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

Bella, Forgive me!-11/30/2025

We had a good week here in our banishment. We did an exchange with the AP's and, per usual, it was a banger. Every exchange I've ever done has had crazy miracles. Makes me wonder why we even have companions.... we should honestly just be doing exchanges all the time. We hit the streets at the college for literally 8ish hours and found tons of awesome people and have already had some follow up appointments with them. My goal has been to see how many times I can eat 뼈 해장국 for appointments before I leave, we got it twice last week. Hoping to do better this week. 

I sang a song in church this week, which was a strategical plan to get some friends to church. We had four people say they'd come, but only two did. But two did! Iksan record baybeeeee. It was our two Tajik friends that I teach English to, a mom and her son. They're some of my best friends I've made on the mission. It's crazy to me that I have really good friends that can't speak English haha. God is good. We taught them the first lesson after the first hour and then ate a massssive octopus that one of the Brothers in the ward caught. It was actually pretty good. 

Found microwaveable brownies. Rattling my bones with radiation was so worth it!

They are having me make another video. I needed an Asian for it though, so I had to 부탁 the only memeber in our ward younger than 65. 김유희 자매님 is an actual legend. She lowkey carries this ward on her shoulders . And now she has to do all the dumb things I tell her for this video haha. 

The 4th hour member got my number unfortunately. He calls me every morning, says we gotta live worthy and get to the kingdom, tells us we're doing good, and then hangs up.

Now for the confession. Elder Starley (whom I love) will be dying this transfer, so for his dying wish this last Distric Council we went and got 보신탕, which is, being interpreted, dog soup. Yessir I ate dog, had to do it. I already told y'all I would given the opportunity, so I hope there's no suprised and betrayed among you. All I've got left to truly become korean is be a bad driver. I'm so close. 

I was standing at a crosswalk waiting for the light to turn when I felt a tap on my right shoulder. A man had snuck up behind me and was pointing at the restoration pamphlet in my hand. Using only hand motions he said, "can I take dat" and in my own hand motions replied with, "ofc bro." The light turned green and he walked off reading it. That's the first time anyone's ever taken what I wasn't actively trying to give the. We take those dubs.

We went to a convenience store to look for marshmallows. There were none unfortunately, but the lady working there was super nice so I snagged something random and went and bought it for an excuse to talk to her. I gave her a pamphlet and told her she can read it when she gets bored between customers. She thought that was pretty funny and gladly took it. I'm praying she calls the number.

We got invited to a party in Gunsan for Thanksgiving. It was interesting because it was the korean ward, but also the military base was invited, so everything had to be translated haha. We made fire Snickerdoodles (way better than our last batch) and ate a ton of food. I even got a 1/79th of a pumpkin pie!! It was super fun though, and your boy beat 40 people in musical chairs. I'm 3/3 now btw. Lowkey building a reputation for this junk.

We visited a sketchyyy apartment to try to visit an inactive member. Took soo long to get there and it was lowkey haunted. It looked like a prison haha, but we ain't in Detroit so we didn't die. 

Spiritual Thought: 

I lowkey had a problem with Love and Charity last week. Finding can be hard sometimes... I'm usually chillin, but last week after a massive finding block of literally no success whatsoever, I saw two girls our age standing on the street. Now normally, I absolutely hate talking to girls. They're terrifying. But the girls here always giggle and become stupid whenever we talk to them and they're at least nice, and I needed my spirits lifted dangit, so I gave it a go. I tried to talk to them and they looked back, gave an audible scoff, and turned back around. I've gotta admit, my first reaction was something along the lines of, "I done got 40 pounds on you foo" and the spirit immediately departed from thence, But!  I am happy to say that my second thought was about the Savior. If anyone didn't deserve the treatment they got, it was Him. Despite the mockery and torture, He still plead with the Father to forgive the people doing it to Him. He loved them while they were torturing Him. If He can do that I think I can take a scoff every now and then.

Love y'all 

Current Weight: 183.37 

Gambling for the Lord- Nov 23, 2025

 기적 있습니다! I have been praying for a  sofa since last transfer, and by the grace of an all powerful God, there was a 4 piecer in the trash on our way home this last week. (This is why the standards have us work out in the morning). You best believe we hauled that "junk" all the way to our apartment and up the elevator. This part is gonna sound made-up because of the sheer statistical improbability, but while we were crammed in the elevator with two massive couches someone squeeezed in and pressed floor "17" .  I asked her what side and sure enough she lives in the apartment I drilled into.  We actually had a good laugh because I was flustered by the fact that everytime we meet, I'm in the middle of some grand shenanigan. Why can't they see us teaching children English or helping an old lady with something heavy, for crying out loud!

A few weeks ago with the 돌라가신 Elder Baird, I met with a guy named Khan. He was wildddd and was bashing hecka, but I had just finished the Saints and was studied the up.  I nearly had all my dates memorized. Needless to say, his foundation was much sandier and shifter than mine, which was rocky and solid, if you will. Anyways, I told Baird when we left that I probably wouldn't meet with him again because I didn't see it going anywhere. This guy called me a week or two ago and apologized and said he wanted to meet again at the church, where we could make some pasta. You know my gluttonous self, so I took him up on it. The food was gas and we finished up by playing some poker. I've only played poker once and it was on a hunting trip with Jake and Xander where we used different calibers of bullets as our chips, so obviously I'm not exactly in my poker prime. We bet him that if we win he would have to come to church, which he took. Elder Knight was blinded by greed and lost it all in less than 5 rounds, leaving me alone. I lost almost everything too but clutched up and won it with the ol' all in. He was in fact mad, but he actually came to church. Despite my fears of him yelling "cult" and swearing during the meeting, he was actually rather reverent and thoughtful. Hecka miracle for real! He said he'll probably come back next week. Is gambling a legitimate missionary strategy? I think so. People ask me what would've happened if I didn't win. I guess we'll never know.

Our friend 신형수 (Justin) met with us too. We have taught all the lessons now and he's been keeping up on all of his commitments. As a reminder, he wouldn't take the BoM because he can't be seen with it. Right before we met with him this week, I felt prompted to invite him to be baptised, so that's what we did. I invited him and he said no, so I assured him that if he does the work he would be ready on the day that we had set. He still said no, so I asked him what's holding him back. He told us he's an Elder at another church and has gone there for 30 years, That explains a lot. I invited him to church, but his church is at the same time. So then I invited him to get the BoM app and read it. He said yes. And he has been reading it. I can tell he already knows the church is true because he keeps his commitments and continues to meet with us. I feel bad for him because I can only imagine how hard it would be to be the leader of a church and leave all of your friends and position. It's very much the Rich Young Ruler from the Bible. I told him he doesn't need to trust my word 100%, but when he gets a confirmation from the spirit, not to ignore it. He went quiet for a long minute after that. (He already knows). Prayers up for Justin. 

Our President visited us here in Iksan, gave us a banger lesson on FAITH and then fed us my favorite food, 뼈 해장국. I also found out his biggest hobbie is Flight Simulation. I would follow this man into any battle fr.

I contacted a lady on the street this week who was BAT crazy. I gave her my card anyway though. She called us yesterday and told us to meet her at the train station in 10 minutes. We hustled over there just for her to be 30 minutes late. She showed up and started yapppingggg at us outside the train station. Koreans will brag that they don't have homeless or any problems similar.... go try to teach a lesson outside of a train station for an hour and you'll see some strangeeee things. I saw a fight and even a grandpa playing flirt-tag with some grandmas...

I'm not fluent in Korean by any means, but I'm good enough to know that most of what she was saying was completely incomprehensible haha. She would say, "I train with God 32, no 31 years. Yeah. Wait no 21 stairs. Yes. Train. Train. Finish, and he's with me. And americans are his golden children and i cry for them. Yes 23 years he's in me. Now. He's here." And I was just like, "Dang! That's crazy! Anyways Joseph Smi..." And then she'd lock in for like 20 seconds and listen to me before going on the same tangent. As time went on I started to notice a group of people was starting to circle me, and judging by the look in their eyes, they weren't all that there. But I guess the sight of this white boy preaching at this lady was absolutely fascinating because they started circling me. It was getting a little uncomfortable. She was standing up in front of me saying some crazy story and I made eye contact with a Black guy who was walking past. Me and this guy started laughing, wholesome moment for real. This lady thinks I'm going hiking with her next week but I don't know if that's gonna happen. 

Spiritual Thought:

It's so important to follow the spirit. We for sure felt prompted to invite Justin to be baptised, but he still said no. I didn't want to invite him then, but did anyway because I felt that prompting. In hindsight, if we had extended the commitment we originally wanted to do, we wouldn't know how to best help him now. There's reasons for these promptings and they come a lot more frequent than you think. Listen to them!

Have a good week!

Current Weight: 182.71