Popped Bubble 3/22/25

This week was pretty good but I don't have much to write about. A new native district flew in so we've been practicing teaching them, they are very, very patient and kind haha. On top of that, a couple new Korean learning districts flew in too, and we went in to their classes and introduced ourselves in Korean. I've been here so long that I literally forgot that there was a korean learning class that was here when we got here too haha... I had to see a picture of one of the elders to remember they existed. It feels sooo long ago. The MTC is weird cause the days forward go super fast but looking back it feels like a very long time ago. 

I sat next to a senior missionary at lunch this week and it turned out he served in my mission back in the day. He told me "I don't want to burst you bubble if you even have one, but your chances of fluency are buns."   Thanks random man.   He said that he and his companions never got very good at Korean, but that seems to be the trend with foreign missions back in that day. All of the old people have told me that but the young people have said most missionaries got close to fluent. We have a lot more stuff to help us learn these days, and Jesus is gonna carry us.  He didn't actually say buns, btw

Going into the new korean class gave me a confidence boost that I needed, cause when we finished talking about ourselves they were supposed to give a simple introduction back in korean as well, and they were having a very hard time haha. (It was written down for them too, reading is hard) Made me realize how far I've come, reading regular Korean is almossttt getting easy, but sciptures are still super hard cause it's Korean from the dawn of time. Same case with English I guess but I've been reading English scriptures since a wee lad. 

I've been occasionally stealing Sister Pedro's wheelchair, and let me tell you... if I had a fraction of the talent I do on a wheelchair as I do in korean, I'd be in the native class. Getting kinda goated at wheeling this thang while spinning in circles, let's hope I don't fumble the bag and go backwards down any stairs. 

Spiritual thought: 

President Owen joined my branch for Elders quorum on sunday and he quizzed us on who the best leader to ever live on the Earth was, which we correctly said "Jesus." He then quizzed us on who the best follower to ever live on the Earth was, and we got it right again with, "Jesus." He's got a conference talk called, "The Best Leaders are the Best Followers" and I'd recommend you go listen to it, it's very good. I just really liked that, that in order for us to be the best leaders we can be, all we have to do is follow God as perfectly as we can. If we are constantly listening to the spirit and letting God direct us we will never be lead, or lead others, down any wrong paths. 

VISA is in. I am ready for Korean food. 10 more days baby. 

Current weight: 193 Lbs. 

Notice the speed blur.

    Mongolian homie got deployed 

                                                                  Elder Cade Coombs

Bubbles and Keyboards! 3/15/25

This week went by super fast, which in most ways is great, but also all of us still suck at Korean so we're terrified lol. I know that everyone is pretty bad at their language when they leave the MTC but last night we were walking past the Portugese district and they, all of them, were talking conversationally and telling jokes. So that's pretty annoying haha. None of the Korean districts can do that, unless you count the native ones. We've seen a lot of success in the language though, definetly doing a lot more than we could on our own.

The MTC is the weirdest place in the world, there's more languages being spoken here than in an airport, and I don't even think that's an exaggeration. The amount of people I've met learning a language I've never heard of is staggering. Do they even have phones with an operating system in these languages? Idk. Maybe.

Sister Whitesides got a package with almost 40 tubes of bubbles, so my mental health is absolutely fine in case anyone was worried. Also, Momma sent me an early birthday present because shipping to Korea is quite the hassle. She blessed me up with a bluetooth keyboard. Hallelujah, writting this email is going by so much faster. All me and my homies hate the samsung keyboard.

Spiritual Thought: 

I finished the book of Alma this week in my personal study, and for those of you who haven't read the BoM we call those the war chapters because it's a whole lot of war. Kinda depressing, kind of epic at times, but very informative. We know that the Book of Mormon comes from a lot of different records that were compiled by Momon into one book, which always makes me wonder why God thought it was so important that we had all these chapter about war and contention when they're seemingly not as gospel oriented as the rest of the book. I don't know all the reasons but part of it is definetly because of captain Moroni's example. There's a quote that was on my rugby teams merch one year that said, "the only necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing." If ever there was an example of this is can be found in those chapters. Wickedness and evil showed up, and captian Moroni always stood up against it and fought, unfortunately sometimes literally, to preserve peace and God's laws. As long as the people loved God and repented of their sins, they were delievered from their enemies and prospered. These events happened thousands of years ago, but God had the Book of Mormon brought forth for our generation so we know how to navigate the world. 

Love you all, 

모서 장로

"I Love You"

Stay Strapped 3/8/25

 I feel like I've given a million blessings already since I got here. I didn't think I would be doing that many so I didn't have any oil on quick draw, but now I do. I'll be strapped from now on. A sister in my district was playing volleyball this week and was spiking the ball when some kid ran under the net and took her out. I was running on the track above the gym when it happened and some sisters came to grab me to give her a blessing. My companion and I gave her the blessing in the gym clinic and I felt prompted to tell her that her mission wasn't over. There was some serious bruising running down her leg so I knew that technically there's a good chance they'd just release her, but I said it anyway. After a visit with the doctor we found out she had a full tear of her ACL and a condyle fracture of her femur. Long story short, after a lot of meetings with the MTC presidency, she's going to finish MTC and then go home for surgery, and then go out to Korea once she's healed. She's had a great attitude about the whole thing, definitely a great example to everyone. She's very happy that her mission will continue. 

Other than that, this week has been pretty uneventful. I would kill for a guitar, I think I've bribed every single teacher on the 4th floor. There's an instrument library here and they've got the most rinky dink collection I've ever seen. Want a harp? Got u. Recorder? Sounds good. Guitar? No, that instrument isn't mainstream enough unfortunately. Hopefully I remember all my songs when I get to play again, or that's gonna be some bullcrap. 

The language is coming pretty good, some days I feel like I'm in the wrong class, and then there's some days I understand what's being said more than I don't. The good days are extremely satisfying, being able to understand what people are saying feels really good. Hopefully I have a lot more of those good days before I get shipped off, or I'm cooked. 

Funny Story: This story isn't mine haha but I thought it would be worth sharing. 

In the residence halls there's red call boxes in the hallways, we're told we can use those in case of emergency. One of the sisters in my district woke up and started puking the other night, around 3 am, and almost immediately some security guards showed up and asked her if she's the girl who's been puking. She was kinda confused but told them yes and so they had her and her companion put some shoes on and come outside where they had a big red van waiting for them. They promptly drove them a staggering 23 ft. to the main building where an on call doctor was waiting to see her. He asked her about her symptoms and she said she only had a headache so he gave her Excedrin and sent them back to their residence. When they got back they started walking up the stairs and found a girl wrapped in a blanket who looked like she was about to die sitting on the stairs. She asked them if they heard what the intercom said and the girls in my district said that it was something about a "girl puking." The stair girl then told them that she had been puking, and had used the red call box but "nobody came.".... 

awkward lol. Right as they finished that convo the same security guards came hauling back in and took her away. Moral of the story, if people show up to help you for seemingly no reason it's probably not for you haha. The chances of that are so low, poor girl.

Spiritual thought: 

I was reading the talk "The Plan of Happiness" by Boyd K. Packer this week, which I believe was his last conference address before he passed away. It's interesting to me what he wanted his last apostolic message to the world to be. In the talk he explained that our physical bodies can be damaged and that there are frequently scars left over from injuries, but that with our "spiritual bodies it is another matter." 

"Our spirits are damaged when we make mistakes and commit sins. But unlike the case of our mortal bodies, when the repentance process is complete, no scars remain because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The promise is: "Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more." (D&C 58:42) 

It's awesome that his last testimony was that Jesus Christ performed a perfect atonement, and that those of use who choose to use it properly and completely will be able to stand before God with a perfect confidence. Sometimes it feels like the atonement hasn't worked because we think we still feel the "scars" of our sins, but the promise is that God, not us, won't remember our sins when we repent. We will remember them for our own good and experience, to help us to avoid it in the future, but when we have fully repented our guilt will be washed away. 

                                                        Peak human innovation (ran out of penut butter) 

Ping Pong Wizard? 3/1/25

 Honestly, what's the hype with Asians and Ping Pong? I've been annihilating over here. I've played with some Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans and they can't defeat my power. Jake where you at?

We've been grinding basketball here. I airballed hard right in front of Sister Larsen (the Blackfoot one). Of all the people to do that in front of smh. I lost sleep from that. Tragic. 

The language classes are getting hardddd. Random fun fact for you, it takes 17 syllables to say "I know God lives." Don't bother trying to Google translate that, Google translate can't speak Korean either, trust me. This week we played a game called "Kimshi." Basically the students choose one person to be "Kimshi" and that person isn't allowed to speak english at all. If the teachers figure out who they are they win. To make it harder for the teachers to find out who they are, all of us have to speak Korean as much as possible. In other words, I really miss English. I've been making rinky dink sentences in Korean 6 hours a day every day this week. It's what we need to get good though, so I'm for it. 

The weather has been immaculate here. A little bit of sunshine is all I needed, I might be Superman, or just very vitamin D deficient. It's the little things in life you know. Speaking of which, the Cambodian district in my dorm left this week, and I copped a nerf basketball hoop in trade for a tie. Absolutely banger trade. I had some Scottish Elder come yell at me to stop dunking last night, bro couldn't handle the grind.

We had an absolutely crazy General Authority devotional on Tuesday. Elder Jorg Klebingat, German obviously, spent an hour talking about the premortal life, which has never been done in my experience. He did all that to explain what the "gathering of Israel" meant, and he wasn't afraid to talk about things that are pretty speculative but he did it with a lot of power. It was pretty cool. 

Spiritual thought Hoorah: 

Listening to that devotional made me appreciate the fact that everyone that we see here on earth chose to be here because they wanted to follow the Savior. God sees a lot of worth in all of us that have come here and he wan't us to choose to follow him still. He wants to be our God. 

Current weight: 204.2 Lbs. 

Thank you for the prayers! They're working. 

Translation - I like Sister Bae, but Brother Lee is my most favorite. (Very selfish teacher)

미국 

Tragedy! 2/22/25

In case anyone is curious how good an MTC haircut is, they're attrocious. Not ordained of the Lord, that's for sure. Me and my comp were walking to our class talking about how bad we were gonna get cooked and it was much worse than we could have ever imagined. When the girls saw us they covered their mouths and gasped like we were burn victims. Our instructor said, I'm translating from Korean, "Everyone, everyone look! Hair not good." Which looking back on, it is super funny cause it sounds way better in Korean.

Korean is still a nightmare, every time we think we understand something the teachers drop the bomb that there's 20 more rules for that specific thing. It seems like everything in this language has it's own marker to tell you what you're talking about, for example instead of saying "Whoa look and airplane!" it would be more like "Whoa airplane-large-machine look!" Idk about the Koreans but when I hear airplane I just assume it's a large machine lol. Still confused why they waited until immersion to explain this stuff to us. It's like interpreting a birds mating dance to figure out Einsteins field equations. I miss Google so much, I didn't realize how much I used it in a day but I realize how curious I am now that I can't look stuff up. It's driving me crazy, I feel like I would be way better at Korean right know if I could just have google to solve my questions as I'm studying. It's fine, I like the challenge. 

Some days the teacher will talk to me and I have no clue what they are saying, which is super frustrating cause I usually know the words they're saying but the second they speak to me, I forget it. Not a performer under pressure I guess. With the Lord I will get it, amen.

My companion and I were sick for an unfortunately large portion of the week, still are a little, but it feels good to be better. Immersion + fever is a recipie for the most attrocious headache immaginable. 

My district is super fire, I get along with them all really well. Thank goodness too cause we still have a very long way to go haha. 

Blackfoot is very represented here, Elder Coombs, Sister Larsen, Sisters Weiland (there are two), and Sister Peterson. I've even recognized some that I don't know the names of. It's cool seeing people from home, and equally cool to see so many Elders and Sisters from places like Japan, Tonga, and Sweden. The amount of people from outside of the USA is crazy, almost half I'd say. Truly a global church. So cool to think that people of so many backgrounds are all united under a love for Christ and a desire to bless God's children. 

Spiritual thought time baybeeeee: 

The President of the MTC, President Owen, gave a talk in a devotional last Tuesday. He's probably in the mid 60's but told us a story about how he remembers helping his dad with the horses when he was only 8. When he looked around and saw his family and the mountains surrounding his house he felt the spirit super strong testify to him the everything was created by God, and that he has a loving Heavenly Father who wants him to return home. This made my think back to one of my earliest memories when I was too young to go to school so my mom would stay home to keep me from burning the house down, (or escaping) while the rest of my sibling were at school, and my dad was at work. She would take me to *Golds* Gym where I would play with Evan Armstrong while our moms got ripped, and then we would go home, sing primary songs, and then take a nap on the couch. 9Side note, the day she said I was too big to cuddle for naps really sucked.) I remember one day very vividly, we sang "My Heavenly Father Loves me" and then took a nap on the couch. I remember singing that song with her and feeling a very strong confirmation from the spirit that Heavenly Father does in fact love me, and that he gave me a very wonderful momma (and family). It feels like the scene from Percy Jackson where Poisidon claims him, except this God is real, and he can do a lot more than just control the ocean. 

Pretty cool that God cares about us infinitely even when we're seemingly insignificant 4 year olds, he loves all of his children. Even if they make crappy K-Pop music. 

My Companion, Elder Park

Elder Coomes!

Dad set me up with a stash of jerky!

The situation room, Washington DC.

First P-Day at the MTC 2/8/25

 Well I'm finally here. I had an awesome lunch in Provo with my family before I got dropped off, the drop off went well and I didn't cry so my Dad owes me $20. I won't forget either.

The first dinner here was absolutely terrible and my entire district was immediately ready to leave this place, but every meal since had been gas so we're chillin  There's a place in the lunch room called "alloha plate" and it's literally just all you can eat Mo-bettahs. Boy did my dad miss out in the MTC, he would've gone crazyyy for the food. 

The MTC is a scheduling nightmare, they send me my schedules like I have Hermione's time turner or something.  There's literally not enough time for me to fit in everything I'm supposed to do in a day so I just try my best. That's all that really matters anyway so we're good. I got assigned to be the DL which mostly means I won't get as much sleep as the other missionaries, but also gives me some really good opportunities to serve so it'll be good for me. 

My companions name is Elder Park, and he's the only Korean here who doesn't know Korean, so he's worried they'll bully him, I told him not to worry though cause I'm the only one that's going to bully him. He's an awesome dude though with a great testimony so we're gonna get a lot of work done together. 

The language is getting better day by day, the gift of tounges is real let me tell you. 

There's a lot more I wanted to talk about,  mostly about some of the super good devotionals we had, but this phone is so impressively buns that I'm seconds away from slamming it into a wall, so I'm gonna end this email here.

The Day of Delivery to the MTC 2/5/25

  We met everyone at Black Bear Diner at 11:30 am. We had a lovely meal together (as did several other missionaries with their families, coincidentaly) and took some final pictures outside on this very windy day to remember the moment by. Because the drop off at the MTC is limited in time and space, only those in our car went to the actual MTC drop off. Final hugs and lots of tears later, we delivered Elder Moser into the caring hands of an unknown Elder in a parking garage at 1:30 pm.... and then quietly headed back to Idaho.

On the Sunday eve before, Elder Moser paid a visit to Uncle Dudley (his snowmobiling teacher) and Aunt Lori.

Bye-bye Bella Girl.

HOME MTC 1/27/25

 Like Amanda, Jess chose to do his 10 days of his on-line Home MTC training in the family room off the kitchen. His dog was always close by. So were all of his fidget toys! He was usually on mute with the on-line training. When he had a little break, he played his guitar, dreading being without it for 2 years and putting as much mileage on it as he could afford.

Jesse Becomes a Missionary! 1/26/25

 

Jess gave his farewell address on 1/26/25 in the Riverside 1st Ward. Lots of family and friends gathered in support. Jesse's best friend, Jake Vaughn, had also been asked to give a talk. Whereas Jake is not a member at this time, it was a wondereful surprise. Whatever it takes to finally get Jake to come to church with us! Jess had invited him for years. It was sweet seeing the two of them sitting up on the stand together. They had a spider incident which explains now all the smiles we saw, but the smiles when the two of them are together is nothing new. Jesse gave a wonderful and mature talk. Many people remarked that it was more like the type of talk they would hear a returning missionary give rather than one just going out. 

We had a pulled pork luncheon at home with lots of friends and family present, but not quite the crowds we used to have with Jess being one of the younger cousins on both sides of the family.

That evening a little before 6 pm, we all loaded our Swagger Wagon van and headed to the stake center with Amanda and Dawson driving. We met with our Stake President, Joe Despain, who had also been Jesse's bishop recently, for his setting apart. It was again a lovely experience where he was promised the gift of tongues as far as he put the work in. 

It was wonderfull to have our family ALL together.