Thursday, December 19, 2013

November 2013, Seoul Korea

Elder Frazier had been serving in a threesome for a short period of time after the transfer to Seoul... with the large influx of new missionaries the Zone Leaders were assigned a new missionary to train in addition to their normal responsibilities.  As many as 30 new missionaries arrived this transfer with only 4 making their final and permanent transfer...

Beautiful Fall Colors
A Christian Church in Seoul with changing colors


We should have a caption contest for this one... "Ready to fly on wings of faith"

The Elders enjoying some Beef Rib Soup

Exchanges always bring new pictures of different places outside the city


The package from home arrived!  Mac & Cheese for the first time in at least 16 months.  The silly pleasures!  



Hey Elder, Where's your companion!?

Elder Nye!! The Buddy/Companion System is ALWAYS in effect!

Contacting on the Streets of Seoul.

Monday, October 14, 2013

Elder Frazier  has been transfered to the City of Seoul.  He has taken on some additional responsibilities as a Zone Leader and currently is assigned to labor with two companions.  This last transfer brought 33 new missionaries to the mission while only 3 returned home - it seems as though a lot of training is happening!  In order to understand Elder Frazier's new area better and how things are going we played a little game - 20 Questions...


Q - What do you like most about your new area? A - I like just being in the city. That's mostly it, the people are meaner haha. 
Q - What is the greatest challenge with the new area? A - Working with the ward. They aren't as friendly and three wards were combined into one last year. there is some ward contention
Q - What are your new responsibilities with your zone? A – training with other companionships and just talking responsibility when things go wrong haha. that's about it. 
Q - How large is the zone - # of missionaries, % of mission geography covered? A - 23 missionaries. like 5%. it's a really small zone geographically.
Q - What has been the greatest experience so far as a Zone Leader? A - Being able to train the missionaries one on one when the opportunity presents itself. It's interesting. I feel like people respect me more. I came to a new zone and people don't know me as well, interesting. 
Q - What are your responsibilities for Zone Conferences? A - we never have zone conferences. we've had one my whole mission and there is a mission conferences like, every 2-3 months.
Q - How big is your new ward? A - 140 active members
Q - How many missionaries are serving in this ward? A - 7
Q - How close are you to the mission home? A - I'm a 20 minute train ride. We are the area over.
Q - Do you see President Christensen more often with you new responsibilities? A - Yes. It's awesome. 
Q - What is your current most favorite fruit?  A - don't know really. really, we don't eat much of it so whenever you get any, it's a treat. 
Q - How would you describe the most challenging part of being a Zone Leader? A - not sure yet haha it's only been a week.
Q - What are the 5 most recent Korean words you have learned (English Please...)? A - accent, to tie a tie, public transportation, delusion, to pee. it always surprises me how many random words you learn by living with a Korean
Q - With the weather getting colder, what do the Korean people drink to keep warm? A - it is getting cooler. They have a lot of teas. Unlike japan, not many of them are tea leaf bases (they're herbal) so we get to drink essentially all of them
Q - How is the knee? A – fine.
Q - How is the toe? A - all better. not sure how haha but it doesn't give me any problems.
Q - What do you do for exercise each day? A - pushups, a pull-up if i want, a lot of stretching haha
Q - Tell us about your current investigators... A - We have one really not much to say. We’re in the process of finding more right now. funny how that happens.
Q - What are the most important things you can teach your younger brother prior to his mission? A - that's almost as hard as the last question. I think, just try to develop a deep love for Christ and try to understand his life a little more.
An Elder who has returned to the area for some military training.

Living "posh" in Seoul...
Elder Kim before he returns home from serving an
honorable mission... I'm sure Elder Frazier is giving
him a bit of a hard time... showing his love the
Elder Frazier way.


New "Green" Companion Elder Park... I'm sure the caption in his head is saying something like - "What have I gotten myself into with these two Elders...?"


The Threesome, Elder Nye from Kirkland, OH, Elder Park from the Southern part of South Korea.  A great picture.
We are grateful for the experiences he is having and the blessing we feel in our lives from his faithful service!  

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

The subtle things that make you laugh

 A  couple of things do get lost in translation however the music and the Spirit sound and feel the same!







Soccer seems to be the P-Day activity of choice!  

A P-Day at the science museum with the Elders

Elder Frazier found a quick way to dry his hair at the science museum on a raining day...

Baptism and Miracles

On Saturday September 14, 2013 Paul entered the waters of baptism.  It was a wonderful day for all involved.

Elder Frazier summarized the day as follows:  "Paul got baptized!
The service went well but I was stressed out of my mind. Planning that stuff is tricky haha. Elder McLeod baptized him and I did the confirmation. The ward was very welcoming and I have started to worry about finding a friend for him. That's were this week's miracle steps in, last night elder killpack and mcleod were contacting down by the train station when a pakistani man walked up to them and told them he was muslim but open to christianity. He has an english book of mormon but it is confusing so he wants one in Urdu. He wants to meet and learn more, got his number. If the ward can't provide a friend, we'll baptize one! There is going to be a pakistani ward in korea before there is one in Pakistan! Anyways, it was a great week."


Monday, August 12, 2013

November 2012

On October 22 Elder Frazier made his first trip back across the International Date Line since we moved to Georgia in 2008 and headed to Incheon International Airport just West of Seoul Korea.  After a brief stop in San Francisco and an opportunity to speak with the family he was off - flying West across the Pacific Ocean.  Below is his first letter home after arriving in his first area.

Hi all!
I guess this is my first email that will be written to all hoping to stay up to date with the happenings of Korea Seoul. As I'm sure you all can imagine, this has been a very interesting week haha. I got to talk with my family on Monday which was really nice! I've decided that after Christmas will be hard because as of now, I won't have gone two months without talking to them! Ask my Mom for the fortunate other phone calls. I have been in country now for almost 6 days and surprisingly, breaking the trend of the MTC, it hasn't felt it at all. So starting with Tuesday, I arrived in Korea! We landed at about 6 which gave us plenty of time to contact on the subway as we made our way to the President's house. Considering it was our first time I think we did decently well. There were about nine of us on the train of about 100 people and it got to the point where at about an hour in, you would go up to talk to someone and they would say that they had already been talked to. Haha, time for a transfer! We encountered just about everytype of person you could think from someone who spoke english and jumped up when he saw us saying, "I want to go to your church" (I'm still convinced President planted him there to give us a little momentum) to the older gentleman who stared us down from moment uno and started yelling the second we said hello. Haha, luckily, I've found that most people aren't like that. Most will just do the quick assessment of who is talking and then wave their hand (not a hello) and wait for you to leave. That can almost be worse. Anyways, I'm in a city called Sungnam which is a little (when I say little I mean about 1 million... welcome to South Korea) city just south east of Gangnam (which is essentially downtown Seoul).

As for the apartment, it is about 200 square feet, give or take a little. I was asked at a zone meeting if I liked the place to which I said it was alright. The Elder laughed and said good, that means I'll like everywhere. With my cockroach kill count at 30 and counting, I'm still laughing... It could definitely be worse (Bacolod). 
Elder Frazier

After arriving at the mission home we received the following picture from President and Sister Christensen.

Some initial pictures from Seoul:




One Year Celebration

Where has the time gone...?!  This last week Elder Frazier celebrated his one year mark in the mission field.  Let me bring you up to speed on some of the "recent" events in Elder Frazier's life:

  • He is serving in his second area - Paju, South Korea
  • The Seoul Mission was split in July, Elder Frazier stayed in the Seoul mission while the rest of his MTC group ended up in the new mission
  • He is currently serving with Elder McLeod from Suwanee, GA who just arrived in the mission field 3 weeks ago
  • He previous trainee, Elder Renfroe was his companion for only three months
  • His responsibilities as the District Leader, since May, has taught him many important lessons about teaching, counseling, and being a leader


We are grateful the "noise from the North" is behind us - Paju is one of the closest South Korean cities to the DMZ.  Funny thing is, Elder Frazier wasn't nearly as nervous as his family back home... CNN influence we suppose.

Here are some great pictures of Elder Frazier
A Great Missionary Smile - Paju South Korea

East meets West - but the Gospel is the great mediator of all differences.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

The MTC, Provo UT

 One of those pictures that I'm sure every missionary takes.  Notice the international date line between "here and there"
 The District.  Elder Frazier commented that just one year ago he was living two blocks South in Heritage Halls.  Oh how time flies!

Some "lovin" from family members!  

 Nick's college room mate, friends from 1st grade at the American School in Japan.  Both going back to Asia to serve the Lord (Elder Hunsaker is serving in Thailand).

 Elder Frazier shared that when he first arrived in the MTC he was told the days are like weeks and the weeks are like days... within a short period of time he quickly realized the truth of this expression.  From week to week the Korean gets a little better, the desire to serve with all one's mind, might, and strength gets a little  stronger and the insights and expressions of gratitude and testimony get a little deeper...
 There have been many wildfires this summer in the West.  Finally the smoke cleared and a beautiful late afternoon sun illuminates the valley below.
A great reminder for us all.  Do it Daily!