Nov. 28, 2011

So this past week was transfers and I was transferred up to Shingar and my new companion's name is Elder Williams. He's a lot more strict compared to my last companion, but I have a feeling it will probably be for my better. So when I first came into my new apartment, I was horrified. The place is a complete dump. There is mold all over the walls and ceiling and my comp and his last companion lived like pigs so there is dust everywhere and hair everywhere and it is just really really disgusting. I filled up 2 big garbage bags just filled with trash, I hate how dirty some missionaries live, it really grosses me out.  Even my companion thinks it's gross and seeing how he lives, this place is just a nightmare.The place is looking cleaner now. Our new area is good though, there is definitely a lot of potential here and the people are all super friendly so I'm excited to serve here. That's pretty much it though, we've spent a lot of time these past few days proselyting and getting to know the area so hopefully something fun happens this week.

Nov. 21, 2011

So this last week has been pretty hectic, well actually today was pretty hectic. I thought that there was no way I was going to get transferred this week because they have a new greenie training that they do which is 12 weeks long so I thought I was going to be with my trainer for a while, but the President made some pretty major changes and now Elder Farrell is going to be zone leader and since I've been only out for 1 transfer, I am too young to be an assistant zone leader so I am going north to Suwon in the Shingar area. I'm happy because my new companion will be Elder Williams and he is really awesome, but I'm sad at the same time because we had so many things lined up for next transfer and I finally felt like things were really going to get going, but I'm being transferred now so my involvement in these plans will be no more. I am excited to go up to Shingar though, it is in city area so I'm excited to be back in the city again and it is also right by Korea's Disneyland, Everland. So I'm really excited to be going up there. Last week I also went on splits to the countryside and I absolutely hated it. I loved the Elder I went on splits with, his name is Elder Hwang, but he just tells people to call him Elder Wayne because Americans just butcher his name when they say it. We pretty much taught English to a lot of different people who had absolutely no gospel interest so that wasn't really that fun. I did meet a lot of interesting people, but it was just lame teaching English the whole time I was out there.

Nov. 14, 2011

 

Things this week were good. We had Zone Conference down in Daejeon this week which was good, it was nice to see a lot of missionaries from our mission. Definitely the best day of last week was Sunday. We had 2 investigators come to church this week which was really awesome. It was the primary program this week so they had the chance to see a bunch of cute Korean kids singing and they were able to hear a simple gospel message from them. Afterwards they attended a baptism with us and during the baptism the girl getting baptised bore her testimony and her conversion story which was really good for them both to hear. We are planning on setting dates with them both in this next coming week so we are really excited. We are worried about one because he is extremely shy and he really only stays around his member friend, but he has a real desire to learn about the gospel and he has the member support which is really good. His friend brought him to church last week and that was the first time that we met him. His name is Yu Kyu Dong and he is pretty much a genius. He is 35 years old and is studying pharmacology at the Harvard of Korea. He is getting Masters at the moment. His member friend is actually a Professor whose family lives in Provo right now so he speaks fluent English which is really nice for us. That's pretty much all that happened last week though, we took some time meeting certain investigators for the last time and then dropping them to our weekly English class because they had no desire to listen to our message, all they wanted to do was to learn English.

 

Nov. 7, 2011

So this week was a little slow, Elder Farrell was sick for the first part of the week so not too much happened then. My Aunt Linda gave us a referral of a girl who lived in her ward in Albuquerque who is a member, but didn't know where the church was in her area in Korea and my Aunt told me to meet her if she was in our area or refer her to missionaries in her area. Well, as it turns she lives in our area which was really awesome. We met her and she told us up front that she really didn't want to come to church unless her parents (non-members) came to church with her because she doesn't know anyone here which we totally understand because it's hard moving to a new ward by yourself and not know anyone there. I certainly wouldn't want to go to a new ward by myself and not know anyone there. We told her that our ward was really good and filled with a lot of foreigners and that she would love it and that we would be there with her always. That seemed to open her up a little bit to the idea of coming to church. She then told that she would come on Sunday if she could, but unfortunately they celebrated her mom's birthday on Sunday so she wasn't able to come. It was ok though because she said she would come next week. Another cool thing that happened was that we were able to meet our investigator U Won Te with our bishop and he is showing more and more interest in the church. He came with his scriptures marked with questions to ask us and the bishop was able to answer them no problem with his testimony and brief history of the Book of Mormon. Unfortunately he hasn't come to church with us yet because he has been busy, but he sent us a really cool text on Saturday night saying that next week he has to come to church. We were going to invite him to be baptized last lesson, but the bishop kind of took over the lesson (in a good way) so we didn't feel right extending the invitation. We're planning on inviting him this week so hopefully he will want to be baptized. Final cool thing that happened last week was that we got in a bus crash!!! It was insane, we were going out to see the Chungju Elders because Elder Farrell is the District leader and he needed to do the baptismal interview for them. So we are going over this hill and then our bus driver slams on the brakes and then we hit the car in front of us. It really wasn't that insane, but now I can say that I have gotten in an accident on public transportation!

Oct. 31, 2011

Last week was a good week for missionary work and for Elder Farrell and I. Last P-day we went hiking all day and it kind of sucked because we were super tired all throughout this past week. We were expecting a little hill because that's what Korean people call hiking. It's really funny because they get decked out in Northface clothing gear and have hiking boots and walking poles and all they are doing is walking up a paved road that is just slightly going up hill. Anyways, that's what we were expecting and our potential investigator, Birdman, takes us on this extremely steep 8 mile hike. We were just so dead afterwards and it kind of threw off last week, but we still did see so many wonderful things. Anyways, we didn't have time to buy groceries or anything like that so we were going to HomePlus (Korea's Walmart) and we get a call from a former investigator who we hadn't met yet and he was like I want to meet you guys, when is the soonest time we can meet? We immediately got on the bus and went to the church and met him there and the dood has so much potential. He's 20 years old and the only reason why he stopped meeting us in the first place was because his dad hates our church and told him not to meet us, but now that he's in college he wants to meet with us so we are super stoked. We met him twice last week and gave him a BoM and he seems super interested so we're super stoked. We're trying to build a relationship between him and some of our ward members so he has some incentive to go to church. We also met another investigator on Wednesday named Kim Sang Gyo and he is pretty awesome as well. Him and I get along really well and he seems interested in the gospel which is good. We also met with our favorite investigator U Wan Te and he just shocked us with how much he wants to know about this gospel. We invited him to Friday night basketball and afterwards we talked with him for a little bit about his Book of Mormon reading and he said that he had read everything we asked him to read and he had so many good questions. We asked him to read 2 Nephi 31 and in verse 1 it says something like Nephi couldn't write everything down that he wanted or something like that and U Wan Te was like "Why couldn't Nephi continue writing in the Book of Mormon?" It took us back because we had never really thought about it that much but we just explained that sometimes they can't write down everything God reveals to them because God tells them not to and that because he was about to die that he didn't have too much more time to write in the Book of Mormon. He is awesome though, he said his first prayer with us and we hope that he gets baptized because it will help our other investigator, I Je Hun, get baptized because the two of them are really good friends and I Je Hun isn't as interested as U Wan Te. That's pretty much the main cool events that happened this week though, we had a crazy halloween party that was super fun, we had a spook alley and we made some kids cry so I considered it a success. I was at the end and I popped out of a door and would scare people, it was super fun.

Oct. 24, 2011

Korea is good though, we have really good investigators who seem to be pretty interested in our church. My two favorite investigators are ii je hun and u wan te, they are friends and ii je hun's had was found through contacting and then he referred us to his son and then through his son we found u wan te as well. They both seem to have a genuine interest in the church which is really good. Unfortunately my Korean sucks pretty bad (but i'm good for a greenie at least!) so I can't understand a lot of things, but it's ok though because Elder Farrell understands everything so I can work through him. It's also good because all our investigators right now speak some English so it helps a lot, I can actually talk to them in English and get to know them which is really good. I can teach in Korean just fine because that's all we did in the MTC, but when it comes to conversational Korean I suck, but it's ok because it'll come as I am here longer.

Love,

Elder Miller

Oct. 16, 2011

Korea is super fun though, it reminds me so much of Japan it's not even funny. I found some tacoyaki on friday and I was in heaven, it was soo good. I'm just so happy to be in this area. Right now i'm in Cheongju and our ward is so awesome. A lot of the speak some english which makes it easier for me and everyone loves us so I know we'll be able to do great work in this area. They are all really excited about missionary work as well so I am super excited.

Our investigators are good too, I've only have a lesson with one so far but he is really awesome. His name is I je hun and his dad pushed him to meet with us although he isn't even a member of the church. They have a program here called 30-30 where we speak english for the first 30 minutes with our investigators and just get to know them and teach them English and the second 30 minutes is a gospel lesson in Korean. It's a really good program because it helps us build trust with our investigators and helps us get to know each other.

Love,

Elder Miller

Oct. 11, 2011

So I arrived safely here in Korea and slept like a baby last night. I purposely didn't sleep at all on the 12 hour flight so I could just crash when I got here so it worked out great. Unfortunately I didn't have any time in San Francisco to shop around or anything like that because they spaced our flights so close together that we only had about 20 minutes to spare. I am doing well though, I am just writing you to let you know that I got here safely, I'll have to write you again next week because I'm not supposed to be on the computer for a very long time. Anyways, it's been good here so far, we went to a public bath house this morning and it reminded me of Japan, this whole country reminds me of Japan which is nice. I'll send you another email next week giving you more information about Korea.

Love,

Elder Miller

Oct. 4, 2011

So highlight of last week was definitely General Conference. It was really nice not to have any class or anything like that on Saturday and then listen to the talks all day on Sunday. The Korean is coming well though, most of this week is going to be hyped around leaving for Korea on Monday. Sorry this email is kind of short but I'm running out of time so I've gotta go. If my flight schedule changes in any way I'll let you know.

Love,

Elder Miller

Sept. 27, 2011

Hi Mom

 

So the Korean is still coming along well, I really wish I could report on more, but all we do all day is just learn Korean and how to teach the gospel. I'm excited because this weekend is General Conference and supposedly General Conference in the MTC is really good. Nothing really that interesting happened this week either aside from us getting our new Korean Elders. They are all really funny and they teach me lots of funny words in Korean. One of them is no joke just like me, but Korean. He's got the exact same body as me and we always joke around. I'll have to send some pictures home this week or something. I need to get them printed out, but I figure I should give you some pictures to see how I am doing.

 

I do have some extra room in my suitcase for things. I will let you know in my next email around what time I will call you. I get my travel plans this Thursday so I am so excited. I would love to receive some cookies or something from home, if you are planning on mailing me some stuff from home is there anyway you can include my green and black headphones? The ones you sent only work in one ear and it'll be really annoying to only listen to music in one ear on the airplane. If you can't find them don't stress though, I can just buy some in the airport of something so don't worry too much. Other than that though I don't really think I need anything else from home, if you have anything you would like me to take I will gladly take it, but I think I'm ok.

 

Well that's pretty much it for this week unfortunately, I've got 13 more days here in the MTC and then I'm off for Korea so I'm super excited. I know it will be different when I get over there for sure, but I'm looking forward to it. I hope all is well at home. I'm doing fine here so don't worry about me. I just can't wait to leave the MTC, these next 2 weeks are going to fly by though for sure!

 

Love,

 

Elder Miller

Sept. 20, 2011

Hi Mom,

 

Elder Rostrom and I saw each other all the time and it was nice that he was in the MTC at the same time I was, I'm glad we could take a picture together. Before I leave for Korea I'll print out all the pictures on my camera and I'll send them home to you so you can see what is going on here in the MTC. I heard that the air conditioner rule is the same thing in Korea, so it will be a little bit of a burden, but we're not home all day anyways so it's not too big of a deal. I think I'll be ok (hopefully). I'm just really antsy to get out to Korea, this is my 8th full week in the MTC now so I have only about 2 1/2 more to go so I'm so excited. The language is going well too, I'm picking more up day by day and it's amazing to see how much I have progressed in the short amount of time I have been here in the MTC. One of the Elders that came in last week actually knows Brandt Miller for West Point and he's going to Vancouver, Canada so he'll see Brady when he gets up there. We also get our native Korean Elders today so I'm excited to see them, one actually came early yesterday so we got to hang out with him last night. That's pretty much all I really have to report on here in the MTC, things are really routine, but we're having fun as a zone so I guess I have it pretty good. 

 

Love,

 

Elder Miller

Sept. 13, 2011

the food here in the MTC sucks so bad, it's all fried and nasty so I've just been eating salads this past week. Things are going good though, learning Korean is getting easier and I'm learning more each day which is good (I know this is all I ever really say, but that's because nothing really goes on here other than learning Korean and practicing teaching the gospel). Elder Crowther and I now give lessons with absolutely no notes or anything at all anymore and it was really cool because when we were teaching in the TRC, the Korean girls we were teaching said that we speak better Korean that some of the Elders that have been out in Korea for over a year, so that was really cool to hear

 

Other than that nothing too much has been going on, we did get our new Elders last week and they are all really fun guys. We all share similar interests so no one is really ever left out of anything which is nice. I'm so excited though because we only have under 4 weeks to go so I'm way excited to get out to Korea. I'll keep you updated on what happens here the best I can, it's the MTC so not too much is happening at the moment. Anyways, thanks for everything!

 

Love,

Elder Miller

Sept. 6, 2011

Hi Mom,

 

The elders don't actually come in until tomorrow but we are all way excited to meet them. Things have been pretty boring here this last week, all the other elders left so we've had really nothing to do. We are also in the process of moving buildings since they are renovating the one we were in before so hopefully our new rooms are nice, unfortunately they'll probably just be the same. Things have been going pretty well here, but it has been more boring that usual lately. All we do is learn korean all day and then learn how to teach in korean which is good, but it's sometimes boring. It's ok though, I only have 5 more weeks here in the MTC so I'll be out of here soon enough. Anyways, take care, make sure Jack is being a good boy for me.

 

Love,

Elder Miller

Aug. 30, 2011

Hi Mom,

 

I'm doing really great, thanks for asking. It was really great seeing Brother and Sister Waits, I noticed that she was using a cane so I hope that she is ok. It was funny because I don't think she recognized me at first becasue I was talking to her husband for a few seconds and then she was finally like "ELDER MILLER!" It was kind of funny.

 

So things have been going well this past week, it was really cool because we taught an actual non-member Korean in the TRC (teaching resource center- where member's usually pretend to be investigators) and it was really cool. She didn't know anything really about the gospel and her friend who was a return missionary brought her in to hear what we new missionaries had to say about the gospel. We just bore a simple testimony of the Book of Mormon and how if we read it we can feel God's love and know that it is true. After the meeting it was cool because we were able to commit her to pray about our message and to read the Book of Mormon. It was a really cool experience teaching someone who has no idea about our church.

 

So that's all I have to report on this week, things are going well, our older district left yesterday morning for Korea so there is only 4 elders and 6 sisters now, but we get some new missionaries next Wednesday so I'm really excited for that. I'm really going to miss the missionaries that left, the native Korean Elders were so funny and I took a lot of great picture so I'll have to print some out here from my camera and send them home before I leave.

 

I'm sorry that all I really do is ask ask ask for things, but I'm so grateful that you always get me the things I need. Another thing that happened this week was that I was called to be district leader in the MTC. I just thought I would let you know. I'm not really proud of it, I didn't want to be it really, but when there are only 4 elders in the disctrict, it's bound to happen. I'm sure the more responsibility will be good for me, but as of now I'm not sure of how I will like this new calling. Just letting you know.

 

Love,

Elder Miller

Aug. 23, 2011

The language has gotten a lot easier too and I am able to speak so much more now. This week makes it 4 full weeks in the MTC so far so I have about 6 or 7 more to go. I can't wait to get out to Korea, I was talking to the natives that are here now and they said that Korea is a really nice place. It has the second best public transportation in the world (Tokyo is number 1 :) and they said that I can get Japanese food while I am over there. They have sashimi and udon and soba and all that good stuff so I am excited to get there. I'm so sick of the MTC food, it's always nasty so I don't eat too much so hopefully I am losing some weight, I can never tell though. I broke my promise of not drinking any chocolate milk this week and I had a cup for breakfast a couple times. I am eating healthy though so I am doing pretty well. That's pretty much all I have to report on this week though, things are the same everyday, I go to class and gym and stuff like that. One fun thing that did happen this week was that Elder Crowther and I were able to get out of the MTC because he needed to pick up his glasses so we were actually on University Ave. for a little bit and I was in the same building where Ashman Dental is!  Anyways, I love you and hope all is going well at home, thank's for keeping me updated everyday. Give Jack a big hug for me.

Love,

Elder Miller

Aug. 16, 2011

Things are going well here in the MTC though, Korean is such an ugly language but it is coming along well. I spend most of the day in classes learning Korean and learning how to teach the gospel. I wish I could tell you more about what is going on but not too much has gone on. Thank you so much though for sending me my shirts and shoe horns. I'll probably throw away most of the shirts I brought out here because they'll get trashed anyways. Anyways, I ran into another person this week from HK, I ran into Chris Hoer's older brother. I overheard someone talking about how they had lived in Hong Kong and I started talking with him, sure enough it was his older brother. Turns out he is going to Taiwan Mandarin speaking. The two of them came in on the same day.  I was pretty happy to see someone from Hong Kong. Honestly, I don't even remember him from HK, but I was still happy to talk to him. Our zone got some native Korean Elders who will be leaving in 2 weeks, and they are all really nice and funny. We play Korean games and stuff like that at night and they share their Korean food with me, it's actually quite good. They put his chili paste with meat in it and mix it with rice and sesame oil and it tastes very good. Anyways, I appreciate your DearElders you send to me everyday, tell Matt and Tom to quite being such buttholes and send me a letter. I love you and Jack very much and hope you are doing well.

Love,

Elder Miller

Aug. 9, 2011

Aug. 9, 2011

Hi Mom,

So the Korean elders got transferred because they need to learn to gospel in English first, then they'll come back after 2 weeks and then leave at the end of this month. They don't have any replacements for them so our zone is pretty small, we have 6 elders and 8 sisters in our zone so it is among the smallest in the MTC. The language is coming along great though, i'm learning more and more each day and I'm not really stressing too much about it because I know it will come..

 Anyways, I love you and Jack very much and hope for the best!

Love,

Elder Miller

Aug. 2, 2011

Hey Mom,

 

So the MTC has been pretty good so far, I'm not really feeling homesick too much which has been really nice. I hope all is well at home with Jack though.  Anyways, my companion's name is Elder Crowther and it has been a real blessing having him as a companion because we get along so well. The two other missionaries in our residence hall are both Korean and they are both so nice and funny. They are both full Korean, but raised in Utah so they don't speak a whole lot of Korean (a little worse that how I speak Japanese). They are both really funny and nice and help me a ton with my Korean which has been another huge blessing.

 

So I was really frustrated the first couple of days since I wasn't understanding the language and I was really upset that I got called to Korea, but I prayed really hard that these bad feelings would go away and things have gotten so much better. I am learning at an amazing rate and I am understanding more and more Korean each day. My Korean is still horrible, but for 1 week I think that I have learned a lot. I can read (very slowly) and know some memorized lines and phrases and that's pretty much it. I have seen Ryan Rostrom almost everyday in the MTC and i've also run into kids from High school which has been fun. I don't remember if I told you or not but I leave on October 10 (estimated day) so I have another 10 weeks in the MTC which isn't going to be super fun. I would much rather be out in Korea right now, but so far I have loved the MTC. I eat salads everyday for my meals and I haven't even drank any milk yet! I am so proud of myself. We went to the temple this morning which was really nice, we ate at teh cafeteria in the temple and it was sooooo good. I definitely over ate, but it was ok since it was a once a week kind of deal. If you could Dear Elder me after you read this email that would be great since I won't be able to access my email until next Tuesday. I will also try my best to write you throughout the week. If you could send me some stamps that would be greatly appreciated though.

 

Anyways, make sure that Jack is a good boy and make sure you beat him for me! (just kidding)

Love,

 

Elder Miller

Address

Elder James Alexander Miller
MTC Mailbox # 323
KOR-DAE 1011
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793