Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!!

Kind of another slow week. Not really the kind of week you want before Christmas, but i firmly believe when people are rejecting you and you are trying your hardest to get your goals but they are not coming is the point where you are the closest to finding that prepared person that you need to find. I hope that happens soon. 

We did pick up a new investigator this week who is a teacher at a middle school. He does not believe in any religion, but he does think that the christian churches here in Korea are completely money orientated. Which is true.  We talked to him about how our church is not that way, but he got caught up some little things. He knows about our Temples and General Conference. The thing he couldn't get is why we have to spend so much money making the temples big and beautiful and why do the people need to sit in big expensive looking chairs in General Conference. He said it was a waste because God would accept anything and you could give that money to help the poor. We tried to explain that we want to give our best to God and because it is the house of God we want to make it Beautiful for Him, but he didn't really seem to get it. He is a really nice guy, He just wants everything to be completely logical, but he is not confrontational at all so it is good to talk to him.

Our other investigator we met with is a literal walking hospital.. He is a pretty solid and wants to get baptized he just cant because he is always in the hospital and cant quit drinking. (two things that really shouldn't go together) We went to his house and he lives in real bad conditions. He eats really crappy, his house is NOT clean and he has no money to pay for floor heat so it is freezing. He told us he would come to Church, but he did not come.

Alot of our investigators promised to come to our Christmas Party but they did not show up...

I decided to read the Book of Mormon one more time cover to cover with the remaining chunk of my mission and I am using a Study manual along with it so i am getting new insights that I have never really thought of before. I am also planning on focusing on a Christlike attribute every week and study about that as well. I have my studying pretty well planned out for the rest of my time and hopefully carry on after.

So this week we had the Christmas party and I had the great pleasure of dressing up as Jolly old Saint Nick and distribute candy and presents to the kids. It was alot different than me doing it last year because i can speak WAY more Korean than I could last year. My miracle comes from seeing the kids. For one Korean kids are one of the cutest, but seeing them as they received the presents I gave out. Their eyes were SO bright. Makes me think and desire more to share the greatest gift of all with everyone. I want to see more people's eyes that wide when they receive the Gospel.

This is the true Church, True Gospel and He is the gift!! #sharethegift

Love You! 

Investigator from last area, possibly baptism soon

Coming home May 15- Five months from today!!!!

Hello Family!

 This week was one of those weeks that just feels like the tires are spinning and you're not really going anywhere. But it wasn't all bad. I always love the chance to get to go to the Temple, so that was a very needed experience this week. 

Th investigators ran kind of slow this week. When I first got here there was alot of potential and people meeting. But now alot of them fell of the face of the earth. I think maybe it was because they just liked Elder Smith, but we still have a couple of solid investigators. We met with one of our Chinese investigators this week and ate dinner with him. Being at the restaurant made it a little bit hard to teach him but we talked to him a little bit about why he believes in buddism. From the sound of it he doesnt really believe he just goes to the temple because it is culture. Also i dont see why he would not come to church. This last week he went to Seoul so he couldnt make it.

Then our investigator who had a baptismal date kind of dropped us...He is too busy with tests and will go back to his hometown for school vacation so he said that was the last time he could meet with us until March so that nixes his date. We are planning on giving his number to the missionaries in his hometown, maybe they can meet with him during vacation.

We picked up 2 friends as investigators both finished high school and with go to college here. One is really good at English and the other is not. They are both really cool kids. We went and ate with them and they were really surprised that we could eat meat. We explained to them that we could eat meat and talked bout the Book of Mormon with them. We also picked up an investigator from Rwanda. He is decent at English and learning Korean through English so it is a struggle for him. We are working with the office to see if we have church materials in his language.

For study this week one thing that I really liked was doing a PMG activity of What do you want to say, who do you want to become and what is the difference you want others to see in you after your mission is over. I want to finish off this last quarter of my mission strong and do exactly what the Lord will have me do.

My miracle this week was after the Temple we decided to go to the war museum. Through walking around in the museum more than all of the tanks, planes and guns my favorite part was learning about and loving the people I serve even more. There were parts in the museum where I felt an extreme amount of love for the Korean people. I love this country so much!

Love ya Lots!!!

also...im coming home on May 15th so 5 months from today^^.

 

Yummy Soup

 

Physically feeding the Body and Spirit

How are you doing?  This week was a fun but very cold week my fingers have almost fallen off a couple of times. We had the chance to meet with a couple of our investigators this week. 4 of them are progressing now. We have two Chinese investigators who we met with each of them individually. They both like to talk a lot, so sometimes it is difficult to stay on track with them but we successfully taught both of them.  Then we also have another kid that has a baptismal date for the 3rd of next month. The only catch is that he will go back to his hometown after all of his tests are over so it will be hard to teach him everything before then. He told us this after he accepted the baptismal date. The last investigator that is progressing of ours is a 24 year old from Mongolia. We wanted to watch the Restoration video with him in Mongolian, but that is not one of the options so we watched it in Korean with English subtitles, and I think that worked okay. He definitely didn't understand all of it, but he got everything he needed to. We also picked up a New investigator from Pakistan, who is very bold in his comments but he is a good guy that really wants to know what is true. he just asks a ton of really hard questions, that sent us bouncing around trying to explain it. 

For studies this week I read a couple of general conference talks and got some really good insights from that. I also read bits and pieces of the Bible and the Book of Mormon, nothing really too big or anything to report. I also read in PMG about extending commitments. there was a section that stood out to me. It says that with everything we do it should have some type of invitation or commitment. I have always known that but it kind of just stuck out to me more. I will definitely work on that a little bit more this week.

One of my miracles this week was at church. They members really trust me a lot.  They ask me lots of questions and call on me to say stuff in church. I guess I haven't really had that opportunity in a situation where i can understand what they are saying and say an intelligence answer, but I like it. Again I really love the members here. It is cool to be in a really small ward again where you can get to know people a lot better.

The food here is so cheap...and good....i will get fat.......

LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!! #sharethegift

Miles

BTW: I got the xmas package. I am still figuring out when i am going home and when we are calling. LOVES!!!

Duck Meat

Spicy Crab

Ice Cream Waffle-  Oh Yeah!