Last Transfer - But I'm staying

June 13, 2016

          We had a pretty good week here in Gwangju.  One fun thing we did was we went to Park Jongmoon’s wedding!  It was fun being there and meeting his friends and wife briefly.  He’s such a great guy.  He’ll get baptized eventually.  Hopefully sooner rather than later.  If he could just come to church it would all be fine.

          We met 2 new people last week but only 1 became an investigator.  He’s a former investigator we called who has English interest.  He’s a bit cynical when it comes to gospel stuff.  He asked if I’ve ever had a prayer answered and I told of when I asked if the BoM is true once when I was in Ikson.  He said that doesn’t count and asked if I’ve ever had a prayer answered in my real life.  I was a little offended but told him that I don’t separate my life by religious and nonreligious parts, but then told him about when we prayed as a family in Yellowstone after Dad hurt his back.  Man, people are pretty tough sometimes!  The other guy lived in America for a long time but has epilepsy and had to come back to Korea.  He’s alone and has a tough life, but he’s not willing to even learn about our message either.  It’s super sad because he could really use it.  Why won’t anyone just give it a chance??

          Hmm what else?  Oh yeah!  We met that guy who tried to teach us the Bible last time with the Chungjang ward elders because he’s in their area and he brought a friend.  We’re pretty sure they’re from this crazy Korean church.  The 6 of us talked about the BoM, Adam and Eve, Joseph Smith, seeing God, and other stuff.  I don’t know if they’re willing to change their thoughts but it was kind of fun. 

          We’ve been helping out the Filipinas a lot and meeting with them and their investigators.  I am yet to meet a lame Filipino!  2 of them came to church and it was really great.  Except I had to translate for a bunch of people and the speaker was quoting these nuns and it was pretty hard.  Haha.

          We got our transfer calls today!  I will be here for my last transfer (that makes 6 here) and Elder Groves is staying as well making 4 transfers together!  That’s pretty crazy!  It’s going to be good though and I’m happy to have such a hard worker with me.  This last Sunday one of the speakers quoted the scripture about having great joy in simply helping one soul come unto Him.  I felt a lot of comfort as I read it.  This transfer’s my last chance, and it’s going to be great!

          Love,

Elder Jace Anderson

Eating chicken with Park Jongmoon

Park Jongmoon's wedding

A great ward activity!

June 6, 2016

          This last week went by pretty fast, but it’s kind of tough to remember what we did.  Honestly there wasn’t too much.  We were able to contact Lee Yongil again and meet him with another older guy in the ward.  It went super well and he said he would come to church but…and since he works every other day he doesn’t have a chance to come for 2 weeks.  We weren’t able to meet Park Jongmoon or Song Gwangjeong, but we met the new investigator I talked about last week twice (Jang Sungyeon).  He might have aspbergers and it’s tough to get him to open up and act on our message.

          We met a new guy who after we taught got up to the board and gave us an hour lecture on the history in the Bible…as if we didn’t know…haha fun guy though, but he lives outside our area.  I also talked with a New Zealander named Chris on a bus and we should be able to meet this week!!  Woohoo!  He was super cool but converted to Buddhism since coming to Korea.

          Our ward had a great activity this last week.  It was the best I’ve ever been to.  We had magic, violin stuff, yo yos, videos, and super good singers.  There’s this semi famous member who came and sang which was really good.  Some members also brought their friends, so we have 1 referral that we might be able to meet later.

          We fasted as a mission a little bit ago so we had a conference call for people to share the miracles they saw.  There were a lot of great miracles and one sister’s nonmember mother is coming to Korea to pick her up and will get baptized here.  How cool is that?  Other people were able to get baptismal dates which is super great, but I couldn’t help but feel a little sad thinking I have such little time left and haven’t been able to have that success yet.  So I decided to do my own fast!  But it was the other elders who saw all the miracles that day.  Haha.

          As we’ve been meeting our new investigator, Jang Sungyeon we’ve been trying to help him get a desire to find out if God exists or not.  A verse we shared with him is Ether 12:4.  We really can hope for a better world, a brighter future, and I hope that we allow this gospel to change us and continue to grow by doing good works.  I know that I have been changed on my mission but progression shouldn’t stop when we get back home.  Thank you for all your wonderful examples!

          Love,

          Elder Anderson

                                       Poor missionaries groceries and cake!

                                  Random Taiwan member that came to church

                                     Our funny less active guy Kim Sangchul

 

Last interview

May 30, 2016

          We almost had a baptism!  But …yeah.  We met Song Gwongjeong with our ward mission leader and reset his baptismal date for Sunday.  He had his interview on Saturday, and well…he and our zone leader and President Shin talked for over an hour and a half about tithing, the word of wisdom, prophets, and the original sin.  Long story short he’s not ready for baptism and doesn’t listen to what the missionaries say.  So we are going to focus on working with our ward mission leader.  Age means everything in Korean culture, so it’s tough being 20 teaching a man in his 70’s.  When we called in Pres. the first thing Brother Song said was, “how old is he?”  Oh Korea. 

          We have a new investigator!  His name is Jang Sangyun and is 22 or 23.  He called us off an English advertisement so we’re doing our English/gospel program with him.  He’s a very pure and sweet guy, just a little shy and quiet.  He’s definitely humble enough for the gospel, he just needs to get more interest and act on it. 

          Sadly we haven’t been able to contact Lee Yongil.  Things seemed like they were going so well!  He loved the member we met with and was set to come to church, but now he has disappeared.  It’s really sad how often stuff like this happens.  We need to find some prepared people, and we need to do it fast!  Time is running a little short now.  We have a third of the mission going home in June and July, and President Shin goes home also, so we are focusing a lot on finishing strongest.  Hopefully we’ll be able to see some miracles and success these last 2 months.

          We met 2 other new people this last week with the Filipina sisters, they were older Korean guys though.  Boy did they have some strange ideas and weren’t about to change them based on the words of a couple white kids.  It’s ok though!  It has been great to get out and see what else is out there in the world.  It has definitely made me more appreciative for what I have and makes me want to help others get what we have.

          Oh yeah!  I had my last interview with Pres. Shin this last week.  I’m really going to miss him, he has been an amazing president and leader.  An important thing he told me was that it’s not enough to just learn, we must take what we’ve learned and allow it to change us.  I would say I’ve definitely changed for the better.  In fact, my comp said he never would have thought that I was shy before my mission.  Can you believe that?  Haha that’s what the gospel’s here for, to mold us into better people, the people that God would have us become.  Thank you all for your constant support.  I hope you have a wonderful week and find opportunities to share the joy the gospel brings.

          Love,

          Elder Jace Anderson

 

      Not too many this week. but here's some of us missionaries who go home soon