Dunking Babies

 Our friend 안예은, (Artemis is her english name) is on babtisimal date! She's been awesome to teach and she's been very willing to make changes to go towards baptism. We taught her the restoration in Pyeongtaek this week and that's when we asked her if she was willing to be baptised. She seemed super scared and hesitant but said yes anyway. On the way back to Anseong on the bus she told us she was super scared because she didn't want to get dunked like the baby. Apparently she saw a video of a priest holding a baby by the legs and dunking it in the water, flipping it around, and then dunking its legs. lol  We explained that you don't get baptised until you are at least 8 years old and showed her the video of Jesus getting baptised and explained that we baptize by immersion and that nobody is gonna dunk her upside down. I will say though, I'm flattered she thinks I'm strong enough to do that.

We went to mini-america this week because we were near Osan, and it was the weirdest experience because after being in Korea for a month, to turn a street and be amongst every race of manking all of a sudden was super weird. It really felt like america haha. And I was blinded by greed and bought a bag of hot cheetos for an atrocious $10.

While we're on the topic of America, we've got some serious Aura. The thermometers here have Farenheit which makes me laugh, especially since it says made in Korea. Hoorah. 

I didn't mention this last week, but I bought a guitar for my birthday, Happy Birthday to meee yayyy. But when I went to the guitar store I had it in my head that I wasn't gonna spend more than $200, which would get you a guitar without strings and made out of cardboard in the US but here there's actually hope to get a decent guitar for that cheap. But anyways, I immediately started playing all the cheapest guitars to see which one was best and literally every worker at this gutiar store came out from the back to watch me play, but then they kept bringing me the most expensive guitars to try lol. It was very obvious they wanted me to buy the most expensive one but I just played a little on them and went "wow!" and then put it back and resumed playing the cheap ones haha. They were dissapointed when I got one that was pretty cheap but I have to say, it's a pretty nice guitar suprisingly. And the lady gave me a bunch of free stuff and the case was free too. It's been pretty nice to have a guitar again, and since it's been a week my caluses are back, but that was annoying to have to build up caluses again. I'm too trash at Korean to play that much though, I have to grind Korean a lot more than guitar or it would be my downfall haha. P-day is free game though.

Played the Joseph Smith stick game at English class this week, I cooked 

Played musical chairs in Pyeongtaek, won every round. (There were two (()) rounds) 

One of our friends took us to a restaurant and it was some of the best food I've had since I got here, I don't know how to spell it in english but *samgyeopsar* 삼겹살 is probably the best way I can do it haha. It's the same stuff my comp made for my birthday, but this stuff was super expensive and you cook it over coals on the table. It was very tasty. In Korea the oldest person always buys the meal, which is super weird to me and makes me uncomfortable when people have to pay for me, but it's kind of insulting not to let them, so free food I guess. (i'm gonna be a very big boy ) 

I miss my mom  we're out of food and toilet paper. Who let 4 dudes be in charge of themselves? smh

Church was in Pyeongtaek this week, and the members there are super nice. Also, biggest perk of Korean church is that they feed you after church every time. It was nice to be in a big congregation again, I just hope we can get Anseong like that someday. 

Spiritual thought: 

Walking home we had a slightly drunk guy call out to us and we talked with him for a minute on the street, but then he invited us to his house so we followed him there. We went in and he didn't have much. His bedroom was also his living room, kitchen, and front door. We sat on the floor because there were no chairs, I sat against his fridge and my companion sat against the door. We taught him about the plan of salvation and even though I can't tell you how much of it he took to heart, I felt so much love for this guy. I've thought about him every day since and have prayed for him. If there's anything that missionary work has blessed me with, it's more christ like love for everybody, even absolute strangers. I can testify, and I'm sure several people who know me can as well, that loving strangers like that isn't my nature, but as I've studied and prayed I've asked God to bless me with the gift of Charity. I'm not feeling my love for him per say, but I'm definitely feeling God express his love for him though me. It's made missionary work so much more fullfilling because even though we work with tons of people, my capacity to love that many people has been made so much greater. All I'm able to think about is how much our message could bless him, and I pray that he's pondering it still. 

Love you all!! 

Elder Moser 

P.s. Cold noodless? Nasty. 

Still no scale- Rough estimate based off volume displacement in a bathtub = 254 lbs. 

Grandma Toes

 April 21, 2025

Well if there's anything about living in Idaho that has prepared me for the mission, it's definitely the mountains that I've hiked. We went and hiked up the tallest peak in the area and it was some serious light work, but it was really fun and was the first time I've been somewhere with more dirt than concrete in a while. The only thing that was difficult was the heat, so you can imagine how distraught I became when a grandma was coming down the mountain in two ski coats without even a glimmer of sweat on her face. Asians are built different I tell you. She also didn't have shoes on because they like to make life as difficult as possible. "It's good for your health" yeah, you know what else is good for your health? Not smoking three packs a day starting at 9 years old, I think I'll keep my shoes on and enjoy my healthy lunges, amen.  

I had my birthday this week, and it was the first first time in my life that I forgot it was my birthday until it was actually my birthday. I've gotten within one or two days in the past but I literally forgot until I started getting messages day of haha. Maybe I'm just to lost in the work of the Lord, or more likely I'm just lost.

The birthday was good though, it was a good day of missionary work and then my comp made me a dinner of 삼겹살 which was very good. He's pretty good at serving me and the other guys in the apartment, and I don't really enjoy cooking so it was pretty nice. 

Teaching this week was pretty awesome, we were able to get 5 people to chuch, which in my city basically doubles the amount of people there so that was fun. Our friend Artemis was able to get her smoking down to 1 cig last week, I'm super proud of her because I know that had to be super hard, especially since all of her friends are still smoking. We gave her a Japaneese Book of Mormon yesterday because that's her most comfortable language, hopefully she reads it! I've never seen someone put in the work to know if the Book of Mormon was true and not been told yes by the spirit. 

There a guy who owns a Burger truck called "Tony's Burgers," and you're not gonna believe it, but his name is Tony. He makes some absolutely banger burgers and he speaks fluent english because he's from California. I love talking to this guy because he's pretty funny, but he tries to get me to talk about politics every time. I'm very political, and my companion is majoring in political science so it's very difficult not to take the bait. Talking with this guy is a rabbit hole haha. Speaking of bait though, he's taking us fishing this week, which is absolutely fire. I'm trying to become a close friend with him because every time I see him he's eating a mighty fine breakfast of two monsters and a pack of ciggarettes. Death speed run lol. I'm no stranger to a white monster every once and a while but bro is orchestrating a competition between his lunges and heart to see who will last the longest. That is, if outside forces don't win first lol (he's on probation) He's got a parking spot that he pays for and they have poles in the ground with a lock on them to keep other people from using them but when he got home there was a chineese guy peeing on his lock. Basically he told the guy to get out and the chineese guy asked him if he wanted to fight (tony likes fighting). So anyways, probation. I'm not gonna say my opinion on the matter, because I'm a missionary, but I will say it rhymes with *crustified*. I told him it's dumb they put him on probation for that but then he laughed and said that wasn't his first offence for fighting lol. Guess it's hard to convince a judge it's not your fault when you have your own file cabinet at the police station.

Spiritual thought: 

Probably my favorite talk from conference was, "Your Repentance Doesn’t Burden Jesus Christ; It Brightens His Joy" by Sister Tamara W. Runia. 

 

Two of the lines that stood out to me: 

"If you wait until you’re clean enough or perfect enough to go to the Savior, you’ve missed the whole point"

"I testify that while God cares about our mistakes, He cares more about what happens after we make a mistake. Are we going to turn to Him again and again?"

Repentence seems like a bad or scary thing sometimes, but that's our own pride getting in the way. Jesus isn't dissapointed when we repent, he's dissapointed when we don't. In my life when I make a dumb decision I've always thought about it like this - The only thing you can do about a bad decision, is follow it up with good ones. That sounds kinda dumb but seriously, don't cry about spilled milk. As good as it sounds, time machines don't exist, what's happened has happened. So you can keep focusing on the past, or you can keep repenting and keep changing. You'll get there eventually. Repentence is unimaginable powerful, and amazingly mericful. And once you've fully repented, don't doubt that you are clean. Don't dwell on past mistakes that are repented of, it is insulting to the Savior's atonement to think that it hasn't "worked." It's worked, and He's proud. 

Studying the Atonement is in the top 3 best uses of your time; so if you haven't heard this talk, you should go listen to it.  

Love you all! Thanks for the birthday wishes! 

I don't have a scale so I can't keep you guys updated on my weight, but idk prolly like 304 lbs or something 

                                     Elder's Conference-April. I stole the Elder's crutch.

Gay Rapist

 April 13, 2025

My companion and I went to a library this week for our language study and right as we sat down a man came up to us and said, "I've been watching you.".... "Like a gay rapist." Absolutely bonker way to start a conversation but it is what it is. He then said (extremely loudly) (we're next to like seven 9 year olds, mind you) "I watch porn EVERY day." Now you can interpret this interaction all you want but we saw a man who wants help and he fell right in our trap, so you best  believe homeboy got taught the second lesson. He's got a BoM and he's been reading it, so hopefully he keeps reading it and wants to change his life because of it. The whole discussion was like herding a cat in a bathtub though. He kept trying to bring Trump into everything which made absolutely no sense and I kept shutting him down like bro... this has nothing to do with Trump. Then he would just start talking crap on muslims lol... Definitely a wild conversation. 

The best part about Korea (and the most dangerous part) is all these corner stores with cheap stuff. May the Lord bless this card that it may keep swiping. 

I went on an exchange with an Elder Willis and we were in an area that neither one of us is from or has ever been to. He's also only been out like 5 months so neither of us really knew what we were doing but we still had a conversation with a guy and gave him a Book of Mormon, he was a super cool guy too. Hopefully he runs into the missionaries that are actually supposed to be in that area haha. Elder Willis and I went to a retaurant on some dark mysterious street and ordered some food that we could barely read off the menu, much less know what it was. We got a big ol bowl of clams and shrimp, it was actually pretty good thank goodness. 

We went to a ping pong place this week and it was where legends go to die. Me and my comp ran it up with some grannies, and they were insanely good. We played tandems and my comp was on the other team and me and my grannie won, kicked butt really. Seeing grandpas and grandmas playing at a near olympic level was the most terrifying thing i've ever seen. We also have been renting a basketball court and inviting a bunch of teenagers to come play with us, but I'm an american so I'm way better than everyone at basketball and they think I'm Lebron. Needless to say I'm dreading the day that I have to play soccer against them. 

Korean girls are super weird cause they gasp ever time they see us, and then they talk about us and then when we reply to them they get super scared because now they know we know some korean. I've been called handsome a million times so maybe I'll have to move here to Korea someday because I'm incredibly mid in USA lol. 

Love y'all

Answered Prayers

4/7/2025

When I turned my papers in I really only had two requests for God; 1: please don't put me in Salt Lake (or pocatello). and 2: please, at the minimum, don't send me somewhere with less than the American standard for toilets. When I pulled up to the rinky dink church house the first day I was here and saw that it had a bidet...I almost fell on my face in the attitude of praising my God. It's gonna be a tolerable two years after all. 

Futhermore, there's more American pride here than in the average city in America, there are A10's and F18's flying over everyday so I mean yeah, hard not to scream like an eagle every time you see em. You'll have korean people stop you and ask if you are american, then bow and say "thank you for your sacrifice" when you tell them you are. 

There's no trash cans here, which I was warned of, but my gosh it's so annoying. 

My mission president and his lovely wife are wonderful people, they are very wise. I wen't to the mission home for a home cooked meal the second day here and the food was amazing, Sister Park is an amazing cook. Korean food is gas. It's pretty intimidating to go to a house for dinner and they have pictures of them on trips with apostles on the wall. 

My companion is Elder Lockheart from California, don't worry, I bullied him about the name immediately. He's a super awesome guy and he's got Korean down, it's some impressive stuff. I've just been trying to be as humble as possible and trying to learn from everyone I can, even the old ladies on the bus. Actually I have asked several old ladies on the bus to help me with grammar, they are very sweet and tell me I am doing great because they don't even read english. (They only compliment you when you suck lol)

My first impression of the missionaries in this mission is that they are the most locked in and obedient missionaries I have ever seen. Miricles are happening because of it though, and I'm gonna have to lock in so hard to fit in but I'll do it, amen. 

I gave a talk in church in front of an absolutely massive congregation of 15 people and they were all very nice and said my pronunciation was good. (reminder that they only compliment you if you suck)

The housing we have right now is super nice, I was suprised. Good thing too because the first day here our mission president had us stay inside all day because the president got impeached. My shower is normal, which all of my MTC buddies couldn't say the same, so that's fire. 

I was able to teach a few girls about the plan of salvation before an english class yesterday, which was going great until I found out that every single one of the smokes a pack a day (they're 15) sooo some commitements were extended after I explained to them why we shouldn't smoke. Idk why every child here is smoking, I'll just tell them americans think it's cringe and they'll probably stop. 

Invited a teaching friend to go on a hike with us to a Buddihst temple today, it was my first time meeting him but he's the sweetest guy ever and he's thinking about baptism. After our hike we went to a 7/11 and talked about what baptism has changed in our lives. I'm hoping we can meet with him again this week, he's such an awesome guy. 

Speaking of the Buddihst temple, what a wild place haha. The temple is awesome (pictures attached) but there's a public free gym right next to it on the top of the mountain, and you have to hike to get there haha. It deters you from doing legs I'll tell you that, but I still did for some odd reason. 

Had a slight bible bash with some "God's Church" missionaries a few minutes ago, they were trying to tell me I was a prophet, ight cool man. I think I'd know though haha. 

Spiritual Thought: 

Something that's been going through my mind this week is that "the gospel of Jesus Christ is repetetive and iterative." This is true, and thank goodness it is. Jesus has given us infinite chances to redo what we're struggling with, as long as we are truly trying to change. Life's hard, but it's harder when you're stupid, and believe me... I'm stupid. But even when I make the same mistakes over and over I'm confident that Christ's atonement and love is a lot more powerful than I am stupid, and that's saying something. 

Love you all, 

- 모저 장로 

Off to 한국 land

 Almost there. We fly out on Wednesday so it'll be over before we know it, that is... assuming Missionary Travel didn't fumble the bag. They be doing that sometimes. 

Elder Baird in my my district just tested possitive for the flu, massive L. He's currently packing up to go live in quarentine. Not ideal, please pray for him that he might be able to get to Korea when he's supposed to. 

This week has been pretty good, probably the fastest week yet. We've been doing a lot of teaching with the native district and it's actually pretty fun. We've also been doing some more culture and daily life training which is a lot more fun that grammar. It's crazy to think I won't drive a car for two years haha, but I like twains so we're good.

Since Elder Baird has been sick all week Elder Douglas and I have been taking turns skipping class to be with him. It's been pretty nice because I had plenty of time to do personal Korean and Gospel study. 

The weather here got super nice this week and all of us white people burned ourselves crispy because we spent way too much time outside haha. Oopie dadie.

 One of the Japanese Elder's has a guitar! Praise the Lord. Some prayers take 8 weeks to be answered, but they get answered, amen. You best believe I got my greasy fingers on that bad boy last night 

Spiritual Thought: 

I read an Elder L. Tom Perry talk this week while I was with the sick Elder called, "Obedience to the Law is Liberty." I loved this talk because sometimes we think of God's commandments as something that holds us back from what we think is best for ourselves. I can testify that our Heavenly Father already knows perfectly what is best for us, and that he is much smarter than we are. Sometimes we think that the commandments and standards that we live by are holding us back, but they are truly there to allow us to reach our full potential. Abiding God's laws gives us power over our appetites and desires and gives us power from heaven. Not to get to political but it's pretty obviouse that society does much better when we uphold God's laws than when we don't lol. Our examples can change a lot though, so make sure that you're doing your best. 

Love you guys, next email is from Korea!

- 모서 장로 

Like a dog to its vomit, a fool repeats his folly.

Painting of Bella girl from Sage  and cookies from Raquel. I feel loved