Week 16 in Korea

Greetings Family and Friends!

Hey all sounds like everyone is doing well I presume. From what letters tell me all is good which I’m relieved to hear about. ^^

All is well in Korea, Elder Ballam and I have celebrated by the wonder package we received full of peanut butter and dorritos...you have know idea how happy we were to get those. We had PB&J sandwiches for dinner that night for how wonderful they were. Oh it was good. Peanut butter is my friend.

Elder Ballam and I have been working really hard down here 영도 we're aiming for 1 baptism before the end of the transfer...we've got two weeks left and were still aiming for it! Boo-yah! I can say that if I leave this transfer I'd be fine with leaving. Not because I want to, but because Elder Ballam is such a great guy so I have no worries for anything down here. He's such a good guy.

Investigators are doing well. They are all progressing pretty well. A cool story so, we were at church and that week we were talking to a taxi driver about our church. That Sunday he showed up! :O He came to us and said he was curious about the church and took a Book of Mormon. :D It was really cool!

Yes the weather has been rainy, but with new shoes my feet stay dry so I am happy haha!

I'm afraid that's all for this week short on time,

I continue to pray for you all and hope you all have a great week.
Love you all
Elder Harken

Week 15 in Korea

Hey family and friends,
I blinked...what happened? This week went fast...REALLY fast. A little scary. I don't like it.
Ok this week was really good. Sorry for the short delay on the letter, we went off to go play with a bunch of missionaries to play soccer so we sort of took off. I got a few letters done but...family letter didn't want to rush it you know. Anyways :D

The weather I feel is sort of like South Carolina with Utah's behavior... The humidity and the random weather changes. It gets intense some days. Hehe but don't sweat it I have a good umbrella so I'm good. The only thing I have to manage through is my shoes. Because I have been wearing the same shoes for 6 months the bottoms have worn through so...just look at the pic you'll see. XD Yeah kind of scary. D:



Some of you have requested what is our routine here in 영도, well the truth is: as missionaries we don't have one. But this is sort of our schedule. 6:30 we wake up...or try to XD until 7 we exercise, 7-8 we eat breakfast, 8-9 Personal Study where we study by ourselves, 9-10 Companionship study: Where we teach with our companion what we learned and any discussions, 10-10:30 Study Korean, 10:30 A.M. - 9:00 P.M. Appointments and 정도. From 9:30-10 Plan for the next day, 10-10:30 get ready for bed, 10:30 sleep. That's a sketch of an idea for our routine. Fun yes? I love it!

Investigators: All are doing well, been working hard at work with them, keep praying for them and for me and Elder Ballam trust me, we can get all that we can from you guys.

Funny Stories: Well I don't know if this is funny or not, but this week for the first time...I ate a dog. Yeah... the scary thing...it was good! O_O
Another story: We were door knocking and one lady answered the door and we sat there at the door for over an hour talking about the church.

Oh hear is a good one, So on Tuesday we had to head to President Jennings for a Zone Conference, now it takes about an hour to get there from here. So we decided to leave around 8. That day it rained HARD. Like it looked like a flash flood hit us. The weather and the traffic were so bad we finally got there around 10:30! It took us forever. The pic shows a little justice. We saw water drains shooting up like 2 feet of water in the air. We wish we got it on camera but we couldn't get them in time with the bus.



I like to say this transfer is going a lot faster than any of my other transfers...I don't like it. This means one thing...I need to work faster.

But yes, fun week. As always, everyone at home: Work Hard, Do not Complain, Work Hard.

Love you all see you next week
하켄 장로

Week 14 in Korea

Hello family and friends!

How's it going for everyone? Hope you all had a great 4th of July in America. Here in Korea we sang Star Spangled Banner. Yep we love America still over here. ^^

So, yes this week went really fast for us this week. I mean we're already starting our 3rd week this transfer...hmmm and I still don't know Korean...this could be trouble.

Anyways, this week Elder Ballam and I were on FIRE! We've been doing a lot of searching and we've gotten over 20 contacts to try this week and this isn't including our numbers from last week! Elder Ballam is an amazing Missionary. He's just shy to not say anything. Plus he's really tall! So, you got this 5'8 Elder and this 6'4 (I think) Elder It's really funny.

Our investigators are doing really well, one of them now does a sort of a pen write with me. We write back and forth seeing if we can understand the other. She's very funny to write too. XD

But yeah, that's really all for this week. So...yeah does anyone have any questions about anything? I know I don't tell a lot about Korea it's because I fail at finding things unique until someone asks. >.<

Well, that's all love you all!
Elder Harken

Week 13 in Korea

Hello family and friends!

Wow, talk about your week about news!

So yeah, here in Korea we heard that MJ died of a Heart Attack. One of my investigators sent me a text saying this "Harken! News! Michael Jackson dead! Cardiac Arrest!" Me and my companion were like WHAT?!?! Very shocking, but Thriller will always be in my heart forever...

Anyways, yes. I'm doing great this week compared to my last letter. I feel I didn't give my new companion a great welcome. Let's try this again shall we? May I present ELDER BALLAM! Who is from Logan, Utah. This young man has three younger brothers, and loves Batman Dark Knight and Whose line is it anyway. He's been serving for 8 months in Korea. I'm his first Jr. Companion. Kind of funny, but he served with Elder Shumway. Now for any of you that don't know the story, apparently I have a blog being made by my sis, this idea came from the Elder Shumway blog (same idea) When I told Elder Ballam he called and Shumway was like What?! It was funny. But yeah a really good missionary I like him.

This week we did a lot of "Building Relationship Trust" because he's new down here I get to show him around. It's fun.
Our investigators are doing great, all are progressing. I have now the responsibility of contacting one of them at night. Even though I lack Korean XD. I just request you pray for them. :)

Oh last week we moved! I failed to mention this sorry D: It took all day and the house is sweet. There is a catch to the house...we can't see Japan anymore :( but the house is way better than before.

But yes. That's all for this week.

Love you all talk to you next week Happy 4th of July folks!
Elder Harken

Week 12 in Korea

The rains came down and the missionary got soaked....
Yep, you all guessed it, rain season has come at last -.-;
Hello family and friends!

As we all left off, transfers are done for this time. The results...I'm staying in 영도 but Elder Sinden is headed to a new area called "America" strange can't find it on the map >.> ... yep Elder Sinden is gone. I sent him away this morning. But now for my next victim...I mean companion Elder Ballum! He's a cool guy. So far he seems really nice. I look forward to working with him.

Work here is going smoothly. Our investigators our doing great, but we’re all really sad that Elder Sinden is leaving. Hopefully I can keep them and not lose them D:

Umm this week was really hard for Elder Sinden and me because he was leaving and I had to say good-bye to a really good friend. I have a feeling we'll see each other again sometime but it's kind of hard to say good-bye to a good companion. :(

BUT I SHALL GO ON FOR THE MISSION! Yes.

That's really all I have for this week sorry X( I hope to give more info later.

Love you all and I hope to speak to you next week not drenched XD
Love,
Elder Harken!

Week 11 in Korea

Greetings family and friends!

Guess what? On June 14 I've been on a Mission for 6 months!!! WOW! Times flies! It really does here on a mission. The thing is I have way too much to do before I can say I'm satisfied with the missionary work I have done so far. Yep lots of work and memorizing @.@

Week review for this week:
LOTS have gone down this week. Because Elder Sinden goes home on Next Monday I have a lot of things to do. "Building Relation Trust" as I will put it where I need the Branch and investigators to trust me enough that the next Elder doesn't scare them away (that has happened in the field I have heard)

Monday: Well, on this day I found something out about my Branch President that made me and him almost friends instantly! I was at his house and I noticed that he had all these Gundam Models (Rachel explain to the family what that means) and I thought "Oh, his son is a fan of Gundam" ...No. It's HIM that's the fan! He has this one model that's over $200!!! And Rachel it's from Gundam Seed. He knows everything about Gundam it was awesome. He wanted to get the whole branch to come to his house and watch Gundam 00 with him for family home evening after he taught a spiritual lesson.... it was very tempting. >_<

Tuesday: I decided one thing...that my knowledge about Anime has finally become a very useful tool to grab people’s trust. We were meeting with one of our investigators and her cousin and we were going to eat LIVE OCUTPUSS! Yeah (it was actually really good! Besides the things sticking to your tongue XD) While we were heading there I started talking to the cousin and asked what he liked. He replied with he watches tv. I asked him if he watched Gundam (they don't know the word Anime) he looked at me with disbelief and asked if I knew Gundam. I told him I knew Gundam Seed really well. With our language wall we talked about which gundam we liked and why. Later as we were eating he told our investigator I knew anime. She looked at him with disbelief and said to him "Do you think he knows Inu-Yasha?" As soon as I heard that I said "저는 inuyasha 사랑합니다!" ( I love inusyahsa! ) She went beserk! Then they started asking me if I knew all these shows I knew about 95% of them they were shocked. Then they put me to the test and asked me if I knew a song from Inuyahsa. I sang her favorite song, she went crazy! It was awesome! After that I really gained some trust from both of them!

Wed: Nothing really exciting happened this day but I did get a cute call. Our investigator (from Tuesday 김수진) She always talks to Sinden at night and asks questions about the church. One night I'm sitting there and Sinden hands me the phone and says she sent me a text to have you call her. I was really confused but I did. She talked to me a little bit and then she asked if she could sing to me. She sang her favorite Inuyasha song for me. Note: she is really shy so her doing this was really shocking. But none the less I think it works for "BRT" :)

Thurs: We actually got a new investigator! He's a foreigner! Kind of cool. Taught him he's smart! We're helping him learn Korean. He likes us a lot.

Sat: This day we were really happy, this was the first time one of our investigators said her first prayer. We were so happy. It is really cool to see your investigators start to change. You come to love your investigators so much that anything that brings them closer just feels you with joy. We were really happy.

But yes that's it for this week. A lot I know, but hey long letters are good right? So, what's the morale for the YM who might be serving in Asia? One thing: "know Anime" J/K but hey it might help.

Anyways I love you all see you all next week!
하켄 장로

Week 10 in Korea

Greetings family and friends!

Wow, this week went fast...maybe to fast D:!! Mhmm yes, well this week me and Sinden got a very interesting call from HQ's. We're Moving! Yep our apartment is basically kicking us out of our apartment on June 18 so we have to start working on moving. It's okay we've seen the new house. It's actually really nice, the only bad thing is we don't have are epic scenery. :(
But yeah we spent almost a whole day getting rid of missionary stuff that other missionary's left. It cost us $53 to get rid of all of it. We actually had to break a wardrobe to get it through the door. It reminded me of Trading Spaces it was funny. XD

This week we're working hard with our 3 investigators. All 3 are doing well. One is really close to baptism, but not quite there yet. We actually met with one of our investigator’s family for the first time and set a really good mood to help the whole family. So, we’re working (crossing fingers) X3

Elder Sinden and I are doing great. Kind of sad that I have less than 17 days with him until he goes home to America. :(

That's all for this week.
Friends: Forgive my lack writing Tia sent your letter last week, Gussie & The Stewart family sent your letters today. So be on the look out. :D

Love you all continue your epic summer everyone!
Elder Harken