Elder Daniel Jackson Picard : Week 41 April 20, 2015 "I'm a missionary, not a golfer"

Only 7 more days and I turn 20.... that's weird. I guess I just have to say goodbye to my teenage years and be a BIG boy now. My week was pretty good and all. Last Pday we went and played screen golf and man do I stink at golf. We still had a lot of fun and instead of seeing who could get the least points it turned into a game with the score of a basketball game. So yeah if you ever want to destroy someone at golf, after my mission just call me up. One of the Elders even broke a club so that just proves how bad all of us were. This past week I did I pretty good job at getting up on time and working out so that was good. I managed to get up every morning but one and run to the gym and lift. Having a free gym is awesome but in order to go we have to wake up 30 min early so sometimes it is hard to roll out of bed. Our investigator who owns the gym is Mr. Kim and we are doing the 30/30 program with him and his daughter. We met him this week and taught him a bit but are still trying to figure out how to better teach. He sometimes is busy so it just turns into us teaching Lucy English. So we just gotta find a way to get him to find time to let us teach him.

We had District meeting this week and it was on how we can see the Lord's hand more in our missionary work. Then when we see His hand in our work that we need to thank him and always be expressing gratitude to Him for all He does. The training came down to relying on 3 things: asking, seeking, and knocking. God truly does know all of us individually and will help us. It is our job to do the majority of the work. When we put forth effort, then God will bless us because He sees us working our best to achieve the blessings. Don't get me wrong doing all of these things is HARD. Sometimes our human gets the best of us and we just have no desire to put forth work. I don't know if I am making any sense but I hope you get what I mean. In PMG I read that the key to missionary work is to work, work, and work some more. I believe that is true in life too. We won't just be blessed or receive anything good without working for it. Also another thing I read in PMG that really hit me this week is that I need to keep working even when I am tired. I literally am tired all of the time so man has that been difficult. As we work when we are tired we are just showing God our diligence. I am going to try and work on that so that by the end of this mission I can come close to mastering this diligence thing.

My best buddy Tom hurt his ankle in a game so we weren't able to ball with him this week so that was a bummer. We had our service project again this week at the old people place washing dishes and that was fun. After that we met a PI named Dave who is a Korean Australian who spoke English way good. We met him for lunch and then got smoothies. We weren't able to teach much but we for sure I think built a pretty good relationship with him in just one visit. He said that he used to be religious and came to believe God a while ago. We asked him how he came to believe God but he said it was a long story and was pretty iffy on sharing it with us. He was a way nice guy and sure hope we can get him to open up soon so we can do our best to help him. At the old people place they always have a bunch of old ladies playing drums and singing so this time I decided to ask to see if I could join. It reminded my a lot of a Pow Wow and Dad singing and playing the drums. It was way cool and just made me realize that when I get home I need to start searching my roots and performing at Pow Wows. I danced at Pow Wows when I was a little guy so it can't be too hard trying to get the dancing Native out of me again. I also want to learn how to play the drums and sing like a "true" Native. So Dad you might wanna start getting ready to train me in those arts when I get home.

It was my last Sunday in the old Siheung building and our last meeting as just the Siheung ward because next week we combine and move to the huge new building. I am pretty stoked about the new building and can't wait to play basketball even more than I already do haha. Koreans are all about big churches so I am excited to see what comes out of having a huge building. Our ward had a party on Saturday for our last hoorah together. We had a BBQ outside the church and it was way fun. We ate a bunch of tasty meat and had a good time. The thing I want to end on is something I learned during Personal Study. I read a line in PMG that went a little something like this "I need to be a Christlike missionary instead of just doing missionary things." That really made me think and I realized how often I can just fall into doing the motions. I am going to strive this next week and the rest of my mission to become that Christlike missionary. I know that as we step out of just doing the motions that is when God will start pouring blessings upon us. I love you all so much.

Love and Prayers,

Elder Daniel Jackson Picard