Category: Mission

  • Week 13 – Some African kids destroyed me 😬

    Week 13 – Some African kids destroyed me 😬

    Hey peeps!

    TLDR

    This week has honestly felt buns!! 🍞 Like we had really good numbers but it felt like all of our lessons were falling through… We put our friend Loushanna on date, we dropped James cause he wasn’t progressing, Kat (the BOM burner) has been sick so we plan to meet with her this next week… 🥹

    Tuesday

    P-day!! Started out by going to the temple and doing an endowment session! I got to see my GOAT, Elder Willardson 😛, so that so nice to see him again and see how he’s doing! Then, some random member took us out to lunch at a Chinese buffet place?!? And it was only like $15 too!! Veryy good deal if you ask me! Then, we went to the church and played some volleyball!! 🏐 Then some card games… Then we went back home, I got to call the fam (and a very special guest 👀) and do laundry! We then had dinner and made some calls! We also met with this lady named Loushanna (we thought she was drunk when we first called her, she seemed fine when we met with her though!) We then ran some calls! ☎️

    Wednesday

    Lots of knocking! We had a few lessons – a few pass-offs but they were unfortunately canceled… we went by Nathan who was doing really well! We watched a Holland talk with him (Motions of a Hidden Fire 🔥), which hit home since Holland talked about the passing of his wife, and Nathan’s wife had passed away recently. We then ran some calls with Nathan… we had dinner at Salsa Verde (Big Carne Asada burrito, Sis Barfield paid for us!!) 🌯 We then helped Brother Dunn give the Yokoms a blessing, as Brother Yokom was undergoing a heart surgery! ✨️

    Thursday

    Lots of knocking – again! We also put Loushanna on date, so that was SO awesome! She was actually the one who asked too! “Can I get baptized?” YES LOUSHANNA YOU CAN! 🌊😁 We then taught this guy named Max (who was very introspective and philosophical).. he said that the only reason he let us come visit is cause he’s gonna convert us back to the true religion. He also said our church is of the devil. Aka he’s not interested. 😭😭 It unfortunately started thunderstorming, so we stayed inside and ran some calls… ⛈️📞 then we had the Maxfields for dinner, who gave us some orange chicken! 🟧🍗 Fun fact – I learned that they were sealed by President Monson when he was an apostle!! 🤯 We then headed to volleyball, but unfortunately none of our friends came! So we went back home and made more calls…

    Friday

    Veryyy long morning! We had apartment inspections with the Maxfield’s, then my last in-field mentor training! Then, we p-studied, had lunch, and then went back out to work! We got bashed by this guy who said that our religion was “blasphemous.” 😤 We knocked a lot, to not much success unfortunately… we visited Brenda and Mike at a Halloween party! 🎃 We then had dinner with the Hanna’s at Olive Garden, which got me soooo full! 🍝 We had a lesson with this guy named Sam who seemed pretty interested in the “restored gospel!” 😁 We also dropped James since he wasnt progressing like at all… 😕

    Saturday

    Kind of a meh day… We started out going by Lori, who immediately dropped us and said she was fine in her own church… 😡 We were planning to have a lesson with her so that kind of screwed our morning… But then we went knocking instead… 🚪 I called my family during lunch since it was my dad’s birthday, so that was super nice! 🥳 We played soccer with these African kids and I got my butt kicked! ⚽️ Like literally, one of them kicked the ball through my legs and scored on me… 😅 I’ll be deleting that video… I also helped one of them tie their shoes! I hope my wife is able to teach my kids how to tie shoes cause he did not understand when I tried to teach him… 😭 We went by Nathan and talked with him about our personal lives, so that was nice! We also ran some calls with him! We then had Escarcega for dinner, and that was LIT!! 🤪👻 (As always…) He made tostadas for dinner along with some chocolate cake!! It was so fun (Roberts and Hale were there too!) We did get back a tad bit late tho… 🌃

    Sunday

    Nathan came to church!! 🙏😫 thank the Lord! He also sat at the very very front and started like waving his arms around during the hymns… we also had a friend who’s from China (her name is Audrey) who came to church and really wants to come again! 🥰😇 Ok also little miracle – there was this guy I talked to a few days ago (he was getting out of his car), and I asked him if I could share a message about Jesus with him, he was like sorry but I gotta go take care of my mom, and so i pressed a little bit and said maybe another time? And he was like do you guys have a church and we could pull up? I was like yeah, could we get your number and send the address? And so we did… we thought like he was just pushing us off cause he didnt respond to our church invite, but then in the middle of sacrament, he texted us – “Hi im in the church” and I was like yooo what? 🤯 Apparently he primarily speaks spanish though, and so does his mom! So they went to the spanish session and apparently he wants to get his endowment?!?! (They talked about temples in sacrament) 🕍 And he’s hyped about baptism! So good for him! We then had kind of a chill rest of our day… dinner with the Leigh’s! 🍖🍲

    Monday

    Pretty good day!! We started off going by Sister Cindy West, a lady who is moving to Sierra Vista soon! 😪 She has been struggling with her knee and stomach, so we gave her a blessing! ✨️ We then got some McDonald’s and headed over to the church where we had district council all together!! After district council, we knocked around a little…  we met with this guy named Peter Bond! His wife had passed away a year ago and was really struggling with that. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and he seemed much more at peace with that! 🌎☁️ His entire family are members and live in Texas, so they sent us his information for us to go visit him! After that, we met with this young couple named Jonathan and Bethany! Both very nice people, they had a baptist background so had some questions, but were open to reading the BOM! 📓🤩

    Byeeee everyone!! See ya next week!

  • Week 12 – We’re teaching a lady who burns Book of Mormons

    TLDR

    This week has been pretty solid! Work has been going REALLY well! We found 29 people last week and a lot of them are super solid! 🤯 We got bashed for a long time and got followed around, so that sucked… we also got in contact with a lady who has burned Book of Mormons and said our church is devilish? 😬😬 And she wants to come to church? Eek…

    Tuesday

    SUPER FUN P-DAY! Started out with the usual – pickleball in the morning, and volleyball after! We then went home and chilled for a bit… did laundry and all, talked to a bunch of people from home! We then went thrifting for a bit, then went to ESCARCEGA FOR DINNER!! 🤑🤑 The GOAT of all time! He fed us some Pork loin along with mashed potatoes, with jamica juice and tres leches that was SO buss! 😋 So anyways we chilled at his house for the evening, perfect way to end the night if you ask me! Roberts then stayed over for the night, since we’re running an exchange! 😁

    Wednesday

    Great day!! Exchange day – so I was with Elder Roberts! We were in my area, so i got to lead! We found a bunchhh of people just talking around and knocking… 🚪 we also had a bunch of lessons! We had one with Syrena – we tried to push baptism again but she avoided, again! 😫 Oh well… we talked about the power of prayer! We then had a lesson with our friend on James – pretty short visit, but we just told him we hoped to see him at church! He’s on date for baptism, but just needs go attend church! 😠 We also met with a lady named Tina after – she was a Marshallese Protestant mom who wanted her children to learn about our religion since she wanted her children to have Jesus in their life! 😇 We then had a lesson with Nathan (baptism boy) where we watched the Christofferson talk about gambling… he didnt know gambling wasnt allowed so it was good for him! 🎰 We then had the Scott’s for dinner, who fed us pulled-pork sandwiches and fries! We also ran a bunch of calls after that! 📞 Then, we rode to the church and exchanged with the Elders!

    Thursday

    Pretty awesome day!! First, we knocked around at a complex, then had a LOT of lessons! We had one with Brenda and Mike, which was longggg (like 2 hours)… Sister Figueroa was there too and she helped us teach! I mean, only 20 minutes of it was actul teaching, the rest was Brenda talking HAHAHA! 😆 We went through the Plan of salvation and watched a conference talk with them as well! We then gave Brenda a blessing for her health, and Mike started crying! 🥹 So that was so powerful! We then went by Gale (our recent convert), and we’re gonna try to start teaching her grandson, Nehimih! He already attends church every Sunday, and he’s 11, so we just need to work with him! 🌊 We then made some MASSIVE burritos at home for dinner, then went and played volleyball with Shawn, Nathan, and his daughter! 🏐 (It was Nathan’s birthday, yay!!) 🎉

    Friday

    Started out with zone council, where we talked about sharing restored truths according to people’s needs! It was fun to role-play and all! Then we got lunch at Wendy’s, then headed over to see Syrena! We got her to promise to come to church, and told her we’d get her a ride there! There was a CRAZY dust storm, so biking as terrible but we pushed through! 🚲😫 I was also feeling sick too so that wasnt helping… we then went bus flowing for a bit, which unfortunately didnt work out too well… but after that we went by an inactive member named Emily Smith, who had some questions about the gospel related to baptism and polygamy! Classic. We answered them and she seemed pretty content! We then ran some calls!

    Saturday

    What a great day! We started out talking to a lady named Lori… she’s vaping, and she REALLY wants to get off of it… so we told her we can help her with that! And along with that, she wants to come to church! ⛪️ So yay! We also met with this guy named Anthony who had some questions for us. He talked about suicide and what that meant for the afterlife… he also talked about tattoos and piercings and if thats allowed… it was super cool to see his story with faith! 🙏 He’s not coming to church, but it was SUCH a good and respectful conversation! Then we went by this Marshallese family who confirmed to come to church! (The mom only speaks Marshallese, so we had to Google Translate a little bit..)

    Sunday

    BEST SACRAMENT ATTENDANCE YET! We had 6 friends come! 3 of which were from a Marshallese family we’re teaching…1 was Syrena, our progressing friend! We had Gale’s grandson there as well, and then another guy named Kevin Karnes! Nathan unfortunately didnt come, even though we knocked his door right before church and also called him a million times… there was also cigarettes all over the ground in front of his door… gah!! 😫 Anyways, after that we went over to deliver this lady named Kat a package from her apartment office! For context – we tried contacting all our red dots (people who we’re NOT supposed to contact), and even tried emailing them. 🔴 Kat was a red dot since she has in the past burned book of Mormons and told missionaries they’re of the devil. 😬 She responded to our email though and said she’s changed and wants to come back to church! She’s been sick, so we delivered a package for her (a new SIM card) since her phone isnt working… along with that, we gave her some chocolate too and a little written note! 🍫 She also packed up 2 bags of groceries that she wanted to give to us as a thank you! It was awesome! Till we realized they were all expired… the thought was there tho! We then visited Danny (our friend from a longggg time ago), since he’s been going through a tough time – his best friend had a collapsed lung, and his sister was hospitalized from a car accident. 😞 Then we planned and ran some calls!

    Monday

    Very fun and interesting day – also sucked! First of all, called all of our friends! Then, district council! After district council, we split off – I went with Elders Hale and Roberts! WHICH WAS SO FUN! Until we knocked on the first door. This guy goes – “you know you’re in a cult, right?” Hale and I looked at each other like oh boy… 😭😭 so he bashes us for 20 minutes, and then eventually we’re like okay sir have a great day! – and leave him. Then he comes out of his house and follows us around while we find! Look at the videos 😂 It was just soooo dumb and so annoying, cause every time someone opened their door he’d be like “DONT LISTEN THIS IS A CULT!” 🤬 Luckily we all split up so we were still able to find 10 people there, but it was not fun. Then, the Figueroa’s fed us for dinner (some tacos!) 🌮 Then we exchanged back!

    Byeeeeeeee

    Elder Andrew Hyun

  • Week 11 – NATHAN GOT BAPTIZED!! 😁🌊

    Week 11 – NATHAN GOT BAPTIZED!! 😁🌊

    Hey everyone!!

    TLDR

    It’s been a great and interesting week! Nathan got baptized!! Yay!! We’ve also been having some great progress with our friends Syrena and Brinda! Our finding has also been skyrocketing lately! Talking to everyone is getting easier… I also went to the YSA for a day on the UoA campus, which was CRAZY! So many people…

    Tuesday

    P-day!! We started out playing some pickleball… Hale and I again played against some of the old guys! Then, we moved into some volleyball at the church! 🏐 Then, we came back and did grocery shopping. Then, we biked to Costa Vida and got some enchiladas with the rest of the district! A member paid for Roberts/Hale meal and not ours 🥺 (but its okay [see section “Saturday”]). We went thrifting at a few stores (accidentally ran into one of the APs at one of them…) 👕 Then, we came back and did some laundry, and went over to the McBrides for dinner again! (The non-member family that had fed us last week!) They fed us some “Holy Basil,” a spicy Thai dish that was super good!! Not often I get fed Asian food here… then, we had 2 pass-offs with the Hermanas (one was our friend, one was theirs), but they both fell through… 😭 So we just made some calls after!

    Wednesday

    Zone conference day!! We talked a lot about extending invitations, especially with the Book of Mormon! We also had pasta for lunch which was SO GOOD!! 🍝 We also went by Gale and got her all set up with her church account!! So now she has access to her family history and member tools! We then went around knocking for a little bit and then hit Nathan, who’s doing pretty well! He’s excited for his baptism for sure! He said his camping trip went well too… ⛺️ afterward, we had dinner with the Harris’s for dinner, a very nice old couple! We had to help Brother Harris into bed since he was practically paralyzed, reminding me of the times where I helped my grandma (할머니) into bed before she passed away. It’s humbling, and really puts life into perspective. After we did that, we biked back home and p-studied, i’m trying to listen to all of Monson’s talks! 👴🗣

    Thursday

    Pretty eh day… Well, we found a ton of people! We also went to the church and printed out flyers! We also make little paper things to tape to lollipops as well that we can hand out! We tried to go by Syrena, but her dog kept on barking and wouldn’t let us in! Like seriously that dog was of the devil… 🐶🤬 Then we went to the church for volleyball!! 🏐 Nathan, his daughter (Anabelle), and and Shawn pulled up! It was tons of fun!! Then, we met up with the ZLs and exchanged! So I was with Elder West in the YSA (young single adult) area! Although I forgot shorts and a towel and a charger… whoops. 😓

    Friday

    YSA day! It was super fun talking to people that were actually my age… We went on the UoA campus and did lots of finding! There was also a member named Colton who was there with us the ENTIRE day helping us find people! We met with a Chinese guy (I know, my kind!) named Winan who was awesome! He had some really good questions about sacrament and about fasting, and it was cool to be able to bear witness and testimony to him! ✨️ He seemed excited about baptism… I found some people by doing magic tricks to them, so that was super fun! 🪄 We had some homemade Enchiladas for dinner with a guy named Jonah, and then we played some basketball after! 🏀 (Which I sucked at, but oh well!) We then exchanged back!

    Saturday

    BAPTISM DAY!! Nathan finally got baptized! 😁🌊 It was so powerful. Last second, Nathan’s family couldn’t make it but he still could! He said himself that Satan was trying to do everything in his power to stop him! 😡 But he came, Brother Whetten/Pinegar (the brothers who came and taught Nathan the most with us) gave talks about baptism and the Holy Ghost, I played the piano, and Elder Balls came back to baptism him! After Brother Pinegar confirmed Nathan, he started crying like crazy. 🥹 I was tearing up a little too, cause I knew how much it meant to him – not just that he was washed of his sins and received that companionship of the Holy Ghost, but that he was a changed man who found a family in the church. I gave Nathan a written note as well to tell him how much I’ve enjoyed seeing him grow and congratulating him! After the baptism, we went to buy lollipops to help us find more people! 🍭 (We taped the church / missionary info to the lollipops and give them out, also asking if they wanna hear about our message!) Then, we went to a lady in the hospital named Linda. She had sent in a referral and wanted prayers. She wasn’t too interested in the gospel, but it felt just as sacred to hear her concerns and address them, hopefully giving her peace. We also gave her a blessing, and she seemed to feel more at peace! 😌 We then went to have dinner at Costa Vida with the other Elders (Hale and Roberts) and Brother Escarcega! A Brother from another ward paid for our meal as well (cause we came earlier than the others), so we’re even with the other elders now! 😆

    Sunday

    Plot twist. First of all, we started out going to church… ⛪️ Brinda and Mike came, so we’re super happy about that! Brinda seems to be enjoying the LDS community (She grew up catholic and still kind of is used to catholic culture). Nathan didn’t come to church though, very surprisingly! Strange… so, we go to visit him afterwards and make sure everything is okay! (The day before he seemed SO certain that he would attend church!) He answered the door and sheepishly explained that he slept in… he sat on a chair outside as he explained this… then, he moved up his leg: a cigarette lighter fell out. Oh poop. 😫 Well, maybe it’s just a random coincidence! Then, he tells us that he’s gonna go back to bed.. and then we see a cigarette pack in his pocket. NOOOOOOOOOOOÒOOOOOÔOOOOOOO!!!!! So that was unfortunate to see… Gah!!! 🥺 We didn’t mention anything though, we just left and talked about it together… the rest of the day was planning, calling, and doing meetings. Some guy called us screaming that he was getting whipped by his girlfriend⁉️ Strange… we had dinner with the Leigh’s! They’re a fun young couple who have 2 funny little kids. They fed us some beans and grounded meat for Fast Sunday dinner! 🍽😋 We then met with Brother Macy and talked to him about Nathan, deciding we should address it soon.

    Monday

    Pretty chill day! Started off going by some contacts… we then went and brought everyone drinks for district council! 🥤 After district council, we helped set up for empty nesters! We then went by an old contact who unforfunately we learned had passed away a few months prior. We then met with Syrena and went through Lehi’s dream with her! We then brought her to Empty Nesters as well! (The Scott’s gave her a ride there, unfortunately we couldn’t give her a ride on our bikes..) She seemed to have a wonderful time there! She fit in superrr well. Samuel (our mafia guy), as well as all 3 of our recent converts (Nathan, Shawn, and Gale) were there as well! We did some general conference trivia, and had some really good soup! 🍲 Then, we went home and made some calls! 📞

    Bye everyoneeeeee!!

    Elder Andrew Hyun

  • Week 10 – I accidentally caused some roadrage

    Week 10 – I accidentally caused some roadrage

    Hey everyone!

    TLDR

    This has been a pretty fun and chill week! General Conference weekend was AWESOME!! Nathan’s baptism got pushed back AGAIN! Butttt we’re pretty sure this will be the last time! 😅 for real! I also got my first mission haircut… which is probably the closest i’ll ever be to getting buzzed… I hit my 2 months in the field!

    Tuesday

    P-day!! Very very fun day, started out by playing scum (the card game) with 6 / 8 of the district… then, after Sisters Budge and Howell came, we played some volleyball… 🏐 that was super fun, especially cause Sister Budge is like a legit volleyball player!! We pretty much just chilled at the apartment the rest of the day… we went to the Macy’s for dinner, and then it started monsooning… and because we walked to dinner, we had to run back to the house through it! So, we ran some calls for the rest of the night inside, and found someone that way! Yayy!!

    Wednesday

    Pretty good and productive day! Started out by knocking around and finding, then went by our friend Syrena, a referral who we taught the entire restoration to!! She was super nice and seemed willing to learn! We then went by our friends Brinda and Mike, and brought a member named Sister Figueroa who really related to Brinda really well… Brinda grew up in the catholic church and didn’t really like it, so we’re trying to get her to our church! ⛪️ And Mike is an inactive member. And he helps us encourage Brinda to come! After that, we went and met with Nathan and showed him the baptismal font, got his baptismal clothes, and he said he’s really excited! 🌊 We then had dinner with the Scott’s, a very nice old couple who fed us some Shepherd’s pie! We then went finding a little longer, then stopped by our friends Kito and Brian (a young married couple)! Kito was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness, but had some bad experiences with controlling leaders… Brian is her husband, and they’re working through a lot together… we shared about how the gospel can bring peace, and they seem to think of us as actual friends instead of just robot missionaries! So that’s nice! 😊

    Thursday

    First of the month! I set my entire phone to Korean, since I’m trying to learn the language better! 🇰🇷 But honestly now I just feel dumb cause I can’t understand a single thing… 😭 But anyways, started off the day with my interview with President Loo! It went pretty chill, we talked about Celestial laws and about how the mission has been so far! Then we had some lessons! We talked to our friend Katt, who has a lot of Catholic beliefs, is VERY conservative, and can’t go to church cause she’s in the mountains every weekend looking for her lost dog?? 🐕 We also met this African kids who LOVE THE MISSIONARIES! I showed them some magic and Banta gave them some stickers! We then had dinner with the GOATTTTTTT!!! 🐐⚠️ BROTHER ESCARCEGA!! He’s in Elder Hale’s ward (Craycroft), but he loves the missionaries and wanted to have me and Elder Banta over cause Banta is new! He made us this lentil soup with cactus from his backyard, which was SO GOOD! Then, we went and played volleyball! Shawn came as well! Nathan and his daughter were supposed to come, but they backed out last second because Nathan had to help his other daughter out to get ready for homecoming…

    Friday

    Pretty chill day… We went bus flowing (getting on a bus and just talking to people), and we found 3 people that way! 🚍 We then went to some lessons. One was with Syrena! We taught her the entire plan of salvation, and she totally understood it and found peace in it! She’s so cool… We then visited with an inactive member named Ellen McBride, and her family! They fed us hamburgers which were SO GOOD (and made me think I need to up my game…). Her husband is a professional hypnotist, and so that was so cool to learn about! 😵‍💫✨️ Like he would hypnotize people to stop their addictions and he said it works like 80% of the time which is INSANE! I was gonna ask him to hypnotize me to stop being a lazy bum but I decided against it… maybe next time! 👀 we then ran some calls with Brother Horn… our friend Isabelle who was on date unfortunately sent us this –

    Poop! That stinks… she blocked us too… the hermanas were the ones who originally met with her, so they’re gonna stop by her on Monday and see what’s up!

    Saturday

    GENERAL CONFERENCE PT 1!! Started off blessed by going over to Brother Escarcega’s house to watch! Roberts and Hale made some waffles, and Banta and I cooked some bacon, sausage, and scrambled eggs. Then, we watched the 1st session! After that, we went over to the church for a baptism (for Roberts and Hale)! His name was Marwan, and it was cool cause he only spoke Arabic! So everything had to be translated! I played the piano for the baptism… it all went super well! We then went back to Bro Escarcega’s house for the 2nd conference session (which we had leftover waffles for lunch…) Then we visited a friend named Christine, a single mom who’s going through lots of stress and needs the gospel in her life. We shared some scriptures that I think really made her feel better! We’re coming back on Friday to help her weed her lawn! 🌱 We also met with a lady who speaks Spanish… We were so ready to drop her (in our first contact with her, she seemed very uninterested…), but she actually seems really intruiged and wants to come to church! Unfortunately, we have to pass her off to the hermanas though… on the way back to our apartment, we were like a little off the road, stopped cause we were calling a friend, and some guy (guy #1) goes around us and apparently almost hits another car (guy #2)?? I didn’t see it but guy #1 suddenly stopped, and guy #2 rolls down his window and starts cursing at guy #1… Guy #1 said that “he didnt wanna hit the kids” and guy #2 was like “they’re missionaries!” 😆 and guy #1 was like “ohhhh you’re acting tuff for your girlfriend huh” (guy #2’s girlfriend was in the car), and guy #2 was like “alright then, get out of the car and let’s talk it out” and then guy #1 just drove off… Elder Banta and I were just so shocked while it was all happening… WE WERE BARELY ON THE ROAD! But anyways that was hilarious!

    Sunday

    2nd day of General Conference!! We biked over to Elder Hale’s and Roberts’s apartment complex. We made some egg-in-nests (basically eggs inside of bread), and some sausages! We then watched the first Sunday session! After that, we had some Mac n Cheese for lunch and played some scum! Elder Hale also gave me a haircut 😫 and I was the first person he’s ever actually given a haircut too… he basically buzzed me, and also gave me a little bald spot above me ear! Yay… Honestly it’s not toooo bad! But after that and a shower, we watched the 2nd session!! We then biked home, changed, and went to an inactive lady’s (Cindy West) house who’s getting back into church! We were able to retrieve her patriarchal blessing and also restore her church account! We’re trying to get her to the temple as well, so we scheduled a temple interview for her this upcoming Sunday! We then did some weekly planning, had dinner, and did the mission-wide zoom!!

    Monday

    Started off meeting with James (our friend on baptism date), and we talked about getting him to church!! We then went to Wendy’s for lunch, and went to district council! After district council, we went knocking for a bit, then went by our friend Syrena! We tried to put her on date for baptism, but she said she was baptized into another church and didn’t really understand proper authority… but we’ll work with her! Then, the Hanna’s took us out for dinner! 🍽 We went to this all-you-can-eat salad / Italian place! It was SO good!! We then met with our friend David, who was a member over 20+ years ago. He’s been going through some hard times, but we testified of how the gospel can help him, and he wants to come back to church! 😁

    That’s it for now! Bye!!!!!

    Elder Andrew Hyun

  • Week 9 – Mosquitoes + Being Bashed = torture

    Week 9 – Mosquitoes + Being Bashed = torture

    Hey everyone!!

    This week has been incredible! Transfers were this week, so I got Elder Banta! Nathan was pushed back, but he SHOULD be baptized this Friday! We had a huge finding week last week, so looking to teach a lot this week, as well as hopefully invite some people to get baptized! 🤞

    Tuesday

    P-day!! Started out by playing some pickleball obviously… then, we went and played some volleyball at the church! 🏐 Ashby and Rahn tagged along, so we got even more players! We then played some card games, Elder Balls got packed up, and the Hanna’s took us out to dinner! We went to a place with Sonoran hot dogs, which I’ve never had before, but they were SO GOOD!! 🌭 We talked to our friend Jim, who is unfortunately getting evicted… but hopefully we’ll be able to stay in contact with him! 😊

    Wednesday

    Transfer day!! Elder Banta didn’t actually arrive at the site till 3 pm since his previous area was very far away! So, I got to spend the morning and afternoon with the zone leaders, Elders West and Ashby! It was super cool, cause they are the YSA elders! 😮 So i spent most of my time on the University of Arizona campus, just talking to people! I learned that it’s called flowing, where you go around and just contact in public! 🗣 There was an LDS guy who helped us flow, and Elder West and I split off from him and Elder Ashby and talked to soooo many people! It was super fun, but very exhausting! 💤 Eventually, we went to the transfer site and I met up with Elder Banta! And HOLY GOAT!!! Elder Banta is so AWESOME!! Chill guy, but very hard-working (which is the perfect balance imo)! And he’s also super kind and funny too! We get along really well, so I’m sure we’ll do great work in our area! 😁 We went to Walmart together and got some food supplies for the week… Elder Balls’s (now Banta’s) bike was broken, and we had a pass-off lesson with the hermanas, so we were REALLY rushing! We didn’t have time to replace the tire, but luckily, the ZL’s gave us a ride to the lesson! With our bikes in the back! And we carried all the bike tools in our bag (including a huge bike pump) so we could hopefully fix it at this random complex after the lesson and bike back home! 🔧 The guy’s name was Randy, and he didn’t really seem toooo interested in the gospel. But we taught him about the restoration! Then we fixed Banta’ bike, and rode home! Banta got unpacked and all, and we went by some contacts! 🚲

    Thursday

    Pretty awesome day!! Banta and I started out by going by our friend James, and we put him on date! 🌊 So we’re pretty optimistic about him! We went through some more contacts… we gave a lady named Lori a blessing! ✨️ We were then fed Raisin Cane’s by Sister Barfield. 🐔😋 Then, we did Nathan’s baptismal interview, which went well, so he has the green light for baptism! Then, went to volleyball, and Shawn came along! Overall, super good day of work, it’s going pretty well!

    Friday

    An absolutely crazy day!! Elder Haslem unfortunately did not have a helmet, so we weren’t able to bike. So, it was a walking day! Honestly, it was so inspired. We found 21 people in that single day! It was all in talking to everyone. Haslem taught us a lot about trying to reach out to literally everyone we saw. It really changed the way we taught. We walked to lessons and found so many people along the way! Then, we went to Culver’s for lunch. We went knocking at another complex and did something called split-knocking, where we all split up and knocked doors. 🚪👊 We found even MORE people that way! And then we caught a bus to get to our dinner, the Yokoms! They drove us to our next lesson! And then we walked home. On the way walking home, we stopped by a Toyota dealership and found a bunch of guys who wanted us to come back and share more scriptures! 🚘✨️ Then walked all the way to our complex, and did a bunch of calls with Brother Smith, a guy in our complex!

    Saturday

    Really fun day! Started out walking around again and finding around… and then we planned Nathan’s baptism with Bro Macy (WML) using Claude… (ikr, not even ChatGPT?) We then met with Nathan and we watched a video of the story of Ammon.🗡💪 As we were about to bike out, and then this random guy asks us if he could give us “reading material…” so we were like uhhh sure bud and then he gave us these pamphlets that are from some Michigan pastor about “the Gospel of Jesus Christ” and then this guy proceeds to bash us for an hour about allll of his hate for the church… 😫 and then this random lady came up and tag-teamed us basically just ranting about how she was raised in the church so she had “experience” and I was like ugh this sucks. 😩 WHAT’S EVEN WORSE is that we were getting eaten by mosquitoes the entire time!! 😭 Call us the words of Christ cuz those bugs were absolutely FEASTING on us! 🦟 Anyways, after we got out of there, we had dinner with Shawn (our recent convert) and his friend Miguel! We went to Olive Garden, we wrote Shawn a birthday card, and all was well! 🍝 We even taught Miguel a little bit about the gospel, since he seemed interested!

    Sunday

    Church!! Started out with sacrament meeting… unfortunately only one of our friends (Samuel) actually showed up… but both our recent converts, Shawn and Gale, showed up too!! Samuel and Shawn had to leave early, so unfortunately the gospel foundations class fell through… ugh! So instead we went to Sunday School and then Elder’s Quorum. Nathan didn’t come to sacrament meeting, so we stopped by his house… he said his ear was hurting! Anyways, we studied, then went to flow in front of a grocery store, got kicked out of there, then stopped by our friend Randy who said he didnt wanna meet with us anymore cause apparently we lied to him 3 times?? He said the 1st lie was that we said that sister missionaries can’t go into the house with him when “he’s had sisters from the LDS come into his house before…” the 2nd lie was that we’re in the area for 6 weeks, when he “knows for a fact we’re out for 2 years,” and then he forgot the 3rd lie we told. So anyways we explained all that to him and it seemed like he kinda understood… 😇 we then had dinner with the Mason family, who is super cool! They had 4 daughters, who are all really talkative… i also did some magic tricks for the youngest one! And the food was SO GOOD! 😋

    Monday

    Pretty good day… started off going to a pass-off lesson with the hermanas with this guy named Andy! He was saying stuff about how bad stuff started to happen when he wanted to get baptized in the past, but Hermana Glenn bore a strong testimony about how important it is, so we’ll see where he goes! We also helped these people move out, since they were getting evicted. We then had district council with the new district! We have 8 people total, 5 of which are new! We visited Gale, which we talked about the Endowment and Patriarchal blessings with her. 🙏✨️ She wants both of those in January, a year after she’s been baptized! We then did some finding and knocking around, had dinner with the Figueroas (hamburgers + hot dogs + corn), so yum!! 🍔

    TLDR

    Holy i just realized i made this email hecka long… oops! Anyways, great week, and very draining! Elder Banta, my new companion, is so awesome! We’ve been doing really great work together, and I feel like we’ll be able to do some awesome stuff in this area! Nathan should be getting baptized this week FINALLY!

    Anyways, see ya’ll later!

    Elder Andrew Hyun

  • Week 8 – Some Asian guys made us ride in back of a uHaul

    Week 8 – Some Asian guys made us ride in back of a uHaul

    Hey everyone!

    CRAZIEST WEEK OF THE MISSION SO FAR!! First of all, we found another 13 people this week, and we have been progressing our friends BIG-TIME! And then also some crazy stories… it’s also been a full transfer!! LETS GOOOOOOOOO!!!

    Tuesday

    P-dayyyyyy! And a very fun one! We started out playing pickleball… one of the sisters in our district (Sister Adams) fractured her arm in a bike accident, so sadly they werent able to make it. But she still played volleyball?!?! And honestly still played well! We played for a few hours with the district, and Shawn (our recent convert) came as well! Then, we went to the church and played some board games! Then, we went to a complex and knocked around for a bit… Unfortunately Balls injured his knee… 🥺 Oh no!! Luckily though we’re doing an exchange and he’ll be in a car instead of on a bike at the YSA on the University of Arizona campus! And i’ll be with Elder Ashby!

    Wednesday

    These two upcoming days were the craziest of my mission so far! 😭 Elder Ashby and I started off talking to some old friends Jason and Evalina who seemed like they wanted to get back into meeting with us! We were going to have a pass-off lesson with the hermanas but the guy said he wasnt interested from his Ring doorbell… bruh! Then we helped these Filipino guys move! HUGE MISTAKE. First of all, it was really hot and they had us move like the heaviest furniture I’ve ever lifted… i only thought we were helping them put the stuff into the uhaul, but then they said they needed help moving it into the new apartment as well! Andddd so they made us RIDE IN THE BACK OF THE UHAUL! 😫 What’s even crazier is that they told us to just leave the back open!! Heck no! So we held on for our dear lives as we got hauled to the new apartment. Ashby and I definitely bonded over that terrifying experience! Then, we talked to some random people in a complex, and then hit a lesson with Nathan (with Shawn there!) Both the GOATs. Then, we met one of our friends on date named Ashton who was very philisophical and really wanted to talk to the “higher-ups.” ??? Idek but we eventually dropped him. We were going to exchange back, but Balls had torn his LCL and his leg was in pain, so we decided to wait to exchange back. So I had another night with Ashby, yay!

    Thursday

    Crazy start to the day!! As Ashby was showering, someone knocked on our door… i assumed it was Balls and Rahn, so i opened it in my garments (and shorts)… but no it was this guy wanting me to call 911 cause his car got stolen overnight? 😳 And then he texted his girlfriend on my phone asking her to call him? So i called 911 (for the first time ever) and eventually they needed his registration / license plate which he didnt have… Idek but eventually he just said thanks and went to go figure it out for himself… and I went back to cooking! This all happened in like the first 30 minutes of the day… then, we had zone conference with an area seventy (who actually spoke in this year’s April General Conference!) named Elder Larreal! He was SO awesome and funny! Then, we went to Cane’s for lunch, ran through some contacts, and played some volleyball! 🏐 Our friend David came as well as Shawn! We had dinner with the Maxfield’s, and i got to show them some magic tricks!

    Friday

    Today was packed!! Started off with going by Nathan in the morning (we accidentally woke up him, oops!) But he’s still doing well! He’s unfortunately going through lots of pain but he’s thugging it out! Then we had a pass-off with the Hermanas (which went really well! It was a girl on baptism date!) And then the hermanas helped us do my FAVORITE THING OF THE WEEK! There’s a lady in the ward named Sister Cox who turned 99 today! 🎂 So I made a bunch of paper hearts and put them on her door… and the hermanas made her cookies! And then we all sung happy birthday to her! We then got fattened up by Brinda, who fed us some of the best tacos I’ve ever had… she’s Mexican, and so everything was homemade! And we invited them to church! We then met with Rafael, our Filipino friend… he said he’s “not ready” for church cause he’s so busy… but we’ll keep meeting with him! Then we taught our friend Kevin Karnes the restoration!

    Saturday

    Pretty good day! We went by some referrals to start, and did a church tour with this tuff guy named Cody, and his son AJ (who’s 6 years old)! Then, we got lunch from the Long’s, who gave us pizza!! 🍕 Then, we got fed MORE pizza from the Peterson’s! We were gonna meet with Samuel, but he randomly didnt show up! Bruh!

    Sunday

    Brinda and Mike came to church! And we had ward conference, so we got to hear from the stake presidency! The rest of the day was pretty chill, talked to a lady named Cindy West who was reallyyyy going through it and needed comforting. We also talked to this guy named James, who we found calling! He’s an old guy who basically lost his entire family in the past year… but we taught him the plan of salvation and that seemed to give him comfort! We are likely going to put him on date soon! 🌤

    Monday

    Today I found out that i’m going to be with Elder Banta!! I heard he’s awesome, and we talked a little bit and i’m HYPED! And ofc sad to see Elder Balls go, he was a goat. But happy for him since he’s off a bike now! We had district council, meet with a few people, and then Brother Escarcega fed us dinner! 😋 He’s the best, he gave me a doll and contact solution?!? And then Elder Balls got ANOTHER flat tire on the way back to the apartment. Poor guy!

    TLDR

    The end of the transfer is over!! Overall amazing transfer! I’m so happy that I started my training here, and I’m looking forward to leading the area here with Elder Banta!

    Byeeeee everyone!

    Elder Andrew Hyun

  • Week 7 – Some preacher guy almost kissed me

    Week 7 – Some preacher guy almost kissed me

    Hey peoples!!

    ‼️This is the final week before transfers‼️ Overall it’s been another great finding week, and we’re really making some huge progress with Nathan, which is SO AWESOME!!

    Tuesday

    P-day!! Started out playing lots of volleyball at the church. It was SO fun!! I really missed playing volleyball a lot back at home so it’s nice to play here! Our recent convert Shawn came too, so he made it even more fun! We played some 4 square too, been a while since I played that!! We then went back to the apartment, Balls gave both of the zone leaders haircuts! Shortly after, went back to the church building. Talked to home, played some board games and card games, then went to Chipotle with the district! (My first time at chipotle! Imo way overhyped… very expensive and its not even like that good…) we then gave a blessing to a lady in the ward and made some calls!

    Wednesday

    AWESOME day! Started out with zone council… then we made some lunch and hit p-study! We talked to a lady named Katt, who lost her dog up in the mountains… she was raised catholic and talked A LOT! We wanted to put her on baptism date, but she literally just wouldnt let us talk! Hahaha… Had a lesson with Nathan, and we threw away EVERYTHING! All his alcohol, beer, cigarettes, all the bad stuff. I’m so proud of that guy, he’s now 2 weeks away from being baptized! We then had dinner with a senior couple named the Scotts… they were super nice, and fed us pulled-pork sandwiches and fries! Brother Scott is the stake patriarch and a sealer in the temple, so it was cool to talk to him about his experience! Then we stopped by our friend Jim, who’s been really sick from the fever… poor guy!

    Thursday

    Pretty good day! We found 4 people, all through calls! I am 100% it is the most efficient and effective way to find! We then knocked on a lady’s door (her name was Jane), she was super sweet, and showed us a video of angels singing on the earth?? Idek but like she seemed so convinced that it was real… we just like stood there at her doorstep as she showed us this 5 minute video that sounded like a choir of Ariana grandes singing a hymn with this AI image in the background. We then ran calls with Brother Horn… invited a lot of people to church! We then hit up some volleyball with Shawn again, so that was awesome! We were gonna exchange with the YSA elders but couldnt since their car got towed… poop!

    Friday

    Started out with an apartment inspection with the Maxfields… then we started knocking for a little bit at the greenwaters complex. We talked to the same preacher/prophet/idk guy (the one who loves to bash missionaries) as last time, and he like got up in my face and told me that im evil cause I had a girlfriend? And how i wasnt being Christlike?? He was then like “im 41 years old, and I was messing around and still aint got a wife! You wanna end up like me?” And I was thinking like “heck no bro i dont wanna be like you harassing kids 😭” and then he started calling me the n word and i was like actually so baffled… my favorite part in the bible was when Jesus started calling people the n-word! Idek but like he was so close to my face I thought he was gonna give me a little smooch! Genuinely i dont get what this guy’s problem is with kids trying to preach a message about Jesus Christ… But anyways we just kinda walked away and kept knocking doors! We checked up on Nathan to see how he was doing… pretty good! Although he was shaking a lot… i guess thats what happens when you completely go cold turkey…

    Saturday

    Pretty mid day… we went knocking for a bit and didn’t find anyone. We then had some lessons – one was with Nathan again! We started watching the BOM videos with him! We then went to Raisin Canes. Then we called this veteran lady who started breaking down about how her entire life was falling apart financially, romantically, religiously, every -ly… she said she felt like she was getting crucified… yikes… so we invited her to church…? And she said she’ll try to come. Then we went contacting and knocking more… also, because Jim was still feeling sick, I decided to give him a large bag of popcorn along with a feel-better note at his front door! Feel bad for him…

    Sunday

    A super good day! First off, in sacrament meeting, I played gethsemane on the piano… so that was really fun! I then taught the gospel principles class on prayer! Samuel, Shawn, and one of the hermanas’ friends were there! We did some weekly planning then headed over to ward council… literally as soon as we got to the church, my rear bike tire exploded… im getting two-tired (haha get it) of this. So we had to get a ride from ward council to our dinner (with the Leigh’s, a very nice family!!), and then from dinner back to our apartment… we then had the mission-wide zoom meeting, and that was it for the day!

    Monday

    Pretty awesome day! First off, went to the nearby bike repair shop… got a new tire, and put slime in both tires so that leaks won’t affect it as bad! Then, we went to eat at Culver’s, then did district council! After, I helped set up empty nesters with Brother Maxfield, the GOAT! Then, it started monsooning like I’ve NEVER SEEN BEFORE! Like for 30 straight minutes, sheets of rain pouring down! It was like seattle on steroids… we ran some calls inside the church… then we had the empty nesters activity! It was a sister’s 99th birthday, and she was just the SWEETEST lady ever!! It was a surprise birthday party for her, and she like started tearing up and saying how much it meant to her. You could just tell that everybody loved her. Shawn and Samuel came to the activity too! Samuel brought his friend named Kyle who just got out of 3 years in jail THIS MORNING! and he wants to come to church! LETS GOO!! He was genuinely such a cool guy to talk to!

    TLDR

    Very productive week! Nathan got off his addictive substances, we found 13 more people, and we’re getting progress with all of our friends!! We hope to put some more people on date this upcoming week!

    See you next week!!

    Elder Andrew Hyun

  • Week 6 – Jesus or Iesus?

    Week 6 – Jesus or Iesus?

    Hey everyone!

    This week has been really really good!! We found 18 PEOPLE!! Crazy… and we also got a lotttt of lessons in! Sadly, 2 of our baptisms this week fell through… but we’re still holding strong!

    Tuesday

    Temple day!! We went with a recent convert named Shawn! It was really fun, we did baptisms and an endowment session! I had to baptize 4 different girls who all had like 7 names, so it took a while… we then met this guy at chick-fil-a named Larry who had this crazy story of miracles and being converted to Christ; he was so awesome!! We played some card games at the church for a while, then had dinner with the ward mission leader’s family! They have a reallyyyyy cute baby… shortly after, we went to a lesson with a guy named Logan, and taught him about the restoration! We then started an exchange – I’m back with Willardson! The GOAT!

    Wednesday

    Very fun and productive day!! Willardson and I did a lot of knocking… we put someone named Hugo on date, went out to eat at Wendy’s, and then went to the same deaf guy’s house (Glenn), and i actually knew some ASL this time, so i came more prepared! We then went to ASL class! So fun, I got to learn even more words! I then gave a blessing to a woman in a hospital… my 3rd I’ve ever given… and after I gave it, she said that she heard a calling from her passed away family to come to her? Uh oh… Anyways, we met with Elder Hale / Balls at In-and-Out (which they were 20 minutes late to…) Then, we immediately started another exchange with the zone leaders! So i got to be with Elder Lundberg, and stayed in my area! Yayy!!

    Thursday

    Great great great day! We found 6 people!! We spent a lot of the day ripping calls… we found a lottt of people that way… I also got to make a bunch of food for Lundberg, and he said like I was the best cook on the mission! Which totally made my day… if it dont baptize someone, at least i can leave in peace knowing I blessed people with some food! We also did a lottt of knocking as well, Elder Lundberg is really good at doing street contacts, thats something I want to get better at!! Also, the Hanna’s took us out to TEXAS ROADHOUSE!!! 😋😋 It was sooooo yummy… we got our recent convert Shawn (same guy who went to the temple with us) to come to volleyball that evening, so that was super fun!! We then switched back! Great day, except for the fact that the lady that we were going to baptize this week, Yvette, literally dropped us 3 days before her baptism… BRUH!

    Friday

    Another really productive day!! We went finding for a while… we did laundry in the morning (since we didnt have time on p-day…) we then got yapped to by some ladies (who majored in religious studies) about different denominations of Christianity?? We then helped a lady move… And she had like the craziest stuff i’ve ever seen, like bro she had a giant marimba (basically a huge xylophone with pipes). Then it was time for the interview with President Loo… SCARY!! Nah just kidding it was pretty chill, he just introduced a new way that we should be knocking, teaching people using the BOM! We then went finding at green waters (the biggest apt complex in our area) for a while, and i practiced my street contacting! We stopped by a girl named Chandler, who seems like half-interested. When biking back to our apartment, we almost ran over a rattlesnake!! Which freaked us out, but it looked like we freaked the snake out even more. We had dinner with the Gibson’s (who fed us pasta and garlic bread, yum!! 😋😋) Then, we called a family with 10 kids!!! And they’re interested in the church!! That could be a pool party if we can get them to baptism…

    Saturday

    Prettyyyy good day! We had 9 LESSONS, the most I’ve had here… we also found 5 people as well just in that day, which was our week finding goal! We knocked on this old guy’s door, who talked to us for AN HOUR about how Jesus apparently can’t be named that cause there’s no J in the hebrew language? He wasn’t exactly bashing, but he wasn’t exactly interested in converting either… I looked it up later, and apparently in old English bibles, he was called “Iesus” instead of “Jesus”, until the J was added in later! Kinda cool… We also met with a guy named Kevin Karnes, who lives in a household with all members… he also studies the BOM every morning at 4:30?? So, we’re hoping to talk to him more!

    Sunday

    Today was a really great day for finding again! We ran a lotttt of calls! Honestly the best way to find people in my opinion! Sacrament meeting was awesome! We started our “gospel principles” class today, but nobody showed up… 😔 so that sucked… But then we did our weekly planning and went to dinner at a family’s house, and they gave us enchiladas! Which were SO BUSSIN especially cause it was fast Sunday… they also had 2 return missionaries, so it was fun to talk to them!

    Monday

    Started out with district council, focusing on finding! Then we went to a lesson with Chandler, who WOULD NOT GET OFF HER PHONE!! We promptly dropped her… Then, met with Nathan again and talked to him about how he’s doing. He’s still good for throwing away everything Wednesday! We also helped him move some stuff as well! Then, we had a dinner with a family named the Hilke’s, who fed us pasta and mint-flavored honey water?? It tasted really good though… then finished off with some calls, found 3 people, and went to bed!

    TLDR

    Pretty good and productive week! Found a LOT of people (18), had tons of good lessons… got dropped by Yvette AGAIN but we’re continuing to put people on date! We’re working with Nathan and he’s progressing! I’m convinced that calls are THE WAY TO FIND!

    BYE EVERYONE!! LOVE YOU ALL!

    Elder Andrew Hyun

  • Week 5 – I am a black widow killing machine

    Week 5 – I am a black widow killing machine

    Hey everyone!!

    This week has had big ups and also big downs! But mostly ups! More bike problems… also spider problems?? but we had plenty of lessons and have 4 people on date for baptism! Very productive overall!

    Tuesday

    P-day! We started out by playing pickleball! Elder Hale and I challenged the older guys at the court next to us, and that was lots of fun! We then stayed at the church since Balls still didn’t have a bike… so we played scum (the card game) with the whole district, and Elder Ashby and Rahn joined in too later in! Then, we got a ride back to our apartment. We walked to the apartment next to ours and found a lady sitting on her porch, so we had like an hour-long discussion with her! She seemed interested-ish, and we gave her a BOM!

    Wednesday

    Zone conference! We hitched a ride with the Spanish elders… Balls finally got a new bike! Zone conference was awesome – President Loo talked a lot about obedience and how we can do a better job of inviting people to church. Then, we met with Kristina and dropped her cause she wasn’t really progressing and kept wanting to push off her baptism… 😭 then, we gave Gale, a recent convert, a blessing! She’s so sweet! 🥰 We then went to another lesson with Nathan! While we were in our lesson (it was outside on some benches), some guy walks up to us and starts yapping about how us missionaries are “novices” cause we’re so young and like how apparently we don’t know anything. He told us he was a “prophet” (I know, another one?) Then he started saying I was evil and God was disappointed in me?? Like uhhh alright buddy… 😆 Idek what bro was talking about but anyways eventually he finally went away and we could start our lesson… Nathan has a problem with drinking alcohol/beer and smoking, and he said every time he tries to quit, he just goes back to it! We talked about “burning the ships” (thanks Dad!), meaning basically getting rid of all escape paths. So on Wednesday, we’re going to throw away all of his cigarettes and alcoholic drinks and give him a blessing! Then, Sister Barfield took us out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant (my first one! It was so bussin too 😋)!

    Thursday

    Sooooo I put on my shoe using a shoehorn so I dont look too closely when putting on my shoes… and then out of the corner of my eye, I saw something move… and then I saw this BLACK THING crawling up my shoe and onto my leg and I FREAKED!! Literally Balls can tell you i looked like i was an tap dancer or something… i flung it onto the floor and SMASHED that thing with my other shoe… it was a spider! Then I saw the red hourglass shape on its belly – IT WAS A FLIPPING BLACK WIDOW! (Shown in the pictures..) 😱 So thank the Lord that thing was only ON my shoe and not IN it… i dont feel like being that missionary that goes to the ER in the first month… Ok so then, continuing on with our day… We had a lesson with a girl named Chandler, but she scheduled into work without telling us soooo no bueno… We went out to lunch, did some calls! Thennn as we were going to stop by a contact, my tire popped… well, not just popped, more like exploded… and it wrapped around my gears… so we were kind of stranded… so then the spanish elders picked us up, took us to a bike shop, where we got a “thorn-proof” tube for the tire.. then, THAT tire also went flat in about 10 minutes! What a scam… so we were stranded in the middle of our area.. we then got picked up by some other elders who took us to dinner! Then a member took us from that dinner to meet with Samuel! Then, we played some volleyball! 🏐

    Friday

    We started out the day by walking to the same bike shop (45 minute walk), and i got a new tire! Then we had a lesson with a Filipino guy (yayyy another asian!) He’s seemed interested, and we invited him to read the intro of the BOM and come to church! We then did a LOT of calls… 📞 Then we knocked by some contacts at the apartment next to ours… Then, we met with Yvette! Yes, same Yvette who dropped us for an evangelical church! She put in another referral and said she wanted to come back! So yay!!! This time we’re pretty sure she’ll get baptized… she called us and said that she wanted to get baptized TODAY! 😆 Uhhh so she might be a little toooo bappy happy, we’re trying to get her as excited about the doctrine itself too! we talked to our friend Jim for a bit, and he said he wanted to come to church! We then got monsoon’d, so that sucked… but then we ran into an ex-member who said she’d call her dad to pick us up?? What a miracle! 😇

    Saturday

    Baptism day! Well, it wasn’t our friends, but there were 2 baptisms for the other missionaries in our district! One of them was the sisters’ friend, so i got to baptize him! That was an awesome experience! Yvette also came to watch the baptism, and she said she was super excited for her’s! We then met with Nathan and talked about the day when we’re gonna throw away all his stuff… and then ended off the day by running some calls with a recent convert named Shawn!

    Sunday

    Church church church! We were at the church for like 8 hours! It was crazy! Sacrament meeting was awesome, 2nd hour (all combined cause 5th sunday) was awesome, and then we stuck around and hit p-study, then had a lesson with Samuel! Found out we actually can’t baptize him cause he’s on parole, so that was sad to learn (we planned to baptize him this upcoming Sunday)… 😞 Someone took apart Elder Balls’s bike for some reason??? Like literally just disassembled the wheel, the seat, the brakes… And so he spent an hour fixing it and putting it back together… 😭 then we met up with Brother Macy (WML) and went through a run-down of the week! Then, we met with Tony, a pass-off from the hermanas, and ran through some of the gospel with him! 🥰

    Monday

    A CRAZY DAY! So to start off our day, we had to bike through a thunderstorm to get to district council! ⛈️ The spanish elders picked us up on the way there, so that was really nice… We learned about some drama about one of the baptisms – apparently the other guy (the one i didnt baptize) like wasn’t supposed to be and therefore wasnt confirmed?? Really weird… we then came back home… shortly after realized we left Balls’s helmet in the Spanish elders’ car…  sooo then Balls went into our little storage closet right outside our apartment, to which we found ANOTHER BLACK WIDOW! anddddd 7 egg sacs surrounding her! Bruh… anyways, we then went to the front office and asked them when they could exterminate… to which they said it would take a week… and we were like heckkk no 😭 literally some of the sacs would probably hatch by then! Soooo we took care of it ourselves! We grabbed a LONG stick and spent a long and scary process of scooping up the egg sacs and putting them into a pickle jar… eventually we got it all in there! But the mama got away… we then saw the spiders hatch inside of the pickle jar, so that was really cool! Then we realized exterminating black widows isnt part of our missionary purpose, and got back to knocking… we met with Yvette and went over the plan of salvation with her!! She started tearing up, she’s really excited to be baptized and learn more. And then we came back to find another (different!) black widow sitting in a web next to our door. So yeah.

    TLDR

    Fun week! We’re feeling really confident about our friends Nathan and Yvette, and are pushing them to keep covenants for baptism! Killed some (female! The deadly ones) black widows 🕷 in our spare time… had some more bike problems, but it didnt stop us from doing our work! The Spirit is real, and its the only reason we’ve been successful despite these trials! The Lord is hastening his work FOR SURE!! 😋

    Love ya’ll!

    Elder Andrew Hyun

  • Week 4 – I put a mafia member on date for baptism

    Week 4 – I put a mafia member on date for baptism

    Hello everyone!!

    This week has been reallyyyyy interesting… Lots of rain, lots of biking, and lots of bike problems…

    Tuesday

    Not the best day… we started out playing pickleball at 5 AM cause the other elders (Willardson and Hale) are crazy for pickleball… and they were 20 minutes late too!! After that, we went thrifting for shirts and ties… then, I crashed my bike so that hurt a lot… my bike handle hinge broke and so my wheel like took a sharp turn that I was NOT expecting, and so I fell over onto the cement and skidded a little. It was pretty painful, but I’m doing better now! We then went to in-and-out… we forgot to do laundry, so oops…. and then we started our exchange! I went with Elder Hale this time. He does a vlog every night, so I got to feature this time!

    Wednesday

    Crazy day!! First off, the area i was in was actually a deaf ward! Or like that’s the ward where deaf people go! We started out the day by giving a blessing to a lady in a hospital… we then knocked a LOT of doors after, to which not much success. I started implementing some magic into the knocking though, and so we got some people that way! We went to a deaf person’s house for dinner, so that was a very different cool experience! The guy’s best friend actually lives in Federal Way, right next to steel lake! We then went to an ASL class after, and I learned the whole alphabet! Then, we got HAILED ON! It was raining so hard, and I was biking for like 20 minutes in it! We then met up with the other elders and exchanged back!

    Thursday

    Started off by doing a LOT of calls… then, we did lots of knocking! Not much success, and it was like 107 degrees that day… double sad. We met with a guy named Ramone with the Hermanas, which was AWESOME cause you could just tell the spirit was there teaching to him. He had a lot of anti-questions (polygamy, blah blah blah)… But for dinner we had the Maxfields, and they are AWESOME!! First off, the dinner they cooked up was like amazing! It was like a chicken Alfredo with garlic bread it was so so scrumptious. I actually ate WAY too much, I about threw up after… And then we played a few games with them, like one called Mexican train?? I hadn’t heard of it but it was fun! Although Sister Maxfield destroyed me in it… home-field advantage? We then played some volleyball!!! Which i missed so much, i havent played since the mtc…

    Friday

    Today we met with a cool guy named Jim! He was super awesome, and willing to learn more about the gospel and come to church! We did lots of knocking and lots of calls in the evening as well… Pretty normal day!

    Saturday

    Unfortunately, Elder Balls’s tire popped and so we had to go to a repair shop and fix it. I also decided that I wanted to start learning some Korean, so I was just kind of grinding some of that out while waiting for the repair! The Petersons took us out to dinner at Raisin Canes (yes very bussin)

    Sunday

    We went to church, and a lot of friends showed up! Two of which we actually didn’t know… I met a guy named Samuel who had met with Elder Balls before… He was previously a member of the ITALIAN MAFIA!! And served 18 years in prison… he just barely got out and now he’s interested in our church! After Elder’s Quorum, I put him on date! That was awesome!! Thennn Elder Balls’s bike like is special or something cause the tire just keep deflating without a visible hole.. and then he changed the tire, and it happened again! So now we’re without bikes until Wednesday, when he gets provided with a new bike…

    Monday

    So, we were walking around all day! We had district council… we also went knocking with the Spanish Elders since they picked us up for district council! Yvette actually put in another media referral and wanted to meet with us again! That was a little miracle! We met with her and we put her on date again! We then met with Samuel and taught him more about the gospel! So yay!! Awesome day!

    TLDR

    Kind of a slow week because of some biking issues, but we put 2 more people on date for baptism! We are looking to baptize probably those 2 people this upcoming month!

    See you next week!

    Elder Andrew Hyun