Week 58 August 17, 2015 Man I am spoiled here in Korea. My life is too good :)

      I have my fingers crossed that summer is almost over because this humidity is killing me haha. I will never ever move so where it is humid that is for sure. It rained quite a bit this week so that was nice. Whenever it rains here you never know it just kind of comes and starts raining at the most random times. Seems like it always starts raining when I don't have an umbrella too but its alright because I like that rain. Last pday deep cleaning our house was fun but man was it nasty. Some missionaries just dont know how to clean whatsoever haha. Our walls pretty much are all stained but we couldn't do much about that because our house is just stinkin old. It looks a lot better now and it is nice living in a cleaner house. That night after cleaning we went to one of our member's restaurants called Yoyoma's Kitchen and it was super tasty. We got steak and pasta so that was a super nice why to finish off a stinky day of cleaning. 

       Recently in our mission we have been emphasizing the importance of the Book of Mormon and how we need to use it all the time when we proselyte. So at our zone training this week we talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and how to better our proselyting. The Book of Mormon is just awesome and since sometimes you can forget the true power of it you gotta always be studying it. Of course I use it while I proselyte but it can be easy to get side tracked and not be bold while I proselyte because I am scared of how people will react so I just resort to saying we teach free English. I am going to really try and use the Book of Mormon from here on out in all of my conversations because I need to. Our church is blessed to have the Book of Mormon and I need to always be sharing those blessings I have received with others. We weekly planned at one of our tabs so I think we will make that a tradition from here on out because they have air conditioning and it is a lot better planning there then at our hot house. 

        This week my comp and I were blessed with a super cool service opportunity. We were coming home and in one of the subways we stopped at we saw these 2 guys that looked to be deaf and in their 20s who were struggling to carry their bikes down the stairs so we helped them. My comp learned a bit of Korean sign language in his last area so that really helped. Luckily one of the guys could hear and speak a bit but we still had to write down a bunch of stuff on a paper in order to communicate. While we helped them get on the train one of them didn't get on somehow and disappeared. The one that didn't get on was completely deaf so it was incredibly hard to find him. We got off at the next stop and went back to the previous stop to see if he was there but he wasn't. The one we were with had a phone but it died so he used ours to txt his friend. After a while of carrying his bike, running all over the place, and even going into the other mission we finally found his friend. I will probably never forget that experience because man I was blessed to have received it. 

         We played soccer and basketball with the Young Men's and the YM's leaders this week so that was really fun. After playing we had Korean breakfast food for lunch so that was really weird and I will probably never do that again haha. I still need American breakfast foods in the morning haha. An English class member named Yeong took us out to eat this week. We went to Subway for my first time in Korean and man do I miss Subway, it was so good!!! He was still hungry afterwards so then he took us to a Brazilian grill and we got steak! Man I am spoiled here in Korea. My life is too good :) haha. Yesterday some lady at church said my forehead was wrinkly so that was kind of weird to hear. Korean people are just a lot more blunt than Americans so I just kind of took it haha. I like my forehead so its whatever if it is wrinkly. Last night while walking to our dinner appointment we got soaked because we gave away our umbrellas to people that needed them more than we did. When we got to the members house we were drenched head to toe and they just kind of looked at us like huh? haha. The wife of the family we met last night made tacos! They were so good. She made like a taco bar and there was even guacamole. She just looked online and gave some Mexican recipes a shot. I was in heaven. I love tacos!!! The members gave us umbrellas to take home but we ended up giving those out too so we were just wet yesterday. 

          Well today I want to end on this quote I found that is super good. "If you ever need a helping hand, look at the end of your arm." When I read this I just kind of laughed to myself because usually I dont look at the end of my arm. I will now try my best to look at the end of my arm. I know from experience that service brings blessings and that when we serve God is happy. So lets just go out and serve somebody I need this week!!! 

Love, 

Elder Picard

Week 57 August 10, 2015 "God guides us, His children, with that still small voice"

     So maybe I didn't invent it but this week I made a sandwich that is sooooo yummy! So this nummy sandwich is a peanut butter, jelly, and banana sandwich. So good!!! You all for sure need to try it sometime. Well this past week involved a lot of packing and moving all my heavy luggage. I said a lot of goodbyes to my last ward and will for sure miss them because they are great. We met Will and BJ at the airport for dinner. Will is Korean and BJ is American they were really cool members that always hooked us up with food and stuff. Anyways being out at the airport was super crazy. The last time I was there was about a year ago and my mind was all over the place because I recognized everything. My new area is awesome. I love it here, Seocho is great!! 

      My new comp is Elder Smith and he is from Arizona. He goes home in two transfers so he will probably be the first comp I kill. By kill I mean like I will be he last comp before he goes home. My new house is alright. It is kind of old but it is okay. The whole mission will be cleaning their houses today because missionaries don't know how to clean and a lot of the houses are trashed. I am pretty excited to clean so that I don't have to live in a mess anymore. I will be cleaning all day today so that should be pretty fun. This area is literally right next to Gangnam so I have already walked on a lot of the streets in this area. So I am pretty much already familiar with it. Our church building is up on top of a pretty decently big hill so that stinks but after all it is exercise I need haha. My district leader in my last area Elder Dewey went home this past week and I just wanted to give him a shout out and just say that he is the best district leader I have ever had. He taught me so much and I will miss him. He was such a good missionary and I will continue to look up to him. He truly was always so happy and loved being a missionary. I hope by the end of my mission I will develop the attitude he had and become a solid consecrated missionary like he was. 

      My new area of course since it is right next to Gangnam is super rich maybe even richer than Gangnam! We have two tabs here. We have a member in our ward who pays for us to eat at these 2 restaurants once a week. We just go and after we are done eating we sign our name and then the member comes and pays for it later. It is so awesome!! I for sure am so grateful because man it is nice to eat out for free. We went and proselyted on Gangnam Daero this past week and that was super weird. Gangnam Daero is the road I would tract on all the time back in Gangnam and since Seocho is right next to Gangnam that road is our area too! This time tracting there I wasn't a greenie so it was super weird. I love that road you can talk to so many people it is great! We went into a bookstore called Kyobo and while we were in there I was talking to this guy and I saw this thing out of the corner of my eyes. At first I thought it was a dog but turns out it was a squirrel!! I saw a squirrel. Then it started running all over the store and everyone was freaking out trying to catch it. Some of the workers finally caught it but it was super funny and way weird to experience that. 

       Yesterday at church we had a baptism. My comp Elder Smith baptized her. Her name is Femme and she is just the sweetest lady you'd ever meet. She has met with the missionaries for a while and finally got baptized so it was super cool. She has such a strong testimony it is incredible. The first time I met her was this past week right before her baptism and I just got the warmest feeling of the Spirit being around her. Her testimony may even be stronger than some of our members haha. She is awesome!! I had to introduce myself in sacrament meeting and my talk went really well. A lot of the ward came up and talked to me after sacrament meeting like we were already best friends. I don't know what I did but this ward I think already loves me. I just gotta keep working hard and not disappoint them. A guy even came up after sacrament meeting wanting to give me a referral, that never happens! Pres and Sister Morrise came to our ward yesterday. After President heard me speak Korean he was amazed and said next time I say I am not good he will just be like ah shut up haha. Now that I think about it I have progressed a lot and am doing really well with the language. I just gotta speak because yesterday speaking with everyone at church I proved to myself that I can do it. 

         Well anyways I will end with something I read this morning in a book by Henry B. Eyring called "Draw Closer to God." I was reading about the Spirit and how it communicates with us and the way it does is with a still small voice. A lot of times nowadays we and I myself are too loud or too focused on things of this world to hear the Spirit. The Spirit will not yell but instead whispers so we really gotta listen. Then when we hear we got to act on promptings. The more we act on promptings the more the Spirit will prompt us. If we don't act on promptings why would the Spirit want to keep prompting us? I am going to try really hard to from here on out do the best I can to listen to the Spirit and to act on all promptings. God guides us, His children, with that still small voice. So we gotta listen to it. I know Christ lives and I know God hears all of His children's prayers and I know He WILL answer them in their due time. 

Love, 

Elder Picard

Week 56 August 3, 2015 "Have faith and let him help you push on and become superb!!!!"

      This Lamanite is headed back to Seoul to live the city life again. Woo hoo!!! We got transfer calls and I will be going to Seocho and my new companion will be Elder Smith. The crazy thing is I am going to the area right next to Gangnam where I was last year at this same time. So I will be riding a lot of the same subways even walking some of the same streets the only difference is this time I am not a greenie!!! I was super excited when I heard I was going to Seocho. Seocho is the second richest area behind Gangnam and ever since I served in Gangnam I called that I would serve in Seocho to because I knew I was met to live the city rich missionary boy life haha. When we got transfer calls yesterday morning I started dancing around because I was so happy :) I even met some investigators and potentials when I was in Gangnam in Seocho so now I will be able to go back and try and meet those people again! Seoul has so much people to talk to and it's the best so I am stoked to go back. Incheon is alright but I for sure like Seoul more. My new comp will go home in 2 transfers so I may end up being in Seocho for a long time which would not bother me at all! I it crazy to think during this next transfer I will hit my year mark in country. I am just becoming an old missionary by the second haha. I guess I just gotta buckle down and do the very best I can because it is show time now. 

      Our English class coordinator took us to the Pizza Hut buffet last pday and it was so good. I guess accept for the fact he knew I could eat a lot so he made me keep eating until I physically couldn't anymore haha. The way it worked was they walk around with the pizzas and you have a sign that you turn to either say you are full or you can still eat more. Every time the lady came around with the pizza the English coordinator, Bro June, always made sure my plate had pizza on it haha. I am not kidding I probably eat like 2 maybe 2 and a half full pizzas... I was stuffed. I just enjoy impressing people with my food eating skills too much and it doesn't help when they wont let me stop eating haha. Elder Dewey goes home this week and he gave a really good last district meeting last week. Everyone in the district picked there favorite hymn, we sang them, and then the person who picked that hymn bore their testimony on it. It was a really spiritual meeting and super cool. I couldn't decide what hymn to narrow it down to so I just bore my testimony on a few of them. 

       Since I have been so exhausted and tired lately I went to the hospital to get a blood test and see if anything was wrong with me. I found out that my iron count is pretty low but not low enough to get prescribed medicine for it. The doctor just said I need to tell my boss I need more sleep and that I work too hard. I guess I will just have to suck it up and fight through being tired. Just being a missionary beats you up and by the time you lay down for bed at night you are out. I met an old guy on the bus who called me like 10 min after I got off the bus saying he wanted to buy me food because I was a cool guy. Definitely a miracle but the sad thing is I am leaving so I won't be able to meet him again. I had to give my last words to the ward during Sacrament meeting at church yesterday since I am leaving and that went alright. I swear it seems like everytime I get up in front of a ward to speak my Korean disappears and I dont know what to say haha. I manage to get some words out so that was good. I will miss this ward they are awesome and help with missionary work so much!! Last night we had a fireside and all the missionaries sang at it. Our ward's missionaries did a song and I sang a duet with the Korean Elder in our ward who also goes home this week. It was a lot more scarier than I thought getting up in front of a stake to sing... while I was singing my leg wouldn't stop shaking. Doing anything in front of Koreans makes me way more nervous than usual haha. People said I did good singing so that was nice to hear I didn't blow anyone's ear drums. 

       Well I have learned a lot these past two transfers and am thankful to have learned so much. Elder Ely and I had some hard times but it was good because I learned a lot from those times. One thing I have come to realize is that not just on mission but in life we are given hard times for a reason. Everything is for some sort of reason. It may stink in the moment and you may wonder why in the world is this happening to me but I can assure you that things happen for a reason. If this life were just fun and games we would never learn anything and wouldn't be able to become the people we were sent here to become. We are in the refiners fire during this life but we have no need to worry. The reason why is because the Lord knows what we need to improve and He give us just that. He loves us so much and can see our potential so that is why He pushes us. Have faith and let him help you push on and become superb!!!! 

Love, 

Elder Picard

Week 55 July 27, 2015 "Be faithful and diligent in keeping the commandments of God, and I will encircle thee in the arms of my love."

  Another transfer is yet almost underway we get transfer calls Saturday and then will transfer Wednesday if I do. I am not sure what will happen because we have 3 missionaries already going home in our ward so I don't know how much more will change. I think I most likely will get a new comp because I have been with Elder Ely for 2 but I could also just stay with Elder Huffman because I have only been his comp for 1. The weather was pretty rainy this week with a breeze here and there so it was nice to get a break from the heat. Although it is impossible to escape the humidity even when it is raining I can manage to get a break from the heat produced by the sun :) I pretty much just sweat all of the time and am almost used to it so that's good. I hope all you guys had a crazy fun pioneer day in Utah because they didn't even mention it here haha. 

      We didn't have pday on Monday because we got to go to the temple on Thursday but with all the appointments we had Monday was pretty much still a pday. We went and helped a lady in the ward move a super heavy old school piano and a bunch of other stuff. They were throwing out some cabinets and her sons wanted to go outside and smash them all up so we went out and helped them. We then proceeded to see who could throw the cabinet the farthest which may or may not of made a lot of noise... We were under the impression that what we were doing was okay because the lady in our ward said we could but then the apartment guard guy came out and started having a fit because we were being loud. We apologized, cleaned up our mess, and went back inside. I guess you can't have as much fun destroying stuff and being loud in Korea as you can in America. The lady in our ward made us lunch and it was super tasty. They had a pull up bar in their house and I got on it thinking it was strong enough but right around the 5th pull up I broke and I fell on my bum. The whole family and my comps had a good laugh so it was worth it I guess. Later that night as we were traveling to our next appointment I met this really cool guy who works in China and knows some Mormons there so we were able to have a really good talk. I am not sure if I will able to meet him again since he works in China but oh well I did what I could. We had ribs for dinner at Brother Lee's house and they were super tasty. His wife made them in this big pot roast kind of thing which made it really good. 

       We had Zone conference this week and this guy named PJ Rogers came and talked to us. He was awesome! He served in Korea many years ago and gave us a bunch of really good pointers. He taught us culture, how to learn Korean better, how to build better relations with members, and more stuff like that. I learned a ton and lucky for me I have a little under a year to go apply all that I learned. Some of the relief society from one of the wards made us lunch and it was bomb. I went up to get 2nds and man is that not a good idea when there is a bunch of Korean ladies by the food because you go back to your table with way more than you expected haha. I met another really cool guy at a grocery store called Homeplus and had a really good talk with him about families. I got his business card and will have to follow up and see if we can start meeting him. 

        After the temple this week I went with Elder Dewey and Elder Corona to a buffet in Yeong Deung Po because my comps were going to Gangnam and I couldn't go back because I would of got way too trunky. Man did our day turn out to be not what I expected... I ended up having to jump into a fight and protect this little old lady from some crazy drunk old guy. We also met this super cool lady who wanted to take us out to eat then and there but we had already ate. She also said anytime I am back in that area to call and that she would buy me food haha. She really wanted to get us something so we said that we could drink smoothies but it was raining outside and she had to go. As she was leaving she pulled 30 bucks out of her purse and insisted on giving it to us. We said we couldn't take it but she just threw it at us and ran off. Good thing we got her number so that we can contact her and give her money back. We helped at an English School this weekend that was hosting a summer camp. We have a LA in our ward that works there and said they needed help so of course we said yeah we will help. It was way funny since it was an English School you couldn't speak Korean all of the kids had to speak English to me. If any of them spoke Korean they would all point fingers and say teacher he or she spoke Korean haha. We got put on teams with kids and one of the other teachers and my team was the Cool Kids. We ended up winning! We got the most points after all the games and just destroyed everyone else. After the camp on Saturday we went out with James and all the teachers to lunch and ate a lot of meat! James' mom loved us all so she offered all us a job and told us to come back after our missions haha. She also said to stop by her school anytime and she would buy us food. People just love to give us food, it's great!!! :) 

        I started reading this book called "The Infinite Atonement" by Tad R. Callister and man is it an amazing book! I usually hate books but definitely not this one. I was reading about why Christ will be the gatekeeper of Heaven and why He doesn't assign someone else to do it. The obvious reason is because He loves each and every one of us so much and wants to be the one to welcome us in to His presence. Reading this just reassured me, Christ is there and we can experience the blessing of being encircled in His arms of love by doing just this, "Be faithful and diligent in keeping the commandments of God, and I will encircle thee in the arms of my love." (D&C 6:20)

Love, 

Elder Picard

P.S. Go read The Infinite Atonement. The book is amazing!!!

My team "The Cool Kids" at the camp! 

My boy Harry who was one of the teachers at the English Academy 

Week 54 July 20, 2015 "Watermelon!"

     Well overall this past week was a good one. We started off the week last pday by going down to Pyeongtek to visit one of Elder Huffman's friends that just got baptized. She was super cool and spoke English way good. She was probably in her 40s and actually has American citizenship but is Korean haha. We went to this way good meat buffet down there right by the US military base and straight pounded food. With the 5 missionaries we probably ate like 3 whole watermelons and that is not even counting the meat haha. It was so weird being down there I literally felt like I was in America! So many foreigners. After living around Koreans for a year whenever I see foreigners it is like "what the? where did you come from" you know the you don't belong here kind of thing. I bought this fake Lebron jersey for 5 bucks that actually looks pretty authentic. Koreans are smart they put a bunch of fake sports merchandise stores right next to an American Army base and probably make bank haha. I will for sure go back and get a few more before I go home because some of them are pretty sweet. I can also custom make them so I might get one with my name in Korean on the back.

 

        We also started this new English Class and it is doing pretty well. The ward is continuing to help us out and come out to class so that is awesome. We have been handing out business cards for the class like crazy so that it can continue to grow with new students. We went on splits with the Elder's Quorum and that was a really good experience. We visited a LA and on the spot I came up with something to teach because we didn't think she was actually gonna be there. Turns out what I chose was just what she needed to hear. I shared a message on prayer and she shared with us her really sweet testimony on prayer and how much it helps her family. She is one of those LAs that reads her scriptures and prays everyday but yet only every now and then comes out to church. Kind of unique but I just hope we can continue to help her out. That night we were doing splits my comp lost our phone on the bus haha. Lucky a kid found it and took it to a 7-11 right by our house. Since I am in a 3 some right now we had to go to a members house to pick up Elder Huffman who was with another member. We ended up being home way late that night but were blessed with a service opportunity. At that members appartment complex there is this LA family who was moving a bunch of books from their house to their car. There was only a few people there helping so we were able to jump in and help. The member Hwang Jae Shik gave us a ride home and even bought us ice cream and a watermelon on the way home! Maybe we should be late more often? ;) haha. We didn't get home till 11...

 

          This week we are going to help a LA active member with her English Academy and help at this party thing so it should be pretty fun. We met her this week with 2 of her coworkers and they took us out to eat. We ate at a meat house and they ordered so much haha. We didn't know that we were going to eat with them so we ate before we went too... Both of her coworkers spoke English super good and were way cool. Dinner was awesome because we could speak English, crack jokes, and have a good time. I played baseball with some kids when we were out tracting and that was pretty fun. They were all super funny. For some reason Korean little kids just love to hate on each other. So while I was planning baseball with them they were just teasing each other. Like when one was batting the other was saying oh he cant bat he is terrible at baseball. You know stuff like that. I told them I was a misisonary and talked about church a bit too. Then as we were leaving we gave them all English class cards and told them to come. I had a lot of really cool missionary experiences this past week but don't have enough time to explain them all. I wil explain one though. So one day when we were out tracting we past this huge protest against our church and we just smiled trying to look as happy as possible ha. Sure enough they saw us but didn't approach us. I saw this guy kind of standing off in the distance watching the crowd and felt impressed to go up and talk to him so I did. Turns out the dude spoke pretty good English and was confused while all those people were being so mean because he said in the Bible it says we should love everyone. We then were able to talk a bit about our church and give him our name card. Hopefully he calls. He was kind of in a hurry so we only had a litlte bit of time to talk with him.

 

             One of our investigators, Bae Seong Ho, came out to church so that was awesome. The teacher of gospel principles, Kim Nam Hyeon, did a great job teaching the class so the spirit was way strong. Well I have been studying a lot recently out of the religion course books they use in college and man are they great! I have learned so much. To end I just want to share a scripture that is one of my Dad's favs and now is one of mine too! It is Isaiah 40:31 I would encourage you to all look it up and read it because it is a good one. I would paste it but the computer I am on is being lame and wont let me. It is a hard concept to grasp but the Lord honestly will renew everyone of His children with strength in their time of trial. All that He requires of us is to wait upon Him. It may be longer than we would like to wait but I promise it is worth it.

 

Love,

Elder Picard

Watermelon is its own food group in the Picard household.

Week 53 July 13, 2015 "Happy Birthday Big Chief Picard!!!!!!"

Happy Birthday Big Chief Picard!!!!!! You is an old fart now haha. How does it feel to be 53? I love you so much Dad, you are the best Dad a poor little Indian boy like me could ask for :) Make sure and have Mom make you a yummy treat or something then eat my share of it too!! Maybe you could even convince her to take you to Red Robin for some bottomless fries because that place is your jam. I am not sure if you all got to move into our new house yet but I sure hope so. I can't wait to see pictures of our cool new house. Well I am past my year mark now so it is cool to look back and read my journal entries from the MTC this time last year. I can't believe it has already been a year! I wish I would have took more time in the MTC and wrote better journal entries though haha. My entries now are way better and I make sure to write every day but I stinkin missed a few days in the MTC. Now I know to keep that journal going because writing and reading your journal on the mission is super helpful. It is cool to look back and see how much I have grown. I maybe haven't changed day and night but I am trying and little by little I think I can change into the missionary but even more important the person the Lord knows me to be. 

      I have been reading in Matthew and man do you learn a lot from the parables Jesus told. They of course sometimes are super hard to understand but when you understand them it is really cool. Jesus really does know everything and put the Pharisees in their place a lot and truly made them think. When I read the parables Jesus told to the Pharisees it really made me realize how much I try and justify. Justify meaning that I sometimes think I know what is best for me and do things my way. The problem I ran into was that I was putting "my" into whatever I was saying too much. I definitely still have a long ways to go on it for sure and definitely don't have it down but I am trying. I think it is best to realize that God knows all and so does His son, Jesus Christ, I have my name on my badge but I also more importantly have Christ's name as well. This for sure isn't my work and it never will be my way. I wish it was but it wont be. I just hope by the end of my mission I can truly realize and master that submitting my will to the Lord. 

        We went to Costco this week and I got some Mexican blend cheese so that has been really yummy but it is also making me miss Nacho Sunday :( My companions had a party with all the people they came to country with so we went and played basketball last Monday and it was really fun. We had Zone Training this week and there are 4 missionaries going home in our zone at the end of this transfer so they gave their farewell speaks and they were all super good!! Elder Dewey from my house gave a really good one and he related what he said to the movie Kung Fu Panda. He said missionaries spend there whole mission trying to find something that will make things easier or just the answer to missionary work but he said honestly "There is no secret ingredient." God has given us all we need to succeed. Sometimes we just gotta believe in ourselves and of course trust in God because He will always have our back! When it is hard Christ is right there pushing us along we may not notice it but He is! President Morrise called and wanted to meet and just talk so I met him last night. We had a really good talk about my struggles and my mission. President Morrise is the man! I just hope someday I can be like him. My comp and I were kind of butting heads for a while but we had a talk and we are doing great now so that's good. It really does just help to talk it out sometime. We had a ward party this week that was super fun and we got lots of food as prizes. After the party we played basketball for a while. Then later that night we played basketball again with a LA. We played ball for like 5 hours Saturday so man did I sleep like a rock that night. 

          Missions definitely are a roller coaster and sometimes one you want to get off of but you can't haha. Just gotta push on that's all I can do. Time to shock the world and become the real Elder Picard who never gets angry and is patient 100% of the time and who loves everyone no matter what. 

Love and Prayers!!!

Elder Picard 

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Week 52 July 5, 2015 "On the down side"

     Well folks I have officially been on a mission for a year!!! It is crazy to think that this time last year I was in the MTC and this time 2 years ago I was entering my senior year of high school! I am getting old... oh no! The first year of my mission now that I look back went really fast and I can't even imagine how fast this 2nd year will fly by. I took some time this past week to write some goals for the last year of my mission so that I can make the most out of it. I just finished my upward mission climb and it is all down hill from here. I can't grab my brakes to stop time so I just gotta work as hard as I can and live in the moment. Missions are just great and I have learned so much being out here. I feel like it was forever ago when I was getting trained in Gangnam by Elder Hastriter! Time is so weird out here haha. I also got this really cool journal with 365 pages I can use as my last year journal from an investigator we had in Gangnam so I am pretty excited to start that. 

       This week was a fat kid week for sure. We ate 3 buffets!! haha. From going to a really expensive Korean wedding to taking down huge posters opposing our church we did it all this week. Monday after email we were able to go get my camera fixed and they fixed it right then and there so that was nice. We met with a referral that we got at a coffee shop and were able to pick him up as an investigator so that was cool! We didn't know he was coming to church but he just showed up. Definitely a miracle. We met one of our other investigators 이증원 and the lesson we had with him went really good too. He is just a great kid and sure loves God. He goes to church like 3 times a week and said he wants to dedicate his life to God. I really think we will be able to help him so I am pretty excited. We met our last active recent convert buddy 이동준 or Dan and taught him along with his non member bro again so that was sweet. We may just have to start teaching his bro, Dean, and pick him up as an investigator because he is awesome. Throughout the week we played ball with a bunch of kids and people from the neighborhood at the park. For exercise we usually go out during lunch and play to help me not get so tired throughout the day. It has been really good and we have been able to meet and play ball with a bunch of people. One day we were playing basketball with a bunch of these little kids and they noticed our football so of course they were curious as to what it was. We then taught them this football game and before we played I was thinking to myself "hey maybe we should say a prayer" so we did. We told all of the kids that we pray for safety before we play sports so they said it was okay. After playing we shared a quick message with them on love and how important it is to love each other. We connected the love Christ has for all of us to the love we should have for each other as simply as we could. We then told them to go home and tell their parents they love them and ask them if there is something they can do to help around the house. It was a really cool experience and man do I love when we can do missionary work while playing basketball it is the best!! 

         We met a member this week who used to be the ward mission leader and is super funny for dinner at his house. After dinner there is this last active lady in the ward with 2 sick little girls who wanted us to give them blessings. So after dinner we drove down to her house with the member and blessed the 2 girls. I think they have had some sort of sickness ever since birth and need blessings every now and then. I was able to do one of the annointings in Korean of course and man was that so cool!! I don't have it memorized so I had to read it but it was still awesome. Elder Ely gave one of the blessings and the member gave the other. I hope before I go home and when my Korean is a bit better I can give a blessing in Korean because that would be really cool. Our investigator 배성호 didn't come out to church but came out to a young single adults activity so it is good the members our building a relationship with him. We have these 2 new members that just got married a month or so ago and had their wedding reception this week. It was AWESOME!!! I can't even explain how cool it was. They had like a runway and they both did cool entrances. The bride descended down from a balcony and the groom came from backstage. Curtains opened and he gets up off the white couch and just walks down the isle with Bruno Mars "Marry You" playing. Man it was boss!! It was also apparently not the usual Korean wedding reception but a really experience one so we were pretty much living it. Then afterwards we ate at this amazing buffet! Easily like the coolest wedding ever. They didn't have a dance party but it was still way awesome. We went and watched this water show last night with Dan that was super cool too and we were able to talk with a lot of people there so we might have to start going there more often. 

         I finished the Miracle of Forgiveness finally and man is that an amazing book. I also read the talk by Dieter F. Uchtdorf "Pride and the Priesthood" again because my mission President is the man and recommended it. I have read it before but reading it again was really good. It pretty much just hits on the fact that pride is a gateway sin and we should strive not to be prideful. What I really liked though is the little story he tells about his pen that would do everything he wanted it to without complaining or anything. We likewise should do this especially me as a missionary I need to give up my will and let the Lord take over. I need to be the tool in His hands that just works instead of complaining. It is going to be hard to do but I feel it is something I gotta do so I am going to give it a shot!!! 

Love, 

Elder Picard

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My camera is FINALLY fixed!