Elder Newton has returned, but here's one last photo of him in Korea:
And here he is arriving in Salt Lake City and greeting his family:
Thanks for following and supporting Elder Newton on this adventure!
Seoul Man
Friday, August 31, 2018
Sunday, July 29, 2018
Week 106: One Last Time
Elders Newton, Boden and Alger |
Adjust and Adapt
Morning Calm but Afternoon Bustle
Stop the Problem
How?
See the People
The Proof is Emotional
Korea
Well.
It's my last email. I don't know what to say. It's been a busy week of
goodbyes and zone activity. I'm almost packed. I don't remember enough
of the week to give a review. We fixed the branch president's porch on Saturday. That was fun.
건우~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
승우~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
He's so handsome |
Sunday
was good. It always is, I think. Everything went well. 승우 had the prayer in sacrament meeting, but he slept through it. That was funny.
Ummmmmmmm we did a musical number! That was cool. Elder Alger worked so
hard on the piano. Shout out to him and Mom for the "Love at Home" arrangement. I also gave my first and last Final Talk as a missionary.
It was all about the power of friendship in the gospel. It was fun. If
y'all come to my homecoming talk, it will probably be similar, but in
English.
Over two years I'm sure I've got some
wisdom, but I don't know it now. That's OK, though. I think it's all
just about love for the Savior and the people. In the end, all the
commandments and all of the gospel seems to turn you outward. I think
that's the weirdest part of the whole ending the mission thing. As a
missionary, I never really had to think about myself, but once I'm in
America, a whole lot of things will suddenly kind of be about me. I hope
I can find a good balance of that. But, we'll see how it goes. Thanks
to all of you for reading this here blog. I enjoyed the poetry.
Hopefully we can keep that up.
Have a good week, everyone! See you soon? I guess?
Sunday, July 22, 2018
Week 105: The Penultimate Peril
A well-documented sunset |
Everything was such a nice hue |
Fancy |
Set and serve
Consistent Goal but Imperfect Execution
Stop the Problem
How?
Open a Book
The Proof is Penultimate
Meal
Our expensive dinner on Friday |
Well. We had a lot of meal appointments this week. We missed Saturday, but that's OK. 6/7 isn't too bad. Plus on some days there were multiple free meals. That was good. It was a good week.
We're doing a musical number for my last week, so we practiced that a lot. That was fun.
Ummmmmmmm we had exchanges with Elder Pulsipher (the blond
never-been-my-companion one). He was a greenie here, and he really seemed
to enjoy it. He still remembered a lot, and we managed to get him to
see 60% of the branch while he was here and also visit some
investigator. That was a good visit. I'll miss the man. He's 75 and has a
little house in the Taebaek countryside to do art in and listen to
music. I gave him a couple of my MoTab CDs, and I think he really
appreciated it.
I had another long talk on Sunday,
and I have another one next week, but what else is new. It was about gratitude. I somehow tied it into Amanda Barnes Smith. That was fun. I
hope I can give talks in English one day. It sounds so hard. Also,
speaking of gratitude, I'm currently in the middle of my crazy project
to write thank-you notes to every member I remember after two years of missionary work. It's really hard, but it's made me really grateful for a
lot of little things. I'd recommend writing one or two thank-you letters
to someone this week.
#TypicalMissionaryCommitment
There
were of course other things, like we went to another cave. But we'll
have to show the pictures another time. Whoops. Have a good week!
Sunday, July 15, 2018
The Photos of Week 104
The train station |
Mural I like |
Fields in the everywhere |
Cool local memorial |
It means love, but the little ㅅ at the end makes it sound like Love Hate. I don't know. It's a Korean meme that I enjoy. The little joys of tracting |
Week 104: So I Got a Korean Name
It me |
Postpone and Put off
Inconvenience but Desired Result
Stop the Problem
How?
Make the List
The proof is Haywire
Delay
So
yeah, this was a week. We went to Donghae for P-day. We played ping-pong and Settlers of Catan with the branch president out there. He made
the entire board by himself. For Catan. That was intense.
Also I'm low on time, but this week was full of miracles.
First:
As the subject says, I got a Korean name. I still need a last name, but
I asked our Young Man to hook me up. I thought he might forget, but on Sunday when we were getting the sacrament ready he was all like.
"Hey, I was thinking about your name"
Sorry if the quotation marks are inappropriate. He actually said this in Korean
So anyway, he goes on, "It's ShinJae. The Shin means new and the Jae means turn"
It's
actually pretty legit, but my favorite is the reason he made it. It's
because New Turn sounds like Newton. He's amazing. I love the kid.
The other miracle to talk about is Claire. She's the best. Here's the crackdown.
So on Monday
we rode the train back, and we actually ended up arriving a few minutes
after 6 (whoops) but that's OK. We went to some apartments we'd never
really noticed behind the train station to tract for the night with
some of our Prepared Book of Mormons.
But no one really answers
Which is normal, but yaknow how it gets with spaghetti.
Anyway,
near the end we knock on this one door, and Claire answers. She's in
her 30s or something. Anyway, she was in the middle of eating dinner,
but she had had an English teacher from Utah, and had actually always
wanted to read the Book of Mormon. So we gave her one with a pamphlet to
also explain and invited her to English class the next day.
So
this was good, but we didn't ask her name and she didn't want to give
us her number. Whoops. So we just prayed really hard. And IT WORKED. She
came to English class, and she was actually the only one who came. So
it was a lesson. She is so great. Lots of questions and is really open.
Good person. She also bought us bread.
Anyway,
she still doesn't want to give us her number, but we do figure out her
name, so we just invite her to the next English class.
And literally the exact same thing happens. Except she didn't have time for bread. So now we're going to have pizza together tonight.
But she had looked up the church online, and she liked most of it, and
we helped clear up the weird stuff she found. She liked our
interpretation of the gift of tongues. But yeah, that's the story of how
we started teaching someone and helping them progress within a week. I
never thought I'd see that happen. It's a darn happy time out in
Taebaek. I wish I could convey all of the miracles. But. I gotta go. I
love you all!
Best Wishes,
Elder Newton
Sunday, July 8, 2018
Week 103: We Have a New Mission President
Growth and Greenery
Individual trees but Connected Ecology
Stop the Problem
How?
Receive the letter
The Proof is Alphabetical
Forest
This
week started off well. We actually had a lesson! *and the crowd went
wild* It was really spiritual. I might have mentioned the man before. We
met him in his house a few weeks ago while tracting, and he has a real
desire to follow Jesus Christ. I like him a lot.
When
we first met him, he mentioned that he had received a Book of Mormon in
Idaho when he saw a temple and got curious about what the building was.
It reminded me that on my first birthday in Korea, there was a sister
from Idaho I didn't know who sent me a letter and a picture of the Idaho
Falls Temple. (I think? There are a lot of temples in Idaho.) In any
case, for our first lesson, we thought it would be good to give Forrest
(that's the name of the person we taught) the little picture of the
temple to help him see the big picture of the Gospel. He really liked
it, and it turned out that the temple was the very same temple he had
gone to. #tendermercies
And then the week blazed by. We cleaned Brother Lee's house again almost all day on Tuesday.
We made a little progress there. English classes have been going well
still. It's basically become the time when we meet all of the sisters'
old investigators and keep them spiritually nourished. They're both
doing really well. We played Bananagrams for English class on Friday
and then for the spiritual thought we made an analogy between prayers
and burgers, and then gave everyone gummi burger candies. It was really
cute. I'd better be called as a Primary teacher if I go to America.
Oh
yeah, the senior couple came and we fixed our door. It's all good now.
It was like all the times I helped Dad with random house things, except
instead of going to Home Depot we went to a few little local stores I
know.
Ummmmmm we met President Taylor. He's
really nice. Seems pretty funny. He was famous in Korea as a missionary
because his district sang a funny song on television or something. We
actually had a really good meeting with him. We talked about how we can
be the light of the world and the Beatitudes and things. We all have to
be the saltier salt.
Sister Taylor is also a delight. I got a chance to talk with her while my companions had
President Interviews. She served a mission in Italy and is just a darn
nice person. I wish I could be a missionary longer. I hope they follow
through on their joke they made. They said no one gets to go home until
they do or the work is finished. I'm all on board.
This
weekend we had a few festivals around. One was a couples festival, so
we made hearts for everyone that said, "Charity Never Faileth," and then
passed them out with copies of the Book of Mormon. We also ended up on a railbike,
but that's a story for another day I think. I will mention, though, that
I'm glad I wore a sweater that day.
Sunday
was also good. We had bibimbap and had some vegetables from our garden
with it. The branch president was gone, so I had to preside again. It'll
definitely be weird not to have all these responsibilities in church
when I get to America. But for now, it definitely keeps me awake during
church even if I'm tired. I have to conduct and then give the lesson in Sunday
school and everything. But yeah, that's about it. Taebaek is still my
little bit of Promised Land. Hope you all had a good week too!
Best Wishes,
Elder Newton
Sunday, July 1, 2018
Week 102 photos: Memes From a Mountain
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