June 24, 2012

This week was pretty good here for me in Korea. Last week I spent a lot of time in Mokpo saying goodbye to members and some of our investigators, and then on Thursday I hopped on a train and came to Jeonju. My new companion's name is Elder Hardcastle and he's really awesome! He has 2 transfers left as a missionary so he's just trying to make the most out of it right now. We're working really hard in this area because the work here is a lot harder compared to other areas in our mission. It's notorious for bad members and no one really wanting to help with missionary work, but right now we're trying to change that so we're hoping all goes well. We have a few investigators here right now that we're working with and we have a lot of potential to get a lot more. My time here has been short so I haven't met all of our investigators yet, but as I meet with them more I'll let you know more about them. 

June 17, 2012

Well first off, we had transfer calls last night and I'm getting transferred again. This time I'm going to go to the Jeonju Zone and I'll be serving in the Jungang ward which is in Jeonju city. My new companion's name is Elder Hardcastle and I served around him while I was in Suwon Zone so I'm excited that I get to be his companion. He is almost done with his mission and has 2 transfers left so I'm hoping that I get to stay there for a little bit of time. That's the main exciting part of the news here, this past week we met with our less active members a lot and got some lessons in with them so we're hoping that they start coming out to church again real soon. One that we've been meeting with is named Kim Seung Nam and he was a miracle find, anyways he loves spending time with missionaries so this past week we did lunch and went bowling with him which was really fun. Our one progressing investigator's name is Yoon Sung Won and he right now is still trying to overcome his alcoholism through the Church's Addiction Recovery Program. He's been doing well in it so we're just trying to help him get through it.

June 10, 2012

This week was a kind of slower one for us. We had a lot of meal appointments with our members which was really good. On Monday we ate with our Bishop's wife because the Bishop was still at work and we gave them Step 1 of our member-missionary work program. The program is supposed to help show members how they can do missionary work in small ways and we're hoping to see some success out of it with our ward members. On Tuesday we ate dinner with one of our less-active members who loves missionaries. His name is Kim Seung Nam and he was baptized maybe 6 years ago. Anyways, we ate with him on Tuesday and Wednesday which was really good, we were able to share a message with him and we're hoping that he starts coming out to church soon. We've been meeting with another semi-less active guy named Kim Jong Chur and he is reall funny. He's 60 and he lived in New York for 10 years during the 80's so we occasionally visit him and speak English with him. He came out to church this Sunday though which was really awesome. We visited a couple of our investigators as well who have been in the hospital (the one from North Korea who's son has brain problems) and they were happy to see us. Her Husband (super less active member) to be (they didn't get married this week because her son has to stay in the hospital so it was cancelled) told us that we needed to baptize them while we were still here so that was reassuring to hear. We also have been continuously meeting with our alcoholic investigator and he's kind of on pause mode right now so we're figuring out a way to get him going again.

June 3, 2012

This past week was pretty hectic for us, we were in and out of hospitals all week visiting one of our members who started crapping blood because of stress at work. He had surgery this past week and now he's finally home which is good. He speaks English with an Irish accent because he learned from his Irish room mate up in Seoul, so it's fun to speak English with him. The other person we visited this week was one of our new investigators who has had so many trials in their lives. The son is 12 but ever since he was 4 he has been in and out of hospitals because there is something wrong with his brain which makes all functions of his life kind of slow motion. The mom has cancer right now and is traveling back and forth from Seoul each week for treatments. They are originally from North Korea, they then emigrated to China where they spent 8 years. They really wanted to go to the U.S. for healthcare, but they couldn't because it was like a 2 year wait so they opted to come to South Korea instead where they are now receiving medical care. She is dating a less active member of ours right now and we met them on the street last week while proselyting. She and him are actually getting married this weekend at our church building so we'll be having a service for them. They are really sweet and I can't help but feel sorry for them because of all their hardships, but I know that the gospel will make them happier so we're excited to begin teaching them.

May 13, 2012

This week was a pretty fun week for us in Mokpo. Neither of us were going anywhere so we didn't have to worry about packing or anything like that this week which was great. On Tuesday we had a combined district meeting in Gwangju. It is always fun to have combined district meetings because we are able to see other missionaries in the zone. Other than that this week was kind of slow for us, we met with our investigator named Sun a couple times which was really fun. We are getting to know him better and he is opening up more to us which has been really cool to see. We taught him about the Plan of Salvation last week with a large emphasis on the atonement and it went really well. We also went out to Gwangju again on Saturday for a Stake Choir tournament thing. It was fun, our choir wasn't really all that good, but it was still fun to go with our ward. This Saturday we will also be having a mission tour which is kind of exciting, the whole southern part of our mission will be meeting together and we will meet with Don R. Clarke of the Seventy. It will be my first mission tour and I'm looking forward to it. 

April 29, 2012

This week was an awesome week for us. We found a new investigator named Sun (that is his English name, we still don't know his Korean name). He has all sorts of questions about our church and has a genuine desire to learn. My companion met him on the bus a couple of weeks ago and began talking to him. He is really good at English and teaches English down here in Mokpo. He is an alcoholic, but really wants to stop drinking so we're trying to help him through it. He has been looking all over the internet about our church and we just answer all his questions and concerns and he seems to be understanding more now. He asked us how we can believe that Joseph Smith truly did restore the church and not make any of it up and we responded that it is through the Book of Mormon that we know these things. We had a great lesson on the Book of Mormon being convincing evidence that the true church was restored to the earth because if the Book of Mormon is true (and it is) then all other aspects of our church must be true. We gave him a copy and we hope he begins to read out of it. We also had 3 baptisms this week which was so special for the family. The mom used to hate churches, but through the example of the members here in Mokpo gained a desire to learn about our church and she recognized it as truth so she was baptized with her two sons. I had the privilege to baptize her two sons and it was a lot different because I've never done it before. I've always been on the receiving end so to baptize someone was a really special experience, especially when you say the baptismal prayer in Korean! We're excited for their further progression in the church and we're hoping that the ward will fellowship them well.

April 22, 2012

This week was a pretty good one for us here in Mokpo. We unfortunately had to move our investigator's baptismal date to next Sunday 4/29 because the mother had to go up to Seoul this past Saturday. They'll have their interview tomorrow and with no unforeseen complications they'll be baptized on Sunday. They are such an awesome family, it's a mother and her two sons and they've really progressed since first meeting the missionaries. We also saw some other success with a young man named Kim Ta Bin. He is 14 years old and we met him on the street last week and were able to get his phone number so we called him and met him and we were able to set a baptismal date with him for the 27th of May. We're kind of concerned though because he hasn't been responding to calls recently so we think his parents saw the Book of Mormon that we gave him and told him not to meet with us anymore. We're hoping for the best right now though.