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

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