The Encounter

 September 15, 2025

We had an encounter with Wheelchair man (Won Jong-geun) this week. And I mean encounter in the most literal sense of the word. My comp and I were in the downtown this week and were both looking at his phone for directions, when I heard *squeaky squeaky* over my shoulder. I looked back to see 원종근 wheeling backwards towards us. He's always dressed in a green hospital gown, so I immediately thought he was a creeper. Because his arm is paralized, he moves his wheelchair by going backwards everywhere, so he stopped literally a foot away from us and had no clue we were there. I can't even explain how random this is, we weren't even that close to the hospital. What was bro doing? I quietly tapped on Elder Rusts shoulder to get him to look. It was like the scene in The Prince of Egypt when the priest taps the other priests shoulder because theres a sand tsunami coming, hopefully that put a good image in your head. Anyways, Mr. Won was absolutely flabbergasted when we finally revealed our presence, and it made him very happy. He's adorable.

We got transfer news this week, and I'm getting banished to the countryside. I'll be moving to a city called 익산, and my new companion will be Elder Baird, who is one of my Sister Elise's students. Shoutout to Maeser Academy for making me an honorary student once a year. This transfer news is an answer to some prayers fr. I went on an exchange to some country side last week and loved it. It was so much more enjoyable than Sejong, especially during fall.

We unfortunately had to push Wheelchair man's baptismal date back for a while. We talked with him outside for a while and it was a sad, but also very spiritual meeting with him. When we were saying goodbye, he went, "whoa!" and then zoooomed off to a nearby field and stood on his one leg and peed in the field. This was one of the funniest moments of my mission for a couple reasons, the first being that there just happened to be a field. It's the only block of the city without a building on it, its literally surrounded by tall buildings. And the second being that there was literally a bathroom the exact same distance away, just in the opposite direction. I respect it though. I'd be lying if I told you I never picked nature over an actual bathroom before, ladies don't judge. You wouldn't understand.  Anyways, we used our bodies to block him from the view of passerbys, because that's what friends are for.

Koreans absolutely love meetings and uselessly wasting their time away because that's what they've been doing since the day they were born. Yesterday we had out MCM meeting with the members before church,(which lasted an hour) and then for some unknown reason, they called another one after church, and it lasted an hour and fifteen. I know my dad would've been mad lol. It was such a useless meeting. Shoutout to Riverside 1st ward for doing that meeting in under 15 minutes every week and covering just as much, if not more, info. 

Saw another kid wearing an astronaut shirt. 기회를 잡았다 fr. Space vocab uses: 2 

Spiritual Thought: 

I woke up to a text from my man Xander this week telling me Charlie Kirk had just been shot. Because of the time difference, it had happened right before I woke up. That was a super crappy way to wake up, and a pretty crappy day from there. I've watched a lot of Charlie Kirk and have always thought he was one of the smartest guys God's ever made. The man could debate with no notes as if he had chatGPT in his head, and despite what a lot of people say, he's way better at keeping a level head and keeping contention down than almost anybody else I can think of. 

Jordan B. Peterson said something I thought was interesting. 

"You can turn yourself into an unbelievably dangerous person by brooding on your vengeful fantasies for years... You ever ask yourself how someone gets to the point where they do something terrible? They spend about three years fantasizing about it." 

I was thinking about how this can be applied to any sin in general. All sin starts when we start to let our grip on our conscious slip gears. Becoming virtuous requires rigorous effort and focus on the Savior. 

"Integrity is the light that shines from a disciplined conscience." 

 - President James E. Faust

Making consistently good decisions in public starts by making conscious and intentional effort to change our behavior in our private life, and in our thoughts. As we try our best and ask God to help us we will be given all the help we need to change. 

God Bless America. I'm praying for y'all, keep her safe I want her to be there when I finish up out here.

Weight: 189.0 lbs

Elder Rust, Me, President & Sister Beck