From the Dust 8/10/26

My dad sent me a screenshot of the weather forecast here in Korea and the "feels like" was up at 120°. If anyone wants to sponsor my mountain blast powerade consumption, my email is jesse.moser@missionary.org.

We had a great zone pday today. Until a sister spiked a volleyball on me, that is. I have to switch missions after that. I cooked up in some ping pong and basketball after for some redemption. My social credit score is still negative though.

Nonsan is a completely different area from the one I first came to. Our English class and ping pong night are averaging 5 friends and 2 members coming to each. Before it was just 박영진 who would come. 

President interviews went well and he dropped some much needed wisdom. Also, found out that Elder Bednar is coming to Seoul so the whole mission is going to go to Gangnam (yes, that Gagnam) to do a devotional with him. That should be great. 

Elder Galligao yelled out to a guy our age walking down the street with a basketball. We crossed the street and I asked him if we could play basketball later, got his contact, and then tried to say bye but then he was like, "what? you don't have time right now?" Well... we lowkey didn't have that much time but we still went with him and balled up in our church shoes baby. 

A member sent us the tastiest kimchi I have ever had and I have been CHEFFING it up out here. 

I went on an exchange with Elder Curtis in my district and we went finding. I met a guy who makes solar panels who tried to apply for spacex. We yapped about SpaceX for about 30 minutes and my knowledge snagged us that contact.

Spiritual Thought:

When we go to church or to any other event for the purpose of worship, it is important to remember that it is not the speakers job to worship for us. Especially sacrament meeting. Sure, a good talk is helpful, but it is up to us to seek the spirit and worship God. This church is the only place where the ordinances of salvation are administered. The absence of good talks, cool buildings, or members we get along with should not diminish that. 

                                                                           Jesse Moser 

                                                    - Former Deacons Quorum President - 

Erm 혹시 8/2/2026

 Not gonna lie we haven't really had any success here in Nonsan really at all. We've been walking 3+ hours a day in 105° heat with 85% humidity with little to no success whatesoever. At district council I was talking to my dawg Elder Coder and made a joke about how seemingly every time I have been about to quit missionary work because there's "no use," that that's precisely when God sends someone on the street who says, "Hey, can you guys summarize your beliefs to me in 2 minutes?"  To which Elder Coder agreed saying he's had a ton of those experiences as well. My comp and I took the hour bus ride back to our area from DC and about two minutes after we got off the bus a man came up to us and said, "Hey, can you guys summarize your beliefs to me in 2 minutes?"  A verbatim quote of what I had just said to Elder Coder an hour earlier. I had to try not to laugh as I taught him the first lesson right then and there. Since then, we've met with him twice and he is reading the Book of Mormon and taking the lessons. That same day we also got a member referral and a different gospel referral. Absolutely miracle packed day and gave us the boost we desperately needed.

We went with some members yesterday to take the sacrament to an old member who can't make it to church anymore. They brought a guitar out and asked me to play some hymns and we all sang some songs together. It was pretty fun and the spirit could be felt. 

We stopped at a restaurant to eat and the woman working in the kitchen ran out to give us both sodas saying, "You guys work so hard!" Before running back into the kitchen. I felt a lot of love from that lady and even though she's not a member and probably doesn't want to hear our message, she still showed us so much love. It was very appreciate. We were dying. Sometimes when we try to talk to someone on the street, they'll yell at us, "I already believe in Jesus!!" Which if true, has always confused me why they're mad at us. If you really believe in Him, wouldn't you be chill with people trying to do His commandment to "teach and baptise all nations"??? 

Spiritual Thought:  My brother and his wife had a new baby a few days ago and, not to brag, they named him after me  (They actually named him after the guy I'm named after, but please just go along with it for my sake.) Anyways, he's adorable, and the first photo I saw of him made me have kind of a moment fr. I thought, "dang he's like 100% pure and untainted, ain't even seen one Instagram reel yet." I'm just kinda yapping rn and don't know where I'm going with this but... I guess just remember that we are to become like little children. Not pooping our pants little children, but humble, submissive, and pure. Make sure that anything you're putting into your brain is for your benefit, and remember that repentance makes us clean without even leaving a scar.  Love you all!

Current Weight (I just ate a masssssive kebab btw): 188.9

Suiiii ⚽️ 7/26/2026

 My face got sunburned like a tomato in a 15 minute walk to the church the other day. We can't even hold our Book of Mormons some days because we sweat so bad it destroys them haha. 

I did an exchange in my old area Sejong and got to teach their friend. He's definitely gonna be baptized, bro had some awesome questions. Unfortunately, we also played soccer with him and the member who was there was crashingggg out on him, as well as anybody else who wasn't playing at Olympic level. Not that he was either. He's just impressively narcissistic haha. It was good to see some of those members again though.

We went finding, which if you remember, Sejong is famously bad for finding. Nobody was giving a singular crap until one man I stopped as he was walking by let me introduce our beliefs and the Book of Mormon... until he revealed that he was actually a member from Seoul haha. Soo glad I didn't let him walk past me cause members gotta see the missionaries are actually trying. 

Crashed out on a cicada the other day and knocked him dead out of the top of a tree with a rock first try. Why didn't I do baseball in high school? That was such a dime.

Spiritual Thought: Just like that me with that cicada, we have all sorts of noises around us that are trying to drive us insane or distract us. God's guiding, comforting voice is there too. It is God's hope that we will identify which voice is His and listen to it, as well as identify which voices are damaging us spiritually so that we can chuck a rock at them.

Current Weight: 186.6 

Bus 7/19/2026

We had DLTM last week in Suji, which because I'm in Nonsan and traveling from here suckkks I was out of my area for almost 36 hours for one meeting so that kinda sucked. However, my dawg Elder Wolfert got re-drafted as tech Elder so we got to eat lunch with him. I was not expecting to see him again before he went home so that was a blessing for real. He's on an english fast though so the whole meal we only spoke in korean but it was suprisingly just a fun as english, lowkey the only Elder who makes SYL fun. 

We got to our apartment from DLTM at about 9:30pm and when I set my pros bag down on the couch realized that I had left my backpack full of all of my important jawn on the bus in the overhead thangymobob. After a very fervent prayer and a long sprint back to the bus terminal we miraculously found the driver before he went home and he unlocked the bus so I could get my stuff. Some clutch gameplay, shoutout to the 전능하신 하나님 for the assist. 

The lady we taught at the library with a ton of interest called us and said she doesn't want to learn anymore.

Spiritual Thought:  I absolutely flew though the last 20 chapters of Alma this week and it's because Captain Moroni is my absolute dawg. Absolutely love that guy. Moral of the story, one person, when working with God, can change the lives of countless people, sometimes a whole country. Everybody has this ability and I hope all of you are doing your part to bring a little bit of beauty into the universe. Also, I hope you don't have to do it in the same way as Moroni.

Current Weight: 186.5

Get Me Out of Here! 7/13/2026

 Quick shoutout to all of my MTC sisters (and Elder Kofoed and Kayden Parsons my absolute dawgs) who finished their missions last week! 수고하셨습니다 and I hope you all made it home safely.

Y'all timed going home extremelyyy well. Korea was absolutely pummeled by rain for the first part of the week and then the last few days have felt like an absolute furnace. Everybody has been seeking shelter from the heat inside and there's almost nobody out anymore. If you try to talk to anybody they just tell you they ain't stopping till they get inside, so... finding has been a bit hard this week.

Elder Auguste got transferred and it turns out that he actually has MORE luggage than he did in Iksan. Most missionaries sacrifice a portion of their previous lives while on their mission, but he made sure to pack just about everything, piano included. On transfer day, I dragged one of his 100 pound suitcases (which had broken wheels) and a box full of stuff. Between the distance we had to travel and the zipper of his piano case exploding open, throwing all of the random trinkets and fruits he had shoved in it onto the street (this happened twice), our journey to the train station took over an hour. We were sweating like dogs. The symbolism was beautiful though, it was like our own Via Dolorosa, walking through the people and everything. Good to know I still got that endure to the end DAWG in me though, that was a nonstop grind! I just hope that President makes him transfer by himself someday because I told him he's gotta get rid of at least two suitcases when we lived in iksan but bro didn't listen. He's gonna be absolutely cooked if he ever goes by himself. He keeps lucking out somehow. RIP to all of his future comps on transfer day lol. 

My new comp is Elder Galligao and he's from the Philippines. He's pretty awesome and we've done a lot of laughing already. Pretty good at Korean too, so we've been able to use a lot more korean in the house. Poor guy came from Namwon (banishment) straight to Nonsan (banishment). Have MERCY on my boy.

I told him that finding is pretty hard in Nonsan, but that we'll still see miracles. So we went outside and the first person I talked with took a Book of Mormon. Then we went and talked to some students and while we were talking somebody in a car drove passed and yelled, "느냥 가!" at the students, which means "just go!" Lowkey was hard not to crash out at that guy, especially when he got stopped in a traffic jam down the road and I had to fight deamonnnns not to jump through his window lol. Jesus told me to love everybody  Elder Galligao asked me, with fear in his voice, "does that happen often?" 

We got two new friends to ping pong night and one new friend to English class. We also did a lesson with one of them, but he's from Russia so sometimes the language barrier was kind of difficult to get through. Awesome guy though. I did NOT expect to have so many interactions with foreigners in Korea but it's unironically like 40% of what we do haha. I wish I had started studying Russian in the MTC. 

Spiritual Thought:  "If the church weren't true, the missionary program would have destroyed it a long time ago." 

Not gonna lie, my testimony of this quote is almost as strong as any other testimony I have. We are so insufficient for what we're doing out here and so many dumb decisions are made, but the work keeps going and God enables the weak.  

Love you all! Have a good week. 

US-KR-US-KR-US-KR 7/4/2026

 I did an exchange with my boy Elder Ko this week. I'm on an absolute generational run of bad luck in the 4-man + serving with a Korean department, so that was pretty fun to serve with a Korean for a whole 18-ish hours. If you've ever had a native comp, count your many blessings—I learned so much in one day. 

We set some pretty high goals and were able to hit all of them. We did a lot of teaching on the street and set up return appointments with 2 people. We were doing our daily planning and I paused to talk to a guy walking past us and now he's a teaching friend haha. Green dot before we even finished daily planning.

The spiders are back. They're everywhere and seem much more bound to ambush humans this year than last. In the church while teaching an English class over Zoom, a spider dropped right next to my comp's face and he about died. Not 20 minutes later while sitting in the clerk's office it happened again. A different spider dropped even closer to his head this time and my comp used his phone, which we were using to call a teaching friend at that very moment, to bat the little demon directly at me. As Elder Kearon said in his most recent talk, those offices are small. I was pinned against the wall and the demon's web was somehow attached to my chest, and he was flying down that line straight for me. Clutched up and he got curb-stomped though, so we're good.

We met some Canadians in the bus terminal, and I'm not sure if I've become a Korean or if they truly were just crazy loud, but I was lowkey getting embarrassed with how loud they were talking with us. Both of them were chomping on about 5 sticks of gum apiece too, and to top it all off, one guy was talking about how the Jews are all taking over the planet and that "the painter" (Hitler) was right. He was an absolute yapper—he almost made us miss our bus despite me telling him 10 times we had to leave.

Absolutely tragic that I'm not in the U.S. for the 250th, but hopefully I can fight off the Moser cancer-gene long enough to make it to the big 300th. Truly the most goated country in the world—go look at a list of the 100 most influential inventions and take note of where 95% of them were made (we also have a flag on the moon and a helicopter on Mars) What a privilege it was to grow up there, in the best state of the union nonetheless.

Ether 2:12

"Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ, who hath been manifested by the things which we have written."

The greatness of America comes from God, make no mistake about it. And if anyone tries to tell you that the Constitution and laws of the land aren't inspired or Christian in nature, yeah, go ahead and ignore that joint.  Anyways, make sure not to rebel against God because there are a lot of verses in the BoM that explain what would happen there too.

Happy 4th! 

Brain Rot 6/28/26

Not gonna lie, my biggest complaint about koreans is that they are cooooooked out of their brains. You thought your 7 year old cousin was bad??? Nah! In church yesterday I joined the youth class to try to get them a little more engaged in the discussions. The branch pres asked a question, which I was the first to answer, and then he went down the line of the youth and had to either wake them up or tap their shoulders to get them to look up from their phone, and had to repeat the question for every single one of them. Later, he was having two of the youth take turns reading, and the second they finished reading it mumbling as fast as they could, they would immediately start scrolling again. He had to ask them to lock in on a 5 second basis for the entire hour, it was so exhausting just watching it. People don't even look up from their phones to cross the street here.

I'm 10-0 in ping pong for the last 2 weeks. five of those are my companion, who unfortunately for him, was playing sting pong with me. He's got some welts haha. 

I was complaining about how rare it is that we get to teach an actual lesson to my comp while we were walking to the library the other day, and not 10 minutes into my language study a random woman tapped on my shoulder and asked if we had time to go outside and introduce our beliefs to her. Talk about an assist from God holy. 

Every transfer we do a teaching role play with our mission mom. This transfer, we were supposed to do the restoration with her, so when this lady asked us if we could "share a quick introduction of our church, how the church was formed, and what your basic beliefs are,"  I was thinking, "let's go! We are so practiced up right now." I thought my comp and I were about to take this perfect opportunity to give the most baller, perfectly structured 1st Lesson ever seen. Thinking we were on the same page, I looked over at my comp and gave him a "take it away " nod, and bro immediately started with "in 1820..." Which is basically the very end of the role play that we had practiced, so the whole concise and smooth thing immediately went out the window.

I got a shoutout in church from one of the members. She started quoting me in her talk from a video I had filmed for the mission Facebook a longgg time ago. I was confused cause I didn't know it was posted, but she told me after that the add had popped up randomly on YouTube haha. 

I went on an exchange with my boy Elder Curtis and unfortunately every single person in Nonsan was super grumpy that night so it was kind of a lame exchange. Not a single person even let us finish saying hi before yelling at us lol. Finding in Korea. This guy was struggling to move a massive couch so we asked him if we could move it for him and he hit us with a "하지 마라  가  가!!" which is about the equivalent of "Oh piss off" in an English accent. Dunno who pooped his party.

And then to top it all off, one of the guys who blocked us after he asked for MY number... after approaching ME a few weeks ago was at the library.... I didn't see him until he was right in front of me, but all I did was say hi, give him a handshake, and then say have a good day before I walked away. About 6 hours later he texted me, for the first time ever, and said, "I don't have any interest in your religion. Do not approach me ever again." What part of my handshake put you in the waters of baptism brutha? Calm down, dangggg.

That being said, God has helped me get used to rejection so much. Back in the ol' Iksan days I used to absolutely crashhhhh out but now we just giggle and skip away when people overreact because it ain't us missing out on the good news. 

Did some awesome member work this week and finally feel like the members are getting tight with us.

A grandpa on a roof played a few k-pop songs for us haha. Is that apostate if we are trying to teach him? Idk. We eventually were able to teach him a bit and get his number, super nice guy. 

Spiritual Thought:   Romans 1:16

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."  Don't be ashamed to share the gospel! 

Current Weight: 188.3