September 23, 2012

This past week was pretty good, but not too much happened. We are continually meeting with our investigators and some are progressing more that others. Right now we just need to find some more investigators to teach because the ones we have right now really aren't going anywhere. We've been working with a less active member for the past couple of months and he was finally able to come out to church this past week which was really good. He was baptized in Oregon while he was living there so none of the members here know him and most of them thought that he was an investigator, but in reality he was just a member. He's been really busy recently with his internship and other things so he hasn't been able to attend church, but he said that now that his internship is over he'll be able to come out to church on Sunday and he said that next week he'll try bringing his friend so we're hoping to turn him into an investigator. Brother Kang is still doing really great, he is attending institute every week at the Stake Center and doing all the homework that comes with it and is just soaking up the gospel like a sponge. It's really amazing to see, he always wants to help and has such a pure heart. He went to the temple this past week again with our ward members and did baptisms for the dead and said that he really enjoyed the experience. It's been 4 weeks since he's been baptized and he's already visited the temple twice, received the priesthood, and is going to institute weekly. He's definitely a miracle that I will never forget.

September 16, 2012

So this past week I said goodbye to my old companion Elder Hardcastle and got my new companion Elder Eaves. He's from Utah in the Layton area and he's only got a few transfers left as a missionary. We get along really well and we're excited to serve together in Jeonju. This is the first time I've had a new companion in the same area because I usually just always transfer, so that's definitely a nice change. While Elder Hardcastle was still here we spent a lot of time saying goodbye to members and investigators so that's pretty much all that happened in the beginning part of the week. I was privileged to eat dog soup again this past week from Brother Kang, but this time it was a little worse that usual and I ended up throwing up after the meal because I didn't want it in my system anymore. Other than that not too much happened in the later part of the week, we're continuing to meet with our investigators and we have one named Kim Jin Sor who's progressing slowly. He's got a part time job on Sunday which prevents him from coming to church, but he reads out the Book of Mormon when we ask him which is awesome. Last night after church we went out to the countryside to a place called Gimje to eat dinner with our less active member who loves us and it was really fun. They all got really really drunk and they requested that we danced like Gangnam style (a really famous song in Korea and apparently in America as well). Anyways, we did that and they erupted and loved it and one guy was sooooo drunk that he asked for my autograph, so that was really funny. He was drunk before dinner, then he drank another bottle of Soju and was just completely hammered.

September 9, 2012

Well this past week was kind of fun for us here in Korea. Last week we ate at a couple of the members' houses because my companion is going home this week so that was really fun to do. We also helped one of our less active members with his English study group which he holds every week and a couple of the members of the study group said that they would come to the church today for family home evening, so we hope to see some of them out there. We started the new member lessons with Brother Kang Gir Gu and they are going well. We are taking them really slowly and making sure that he understands everything perfectly before we move on which is pretty easy because he already understands and accepts everything we tell him. He actually helped us with a couple of lessons last week and they went really well because he has such a passion for sharing the gospel that it just oozes from him when we have sit down lessons. His faith is really strong right now and he has such a strong desire to share the gospel and it's happy message to everyone so we're super happy to have him as a member of our ward. This past week we had one investigator come out to church and his name is Mr. Jung. He is maybe 70ish and this was his second time out to church which was really good. He really likes missionaries and English and is willing to come out to church so that is definitely a good start, we're hoping that he starts to read the Book of Mormon as the next step in his conversion process. Today we actually got transfer calls and for the first time ever I'll be in an are for more than 2 transfers, since my companion is going home and he is the zone leader, a new zone leader will come in an replace him. My new companion's name is Elder Eaves and he is actually the district leader in the other district in our zone so he and I have a good relationship and I'm really excited to serve with him in this ward. He's super pumped too so we're excited to see a lot of success together here in Jungang ward!

September 2, 2012

This past week was a good bounce back week for us. We were able to find a couple new investigators to meet and Kang Gir Gu was confirmed on Sunday. There was a typhoon that hit Korea last week and stuff blew around everywhere and some trees cracked in half, but we were safe and our house was safe as well. We weren't allowed to go outside which kind of sucked, but we just made calls at home. I was actually on a split that day with a couple of Korean Elders which was really fun. One of our new investigators turned out to be a friend of our Bishop's son, so we were able to meet with them together and it seems like he has quite a bit of church interest.

August 26, 2012

This last week was a really special week for us because it was the first time in almost a year that the Elders in our ward have seen a baptism! Brother Kang Gir Gu was baptized this Sunday and his service was really awesome. His daughter came down and attended it and she seemed to like it so we're hoping that she will meet with missionaries in the near future and be baptized as well. Our ward members were super supportive though, our ward mission leader got everything set up for the baptism and baptized Brother Kang and his request. Our ward mission leader really helped with Brother Kang a lot, He drove him 2 hours up to our mission office and 2 hours back one day so that Brother Kang could confess his sins to our mission president. It was really special and he was so appreciative. The day before Brother Kang's baptism on Saturday, he went with our members to the Seoul Temple and although he couldn't go in and perform and ordinances, our members took turns waiting with him outside while the other members did endowment sessions. One of our members took a picture with him and gave him a framed copy of them at the temple as a baptismal gift which was really special. He's going to make such a great member of our ward and the members are so excited to receive him. Other than that not too much happened this week, we met with our investigators and met a couple new people, but nothing too special happened. Right now we're on the hunt for new investigators because the one with the most potential just got baptized. 

August 19, 2012

This last week was really cool for us here in Jeonju! Our ward had a picnic on Wednesday which was really fun, we were able to spend time with our members and get to know them more which was really good. It was really sad though because they went to a water park sort of place so we weren't allowed to play with them in the water which made us all really sad. Our investigator Kang Gir Gu came out and he enjoyed his time out there as well. He's such a funny guy, we went over to his house again this past week for dinner and we ate dog soup together with some of our members. He purposely invites us over for dinner when his kids are home from their busy schedules so that we can meet with them and share the gospel with them. He's such an awesome guy and we love him so much. We also had a sports conference thing out in Jeong Eup on Saturday and we played sports as a stake and he was on the sideline the entire time cheering for our ward. It's not really fun to teach lessons with him anymore because he knows everything and it's like meeting with a member! He is getting baptized this Sunday and he can't wait. His daughter will also be in attendance this Sunday so we're excited to see her again. We met a new investigator last week named Jo Jae Hyun and he came out to church on Sunday. We set a baptismal date with him for the 30th of next month so we're hoping that he gets to that point as well. Our zone is notorious for being one of the worst performing zones just because it is more countryside and there are not a lot of members in each ward, but this past week our zone led our mission in investigators out to church and investigators is a baptismal date so that was really awesome to see! We're all working really hard and seeing success from it. I appreciate all your prayers and hope you are all well!

August 13, 2012

This past week we were able to set some new baptismal dates for September so we're really excited about that! A couple of the dates were with people we've been meeting for a while so it was exciting for them to accept a date for sure! One of them unfortunately is moving to Iksan today, so we're going to refer him to the Elders there and they will continue to meet with him. Another one that we set was with a man named Kim Yu Cheol and he's really awesome. He's really into fitness and stuff like that so he's pretty ripped, but he's in the hospital right now because he had surgery to fix his ACL. He's super awesome though and accepts everything we say, so we committed him to a date and now we're working from here. Kang Gil Gu is doing really good as well, his date was moved back a week so that his daughter can attend so we're really excited for that, there's no doubt in my mind that his whole family will be members by the end of this year. He finished reading the Book of Mormon last week as well, it took him less than a month to do so and he's already started reading it again, this time more in depth so that he can understand it better. He's just pushing right along and I'm pretty sure that there is nothing we can do to stop him progression. He's so excited to be baptized and we're excited to see him become a member. Unfortunately a couple of investigators dropped last week, so we're focused on finding this next week, we have a couple of appointments set up so we're hoping to find more people like Kang Gil Gu on the streets!