From the Deajeon Korea Mission Blog: Mission Tour

Wednesday, December 10th Post

Last week, Elder Koichi Aoyagi of the 2nd Quorum of the Seventy and his wife Shiroko Aoyagi came to Korea to give a training to all the missionaries.  He spoke two different times, once in the city of Daejeon, and once in the city of Gwangju.  The meetings were enjoyed by all the missionaries as Elder Aoyagi's Training was translated from Japanese to Korean.  The theme of the meeting was, "missionaries from the Book of Mormon," but he also talked about the love of God, and spiritual self-reliance.  Sister Aoyagi also gave a training had very fun hands on training and role playing.  The mission tour was very successful, and gave a good spiritual boost to all the missionaries in the Daejeon Mission!

North  (McKay is 6th from the left on the back row.)

South

Week 26: Well...It's still cold outside and this week I finish lap one‏

Hello Family and friends,

Salutations from the wintry wonderland that is Korea. It is cold here. Weird. I kind of miss green grass Christmas, though let's be real: white Christmas is beautiful. I decided that I really actually like snow. It is like a pretty, magical version of rain. This week we had snow six out of seven days and falling snow is cold, crazy awesome. Thank goodness for scarves and other warm things. The downside with Korean snow is that you can't eat it. The weather is dramatically affected by China and because China is a pollution producing machine we have acid rain...or in this case snow. Stinkin' China.....communists :/

This week has been terrific! Highlight was our Mission Tour with Elder Aoyagi from the 2nd Quorum of the 70. He is fantastic; probably one of my favorite Japanese people. (Though arguably I don't know a lot of Japanese people. Love him anyway.) Let me tell you: we have an amazing worldwide church. Elder Aoyagi is fluent in English but decided last minute to deliver his talk to us in his native Japanese. Wow. I think he was affected by General Conference. He had a translator that translated from Japanese to Korean and then one of the APs translated the Korean to English for all who were interested. I was interested. I understood most all of the Korean (fist pump for 2nd languages) but let's be real, it is way easier to take notes when you don't translate everything in your head first.

As mentioned in my heading, this week marks the end of lap one. I compared the mission to a 1600 meter race. There are four laps. Each one is critical and presents its own challenges but the point is to run every lap to the max so that I can run a sub 4 min mile. (Shout out to my main man Roger Banister.) The race will qualify me for bigger and better races to come but it is a kind of qualifier, and my placement in the next races is dependent on my performance now. Yeah...I get pretty into sports metaphors. The football one is a little harder to follow though so I will save it for later. The point is that this week marks six months as a missionary! WOW! how did that happen? I am a greenie no more. Next week also begins transfer 4 in Korea. I am excited for the Christmas party. I have no idea what will happen but it just sounds nice.

2.0

I am extremely low on time but I have been thinking about Christmas recently. Remember that the purpose of Christmas is Love. It is love for the Savior and love for each other. Love is what makes the world go round and is the only thing that heals hearts and changes lives for the better. Live with more love. What can you give to Christ for Christmas? Ask yourself that but in a non rhetorical way. Answer the question, wrap it up, and change. I love you all and Wish you a very merry holiday.

Onward and Upward

Love Elder Tucker!

picturesque

fash-off

skinny Santa models

cold me!

Week 25: Short time and lots of snow....‏

Yeah, remember last winter when it was a crazy blizzard on the first of December? NO! I'VE NEVER LIVED IN SNOW AND WE'VE GOTTEN FOUR INCHES IN THREE HOURS! So yeah, it is a new experience for me. And surprisingly I am totally okay with it. The trick with cold weather is layers. I wear like five. Gloves, they're good too. Elder Hollingsworth is part penguin and he loves the snow. He has already thrown five snowballs at me today. I think it may be a long, cold winter. But on the bright side, Winter is beautiful. Frozen Asia is pretty! It kind of reminds me of Frozen but with more public transportation.

This week should be fabulous. We have mission tour on Thursday with a member from the area presidency. It should be great! I have been reading up on all the missionaries from the Book of Mormon and have been as thorough as I could have been but am getting a little nervous. I have tour in three days and am on Alma the younger. There will be some frantic writing going down in personal study, let me tell you. And let me tell you that I love you! I was very thankful for all of my family and friends this thanksgiving! I had a great time doing missionary work and even enjoyed a great chicken burrito for dinner from Costco. I ate it with pot stickers. Classic pictures to follow. And Happy Christmas.

2.0

There is very limited time but I wanted all of you if you can to go and read Alma 27. Here is a more detailed account of Alma and the sons of Mosiah. I like to think of myself as a happy fellow, but Ammon takes the cake because he keeps fainting from happiness. Pay attention to why he was able to feel that joy. I want to be like that and I have a feeling that when we next see each other it will be an alma-style joyful event.

I LOVE you and the work is true!.

...its still snowing...

Onward and Upward

Elder Tucker