We had a pretty fun week here in Daejeon. I have no idea what's going on but it feels like every week that passes by the focus on missionary work is just growing. Our ward is a little small and on occasion there has been some of those awkward times during fast and testimony meetings so Bishop told us to be ready to talk if one of those silences came up but that time never came. Every member who stood up talked about how they shared the gospel this past month. We had a few investigators out to church as well and you could just feel the energy in the ward. Sorry I know I'm a missionary but there's a big change happening over here right now and we love it. One Sister in the ward even told a story of how she wouldn't buy her sons smart phones because they would turn into phone zombies, but after all of the training we have been receiving from the church, stake presidency, and ward she thought of drawing up a contract for her sons to have a monthly family missionary coordination meeting and discuss how they are using their new smart phones to help share the gospel. I was completely blown away the entire meeting. Another Brother got up and talked about President Uchtdorf's talk at general conference and how he had the same desire to actually be doing the work. So as he was working this past week in his family owned restaurant he got the opportunity with a long time friend and they are meeting twice a week and he's teaching him about the church. He told everybody how he has already planned the dates to meet with the missionaries and his baptismal date haha. Another Sister talked about bringing scripture study back into her family when they haven't been out to church for years. She made the decision to come back after she got home from New York and she was talking with her father and suggested reading the Book of Mormon together and they started to do that. She talked about how her family still isn't at church but that they all made one step together and it was an answer to her prayers.
I was just blown away. We just watched each member get up over and over again and talk about these experiences and I couldn't have been more happy. A missionary goes to an area for 6-18 weeks on average and they are just being told over and over again to help the members with their missionary work. Missionary houses are a little creepy because we have a giant map with all the members houses labeled on it. We have a giant record book full of member records that have notes about the members from missionarys for years. Next to our Investigators we are thinking about members all the time. For missionaries they are just crushed when they have to leave an area but for members it's just another set of missionaries coming in haha. So as we make efforts to visit with members and try to help them as much as we can, we are so happy when members are doing missionary work and telling everybody in the entire ward about how happy they are.
It was just an amazing week. And after all of those amazing experiences our phone was just going off from other missionaries giving us referrals for people who wanted to meet in our area. We also get to meet Tim and Kevin tonight (the two twin boys who have been coming out to english class). Sister Kim their mother has just loved bringing her three boys out every week. She told us on Saturday that all the boys ever talk about is Jensen teacher and Gibbons teacher (Teacher in Korean is a title that they have to stick with a name for respect on older men or just teachers) They even tell their friends at school she said. And I could not have been more blessed to get a couple packages this week for halloween. Elder Gibbons can be a little soft and got cornered by the twin boys and another younger girl from english class and they made him do a special pinky promise to exchange candy this week. But we HAD to bring american candy haha. So thank you so much Dannielle and Tawns because I can't imagine what would have happened to Elder Gibbons if we didn't bring american candy. because that Korean pinky promise means a lot. But Sister Kim told us how she has been just enjoying so much coming out to english class and she sees the other young men from our ward and how respectful they are. And she told us that she has been thinking about her sons having a religion and how it would be a great thing. So we scheduled to meet the boys twice a week and the whole family on the weekends. The father has had a lot of bad experiences with religion in the past so Sister Kim is really worried about that but he seemed like a really nice man.
Well I'm excited for this week and we will be really busy. There's a lot of change happening over here and it's a great time to be in Daejeon. I love all of you and I hope you have an amazing week.
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