Week 51 June 29, 2015 "Hump week, gotta make this last year count"

  My weekly emails probably are going to start getting a little shorter..sorry :( I just don't have too much time and need to do better at getting done with email on time. I sent a surprise bday card to Dad so don't tell him ;) I haven't sent home the package yet because I buying some presents for all of my lovely family to send in it. I am going to get my camera looked at today so hopefully they can fix it, if not I will send it home as fast as I can so that you can send it in Mom. The weather here in Korea is just getting harder and harder to handle. Humidity stinks!! I am not such a huge fan of the heat but I am going to have to figure out how to deal with it. So that I can push on and be a happy missionary boy instead of being an overheated angry one haha. 

       Last Pday we went to this huge underground shopping center and we all got custom rings. Of course the ring I got says "Catch Me I'm Ballin" because that is my motto and I know all of my family would appreciate that haha. I will send a pic of it, it is pretty sweet. I got my name in Korean on it too so that makes it that much cooler. I had a lot of really good personal studies this week so that was good. On Monday I learned that any increase in knowledge of the Atonement brings us closer to Christ. The human mind can't fully understand the Atonement because it is just too infinite but increases our knowledge in it is always good. Also there are some people that question the Plan of Salvation and whether or not it is a perfect plan and complete. I can testify that it is because I learned this week that the Plan of Salvation is constantly underway NOT constantly under construction. God knows all so we have nothing to worry about. 걱정하지마세요! One day this week I was riding the bus and I saw this lady looking on her phone at mormon.org and other sites about our church. Of course when that happens you get a little excited and have to talk to the person so I did. I leaned over and asked if she had a question. She said that she wanted to learn English so I gave her all of the English class information. Then a few days later I saw that same lady on the bus and there was a seat open next to her so I sat down and had a really good talk with her. We talked about English again and I was even able to bring up gospel and she asked when church was. She didn't end up coming to church but man was that a cool miracle. 

         My DL's name is Elder Dewey and he goes home after this transfer so it is fun and really helpful to take a few minutes every now and then to ask about his mission and get some advice. It definitely has helped me a lot. The mission is a struggle sometimes and it is nice to have an experienced missionary to talk it out with. This week we were talking about something and he said a mission in a way could kind of be our Gethsemane. Obviously not in a sacrilegious manner because none of us will ever suffer as much as Christ did but in a manner so I could understand. It really hit me hard because he was right this 2 years may be the hardest 2 years of my life and the time where I learn and progress the most. The only difference for me is that I have the most extraordinary being helping me along in my journey every second of every day. That person obviously being Christ. The way He can do this and help me out is because He knows what it feels like to be forgotten, to suffer, and to go through afflictions. I read this really good talk this week that Elder Huffman gave me and it compared all of a missionaries struggles to what Christ had to deal with. One of them being who cares I sweat and that it is hot, Jesus sweat blood from every pore! People reject my message and don't want to listen, Jesus was betrayed by one of His best friends! My back could hurt from carrying my bag all day, He bore a cross on His back! The talk continued to go on and man did it hit me hard. This mission and my struggles are nothing compared to that. So pretty much I gotta stop complaining and think of Christ and what He had to go through when I am going through tough times. 

           We taught the Law of Chastity to our investigator this week and man is that one always a bit awkward to teach... haha. He took it pretty good but couldn't stop laughing while we were teaching. We have a really good relationship so we both started laughing a few times. At the very beginning he said "Too late" and "I already lost it." We tried to keep it as serious as possible and were able to bring it back together at the end. We played ball Saturday night with some kids and I did some Harlem Globetrotters dribbling/crazy basketball and they loved it. I even dunked it off Elder Huffman's back during the game! I felt black for a second, it was awesome! After we were done playing we told them we were missionaries and why we were here. They said they wanted to play again sometime so we gave them our number. Well yep that was my week. I know I still got a lot to improve on and that I am not perfect but lucky for me I have Jesus Christ on my team and we can do this together!!! 

Love, 

Elder Picard 

My cool new ring I had made. This is my name in Korean.