I Have Been Defeated...

01/24/16

안녕하세요, 여러분!

Don't worry to much over my subject line.  I am only referring to the weather this week.  It was so freezing!  My friends at home will be surprised to know that even I was freezing.  We went outside to hand out flyers for English class on Saturday, and the street that we did it on was relatively pretty narrow, so it also acted as a wind tunnel.  About halfway through this activity, our district pretty much decided that we would just try to make people happy, because absolutely nobody was talking to us, and I really don't blame them. 

This week, we had transfers.  Elder Sol left, and was replaced by Elder 이호현 (Lee Ho Hyeon), who is an extremely kind person, and a very diligent missionary.  He is a zone leader along with Elder Eggleston, and our district leader is clear out in the 일산 district, because we are combined now.  It's a little interesting not having our district leader actually in our district, so there is still a little bit of confusion around there right now.  It's pretty interesting.  

This week, Elder Bradshaw got drafted into playing for the Easter Music Nights, and then drafted again by President to actually arrange a piece of music for the violin quartet.  So, as you can imagine, we spent a lot of time with that this week, so we were actually not able to meet with our investigator this week, sadly, but we are meeting with him tomorrow, so hopefully that goes well.  

On Tuesday, we had English Class.  Our district has recently started a children's class, so I take the intermediate class on Tuesdays now.  It was pretty fun.  There are some cool people in the intermediate class, that are definitely prepared.  We will be making sure to ask them about taking lessons pretty soon here.  We also taught English at a community center on Wednesday.  Bob came.  I don't believe I have talked about Bob yet.  He is pretty much the entire English class.  The missionaries found him about 3 or 4 years ago, and he has been with them ever since.  He has not received baptism yet, because he was not quite ready for it when asked.  He is best friends with the missionaries.  He knows all about districts, and transfers, and exchanges, and pretty much everything about how we run.  He wasn't able to come for the English Class on Saturday, until the very end.  It was pretty bad, because the Advanced class was literally empty without him there.  

This Friday, we were able to hear from the General Authorities in a worldwide missionary training meeting.  They haven't done one of these for over 10 years, probably about when PMG first came out.  It was very cool to see, they taught a lot.  They taught us about they way that we should be doing missionary work, and it was a little pressuring at times, but it was a wonderful experience.  

사랑합니다!

Elder Tyler Conley^^

Tyler's district before Elder Sol left.

Left to Right: Elder Bradshaw, Tyler, Sister Lautaha and Sister Preisler, Elder Eggleston and Elder Sol

The little boy is해찬, the son of the first counselor in the bishopric.

I asked Tyler this week why he puts ^^ all over his letters.  He said it's a Korean smiley face.

Transfers

01/17/16

안녕하세요, 여러분!!!^^

This week was transfer calls, and then the transfers are on Wednesday... Scary.  It was also my 6 month mark as a missionary, which is really weird, because I still feel like I'm really new.  As far as transfers go, I am staying in 원당, and so is Elder Bradshaw!  Elder Sol is leaving, and Elder Eggleston is becoming a zone leader, rather than a district leader.  Elder Bradshaw really doesn't want to be district leader, and since our district has only four elders, it seemed as if he were going to be district leader.  He was soooooooo worried.  But, it turns out that our district is combining with the 일산 district now, so Elder Flora from 일산 will be our district leader.  Also, two elders from my 동기 (they came to Korea at the same time as me) are going to be companions in 일산, so I will get to see them at every district meeting.  How exciting!!

The first half of this week was spent finishing up moving apartments.  We are finally done!  We finished on Tuesday night.  Then, on Wednesday, I went on exchanges with Elder Eggleston.  We 전도ed for a little while, and then we had to shovel the church parking lot, because it snowed!  It finally snowed!  It was kind of funny, because while I was shoveling, I remembered that the last time I shoveled snow, there was 4 feet of it, and I was doing it in shorts, a t-shirt, and flip flops.  That was weird.  It actually snowed again today, so that was a nice surprise to wake up to.  When I say it snowed, I mean about half an inch of snow.  It's not really a lot of snow, but it's something.  Then, on Thursday, we didn't even get to do companionship study, because the AP's wanted Elder Eggleston to come in for a Korean pass off test at 10, and then they had a whole bunch of other appointments, so he pretty much didn't start until 1, and finished at about 3-3:30.  So, I spent the entire day at the office.  I got to see a lot of missionary friends, because President was also having interviews at the same time.  But, I have also decided that I never want to become an office elder.  Probably, now that I've said that, I'm going to become one now.  I guess we'll find out.  

On Friday, we had to go on exchanges again, because our team had two appointments at once, so I was with Elder Eggleston for about 2 days, instead of just the normal 1.  On Saturday, we handed out English Flyers to a bunch of people so they could come to our English class, which we did right after that.  Then, we had Family Home Evening.  We played "Do You Love Your Neighbor" for the game.  When we had to wrap up, I was the last one to lose, so Elder Eggleston made me sing a song in front of everyone there.  But, luckily, there is no video of me singing "I'm a Little Teapot" in front of a bunch of Koreans.  Close call.

That wraps up this week!  Thank you all so much!

사랑합니다!

Elder Tyler Conley

Too Soon!

01/10/16

오!  안녕하세요, 여러분!

Sorry I am emailing a little bit late today.  We had a 식사 with our ward mission leader, and they fed us 돈까스 (donkas), which is like a fried pork cutlet.  And, since they made it pretty much a buffet, and since it's rude not to eat a little bit, Elder Bradshaw and I competed to see who could eat the most.  We tied at 14.  

This week we did not end up doing a whole lot because we moved houses.  I literally just cleaned a house to be sold 4 weeks ago, and now I had to do it again.  Not terribly exciting.  And, our new house is much smaller than our old one.  As the other elders have said, it would make a wonderful two man house, but it is for four people, so it's not very great.  We started moving Thursday morning, and we are still not finished, because downsizing makes it really hard to get rid of everything, especially when you live in Korea, and their recycling laws would take my whole email time to describe.  

As far as other missionary work this week, we were only able to meet with 임상현 (I spelled his name wrong last time).  As of last time, he had thought that the Book of Mormon was a spellbook, and that Jesus was a wizard (and I really hope he was mostly just kidding about that, but I really don't know).  So, this time, we had to tell him how all of the basics were, and it was an okay lesson.  He's reading the Book of Mormon now, so we should see some progression here soon.  

I was also able to see a convert baptism this week.  His name is 류명석, and he is the other team's recent convert.  He is really cool, and watching his baptism was a wonderful experience.  

That's actually all we did this week, because we were moving for most of it.  Sorry!

사랑합니다!

Elder Tyler Conley

A Little Extra Something

01/09/16

I'm not sure when this happened, but I know it was in Tyler's first area.  A sister in our ward was doing a lesson about missionary work.  She sent an email to all the missionaries in our ward asking for an experience from their mission.  This is what he wrote to her, and then she gave it to me.  I don't remember him ever telling this story to us, so I'm posting it here.

"Last week, on an assignment from the ward we are serving in right now, we were searching for less active members or members who had recently moved in.  We went to a large apartment complex and the doorman there told us that the address we had didn't exist, but he took our card and promised to call us if the people we were looking for came to his building.  Then, unexpectedly, he invited us into his office.  It turns out he was a less active member of the Church.

This told me that we can't just give up after every little disappointment or roadblock that comes in our way.  We have to try to reach our objectives, especially the ones that God has given us."

새해행복많이받으세요! (That means Happy New Year)

01/03/16

안녕하세요!  Happy New Year!!

It turns out, New Years is actually a full-on holiday here.  I am pretty sure that New Years was just as fun as Christmas was here.  We had a ward party, where we ate some 떡국 (I don't really know how to explain it.  It is just some sort of super delicious soup) and ice cream, and played 육노리, which is pretty much Korean Sorry.  When you eat 떡국 on New Years Day, you turn a year older, so I am now 20 years old.  How crazy is that?  It's like I've grown 2 years older in the time I've been gone!  I am pretty sure that 육노리 is a traditional game, so the old ladies were playing it really hard and totally getting into it, and it was really cute and funny.  It was definitely a party

I can't really remember a lot of this week, even with the aid of my planner.  On Monday night, we had a testimony meeting for anyone who participated in the Music Nights, which includes me, I guess, even though I didn't do very much.  It was very cool to see how these Music Nights increased the faith of everyone that had participated in them, even the ones that came to watch.  It was definitely a great testimony builder, and good, wholesome music can touch the hearts of everyone that hears it.  It is truly wonderful.  Then, on Tuesday we had P-day, because it was our Temple P-day!  It is always a good experience to go to the temple.  Then we went to a museum about the Korean War.  I was with Elder Baird the whole time, which was really fun.  There was a curator there who walked up to us and told us literally everything about the Korean war.  It was really cool, but it made our heads hurt.  On Wednesday, we had district meeting, along with the 일산 district, because their district, due to recent events, has gone down from 8 missionaries to 4, so they were with us for district meeting.  Then, we met with our recent convert, 서우철, and ate pizza at Pizza Hut.  He is a pretty cool guy.  He studies at an Aerospace college!  Then, for Thursday, my planner looks like it got hit by a train.  We had to switch up literally all of our plans, because we had President interviews, and Elder Bradshaw had to go do LPP, and we had to meet an investigator at the same time.  It was pretty crazy.  President interviews were great.  I love President Sonksen so much.  We met with our investigator, 임상혀, on exchanges.  He is absolutely insane.  But, he is so funny.  He is a complete video game addict, and so we are trying to help him get out of that and find faith and stuff like that, and I think there will be progress soon.  Then we planned on Friday.  On Saturday, we had family home evening, but only two brothers in the gospel came.  So, the elders just took them out for chicken, and that was pretty fun.  I am the same age as 유민규, who is one that came, so that automatically makes us best friends.  Then, on Sunday, we had church and went street boarding.  I hope that all of you have had a great week, and have another great one next week!

사랑합니다!

Elder Conley

 A butcher shop

 Making gingerbread houses with the ward

Guess who!

I asked Tyler what street boarding is.  Here's his response:

Streetboarding is hanging out on a street with a board and asking people to stick a sticker to the board regarding which thing on the board they think is the most important.  It is a good way to get a lot of gospel contacts, which is very important in my area, since people can be scarce.  On one streetboard, it asks what the most important thing is, and has stuff like religion, money, family, education, etc.  On the other one, it asks if you met God, what would you ask him, and it says why is life so hard, where do I go when I die, what is life's purpose, and what do you want me to do.

Merry Christmas!!!

12/27/15

메리크리스마스, 여러분!

Well, this was a really crazy week.  I am not really even sure who I should call my companion for this week.  This week, I was with Elder Mattingly, Elder Sol, Elder Lee, and Elder Bradshaw.  It was pretty crazy.  I'll just tell you what we did for Christmas this year.  On Tuesday, we had a Christmas conference at President's house with two other districts.  It was really fun.  We talked about faith, had Danish pancakes, and sang Christmas carols.  We also talked about goal setting because it's also the new year.  It was a blast.  I got to hang out with 녹번 district even more!  Then, on Thursday and Friday, Elder Bradshaw had to go to two more Music Nights.  So, I went on some crazy exchanges for that.  Christmas was really fun.  When we woke up, we opened some presents that our families gave us, and then the rest of the day was a normal day.  We just street contacted the whole rest of the day.  Then, Elder Bradshaw was finally finished with the Music Nights, so we had a nice dinner on Saturday.  On Saturday, I got to Skype my family, so that was fun.  Then, on Sunday, it was church, and then two different members fed us dinner, and I felt like I was going to explode.  

That's this week, because I am pressed for time this time.  

Love,

Elder Tyler Conley

And a little more:

On Saturday night, I called some people from my first area to wish them Merry Christmas.  I called Mike and Sue, and John.  They were all really happy to hear from me.  John asked when I was planning to come back to Seoul, but I had to tell him that I don't really know.  I tried to call 김성민, but he didn't answer my call.  I also called the Elders in 화양, and they were soooooooooo happy to hear from me.  Elder Ellingford answered the phone, and said in a plain voice, "Hello Elder Conley,"  and in the background, I could hear Elder Carmen cheering because I called.  Elder Jeong was really happy to hear from me too.  He really misses me.  

Christmas Day!

12/25/15

When we spoke with Tyler on Christmas day we asked him to bear his testimony to us in Korean.  Here is the recording:

Tyler's testimony #2