July 28, 2013

So it's come down to this, my final email for my mission blog. Unfortunately it's going to be really short because I don't have a lot of time but it has been a blast serving here in Korea. This past week we were really busy with our English Village thing in Daejeon and it went pretty well. We spent pretty much all week setting it up and maybe about 60~70 people came which was really good. Now that the missionaries know what to do in the future I hope that it goes better in the future next time. Anyways, I'm looking forward to coming home, I've learned so much here on my mission and I wouldn't trade any of these experiences I have had over the past 2 years for anything. It's been such a blessing in my life and I will remember it forever. I will thank my Heavenly Father everyday for sending me here to Korea. BYE EVERYONE!!!

July 14, 2013

This week was pretty awesome for us here in Gongju. I now have 3 more weeks left which is pretty crazy…..actually I have a little less than that left but we'll call it 3 weeks :). The work is going really well though, we were able to find some more new investigators last week and we're seeing a lot of miracles from the Lord. On Saturday we had a woman call us and tell us that she wanted to come out to our ward and on Sunday we picked her up with one of our members. Unfortunately we have a lot of little kids in our ward (who are mega brats….) and they were really noisy which kind of ruined her church experience, but we hope that she comes out next week as well. Right now we are advertising a lot for our English Village that will be happening on the last Saturday of this month. We go to Daejeon twice a week to hand out fliers and it seems that a lot of people have interest in coming so we're hoping it turns out good. An English Village is somewhere where people can use in English in real practical situations. We'll have a make shift post office and restaurant and other stuff like that where people can come in and talk to us like they want to order food or mail a letter or something like that. They are really popular in Korea so we're hoping through it we can share our church message with a lot of people. We're going to advertise for it more this week but hopefully all goes well! I'll see all of you in 3 weeks!

July 7, 2013

This week was pretty good for us here in Gongju. We met our new mission president and his wife, President and Sister Shin. They are such kind people, I'm really excited for our mission here. President Shin used to be Executive VP of Samsung here in Korea, so he commands a lot of respect so he'll be able to influence our mission a lot. He is trying to focus on getting the wards more interested in missionary work and member responsibilities (particularly with the massive amount of less active members) so I'm so excited to see how it all goes. Our investigators are doing good though, Edna and Michelle (our Filipino investigators) are doing good. We met Edna in the middle of the week and Michelle came out to church (Edna was sick so she couldn't make it..) but they are both doing good. They want to learn more about God and Jesus Christ, so we teach them really slowly and simply in English because they aren't very good at English or Korean. We're working on getting the pamphlets in Tagalog so that they can fully understand what we are teaching them. This week we've got a few appointments with some investigators as well that we're looking forward to. One of our members' daughter is going to Utah soon to learn English so she told us to come over every night for dinner to help her daughter get used to speaking English, so we're looking forward to visiting them a lot! They are such a sweet family, the husband isn't a member, but he sure does love feeding us! I've got a little bit of time left here so we're trying to make the most of it! 

June 30, 2013

Hello everyone! Only 4 more emails to go after this! Time is winding
down very quickly.......it's crazy to think that 2 years ago this
month I was preparing to head to the MTC, and now I get to go home
again....I'm partially happy, and partially sad. I'm going to miss
serving here in Korea for sure. This week we actually got a new
mission president, his name is President Shin and he was actually all
the Korean missionaries' MTC Branch President so everyone knows him
very well. I'll only have the opportunity to serve under him for 1
month, but I'm looking forward to the experience. Last week we had a
farewell for President and Sister Furniss and I will definitely miss
them. I learned a lot from them and I definitely look forward to
seeing them after my mission. It's weird that now they are
on their way home to America, especially since I will be following
them shortly after. I don't have a lot of time left, but we're
making the most of it out here in Gongju! Last week we were
able to find 2 new people to teach so we're super excited
to meet with them, it gives us more stuff to do! Hahahahaha, anyways,
our Filipino investigators Edna and Michelle came out to church again
yesterday and they seem to like it. Next week they said that they are
going to bring out a friend so it should be interesting.
It's kind of difficult because they all have young children that make
a lot of noise and our investigators/their kids aren't really good at
English nor Korean, so it's kind of hard to communicate. We have 1
Filipino Sister in our ward so we're going to have to rely on her
heavily for translation help. It should be good though, we hope that
all goes well this next week as well!

June 23, 2013

Hello everyone! Well it's coming down to the end pretty quickly.....I
have a little over 1 month left to be a missionary and I'm definitely
going to miss it. It's been so great serving, I'm always so happy
because we're able to serve other people, it'll be weird going back to
a regular life. This past week was pretty good for us, I got my final
companion last week. His name is Elder Osguthorpe and he is from
Ogden, UT. He's in his third transfer right now and is excited to work
so I'm excited to spend my last transfer with him. This past week we
saw a miracle in that one of our members brought 2 Filipino women that
work at his office with him. They seemed to like our church a lot so
we're hoping that they decide to keep coming out each week. I'll keep
you posted more next week!

June 9, 2013

Hello everyone who reads my blog! Right now I'm still here in Gongju
and it's been really fun. This past week was kind of crazy for us
though. So we had been meeting with a recently re-activated family in
our ward in order to prepare their daughter for what we thought would
be a convert baptism....but it turns out that she's still 8 years 11
months and 20 something days old..... so when she is baptized next
Sunday it will be a member baptism, not a convert baptism. I don't
know how that information was found out so late, but we just found out
yesterday and I was super embarassed because we had essentially been
doing the discussions for no reason at all. Maybe there was a reason
behind it that I don't know yet, but it was pretty crazy to me. That
was kind of the crappy part of last week, the good part was that we
had an investigator who planned out a whole tour of Gongju today for
our zone so that was really fun. He set it up so we had a tour bus and
lunch provided and we were able to visit a bunch of historical sites
today which was really awesome. He is so kind, unfortunately he
doesn't have a ton of interest in the gospel, but he's always willing
to help us out so it was amazing. Hopefully we'll be able to find some
more people soon to teach, I have less than 2 months left which feels
really weird, but we're making the most out of it!

May 26, 2013

This week was a really awesome week for us here in Gongju! The week
started off pretty normal, we had some regular appointments, but other
than that it was pretty dead. We were able to meet our investigator
with a baptismal date and she is so adorable. Her family went less
active for a little bit, but is now coming out to church again so she
is about 10 years old so we're preparing her for baptism. She already
knows all the lessons and everything so it's all a review, but it's
super fun to meet with her and play games with the family. She will be
baptized next month on the 18th, so we're looking forward to that. One
big miracle we saw last week happened on the way to one of our
appointments. It was in the morning and we were going to meet one of
our investigators when I man sitting at a table outiside a convenient
store stops us and asks us to sit down with him. He was talking about
how his father had passed away a month before and that he had a lot of
guilt and stuff like that because his father never attended church and
that he might have gone to hell. We taught him about the spirit world
and how this isn't the end of our life and that this life is just a
really small moment in the eternities and he was so excited about
that. He was so thankful to hear our message and recognized that God
put us in his path that morning to meet him. It was way awesome, we
got his phone number and we're planning on meeting with him this next
week. He lives in Seoul, but he comes to Gongju pretty regularly.
Worse comes worse we refer him to the Elders in Seoul, but he's pretty
much awesome and hopefully he'll make a decision to be baptized in the
near future! Just a second ago too we got a phone call from a woman
who wants to know more about our church so we set up a time to meet on
Friday so hopefully all goes well with her.

May 19, 2013

This week was pretty slow for us here in Gongju, but it was still
rewarding. Last week we weren't able to meet with a lot of our
investigators due to scheduling conflicts, but we were able to spend a
lot of time with our members which was really good. On Wednesday we
got a call from one of our members and he asked for our help because
he was closing down his English tutoring place (In Korea they call
them Academies, but they are like tutoring offices? I don't know what
to call it in English). He hardly ever asks for help from the
missionaries so we were really happy for the opportunity to serve him
and talk to him, but at the same time we were really sad because he
had to close his academy and now has to find a new job which really
sucks. He's such a strong member and 2nd counselor in the stake
presidency, but he has a lot of hardships in his life right now so
we're trying our best to help him and his family. On Thursday night
our ward had a campout for Buddha's birthday so even though we
couldn't sleep over we went on both Thursday and Friday and spent the
day with our members. It's been a miracle that we've had so may
opportunities to interact with our members and get to know them. I've
been so happy getting to know the people here and I know that as we
continue working together we'll be able to see a lot of success
together here in Gongju! We have 1 baptismal date right now and she's
an adorable 12 year old girl who's parents are both members and
starting to come back out to church again. She will be baptized next
month so we're realy looking forward to it. Our ward pretty much
consists of 2 families, which is really funny. Everyone is brothers or
sisters or cousins, so it's almost like every week at church they are
having a family reunion or something! Haha, but it's really good, we
love our members and they love us so we're making the best of our
situation!

May 12, 2013

Hello everyone! This is Elder Miller and for the first time in 7
months I'm out of Suwon! I was transferred this past week to a little
teeny town called Gongju, and it's way out in the sticks. It's not
like rice paddys and not apartment buildings small, but it's
definitely not city by any means. Each city that I've served in has
had something similar to a Walmart where we would go shopping and buy
groceries, but this city has none of that, so it's definitely the
smallest city that I've actually lived in. It's really good though,
since it's smaller it has a much kinder feel and the people are just
generally nicer which is lovely. They smile more and are more polite,
but they are all really really old! I swear the only people I talk to
nowadays are 60+ in age. But it's ok, they are really nice so it makes
it worth it. I'm really sad that I had to leave Suwon, I met a lot of
wonderful people there that I will miss, especially the members. We
were really close with a few of the single male members there and I
miss talking with them and doing stuff together. But all will be ok,
the members here (all 40 of them ;) ) are super funny! They love to
joke around and have a good time so I'm fitting in much better than I
did in Suwon. We've seen miracle after miracle already in the short
time that I've been here. I really wanted to get to know the members
here quickly because I don't have a lot of time here, so we scheduled
to visit members quite frequently. On Saturday we helped one of our
members with an activity that he was putting on and at that time I was
able to meet a few members, and one of them invited us over for dinner
that night so that night we ate at the bishop's house and I had a good
oppurtunity to meet them and get to know them so that was cool. Then
on Sunday after church we got invited to lunch and dinner by 2
different members, so we were able to visit them in their homes and
share messages with them. We've been so blessed to get to know the
membes quickly and I'm hoping God provides a way for us to get some
more sudden dinner invites so we can continue to build a good
relationship with our ward. This week we have some appointments with
our investigators and since I haven't met a large portion of them yet,
I can't really say how they are, but from what I've heard they are
really awesome so I'm excited to meet them. I'll let all of you know
how well it goes!

April 28, 2013

Everything is well here in Suwon, but I feel like my days are being
numbered. Transfer calls will be next week and since I've been here
for the past 6 months I expect a call, I'm not sure where I'll go (if
I go at all), but it has definitely been fun serving up here. This
past week we had a ward picnic on Saturday and it was really good to
see some of the ward members get out and mingle together. That's one
thing that is really hard in our ward; we have a lot of members that
are really busy with work and other church callings that they can't
make it out to ward activities. We have about 100 members that
regularly attend church and about 40 were able to come out to the
picnic so that was really good. We played soccer, dodgeball, had a
treasure hunt, and of course ate together. It was a blast and it was
really fun to spend an afternoon with our members. Last week our
investigators were really busy so we weren't able to meet a whole ton
of them, but I talked with a lot of them on the phone and they all
seem to be doing good. It seems like in Korea March and April are
really busy months so our work has kind of been slow recently, but
it's still been really fun! My companion got his visa last week so he
is all clear to go to the U.S. next month to begin his mission so I'm
really excited for him. Tonight we have a ward FHE at the church and
we are in charge of planning the activity. Hopefully at least maybe 30
members show up for it this time, last time we didn't have a ton of
members who showed up which was really disappointing, but we're going
to make it fun so hopefully they enjoy their time there tonight!

April 21, 2013

This week was good for us here in Suwon. We were able to visit one of
my investigators who we hadn't seen for about a month and a half so it
was really good to meet with him. He's been doing good, we visited him
in his Chinese restaurant and ate with him and talked for a while.
He's been super busy with work recently so he hasn't been able to meet
with us, but he said he might have time next month to meet. It kind of
sucks though because I think that by then I will probably transfer, so
before then I will have to visit him a few more times because he's
been my favorite investigator that I have met here. Other than that
this week was a little slow, I've been battling a cold that has kept
me inside for a few days, mostly just a cough and a runny nose, but
the weather outside hasn't helped. It got cold all of a sudden again
and the wind has been blowing more recently than before. So that's
kind of sucked, but the best part of last week was that my companion
and I were able to spend the day in Seoul! He had his visa interview
at the U.S. Embassy so we were able to spend a day up there. I ate a
turkish kebab for the first time in about 7 years and it was sooo
good! It was really overpriced, but I couldn't complain because it had
been so long. I also ate a crunchwrap supreme at taco bell for the
first time in about 2 years so it was just a day of happiness for me.
We visited some popular sites while we were up there and took a few
pictures and just had a blast up there. It definitely was not what I
was expecting though. I was expecting more like Tokyo or Hong Kong,
but it was a little different. It felt a little smaller and less
developed compared to the other 2 which was a little disappointing,
but it was still really fun. I'm looking forward to going back there
in 3 months when I finish my mission and get to spend a day up there
before returning home!

April 14, 2013

Everything is going well here in Suwon, the weather has been kind of
crazy but other than that all is well. We are still in the process of
finding new investigators at this point, but the ones we have are
doing well. One is named Jang Deok Hwan and he is really really really
smart. He's a psychologist and majored in religious studies so he's
really knowledgable on the different religions in the world so it's
always fun to meet with him. His conversion process will most likely
be a pain, but he's reading the book of mormon so that's a good start.
He has really cool theories about religion that are really fun to
hear. One that he told us was about the background of the buddhism and
Christianity, essentially how they came about. His belief right now is
that religion was created as a way for us to live better lives and to
guide us, I'm not entirely sure if he actually believes there is a God
or not though....he says he does, but his ideas sometimes conflict.
Anyways, he was saying if you look at an agricultural society, in
order to thrive they need to work together and share things because it
is a society in which you don't really move around. You grow your
plants and pretty much stay there, so it is good to have a big group
of people gathered together working together in order to thrive. But
in a desert society, you have to move around and hunt for your food,
so it's usually better to be in small groups or go around individually
because resources are so scarce and it doesn't make sense to provide
for a big group of people. He compared this to Buddhism and
Christianity. In India, it was largely an agricultural society where
they shared things so when you look at there religion, most likely it
would be based off of sharing and non violence. There are many Gods
who "share" their godhood and they work together non violently. But if
you look at Jerusalem (a desert society) they had to thrive
individually so their God would most likely be individual and in turn
that's why we are only allowed to worship 1 God. Anyways, 
his ideas were pretty cool, I bet I sound pretty retarded trying to
type them all out here, but it sounded cool when he told us. Anyways,
aside from hearing his theories every week, everything is pretty much
the same, we had General Conference this weekend (my last one as a
missionary) and it was really good. It was kind of sad because about
1/5 of our members actually came out and saw it, but those that did I
hope were at least uplifted in some way. Last week was pretty cool
also because while we were visiting our members and giving them
message cards we got invited in by one of our members who's husband is
a non member and she fed us. It was so cool, we had a great
opportunity to talk with him and get to know him a little bit. He
really likes golf so that's all I talked about with him which was
really cool. Before I left he gave me a sleeve of nice golf balls as
well so I'm excited to use them in a couple months when I get home! I
have 3 1/2 months left which is pretty crazy to think about, time is
moving so fast so I have to make sure I get the most out of my
remaining time here in Korea!

March 31, 2013

So the past couple of weeks have been pretty good for us here in
Suwon. My companion is still awesome and still really funny which
makes doing missionary work a whole ton easier. Right now though it's
a really busy time in Korea with University starting and stuff like
that so we've been having trouble meeting some of our regular
investigators recently. We haven't met my favorite man Choi Sung Yong
in over a month! But luckily we are going to visit his restaurant
tomorrow and catch up which I'm excited about. We're still playing
baseball in the morning with our ward and it's going ok, we're able to
get investigators out which is awesome, the thing that sucks is that
our ward members don't come out......Last week we had 2 come out which
was a complete failure, they all say that they are busy, but just no
one makes time for activities. I know if they wanted to they could
come out, just a lot of them don't see the purpose in gathering
together as an Elder's Quorum which makes me sad. But it's ok,
hopefully this week we'll be able to get some members out and play
some baseball! So transfers were last week as well, but nothing
changed with me and my companion so I don't have a ton to write about
it. This will be my 5th transfer in this area and hopefully my last.
Don't get me wrong, I love me ward, the problem is is that if I stay
another transfer I will most likely finish my mission in the new Seoul
South mission because our stake will be part of the Seoul South
mission as of July 1st. So I just have my fingers crossed that this
will be my last one here because I want to finish my mission in the
Daejeon mission. So let's just hope I get transferred in 6 weeks! This
week looks kind of exciting for us, we get to go to Daejeon for some
training program thing. That's pretty much all that's going
on here, hopefully we'll start picking stuff up soon!

March 17, 2013

So this past week was a pretty busy week for us, our investigators
were finally able to meet with us which was really good. The past
couple of weeks it's been weird because we haven't been able to meet
our investigators are regularly as in the past, so we weren't as busy
as we had been in the past, but this week everything worked out and we
were able to meet with them. They are all doing pretty good, we have
one ivnestigator named Jang Deok Hwan and he's pretty awesome. He's in
his 60s and is a psychologist and also knows the bible well. He's
reading the Book of Mormon right now and he's reading it in really in
depth because he wants to know what our church believes. He even
traced footnotes back to the bible! It was really cool to see how in
depth he is reading. He obviously still doesn't have a testimony or
anything like that, but we're hoping that he keeps progressing.
Another fun thing that happened last week was we played baseball with
our investigators and members on Saturday morning. We've been doing it
for a few weeks and this past week's turnout was definitely the best
that we had seen. We finally had enough to have full teams which was
fun. We had a couple investigators out and they brought their friends
so it was awesome to see them mingle with our members and get to know
them a little bit. We're hoping that they can keep coming out every
week and get closer to the members and hopefully establish some
friendships.

March 3, 2013

So last week was pretty good for me here in Suwon. My old companion Elder Wedam switched rooms and is now serving with the other Elder in my area, and I picked up my greenie on Thursday last week. His name is Kang Ju Yur and he is super funny. He's 20 years old and was actually called to serve in the New Jersey mission, but because of school he was allowed to start early here in the Daejeon mission, then in May if he gets a visa in time he will go to the MTC and then out to New Jersey. So he literally started his mission last Sunday and has now been serving for about a week. He's really awesome though, he's studying to become a pilot and he's really good at soccer so last week we played soccer with some members up in Suji and they loved us because he could play really well. We got invited to play with them again so we'll probably go up there this week again. We're looking forward to good things in our area though, today I got a call unexpectedly from a Choi Sang Seop (the drunk man that accepted a baptismal date about  2 months ago) saying that he wanted us to visit him again so we're going to probably visit him tomorrow and see what we can do to help him out. Our investigators are good too, like always none of them have made a commitment to be baptized yet, but we'll get them soon haha. Right now in our ward we're focusing on working with our members and getting close to them so last Saturday we went out and played some baseball which was pretty fun. I suck at baseball and so did everyone else there so we all had a pretty good time. This next week is looking pretty busy for us as well so we're looking forward to it for sure!

Feb. 25, 2013

So transfer calls were this morning and I'm still going to be here in Suwon which will be exciting for me. My companion Elder Wedam will actually be still living with me, he will just be in the other room with Elder Kim. I will be getting another greenie again this transfer so I'm looking forward to it, it should be really exciting. I have no idea who he is, but I'll let you know next week. Another big change is my district got a whole lot smaller. They are splitting my huge district into 2 smaller ones so now my district is just the people who serve in Shinpung ward. So there are 6 of us (2 sisters, 4 elders) so it should be fun. The sister in my district will be training as well so we'll have 2 greenies in our really small district so it should be fun. I'm really excited because now when I train I can just talk about ways to improve our ward and we can talk about more specific things which will be really awesome. That's the really big news from last week (actually just this morning), my investigators are doing fine, the area is ok, the ward is ok, everything is ok. There is work that needs to be done and we're now coordinating our efforts as missionaries and working on ways we can help our ward progress and become a really solid ward. We have a ward family home evening tonight which we are all really excited for, we hope it goes well and the members like it as well as our investigators.

Feb. 17, 2013

Like always, this past week was pretty normal for us. We were invited over to a lot of members' homes for meals this past week so that was really nice for us. We were able to also meet with a new investigator this week which was fun as well. His name is Kim Ju Sung and he's like 65ish and wants to learn English from us. The only problem is that he really sucks at it. Haha, but it's ok, he's a nice guy and is open to our church teachings. When we first met with him we talked on the phone with his daughter and told her who we were and then when we gave the phone back to him I could here her telling her dad that we were crazy and that he shouldn't meet with us, but he's a nice guy and decided to just keep meeting with us anyways. He's curious as to why people say we are crazy and as we've been meeting he says that he understands more and he thinks that we are normal so that's a good thing. We have another investigator named Choi Sung Yong and he's doing super well also. He hasn't committed to baptism yet because he hates not keeping his promises, but right now he's trying to live the word of wisdom which is really awesome to see. He likes drinking coffee as a stress reducer, but now he switched to soy milk and he seems to be doing pretty well. He has a lot of desire to be a good husband and person, so we're showing him how the gospel can help him with his desires. Hopefully this week he'll be able to come out to church, but because his work schedule always changes we have no idea.

Feb. 11, 2013

Well this week was a little slow for us because of Sollar (or known to the rest of the world Chinese New Year). Everyone goes out of town during Chinese New Year to visit their relatives and stuff like that, so we met most of our investigators before Thursday, then after that we pretty much had nothing to do. Since Chinese New Year is really big here, we were required to do a deep house cleaning this past week so we spent the weekend scrubbing the floors of our house and making sure that everything was clean. Needless to say it was pretty gross when we started because most missionaries have no idea how to take care of themselves, but now our house is a lot better and I actually enjoy living in it! I wish I could report more on my investigators, but needless to say they are doing well and slowly progressing towards Christ. We will continue to meet with them this week so hopefully all goes well with them!

Feb. 3, 2013

Well time seems to keep flying here in South Korea, I found out recently that I only have about 6 months left, so that was a pretty profound realization. This past week for us was pretty average to say the least... We had zone conference earlier in the week which was nice because I didn't have to prepare any training for my district, so that was a plus. I also went on a split last week with some Elders in my district and it went pretty well. I had served around one of them (Elder Jo) when I lived in Jeonju and he is a real fire ball. He is really active in talking with everyone so it was fun serving with him for the day. I went on a mini split on Thursday night as well with Elder Warner because I had 2 appointments and couldn't be at 2 places at one so he was willing to help out which was great. I wish I could say that our investigators are making leaps towards baptism, but they are not unfortunately. They are making progress which is good, but nothing too special to be reported on them. One of our investigators named Lee Cheong Yong is doing good, we meet with him at his house and his mom recently has been gaining a little interest in who we are as missionaries. She loves cooking for us too because she wants us to experience Korean food so I love going over to his house, we go almost everyday to meet and talk with him. He's doing well though, he can tell that he is slowly changing as he meets with us and reads out of the BoM, so that's definitely good. The weather recently has spanned from really warm to cold, so I have no idea what to expect anymore. This next week is the Lunar New Year, so on Saturday we are just going to stay home and clean our house......it's ridiculous, I have to clean my house on my birthday......oh well, at least my house will be clean I guess!

Jan. 27, 3013

This past week was kind of average for us here. I don't know how to describe it, it went by really quickly so I honestly don't remember a whole ton. We are still meeting with our regular investigators on a daily basis and they are all doing pretty well. One in particular who is doing good is our investigator named Lee Cheong Yong. He is really awesome, he is learning English from us and has some gospel interest. We are starting the Plan of Salvation with him this week which should be really good because his father passed away 3 years ago so it will have some good application to him. His mom is also super sweet, we don't really share messages or teach English with her, but she loves cooking Korean food for us so every time we go over there she makes us something new and it's always delicious. We made them tacos this past week and he really liked them, I think that it was the first time he had eaten a taco in his life. That's one food that has never really made to Asia....the taco. Either way he's doing well and we're super excited to meet him again this week! I went on a split last week with Elder Warner and it was really fun. He serves right now in Shingal, which is where I served last year at this time. So it was fun to see some of the members as well as my recent converts living here. They are doing really well and it was such a blast to see them. It's sad because a lot of people who are baptized go less active pretty quickly after their baptism, but she and her daughter are going really strong in the church so it's really special to see real converts.

Jan. 20, 2013

So this past week was a tad bit disappointing for us. The miracle man that we met on Sunday kind of dropped us.....but not really. We met him twice in the beginning of the week and both times he was kind of buzzed, but we shared a message with him and left. He was complaining that he was hungry and didn't have money for food, but we also don't have money so we couldn't give him any so we said we were sorry and left. Anyways, I called him later in the week and he said he was sorry and that he met with him Pastor/Preacher from his old church and told her that he was going to attend that church (my guess is for food aid). Anyways, we were really bummed and wanted to talk with him, but he wouldn't give us the time to do so, so we were super disappointed. The bright side was yesterday in the morning on the way to church we saw him again and he thanked us for all we had done and I told him that we would continue helping him and he said ok. So that night we visited his house and his 2 friends let us in (they were all drinking together) and we were able to show him our sincere desire to help him so I hope that it helps put things in perspective for him that our help will go a lot farther in the end than the food that he receives from the other church. But other than that sad bit of news everything else was pretty good this week, we met with one of our investigators named Lee Cheong Yong and he invited us to play basketball with him and his friends so we played together on Thursday night and it was super fun. It was in a full size US gym because it was at an International School, similar to ASIJ and HKIS, so it was super nice. We played for a bit and met his friends which was really cool. Some of them have some English interest so we're hoping to meet some of them in the future. This week is looking up as well with some appointments so we're just hoping our investigators can keep progressing and hopefully get baptized soon!

Jan. 13, 2013

This week was a super busy week for us. Today we got transfer calls and luckily Elder Wedam and I are going to be staying together another transfer because he's really only been here for 3 weeks due to his emergency transfer. We met 4 new investigators this week and they are all super nice. One of them actually came out to church on Sunday which was really cool to see. The big main miracle that we saw this week actually happened yesterday. On our way to church we were stopped by a man asking about where a certain church was in the area. I responded that I had no idea where it was but that we were from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He said that he had met missionaries in the past and asked when our church meeting was. I told him that we were actually on the way to it and if he would like he could join us, but he declined and said that he was going to go drinking instead. I then asked him if we could have his phone number so we could call him later, but he declined that too, so we just gave him one of our pamphlets with our number on it and asked him to call later if he had any interest. So while we were in sacrament meeting I received 2 calls, but couldn't answer it because it was sacrament meeting, so after the meeting I called the number and it turned out to be him. He told me his name and said that he would try to come out next week to church, I told him cool, and then hung up on him. Then in Elder's Quorum I got another call from him saying that he wanted to come to church, I told him that there was only 15 minutes left and there wasn't much of a reason, but he insisted so we told him that we'd meet him outside. Anyways, he shows up to our church with 10 minutes left, and I explain that there are a bunch of meetings going on, but if he would like I could show him the chapel. He said that he would like to go in so we went in together and then he sat down and just started praying, which I thought was a little weird. While he was praying though, he just started to cry and ball up so we knew that something was happening within him, so we patiently waited for him to finish and then talked with him a little after it. He told us that he was an alcoholic and that he is trying to overcome his alcoholism, so we explained briefly about how in our church no one drinks or anything like that and he seemed to like it. Anyways, after the meetings were done we went back to his house and taught him about the Book of Mormon and the power and guidance that he could receive from it and promised him that as he did so that he would be able to overcome his addictions and he accepted a baptismal date for the end of February which will be really exciting. We are going to meet him again tomorrow so hopefully he's read a little bit of the BOM by then!

Jan. 6, 2013

This week was New Year’s here in Korea and it was pretty fun! We woke up early and went to our church and met a couple of our members. We then went and hiked up the mountain (hill) that was close to our church to watch the new year’s sunrise….It was pretty fun though, but really cold. It snowed a lot that morning so we spent the first little bit shoveling snow, then we were finally able to go hiking. Other than that though our week was pretty good. We didn’t have a ton of appointments so we spent quite a lot of time talking with people on the street and it was good. We found a couple of potential investigators that we will meet next week so that will be good. Our investigators are doing good though, I would write about all of them but the computer I’m using is retarded and the “l” button is broken so every time I want to type it in I have to control v it to paste it so I’m going to keep it shorter this week.