Some kids we teach:
Our zone:
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Thirtieth Week Email
Dear Family & Friends,
So Elder Ward goes home this week.... It's so hard to kill someone as
a missionary haha. Just like when you start your mission you talk
about home a lot. Well I found out that you talk about home just as
much when someone is going home haha. But It has been such a great
week. Elder Ward still wants to finish strong and we have been doing
that.
So I guess I will tell you about an awesome miracle that I saw this
week. So It started off with me going on a split up to Gwangju 광주
which is the city of my first area. Our zone leader came down here and
I went on a split with Elder Lee who is the best and was in my
district last transfer. Well they serve in the Area with the biggest
ward in Korea right now so it's known for being awesome, but one of
the bad parts of their area is the house. It's tiny, old, bug infested
(a little), and it's about 90 degrees at night time haha. So lets just
say I slept for 2 hours. So as we were ending the split we met up with
the other missionaries and had lunch and got back on our bus for the
hour and a half trip back. By that we got back to our area it was
probably around 100 degrees with 90% humidity. Anyways we walked over
to the intersection of our giant road and waited for the light to
change. I can kinda picture how both of us looked standing at the
corner with nobody around us just standing in silence. As we walked
across the street though we recognized somebody that we had met a few
weeks earlier. There are about 20 people in gwangyang from Africa
studying shipping and we have met so many of them. Well a few weeks
earlier when we met one of them he walked up to us and asked if we
were missionary's for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
It caught us a little off guard but we said yes and just had a small
conversation with him before he walked away. Well the same man stopped
us in the middle of the big road and was so excited to see us and
asked if we could walk with him back to the side we had just came
from. When we got over there he told us that after we had met he went
on the internet and contacted the church to meet with us again. We
hadn't recieved anything yet but we set up an appointment for the next
day. Well that morning during companionship study we role played the
lessons in english and it was so strange haha. But as we went over to
meet him he was just so happy to see us. Elder Ward and I had the most
amazing time meeting with this man. We started with a prayer and he
was so happy after we prayed. He told us that in his home country that
everybody stays away from the Mormon church because they think that we
worship some strange creature called a Mormon haha. We told him as
missionaries we like to clear things up just like that because a lot
of people think some strange things about us. He just laughed and we
continued on with the lesson. As I shared about the Book of Mormon at
the end he seemed really hessitant. He was asking a lot of questions
about it and if it was mentioned in the bible. We read a few
scriptures out of the Bible and just like that he seemed interested
again. We were wrapping things up when I asked if we could share a
scripture from the Book of Mormon. He agreed so I flipped to Moroni's
Promise and asked him if he would read it. He was still a little
hessitent and asked me if I would read so I did. As I finished I just
asked him a simple question about how he felt. He sat up and looked
right at us and said in such a calm voice, "as you read that I felt
that it was true."
I thought I would be so shocked but I knew at that point in time I
felt the exact same way. And it was so easy to look him in the eyes
and tell him that it was true and share our testimony about the Book
of Mormon. We gave him a Book of Mormon and set up our appointment for
when he and the rest of his group get back from the Netherlands.
It was one of the most amazing things I have ever been a part of and
I'm so grateful that we could be in that exact place at that exact
time to meet him. As we texted him the other night before he left we
wished him a safe trip and to have fun. He responded back and told us
how thankful he was at that he would have fun. He also included that
he was studying from the Book of Mormon and that he will during his
entire stay in the Netherlands.
So I guess I just want to say that I am so grateful for the Book of
Mormon. Elder Holland told us at the MTC that in contains it's own
spirit and that it comes out of the pages everytime you read it. That
is so true and I love reading from the Book of Mormon all the time
that I have (Which isn't a whole lot these days) and I never want to
stop reading the Book of Mormon. That is just another huge thing that
I have learned from my Mission.
Well I better get going because I have a family home evening to plan
with all of our Branch. I love all of you and I hope you have an
amazing week.
젠슨 장로
So Elder Ward goes home this week.... It's so hard to kill someone as
a missionary haha. Just like when you start your mission you talk
about home a lot. Well I found out that you talk about home just as
much when someone is going home haha. But It has been such a great
week. Elder Ward still wants to finish strong and we have been doing
that.
So I guess I will tell you about an awesome miracle that I saw this
week. So It started off with me going on a split up to Gwangju 광주
which is the city of my first area. Our zone leader came down here and
I went on a split with Elder Lee who is the best and was in my
district last transfer. Well they serve in the Area with the biggest
ward in Korea right now so it's known for being awesome, but one of
the bad parts of their area is the house. It's tiny, old, bug infested
(a little), and it's about 90 degrees at night time haha. So lets just
say I slept for 2 hours. So as we were ending the split we met up with
the other missionaries and had lunch and got back on our bus for the
hour and a half trip back. By that we got back to our area it was
probably around 100 degrees with 90% humidity. Anyways we walked over
to the intersection of our giant road and waited for the light to
change. I can kinda picture how both of us looked standing at the
corner with nobody around us just standing in silence. As we walked
across the street though we recognized somebody that we had met a few
weeks earlier. There are about 20 people in gwangyang from Africa
studying shipping and we have met so many of them. Well a few weeks
earlier when we met one of them he walked up to us and asked if we
were missionary's for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
It caught us a little off guard but we said yes and just had a small
conversation with him before he walked away. Well the same man stopped
us in the middle of the big road and was so excited to see us and
asked if we could walk with him back to the side we had just came
from. When we got over there he told us that after we had met he went
on the internet and contacted the church to meet with us again. We
hadn't recieved anything yet but we set up an appointment for the next
day. Well that morning during companionship study we role played the
lessons in english and it was so strange haha. But as we went over to
meet him he was just so happy to see us. Elder Ward and I had the most
amazing time meeting with this man. We started with a prayer and he
was so happy after we prayed. He told us that in his home country that
everybody stays away from the Mormon church because they think that we
worship some strange creature called a Mormon haha. We told him as
missionaries we like to clear things up just like that because a lot
of people think some strange things about us. He just laughed and we
continued on with the lesson. As I shared about the Book of Mormon at
the end he seemed really hessitant. He was asking a lot of questions
about it and if it was mentioned in the bible. We read a few
scriptures out of the Bible and just like that he seemed interested
again. We were wrapping things up when I asked if we could share a
scripture from the Book of Mormon. He agreed so I flipped to Moroni's
Promise and asked him if he would read it. He was still a little
hessitent and asked me if I would read so I did. As I finished I just
asked him a simple question about how he felt. He sat up and looked
right at us and said in such a calm voice, "as you read that I felt
that it was true."
I thought I would be so shocked but I knew at that point in time I
felt the exact same way. And it was so easy to look him in the eyes
and tell him that it was true and share our testimony about the Book
of Mormon. We gave him a Book of Mormon and set up our appointment for
when he and the rest of his group get back from the Netherlands.
It was one of the most amazing things I have ever been a part of and
I'm so grateful that we could be in that exact place at that exact
time to meet him. As we texted him the other night before he left we
wished him a safe trip and to have fun. He responded back and told us
how thankful he was at that he would have fun. He also included that
he was studying from the Book of Mormon and that he will during his
entire stay in the Netherlands.
So I guess I just want to say that I am so grateful for the Book of
Mormon. Elder Holland told us at the MTC that in contains it's own
spirit and that it comes out of the pages everytime you read it. That
is so true and I love reading from the Book of Mormon all the time
that I have (Which isn't a whole lot these days) and I never want to
stop reading the Book of Mormon. That is just another huge thing that
I have learned from my Mission.
Well I better get going because I have a family home evening to plan
with all of our Branch. I love all of you and I hope you have an
amazing week.
젠슨 장로
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Twenty-Ninth Week Email
Me with the Bishop (Left) and Ward Mission Leader (Right)
Me and Elder Ward at the Expo:
Me and Elder Ward at the ExpoDear Family & Friends,
Well I only have one more week left in this transfer and it has flown
by so fast. Gwangyang has been pretty fun. I've had to get use to a
lot of new things but I guess that's always something that will happen
every 6 weeks of my mission.
anyways not a whole lot happened in the past week. We knocked on so
many doors and talked to so many people. We did have so many
oppurtunities to do service for the branch. I think one of my most
favorite oppurtunities was with a less active who owns a compound
haha. Our Branch President called us saturday morning and talked about
how the less active needed help repairing some damage to his property
because of the typhoon (ps there was a typhoon). So we showed up and
worked for a couple hours with him, his son, and a woman that they
knew. Everything was going fine until lunch time when he started to
tell us (yell) about his theory of faith. It was one of those
conversations
where they start to talk and they don't want any input so we had to
sit there and listen about why our teachings were so bad. But we were
able to say a few things. Well after we left his house we weren't
exactly in the happiest mood haha. It was frustrating but everybody
has agency, and we served someone so we tried to focus on that. So as
we went through out the day that seemed to be our focus. We were just
trying to stay positive which really makes a difference in missionary
work but as we were on our way to our last person to visit for the day
we took the long way to their house. We were just walking when all of
a sudden here comes the lady that we had worked with that morning. She
was super nice to us that morning and we just talked about families
and she had her two twin daughters who loved us within 2 seconds of
meeting us. Just talking with her again and seeing how positive she
still was even though she sat through probably the strangest lunch
ever, really made an affect on us. As missionaries you always think
that you need to be that positive affect on somebody's life but
there's people that we meet just like in that situation who can turn
my entire day around.
As always I'm realizing so many things throughout everyday that I
would never have thought about before my mission. It's just a great
time to be where I'm at right now and I love it. I love all of you and
I'll talk to you next time.
젠슨 장로
Monday, July 16, 2012
Twenty-Eighth Week Email
Hey Tawns,
Well another week has flown by. I felt like I was just writing all of
you yesterday and now it feels like I have nothing to talk about haha.
I just got back from the Expo (again) because we have three new people
in my district so they wanted to go. But we were able to see so many
cool things that we weren't able to see last time. We also met a ton
of new people and had a great time with just talking to people from
all around the world.
So Korea is great as usual. The people are amazing, food is great,
weather is super hot and humid, and the language is coming a long
slowly. It's so easy for me to sum up a week like that. And I always
want anyone who is reading this to feel the same excitment I feel when
something amazing happens during my day to day life. It can be hard to
think of something to write about but I know that so many amazing
things happen every day in Korea. But the other day as I was reading
through a liahona I found a pretty interesting story. I was reading
about a tour guide in machu pichu (I really have no idea how to spell
that) and he talked about never losing wonder in such an amazing
thing. He talked about other tour guides and how they would give tours
for 45 minutes while he gave tours for 3 hours. It made him sad to see
some of his coworkers lose interest in something that they loved so
much at one point. And that really made me think about my mission so
far. I've started to notice that over time small things of Korea seem
so normal to me. I even find myself pointing out foreigners like the
little kids do to Elder Ward and I. I know it's such a criticle thing
to really adopt this culture and get use to it but I've really been
trying not to let Korea lose some of it's amazing aspects. The article
gave me a lot of great advice about how to apply that to all aspects
of life, including the gospel. So I promise I will try to always keep
my letter's as interesting as possible because I really do love Korea
and I love being here.
Well the missionary work in Gwangyang is going great. We have a few
people we meet with multiple times a week and who have now started
attending church. Which really is such a criticle step for anyone to
really progress. And I'm not going to lie Sundays can always seem
super hard to plan for and can be a little stressful. But by the end
of the day after we say goodbye to our investigators, visit less
actives with the branch members, and lock the church up it always
turns out to be such an amazing day. But yeah everything is turning
out amazing in Gwangyang and I love it here.
I hope all of you have an amazing week. I love you all so much and
I'll talk to you later.
젠슨 장로
Well another week has flown by. I felt like I was just writing all of
you yesterday and now it feels like I have nothing to talk about haha.
I just got back from the Expo (again) because we have three new people
in my district so they wanted to go. But we were able to see so many
cool things that we weren't able to see last time. We also met a ton
of new people and had a great time with just talking to people from
all around the world.
So Korea is great as usual. The people are amazing, food is great,
weather is super hot and humid, and the language is coming a long
slowly. It's so easy for me to sum up a week like that. And I always
want anyone who is reading this to feel the same excitment I feel when
something amazing happens during my day to day life. It can be hard to
think of something to write about but I know that so many amazing
things happen every day in Korea. But the other day as I was reading
through a liahona I found a pretty interesting story. I was reading
about a tour guide in machu pichu (I really have no idea how to spell
that) and he talked about never losing wonder in such an amazing
thing. He talked about other tour guides and how they would give tours
for 45 minutes while he gave tours for 3 hours. It made him sad to see
some of his coworkers lose interest in something that they loved so
much at one point. And that really made me think about my mission so
far. I've started to notice that over time small things of Korea seem
so normal to me. I even find myself pointing out foreigners like the
little kids do to Elder Ward and I. I know it's such a criticle thing
to really adopt this culture and get use to it but I've really been
trying not to let Korea lose some of it's amazing aspects. The article
gave me a lot of great advice about how to apply that to all aspects
of life, including the gospel. So I promise I will try to always keep
my letter's as interesting as possible because I really do love Korea
and I love being here.
Well the missionary work in Gwangyang is going great. We have a few
people we meet with multiple times a week and who have now started
attending church. Which really is such a criticle step for anyone to
really progress. And I'm not going to lie Sundays can always seem
super hard to plan for and can be a little stressful. But by the end
of the day after we say goodbye to our investigators, visit less
actives with the branch members, and lock the church up it always
turns out to be such an amazing day. But yeah everything is turning
out amazing in Gwangyang and I love it here.
I hope all of you have an amazing week. I love you all so much and
I'll talk to you later.
젠슨 장로
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Twenty-Seventh Week Email
안녕하세요!
Well hey there everyone. As always I had another awesome week in
Korea. It's starting to be super hot and humid at all times but it's
still not as bad as I thought it would be. I basically just carry a
fan around with me when I'm at home.
Well this week was pretty interesting. We had President and Sister
Furniss come and visit our branch and give talks so that was always
awesome to spend all day with President. They took us to our Branch
President's house (coolest guy ever) for lunch and we started on our
"to the rescue program" which is where we visit the less actives in
the ward and just have fun with them and share a message. It was so
much fun to be able to do that with our Mission President and His
Wife. After all of that we went back to our place where we had a
famous Sister Furniss house inspection..... We got a perfect score and
they could not stop talking about how clean it was. Last p-day I spent
2 hours on our tiny kitchen and Elder Ward spent 2 hours in the
bathroom so they were so happy. We also had interviews with President
and he's probably the most wisdom filled person I know.
Well something President and Sister Furniss made me realize was the
concept of realizing everything we have in this life. I think on my
mission where I haven't had all of the day to day distractions that I
had before the mission, I have been able to recognize so much that has
been going on around me. I was telling Sister Furniss about the small
miracles I have seen on my mission. Something that really stuck out to
me yesterday was during sacrament meeting. We have a part member
family in our branch and they are one of the closest families I have
ever seen. They took us out to lunch and they have so much fun with
eachother and you can really see how much they love eachother. Well
yesterday as I was listening to the talks her husband who is not a
member walked in to sacrament meeting and quietly sat down. She was
sitting up front because she conducts the music so I could see the
expression that came to her face when her husband walked in. Probably
one of the most happy pure moments I have seen since I have came to 광양
Gwangyang. This look of pure happiness and love for someone that she
cares about so much was such an amazing thing to see. It really made
me think about the amazing oppurtunities I have to share the gospel
with the people that I love and that I care about. I have told all of
you countless times that I'm just super happy and super tired at all
times. And I'm probably going to be telling all of you that for a
while. Mainly because it's true. I'm am so grateful that I can be in
this little country city on the south end of South Korea at this time
in my life.
So I know it's not seeing an angel or seeing someone being brought
back from the dead like the scriptures. But it was a small miracle
that I was able to recognize because of what I have learned from my
mission. I hope that all of you can better recognize the amazing
moments that we are blessed with in this life. And I hope all of you
know that I love you so much. Have a great week and I promise you that
I will.
젠슨 장로
p.s. Happy birthday to my Brother Travy and happy birthday to Tawni
and Grams on the 11th. 생일 죽하합니다! (birthday congratulations!)
Well hey there everyone. As always I had another awesome week in
Korea. It's starting to be super hot and humid at all times but it's
still not as bad as I thought it would be. I basically just carry a
fan around with me when I'm at home.
Well this week was pretty interesting. We had President and Sister
Furniss come and visit our branch and give talks so that was always
awesome to spend all day with President. They took us to our Branch
President's house (coolest guy ever) for lunch and we started on our
"to the rescue program" which is where we visit the less actives in
the ward and just have fun with them and share a message. It was so
much fun to be able to do that with our Mission President and His
Wife. After all of that we went back to our place where we had a
famous Sister Furniss house inspection..... We got a perfect score and
they could not stop talking about how clean it was. Last p-day I spent
2 hours on our tiny kitchen and Elder Ward spent 2 hours in the
bathroom so they were so happy. We also had interviews with President
and he's probably the most wisdom filled person I know.
Well something President and Sister Furniss made me realize was the
concept of realizing everything we have in this life. I think on my
mission where I haven't had all of the day to day distractions that I
had before the mission, I have been able to recognize so much that has
been going on around me. I was telling Sister Furniss about the small
miracles I have seen on my mission. Something that really stuck out to
me yesterday was during sacrament meeting. We have a part member
family in our branch and they are one of the closest families I have
ever seen. They took us out to lunch and they have so much fun with
eachother and you can really see how much they love eachother. Well
yesterday as I was listening to the talks her husband who is not a
member walked in to sacrament meeting and quietly sat down. She was
sitting up front because she conducts the music so I could see the
expression that came to her face when her husband walked in. Probably
one of the most happy pure moments I have seen since I have came to 광양
Gwangyang. This look of pure happiness and love for someone that she
cares about so much was such an amazing thing to see. It really made
me think about the amazing oppurtunities I have to share the gospel
with the people that I love and that I care about. I have told all of
you countless times that I'm just super happy and super tired at all
times. And I'm probably going to be telling all of you that for a
while. Mainly because it's true. I'm am so grateful that I can be in
this little country city on the south end of South Korea at this time
in my life.
So I know it's not seeing an angel or seeing someone being brought
back from the dead like the scriptures. But it was a small miracle
that I was able to recognize because of what I have learned from my
mission. I hope that all of you can better recognize the amazing
moments that we are blessed with in this life. And I hope all of you
know that I love you so much. Have a great week and I promise you that
I will.
젠슨 장로
p.s. Happy birthday to my Brother Travy and happy birthday to Tawni
and Grams on the 11th. 생일 죽하합니다! (birthday congratulations!)
Monday, July 2, 2012
Twenty-Sixth Week Email
Hello Family & Friends!
Another week in Korea has been so much fun. I love the countryside and the people. I have been learning so much and teaching so much so I'm just happy these days. It's getting a little warm these days but It's not near as bad as I thought it was going to be. My new companion has to be one of the funniest kids that I know. He's an exact copy of my MTC companion and it makes him so mad because everybody in the mission keeps on telling him that. My District is awesome and I knew everybody in it before I got here so there wasn't an awkward get to know people moment. I'm really just happy these days.
I think one thing that has contributed to my happiness is from some of the people I have been meeting. We have an Investigator who we saw 4 times last week including church and he's really taking in everything amazingly. We had only planned 2 meetings with him but our Member's are amazing and took us all out to dinner one night. I think one of the most amazing things to see is when the gospel enters into somebody's life and completely fills it with happiness. If it can happen in my life I know that it can happen in anybody's life. Elder Ward and I have been going no stop since I got here and it has just been amazing.
Sorry it can be so hard to explain how I feel through an e-mail but I hope that got the point across. I'm just learning so much every day it's hard to keep up with everything. Elder Ward and I have been having a hard time finding new people these days and we have talked about it pretty much every day. We have constantly read through the chapter in Preach My Gospel on how to find new people and we have tried a lot of new things. We went for about a week without having much success and it was getting a little frustrating but as soon as we started to feel that way here come's two men from Napal.... haha. They walked up to us and started talking and we talked for about 10 minutes. They spoke pretty decent english and they ended up giving us their number. These two are originally Hindu but ever since they have came to Korea they have been reading the bible and attending church which they can't understand because of the language barrier. One of them even had a necklace with a picture of Jesus on it. After they left I don't think my completely shocked expression went away for the rest of the day. So we're planning on meeting with them next week and seeing where that goes.
I'm sorry that I sound so strange in this e-mail but I'm honestly just happy these days. I'm super tired and super happy. I think my knuckle on my right hand is bruised a little because all we do is 가가호호 (Door to door) but that is really my only complaint. I love all of you and I hope that your week is amazing.
젠슨 장로
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