안녕하십니까, Everybody! It's already December! Wow, time flies. I have been on my mission for 4 whole months! wow.
Sorry I missed last week. It would take to long to write all about it, so I will shorten it to one sentence: God helped my a lot with Korean, we met some great people, and I love the Work of Salvation. Bam.
This week was really weird, because we have had a lot of activities and meetings that don't normally happen all in one week.
We had a split on Tuesday (I got to go with my Korean roommate, Elder 문호빈 (Moon Ho Bin), who is super cool and super good at english. I got some great Korean practice from him!) Where we met lots of cool people who are interested in our English class! We need more people there, so we have a pool to draw investigators from. Then we had a 식사 (meal appointment) with a member and we ate 갈비, which is super good and bad for you. I am so fat. ^^
On Wednesday, we had a freak snowstorm and we had to stay inside. So, we made message cards (for member's doors, think "heart attack", It's very very common in Korea) and I called some of our former investigators from the Area Book and invited them to English class that night. My Companion and I didn't go, because we had another appointment. And so, when 2 of the people I called showed up to English class, the other 수지 Elders got to pick them up as investigators, and not me. But that's fine! As long as they learn about the Gospel, right?
Thursday was Thanksgiving, and we got to celebrate with President Morisse and his wife, with a few other missionaries. I ate sooo much! I really am fat!^^ And, I am not used to eating American food anymore. Because of Thanksgiving and the travel, we couldn't really do "missionary work" except on the train, which we did by talking to people. So great.
Friday was Zone Conference! That meant more travel, and 7 hours of training! It was super good, and we learned a lot about how to make our efforts more effective. I especially liked President Morisse's training on "full purpose of heart." If you want a good scripture study, look that up and study what it means in the Topical guide. We also had a delicious, huge, unhealthy lunch, and guess how much I ate? Right, A LOT! My stomach still thinks I have a runner's metabolism, but my body knows otherwise. I pretty much just stick with push-ups and ab workouts now, because the weather is too cold to run in the mornings now. But I want to go hiking sometime! That is a hugely popular pastime here.
Saturday was weird, too! We went and did service with the youth in our ward at an Autistic home. We chopped wood (for firewood, which is really how they heat the house!) and prepared packages of razors (shaving razors), which is what they have all the Home's residents do so they can get an income. Wow. It was eye-opening, but I loved going out and using what little muscle remains! I just love helping people!
Yesterday was fast Sunday, and I got up and bore my testimony about the service activity we did saturday (in korean, yes, and I am a little proud I can say that ^^). Our Bishop mentioned it in his talk later with all the adults about hastening the work. His talk was incredible! We watched Hastening the Work of Salvation, and I get so pumped up everytime I see it! He exhorted our ward to help us as missionaries to do God's Work of Salvation! Our ward really needs help getting started, so they are a big focus for us missionaries. I love serving the ward members, and I love helping them get going in the same work that I am in! This is such a joyful work!
Unfortunately, Fast sunday didn't end on a good note. We were offered a ride home by a member, and he, being Korean, felt the need to feed us. But, his home wasn't ready for visitors, so he took us to a restaurant. We ate there, and unfortunately we didn't protest enough for fear of offending him, but my companion and I felt really bad that we didn't honor the Sabbath like we should have. The other thing is, this member did the same thing with us a few weeks ago when we brought an investigator to church, but we assumed it was a special occasion because we were with an investigator. I think I showed a bad example to this member by allowing him to take us there. I didn't stand up for my standards, and I felt so bad last night. We plan to apologize to him for our conduct and hopefully help change his commitment to keeping the Sabbath day holy. So, you guys don't do stuff like that to the missionaries, OK? Haha.
I love you all! I love being able to write to you guys! I want to remind you of President Monson's challenge to have one person ready to be referred to the missionaries by Christmas as a gift to the Savior! I am thinking about who I can refer, too. This kind of diligent application of time and effort is really what the Lord needs from us in these last days. If we ALL do our part, missionaries, members, everyone, then God's work will hasten. The work of the Salvation of God's precious Children will hasten and we will be blessed to be a part of it! I see so much more now how much we all need to do, and I am beginning to see how to do it. But the biggest thing to get started in this work is simply to open your mouth. Share the gospel literally whenever you can. Strengthen members, invite non-members to come and see. This is what This Work needs from us, what God needs from us. Lets all do our part! I love this job! ^^
Love ya all! 화이팅! Talk to ya next week! ^^
윌콕스 장로님 (Elder Wilcox)
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