Christmas in Korea

SANTA?

This was the first real week of my second transfer. We've been working really hard with our investigators. We talked a bit about baptism with Van Tu and Chang but they need just a little bit longer before they can commit. That's OK though. We have three appointments scheduled through this next week. If we feel the spirit and if the situation's right we will extend the commitment. It's super exciting! They're both so great.

As you can see we had the 금정 ward Christmas party. We had a great turn out with 17 investigators/potential investigators/nonmember friends of members. Everyone seemed to enjoy it.
The members didn't think we would be busy so they had us do a musical number. I found a three stringed violin in the relief society closet and the new elder can play the guitar. It went well considering we only had time for two practices.

It was a good picture of 금정 area until the car drove in front of the camera. Elder Baker and I have spent a ton of time on the streets putting up adds for our English Class and handing out some materiel that the church has put out for Christmas.

No snow but it's still pretty cold.

Happy birthday James!

It was a crazy week. We had transfers (I am still being trained so
Elder Baker and I are still in Guemjoung, Busan) but we lost the
sister team in the area. We had to move them out and no one is coming
to replace them. This means that a lot of the work that they did will
be put on to us. One nice thing is that we get their two golden
investigators Vantu and Chang.
I also had my birthday this week. I made a cake mix that my mom sent
it and we had it with Vantu and Chang which was really fun and gave
the opportunity for them to get to know me and Elder Baker better.

The pictures are of the Cake me and Elder Smith made, the sunset last
P-day, we were out hiking, and me and Vantu.

Christmas in Korea

Not a ton happened this week. Just lots of contacting and procoliting. I went on another exchange for a day.
Our ward's been having us teach a Kid's English class along with the normal one. No one likes it because it brings in no investigators like Normal English does. It's a bit like a one hour daycare where all of the kids only speak Korean. We had a meeting about it with the primary president and the bishop. She was adiment that we keep it. We'll have to see what the Mission President has to say about that.
The missionaries are heading up a movement to do more member missionary work through social media. We're not aloud to do anything on social media but we're trying to get members, particularly the youth, to post church pictures and videos.

For Korean Christmas bad children get cinderblock bricks. Just kidding. The ward needed some help with decorations so we wrapped the bricks up to look like presents.

I was showing a potential investigator the family flip book. After looking at it the investigator said, "You have a very beautiful family...So your church doesn't believe in birth control?" The investigator said this in english.

I busted up laughing and elder Baker reguided the lesson back on track.

Love you,

James

The ward Christmas part invitation looks awsome. We are distributing these to less active members and trying to get them to the party then back to church.

Dec. 1

This week was pretty good. We had another lesson with Huang Sen and have another man who is calling us but that we have not been able to meet with. He seems really interested in the church. We will meet with him this week. His name is Ho Kyo.
I had an interesting conversation with a man after our English class about temples. He said that he had been reading on the internet that big organized religions (like ours) are not the way Christ would want us to worship because they are too materialistic (this was after english class so everyone was speaking english and I could understand.) He said that our temples are to big and flashy. I explained to him that the temples are very beautiful but that is out of respect. I also got to explain the purpose of temples and why they are so important. I explained the priesthood and how Christ gave Peter the Keys to establish his church over all the earth (a very big place). I wrapped up with the apostasy and the restoration.
I don't know if he felt much but I know that through teaching I was able to refresh my testimony of the temple and of our church. That is a cool thing about serving a mission. You spend all your time teaching, but because of that you also spend all your time learning.
I love being a missionary and it's great to hear from you all,
Elder Harkness

 This is Dongkase. It's Korean Japanese food. What it is is like a pork fried steak covered in sweet sauce. It was what I had for thanksgiving dinner. It's supper good.

Breaking our fast Goonday (military) style. They had a burner at the church and we made eight packs of ramen.

​I made a game to memorize my vocab while we waited for English Class to start.

Nov. 23

It was a long week. We had to move out of the house for construction. (There was water coming up from between the floor boards) It only took one afternoon which was nice. We did have to move the entire kitchen into Elder Baker and my room.
We had a meeting with a man from China. He seems interested in the church and wanted to meet again. Super exciting! We also got a call from another man who wants to learn about our church. He says he doesn't know much about religion but would like to learn. Again, super exciting!
The sister missionaries in our ward are teaching a couple from Vietnam. They brought them to church. They are both amazing and it was really interesting to talk to them about living in Vietnam. I didn't think that the people there had as much freedom as they did. They plan on going back after the husband finishes school at Busan National University. We found a ward in the city they want to move to. It's great.
I ate octopus. It was pretty rubbery but actually tasted good.

Fate and the food

The first full week in Korea has gone by in a bit of a blur. It was pretty chaotic because the stake had a big music night that we had to help out with and sing in. It went like your typical stake cultural night but there were a lot less people and it was all in Korean.
We had three member appointments this week. The first one was way out in the country and included an hour long bus ride. We got out there to this farming community and visited with this older lady and her husband. Both are great members of the ward and love having the missionaries over. They fed us boatloads of Korean food. On the way back we talked to people on the bus. I gave a book of mormon to one man. He wasn't sure about it so I turned to Alma 7:11-13 and had him read that. That got him more interested. This was one of the first interested people I've talked to. We tried to get his contact info but he wouldn't have it. Fate is a big part of Buddhist culter. He said that if he ran into us again that it would be a sign and he would take our lessons. For a large part of these people fate has to make the big decisions.
We met another man going to another appointment. He was a linguist and spoke perfect english so I could fully participate in the conversation. He had taken missionary discussions in the past but wasn't sure of the truthfulness of the book of mormon. Because he was a linguist he wasn't sure if reformed egyptian (the language the gold plates were written in) really existed. I testified that if he read the Book of Mormon and prayed about it he could know if it was true. We'll see what comes of it.
Korean food has been killing me. I am going through "the cleansing" where your body adjusts to eating like a Korean. The cleansing entails a lot of burping and rumbling stomach with side effects similar to food poisoning. The Korean food is actually not that bad. I've had crazy things like pureed mud fish, pig spine soup, and sweet bean curd candy. It's all really different but not in a bad way. It's just killing my gut.
The one thing about food that I really miss is the solid stuff. In Korea all food is eaten with a spoon or chopsticks so nothing is bigger than a quarter. I miss eating things like a roll, steak, potatoes and other solid hearty foods. I miss them so much that for one lunch I made quiche. I used bread and milk for the crust and eggs, peppers and onions for the filler. It was fantastic.

Latter from his Mission President

10 November 2014


Dear Brother and Sister Harkness,

Elder James Gordon Harkness arrived in the Korea Busan Mission on 4 November 2014. Sister Barrow and I had the choice opportunity of greeting your son at the airport and welcoming him to Busan. Even after a lengthy flight, he is in good health and spirits and we look forward to serving with him. He is a fine young missionary and will be an asset to the mission. We have been anticipating his arrival and it was wonderful to finally meet him. We will care for him as we would for one of our own as he labors in the mission field. We understand the concerns, hopes and prayers of priesthood leaders and loved ones. We want each of the missionaries in the Korea Busan Mission to have a rich, growing and successful experience. Be assured that should a time of special concern arise, I will notify you immediately.

Enclosed are three photographs: (1) a group picture taken at the airport upon arrival; (2) a photograph of your son with Sister Barrow and me that was taken the day after he arrived; and (3) a photograph of your son with his first companion, Elder Eric Allen Baker, from Peoria, AZ. Your son has a good attitude and a desire to serve the Lord. We spent two days together and had an opportunity to visit privately together in the Mission Home. We are grateful for his worthiness and for his willingness to serve, and we pray that the Lord will bless and strengthen your family through his service.

Missionary work in the Busan Mission is new and exciting, and our missionaries find great rewards in serving the Lord here. Elder Harkness will learn much about himself, our Savior Jesus Christ and His gospel as he serves with all his heart, might, mind and strength in the Lord's work. He will come to understand his role as a disciple of Christ. (3Ne. 5:13)

We thank you for your support and ask you to write regular encouraging letters and send faith promoting experiences to him. We know that as Elder Harkness works with all his heart, might, mind and strength he will have a most amazing missionary experience. We know you will experience the miracle that is missionary work through your son's fine diligent efforts.

First week in Korea

Well, so much has happened since the last time I wrote. We rose early last Monday morning to board a bus to the Salt Lake Airport. After a flight to Seattle we began the twelve hour trek to the Inchon airport. It was a long and uneventful flight. From Inchon we flew into Busan. We were all very lucky that half of our flight group were native Koreans. One of them saved my life when I got held up at the Inchon airport security desk when they took my mini screw kit (that had made it through US security). We were picked up by the mission president and rushed to the mission home where we crashed. The next day was for meetings and dealing with jetlag. That night we started actual mission work. We met the trainers and were randomly paired up with them for thirty minutes to hand out BoMs and talk to people about the church (In Korean). I was paired up with my future trainer Elder Baker and we both had the distinct impression that we would be put together. The next morning we were assigned.
Elder Baker and I are serving in the city of Busan. Busan is the fourth largest port in the world and the second biggest city in Korea. Being from the rocky mountains I didn't think that I would like serving in Busan, but so far it has been treating me really well.
We live in an apartment pretty close to one of the forest covered mountains that surround the city of Busan. We share our apartment with an Elder Smith and Elder Lee.
Strange things about Korea: We all sleep on the floor. There are almost no garbage cans anywhere. We sort our garbage which is a bit of a pain. The food is super cheep. EVERYONE is Korean. I get on the subway and am the only Caucasian (Elder Baker is half Korean). Most people speak really broken english. We travel everywhere by bus or subway.
I was talking to one person on the subway and asked if he wanted to hear our message. He said, "I like your hair, but I don't want to hear your message." Red hair is super rare here. All of the kids on the street stare at me. I always wave back at them and they love that.

Korea is great!

P.S. The picture of me with the poster is what we call stickerboarding. We stand out in the street by Busan International University and hand out stickers to people. They put the stickers on the poster to show what they think is most important. The categories are Health, Family, Money, Education, Religion and Friends. Once they stick the sticker we talk to them about their choice and gage which pamphlet to give them. It's actually one of the most fun things I've done in Busan.

Last week in the MTC

Because today is P-day I'll pack most of my stuff. We leave the MTC 4:00AM for the Salt Lake airport. My flight goes to Seattle then another one to Inchon then Busan. I'm so excited! We got our flight plans last Friday. We've been talking about leaving for the longest time. It's great knowing that this is actually going to happen.
Friday we got the flight plans. We had another lesson with Kim Chao mai niem then on to TRC. We skyped again for TRC. This time with a lady in Hawaii. We understood a lot more and taught better. I was pretty disappointed though because she was playing bubble shooter on her phone. I could see it in the reflection on her glasses and hear the cartoon pops through the computer. That really destroyed any sense of the spirit that was there. I would rather teach Park Tae Huan (My other skype TRC who was really hard to understand and a little impatient) because we were actually able to feel the spirit during the lesson.
The other days leading up to today have been mostly uneventful. We did have an elder that we thought ran away at about 11:00 Tuesday night. We all spent a good fifteen minutes running around our building searching for him. We knocked on bathroom stalls, "Umm, is this Elder So-and-so?" "Umm, nope." "Ok sorry to bother you" We did find him eventually in another one of the bedrooms hanging out with some of the native elders. We all wanted to strangle him.
Last night we had an amazing lesson. Our one teacher--Brother Campbell--had us give lessons without speaking, drawing or writing. We taught the other member of our district. Elder Tuinei and I taught Sister Morton. It started out with the two of them doing sign-language. So annoying. I didn't understand a thing. Finally after catching a little bit of what was going on I rushed to a scripture passage and threw it in between them. I flashed a look at Elder Tuinei. "I will participate!" At least I hope that's what he got. He must have gotten something because the rest of the time we spent pointing out things in PMG, the scriptures and the Jesus Christ pamphlet. It was really good. We all felt the Spirit. Then the teacher shared a story about how one of his investigators was an immigrant from Usbeckistan (I really goofed the spelling on that) and didn't speak Korean or English. Using Russian scriptures and a lot of gesturing they were able to teach this man. The message of the lesson was that we shouldn't let the language be a barrier between us and our investigators. The Spirit can move through any medium it needs to. This really boosted our confidence in going to Korea.

The district with flight plans. (Typical Tuinei)
What we did to Sister Morton's pomegranate
The room I am so ready to leave
Sister Kim, our teacher from Seoul

The Korean is getting better

anneyonghassayo! (that is the romanized spelling for hello in Korean)

This was a super good week! I'm learning so much and getting so excited to go into the field. I've almost been here two months. Every time I look at an english speaking elder it's like looking at the life span of a fly. They'll be gone before I even notice. When a younger elder says something like "today's wednesday! They'll have icecream in the cafeteria" it's like, "I know, infact I could probably predict the lunch menu for the next year. I know when the new missionaries come, I know everything. I've been here forever!"
Last friday we did a skype with a man from Busan. I learned what a true Busan accent sounds like. The Seoul dialect is fairly monotone. One of our teachers is from Seoul and so we've all picked up this nice Seoul accent. In busan the tones and inflections of speech are everywhere. Elder Tuinei and I could hardly understand this guy. The whole way he spoke was pretty whiny and annoying. I asked one of the other teachers who served in Busan about it. He said that they will make their voices more whiny as a way of sounding casual. I think it's awful, but he said I'd get use to it.
I'm getting better at Korean. It's a funny language. They follow a subject object verb pattern instead of subject verb object like english and a lot of the european languages. It would be 'I the ball kicked' translated word for word. Which is fine until you get into more complex sentences. "Nephi, Gentiles gospel will hear did say" that means Nephi said that the Gentiles will hear the gospel. It's coming though. I was talking to a native a couple nights ago and was able to carry a simple conversation in only Korean.
My spiritual thought comes from DC 18 I believe (It could be 17 or 19). God talks about his joy in having souls brought unto him. In moses he says that it is his work and his glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. We learn of God's love for all of his children. He wants them to come unto him. The scripture talks about how he extends the privilege of bringing the souls of men unto him. He wants us to feel his joy. He wants us to join in the work with him. It is our responsibilities as Church Members to bring others unto Christ. Not just the Missionaries, Everyone. By doing this we can take part in the joy that He feels.

I love you all
Elder Harkness

week 5 MTC

Hey everyone!

Well, nothing too fantastic this week. We are all getting better at the language. Everyone has been studying hard. Last week we got an email from one of the elders who just left saying that he couldn't understand a word the Koreans were saying. This has inspired a bit of a mad rush among those of us who are leaving in two and a half weeks. Frankly I plan on not knowing what the natives are saying but am still practicing hard.
So you saw the picture of the water bottles. That is what the elders who just left did to us. Every time you get a sack breakfast you get a water bottle. All of the leaving elders saved up their bottles then before they left uncapped them, filled them up to the brim then set them up in a grid in front of our rooms. We knocked some over and it was a big mess. I took the picture part way during the clean-up. There were a lot more waterbotles. One of the elders in my district emptied all of the water bottles and has been saving them up for when we leave.
Before I came to the MTC I would always see the lightsaber pictures on Facebook. Elder Foster (one of my roommates) and I decided to make our own. It is a six second exposure on a flashlight with a colored piece of paper over it. It only took about five minutes to make, just in case you think I'm wasting time.
In this last week I gave my best and worst lessons ever. The best lesson was the one that I never looked at our lesson plan. I just asked the investigator questions and was able to remember scriptures to turn. I was really intune with the Holy Ghost and because of that I was able to speak really well. In the worst lesson I wasn't feeling the spirit and because of that I couldn't speak. That is something I've learned about speaking Korean. If I am inline with God's will I can speak. The same principal applies in life. If you are inline with God's will you can do anything. You have to study and give it your all and believe that God will make up the difference. If you don't do these things God can't help you and you will probably fail.

I love you all,
Elder Harkness

Half way through the MTC

Well, I passed the half way mark here at the MTC. I'm speaking the language a lot better now. Two of the elders in my district feel so good about it that they want to try speaking only Korean for the last three weeks. I know I'm not that good but we all can still communicate pretty well.

This past week I got the worst cold I have ever had as far as I can remember. I was in bed for the better part of two days. I got tested for strep ($10) because my throat hurt so much, but they said it was just a cold. This was really bad because I had to sing in conference on Saturday. After laying in bed most of Thursday I got a blessing from my companion that I would be able to sing.  To sing in conference you had to attend all the practices. The next morning I got up and walked to the chapel with two other elders from my zone to the chapel where we were singing. I was so tired and so sick. We were standing up singing one song and I knew that once I sat down I could not physically get back up. My legs were shaking as the conductor finished the song. I plopped down on the bench and put my head in my hands. I wouldn't be able to sing in conference. The conductor pulled out the new sheet music and stood us up. Against my will I got up. As we were singing my legs stopped shaking. I knew that I was not standing on my own power. I remembered my dad telling me about people who we know who have passed away, or angels being able to help us. I also remembered the blessing my companion had given me and the prayers of all of you. As I was singing I had tears just running down my face. The power and truth of all these things came to me so strong. We finished the practice and I started my second day in bed.

Saturday I was feeling a lot better. I still felt like the snot monster but I could walk so it was fine. All of the choir members watched the morning session of conference then bussed up to SLC. We missed most of the afternoon session because we were practicing. About five they put us in the choir loft in the conference center. That place is so big! Singing was great and the talks were fantastic, even though we could only see the back of the speakers head. I could actually read the teleprompters while they spoke.

I'm feeling pretty good right now. My cold is mostly gone thanks to the medicine my mom sent. The group of Koreans that came right before us is getting ready to leave on Monday. They are going to the Seoul missions. I'm so excited for them. Every lesson we teach makes me want to go out even more. We've been told that the first day we are there they will put us with random missionaries and we'll go in Busan to a train station or something and place some Book of Mormons. The next day is when we will be assigned to our trainers and sent out to wherever we're serving.

Tuinei and me directing trafic for the missionary drop off.
laundry
The district
a review on our teaching from a TRC

mission update

Another week down on the mission. As of today I am just one day short of being one month in the MTC. I've learned so much. Everynight I crash on my bed exhausted. The language is still as hard as ever. I get discouraged sometimes but have learned to just keep moving on. Today and yesterday have been particularly hard because I think I have strep throat. I don't know. I'm going to have it checked later today.
As for my teaching fake investigators, all has been going well. Elder Tuinei and I have gotten so much better at teaching. There has been a progression to it. First we started out with a script. We learned how to teach by the spirit and tossed the script and the lessons got so much better. Then we learned how to plan for a lesson and our teaching got so much better. This week's lesson has been in focusing our efforts on the investigator instead of teaching. We have begun asking lots of questions and trying to assess the needs of our investigators. Last night we had a lesson where we were going to teach the commandments. Before we started we asked the investigator about her needs and she told us that she struggles with not having enough money. Instead of beating on with our lesson we talked only about tithing and all of its blessings. She received it well and said that she would continue to pray read the Book of Mormon and that she would begin to pay tithing.
I got released from being district leader. My companion was called to be the new DL. Our district is still struggling with getting along, but I always feel like the situation is improving.

I love you all, till next Pday,
Harkness Chang no niem