The Week Before Christmas

December 21, 2014

This week was a good one full of parties! Well, 2 of them. We had the mission Christmas party this week and it was soooo much fun seeing everyone again. I really missed all my friends from the MTC and Elder Murdoch and Cowles from Jeonju. I think that was the best part, when those two walked in! It was a little embarrassing with the girlish screams that came out of my mouth while I was being swung around by another guy, but hey, those 2 kept me sane my first transfer!! It was the best thing ever being with all these people I have grown so close to. Man, I’ve been blessed with great friends since coming on my mission. 

We also had a ward Christmas party this week. The missionaries in the ward put on a little musical skit that was pretty fun. I like my ward, but not as much as jeonju, and it is soooo hard to try to build relationships with them when I can barely speak and we can never visit them. We did have one member visit with a single, older man yesterday and it went super well. Everyone seems to be scared of us coming over, but it is just super relaxed and fun when we do. 

One of the hardest things I’ve seen so far is people meet with us, feel the spirit, seem to have so much potential, and then disappear. Our college girl investigator can't be contacted, the guy with the Christian wife has disappeared, and all we really have left is yunshig lee, and our good friend that just wants to practice English. It’s so hard to find people it’s insane!!! But we're still pushing forward, trying to help these people. It’s hard when we know how much our message can help, but when we just say hi to them, they put up their hand and walk right by. 

Ooh!!! the new missionaries came this week and I got to take one out for a proselyting activity. It was the best thing ever!!!! I was soooo surprised with how well I could speak! haha we talk to lots of people and there was only one part I couldn’t understand! Yay!!! We even got a guy’s number! It is so crazy to see them come in and see how far I have come since then! But then, we were at the church when all the zl's were there, and they were speaking and made me feel super inadequate. haha a mission sure is full of ups and downs, but its good. Really good!

Have a merry Christmas everyone, and go ahead and read some stories out of the New Testament about Christ’s life. He sure was one amazing man! Much, much more than just a man. 

Merry Christmas! 

love, elder anderson

 

 

                         please ignore the double chin this rice is making me grow

my main men Elder Cowles and Murdoch

There's a corner with a horde of rats!! blehh!!! 

 

Staying In Good Ol' Daejeon

Bought me some donuts

 Blizzard

December 14, 2014

I just got the news that I will be staying here in Daejeon, now as a cosenior! Woohoo! I’m super happy to stay being things seem to be picking up here lately. We found a new investigator last Monday, her name is garam kim, and she is a student at the local university and a wrestler. haha she seems super prepared with good experiences with god and reading the bible, and kinda searching from church to church. we're hoping for the best!!

There’s a guy we’ve been meeting with almost every night for the past transfer and before that. His name is yoonshig lee, and is about 70 years old. I haven’t talked much about him because there just isn’t much progress. I feel sooo bad for him. He has a wife, kids, and grandkids, but no idea where any of them are. He has 8 siblings, but no contact with them either. He really has no one in his life besides us. He does the exact same thing every single day, and is super lonely. We’ve been frustrated with him and his refusal to pray or progress, but a meeting this week changed our thoughts. He kinda opened up a bit more with us. Right before we left, he said he had a bad nervous feeling and needed some alcohol. He has some problem he won’t tell us about that really troubles him. I asked if there was anything outside of alcohol that he could do, but that’s when he told us how he has absolutely no one in his life. It was heart breaking! I always saw him as a tough, hardened man, but the vulnerability in his eyes at that moment was piercing. I know that this gospel and church is exactly what he needs, but he just won’t accept that that’s even a possibility. It’s so hard! I want to help so bad, but there’s only so much I can do without them taking steps. 

We got some more free food on the road again! This guy that used to live in Utah took us out to get this other super expensive meat. He is a science professor, and says that he just can’t accept the way that Christ was born. It’s so hard to help these people when they are so stuck in their ways at time, but we're always sharing and inviting and giving people a good view about missionaries. 

Things are going well, and we're meting this golden guy later today. He was a former investigator, received all the lessons, and had a baptismal date, but for some reason not really know, got dropped. We finally scheduled an appointment and hopefully he will be our present to Christ for Christmas!! 

Enjoy the holidays and remember the true meaning!!!

Elder Anderson

Getting Chilly

                                                    Not what I expected

 

December 7, 2014

Man, it really has been suuuper cold this week. I bundle up like crazy, but still this humid cold gets you right to the bone. But that’s ok! It’s been fun starting to hear a few Christmas songs every now and again, and see the snow, but it sure does make missionary work tough. The people on the streets don’t want to talk, and the poles are too wet to put ads on!! So we tried door knocking, which everyone always says is just not a good thing to do. But I felt like by doing that, we would be able to talk to more people than wandering the cold streets. So we did it! We only did a few doors before running out of time and having a guard called on us, but I felt good about it. Everyone seems to stick to the same methods here over and over, so I feel like we need to try new approaches. It’s just hard to come up with them sometimes!

We started an English class this week! We advertised quite a bit and had 7 people show up. One of them I think has a lot of potential. His name is woo sangbung, but likes to go by captain woo. haha he has had some good experiences with god and I think he could really be a good one. His wife is a devout member of another church, but he thinks it’s corrupt, so he’s wondering how our church is different. It should be good!! 

Funny story, another guy saw our ad and scheduled a meeting with him. We wound up in a health center in an English class with all these people ages 60-87. hahaha man, old Korean people are the best!! So we might go to that class every Wednesday and try to see if we can get some gospel stuff going there. 

Overall, it was a good week and things seem to be picking up. Here goes week 5 of my first transfer. It’s crazy how fast it goes!! And everyone says the last 2 weeks are the best, so hopefully we'll get some good work done!!

 

me and jo ooyong! an investigator