Blog titles are really hard to come up with...

So this past week we got the chance to meet with some new investigators that we found who have so much sincere interest and potential to grow in the church.  They like us and what we're doing, and the message that we're sharing, which is so important.  One of the guys named Kim Charles (김 차르스) worked as a seaman on board a ship from when he was 19 to when he was 30.  So he has so many cool stories about that.  He's in his early 50s now, and works as a real estate agent with his wife at a cute little shop.  Family means the world to him (he has 5 siblings! 5!!! And he's a Korean!) and he is just so sincere with us.  And he speaks English really well!  Also, a guy we met on the street a little over a week ago came to church yesterday and just loved it.  It was the primary program, which was so cute.  They were little kids speaking Korean, so it was really hard to understand a lot of it (how are little kids so dang good at Korean?!).  But the Spirit was really strong throughout the whole thing, especially when they were singing.  Music is one of the most amazing gifts we've been given.  I love it so much!

 

Elder Wagner practicing his photographer skills

Last night, the 6 elders in my area all went to Brother Holley's house and had dinner there with a recent convert who is about 17 years old.  That was super fun! They made us American style food, and I think it was my first real meal with members/investigators/or others, without chopsticks!  Fork, knife, and spoon.  That's it!  And they have a super cool view of Gwangju from their house.

 

 

This week was busy, but good.  Like usual, we're always going around place to place, having appointments here, and having appointments cancel on us (or just flat out not show up) there. And I love it! :)  This work and this church are true.  It will bless the lives of all those who seek to find the truth held in it, and for those who have found it, as they continually live it and draw closer to their father in heaven and their savior Jesus Christ.  I know that this church is true, and that the Book of Mormon is God's word; and through studying the words it contains, we can find a peace and joy in this life that we didn't know we could ever have.  I love this work and wouldn't rather be doing anything else. And I love all of you! Pray often to your Heavenly Father, search the scriptures, and keep God's commandments.  It will bless you life.  Stay safe and stay strong all of you!  It's not easy, but it is worth it.  I testify of these things in Christ's name, Amen.

  You're all the best! Keep it up!

~Elder Calvin Woods

Things that probably didn't happen to you this week

Well, a couple things that I bet didn't happen to you this week go as thus:

• Eat squirming octopus (with some suction cups sticking to your tongue!)
• Almost get hit by a bus with maybe a foot of clearance at most (and have it hit the traffic cone just next to you, causing the cone to fly up and hit you in the arm)
• Play duck-duck-goose with a bunch of cute little Korean kids at a hap ki do academy
• Eat a half gallon of Baskin Robbins ice cream
• Eat Betty Crocker brownies made out of a box you found at E-mart with all English instructions (maybe you did the brownies part though...)
• Teach Koreans English tongue-twisters and realize that every Korean can say "Toy boat" 5 times fast with absolutely no problem (for us Americans it's nigh-impossible)
• Get asked at family home evening at a members house with all the missionaries in your area there along with some other members too, to sing...And so you decide to do a rap in English about modesty instead.
• Find a super good suit sale with all of the suits ranging from $40 to $80!

When Did the Conference Fly By?

Wow, first off general conference was soooo amazing!  It went by soooo soooo fast though!!  So in Korea, because their time is so much earlier than in America where General Conference is held, they watch conference the following Saturday and Sunday.  All of us English speakers in the two wards that meet at our building (missionaries and members) had our own little room set up for conference with a TV.  And it was so fun! I loved getting to hear all of the different messages from the General Authorities.  I really loved the Saturday Morning Session.  That was probably my favorite one.  

 

Our room for conference

And now that conference has passed, it's suit-wearing weather in our mission!  From now until April, we're going to be wearing our suits whenever we're doing missionary work; AKA, all the time! Luckily it's not too stifling hot anymore, but the weather hasn't completely transitioned to Fall yet.  It's teetering on the fence.  I can't wait till it starts getting cool all the time outside!

 

I forgot to mention about 3 weeks ago when we had a baptismal service for 2 sisters.  And one of them (이송이) asked me a few weeks in advance to baptize her.  And that was such an honor and such a spiritual experience.  Our ward missionary leader baptized the other sister. After the baptismal service there was a mini 'talent show' kind of thing.  And Elder Wagner volunteered me to play piano in it.  So Elder 박 and I (he's insanely good at piano) had a 'piano battle.'  We played a few songs each going back and forth with the songs getting crazier and crazier, and more and more complex the whole time.  And while the other person would play we would make fun of them to the audience.  It was really last minutely planned, but it turned out to be pretty comical and funny! Now the ward members always come up to me and ask if I was the one who played piano then, and tell me how good they think I am (this even happened yesterday from our bishop's wife, haha).  They're all so sweet haha.

 

This past week we had a ward activity out in 나주 which is a more country-sidey area next to ours.  It was at a soccer field and it was really pretty fun.  The place looked a whole lot like Asia (probably because it is I guess....).  The best was when Elder Wagner found a football (a very poorly made one, but a football nevertheless) that a member must have brought, and we started passing it back and forth.  The members were so amazed at how well we could throw a football!  They had no clue how to throw it correctly and just kind of threw it like a baseball and it was super funny.  Let's just say, us Americans looked pretty snazzy throwing the old pig-skin around!

Some pictures of the park the ward went to

 

We had an amazing lesson this week with one of our investigators named 권승천.  He's fluent in Enlgish but we still teach him in Korean.  He met with some other missionaries about a year ago, but he works for the city and got really busy. But we found him out of the area book and called him and he wanted to meet.  So this was our second lesson with him, and we taught him the Gospel of Christ.  The Spirit was incredibly strong during the lesson.  And he asked the most golden questions about baptism.  "Is baptism essential for my salvation?" "What if I were to die right now; could I be saved?"  We were able to explain and testify about the necessity of baptism to him and he committed to be baptized when he comes to know more.  It was the best lesson I've been in.

 

In regards to Korean, I'm progressing a lot.  Nowhere near that 'fluent' level, but I pick up on a lot more of what people say (as in I know a few of the words or feeling of what they're saying some of the time).   And I can speak a lot better when I teach.  I'm able to teach all of the lessons independently if I needed to without any Korean resources to use as back-ups, so that's good!  And I passed off our mission's Initial Pass-off!  Only 5 more levels to go! ;)

 

A cute English mistake

Korea is great and I love it! Hope all of you are doing great in wherever you are! Stay safe and stay awesome! Love you all!

 

Time Keeps on Slippin'

Wow, so sorry about no entry last week.  I don't think anyone exept missionaries understand how much of a struggle emailing everthing you're supposed to is in your hour time-slot.  But I'm doing my best here!

 

So to recap for the past two weeks:

 

We finished the transfer and our district changed up just a little.  Elder Cowles left for 전주 and got replaced by Elder Hogen, a completely new greenie fresh to Korea (I was with him in the MTC for 3 weeks).  I got sick that week off of 김밥 and had to stay at home for an eveing throwing up. No fun... :P  But the week was good overall.  

 

We met some good new investigators this past week that we've started to meet with.  Our 3 Cambodian investigators with baptismal dates have dropped off the face of the earth lately though and we haven't been able to contact them.  But we won't give up on them.  Hopefully they pick up their phone soon.  Elder Wagner had to go to MLC (missionary leadership council) on Tuesday and so I went on a split with Elder 박 and Elder Hogen.  That was fun and interesting at the same time.  Poor Elder 박 had to deal with two 'greenies' for the day haha.  The next day was combined zone conference which was just a lot of meetings all day.  But it was fun and cool to see some misisonaries from the other zones.

 

I can't think of too much crazy stuff to include.  I got a haircut today! That's exciting I guess. Korean people have a really hard time cutting American hair.  It's just different and they really don't know how.  Luckily it doesn't look too bad or anything.  I'll just leave it to pictures to make sense of everything. So yay!  Korea's going good and it's crazy I've been here almost 2 months already! Love all of you! You're the best!

 

Me with: 이지선 자매님 who just finished her mission!

박인오 장로님

 

 

Elder Cowles

We had to break into one of the rooms in our house.  It got locked from the inside to we had to go through the window!

Korean desserts look pretty weird sometimes....