5-25-2014 Holy Pictures, Batman!

Reunited with his MTC Roomie Elder DeMille

5-25-2014 - Working Hard and Hating Tomato Juice

Hi,

First of all I have discovered this week that I have a dislike for tomato juice. A nice old lady called us into her restaurant the other day and she gave us tomato juice. Lets just say that my companion and I had a really hard time getting that down. 

This week we have tired really hard to focus on strengthening the members of our ward. It is not easy to be a member of the church in Korea and there is lots of temptation to do all sorts of bad things here. Our ward mission leader asked us to help with members and help them with growing their testimonies of the Restoration and of the Book of Mormon. We have been doing about 20 minute lessons with a lot of them and it's really great because we can help them grow and it's a good opportunity for me to teach. 

We don't have a lot of investigators and the ones we do have are hard to meet and teach. We are spending a lot of time with just trying to find people. I definitely understand the concept of companionship unity. My companion is willing to go out and work, but he doesn't really like to talk to people and it's really hard to do it alone and when you are both not trying your hardest. 

I have been thinking a lot of about the gift of tongues lately. For the most part people believe that The gift of tongues is that God will give you the ability to speak the language. But I don't think that is true. I think it's more that God will put the words that you need to say in your mouth if you are trusting in him. I thought for the first little while that I would just be able to speak one day. But that's not really how it goes. 

My companion is the perfect example of being able to speak the language well but that with the power of God behind his words. He is a good missionary, but he has measured that success of his mission based on how well he can speak so that is all he has focus on his entire mission. He is the best speaker in the mission but it's because that is what his mission has mostly been. So I think we need to find a balance between hard study and working for the Lord. Gift of tongues doesn't only apply to people learning the language but to everyone. 

I am so tired every night which is a good sign I think. It's so nice to spread the gospel to people's lives and give them something bright and new. 

Love you all and hope you all have an amazing week 

Elder Meeks 

5-12-2104 - Serving the People

Hello Family and Friends, 

So this week has been a good week. We don't have that many investigators right now which isn't the best but we are working on it. We meet with this one lady in a underground shopping center who is the owner of this beauty shop and she really likes us, but it's hard for us to share a message and teach her there. But it's really good because we have started making friends with a bunch of people in other shops down there and we talk to them about missionary work and staring to see some interest with them. 

We get to go farming at the wards farm every Saturday mourning and it's really fun. Nice to actually do some real service for people. 

The sisters missionaries in my ward are having a baptism and they asked me to play guitar there so I'm going to be doing that pretty soon which will be fun. 

Korean is coming more and more now. I can actually start to somewhat understand the words that are coming out of people's mouths. 

So right now I am working on writing a talk for sacrament meeting about the restoration. It's so amazing to go in to that topic. Man everything that is in our gospel is based off the fact that our church was restored. Just look at things like the Book of Mormon and how important that is to everybody. I like the scripture that says that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass. One small simple question from a small simple boy and we get everything we have in our lives. It's the best feeling ever. 

Nothing too amazing happened this week just a great week serving the Lord.

Love you all, have a great week, 

Elder Meeks 

5-4-2014 - Changes are good

Hello family and friends, 

Ok so with this new transfer there have been some really really big changes. I guess we can start with the really good ones. So i'm living with a Korean elder now who is the greatest guy in the whole world and he cooks for us almost every single meal. The food is Korean and it's sooooo good. No more french toast and eggs haha. 

The ward i'm in is really small so it's going to be really easy to get know all the names of the people in the ward. My new companion is the best English Korean speaker of the whole mission. It super super nice and he loves teaching me and helping me with questions that I have. There is nothing he can't answer and people say he sounds like a Korean. I feel like I'm going to get really good at Korean this transfer. The only problem with him being really good at Korean means that he has only a little time left on his mission. I will be his last companion. So it means that he is super trunky. He is a good missionary but he kinda doesn't like to work as hard as I would like to. His name is Elder B---- and he is a really funny guy and super nice and smart. It's going to be a really good time here, I just hope that we can work hard. 

We don't have very many investigators here and so we just walk around a lot and talk to people. As a missionary without a bike I think I'm have probably walked further that I ever have in my entire life. We walk Sooooo far every day. But it's all good and I like talking to people. 

I used to be kinda shy before my mission about talking to random people and I had a slight fear of rejection. Now that is all gone. I have tried to talk to a lot of people here and some talk to you and a lot of them reject and keep on going. Just the way missionary work is I guess. But it's really rewarding when they seem like they have interest and want to meet again. Makes it all worth it. 

My house here is a lot bigger which is super nice. 

I am always trying to be diligent in everything that I do as a missionary. I Love the scriptures. So much in there that brings us closer to our Heavenly Father. 

The mission goes on thank you all for everything. 

Elder Daniel Meeks 

4/20/2014 Every day is a joy

Hello family and friends. 

It's a beautiful time here in Korea. The weather is great and the people seem to be more nice during this season. Every day is such a joy and I just can't wait to learn more and more. 

So Easter was yesterday but it didn't feel the same. Easter isn't really a big holiday in Korea so there wasn't really and eggs or bunny's or anything like that. The 6 missionaries in our ward sang a song in sacrament meeting though. Haha lets just say that some of the elders here don't exactly know how to hold a tune... at all. But it's ok because anything Americans do here is always good. Just smile and wave and they love you. 

So it seems like Americans attract all sorts of people here in Korea. Creepy one's included. My companion and I like to go running at this track near our house in the mourning and they is a guy there who just walks around the track every mourning. We talked to him a few times and he seemed nice, but then he started watching us really strangely and trying to stop us while we ran, kinda weird. Anyway we saw him on the street in the middle of the day and he came up and gave a hug to my companion out of the blue. Thankfully my companion is super nice and just kinda shrugged it off because if it would have been me we might have had another Elder Meeks punching a guy in the street. Hugs from really weird creepy strangers are not really my thing haha. 

Anyway we have been having some really amazing miracles lately. Just this past week we found two people who are in our English class who now want to learn about the gospel. Our investigator 박준규 is really amazing except that he won't quite his job to come to church. I just hope that he makes the choice and realizes that the things of God are more important than the things of this world. 

Our ward mission leader is the most amazing member I have ever met. Talk about magnifying your calling. He helps us so much with anything and helps us teach lessons to our investigators. He joined to church when he was about 16 and served a mission and is now married and has a kid and is just really nice and people always love him so he is such a good help to us. 

We have two DVD's of conference and during meals and at night we are always watching them. Our favorite one is the one by Elder Holland. He talks about Christ-like love and how we need to have that along we keeping the commandments. I love how he can be really funny but then bring it straight back on topic. It really brings the spirit in when we always have those playing. 

Can't tell you have much I love it out here. I can't believe that i'm almost not a greeny any more. Time flies and it's just the most amazing ever. 

Love you all and hope you all are doing well. 

Elder Daniel John Meeks 

Gangham Missionary Style

Hello family and friends, 

Ok time for crazy story time. So a lot of you may the the song "Gangnam Style", the most famous song on youtube right now. Well if you didn't know this, Gangnam is the richest city in Korea and is really nice and really big with tons of people. Anyway our investigator wanted to meet us there for some reason and we weren't sure why. But it was a teaching opportunity so we were able to get permission to leave our zone and travel there. 

Wow that city is really cool!!! Like i've never seen anything like it in my whole life. When you look up you can't see the top of the buildings. There are a ton of people there and everything is really clean. Our investigator said we had a few minutes to burn so he took us a really cool bookstore and he bought a bunch of Korea grammar books for us. Then we went to this park which was really cool. So our investigator is the brother in law of a man who is running to be the mayor of Gangnam and the reason we were going there was to get a picture with him. So our investigator kinda tricked us into coming, but we got to have a picture with somebody who may be a very powerful man in Korea. There were a few other men there and it was very strange because I could sense the power that the men had and how much influence the had. We were able to talk about why were here and how we were so good at Korea. It was really really cool.

 Oh and after that our investigator took us out to lunch and there tried to give us a hundred bucks. We said no of course and that we would rather meet him again. He said that would be good and we are going to teach him tonight again. Crazy stuff haha. 

We got to watch conference this weekend which was really awesome. So much amazing counsel and hearing the testimonies of the leaders of our church always helps out mine. I really liked when the one elder talked about technology and how you are not smart if you have a smart phone. Don't sift through the Garbage haha. 

I'm getting better at Korean and it's really fun to talk to people. If everybody would just talk slower I think I would be ok. But Koreans really like to talk fast so I guess I'll have to get used to it. 

This is just the most amazing time of my life. I feel like this is going to be over before I know it so i'm trying my best to make every minute count. Thanks for all the letters and the words of encouragement.

Love you all and hope you all are doing well,

Elder Daniel John Meeks 

4/6/2014 - a Real Letter

Hey everyone,

Life is really awesome here in Korea. One thing that has been really awesome is that our ward mission leader is like the greatest guy in the whole world. So he called us one day and asked if we had any appointments and that if we did he said he wanted to come. We said that we did and that he could come, except we were going to be talking to a man form Cameroon Africa about the bible and some deep questions about what we believe. His English is not very good. We were going to meet at a McDonnelds and the whole time there was music playing in the background and it was really hard to have to spirit in the room. But when our ward mission leader started to bare his testimony in really broken English I couldn't hear the music at all and the spirit was so strong. He was found by the missionaries when he was a teenager and was baptized and then served a mission. And then last night we had him with the family that we are teaching and he went so well. He was able to explain everything in a way that made them understand and feel the spirit. In Korea it's really hard to have lessons with members there because there is some sort of pressure or something like that. I don't really understand why that is but this time was really good and they felt really comfortable with him there. 

I played ping pong last week with the other elders in my house. They thought that they could beat me and they talked really big. I guess you could say that the years of playing ping pong in the garage helped me out a bit. I killed them all haha. 

So before my mission I wasn't the most clean person in the entire world. I think i've changed just a little bit. Mom, Dad please don't have a heart attack but i really like it when things are clean now. I think I came to this because the other elders in my house (not my companion) are absolute pigs and don't care about making a mess with our stuff too. I've noticed that being clean just helps bring the spirit into the room so much better. 

Everything is really amazing and our investigators are doing well. It's hard to get them to church but we are working on it with them. We talk to about 150 people a week and it is really nice. My Korean gets a whole lot better when we talk to people on the street. Listening is really hard but i'm getting there. 

I love you all and love this work. I have been on my mission for 4 months now and I can't believe it. I am 1/6 done with my mission. Crazy!!! I don't think i'm ever want going to want to have it end. 

Elder Daniel John Meeks