The People Taz Loved

Taz: This is President and Sister Turner, my parents for the last two years. They loved, encouraged, supported, and pushed me. Apostles testified when they came to visit that we were sent to our mission to be with the Turners. I am grateful to have met the two most amazing people in the world. I am waiting with a quiver of anticipation for them to come home.
Me: I am so grateful to the Turner's and their influence on Taz. He is a better man because of their love. I only met them briefly, but I feel like Sister Turner and I have a lot in common and would be great friends.

Taz: Elder Kim has been my best friend since the start of my mission, and we served together throughout our missions. He is so funny and so kind, and works very hard!

Taz: I was in the MTC with both Elder Lam and Elder Mark. Elder Lam was the first Elder I met, and ran up and gave me a big hug. Before me and Elder Mark were assigned to be companions I thought "any body but him" But we became close friends, sharing a lot in common. I love both of them so much.

Taz: This is Yoobyeongsu. Out of all the young men I met on my mission, I was closest to him. I taught him about rock climbing and how to play volleyball. He taught me the importance of attending church and being an example to your family. We sat by each other every Sunday and I helped him pay attention and answer questions. After I transferred we emailed every week. He has just submitted his mission paper's and told me he is praying to get called to Las Vegas.

Taz: No person in Korea has treated me better than Namgunghejeong. She fixed my suit, bought me new shoes, took me to the best restaurant in Korea, painted me a picture, sent me uplifting videos, bought me new pants, and continues to send me goodies from Korea. We first met when she asked me to contact a less active. I did, and when he came to church the next week, she invited us to dinner. From that day on we were best friends!
Me: This sister was so kind and generous. She went out of her way to meet us and have an experience with us. She was so generous to Taz throughout his mission. She bought me a scarf and I wore it on Sunday.

Taz:My most memorable mission experience happened with Brother Lee and Sister Whang. I had become close with their son, but at a stake activity me and Sister Whang played volleyball together and really had fun. Brother Lee is in the stake presidency, so we worked together often. While I served in their ward Sister Whang promised me that she would feed me before I left. We did eat together on my last day. I shared my testimony of Christ with them. We all cried together and they expressed they haven't had a better night with the missionaries than that night. We kept in touch after I transferred and she insisted on meeting my parents.
Me: This couple was so fun. They had us in their home and gave us delicious fruit.  They were easy to talk to and took us to the traditional Korean side dish restaurant. We briefly saw their son because he had just taken a big music test and needed to decompress and play some basketball.

Taz: I was extremely close to Sister Mokjisu. She just loves every missionary. But we met my first month and stayed close throughout my whole mission. She would always tell me that even though I couldn't speak to her, she could feel my love, and oh how I love her!
I helped Brother Jeongmyuengtaek's niece accept baptism! And worked close with him when he was the young men's leader. When he heard my parents were coming and my mom likes history, he insisted on taking us on a historic tour!
Me: These two were so fun. The brother some how got it into his head that I loved history. What I said was that I wanted to visit historic places in Korea and learn about their heritage. So all throughout our day, he kept asking me if I was learning stuff and enjoying the palace. I assured him that I was. The sister was very generous. She had some sort of clip on her purse and I was just making small talk and told her it was pretty and asked her what it was and she said it was a hair clip and they had made them in Relief Society. Then she promptly gave it to me. I literally didn't want it, I was just making conversation.   Then after the palace, we went to a shop and she showed me three broaches. She asked me which one I liked best and I pointed to one. Next thing I knew, she had bought it for me.  On the way home that evening they took us to a sushi buffet. They too were kind and generous.

Taz: This is Sean, one of the first investigators I ever had. He lived in Canada for 3 years, which made communication easy. Admittedly when we first met we were more friends than missionaries for him. However about a year after I had left this area I got a call from him saying that he moved to my new area! We met and our friendship strengthened, but our gospel discussion's deepened!
Me: Sean was fun. He knew a lot about pop culture. He was very friendly and we were all wondering why he hadn't joined the church. But he is on his own and it is very hard to be a member of the church and have no one to support you. I feel like he will eventually join the church.

Taz: Elder Tippetts! And Elder Kang. They got to Korea at the same time and I remember meeting them both. Elder Kang wanted to speak english so bad, but wasn't great, and Elder Tippetts wanted to speak Korean so bad, but wasn't great. I was Elder Tippetts first exchange, where I taught him how to Proselyte, speak to women, and have fun. We later became companions and were best best friends.
Me:  Elder Tippetts I feel like I know him. We met his family when they visited Vegas and he was Taz's companion at the time. He was just so down to earth and gracious and friendly. I will always remember our dinner together because he ate one of those green peppers and it was super hot and his face turned so red and he had trouble talking and his eyes were watering. I will also remember him because we were at dinner and an Imagine Dragon's song came on...Thunder...and Taz asked about it and I said it was their new song and Elder Tippets said it was released before he came on his mission, but it was just now playing in Vegas and I considered it new. Anyway, he was fun, but I didn't do much interacting witb the other elder.

Taz: This is Oslo! He is the most AMAZING convert I have ever met! One day he saw the missionaries when he was on vacation in Mexico and noticed that they were so happy. He didn't know why, but he saw them holding a Book. He figured that was the reason they were happy. So he ordered a copy of The Book of Mormon for 50$ on amazon! He read it non stop, and got to Alma within a week, he had no clue what was going on so he decided to call the missionaries. He was baptized 3 weeks later. He then went to do his two year military service the next week! He smuggled in a copy of The Book of Mormon (which is very illegal) and held a mini sacrament meeting with Ramen in his room every Sunday. He didn't have the Priesthood, but he told me he wanted to remember Christ every Sunday! He was an amazing example to me and we became great friends! We loved the same TV shows, and spent every Sunday talking! I will miss shaking his hand as hard as I can and him squealing!
Me: Oslo was amazing. He learned English by watching Dr. Who over and over, so he talks with a perfect British accent and says many Dr. Who sayings. I loved listening to him talk. He was fun at dinner and then a few weeks later when we attended his ward, he was the translator, so we got to listen to him translate all of Sacrament meeting! By the way, I'm wearing my scarf and broach that the ladies bought me.

Taz: This is one of my favorite families! Peter Yoo, his wife Sister Lee and their daughter Amber! They are a great family that I met at the beginning of my mission. Me and Amber were great friends and Peter was such an awesome leader! He is so goofy and very fun! Sister Lee is an AMAZING cook and I just loved being with their family!
Me: This was a great dinner with this family. They had many great things to say about Taz. We talked and talked to their daughter who spoke excellent English. She was leaving in less than a month to go on her mission to Canada. She was exited and we talked a lot about that and what she should expect on her mission.

Taz: Now I say a lot of members are my favorite members, but the Astons ARE my favorite! They are beyond amazing! Especially Sister Aston! This family just loves missionaries! We went to their house for meals often, spent every family home evening playing volleyball with them! I met them every chance I got on exchanges, and they continually sent me packages and emails after I left their ward! Sister Aston is the only member I ever gave a gift to, because she is the most special member I ever met!
Me: Sister Aston was awesome. She was so encouraging to Taz throughout his whole mission.  She emailed me half way into his mission saying that I could use her military address to send packages to Taz and she would deliver them to him.  It saved so much money, making the postage go from on an average of $85 to $25. We only met her for about 30 min. at a shop outside the military base and we almost missed seeing her daughter, but literally on the way out she arrived.

Taz: Nathan Lamant Packer. We too were in the MTC together and I did NOT like him, and when I got the transfer call to serve with him I was NOT excited. But man oh man was I wrong. We became best friends. Seriously one of my favorite companions. I would say favorite, but I had too many great companions. We worked SO hard together, and had a lot of fun. I loved my time with him and after we transferred away we got together nearly every Pday! I sure miss our goodnight hugs!
Me: I have a lot of respect for Nathan after learning of his back story. His father and mother are divorced and both remarried. The mom has left the church and his dad is way less active and married to a non member. Knowing how tough it was for Taz with our support made me more in awe of Nathan and I know that his family supported him, but it must have still been tough. 

Taz: Mina Park! This girls is seriously awesome! When she first got home from college in Hawaii I swear I recognized her. She came up to me and said "who are you?! I recognize you from somewhere!" But it was the first time we had ever met in this life at least. After getting to know her, I have come to believe that we were definitely good friends in the Pre-mortal life! She helped me so much through my toughest time on my mission. And I didn't find this out until the very end of my mission, but apparently I helped her through her toughest time too. She is someone I will never forget!
Me: I had received a friend request from an Asian lady on Facebook early into Taz's mission. I declined it because I didn't recognize the name and I get requests from strangers all the time. Then one day Taz sent home a picture and name of Mina and how he'd met up with her again. I realized she was the one who sent the request and I told him to tell her to resend it. So we became friends on FB and Instagram. She had gone to BYU Hawaii and spoke really good english. She was just fun and bright and bubbly and you could tell they were good friends.

Taz: And her mom! Sister Kim runs a fabulous restaurant and she always told me I was her favorite Elder!
Me: What can I say...she is an excellent cook and very generous, giving us so many items off her menu for free. Her restaurant is up a hill in a secluded neighbor hood, but it is beautiful and I was in love with her adorable restrooms in the restaurant. She was just a joy to meet.

Taz: Brother Lee and Sister Jackie! These two are so cute! They are totally in love, but neither of them will admit it! Brother Lee was my ward mission leader and Sister Jackie taught the missionaries Korean every Thursday! Over my 5 months working with them we got very close! It was a hard goodbye, but they both told me that I am the best missionary to ever go to their ward. I told them it was because of them, their service to me was what enabled me to be great!
Me: Jackie was so young at heart even though she was over 50. She really should marry Brother Lee, they got along like a married couple. They were so cute and worried about us and eating fish. They kept ordering glass noodles because they noticed that is what we were eating the most of.

Taz: The first member I have ever met in Korea was this man and his family. Baksanggi. Brother Park is so awesome and so fun! Thankfully he is excellent at english. When I first showed up to his house I was terrified because I wasn't good at Korean, but he made me feel comfortable and encouraged me and taught me. We became really great friends and he would call me from time to time through out my mission. His children are amazing and his wife was my favorite cook throughout the whole mission. I love this family so much and I want to visit them again.
Me: This man seriously reminded me of an Asian Reed Waite. He looked like him and had similar mannerisms. This family had 6 kids and this little boy was full of mischief. The mom cooked a lot of fish not realizing we didn't like it, but then kept apologizing for not knowing. They had Taz dish up our food and he noticed little octopus's in he fried rice and tried really hard not to give us any. They had a spicy squid with noodles and she really wanted us to try it.  So Garry and I did. But one bite was enough. She did make a delicious shrimp and a tuna rice thing that I enjoyed. That man could talk and talk. He kept trying to make his wife speak English. They had lived in the states for several years. So she could understand it, but didn't like speaking it.  She did make a delicious Bulgogi too.

Taz: There are so many members in this picture. They were all from my first ward, and mostly leaders. They are the reason the Bundang ward is so amazing!
Me: The man in the pink shirt is the bishop of the Bundang ward. He has two sisters and their husbands that joined us for dinner. The man at the top is Brother Park who took us to Nami island (the bishop's sister is his wife). His son and daughter in law also joined us for dinner. The son was an excellent pianist and played a few songs for us. The bishops wife (below him) was an excellent singer and sang for us. Then the whole family sang and it was as if Angels from heaven were singing.  The bishop basically told us that when we went to his ward we should bear our testimonies (if we felt like it, but we really should). The man above Garry translated our testimonies that Sunday.Taz told his conversion story to them in Korean. That night was probably our most spiritual experience the whole trip. They were all just wonderful people.

Taz: Baksungho! Another Brother Park! This man is the funnest man I know. At 50 years old, on the inside he is a 5 year old. He loves to have fun and loves to play. But he is also extremely spiritual. He taught me amazing lessons about the gospel and bore powerful testimonies of the Savior. I love this man. My favorite memory with him was when I had transferred and he came to visit our ward. He gave me a huge bear hug and then pranced around the building asking everyone "Are you Elder Goon's friend? Because I'm his best friend so that makes us friends too!"
Me: Oh My Gosh! This man was so fun! He took us on a mega drive to Nami Island. He was just so funny and cool. He was always worried about making sure we were comfortable and having a good time. He was clearly fond of Taz and any one who loves my boy is a hero in my book!

Hagyeunglan! I was extremely close with her son and emailed him throughout his mission, but this women always felt like a mom to me. She would tell me each Sunday that I am the cutest missionary ever and that I feel like her son. She was my Korean mother!

Taz:  This is my companion Elder Kim and the Sister missionaries that I served with right before I came home. They are so fun! We worked so hard and grinded on the streets every single night. They are three excellent missionaries and we had a fun time together.
Me: O.K, we met Sister Thompson briefly two times.  Then over MLK day at church, I was walking out of Sac. meeting and I saw a familiar lady walking down the hall and realized it was her! She was in town for her brothers tournament and happened to choose our ward to attend. That was surreal, but super fun and we hugged and talked for a few minutes. Taz was out of town, so he missed seeing her!

Taz:  Kimeunyoung is an amazing convert that I was never really close to until I helped her move! We worked very hard to help her move and she rewarded us with a delicious meal! I was one of the original missionaries that were there when she was baptized! We were close ever since. She later told me that at first she didn't know why but every time she saw me, she was filled with joy. She realized it was because I reminded her of the joy she felt at her baptism! I was there when she got her temple recommend and it brought great joy to me to know she was still progressing in the gospel!
She is an amazing singer and songwriter. She performed some original music at a stake fireside and it brought me to tears! She is so talented and so kind, and the sweetest person I know! As a parting gift she gave me two of her CD's singed, and my favorite Korean artist's album! I love love love her!