Sunday, June 29, 2014

Weeks of Miracles!

Wow what an amazing week, Im coming to love the 도봉 area a lot more!  Some highlights for this email!

-Me and Elder Anderson went on a date ^^
-We baked brownies for a member, but ended up eating them 
-I did all of my zone leader pass off! And Most of my Assistant Pass off!  
-We were able to meet PJ Rogers at a zone conference!  I won a tie from him ^^
-I had a quote from my history teacher in High school fill my mind as I bore testimony of the restoration to an investigator
-Baptismal Dates for DAYS!!!! Not really but we got one this week!
-Called cute during English class by some old ladies....
-Heard from the Temple President in church, called the whole congregation to repentance!

So explanations now that your appetite is whet! (in order)

Me and Elder Anderson were supposed to have lunch with a nice old lady from our ward who wanted to treat us to lunch.  We showed up and they brought out the food from this nice restaurant, and as we were about to pray and start eating, she starts to get up and says that she has another appointment that she has to go to and that she just wanted to but us lunch.  So she excused her self from the meal and left me and elder anderson alone eating together.  Very weird but it was good food.  

So one day we were walking and it was hot, we had our lesson punk on us and we found out that two members of our ward were getting married this weekend (on this past saturday) in the temple!  We wouldnt be able to go to the temple but we thought about doing something nice for them.  So Elder Anderson and I thought it would be a good idea to bake brownines and then draw a temple them.  So we baked them and then didnt let them cool before putting the icing on, and it melted all over the place.  We didnt want them to see the horrible looking temple, and pplus for some reason they got hard, so we just ate them at our house haahah.  

I had to go to the Ssangye Area for my Zone leader Final pass of this week and PASSED!! Then on Saturday our Aps called and said they had time for me to go into Gwanghwamun and Do Ap Pass Off.  So we made the trip and saw the beautiful palace and a glimpse of the Blue House (the Korean Presidents House).  Went up to the office and did most of my AP pass off, it was super hard but super fun, and Elder Fonnesbeck taught me a lot!

On thursday we had a surprise? (I cant translate the feeling from korean) zone conference with PJ Rogers!!!!  He is a very famous radio and TV talkshow person who also is an entrepeneur and now teachers international business at BYU Hawaii.  He was also the first American and english speaker to Graduate from Yonsei University with a PHD in International Business, in KOREAN.  He took all of his masters and PHD in Korean!  What a trip!  HE talked to us about learning the language better (his pronounciation is flawless, most people thought he was korean until they saw pictures of him), how to build 정 with the members (the closest definition I can give is an extremely strong emotional attachment), and how to deal with stuff that doesnt exist in America, but which we deal with in america all the time.  It was a really great conference!  We laughed soo hard when he spoke korean and showed us how we actually need to speak it, and the koreans laughed when he would explain things to them about the stuff they do that they dont think of.  IT was a really great experience, and I won a tie from him from BYU Hawaii and an Alumni Pin for knowing a certain Hanja from a word that he was describing to us.  He was an awesome speaker!

As I sat talking to our invsetigator Kumar, a thought came into my head that at first I didnt think was real.  Mr. Howe my highschool govt teacher told me on the last day of school "Benny, You will either end up rich, or in prison"  At the time I didnt know how to respond or act to that, so I just tucked it away.  But as that thought came another one came too "He that hath eternal life is rich"  So as I bore my testimony to Kumar about the restoration and about how happy he could be, my heart swelled as my teachers prophesy came true, I am rich now, but not the way he was thinking!

So our investigator Matthew, we met with him again this week after finding out he wants to be baptized.  We talked for a bit about it and how he felt, then he asked when Elder Anderson would be leaving Dobong. He answered probably the end of July, to which he responded "I want to get baptized before then."  What a miracle!  Someone who hasnt shown any interest in the church in 2 weeks now has a baptismal date for the 19th of July!! we are super excited for him and hope that he can recieve baptism on that day.  

Short story, We were sharing our favorite actors in english class and someone said Brad pitt, I said I wish I could look as good as him and like 3 old ladies all said I was more handsome then him... hahah and one young woman, still older than me though ahaha

And this past sunday our Temple president came to our ward and talked to the ward.  He told them "If you have thoughts like 'I dont have enough money to go to the temple, I'm too busy to go to the temple' or anything like that, Repent Immediately"  It was very powerful and I know that some of the people were shuffling around in their pews because they felt the spirit telling them they need to go to the temple.  Such an awesome experience to hear that!  I wish I could do that!

That was my week in a nutshell!  Hope everyone at home is doing swimmingly and that the Spirit is constantly residing with all of you!  Strive to do everything you can to live in Harmony with the Teaching of the Gospel and the Spirit.  I know that as you do, heavenly father will bless you with what you need.  He will make heavy things light, and bear you up.  I know thats true, especially as a missionary!  I love all of you back at home, have a great week and be safe!


Elder Yamagata
선형수 장로 ^^
 

Miracles, HO!!!!!!

OH MAN!!!!! THIS WEEK HAS BEEN FULL OF MIRACLES!!!!

so I will probably only focus on those haha!

So Monday I was on exchanges with Elder Harrison, my zone leader.  I dont know why they wanted to go then but it worked out for the better.  I went to their area of Sanggye thats right next to mine and we mostly jundoed all day.  Near the end of the street contacting time, right before we were going to go home to eat dinner, I met a kid and decided to talk to him, Elder Harrison right next to me.  Turns out he speaks flawless english and goes to Seoul University (the hardest college to get into here in Korea).  So we talked for a while before coming to the subject of families.  After we hit that, I took off, talked about temples and eternal families and marriage and how our church is centered around families.  Then after all that, he had to leave.  Such a bummer!  But we were able to set up a time to meet with him and got his phone number, the missionaries over in Sanggye should be meeting with him sometime this week!
Tuesday Was temple day!!! I always love temple day and the opportunity we have to renew our temple covenants while also blessing the lives of deceased people who have not had the chance to receive these ordinances.  Such an amazing experience.  But I met someone in the temple who had an interesting last name: Oshima. The first time that I have seen that since looking at my own family tree, wayyyy back on the line. I asked him about his family history, and he said that the last oshima was his grandmother!  He was probably already two generations ahead of me, so up to 5-6 generations ago I migght be related to him!  Crazy!!!!!
Wednesday- nothing much actually happened on wednesday haha, It was a decent day and we Street contacted a lot and then went to english class!

Thursday- Did pass off and almost finished Zone leaders final!!! So excited!!! \I am sooo close to being a certified teacher!  After that we bounced and met the new bishop for lunch and to talk about the work in the ward.  Definitely fun and super yums food ^^ ~~~ After taht some jundo life for a couple of hours till dinner.  After dinner unfortunately we got punked and the guy didnt show up for his appointment, but not all was lost!  WE had a Less active lesson set up and went to meet him at his house.  We talked about the restoration, but also a lot about temples!  Seems like a lot of our talking this week has been about temples!  He was super interested again and the spirit was so strong as we taught and then talked about temples with him.  After wards he bought  us some Jajangmyon and it was super delicious!

Friday-  After a nice weekly planning session to get ready for our next week, we met with an english class member named Matthew who works at a school nearby.  As we were preparing for him, I thought that temples would be a good topic again, so we went over and talked about temples and about the restoration.  Elder Anderson has been meeting with him for 4 transfers (or about 6 months ago!) and has not seen any progress.  This time we met and he talked with us about possibly converting and some of the things that he would have to give up.  I shared with him the difficulties that I had when I was following the commandments, and the blessings of giving those things up to folllow the lord.  It was super powerful and super spiritual.  (We ended up finding out on saturday that he called the sisters and told them hes joining our church!!!!)  SOOO SICKKK!!!!

Saturday - We had some jundo time and then afterwards I baked a cake fora  less active that we were going to start fellowshipping.  Then we had english class, the miracle for this day actually happens on .....


SUNDAY!!!!- So the man that we baked the cake for and dropped it off wast home, but then on sunday he walked to church!!!! Soooo crazy!!! And the less active we talked about temples with and the restoration at his house who bought us noodles came to church as well!  Soooo many blessings!  And then after church we had a lesson with another less active who anderson has been trying to meet for several months, who finally agreed!  We watched the prophet of the restoration with him and then talked about guess what.... Temples with him!  They were in the movie alot and he asked about them so we talked about them a little bit and showed him pictures of the Seoul Temple.  Sooo amazing!!!! After that we got punked at another lessons but then went home to study, luckily after we got home it started to pour hahaha its been raining all week as its rainy season in Korea now.  


Well Im spirited out now haha Ive been riding the spirit the whole way here and now Im tired haha and I have to get off soon, but just search out for opporunities to help someone around you this week and try to support others!  Also Visit a temple if one is nearby! Do some work!!!


I love all of you!  


Elder Yamagata
 

New area, new comp!

Dear everyone? home? dont know how to address it now haha......



So this wednesday was transfers and Im now in the Dobong area serving with Elder Anderson, who funnily enough was also trained in ilsan (where I was from) and then moved out to dobong.  This will probably be his last transfer here so thats kinda not fun but we all have to move on eventually.  We had a bit of a rough start as we got into an argument my second day in the area about some stupid stuff, wasnt even his fault, but we smoothed things over quicky and have been working hard ever since.  The dobong ward is definitely a lot smaller than ilsan, only about 30 members go every week.  But we just got a new bishop, literally this past sunday, and so we are hoping for some big changes in how this area runs.  Currently im in another area though, sanngae for the day because im on exchanges with the zone leaders, so im emailing from there.  My new roomates area a little different because its a lot quieter in the house, they arent as loud or crazy as my roomates back in ilsan.  They dont do as much either, but its only been a week and so its gonna take a couple of days to get to know everyone and get there normal side to come out.  Sadly though, I havent gotten a chance to take a picture with Elder Anderson yet, so you will have to wait till next week to see a picture of us togther.  Sorry!  The rest of this week was pretty crazy before transfers.  Last friday we got transfer calls, elder chisholm was kind of disappointed that me and elder smith and elder hendershot were all leaving ilsan, even to the point of saying his last transfer was not going to be fun.  It was pretty sad hearing all of us were going to leave.  So we called all of our investigators and met with them.  Mr Choi the super cool one, took us out to a nice shabu shabu place and we met for a while and he was sad to hear that both of us were leaving ilsan, but we told him about our friend Elder Chisholm and he was happy to hear that haha.  We also met with Bak Young Soo, our most progressing investigator who was also sad to hear that we were both leaving, no one expected our area to be whitewashed!  Everyone just figured I would be leaving, but I guess President Christensen had other plans!  The last guy we met with was Jin Oo, our old progessing investigator.  We met him with elder chisholm and he was super excited to get to know him and hang out with him, so hopefuly our investigators will be well taken care of!  On Tuesday we packed everything away and started to ship it to our new areas, took us about 2 hours but finally got done, They turned down the sisters the first time they tried, but after 4 more people showed up to send suitcases they had to let us thorugh!  Didnt cost much and actually wished they had something like Techbay in america.  It cost me only 15,000 won, about 14.50 in Dollars. to send 2 60lb bags to another city!!! With next day delivery!!! It is dfeinitely crazy!!  Wednesday we went into Seoul and transferred at the Sinchon Building, I left elder Smith, my trainer, for Elder Anderson my greeniebreaker.  Definitely also sad to see Elder Rhodes and Sister Hunsaker dying that day!  They are already back in america returning to normal life.  I dont remember much else from this week, not much has happened here in dobong, except taht we had to sing for church on sunday and it was pretty funny, the music lady wanted us to do some stuff that she said sounded good, but me elder scalf and elder anderson all did music in our previous life and knew it sounded wrong.  Funny stuff.


I hope everyone is doing well at home, family and friends are in my prayers every day!  Pray for the missionaries to find success in everything we do!  WE dont just teach, we reactivate, we build wards and branches, we lift up the members that need it!  So help us in any way you can, even if its just in prayer!  Love and miss all of you!  And Happy Fathers day to all the fathers out there!!!!  Your definitely loved!!!!!

Elder Yamagata
 

Last week in Ilsan :(((((

So the transfer calls came, the bell has tolled on my time here in Ilsan.  Im going to 도봉 now, pronounced DoeBowng. Hahaah,  I will be with elder anderson out there. Im super Excited to go!
Just a rundown of this week really quick:

Monday:  The buddhist temple was amazing and all of us that went had a blast!  It was a beautiful place and they were super nice and friendly to us :)  Afterwards we street contacted!!!

Tuesday:  Did most of my 4th lesson pass off during studies!  Im almost done with being a certified teacher in my mission!  It was super hard as my district leader had me teach 2 principles back to back and of course the two he picked were word of wisdom and keeping the sabbath day holy.  And he was acting super hard too, giviing all the usual excuses as to why its not right and then some crazy ones I have never heard,  But Alas I persevered and had fun doing it too!  We street contacted for about 3 1/2 hours had dinner and then started doing some less active hunting.  We had to walk about an hour away just to start looking for them.  But we had great success!!!! We found 2, one was an accident as we were asking someone for directions and he told us that he was baptized a year ago but hasnt been in months!  But he isnt busy on sundays..... what the heck -_-.  The other one we knocked on his door and no one answered, as we were making the note that says we came by, someone walked up to the door and started putting in the code to walk in, so smith stopped him and talked while I pulled a picture out of the ones who supposedly live there and it was him, but he told elder smith his name was different.  LIES!!! hahah so it was great to find 2 less actives!  But on the way there a truck drove by and kicked up a massive splash that soaked me, it had been raining all day, and it was also like 80 outside and humid already so I didnt dry off at all.... miserable! But fun!

Wednesday:  zone training!  Soooooooo goood!!!! Like absolutely the best zone training I have ever had!  We did some of the usual stuff, but then our zone leaders and sister training leaders had us get into our districts, write the name of everyone down, and then associate them with a christlike attriubute. Then after we finished that we told everyone in the circle what we associated them with and why.  Lets just say, tears were shed by a lot of people that day as we opened up about why we look up to everyone.  As we continue our focus on Becoming a Disciple of Jesus Christ, I would like to share something with you that Elder chisholm gave me last night (wednesday is going to go on for a bit)  HE got this from our Mission President as he was giving one of his talks...

"The Fellowship of the Unashamed"

I am a part of the fellowship of the unashamed, the dye has been cast.  I have stepped over the line.  The decision has been made.

I AM A DISCIPLE OF JESUS CHRIST

I wont look back, let up, slow down, or be still.  My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secure.  I'm finished and done with low living, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, worldly talking, cheap giving, and dwarfed goals.  I no longer need pre-eminence, positions, promotions, plaudits, or popularity.  I don't have to be right, first, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded.  I now live by Faith, lean on HIS presence, walk with patience, I am uplifted by prayer, and labor with power.  My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is Heaven.  My road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions are few, my Guide is reliable, my mission is clear.  I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, divided, or delayed.  I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the adversary, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.  I wont give up, shut up, or let up until I have stayed up, stored up, and paid up for the cause of Christ.  I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach till all know, and work till he stops me.  And when He returns for His own, He will have no problem recognizing me.  My banner will be clear.

What an amazing, encouraging, quote!  I am determined to follow this.  We in the house have especially taken to liking the line "I wont give up, shut up, or let up until I have stayed up, stored up, and paid up for the cause of Christ."  Thats definitely us, we dont stop when someone waves us off.  We dont shut up because we are tired.  We dont give up when we lose all of our investigators.  We girdle up, work harder, move faster, talk to more people.  Its what we do, its what we have been called to do.  We also recite 3 Nephi 5:13 every single day during companion ship study:  "Behold, I am a disiciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  I have been called of him to declare His word among His people, that they might have everlasting life."  I feel the spirit everytime we recite that because I know my part in heavenly Fathers plan for all of his children.  I know what my purpose is!  I know that becoming more like him will bless all of us!!!! 

I dont feel like going on with the week now, but I have to haha

 after zone training finished my fourth lesson pass off teaching keeping the sabbath day holy and follow the prophet.  Very fun, now just Zone leaders and APs left! Then after that we went to a buffet with a member of our ward for his daughters first birthday! Sooooo delicious!  and maybe expensive.... felt kinda bad but hey!   It was fun!

Thursday:  Lots of Jundo followed that night by a lesson with our Investigator Bak Yung Soo.  He was really cool and has a lot of gospel interest, too bad we have to leave him here, because both me and elder smith are leaving our area!!!!  It is sooooo sad!

Friday:  We had to go to the othe house in our area to take elder Buck over there because elder simons was leaving to go back to america, he was about 8 months out.  It was really sad to see him leave.  And now we only have 5 in our house. And I am in a 3 some for the second time since being in korea and Ilsan!  But it is super fun!  That night we went with our district leader to see one of his investigators dwight, a ghetto man from ohio.  Super funny and super fun, taught him a bit and he was cool and receptive!

Saturday:  All day splits while we had sooo many appointments and other stuff going on, couldnt handle it all so we had a 3 way exchange happening.  Super fun!  Had to leave english class to go with Elder hendershot my district leader out to a sudden lesson at a buffet, kinda fun but then got transfer calls that night!  Super fun!!! Im going to Dobong, Elder Smith to Chunchon, Elder hendershot to Dong Dae Moon, and Sister Hunsaker is dying next week!!!! We are super sad to see her go!  WE will allll miss her sooo much!


Sunday:  We gave our last testimonies in sacrament meeting and had some tearful good byes with some memebers, and at one point I was hugged by a random laurel in our ward who asked for my email facebook and selfies with me.... weird hahaha.  LAter that day we had a meal with a member at his home and had a great time.  Sooo many laughs and games, and great teaching practice!  "This is the scenario we are at my club in compton (he served in LA on his mission).  We had a great time with him and his family and all of us leaving missionaries!



So overall its been an action packed week!  Im packing up these next couple days and gettting ready to ship out!  We are super excited.  But more importantly Im excited that I am called of him to be a missionary!!!! What a great experience is this!  I love being here in Korea with all my friends and all these people that god loves!  

Well I hope everyone has a great week, be safe and I love all of you!

God be with you till we meet again!


Elder Yamagata


oh and for pictures go here

Apostles Inbound

Hey so this week was pretty crazy and fun!  Im only really gonna talk abou t the highlights though because I dont want to spend too much time gettting into the details about pointless stuff like I usually do soooooo....

Tuesday, Temple day!  Great experience and first endowment in a while!  Excellent chance to reflect in the celestial room and feel the saviors love for us as I sat in the quiet reverance therein.  After the temple it was good to see everyone and I was excited to take pictures and hear the Last words of the dying missionaries.  Some great  things were said about love change and happiness.  One korean missionary expressed his love to President and Sister Christensen and how much they have helped him on his mission.  I almost teared up when I heard him, he never really is an emotional guy.  Elder Rhodes talked about happiness and that the times when he was the most busy, stressed, crazed, were the times that he was the most happy.  The times that he was comfortable and easy going, he wasnt.  Words of wisdom!  Sister Hunsaker talked about change and how to let the change happen on your mission, dont fight it!  After all this a big group of us went to Ashleys the American Buffet.  IT was prettty good and we had a good time inside but the best thing that we did that day was go to Dong Dae Moon and finding the cheapest stuff ever, Almost everything is under like 10 dollars, ties are 3 and shirts are usually 9-10.  Sick!!!!!  It was soo much fun!!!!

Wednesday:  2 things, one had district meeting at the church entry way because the rest was under deep clean, had to hang through a window to get chairs and tables and stuff.  two, lost it on a man while trying to talk to him.  Really stressful time contacting followed by 5 back to back rejections and I was feeling pretty upset....  Long story short, he ignored me, I thought it would be a "good idea" to follow him through apartments while he is clearly trying to lose me, and eventually ended in a shouting match.... Not good. I got home and explained to my comp and zone leader what happened. And ended up learning a lot about myself and about rejection.  After that incident, I learn from rejection. I understand now how to deal with it.  I understand why we get it.  I learned alot from that expereince.

Thursday:  Celebrated Sister Atwater's 1 year in country mark!  Did it right with Mcdonalds!  We also taught some random guy in a park for over 1 hour the whole first lesson and we are going to meet with him again next week!  exciting!

Friday:  Exchanges with Elder Buck.  We had some great fun after planning and such and really went out and contacted hard on the streets.  Also tried helping a man who was being contacted by another Jundosa (people who try to go and convert people on the street, equivalent to the crazy people with crosses in america, no one listens)  started proselyting to the jundosa and he was relentless on that man, would not give up.  Very funny time.  And after planning Elder Smith told me that my goals for the week seemed more like goals for eternity

Saturday:  The real meat and potatoes.  Got up early and had to leave my mission again for the 2nd time to go to Youngdungpo.  Why you ask?  Well we were blessed to have ELDER QUENTIN L COOK of the QUORUM OF THE 12 APOSTLES come and visit us!!!!!!! So exciting!!!!!  We had a personal conference with him in the morning for 2 hours as him and sister cook told stories, taught principles, and really brought the spirit.  We were even able to shake his and sister cooks hand, as well as president ringwood, president of our area.  One of the most powerful parts was near the end as he gave us an apostolic blessing and bore his special witness.  I will never forget what he first blessed us with.  "I bless you that you will understand why you are serving here, and that all of your loved ones that are back at home will be blessed because of your service."  As I heard that come from an apostle of the Lord's mouth, tears came to my eyes and I had the biggest smile and the spirit rested on me and confirmed what he had told us.  It was the most peaceful thing that he could have said.  Then, as he was bearing his special witness of Christ, he told us that he had heard the saviors voice.  What a powerful feeling again of the spirit as he said those words.  I knew that standing before us was an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, called by him through his modern day prophet.  I was so excited to hear everything that he had to say to us.  After the conference it was nice to see everyone from my dongi again and talk and catch up for a little bit before going back to ilsan.  So we left and eventually returned home, ate, and then left to go back to youngdungpo to see elder cook again!!!!  This time for the fireside that was being hosted.  A lot of it was some of the stuff from the meeting with them this morning but they still shared some new information and it was a really great experience.

Sunday:  Usual sunday, church followed by some contacting (this time around the church) tried to pass off, failed hahah some of these korean words are long and hard!  and then we went home and had some dinner and studies. 

Today: Now we email and later we are going to a buddhist temple


The really best part about this week was just learning so much and growing from all the experiences that I am having.  I cant believe my 6 months is in two days!~ I have really come a long way and I only want to get better.  I know who I am now, and who I want to become.  I want to be the 4th missionary.  I want to be a righteous son of God.  I love this work, I love my companions, fellow missionaries, and our mission president.  I love the korean people (even when they are stubborn) and I cant wait to try to bless their lives with the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that families can be together forever, and I tell people that everyday.  I want everyone to know this glorious doctrine!  How sweet the sentence is "I Know that my Redeemer LIVES!"

I love all of you at home so much and all the missionaries too!  May the Lord bless you this week in everything you do!

Elder Yamagata
 
 
Going over the lake from Seoul
 

This Week

Hey family!  This week was not a usual week and I want to keep true to what I said last week about making this weeks email a little more spiritual or something like that.

This week not much actually happened, but I learned a lot and feel like I really grew.  One of the probably most important things I learned is that no matter the person, I can always learn something from them.  My recent experience with this is with Elder Jeong who I had to go on exchanges with again this week.   We were starting to Jundo as our appointment had cancelled on us and I was getting rejected left and right.  Probably about 4 rejections later, I got really mad at someone for saying that religion is not important and that I just need to stop talking.  I was so mad I just walked off from them and Elder Jeong tried giving them a name card (which didnt work).  He then walked up to me and asked me if I was mad.  I was furious, I was tired of being rejected.  I have an amazing message, one of "Glad tidings of Great Joy" and yet no one wnats to listen.  I have a message that brings families together forever, and that can give us eternal life and exaltation. Why does no one want to hear it.  So I asked him that, and just then something popped into my mind.  I had just watched this same man, only the night before, crying to his companion after several phone calls to people he had gotten numbers from off the street (who he was very excited about and told me they were his investigators) went bad and they rejected him.  I remembered him saying the same words, choking through tears asking "Why does no one want to hear what I have to say?"  Then I remembered one other person who was rejected, and no one wanted to hear what he had to say.  Our Savior Jesus Christ.


I was humbled.


I realized that no matter how good of a missionary I am, I will always encounter hard times.  The savior of the world was the perfect missionary, the only one in the world.  and yet he was rejected.  And Here I was thinking that I was better than Elder Jeong at Jundo because I had been here for 3 months longer and that I was a better missionary yadayadayada.... And I was becoming proud.  After he asked me if I was mad I held back my own tears and asked him if he could say a prayer for us.  We prayed ( in the middle of a park ) and then he looked at me and reminded me of something that I told him when we first went on an exchange and I was teaching him how to jundo better. "Just talk to them like there people Elder.  Ask them what they like"  This young missionary reminded me to not look at them as numbers or stats.  But as people.  They are all sons and daughters of god.  I cant really explain what exactly I learned that day.  Im struggling right now, thats why all of this is so scatter brained.  But something clicked that day.  And I know from here on out I can only grow.  The rest of the day with him was a great expereince of heartache rejection, and struggling to be missionaries in this land.  But It was great nonetheless!


Another thing I learned this week is about our Identity as literal sons and daughters of Heavenly Father.  He begat us so that we can become like him and honor and glorify him even more!  Through the ordinances of the gospel, we become mroe like Him.  Through baptism, we are cleansed from sins and become more holy.  Through receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, we know the will of God and know what we need to become like.  Through the Priesthood we learn how to exercise Godlike power here on Earth.  Through the Endowment, we receive more knowledge of Him and if we use that knowledge properly, we will become more like him. And finally, through the sealing power, we perpetuate all of our relationships beyond the veil and into eternity.  We are eventually to become gods of our own.  We need to prepare now,  and with this months focus in korea on becoming a disciple of jesus christ, this went perfectly in line.  Our Zone leaders asked us the other day what would we like to become when we are older.  I wrote down some stuff like good father, righteous preisthood holder, etc... But really when it comes down to it when we become disciples of Jesus Christ, we become closer to becoming God's ourselves!  What an amazing Father!  What father here on earth wouldnt want there kids to become the same if not better than them.  And so it is with our Father in Heaven.


Anyways.  This week has been great and I love it here in Korea.  The work is always hard, it never lets up, but I love every second of it.  I cant believe you can learn so much in just a short amount of time.  

As a recap of this week, I dont really know much of what I did, so many exchanges and learning experiences, etc... Its all just a blur and I still cant quite believe it is monday already.  We have temple day tomorrow and Im really excited, we have some last words from some of  the missionaries who are dying in a couple of weeks.  ITs really sad to see them go, but they have served well!  Im finishing up mu 3rd transfer here, and I cant believe I will be hitting my 6 month mark in about 1 week!  Truly crazy!  
 
Anyways I love all of you back at home, and anyone who is out on a mission right now!  I pray for all of you always!  Miss you!

Elder Yamagata
 
 
Bird of Flight
 
 
Biking through the park 
 
 
 And the race begins!

 
Lake Park

 
 Bleed Blue!

 
 Charlie and the gang

 
 Fishes
 

 
 
 
Here fishie fishie
 
 
I cut Elder Bucks hair today....
 
 
I must say I did pretty good!
 
 
Tomato eating contest!

 
 Elder Buck eating a tomato in the contest!
 


Tomato eating contest!

 
Party with the boys after English class


 
Some of the strange text we get........and this guy is American?? 

 
Walking to district meeting
 
 
Swing Jump