May 18th Email

Annyeong Haseyo, everybody! Another week has come and gone here in the grape-growing Anseong of the Lord's vineyard.

We got to call home for Mother's Day on Monday, so happy Mother's Day to all you Mothers in my life (i.e. Grandmas, Aunts, Cousins. etc).

Then we had P-day on Thursday because we got to go up to Seoul and visit the Temple. Since we live in the farthest reaches of the Korea Seoul South mission, we literally spent P-day riding the crowded subways of Seoul to and from our beloved temple. But it was worth it, as always. We got to watch the session in Korean, and there weren't enough translators for every foreign missionary there, so I got to see it in Korean!!! Very suprised by how much I understood, despite the strange grammar they use in Ancient speak. Seeing it lots in English probably helped. ^^

The weather has gotten very hot lately! We had a cool spell with some rain last week, which was refreshing, but now we are starting the dreaded Summer! The tempurature just keeps climbing, and the hhumidity is definitely felt by the poor missionaries walking the streets of Korea. Sweat on, brethren!  I am just excited for the rainy season to hit; I hear it is like 3 straight weeks of rain so bad you can barely leave the house!! We plan some epic Door-knocking once that hits. ^^ hehehe Anyway, with the heat comes a feeling of fatigue, so my companion Elder Hale and I have been exhausted all week. The exhaustion is making me a bit funny in the head, and as a result Elder Hale is learning about my funny side a little more. He hasn't beat me yet, so I think he's fine... ^^

Elder Hale and I have become masters of How to Begiin Teaching! That's the basic "lesson" approach we take when meeting with new people and trying to find out if they have interest in our message of not. We teach basic truths, testify, and invite, just like any other lesson, and we have been getting smoother at delivering the message as a companionship. Sweet. We have a few new investigators as a result. God has been blessing us!

But the Biggest blessing (and hence the title of this email) came yesterday at church. One of our investigators (Lee, or 이효찬. 브랙 장로님, 그래요!)  has been coming to church for the past few weeks, and since he has lots of connections, he has been bringing different families that he knows over with him. Anyway, he decided to bring them all with him this week. Our branch literally doubled in size from my first week here, from 23 people to 57 yesterday!!! That was a crazy miracle, and we squeezed every last drop of possibilty out of it by making 2 family home evenings this week, the first being tonight! Our members were awesome at fellowshipping, and they will attend these meetings with our potential investigators. We are expecting a lot this week! Pray for us, and for these people's hearts to be opened!

For the record, our branch yesterday reached a point where it was big enough to rival some wards over here. If we can teach and let the Spirit convert all these Children of God, we will need a bigger building! ^^

That's about it for this last week. We plan to head up to the mission home on Wednesday for Zone Training on a hike! Should be fun! ^^  Thanks for the prayers and emails and everything else you do! 화이팅!

Elder Wilcox