2-23-14

Well this past week has been a very busy and interesting week. I had some very interesting foods this past week. last thursday we went and did some more farm work and went out to eat afterwards. They brought out the usual questionable looking food and i just started eating it. There was a type of kim chi there that i started eating. It was very strange because it didnt taste like any other kimchi I've had before. So i ate some of it and ate some clam meat stuff and some other fun Korean food and that was that. Afterwards my comp asked me how i liked the octopus. And i said that i didnt have any. Come to find out the 'kim chi' i was eating was actually octopus legs. It wasn't half bad.

Then the other day we went out to eat with a potential investigator (we have a lot of those) with the sisters. We had kim chi chi kae and i actually really enjoyed it. And then they brought out these fried fish and i decided to try one of the eyeballs. It was gross haha. But other than that it was a pretty calm week. I had exchanges last Tuesday with Elder Lemmon in 진주 (Jin Joo). Elder Lemmon is from Dallas area and hes a bit of a character. But i probably had one of the most spiritual experiences of my life that night. I went to a dinner appointment with Elder Lemmon and the Sisters to a members house. It was an older couple that had a super nice house, for korea that is. 

Anyways, he was talking in older people talk so i could hardly undestand what he was saying. His wife i probably understood even less. But he started talking to us about basically his conversion story. Then he turned to me and said "I think you came here so that i could tell you this story". It was in Korean though so Sister Park had to translate it to me. So for the next 15 minutes he talked directly to me telling me how on the road to being baptized he went thorugh several different sets of elders. One team found him. Another couple teams taught him and then one team was able to baptize him. He told me that it didnt matter if i didnt get a single baptism on my mission. Because the 2 missionaries that first contacted didnt find out he got baptized till 30 years after he was. 

He then compared it to harvesting. It some peoples jobs to plant the seed. Its other peoples jobs to tend to the seeds and plants. And another persons job to actually do the harvest. So he said that as long as you try your hardest and are learning as much as you can in the progress that you are doing what you are called to do. There is no way that this 70 year old man in a completely different area of my mission could have known what i have been going through over the past month.

I have been struggling with this very thing basically ever since i left the MTC. The work has been very hard and more than a few times ive wondered how efective it is. But i know that this was an answer for me personally. Ive been wokring harder ever since. Ive been studying harder. And while i haven necessarily been able to teach more ive tried to be more outgoing. Theres not really much more i can do than that. My mission president told me interviews that there is no point in being discouraged. So ive made it a point to stay as optimistic as possible. 

If there has been one thing that i have come to understand more and more its about what missionary work is. Missionary work is not just sitting down with a family teaching a lesson. Ive come to  realize more fully what it means to represent Jesus Christ. While i have been in very few situations where i am able to bear my testimony about a gospel principle, i have been able to show my testimony to others by the way in which i conduct myself. Ive found that something more powerful then words is service. While bearing ones testimony is a very special and significant moment, when you are able to apply your testimony into action in brings on a whole different sensation.

I love you all! i hope you are all enjoying life. I think spring time is around the corner but i heard that spring doesnt last for long. Because then we get typhoon season! excitements in the air! well have a nice day and week. Ill talk to you again next week and ill see you soon.

Elder Maccarthy

2-16-14

Well this past week was pretty eventful. Me and my comp have been so tired these past couple days. It started out with this one investigator, 김우진(kim oo jin), contacted us out of the middle of nowhere and wanted to meet with us. Apparently he met with the missionaries a ton last transfer but right when I got into the area we could never get a hold of him. So we were able to meet him a couple times this past week and hes really awesome. He has a pretty tough

life and really opened up to us. It really made me see all the

blessings I had in my life because of this church. It really made me thankful. 

When I first came to Korea I expected it to be so different.

But the people here are the same as everywhere else in the world. Everyone is just trying to make it by, and they face many challenges that we all do. To see the way some people live is very humbling. Its very sad because in Korea once you become older it is basically impossible to find a job. So a lot of older people have to scrounge around in the trash to find things either to recycle for money or to use.

We are able to work on this older ladies farm once a week. Her name is 김순히 (kim soon ee), and parts of the farm look legitimately like the Indiana Jones area in Disneyland. Its really cool. The work is pretty tough but its fun too. 

After last weeks service she took us out to eat to some restauraunt. And the food there was really strange. It was

February 14, a friday. And i guess thats some kind of holiday here. So they had this special food that we got to eat. And it was your usual rice but it had like nuts and like mushrooms or something in it. and then we had a nice little seawood soup and some fish. And then they brought out this weird pizza pancake thing. And it was filled with like shrimp and seaweed and maybe like a squidish type of meat. It didn't taste to bad though. Just very strange. 

So anyways this holiday, I'm not sure what its called, happens once a year for like some kind of cultural harvest thing. What they do is they get a giant tree and put other trees around it and some hay and stuff. And then they light it on fire. And the fly kites too. So there was like this one stranded of like 50 kites going way up into the air. It was a pretty interesting day.

On that same day we got a call from the Sisters in our area. They said that they had gotten a call from some guy saying he wanted to learn english from foreigners. In korea we teach english a lot. We have a class once a week in this area, and in other areas they have like 3 a week. And we also offer to teach english privately to people. We teach 30 minutes of english and 30 minutes of the gospel. 

Anyways so we got a hold of this guy and planned on meeting him on friday. the earliest he could meet was at 7:30 so we had to take a bus ride over to 사천 and met with this guy and this firend that he brought along. This guy is super weird. We arent completely sure how open he would be to our message but i guess well find out. I guess that he has a "wife" who is Philippino and lives in the phillipines. Hes never met her but they text a lot. Ya strange. So basically the whole time we translated english text messages that she sent him into korean. His friend was actually really cool though. We were able to share a quick message but since it was so late we had to cut it short. We didnt get back to our house until like 9:40. We had permission to though so its ok. 

Nothing much else happened other than that. This past week has been really awesome for me. We were actually able to meet some people. I still haven't been able to teach like an actual lesson yet but i feel that i will be able to soon. Korean is coming along really good. Im now able to understand a lot of what is being said now. My speaking isn't the best but i can tell when something doesn't make sense. I guess thats improvement. 

So things are going good over here in Korea. I hope you are all doing well. Stay positive and look for opportunities to serve. This transfer ends next monday so then i will be half way done with training. Its been fun. Have a good rest of the week. Ill talk to you all soon!

Elder Maccarthy

2-9-14

Well i hit my 3 month mark this thursday. Thats a crazy thought. One month in Korea. Ive been trying lately to look back and see how much I've progressed. I definitely think i have chopsticks down which is good. I think im getting more and more used to eating rice at least twice a day. The language is coming along very slowly, and the missionary work probably even slower. 

Our area is one of the hardest areas in the mission. Its right in the middle of the countryside and no one has any interest. So me and my comp have to find any opportunity we can to teach. So just about every day last week we played basketball with people hoping to get there contacts. We actaully did get a couple, and had pretty much a miracle for me. We were meeting with these two kids we met the other week to play basketball. And they had invited a couple of there friends and there school teacher. We hit it off super well with the teacher and he invited us to go out to dinner that night with him. We went and ate some Kim Chi Chi Kae and started talking about church and stuff. He was super open and he loves us. He wants to me again soon and we were basically able to teach him a pretty big bulk of the first lesson. It was so awesome to break our streak of having no lessons. It was a really big boost for me. 

Another thing I've found out about korea is how miserably cold it really is. The wind here is so cold that it literally cuts through every piece of clothing you have and freezes you to the core. And another thing, somehow, here in korea it doesnt matter what direction you face you are always somehow facing the wind head on. Im still trying to figure out how that works. 

but ya its super cold here. It even snowed a little during service on the farm and tody. This service on the farm was pretty intense too. We had to move like 75 50 pound bags of fertilizer. And what was even better was after only like 20 minutes I'm pretty sure i sprained my ankle because i heard a loud pop. my ankle hurt. Haha but i kinda just went with it for the rest of the 3 hour long service. It kinda sucked but it feels better now. That was basically how my past week went. Nothing to exciting but it appears that things are going to be looking up from here. Hopefully at least.

I hope everyone is dong well back at home. Ive never missed California weather more than i have now ahah. So enjoy it and ill talk to you all again next week. Love you all. See you soon,

Elder Maccarthy

2-2-14

Time really flew by this past week. This past week there was the national holiday called Solar. Its basically like chinese new years. And it has some thanksgiving like features. So basically we weren't allowed to do anything except proselyte and no one is on the streets so we didnt get to do anything. We had no lessons either which was a real bummer. Plus those to cambodians that were supposed to get baptized this sunday have gone AWOL and we haven't heard from them. The same goes for just about every other investigator we've had also. But it is what it is. 

I got to go to a couple of pretty nice dinners though with some members. I had some nice octopus soup. It didn't taste to bad but it was really tough to chew and the suckers were kinda gross. It was an interesting meal. We were also able to a couple of basketball contacting too which is really fun. Ya other than that we really didnt do anything else this week, Besides a lot of walking. the hardest thing to do sometimes is just to stay positive. all of your support has been really helpful. Im trying to do better every day, and i know itll pay of sooner or later. 

Thank you all and ill write you

soon! bye!

elder maccarthy

1-26-14

So the past week was pretty tough in all honesty. Its a lot tougher here then I realized. At zone meeting I was able to talk to some other missionaries and they talked about how they are just getting contacts left and right, but we are lucky to even be able to talk to someone in one day here. We did weekly stats last night and when I looked at them i was a little disheartended. But i looked at the good we were able to do and it made it a little better. We were able to do 3 lessons this past week. One of them were to these two kids Jeong Hoon and Moo Hoon. That went alright. And yester we went door knocking and we actually got let in which is like unheard of. My companions been out for over a year and its never happened to him. So we were able to talk about the plan of salvation to a little family. 

Then we had a crazy weird experience last tuesday. We had a discussion with this guy who speaks crazy sachuree. Which is basically like an accent. And hiw was super thick. And he talked like a 1000 words a minute. I honestly stared at him fro an hour and half and didnt know what to do because he was just talking the whole time. My companion didnt really understand him much either, but basically this guy is like trying to start his own religion. And he has all of these crazy theories. But what made it even better is he thinks he can speak the language of angels. So when we asked for hime to give teh closing prayer he just started making all of these weird noises. It was definitely top 3 strange/creepy/oddly interesting thing ive seen in my life. We had 2 cambodians with baptismal dates but we had to postpone them because we havent been able to meet with them. We haven't been able to meet a lot of the areas investisgtors recently. 

Im not sure why but we have to do a lot of Jeondoing(proselyting). And somedays we would proselyte for hours and not even see anyone. Its really tough. But we just have to keep on doing our best. Sometimes we are able to play basketball with people on the courts and try to get there contact information. Its super awesome because usually we come at like nigh time to the courts and so its like two white kids rolling up wearing suits to play basketball. And my comp is beast on the offence, and my defense isn't anything to laugh at. Weve won everygame weve started. (Reading over this ive realized my english has gotten progressively worse.) I blessed the sacrament yesterday which was fun. Ive done it before but it was cool to do it again. 

The food here is super obscure. I don't think ive eaten actual meat since ive got here. Koreans really like the fatty parts of the animal so its really gross when i have to eat a fatty piece the size of my finger. So i havent really been eating as much which hasent proved to bad becuase usually im just not hungry. Ive already noticed that a lot of my clothes are already a little looser than usual. But rice isnt that bad so thats probably what I've been eating most. Looking back at the week really not much has happened. The quite little town of Samcheonpo is about the same. 

Thework is tough, but i know the reward will be worth it. I kinda broke down the other day on the inside and had a very very tough time. Because we had legit proselyted for 7 hours and dind tget to talk to anyone and then i went out to eat with a member and the food was very interesting lets just say. And i just wanted to go home and go to sleep. And thats exactly what i did. BEcause our bus took like an 1 hour to get home for some reason so we got home kinda late. But the next day something came over me and just made me feel good. I know its not going to get any easier. But i also know that the harder it gets the more heavenly father will help me. There really isn't another way you could do this work without him. That has become strikingly real to me this past week and a half. 

Keep working hard everyone. Stay positive. There is a lot of work to do but the laborers are few. So keep your head up and just make it thorugh the day. I love you all.

Ill write you next week. See you soon.

Elder Maccarthy

1-19-14

So ya its been a few days now since i arrived in Korea. My first area is 삼 천포(samcheon po) and 사천(sacheon). Its a bit of a slummy area but its still pretty nice. Its fairly cold here, but its really the wind that cuts right through you. My new companion, elder brown, is from washington and is really cool. 

Missionary work is really hard here. A lot of people like to talk but no one likes to talk about church stuff. The branch I'm in has 15 members in it, which includes 2 sister missionaries and us 2 elders. So ya pretty small. My companion is

actually first councilour i think. I think i have some calling too but im not sure. Our branch president is 이 진 만(ee jeen man). He's really cool, and doesnt have a right hand.

This computer isnt very good so cant upload any pictures but i am taking some. My area is in a pretty remote area of the mission so we have to take a lot of public transportation. It calculates out that we will be spending at least an hour on buses everyday. Proselyting doesnt really work here, but the

other day we got to do some sports proselyting. We went over to the local basketball court and played 2 on 2 with some college students. Luckily my comp balls hard so we beat them like 1 to 11. We got there contact info which was really cool. We had one lesson on sunday which was nice.

Everyone talks reallly fast here so its hard for me to tell

what they are saying. I can understand for the most apart when americans are speaking Korean, but the Koreans throw me off for the most part hahah. Our appartment is pretty small. Its probably about 1 and half times the size of our living room in cali. And yes we do sleep on floors. We sleep on these mats called like 'yo's' our something. Its basically a bunch of blankets. Our meeting house is on the second floor of some building. Its probably about the size of our

house in cali.

I had to give a talk yesterday in church. It went ok i

think. Church only lasts for 2 hours here because there arent a lot of people. Everyone here freaks out when i tell them i played football. Everyone thinks that like im some like strong person or something haaha. Its really funny. My branch president said he wanted me to make our branch into a football team haha. Hes a funnny guy. The food isnt

to bad. I havent been eating as much because a lot of the food looks straight up disgusting. But i eat rice and noodles which is ok.

Everyone ios really nice here though. Theres not really much more to say than that. I hope everyone is doing well back at home. I am like 17 hours ahead of you just incase youre wondering. I hope you all have a wonderful day (or rather sleep) and ill talk to you again next week.

oh ya one thing i forgot to mention in my big email. I had the craziest experience my first day here. we were proselyting on a subway to this guy eating some weird food. and my

comp was like ya thats pig intestine. And i was like ew gross. and then he shoved a piece of it in my comps mouth and then one piece into my mouth. I just about threw up but i swallowed it down. I had like a rock in my stomach for the rest of the day haha

Elder Maccarthy

1-13-14

Well my pday got changed to today this week. I'm not breaking the rules or anything haha. I got my travel plans last Friday. I leave the MTC at 6 am on Monday the 13th. I depart from the SLC airport at like 11:06. Then i go to Seattle and have about an hour and half layover, and then i hvae another 2 hour layover in Tokyo. Then its a short flight over to Busan. I will be leaving Salt Lake at 11 am the 13th, and will land in Busan at 9pm the 14th. Not only that but in Korea everyone is a year older so ill be 19! Not really though haha. We were able to go t o the temple this morning at like 7:30. It was the last time ill be able to go to one for a while. Its so weird to think that Dennis is home. I talked to the front desk about how it is supposed to work, and they said we get to hang out in the front little waiting area and talk for 30 minutes. Im very excited for that. I've been looking back at the first couple of days here at the MTC lately. I was such a different person then. The MTC really does change a person. It seems like it was so long ago but it hasent even been 2 months yet. Im very excited to go to Korea. 저는 기다릴수없습니다! I guess you could say Korean is coming along very well. We have CMS every now and then which is basically just one on one with the teachers so they can focus on your specific needs. And my teachers always tell me that i am doing really well with Korean. Even so, what little i do know, i know i only grasped it so well because Heavenly Father has blessed me. I hope you are all doing well. Id just like to thank everyone for all the support ive received thus far. Its still a long way to go i know, but as long as i take it one day at a time ill do fine. This is officially my last email from America. How crazy is that. Its been a good run but its time for me to leave. I have had a lot of struggles here at the MTC. And they were coming from directions i didnt necessarily anticipate. But as i laid down in bed last night i thought of how grateful i was for them. Even though they were trying i still wouldnt have given them up. I have learned so much here at the MTC. I am still learning. And i know i will continue to learn. Thanks again for everything everyone. Ill see you all soon. 사랑함니다! Signing out from the U.S.A.

맥카티 장로

1-3-14

Happy New Years everyone! I just finished reading Dennis email home. Funny how hes coming home right as im going out. Its interesting how the Lord works. We finally got our name tags in Korean on Wednesday. Its so weird to look at my name tag and my name. If I hadn't learned Korean here at the MTC I would have absolutely no clue what it would've said, let alone that it had my name on it. How crazy is it that the Church is spread around the entire world. Its amazing to think that this all started with one person, Joseph Smith. To see how much the Church has grown in the short time it has existed should be proof enough that it is true. So not much longer now. I think we are getting our travel plans today. When i do fly over ill lose a day. And it'll be weird to think every night as I go to bed that my parents will be waking up to go to work. So crazy. We get to clean the temple today which im really looking forward to. Not something you get to do everyday. And luckily for us the Temple will re open next week so my district of 11 will be able to go to the Temple one last time for the next 2 years. Im sure it will be a spiritual high that I wont be able to experience for a while. 

We had a nice devotional for New Years by some member of he Seventy whos name i forget. Im He basically talked about how we are all good missionaries. But the lord doesn't want good missionaries he needs the best missionaries. So i try to do better everyday. And as long as you can look back each day and say that you've done something better, no matter how small, you are better. I think my count is down to 9 or 10. I cant get over how funny it is that Dennis will be coming home and 5 days later ill be leaving. Im excited to see him on Sunday. Sometimes missionaries leave Sunday morning. I hope that's not the case for me but come what may and be happy. I have an eternity to talk to him so i wont be to sad if we cant meet up. Im sure he understands. Im not sure if it has hit me yet. I still feel like im a priest in the hb 3rd ward. But im not anymore. Im just thankful for everything that ive learned up until this point. From gospel points to just general living. 

Id just like to thank Dad real quick for teaching me how to sew. That has been a huge blessing for me. And for others since i've had to patch up a few of the other elders buttons. Im no pro by any means but i have the basics down. And i can only get better from there as i work hard and practice. I guess the same principle can be applied to missionary work haha. Korean is coming along great. Even though my pronunciation is a little off sometimes, everyone says i have the best speaking skills. I try to set the best example for everyone by staying positive and optimistic. Its very hard to learn a new language especially when it has absolutely no similarities to your native language. And sometimes i get discouraged but I try to always pick myself back up because i dont want anyone else to get discouraged. No one should have to look back at there mission and be able to think of a time they didnt enjoy. So i try my best. And thats really all i can do. 

Im thankful for this gospel. It blesses me in so many ways. My schedule gets changed next week so im not sure when my pday is. So this may be my last email home from America. Im sure i will be able to again next week, but just in case ill make this ending a little more formal. I love you all. Im not sure who reads this email every week, but i dont care who you are because i still love you. And im positive that god loves you too. I know he lives. Im thankful for my parents. My brother was right when he said that we were born of goodly parents like Nephi. I know that the 4 of us were a pain sometimes, but you put us all straight. Mom and Dad you have both given up your sons for a combined 4 years to do the lords work. I know that youre mansion in the celestial kingdom will be very large for all the people that you have indirectly brought to the light of christ. Nicole and Jason, i hope you are doing well. I hope that life is good for both of you and that you are both staying happy. Life is hard, but we have it a lot better then most. Please help the missionaries. I love california and all but im sure that is probably one of the worsts place to do missionary work. Its tough for them. Ease there yoke. Jamie, i hope your having fun up in humboldt. just remember that we all love you, and that god does too. 

To my priests quorum, and those who will be missionaries soon. Study. I have learned one very important thing here at the MTC. It doesnt matter what language you are speaking, the gospel is the gospel. I was lucky enough to have Brother Lebaron teach me for most of my youth. I hope that you will take advantage of the situation you are in now. Also remember that no matter what you do, you wont be good enough. But thats ok, because no one is good enough. No man, let alone young man or woman, could do this work alone. If you dont feel ready, then you probably are ready. Because that means you realize what you are getting yourself into. Its not easy. Its very hard. But its the Lords work and it needs to be done. There is much work to be done, but there are only a few laborers. So remember to put your trust in God. Because that is the only way you will be able to do this work. It is not something that should scare you though. Even though i have been tested and tried and pushed for to my limits the past little while, i would not give up what i have learned for anything. This is a wonderful Gospel. It blesses lives. It has blessed my life. And i know it will bless your life too. 

Dennis, by the time you read this youll be home. Welcome back. Im sure the house looks very different to you. Take anything of mine that you want or need. I wont be needing it for a while. Ill be seeing you soon hopefully, and if not oh well. We will both live. I hope you put yourself into action and dont take a break. Life doesnt stop. Take a while to adjust back to life, but dont procrastinate moving on. I love you. You are going to do awesome things. I love you all. I hope you all had a wonderful christmas season. I know mine was pretty good. Id just like to end this with a passage. Anyone who puts his hand on the plow of the lords work, and looks back to his house is unfit for the kingdom. I miss you all. But i know that im doing what im supposed to do. And its something only i can do. So im glad im here. Im glad to be able to serve a mission. And im not going to look back. Im only going to move forward. I hope you all have a wonderful day.

Elder Maccarthy                   

P.S. Mom i know youre first instinct is going to be that you are going to worry about me meeting dennis. Whatever happens happens. If the lord needs me to leave a day early then i will. You've trusted the lord with dennis for two years, trust that he knows what is best. 

12-27-13

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas. We definitely had a very interesting one here at the MTC. We got to hear from Elder Bednar which was super awesome. What they ended up doing in the devotional was they passed out a bunch of phones to the elders and sisters in the audience so that they could text questions to Elder Bednar. So we basically spent an hour and half having Elder Bednar answer our questions. It was awesome. I heard that Jared got his call to West Virginia! That is so awesome. Ill be long gone before he gets here but i'm excited for him to be able to experience the MTC. I think the countdown is at 17 days left for me. I leave the MTC at about 2 am on January 13. So i'm just counting down the days until then. I heard Sam is having a good time in her first area too. That's awesome for the people of Colorado. For the past week I've been on the "Korean" diet. I've been eating mainly rice for every meal. And sometimes an elder from my district gets Kim-chi so i get to eat that too. Pretty interesting food. I'm pretty sure my districts Koreans come in next week. Those are the native Koreans that come here to the Provo MTC and then leave with us once we go to Korea. So it'll be nice to hangout with them. We are at the training here at the MTC where we have to start doing street contacting in Korean. So we are starting that today. So one of us will contact some random missionary here and my companion will translate for me. I think its going to be a lot of fun. Is nice and all here at the MTC, but after a month and a half it becomes VERY routine. I'm super stoked to be able to leave in like 2 weeks. Its been an eye opening experience here at the MTC. During Elder Bednars devotional he talked about how Heavenly Father magnifies our attributes when we get called to be missionaries. And I have definitely realized an increase in help in just about everything I do here at the MTC. I'm super excited for you Jared. Just a little bit of advise is just to stay busy. But don't worry the MTC schedule will help you with that. Really the only free time you have is your meal times and the short hour at the end of each day. But just stay diligent. Its easier doing it some days than others but it'll help you in so many ways. You're gonna love it here. And be as obedient as you can. There are a lot of rules that seem unnecessary, but just follow them. It'll make your experience better. Well I only have two more Pdays until im in Korea! I'm excited. Good luck Jared! And I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. I don't mean to boast but ours here at the MTC was probably better. Haha just kidding. I love you all. And have a Happy New Years!

Elder Maccarthy

P.S. we get our new missionary tags that have our names in korean next week! so cool!    

12-25-13

We are only given 20 minutes of computer time to email home. So I guess ill have to make this brief whether or not if I want to. Merry Christmas! there's nothing like celebrating Christmas by getting up at 6 30 and having to rush to a computer lab. Haha no im kidding im loving it here. I wont lie last night was really tough. I was sitting there alone in my room feeling a little down. I thought about how Christmas used to be. My family would read stories and we would all be together (excluding dennis for the past 2 years) which wasent something that happened that often. And I guess you could say I was a little homesick. And I got to thinking and I thought why am I giving up something that was so precious to me, and have nothing to show for it. I leave in less than 3 weeks now, and I feel like im wasting my time here.when I went to bed I was reminded of something. I remembered a talk from elder Bednar that we watched this last Sunday. One line of it stuck out in my head while I laid there, "get over yourself". after that I realized how much of a fault I had just made. im not on a mission to learn a new language, or to make friends, or even to bring myself closer to god (even though all of those things will likely happen in the process). Im here to preach the gospel. And I have to do it his way or the highway. Im happy to be here at the MTC during Christmas. I do miss my family, but I know that what im doing is something that needs to be done and is something only I could do because heavenly father called me to do it. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas. Remember who we are celebrating. Remember the sacrifices that he made and yours will probably seem a little smaller. I love you all. And im having a very Merrry Christmas.

Elder Connor Maccarthy

12-20-13

It seems like i just wrote a letter back home. Time flies here at the MTC. so ive been here for over a month. Nothing new has really happened. Korean is coming along very well. I sent a few pictures home finally so if you want to seem them ask my mom. I have a very small group in my district. There were only ten of us that came in on the 13th. Of all the missionaries going to Korea, very few go to Busan. At one point there were like 80 missionaries in our branch, and only 6 or 7 were going to Busan. The one picture with the elder on the bottom of it looking like a frog is our whole district with our teacher who left. We joke around about being the "unwanted" district. Because the teacher in that photo moved away a little while ago, and the one we have now is getting married next week so he is leaving, and we've basically had like 8 different people teach us. But its all good. We all have fun. The MTC is a fun place, even though after a month life becomes VERY routine. Im sorry this letter is short. I dont have much to talk about. Ill be able to email on christmas. So ill talk to you all again then. 

Elder Maccarthy

12-13-13

Well today is my halfway mark. 1 month down 23 to go. It kinda made me sad when I thought if it. I only have 2 years to serve a mission. And I would never say that I wasted a month or 2 here at the MTC. But that 2 less months that I couldn't go out and do what I was called on a mission to do. So I've decided to work as hard as I possibly can here at the MTC. So that I can do the most work I can possibly do in the field. Learning here at the MTC is great. We were able to hear from Elder Cook of the twelve last Tuesday. He talked a lot about preparation to enter the field. When your entire 15 hour day is centered around learning the gospel, you learn so much. I could barely stand 5 hours of school for 5 days. But I now spend anywhere from 9 to 10 hours for 7 days inside a classroom about the size of my bedroom. And it all goes by so fast. There's not enough time in the day anymore to study. Only in 6 of the 10 hours do you have a teacher. The rest of the time you basically are supposed to teach yourself. At first it didn't make sense to me. I thought how do they expect me to learn Korean or learn how to Teach in those 4 or 5 hours without anyone to guide me. And the first few weeks I just went with it. And it was hard but it got easier. And it wasn't until I completely focused on what I was doing, whether it was reading from my PMG, learning vocab, or preparing for my lesson, that I realized that the whole time I was being taught. I realized that the spirit was teaching me. He was giving me more insight than any teacher, or bishop, or branch president, or district/ zone leader could. Not that they don't teach me a lot of things, but the spirit knows me better than anyone else, and knows who i'm going to be teaching in the field. He knows what I need to know. And I look forward to those few short hours to myself when i get to read the scriptures. Because I know that the spirit is guiding and preparing me to do a marvelous work among the children of men. My teacher gave us an awesome lesson last night. He went around the classroom asking us how many companions we had (in Korean though so we didn't really know what he was saying). We all said 1 of course. But he said no you are all wrong, you all have to companions. One is the one you've been called to serve with and the other is the Holy Ghost. How awesome is that. I've never realized or appreciated really how important that is until I came here. I know I still have a long way to go, but i'm so excited to be able to serve a mission. I'm so blessed to have the spirit in my life to teach me and be with me. I can't wait to get out into the streets of Busan. I know that I AM being the best missionary i can be. I guess it still hasn't sunk in yet. But its going to hit me soon. And its going to hit me like a bus. But come what may, and ill love it. 

저는 상야사 임니다. 저는 상 신을 인도하겠슴니다 압니다.

I love you all! Stay awesome!

Elder Maccarthy

12-7-13

Hello everyone.

Everything here at the MTC is good. Korean is coming along awesomely. I don't mean to sound prideful but i'm definitely catching on to the language faster than most of the other missionaries in my 당이 (thats probably the wrong spelling). The lord has definitely blessed me in that aspect. We were supposed to here from Elder Ballard on Tuesday but it was snowing so hard he couldn't make it. Ugh it would've been so cool to hear from another member of the twelve. But oh well, the person who replaced him did a really good job. I was laying in bed last night and realized that this time next week ill have been here for a month. Man how time flies. I still have a long way to go though. I was able to host new missionaries this past wednesday. It was a special experience to bring new missionaries into the MTC. Besides the fact that i couldn't feel my face afterwards it was awesome. And i found out that one of my teachers served in the long beach mission around 2 years ago. Small world. He said that he knew the seacrists. That was crazy. Also, there was a missionary who had been here for seven weeks and had to go home for medical reasons. He came back tot he MTC wednesday so I now have a Tripanionship. Hes pretty cool and hes pretty good at Korean too. Life is coming along pretty well. I think everyone should go on a mission. Its just so awesome here. Theres just so much love and spirit here. There something in the water here that just makes you want to do better and to do more and to try harder. Its only been a few short weeks but its felt like months. Because you're so busy doing so many things. And then you go back to your residence and you reflect on your day. And you just think to yourself 'wow today was awesome. It was tough but i learned so much'. And then you go to bed knowing that tomorrows going to be even better because your going into it with a little more knowledge and a little more enthusiasm. 저는 하나님 우리을     사랑하심니다 알고있습니다. 우리는 준복을 받기위해 하나님의 계면 전파해야합니다. 저는 사랑     상여사 이고있습니다. 저는 행복하기때문애 MTC깨 옸습니다. That whole thing is probably butchered but oh well. I love you all! See you soon

Maccarthy 장로

11-23-13

Hello all,

The MTC is pretty awesome. I cant believe ive only been away for a little more than a week. It has honestly felt like a month. Korean is a very interesting language. It is very overwhelming at first, but its actually a very easy language. I now know why Asians are so good at math. Because there language is like doing algebra kind of. There are only 6 boys and 4 girls in my group going to Korea and only 3 of them are going to Busan. Me elder tira and elder payne. I think there are like 60 kids or so in my zone. And i think there are 15 going to busan. Its a very different experience here at the MTC. The food here isnt half bad. A lot of people say its bad but its ok. The people here are really nice and that makes things a lot easier. theres a couple british people in my zone and they are fun to mess with. My companion is from new zealand and he is very hard to deal with. but hopefully hell grow out of it. But all in all life is good. id practice some korean and write it to you but i dont think i could figure out how to do that. But all is good. 

Ill write soon,

Elder Connor Maccarthy