but we're here cause we love Jesus baybe. 

Maybe not the most spiritual spiritual thought but I hope you get my point haha. Love you all! 

Current Weight: 184.25

소개- Jan 12, 2026

 This week my brothers had their birthdays, which meant I got to call both of them during the week. Two legends fr. 

We've had an absolutely rough time finding recently but the Holy God has been carrying. We've gotten a ridiculous amount of referrals from ads and from other missionaries. A Korean elder I met in the MTC from Busan called me and told me he had a referral for us. He met a guy from Iksan who wanted to do a church tour with us. I contacted the guy and set up an appointment that day and we had a really awesome church tour. He had some great questions and we ended up hanging out for the rest of the day. (yes that included eating 뼈 해장국.) Side note, this guy's older brother went to the Tokyo Olympics for powerlifting. 

We did district finding, so naturally, it was the worst weather possible. It was snowing horizontally. Fortunately, my role was just to jam out on guitar ducked inside of a Lotte Mart, so I was chilling. (Shoutout to Nathan for sending me a bunch of guitar arrangments 3 hours before we started!) It was pretty fun but most of the people we talked to were more worried about their perilous journey into the parking lot than talking with us.

For Christmas the mission gave us three presents to give to 3 teaching friends of our choosing. Absolutely fire, it made us look way nicer than we actually are. Our friend 미경 went on a big ol vacation during Christmas though, so we couldn't give it to her until this weeks English class. We gave it to her and then she pulled out some wrapped Egyptian treats she had brought home for us. What a legend. 

Spiritual Thought:  The senior missionaries brought us mug root beer.

Bonus Spiritual Thought:  2 Samuel 24  "And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing."  We cannot be disciples only when the price is low, the descisions easy, and the road easy to follow. We must follow Christ even when it is the hardest option to do so. Love you all!

Current Weight: 183.59

The Prodigal Son- Jan 4, 2026

 Happy New Year!!

Over this last transfer my companion has, on separate occasions, lost his gloves, our umbrellas, and some pamphlets. For this reason, I mostly blame myself for trusting him with anything, but it's cold as Hoth out here, and I want my hands in my pockets when possible, not holding my grammar book. So for the last while my comp has been taking our grammar books around in his briefcase, a nice gesture of course. Unfortunately, when we got off a bus, I turned around and he did not have the briefcase. There's no finding the same bus, so the best we can do is file a report and wait, which is what we did for about a week. We ended up buying new books the day before they called us and said they had found it. There's no busses to the office with the lost and found center though, so we had to do an absolute hike and a half to get out there on the coldest and windiest day of the week. Daggum this humid cold is different. When we finally showed up all of the workers had just left for lunch break so we were stuck out there for an hour waiting for them. I was eventually reunited with my beloved grammar book. 

When they called me they asked me if I could "prove that it was my bag" I told them what the books were, who wrote them, and what color they were. He asked me for more proof and I said, "bro can't you tell by my korean that I'm obviously the guy who lost a bunch korean grammar books??" He laughed and was like, "ight yeah head over." 

Last transfer Elder Night and I bussed to the edge of our area to try and visit some inactive members. They didn't open the door for us, even though we could hear them on the other side of the door haha. Regardless, we left them a letter and a present. Since our attempted visit, the father of the house has been coming to church every week for the first time in years. That marks a whole month now. He's a super cool guy and I'm homies with him now. He wants us to help his son come to church too, and said that his son absolutely loves guitar. I told him I do too and his eyes widened. I believe there will be a jam session after church one of these days.

We've got a couple appointments coming up and depending on how things go, I think it's pretty likely we're gonna be dropping dang near all of our friends. Also, Justin is going to South America for 2 months to hike a bunch of mountains, so last week was my last time seeing him. We had a whole 5 referrals this last week. That's the most of my whole mission, I think. The Lord is hastening his work. 

Spiritual Thought: 

When we drive down the highway it's necessary to give the wheel tiny adjustments as we go. Nobody's alignment is good enough to go straight down the middle without correction. Similarly, we have the priveledge to *nudge* our spiritual cars back between the lines when we mess up too, using Christ's help and His atonement. Waiting too long to repent could result in a pretty unfortunate little jaunt off the highway at speeds fast enough to pulverize any unsuspecting cows as well as yurself. Next time you make a mistake, don't wait to repent. Say a prayer and fix it up however you need to as fast as you can. You'll find that you stay in the lines much better. Love you all! 

Current Weight:  181.61 lbs

It Was All a Lie!-Dec 29, 2025

I have been the goodest boy. I have gone to bed before 12 every single day. Why has he forsaken me? There was not a single present on Christmas day. I'm aware that we don't have a chimney, or a tree for that matter, but I was under the impression he could make it work. Maybe we're too close to North Korean airspace. Either way I'm starting to really question the authenticity of the whole "Santa Claus" thing. 

Santa slacked off, but by my blessed parents sent me a bunch of chips and about 200,000 won worth of peanut butter. So clutch. Unfortunately, I had to make a big fool of myself and announce "Santa's" arrival at zone conference. I'm not even a believer anymore though, it was probably literally just Elder Meyet for all I know.

Zone Conference was on Christmas eve and it was pretty fun, got to see Elder McBride and gave him an authentic Korean name, perchance even the best ever. (짓정은 장로님) The best part about zone conference is that it's the one time per transfer you are fed like an American. There's ham, fruit salad (yummy yummy), rolls, cake, and funeral potatoes. (They're to die for) I like kimchi, don't get me wrong, but I'm looking forward to grubbing up like an American again someday.

Getting appointments and finding has been hard. Probably because the weather will kill anyone caught lacking. 

Spiritual Though: R.I.P. to President Holland. What an absolute legend. One of my favorite quotes of his: 

"A true Christian cannot follow the Master only in those matters with which he or she agrees. No. We follow Him everywhere, including, if necessary, into arenas filled with tears and trouble, where sometimes we may stand very much alone."  Elder Holland said some pretty bold stuff during his life, and the craziest part is he lived it to the letter. May we all be willing to follow the Master wherever we need to go. Love you all!! 

Current weight: dunno

A Beef Jerky Christmas-Dec 22, 2025

 Got the meat shakes from that title didn't you? I know I did  Elder Meyet pulled out a big ol' bag of American made beef jerky at district council last week. The type Papa brings hunting. Now I'm what you might refer to as a jerky connoisseur, and seeing that bag made my heart flutter, at least I'm assuming it was the jerky and not my daily 5000mg sodium intake. We passed that bad boy around and I partook. If you're in America, make sure to buy that readily accessible, albeit expensive, bag of jerky this week in my honor. Apparently something about my awestruck face caught Elder Meyets eye, because when we left he pulled ANOTHER bag out of his backpack and secretly gave it to me because he could tell I'm a feen, even though I didn't even make it that obvious. Merry Christmas!

Saw an infinite bird glitch in the sky that was weird. 

There's been some serious China shmog out here, it looks like fog but never goes away. Cancer, here we come. 

That guy that referred himself to us last week was supposed to meet with us last night but instead blocked us and never showed up. Unfortunate, but also typical Korean behavior. Anyways, I was sitting there thinking to myself, "It would be great if I had a miracle that played out maybe once" when a random guy walked into the church. Ok. That doesn't happen but God provides. He explained he's having a pretty rough time. He told us he doesn't have a job, house, or any family. He's trying to get work but can't and said over and over that his heart hurts. After that explanation, I was thinking of what to say to this guy and my comp, not having understood a dangg thing, told him that "we teach a free English class!"  We love to see the effort.

Maybe he just came in for a warm place to be, but I thought it was cool that God provided us an opportunity to teach and comfort someone. When we testified of Christ he started tearing up. I couldn't help him with money but I think that provided him a lot of comfort. And btw, we'll be teaching him tonight again, this time with the Bishop. Also I'm no fool we locked up that church nice and good and may or may not have set some booby traps just in case.

My friend Mi-Gyung brought me strawberries and they're without a doubt the tastiest store bought strawberries I've ever had. We did a Christmas party in Gunsan and I was toddler Jesus in the play.

Spiritual Thought: 

 Becoming like Christ is obviously a pretty daunting task, but we can take it one step at a time. Think of one Christ-like attribute to focus on, and that will be "the tide that raises all the boats in the harbor." You cannot become more like Christ in one area without improving yourself in the others as well. Someone practicing Charity will be more patient. Someone more patient will gain more wisdom, ect. 1% at a time. 화이팅   Merry Christmas!!

Current Weight: 181.72 

The Short Stick-Dec 14, 2025

They took my son away this week, but at least he's in much better hands now. Elder Knight will be missed. 

Elder Starley and Elder Wright (whom I love) both went home. I will miss them dearly.  We grubbed up on some delicious 샤브샤브 before they left. Tasted better than the dog.

Met with Justin, snagged some delicious 뼈 해장국 and he clutched up for me and got the restaurant to package some of the miracle sauce to take home. God is good. 

Met with Khang, snagged some 뼈 해장국, God is so good.

When we got to church yesterday our bishop gave me a hug. God sees me. I love you 박만배 감독님. All of the members then proceeded to flame my new comp.  Good thing he's new. The concert pianist who chased me down the road in Gunsan 2 months ago randomly showed up at church too. He gave us an impromptu concert after church and it was fire. 

We got a gospel referral yesterday and I said a prayer when we got it asking for a miracle. Every single time I have ever called a gospel referral here they have said, "Huh? What you talkin bout? I didn't do that." ....Oh, you didn't put in your phone number, name, and address in the form that took you to our website from Facebook? Must've been the wind. Maybe that monkey who's typing infinitely until he accidentally writes all of Shakespeare's works did it, how could I know? Anyways, it was a miricle. I asked him if he wanted to learn the gospel and he was like "yep!  I have time this Saturday." Hallelujah baby. 

Spiritual Thought: 

Ether 2:7  "And the Lord would not suffer that they should stop beyond the sea in the wilderness, but he would that they should come forth even unto the land of promise, which was choice above all other lands, which the Lord God had preserved for a righteous people." This verse caught my eye this week. We might be content with where we are, but God knows our potential and wants to push us to reach it. God can see the promised land from where He is. Trust His perspective and don't stop until you reach it, even if you've already reached a sick beachfront property with mango trees. Legend has it, the promised land has watermelons AND mango trees so dont settle for second best.

Love most of you!  

Current Weight: 182.6lbs 

3 Tons-Dec 8, 2025

Got transfer news. I'll be staying here and my temporary 3 day comp from last tranfer in Jeonju will be coming to Iksan to be my next comp.  We made roughly 3 tons of kimchi on Friday for a service project. Smelled good up in there. Woke up with 4 massive cankers (again).

We had an awesome lesson with Justin last week. When Elder Knight and I showed up to the church to prepare for it one of our members was Go-Karting her new car around the parking lot haha. (God-given timing) We asked her to join the lesson and it went great.  It's funny to see someone who is 34 years old practicing driving in a church parking lot. I told her Americans get their licenses at 15 and she was a little shocked. 

Got to do an exchange with Elder Starley (whome I love) and had a blast. We went to an appointment and had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. All we knew was we were supposed to meet with someone at a restaurant. We walked in and a table of 5 people, all roughly 60 years old, called us over. We were confused but went over. They kept saying, "the teacher is coming" and "The teacher will come shortly." And they were honorifying the crap out of this guy. I thought I made my way into a cult again. Then one of the most ancient Koreans I have ever seen in my life walked in and everyone stood for him. He was wearing hippie stuff with a fancy hat, kind of a culture shock here. Turns out, the guy teaches an art class and they were his students. Still don't know why we were there to be honest, but after eating, we went to his classroom and painted with him. He was adorable. His laugh was so wholesome. They were making those super epic scrolls and Elder Starley was praying to cop one of them before we left. Almost to mock him, the old guy glued a pink paper to a green paper, drew "For Starley" on it, put it in a frame and gave it to him. I thought it was cute but Starley was a little sad. 

The eating habits have been utterly atrocious this week. For our companionship study we slammed 4 brownies each with an icecream while watching the Chosen. I'd be getting fat pretty quick if the weather wasn't trying to KILL me. My body's spending dang near every calorie I own in heat. How is this the same country that turned all my white shirts yellow. What I'm trying to say is, Korean weather is buns. The summer is actual torture and winter is too. That leaves you with a sweet spot right in the spring and fall. It calculates out to about 12 perfect weather days a year, it's good stuff. Idaho is technically colder l guess, but a car and a snowmobile makes the bitter taste so sweet.

We were supposed to go to the Piano Guys concert cause we miraculously had a friend who could go, but there we no busses or trains so we just went and got dinner with him. On the way to the resaurant a kid ran up to us and asked if he could interview us because he needed to interview two foreigners for his homework. That was a crazy miracle. Got his number after he interviewed us. 

뼈 해장국 this week: 1(utter failure) 

Spiritual Thought: 

I had a gospel question that didn't make much sense to me. I was trying to find the answer for it but had no luck whatsoever. I remembered James 1:5, that God gives us knowledge liberally and upraideth not, so I prayed that he would help me find the answer to that question somehow. Not even a day later, one of the AP's sent me a talk an hour and a half long specifically about my question, answering it much better than I could have ever expected. The talk isn't available on anything available to missionaries, but his dad had sent it to him over drive so he was able to share it with me. I would have never found that talk on my own. This was a crazy miricle and testament to me that when we pray for help and knowledge, God really does help us find it. When you hear them birds singin in the morning, you know we serve a good God. Miricles are reallllll!l rahhhhhh!

Love y'all 

Current Weight: 183.7