Elder Michael Harken

08/23/2010

2010-08-24T11:14:00.000-06:00

Hey family!

Wow guys it's been a week for craziness. I can I feel really humbled when it comes to becoming a Senior. It's hard work! But it teaches you to stop relying on your own strength and really go for the Lords strength. Elder 김유진 has got to be one of my favorite companions so far! This guy is awesome! He is full of spiritual power and is THE MAN! This Elder is full of awesomeness :D He wants to work hard and sets the high example of being a good missionary. Something I need to work on myself.

The area here in 대명 is really nice....but really HOT! Apparently Daegu (the main city name) is the hottest area in all of Korea. So, missionaries serve here are the survivors as they are called. I like this area a lot, it's a mix of Country and BIG City! Right now, Elder Kim and I have been hard at work to find people on the street. All of our investigators that we have, have not been really available for meeting this week so, we decided to really make an effort to find people on the street.

It is a little difficult to do for a little bit, but with Elder Kim we make it fun. Something funny for him is that people think he is a foreigner and every time will say "Oh your Korean is really good!" This makes him very frustrated, but he knows how to use it for his advantage. He's a really nice guy and really wants to serve the Lord with all his heart. It's helped me as well to really do my best at keeping all the rules 100% (Working out in the morning is really hard lately) But I'm trying to be better.

Yesterday I met my ward, they are really nice! Our bishop was one of the main people who helped translate the Book of Mormon when it first was published into Korean! They are all really nice and I'm excited to get to work with them this transfer! I have about 65 members in the ward so I have a lot of memorizing to do. :D

I feel really good about this new area and I have a new jump start with Elder Kim a spark to really push myself harder then before that I have no regrets. It's been really a great experience to feel that rejuvenation.

Last week I actually had to go down to Busan because Elder Kim had to go to a military training (required for Korean Men) for a day. So....they put me at the HQ for a day. ..I've never seen people jump for me happily...it was scary. But I can say now that I'm glad I'm in the field than at a desk.

Well I must leave
Love you all,
Elder Harken

08/16/2010

2010-08-24T11:08:00.004-06:00

Hey family!

So you are all pretty interested of what happened on transfers aren't ya? Well....I'm not training. *whew* The 14 that are will be great trainers and I have faith they are called to do it right now. Now yes, I admit it is a little disappointing but it's not my place to tell the Lord or President what's good or bad. BUUUT, I do have some other news about transfers that you all might be curious about. For one thing I got moved! My companion Elder Kaing will train in 경산 (give him a hand for being a great missionary) and I have been moved about 45 minutes away in Daegu called 대명. (Dae-Myung) ...7 areas...big record.... >_> I also have a new companion who I can call a "greenie" for I'm his 2nd companion. Ladies and Gentleman let me introduce my first Junior Elder 김유진! (Kim Eu Jin) Yep, got another Korean Companion! So, your guess wasn't completely off just not a "brand new greenie" :P So also to add more fun, the house I live in is a 4 man house! Elder Green who works in 수성 also lives here with his new greenie who he'll train. It shall be a very entertaining transfer. Also indeed we have been rained on to death over here, not to mention the thunder! It's SO LOUD over here! Mom you would love it! It has cooled off but the humidity does hit us hard afterward....not fun....
So about today, so after moving to the new house (very big but very ghetto) we went up to a HUGE Buddha temple place where all these Buddha temples are. Lot of cool pics hence why this email is very short. (no time :*( ) But I leave more pics (sorry about last week they kicked us out due to time.)

So I have to be quick other elders have to write,
Love you all,
Elder Harken

08/09/2010

2010-08-24T11:04:00.003-06:00

Hey family!

Wow today I'm afraid I have to be pretty short BUT I'll leave a lot of pics explaining my self of why this is. I just got here about 30 minutes ago so I have to be quick. So yeah 5 weeks are about up so it's time for transfer calls this Thursday! This one is pretty intense because we have 14 elders coming! ....Yeah I'm in trouble, now if you're wondering what are my thoughts about it...it's mixed. One side is that I get to do what I always dreamed of doing training...however Elder Harken is very horrified at the same time of training because he fears his Korean will not stand up to what it takes....but I think I'd be holding on to the spirit for the next transfer....

HOWEVER!!! I don't know yet, I may, I may not we're not sure everyone is presuming right now...don't like that. So if it does I'll let you know don't cross your fingers. XP

Work continues to go forth we are back to 3 baptism dates. All three are progressing really well we are just having a hard time getting them to church...they're pretty far out. So we continue to work and I've met so really cool and spiritual people. Kind of a cool story: one of our investigators gave up coffee after hearing the word of wisdom lesson it was really cool!

The house is really hot at night....It's like camping :D....kind of.

I must leave but I leave pics

2010-08-24T11:01:00.002-06:00

07/26/2010

2010-08-24T10:58:00.004-06:00

Hey family!

How are we doing? I thought you are doing well right now things are looking really good. A lot of success has happened and I'm please to announce 경산 has now a new member. 이상록 received baptism last Sunday. He's 19 and seems like a really cool guy, Elder Kaing meant him a transfer ago and when I came in he committed to baptism. It was really well done, in fact because are Branch is small...I had to conduct it...in Korean. That was fun. Elder Kaing baptized him and he did the exact thing I did...took three tries. I told Elder Kaing I did the same thing too.

Also as I said last week the mission system has completely changed for the better. For Mike and Randy they say Preach My Gospel really changed the mission greatly, this next step increased it. In fact, homework for the family (please do), tell Janet Zaldivar I enjoyed greatly watching her in "The District 2!" That's right Sister Zaldivar was part of the new system while she was on her mission. After watching the videos you can see her spirit BEAMING! Everyone agreed that Janet was the most spiritual missionary in the movie. But, due to our new training a lot of changes have happened. In may 2011 they are changing the whole MTC to this system:

EIGHT FOUNDATION PRINCIPLES

1. The Doctrine of Christ − Your Purpose
2. The Role of the Holy Ghost in Conversion
3. Revelation through Prayer
4. Revelation through the Book of Mormon
5. Revelation through Church Attendance
6. Teach People, Not Lessons
7. We Invite, They Commit, We Follow Up
8. How to Begin Teaching

Me and Elder Kaing have already begun using it and we've already seen a lot of miracles. (We have 3 baptism dates now) and we were just trained last Wednesday. So you can say this really is a change and it has sent a beam of confidence and hope in us missionaries.

Also it has been confirmed (or I've been told for the time being) in August I mention 14 Elders are coming....President made it quite clear that me and Elder Kaing will be training. -.-; This not for sure yet, but president says "Be Prepared." ....*sigh*

Also I found out why pictures weren't working, my new SD card reader doesn't work...>_> so I have to go buy a new one. But before you grab your pitchforks I have a Elder Kaings and pictures are coming.

That's all for this week, it's very hot up here and fun.

07/19/2010

2010-08-24T10:56:00.000-06:00

So I'm hot and you are hot....I think we can feel each others pain. Except mine is like South Carolina XD

So this week went really fast didn't it? I was really surprised, but was really good. In fact, we have a baptism this Sunday! Before I came in there was a guy the missionaries were working with and now decided he want to receive baptism. He's really cool he works at a karaoke and comes to church even though he gets off work at 3:00 am on Sunday! This guy is awesome.

We also have 2 really progressing investigators. One speaks really good English 형절 and the other is a hair salon 김정황. Both are really progressing and have a lot of potential this transfer so me and Elder Kaing are really trying to help them out.

Also Daegu and the branch are really fun. The ward is small but really funny our Branch President is so funny. I also last Sunday I had to give a talk. -.-; That was fun >_> it was just funny cause I had a prompting feeling to bring with me one of my old talks from my other that I had to give and I got asked to give one. Happy days.

About pictures...um I got the usb thing I need...however the computers that I use for some reason will not read the usb so I can't get pics on. *Bangs head on table* very frustrating. Please be patient I am really trying to get them to you guys I want you to get them.

So some cool things in the mission is going on, in fact worldwide. They are changing the whole mission structure again! It's like when the Preach My Gospel came out. All our Zone Leaders and District leaders went to a 3 day meeting and they all came back pumped in fact baptism rate has actually gone up a lot! I talked to one of the Zone leaders and this Wednesday we learn of what's going on. Very exciting.

Also I got a new joke for myself, I have now been considered to look like the guy on "Twilight" ...I think I need to get a haircut. (It's not that long, I swear! D:)

07/12/2010

2010-08-24T10:52:00.000-06:00

Hey family!

Hey, thanks for all your comforting letters about my transfer, it was really hard to leave but it felt like the area was in good hands. Ironic how Mike had a similar story like mine. When I went to Masan we had a huge wall between the members and us due to old missionaries of the past. It took me and Elder Grover 3 transfers to get it better in fact me and Elder Grover got the first baptism for that ward for 1-2 years. When we both got the calls saying that our area was going to the sisters. Our Bishop nearly called President Jennings to see what was going on. Lucky for president we convinced him to call the AP's for specifics. I don't worry about the ward but I do miss them.

So yes new area! 경산! It's HOT! It feels like South Carolina over again. So it's not the worst but I've been sweating a lot...and I don't sweat. :O But I really like the area it's got a lot of nice people! Not to mention our branch, they are really cool! The branch president is a retired grandpa and he is the sweetest man I've ever met. The whole branch welcomed me with welcome arms and so I hope that I don't let them down. The house I live in (yes house or part of a house) is the smallest house I've ever lived in! I'll send some pics next week. (I forgot my plug in for my SD >.>) But I have to lovely fans to help me out at night. There are a BAZILLION Universities here! It's tight! Lot of cool people! :D One thing that is really nice up here in the city Daegu (that's what the big city is called) the people here are REALLY nice. When we say to people on the street they always say hi back and smile. In Busan they ignore you or say other lovely things. >_> But I like up here even in the hot summer.

Elder Kaing is an amazing missionary! He's two transfers behind me but is more righteous and burning missionary than I will ever be. He's actually a Recent Convert back in 2007! He's really cool, and loves to dance. If you guys could meet him, some of you would say we act together like me and An-d act around with each other. He's a lot of fun, the area is really cool and we've got a lot of potential investigators. Elder Kaing is the King at tracting so he got over 100 contacts last transfer D:! That is a lot! AND he contacts them! He's got something around that sort of fills me up with hype of "Lets do missionary work!" So I think it will be a good transfer.

But yeah, I'm doing okay now about the transfer, it feels right that I'm suppose to be here. Plus I get to ride a bike :D I can say I'm one of the few who in the mission who has to know the rules for Walking, driving a car, and riding a bike. It's pretty rare to have all 3. It will be fun here. On a sad note last Thursday I watched my sisters that came with me into the MTC die. I got to say goodbye to them and said to keep in touch. I have now one sister left from the MTC 정민희, after that...yeah. >_> I hate the feeling right now. But yeah, 12 transfers folks.. D: Really a mission goes a lot faster than you think. I remember thinking it was yesterday I left you guys at the MTC with my thumbs up.

Kind of right now I've been thinking a lot of "Have I changed?" I've come to the conclusion of yes. I won't tell you what I've changed yet. You'll have to wait. I hope you guys have seen a change too I hope not to be the same ol' Harken when I get back but a better person (with his personality and likings) I think I'm going through missionary syndrome.... BUT on the bright side I still want to be a great missionary and I still have a LOOOOONG time before I'm done. I can proudly say I STILL don't want to come home. I intend to keep that going till the day I have to come home....maybe longer.

Well that's all for this week, hopefully the long letter will make you all happy about the no pics this week. (Sorry about that, I have to go buy a new one due to the new SD card I have is an SD HC) Elder Kaing has an extra so I'm going to try to buy it from him.

For everyone curiosity here's how the life span goes for the Busan Mission.

(6 weeks make 1 transfer)
Elders:
Foreigners (*sigh* it's easier to spell it in Korean): 16 transfers
Koreans: 17 transfers, because they only have to go to the MTC for 3 weeks compared to the 3 months.

Sisters:
Foreigners 12/13 transfers
Korean 13/14 transfers (pending on the sister)

06/28/2010

2010-08-24T10:47:00.002-06:00

Hey family!

Wow, quite the stories for this week. Sounds like this year's Manti trip was really the epic one. That's not talking about the show itself either. XD Glad to hear the trip was good this year, without the side effect of a big scary man taking our spot. >:( Toy Story 3 is now out? Huh, that's cool, pixar has yet to fail us.

This week was good! I did a lot of work this week and met with a General Authority! Elder Ringwood of the 70. He was really cool! I got to shake his hand and talk to him for a bit, he talked a lot about preparing for everything. That if we are prepared the Lord will put people that are waiting in our path. It was a really good talk.

This week is Transfer Calls this Friday, The prediction is this: Elder Grover will leave and I will stay. I will let you all know what happens next week.

Last P-Day you were all informed I went ice skating. I liked to inform you that I walked away with no injuries. Also I got pics. :3 It was a lot of fun. I actually got really good, or Zone Leader Elder Choi ice skated before his mission so he taught a little how to skate. Also while on the ice one of the elder's wore his mission clothes so we decided to make "Missionaries on Ice." Oh it was really funny! We thought of these songs I wish we recorded them they were epic. Some of the songs were: "I hate ice," "전도ing," "I love the Koreans," and "Trunky" oh man it was funny hearing us. Wish you could've seen it.

Lately Grover and I have been working a lot on Less Actives and the program "To the Rescue" have you guys heard of it over there? Just curious it's apparently world spread. Also special prayers to our R.C. he hasn't been able to come out to church for a few weeks so we need your prayers to help him out.

Also the world cup is done over here. Now let me tell Koreans are really crazy for this game. There have been 4 games and we keep hearing people yell "대한미국!" Or Big Korea Team! We can't sleep at night when these games happened. When they won, everyone the next day would walk around all proud, and yesterday when they lost everyone was so down. It was hilarious to watch. Now if America had that kind of unity of pride...oh we'd be in trouble.

But yeah that's going around here, we have hit rain season again...meaning lots of humidity and lots of wet socks. But it's not as bad as last year surprisingly so it's all good.

Well that's it for this week :D

06/14/2010

2010-08-24T10:44:00.004-06:00

Hey family!

Welcome back to the wonderful Monday p-day. Hopefully you all like having it on Monday again...or not. D: Well I sort of gave you the weeks detail last email so this will be brief I guess.

I did go out as I said and bought music....in fact a lot of music D: 60,000 W ($50) worth D: And....I can't listen to any of it till after my mission XD be prepared by mail. ;)

A lot of you have been curious of WHY we did this whole Thursday P-day and switch it back to Monday sort of thing. Well back when I was the secretary all the other missions had a meeting on Monday for president and recommended that he switch the pday as well. We all thought it be good but, it sort of cause a lot more problems. We had to change the flight times for the returning missionaries, transfer day was different, and a lot of missionaries would have to change their schedules for the new pday. So recently the area presidency came down and told all the missions that they needed to change their p-days back to Mondays. So we did and hence here we are. Now this rises the question does this mean I still come home on a Saturday or not? The answer: Don't care. ;)

Masan continues to do well, we have a bunch of investigators now due to exam season is finally over. I have president interviews this Wednesday always a fun thing. Looking at our schedule we are going to be really busy this week....well I hope we are. :D We're looking at least 25 lessons this week if we are diligent. Elder Grover continue to try to work and play the mediator with our district. (he's the DL) So we have to help each other or we both get tired very quickly. (We almost always fall asleep at 10:30 these days.

That's happening to us. oh yeah funny moment: You all remember Yu-Gi-Oh right? Well little kids here (including teenagers) love this game....and they have now gotten my companion addicted that he has bought a deck and duels kids on the street. (works too!) The sad thing is that I have to teach him because he's a rookie and I once played the game...I'm such a bad influence. XD

2010-08-24T10:40:00.003-06:00

2010-08-24T10:39:00.002-06:00

06/03/2010

2010-08-24T10:37:00.001-06:00

Hey family!

Wow, this week went fast and a lot of news to talk about with a little bit of time.

I am no longer Elder Harken for I am 하승진 장로! (Elder Ha Sung Jin) I always wanted a Korean name and this is the outcome pretty cool huh? 승: Victory, 진: Truth 하:....(N/C) So greetings :D I even know the Chinese for it :D Actually I still use my regular "하켄" But now I have a real Korean name. Weeee!

So things were crazy this week! First on Tuesday we had Zone Conference early due to the fact later this month we are having a General Authority come visit us! Elder Ringwood is coming to visit us some time around June 21st. w00t! (Aka Quorum of the 70's)

Also another big announcement is that starting maybe July (maybe unsure yet) We are moving P-Day's BACK to Monday's Meaning: early emails? ....maybe. So yes next month (or next transfer we are switching back) cheers!

Zone Conference was good as always. We've been talking about the new program "To the Rescue" and basically preparation for our new greenies that are coming in August! 13 in August and possibly 5 in September. Quite a number huh? ㅋㅋㅋ

On Wednesday we had a HUGE sports day. All of my Zone came to play with the Masan Stake (My Stake) and it was awesome. They truly put our sports day in our Stake ashamed. (That's a bold statement) It was all day and I''m proud to say I did not get burned at all ha!

Due to the craziness we haven't been able to meet with our baptism candidate but we contact him to see how he is doing. Were really excited.

I have now found a new excitement in studying the scriptures. My Zone Leader and I were talking one night about Gospel studying and literally what we talked about made my gears to start to click. It was really cool and now I have a real excitement to study the scriptures it's kind of thrilling. :D

As the camera goes Elder Grover did take some pics of sport day, but it's with him and I'm on splits right now....so um no pics sorry. But, it sounds to me after talking to dad, "Drop it in the garbage can and buy a new one...." Well, Sister Patterson (my sister missionaries) is good at camera knowledge maybe she can give me a hand. We'll see hopefully I can find a new camera. Hopefully a good but reasonable price. We'll see I'll let you know when I get a new one. :P

Well I must go I love you all!

05/27/2010

2010-08-24T10:34:00.002-06:00

Hey family!

So, this week was quite the unique one. This week, I'm proud to say that we hit our goal of getting 20 lessons! Was it hard? Yes, but we have now proven it is possible. And it all payed off my other great announcement: We have another Baptism date!!! 婉鷓熱 has now accepted to be baptized on June 12 2010! We are really excited.

Also you all must be really curious: transfer right? Here's the result: *drum roll* Elder Grover and I will be together for another transfer! :O Yep first companion to have 3 transfers with. We work hard and we have good plans for the future transfer (one goal not to drive each other nuts (haha little joke XD) Um our old District Leader is now our Zone Leader so we're really excited for him. Basically our district (the big picture) stayed the same.

The only thing different Elder Kim went AP and Sister Park Song Hee is going home to Seoul (She finished) so we are getting my old companion Elder Lee and a sister named Sister 寰棻翱 (Ahn Dah Yeon). It'll be a lot of fun this transfer so we expect great things. As our district leader (aka Zone Leader) always says "Treasure this moment for time and eternity!" He's really funny.

05/20/2010

2010-08-24T10:29:00.009-06:00

...Wow this week went fast...again. D:

SO, tomorrow is transfer day we have are predictions everyone is kind of expecting big things this transfer because we need the following: 1 New AP, 3-4 New Zone Leaders, 1 Elder Trainer, 3 Sister Trainers, and possibly a new secretary. :O Everyone is looking forward to tomorrow night with great interest.

The questions Will I transfer? Probably Not. Will I get a new companion? Probably yes. everyone thinks I'm getting a Korean Companion again so we'll see.

Now last week you saw I gave a very small letter....well...um >.> ....the pics are my excuse *runs*

So basically 2010 is almost at mid point! Holy cow! What happened?

Well I'm low on time so I'll tell you results from last week. Also I load you guys pics.

This week we've been busy as ever, we are preparing 2 investigators right now that are really progressing. Also we got 6 lessons in ONE day. D: I'm actually really tired still from that day and that was on Tuesday. >.> SO yeah this week was really good. We are actually going to meet with Young Man tonight and talk about going to the temple. :D I'm excited. Were doing good, the ward is doing good, and I'm doing ok so it's all good.

Today I'm off to Miryang again because its Elder Morrows b-day so we are all very happy for him. It'll be a blast.

2010-08-24T10:25:00.002-06:00

2010-08-24T10:21:00.005-06:00

04/29/2010

2010-08-24T10:18:00.002-06:00

Hey family,

I'm really short on time today so this might be another short one for this week. All is good here, still working our rears off right now. So happy days right? Today I'm in a place called. 밀양 *MirYang* were going to go hiking and see cool things so I'm excited! :D Nothing really big this week we just started the big plan by President Monson called "To the Rescue" were arll really excited for it becasue we've heard it has had a lot of success. So were hoping over here it will do well.

Had Zone Conference this week and it was good President talked about the plan to us and how we as missionaries can help the ward make it happen.So now we hope to get those awesome 20 lessons for sure now. :D W00t!

About Mothers Day You have all not mention to me WHEN I SHOULD CALL. I need a time frame that I can call. I can make any time work IF YOU TELL ME NOW. I'm meeting with President next friday so I need to know next email. So please tell me the time you all want and I'll make it happen. President is really nice about giving special permission for specific things like this. Think it over and tell me next email ;)

Now you are all curious about the hair...well maybe dad is >.> hopefully you'll see the pictures I'm sending this week. Our "split" district loved each other so much that we decided to make a family picture :D yeah were that corny XD It looks great. Cost me 15,000 원 but worth it. See for yourself. From the bottom left: Sister Patterson (New), Elder Choi (Zone Leader), Elder Grover (My Comp), Elder Seal, Elder Rockwood (Our old DL *Silver suit*) Elder Kim (Zone Leader American-Korean), Sister Cranmer (New), Elder Heaton *sitting down* (DL now also was trained by my trainer Sinden) Elder Morrow (Yellow fever man) Sister Park (She's techinically my "step mother") don't ask me how it works by letter its complicated. :| and Sister Ogilvie. The funny thing is that it was my idea to do this. :D 4 of the members didn't want to pay so yeah no pics for them. :P The one thing is that they photoshopped my freckles out D:!!! But yeah enjoy.

Our Recent Convert is doing great. Were trying to meet with him but he gets busy with his job. So we meet when we can. He's the boss of his work he has a really good little business it's really cool. He took us on tour once it was really cool. Were still trying to meet with his family but trying to do so withou being 부담. Our other investigator are doing well. One's really close to coming unto Christ he's really close he just needs to decide if it's true or not.
That's what's happening this week now unto:

Funny Stories of the Week:

Each week I'll try to tell one funny thing that happen to me and Elder Grover. (trust me we have a few) Enjoy:

Last P-Day: After I wrote you all we went to a place called City 7 (or city 17 dad, haha bad joke) It's a huge mall....of clothes.....and art. So we went to an art show...wow. I didn't know they were so....unqiue. The pictures describe my thoughts. Also this guy drew all these famous pictures with the Smurfs. It was really strange but I guess people are into that so cool. Just the pictures will show you our adventure.

04/16/2010

2010-08-24T10:15:00.000-06:00

Hey family!

Well sorry for the short letter last week this one might be short to due to time. So you are all wondering about how the baptism went. Well as I said 4 times. But I have an excuse, you see I said the prayer correct each time (so proud of that) but Korean Baptism fonts are TINY!!!! They sometimes don't come to our knees. ;-; So you really have to dunk them. Yeong Man would not bend his knees so they would come up and I'd have to do it again. On the third try I accidentally bonked his head on the bar D:!!!! Ouch. He didn't mind he didn't know. So finally on the 4th try I got us on our knees to do the baptism and it was a success. Doing a baptism is hard work. Afterward he gave me a towel and said "This is for you to remember me and this towel is for me to remember you (and Grover) bringing this (Gospel) to me." Pretty cool.

So last week was cherry blossom season. Remember last year my first P-Day? Same place different people. It was a lot of fun and we took a lot of pics as you could see. So we got really late so I didn't have time to write.

Also last Friday was transfer calls...oops sorry forgot to tell you. But nothing changed for our district except two new missionary sisters are coming. But right now our whole district is furious with our AP's. You see our success last transfer was because district worked hard and played well we were told were the best zone last transfer. But without even telling us they split our district to be an experiment. Now, we wouldn't complain but me and Elder Grover (Masan) got kind of thrown into the garbage can. We have sisters but they are in another district and the district were in is two hours away from us and is kind of pointless to be in that district (not effective). Our Zone Leaders are mad it's really bad. But we've talked about all night and we are going to try to make it work. (Even though were not happy about.) Kind of bites what can we say?

Well this transfer Elder Grover and I have big plans for Masan. We are going to prove that it is possible to get the same kind of stats that American Missionaries get. In translation: we are going to be very busy this transfer.

Michael's First Baptism 04/10/2010

2010-04-10T09:04:00.008-06:00

Hey family!

It was a success! It only took 4 times to baptize him- Oops! Did I say that? >_> Yep I baptized him, it's a lot harder than it looks. He brought his family and it was a really good experience. The next day he received the Holy Ghost and it was great.

04/01/2010 : Elder Harken's First Baptism

2010-04-01T15:29:00.002-06:00

Hey FAMILY! :D

So this week...AMAZING. This week we didn't hit our goal of 20 lessons again (we got 15 >_>) but that's okay we worked hard and we had fun. Words cannot describe how much joy I feel right now of how I feel stastified with our work this week. Since I've been in Masan with Elder Grover we are never ceasing to stop working. We love it. This week I have one thing to tell:

So, this week me and Elder Grover learned that the Lord will guide you to people and send people to you when they are ready. Last week I talked about Kwack Teh Soo saying he was our best investigator. At the beginning of the transfer we made a goal to have him baptised by 4/3/2010. We prayed about it and we got an answer saying "yes."

So Elder Grover and I were really excited about it. So we really focused on (along with other investigators) Kwack Teh Soo alot and than asked him to for baptism last Saturday.... He declined the offer saying that he felt in it's head and not in his heart (even after praying.) Also he said that his parents didn't wanting to go to church anymore so it would be harder for him to come to church for awhile. So he wants to learn a lot before he will get baptized. Elder Grover and I were SO discourage, we kind of that night were going "Did we do something wrong?" It weighed heavily on our minds all night.

Now the next morning we had another appointment after church to meet with another man Hwang Young Man, we had sort of focus with him (he's the one that came to church on Stake Conference in full suit attire.) For the last few weeks he's been coming to church regualry without being asked and we were going to teach about the 3rd lesson (Gospel of Christ.) Elder Grover and I were wondering for how well he was progressing if we should ask him for a baptism. After Kwack Teh Soo reply we were very hestiant about it. We talked to our District Leader and Zone Leader about it, all three agree we should ask him to baptism. After a bit of thinking Elder Grover and I thought it would be a bad idea.

So next day comes (Sunday) we were 5 minutes late to church (had a whoops at the house.) Yeong Man was already at church (full suit attire) talking and making friends with memebers already! So church goes by he stayed for all 3 hours. Afterwards we had P&J Sandwhichs with him and started to talk about the gospel. I explained alittle bit of sacrament to him and he asked why would took it after baptism. We talked for a bit about it and Elder Grover asks "What do you think about Baptism?" He replied with "I want to be baptized in this church." Without being asked he asked for it. Elder Grover and I cried right there (were babies we know.)

The story does not end there. We had a date for 4/10/2010 but with spirtual guidance we felt to change the date to 4/3/2010. The Lord confirmed the date but he didn't say to whom. Also we were about to teach him about law of tithing and word of wisdom and he replies "I already know about them and I accept them." I never believed in Golden investigators....but now I do. We've only met with him for 2 weeks and he's already ready to be baptized. Family, Elder Grover and I agree, we do not deserve such an honor from the Lord. We are being blessed by the Lord so much. We've taught him "ok" but really it was the spirit that taught him not us. Family I cannot describe in words of the Joy that I have felt this week. I feel as if the desire in my heart that has bugged me for years is gone. I feel so happy. Happy days right? The Lord really does put forth miracles when we do his will. I've learned that this week. Miracles do happen family. There's alot more to the story that I haven't told I'll tell you at mother's day (or when we do it I'm not sure) for words fail me to write.

So talk about a crazy week huh? So this Saturday he will be baptized around 6:00 Elder Grover and I are really excited. Now I know you are all wondering if I will be the one doing it. My reply: Probably not (I think Elder Grover will, and I think it's perfect!) But it does not matter. It's what he wants not ours, I'm just grateful the Lord let us find and help him come unto him. The exciting thing is that the family is showing signs of liking and he wants them to join the church too. This man is AMAZING. He truly is a ready person. But yeah w00t! Pictures next week :D

Week 16 in Korea

2009-07-24T13:17:00.003-06:00

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

2009-07-13T10:21:00.004-06:00

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

2009-07-13T10:20:00.000-06:00

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

2009-07-13T10:17:00.002-06:00

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

2009-06-23T22:16:00.000-06:00

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

2009-06-17T11:54:00.003-06:00

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

2009-06-17T11:40:00.007-06:00

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

Week 9 in Korea

2009-06-02T14:45:00.001-06:00

Greetings Families and Friends!

Hey all seems like everyone is doing well. Henceforth the beginning of Summer Break for some of you! Yes, yes once again congrats my good friends that graduated that feeling is awesome. Now go get jobs and...do summer stuff things idk >.>

This week has been good/long I guess. We have been working hard lately to find people. We've actually found 4 new investigators this week! We're very thrilled to see that we found some more people to teach.

Investigators: Our favorite investigator 김수진 we think we've had a break through, which for us is AWESOME. For the first time we think we saw her feel the spirit. Which makes Sinden and me very happy. One thing you come to love is watching your investigators change, they seem more happy. They just seem so much more happy after they meet us you just love it!

Last Sunday Elder Sinden was given permission to go up to his old area and watch his favorite investigator get baptized. Though he wanted to be the one baptizing her, he was happy to be there for that moment. It made his week basically (he's basically on cloud-nine right now) :P

Well, that’s all I got for this week.
I wish everyone here a great summer and everyone be safe while vacationing. That is all,
Love you all

하켄 장로

Week 8 in Korea

2009-05-26T10:07:00.001-06:00

Greetings from across the world in 한국 family and friends.

You’re 하켄 장로 here with this week letter!

Wow! May just flew by didn't it? Well, for me at least :V We’re hitting our last week here and looks like I can easily say, I need to work harder here in Korea. I’m not saying that I'm a lazy missionary, but I feel as though I need to find more people. >.> This week we've been giving our investigators to our Sister missionaries, this is good/bad Good: Sister Missionaries are better teachers than me. Bad: I don't like giving up my investigators, I love them. :( But I still got to keep my two favorite, so it works out. Hehe! I am still working with my investigators. We think we've finally pushed through one of investigators! For weeks we've been trying to teach her family but none of them wanted to meet us. Last Sunday we passed by and met the husband and he
wants to meet us...with the WHOLE family! Boo-yah! The morale of this story is...patience. I've learned that you need so much patience here with yourself and others (mostly yourself.) Right now I'm kind of in a stump of trying to find what our investigators need. So all prayers in this area are awesome thanks everyone. ^_^
Life is good here in Korea still trying to get the language under control. Funny fact about that, our investigator 죄승숙 (Our favorite) whenever I talk with her she'll talk like 100 mph and I'll have no idea what she says then with her small English she'll say to me "Hakin (That's how they say our name) you don't understand?" Then give HUGE baby eyes. It's HILIRIAOUS! We love her a lot.

Well that's all this week, now for the fun things for friends.
To the Sister Blickfelt and Greg:
Thanks for the awesome letter it's so good to hear from my family I once taught, I miss you guys a lot. ^_^ And for Greg, CONGRATS DUDE! I'm glad to hear that you had a blast at Prom, I didn't go to Prom my junior year, you're better than me Greg. You're a lady's man!

To Scott: O_O!!!! YOU GOT MARRIED!?! WHAT?!?! D:!!!! That's awesome!
Aaron Stewart and Zack Lyman: YOU GUYS TOO?! My buddies are getting married...This makes me happy. Congrats guys!
To all the High School student buddies of my that are graduating: BOO-YAH! YOU GUYS DID IT AND CONGRATS! I haven't forgotten you here and I wish you a good summer and good luck in College/Missions/Marriages/Jobs/etc :D

Love you all see you next week :D
Elder Harken

2009-05-18T09:25:00.000-06:00

This picture is of myself and a little boy in our branch that I was part of the GofHG :D

Week 7 in Korea

2009-05-18T09:17:00.002-06:00

Greetings family and friends!
Elder Harken here on week...uh...>.> I don't remember....
Anyways!

This week was kind of the week where we do lots of talking to people week and find new people to teach. Nothing really big, but this is kind of interesting.
This week was my first time getting kicked out of a place. :S We headed upward on our island and made are way to GOSHIN University. We walked up the stairs (it's very steep to get to it) and sat down to catch our breath. Less than 5 minutes sitting there a guy comes up to us and starts telling us that we’re Mormons and we’re heretics and that this university had it's own belief in Christ and told us to leave. We could've probably argued with him but we didn't, we just kindly nodded our heads and headed downward there was an angry Minster glaring at us as we left. *Shrugs* So we learned we can't teach there oops. :P But hey it's not the worst.

Our investigators are doing good we’re working hard to help them with their needs. We might have 2 new investigators this Saturday so we’re excited. Thanks for the prayers I just ask you to continue to pray for them and for us to find their needs.

Update on Elder Sinden: We found out she has a date we’re not sure if he will baptize her or not yet. But the line of authority are all giving a green light so I would say yes. The date is in two weeks (so exciting).

Well that's it for this week I'll see you all next week!
Love you all!
하 켄 창로

Week 6 in Korea

2009-05-18T09:16:00.001-06:00

Greetings Family and Friends!
Hey all Happy mothers day...AGAIN!!!! XD It was a BLAST talking to you all, it really made my day a lot better. Sounds to me everyone is doing not good...but FANTASTIC!! Glad to hear that Star Trek was a 3.5! That is SWEET! Transfers: Okay I have been out for 6 weeks now meaning "Transfers" this week I was really nervous due to the fact that I might be transferred leaving my companion 영 도, which I have come to love. BUT I didn't. -.- (phew) But yes, every 6 weeks here we have transfers depending on how the president feels with help from the Lord he moves us. That Friday around 9:30 P.M. we wait till 10:00 to see if you are moving, if you don't get a call you don't leave, if you do... pack your bags. I will be Elder Sinden's last companion, as we missionaries call it "I'm killing him." It was suppose to be a secret against me but I'm so good I found out...I was sad to find out. :( Investigators: We have really been hard at work trying to find them, when I came into the area 6 weeks ago we had 2. Sinden and I have been very successful on finding people we're up to 6 now! I thank you all for your prayers this could not have happened without your blessings. Elder Sinden and I thank you greatly. I ask as a friend to not only bless me and Sinden, but I also request that you pray for our investigators. I love each and one of them personally. A blessing to Elder Sinden: This is my highlight of the week (well besides talking to the family) On Sunday (Korea) me and Sinden were at our apartment when around 10:20pm we get a text message. (Yes we have a cell phone :D) It was from one of Elder Siden’s FAVORITE investigators he loved this girl a lot. I was in the restroom and I hear "WHAAAAAT?!! ARE YOU SERIOUS!?!?!" Next thing I know he's talking to her, after the conversation he was just beaming, he said "She wants to get baptize!" and the cool thing she wanted him to do it. Now to give you an idea of how much this means to him, this girl he found her and taught her and her family and really was upset when he got transferred away (there were tears he says.) It was really a happy night for him. ^_^ So, we’re going to see if we can get permission to go up to her and have him baptize her. Elder Sindens B-Day: Yep it was his b-day! He's 21! It was a lot of fun to celebrate. We got $200 dictionaries. :D These things are really nice. President Jennings told us Greenies if we could he'd recommend getting one... I did. :D But yes we had a lot of fun. We ate with the whole district. In fact on his B-day we got a new investigator! He said that was the best gift that day.

Well that's really the highlights of this week. Hmmmm culture thoughts... gas is crazy here! $1.37...per liter...ouch.
Friends: HI! :D High school kiddies one month left don't get lazy. >: |
Love you all,
Elder Harken :D

Week 5 in Korea

2009-05-04T15:31:00.002-06:00

Greetings family and Friends!

Happy B-Day to you Happy to B-Day to you. Happy b-day dear Buddha! Happy B-Day to youooooooou!

I'm guessing you can see whose birthday I'm celebrating. Yes last Saturday was Buddha's B-Day. This holiday is HUGE in Korea. We missionaries are not allowed to work on this day due to the fact it's really insulting to the culture. So we got what we call ANOTHER P-Day! W/o letters :P
Basically we got our whole stake together and we had a sports day. It was really fun. I was actually able to get to know some of the members more. I have become come good friends with our recent convert 박 정훈 he's really a good friend.
After that me and Elder Sinden decided to go to the temple. We went up just being respectful and the Monks brought us Watermelon (rare) then they told us that we could take a picture of Buddha! That's EXTREMELY Rare! You're not allowed to do that, but they said it was okay so we did! We said goodbye and they told us to come again. Now this is pretty darn rare so it was cool.

I have to cut this short we're supposed to be leaving

About Mother's Day because I know you are all curious, here's the plan. As you are all aware we're ahead of you by a day. So, I'll be calling you around 3-5 P.M. on SUNDAY your time (Utah) I'll explain later how that works. So expect that I can only give that rough estimation. So, yeah. Any friends that want to come by and say hi you're more than welcome to come. Just call ahead so my parents don’t have a heart attack :V

Well, that's all g2g
Love ya all
Elder Harken

Week 4 in Korea

2009-04-27T10:49:00.005-06:00

Greetings family and friends,
It's me again!
Hahaha!
Actually this week I'm afraid I really don't have much of anything to tell you all about this week. We’re working really hard down here and um...we’re working on it still. :)

I think I failed to mention this, but I teach an English class. Yep it's actually a lot of fun to do. I've got two students that are really good and they write down phrases that I'll say. Like " Ah Flip" -__- Now for your info I'm good. The other missionary that taught, he taught them unwise things. But yeah it's fun I love them both.

I actually got to see a baptism here! It was the first counselor’s son. I got to be a witness. It was really cool to be a part of. I also got to be part of the baptism covenant. That was cool.

Funny story this week, we saw three foreigners so we decided to go by and say hi. It's amazing to see the immaturity of foreigners. They had no respect for the Koreans, they hated the food and they were 28-30. We talked to them while they drank. They were really funny to listen to. What makes this interesting is that as we were leaving, we thanked the owner of the store, and all the Koreans came to us saying thank-you and giving us tons of respect while they gave none to the three guys. It shows that if you respect their culture and language they'll treat you with the same respect. It was cool really to see.

Some fun facts: Korean workers are fast! Koreans build buildings a lot faster than anything I've seen! They are fast! I saw them make a whole bridge since I have been here.

....hmmm what else can I say this week- OH I know. I ate raw octopus. Yes you heard me right. Yum yum. It wasn't bad actually. It was kind of tasty. Don't ask me how I can say that because I really don't know. I thank the Lord on that one. Cause I know I hate seafood, yet I can eat it and enjoy it.

ACK! Running low on time.

Well, that's all for this week.
Next week’s letter should have some things that'll make you laugh. You'll see.

Friends: ...Have fun for the last month of school. hehe!
Anyone getting married yet? ...just curious >.>

Love you all
Elder Harken

Letter Number Three from Korea

2009-04-20T10:48:00.004-06:00

Greetings family and friends!
Elder Harken here in uh..week er... 3?
...ANYWAYS. Sounds like everyone is having a very "Snowy time" in America that sort of bites. :| Sorry to hear that.
Here in 영 도 it's raining on us right now, not the worst I hear, but it's pouring. (Better than snow)

Well this week has been a real entertainer for me and for my companion apparently.

Last P-day: After my last letter I sent we headed off to a mountain called 대정대. We actually went with our 1st counselor in our branch. I actually got to see and go in my first budha house they are really cool to see. We walked the whole mountain and after that we...er..went to a bath house again... -_____________-;

1st Contact: Yep I got me my first contact here in Korea! So that made me feel good.

3 Grandmas: Okay funny story, We were heading off to go find people and there were these three grandmas giving out napkins. When they saw they refused to give us one. :| We talked to them one grandma came up to us and said: "You're handsome, but because you’re Mormon I don't like you." :\ What made this funny was that she thought we had a "girl" prophet. o_o Different. They told us that there was no need for another book except a bible. We decided that nothing was going well so we kindly left. Elder Sinden made this comment "2nd Nephi 29" Go read that and see what it says. It was funny.

Seeing someone you did not expect: Okay this was crazy but guess who I saw here in Korea? Anyone in my 6th grade class should know her MISS ALBAUGH! Ya you heard me Miss Albaugh came to Korea to say hi to Mrs. Jennings! So I got to have dinner with the President and Miss Albaugh it was really cool! To expand how cool this is, it is RARE I mean REALLY RARE to have dinner with the President. I'm a greenie so the odds are huge. But ya we had a great time talking to each other she's doing well. It was a lot of fun seeing her.

Our investigators are doing well, one of our investigators is really progressing I really love her. Her name is 최 슨 숙 she is so funny. We really are crossing our fingers for her. Our grandma is doing great, she wants to come to church so this week we are going to see if we can get her to our church.

Well that's really the highlights hmm lets see notes

To Friends:
I'm hoping you are all doing well hopefully nobody is sick...that'd be bad. Hows everyone doing?

Yep well that's all for this week see ya next week. ^_^
Love
Elder Harken

#2 From Korea

2009-04-17T09:01:00.001-06:00

Greetings Family and friends from the place I call USA. Hi!
I must say it has been CRAZY for me this week but none the less it has been a lot of fun to work with as well. Let's talk shall we?

So this week as you can all see was what I call learn and adapt.
Because I'm new to the whole area I'm also new to new sickness. The first few days I got a little bit green. It's completely normal for this to happen my body is just adjusting to the new place. So mom, don't sweat. ;)

This week was really learning the area for me. If any of you think I can understand one person here.... uh...I'll get back to you about that >_>
Basically some fun facts for you here.
Because I'm very white as you all know people will stare at me in disbelief. There hasn't been a day so far where I haven't had a little kid go running to their moms saying "Mommy! Mommy! An American!" It's cute. It gets strange when people will come up to you and say that your are gorgeous...I even have guys tell me I'm handsome. XD

Oh funny fact for dad: Dad the Branch saw a picture of you they think that you look like the CEO for Apple. They asked if you were. I replied back no and you actually don't like apple. It was really funny.

Elder Sinden is a really great guy he's been teaching me yoga. We have been working really hard lately to find people. I didn't know this but Elder Sinden and me are the only ones in 영 도 so we've got our work laid out for us.

So far we've got two investigators right now that we are feeling good for. One owns a store that we go to and the other is a sweet grandma who I call the "Golden Investigator" (cool story later) But we are working with them and are hoping the best. We'll keep you posted about them.

Now how many of you would like to know how I'm surviving on the food? ...I'm doing fine thanks. I've eaten quite a variety of food. From seafood to um...>_> pig intestines. Ya that one was very different :P

Now for a spiritual thought, As I told you we have an investigator that’s like gold. She feels that the Book of Mormon is the Lord talking to her so she invited us for dinner...it was a seafood meal. Now EVERYONE knows that I hate all seafood with a passion. I knew it too but I didn't want to offend this sweet grandma. She worked really hard for us. So, I did what I could. I prayed I basically said please help me eat the food with out any problems. Then she started to feed us. I put the fish to my mouth and ...it was good. O_O I've never liked the taste of this certain fish before but I could this time. I left no scraps after that meal. The Lord answers prayers.

To friends I'm short on time:
Rachel Overson: Hey-chicka-thump-bump. Best of luck on the wedding :D
Tia: In ways Japan and Korea are similar but other ways WAY different.
Stewie: Send me a letter dude email or something...
Devin: To anyone that can get a hold of him, have you received your mission call yet?
Phil: Yes I'm white. :D
Cassie: I forgot to mention this awhile back, Gigi and I actually met the first day and became good friends in the MTC.

Letters...I'm trying to send it takes 2 weeks to get letters so er...be patient? :)

That is all this week GC (General Conference) was amazing. I got to see it in English. Yay!

Later
Elder Harken

Greetings from Korea (April 6, 2009)

2009-04-06T10:42:00.005-06:00

CITZENS OF...UH...USA! LEND ME YOUR EARS AND LISTEN! HI! :D
Greetings family and friends yours truly the one and only Elder Harken! Hey all sorry for the lack of a letter last week well technically the parents got a phone call so that equals as fair so I'm guiltless. It's not what you think anyone I would have called all of you if I could but, 시금 (Time) did not exist at the airport.
I may have more than 30 minutes but I only have a hour now so bear with me.

On the airplane: Let's see after the flight from SLC to L.A. we actually arrived late to L.A. due to weather in SLC. When we got to L.A. we basically ran to the next plane giving us NO time to call anyone, so I was glad I actually called mom and dad before I left the SLC. -.-
The plane trip was not that bad it was about 14 hours from L.A. to Seoul. The only complaint was I was put by two very loud missionaries...they would shush when I tried to sleep. We got to Seoul around 3:00 A.M. (Your time) I want to say. I was excited! But horrified.

Seoul: While there in I had to go and do a lot of things before I was allowed into Seoul. Seoul-West and Dangun missionaries were waiting for their group.. I said farewell to some of my buddies and hopped onto another plane to Busan. I must say it was the shortest plane trip ever it was only 45 minutes tops! OR it just felt that way because of the 14 hour trip before. XD

Busan: We arrived and we met Pres Jennings and Sis Jennings they are AWESOME very kind and he speaks really good Korean. By the time we got to Busan it was around 9:00 P.M. (Korean time you all would be getting up) Due to the fact it was late we stayed at the HQ for the night. I don't think I slept well that night cause I didn't know what to expect.

First day in the field: We got woken up early this day around 5:45 and they told us to to bring underwear and toiletry. We all were lost but did what they said. Little did we know they were taking us to a BATH HOUSE. ".........." I'm just going to leave it at that. >.> After that we went back to the HQ and ate with the President. We had a drink called "Aloe" it's AMAZING! :) After breakfast I got my bank account here American currency is better here than we thought. $1.34 I actually got a pretty penny for my things hehehe. After that I got interviewed with Pres Jennings really nice man. Did you know that he worked at Novell? He was surprised that dad worked there.

Field test day: After all this was the beginning of the trainers. We met all the trainers and they took us all and told us that we were going to be going on a subway and "Soap Boxing" O_O Yes I did soap Box. I got up said "this is the Book of Mormon, it makes me happy, I love it, its true." Then the trainer would take over afterward we go giving Book Of Mormons whoever wanted one to get contacts. We went around all Busan talking. It was CRAZY!

Meeting the New companions: After this we came back and Pres. Jennings told us our new companions and trainer. And the companion is *drum roll* ELDER SINDEN! He's from Washington and speaks really good Korean. He's also a very good massager he'll randomly give me a random back massage whenever he feels like it.

First area: After dinner Me and Elder Sinden headed off to my first area the place is called 영 도 (Yong-doh) I believe. Got to our apartment. And I made my first calls to the Bishop, 1st, and Relief Society president. I confess I had no idea what they said. I had a paper in front of me and I just said what was on it. Than we went to bed. -____-;

Let the work begin: So I began my first work on Thursday or for you Wed. Were ahead of you so ha! But you've already seen GC so it evens out. ;-;
There's a lot to say but little time. Last Sunday I actually got to be part of a confirmation! Ya it was really powerful and effective. I hope to find some people so we can more those. I go to a small Branch about 20 people come its cool.
P-Day: Today's as you can see is Mondays for me. Who would've guessed? We went to a place where Cherry Blossom trees bloom. There pretty Hopefully I can the pics to transfer I don't know we'll see.
So yeah, um Any questions? XD
Oh yes about mail... Letters usually take from 10-14 days to get from here to USA or USA to Korea. Be warned.
Friends I cannot send emails to you sorry. But you can send me emails and I can write back. Just be patient with me.
Speaking of which to TIA, MEL, and KIM or to ANYONE WHO SENT ME LETTER AFTER WED while was in the MTC. I did not receive any letters from you. So uh if you did send one...you are uh...going to send them again. >.>

The address to my home is actually the home you already have. You just send it to to the Mission Headquarters in Busan Korea and they send it to us. Convienant yes?

Request: I found out something that made me jump off the walls actually. Music restrictions are really friendly and I got permission, I'm allowed to have my Lost Odyssey Soundtrack! But how is the question you ask? We have a CD player stero here that we use sometimes so we can use that. Which means this, Rachel I need you to get my HD and find my Lost Odyssey soundtrack burn it.. Than ship it off to me. :D You have no idea how happy I was when I got permission for this. So w00t! I can also listen to Disney. Who would've guessed? XD Now if some random reeses peanut butter cups come with them... >_> <_< those are okay too (They don't have any D:!!!) Blasphemous I know. XD If you need me to pay postage use my account. ;)

Friends I'll send letters asap bear with me. Like I said it will take me a while and I only have P-Day. So things are crazy right now.

That's all for now
Love you all
Elder Harken

Elder Harken has landed!

2009-04-04T09:24:00.003-06:00

2009-03-28T20:30:00.014-06:00

Our "wall"--We love getting free pics and putting them up. We are starting a tradition. We are going to give this wall to another group and have them continue the tradition.

This is Sis. Stolpe--headed to Japan 2 weeks before I left the MTC. I'd always get this bike with a view of the temple and bike and sit quietly thinking. Wow, I had a bike beside me. No one could get this bike started except one sister. For the first weeks I didn't say anything. A few weeks in, and she commented that I like this bike. I laughed and said yes. A few more week's passed, and I rarely said anything but she just started talking and I started listening. It wasn't till the last week for her when we found out we both liked Eddie Izzard. After that we talked about everything comedians. One Sunday I was taking pictures. She came up to me asking if she could get a picture--henceforth this pic! I called her the Bike Sister because she could get this one bike going.

To be meant as a joke, I asked her to pose like she was on a bike. So this is my laugh pic.--What a great sport!

Ahh, the silkworms. Look harmless right?

Yum, yum look good don't they? Don't worry, I'll make you eat sometime.

Funny story: One p-day I was really tired so I was laying like I am and actually fell asleep like that! Elder Loveless thought it was funny so he took a pic. Everyone thought it looks painful!

Elder Brower, Elder Nead, Elder Routson, and Elder Loveless

This is the New Korean Group. I can say I love them more than the other group: because I got to KNOW them. They were awesome to work with.

This is Sis Bushman who went to Colorado to serve. I was just working on the bike and she just randomly started talking to me! At first I was "...okay?" After that bike talk, wherever she was, I would hear, "Elder Harken!" She'd always say, "Hi!" This pic was of her last day. She asked if we could take a pic together. (Left to right--Me, Sis Bushman, and her companion)

Look! South Korea :0)

Me and Elder Loveless on his birthday. We had a great time. (Check out Elder Loveless' shirt!)

Best companionship at the MTC!--Elder Harken and Elder DeWaal

To give you an idea how much room we have from the packages we get! We still laugh. President Carlson came and saw all the boxes and looked at us oddly. It was funny!

Meet Elder "Bunny" He's one of those late missionaries !

Meet the trio! Elder Bunny really boosted our conversion for some reason. We think he's sweet, so that's how we get referrals.

Me and Elder Bunny

. . .Elder DeWaal and I don't like competition.

We had a lot of fun with balloons. Elder Olsen made a puppy.

Another Elder having fun with the baloons. Your package actually spread to all the 3rd and 4th floors!

We got pics of us with the flag. The lab did something weird but we like it.

Elder Michael Harken's last email from the MTC

2009-03-24T17:41:00.001-06:00

Greetings Family and Friends!
Here we are we thought this day would never come...or at least this fast BUT it's here! Last letter from the MTC and from AMERICA! Creepy, I know but exciting! So I'll review, then we'll talk about flights and other important news.

Tuesday: For people who didn't know after I got off the computer we went to the temple and then to Choir. We were in line and we noticed the Choir teacher was also there! He came to us and asked if we were coming to Choir. I told him we were. Good thing to, we got good seats for Elder Tom Perry!!! He talked about companionships. Good talk. He's funny. I love him.

Wed: Not much happened accept we practiced a lot for our lesson on Saturday. I got a few interesting letters that day. :P

Thursday: This was an exciting day for me and Elder DeWaal we got our flight plans this day!!! We were all like WHAAT!?! There here?! It was awesome and we all were struck with the thought of OH snap we leave soon! Crazy pockets!

Friday: Did “Mikee”. We did it outside like it was meeting someone in the park. It was fun. Afterwards I taught a full long lesson (20 minutes) by myself to Elder DeWaal. I felt smart for a little bit... just a little XD

Sat: TRC day! One thing I failed to mention about TRC, TRC has two parts the first 15 minutes you do a task. This week was plan your week out with the investigator and then for 30 minutes teach a lesson. (This is all in Korean) So we got a sister who served two years ago. It was a good teaching lesson, something we tried this time that made it different was that we sang! Ya we sang two songs during the lesson "I am a child of God & I know my Redeemer lives" It actually worked with our lessons. The spirit was there so we couldn't argue. So singing hymns work!

Sun: Many have asked if we got to do the Temple Dedication, the answer yes! We did we got to do the final session. It was an amazing experience. I've been to temple dedications before but this one was just really meaningful to me. I can't give details of my experience but just to give an idea, picture over 2000 missionaries. I'll leave it at that.
Also on this day we had our exit interviews. This meant we taught a branch presidency a lesson. (No pressure) In Korean (still no pressure) by yourself (uh lil pressure) in 5 minutes (uhh) and I got Pres Carlson (...) hehe. Ya that's how I felt. But it went well. I love Pres Carlson he's so nice.

Monday: Because we have Korean missionaries our teachers found it a good idea to try to teach one of them one on one. O_O Ya, but I went with it hehe. Basically I did my best and I got a good understanding of what he said...kind of. He told me I did a good job and that he could feel the spirit from me. That made me feel really good. I like to hear when people can feel the spirit, it means I'm doing something right. XD

Tues: ...well that's today it's chaotic today! I'm running everywhere trying to get things ready so yeah.

Okay okay you all want the flight plans yes?
Here you go
5:00 A.M Get up to leave
6:00 A.M. Check travel office get on bus
7:00 A.M. Arive at airport and check in
7-9:30 Wait
9:45 A.M. -10:44 A.M. SLC to Los Angeles CA
11:00-12:00 Wait
12:30 - P.M. - 5:20 P.M. (Next day March 31st) Los Angeles CA to Seoul Korea
5:30-8:00 Wait check in to become an alien
8:05 P.M. - 9:05 P.M. Seoul Korea to Busan Korea!
The time difference will be 9:05 P.M. (Utah) Will about 11:00 A.M. (Korean time) So JET LAG! XD

This brings up concern I'm not sure when I'm going to contact family. Maybe in SLC or LA I'm not sure yet. Tell me what you think is best. Please note this isn't mother's day so it won't be long. It's just a 5 minute talk with a person. (Speaking of which family I need your cellphone numbers er.. I sort of forgot XD)

Friends: All your letters I have received up till Tuesday, you have been sent a letter, any letters past that you'll have to be patient with me and wait till I'm in Korea..

Love you all
Best of luck America
Love
Elder Harken

Elder Michael Harken's 9th Letter from the MTC

2009-03-18T12:21:00.001-06:00

Hey all guess what, I wrote for like 5 minutes and the computer froze D:!!! So I'm behind so I'm typing to recall what I said before bare with me ;-;

Week review:

Wed: We got Randy's chain link scripture references, which were awesome to receive. Randy thanks so much for that, my scriptures have some marks by those scriptures now. Fun story: A while back I told you about a sister who could not get a gym bike to start where no one else could accept a few (I'm one of those few hehe) This was her last week and we were talking and we found out we both liked Robot Chicken. I'm not sure if I told this or not but on the funny side, She told me this "Geez Elder Harken, I'm now going to miss you cause you are like the only missionary I know who likes Eddie Izzard" True story. It was a lot of fun talking to her.

Thurs: Had our 2nd "Mikee" appointment we actually got them to open the door this time and talk to us. You know what the secret is? Tell them your American usually they'll run to the door. You laugh but it's true, we'll do anything to try to share our message to people. Even though I can say oh so much XD

Fri: This day was Hilarious! Elder DeWaal has a friend that is in Korea Busan and sent us a can. When we first saw it we were all like "What is it?" We showed it to our teacher Sis. Son...you know it's something bad when they grin a certain way. It was Silk Worm Larva's.....Ya. Koreans love it apparently. So we all decided to eat one. It was HILLARIOUS to watch us eat JUST one. We did it in the Cafeteria we all thought we were going to die. They taste horrible, they're soggy, and they smell. Elder Loveless’ face was the best. Later that night I decided to have another one for the camera. We filmed me eating another one of these things.. I'm afraid you can't see it till I'm in Busan but I can assure you all that you will all get a good laugh watching me eat and gag on this tiny little silk worm.
On a spiritual note Friday, we went to the RC and I got to chat with a person wanting physical Proof about the BofM. I spent my whole time in the RC with this man about it. He believed the Bible because of proof he wanted me to show in the Bible there's proof. Now, I know there are few places that you can show but I gave it a little different direction, I gave him James 1:5. Told him if you want proof what better proof than from Heavenly Father? He didn't say anything but began saying more proof. I told him that's the best way and had to close the chat. Nice guy though.

Sat: Another great funny day along with spiritual moments. Our TRC appointment did not have enough people so we actually got to teach the two new Korean Sisters! No pressure to Elder DeWaal and me. It was a great experience the spirit was there and I think we touched them.
Now the other side of the story. Rachel you are going to scream of laughter saying "I TOLD YOU SO" -_- you were right. For the first 15 minutes whenever I started talking the two sisters would start laughing at me. At first I thought they were making fun of my Korean. But this wasn't the case in fact FAR from it. They finally stopped me and while laughing said that my right knee had not stopped moving up and down since we had been in there and it was funny to them. What makes this even funnier is I had no idea I was doing it! So the rest of the time my hand was on my knee trying to keep it from moving. I laugh to this day about it. So Rachel you were right about my knee being very distracting. Lol
Later that night they were looking for Elder DeWaal and me. They asked DeWaal some questions and then they came to me. They said this "You funny and you have many face expressions.”.... Do I really have that many facial expressions? It was funny.

Sun: We went on a temple walk, took some pictures, and talked to the one sister that worked on the bike. I got a picture with her. She then asked for my address to continue to keep in contact. I did. That's two I've done that. My district calls it flirting I call it friendship.
Whenever we pass the Korean sisters they always shriek and yell "ELDER HARKEN!!" ...I'm famous now :P I was actually talking to the other sisters in our Zone and asked them. They said when they pulled a picture out of the whole Zone they pointed at you and said "ELDER HARKEN!" It's rather funny.

Mon: More class work. We’re just reviewing things now. Later that night I got into a Gollum fight it was awesome. Another Elder did a Gollum impression. So we did a face off I thought he sounded better but everyone told me I did better. *Shrug* An-D would own both of us. But yeah the whole 4th floor came and watched us. No pressure.

Well that's all for the review this week.

Notes: Friends and Family, I have 1 P-Day left, This day I'm going to be running everywhere to do things. If you want a letter send it now so I can write cause I don't know how long it'll take me to write snail back. You have been warned. :P

This Saturday is exciting because we get our FLIGHT PLANS!!!! W00000T! I'll keep you updated.

Tia and Kim expect a letter.

Family I don't have time to send letters this week so no letters sorry. We’re trying to get ready so please don't torch me.
Ashley & Randy: Hope the week isn't going crazy I'm jealous of the Whose line is it anyway! D:
Katlin & Mike: You two are still here right? How's the baby coming? You two stay strong.
Rachel: ...I can see Alaska from my House!
Mom: You asked if me and DeWaal are getting along, ya were great never had a contention :D
Dad: ETA soon b-day. :D

Friends: Brady I'll look for you tomorrow. Stewie...are you alive? XD
Have a great week everyone
Elder Harken

Elder Michael Harken's 8th Letter from the MTC

2009-03-10T18:08:00.001-06:00

Hello Family and friends!
Elder Harken with week # errr... 8? I think ...ya-wait 8!?! O_O You mean were almost done?! D:!!!!!!! Hahaha ya it's crazy to think that time goes SO fast here in the MTC.

So this week I thought I’d share from one of the general authorities. This has to be the strongest talk I've ever felt it was COOL.
Elder Yoshihiko Kikuchi (QofS) came and talked to us about becoming great teachers and repentance. The Repentance part was really cool but I want to explain the other part.
He pulled up two Elder's and made them teach this senior missionaries. They did a good job the spirit was there, the Elder actually had the 1st vision down perfectly, but he told them there was a problem they went to fast. He said the spirit comes when we slowly teach the lesson. DON'T rush the lesson to finish. So then he pulled up three sisters. He gave them specific things to do. He also had us pray for them in our hearts to help them. So, I took up his challenge before I finished my prayer in my heart, the whole room's atmosphere changed. What I felt was the spirit presence getting stronger. The sisters talked slowly and the sister who said the 1st vision didn't have it down but it was 10x more powerful than the elder who said it perfectly. It was truly amazing. He talked about other things but that was the highlight.
Pretty cool huh?

Okay week review.

Wed: Nothing really happened accept that we could not get the things down, we’re trying to learn Gerunds...they are hard.

Thurs: We did a thing called "Mikee" This is basically the OMTC for Koreans were we get the experience of what will happen in Korea. It was a lot of fun. The doors are opposite compared to ours here. Elder DeWaal and I went and it was really entertaining for us to try to get them to open the door. 1-5 people will actually open the door when you knock, you have to talk to them through the door! ...We didn't get past the door...yet.

Fri: We got a letter from Pre. Jennings! He's expecting us on April 1st. We leave on March 30th. I believe were expecting our flight plans soon. But it gave us a run down what will happen. It's crazy. We do a culture night, meet with him and his wife, eat at the house, and much more in that night!

Sat: TRC this week was really rough. It was our first time teaching the plan of salvation. It did not go well sadly, we weren't as one as we used to be, I only said like 3 sentences cause I'm trying to learn phrases still. Plus we didn't feel the spirit so it got us down. But we felt better later from the Lord with comfort.

Sun: A very nice and relaxing day to us. We saw the Jospeh Smith movie again it rotates every other week. Love it still.

Mon: While in the gym another Sister I knew, I found out loves Eddie Izzard and Robot Chicken! It was awesome for 20 minutes we talked about quotes it was hilarious. After she left another Sister (Sister Linford aslo going to Busan) came and talked to me. She expressed her concern about the bike, she loved using but was afraid because somebody told her, her thighs would get big if she used it all the time. I thought she was joking but she wasn't. I assured her they wouldn't. It made her feel better. We than talked about influencing friends without pushing them with a BofM it was a cool talk we shared stories.

That's the wrap of this week.
To friends: Mel expect a letter. Tia: I finally got your letter translated...you crack me up. XD Stewie: -__________-; You know exactly why I give this face. All friends: Hope everyone is doing well :D

That's all folks see ya next week
Elder Harken :D

Elder Michael Harken's 7th Letter from the MTC

2009-03-03T18:14:00.001-07:00

Hello Family and friends!
Yours truly Elder Harken sending a letter to you live in the computer lab. I hope everyone is enjoying the sun as much as I have it feels good!

Now for the week review this week may seem small cause we've been really busy so bare with me. :(

Wed: On Wed we started doing something that all of us speakers are having a difficult time with. Only speaking Korean. It’s supposed to stretch us but I think it actually ripped us in the process. >< It's fun but really hard to say anything cause we don't know how. But we're trying our best. Thank-you gift of tongues -.- Where would I be?

Thursday: This story jumps back to last week as well. Last week on Thursday I was on my bike as always (I don't remember if I told this story) when a Sister came up to me. Now there's a bike where you have to have a seizure to get it started. Only myself and Sis. Stomple (Going to Japan) can get it started. So this sister is trying to get it started and I'm just grinning thinking "Victim number 5" today. Nobody believes me you can get it started. So, she finally gives up and asks ME to do it. So I did, afterwards we just started to chat with each other. Her name was Sis. Bushman. She told me some funny stories about her life and then left. Little did I know that every time I saw her she would come up to me and shake my hand and start talking to me again. She was a lot of fun to talk to. Now to this week, so I found out that she was leaving the following Monday to go to Colorado for her mission. Not fair, being here for 3 weeks. >< I bid her farewell and she asked for a pic with me. I said sure. Pretty funny. What did this have to do with anything? ...I don't know.

Friday: We learned how the money works over in Korea. It's cool but different and I got to say that their money kicks our money's rear's when it comes nice looking. Went to the RC Frank wasn't home sadly, but I got another chat with someone it was cool. I actually am supposed to check up on her on Friday.

Sat: As always went to the TRC, it was a really good exp. I'm afraid I can't tell you what happened in there because it's one of those personal ones. But I can tell you about it a little. We had two sisters and they were awesome. We were supposed to speak Korean to them and they were supposed to back. One of the sisters spoke Korean...then translated it! It was funny she would applaud us when we could answer her questions in Korean. She was AWESOME. But yeah it was really good. Oh and btw we got Elder Bunny. WE LOVE IT!

Sun: 03/01/09 Wait...it's MARCH?! Sunday was good. We went to a conference and we all bore our testimonies in Korean. Hard but good I guess.

Mon: We actually got another Elder in our district! His name is Elder Casesy he went home due to family problems. Now he's in our group he's this muscle dude from Hawaii he's awesome!

Well that's all for this week, Tia, Mandy, and Adara. Letters have been sent out keep an eye out for them.

Friends I hope you are all doing well. Keep up the fight at work and school!

Love you all,
Elder Harken

Pictures of the MTC: True Elder Harken Captions

2009-03-03T18:02:00.009-07:00

To give you an idea of our study time. Okay, fine, you caught me studying. This is our favorite spot to study.

This is the one and only . . .Sister Lee! The cutest Korean evah! Yes, I am close but I'm clean compared to some Elders. (They hugged her.) You bad Elders! I took a handshake instead. :) I was on cloud nine. She is 24 in Korean years. I guess I like older women. :)Funny story about this pic. i had left my camera in the RH, so Elder Nead took this with his camera. He gave me four copies . I love it.

Pics with the awesome Koreans. The Elder with the glasses was the nicest to me and really did teach me. He told about Busan and to say hello to his home ward.

Because we are always serious. . .seriously. :P
This was the night when the older district and Koreans were leaving. This was farewell. That's Elder Juns (left) and his companion, both great Elders. 2/15/09

Happy Valentine's Day! Weeee fun at the MTC or as put it in this pic--Happy Valentine Party! Thanks for the party in a box, Mother.

To give you an idea of how much you send and how much we can eat a day. This shows SOME of our fun treats. You can see my desk to the left. We STILL have tons left. The Elders are grateful!

More "funny" Valentine treats. This was a chocolate apple filled with gummy worms.

Elder Harken's 6th email from the MTC

2009-02-24T17:55:00.000-07:00

Greetings family and friends that are reading this letter!
Elder Harken here a little bit later than I usually am with letters... Elder De Waal and I are trying to do a new schedule for P-Day so that we can get more work done. It works but the letter will come later in the day.
Now updates for the week yes? Okay

Tuesday: P-day...and a talk from Elder Ballard...wait...O_____O; yep you heard me right! He came and talked to us a week ago! Cool huh?

Wed: This was our last week with our OMTC investigator. It was sad but we got something that we didn't think would have happened. OMTC investigators are NOT supposed to give feedback about ANYTHING. While chatting with him he stopped us and asked if we wanted feedback. O_o We were happy to learn what we did good and could improve on. He was so nice to us and we became good friends and learned his conversion story. He was awesome to work with, sometime we want to grab him really quick and get a picture with him. Great guy. Allesandro Pelligrini was his name btw.

Thurs: Okay this day we were HYPER. Thursdays are Really REALLY long for us. We have classes basically all afternoon. As 19 year olds we get restless a little too quick. Even my companion was going crazy. It was funny but I felt bad for our teachers. I would like to note I was the least crazy one. :P

Fri: Went to the RC, now I haven't had much luck in chats or calls for getting referrals. It's actually been a little sad to me. But today was a little different. I went through 10 calls with 0 luck on getting anyone till I got this one call. He had ordered a BOFM and I was confirming to see if he got it. We chatted for a bit. I can't tell you all the whole story, but in short I actually committed him to go to church.!!!:D I'm giving him a call this week to see how it went. So we'll just have to see yes?

Sat: Okay this was the big day for us in our class. Today we went to the TRC to teach the 1st lesson...in KOREAN O_O Scary pockets! We were scared out of our wits. But we did our best and the Lord did the rest. It was a great experience. I don't know much Korean (not a lot of us do) but I decided not to take notes. One: it made me feel good to do it without it and 2: the spirit was there and He did something that we needed, the spirit. The spirit was in the room with us. We might have not been able to speak well but they understood us. It was really cool.

Sun: As you can see 6 weeks have past Elder De Waal is no longer DL (District Leader). Elder Loveless is now the DL. Funny story when Pres. Carlson came looking fro him he was sleeping on the couch LOL. It was funny!

Well that's it for this week.
To Chris Thurman CONGRATS!!!!!! On the mission call dude!
To everyone for their comment in the letter I received thanks for it! It meant a lot to me. :D

Well that's it.
Love you all,
Elder Harken

More MTC Photos

2009-02-21T19:11:00.006-07:00

Elder Michael Harken's 5th letter from the MTC

2009-02-19T19:47:00.001-07:00

Greetings family and friends who continue to read my letter each time I get to you! As you can see I'm still alive a kicking...a little :P

So shall we talk about the week? Yes.

Wednesday was probably was the best day really. Once again we went to our investigator in the OMTC and taught him, for the last few weeks we have tried to get him to pray. No success, till today. He did! :D Though he didn't feel anything -_______-; baby steps, baby steps. Well, we can't exactly move really forward till he gets that his father in heaven loves him. So, I got prompted to just bear my testimony. I did, it was amazing as I tried to speak my voice went really quiet. I don't know why but it did and I bore to him that he will answer but you have to be diligent about, I started to cry (just a little) and asked him to ask again if he does love him. He said he would. So yeah that was pretty cool.
OH! Sister Acerson and I found each other! She came in this week.

Thrusday: Long day of studying and sweating like a pig. We found out that one of us in our group would have to give a talk...in Korean. O_O ACK! I for one thing can barely speak it yet alone make sentences. But somehow made a really short talk.

Friday: Was the day to see who would give a talk...not me :D Besides that nothing really big happened...Cept a few things :P Sister Lee from Korea we found out can play the pinao like she was Mozart. It was cool! Another thing that happened was RC, I had some "interesting ones" one guy came saying he wanted help about his GF dumping him -_____-; the things people will tell on chats is scary. Trust me on this one. But I gave him D&C 121 7-8 to see that the Lord will help. He than got really weird and will leave it at that. :P

Saturday: TRC day! This one was quite funny. 1: It was valentines 2: the volunteers have no idea what they're supposed to do, 3: That package you sent required me AND Elder DeWaal to carry. Anyways, The Sister we got was actually 16! O_O It was interesting. She was very kind to us and helped us a lot with the Korean.. We were supposed to ask her where to move things, but instead she told US where to move things. XD But the one thing she told us that stood out was this, She was grateful for us missionaries to let her come and listen and feel the spirit. A 16 year old saying this! If I have faith like her wow. Plus she gave us candy for Valentines. Now about the package...this was our reaction to it O_______O I can see we are stock for the next few weeks.. We got some pics thanks for the stuff and the iPod.

Sunday: was a sad one, the older district was leaving. Elder Caldwell my old ZL was leaving among them. I really looked up to him. It was sad and little bit of envying of them going. But I think it's good that I'm here for a bit more. The Koreans also left too T_T but well get more in when we have 3 weeks left.

Well that sums up this week. I hope everyone is doing well.
Friends, stay smart in school...and write. That means you too Stewie.

That is all.
Love you all,
Elder Harken :D

Elder Michael Harken's 4th Email from the MTC

2009-02-10T18:21:00.002-07:00

Greetings Family and Friends
Your's truly Elder Harken!
Well well, almost been here for a full month...wait what?! O_o CRAZY!!! Ya my thoughts exactly.
Review of the week yes? Okay if you insists :P
Wed: New Missionaries!! Ya I love them because watching all them come in they are so green. They are so nervous and watching moms boo reminds me of when I first came in good times. Plus I get ice cream on this day W00t!
Fun fact: RJ Barrington (Main actor in The Diviners) and I saw each other he came in that day it was awesome to see him. He was really green coming in but he'll do fine....and he leaves before me -___-; that's just not fair.

Thursday: Lots of Korean study this is our day when I feel like the day just goes on and on and on. But a fun story to tell. All of you know that I do personages especially Gollum. Well Elder Browler in our district starter to say taters and did a Gollum line without the gollum accent. I was appalled and told him what were taters in Gollum's voice. The whole district stopped eating and stared. They actually asked me to do more and than the older district came by and wanted to hear it was funny. :D

Friday: Went to the RC that day and was doing inbound calls, my heart races when I hear the phone ringing. O_o Then one lady called, she asked for a free video I said sure and than she started asking if she could be put on our prayer roll. At first I was confused than see explained, she needed $600 to pay her attorney that she could claim her house that she lived in for 5 years. (She started to cry) I told her I'd be more than happy to put her on our prayer rolls. While this was going on I got the idea to tell her about the BOFM how it can bring peace! I was about to do so and she was the sweetest lady just when I was going to ask her the phone line disappears. D:!!!! I never did find out why it disconnected she was talking to me when it cut. If you guys want please pray for me to find her again. I have been given special permission to call her back when I go back to the RC. Kind of cool.

Sat: Okay this was really cool what happened! TRC is where we teach people about the Gospel usually you get members to come help with the language and listen to you teach. Not the case for me and Elder DeWaal. We got a REAL investigator! O_O Okay it's scary to teach just a member but finding out they're a real one increases the intensity! We said two prayers before going in. We were supposed to teach the 2nd lesson plan of salvation but it sort of changed. He was from a small town an hour away form Seoul coming here to learn English. Now were supposed to teach English so this was already going to be a very interesting discussion. We got prompted when he told us he didn't know who Joseph Smith was to teach him the 1st lesson. It was a really cool experience I think we touched him. The spirit was strong I think. I actually committed him to pray and ask if the BofM was true and if God knew him and loved him. At first he said maybe but at the end he said yes. At the end we shook hands and left. (We also got chewed out by this teacher of another district because we were 5 minutes over) -_-; Ugh.

Sunday: Saw the Joseph Smith movie again! I am ordering you all to go see it! NO BUTS!
We did a temple walk and got a HUGE Zone group pic. The older district leaves next Monday making us the Older District! We also got some AWESOME pics of the Koreans that are here. I don't remember if I told about them but they are AWESOME. I have some pics of them.

Monday: Weather is evil here! This day was cool. The Koreans actually came in and talked to us one-on-one and taught us some things it was really cool. They are the NICEST people in the world! I love them already. Funny story: There's this one Korean that came in and said "Who want me?" Okay that was already funny but when one of the Elders hands shot right up I fell off my chair laughing.

As you can tell it's been a good week! Hard but good!

Friends hope you are all doing well with everything. Brady Congrats and can't wait to see you on March 18th I'll keep my eyes out for you.

Till next week chow!
Elder Harken

Michael's 3rd Email from the MTC

2009-02-03T17:43:00.002-07:00

Greetings family! (and friends!)
Your one and only Elder Harken. Speaking to you! Wow weeks just go fast really really fast here in the MTC! Must be the scheduling that does that. :P Well where to start for this week?

Sunday? That sounds good... well as you know it was fast Sunday. It was quite the experience. Instead of priesthood session we went to a mission conference. We heard some really good speakers. They talked about obedience. :P Lol ya it was great.
After that we had sacrament in our zone. On Wednesday we got to listen to Koreans from KOREA! COOOL! They are very nice. They all got up and bore their testimony in Korean. They spoke really fast I was like O_O what? But it will be cool when I can do that. We fasted till dinner (6:15) and then went to a fireside and watched the TESTAMENTS!!! Great day.

I'm going to rewind now to last Wednesday. On wed Elder DeWaal and I went and did (OMTC) Operation Missionary Training Center. Where people act out like real investigators. Really good practice to do progressing members. You basically have to get into the front door first O.o. I think we did well...except I made the mistake of answering to a reply with that you will have joy if you listen -_______-; oops. But it was a good exp to do none the less.

Thursday.... lots of learning of Korean lets leave it there. :P

Friday was a interesting day we went to the RC and learned how to "Chat" and we did get interesting Chats. Our first chat a guy had a concern about him liking guys. At first we thought he was serious, we did our best to help but as the conversation continued you could tell he was joshing with us. Then I got a chat with this one man and it sort of stuck with me. The man came on asking "Why does God hate?" I was puzzled at first, but as he continued we figured out that in Helaman 15:5 the man had taken the verse COMPLETLEY wrong. I tried for 30 minutes to explain to him that wasn't what it meant but no go. It was sad when he left. But in the field you'll get a lot of those I guess.

Saturday!!! Was amazing! We had to go to the TRC to teach lesson 1 again. We went in planning to teach a pretend investigator who didn't know about God. We got something way different and way more powerful.
Our investigators we taught were 2 sister Koreans. We began the lesson (English) as we chatted with them, We found out that one of the sisters was just baptized 2 weeks ago!!! O_O And the other we don't know. Instead of teaching like pretend investigators we taught the restoration to these sisters like the missionaries would when you review the lessons after being baptized. The sister told us that she believed but couldn't decide if the BofM was true a lot of facts baffled her. I testified to her that I felt the same way before. But as I read the BofM and took Moroni 10:4 promise The Lord manifest it unto me that it was true. Elder DeWaal bore a really strong testimony and BAM! The spirit was EXTREMELY strong (thanks Elder DeWaal :D) We could tell the spirit touched them, it was a great exp.

That sums up this week here are some fun facts about me being here at the MTC:
Elder Harken Trivia:
#1 I know this one has got you talking so here
Video Games withdrawl: 0 HA!
Music: 3
Girls....we're not going there

#2 Weight
I came to the MTC weighing 133 lbs I now weigh 137 lbs O.o

#3 Mail
I'm considered the most lucky Elder in the District with the most received Dear Elders and biggest packages in less than 3 weeks :D W00t!

#4 Singing
I have sang "Put on your Sunday clothes" over 100 times and drove my companion nuts! Anyone want to send that to me? :D

#5 Temple
Temple + Morning + Breakfast in temple = BEST WAY TO START MORNING!

Well that's it.

Oh to friends that read this facebook message I know you do. I have yet to receive a letter from you ;-; I'd love to write back but I need addresses. -_- (Thank-you Tia) This includes you too stewie!

That's all for this week love ya all!
Elder Harken

MTC Pictures (2)

2009-02-02T20:53:00.001-07:00

Elder Michael Harken's 2nd Email from the MTC

2009-01-27T16:45:00.001-07:00

Greetings Fellow people of the outside world!
Yours truly Elder Harken, with 25:00 minutes to write down everything before times runs out!
First and for most thank you all for your prayers and fasting for my sake. They have been a truly remarkable blessing for me to have while trying to learn Korean. But don't think you can stop now cause I'm sort of getting the language.
Bad News first: I am unable to attach ANY usb ports so I can't get any pictures off my drive while I am here in the MTC, sorry. I will send real copies when they come in and send them as what mom calls it "Snail mail"
Good News though: This week has been very good and I feel like time is just flying while I'm here. I know that sounds strange but with my schedule time really does fly.
For you all to know how my day USUALLY goes it goes something like this:
6:30 Wake-up
7:00-7:45 Language study hour
7:45-8:15 Breakfast
8:15-11:30 Korean Class
12:30 Lunch
1:00-5:15 Korean Class
5:30 Dinner
5:30-9:00 Korean Class
9:00-9:30 Planning Session
9:30-10:15 Residence Hall (Home) time
10:30 Lights out!
.....Ya >_> that's usually my schedule for each day. (Accept for Tuesday "P-Day" and Sunday)
But on Sunday we had a great speaker come talk to us Stephen Allen Director of Missionary Work. He talked to us. He's a really funny guy. WAY better than John Bytheway. Ya he was that good. He told us there are 4 phases a missionary will go through:

Phase 1: The honeymoon: love everything
Phase 2: Hostile: I hate everything,
Phase 3 Grin and Bare it: Forget about self and worry for others
Phase 4: Love even more for people around you and the lord.

Yep really good talk, on Sunday we got to watch the Joseph Smith video that is up in Salt Lake! Yeah it was AWESOME to watch again. I demand you family to go and watch it. (And friends too of course.)
Elder De Waal and I have become good friends in the last few days. We taught the first lesson in the TRC (Teaching Resource Center) and it was epic! TRC is a practice place for elders to teach the lessons and learn. We both agreed after watching ourselves that we have to smile >_< And before you ask, it was in English. We can barely do introductions.

ACK! Times running out! On Friday we went to the RC (Referral Center) and talked to people on the phone about the church. I had 4 people hang up the phone on me. ;-; Might as well get use to that feeling XD But no worries I'll get better. It's scary O.O

My Branch President is an awesome guy he talks to us about obedience a lot. You have to be really obedient in his eyes.

I received all your packages O_o WHOA! Thanks for all the goodies. You're making my companion and district extremely jealous. I share just for your info (but the sodas are mine >: |)

Today me and Elder De Waal went to the temple early today (7:20) and had breakfast at the temple O.o why didn't anyone tell me there food was good?! How rude.

Oh I know Ashley you put this on facebook so here's to you friends: Tia, I got your letter and sent you a letter back. Guys I can't write you unless you write me first. (This is me saying I don't know your addresses) So send me a letter and I'll fire one back and write you. But remember the golden rule "Ye who sends a letter, GETS a letter ^_^)

I know my letter seems crazy to read but when you are on a time crunch, you have to write fast! Well g2g to choir see ya, love you all.

Elder Harken

P.S. Rachel I demand a letter from you! >: | (Dear Elder, E-Mail, letter something >: |)

Michael's First Email from the MTC

2009-01-20T21:04:00.002-07:00

Elder Harken here finally being able to write to you guys for the first time for a while. :O Right after you guys left things have gone from crazy to CRAZIER!!! After you guys left I was sent into this room and waited for like 30 minutes and I received all this stuff. I got a bible, BofM, Preach my gospel, 3 books of Korean vocab, and a Korean dictionary!!! O_o; OVERLOAD!!! XD After that I got a key of where I am living right now and I can say it's a small dor- I mean small "Residence Hall" (were not allowed to call it a Dorm)
Afterward we were to go to ours rooms and unpack. When I got out two Elders came up to me and asked me what mission I was serving due to my dot. I responded to Korea and they just jumped up and said they were my Zone Leaders. They asked me where my stuff was and they would give me a hand on taking it to my room COOL! I got there and I was the first to be in the room...first one there + four places to choose = FIRST choice!
While I unpacked and waited for my companion to come I found out I was going to be put into a trio! With Elder De Waal and Elder Routson. When they came I greeted them and they are also going to the Busan mission as well so COOL AGAIN!We got to meet each other and they took a bunk together and I was alone in my own bunk...w00t!
Afterwards we went to dinner...it's fattening! I'm on to those evil demons and trying to make me fat! -.-; But they have soda, milk, all kinds of food and they are all nice. All of us greenies were greeted by the older district team. They are about 6 weeks ahead of us so they are pretty good at korean speaking. They told me that they went from 18 members to about 50-60 I think misisonaries going to Korean speaking missions! O.o Wow there is a lot of us aren't there? XD
Then they brought us mail I had mail. O_o It was from you guys and I thank-you for the letters in my pack they're in my missionary memories book.
Speaking of letters PLEASE continue to write to me. I'm afraid I can't reply to you all till Tuesday. P-Day for us is on TUESDAY. You can't have all missionaries have P-Day on Monday :P I love getting letters from you. Dear Elders, hand-written letters, e-mails etc. Please do, I love them and I love to hear what is going on.
AHHH! 13 more minutes! Must right faster. To give you a quick some up of the week. We have a real down to the minute schedule. I'm probably in class more than a normal college student is O.o I have two teachers right now Brother Murray and Sister Son teaching both Korean. There is about 8 members in our district, but that's all good to me. Smaller the better.
A few days into the MTC one of our members Elder Sung got transfer to a advanced group because he could speak Korean fluently D: LUCKY!!!! Making my trio with my companions to an end. I ended up being put with Elder De Waal and I couldn't be more grateful for him.
This man is an angel from god in my opinion he has helped me more than you guys could imagine. We are actually as soon were done with our letters were going to go to the temple! WEEEE! Afterwards were planning to go to choir practice...yes you heard me I'm going to choir practice. -_-;
Elder De Waal is from Sandy UT. GREAT guy and is truly ready for the work. Me...Iam doing good. :P I pray that I will be strong and I know my testimony will grow. If you guys will for me right a letter to De Waal on the Dear Elder thing and write to him thanking him for being a great companion to me.
Oh! Mom, Dad, and Rachel expect a letter from me in the mail these are unique to you and you alone so if you want go ahead an share them and what not your call. Ashley, Randy, Katlin, and Mike I don't have your address so SEND them to me and I'll write hand written to you too.
Well I'm out of time. So I'll be real quick. Hello friends I'm doing well! That is all.

I love you all and I can't wait to get a letter from you.

Love Elder Harken

P.S. Write back to this e-mail so I can add you to my address book.

Elder Harken's First Day at the MTC

2009-01-15T17:57:00.001-07:00

Michael Enters the MTC

2009-01-14T20:54:00.000-07:00

Michael is standing under the Korean flag with another Missionary from Las Vegas who will also be serving in Korea.

Michael's Missionary Tag in Korean

Michael's Farewell Talk

2009-01-14T15:34:00.000-07:00

Missionary Farewell Speech
D&C 4

I have been given the honor to speak to you today on D&C 4. It is amazing to me that a chapter that has only 7 verses can be very effective. Because it’s only 7 verses I’d like to read them to you.
1 Now behold, a marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men.
2 Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day.
3 Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work;
4 For behold the afield is white already to harvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul;
5 And faith, hope, charity and love, with an eye single to the glory of God, qualify him for the work.
6 Remember faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, diligence.
7 Ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Amen.

I believe this chapter has many special meanings to each of us. Today I’d like to tell what my heart has told me what this scripture means to me. There are two things that really came to mind while reading this; “You don’t need to wear a name tag to be a missionary,” and “the affects of a Missionary when he has a full heart of desire.”
While I was reading D&C I noticed that it does not say anything about you have to be a missionary to spread the gospel to people. It says in verse 3 “…if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work;” Over the years I have watched the young men and young women in this ward both living and sharing the gospel with their friends, families and neighbors. I applaud them for how faithful they are, they are already being missionaries just by being great examples to people all around them.
I believe that little children have my vote for best missionaries. Every single fast Sunday I see little primary children including sunbeams race up here to bear their testimony. They meekly share their knowledge of what they know is true. I figure if they were allowed, they would send them instead of us 19 year old men.
You do not have to wear a name tag to do the Lord’s work. You do not have to be knocking on their door and asking if they would like to hear the gospel. It can be as simple as a young man going over to a neighbor and mowing their lawn. Or just being a friend to another and being an example. There are multiple things you can do. Even though it may seem that nothing is happening now, you are planting the seed for that person and one day they will know the truth of this gospel, thanks to you. I believe that we are supposed to do this before we go on a mission. There is no better way to prepare for your mission than being a missionary before you leave. I can testify that it truly works.
I have a friend that is a great buddy to have supported me all the way these past years. One day he told me that he was struggling with whether or not he was going to choose to go on a mission. Now I truly cared for my friend and I knew that I couldn’t say that you have to or I can’t be friends, or push him to go. No, I told him that whatever choice he made on the matter I would support him 100% and back him up for it. I told him that I would be sad not to hear him go, but he would still be my good friend forever. As time went on we stayed good friends. A few months later we were working together and we got into talking about missionary things again. This time however he gave me a different response. He told me “Mike you realize we will not see each other for like 4 years?” I looked at him with a puzzled expression and I said “Why’s that?” “Cause we’re going on missions? Duh!” He then explained how I played a role in his decision on choosing to serve a mission as well as other decisions in his life that he needed to change for the better. I was filled with joy that day. Though I won’t be here for his farewell, I will be here for his homecoming, when my dear friend is able to return with honor.
The other feeling I received while I was reading D&C 4 was how much a missionary can affect someone by having a burning desire to spread the word of the gospel. I would like to share a short story about one missionary that affected one person and caused great happiness not only to her life, but the lives of many others. Through her missionary conversion many other people were influenced because a 19 year old young man had a desire to serve the Lord and preach his gospel. 31 years ago, Elder Scheinder knocked on a door in the town of Charlestown, South Carolina where he met a young woman who was interested in hearing his words. As they went through the discussions this young woman knew in her heart that this was the true church of Jesus Christ. She was later baptized by Elder Scheinder. Years later after she was baptized she met a young man who she fell in love with. Though he loved her and wished for hand in marriage, she could not and told him that she would only get married in the house of the Lord. She became an influence on this young man, as Elder Scheinder had with his full heart towards her. A while later the young man after hearing the missionary discussions was also baptized. As the years passed they had children, four to be exact. The couple continued to be active members of the church. Guiding, teaching, and directing their children in the ways of the Lord. All of the family members have remained faithful to this day. Two are now sealed in the Temple to returned missionaries, and very happy together. And now this mom’s son is going on a mission to do what Elder Scheinder did for this woman. That young woman is my mother. Elder Scheinder blessed my mother and her posterity when he came with a full heart on his mission to teach her. But that is only a portion of how he blessed her through his missionary service.
President Eyring in this month’s Ensign said this “…Because we in our family accepted that invitation from the missionaries, I was blessed to perform the baptism of a widow in her 80s, taught by sister missionaries. When I placed my hands on her head to confirm her a member of the Church, I felt impressed to say that her choice to be baptized would bless generations of her family, after and before her. Even after she passed away, I was able to be in the temple with her son as he was sealed to her.”
Becoming a member and having your posterity be greatly blessed is only one side of the story. The affect of a missionary is like a water ripple, it goes in all directions. It does not only bless our family posterity but also our families that have passed away, no matter how long ago. Because we have been given the opportunity to go and do baptisms for the dead and temple work for them, we are able to seal families together for eternity. Every time one person accepts the gospel, they are blessed for your knowledge of the gospel and accepting it.
Before my little sister Rachel was born my parents were trying to find a name they wanted to name her. One day both of them got the impression in their mind Emeline. My parents named my little sister Rachel Emeline Harken, three years after Rachel was born my mother was doing genealogy work and found that she had an ancestor named “Emeline.” My mother was able to bless her ancestor through her own conversion of the church.
All these blessing to my mother came because, Elder Scheinder had a full desire to serve along with the characteristics found in verse 5 which are faith, hope, charity, and love. I believe that Elder Scheinder did not realize how great his impact as a missionary did for ONE person. So I thank him for his righteous heart and his desire to serve honorably with a full heart for my mother. His example and willingness to serve is the reason I am able to stand before you today. Through baptizing my mother, Elder Schiender helped lead the way to me becoming a missionary.
Brothers and sisters I have one more desire today that I feel the spirit prompting me to say about missionary work. I know it is where I need to be right now. Yesterday I was extremely lucky to be able to go up to Salt Lake City and go through the temple. The experience was amazing. While I was in the temple; I felt an impression, Happiness but not any kind of happiness, the love of my father in heaven. There in that temple I knew one important thing when I left. For the first time EVER in my life, I knew EXACTLY why I need to go serve my mission in South Korea. Because I want those people to FEEL the love of the Lord as I was able to feel it in the temple yesterday. I want them, all of them, to be able and go to the temple and feel the love of our Father in heaven. I want them to feel and recognize how much he truly loves each and every one of them, each and every one of us. That is why I have a strong desire to go on a mission.
While at the Provo temple I pulled out the scriptures and just happened to open up to Isaiah and had the feeling to share it with you. Isaiah 61 1-3 reads
" 1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified."
This is my favorite scripture about missionary work. This scripture can actually be cross referenced with D&C 4. Brothers and sisters I know for a fact that this mission is not going to be a walk in the park. I have been called from the lord to go serve Him, and his beloved children for two years. As Nephi 3:7 says “I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.” And I know that I will be discouraged time and time again. But as D&C 4 says in 6-7
6 Remember faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, diligence.
7 Ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
If I ask of the Lord he will give me the strength that I am lacking. There is no doubt in my mind that he will always be with me and my companions throughout my entire mission. D&C 84:88 reads

88 And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.

Brothers and sisters the field is white and ready to be harvested. I'd like to bear my testimony to you all. (Michael then bore his testimony. It was "epic". You'll have to wait for him to get back to listen to his sweet testimony.