Week 78 December 28, 2015 "I got to be Santa again!"

     My last Christmas in South Korea as a missionary was amazing. The Seocho ward for sure spoiled us missionaries and made our Christmas wonderful. I got fed a ton and even got a few super nice presents like some ties, a scarf, and a bunch of snacks. Elder Dalley and Elder Whitney got me these sweet baseball hats with the Chinese character meaning their mascot. They only had two left so I got a Dodgers one and a Giants one. I don't necessarily like either of those teams but the hats are sweet. Plus the symbol for the Giants is the Chinese character for Giant which fits because I am tall. I can't believe my last Christmas as a missionary has already past. Time flies! I only get to call home one more time and that will be like one transfer before I go home. I am an old missionary for sure. I never thought it would happen and that I would just be a greenie for life but that didn't work out like I planned haha. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that all is well in America. We weren't able to meet our investigator this week because he was busy so that was a bummer but we will for sure try and meet him this week. We have been struggling to find investigators these days but yesterday we got a referral and we are going to meet with her this week so we will see how that goes.

      Well we are going to play basketball in 영등포 today so I am going to keep this short and sweet. For Christmas my mom sent me a bunch of inspirational quotes that were all laminated and nice looking so I bought a case and put them in it. That is beside the point though haha just thought I would mention it. I was going through them the other day and I found this one I really liked, it was something Muhammad Ali said. The quote was "Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a CHAMPION." This quote just kinda hit me deep down. I mean who likes to be a quiter or labeled one? I don't that's for sure. So yeah lets all work through the hard times with smiles on our faces looking to conquer each and every trial that gets in our way.  Jesus Christ is on our side and I know He will help us NOT quit but instead help us keep on keeping on! 

Love, 

Elder Picard

The best mission leader in Korea!

Week 76 December 21, 2015 "It's not about the lights, it's about the love"

     I can't believe Christmas is in 4 days! Time flies when you are having fun as a missionary for sure. I feel like it was summer just yesterday and I was wondering if Christmas would ever even come. I am so excited to Skype you guys, it will for sure be college level. I am hoping that I get to be Santa Claus again like I was last year. It is crazy to think that last Christmas I was right next door in Gangnam. Dont forget to keep me in your prayers that I get to be Santa ;) haha. We haven't been able to meet Sister Lee or Femme for a while because Femme is in America and Sister Lee is too busy to meet this month. She comes to church still so at least I get to see and talk to her once a week. Sister Lee is still just amazing and doing great. Femme texted us a few times and she seems to be doing good in America and isn't stressed so that's good. 

     The message I wanna share today is something President told us at our Christmas Conference. President taught me a lot and I learned a bunch of cool stuff. He talked a lot about the importance of forgetting ourselves and serving others. Like how we have to swallow our pride in order to have the spirit and to teach with power and authority. Our spirits must overpower our bodies and be in control. The one thing he said that stuck out to me is that my Father in Heaven is proud of me and will not give up on me. As long as we try our best the Lord will never give up on us. Imagine a baby trying to take it's first steps when it falls down it gets right back up and tries again. The baby would either get back up by itself or the parents would help it back up on its feet. You never yell at the baby and say "Come on why can't you walk? You are taking way too long!!" the Lord likewise won't say these things but He will wait patiently and succor to our calls. He will even cry with us in hard times just like He wept with Martha when Lazarus died. We obviously won't see Him crying but He is and hates to see us fail or to see us sad because He wants us to become like him. So lets go out there and be like that determined baby who gets right back up!!!! 

Feliz Navidad!!!!!!!

Love, 

Elder Picard 

A famous Picard family quote was started by DJ when he was just a little guy when we drove around looking at Christmas lights he said "It's not about the lights, it's about the love."

Week 75 December 14, 2015 "Read 2 Timothy Chapter 4, it's all good"

     This past week was pretty good. The weather is slowly getting colder which is nice because I like the cold. Seocho ward is still awesome and still treating us missionaries like Kings. I feel so privileged and bless to serve in the Seocho Ward. I am excited for Christmas and cant wait to Skype you all, it will be great! I didn't get the chance to send home a Christmas package so I am sorry about that but I sent every member of our family a letter so hopefully you get those before Christmas. I tried to be sincere and elaborate the best I can but I had to write them really fast so if they are no good I apologize. You guys have any fun plans for Christmas any vacations without me or anything? haha. I hope that you have a rocking Christmas in Utah and create a bunch of cool memories you can tell me about later. Just remember a wise young Daniel once said, "It is not about the lights, it is about the love!" That memory came into my mind the other day when I saw some Christmas lights and it made me so happy :) 

      My message this week is found in the New Testament. It is a super good motto to live your life by. It also to me seems like a really good guideline to keep in check and to keep you motivated. It goes a little something like this, " Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life,whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses" (1 Timothy 6:12). So from what I understand is that we have to fight the good fight of faith obviously but also that we have already fought that fight once before we were born! This scripture then means and is encouragement that we can do it again and push on with faith in Christ. To end I will share one more scripture. This is what I want to say at the end of my mission and also at the end of my life like Paul was able to. " I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith" (2 Timothy 4:7). All of Chapter 4 is really good but I don't wanna copy and paste the whole chapter so you all can go read that later. Lets all fight the good fight together and make our Father in Heaven proud!! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night. ;) 

Love,

Elder Picard

Week 74 December 7, 2015 "I am so excited that it is the Christmas season"

    Well folks I will be staying in Seocho for at least one more transfer with Elder Whitney. It is crazy that I only have 5 transfers left and that this will be my 12th transfer in country. Just gotta keep getting down to business to defeat the Huns (the adversary). I am hoping I stay in Seocho for a long time because this area is great. Maybe my comp will go ZL next transfer and then I can stay and be Papa Seocho. I am so excited that it is the Christmas season, Christmas is the best!! As a missionary Christmas is even better because all day every day you get to talk to others about Jesus Christ and the true meaning of Christmas. We got these cool new proselyting cards that have the new "A Savior is Born" video link so give to people as we proselyte. They work so much better than the normal I am a Mormon cards so I love using them. It especially helps me to think of Jesus more throughout the day which had made me so much more happier these days. You all have to go to the new christmas.mormon.org website, it is awesome!! Also I would request that you blow up social media with message of The Savior and Christmas this year. 

      My best Guatemalan buddy, Elder Monterozzo, goes home this week so it will be really sad to see him go because I would say that we have grown pretty close in the last 3 transfers of living together. He gave his farewell speech last week at Zone training and I got some really cool revelation/insight while he gave it. He spoke on how the mission has a lot of ups and downs and how you cant let the hard times get you down. I gotta just keeping trucking till the very end. The revelation or thought I received was this "I have to ride the mission roller-coaster with a smile on my face no matter how many times there are surprise flips and turns." Also the roller-coaster goes fast so even if I am scared, frustrated, whatever I can't scream but instead I gotta smile. This is the same for life too. Life is a roller-coaster. This life is something that shapes us into who Jesus Christ wants us to become. Being an optimist is hard. Always having a smile on your face is hard. Submitting your will and everything you want is hard don't get me wrong but we gotta do it. People need that happiness. Others need our help. I am going to try my best to be that optimist who is needed so much. It will be hard but I gotta be a happy positive boy not an angry negative one. 

Merry Christmas!!!!!!

Love, 

Elder Picard 

Instead of pictures this week please go to christmas.mormon.org website and share the message of Christs birth on social media.

Week 73 November 30, 2015 "A great Thanksgiving week, Turkey, Temple, Pie and Football"

Well we already have transfer calls again on Saturday so I guess we will see if I transfer, stay, or whatever happens. I could leave but I could also stay I am not really sure it is kind of up in the air. Whatever happens though is what the Lord's wants to happen so I will accept whatever with a smile on my face. Hopefully just not Zone Leader because that would be stress for days haha. Hopefully before the end of my mission I can get at least one Korean companion (knock on wood). We just don't have too many Koreans which is a bummer. Well I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. Mine was surprisingly better than I thought it would be and I even got to eat turkey! Our zone were some of the few missionaries that got to eat turkey because finding turkey in Korea is tough. My P-Day was Thanksgiving so that was sweet and we even played a turkey bowl which was a blast. I still got a bit of my QB skills which is good. 

       My message this week is from The Infinite Atonement by Tad R. Callister. He quoted C.S. Lewis and his insight was amazing so I wanted to share it! "No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means- the only complete realist." This really struck me when I read it so I wanted to share it with all of you. I have never thought about this the way C.S. Lewis did before so it made me come to the realization of a lot. One being the depth of how much Christ really did suffer for all of our sins and the other being that we learn and truly suffer by resisting temptation not by giving in. I know Christ lives. I know He will always be there to comfort us in all of our times of suffering, trial, and hardship. I know He has suffered below all things and way more than we could ever even try to fathom. Trust in Him and everything little thing will be alright. Hey I mean even Bob Marley knows this haha he has a song about it.  

Love, 

Elder Daniel Jackson Picard

Week 72 November 22, 2015 "Romans 1: 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ"

Happy Birthday to my beautiful sister Sara!
     The funny thing of the week is that an English Class member said I look like Obama... I dont know how in the world I look like Obama but I guess I do haha. That makes two look a likes on my mission. I have been told I looked like Eminem with my hair cut short and Obama with my hair longer and combed over? I dont understand but hey I had a good laugh about it!! 

      

      It is crazy how much you learn as a missionary, it's awesome! I am learning every second of every day so it makes it really hard when I have to narrow down all that I learned. I wish I could tell you guys every cool thing that happened, all that I learned, etc. but that would take way too long to type. My message ironically enough this week is on missionary work. I finished Romans this week and the two scriptures I want to share are from there. To my surprise Romans was actually pretty good. The first one I found is Romans 1: 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. When I first read I was like wow that is a great scripture. Then I read it again and then a few mores times. Then it hit me that we as members of the Church of Jesus Christ and especially me as a missionary always have to remember just this and only this. The gospel shouldn't be something we hide or are ashamed about but instead something we treasure and share to our friends and neighbors who have yet to hear such a beautiful message of truth. Reading this makes me want to be more courageous and tell every person I possibly can in South Korea how much I love the gospel of Jesus Christ and how much I know God loves all His children and wants them to come unto this glorious gospel. 

  

      The last scripture kinda backs that last one I shared in my opinion. It is Romans 10:  15 ...How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! Reading this a few chapters later just reassured me that God is grateful when we share the gospel and sees us as BEAUTIFUL! What more of a blessing could you ask for? I dont know about you but I like being called beautiful? haha. That being said lets all just be courageous disciples of Christ, love others, and share the blessing of this gospel with all!! I love you all so much and thank everyone for all the prayers and love you have given me throughout my mission in South Korea!!

Love, 

Elder Picard 

피카드 장로 

Week 71 November 16, 2015 "We should let Christ lift us up!"

 Well this past week was full of some hard times but also happy times as well. Both of our convert are still doing great and we are trying to help them get to the temple. Hopefully they can both go before I leave South Korea that would be sweet! I can't believe November is already half way over. I can't wait till Christmas it will be sweet being able to Skype with my amazing family!! The weather over here is kinda getting chilly but some days it doesn't even feel like November because it gets kind of warm. We have had a really strange Fall season over here in Seoul that's for sure. 

       What I want to share is a few things. First off this life is hard obviously. That is why we are taught we must doubt not and fear not. When we doubt ourselves we can't progress and also Christ can't help us progress if we have negative thoughts about ourselves. This has been a big test for me because I think I may be too hard on myself. There is a point where you can be too hard on yourself. It is good to evaluate yourself but not to beat yourself up in my opinion. I kinda feel that beating ourselves up is something the adversary wants us to do. The way we can doubt not/fear not is by working instead of worrying. I worry about a lot of things as a missionary but I need to change that. If I work, worry about whatever will go away and Christ will be able to help me through the Holy Ghost. Like it says in PMG a missionary who works, works, and works some more gets the spirit. 

         Lastly I came across this cool scripture during personal study. It is Moroni 9:25 

25 My son, be faithful in Christ; and may not the things which I have written grieve thee, to weigh thee down unto death; but may Christ
lift  thee up, and may his sufferings and death, and the showing his body unto  our fathers, and his mercy and long-suffering, and the hope of his glory and of eternal life, rest in your mind forever.

We can't be weighed down in worry or other things but instead we should let Christ lift us up! This gospel is such a blessing and I know it can make all who study it happy. Through studying the gospel, we come unto Christ. The Lord our Savior will recognize this and then lift up those individuals who abide to His gospel and precepts. I love you all so much!! I know Jesus Christ loves you all too!! Thanks for all the prayers, love, and support.

Love, 

Elder Picard

Elder Picard with Luke Wardle, the family that was Dan's first exposure to
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Craigmont, Idaho growing up.

Eating with their friend "Chicken Man"

A holiday in Korea last Wednesday that is celebrated with this food. He thought it tasted like pretzels dipped in frosting.

Week 70 November 9, 2015 "If you cannot win yourself, then make the one ahead of you break the record."

     Recently I have been reading a lot during my personal study in the New Testament and the Doctrine and Covenants because I have never read all the way through both of them. I had a goal to read all of the standard works before the end of the year but I am not sure I will get through the Old Testament, it is too long haha. I actually now that I think about it need to look back at the goals I set because it is getting close to the end of the year and I haven't been the best at checking my progress. I will admit I kind of forgot I set those goals last year.... oops. I will for sure find them and take a look Sunday at what more I have to do. I have seen myself progress a lot throughout this last year so I just gotta keep that up and make it easier to progress by always keeping in mind what I need to improve on and what the goals I set. 

       I had a super good week and learned a ton during personal study. What I want to share this week is a scripture in D&C. It is D&C 62:23 which goes a little something like this... 

2 And verily mine eyes are upon those who have not as yet gone up unto the land of Zion; wherefore your mission is not yet full.

3 Nevertheless, ye are blessed, for the testimony which ye have borne is recorded in heaven for the angels to look upon; and they rejoice over you, and your sins are 

forgiven you.

 Basically  it says our testimonies are recorded in Heaven. When we share our testimonies with others God is happy with us. When we show others the joy the gospel brings by sharing our testimonies with them it is then that we draw closer to Jesus Christ. After studying about this I couldn't help but share my testimony with my ward yesterday. It was nerve racking for sure but I could feel the spirit so strong and I knew that God accepted my testimony and was grateful I had the guts to share it. There is another quote I found in the Missionary's Little Quote Book I want to share. I am going to try and connect the two as best as I can so we will see how it goes. "If you cannot win yourself, then make the one ahead of you break the record." As I read this I kind of connected back to the fact that we can help others "break the record" by sharing our testimonies with them. By doing this we can love helping others come unto Christ. Which seems like the biggest record you could ever set, knowing who your Savior is!! So I would encourage you all to go out there and share your testimony of this Gospel any chance you get and I will do the same over here in Seoul! 

Our recent convert Sister Lee is doing amazing! She is so solid. We had an opportunity to visit Femme and give her a blessing. Her mother was there and luckily we were able to call a member on short notice to come over and he helped us give her mother an amazing lesson. The Spirit was so strong and she had some really good questions. I am so excited to be able to start teaching her the gospel of Jesus Christ. We had so many miracles this week, the work is progressing well in Seocho! Thank you to all my family & friends for all the prayers and continued support through emails and letters, it means so much to me.

Love, 

Elder Picard

Week 69 November 2, 2015 "Show your love for God by loving and serving others"

   After emailing for pday we went home and Elder Smith got all packed up. We met up with his dad and brothers, I can't believe he is heading home. We have got along really well and I will miss him. It made me a little trunky seeing his family, but I am so glad I have 8 months to get to work in Korea. Missions are the best!
   My new companion is Elder Whitney from Fredricksburg, VA so that is so cool since I lived there as a little guy. We are getting along great and I am excited to serve with him.  His first name is Thomas so you now I love that #TheRinger.
   I was so sad to hear of Caleb Maclachans passing. He was a great friend and I feel bad I didn't stay in better contact with him. Please let his family know I am praying for them. Hopefully Caleb will forgive me for not staying in contact and being a better friend.
   We had an awesome lesson with Femme our convert from when I first got to Seocho! She had a lot of questions we were able to answer.  She is amazing! Learning and growing so much! We talked about prayer, faith and keeping the Sabbath day holy.
    They don't celebrate Halloween in Korea so it was just another day.
    Today was Stake Conference, and it was a great day! So awesome! Micheal went with us. He is an older guy in his 50's. (I think Elder Picard forgot his super young dad is 53). We saw Elder Smith and his family and so that was good to. I also met Elder Knapps family and they are awesome! His dad looks like the men from Duck Dynasty. I also got to meet Elder Knapps trainer, so it was good to meet him since he talked about him all the time. It was sad saying goodbye to Elder Knapp, he was definitely a favorite companion. He is from Provo and so I told him to get in contact with my family. I also promised him my dad would make indian tacos, so hopefully you can do that dad. I also felt pretty famous at Stake Conference because people from Gangnam were there and were so excited to see me.  It made me feel pretty great about myself and very loved. I loved Gangnam and all the members were so good to me.  One of my best buddies is the bishop now. They said I looked skinny and that they would feed me if I came visited. They remembered my last testimony before I left and told me how good it was. Also that I make them happy with my smiling face. So I need to remember to always be happy. They told me my Korean has improved so much also.
   We are going to start showing a movie in the park to find investigators and this is a thought our ward mission leader had. We have been having a hard time finding investigators so hopefully this will be successful.
    Something I want to share is I can personally show my love for the Lord by loving others and by serving them. Sometimes its hard to express our love for other people, but I have noticed when I serve people I feel more love for them and for God. I have been set apart as a missionary and I need to show more faith in myself, focus on the work and doing the best I can.
   We went back to the gym we found last week and the owners are so nice. We set up an appointment to teach them English and hopefully they will find gospel interest also.
   We met someone from Mexico, his name is Chris. We are going to meet up with him soon and hopefully we can start teaching him.
   I love you all. Thank dad for writing me letters every week. I love all the emails but letters are just the best. I feel so blessed to have the family I do.

Week 68 October 26, 2015 "Happy Birthday Grandma Peggy!!!"

   Happy Birthday shout out from Korea to my the best grandma, Grandma Peggy I love you!
Elder Smith goes home in a few days. He has been a great companion and I will miss him.  Excited to meet my new companion Elder Whitney.  I have learned the importance of talking to everyone I possibly can. Don't leave anyone behind, the parable of the lost sheep is good to remember. Christ loves all his children. I need to always be on the search for the one.
    I am reading the Doctrine and Covenants and New Testament. I have set a goal to be done in 2 months. Then I will try and read the Old Testament, cover to cover.  I learned recently if things weren't bitter than you couldn't taste the sweet. If we didn't have trials or bitterness, we wouldn't be able to enjoy the sweet or good times. You need to accept the bitter to find the sweet. Be grateful for the agency to choose, and make good choices.
    We are starting to have a movie night once a month for our english class. Our first movie was Chariot of Fires and I really didn't understand it very well, I guess I don't really get British Movies.
I am king of the house in ping pong, getting really good. I could probably even beat EJ.
    Thursday we were able to go the temple. It was wonderful. I love the temple. We had an appointment that night but got punked so we ended up going to dinner at our tab.
    I was able to meet one of my dad's good childhood friends, Luke Wardle. He lives in China and had great stories about my dad as a kid and teenager.  I love my dad, he is the best man I know. He had some crazy mission stories in Taiwan where he served that he shared with us.
    John 1:7-8 talks about how we are all a light and we need to remember how important our example is for others. Sometimes I forgot I am a light and I don't shine it for others or am not the example I need to be. I need to remember everyday to shine my light for Christ.
    Having a testimony is not just for us but for others. Our testimony can be an example for others and help others. I have really never thought my testimony is for others, just that is was for me.  Christ blesses us with a testimony so we can share it with others. I have been blessed with a happy disposition and need to remember to always be happy and give my best.  I shouldn't use excuses about being tired, etc. I am trying to be better with my prayers. If you have any tips please share them with me. daniel.picard@myldsmail.net
    I had a great talk with President Morrise. He was so kind in all the wonderful things he said about me. I know I can be really hard on myself and need to be kinder to me. Please keep praying for me, I feel your prayers.
    I get to meet Elder Smiths family as they are coming to pick up their son. It will be great. That would be fun to have my sister and parents pick me up. I found out July 8th is my date to fly home. President will fly home July 1st and so I will be with the new president for a week and then leave for home.
    I love my family. I love getting letters. Dad writes me every week and it was great to get a letter from Sara.  Thanks for all your support.  I really like getting letters that give me tips or ways I could improve. I would love to get stories of when you have felt the Spirit, or when you were converted. That builds me up and is so great to share with others in Korea.  I shared dads conversion story with Brother Wardle and it brought him to tears.  The Wardle family was my dads first influence of the church. I am so grateful for them and for the wonderful eternal family I am belong to.
I love Korea, I love the people, I love the food.
I love you all.
Elder Picard

Week 67 October 19, 2015 "My first baptism!"

       I had my first baptism, it was awesome. Sister Lee was so ready and baptizing her was such a cool experience. The spirit was so strong and it was an experience I will never forget. Now I look forward to continuing to help Sister Lee progress in the gospel towards going to the temple and beyond. I have yet to meet her husband but it would be really cool if we could start meeting with him and help him come unto the waters of baptism. It was just such a neat experience taking someone all the way from the beginning to receiving baptism which as we all know isn't the end. This is my last full week with Elder Smith and we already get transfer calls again Saturday!! Times flies when you are having fun serving the Lord. It is going to be super weird getting a new comp like always. I am pretty good at making friends but getting a new comp is a completely different story. Instead of becoming friends you have to become brothers since you are together 24/7 so it is significantly harder. Elder Smith will be the first comp I have taken to the death of his mission and it has been really weird. Just cause like he is going home and I haven't been home for a while so it is hard not to get trunky and stay focused sometimes but I am doing good so don't worry. His Dad is actually coming to pick him up and I may even meet him and Elder Knapp's Dad so that will be neat. Also Luke Wardle called this past week and we are going to meet this week so that will be cool meeting one of Dad's old friends. As of right now we have no investigators so it is back to the finding since our one investigator just got baptized. Finding is always the hardest part so wish me some luck and hopefully we can find some good potentials. We found a few decent potentials this past week so maybe we can pick them up in the near future. 

       Friday we had a Mission Tour and Elder Whiting from the Quorum of the 70 came. Man did he have some stuff to say. We straight up got spanked haha. Well not literally but a lot of vocal spankings. It was hard to take but we as a mission for sure needed it and I learned a lot from his training. Our mission most definitely is not disobedient what it came down to was the fact of us not getting many baptisms and how it was unacceptable. A while back Korea did really good with baptisms but missionaries lately have been to stuck on the fact that Korea is hard. So Elder Whiting said we need more faith and we also need to destroy all doubt. Like it says in the scriptures nothing is impossible with God and His only Begotten Son in the picture. I think since it is so hard to get baptisms here it is super easy to doubt and just accept having no baptisms. Don't get me wrong I am not saying I have never thought or said those things but now I know more of why I have to destroy all of that. I having been trying to work on my faith but man is it hard. I can do it though because like Elder Whiting said they only send the very best missionaries to Asia. I don't know how I could be considered that great but from here on out I am going to try and be and do the very best I can and not accept anything less than that!!!! 

Love, 

Elder Picard

Week 66 October 12, 2015 "I need to allow God to shape me into who He needs me to be"

The weather is starting to cool off so that has been super nice. We have to wear suits now all of the time so nights are nice but sometimes the sun comes out during the day and gets me hot:( haha. Man conference is always just so great. Especially when you get to watch it as a missionary it makes it that much more meaningful and better. I received a bunch of good tips now I just gotta make them apart of me and how I do missionary work. I can't just talk the talk now can I? No, I gotta walk the walk. This transfer keeps coming close to an end which means my comp, Elder Smith, goes home really soon and I get a new comp. I mostly like will finally go senior and have to give up my diapers haha. I like my diapers and being senior just seems like stress sometimes so if I don't go I will be fine with that. I started a goal to finish the New Testament and D&C in 70 days. Studying that has been really good and I just learn so much. We will see if I can stick with the goal because sometimes I gotta study other things and prepare for stuff.

      We have been proselyting a lot lately because that is really all we can do here haha. We went to Gangnam Daero and did some more stickerboarding (English Class advertising). We always talk to a ton of people but haven't managed to pick up a ton of new students :( Oh yeah and wow are some foreigners not nice people at all. Anytime I see a foreigner I ask them where they are from and I have received super rude responses telling me to leave them alone. I have managed to keep my head and not get frustrated but when they are so rude to you for asking a simple question it is hard. While we were in Gangnam proselyting a guy took a pic of my hairstyle and said it was cool. So maybe ill be famous? haha. I dont even remember how I did my hair but apparently it was cool. Sister Lee is doing great and we taught her two times this week. The second time we taught I was on an exchange with Elder Kim, our ZL, so it was super nice having 2 Koreans there to help teach. I didn't have to say too much just like simply testifying and stuff it was great. Being with Elder Kim for a day makes me really want a Korean companion. It was super nice because he is fluent in the language and was there to teach and correct me. He taught me so much Korean in just one day of an exchange and really helped me want to speak Korean. I guess I just have to be really obedient, pray, and maybe if it is what I need I will get a Korean companion at some point (knock on wood) haha. 

        We met this lady who is in her late 20s that has a lot of questions about our church so we may be able to pick her up as an investigator. We met her while eating with Femme, our recent convert, she was sitting at the table next two us and asked while we were eating if we were Mormon. We of course said yes and then she said that she really likes NuSkin from Utah haha. She turned out to actually have a lot of good questions and maybe even some potential. We planned to meet again this week so we will see what happens. Elder Smith and I went and played basketballFriday night at the place with all the courts. We have tried just about every method to find so we thought we would give basketball a try. We actually were able to talk to a ton of people and it was really good. So many people over there spoke English and were Koreans that lived in America so that was cool. We are going to start going over there every Friday for a bit to ball and make the missionaries known over there. 

         Well I will end on a few things I learned from conference. If I said everything I learned it would take forever and I dont have enough time. I really liked President Uchtdorf's talk he gave in the Priesthood Session. I had a really cool spiritual experience because of what he spoke about. As you all know my name is Daniel so when he starts talking about Daniel the prophet it was really cool. Since my name is Daniel, I like Daniel the prophet should be a believer and be able to live under peer pressure. Daniel the prophet was the man and had so much faith in Heavenly Father and never gave up. I just gotta believe like Daniel and not doubt. Along with that belief I need to allow God to shape me into who He needs me to be. I will do this by forgetting myself and realizing this mission, my life, everything, is the Lord's. It will be hard but I want to be a pretty pot so I gotta stay on the wheel and let the Master Potter shape me!

Love, 

Elder Daniel Jackson Picard 

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