We Be 신촌 선교사!!

12/04/16

안녕하세요 여러분! 

This was a pretty fun week.  Due to the lack of spending time in our own area, we were not able to do much missionary work in our own area this week.  We went to the 신촌 area 3 days in a row this week!  We met with one of the young men in our ward, who, thanks to his failing of an important test, has decided to serve a mission, and is preparing super fast!  He actually had his bishop interview yesterday!  We met with him and helped him prepare to send his papers in.  They're actually papers in Korea.  And, it was pretty much Elder Kang helping him prepare, because Korea is not America in multiple ways, including the stuff they have to do for missionary papers. ㅋㅋ 

Then, it was Temple P-day! We went to 신촌, where the temple is!  We spent P-day with the Elders from 원당! My old area of five transfers!  We didn't really know each other before, but because they are both in the area that I closed back in the day, we became instant friends!  Plus, 정우림e is one of the Elders that went to Costco with Elder Jarrett and I way back when I was a greenie!  How crazy is that!  

Then, it was Zone Training!  We went to 신촌, where the zone meeting always is!  The whole purpose of it all was to get us pumped up for Christmas.  By the way, if you haven't checked out #lighttheworld yet, now is the time to do that!  This Christmas season is a wonderful opportunity to learn how to become like the Savior!

Then, it was Language Pass-off!  We went to 신촌, where the AP's serve.  That was fun.  Not much else to say about that.  

It has been a really awesome week.  I have one little thought I want to share about.  Every Sunday, we have the wonderful opportunity to take the sacrament.  As a missionary, I love feeling the Spirit that is in the chapel during the sacrament.  I had the opportunity to pass the sacrament this last Sunday, and seeing the members take the sacrament with a sincere heart brought so much joy and gladness to my soul.  It is truly a wonderful thing to see other people continuously taking action to reach salvation.  I know that God loves all of His children and that He has done and will continue to do everything for us, just as any parent would for their children.

Love,

Elder Tyler Conley

Thanksgiving! (문자 그대로 감사드림)

11/27/16

안녕하세요 여러분! 

This was a pretty fun week.  I did learn, however, that Thanksgiving is a whole lot more fun when one is not a missionary.  Because you can sleep after you eat your weight in food.  (That's a lot of food, in my case) ㅋㅋ We did have a most excellent opportunity to celebrate Thanksgiving- American Style this week.  We had an invitation from the American military base church members for the missionaries to come spend Thanksgiving Dinner with them.  The events leading up to it were all pretty fun.  For example, in our 9 missionary district, only 4 of us are American. Apparently, the concept of eating dinner at 1:30 doesn't make sense to non-Americans.  That was funny to explain.  Also, a story regarding the title:

Elder 강원호(Kang) and Elder Megargel and I were all together, trying to teach Elder Kang about the word literally.  So, we started using 문자 그대로(literally) literally every place it could fit.  Needless to say, Elder Kang didn't understand.  

And now, a cool miracle that happened this week.  We were waiting for our appointment on Saturday in the snow. (Yeah, it snowed!).  We ended up waiting for a total of about 30-40 minutes.  But, during that time, a man came over to the phone booths that we were standing by, and beckons me over.  We all start talking, and he is really interested in the principle of the Restoration of the Gospel, because he used to attend church, but he didn't feel that it was the right church.  So, he believes that there is a right church out there, and that he just hasn't found it yet.  His name is 김태경.

We also had a Stake Choir Conference this Friday, where the ward choirs of the whole Stake come together and have a friendly competition.  역시 원당 와드가 이겼습니다.  It was pretty fun.  I am famous in Seoul Stake!  I've served in half of the Stake now, and at the beginning of December, I'll have served in this Stake for a year!  I felt pretty popular that night.  ㅋㅋ

Have a good week!

Love,

Elder Tyler Conley

 Thanksgiving Party!

It's Christmas!

Under Pressure!~

11/20/16

안녕하세요, 여러분! 

This week was took a big turn.  Long story short, I got wrecked by an AP.  But, that's a really boring story, so I'll tell the whole thing, and also the aftermath thereof.  

I was in the office, doing Korean pass off with Elder Nam, my old district leader now turned AP.  We practiced teaching a little bit, and it was...meh...  So, after our roleplay, he tells me," Elder Conley, this is the highest level of pass off that a missionary can do, so we don't want you to just be all right, but we want you to be GOOD.  You have to change the way you teach so that the Spirit can really take place here, and that I can feel it."  So, we did it one more time, and it was amazing.  The gospel can only be preached by the power and authority of God, as well as through the feelings of our own hearts.  If we don't have a conviction of the gospel in our own hearts, what makes us think that our words can help place them in another's?  But, on the other hand, with a conviction of the gospel and all things related to it, what can't we do?  There is nothing to fear.  God is our Heavenly Father, and will support us in all of our right actions.  That is where our own personal faith comes in.  That we believe in the converting power of the gospel, and that people, through feeling the Holy Ghost as they feel the Spirit, can cultivate a desire to change in their hearts.  

I've been applying what I've learned to all of the teaching opportunities that I have had thus far, and they have gone so much better.  The gospel can be brought unto the hearts of the children of men so much better without fear.  All people need to hear this gospel and be presented with an opportunity to accept it, but they also need the fair opportunity that comes with being taught by the Spirit.  The Holy Ghost is a wonderful being, who is able to cause miracles on the earth, even in these days as in days past, and also in days to come.  I'm so grateful to be serving as the Lord's representative here in Korea, and to bring the gospel unto these amazing people.  

Love you!

Elder Tyler Conley

 Here's a cool looking subway station that Elder Kang and I found!

 This is Korea right after the test of destiny (수능, it is the test that the seniors take, and completely decides their future), so everybody's partying!

Not quite as good as Irish swag, but...

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")

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

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!

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)