Happy New Year

Hello Everyone! 

I honestly not sure if new years is a big holiday or a small holiday. They technically have two new years here so I dont think it's as big. I am going to costo today so maybe I will be able to find some sparkling cider to celebrate!

This week was Christmas! It was awesome! On Christmas day we had a fun zone conference where all the missionaries did musical numbers. My comp and I did a rousing nose whistle performance to silent night. There was a bunch of yummy food and I got to see a bunch of my mission friends. Christmas night I got to open presents with my comp and listen to some awesome Christmas music. We also  Thanks mom and aubs for all the presents! 

The next morning was my greatest gift of all. I got to talk to my amazing family! I especially loved talking to my sister who I have not seen in a long long time. She is serving right now and is an absolute missionary 전설(legend). Talking to my family was just the greatest. A lot of tears were shed and a lot of laughs were had. Super grateful for my awesome family. 

We got to visit a less active dad on Thursday and talk with him. He has a desire to come back to church and so we hope in the next few weeks we can help him prepare for the priesthood and eventually be able to go to the temple. I have a strong testimony that a only through a righteous father and a mother can the family be exalted in the highest kingdom of heaven. 

Sunday we got to practice choir for our district conference. From what it is looking like right now, I will be the only tenor in the choir. Wahoo! Wish me luck Haha. On Sunday night we went to a less active members resturant and he talks so fast making it impossible for me to understand anything he says. So for an hour straight my comp and him talked and I got to have a nice new year review in my head. I almost went through every month of the year and got to think about what I learned and what I did.I am not sure if I heard a word they said to be honest. I have gotten really good at having an interested face, but not actually listening.

Today we went to costo so that was just one nice big taste of America! 

Christmas Time

Sorry for no email or pictures last week! I was super busy and I guess my moms email always comes first haha.

Anyways, it's CHRISTMAS TIME! Christmas is not as big in korea as it is in America for sure. A lot of people don't really care about Christmas, but the missionaries for sure do! This is a great time to help others love and recognize Jesus Christ and his divinity and importance for us. The Church really has done a great job of providing materials for us to use to share the gospel more fully. I cannot count the times I have watch all the light the world videos for different messages and such. Let's all light the world together and help gather scattered Israel. 

This week I got a new companion. Elder Giles and my new companion switched places actually which is super funny. Elder Giles was a rockin trainer and I already miss him! My new companions name is elder kwak! He is a korean which has made this last week a blast! I am learning a bunch of korean and my head basically hurts all the time, but it's alright. He is an awesome missionary and really wants to work hard and get stuff done. We planned and executed the Christmas party this week which was really fun! A lot of the members came and actually a good amount of non members or less active members came. We had a talent show, donut eating contest, and a really good meal and spiritual program that me and my comp put together. Overall a great party. Also, what made it even better is that I sang feliz navidad with one of the branch presidency for our talent show! It was quite fun and I think everyone got a hoot out of it. Always doing good if we are putting smiles on peoples faces.

Also, this week my comp and I got to help a sister in our branch out, but dressing up as santa clause and giving gifts and taking pictures at her preschool business. They it was such a fun time with the little kids and they really really were surprised to see a white santa clause. Haha super funny. It was a good way for us to get the Christmas spirit and have a good time. After, the lady gave us some money for lunch because she couldn't take us out herself so we went to the awesome burger place and ate some yummy food there!

Sunday night we had a district activity and went caroling at a big mall in shinjeong. Super fun to talk to people and actually meet a lot of people from around the world! I got to accompany some of the songs with my nose whistle which really spiced up the songs and made them extra beautiful. 

Not much else happened this week. I get to skype my amazing family and sister in taiwan on Christmas this week which will be awesome! Remember to love your family so much and to do everything in your power to serve and help them. If you do, the spirit of Christmas will truly live in your heart!

Elder Meeks

It's finally winter

Pictures
1.2. Selfie stuff(My comp looks like a dad haha)
3. Yummy soup we bought one night!
4. Selfie in front of the church
5. Spooky spider in the basement
6. Picture of the street!
7.The Christmas tree we decorated
8. Selfie
9. Apparently they have free hot chocolet on the street! YAAAAAA
10. My comp eating his daily kimchi
11. My comp still looks like a dad.

Winter has officially hit here in korea! It's a whole new kind of missionary work when you are freezing on the street. It takes a lot of focus and desire to want to talk to people. When I am walking around, I am reminded of the first missionaries who are trekking through snow and all sorts of natural hardships with only a sack on their back and no knowledge of their next meal or place to stay the night. When I think about it like that I don't feel like complaining or having a bad attitude about anything. I love missionary work and all it teaches you!

This week there was not a lot to do in my area because we are not teaching anyone and the members have been super busy. YAY creative missionary work here I come. It is hard talking to people one the street during the day because all of the men are in work. Since we can proselyte to men, going out is not super effective. We cleaned our church some of the days where we couldn't find things to do or picked up trash on the street. We are also making a video right now for our members to share on Facebook so we also worked on that. 

Wednesday we had interviews with president and  that was awesome! Our president is a really wise man and we had a really good conversation about how I can improve as a missionary and serve and love my branch members more. Really grateful to have him as my mission president. 

Thursday was definitely the coolest and most fun day of the week. Elder Lee from another area exchanged with Elder Giles for a day. Elder lee is from highland utah and is a really cool guy! The first thing we did was go to Burger Mugger for lunch. I wanted him to try the yummy delicious food that is there and I also was craving something american. We we talked to the member who owns the resturant for the first little while and then two white guys walk into the restaurant. So I struck up a conversation with them and found out that their english is perfect! They are both from Germany and they are working in korea for a few weeks on some german submarines. They were both realy cool guys so we asked if we could sit with them and eat.  We asked them about their families and they told us that they both have daughters and wives and they love love their families. At this point we started asking them about God and church and all that jazz. Basically that ended up leading into us teaching almost the entire first lesson to them right in the restaurant while we were eating. Such a cool experience. We challenged them to look up our website and then contact the missionaries in Germany. I don't know if anything will come of it, but all I know is that the spirit was there really strong and the two guys could feel it for sure. 

The rest of the exchange consisted of us getting lost a lot because the bus system is so crazy and I can't korean still so that was fun.

Saturday we got to go out with the branch president's family for dinner. Their son speaks fluent english and lived in south jordan for a few years so it was really fun to be with them. They are such a strong family and you can sense the unity in the family. The restaurant was really nice and we ate a lot. I now love sushi and so I ate a bunch of that. The people at the restaurant were so surprised and spooked that their were two white guys in this restaurant so basically everyone was staring at us the entire time. 

Not much else happened this week. This is my last week of the transfer and my last week with elder giles. I think I am going to stay in this area and elder giles will leave so that will be interesting. Super excited for this week and all of it's adventures!

Elder Meeks

Visitor's Welcome.... hmmmmm

Good Morning Everyone!

This week zoomed by as usual. We had a lot of meetings and activities this week making the bus my second home. Can I just say that the bus drivers of korea really should get an award for the fastest accelerations, worst gear changes, and most neck destroying stops. It is really an adventure every time that you get on the bus. We saw a little grandma eat it pretty hard one the bus when the bus driver started going when she wasn't sitting down. Super Sad:(

Anyways this week was great. We had choir practice on Tuesday all the way in Busan which took a little while to get there. Really a cool experience singing in a new language. Super fun. Wednesday we had our Zone Conference in Busan so more bus traveling. Zone conference was great. Me and my comp got to do a little activity for the zone and at the end I shared an awesome poem my dad sent me. I am not sure if they thought it was weird or cool. But I really am impacted by poems and how they state simple truths in such a beautiful way. 

Thursday was super fun! A lot of people came to english class so we had a lot on our hands. I have 6 people to manage in the advanced section of english class and it was quite the party. The ages ranged from 18-60 with buddist, catholic, atheist, and Church members all present. One was slightly drunk and another smelt majorly like cigarette smoke. After mediating the conversation for an hour, we had an awesome message by the sisters and the spirit was super strong. Everyone felt it and many made a comment about the good feeling that they had. That night as I was thinking back on the day, I was overcome with gratitude for the opportunity I had to spend with those people tonight. And that they were all comfortable with being in our church. Super awesome day!

Friday I got to go on exchanges with Elder Pak. He is korean, but speaks pretty good english so it was a lot of fun! I got a lot of good korean practice. We gave a blessing to a member of his branch and I had the opportunity to anoint and seal the oil. Doing it in korean was a really special experience. We went to this super pretty place in his area and had a very nice personal study on the beach. The next morning we had a fun time play soccer with almost 20 guys! A few of them were not members and it was a really good atmosphere of love and kindness. A non member dad took us out to breakfast after and we had a good talk with him. 

Sunday we got to perform in Busan for almost 200 hundred people! Really special program that our mission put together and I really felt the spirit. Many of the congregation were non members so that was really cool. 

There is my week! Super pumped for this next week! We have a lot coming and its going to be great!

Love you all!

Elder Meeks

Colder than the 9th level of...

Good Morning!(Well it's the morning in Korea)

To start of this week, a new rule went into place where we have to proselyte for at least 2 hours everyday and it has been really hard. Korea is getting super super cold and we have to go out in the morning everyday and every night. The humidity really does the trick to seal the deal of being ultimately cold. My comp busted out his thermals this week and I am thinking I need to do the same thing. This is a really hard rule to follow, but hopefully we will find some people through it and share our awesome message! We talked to a few foreigners on the street this week two which was really fun. Whenever we see someone who is not korean it is a big surprise and a good opportunity to talk to them in English. We met a guy from Russia and a guy from Scotland. Both didn't have interest, but they were really fun to talk to and just have a normal conversation in English!

District Meeting this week was about patience. Considering the new rules this transfer, it couldn't have come at a better time. It was really inspirational and has helped me through this week. One thing that I learned is that we need patience as our ability to show charity increases. Charity is sosososo important as a missionary and it doesn't all come at once. After the meeting, we went to this place called "mom's touch". It is basically the chick fil a of korea, but it was sosososo gross. I have never had a worst tasting chicken sandwich in my life. To make it worst, the smell wouldn't come off our hands so we had to smell the nasty sauce the rest of the day. As we were coming home, I bought some treats for this dog that we always pass on the street on our way home. I fed it a treat and I thought it was now my friend so I tried to pet it and it bit my hand really hard!!!!!!! Ahh it was definitely more funny than anything, but my had has a few battle scars. LOL

Thanksgiving wasn't too special. We went to a yummy meat buffet and ate A LOT. Super yummy. The sisters in our area had so many appointments that day that they literally had no time to eat lunch or dinner so right before English class, we bought them a huge pizza for them. Not your average thanksgiving feast, but at least it was something. \

Saturday we got a lot of food from members. We played soccer that morning so we got yummy breakfast then. Then after kids English class we got more food from other members. Then we got majorly lost on our way to a members house that was 45 minutes away, but once we got there they took us to this super SUPER nice Korean buffet. The name of it is the party. Literally one of the nicest restaurants I have ever been to, but it was in buffet style. Each ticket was 50 dollars so the members really sacrificed a lot to take us there. Me and elder Giles were super happy!

Sunday I got to bless the sacrament for the first time in Korean! It was super spooky, but I got through it. I had to say it really slow because I did not want to mess up anything. Also, this week was our last meeting with Alex before he moved. Super sad to see him leave, but I am sure the missionaries in his new area will take care of him. 

Love you all and have an awesome week!

Elder Meeks

Pictures