The Fourth Hour

August 23, 2025 

Well, I got here to Iksan on Friday. It was a pretty smooth transfer day. I have always had someone with me on previous transfer days, so it was a little weird being alone for a couple hours getting to Iksan. Kinda nice though.

Anyways, literally had the weirdest moment of my entire mission happen yesterday. We went to church and met all (8) members. They're pretty cool, but only one isn't over the age of 60, which is slightly depressing. We have a pretty massive church building here, but everyone apparently moved like 15 years ago, so now it's dang near empty. That has its percs though, I got to bless the sacrament for the first time in Korean, something I've never done cause there were always young men in my wards. I have a feeling I'm gonna be giving a lot of talks in church this transfer. 

One of the old guys in my ward has been dubbed by my comp the "NPC" because he comes to church an hour early, and then walks a very predictable path around the church nonstop until church starts. Well, he came an hour early, and began his programmed path around the church, just as I was told he would, stopping only occasionally to ramble about who knows what at us. After sacrament, a lady in the ward pulled me to a corner and told me "bruddah is click clack crazy, dont listen to a dang word he says." And then my comp told me, "beware the fourth hour," which was mad ominous, and he didn't expound upon that statement. For those of you who don't know... we only got 2 hours at church.... 

We said goodbye to everybody in the church and then walked upstairs to the chapel to clean up the sacrament and then did our daily planning and whatnot for about an hour. We went outside to throw away some trash in the shed and my comp beckoned me forth to look in to the shed. "You see that on the broom?" I looked in and saw a white shirt hanging on it. He had me follow him to the basement of the church building where he instructed me to, "take a look in that back room." Awwww heck  nah. He told me to walk very, very quietly. I got to the window and looked in to see clothes strewn out across the floor. I was mad confused until, in a rather horrifying realization, I noticed the bat crazy old man was butt naked right on the other side of the door. He was sitting like Golum, and was banging a pen on the ground as hard as he could. It looked demonic man. I escaped the dungeon safely, but strangeee things are happening in Iksan. 

Apparently he's been doing that for a while, and my comp, who's been here 6 months, has never thought it was a concern that should be relayed to the bishop.  I don't know how familiar y'all are with the General Handbook,  but bro firstly shouldn't even be able to get into the church, and secondly, shouldn't be playing demon in the basement. The members have no clue he does this. 

Sejong rewind: 

My last week there was pretty great. Our last english class went really well and everyone was very kind and gave me presents. I'll miss that class, it was very fun. The adorable grandma that comes gave me a coffee gift card. The ward sang me and Sister Lee some hymns to say goodbye, and then we went and at 감자탕 . it was the best 감자탕 I've had yet. My last meetings with some of our friend were indeed slightly depressing. There's a lot of great people in Sejong, hopefully Elder Rust clutches up fr. Saying bye to my friend Kang was lame cause he's genuinely one of the coolest guys I've ever met in my life, but I'll be back to learn how to kite surf from him someday. 

Final wheelchair man update: 

Wheelchair man doesn't let you help him harldy ever because he wants to prove his independence, which I respect, but sometimes it get a little wild haha. We were at a Cafe and he said he was gonna go to the bathroom, but told me to sit down when I stood up to go open the bathroom door for him. He goes backwards everywhere, and the hallway is too narrow to spin around, so he wedged himself in the hallway trying to open the door, so I went to the rescue. When I was sqeazing past him he said, "s.o.s!" and it was only of the funniest and most wholesome things I've ever heard. He doesn't know hardly any english but he'll just say random stuff like that that's perfectly timed. 

He was in a very good mood and we talked a lot about Jesus and had the spirit with us, it was a great time. We went to the roof of the hospital and gave him a blessing too, which was a pretty awesome opportunity. He ripped a page out of a notebook and wrote me a kind note, and then I did the same for him. When we said goodbye, I said, "I love you!" And after a little loading he went, "Me too!" I'm gonna miss that guy.

Back to Iksan, this place is weird. It remind me of the game Inside, kinda the gulag here. I love it though, the street finding is so much better than Sejong, and I don't know what it is about the country air, but it makes the grandmas feins for white boys. I got called pretty more the first night here than my entire time in sejong combined. My korean is feeling pretty good, I've had a lot of fun here already just talking to people, and I've literally gotten 3 contacts by people asking for mine on the street. They're coming to me??? What is going on. My comps pretty awesome too, it's weird having someone in the mish telling me stories about my sister though haha. We're making a lightasber battle for the english page because we have a computer with nice editing software. Gonna be a banger. 

Ate a whole fish, guts and all. 

Spiritual thought: 

So far Iksan has been very fun, and it's because my desire to serve and talk with people has recently really been grown by the Lord. I've been praying for that pretty hard, and I've been seeing a lot of blessings from it. One of the biggest growths is my desire to share about the Savior. I've been trying to bear my testimony more often and it's been really fulfilling. Point is, prayer works and focusing on the Savior will make your life brighten up real quick. 

Love you all! 

Current weight: 186.89