Hello everyone! 🏿 So this week was definitely a good week. Tuesday we decided to make a message card for one of our members and so we took time to make it and walked like 40 minutes up this mountain ⛰ to his house only to find out that he moved like 3 months ago... Haha so that was fun! Wednesday we had zone conference, which was weird because my trainer gave his last testimony at Zone Conference, he leaves this transfer! The reason why that is weird is because that means that I die next transfer... 

I did some exchanges with Elder Stephens who is in my MTC group but I have only seen him twice and never really talked to him. It .was fun to get to know him!  We had an appointment with an investigator at a members house for dinner, but then it got cancelled  BUT, we ended up meeting with the investigator on Friday with a different member right before FHE! 

On Saturday I went down to an area in my district which is about an hour away to do a baptism interview, the lady was super awesome and had lots of faith! It was cool to be able to talk with her and then I went down again on Sunday to watch the baptism!  Right after the baptism I met up with 3 of our investigators and went to Lexi Walkers concert---- that was so  fun! The missionaries went up and talked with her. She knows my MTC companion, Elder Vongsayo. They are neighbors! I will have to take my little sister to go meet her!

I am really enjoying missionary work and am learning a lot! Its weird thinking that I will be home soon, it doesn't seem real, but it will be fun to see you all Again! 

Love you all! 

스태그 장로

June 3rd:

So I got a package from my amazing family this week full of MERICA stuff! It was super sick so shout out to my awesome Mom!  I was reading the letters and they all were saying  see you 12 weeks ...so I turned to me companion and told him that my family sucks at counting because they all keep saying that I have 12 weeks left but I really have 16 left! He just gave me this puzzled look and said, "Elder you do have 12 weeks left..." I stopped and realized that I had "lost" 4 weeks of my mission somewhere in the last few months!  My mind was blown! 12 weeks!  that's not a lot of time left-- that is the same timing as my training in the MTC! SOOO crazy... the time flies by!

Last transfer we started a weekly soccer activity and at first there were not a lot of people who would attend.  We would do it with 3 other companionships but the others would not usually bring investigators. So we were trying to decide if we should cancel the weekly activity or not. Then last Saturday I was able to find 5-6 investigators and we met a bunch of people there so its starting to grow bigger and is a good way for our investigators to get to know other investigators! :) So that was an exciting turn around---- but know my feet HURT because I played for like 4 hours straight in the hot sun!

I love this area and I love this country! I am so grateful for the opportunity to be able to serve a mission! Since I have been out here I have learned one important thing and that is the principle of JOY.  The purpose of this life is mainly 2 things: 1. To learn how to live with God  again and 2. The pursuit of happiness and joy. Not many people know how can we find that happiness and joy. When we ask people on the street how to attain happiness and joy, these are the common answers that I get:  Partying, Games, Money, Family, Friends, Drinking, Girls, Nice cars, etc. Now if you notice, most of those are ways to have FUN for yourself, for the moment only! One thing I learned from my last companion, Elder Minson, is this,  I would see him frequently buy  snacks and treats when they were on sale, but then he would rarely eat them. One day I asked him why he did this and he told me "When I buy this candy I have 2 choices to (1) eat it and have maybe a minute of happiness and pleasure, or (2) I can write a note and give the note with this candy to someone else and then feel happiness and joy for a day or so! Wow! I was impressed. What a great way to look at things. So, with that perspective,  its always an easy choice for me---choose the one that makes me  happy for longer!  If we look at Christs life,  he didn't do anything for himself,  he did everything for others (same with all the  prophets of old). So I have came to the conclusion that in order to find  J.O.Y there is an order. 1. JESUS 2. OTHERS 3. YOURSELF.

 If we use that order in our lives then I promise you all that you can find Eternal and Everlasting Joy because when you are in the service our of fellow beings you are truly serving and acting as Christ himself would if he were here! Anytime you truly follow Christ and walk in His footsteps, you will have Joy in your life!

Love you so much! 

-Elder Stagg


Nathan is teaching English to this adorable little girl

Hello everyone! I am Elder Stagg, yes I am!

I feel like recently that everything has been about the same, not much change. This week we met with JIMMY! Jimmy is a member from Utah who served his mission in Ghana like 4 years ago. He is here for the next 6 months for a LONGGGG vacation. We met with him to help him learn Korean and then he helped us make a banner for our English Class because he is super good at Photoshop

We met a new investigator while playing soccer and he actually came to church the next day!   It is awesome to see some of the "fruit of our labor". He is super cool and apparently his uncle is a member of the church in Seoul so he has interest in our church. So sick!

Yesterday at 5 A.M my time (In Utah it was Saturday at 2 P,M) I had the opportunity to Skype in and witness my little sister, Arianna, get baptized! I also recorded a baptism talk for her, which my family was able to show at the baptism.  I am so grateful for technology which allows me to give a talk and to watch her get baptized even though I am across the world from her! It led me to think a little deeper about life. When she got baptized, she looked so bright and happy! We only get baptized once, yet we can enjoy that same happiness and renewal every week! IF we use our Saviors gift to our advantage and repent everyday and then partake of the Sacrament worthily. I want to share a short testimony that I know that living the Gospel of Jesus Christ will lead us to the greatest happiness in this life and in the life to come. I have seen that, experienced that, and have testified of that time after time! If you doubt that, try it out for a  bit. "By their fruits, he shall know them!"

Love you all,

Elder Stagg




P-Day at the Sand Festival:

 April 1st:

This week has been busy with lots of planning. We had a very successful and fun Easter activity last Sunday. I'll make a video of it this week and I will send it  next week. It will also probably be on Facebook.                             Last Saturday we had a missionary choir meeting for the Busan stake. We were able to get our investigator, Say Hyun, to be there. We taught her all of the commitments (however because she was very sleepy she struggled with paying attention during the lesson)  She is in line for getting baptized this Sunday. 

In Korea, we watch conference a week later, so  we will watch General Conference and then have her baptismal service.  She loves coming to church and has very good friendships with the ward members. I am very excited for her to get baptized!

Last Sunday we saw a huge miracle. I fasted that our investigators --the Soump family , Alex, and one other man, would come to church. They all have so much potential yet struggle with having time to meet with us. About 20 minutes into Sacrament Meeting, the Soump family walked in!.  All of our translation equipment was broken so 3 of us missionaries had to translate for them! The previous night they had prepared 300 Easter eggs for the kids to have a big Easter egg hunt.  It was very fun seeing them at church.

So this past week, elder Minson and I prepared an activity for our zone. We set up five basic activities. The first main one was Easter egg decorating. While they decorated the eggs we introduced them to our free English class and tried to get them to sign up to our Facebook page. Also we talked about Easter and if they had interest we would teach a little bit about our beliefs.

The next table was a simple game we called Pong. Kind of like the beer game you play with alcohol but instead we had a bunch of cups set up in a triangle formation and inside the cups were little papers with questions in English.  They would take a ball and they throw the ball into a cup and if it made it into the cup they had to answer the question.

 The next game was elder Martin's game. Elder Martin is a Navy Seal in training. he has the biggest arms I have ever seen! We had people try to arm wrestle him and if they won they would win a box of chocolate pies. Let's just say,  we have a lot of chocolate pies left!

 Next we had Eders walk around with a board that had a bunch of balloons taped to it. People would take a dart and throw a dart at a balloon.  Once it popped there was candy and a question in English on the inside.

The last was a big piece of paper on a table that had the question "What is Easter?" And a place for them to write the answer. It was a really fun activity and fun to put together!

 To end my email,  I would like to give a brief testimony about our Savior Jesus Christ. Yesterday was Easter and that helped me contemplate the reason why we celebrate this holiday. In Korea,  Easter is not a very big holiday. If you are not religious you barely even know it exists. If you translate "Easter" in Korean directly to English it translates to "Resurrection Day". Often times in America, we get so focused on Easter baskets and bunnies that we forget the true meaning of Easter.  It is because of our Savior Jesus Christ that we can all be resurrected and become perfect. This should bring hope and joy into our life. 

This time of year, as flowers and other plants are springing into new life we can center our thoughts on our Savior Jesus Christ and the "new life"  that he can bring to each one of us.  We need to be grateful for His amazing gift and in our prayers express that from our heart.

Love you all!

Elder Stagg