Friday, November 18, 2016

A Lot of Fun Activities That Didn't Actually Work Out That Well

11/13/16

안녕하세요, 여러분! 

That there subject line is probably the best few words I can use to explain this week.  We did a lot of things that didn't work out quite as well as we hoped.  For example:

  • We had a member dinner scheduled for Friday night, but that got cancelled, so we decided to streetboard.  It poured buckets on us starting from 5:50.  (Koreans absolutely despise the rain, to the extent that they fear it)
  • We had a lesson with a new investigator named 한상, who wanted to read the Book of Mormon in English with us. I was on exchanges with Elder Tapan.  We decided prior that we would just make it through the introduction and share a small message and give commitments and then be done.  Then, 2 hours later, we finally finished the introduction.
  • On Thursday, I had a Korean pass off with the AP's, and after 2 hours, I finished half of it and had to leave
There are a number more, but I don't want to spend to much time on that.  I suppose that one of the biggest miracles of this week is that I'm still happy and optimistic.  We had a super awesome Family Home Evening activity on Saturday Night.  So many people came!  A couple of the members just brought their friends!  Everybody there loved it!  Then, the next day, the bishop came in to a little missionary planning meeting that we were having.  He told us that, due to the new member missionary program that he initiated last week, in the near future, there should be 44 new investigators for the missionaries, as well as 34 less actives for us to work with!  How cool is that?  Miracles happen when the members and missionaries work together!

Love you all!

Elder Tyler Conley

 We went exploring this week, and found this beauty.
I also found this beauty in the church (a different usage of the word "beauty")

Monday, November 7, 2016

We Be International Missionaries!!

11/07/16

안녕하세요, 여러분!  

This was a pretty fun week.  We did a lot this week.  As you might be able to see from the title, we taught many people this week who are not Korean.  Well, kind of...

We met a certain Zuniel Kim this week (김준일).  We got a call from our Office Elders this week on Thursday, asking if we have some time the next day, because they need a team who can do both English and Korean very well, so they can translate.  The situation is that a Sister from the other end of the Seoul South mission is coming up to our area to direct her nephew who has a little bit of business to do in Korea.  She was really worried because she can't speak English, and her nephew can't speak Korean that well.  김준일 was born and raised in Germany, but luckily, he spoke English very well.  And let me tell you, there's nothing more strange than listening to a Korean speak English with a German accent.  It was pretty fun.  He is a really cool guy.  He is a filmmaker, and is 34 years old.  But, he is returning to Germany tomorrow.  We had a really good conversation, and eventually he thought that he would like to hear more about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.  We were able to receive his address, and so later he should be able to meet with some missionaries in Germany.  

We also met with Richard on Saturday.  He is from Uganda.  He is returning in December, so we will be working on meeting with him a couple of times before he goes back.  He read the Restoration pamphlet that we gave him, and really really wants to read the Book of Mormon.  Due to a shortage of copies of the Book of Mormon in the English language, we weren't able to give him a copy, but we told him how he could download it on his phone.  He's pretty great. 

The work is picking up here a lot.  We have had a number of new teachable people come up, so we are working really hard to make that happen, and miracles happen literally every day.  It's a wonderful work that's going on!  I love it so much!

See you all next week!

Love, 
Elder Tyler Conley


Monday, October 31, 2016

휴우... It's Over!

10/30/16

안녕하세요, 사랑하는 여러분!   

This week was a pretty exciting week.  We definitely saw some miracles this week.  For example, we were finally able to meet with our investigator Jason this week.  I haven't met him since I got to 신당.  He is really awesome.  He lived in America for a really long time.  He is actually more comfortable with English than Korean for learning the gospel, so that's an adventure, especially for Elder Kang.  He actually sounds kind of like a very stereotypical African American when he speaks English.  It's pretty funny.  He has a lot of faith in Our Savior, but he is now on a search on how to apply it, so we taught him about the first principles and ordinances of the gospel this week.  He really likes what we taught about repentance, baptism, and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost.  He said he will get baptized after he gets an answer that this is the path that God wants him to take, so we will definitely keep working with him.  

The next miracle is our Halloween Party.  We dedicated our whole week to it, due to fairly poor preparation.  In other words, we were pretty much quarantined inside the church decorating and figuring out how everything was going to work from Wednesday to Saturday.  The miracle is that it worked ㅋㅋ We decided that it was completely necessary to put a haunted house in our party on Friday Night at 8:30, for reasons that will not be explained here.  Then, we also realized that we had no idea how anything was actually going to work, so we got a call at about 10:20 from our district leader, and we figured everything out about our party in 7 minutes, and then the next day we had our party, and it went really well!  The other Elder team had one of their investigators come, and he brought a friend!  We had a good amount of non-members at this party.  It was definitely a success!

Love you all!

Elder Tyler Conley

I asked for the reasons behind the last minute haunted house:

The idea for having a haunted house appeared on Tuesday night this week, so there was already insufficient amounts of time to make a real good haunted house.  We talked about it again, and by Thursday, decided it was probably not the best idea, especially since we hadn't started on it at all by Thursday night.  Then, once upon a time on Friday night, one of our Sisters rushed into the church at 8:30 and said, "Hey, I called all the members about the Halloween Party and the Haunted House, and they all said that they were coming, and are really excited for the haunted house!"  Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo yeah, that's what happened.
 Did you know that if you put gummy worms in water and add a little vinegar...
They turn into disgusting slime? 


We added some extras!

It's Christmas time in Seoul!

Thursday, October 27, 2016

Well, THAT Doesn't Happen Everyday...

10/23/16

안녕하세요, 여러분! 

It's been a pretty fun week.  I had a fun exchange with Elder Benson, another Elder in our district, on Friday and Saturday.  Elder Kang and I are doing really well together.  We are super united in the work here together in 신당 (Sindang).  

But then...

Elder David A. Bednar came to Korea!

He sure did!  This Wednesday, all of the missionaries in Seoul and Seoul South missions got together and were taught by this Prophet, Seer, and Revelator.  Some things from what I understood from his teachings are that faith requires action first, then the power will come as we step into the darkness, as faith is a principle of action and power.  I got the feeling that it is part of his vision for the church to have all of the members therein be completely self-reliable as far as spiritual things go.  He told us about how to pray in a way that truly invites the Spirit and opens the way for action on our part.  One of the more powerful statements that he relayed to us is that we do not need to be taught by an Apostle of the Lord to have the mysteries of heaven revealed to us, we only need to have the Spirit of Revelation and the scriptures by our side, and anything is possible.

As far as other things go, we had dinner with 2 different American families this week.  Well, I suppose one was an American/Dominican family.  Apparently, if you mix pig intestines, a whole pig leg, and curry together, it makes Dominican food.  Interesting, huh?  It was pretty delicious.  With the other family, we had taco soup.  It's been a little while since I have even thought about the concept of taco soup.  It was an awesome week.

I have the feeling that this week is going to be really, really good.  I hope you all have a really, really good week, too!

Love,
Elder Tyler Conley

This was a strange experience... Going across the river to the land of mystery... 
(the Seoul South Mission)

Suits On!

10/16/16

안녕하세요, 여러분! 

We had a really great week this week!  We had some super cool miracles happen with our investigators!  I haven't said anything like that for a long time, have I? ㅋㅋ  I was actually talking about it with Elder Kang yesterday while we were filling out our stats.  I told him that I haven't really had any super good investigators since I was a greenie in 화양 (Huayang).  In 원당 (Wondang), almost all of our investigators just disappeared, and in 일산 (Il-San), we just had one the whole time who didn't really progress or anything.  So this was a really exciting week for me.  Let me tell you why:

We met with 송동규b (Songdonggyu) this week.  We were a little worried about him, because we thought he just wanted English practice with us, because that's what it really seemed like.  But, last week, I met him with Elder Nam, and we taught him a little bit and told him to read Alma 32 before we met this week.  He did it, and actually, since he's 62, and his memory's a little faulty, he TYPED the whole thing.  He has tons of interest about faith.  He told us, "I read it but it was just with my brain, not with my heart.  That's kind of sad, because I really want to understand this, but I need to be able to feel it in my heart."  So, we talked about it and he has a huge desire to learn and grow his faith!  He also has a lot of interest in the Plan of Salvation and how we came to believe in all that we do.  It was a really great lesson with him. 

We also met with 이의수 this week.  His English name is Gaius, which is Julius Caesar's first name.  He is a huge history buff.  We sat down with him, and started trying to teach about the restoration, but he kept cutting us off every time.  But, when we started about the Plan of Salvation, it caught in his heart.  He opened his ears and listened.  Then, he really opened up, which is a huge miracle.  He told us about how he used to attend church, but all of the other Christian kids bullied him in high school.  It was pretty sad.  He is not particularly fond of any church now.  He knows for certain that Catholicism is not true, because of his super extensive knowledge of history.  He thinks that our church is different, though, and thinks that it might be worth it.  So, we will definitely be working with him to help him out.  

And our suits are back on constantly, so that's fun!

It's been a great week!  This next one will be really exciting, so see you next week!

Love,
Elder Tyler Conley

This statue is the biggest pile of garbage I've ever seen! 
(This is a traditional Seoul 해치, kind of like the mascot of Seoul)

And then there was Conference

10/09/16

안녕하세요, 여러분! 

This week was a pretty good one.  We watched conference this week.  That was exciting!  There were so many good talks given this time.  I personally was a really big fan of J. Devn Cornish 장로님's talk.  He talked about repentance and God's eternal love for us.  He taught us about not comparing ourselves to anyone, except ourselves.  That is a very important lesson to learn, and definitely one that I've learned a lot while on my mission.  God knows exactly what you can be, and what He wants you to be.  So, as long as we are doing what is right, and always trying to be better today than we were in the past, we are very successful in the eyes of God.  It is truly wonderful to know that we all have a loving Father in Heaven, who loves with such redeeming love.  

Shortly after General Conference on Sunday, we had a day of miracles.  It was really great.  It was wonderful to see the faith of Elder 강원호 grow and learn from what happened yesterday.  Nearly everyone we talked to had a considerable amount of interest, and although due to different circumstances, we were not able to make an appointment with them, I know that I just gave them something that could change their life.  We also met with the bishop of our ward yesterday.  He is a really great person, and we got really close to him, and are now working with him to help missionary work in this ward increase largely.  

Love you all!

Elder Tyler Conley

 Back to the River!
남산 Tower

Oh Dang! (as in Sindang)

10/02/16

안녕하세요, 여러분! 

This week was super awesome!  신당 (Sindang) is such an awesome area!  I have the best companion ever!  Elder 강원호 (Kang) is such an awesome missionary!  We have had a lot of fun together.  Whitewashing into the biggest area of our mission... Nice...  One of the biggest miracles I've seen since I've been here is that we haven't gotten lost yet.  Knock on wood...  Elder 강원호 (Kang) is working with the Deaf branch, which is a really big miracle.  There are new people that come every week!  This Sunday, we met with a really great family in 신당 (Sindang) ward, along with a couple extra young men. All 8 missionaries in the district were there, and we shared a message about missionary work.  At the end, our district leader asked a couple of the young men that were hanging out in the back who they could try to talk to the gospel with. They actually had legit people, and said that they would do it!  In Korea, things like that are a very rare occurrence.  It was pretty awesome!  

That being the case, finding new people to teach is surprisingly difficult here.  As I have been exiled out of Seoul for 10 months, I had forgotten a lot about what it was like to live in the big city.  People are really hard to talk to here.  They all say, "Oh, I'm busy, sorry." or just shake their heads and walk past.  It can be rather disappointing at times, but it's at those times when I remember who I can turn to, who has given me this opportunity to serve here in Korea, and then I smile, and everything works out so well!  It's a great life I live out here, in the service of our Lord, Jesus Christ.  I can't imagine anything else would be better!  

Love you all! Have a good week!

Elder Tyler Conley

 Escalator of Eternity
 Our member family (They're not actually in the picture, so this is just our district eating with a different member)
Me with Elder Kang

Sunday, September 25, 2016

Transfers...

09/25/16

안녕하세요, 여러분!  

We got transfer calls this last Saturday.  I'm gone...

I'm leaving 일산 (Il-San).  Already...  I am going to 신당 (Sindang).  신당 is the area with literally everything awesome in our mission.  The mission office, the massive tie market, everything.  It's a massive area for Seoul (Three or so rather large wards were combined to make this ward), and I'm whitewashing in.  That means two people who are new to the area are in the companionship.  I will be with Elder 강원호 (kang wonho).  I get to serve with a Korean!  Yay ^^  I will serve as senior companion, so that will be a little different than this strange co-senior business I have right now with Elder Skinner.  I'm pretty excited.  

As for other things that happened this week, we found a new investigator.  His name is 오승우 (Ohseungwoo).  He is 18, and studies art in high school.  He really likes 80's rock music, like Guns n' Roses and Queen.  We got along rather nicely ^^  He is super prepared.  We asked why he wanted to meet with us, and he told us that when we gave him a call, he felt a really strong impression to meet with us.  He was extremely accepting of the Book of Mormon.  The only problem is, he lives outside the other side of Seoul.  So, we might just need to refer him to the missionaries over there.  

It's been a pretty fun week!  See you all next week!

Love,
Elder Tyler Conley 


Me with some 일산 ward young men

추석!!!

09/18/16

This week was pretty great!  It was 추석 this week, which is Korean Thanksgiving.  I was here in Korea last 
추석!  That's kind of weird.  During 추석, all Koreans are in there homes, where they most definitely do not want visitors, so missionary work does not really run very smoothly during this 3-day holiday.  So, our mission set aside Wednesday as our P-day.  Then, on Thursday, we cleaned our whole house.  Except we weren't able to finish, because our kitchen was a nightmare. The next day, we had a big 추석 conference at the mission office.  All of the missionaries from our stake and another stake were there.  The big theme of the whole meeting was remembering the Prophet Joseph Smith, so we started up in a little grove that was above the mission office.  We sang a number of hymns regarding the Restoration, and had some fun games together.  We walked up a small mountain and unfurled a banner ^^  It was pretty great.  I loved it.  We also had some fun little competition between the 2 stakes.  We got wrecked...  Whoever decided that putting me on arm wrestling definitely had no idea what they were doing ^^ ㅋㅋ  We also played some 윷놀이 (Yutnori), the Korean board game with four sticks that I think I mentioned back in January.  Then, we did some traditional Korean hackey-sack, which I took many videos of.  But, everyone who did it did pretty badly, so I don't think I will send the videos ^^  It was a pretty great day!  

That's the only really exciting thing that happened this week, so I'll talk to you all again next week!  Have an awesome week!

Love,
Elder Tyler Conley

 Tyler with Elder Littlefield
 This is a 한복 (hanbok), worn by our AP, Elder Davis
 Overview of Seoul
The spoils of war! (We found this in the 원당 church a couple of weeks ago, and everyone else was deathly afraid of bees.  So, I had to do what I had to do^^)

This Week..........

09/11/16

안녕하세요, 여러분!

This week was... decent.  This week, we got rejected!  We were outside a lot trying to find investigators with very very very little success.  That just happens sometimes, right?  The only investigator we were able to meet with was Tom.  By the way, if you look at the progress record that we discuss with the ward on Sundays, you will only see English names.  It's because we're in 일산 (Il-San), so pretty much everyone is fluent-ish at English.  On that note, talking with him was interesting.  He is an English linguistics major, so he asked us a bunch of questions about weird English stuff that totally went completely over our heads.  Then, we answered some questions of his.  He had a bit of a skeptical outlook towards it at first, but as we continued teaching him, and taught him the doctrine of the Spirit World and how it relates with God's wonderful Plan of Mercy, his countenance softened a little bit.  We'll have to keep working with him a little bit harder.

This week, we had Zone Training.  This month's focus is on the Book of Mormon.  I have wanted this to happen since I was a young greenie in 화양 (Huayang).  I love the Book of Mormon and the power that it contains.  It has the most wonderful testimony of our Lord, Jesus Christ.  I know that it is true, and that it has come forth in these latter days by the power of God.  It is truly a miracle ^^

See y'all next week!  Bu-bye, now!

Love,
Elder Tyler Conley

What a Week!

09/04/16

안녕하세요, 여러분!

This week has been a pretty great week.  We spent a couple days of the week exploring the far regions of 일산 (Il-San), but to no avail.  The first area we went to, we didn't even see a single person on the street the whole time.  I was actually quite impressed that Korea had a place like that.  This week wasn't actually very interesting, I just didn't actually know what to put for the title.  Just your average week in the Korea Seoul mission, I guess.  

This week, we taught a lesson to 김정호 (Kim), who is a less active.  He actually found us.  Back in the days when 일산 (Il-San) had four Elders (about 4 weeks ago), the other team got a call from him and he said that he wanted to go to church.  He's been actively attending church and English Class ever since.  His focus abilities are extremely low, so teaching him is always a fun time.  He's learning a lot though.  When we found him, he had forgotten everything he had learned when he got converted, so right now, we are working on teaching him all of the missionary lessons.  He came up to us after English Class on Saturday, and told us that he would read all of the pamphlets before we met again this Tuesday.  I was very happy with his desire to learn everything about the gospel, and I think he will be an awesome member.  

We also taught a lesson with Michael 윤, a long time English Class member.  It is more of reading the Book of Mormon in English and teaching principles found therein.  He really enjoys it, and understands it well.  He reads the Book of Mormon on his own in preparation for each meeting, so he also shows a great desire to learn.  We will keep working with him to help bring him closer unto Christ. 

That's honestly about all of the interesting stuff that happened this week.  See you all next week!

Love,
Elder Tyler Conley


Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Hello, Everybodyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!‏

08/28/16

안녕하세요, 여러분 (Good morning, everyone)!

Wow, it's been quite a week.  Definitely an awesome one at that^^

This week, we had a lot of great things happen, the first of which is Eliot.  We were able to meet with him again yesterday!  YAY!  He's doing really well, actually.  He is following through with the plan that we helped him make to keep the Word of Wisdom.  He also read a little bit of the Book of Mormon this week!  It was pretty great.  We had an awesome lesson with him yesterday.  Other cool things that happened this week is that we were able to meet with Tom.  He is Korean, but lived in New Zealand for 10 years or something like that, so he's fluent in English.  He also has a really cool accent^^  He met with missionaries a little while ago before he went into the military (Korean military is mandatory in Korea, for 2 years).  We met up with him again, and he shared with us a near death experience that he had in the military, which somewhat turned his heart to God.  Just the miracle we can work with^^  

This week, we also went on exchanges with our zone leaders.  A little attachment of doing that is that we were also able to go Music 전도ing in 원당 (Wondang)!  I love 원당!  That was pretty great.  I stayed here in 일산 (Il-San) with Elder Ridge, who is our new Zone Leader here.  We got together, and in our plans for Saturday, we decided, as per tradition for exchanges, that we would wreck a buffet.  And, we rekked that buffet^^  I learned a lot from that exchange.  Elder Ridge is a great missionary, and taught me a lot of things I need to work on throughout the rest of the transfer.  

It's been a great week!  사랑해요 (I love you)!

Love,
Elder Tyler Conley

Definition of Music 전도ing: "Remember Elder Bradshaw?  Him and Elder Pelina (a super good pianist) bring their violin and a keyboard and play music on the street while the other missionaries talk to people about the music and have it lead to talking about the Restoration."

Combining Area is Fun to Do, Fun to Do to Do to Do

08/21/16

안녕하세요, 여러분! 

This week was... interesting.  We were scheduled to be really busy this week, due to our area getting combined with the other 일산 (Il-San) area since the other 2 Elders just left.  But, Heavenly Father definitely loves to test our faith sometimes.  We had many appointments scheduled at the beginning of the week, but  we ended up being able to meet with 20% of them...  That's okay though.  We met with a man named Afari this week.  He is from India, and is spending 2-3 years in Korea for studies.  He is Muslim, but believes that Jesus Christ still lives.  That is definitely really great.  He's really busy with school, though, so meeting him might be a little hard in the future.  That was the most exciting part of the week.  

We also had an opportunity to go to 가좌 (Gajwa) in our area.  It's a little bit of civilization in the middle of nowhere.  It's not quite as in the middle of nowhere as the place I went with Elder Paulsen in... January or something (Wow, I've been out here forever...).  It was really fun.  We met a guy that said he would like to come to church!  That was really cool! 

Love you all!

Elder Tyler Conley

Monday, August 15, 2016

Oh, Lonely Me...

08/14/16

안녕하세요, 여러분!

This has been an exciting week!  We got our transfer call this week to find out how we were moving for transfers.  And.............................

Elder Skinner and I are staying in 일산 together for another transfer!!

But...

The other team (Elder Apigo and Elder Judd) are both leaving and nobody is coming in to replace them.  Their area will combine with ours, and our 4 man house is down to 2...  So sad.  Elder Skinner and I will definitely be pretty busy in the next couple of weeks, because now we get to take over all of their team's investigators and less actives.  It'll be a party! ^^  This is a new experience for me, because it's not my area that's closing!  Our ward mission leader was actually a little bit mad about it yesterday.  They used to have 12 missionaries in all of 일산.  That's the size of our whole zone now.  Pretty interesting.  

We were also able to meet with Eliot this week, with 김인하, a member of 일산 ward.  It was a really good lesson.  The results thereof become like this:  He has come up with a plan to quit smoking and drinking, committed to read the Book of Mormon, and committed to be baptized on November 2nd of this year.  It was a pretty great lesson, and we will definitely have more of them in the future.  He has got to work pretty hard to make that date, but with a lot of prayers and faith, he can definitely make it.  

It's been a pretty good week!  I hope you all have an awesome week as well!

Love,
Elder Tyler Conley

 A very American looking neighborhood
 Spider!!!
 The bus stop after a big missionary meeting
This guy (We take a picture together everytime we have an activity or something together)

Yay!

08/07/16

안녕하세요, 여러분!

This week has been a pretty awesome week!  We saw some cool stuff that happened this week.  The first being that I was able to do a pass off for Korean that I've been ready to do for...  6 months now...  That being the case, It was really great.  I passed off with Elder 이호현, probably my favorite Korean ever.  He trained me the whole time on being a good missionary, and it was a really great experience.  

The second (and probably the most awesome) is 김도원 and 김보연.  They are a married couple that we met at streetboarding.  They came up, and started asking me questions of ways they can learn English from us.  Some time passed, and they told me about some concerns they had about God, and not being sure if he was there or not.  We were able to satisfy their questions as well as teach them the message of the Restoration, and they gave us their number and told us to call them to meet!  They were super cool!  We haven't been able to meet with them yet, but hopefully next week I'll be able to tell you more about them.  

We were also able to meet with Eliot again this week.  He seems to be having a bit of a hard time right now, but he is still working hard to keep our commitments.  He asks some really awesome questions.  This time around, we were able to teach him about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and he has a lot of interest concerning repentance and baptism.  He is super prepared for this gospel.  He does have a long way to go, but I believe that he will definitely get there.   

That's all for now!  Bu-bye now!

사랑해요!
Elder Conley

A Blast From the Past!

07/31/16

안녕하세요, 여러분!

It's been a pretty awesome week.  We definitely saw some miracles this week.  One of which is that we were able to meet Eliot again, for the first time in a nice long while.  We haven't been able to get in contact with him for about 2 weeks now, so we just went to his house and knocked on his door, and he said, "Yeah, let's go talk."  He is super prepared.  His questions are awesome, and he is super willing to listen to our message.  It's really awesome.

Another miracle for me this week is that I got to go on exchanges with Elder Dye, our zone leader.  And that means...................

I got to spend most of a day in 원당 (Wondang)!!  ^^  That was so great.  I love 원당!  I was able to go to the English Class and then go streetboarding there, in the spot that we usually do it at.  It was so great.  I love Elder Dye.  He helped me out a lot with my question of how to help 일산 (Il-San).   I got a lot of answers from him.  

I also got a lot of answers from a certain President Brown.  He is President Sonksen's (our current mission president) old mission president!  (He became mission president in his mid-30's or so)  He is an awesome person!  He gave a wonderful talk about the people of Korea and about the wonderful members we have here, and it's so true.  Korea has the most wonderful members!  I love them all so much!  We visited a member yesterday, and I love him so much, because he literally just constantly smiles.  It's so great.  

It's been a pretty awesome week!  Thank you all!

Love,
Elder Tyler Conley

Thursday, July 28, 2016

여름이네...‏

07/24/16

안녕하세요, 여러분!!

This week was a pretty great week.  We were a little bit busy this week with various meetings, including district meeting, many planning meetings, and interviews with President Sonksen!  I love President Sonksen!  He's the best mission president I've ever had ^^  In all seriousness, though, I love him to death.  He has helped me so much on my mission, and I love serving under his authority.  As far as planning meetings go, they were definitely a necessity.  일산 (Il-San) ward is a little tense as far as member relations go (I had a witness of that today. I called a member and it was literally the most awkward moment of my entire life), so we, as missionaries, decided to plan some activities to help the ward get closer to each other as well as to us.  One thing we decided on was a barbecue party!  That was a great idea, because 원당 (Wondang) had the most awesome barbecue party ever, so we decided we would like to do something of that sort.  I am excited to work in 일산 (Il-San), and to really help this ward out, and serve the people here.  

We saw some cool miracles yesterday.  Eliot wasn't able to come to church, so that was a bit of a bummer.  But, while we were walking to go streetboarding, we started talking to this kid, who is fluent at English (because we're in 일산).  He really liked us, and when we started introducing ourselves, he said, "Actually, I really want to come to your church!  Is it all right if we go together next Sunday?"  It was pretty great^^  His name is Kevin.

We also met a guy that said he was named 현 (Hyeon).  He really liked us too, and started talking to us and wondering how we got so good at Korean, and it turns out he had a lot of interest in learning English.  We gave him one of our English class flyers, and he looked like a young child on Christmas Morning.  He was so happy that we teach English for free!  He says he'll come next time, so hopefully he does and we can get to know him better and pick him up as an investigator.  

That's all for this week!  Love you all!

사랑해용!~

Elder Tyler Conley

 Hence the subject line . . .
 There's a spider on my hymn book ^^
 Lake Park
친구 (Friend)

Miracles for Days!!!^^

07/17/16

안녕하세요, 여러분!

It has been a pretty awesome week.  We had a most excellent zone training from our wonderful zone leaders, Elder 이호현 (Yihohyeon) and Elder Dye, and Sister 김희라 (Gimhuira).  They taught us about many things, the most prominent being our calling as missionaries to teach repentance.  It was really awesome.  The most striking part to me was the ending of it, though.  They showed us a clip from a football movie (YEAH FOOTBALL!).  I actually have no idea what this movie was, so if someone recognizes it, good job!  The clip that was showed was introduced by having the star player of the team making a comment that he does not believe that their team can beat the rival team.  The coach has him come up and tells him to carry another player on his back and crawl on his hands and feet, and commits him to do the very best he can, while blindfolded.  The player says, "I can probably make it to the 40" or something like that.  They start, and the coach pumps him up so hard, and pushes him so hard, until he can finally not take one more step, and collapses.  The player starts whimpering, and the coach says, "Look, you're in the end-zone!"  This part really struck me because I have also been studying the "Becoming a Consecrated Missionary" talk by Tad R. Callister.  I guess it just really struck me what "giving our all" actually means.  It means every single day, making so much sacrifice that there is absolutely no more to give when we come back home and make preparations for doing the same thing tomorrow.  This is kind of the setting for the miracles we saw this week.

1.  Eliot, our investigator, came to church!  This is his first time here.  Ever since I got here, he has not been in contact with us at all, and we thought he was ignoring us.  So, on Saturday, I was making calls, and I had the thought to call him, so I did, and he picked up!  He said he would come to church, even though he's never even seen me before.  Then, he woke up early and called us and came to church.  And liked it!!!!  It was pretty great.

2.  We were calling on Thursday, and I called this one guy who did not seem to have too much potential.  He picked up, and I told him we were the missionaries, and he was like, "Oh, yeah!  Actually, not this week because I'm busy but next, I was planning on coming to your church services" without me asking or anything.  So, we are calling him next week, and setting it up with him.  

3.  One of our members here came up to us at church and said, "I brought you all some phone cases with a special design that I made, so here you go!"  This one's just kind of funny.  It gives me a lot of hope for 일산 (Il-San) ward because when I first came here, the ward didn't seem all too friendly with the missionaries.  Now I understand that there are a number that are willing to help us, and through them we can really make this ward strong^^

Yep, we had a pretty awesome week this week.  Can't wait for the next one!!  Love you all

Love,
Elder Tyler Conley

 ^^
 Elder Skinner
 My area
Our squad



What a week!


07/10/16

안녕하세요, 여러분!

It has been a pretty interesting week in the making, with my move to 일산 (Il-San).  It's pretty interesting here.  It's weird because, due to my being in the same zone for almost my whole mission, I have served a number of exchanges over here in 일산.  Which leads to a pretty cool miracle that I saw my first day in 일산.  Way back in the old days, in January or February, I went on exchanges with a certain Elder Flora.  With him, I taught a lesson to a certain 황대연 (Hwangdaeyeon, does that help? Haha), a student about my age who was really nice and seemed to have some interest.  We made some calls in the middle of the day this Wednesday, on my first day in 일산, and I saw a name on these records: 황대연.  "This name looks rather familiar,"  I thought to myself, "I'm pretty sure this is the guy that I taught with Elder Flora.  It says that they started teaching him.  I wonder what happened to him..."  so I called the number, and he picked up and he remembered me, and said that he would call later when he has some time to meet.  

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE

We were traveling on our way to the big shopping area later that day to go streetboarding.  I stopped to talk to a student aged person in English, and I asked what his name was.  He said, "Daeyeon." (대연) and gave me an awkward little smile, so I smiled back at him and I knew exactly who he was.  He was the same guy that I had taught a lesson to, and that I had called earlier that day.  We talked a little bit more, and he says he can meet as soon as testing is over.  

Yep, 일산 (Il-San) is a pretty cool area.  I am excited to explore it a bit more in the future.  It's pretty fun being here, because since I've been here a lot, I already know a lot of the area, and I know a lot of the people that the areas here are dealing with.  Doing calls is really fun, because I was there when a lot of people gave their numbers to us, so a lot of the time, I can ask if they remember me.  

Have a good week, everybody!  사랑해요~

Love,
Elder Conley

Bu-bye Now~

07/03/16

안녕하세요, 여러분!~

This week was a very fun week.  We got transfer calls this week.  And let me just say, Wow.

Our whole zone's getting destroyed.  Elder Peterson and I are closing our area.  Elder Peterson is going all the way out to the boonies to 원주 (Won-ju).  I'm also going extremely far, to 일산 (Il-San)(That's a joke about the far part.  일산 (Il-San) is literally the next area over).  I have been on exchanges over there a number of times.  Since our area's closing, 원당 (Wondang) only has the zone leader team and the sister team, so it's actually combining as a district with 일산 (Il-San), anyway.  I might as well not even move, because it's all so close.  Everyone keeps cracking jokes about me being able to walk to my new area, and I keep telling people as a joke that it doesn't matter if I pack or not, because if I need to I can just take a couple of trips to move all of my stuff, and that would still only take the morning.  3 of the elders in 일산 (Il-San) are moving out , and am co-senioring with a certain Elder Skinner who is the lone survivor of the 일산 (Il-San) elders.  This will be pretty fun.  

That's the big news of this week.  I went on exchanges with Elder 이, too.  That was fun.  I finally got to visit a member in our ward that I had been meaning to visit for my whole 7 months in 원당 (Wondang).  Their little boy reminds me exactly of Grant, my youngest brother.  He calls me 엘사 장로 (Elder Elsa).  I don't know why he calls me that.  He really, really likes Elsa, so I guess that just means he really likes me.  Wow, I'm going to miss this ward.  They are all so wonderful.  It'll definitely be a challenge for the 일산 (Il-San) ward to top this one.  

Yep, so Bu-bye now~

Love,
Elder Tyler Conley