Michael E. (Mike) Nicholes
Northern Far East & Korea Mission
August 1961 to March 1964
I think I was one of the lucky ones to have served under President Andrus and Gail Carr and watching the beginning of a mission that would turn into four missions among a wonderful people. I had a unique privilege and opportunity to 'preview' the mission and the country before being called to serve in the Northern Far East Mission. I was in the US Army from the summer of 1959 to April of 1961. I came home from Korea in the military to be called and gone 88 days later back to a land I learned to love and cherish as a second home.
During the military time I was able to meet most of the missionaries, especially those in Seoul. The only one I cannot remember meeting before my call was the one to whom I was assigned as junior companion, and from whom I learned my basic Korean skills (taught with vigor) was Bruce Grant. While in the military I had the privilege of being a 'conduit' for some of the hard to get items from the PX to the missionaries and since it was for the Lord's work, I supposed it must somehow be sanctioned or forgiven. I had arrived in Korea only one month after the death of Dr. Kim Ho Jik and never had the privilege of knowing him, but I learned his legacy well.
When I arrived in Korea as a missionary, after only a few days, I was taken to and introduced to Sister Kim Do Pil. This wonderful sister 'interviewed' me with typical Korean directness and admonished me that I should do a good job and represent my Heavenly Father well. I promised her I would do that and I will never forget the twinkle in her eye and her kind, but weather worn face, as she sent me off with a chuckle. I think many of the first elders had a similar experience. I came over with Brent Clement and we were separated upon arrival for several months.
One of the most exciting experiences I had with Elder Grant was the teaching of a really interesting (they way he, they, all dressed) student named Kim Cha Bong. Due to my limited Korean Language ability at the time, I was only able to bear a testimony, or what passed for one at the time, and a prayer or two. Elder Grant did most of the teaching and I got to do the baptism. This scruffy 'Hak Saeng' was to go on to become a bishop, stake president and mission president and ended his term on earth as a professor at BYU. It is truly marvelous how the Lord works.
After a few months in Seoul I was transferred to Pusan where I labored for over a year with Elders Butler, Maw and others. Here I was privileged to get to know our Branch President, Kum Ba Ul and his family and the most amazing Chung Family with all the family being members of the church. Pusan was a most provincial town with its own idiosyncrasies. We lived in a small house on the church property at Tong Dae Shin Dong, 15 Bunji with a wonderful Brother Lee as our cook. Thanks to Brother Lee, most of us did not get sick, but survived all the ills around us. I had a couple of medical problems there, waking up one day virtually paralyzed from the neck down and feeling no pain and unable to move. After Elder Maw established that I was not faking it, he dressed me and heaved me over his shoulder (he was large and strong) and took me to see Dr. Erik at the Seventh Day Adventist Hospital, the only medical resource, or what passed for medical resources at that time in Korea.
At least he spoke English. I was admitted and diagnosed as having an encephalitis like virus and placed on IV antibiotics for ten days. During the first of those days many members would come and visit me, and also Elder Maw would talk to me and encourage me.
One Sister, Sister Cho, brought me a raw egg. I was not used to, nor had I ever eaten a raw egg, in hindsight I realize that she probably spent her earnings for the day for that egg, but she poked a hole in one end and the other and put it up to my mouth to suck out the contents. Koreans believed that raw eggs were good for you, all I know is that the taste was 'unique'. I did suck it up and maybe the egg and her faith helped me to get well, but I was discharged about ten days later. I never really adapted to sucking raw eggs.
In 1962, Elder Grant and his companion were sent to open the city of Taegu for proselyting. About a month later I was assigned to take Elder Ross Cole as my new junior companion to Taegu and join Elder Grant. This was one of the most unique experiences of the mission experience up to that time. We had a small house, and chapel, next to a Buddhist monastery. One that had the typical Buddhist habit of arising with the knocking of the hollow wooden instrument, at the hour of 5:00 A.M. ! We had our own built-in alarm and got up with them whether we liked it or not.
After three months I was brought to the mission office as Recorder where I labored for about six months. I had an assignment in Yorak Dong, the branch on a hill, that no longer exists, and finished up my mission in Sam Chung Dong, where some of the first Elders had labored.
One of the most memorable teaching events was in Pusan when an older man came to the property, speaking English, and inquiring about the church. My Korean was really weak at the time, but I was allowed to teach him in English. Brother Kim was baptized and I lost track of him until decades later, he is a very old man, spotted me at an area conference in 2000 and we both jumped out of our socks to see each other. It was wonderful to see the fruits of the labors of the church still alive and doing well.
I was able, when transferred back to Seoul, to go back to the military area and contact my houseboy and some of the Koreans that I had met in the military and try to interest them in the gospel. I don't know if they ever joined the church, but the ability to bear my testimony to them in their language was a blessing to me, if not to them.
During that five years in Korea, split between the military and the Mission, I saw Korea grow and change from a postwar country to a vibrant and thriving country, beset with their own growth problems, but making tremendous strides in progress and modernization. I watched several men that I had met become leaders of the church.
Pak Jae Am was the first Koreans I met in Korea, while in the army. He was working for the army and would ferret out the newly arriving troops that were LDS (it was on our records that he had access to) and find us before being shipped all over Korea. He would tell us where the nearest branch was and often the name of the branch president. He was a wonderful man.
I met Han In Sang when he was a marine and I in the US Army. I can remember the friendship I had with him, especially since he spoke English. I gave him my copy of the Doctrines of the Church that was given to the Servicemen. It would be nearly forty years later when I would see him in a stake conference in Portland, Oregon, when he showed the copy of this book to the members and recounted the story.
I think I am the one most blessed with the privilege and opportunity to serve in Korea as a missionary and a serviceman, and later I served with my wife and three of our children in the Korea Seoul Mission as President, 1991-94.
We now live (2003) in Portland, Oregon, all the kids have left the nest and Lynne and I are planning a mission of some sorts as soon as I retire, in a couple of years from now.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is true and my Savior lives and loves me. I am humbled by the generosity of the Lord in my life with a wonderful wife and children and the opportunity to serve. I love President Hinckley. Those of us in the early years got to see him often, a blessing not realized by the members of this rapidly growing worldwide church. He is the current oracle of the Lord on this earth and a living prophet as was Joseph Smith. My testimony of Joseph Smith grows continually as I learn and understand the gospel more and as we study the tenants of the gospel within the pages of the Book of Mormon. This is my humble testimony. Amen
Mike Nicholes |
