Week 87, February 29, 2016 "Time flies when you are having fun and serving the Lord!"

     New transfer brings a new companion I guess. I am stoked though. I actually told my new companion when we served in Seoul South Zone together that we would be comps at one point. I am a lot better at guessing than I thought I was. My new companion's name is Elder Sabey and I think he is in his 4th transfer so he is a young buck and will make me feel like an old fart only having 3 transfers left and all! Yeah you didn't read that wrong. I really do only have 3 transfers left which is crazy! I have said this too many times but man is it true; time flies when you are having fun and serving the Lord. I love Korea so much and am continuing to learn so much here. I am so glad I came out on a mission and do not regret it one bit. Sure it has been hard but man is it worth it! I never thought I could learn so much in just 2 years time. I will be staying in Pyeongtaek and will also be the new District Leader so that should be fun. I will probably be in Pyeongtaek until I die so this is the last ward I will be able to get tight with. All 3 of the wards I work with here are awesome. The Korean ward has a few American men that served in Korea that got married to Korean women so there are a bunch of mixed blood kids in our ward that speak both Korean and English. Abby and Ola are doing great and are still on date to get baptized on March 13th. Yeah overall my week was a great one! 

        The message we shared a lot this week was on loving others as ourselves. This is a very hard thing to do but man is it a really important thing to do. We are supposed to love our God with all the energy of our soul which seems to be the easy part. The real test is loving others as ourselves because when we do so we are actually truly showing God that we love Him by loving all of His children. Don't get me wrong sometimes it is hard to love people, especially ones who may not like you but that is no excuse. We are required to love all men. Not wanting to love is a desire that Satan puts in our hearts. It is when we don't want to love, when we are angry, frustrated, and so forth it is then that we are in Satan's grasp. Trying to justify by saying things like "It's just me, this is who I am and I can't change. etc" is wrong because that isn't true. Actually we are naturally born sons and daughters of God, born to have joy. How are we supposed to be happy and have joy if we aren't loving others and being happy?  Real joy comes from loving, being happy, and remembering where we come from and how we are children of God. I have came to know this more on my mission and continue to learn more of it each and every day. I still am not perfect at loving but I am trying which is the important thing. So let's all keep trying to love more and more each day. 

Love, 

Elder Picard

Week 86, February 22, 2016 "We will never be perfect but that shouldn't stop you from trying to reach perfection"

Myldsmail.net was having some problems last week so sorry if you didn't get my email. The scariest thing is my Mom may kill me now because she had to go one week without an email from me. I will try and continue to send a good email every week till I come home but if I don't, cut me some slack please :) I can type decently fast but it is still really hard to send out a long email with the time limit we are given. Also another hard thing to do is make sure that I actually make sense because I can't really express my feelings and thoughts well in English. Not saying that I do it perfectly in Korean either just with two languages in my head I feel like I don't make sense a lot. So hopefully my Mom reads these emails and edits them before see puts them on my blog or I will sound like a dummy that can't speak English. 

     This week was great. We didn't have pday on Monday because of Temple Day. So last Monday we went to go play basketball with Christian's step son, John, but when we got to the base gym there was a big wrestling match going on. I saw a bunch of high school kids and it was very interesting watching high schoolers from a non highschooler point of view. Let me tell you man are some high school kids cocky, dumb, weird, etc. That is life for you I guess you just have to love everyone no matter what. I was probably the cocky and dumb highschooler so it was kind of fun to look back and just laugh at the past. It is situations like that where I realize how much I have changed and all. Everytime I hear rap music that swears every 4 words on the street I am like wow I don't think I knew it said that when I listened to it in highschool. Life is awesome! I love life because it is a growing process. We will never be perfect but that shouldn't stop you from trying to reach perfection. Jesus Christ reached perfection and he expects all of us each and everyday to try for perfection. Even if we never get close, as long as we try our very hardest I feel everything will be alright and Christ will make up for our imperfections in the end. We may not be able to be perfect in this life but the thought of being perfect in the next life should push us each and every day to do our very best. 

      We taught Abby and her husband Ola last night and wow was that such a spiritual lesson. We taught with the Brooke's Family and they did awesome helping us teach. Ola came first and ate dinner with us and then Abby joined us later on. Sister Brookes never served a mission but man was she a good teacher. She was able to connect with Abby really well. Maybe because she was a convert she could relate more than we could. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and at the end of the lesson challenged Ola to get baptized on March 13th with Abby. And guess what? He accepted!! So now we have 2 baptismal dates!! We had to go pick up Abby so while we were gone Sister Brookes caught up Ola on the first two lessons. Abby also taught Ola like every time after we met her. Since Ola works a ton and his job is like 4 hours away we have only seen him a few times. They both came to church yesterday and loved it. We are meeting Abby again tonight and I can't wait because Abby is awesome!! I have a testimony that the Lord prepares people to teach. I know that He prepared Abby and Ola and I know that there are many more people all around the world that He has prepared. Talk with everyone!! Everyone needs the gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the answer to all questions. Some people don't know that though so it is our job to teach them. Who knew that simply complimenting a man's shoes on the bus would lead to him and his wife committed to getting baptized 2 months later!!

Love, 

Elder Picard

Week 85 February 15, 2016 "Don't worry, be happy"

     Happy Birthday Elizabeth!!! I can't believe you are a teenager. You are still my baby sister but you aren't so much of a baby anymore :( I guess it is okay though because you are great and have been doing so awesome. I mean when I was your age the last thing I was thinking about was going to 13 temples before my 13th birthday! Way to be sis :) I didn't even realize yesterday was Valentines Day till about half way through the day. Days just all blend together and sometimes you don't even realize it is Sunday until you are sitting in church. I hope you all had a great Valentines Day and ate lots of yummy goodies. Also Happy Birthday Grandpa Rod!! I don't know if Grandpa will read this so please let him know that I say Happy Birthday. I sent Elizabeth a picture through a members phone on Facebook so I hope she got that. There should also be something in the mail for her too. Have you gotten anything yet? If not it should be there soon. This past week was great! Abby, our Nigerian investigator, is getting baptized on March 13! We also now thanks to Abby for giving us two referrals have 2 investigators from Cameroon who even came to church yesterday! Right now we have 5 foreign investigators but no Koreans yet :( We are trying to find Koreans and have a lot of potentials now we just gotta get them to become investigators. I would say we are doing pretty good here and I am pretty stoked Abby is getting baptized! If only her husband wasn't so busy and didnt work so far away we could teach him too. 

      Like I said in my recording this week it was Solar last week which is a pretty big Korean holiday. We had a Solar Conference and since Elder Ely, one of my previous comps, is going home he did his farewell talk. The message I want to share is something he said  that I really liked. He said that "We are all supposed to be lights on the hill and we can't be those lights if we are sad." He emphasized on how important it is to be happy all of the time. I agree 100% you can't do anything if you are sad. You being sad will just make others sad. The sad I mean is out of anger, frustration, anxiety, etc. Obviously not the sad if someone dies but the other kind of sad. A more easy way to say it is just don't be unhappy. Like everyone says "A smile is contagious and a sad face is too." That is why we just gotta be happy. Especially as a missionary I have learned that being happy is way better and you work a lot more effectively. Obviously I am still working on being an optimist and always having a smile on my face just as you all probably all. So lets all just try and be happy. Doing so will make nonmembers wonder how us Mormons are so happy all of the time. Which then opens the door to share the gospel and help in changing lives!

Love, 

Elder Picard

Week 84 February 8, 2016 "My first week of February 2016 was a great one!"

     My first week of February 2016 was a great one! The Elders in my house have been telling that I can't tell you guys everything that happens because if I do I wont have any stories to tell when I get home. They have a good point so my recordings and emails will be a little shorter. I for sure will mention miracles and other cool things in my recording but some things will just have to be left a surprise I can tell you in 5 months:) On Saturday we went to this cultural exchange on the base and it turned out to be super good. We didn't proselyte much about the church because that is illegal on base but we found a bunch of families that were interested in doing the family English program. With Solar being this week it will be hard to meet them but we for sure will meet them next week. The work is going really well here in Pyeongtaek. Abby and Simon are doing great. We are going to try and put both of them on date this week. I think for sure Abby will accept because she seems so ready but I think our other investigator, Simon, might take a little more time. I am doing great and Elder Andersen and I get along well so that is always a good thing. It is nice when you and your comp have no problems. All of you reading this that have served missions probably understand what I am saying haha. I am excited for a new week, especially with Solar it should be extra fun this week. 

      I was reading today in Isaiah 53 and I had a ton of things stick out to me about the Atonement. I think if you all read Isaiah 53 you would be able to say the exact same thing (also take a look at Mosiah 14). Every time I find a cross reference from the Book of Mormon to the Bible it reassures me that the Book of Mormon is true. Half the time I can't understand what it says in the Bible but then when I look at the cross reference in the Book of Mormon it is always a lot easier to understand. I know the Book of Mormon is true and I know it supports the Bible and helps fulfill the truths the Bible doesn't cover fully. I also know that Jesus Christ gave His soul so that we can be forgiven of our sins and live with Him again. This is such a big blessing. I am so grateful for all Jesus Christ has done for me and for all the hard times I have been given throughout my life that have helped me grow.

Love, 

Elder Picard

P.S. Happy early Birthday Elizabeth!!!!!