So Close!

February 29, 2016                

          That seemed to be the theme this week, things are going well but there are just things holding people back  We had 2 people say they want to get baptized this last week, but…first off we have Park Jongmoon.  We were able to set up a dinner and lesson with a cool couple in the ward which went super well.  We talked about families and gave him a baptismal invitation for March 13.  He said he wants to get baptized, but he’s leaving this week to live in another city for a month.  Why???  He would’ve accepted it!!  Super frustrating.  But Elder Warren is in that city, so we’ll try to get them set up together.  That was disappointing.  Our second case was Park Jonghoon, yup, their names are almost the same.  He has a very slight mental problem but is completely functionable.  He loves the gospel, reads the scriptures all the time, understands super well, and is just super awesome.  He wants to be baptized but his parents oppose church.  But he said he will be moving out next month and will be able to come out to church and get baptized!  So hopefully it works out well!

          We’ve been trying to work with members better so we set up a member lesson with our 73 year old investigator Na Jinju and a 76 year old member.  It was super funny and there were several times when I had no idea what was going on.  They randomly started talking about South American society using all these crazy words in their grandpa pronunciation.  I couldn’t help but just smile and laugh as they rambled on about who knows what.  Our church time is changing to 1, so he should be able to start coming out to church. 

          I have really enjoyed meeting with these people and hope to continue to find the great people here in Korea, whether or not they’re actually Korean.  Things are going well here and I’m enjoying my time with Elder Groves.  It has been fun helping him out with Korean and what not and seeing him progress.  I never realized how hard Korean is until I started teaching it!  It’s even harder and more complex than I thought.  Haha but we have been helped a lot.  Thank you all for your help and support as well.  I hope you have a great week and read this great scripture:  Alma 5:16.  Love you all!

          Elder Jace Anderson

                                                               Gwangju!

                                                   Us at this tower place

                                 Marco!  A less active guy we sometimes meet

Ramen burger and Park Jongmoon.  It was not good, and it was $4.50.

 

19 Months Down

February 22, 2016

          We weren’t able to meet too many people last week.  I don’t really know why…we still haven’t been able to meet with Kim Oomin since E. Groves came.  I really hope he doesn’t lose interest or potential since it’s been so long.  Also, our investigator Choi Byounhoon had some pretty good potential and was progressing well, but he is moving to Seoul in 2 days.  So that’s pretty disappointing.  We did have some good news with one investigator though.  His name’s Park Jongmoon and has been meeting missionaries for a while and said 2 weeks ago that he wants to get baptized in March!  We met him Saturday and he said August.  Haha it’s just his schedule that’s hard, but he came to sacrament meeting yesterday and said he enjoyed it.  Woohoo!  Hopefully he continues to progress and we can set a baptismal date (that’s not August).

          We had a mission tour with Elder Whiting this last week which was awesome.  I really enjoyed it.  He gave a really great suggestion that when we take notes we can write diagonally the thoughts and impressions we receive.  We talked about staying focused, success, inviting people to be baptized, and the importance of sacrament and the Sabbath.  It was a very uplifting time and I was very impressed by how inspired he was.

          We had a youth activity last week with a missionary work purpose.  The youth brought about 10-12 nonmembers, but they were all girls so…..but it was a good time.  Part of the activity was 3 on 3 basketball against the foreign missionaries.  We put a pretty good beating on them. 

          Things have been slowing down a little bit lately, so we need to find some new people to teach.  But it’s still going well.  I’m just worried that things will crash because we are thinking of dropping a few people.  It’s alright though, there’s still good stuff ahead!  Especially if we can meet Kim Oomin and help Park Jongmoon progress toward baptism.  It’s tough, but we’re going to give it our best shot!

          Elder Jace Anderson

                                                            Our church

                                                                 Pizza

                                                 I found Elder Deering

                                                         I found a river

                                                  Welcome to Korea

                                              Funny guy in English class

                                                            Basketball

Big Changes!

February 15, 2016

          Big changes this week!  First off, Elder Dubois got transferred to Daejeon, my old Samsung ward and is comps with my old comp Elder Kim Mingyun.  And my new companion is Elder Groves from Saratoga Springs.  He has been in Korea for around 6 months so it has been fun having a younger companion.  He’s a pretty cool guy and a good missionary so I’m looking forward to our time together and see good things in the future. 

          We were not able to meet as many people this week because of the holidays and transfers, but we had a good one.  I did a training on street proselyting on Tuesday which the district took really well.  The Filipina sisters talked to a guy on the bus who we met on Saturday and he came to church on Sunday!!  2 problems though, he has a bit of a mental issue, and he lives outside our boundaries so we have to give him to some other elders.
          We were able to meet Kim Oomin once this week (the possibly golden one).  He prayed every day!!  But he didn’t ask to know if God’s there so we committed him to do so.  We tried to get him to come to church but he said he had to do chores around the house.  So pray for him to come to have a stronger desire to come!!  Speaking of church, I had to translate because the sisters’ American investigator came and some other foreigners joined the ward.  Holy smokes, it is so hard!!  I was so scared that my poor translation would hurt the investigator’s chances of progression.  Hopefully it didn’t hurt. 
          We met our man Darius again from Liberia.  It was super fun.  I just love meeting with people and sharing our message.  It hit me recently that my time is running pretty short and it breaks my heart honestly.  I only have one shot at this and it is going by fast.  I’ve met so many amazing people and had great experiences, but I feel that there is more for me to do.  I just want to help someone accept this gospel and change their life.  We are trying so hard and doing new things, but it is much harder than I ever thought it would be.  All I want to do is find that one who is willing to give it a shot!  Kim Oomin still has a good chance, so I’m really hoping for that to work out.
          We’re trying to do more with the members now which is kind of scary, but we had a really fun visit with one couple.  Oh!  This random couple came to church yesterday.  We thought they were members, but nope!  So hopefully something cool happens with this.
          Well, we had a good week and are hoping for more to come.

          Elder Jace Anderson

                           Me and Elder Benefiel, and then a steak.......

 

Steak twice this week!

                                                             Our church

 

                                           My new companion Elder Groves!

 

February 8, 2016

We were supposed to get transfer calls today, but President Shin has been sick so he’s a little behind.  We’ll get the calls tomorrow and then transfer on Thursday, so I’ll let you know how it went next week.

          Best news of the week!  Last week I told you about Kim Oomin, the guy I met on the bus.  Well, we met him again and he said that he remembered what we talked about and prayed before eating dinner.  We he did, he said that he had just this big feeling of peace come over him, and he got really happy, and even his food tasted better.  It was awesome!  He went out of town so we only met him once, but he said he’ll pray every day and we invited him to pray and ask if God is there.  He has lots of potential!  So does Choi Byounghoon.  When we prayed to start our lesson he said that he felt a lot of peace and comfort.  We had a good lesson on the Plan of Salvation which he loved.  I’ve never taught anyone who has been this into it when we teach.  The only problem is he hasn’t responded to our last 2 calls and texts.  It might just be because it’s the holiday season here (Lunar New Year).  We have received a few invitations from members though which has been pretty fun.  One of them is the Korean version of Dad so I told them next time we need to take a picture. 

          We dropped our rapper guy since he just had no desire to progress and we’re probably going to drop this other English suck this week.  But!  We now have 2 new African investigators who are awesome.  I probably wrote about it, but I talked with this lady named Debby on a bus a while back, met, gave her a BoM and helped them move a fridge.  Well, we met her and her husband yesterday which was super fun.  We just talked about their doctrinal questions about Adam and Eve and the afterlife.  It was a really fun time and nice to be able to teach in English.  The wife is super golden but the husband seems pretty set in his ways.  But he’s going to diligently read the BoM!!

          We have some good potential here, I just really want to see it pull through.  This next transfer is going to be a great one, I know it!  Yeah, so that was a bit of what happened this last week.  It was a pretty good one full of good new experiences.  Thank you for all your prayers and words of encouragement.  I hope you all have a great week!

          Love, Elder Jace Anderson

                                              Kim Oomin!!  He's the man!

Time's Going Pretty Fast

February 1, 2016

          This last week went by really fast, but I still don’t really have any good big news.  We did have a cool worldwide missionary training broadcast done by the apostles and other cool people.  It was a good time and I really felt that we need to work with the members better, so we’ve been trying lately.  It’s hard!  And scary.  They’re super nice, I just feel bad, like I’m a burden to them if we ask if we can visit.  But if we don’t initiate, nothing happens.

          We were able to meet Park Jonghoon with a recently returned missionary in the ward.  It was good to have him there to answer some of his odd questions.  He says he wants to be baptized, but he still won’t talk to his parents or come to church, and we’re not sure how strong his mental issue is, but it’s enough to where he might not go to Korea’s 2 year military service.  We were finally able to meet Song Gwangjeong, the 82 year old who had a baptismal date.  We found out that he doesn’t want to get baptized because he’s afraid of getting lots of responsibilities in the church.  He did come out to church yesterday though, so hopefully he keeps progressing.

          We were riding a bus to the church one day and I sat down next to this guy who is 23 years old I think.  We started talking and he said he is studying to be a cop, and he needs to learn English for it.  I told him about our English stuff and what we do and he was really interested, and we were able to meet that evening!  His name is Kim Oomin and is a pretty cool guy.  He doesn’t really have a religion but is pretty open and really good about asking and answering questions when we meet.  We also started meeting Choi Byounghoon again (we met him a while back but he got busy) and he has a lot more interest in what we believe.  We just need to get him out to church!

          I went on a split with Elder Medina which was fun.  It’s always good to have a change of pace.  The only problem was it was really rainy and I discovered that my shoes are destroyed and the sole is coming off the rest of the shoe.  Uh oh!  Needless to say, my feet were soaked and frozen.  We did get their companionship a nice new investigator though. 

          I talked with President on the phone last week and he said that if I want to baptize before I go home, I’m going to have to change up what I’ve been doing.  So we’re going to try to work with members better, but it’s pretty intimidating.  Hopefully we find some success!

          Time’s going pretty fast, so I’m really hoping that things will get picking up soon.  Thank you all for your support and prayers.

          Elder Jace Anderson