Joshua Bocchino Is On A Mission

Farewell to The Land of the Morning Calm

2010-07-04T01:07:00.000-07:00

Happy Independence Day!!!

This is my last email home from Korea. Crazy.

Yesterday (Sunday) was kind of sad. It was hard to say goodbye to everyone. Last night we gathered at the Church to have a final party because Sister Linford, Elder Oxborrow and I are all going home and we've all served here in Bangojin. We shared final testimonies and ate food together. It was a really memorable time.

I've made a lot of great friends here in Korea, and I've really enjoyed my time in this country. Yesterday at church I shared a scripture about how I feel: Enos 1:26

I told the church members that when I first came to Korea, I had a hard time with a lot of things. The language, culture, heat/humidity, missionary work and lifestyle, companions, the food... But as I've labored here for the past two years, I've also experienced a change of heart. I've learned a little of the language (I'll never be fluent probably), I love the food, I love the people! I feel that I can call Korea "우리 나라" ("our nation") and I will always want to call it that. I wanted the friends I have here to understand that, and I think they did. I hope they did. I love Korea. I've rejoiced in the opportunity I've had to share the gospel with my brothers and sisters here! The work has been hard, and I've received a lot of rejection, but they are still my brothers and sisters and I love them all the same. It has been an amazing experience.

I promised some members that I would do a few things:
1) I would go home and work to live the gospel and continue doing missionary work;
2) I would continue studying Korean and never forget about this country; and
3) I would come back to Korea...kind of soon.
I think those are some good goals to start with.

Tomorrow I'll go back to Gyeongju and say goodbye to friends there, and then it's off to Pusan and Seoul. I'm almost home!

I'll have stories for you all in a few days!

Love you!! The Gospel is true!

Elder Bocchino

Ulsan District Conference

2010-06-27T21:14:00.000-07:00

Another week gone - time is flying.

Oh, a bit of sad news. Korea was eliminated from the World Cup. The whole nation was pretty bent out of shape about it. The US also lost. :( and so did England. So I have NO ONE to root for.

Bangojin is great! We had the Ulsan District Conference last Sunday and President Jennings came, along with Elder Ringwood of the Quorum of the Seventy. Elder Ringwood was in North Korea last week overseeing the Church's donation of over 1,000 apple trees there, and then he swung down here for a few missionary meetings and the District Conference. He had served as the Seoul West Mission President a few years ago, so he was able to speak to the church members in Korean. Some good experiences at those meetings! At the missionary meeting we talked a lot about discouragement and miracles that we don't see. Basically how to deal with rejection and also with not seeing the fruits of our labors. Sad, but true.

On P-day, we went to a cave outside of the city. It was pretty touristy, but it was pretty cold inside (good activity on a hot and humid day). There was also an ice cave that we visited. Pretty fun all in all. Seeing all the foggy, green hills and rice fields reminded me that I'm gonna miss Korea when I leave. I leave in 15 days by the way.

This next week will be spent trying to meet people for the last time, and spend time with some families that I've grown close to. Next week I should be able to go back to Gyeongju and see some friends. Hopefully I can help someone get closer to Christ before I end my mission. It's been an incredible experience.

The gospel is true!

Love, Elder Bocchino

Iron Festival, World Cup, Gyeongju, and splits

2010-06-20T01:30:00.000-07:00

Hey! I have 18 days until I'm back in the US! Time is flying.

Last weekend, we volunteered at the Iron Festival where we celebrated traditional Korean iron smelting. Turns out that the Koreans first discovered iron on their peninsula here in Ulsan. This really is the industrial capital of Korea. Pohang is the steel exporter, and Ulsan makes ships, cars, oil rigs and refines oil. There are also some nuclear power plants here. Heavy industry.

Korea lost to Argentina last week in the World Cup, but they also tied Nigeria, so it looks like they'll advance! Koreans are excited!

On Sunday, we watched the Joseph Smith Movie with Korean subtitles. It's the first time the Koreans have seen it, though it's been out in the US for years. Good movie, and I think the members were able to learn a lot more about the Prophet Joseph Smith through it.

On P-Day, we went up to my old area of Gyeongju and took a look at the Seokuram grotto. It's a cave at the top of a mountain with a Buddha statue in it that is very very old. Pretty impressive views (if it wasn't so hazy) and cool hike.

Last week we cleaned the Hogae church - lots of heavy lifting - very sweaty work. It's getting really hot and humid here.

I went on splits last week with the Zone Leaders. We had some interesting meetings with less active church members in the ZL area.

It looks like I'll be able to go on splits with Elder Oxborrow (he's in gyeongju and is going home with me on the 10th) for my last week in country. That means that we should be doing meal appointments in Gyeongju and here in Bangojin for that week, as we both know people in both areas.

Not much else to report...time is flying!

Love you! Elder Bocchino

World Cup

2010-06-13T23:38:00.000-07:00

Wow! World Cup is here! Once every four years most people in the world (except Americans) tune in for the World Cup...a soccer battle between nations. Koreans are crazy about soccer! The other night was the opening Korea vs. Greece game starting at 8:30 pm here in Korea. They set up outdoor viewing locations all over Korea (all over Bangojin!) and settled in for the epic battle. We were in a restaurant when Korea scored its first goal. That was a thrill! Koreans have a way of making these things feel like the whole country is in it together. Every goal scored is a victory for every Korean man, woman and child. Kim Yun Ah's olympic skating gold was a victory for every Korean as well. It's part of their culture, the culture of "ooh-rlee" or "we/us". It's great! It also illustrates Korea's constant need to prove itself on the world stage.

When we had to go home, we found they had set up a projector with the game in our apartment parking lot! So we could watch it from our front door!

Ended up as a shutout: 2 - 0 Korean victory!! Next game is Thursday against Argentina.

As for other news, the North Asia Area authorities are rolling out plans for local churches to track down lost members and try to figure out how to help these people and fix our records, finally. After two years of this, I'm headed home, and now they're coming out with the official programs...figures. lol.

The ZL's should be having a baptism in a few weeks and the sisters will have one in Hogae next month. Good things are happening.

A few days ago we talked to an older man in a store who had met with missionaries when he was younger in Seoul (he's 62 now). He shared with us his life story, of being carried on his mom's back as they fled from Seoul during the Korean war. They ended up in Pusan and then back in Seoul later on. I believe he went to Japan to learn how to be an engineer. Korea didn't have the ability to train engineers at that time. Koreans suffered greatly during those years. This country used to be so poor and backward, and they were a Japanese colony. It's a miracle they're where they are today. His story made me think of my grandmother who fled China as a young child, and both of my grandfathers who served in Korea. The preceding generations around the world have suffered a lot. Helps me to be grateful for all that I have, and all that the senior generations have helped provide.

Time is getting short! It's an indescribable feeling!

Love you!!! Elder Bocchino

Conferences, elections, and rumors or war

2010-06-04T23:35:00.000-07:00

Time is running out for me here in Korea......about 5 ish weeks left. Crazy!

Yesterday at Zone Conference I gave my "death talk" (the talk you give before you leave the mission). I had 3 minutes, so I mentioned how challenging it was to come to Korea and shared 1 Corinthians 1:26-27 and Doctrine and Covenants 35:13. Then I testified that the Gospel is true! Short, but I think I mentioned the important things.

Sunday was our Branch Conference. We had 93 people at Sacrament Meeting! President Jennings came to preside and we all had a great time. We learned a lot. I had to help translate in nursery with the Canadian family. Still hard, even after almost two years in country. ugh!

Tensions are still kind of high in Korea. It's looking less likely that war will break out anytime soon, but people are still worried. They held local elections yesterday and I think that the President's ruling conservative party did really well. By the way, the Socialist Labor Party is really strong here in Ulsan and in university campuses across Korea...interesting. Our investigator (coffee shop guy) used to work for them in college and has some interesting stories. (He's against them now.

Today we're going back to the dolphin/whale museum because most of the people in Ulsan now are new and haven't been there. it should be fun!!!!!!

I've still got time left. Trying to finish strong!!!

Love, Elder Bocchino

Evacuation plans, acting on faith, and unity in families

2010-05-27T23:40:00.000-07:00

While tensions with North Korea are increasing, the Korean people remain calm and collected. Everyone agrees that the North knows it can't afford to start a war, therefore people aren't too worried about it. We (missionaries) do have established evacuation procedures that we will follow if necessary.

Kyung Jin (coffee shop guy) remains skeptical of organized religion. This has allowed him to have an open-ish mind while investigating our Church, but has also made him just skeptical of all religions in general. He is a great guy with lots of questions about faith and God, and I really hope he begins to experiment with faith and acting on what he's learning from the Book of Mormon.

We will start meeting with a member, Brother Lee, whose son should be getting baptized soon. Brother Lee and his wife are at least bringing the son to church on Sundays (even if he doesn't want to go), which is really good. I'm constantly reminded of the need for unity in families and the blessings associated with living the gospel as families.

We had a District Leaders' Meeting in Pusan yesterday (on transfer day) and talked about how we're going to deal with losing so many missionaries. Our numbers are getting slashed from about 120 when I came to Korea to probably 70 when I leave. Big change.

I said goodbye to some friends yesterday as they're going home. One of them was Elder Mckenna, with whom I served in Sacheon. We had some really great experiences together. That will be me in 6 weeks. Strange. Time is flying.

The Gospel is true!!! Love, Elder Bocchino

Strengthening Families Together

2010-05-19T20:18:00.000-07:00

Well, another hot and humid couple of weeks have flown by.

Recently, the big news has been North Korea's sinking of a South Korean ship, killing over 40 South Korean sailors. We're keeping our ears and eyes open as the whole country wonders what will happen next. Ulsan is a big target for the North, as the Hyundai Heavy Industries factories are prepared to produce naval ships, and the Hyundai Motors factories are ready to make jeeps and tanks if war breaks out. I'm not too worried right now, but we're still vigilant and I get a little jumpy when the city tests it's air raid sirens. :)

Last week, we went up to an old elementary school and saw a reptile/snake exhibit they have there. It was really fun and we got some good pics. I got to hold a HUGE snake at one point (I'll send you those pics later) and it urinated on me. Gross!

Bangojin Branch is doing great. We had a great meeting with Brother Lee today (his son is 9 years old and preparing to be baptized) and we had a great time. We read the Book of Mormon together and I felt the quiet influence of the Spirit. I know that as we help him and his wife strengthen their faith, they will be better able to help their son accept the Gospel. It brings up memories of my own baptismal experience.....thanks to my Mom and Dad and various Church leaders, I was able to begin living the Gospel and progress to where I am today. I remember that, and vow not to give up on this young man (Dohng-Guhn) no matter how squirrely he is. :)

Time is flying by! Transfer calls are tonight...we're not sure what will happen. I have one transfer left!!!

Love you guys! The Gospel is true!!!

Elder Bocchino

P-Day at a snake farm

2010-05-13T05:16:00.001-07:00

2010-05-05T05:08:00.000-07:00

Hey, it's getting hot and humid here.

We had a great baptism a few weeks ago. The young man (Joon-yung) is the son of a member. He's still 8 years old, so he's not considered an investigator but we were still able to help him and teach him. It felt good. I was happy to see the baptism.

Now we've got another young man who is nine years old and is the son of some other members. His Dad wants us to teach him and have him baptized soon, which will be great!

Kyong Jin (coffee shop owner) is still great and is reading the Book of Mormon from the beginning...nice guy. We're really hoping to get him out to church soon.

Kyung Hwahn (the college student we used to hang out with) has gone to Vancouver, Canada to study for 9 months. We made a deal that we'll meet up in Seattle when I get back. I'm excited!

Min Gyu (the son of a part member family) is leaving for military service today. We had our final appointment with him and his family on tuesday night. It was kind of sad.

Yesterday was "Children's Day" in Korea. It is a national holiday and the focus is on the kids. We met up at a carnival event with some members, and then we went and made kim bap with some other members and washed their dog - it was fun!

At Zone Meeting on Monday, I gave a talk about helping our Part Member families in the Church (where just one spouse is a member of the church). The focus in our Church is now on "rescuing" people under the new "To the Rescue" program. We talked about the importance of rescuing these part member families. The most important thing is to help them understand the blessings promised to families who make and keep eternal covenants together . When they realize this and gain a testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel, then you can baptize the non member family members and assist them in finding the path to eternal life together.......it works so much better. Like two oars pulling the rowboat instead of one. Good times.

The Gospel is true!

Love,

Elder Bocchino

Baptism Photos

2010-04-29T01:45:00.001-07:00

Baptism

2010-04-26T01:00:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of emails lately.

Things are good! The Branch seems to be shrinking a little, as members are moving away. We're hoping to get some less active members back to church though. A team of sister missionaries is now working with us in Bangojin, so we're working together to help some of the members here. Some exciting things are happening.

We've started teaching the son of a member as he is preparing to get baptized this Saturday. He's still eight years old, so he's not our investigator, but his mom still wants us to help him prepare. His Dad is not a member of the Church, but his mom was baptized a few years ago and has taught him a lot. He's a good kid and we're excited for his baptism on Saturday.

General Conference was great! Love, Elder Bocchino

Living By Faith

2010-04-26T00:54:00.000-07:00

Spring has arrived in Korea! The cherry blossoms are out, the birds are singing...and the weather is turning hotter. :(

Yesterday we went to Gyeongju (my old stomping grounds) and met with about 10 other missionaries to see the beautiful flowers and trees. It was really fun and we came together as a Zone. Everyone had a great time! I was able to see a few friends I had made in Gyeongju and remember the good times.

This past week, we met with KyungJin (the coffee shop guy). He's doing good! He's really skeptical of organized religion, but has a lot of sincere questions about our beliefs. He was talking about the difference between reading good words in the scriptures and actually having those teachings penetrate your heart. (the difference is the Spirit - we must study in faith and invite the Spirit to testify of the truthfulness of what we're studying). We invited him to read in the Book of Mormon: Alma 32. It's about the test of faith, and how we exercise faith in things which are believed but not seen or known. When we exercise this faith, the Lord blesses us. It is after the trial of our faith that we see the miracles and can receive the witness of the Holy Ghost. That is the pattern established by God. I hope that he can read about that and feel the power of the Spirit. I think we can all exercise more faith and be more believing. We should all live by faith rather than fear. I learned that this past week and will try to apply it! Hooray for learning by the Spirit! :)

Church members and missionaries in Korea will gather this weekend to watch General Conference. It's a week late due to needed translation. I'm excited to hear the teachings and learn from them!

Transfer calls are tonight, so I could get a surprise call to leave Bangojin. That would be sad. We'll see!

13 weeks left! The Gospel is true! Love, Elder Bocchino

Mormons Made Simple

2010-04-01T01:21:00.000-07:00

Sorry for not writing last week....it's been a little slow but also kind of busy at the same time.

Two weeks ago, I went on splits for a day with Elder Wells (he's my dongee and is now a ZL here in Ulsan). It was really fun and we shared lots of memories from the MTC. We tried to visit some less active church members and bring them banana bread that Elder Moore and I had made, but they weren't home. Then we visited a man who had randomly approached Elder Murray and I several months ago.

His name is Gyung-Jin and he came up to us one morning and asked if we were "Mormon missionaries". He spoke very good English. He said that he'd read the Book of Mormon and learned a lot about our church from an LDS friend 6 years ago while serving in the Korean military. He remembered a lot of stories from the Book of Mormon and expressed an interest in learning about it again. We kind of put him on the back burner for a few weeks while we got busy with transfers and other things...but luckily, Elder Wells and I were able to visit him. He runs a coffee shop in a busy part of our area. He was very happy to see us and gladly received the Book of Mormon that we gave him. His family was originally Baptist but has become disappointed with the Christian churches in Korea and currently doesn't attend church. He currently is kind of cynical about religion and is not sure what to believe. We shared some scriptures from the Book of Mormon with him, and he invited us to return and talk more. Elder Moore and I returned the other day, and had a great time! I guess that a famous Korean singer committed suicide the other day, so he asked questions about the afterlife. He was asking very in depth questions.....very interesting guy. It's interesting because for every question he asked, I could think of an answer in the Book of Mormon (of course there are similar answers in the Bible as well). That experience strengthened my testimony of the truth that the Book of Mormon answers the questions of our souls.

He told us how he's been pretty skeptical of religion these days, due to some troubling issues in his family over the past year or so. "Then, you guys showed up and started teaching about God" he said. "I think it might be a sign" he added.

Wow, no matter how he accepts the message we teach in the coming weeks, this experience has already strengthened my faith and assured me that the Lord loves us. He loves Gyung-Jin - the coffee shop owner, and He loves me. I know that there are people who are seeking for truth but know not where to find it. He's found it. I just hope he can realize it.

Gyung Jin spent some time studying in China and the U.S., and even spent some time in Portland, OR! (cool huh? we talked about Mt. Hood)

Final note, this site is pretty interesting: "http://mormonsmadesimple.com/". Good, simple explanations. The missionary video gives a good overview of what kind of program I'm in.

The Gospel is true! Love, Elder Bocchino

Be Strong and of Good Courage

2010-03-19T23:21:00.000-07:00

The weather can't seem to make up its mind....cold one day warm the next. It has been beautiful though, and it is usually great weather to walk around in.

We had a day of EPIC basketball with some college students. One of them was MinGyu (the nonmember son of Sister Hoh). Elder Moore and I schooled them all (even though I'm not very good) and we all had a great time. We were pretty tired the next day! haha It was a good release and bball is actually a great way to visit with students. I just hope they have at least some interest in learning about Christ.

We had some new attendees at our English Class this past week. Two new women came...they're math teachers. Also, an interesting young man met us last weekend. He's two years younger than us (so he calls us "big brother"...age is everything here) and is studying Military Science at an ROTC type college. He's very focused on his goals and doesn't even really want to get married. This also means that he doesn't have too much room for God in his busy life either....I'm hoping that's a phase. :) Interesting kid.

On PDay we went to a whale museum at this place that used to be a whaling town near Ulsan. It's called Jangsaengpo. It was interesting. One museum focused on whale life and ecology, and even had live dolphins in a tank! We saw them fight and butt heads underwater! The museum next to it was all about hunting, killing and processing whales for various products. Strange juxtaposition.

I guess this whaling town was active up until 1986ish when whaling was banned by the international community. Interesting, because the streets of Ulsan are still lined with "whale meat" restaurants. (I hear that the Japanese still do some whaling...somehow). Yep, I've eaten whale (that's right hippies!) The soup it was in wasn't very good but the meat, when cooked, tastes like beef. I hear that it is gross when raw (I believe it). Koreans also eat raw beef sometimes....I avoid it.

So the other night we had our weekly appointment with Sister Hoh and her family (including MinGyu bball kid). We ate dinner, played cards, and had a great time. They're a great family. :) Before we left, my companion shared Doctrine and Covenants 6:36 about turning to the Lord. This reminded me of another scripture, which I shared - Joshua 1:9:

"Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest."

Before I left on the mission, Dad wrote this in the front of my scriptures. It's one of my favorite scriptures and I love the message of trusting in the Lord and not being afraid. Fear is the opposite of Faith.

This message motivates me to stop being fearful and just go to share the gospel with my brothers and sisters here in Korea. God was with the children of Israel then, and He is with us today!

Korea's a great place, God bless it!

Love,

Elder Bocchino

It's All About Service

2010-03-10T00:59:00.000-08:00

It snowed! We woke up to a winter wonderland yesterday! I guess it's spring. Weird weather...

This week, my new companion, Elder Moore and I have seen some cool things together. We were searching for less active church members the other day on our way to eat dinner with some members. We knocked on an apartment door fully expecting one lady to have moved, but she answered the door! She said it had been a long time since she had last seen the missionaries or attended church. She was very nice. We obtained her phone number and have asked the sister missionaries to visit with her also. Maybe we will bake her some cookies. We almost never find these people. When we do, it's a question of finding a way to serve them.

On Saturday night, we gathered in the church building and watched the movie, The Prince of Egypt, with church members. The activity was fun! A young man attended who is our age. His name is Kyung-Hwan. He recently completed his military service and is attending our English class. Hopefully, he will want to know more about the gospel as well.

Several days ago, we had English class and played ping pong with our new friend, Kyung Hwan. Koreans LOVE playing ping pong and usually learn how to play well during their military service. Afterward, we again searched for another less active family. Just like the last time, we unexpectedly found the lady we sought! She invited us into her home and introduced us to her daughter and one of her sons. They might be coming out to English class this weekend! This lady had not met missionaries for about three years. We're trying to find a way in which we can serve her and her family. Her husband works very far away in another city for Hyundai.

We've had several opportunities to eat meals with members this week, for which we are grateful. We're trying to build good relationships with the Branch. It's all about service, and we're trying to find ways to serve these wonderful people.

It's been a fun week and we're staying busy. I know the gospel is true. Love, Elder Bocchino

2010-03-01T00:37:00.000-08:00

Transfer calls came and went. I'll be staying here in Bangojin, Ulsan. I'll be getting Elder Moore who came to Korea 6 weeks after me. We're both about the same "mission age" and know what's going on in terms of missionary work, so it should be fun!

The weather can't seem to make up its mind and is going from sunny and pleasant to gray and cold over and over. Spring is trying hard to arrive.

Our Ulsan District soccer tournament that was scheduled for last Monday and was expected to bring in dozens of members, less active members and investigators was canceled due to rain. No word yet on a possible rescheduling. :(

So there is this great family. Sister Ho is a member and so is her daughter (sur-ghee). Her husband (bro. Shin) and her son (min-gyu) are not members. Her husband is a high-up in Hyundai Heavy Industries and her son is a college student/soon-to-be conscript soldier who is the same age as me. The family has been meeting with missionaries weekly for years (ever since Sis. Ho's baptism) and the father knows everything there is to know about our church and our teachings. He cites pressure at business gatherings regarding drinking alcohol as a primary obstacle to his baptism. Korea has this problem: at any social/business gathering, there is tremendous pressure to drink alcohol. Korean college students drink more than I ever imagined. It becomes a huge obstacle to their understanding/acceptance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

It usually goes something like this:

(I'm a weird foreigner trying to speak Korean)

I approach some Korean college students saying "hey, what's up? yeah, I'm a missionary.....I'm teaching people about Jesus Christ". (and try hard NOT to look like I'm flirting with the girls)

They give me funny looks and say they're not interested/just ignore me all together.........and go back to thinking about alcohol and Starcraft.........

....and then SOMETIMES they realize "hey! this guy is an English speaker!!!"......(others just continue to ignore).......

............and then they speak to me in English for practice.................

....and then we drop the "gospel" part and just invite them to our free English class.....

....and then they don't show up to that because they have an appointment at a bar.

This is a problem, but we try to get around it by being more "cool" or "hip" in order to have better conversations with young people. Sometimes it works out...but it's hard.

Even young people who are interested in our Gospel message feel intense pressure to disobey commandments and drink alcohol or smoke at any social function. It's sad.

Brother Shin (the HHI high up) isn't a student, but still has this problem. There is one bright spot: at least he has interest in the message that Christ taught! Often in Korea it goes something like this: The older people aren't interested and tell us to "go teach the younger people". The younger people are "busy with school" or just have interest in worldly things like alcohol and sex. So we lose both. Kinda like when the Christians tell us to "teach those crazy Buddhists".................and the Buddhists tell us to go and talk about our common beliefs with the Christians. Quite the paradox.

This family is great. We visit with them every week and are trying to help them all, member and non member alike, come closer to Christ. It's frustrating sometimes. If only this family could unite and live the restored Gospel together, they would be able to receive countless blessings....among them the opportunity to live together forever as a family. I know their home would be blessed with more peace and love. I think they know this, but then there are those pesky "obstacles".....which seem kind of silly when you contrast them with the blessings that the Lord has promised His followers (eternal family relationships, etc).

The Koreans are great. Those worldly students, stubborn elderly, Buddhists and Presbyterians. They're frustrating, but great. Heck, even the children of Israel witnessed God's power in saving them from the Egyptians and then wanted to worship a golden calf instead, right?? It's all about teaching them with patience and love....I think....

When I'm rejected a lot and wonder "why in the world are there missionaries in Korea???!!!", I think about the revelation given to Joseph Smith in 1830 found in The Doctrine and Covenants Section 29 Verse 7:

"And ye are called to bring to pass the gathering of mine elect; for mine elect hear my voice and harden not their hearts"

I'll keep looking for those who hear the words of the Savior and harden not their hearts.....those who hear "Restored Gospel" and perk up with interest. Those are the people with whom I want to talk in my remaining 4 months in Korea!

The Gospel is amazingly true.

Love,

Elder Bocchino

2010-02-24T03:35:00.000-08:00

It's been a hotter week here in Korea. Looks like Spring has come a little early. Bad news, because that means the mosquitoes aren't far behind.

The Bangojin Branch is doing great! Sister Lee is still solid, and the Ulsan District held District Conference last Sunday. We were able to hear from District leaders and President Jennings (our Mission President). The Korean church members are always impressed whenever President Jennings speaks, because he is so accomplished at speaking Korean. The Korean people really appreciate that. I heard that approximately 225 people attended the conference, which was a great turnout! We hope to become a stake within the next few years.

Other big news: There will now be only three Missions in Korea instead of four. The Seoul West and Seoul missions will combine to form the Seoul Mission (effective July 2010) under the leadership of the current Seoul Mission President. Also, the (former) Seoul West Mission will move one stake into the Taejon Mission next month. The Busan Mission was slated to get the big southwestern city of Gwangju, but our President rejected it, citing cultural differences that would prove problematic. I was a little sad when I heard that, as I really really want to go to Gwangju someday. The people there are really nice.

Needless to say, some Korean church members are a little worried about this and questioning the progress of the church here in Korea.

While this is a slow time in Bangojin, we're having a good time and working to try to find people who want to learn more about Jesus Christ. We're getting more and more interest in our English classes, and are anticipating meeting some new people in the coming week or two. Should be exciting!

Even though it's hard, I'm thankful that I can serve people and testify of the Savior every day. That's enough for me! The gospel is true! Love, Elder Bocchino

Happy Lunar New Year!!!

2010-02-17T01:34:00.000-08:00

We may not have had a white Christmas here, but we had a white Lunar New Year! It was awesome! Just a trace of snow but it makes the hills look beautiful! They say it almost never snows in Ulsan.... Well, the Lunar New Year ("Chinese" New year) was fun! We had 31 people at church on Sunday (big day, considering it was lunar new year). Sister Kim (the one who went to the temple for the first time) is headed back to the states. Sister Lee is doing well.

On Monday, we went back to my old stomping grounds of Gyeongju to play games and watched "Up". Great movie! On Tuesday, we ate the traditional new years meal of Duk Gook at a member's house and were able to see Korea win the gold in the Olympics speed skating. It was great! Koreans are still way happy about it! :)

We're hoping to meet a newcomer to English class either tomorrow or Saturday, we'll see. Maybe he'll want to learn about the Gospel! That's what we're hoping.

Lunar New Year was great, but it also meant that very little happened in the way of missionary work, as everyone left Ulsan to go to their hometowns. On the New Year holiday, they gather to the husband's oldest brother's house and play card games, a traditional stick game, and eat food. It's great! I love you guys! The Gospel is true!! Love, Elder Bocchino

2010-02-04T04:03:00.000-08:00

It's been an interesting week, with unseasonably warm weather. I'm not complaining, just worried about how hot it's going to get in the spring/summer!!!

Last Saturday we had a pretty full English class!!! We've been focusing on getting new people to our English class in the church so we can introduce them to the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's been successful, as we're getting new people at every class! After class, we went to spend time with some members, and visited Sister Lee in the mart where she works. It was a good night spent with people we serve and have come to love. Good feelings all around!

On Sunday, both Elder Murray and I were asked to give 5 minute talks/testimonies to fill up time at the church meeting. I spoke about missionary work (of course). When we (as missionaries) go out and talk to people of other faiths, the subject of prophets usually comes up. We make the bold claim that a prophet (such as Moses of old) lives on the earth today and directs us according to the word of God. Though this claim is bold, it is not weird or un-Christian. If we read the scriptures (Old Testament, New testament, and Book of Mormon) we see many examples of God calling prophets to lead His children. It is a pattern established out of love. It is also a truth that has unfortunately been lost to many Christians today, who seem to forget the prophetic calling of Peter, James and John, as well as the rest of the original Twelve.

I know that there is a prophet of God on the earth today. I take comfort in knowing that this is an expression of God's love, and that if I follow the prophet's words, I will be blessed in knowing which paths to walk in these confusing times (just like Israel of old!).

On Wednesday night, we spent time with Sister Kim, who will be returning to America in a few weeks where she lives with her Korean-American husband. While we were spending time with her, her older brother began asking questions about our church. Sister Kim is staying with her mother and brother, who are not members of our church. Her father also passed away a few months ago. We were able to explain a little about our church and give him a Book of Mormon to read, all while National Treasure 2 was playing on the television! lol While we were helping with dishes in the kitchen, I peeked around the corner and saw him reading the introduction at the beginning of the Book of Mormon. Before we left, we showed them a new short video produced buy the headquarters in Seoul that tells people a little about our church and how it came to Korea. It was a pretty great experience. Sister Kim was able to bear her testimony of the things we said (she has been a member for only two years). She was so happy that we were able to talk to her brother about the church, and she wants us to work with him. She wants very much for her mother and brother to start coming out to church before she leaves to go back to America. We will try very hard to help her out with that!

Last week, we had Zone Conference. It was interesting. We set a mission goal of 200 baptisms for this year (2010). The Busan Mission baptized 108 people in 2009, so it will be a challenge. More important than numbers, however, are the people those numbers represent. We'll work on serving PEOPLE who will accept this gospel and agree to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

It's been a good week! I look forward to the week ahead! The gospel is true! Love, Elder Bocchino

PS: Yep, it was my birthday last week. I don't feel like it, but I'm 21 years old now! (22 in Korean age) We had a District get-together and I got a few presents. The missionaries are really nice like that! Sister Park had her birthday on Feb 4, so we all hung out together as a zone and played games. It was fun!!!

Love you guys! Elder Bocchino

Revisiting Gyeongju!!!

2010-01-27T21:20:00.000-08:00

I'm back in Gyeongju!!!! For the day...thought I'd come back to my old area and spend some time with friends I made here. I miss this place.

I don't have much time. This last week has been good!!! We've gotten some good contacts from people...hopefully we'll be able to meet with them again.

At church, we were able to answer some questions that a recent convert had about the timelines of the Bible and the Book of Mormon and how they match up. It was a pretty good class.

Sister Lee is still doing great!!! She really had a strong conversion experience and continues to diligently live the gospel.

We made flyers for our English class and are trying to get a lot of people to come. We're trying to make a good new start and do some missionary work through our English class. We'll see how it goes.

Next week we'll have Zone Conference.

sorry...I really don't have time.........the mission is great! Love, Elder Bocchino

Still here in Bangojin!

2010-01-21T21:14:00.000-08:00

On Saturday we did have an unusual day. In the morning we played soccer with the ward men/boys and then ate at a member's restaurant. Then my comp and I took two of the boys to play basketball at the Young Men basketball tournament in the ZL area Shinjung. Way fun!!! We're hoping to do that again in a few weeks and include some other branches. Playing basketball is a great tool we can use to build relationships with young men here in Korea. They're funny when they play b-ball.

On Sunday night (Sister Corrigan's last night) we had an awesome dinner appointment with some members. We had spaghetti, real salad (with cucumbers!), fruit salad, Costco pizza and cheesecake. Amazing. That's all I can say. The American-ness of the meal was somewhat offset because we ate while sitting on the floor, but it was still great. The wife told lots of funny stories making fun of her husband for dating a lot when they were younger (prior to marriage). They're hilarious and really great members.

Our Branch Mission Leader has been in America for a few weeks, so we've been teaching Gospel Principles class in his absence. That means watching movies hahaha.....we watched The Testaments over the past two Sundays - good movie.

Yesterday we went to the mission home for a meeting for all district leaders in the mission. It was interesting, despite being mostly administrative.

Yep, really nothing crazy to report. This transfer is ending, but Elder Murray and I will be staying together here in Bangojin for another transfer. Love, Elder Bocchino

Emergency Response Meeting

2010-01-13T20:53:00.000-08:00

We're gonna try to get into a university or community center weight room for our P-day today. I'd love to pump some iron.

Sister Lee is still doing great! We watched The Testaments (movie) with her and she loved it. She is very spiritually sensitive and really feels that God is happy with the choices and decisions she's made. She has a wonderfully strong testimony of this gospel and constantly hungers for more knowledge. She also works two jobs to support her son and daughter, and is an angel to the missionaries. What a wonderful woman and an inspiration for me to do better!

A member who was baptized, maybe two years ago, went to serve in the Temple for the first time last week. A great experience! It's great to see the members here in Bangojin deepening their faith and working to apply the Gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives. She had some questions after she went, so we went with the Sister missionaries to meet with her. Great discussions!

Last Sunday, the Branch had a practice "emergency response" meeting to test the emergency calling plan, and all gathered to the church building that night. We ate kimchi pancakes and ramen and had a great time! Way fun! I just hope we don't have to do that for real, like I'm sure churches in Haiti had to do...please keep the Haitian people in your prayers!

We set up an appointment with a potentially great university student investigator last night, and got punked. We'll see if we can find some other time to meet him. Still working on trying to find less active members! Always interesting...I'm pretty sure I'm beefing up my resume for whenever I apply to work for a private detective agency...seriously.

We've been having some very interesting and spiritual district meetings lately, thanks to the district members. I've been learning a lot from the missionaries I'm around, and they're seeing a lot of baptisms and interesting experiences. Last week, we attended the baptism of two girls and a middle-aged woman. I was able to interview them and found them worthy for baptism. President Jennings was able to attend the service, and gave a great talk!

Ulsan is doing great! We're still working on becoming a Stake. Things are good! The Gospel is true!!!! Love, Elder Bocchino

Slump Day!!!

2010-01-06T20:30:00.000-08:00

If the going-home schedule doesn't change with the changing pdays, today is my SLUMP DAY. That means 6 months until I'm in America!

So, a very cold week in Ulsan. It apparently snowed buckets in Beijing, Seoul, Taegu and even the little town of Yongchon (where Elder Singleton is) but it was just very cold rain in Ulsan. Disappointing.

It's been pretty hard to actually have appointments with people over the last few weeks due to the plethora of holidays, but we've still had some interesting experiences. Sister Lee continues to progress since her baptism and is so happy to be living a gospel-centered life. We met with her, her daughter and her son the other day and ate seafood soup with them (yep, definitely ate some tentacles and other things I couldn't identify). The daughter is a college student who the sister missionaries want to meet. The son is a really shy high school student. Sister Lee really wanted us to help them and wants them to join the church.

Sister Kim (a member who was baptized a year and a half ago) is going to the temple for the first time tomorrow night. We're helping her prepare for that. We're also teaching the Gospel Principles class since the teacher is visiting America for a month. That's fun! The Sisters' baptism (Sister Ooh) was confirmed last Sunday.

Yesterday, we had District Meeting. It was great! We discussed the Book of Mormon and Faith. It was also my companion's year-in-country mark. So we ate WHALE MEAT SOUP. Tasted kind of like beef...but fishy.

Tomorrow we have interviews with the mission president, then I'll interview 3 of the Shinjung Sisters' investigators who want to be baptized this Saturday.

With the difficulty in meeting people recently, the spiritual high points have been district meetings and Sister Lee. We hit a low last week when Elder Matsurra and I were on splits. Searching for less actives, we ran into a father who didn't like that we knocked on his door, so he yelled at us in Korean low-form* and slammed the door in our faces. At one point, this man had invited missionaries into his house to teach his daughter and allowed her to be baptized, but now for some reason felt perfectly fine making us feel like trash and let us freeze on his porch. The day had been full of disappointments and discouragement for us, and I wanted to talk to him again. I almost knocked on his door again because I wanted a confrontation so badly (and had some uncharitable thoughts). Instead, Elder Matsurra and I just stood there...cooled down...and then just laughed with each other. Elder Matsurra has a chuckle that's contagious. The cute puppy downstairs also lifted our spirits. I'm pretty sure I repented later for my angry thoughts. ^^

Discouragement, Doubt, Fear...all are opposed to Faith. I testify that as we live faithfully we have no need to fear, and by exercising our faith we invite the Holy Ghost and legions of angels to work by our side. I'll try better to remember that next time!

The Gospel is true! Love, Elder Bocchino

ps correction...so the lunar new year isn't in January...it's in February...my bad!

*note from Sis. Bocchino: we inquired about Korean low form, and were told "Korean low form is a form you can use when speaking to someone younger than you (usually quite a bit younger than you and usually only if you have enough age to make it work), or with a romantic interest, or with family, or to animals, or when you're really really angry (at someone younger ish than you.) and then it's kinda like a very rude hand gesture...it cuts."

Transitioning Pdays

2009-12-30T23:35:00.000-08:00

Well, we got a sudden Pday today for a little bit...it's to help us transition to the new system of having Pdays on Thursdays rather than Mondays. Next week, we'll have our full pday on Thursday the 7th. This also means that I might be getting home to America on July 10th or 11th rather than the 7th......

I went on splits with the Zone Leaders. It was pretty fun. We had a great district meeting where we talked about the Gift of the Holy Ghost as well as Charity and Love. Good stuff.

Love you guys!!!! Elder Bocchino

Happy New Year - Twice!

2009-12-27T23:19:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!!! Happy New Year!!! You know, the Koreans celebrate two New Year holidays. They celebrate the "new sun" holiday that everybody in America celebrates: Jan. 1. They also celebrate the Solar New Year holiday in mid January. It should be fun, to do it over again.

This time last year I was in Pusan at the end of my second transfer in country. My trainer was boarding a flight to go home....strange...one year ago I was still in Korea.....

I talked to my family! Yay! It was great! Definitely gives a boost! Makes me trunkier than ever, but that's ok!

Last week on Monday we had a zone pday where we exchanged white elephant gifts and watched Prince of Egypt. On Wednesday we went to Pusan for a Mission Christmas Conference where we had a great meeting, ate Costco pizza, watched "Scrooge" and got a free Christmas tie from the Mission Office. We also saw our new Mission Office couple (Elder and Sister Bagley).

On Thursday (Christmas Eve) we went to two kindergartens run by church members and played Santa Clause for the kids. A lot of kids were scared and cried...kind of a traumatic experience for them I guess. lol Then I called my family! That night we had a Branch Christmas Party. We joined the sister missionaries in a skit that went well, and I got to play Santa again (!)...interesting experience. Fun times. On Christmas we went to downtown Ulsan and caroled with the other missionaries in front of Lotte and Hyundai Department stores. Pretty fun. Then one of Bangojin's Church Members showed up and took us all out for a Christmas Dinner. We had a type of rib soup. Very very tasty.

Sister Lee (who was baptized a few weeks ago) was confirmed a member of the Church in sacrament meeting on Sunday. Also, the sister missionaries' investigator (Sister Ooh) was baptized. Some other Ulsan missionaries also had a few baptisms last week. I've never seen this kind of activity in my mission so far...good times! Sister Ooh has two daughters and their families in the Bangojin Branch. Her husband passed away earlier this year. She spoke of wanting to be with him again after death as motivation for her baptism. Wonderful woman...she's made a lot of progress since earlier this year.

We taught Gospel Principles class since our Branch Mission leader is back in America for a month. We talked about prophets and read about President Thomas S. Monson, God's prophet on the earth today.

Well, it's hard to find things to say after talking so much to my family via telephone, so I'll just say Happy New Year! The Gospel is true!!! Love, Elder Bocchino

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2009-12-20T17:59:00.000-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

A cold, windy week in Ulsan.....

We had a great lesson with Sis. Lee (who got baptized last week). She's great! She is so committed to living the gospel. She said that God has answered her prayers and given her confirmation that she's doing the right thing. Amazing.

We had received some phone numbers of Hyundai workers who had gone over to BYU for a few months to study in the business program. While there, they expressed some interest in the church, so we called them and will hopefully be able to meet some of them in the coming weeks. Nice people...they had a great impression of the USA and of the Church in Utah.

We finished putting together a book organizing all of the Branch's church members according to where they live....we'll start visiting them soon...trying to find less active members.

The other day, we went down to a member's Chinese restaurant with the sister missionaries (who we ran into while trying to visit the same people) and had a free meal. It was great! Bro. Lee is such a great cook!!!

Random thought: I can look out onto the ocean here...and I see huge container and fuel ships...it's great. Hyundai is a HUGE company.

Last night, we went to find a less active member near our house. He's only a few years older than us. While we were walking in the dark, I went into a shop to ask for directions. Turns out that I was standing in the right address and talking to our member. He was nice. We introduced ourselves and gave him our number. We hope to be able to visit him again and help him. After that, we went searching for another apartment and found a different less active's mom (she wasn't helpful) and left discouraged. Then we went and were able to visit with a more recent member (she was a Korean runway model a few years ago I think..) and were able to talk about the significance of the Christmas holiday. Her questions centered around 1) which Old Testament prophecies related to Christ?; and 2) which fulfilled prophecies made people at the time of Christ willing to accept him as the Messiah?

We're planning on studying and getting back to her.

A few more days until Christmas!!! Around this time I think about America, family, Christmas trees/lights/etc, presents, friends, hot chocolate...basically I get homesick...then I remember that the point of this holiday season is the celebration of the birth of the Savior of the World. How thankful I am for the best present of all!!! Over 2000 years ago, the King of Kings was born, lived a perfect life and suffered for my sins. He died and was then resurrected and lives today! He continues to reach out to us and leads this Church. What a happy message! Christ lives!! Merry Christmas!!!!!

Love, Elder Bocchino

PS: This time next year, I will be home for Christmas! :)

Some (Inconvenient) Truths About Santa Claus

2009-12-15T13:47:00.000-08:00

A few little-known truths about Santa Claus.....

Often described as a "man on a worldwide mission", Santa is frequently spotted incognito near evergreen trees with his "helpers."

Even Santa can't pass up a bargain in today's economy - this Hershey's candy bar costs only $60.00!!!!!

One of Santa's best-kept secrets: BLACK THERMALS!!!! HO HO HO!!!

Merry Christmas to all!

Sister Lee's Baptism

2009-12-13T22:56:00.001-08:00

From Elder Bocchino:

Whew! What a first week in Bangojin. It's a small peninsula on the east coast of South Korea and is part of the city of Ulsan. It is dominated by Hyundai ship and car factories and most of the people on the streets wear the gray uniforms of Hyundai workers. Lots of cranes and smokestacks!

I've been able to meet a few members throughout the week - very nice people. We also had several English classes. Attendance isn't as large as the classes in Gyeongju, but we'll work on that.

On Sunday, we had a baptism! The sister (Sister Lee) met missionaries about 8 weeks ago. She works at a convenience store near the church. She was able to hear their teachings, cut down her coffee consumption, and accepted the baptism challenge. For some reason, she requested that I baptize her. I've not participated in a baptism here yet, or performed the ordinance. It went well. We talked about how baptism is the beginning of a journey rather than the end. Sister Lee is committed to living the gospel throughout all of her life. I'm excited for her.

The Branch is big here. It used to be a Ward when it was part of the Pusan Stake. 65 people came to church yesterday. (In Gyeongju, we were really lucky to get 30). The members seem really nice. Last night, we went with the sister missionaries to the Branch President's house for dinner. It was delicious and the Branch President is really nice! Very fun...

We're preparing for Christmas and our Branch Christmas party. Apparently I'm going to be Santa Claus (the members have been reminding me of that all week long. They're excited!). Also, I'll be going to a member's private kindergarten to be Santa for a little bit on Christmas Eve. :)

We'll also be having a Christmas Mission Conference in Pusan on December 23! I'm pretty excited!

It's been quite a week. Sis. Lee's baptism helped me think a lot about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and what our priorities in life should be. We need to have faith in Christ (which Sis. Lee has), we need to repent for the things we've done wrong (which she's done), we need to be baptized in Christ's name by someone holding the proper authority (we did that the other day), we can then receive the Holy Ghost and have it as our constant companion (we'll do that in two weeks...by someone with authority), and then we need to endure to the end by living a righteous life according to God's commandments. What a beautifully simple Gospel! What a true Gospel!

Gotta go! Love, Elder Bocchino

Gyeongju to Bangojin

2009-12-06T15:00:00.000-08:00

I'm transferring out of Gyeongju after 18 weeks here. I love Gyeongju and was expecting to stay, but I'm hoping that this transfer will be fun too. I'm heading to the big city of Ulsan to an industrial area called Bahng-oh-jeen (actually fairly close to Gyeongju). I'll be District Leader and co-senior with Elder Murray. He came to Korea 12 weeks behind me.

Last week we gave Nadia (the Russian lady) a Russian copy of the Book of Mormon. One nice lady from English class took us out to eat the Japanese soup Shabu Shabu (basically meat and veggies flash boiled). Delicious.

We walked way down into the rice field/outskirts south of Gyeongju last week looking for a less active member. We asked a really nice man on the street where we could find a real estate office to look at a map, and he just went into his own business and printed us off a simple map from the computer. Nice guy #1. Then we went to the address and asked a man working in a small garden nearby if he knew the person we were looking for. He knew the family and took us to the house where we talked with the (very old) parents of the church member, and the man persuaded them to give us the son's number. Then we talked to that man for a while after. He was so shocked that we traveled all the way out there to find one member who hadn't come to church in like 15 years. He was an angel. Very nice and had lived in that same spot for over 60 years, born and raised. Nice man. Out of the whole experience we gained a simple map from one man and a phone number from another, but I felt the Spirit and the kindness of those people. Good times.

Mr. Jung (I'm so sad to leave him) continues to testify that our church is a good Christian church to people he meets. It makes me feel good to hear that. He's not going to get baptized any time soon, but it makes me feel good to see that someone's perspective of our church has changed. He's been a good friend to me and will continue to be great to the missionaries. I'm going to miss playing cards with him.

Nadia came to church with her daughter and a Filipino woman. I hope they continue to come and get closer with the Church members.

On Sunday, I had a hard time giving my farewell talk in Church. Church members see missionaries come and go all the time, but I only get to have one Gyeongju, and only get to see those people so often. They didn't know I was transferring, so when I got up and said that I was being transferred, people were surprised. The Branch President might have been mad that I didn't tell him right away haha. I shared Ephesians 2:19 and talked about how the love that I felt in Gyeongju helped me feel less like a foreigner and more like a Gyeongju person/branch member. I love Gyeongju and I love those people. I felt their love so abundantly and I'm thankful for that.

After Church we went to the traditional house of an English class member (her husband has a huge black beard!). We just chatted for a while. She's really nice. I didn't know but she's a member of the Unification Church, led by Reverend Moon from Korea. Nice lady.

Sunday night we had our usual dinner appointment with Hye Jung, the recent convert high school girl and her brother and mother. We ate delicious food, promised to keep in touch, and then we had to go. It was freezing cold outside, but I felt warm from the love of that family. I'm going to miss them. They've been like a second family to the missionaries in Gyeongju for so long.

So I'm headed to Bangojin. The Gospel is true! Missionary work is amazing!!!

I love you guys! It's almost Christmas! Happy Holidays!!! love, Elder Bocchino

Zone Conference

2009-11-29T15:37:00.000-08:00

Happy Late Thanksgiving!!!!!!

Today we went with the Pohang and Ulsan/Hogae Elders way up north into the rural areas (6 of us in all). We went to go see a pagoda for Elder Mann's last PDay. The pagoda turned out to be 15 feet tall, kind of a let down, but it was an adventure getting there! Then we walked to a random temple up in the hills that was WAYYY cool!!! It wasn't a tourist attraction (the signs made sure to tell us that) but we still went in and got some great pics. We also got the chance to light some candles and do some bows to the Buddha statues...great stuff! Great view of the valley, too! Awesome. The 6 of us hitchhiked back to the small town and then bussed down to Gyeongju. Way fun!

Last week we had Zone Conference. Elder Choi of the Seventy came. We talked a lot about the mission of the Church: Bringing All Souls unto Christ. This mission requires us to strengthen members, help our recent converts get to the temple, and find new members. This work isn't just about forgetting members and going on the streets, and it's also not about teaching English. It's about doing what we can to serve others, strengthen the church, and bring souls closer to Christ. Great stuff, fit really well with our mission's focus on working with members. With our missionary numbers decreasing so much, we need the members to help out as much as possible (according to Pres. Hinckley, members should find people to teach about the church and the missionaries should teach them...).

On Saturday night, we went to a Thanksgiving Party in Ulsan. Some potential investigators were supposed to come, but couldn't because of horrible traffic. It was fun! I got to eat a piece or two of turkey! lol. Not much food, but pretty fun. The missionaries in Ulsan acted out the First Thanksgiving for the Koreans...pretty funny.

On Sunday, we had two investigators and a less active member come to church. One lady investigator (her son is at BYU) wanted to learn about the Holy Ghost, so we had a great Gospel Principles class! That night, we went to her house and met with her and her husband. She'll be in Seoul having surgery until February, so this might be the last time I see her. The husband will be staying at their apartment in Ulsan during that time, so we won't see him much either. Great people. They knew my trainer and did a lot of cool things for him and his family before he went home to America. They want to stay in touch. Nice people! The husband set up that shipyard tour for us.

We're trying to get more university students to our English class (especially with North Asia's new focus on college students). We'll see!

The Gospel is true! Time is flying! In 25 days I'll call home! Elder Bocchino

Root Answers to Leaf Questions

2009-11-22T00:52:00.000-08:00

This week we met with a Russian lady named Nadia and had lunch together. She's pretty nice and brought her young daughter to our Branch's Halloween Party a few weeks ago. We talked about her upbringing in Russia and her parents' religious views. She believes in God but doesn't go to church. We invited her to church and hopefully she'll be able to come in the following weeks. Our members really liked her and her daughter.

A taxi driver commented to us about President Obama bowing to the Japanese Emperor. He said "Hey! Obama visited Japan! He bowed WAYYY TOO LOW to the Japanese Emperor!" I asked, is that bad? He said "Yeah, that's weird! When you're president of the United States, you don't do that! That's way weird! America's the best country in the world - why would you bow to the Japanese emperor????" Apparently the Koreans didn't like it.....bad move. President Obama then came to Korea, ate Korean barbecued meat and posed in the TaeKwanDo stance for pics.

On Thursday we had our district meeting sitting on the grass among the tombs/hills here in Gyeongju. Interesting.

On Friday, our English Class took us out to eat and we celebrated my comp's birthday. Then we went down to Ulsan for interviews with President Jennings. No news on if I'll be transferred or not.

On Saturday, we went back to Ulsan for the first few sessions of the District Conference. President Jennings presided over the Saturday Priesthood and Adult sessions. GREAT meetings - the spirit was really strong. President Jennings spoke about "not answering a leaf question with a leaf answer", but instead answer with a "root" answer. For example, when a daughter asks if she can wear a skirt that reaches down to the top of the knee rather than the bottom (or some other nit picky question about standards) we can respond by having a good discussion of what modesty is all about and why we try to be modest. In other words, focus on the spirit of the law to avoid getting hung up on the nitty gritty details, missing the whole point of the law, and lowering our standards. Good stuff. We (the Ulsan missionaries) gave a musical number at the Adult Session (Come Thou Fount in Korean) and Elders Mann and Harris gave talks about member missionary work. Great stuff.

On Sunday, we watched a special satellite broadcast from Salt Lake City to all Korean Stakes and Districts. President Uchtdorf presided and Elders Holland, Evans and Ochoa (sp?) gave talks. One of the themes was "Gather to Zion", also translated as "if you're Korean, you should live in Korea to build up the Church and not immigrate". Pretty strong language was used, we'll see how it's received. Actually it plays well to certain nationalistic views held by many here. They also railed Koreans for not sending out enough missionaries (there are 114 Korean missionaries out in the field worldwide right now). They said "every Korean should serve a mission". Also, Elder Holland said, "I know what the challenges are. I KNOW that you face challenges with education systems, military service and other things. I KNOW. But other people in other countries have the same challenges, and they still manage to go on missions." Pretty strong language. We'll see. Also, an interesting thing on numbers. The Church claims to have 80,000 members in Korea. That's the number we should have according to baptism records. However, we aren't even sure we have 38,000 who we know where they live. Half the number of "members" actually have confirmed or semi-confirmed addresses, and that number is always decreasing as we look for less actives. Take that number down to active members...my guess: less than 20,000. Take that down to number of temple recommend holders, and you have the answer to why Pusan isn't getting a temple any time soon, why the Brethren are urging Koreans to stay in Korea, and why it is so hard to be a member in Korea. It's hard. It's a small church here. :)

A girl who cuts our hair (and who has a cool Filipino boyfriend) is opening her new shop along a road we often travel. We're hoping to meet the boyfriend later this week and visit with both of them more often. Fun people...we gave her the American name "Jenny".

Well, the size of the Church doesn't affect the truthfulness of it. During the Sunday broadcast, Elder Holland bore strong testimony of living prophets and continuing revelation. He made the point that a Church with living prophets, if full of members who don't follow those prophets, is no better than a Church without prophets. True. This Church follows the organization God has used throughout the history of this world and has the Holy Priesthood to act in God's name. The restored Church of Jesus Christ, "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone" (Ephesians 2:20). Elder Holland also talked about receiving our own personal witness of truth through prayer. He said "we should always pray, about everything." Straightforward advice. We need to pray to receive a witness that these men truly are called of God as were the prophets of old, and then act on the answer received.

Whew, that's what we tell people everyday on the streets and in the apartments! The work rolls on! The Church is true! Elder Bocchino

Hyundai Shipyard in Ulsan

2009-11-15T02:23:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody! Crazy day today - we got to tour the Hyundai Heavy Industries Shipyard in Ulsan...wayyy fun. They drove us into the facility on a company bus, ushered us into a plush viewing room (with signs and PowerPoint's labeled "LDS Missionaries" :P ) and showed us a movie about the company. Apparently they're involved in all sorts of heavy industrial projects around the world. Then they took us around the HUGE complex in the bus and showed us the dry docks where the ships are being built - some crazy things. HUGE equipment everywhere: cranes, ships, trucks, other weird vehicles, lots of metal things - pretty cool. Our guide was pretty good and spoke English well. I got to talk to him a little about missionary work and why we're doing it. All in all, there were 13 missionaries there. After Hyundai, we went bowling and ate Burger King (not common in Korea). There's also a 5 star Hyundai Hotel outside of the complex. Pretty cool stuff. The guy who set it all up is the man we harvested peanuts for: his son is at BYU right now.

Earlier this week (which was a very cold and rainy week by the way) we went out to a city area on the outskirts. We went to the local office and asked about some less actives. They didn't want to help us at all at first but finally relented and helped us out a lot. We decided to hitch hike out to find two less active boys around our age. We got soaked and way cold, but the mountains were beautiful and the weather dramatic. We couldn't find the house and it seemed like they were long gone. Nobody knew who they were and what not. As we were leaving the little village, we felt like maybe we should try one more house and ask about them. We met a lady who invited us into her house and started making some calls (apparently she knew the area really well). She called a man who was working in the city of Gyeongju at the time and then handed us the phone. He was the father of the two boys and was very nice and helpful. One of the boys is in college in another city (we got his cell phone number) and the other boy is doing his mandatory military service. He'll be home next year. The father had apparently seen us hitch hiking in the rain on his way to Gyeongju that day. ;) It was quite a blessing, we were able to get lots of information on our members and met the angel ladies who helped us (a grandmother and great grandmother). They just kept talking about how crazy it was that we found them in a crazy storm way out in the country (something I love). What a day that was.

We were able to teach Mr. Jung about commandments and we committed him to going one week without Green Tea (against the Word of Wisdom). He agreed, and we took his tea away from him. We gave him hot chocolate. We'll see what happens. :)

At church on Sunday, the former mission president from Pusan, Pres. Song, came to our branch. Pretty unexpected. Very nice man, even though his style is very different from what we currently do in our mission.

This last weekend, we met with our recent convert girl Hyae Jung. We thought it was going to be the last time we meet, since she has to study hard for the next year because she's a senior. It looks like even though she won't be able to go to church much anymore, we'll be able to meet her every now and then. I'm glad. She needs the constant contact with the Church. So many seniors in high school here just fall away forever.

Yesterday we were walking around the downtown and ran into a crazy BreakDancing thing - pretty funny. We got some good videos of it. The crowd thought we were cool. The announcer spoke about us in Korean, pointed us out, and tried to speak English to us - pretty funny. Cool guys, we talked to them later. I love the crazy random stuff we run into here.

Love you! Elder Bocchino

Country Roads

2009-11-08T23:07:00.000-08:00

This week we headed for the hills! First, I went on splits with my dongee member Elder Stephens. We hitchhiked out west to a little town to visit some less active members. We were picked up initially on the freeway by a man who believed that the world was going to end in 2012 (seems like that's becoming a popular belief). He showed us some copied book that listed all the catastrophes that will happen in the next few years. Apparently his church is a mixture of Buddhist/Christian/end of the world beliefs. We had an interesting conversation.

The first member we hoped to visit wasn't home, so we hitchhiked down to another member who lived outside the little town. A local woman (who smelled of alcohol) picked us up, found out where we were going, questioned some people about where the address was (getting half of the local village involved) and then took us right to the house. When no one answered the door, she tried to open it and tried to open the windows....it was way funny! A little too helpful! lol Then she picked up her kids from school to introduce us (the kids were wayyy cute - Korean kids always are) and then drove us all the way back to Gyeongju (she refused to let us out of the car). And yes, she was driving crazy....it was pretty scary.

The other member eventually called us the next day because we left our card on his door.

A few days later, I took my companion on his first excursion outside the city. We hitchhiked way up north to a little industrial town, then through some fields to the next town (through a folk village full of straw huts and stuff...way cool!), and then to the local government office. They showed us how to get to where we were going. We wandered through some crazy neighborhoods for a while and found a really nice log house of sorts with a huge yard, lots of puppies, boats and other toys in the yard. It reminded me of an American house in the country. No one was home. We met some senior ladies who seemed to know the area well, so we asked them about the member we were looking for. Though they spoke some CRAZY dialects and slurs, I managed to understand that they knew the girl, but she had moved. They were really nice.

We left there and went down through some beautiful mountains and hills to ANOTHER small town. We talked to an interesting fellow at the government office who told us how to get to the houses we were looking for, but since it was getting dark we decided to hitchhike home. We were picked up by a jeep with a French engineer and his Korean friend and rode back to Gyeongju together. Crazy times.....

Having crazy adventures in the beautiful countryside always makes me happy.

On Friday, we went out to a middle school (also out in the BEAUTIFUL mountains...the leaves are gorgeous) in a small town where our member is the principal. We met up with some US and Korean KATUSA soldiers from the base in Taegu and talked to the students in English as a service project. The soldiers were funny...it was fun to hang out with them for a little while. They were impressed by our Korean language skills (yeah right!) but the Korean KATUSA guys were fluent in both. One of the Americans had served in Iraq. (He's a member from Idaho).

On Saturday, we went out in the country to the home of an English class member and chopped some wood (!), something I've always wanted to do in Korea. It was way fun! We ate an awesome lunch with them and then went up to a Buddhist sanctuary and took pictures. (Again, the leaves are great!) Later that day, another English class member brought her daughter to introduce to us. She attends college in Seoul and wants to attend an American university. We told her about BYU and showed her a movie about Utah. I referred her to a girl member who will be going to BYU next month.

Yesterday at church a man (who has met with missionaries in the past and knows one of our members) randomly came to church. He wants to meet with us again. We had an AWESOME Gospel Principles class, taught by our wise member, about Faith in Jesus Christ. I love our Branch.

This week is the big SAT-style test for high school seniors in Korea. It's the most intense thing ever. They say in Korea that high school seniors are king. That's true. Everyone tries to help them and ease their worries around this time because this test is so important.

Also, November 11 is Peppero Day, which is kind of like Valentines Day where you give cookie things to people. Fun!

The Church is true! Love, Elder Bocchino

The Importance of Repentance and Living The Gospel of Jesus Christ

2009-11-01T02:58:00.000-08:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! (late, I know..)

Well, the first week of a new transfer...

We had a Halloween party last Saturday. About 15 people showed up and we explained what halloween is, carved pumpkins, played games and ate food. It was great! Really relaxed - it's always like that in the small town branches.

The other day, my companion and I were walking and were stopped by a guy who asked us what God's (or the "Lord's") real name is. We immediately knew that he was a member of the Jehovah's Witness church. We let him talk to us for a while and then tried to suggest that Christ's name being Jesus or Jehovah doesn't really matter (both are correct) but living the Gospel of Christ is what we need to be doing on earth. In the end, he was nice (he might have been drunk) and gave us a pamphlet (he wouldn't accept ours).

Funny, yesterday we were stopped by a Jehovah's Witness woman who told us that God will cut off any who don't believe in Him. I asked her what we need to do to return to Heavenly Father. She replied that we need to study the Jehovah's Witness special Bible translation. I tried to talk about Faith, Repentance, Baptism etc., and then she said she had no time and left.

I like to have a very very very open mind when talking to other missionary-type people, but it's hard sometimes.

Church was great! Mr. Jung couldn't make it to church but the mother of the young man going to BYU (who asked about repentance) did. We had a great Gospel Principles class where our wise old member beautifully explained repentance and answered her questions - it was great. Translating for our foreign member is hard, but it makes me focus on what's being said in the meetings.

We also contacted a referral from Salt Lake. It turned out to be two 28 year old girls working at a hair shop close to our house. One of them visited Temple Square on a NuSkin business trip and said she "felt good" and felt like we were "different from other Christian churches where she feels a lot of negativity". They were funny and we hope to meet again.

All in all, a good week....The Church is true! Love, Elder Bocchino

The Need For A Restoration

2009-10-25T02:15:00.000-07:00

Elder Green is being moved down to Pusan. I'll be with Elder Routsen next transfer....should be interesting.

Last P-day, we went to Bulguksa (the huge Buddhist temple here in Gyeongju) and took some pictures. Pretty fun. The leaves here are changing colors - quite beautiful. We saw some monks praying in the sanctuaries and got to go inside and look at some statues of Buddha.

We finally had our lunch appointment with our friends who work at the post office. They're in their 30s (a guy and a girl) and they're getting married to each other in a few months. It's weird, we're friends with almost everyone in the post office! :) It's pretty fun.

We went on a picnic with our English class on Friday. Pretty fun. We'll be having a Branch Halloween party this coming Saturday. I hope we see a lot of English class people and other non-members there. We're planning on carving pumpkins...ON Halloween...a little late but whatevs...lol

This past weekend we went outside of the city to visit the parents of a member who is at BYU right now (he served a mission in California). We harvested peanuts with them last month (they're not members). We ate lunch with them and talked about the Gospel. Their son is encouraging them to read the Book of Mormon and learn about the Gospel. The mom was particularly interested in learning more about repentance. She said they talk about it in her church (they attend the Presbyterian Church right now) but she feels that there's a deeper meaning to it and that our church focuses on repentance a lot (Correct!). We talked a lot about it. I mentioned that it's been said that "repentance" is the most joyous word in all of Christianity. We reassured her that everyone has to repent, at all times, even Elder Green and I. It doesn't end with baptism. She is a great lady. The father is also very nice. He said that they need to learn more about our church, and he also feels that we all believe the same God and Jesus, and that God will tell him if He wants them to go to our church (this was actually a very spiritual discussion, not contentious at all). We testified that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of action, and that we must ask God what is right, not wait for Him to tell us out of the blue. Great people, very edifying experience!

Last night, we were hanging out with Mr. Jung and the Pohang elders when Mr. Jung's friend came. He and I started talking in a quiet corner and he told me of some of the adventures he's been on. Apparently he likes to sketch, and he went with a group of sketchers to the Middle East, checking out and sketching ancient Christian sites. I asked him if he attends church, and his response was "I believe in God of course! Churches are merely places to meet together and worship him." I asked him, "Jesus Christ established a Church when He was on the Earth. If that same church were on the Earth again today, what would you think?" His response was, "Well, of course that would be great!"

"Hmmm...this guy's cool" I thought.... :)

I started briefly explaining to him that the Church of Jesus Christ had become corrupted after the death of the Apostles, and many other churches had sprung up in its wake. He agreed or at least seemed to really understand what I was saying. I told him that a "restoration" was necessary and that almost 200 years ago, that Restoration happened. We talked about the different Christian denominations that exist in the world. He seemed to feel that it was all the same church because we all believe in Jesus Christ (good point, we are united in that belief but divided in many other important doctrines...Paul talked about a "unity of the faith".) He maintained that "churches" are merely places of worship, and that Christianity's doctrine is the same around the world.

So, I called him out on that, "Wait, the doctrine is different isn't it?"

"Yeah, okay you're right! of course it's different! it's not the same church," he said....

He started talking to me about the "cult churches" or "strange churches" in Korea and started naming them (Koreans consider Seventh-day Adventist to be one of these). I told him how many Koreans call our Church a "cult" and other hurtful names. He asked me what the reason for that was - "Didn't you just say you were the Church of Jesus Christ? Why do they call you a cult?" he asked.

I told him that a lot of Koreans initially balk at the ideas of modern prophets and the Book of Mormon. That launched us into a discussion of the Book (which he had heard about but never read) and I showed him Mr. Jung's copy. He read the introduction and I explained that it was written by ancient prophets in the Americas. He explained that many Koreans would have trouble accepting anything outside of the Bible as scripture.

After a little bit of quiet pondering, he told me that he thinks that people need to take the Book of Mormon, read it, ponder it, and then after all that they can decide if it's true or not. He said it's wrong to reject it right away. I couldn't have said it better myself!!!!!!!! I testified to him that as we do those things and pray to God, everyone can know of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. I can tell people it's true, but everyone needs to find out for themselves. That's our invitation as missionaries, and that's the Savior's invitation to all of us - to come and know Him. The man left shortly after that, but thanked me for showing him the Book of Mormon and talking with him. I hope to meet with him again!!!!

Very spiritual and testimony-building couple of days for me.......man, the Church is true!!!!

Love, Elder Bocchino

The field is...green!

2009-10-17T16:00:00.000-07:00

Elder Bocchino in the field (Gyungju):

Joshua's companion, Elder Green (from Kaysville, UT):

Laboring in Gyungju

2009-10-17T15:52:00.000-07:00

(R to L) Elder Bocchino, Mr. Jung, Elder Green, and two other missionaries at Mr. Jung's shop downtown (Gyungju). The missionaries have been helping Mr. Jung do some remodeling at his shop.

General Conference

2009-10-11T02:23:00.000-07:00

My companion received a "Dear John" email. Sad story.

Last week, I renewed my foreigner card in Taegu with my buddies Heaton and Singleton. The next day, we had Zone Conference in Taegu with Gyungbuk and Shilla zones (our zone and the Taegu zone). Interesting topics, and during half of it I met and talked with my MTC teacher and his wife (along with Elders Heaton and Singleton). Very fun. It was so weird to see my MTC teacher in Korea, a place we'd talked and joked about in the MTC. We talked about discouragement we sometimes feel trying to preach the gospel, and also about developing faith to find and teach people the message of the Restoration. Interesting. We were also able to be debriefed on our MTC experience and give some feedback on MTC teaching and its application in the field.

This past weekend we went to Ulsan and watched General Conference with the Ulsan District and with all of the Ulsan missionaries (in English - yay!).

Some very powerful sermons and very spiritual insights in Conference! I learned a lot and was edified by the experience. When my companion and I have been explaining to people where we were going this past weekend, we told them that General Conference is a place where we can hear God's prophet and Apostles speak to us and give us messages for our day. That's true, and I know I received inspiration and guidance at Conference. Great experience.

The weather is cooling down as we move deeper into Autumn. Good news!

oh yeah, and today might be Columbus Day, so HAPPY COLUMBUS DAY!!!!!!!!!

Love, Elder Bocchino

2009-10-04T01:52:00.000-07:00

Crazy week! We celebrated the Korean "Thanksgiving Day" (Choosuk) by going to Ulsan with a bunch of missionaries and playing lots of football. We also watched Chronicles of Narnia and Wall-E. Very fun!

The next day, our entire Zone went to a meal appointment with the Ulsan District President. We ate delicious food and he explained some of the traditions associated with this very special Korean holiday (such as how the food is placed on the table, how Koreans perform the rituals to respect their ancestors, etc). On Choosuk, all Koreans go to visit their parents' houses (usually they go to the husband's family). Whole cities become empty for a few days as everyone goes back to the country towns they came from...like Gyeongju! :) We had 32 people attend church on Sunday due to people visiting from other cities. Very interesting. Choosuk is a time to remember and honor your ancestors. It's hard to do much proselyting on Choosuk and if you bother people in their homes it presents a very bad image for the Church. Therefore, we had the full p-day and meal appointments and things like that.

We've continued to help Mr. Jung lay cement and fix up his shop in the downtown area. Pretty fun. He promised to come to church next week.

Last night we met with a brother in our Branch and his father at their house and ate dinner together. The father believes in Shamanism and explained to us the significance of the numbers 3 and 12 in Shamanistic theology and Asian history. Very interesting. "Shamanism" refers to the traditional Korean religion before the arrival of Buddhism. Shamanism is actually a part of Korean Buddhism now.

This week is General Conference! We'll be going back to Ulsan this weekend to watch it and stay the night. Should be fun.

The Church is true! Missionary work is hard but worth it!

Love, Elder Bocchino

Laying a proper foundation

2009-09-27T20:07:00.000-07:00

It's been a week of hard work. We visited with a man who has known missionaries for the better part of two decades. He owns a small cell phone business in the downtown area. He is doing some heavy remodeling to one of his businesses and asked us for help. Whew! We laid cement and destroyed a wall for two days. Very fun...it was good to do some physical labor. I learned how to lay cement (the Korean way)....we'll see if it lasts. He also cooked us up some spicy soups in a tiny cluttered kitchen in the back of his shop. Interesting experience.

A lot of people who we've met once aren't too interested in meeting again, so we're struggling to find people to meet.

We had zone meeting last week, where we discussed being creative vs. robotic as missionaries, and then we just bashed on the old English program days.

Next week is Choosuk, the Korean Thanksgiving-style holiday where they remember/worship their dead ancestors. We have a full p-day this coming Friday, and that Saturday we might be going to Ulsan to meet up with other missionaries at the District President's house. Fun fun fun. We're hoping to watch some movies and go to the BIG Buddhist temple here in Gyeongju on the p-day Friday.

Had interviews with President yesterday since he was in Pohang. No transfer info (it's wayyyyyyy too early) but still interesting. Sister Jennings promised us that we'll get a Thanksgiving dinner next transfer, either in Taegu or in Pusan. (woohoo!)

The October Liahona is amazing! Especially the article about shepherds in Israel.

The Church is true, the work is great! Love, Elder Bocchino

Prophets and Prayer

2009-09-20T23:01:00.000-07:00

An interesting week. We got to do some yard work, which I've enjoyed more and more since becoming a missionary.

Well, a man and his wife moved here a few years ago from southwest Korea. His son converted to the Church, served a mission in Los Angeles, and is now attending BYU-Provo. The parents aren't members, but they had us and a foreign member of our branch (she's an English teacher) over to help with their big garden. The father is good at English and works at the Hyundai shipyard/headquarters in Ulsan (huge shipyards...biggest in the world apparently).

We dug a lot of peanuts...a lot...then shook the dirt off of them and then pulled them off of the roots. They need to be washed and dried, and then you can eat them. Interesting. They offered to give us some, then took us out for lunch and fed us a lot of soup (oyster?) and meat.

We started an English class specifically for high school/college students at our church now. Kind of sketchy, given our mission's history, but we did it mostly because we have a lot of students in our branch. It would be good if they could bring friends and spend time with the missionaries.

So we were walking down the street and a man selling shoes stopped us. He was reading a Bible and had some questions for us. He asked us why we were carrying the Book of Mormon around instead of the Bible. That led to a 30-minute conversation about our beliefs. We pulled out our Bible and assured him that we preach the WHOLE gospel of Christ. We talked about Prophets. We testified that God calls prophets to lead and teach His children, and that those prophets write records. (That's what the Bible and Book of Mormon are: records of ancient prophets).

He said "no, there is no other word of God outside of the Bible". I asked him if he thinks God loves us. He said yes. Then I said "well, because He loves us He has more things He wants to say to us than that which is in the Bible." We explained that Moses wrote five books of the Bible, but God had more to say...Isaiah has his record, but God had more to say...we have the Gospels, but God had more to say...we have the records of Paul and the Apostles...but God had and will always have MORE TO SAY...because He loves us. It is neither logical nor doctrinal to claim that God's words and teachings ceased with the writings that King James' scribes chose to include in the present day "Bible".

I asked him if he knew the English word "Bible" and what it means. I explained that it means divine library, then asked him what a library contains. Books. The Bible is a collection of books. It is a collection of the writings of prophets called of God. That's what the Book of Mormon is. There is no doctrinal foundation for a closed canon containing only the magical number of "66 books" contained in our present-day Bible. God loves us more than that. We should be hungry for any words He has for us.

Since he had a testimony of prayer and the Holy Ghost, we asked him to read a little of the Book of Mormon and pray about it. He accepted, and then said that since he can't really trust prayer all that much, he'd have to read the Bible too and he knows that the Bible will tell him that the Book of Mormon is wrong. We will meet with him again and review a few things.

I testify of God's love for us. I know that His words to Israel didn't cease with Moses, nor with the Apostle Paul. God's continuous work and glory is to help all of His children return to Him. In 1820 he called Joseph Smith, a young farm boy in upstate New York, as His prophet in these last days. He gave us the Book of Mormon, a collection of prophetic writings, and ushered in the Restoration of Christ's true church. In this same manner was Moses called, and in this same manner were the children of Israel led. I trust prayer (my personal communication with Heavenly Father) more than any other method of learning truth. All people can read the words of God's prophets, both in the Bible and Book of Mormon, pray about them, and receive their own answers. God loves His children now just as much as He did then, and is still willing to work miracles for their benefit. Those who doubt this should take another look at the Bible. :)

I love this work. The Church is true!

Love, Elder Bocchino

Finding a Belief

2009-09-13T23:21:00.000-07:00

A very fun week in Gyeongju. I'm tired. lol

We made quite a few hitchhiking trips out into the boonies looking for church members. Our journeys took us to government offices where the workers initially refused to help us. However, one man at the computer recognized one of the names on the paper we gave him and decided to help us. He then gave us names of workers at the other offices we were visiting who were his friends and who would help us. The rest of the day went very well. This week we were able to turn in between 15 and 20 names of church members who had moved and whose records we could send off to Seoul. Great week.

That same day, we hitchhiked through some beautiful mountains to a tiny town called San-nae-myeon. We visited the government office with no issues, then found ourselves wandering towards a beautiful waterfall coming out of the side of a mountain (the first I've seen in Korea, I think). A man wandered up to me and began explaining how the waterfall works (water is pumped up the mountain). I told him that it was beautiful, and boy did he like that! He grabbed my arm and took Elder Green and me to a shack/tent thing where people were sitting drinking alcohol. He sat us down, bought us a pineapple Fanta soda, and introduced us to a University President who was visiting his hometown of San-nae-myeon. Apparently, this man who was treating us to the Fanta was the "town mayor" of sorts in this little mountain village. The waterfall was his special government project, and he was very pleased that we liked it. Talk about having friends in high places eh? The MAYOR of San-nae-myeon...population 45...or something... We drank our soda and went on our way back to Gyeongju.

We hitchhiked down to another town earlier in the week and talked with a Catholic gentleman, who gave us a lift, about prophets and the need for a restoration of Christ's church after the death of the Apostles. Interesting discussion.

We were in the Post Office and began talking to a lady who said she wanted a belief. She sent her children to church because she wanted them to be good people, but she and her husband had no religion. We explained the Book of Mormon, the restoration of Christ's gospel, and the opportunity to know truth through study and prayer. She liked it but seemed a little dismissive of the "pray and you'll find truth" talk. I asked, "Why do you want a belief, anyways?" She stumbled over a few words and then laughed and said that I had asked a good question. I then testified of the Book of Mormon and told her getting a belief or knowing God's truth isn't easy. She would have to work for it. She reminded me of the Doctrine and Covenants scripture of those who are kept from the truth because they know not where to find it. I look forward to meeting her again.

A church member told us to visit his non-Mormon father in his shop by the downtown area of the city. We did. The father is very nice and is good at speaking English. We talked a lot about religion and he taught us about Shamanism. (Korean traditional stuff...like before Buddhism). Nice man.

Well, knowing truth isn't easy! As we study, ponder and pray, we can be touched by God's spirit, our minds can be opened and our hearts touched, and we can receive heavenly instruction. A boy named Joseph Smith did this in 1820, leading to the restoration of Christ's full gospel in these days. Millions of people are doing this around the world today and are taking part in the "marvelous work and a wonder" which prophets have prophesied about. The heavens are NOT closed, God is our Father, revelation is real.

The Church is true.

Love you! Elder Bocchino

Angahng and Shilla Millennial Park

2009-09-06T13:18:00.000-07:00

Gyeongju is a lot like Sacheon. On Friday, after eating lunch with our English Class members, we took a grand hitchhiking trip north to a town called Angahng. We managed to meet some nice workers at the local government office who agreed to check on their information systems and confirm that our less active members had moved. (We confirmed that 5 church members no longer live in the area). Then we hitchhiked back down to Gyeongju through the backroads. Always a treat.

Earlier in the week, we went up to Pohang for District meeting, and then we went and knocked doors with the Pohang elders. It's been a LONG time since I did four man tracting. Very fun. We're pretty sure Elder Lee (Pohang junior) will be transferred to Pusan, so today we're going to Shilla Millennial park in his honor. (People walk around dressed like ancient Shilla warriors...)

I guess my CRAZY MTC teacher is coming to Korea with his wife next month. Hopefully my dongee will be able to meet with him. I'm pretty nervous though, my Korean is still horrible. lol

We had some cancellations this week, plus a lot of time spent in Pohang.

Fun times. The Church is true! Love, Elder Bocchino

Splits, Interviews, and Discussions

2009-08-31T00:41:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Another great week in beautiful Gyungju!

I had splits with my District leader (and dongee member) Elder Stephens....very fun. My dongee is awesome!

We were able to go up to Pohang this week, great place, very big and exciting, except apparently there's a HUGE red light district. I haven't seen it.

We also had interviews with Pres. Jennings this week. Didn't hear much about transfers. I'm probably staying (though I said that last time) and Elder Green could stay too.

We talked about various proposals to create an Ulsan Branch or Stake. In 2007-2008, the Ulsan District Sacrament attendance hovered around 260, now it is over 300, since Pres. Jennings came to the mission. The current Ulsan District includes the big city of Ulsan (Hogae Branch, Shinjung Branch, Bangojin Branch), the smaller but still big city of Pohang (Pohang Branch), and my city: Gyeongju (Gyeongju branch). Exciting stuff.

Also, we met with a lady who is regularly reading the Book of Mormon. Last week we gave her homework: read 3 Nephi 11-26. She read up to Chap. 15 this week. We talked about it, and she asked an interesting question about 3 Ne. 13 (I think?) where the Savior seemingly condemns divorce and the practice of remarriage after divorce. We explained that men at that time were divorcing their wives for frivolous reasons (mostly so they could marry other women). This is wrong, of course. We explained that the Savior was discouraging frivolous divorce. Also, we assured her that our current Prophets and leaders encourage us to work to overcome marriage problems, but divorce is not forbidden. Interesting conversation. We look forward to meeting her again next week.

We're still discussing interesting things with our recent convert girl, including the issues of foreordination and predestination. We discussed agency and the fact that even though God knows what will happen to us, we still have the ability to choose and our future is not set. Interesting discussions.

Gyungju is beautiful. Very peaceful here. I love you! Elder Bocchino

Happy Birthday, President Jennings!

2009-08-24T21:05:00.000-07:00

Woohoo! What a week! On the day we left for the Mission Conference in Pusan, we were invited by a less active Filipino member to what we expected was a gathering of foreigners in Gyeongju. She (our member) said she would introduce us to her friends so that we could teach them about the Gospel. She's great. The meeting, however, was actually a gathering of women from foreign countries who married Korean men, usually through international marriage programs. It was a fundraiser to pay for marriage ceremonies for those couples who aren't technically "married" yet. There were a lot of Filipino, Thai, Chinese and Cambodian women there. Needless to say, Elder Green and I didn't exactly fit in. However, we did make it into a lot of pictures and maybe some missionaries down the road will see pictures of us at this event on posters or something...we did meet some really nice people that we will later contact and try to meet with again.

After that "get-together" we headed down to Haeundae, where we spent the night before Mission Conference. President Jennings' wife put the conference together without his knowledge or approval. It was for President's birthday. We all gathered in the chapel, organized into ranks and waited. The APs and some of the Korean sister missionaries were in traditional Korean clothing (very colorful). There was a huge table up front filled with food (traditional set up for Korean celebrations). When President walked in, he looked around the corner of the door and saw nearly a hundred of his missionaries standing at attention. We broke out into cheers and applause and he started crying. When President sat at his place behind the banquet table, we wished him a happy 60 years (in Korean) and then performed a very formal Korean bow, ending up on the floor. Then we sang happy birthday and the party started! It was GREAT! We were pretty proud that we could surprise our Mission President like that. He and his wife kissed...several times...it was pretty embarrassing. I love the Pusan Mission!

We proceeded to have a pretty good conference. President talked about how numbers don't matter. We just need to have faith and act in faith and do the Lord's work. We'll find some people prepared to receive the gospel. It wasn't the rabble rousing "let's go out and teach English and baptize thousands" talk that you might hear in other missions (or in the Pusan Mission circa 2005), but it was exactly what we needed. I think all of the missionaries in this mission have received confirmation that President Jennings is the right man to lead this mission at this time in Korea.

After that we ate a delicious lunch and then watched Kung Fu Panda. It was really fun. Our dongee got together and took some pics. The sisters in our dongee leave this December or January. We'll all be sad when they leave.

What made me so happy about doing something nice for President is that I felt it reminded him that he has SOME support. He's getting soo much pressure and antagonism, both from those "above" and "below" him. He's not getting any support for his work to change the direction of this mission. We just hoped he felt like he DOES have some support, from his missionaries.

Great experience. Sister Jennings mentioned that this could happen again for Christmas maybe....we'll see. :)

The other night we were walking through a beautiful park in Gyeongju. We went up to a strange monument and tried to figure out what it was. A man came up and nicely explained to us (in Korean and English) what it was. Then we sat down and had a very nice conversation about religion and the history of religion in Korea. He's sort of Presbyterian but sees a lot of problems with Christianity in Korea. We talked about that. Interesting fellow. He stated that the rise of Christianity in Korea followed the economic progression, but now that the economy is strong and fairly stable, religiosity rates are declining. Also, he said that the Buddhists observed the rising power of Christianity in Korea and began to copy their tactics, building bigger and more elaborate worship centers and sort of proselyting. Also promising worldly wealth as a blessing from attending the Buddhist temple (common in Korea). Interesting conversation.

Last night, we were eating dinner with our recent convert girl (Hye Jung) and her family. She asked an interesting question. She asked "Does the fact that God knows my future and everything that's going to happen mean that my future is locked?" Very difficult to answer, especially when you factor in Korean language deficiencies. Still, we assigned her some scripture homework that will hopefully provide a focus for her studies into that question.

Gyeongju is still beautiful. Our bathroom is fixed. Yay!

I love you all!

Elder Bocchino

Climb Every Mountain...

2009-08-17T07:33:00.000-07:00

When you reach a mountain, climb it, study, ponder, pray...

and you will conquer it!

Hadong Bridge, on the border with Taejon Mission:

Elder Bocchino on P-Day:

Playing Jangee

2009-08-17T07:28:00.000-07:00

Whew. What a frustrating day/last few days. The people who live below us are having a problem with water dripping from our bathroom to theirs. They hired guys to come into OUR apartment and tear up our bathroom. They wanted us to give them a key so we could leave and do missionary work. No way. This happened a few months ago and the apartment was later broken into. The missionaries changed the lock a few months ago. So....we've been in the house all day. We're without a working bathroom for a few days.

Other than that, another wonderful Sunday with our wonderful Branch. We were able to go to a member's house last week and do some yard work. Really fun since we don't do that much as missionaries. It's been hotter recently, but still not as bad as Taegu. I took Elder Green hitchhiking for the first time the other day. Good times. We went through the park and played a traditional game called "Jangee" with some seniors. It's like chess. Really fun, really crazy.

Running out of time. The Church is true! Love you!!!!!!!!!!!!! Elder Bocchino

Amazing Sacheon Performance

2009-08-16T01:31:00.000-07:00

Here are the links to the video of Elder Bocchino and Elder McKenna performing at a Sacheon Branch activity:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBNyBcNJI0Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IbvexK1MUY

Sacheon Photos 3

2009-08-14T00:51:00.000-07:00

Sacheon Photos 2

2009-08-14T00:44:00.001-07:00

Photos of Sacheon

2009-08-14T00:28:00.001-07:00

Note from Elder B.'s parents:
We recently received some photos from Sacheon, where Joshua served earlier. He accidentally reformatted his memory card and lost many of his photos. The Andersen family kindly sent us some photos that they managed to reconstruct, which are below. We're so very grateful to them for that wonderful kindness!

Gyungju Ward

2009-08-09T11:15:00.000-07:00

Elder Green and I are working it in Gyungju! Gyungju is very beautiful, tucked into a valley surrounded by rolling green mountains. It's been misty and wet this past week, so I've kind of felt like I'm in Washington again. Definitely not as hot as Taegu! There aren't too many big buildings in Gyungju because the local government wants to preserve the "traditional feeling" of the ancient Shilla capital. This has caused the city to spread out across the valley, with universities and larger apartment buildings on the outskirts. It makes missionary work harder, but the town really is charming. A nice evening walk along the river or through the tree-filled park is pretty sublime. The people are nice and have seen missionaries around for years. It reminds me of Sacheon...though it still doesn't occupy the same special spot in my heart that Sacheon does. :)

We had church meetings yesterday. The Branch has about 30ish people coming out each week. Not bad at all. A good number of youth too. Great people, very nice and welcoming. Very warm. I LOVE the small branches. We meet with a high school girl (Hyae Jung) and her family on Saturday and Sunday nights and they feed us. The girl was baptized a few months ago. They're great! My MTC companion, Elder Heaton, was one of the first missionaries they started meeting. Missionaries love them. The mom cooks delicious food and we hang out with them, play card games, and teach about the gospel. Great family.

The Branch President is a convert of 3 years. He's a powerfully built man about 5.5 feet tall. Great personality, very warm and funny. The whole Branch seems great. When I got up to give my introduction talk yesterday, I felt accepted and appreciated. Great people. Oh, note of interest: this is my trainer's (Elder Jeff Hinton) greenie area. He's excited for me. This is also my MTC companion's (Elder Heaton) greenie area. I'm taking the place of the last senior (Elder Kim) who is also in my dongee. Since he's half-Korean and super smart, he was really good at Korean, so I'm intimidated trying to fill his shoes.

Korea is great!!! Hard to believe I have about 11 months until I'm home. Love you guys! The Gospel of Jesus Christ is true! Elder Bocchino

From Taegu to Gyungju

2009-08-02T10:48:00.000-07:00

I've been transferred from the Taegu Seusong Ward to Gyungju. I'm out of the Taegu heat! But, I'm also out of the big city and back into the rural. It's a change all right, as I was just getting used to the big, fast paced city. GYUNGJU is a very very famous little city in Korea. It was the ancient capital of the Shilla Dynasty. It's about an hour west of Ulsan, an hour south of Pohang - pretty much a ways away from anywhere ("a geographical oddity!!" - George Clooney). It is soooooo beautiful. A lot of the buildings in the town proper are limited to a height of only several floors and most of them have traditional roofs. It is a modern town, but they try to preserve a traditional look. Everyone is obsessed with history due to the city's historical nature. (Sheela) The Korean drama shows depicting the old days are pretty popular here.

The Branch has about 20-30 members who regularly attend church each Sunday. I hear they're great and I'm excited to meet them. We just had an English class here an hour ago, and the seniors in the class have known missionaries for a long time and are very friendly with us. I'm excited to spend time with them as well.

It was a confusing and surprising transfer weekend for me at first, because it was completely unexpected and I was just getting used to a new routine in a big city. But it's getting better. It's not as hot here and it is so beautiful. My new companion is Elder Green from Kaysville, Utah. He's going into his 5th transfer in country (he's been in country for about 5 months) and I'm going into my 8th transfer (10 months in country). He's nice, and pretty good at Korean too.

We're anxious to get started. Thanks for your prayers and support. It helps! Love, Elder Bocchino

Seeking Spiritual Confirmation

2009-07-26T23:53:00.000-07:00

An inebriated Buddhist stopped us on the street yesterday and told me I should study English. I told him he should study Christianity. That's kind of how we left it..... ^^ )

We had President interviews this week...looks like I'm staying, probably with Elder Seal...we're not sure though. This week we had a sit down with our Catholic investigator (Bro. Kim jay hong) and the Zone Leaders. Elder Asay (ZL) originally found Bro. Kim and is heading back to the US soon. Kim is @ 30 years old. He loves the Church and the Book of Mormon but still has some questions. He's so close to getting baptized, but is still seeking the answer and confirmation to do so. Can't argue with that. Meanwhile he's pounding through the Book of Mormon and coming to Church. He's great.

Really really hot here. Some members took us out to a really nice shabu shabu soup restaraunt the other night. Really nice. The man was a Colonel in the Korean Army, and they're very nice people. Their son is on a mission right now in the California Sacramento mission. He told me of how his family came into the Church. His father was a newspaper editor in Taegu back in the 60s. He wrote an article on the Church and interviewed the Korea Mission President back then, and gave the Church good reviews. Later, when missionaries knocked on his door, he invited them to teach his family. They were all baptized about a month later. What an amazing story! I told him it was a miracle. He assured me that I can find prepared people. He said that I shouldn't focus on baptizing lots of people or worry about stats, but that I should work hard and follow my mission president's counsel. I agree!

This member used to be a "house boy" for the elders back then. They had someone to clean for them, do laundry, and shine shoes...needless to say, we don't have that anymore.

Taegu is great! I'm on the downhill slope of the mission...time is flying. I love you guys!!!!!!!!!Elder Bocchino

Choir Concert in Taegu

2009-07-19T17:37:00.000-07:00

So, it's still hot and still really really wet. Last Monday we had a dinner appointment with a member family in the ward. Great people. We enjoyed participating in Family Home Evening with them. It was very organized, then we busted out the cards and got the kids riled up. :)

Last Saturday we had a really cool concert at the church stake center. A church choir from Seoul came down, plus the Taegu Stake choir and a young single adult mini orchestra group performed. It was way cool! It was cute to hear them sing some Disney songs in English.

We've continued meeting with our investigator who is Catholic. He says he knows the Church is true and wants to bear testimony to the Ward this coming Fast Sunday, but he has a few concerns. He is a great person and it is so awesome to be able to meet with him and feel the Spirit as we discuss Gospel topics. Great! He's been reading the Book of Mormon and is in Alma. He's finding all the teachings that support the Bible and he is amazed by it!

I gave a talk in District Meeting last week about "desire". Missionaries talk about "desire" a lot. My studies led me to the conclusion that "desire" is closely linked to, and actually comes from our love for God and fellow men. I gave a cruddy talk, but the studying I had to do was great!

There was a crazy lady who stopped us on the street and wanted us to get some "letters" on to the US military base through our foreign branch (yeah right). She wasn't happy when we said no. So yeah, times are great. Elder Kemmerer's Korean companion had to go for military reserves training, so he is with us for a few days. Last night we went to the downtown in Taegu - it was a party. Crazy stuff! We hung out with some dudes who sell cell phones.

Love you guys! Thank you for the love!!!! Elder Bocchino

Progress Despite Political Distractions

2009-07-12T17:23:00.000-07:00

Another hot, humid, muggy, rainy week here in Taegu. We had Zone Conference. We also met with an investigator who is close to joining the Church. He is Catholic and has been meeting missionaries for a while. His name is Kim Jay Hohng. We met him with a member (who is a Korean Air Force Officer) and talked. They ended up just disputing about politics forever and my comp and I had to go home. Our investigator has some anti-American political leanings (the member does not). It was interesting, but the spiritual message we wanted to share ended up being pretty weak due to the distraction. It happens. He came to church yesterday, though. He came last Sunday on Fast Sunday and was really impressed with our willingness to let anyone get up in our meetings and bear testimony and express their feelings. He wanted to do that this week, but we told him to wait until next Fast Sunday. Really great guy.

I learned about some Korean politics this week. Apparently Taegu is the most conservative city in Korea. Gwangju is the most liberal, and the two cities don't really get along (Gwangju is kind of far away in Taejon mission and in the SW corner of Korea). Interesting.

On Saturday, we had another stressful English class for kids, and then we had a baptismal service for a little girl in the ward. We helped set up for it, couldn't get the hot water to work, and sang some hymns during the service. Disaster! lol

It's soooo muggy here. I'm sweating as I write this. Oh!!! I heard that Bro. Gwak (the college student investigator back in Sacheon) was supposed to get baptized yesterday! I assume it went down but I'll check tonight. He stopped smoking and has maintained! It's great!

We're doing great here! I technically have less than a year left on the mish, but July 30th will be my "I've been a missionary for a year" mark. Time is flying. I'm loving it! Taegu is filled with tree-lined roads and tall apartment buildings. I still really really really miss Sacheon, but Taegu is a nice city.

Oh, we heard this week that David Archuleta (American Idol runner up) thinks he's "already on a mission" as he tours the country selling his cds. We were pretty disappointed.

The Church is true and everyone needs the Gospel! Let's offer it to them! Elder Bocchino

Happy 4th of July!

2009-07-06T00:45:00.000-07:00

I just wrote a long email and lost it, so I will try to sum up:

We went to the Camp Walker Army Base and got rained out. We ate at Taco Bell - it was great!

Talked to an inebriated American named "Ken". Talked about crazy stuff...got his contact info...will contact him again and see if he remembers us.

Restarted English class this week. It's rough.

Talked to some missionaries in the Seoul West Mission over the phone. I'm glad I'm in Pusan...Seoul West sounds like a fun-free zone.

I love you guys! I love America!

God Bless, Elder Bocchino

Monsoon Season

2009-06-29T02:52:00.000-07:00

Whew! A hot week in Taegu! It's monsoon season now, so the rain is pouring and it's hot/humid.

Yesterday I was at church all day. We went to the Korean Ward meetings, then we went to the US military Branch sacrament meeting, then we had other missionary meetings. It was a day of meetings! The Foreign Branch was cool...it was weird to be around so many foreigners. They were really nice, especially to two American boys who miss home! :)

After church we were invited to a foreign member's house for dinner. They are a Cuban family and yes, we ate Cuban food! We hung out with the two boys who are preparing to send in their mission papers. They're pretty tight. The food was great. The whole experience reminded me of Dad and his family, very East coast and ethnic. It was fun.

Other than that we're just exploring the area. Last week we went up to Costco. It was weird walking around a Costco in Korea. Oh yeah, it's hot here. Four guys sleeping together in one room, mosquitoes, ghetto fans, cockroaches....it's the life! We kill the cockroaches when we see them, and sprinkle boric acid around the areas under the sinks. I have a mosquito net but am not using it yet. It's weird being back in the big city again. I'm getting kind of used to it, but it will take some time. This weekend we're hoping to go to Camp Walker for July 4th....we'll see what happens. I love you guys! Elder Bocchino

Sacheon Branch Photos

2009-06-25T16:32:00.000-07:00

The Andersen family graciously shared some recent photos of a Sacheon Branch activity. Their daughter, Suzi, commented as follows:

1) Elder Bocchino, Elder McKenna and everyone chillin' on the back porch. The young guy talking to my dad is getting baptized on July 10th. And that's Hans (Suzi's brother) on the far left.

2) These are a few of the branch members and Bro. Andersen (my father, cooking on the grill) eating at the music night get-together. This is on the back porch of the church building.

3) Hans was sharing, in detail, about the new Star Trek movie. Elder Bocchino REALLY wanted to know. We gave him a movie poster (and, thanks to Hans, the first 10 minutes, too!).

4) Branch members munching on the goodies. Elder McKenna is right in front of the camera, and that's Elder Bocchino's leg on the far left. Haha.

5) This is the branch president's son and one of the MANY adorable Korean children!! We call him Cookie since his Korean name sounds like cookie and we keep forgetting his real name.

Thanks to the Andersen family for sharing these photos!

TAEGU

2009-06-23T02:48:00.000-07:00

I've been transferred to Taegu! It's the third largest city in South Korea and the second largest city in our mission. It's also very hot. I'm now a "senior" missionary, with Elder Seal from Ogden, Utah as my junior companion. He's a nice guy. My area in Taegu is huge and is called Su-sung, or Seusung. It serves as the Stake Center, with a large Korean Ward and the US military foreign branch. I'm pretty excited.

It's hot here (did I mention that?).

It was sooooooooo hard to leave Sacheon. I felt like the Branch was my home away from home, family away from family. I love them and will do whatever it takes to get back there to visit before I end the mission! I'm really going to miss the beautiful, dirty, crazy south-western corner of our mission.

A large group of missionaries went home this week. I'm pretty sad. I had a number of really good friends in that group.

I'm really excited to serve here. It should be fun. Please pray for me to survive the heat!!!!!! Taegu is known as one of the hottest places in Korea in the summer. :) Love, Elder Bocchino

Searching the rice paddies

2009-06-15T16:30:00.000-07:00

I accidentally reformatted my memory card this week...losing all the pictures I've taken of this area. Yes, the hitchiking extravaganzas, the border with Taejon...I know, I know...I'm so depressed. I'm taking lots of pics again to try to make up for it, but there's just no way...

Last P-day we went to Hadong, saw the awesome river and bridge to Taejon mission. I may or may not have crossed over into the neighboring province...no one will ever know. It was pretty amazing! Oops, no pics of it. I'll see if I can get some from my companion.

Last week we went up to look for some less active members in rural rice paddie areas between Samcheonpo and Sacheon. We ended up finding a member working at a family vacation place/fishing store. He went to church over 15 years ago when he was in high school. When we explained that we were missionaries, he remembered about the church and talked to us for a while. He wanted a Book of Mormon and asked us to come again. It was so interesting...he can't really remember what the church is about. We were so excited to find him - missionaries haven't touched his records for YEARS.

Our college student investigator, Bro. Gwak, said he wants to be baptized this month. We're working on stopping smoking. He's a really great guy.

Man, it's getting so hot here...sooooooooo hot. Muggy too. The mosquitos are starting to come out. I hope you all are doing well...I love you guys! Elder Bocchino

"We're not scared - we have America on our side!" - A Korean fisherman

2009-06-08T01:24:00.000-07:00

A pretty standard week in Sacheon. Not too much going on, pretty hot, lots of rejection. :)

We had interviews with the mission President this week. Looks like I'll be leaving Sacheon (I've been here for three transfers).

We met with one investigator, Bro. Yoon (the academy owner) and read 1 Nephi 13 with him. Talked about Nephi's prophecy of the discovery/colonization of America and the Great Apostasy of the Christian Church. Pretty interesting, but I think it's more powerful to Americans or Westerners. ;)

I was talking to a fisherman who picked us up in his truck while hitchhiking the other day, and asked him if he was scared of N. Korea. He turned off the radio, turned back to me and said (in Korean) "NO! We have America on our side! Do you know Iraq? Saddam Hussein? He freakin' died! Do you know Panama? Noriega? The US military went in and grabbed him! One guy! Nah, we're not scared." I appreciated his confidence, but was grateful when he turned his eyes back to the road...

I love Sacheon and am sad to go. The Branch is amazing, and I want to enjoy my remaining time here. I love it!

We're getting ready to hitchike out to the city of Hadong, right on our river border with Taejon mission. Fun! Elder Bocchino

EPIC Hitchhiking to Namhae

2009-06-01T04:32:00.000-07:00

We just arrived at the post office in Sacheon by way of hitchhiking (as usual). What's not usual is that we were picked up by a party bus. Party buses drive people around on tours and are notorious for blasting techno music for the middle-aged Korean women who like do dance and go crazy in the aisle. Weird stuff. This one was empty, but the driver was CRANKING the Asian techno and some weird music videos. It was awesome! Made for a good story to tell other missionaries.

The highlight of this week was an EPIC, 7 hour hitchhiking extravaganza all over our area, and to the extreme Western part of our area that borders the Taejon mission. We started at noon where we usually hitchhike, said a prayer, and went off. We saw beautiful scenery as we made our way across a dramatic bridge north of Samcheonpo and moved West into the mountains of Hadong, an area for which we had no maps in our house! Very dramatic and beautiful country. Some of the mountain roads reminded me of Washington State. After hours of asking community information centers about some of our less active members out there (and dealing with a Presbyterian lady who didn't like our church), we made our way down to the backside of the big island Namhae. We went to a Coast Guard station and they drove us to another community center. Then we walked across the bridge and on to Namhae itself. I felt like someone should be welcoming us to Jurassic Park or something. Namhae has BEAUTIFUL green mountains and great views. We hitchhiked to the main city of Namhae-eup, where we asked the community center people about 20ish members who live on Namhae. After some prodding, they agreed to tell us if the people were still living at the addresses we had or not. It helped us clear up our records! We hitchhiked back up through Namhae, over the Samcheonpo bridge, and into Samcheonpo. We were dropped off at the same corner where we had prayed, seven hours earlier. It was seven hours of sweat, frustrating conversations with community centers, and high adventure. We counted later, and calculated that we were picked up by 11 different cars during our journey. Epic.

The rest of the week was filled with appointments that fell through, expectations not met. Disappointing. Bro. Bay (whose wife really really REALLY doesn't like our church) wasn't able to meet with us much this week. We'll see if we can do it next week. We met with a nice Filipino lady named Mylene who wants to meet with us and talk about the gospel. She is very humble and met missionaries about a year ago.

The work is moving along here. I'm loving it! N. Korea is making noise and we're still worried a little bit about evacuation, but not so much. Love you guys! Elder Bocchino

Sacheon Branch Friendship Night

2009-05-24T23:35:00.000-07:00

The other day we met with a man (named "shawnny") who enjoys speaking English and wanted to learn about our Church. Nice guy. He met missionaries a few years ago, but then lost contact. We met in his house. He was explaining how he and his wife don't agree on issues of religion, and how she doesn't really like our church, when guess who walks in? His wife came home early and was not happy to see him talking to us. She was pretty upset actually and insisted that we not talk religion with him, saying if he wants to learn about religion he can talk to her preacher. She was confidant she knew all about our Church, yet it didn't seem she really knew anything. She even got on the phone with her preacher and was pretty hysterical. We were finally able to help her calm down and listen to us. We explained what we were teaching but she was still unhappy about it. We discovered that Shawnny stopped meeting with missionaries years ago because his wife ended it. Now he's decided he wants to keep meeting with us. Nice guy, we'll see how it goes.

Then, we hitchhiked out to an island between here and Namhae (the bridge passes over this island) to find a police station and ask about a member who supposedly lives on another island. Anyway...there's no police station anymore...just a small collection of houses and one big church. We hiked to the other side of this small island and found an abandoned school, overgrown and boarded up, very surreal. Our map is over 10 years old and thus the source of our confusion. That's the story of our area it seems: "Yeah! Way back in the day, the person you seek was here, but not anymore".

It's that way with people and places. The other day we hitchhiked out to an area where a member was supposedly living, and who hadn't been visited by the missionaries in at least 10 years. We thought she was long gone and her house had been replaced by a Buddhist temple, so we almost went home. However, we spent a little more time there and found some people who knew her. They described her as "the girl who got married". Apparently she got married and moved to Masan a long time ago. I guess we were at the wrong place, so a lady took us to her actual old house and we met her mom. We didn't get the church member's phone number or address in Masan, but we felt like we finally found some closure and could send off the records to the Church authorities. That's a big accomplishment in Samcheonpo haha! Plus, it was fun to hang out with the grandmas ("harmays").

We had a "friendship night" at our church. It was wayyy fun! My companion and I prepared a song and dance routine and performed in front of the branch. My companion played the ukulele and I used homemade shakers, and we sang about our Sacheon Branch. It was pretty amazing. (Note from Sis. Bocchino: anyone who knows him will understand just "how" amazing!) We stole the show and were forced to perform an encore. Pretty funny stuff...definitely a great memory.

Sacheon rocks!!! It's getting really hot though! Apparently the monsoons come in July. Love, Elder Bocchino

Request For Help

2009-05-17T23:18:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody! First, a request for help. There's a 13/14 year old girl here who is learning English and needs a pen pal around the same age in America. My Branch President asked me to refer someone I know, so if anyone gets this email who can help out, that would be great! Just get in touch with my parents and they can give you more information.

It's same old same old down here in the South. We've had quite a bit of rain recently, but today is another hot day. The other day, we went trekking up into the sticks between Samcheonpo and Sacheon to find a less-active member and her husband (who is missing a leg). They live on a random farm thing in the boonies. We had to hitchhike like crazy to get there and we walked through quite a few rice fields (thankfully they weren't flooded yet). No one was home, but at least we found the place (a big victory) and had some fun.

The foreign family in our branch had their daughter and her friend visit this month from college. It was interesting to have other foreigners in the church meeting, especially since I WAS CONDUCTING in Korean!!! So strange...they had me (an American) conducting the meeting in Korean, and a Korean translating what I said into English for the foreigners. It was really fun!

I hope everyone back home in the states is doing well!!!! Love you guys! Elder Bocchino

Why are there so many different churches?

2009-05-03T21:52:00.000-07:00

Woohoo, we're on week 6 of this transfer (the last week). I'm not sure if I'm leaving Samcheonpo/Sacheon or not. Elder McKenna and I are having fun and we're having fun as a district, so we're not sure any of us actually want to move.

Our friend, Gwak, still wants to be baptized in a few months during the summer break. The other day we met with him and talked about not smoking. He wants to live the Word of Wisdom and stop smoking, but it's hard. We're working with him on that. He loves coming to the Church to help with English class on Saturdays, as well as coming to our Church meetings on Sundays. It's really fun. Our Branch is sooo good at just accepting anyone who wants to join in our activities. I know that I felt right at home as soon as I got here, and so do other people who come to Church. I love our Branch!

This really is kind of a difficult area in some ways. Since every door has been knocked and everyone knows the missionaries already (it seems like), it's hard to find people who are interested in our message. Last night, however, we were knocking doors in a big apartment complex, and a man let us in his house. He lives with his daughter. Really nice guy and very interested in our message. He asked a question that is probably one of the most common questions I hear from people about religion. He said "there is one God, one Bible...but how are there so many different "Christian" churches? Especially in Korea?"

Excellent question! The Savior Himself established His church through apostles called to lead it and teach of His Gospel. One Church. How then do we see fractured Christianity today and think that it is ok? It's not. Christ's church was fractured and corrupted, and the authority to lead it was lost several decades after His death. In our day, God has shown His love for us by restoring Christ's true Church to the earth through a modern prophet. THAT is our message to the world, and I'm here in Korea to proclaim it. I was so glad that Mr. Gwak asked that question last night. We're hoping to continue to meet with him in order to answer his questions.

Korea rocks and the Church is true! I can't ask for much more than that!!! :) I'm excited to call home for Mother's Day! Love, Elder Bocchino

Happy Buddha's Birthday!

2009-04-30T12:42:00.000-07:00

Happy Buddha's Birthday!!! (In less than a week from now) On Saturday, we went up to Taegu (I'd never been there before). It's a HUGE city up north of Pusan, and is a major concentration point for the US military presence in Korea. My companion needed to go up to baptize a man he was meeting with before he transfered down to me. The man is named Roshan and is from Sri Lanka. He is sooooooooooo cool! He's maybe 30s or 40, and had to leave Sri Lanka due to the ethnic war that has been raging for years. His religious background is Roman Catholic. He used to be in the Sri Lankan military. He has so much faith and is thankful that the Lord led him to Korea to meet with us. He's so thankful to have found the Lord's Church. My testimony was definitely strengthened from meeting with him. It was a very humble but very spiritual baptismal service. Man, it pretty much made my week.

The work is still rough. We're going through the records of former investigators, and they all just want to learn English basically. We're working hard though, and we're hoping to find some people who have Gospel interest. The other day, we went outside of Sacheon a little ways to this little valley with some houses and one apartment complex in it. It was pretty tight. We met some cool people who hopefully might want to meet again and we saw some amazing views. We were joking about just moving out to that little valley and never leaving, it was really cool. Lots of rice paddies.The weather has been a little rainy, so it's stayed fairly cool. Nice. That won't last long. Love you! Elder Bocchino

Hitchiking through rice paddies

2009-04-20T01:54:00.000-07:00

Hello from a warmer and warmer Korea! Since Samcheonpo is a small town, EVERY door has been knocked and EVERYONE knows the missionaries......we're finding that out as we are re-knocking all the doors and re-contacting all the people. lol It's fun though. One investigator wants to be baptized this summer vacation (he goes to college) so we're trying to figure out how to help him to continue to prepare for that. We also meet with Mr. Yoon (the academy owner). He used to be Catholic but now just doesn't trust churches of men and doesn't see the need for one true Church on the earth. He loves the Book of Mormon though! He prays a lot and loves talking to us about what he reads in the Book of Mormon. If only he would come to Church and feel the wonderful Spirit as he worships with the Saints! We're trying to figure out how to help him progress. Hitchiking is fun! The rice paddies are starting to look really cool. We are constantly reminded that we are in a very rural part of Korea. Love you guys!!!!! Elder Bocchino

General Conference

2009-04-12T23:42:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Koreans don't have Easter traditions. It's sad... I have actually been in South Korea now for 6 months. What a WEEK. My companion was transferred on short notice to Taegu and I'm still here with Elder McKenna. He's from Utah, and he's a young senior (been in Korea a few months more than me). It's unexpected and he's still trying to take it all in, but we're excited and are planning to have fun and really jump start the work here in Sacheon.

Well, it's hot here. No other way to put it. We received the word yesterday that we can take off our suit coats now. Yes!!!!

This weekend, sort of last minute, the missionaries in this zone were able to go to Masan and watch General Conference in English! I felt so blessed. It was amazing! I felt the influence of the Spirit in my heart as I heard the Lord's servants talk of peace, service, and love. A message that I felt was prominent in Conference was a call to action for us, as followers of Christ, to serve others and push back against the despair and adversity that we face in today's world, especially since recent events.

Elder Holland's talk about Christ's sacrifice, and how we are never alone because of it, really touched me. I wish that every single person in the world, especially during these uncertain times, could watch it and feel the message of peace. We are NEVER alone. Christ suffered and sacrificed so that we may never have to. He knows our pains and worries and will walk with us every mile of our own trial-ridden paths in life. This message gave me so much comfort, and I wish everyone could feel that same comfort.

Elder Cook's talk on Heavenly Father's plan for our salvation was also amazing. No one is too far gone to be saved. NO ONE is outside the plan. God loves all of us, and will never stop trying to bless us and help us return to him. How comforting!

Elder Perry's talk on missionary work was sooooo good! He said missionaries are an extremely under-utilized teaching resource. In order for the work to progress across the world, Church members need to open their mouths to their neighbors and help find people for missionaries to meet with and teach. We all prayed that the members would listen with open hearts to this message.

Whew, an amazingly spiritual Conference....I could go on.....and my head is reeling from getting a new companion 4 weeks before normal transfers. We're excited to work together. It should be fun!

I love you guys! Elder Bocchino

Chinae Cherry Blossoms

2009-04-07T01:36:00.000-07:00

Hey! haha no we weren't evacuated, thank goodness. We spent the night with the Zone Leaders in Changwon and then went with a BUNCH of missionaries (from Gyungnam, Gaya and Pusan zones) to a city called Chinae to see the cherry blossoms! It was beautiful and I took pics. The streets are lined with the trees, and there were tons of people out taking pictures. There were a lot of soldiers there and the Korean Marine Corps Honor Guard and Band were there. There is a big US Naval Base in Chinae. That's where we will go if we ever have to evacuate.

Do you remember Dre? The Gwangan Grandfather...my favorite Korean ever? Well, I SAW HIM in Chinae! Just walking by on the street! I stopped him and he remembered me! He grabbed my hand, and remembered that I'm in Sacheon now and he reiterated that it is "very far from". The 90 year old man made it all the way from Pusan down to Chinae to see the blossoms. It pretty much made my week to be able to see him.

I love this Branch! We had a pretty spiritual Sunday last week, with a lot of focus on the Savior and His atoning sacrifice. I had the opportunity to bear my testimony during Sacrament meeting....pretty bad Korean, but I felt the Spirit. After Church, we went to the Samcheonpo bridge (the "most beautiful bridge in Korea" thing) to see the blossoming of these yellow flowers. I got some cool pics. We had a picnic. The Sacheon Branch is soooooo tiny and humble, and the Branch President is wonderful.

Some disappointing news......the Masan Stake canceled plans to watch General Conference together at the Stake Center this week (Koreans have to wait a week to watch Gen. Conference due to translation). Therefore, I probably won't be able to watch/hear Gen. Conference in English. The missionaries are all pretty disappointed about it (the foreign ones at least!). I'll still get to read the talks when I get next month's Liahona, though, so I'll live lol.

The Church is true! We all need to forget ourselves, take up the cross, and follow Christ! Elder Bocchino

Namhae Island

2009-03-30T19:53:00.000-07:00

Well howdy folks!!! I'm starting transfer number 5 in Korea (I've been in country for about 5 1/2 months). My new companion is named Elder "E Tay Hee"....or Elder "Lee" if you want. He's a Korean from Seoul who has about 3 months left in his mission. I was expecting a "younger" senior, but things change. He's a cool guy and I think we're going to have a lot of fun. This will be my second transfer in Samcheonpo, and I'm so excited!

On Sunday, the Branch President took my companion and me out on a drive to the island Namhae (where he lives). We drove over the "most beautiful bridge in Korea" and saw AMAZING views. It was sooooooo awesome! The island is huge. There used to be a Branch out there, but it was closed down and combined w/ our current Sacheon Branch. We looked out over a bay and saw a city in the neighboring Taejon mission. It is so strange for us, it's like a different country over there because we're never allowed to go outside of our own mission area.

We're working w/ a girl investigator (Lee Meen Gyung) to follow the Word of Wisdom and give up drinking. We're also excited because another investigator (young man: Gwak Chae Hyun) says he wants to be baptized "whenever".

We will be able to see General Conference in two weeks up at the Stake Center (hopefully in English!) and in a few weeks we'll be going to Pusan for another joint Zone Conference. The Asia North doctor will be coming in to talk about health and meet w/ anyone who needs help.

As for North Korea, we've heard nothing new. The seasons are changing, spring is upon us here in Korea, and the cherry blossoms are out! We'll probably be going to Chinhae for a huge cherry blossom festival, where we get to see tons of trees covered in the beautiful whitish pinkish flowers. Amazing.

I love you all! Korea rocks and the Church is true!!!!!!!!!! Elder Bocchino

2009-03-24T21:57:00.000-07:00

Hello from the most beautiful area in the Pusan Mission! It's getting warm here, and Spring is definitely on it's way. Not much new to report. We thought we might have to go to court and be witnesses in a sexual harassment thing we witnessed on a bus ride...but looks like that's resolved now. Very disturbing experience. We're heading into Pusan tomorrow night to sleep over in Hayundae before the big conference on Wednesday. Elder Stevenson (sp?), the first counselor in the Asia North Area Presidency, is coming to do a Mission tour. We've been instructed to read 2 Nephi chapters 2 and 9, so I'm assuming we'll be talking about Christ's Atonement. I'm really excited. The meeting will include Pusan, Gaya, and Gyungnam zones. (I'm in Gyungnam). On Tuesday he's up in Taegu with Gyungbuk and Shilla zones.

Next email is after transfers........should be interesting! The Church is amazingly true!

Elder Bocchino

Masan Stake Conference/Civil Defense Test

2009-03-16T14:34:00.000-07:00

I've been having a blast here at Masan Stake Conference. It's been awesome! We had 8 elders sleep together on sat. night, and 6 last night. Elder Evans (N. Asia Area President) spoke at several sessions, as did his counselor Elder Choi, and our mission pres. (in KOREAN) and our mission "mom" (the mission president's wife). It was pretty amazing!

Elder Evans talked a lot about families and how we should strengthen them. He talked about never pulling away from wayward children, and always forgiving. He said when someone is offended and refuses to forgive, it is their spiritual progression which stops, not that of the offender. We should always strive to love and forgive within our own families. He shared some general personal experiences with us. It was an amazing time, I wish you guys could have been there. His last words in that talk were "Never pull away". I know that's true, but so hard to do. His talks really comforted me.

There have been some tensions with N. Korea, and all missionaries in the Pusan Mission were instructed to review our evacuation procedures the other night. When I was up in the city of Masan the other day, I ran into some US naval reservists who said they had flown into the nearby US base to do some exercises and "saber-rattling". Interesting. The next day we witnessed a massive test of the civil defense and air raid alert systems as sirens sounded all over the city and all traffic stopped. All people were told to stop moving and there were civil defense guards posted on the street corners to enforce this. At one point, an emergency vehicle came screaming down the street, lights and sirens flashing, with a man on the loudspeaker yelling at everybody to get out of the way....dozens of people started yelling and running away......we were pretty confused. For about 15 minutes the city stood still....then another siren sounded and the exercise was over. We've been told that this took place yesterday in other cities around Korea.Bottom line: N. Korea is up to the usual business, but Koreans are prepared.. My companion and I updated our foreigner cards with our new info today so that we can evacuate more easily if necessary.

Last week we had interviews with the Mission President. I should be staying in Sacheon next transfer....maybe with a very young senior.

Love, Elder Bocchino

The Good Shepherd

2009-03-10T10:20:00.000-07:00

Whew, it's getting warm here in Sacheon/Samcheonpo. We went to a lake and a zoo up in a bigger city called Chinju. It was really fun! We saw lions, tigers, bears, (oh my) monkeys, camels, donkeys, deer......and a really angry seal who didn't like me. The monkeys were funny and really really smart. We fed one of them candy. Probably not the best thing to do, but in Korea no one cares I guess. The camels looked sick and like they wanted to spit on us. We were pretty wussy around them.

The zoo had a beautiful view! The area around here is covered in green mountains (big hills really). Very beautiful! It reminds me of Washington. The ocean and inlets are also breathtaking. I love serving here. It's fun to go up into big apt. buildings and see the views of the massive rice fields that surround Samcheonpo and Sacheon.

Last week, I went on splits with my Zone Leader for one day to a big city called Chahngwon. It's a "planned city" with wide American-style streets, shopping malls, and a lot of people. It's meant to be the back-up capital for South Korea should Seoul come under attack. By the way, Korea just beat Japan in baseball and everyone's proud of it.

We're hearing that the draw-down of missionary numbers in Korea should be happening a LOT sooner than expected, probably this summer. We'll go from around 120 now to about 78 missionaries very soon. Enough for one team for each ward in the mission....I'm not sure about some of the smaller branches like here in Sacheon. Apparently they're pushing more missionaries to Brazil. It'll make for a pretty tough mission for the next year and a half ish.......speaking of which, in a few days, I'll have been in Korea for 5 months....crazy to think about.

My comp and I went to the Stake Center in Masan last Sunday for a Stake Bishopric/Branch Presidency meeting. It was pretty fun. I was able to meet the former Pusan Mission President (Pres. Sohng) who is now a "Welfare Missionary" in Korea. He's a powerful man and a big help to the Church here in Korea.

This weekend is Stake Conference in Masan. The Asia North Area President (Pres. Evans) and his Korean 2nd Counselor will be speaking, along with our mission president, his wife and others. It should be really fun, and we're looking at spending one or two nights with the missionaries in Masan. Should be a party! I miss being around missionaries like I was in the big city of Pusan, but being here in Sacheon has benefits.

At a recent Zone Conference, we talked about following Christ's example as the Good Shepherd. We are called by Christ to act in His stead as shepherds over His flock. We are not to act as mere hirelings who care not for the sheep, but as loving and diligent shepherds who direct all of their energy and activities to ensure the well-being and safety of the flock. The speaker quoted Talmadge's Jesus the Christ in this contrast, and it really hit me. I'm thankful to act in Christ's stead and serve the good people of Korea! It's been an amazing experience so far and I'm sure it will continue to bless my life.

Thanks all! I love you guys! Elder Bocchino

Ferry Trip

2009-03-01T22:25:00.000-08:00

Hello! This past week we went out to an island with an investigator, his family, and a bunch of kids who attend the academy he owns. Koreans are kind of obsessed with school. They attend normal school during the morning and night, and attend "academy" at any other time. At these academies they learn a lot of different things, but mostly English. The group that went with us was mostly younger kids around 12 ish..maybe younger. It was really fun.

We got on a ferry and took a beautiful 30 min trip out to this mountainous island, where we could hike, go fishing and play soccer. It was a blast, even though I didn't catch any fish. The kids were really fun to hang out with. We like to go to that academy and visit them every week. We talk to the kids, play cards with them, and then meet with the owner to talk about the gospel. It's one of my most favorite things to do here.

The Branch is still ridiculously small, but soooooo much fun. We had Family Home Evening last night (Sun. night) with some of the youth and a member. We held it at his combination meat shop/home and had a really good lesson about Joseph Smith's experience. That experience kicked off the Restoration of Christ's Gospel and this Church, so we figure it's pretty important to focus on. I love reading Joseph's own account of what happened, I can really feel the Spirit when I do.

Samcheonpo/Sacheon is still rockin! We're having a blast down here. Today we'll go to a big bathouse that has an open balcony for us to chill on and look out over the ocean. I'm excited.
Take care and God Bless! Elder Bocchino

TAGGED!

2009-02-25T14:47:00.000-08:00

Elder Bocchino was tagged by Elder Singleton and Elder Anderson (former roommates at the MTC in Provo) on a P-Day last month in the Gaya Zone. Can you spot him? (Hint: Elder Singleton has the ball, and Joshua is in white shorts and a gray shirt on the right...)

Thank you, Elders, for sharing these!

"Falling To Samchonpo"

2009-02-22T22:37:00.000-08:00

Greetings from Samchonpo!!!!! There's a saying in Korea: when you go off on a tangent in a conversation, or anytime you just get lost/off the beaten path and can't get back, you say "I fell to Samchonpo"....it's kind of known as the "end of the line" here in Korea. Yep, that's where I'm at. I love it!

Where to start? The branch is tiny! Sunday meeting consisted of the Branch President's family (President, wife, 3 young children), two missionaries (who are the counselors), two middle school students, a 21 year old (the branch mission leader) and an American family of three. That's it! Take out the American family and we all fit in one van (yep, that's how we got home yesterday.....all of us....). The Church meetings were very simple, short and spiritual. I had to get up and give my "introduction talk" of about 2 minutes stating who I am, where I'm from etc. Church here in Sachon is about 2 hours long instead of three. We don't really have a Church "building"....it's on the 2nd floor of a building. Very very small. We have a nice ping pong table though. I have a feeling that I will be very good at ping pong before I leave this area. Koreans are obsessed with the game.

The area is beautiful. We're on the coast and next to a deep inlet that runs up quite a ways. So many amazing views, at least compared to the gray landscape of the big cities. It's been fairly rainy recently, and I'm reminded of home as we drive along wet, two lane roads in a rural area. Yes, we are in the extreme south-west of our mission. We might go to a town that is on the western edge of our area in the next few weeks....I'm hoping to run into some Taejon missionaries.

We went down to the fish market by the dock the other day. It's covered with a collection of tents and tables where grandmothers come and sell fish. Rats are common...one ran over my companion's foot. It's interesting to see the women cut up live fish and watch as the fish continue to move even after skinned and sliced several times. Kind of gross, but that's life. I went to the end of the dock and looked out at the several islands that sit off of our coast.

My Italian companion and I have been eating a lot of pasta recently......we're loving it! Samchonpo/Sachon is amazing! I love it and I'm excited for the weeks ahead! Love,Elder Bocchino

LEAVING GWANGAN

2009-02-16T23:42:00.000-08:00

Transfer calls came in on Friday night. I've been reassigned to an area called Sah-chon (Sachon). I live in a city called Sahm-chon-poh (Samchonpo). I love it. It's pretty small and interesting. Lots of rice paddies. A big switch from the big city area where I started my mission (the center of Pusan). I'm with the other Italian in our mission: Elder Naccarato. We're already known as the "Italians" or the "Italian team" in the mission. I'm pretty excited and I'm pretty sure I'm going to love this transfer (6 weeks). I'm excited to start working in a new area with new people.

This past week we went with "Dre" (Kim Jong Duk), our 89-year old friend, to his senior activities center where he introduced us to his "friends". Basically, he told them to listen to the American missionaries, believe Jesus, and go to heaven. It was the coolest and cutest thing I've seen yet. For a 90 year old man to travel around the city w/ six young missionaries and tell people to come unto Christ, it was pretty touching. We ate lunch with the seniors at the center and I was able to sit next to Dre. I'll never forget it. I hated saying good bye to him. When I announced in church that I was going to Samchonpo, he got a worried look on his face and said in english "too muchy far" (very far away). Then he told me to take care of my body, learn Korean, and come back sometime.

He is one of my most favorite people in this world probably. The "poor farmer" who lived in Japan for 11 years, fought in the war, met missionaries, received baptism, and wants his "spirit to go to heaven forever to live"......the Gwangan grandfather......the man, the myth, the legend: Dre.

(Elder Bocchino with Kim Jong Duk)

I'm now the 2nd counselor in the Sachon Branch (small, with @ 20+ members who come out to church). I'll be spending the coming week getting used to this area, which will be interesting. I'm expecting to hitchike a lot in this area, which should be fun.

The Church is true! Stay close to the Lord! Elder Bocchino

25 Baptismal Dates in Mission

2009-02-09T02:23:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone. No time to write today. Everything is the same as always! We're feeling some pressure from certain members to return to the English program a little bit....but we're holding strong to President Jenning's new vision of the mission. There are also about 25 people with baptismal dates in the mission right now!!! It's so exciting. The work is progressing! The Church is true! Love, Elder Bocchino

BUMP DAY

2009-02-03T19:43:00.000-08:00

Well hello! I officially had my "bump day" on January 30th! (6 months as a missionary). I forgot to burn a tie, but I might do it anyway. Not much news to report. We had a pretty great meeting at church: all about member missionary work. We showed a movie called "Small and Simple Things" which was made by the Charlotte North Carolina Mission. It's pretty great, all about member mish. work. The members seem committed to some pretty aggressive missionary goals this year, so we're hoping they receive the missionary spirit to help this work move along! Take care - Elder Bocchino

GAYA ZONE

2009-01-28T00:15:00.000-08:00

We've reached the end of Solar, the three-day Korean new year holiday. Everything was shut down and people were at home with their families doing ceremonies to remember ancestors. Interesting. It made missionary work pretty hard for a few days. We've had quite a few meal appointments with members though, so that's been good.

This past Monday we had a multi zone full p-day (from 10:30 - 9 pm). We went up to a cool university campus in Gaya zone and played football, basketball and soccer. Then we went and had lunch together and a small group of us went and hung out at a bathouse. It was a tight p-day. The missionaries in both zones are all sore from the festivities. I enjoyed being able to play football for the first time in a long time. Since most of my friends are in the Gaya zone I was glad to be able to see them.

We also had zone conference recently and were able to learn a lot about being united with our companions, our wards and the Lord. It was a great experience.

(Me with Bro. Jung Sung Ook and Elder Hinton):

My new companion, Elder Choi:

With my Companion and roommates at first transfer:

It's been very cold here for a few weeks, but today is unusually warm. It caught us unawares and we're kind of hot. Strange....Another week down in the Land of the Morning Calm. Two more until transfers. Elder Bocchino

More Photos

2009-01-26T22:52:00.000-08:00

A few more photos...

Standing with Bro. Kim Jong Duk (we call him "Dre"):

At the church:

Somewhere in Busan...

The Gwangan Bridge:

U.N. Memorial Cemetery, Busan, S. Korea

2009-01-26T22:29:00.000-08:00

Here are a few photos taken at the U.N. Memorial Cemetery in Busan, S. Korea in early December 2008 (see posts from Nov. 9, 2008 and Dec. 24, 2008). My grandfathers both served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps during the Korean War, and my father also trained in Korea as an officer in the USMC. The U. N. Memorial Cemetery has special significance to our family, and it was a very moving visit for me.

(L-R) Jung Sung Ook, Elder Hinton, an unidentified guard, and Elder Bocchino (me):

At the Memorial Cemetery:

(L-R) Me, Bro. Jung Sung Ook, Elder Hinton, and Bro. Kim Gee Yun (Bro. "David Kim" referred Bro. Jung to the missionaries, along with another recent convert. He is currently in Australia on an internship):

The Wall of Remembrance:

Mountains Are Temples

2009-01-19T00:03:00.000-08:00

Mountains are temples. Last week for Zone Meeting, the Pusan Zone hiked up a small mountain and talked about how we can become more effective missionaries. It was very interesting.

This past week, we found a really sweet Buddhist family. The son is 12 and the daughter is 10. They are very nice and seem to have a lot of interest in what we have to say about families. The 12 year old loves to talk to us and he arranges the appointments (his is the only cell phone number we have right now!). When we asked his "favorite thing", he said "family." Nice kid.

We meet a lot of people on the street and my companion is able to get their telephone numbers, but it seems like no one wants to meet with us. We are working hard to share this gospel. Twice a week we meet with an 88 year old man we call "Dre". His name is Kim Jong Duk. Really nice man. He was baptized in 2007 and has been learning english from the missionaries since then. He is a very sweet man. I love him and enjoy meeting with him.

We're working hard and praying for success every day. I love you all and keep you in my prayers! Elder Bocchino

Street Contacting in Gwangan

2009-01-11T23:05:00.000-08:00

My companion Elder Choi ("Chway") and I are still rocking it here in Gwangan. I'm learning a lot from having a Korean companion. It is interesting. We're still meeting with the Buddhist family, and apparently we're changing some perceptions they've had about Christians. He might not be ready to receive the gospel, but I feel that we're doing good things with him and I'm glad we're meeting with him.

One thing we do a lot of here in Korea (especially in the Pusan mission) is work with less active members. We have names and info about members who were baptized years ago but haven't been out to church for a long time. We then go out and try to find their houses and make contact with them. It's like detective work, as we have a name and an address and have to go talk to neighbors and local authorities in order to figure out if they moved, how long ago, where to....etc etc. I find this work very fun and rewarding, but it can be extremely depressing as well. Most of the time, we will find out that the people have moved, and since no one in the church knows them (and they aren't home taught) they're pretty much lost. No one knows where they moved to, and the Church won't be able to find them ever again. It's easy to get depressed. There are maybe 85 people who come out to church in our ward here in Gwangan, but literally hundreds of less-active unknowns who get lost over the years. These people were baptized because they liked missionaries, wanted to learn english, or maybe because they truly accepted the gospel, but they quickly fell away and became forgotten. It's sad. What is most rewarding is when we can find less active members who want to meet with us and who want to come back to church! I wish and pray that we can find such people.

As for proselyting, my companion likes to do street contacting. I find that while Koreans are more interested in American elders because we're foreign, they're more willing to give their phone numbers to, and agree to meet with, Korean missionaries (probably because the Korean missionaries are better at explaining what we're all about! lol). I find that I'm learning a lot about the work by watching how my new companion does things.

Elder Choi has been sick for a few days, so I've been able to do a lot of reading. I've read a lot of the book, Jesus the Christ (by James E. Talmadge), and have learned a lot more about the Savior. Mostly, I've gained a greater desire to become a better teacher. The Savior was (and is) the greatest teacher ever known. He always went about doing good and used every moment to teach others. I've paid some attention to His specific instruction to the Apostles. Since a missionary's calling is an extension of sorts of the Twelves', and since the Twelve were being called to missions at the time, I hope to take some of that instruction and personalize it. I take great comfort in knowing that all the rejection and suffering we will face in the Lord's work is suffering for the Lord, and will be for our benefit. My testimony has been strengthened, and I hope to become a better missionary throughout my mission.

Happy New Year (the Korean one is in a few weeks)! Elder Bocchino

A WEEK IN YEONSAN (aka Siberia!)

2009-01-05T00:53:00.000-08:00

Well, where to start? I just had an amazing week with my Zone Leader in his area (more later...) and now I have a Korean senior companion. Hopefully I will learn a lot. I'm still serving in the Gwangan area.

We hiked a little mountain (hill) at 6:00 am on New Year's day to see the sun rise. That's a big Korean tradition. It was soooo cold! It was interesting, but I probably will not continue that tradition when I come home lol. I like sleep and warmth...preferably a warm sleep.

This past week I was with my Zone Leader in Yeonsan. It was just the two of us in what I like to call Siberia! (freezing....) He has quite a few investigators and I was able to teach quite a bit. We met twice with a really really nice family that owns a soup restaurant. They're awesome! We taught them about how Christ's gospel became restored and about prophets and the Book of Mormon. We invited the father to pray with us before we left, and it was a very spiritual experience. The second time we visited, they had both been reading the Book of Mormon and wanted to know which specific part they could read to really feel the Spirit. I invited them to read in 3 Nephi 11 about when Jesus Christ visited the Americas. It could be one of the most important parts in the whole book. They said they were excited to read it. What a wonderfully sincere family. Their 13 yr old daughter is way cute and we teach her a little bit of English when we visit. They feed us this delicious soup with pork in it.....called day-jee-gook-bop. Awesome.

We taught another man about faith. He wants to be baptized but his wife is not allowing it right now (she's buddhist). Nice guy. He also likes to learn a lot of English.

Elder Anderson is no longer in my district. He moved to another zone, but he's still fairly nearby. Our zone has gone through a lot of changes this transfer...we'll see how it all works out. Love and thanks, Elder Bocchino

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2008-12-28T23:33:00.000-08:00

Well, we have a family of investigators now! Very nice man and family....very very devout Buddhists, and very interested in spiritual things. He is also very interested in history and world events. The other night, he took us into his back room where he has his own personal museum, including Korean artifacts dating back to the Shilla and Koryo dynasties! Very interesting man and wonderful family.

It's been a sad week. My companion (the ward adores him) has finished his mission and departed. The ward is also losing some very studly men as well. One is going to Salt Lake for schooling, another is going to BYU soon for schooling, and still another is leaving for an internship and then, perhaps, a mission. All solid members, and they will be missed.

We had a great Christmas. I hope everyone else had the same!!!! Transfers are this coming weekend, so for the remainder of this week I will be with my Zone Leader, away from my area. I hope I don't transfer, as I would be spending my last week here away from Gwangan. The work is hard here. The overall membership is weak, and our missionary numbers are being cut, but the Lord loves this land. He loves this people and will continue to bless them. Apparently we have around 53,000 or so missionaries worldwide now, but we will end up at about 42,000 in the next two or three years. Hard times ahead.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful winter!!!! Happy New Year!!!! Elder Bocchino

(This is a photo of a favorite restaurant here in Gwangan that we call "Dirty Donkas - it has cheap tonkatsu!)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2008-12-24T00:08:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas from Korea!!!!!!!!!!! It's bitter cold here, but we just finished watching Polar Express at the mission home for a Pusan Zone P-day. The work is hard but still rewarding. Last night, while knocking doors, we were able to meet a nice family man and teach him about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. He's pretty hardcore Buddhist, but he's a spiritual man and we felt the Holy Ghost as we talked about God and His plan. He agreed that talking about such spiritual things made him feel good too, and we set up a return appt., so he's our new investigator (our only investigator).

Last week, we went to the UN Korean War Memorial here in our area in Busan. It was a pretty spiritual experience for me as I thought about my grandfathers and what they did in the war. We went with a member and our new convert. It was very fun and edifying. We lost tens of thousands of men in that war, and I know that it is only through that sacrifice that this land could be free and open to the preaching of the gospel today. These people owe their lives to the sacrifice made by our forefathers a half a century ago, and they know it. After all the talk and complaints about America, they know what that great generation did for them, and they are grateful.

Speaking of which, some guy on the street told us Pres. Bush dodged TWO shoes in Iraq!!!!!! That's my boy! He then proceeded to act like an International Relations expert and tell us all about America and how our country is a big bully. Yep, just about everyone wants to add their little theory on how America should go about her business.....it's funny sometimes.

I love being able to share a message about Jesus during this Christmas season. I know that a Savior was born in a stable in Bethlehem that night. It is only through Him that we can find lasting joy and can return to our Father. This is the happy message that we offer to the world. I am happy to serve out here, and I hope everyone has a very wonderful Christmas!

Love,Elder Bocchino

Zone Conference

2008-12-14T19:58:00.000-08:00

Hello and Merry Kuh-rees-uh-mah-suh from Busan!!!!! (Some Korean pronunciations make me laugh). Things are going well here in Busan. It's pretty cold now, but it's better than the heat we'll experience come summer. Missionary work is still hard (it always is) but soooo rewarding. We've seen some true miracles lately with members who haven't been to church in a long time suddenly starting to come back. The members and missionaries are working so hard to make this happen, and I feel that the Spirit of the Lord is moving upon these people and strengthening them. I like what Paul tells the Ephesians when he says that we invite people to come and be no more strangers, but instead be fellow citizens in the household of God. It's so wonderful to see these good people come back to the body of the saints, where we can all be edified together.

It's important to strengthen the church in Korea for the days ahead. Street proselyting is extremely hard in Korea, and the english program doesn't work well and has been discontinued in Pusan. That pretty much leaves knocking doors as the last way for missionaries to effectively convey this message to the people of Korea. That is becoming more difficult, as all new apt. complexes (where everyone lives in Korea) are getting "gwali-jahs" (security guards) who never let us in.

Eventually, it will be so hard to find people to teach that I feel the ONLY way will be through members. Members of this church will have to invite their friends to learn about their beliefs, therefore it is soooo important that we are strengthening the church now. Just last night we were kicked out of a nice apartment complex that we managed to get into, and that is happening more and more often. It's hard, but we still work hard to bring this message to everyone.

This past week we had zone conference, where maybe 50 missionaries get together from the Pusan "zone" (around Pusan) and have meetings. (Our mission has 5 zones). We had a great, edifying experience and then watched the musical "Scrooge" (I think it was from the 60s or 70s). It was really fun and also allowed us to feel and be taught by the Spirit.
I love the Christmas season and all the good things we can experience and feel during this time of year. I'm sad that I'm missing the festivities in America, but I enjoy the opportunity to share this wonderful message with everyone I meet. Not only was a Savior born, but He still lives! His church is on the earth today and He leads it. God still loves us just as much as He has loved His children throughout the ages. He wants to help us return to Him, and through the restored gospel of Jesus Christ we can. Just like the story and message of Christmas, this gospel message truly is good news to a world much in need of it. I am so happy that I have the opportunity to share it with the world!

Merry Christmasish time! Elder Bocchino

SNOW!

2008-12-08T00:16:00.000-08:00

It snowed here the other day! Rare for Busan. Not much but it was really fun.

Jung Sung Ook, a recent convert, received the priesthood this week. He's so excited to serve and live the gospel, it's a real testimony builder to spend time with him and see how he's changing his life. He is preparing for an all-english interview in his international trade class, so we were able to help him and his friends with that. He's hoping to bring them to our ward's english class this week.

I went on splits to our neighboring area "Haeundae". It is the nicest area in Korea and is full of high-rise apartments and affluent residents. A lot of people speak english there. It was a really fun split.

I was chatting with a friend in our ward and asked him about his military service. He served in a special army unit on the Korean DMZ. The Koreans seem to have a competent military and are very proud of their required military service. He also talked about a movie called "JSA: Joint Security Area". It's a famous Korean movie about the DMZ. I had watched it a few years ago and really liked it, even though I didn't really understand it.

I've been reading some of the talks given at General Conference recently. The theme of this past Conference seemed to be enduring hard times and looking forward to a bright future. I know that as we center our faith on the Savior, Jesus Christ, we can endure our hard times and live to see brighter days. This message helps me during hard times on my mission.

I have to go. Take care! Love, Elder Bocchino

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

2008-11-30T18:58:00.000-08:00

Happy belated Thanksgiving! Our District went to Outback for a Thanksgiving lunch. It was really fun, but we all missed home of course. This week has been fun but fairly uneventful. We were able to go to the mission home and hear from a gentleman who served in Korea many years ago, came back as a mission president in Pusan, and is now a professor of Korean studies at BYU. He had very interesting insights about genealogy and Korean culture.

There are some cultural challenges in the missions here in Korea. For the most part, American missionaries and mission presidents tend to do things the "American way". Sometimes Korean missionaries feel offended or confused by the way we do things. The language barrier is also a huge obstacle. We don't understand each other's humor and so forth. It is hard sometimes, and it is easy for feelings to be hurt. We all work very hard to overcome these difficulties.

We are focusing on motivating the members about missionary work. We might be seeing some success, as we have received quite a few member-referrals recently. I can testify that working closely with members (when they bring friends to the missionaries) is the best way to help others come to Christ. We can proselyte all day, knock doors, get phone numbers, but one member referral is worth days and days of that. Working with members is the way to go.

One such member referral is the young man who we've spent some time with: Jung sung ook. He was baptized a few months ago and he loves this gospel so much. He is hungry to learn more about what God wants him to do and how to be a better person. He wants to serve a mission and bless others with what he knows. He's just a great young man all-around, really. It's so cool to see how the gospel of Jesus Christ can change someone's life like that.

An interesting note about Korea: they have mixed feelings about America just like everyone else, but they especially hate american beef. They are very proud of the fact that they serve "Australian beef" in their restaurants. They think that American beef has mad cow disease in it, and huge demonstrations are held in Seoul every year to protest our beef. Interesting...

Well, the Church is true. I still love it out here and love preaching the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that this message is meant for all people, and all people can be blessed through it. There is a prophet of God on the earth today, and it is a great expression of God's love for us. Just like Israel of old, we have guidance and direction for our lives today. This is the message we bring to the world. Christ lives, and He invites all to come unto Him.

Take care, thank you for the support. Elder Bocchino

GODZILLA!!!

2008-11-23T22:10:00.000-08:00

Transfer week is here. I lucked out and will stay in Gwangan for at least another transfer. I'll be able to "kill off" my "dad" (my trainer goes home at the end of this transfer). I'm excited to be able to serve in this awesome area again.

Well, I finally had my "Godzilla" moment. That's right, the other day a group of kids saw me, gasped, pointed and yelled "Godzilla". I enjoyed it.

The work is hard but fun. I've been sick for a few days so I haven't gone out much. We heard UofU beat BYU. Sad.

We climbed a mountain last week for District Meeting and had some great views. It was freezing cold. There were some random weight sets out in the woods so I did some quick curls (pictures on the way lol).

We keep hearing that the temples in CA have been under attack by angry protesters or something. How bad is it? Times seem to be getting pretty tough.

There's not much more to say. Hopefully I'll have more next week. Thanks for the support!

Love, Elder Bocchino

NAMPODONG MARKETPLACE

2008-11-16T23:02:00.000-08:00

Another awesome week gone by. One more week until transfers. I hope I get to stay here in Gwangan. I love it here. This Sunday, the young children put on a musical program in Church. It was a very moving and spiritual experience. I couldn't understand 100% of it, but I could understand enough. Hearing those little Korean children sing and testify of their Father in Heaven reminded me of the basic truths that change lives. I was taught by the Spirit during that Sacrament meeting. God DOES exist and He is our Heavenly Father. He loves us and wants us to be happy and return to Him. When the children sang the words "Heavenly Father, are you really there?," I thought of all of the people here and around the world who don't know the answer to that question. "This is why I'm here, I want everyone to know the answer to that question," I thought. I love serving the Lord here and working to bring people to an understanding of their relationship with Heavenly Father.

Earlier this week, Elders Matsuura and Potter met a British lady who is working here teaching English. While knocking doors in some apartments, we ran into her again. We were able to bring her an English-language Book of Mormon and teach her about the restoration of Christ's Gospel (in English!!!! woohoo). It was a great experience, and she wants to meet again. It was interesting being able to participate fully in a teaching situation for once!

Today (for our pday activities) we met up with a really cool recent convert named Jung Sung Ook (20-something). We spent a couple of hours with him here in a big marketplace called Nampodong. It was really fun. We walked through the crowded market streets, smelling the smells and seeing all of the merchandise. There are some interesting things being sold here - for example, I've seen hats that say AFNY, which stands for Air Force New York. It makes no sense, but the words look familiar to Koreans, so they sell them. Jung Sung Ook is a really fun and nice guy. He's our "hang nim", or older brother. Our ward is full of really great young people like him.

Last night, we were invited to the apartment of a really nice family in the ward. The husband is American and served a mission in Seoul many years ago. His wife is Korean and they've lived in the States for many years (they're just visiting here). Sis. Wray did so much to make us feel comfortable. She fed us sooo much beef (we don't get much meat here) and coke and cookies and milk. She was used to Americans and wanted to make us feel comfortable. It was so much fun. Their son is a year older than me and goes to BYU.

BYU plays Utah this week. We're all excited! I'll spend the night at the mission home tonight so that my companion can apply for classes at the U of U. It should be fun. Well, I'm gonna go. I love it here like I never thought I would. Thanks for your love and support!

Elder Bocchino

Happy Veterans Day and Happy Birthday to the U.S.M.C.!!!

2008-11-09T21:52:00.000-08:00

Hello from the heart of "Dynamic Busan"!!!

Another crazy week gone by. Our ward is awesome and is working hard to strengthen each other.

People in Pusan are very proud of the fact that the only memorial in the world to commemorate all of the nations that fought in the Korean war is in Pusan. We hope to go there next week. The Korean people appreciate what our American forefathers did over half a century ago to defend them. They respect the "sacrifice" culture of the military and the fact that American servicemen are willing to die to preserve liberty and freedom around the world. They especially respect the US Marine Corps and what Marines have sacrificed for Korea. It has made for interesting conversations since Dad was a career Marine.

The other day, Elder Hinton and I were trekking around in our area. We hiked up through some back alleys and steep tiny roads to find one member who was baptized when she was ten. We talked to a lady at the top of a hill by a Buddhist temple. It was really cool....I love the work here. As challenging as some places are here, I love going to them because the gospel has to "penetrate every continent, visit every clime, sweep every country and sound in every ear". This is why I'm on a mission! :)

We've been working a lot with some new converts in our ward: Jung Sung Ook and Kim Ho Rool. They're so amazing! They love the gospel and it's great to observe the sincerity with which they apply the restored gospel in their lives. It's hard to be a member here in Korea, and I have soooo much respect for those strong members who are able to do it.

I love the work here in Pusan (or is it Busan? lol). I love missionary work like I never thought I would. Thanks for the support and love! Elder Bocchino

Week 3 in Gwangan

2008-11-02T21:09:00.000-08:00

Greetings again from Gwangan! I just survived another taxi ride. I forgot to tell you about something on my first night. A couple of us greenies rode in the van with the AP's (Assistants to the Mission President). As we drove across the bridge into Pusan, they started blasting the Tabernacle Choir song "Bringing in the Sheaves". They introduced us to a Pusan mission tradition by screaming "BRINGING IN THE SHEAVES, BRINGING IN THE SHEAVES!" and punching the roof of the van with clenched fists as hard as they could....then they yelled at us to join in the festivities. This went on for several minutes. It was ridiculous and my first thought was "we have crazy APs...awesome!!!!" Our APs are amazing elders and very motivated. I'm so happy to serve with them.

Last night, a group of missionaries that served in Korea in the 1970s returned to Pusan as a singing group called "New Horizons". They held a concert in a local church building and we were able to attend last night. It was so great to have so many Korean saints gathered together in one place. The church is small here in Korea, so it's good when we can spend time and be edified together. The other cool thing about it was that our President was there and allowed all the missionaries to stay until the concert was over. We didn't get home until after 10 pm!! :^0 It was really cool.

Korea is still as crazy as ever. I never thought buses could drive so fast. Motorcycles and cars drive on the sidewalks and if you want to run a red light, all you have to do is honk your horn. Little Korean kids are some of the cutest things in the world. People seem intimidated by my size.....and they always want me to eat a lot of their food (which is hard because it's so dang hot).

We were able to have a joint zone conference with over half of the mission in attendance last week. Elder Chway (English spelling), who is the second counselor in the North Asia Area Presidency, spoke to us. He talked about the different roles of men and women and the importance of honoring our priesthood. He also talked about a problem Korea has with young church members leaving the country for the US and Canada. He spoke of the importance of members staying in their home nations and building up Zion there.

During the conference, a missionary read a poem that best summarizes a mission (as far as I can tell). I wish I had the words with me, but the gist of it was that before I went on a mission, I'd never been so sad and so joyful; I'd never had so many lows and so many highs; I'd never felt so useless and so proud; I'd never felt so weak or strong. It's so true. One second I feel so sad and useless, and the next I feel filled with power and the Spirit as I bear testimony of Jesus Christ's restored gospel. I feel so weak and insufficient as I try to proclaim this message, but then I realize that the Lord is leading me. We are strong when we allow the Lord to direct our paths. I've never felt so helpless and yet so safe.

For the first time in my life I feel like I'm really putting myself in the Lord's hands and letting Him guide me. It's a marvelous feeling. I know that we are weak and lack knowledge, but the Lord will use us to confound the wise and bring down the strong. I know that the Apostle Paul speaks truth when he tells us that the Lord calls weak and humble servants to do His work. In the Doctrine and Covenants, Chapter 4, we read that faith hope charity and love, with an eye single to the glory of God, qualify us for the work.

This is truly a marvelous work and a wonder on Earth today. The Savior is gathering His flock together before He comes again, and I am privileged to play a small part in it. I love you all and I keep you in my thoughts and prayers.

Bringing in the Sheaves,
Elder Bocchino

Week 2 in Korea

2008-10-26T20:24:00.000-07:00

Hello from Pusan, Korea!!!! So, just on the way here I almost died again in a taxi......we were literally inches away from a bus coming into our lane. Inches! Even the taxi driver was freaking out.

I was pretty down earlier this week. I knew that some people wouldn't listen to our message and I'm used to people thinking bad things about the Church, but I didn't think it would be like this. We go out proselyting for hours a day.....walking the streets and knocking doors. I struggle with the language and people reject us outright, call us a cult or tell us to just go away and talk to other people. Then, later this week, we were knocking doors in one apartment building. We had planned to go knock doors with some other elders....but for some reason things weren't working out, no matter what we did, and we eventually had to part ways. While Elder Hinton and I were knocking doors, a man answered and I was trying to talk to him in my horrible Korean. At first he said it was late...they were busy etc.....and then he suddenly told us to come in. We sat down and talked with him and his wife. They fed us some awesome Asian pear and talked with us. They were angels. Usually at least one person in the house wants you to leave...but they were really nice. They wanted a Book of Mormon and the wife loved reading the pamphlet on the Restoration. They attended another church but were very interested in what we have to say. The man liked me, it seemed, and was comfortable patting me on the knee and stuff (in Korea that's a good thing). I'm not sure where it will go, but I felt the Spirit and my own spirits were lifted. I know that I received a tender mercy from the Lord that night.

On Saturday, we played some basketball for a couple of hours with some members. The Bishop also played (he's a lifter and very competitive). It was awesome and I can't wait until next Saturday. Sunday was nice. We pretty much spend most of the day at church. Sunday night, the four of us elders went and knocked doors together in some huge apartment buildings. Elder Hinton and I got kicked out by some Gwali-jas (security types). It was my first time. They're a huge obstacle to the work....especially in the bigger, nice apt. complexes.

The other night, we went to the patriarch's house with the sister missionaries in our area. The Patriarch was soo cool. He seemed to like me, and said that he wished he spoke English so that we could talk more. There are two new converts that Elder Hinton baptized last transfer. They're college students and really cool. Really nice guys. One of them is applying to the BYU english language program for next year. That's an interesting thing. Korean Church members are some of the best at English. Since many of the young men (and women) serve missions, and some young people go to a Church school in the states at some point, they learn english. All Koreans take english classes in school, but few really learn the language. I was talking to one of the new converts about his mandatory military service. I told him of how my father had spent some time with Korean marines and really liked them. I like asking Koreans about their "Gundae" service.

I've had some more Korean food. I love Asian pears! Hay jon gook is a soup with some bones w/ meat on them in it. It was really good (hot temperature) and tasted like a really good, spicy chicken noodle soup. There's a lot of squid here but so far I'm too chicken to try it. The other night we had a shiksa (meal appt...basically) at a part member house. The soup was called shabashaba (Japanese soup). It had veggies and meat in it. The lady then put some garlic and noodles in and it was soooo good. I haven't had dog meat yet, but I will. I hate hate hate seaweed (therefore I avoid kimbop). The other day, we went to a meat buffet. For missionaries it is heaven because we don't get a whole lot of meat. It was awesome.

Today, we have an interesting p day. We received permission to leave the house at 8:30 am(usually it is 10:30 am), so we're going to do some fun stuff. I'm not sure what yet. Tonight we have the ward FHE, so it should be a BLAST. Luckily, we sleep on mattresses.....so I haven't had to experience the floor yet. Bugs and stuff aren't a problem on the 19th floor....so that's nice.

I love you guys and miss you. I love it out here in the field, even with the down days. It's amazing. I know that we are making a difference. I know that we are fulfilling Daniel's prophecy, and also Joseph Smith's prophecy as the gospel is "penetrating every continent, visiting every clime, sweeping every country and sounding in every ear".

Love, Elder Bocchino

(Below are some photos from the MTC)

Greetings from Gwangan!

2008-10-19T22:21:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Gwangan! As you already know, I'm serving in the Gwangan area in the Pusan Zone. If you go to http://www.mormon.org/ and click on "worship with us", you can look up where the Gwangan ward meeting house is (for Google Maps). We live in some apts up the hill from that. The Gwangan beach is in our area. It is the second most famous beach in Korea (the first is our neighboring area, Haeundae).

Monday is our P-Day. It's been a cool first week. This past weekend was a huge annual festival. There was a HUGE, AMAZING, SPECTACULAR fireworks show on Sat. night. I took pics and videos of it...I'll send them to you. It was the best fireworks/lightshow/concert I've ever seen!!!! I think it is the best in the world. We sat on the beach with some ward members (surrounded by 3.5 million Koreans apparently...that's what we were told) and watched the show for a few hours. It was awesome. A bunch of missionaries from different areas showed up.

Our area has 4 elders assigned to it (we live in the same apt.). A trio of sisters also covers our area.

One of my roommates is Elder Matsuura (I knew him in the MTC, he was 6 weeks ahead of me). It's really cool being able to live with him.

I don't really understand what anyone is saying, but it is still fun. The Church is still true. ^^ Elder Hinton is from Sandy, Utah and is a great companion and trainer. I'm so glad to have been assigned to serve with him. He "dies" (goes home) next transfer, so I might "kill" him (be his last companion in the mission field). He's my "dad" and I'm his "son" (senior and junior companions). Gwangan is such a cool area to be "born" into (first assignment on mission).

The first day at the mission home was crazy. We got up in the morning and went to the bathhouse!!!!!! I loved it! It was soooo cool and relaxing and we'll definitely have to go again.....and again and again, as much as possible. They had tons of different pools (green tea pool, rose pool, mud bath, etc.). It was awesome. We taught a man in there. After that, we did a few things (e.g., went to the bank) and then got temporary trainers. All 30-40 of us ran 1/2 mile or more to the subway station, rode it to a market place, and started proselyting. It was intense. I was tired and soaked in sweat. I'm sure I looked crazy. I did give away a book of mormon though!

Then we did some "soapboxing" (proselyting by yelling) in the subway car on the return home. The greenies (new missionaries) were supposed to do the yelling, but we ran out of time, so an older missionary did it. It was intense. Then we were assigned trainers and areas, and left.

So then, the taxi driver doesn't understand my trainer and takes us to Gimhae (the airport and opposite direction of where we wanted to go)....so then we went all the way back. Mission record for most expensive taxi ride!!! We taught the driver, though, and gave him a book of mormon.

Oh, quick note, drivers are CRAZY in Korea. That long taxi ride was scary. I literally (no joke) feared for my life a few times. Dude was all over the road (they all are) and then homeboy turned on his hazards and ran something like a "code-3" from Gimhae to Gwangan. We were in the shoulder, cutting cars off, honking......it was bad news. That's pretty much how they all drive..........yet there aren't a whole lot of accidents at all. The bus rides are the worst....you stand a lot and it is really jerky and crazy. Everyone honks all the time.

Missionary work is fun here. We walk a lot (a LOT) or take bus/subway/taxi sometimes. We proselyte a lot (john-do) and knock doors (kah kah ho ho). People reject us a lot.........A LOT.....but we just roll with it. Last night we knocked doors down by the port and this guy let us in to talk to him and his family....sort of. The mom was Buddhist and didn't want to talk and the daughter was on the computer. The guy seemed interested (he was really nice) and wanted to meet us away from home. He works 1 day on, 1 off at the port so we'll call him soon.

Thanks for the packages!!!!!!!!!!!! They are great. If you send more, do what you did last time and just write non perishable food items on the slip on the box. Don't itemize the contents specifically (especially beef jerky) as it increases the risk of "disappearing."

You asked about the food - we just went to a Korean McDonald's today for P-Day. It was cool! I haven't had much legitimate Korean food yet. The rice is good! We eat out a lot and get some cheap Korean Chinese food at this place I call dirty duke's - fried pork meat and rice for 2 bucks - good stuff.

I have so much more I want to write and tell you. I love you guys so much!!!!!!!!! Korea is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love, Elder Bocchino ^^

ELDER BOCCHINO HAS LANDED!

2008-10-16T00:30:00.000-07:00

We received word from Joshua's mission president, Pres. Jennings, that Joshua arrived in Busan with baggage intact!!!

His first day was spent in preparation (administrative details) and training. The missionaries made their own lunch - something called "kimpap."

Then they participated in a training exercise that combined cultural exploration and proselyting activities. This was followed by a testimony meeting - in Korean - and a magnificent dinner at the mission home in Busan.

His first assignment is in Gwangan, in the heart of Busan. His trainer is Elder Hinton. We know he is very excited and ready to get to work! Here he is with Pres. and Sis. Jennings and Elder Hinton at the Mission Home in Busan.

Hopefully, we will receive an email from Joshua soon, perhaps on his P-Day. We look forward to learning more about Gwangan and his companion, Elder Hinton, in the coming weeks.

Joshua's Phone Calls

2008-10-14T02:16:00.000-07:00

Joshua called from the Salt Lake City airport this morning at 6:30 am! He could only talk for a minute, but he called again from Los Angeles about 3 hours later. He was excited to finally be on his way to Korea.

He wanted to call his Grandparents, but there wasn't time as they had to change to a completely different building at the last minute, prior to boarding the plane, and things were a little confused.

We received a third call from him around 3:00 am as he arrived in Incheon (Seoul), Korea. They are awaiting the last leg of their journey, from Incheon to Busan. They are all very tired and thirsty! Joshua said he had not had much water and they could find none in the terminal. This last part of the journey, though short by comparison to the first 2 legs, could be the toughest for them as they are now in country and anxious to get to Busan and get some rest.

He will spend a few days at the Mission Home in Busan with the Mission President and his Wife, where he will be assigned a trainer. He's looking forward to serving the members in the Church there by helping to strengthen the membership. That will be the main focus of the missionary program under the new mission president.

He will be sleeping on a mat on the floor, and will need mosquito netting to keep the bugs out at night. They will be riding bikes, the subway, or taking taxis to appointments. Addresses aren't the same as in the West - home numbers are assigned based on when they were built. An address alone may not be enough to help you find a home - you need to get explicit instructions to give to the taxi and others in order to find many places, and it can be very confusing.

Showing respect to the older Koreans is very important, and learning how to apologize will become a common part of their communications. Apparently, body odor is offensive to Koreans, and missionaries really welcome breath mints, Listerine Packets, and anything else that helps freshen breath on the run.

He might be going to the bath houses, which have been described as wonderfully relaxing.

Joshua is with the group he lived and trained with in the MTC for 12 weeks, and they are a tight group of buddies who all get along really well. He has the highest regard for them and has continually expressed his gratitude for their group association.

We were happy to hear his voice and look forward to talking to him again in December. He sounded very confident and firm in his desire to serve in Korea. We miss him, but we are also very proud of him!

Joshua will be able to call us again on Christmas Day! In the meantime, we will post his letters and (hopefully) photos as we get them. As always, I know he will be the grateful beneficiary of your continued letters and encouragement.

Sis. Bocchino

Carve your own pumpkin

2008-10-12T14:53:00.000-07:00

Joshua's group will be boarding their flight to Korea on Monday (less than 24 hours). While you are waiting for his next letter, try carving your own pumpkin here:

http://www.coasttocoastam.com/timages/page/pumpkin_sim.html