Week 47 - Exciting News !!

So Transfers were last week and to no surprise I have a new companion. His name is Elder Madsen, he is from some where near Provo Utah. He's been in the mission field for quite sometime and this is his second to last transfer.  Wow he’s such an old missionary.  But the weirdest thing is... I'm co-senior companion!? Weird !!  So transfer calls came Monday night and I knew that some sort of change was going to happen but to what extent it would exactly be, I didn’t know.  So President Lee told me that I was going to stay in 강남, and that my new companion was going to be Elder Madsen, but then he said you will be Co-senior companion !? I stopped then and ask him three times if he had said co-senior, and every time he repeated the same words "you will be co-senior, Ok". I’m fine being co-senior and all. It's just that normally you must finish your “ Pass Off ” before you become that.  Well I guess that President just trusts me enough for the greater responsibility. Anyway, here’s the Best thing of all to happen this week, it’s is that 김문종 형제님 said that he thinks that this next month he will be baptized. I don't know what is holding him back at this point but he really seems to want to get baptized.

Also this week there was a big miracle, or at least that is how we see it. So in order to get someone to come to Ping Pong Night we started making calls to member and less active members. At first it seemed like calling less active members was going to be a waste of our time since most of the numbers were bad but we kept trying anyways. During that time one of the numbers we called, called us back.  It's was this super cool guy who had recently joined the church. He told us that he always had work to do, the evil four letter word in missionary work, but he could see us earlier that day, so we agreed. At that time we found out a little more about him and that he had been a convert for only a little over a year and half and that he had meet the missionaries in Malaysia and was baptized there. He moved back to Korea to become a journalist. He told us all about what he had to do for the first three months. During that time he had to live at the police station and that he barely got any sleep, like one hour a day. He said he was spending more money with traveling around to report on stories than he was making. He said the worst thing was that the church building was really close by but he never had the time to go. Luckily that part of his life is over and at this time he was thinking about coming back to church but felt that it was going to be too weird for him to start coming again.  Yet, during this same time we happened to have called him. So we hope to see him in the future at church.

Other than that things are ok. We meet this old man who I choose to keep nameless. He is possibly the strangest character I have ever met so far.  He says he likes our church and the members and thinks that we are good people.  Believe it or not the only reason he wanted to meet was to learn English, so he could be a missionary for his church in Africa. That really got me. I thought, “You are meeting with us so you can go and preach the gospel of your church?!. Well I was okay with it, until he told us that he basically wasn't going to try to do anything we asked him. Like taking a few seconds to read a verse from the Book of Mormon, then praying about it. He wasn't even willing to just read a verse. Well that kind of got to me, especially after my companion asked him if he thought that it was fair for us to spend our time doing what he asked us to do and him refusing to even try to do one simple thing we asked him. He responded in a not so clever way that “YES, it's fair.” (Ohoo) Some people, I wonder what they are thinking. Anyways. . . . .

How are you and it seems as if there hasn't been much of a winter?! Here in Seoul it has been almost the same, except it's been cold. In fact this year they have had a day with a record breaking temperature for Korea.  It was one of the coldest days ever, but it hasn't seemed too bad to me.  Plus, it is suppose to get warmer soon. I pray for that.  Also it's so sad that your first day at primary was so hard and bit of a shock. When did you get called ???  I guess that would have been last week, when your Email was erased. Well I hope to tell you better stories in the future. Oh, do you want to know some thing sad.... I have more photos of my companion’s family than of my own. It was a little bit upsetting at first but I took as... I'm not writing enough to my family or something like that so I shouldn’t expect much.  Well I'll try harder in the future to write better quality letters home. I actually found some letters I had written for home but never got mailed. Only right now i.... uh uh ... lost them again, but I’m sure they are some where in or on my desk.  Well ilovv and have to go. Opps, I meant,  I love you something is wrong with this computer. I will pray for Bishop Wadman. I miss you...

Bye...

Week 46 "Wow, what a weekend ! "

So it has been a fairly warm and snowless winter over here and I have to say that this week ok until Friday. So I’ll start off with some good news first.  I almost have completed my Passed Off’s this week.  Ya so the night before I went to see the AP's we received a text from them saying that something had come up and that they could no longer see me on Saturday but that they could meet on Friday.  This was a shock since I did not set up another appointment with them in the first place. So we went that day and got there a bit earlier than we had planned but it was close enough. We ended up waiting for them outside the mission office a few minutes, a little less than ten, when President Lee showed up. He let us in. After that we found out that they were not even in their area at this time but in another area on splits, about thirty minutes away. So my companion and I waited there for a half hour and during that time two more companionships came.  That was a little crazy. So, in order to get every one done in the time scheduled they had to shorten everyone’s appointment.  So I didn't complete all of it yet.  Next Pass Off will just be um... capujagi, I can't think of what it is in English. Now, for the bad news. Saturday was a mess, there was an investigator that lived in our area that we could never meet with because we couldn't find a member to come with us, but we found out that her husband is interested in learning with her. The thing was he could only meet on Saturday. So the 자매님들 (sister missionaries) organized an appointment that we could make a more comfortable switch between them and us. The first big problem was that they wanted to make the appointment at a Restaurant. Next we got there a little before the 자매님들 (sister missionaries), and then it all fell apart with a lack of understanding of each other. At the restaurant we found the mother. She welcomed us and introduced a boy to us who is the friend of her little boy. Who in there right mind decided that some one else was invited. Well anyway, so she told us that she was going to go order some food. At that point it was our fault for not asking before hand where the father was. Because it turned out that he was not going to be able to come since he had work. But. that was only the start of the craziness.  After about a five minutes she did not come back. She had left us with these two Eight year old boys, who are actually six in America. Imagine two wild, screaming children in this loud over crowded restaurant. That was how it was and 안 된 것... so here we are forced to stay since we couldn’t leave them because that would be bad for them, plus there was this huge bill we couldn't even pay. Finally after about an hour and tons of phone calls, ( one of which she laughed at US for saying that this wasn't good and that she couldn't just leave us in that kind of situation)  she finally showed up again. ugh... while we waited we had to deal with the 8  (really 6) year old kid trapped in a 36 year old mans body. Wow that was ruff. To top it all off our bad day turned into a bad night, no one showed up to the Ping Pong Family Night again!!!  And worst of all our bishop wants us to try again next week, even though he doesn't even plan on coming himself. Well, I’m out of time. I love you mom.

Oh I finally got the Gibb’s card. Tell them  감사합니다.... (Thank You)

Bye....

Week 44 & 45 "SORRY " & " 안녕하세요, 암아님‏ " (Hello, Mommy)

No email for week 43

(week 44)  "SORRY"

Well last week was no good at all. I'm sorry that my email was... what ever that was. I went on exchanges that day and nothing seemed to turn out like it was supposed to. Aah... anyway this week has been getting better and better. We are having help from President Lee and are dealing with this situation. Our poor investigator understands more now, that if he really wants to receive help to overcome this problem and be given an answer, he needs to go to the Lord and not two Twenty year old boys from America. I feel that he is really beginning to understand the importance of the gospel and its role in our lives. Right now the worst thing for him is dealing with his family. They are split into two sides and both of them are pressuring him to make his chose right now. Well sometime today we will meet with him since it was his Birthday Yesterday. Surprise... I guess he wants us to go to his Birthday party. I thank you for all you have done so far and I ask you to keep him in your prayers.

   Also this week one of our members brought some friends to church and it was fantastic... For the most part. The Members were all friendly and warm. They really helped them feel like they were a part of this group. Not to be negative or anything but, it was so strange to see them act that way. I wish that they always acted like that when some one new comes to church. Anyway, the only thing that went wrong was we put the son of this family, who is eleven or twelve, I think twelve, in the Gospel Principles class so we could teach him. Smart Thinking but that wasn't a good Idea. - So this Twelve year old kid is placed in a room filled with five men, who are all over twice his age to discuss the gospel. On top of that the lesson we had planned out, since we normally teach it, was on the Relationship of family members with a focus on Husband and Wife relationships. No good! So, we changed our plans and taught a really dull and boring lesson on Heavenly Father and his relationship with Us as his Childern. ZZZ... not that it is a boring topic just being with the old people.  Oh - it was boring to this kid.

  Well it seems that life does not want things to run smoothly.  And it sounds like you have a lot of things on your plate right now. Your Email reminded me of a scripture but, I feel today is not the right time to share it, so here’s a different one 니파이전서 3:7 ( nephi 1 3:7) I hope that this week went better for you too. This week seems like it will be a long one. I wish I had more I could write about but this week and last was full of that problem with our investigator. I know that God loves us and is always looking after his children even when we think we are all alone. I love you and miss you too.

After thoughts: Well there is more thing I guess. So far I've been learning more and more about Mongolia. It's crazy... they have the same number of members as Korea and there are less people in the country, they have only one stake but they currently are missing a temple. Our Mongolian member is teaching us a little about his home and I know a few words and phrases in Mongolian now.... OH, I guess the biggest relief of the this week was “Almost”  Passing off that last test thing. There is a little left to do but it is the easier part of things. So some time when the  AP’s are free to meet, I'll pass it all off. What a blessing!!!  Well that’s all I can think of for now. I love you.

Bye...

(Week 45)    "안녕하세요, 암아님‏ "     (Hello, Mommy)

Hello? This week has been great and I feel like a lot was done. So, this week 김문종 형제님 made the decision not to divorce his wife and to try to overcome the difficulties that will come. Also he has been making other big decisions in his life. As of Thursday or so he told us, he prayed about some things in his life and that during that time he felt that he needed to find a new job. Somewhere that there would be less pressure to drink- since that is one of the ways Koreans build 정 and have a great chance to receive promotions. So, he asked us to pray for him that he might be able to find a new job. Also he has started to really study the scriptures and he has learned so much more than we could have ever taught him.  He is doing well and he shows promise in joining the church. As for the other investigators we have been meeting with them... well right now they seem like they are just not quite ready to make any big changes to their lives and prefer to only have a 외국 진구 (casual friendship). But they are all good people.

  Today started out a bit rough but now we have some sort of plans. One of our members passed away a few days ago and we were invited to the funeral but the time that it would take to go there, would make it an all day thing and there was also the possibility that it wasn't even in our mission area. So to make things easier on ourselves, we decided that it would be better to stay and meet with those we already planned to meet. Another thing we did was a ward 탁구 (table tennis) night- so members could invite there friends (진구) and not have any 뿌담 (no clear definition). This week it was a flop- only one person was able to come and he is Mongolian. This week seems to be more promising than last. At least five members have asked us repeatedly about what time we would hold it again. Well thank you for Emailing me and I'm so sad that your 1^st email disappeared.

Well I  love you...

Ahh.... 안녕하세요? 잘 지내세요? 이 주에는 동안 많은 선교 사업을 하며 저희의 구도자 김문종 형제님께 도음을 드렸다. 암아, 사랑해. 그리고 암아에께 도음을 드리기를 바라. 안녕기 계세요.
 바이....

It says.  “Hello, how are you?  All I’ve done this week is missionary work and helped our investigator Kim Moon Jong. I love you and I hope that I can be a help to you, mom. Good bye.”