One Month of Korea down!

Well this is kind of crazy to think that I have already been out here for a month! It sure doesn't feel like that! I guess staying as busy as possible is really making everything move this quickly! I have had a great week this week but it has had it's moments of frustrations and just disappointments. But what would missionary work be without that right?? It has really helped me appreciate the people are progressing! Those people I'll talk about in just a little bit but first I just wanted to talk about the tough parts so we can get those out of the way and move on to the great things! 

 

During this week we had those moments where it just felt like nothing was going right. This week it rained quiet a lot, I'm not complaining because I love the rain, but people in Korea definitely do not. There is this stigma here that every little drop of rain is very acidic, which sometimes it is, but they always fear that if they go out without an umbrella there hair is going to fall out!!! So they don't like to stay outside for to long which obviously makes finding new people pretty hard! But for the most part we have enough investigators to not be too worried but I'd still love to be finding new people. We had this moment where we had a meeting with this potential investigator who said he could meet at this place at this certain time. That place is an hour and a half walk but half hour by bus. We had some other things fall through so we decided, hey, lets just walk. Totally wrong decision hahaha. It was extremely disappointing because we finally made it over there and it turned out we had blown us off. It wasn't the worst thing in the world but it really did feel like we had just lost a full day and that we were going to have to make it up somehow. 

 

Another tough point that came was when we tried to go teach the man who owns the dojo, the one that has the adorable family haha. Anyway we got there and he decided to tell us that he wasn't interested in the gospel and that he had a religion already. The only good thing that came out of that was that he told us he wanted us to keep coming and working out with him, so we've done that and we have built a real strong relationship with their family! But it was a real tough moment when I was leaving their dojo after he told us that, I asked Elder Todd "I'm going to have to get used to that aren't I?" And he told me that yes I would. It was a tough moment, I really love their family and it makes me sad thinking that they don't know what blessings come from the gospel, that they don't know they could live with their family forever. I know they will get there chance someday, but I guess just not yet. 

 

I guess that is enough for tough parts, I wanted to first talk about our best progressing investigator, 송준영. He, I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but is a 'gangster'. He seems that was mainly just his past but we all know that he has a lot of work to do before January 10. Why that date? Oh because that is his baptismal date :-) The first time we asked him he kinda laughed, but as we talk about it more and more he says he wants to be a member and follow Jesus Christ and be happy. That makes us so happy. We thought that his biggest problem would be alcohol but surprising since we talked to him and his friend about it (they are supporting each other) he hasn't drank! So for the last 6 days he's been clean and he has just barely started!!!! Sounds like his biggest issue will be coffee but if he goes at it the way he did alcohol he will not have any issue! We talk to him just about every day and he loves hearing from us and is starting to realize why he feels so good when he's with us. I truly believe that he will be baptized and is on his way to becoming an amazing man! He is just someone that you can't really understand until you meet him haha, great guy! Sometimes he'll call us and just say, pray for me! Jeez, love that guy!

 

Then our other really great investigator's name is 김준석. He is the same age as me, he was the one who stopped us on the street! Anyway the more he meets with us the more he agrees! He said that he had heard our church was he racy, and that after he came to church with us he didn't understand why people thought that! We have a youth in the ward that is our fellow shipper for him and they are becoming really good friends! I really believe that he is going to be baptized once he becomes more comfortable with the ward and everyone there! 

 

We have a member in the ward who has some kind of physical impairment so he rides everywhere on this big tricycle that has all these gadgets on them. So a few days ago we went over to help him fix it up and he told me it's name... 3 Nephi!!! haha so I asked why it was named that and he said that 1st Nephi was at the dump and 2nd Nephi had no gears! It really made me laugh, I love the people in the ward and in this country! There is something about some of them that just make them the sweetest people! 

Productive Week!

Wow... Haha that's really the way to put it best! There is so much that I could put into this email so I'm going to try to get the most important things and mention the other things. But before I start I just wanted to remind you all that you are in my heart as we go through the holidays. I mean, Christmas isn't as big here, but we still have it all around us all the time and it almost always puts a big smile on my face when I see it because it reminds me why I'm here, why I am serving. Family is the most important thing to me and I can't wait to see you all again, I can't wait to have the best Christmas present ever and see your faces and hear your voices again! I cannot wait! Well as for my week, I guess there is only really one way to put it, 'a turning point'. 

 

Dad you asked me something about my mission that I don't think I ever addressed and that is "If your mission is anything like mine you'll have 25-30 baptisms". I wanted to let you know, that isn't the case just yet haha. My trainer has had 1 baptism throughout his mission so far and for the most part people tend to believe this stigma and it drags them down with it. I however, do not believe this for one moment, and I promise I am working my hardest to show it! At the beginning of this week we had just 1 or 2 possibilities for investigators, and they weren't very consistent. We now currently have about 6... Now I'm not so sure how this happened, but I can testify to one thing. It wasn't because we found them haha. During this week we wanted to work as hard as we could, my companion loved the fire I brought from the MTC and used it to both of our advantages haha. One thing I began to realize was that after we did all we could we were then blessed with these people. We had no power over it, almost ever single one of our investigators are people who seeked us out and bumped into us out there on the streets. It really grew my testimony that Heavenly Father is watching over his missionaries. For example, We had this one man come up to us who spoke really well English and he said he was a gangster, we thought he was kidding, then we met his friends haha... Over the past few days we have had 3 lessons with him and we have concentrated on the Atonement, and he feels that he needs it, he feels the Holy Ghost, and he actually woke up early for him, (he normally sleeps in until noon) and came to church! Amazing, he has a lot to work on, but I have felt that he sincerely wants to change :-) 

 

So this week we had Fast Sunday and as it being the first fast sunday I would have out in the field it was really... Tough. The thing that made it better was we had 2 investigators come to church and I chose to try and show the ward how much I wanted to work, so I stood up and tried to bear my testimony in front of 70 people in a language I'm still learning. It went really well and I felt my testimony grow very strongly. 

 

This week, I am going to make it a quick note because there is so much I could write, but this week we gave a homeless man on the side of the road a blessing. He begged us for a place to stay that was warm and that he couldn't work because is legs hurt to much. So we offered him the only thing we could, the power of God, he accepted and on the side of the street, in front of many others, gave him a blessing of health. I don't know the outcome but I pray still that it worked.

 

So we also had my first exchange this week with a native and it was pretty cool, for the most part we just did proselyting but we went and did a youth activity which was soccer so that was really cool! I got creamed, but still really cool :-) 

 

Oh! One other cool thing we did! We got the chance to go to a 택견 Dojo ( a kinda martial art) because the teacher/owner is an investigator. He asked us to join one of his classes with his family and so we decided it would help us bond with him! It was crazy! I loved there family so much, they had 2 little girls and then a little boy. His daughters were adorable, they were calling us uncle by the end of it. It reminded me why I was here on a mission. I saw there whole family laughing together and I could see the love he had for his children in his eyes and it broke my heart thinking that they don't know they can live together forever. I pray for them so much that they be able to understand what we teach and desire to be baptized so they can spend eternity with each other like I hope to with mine.

 

I can't tell you all how much I miss you, I hope you understand that how I feel for these investigators is because I have been testified to by the Holy Ghost that this work is true, and I know that my sacrifices are nothing to the reward of bringing others to the gospel. I love you all so much and I hope you never forget how meaningful it is to me that you write to me each week so I can know that you are all okay and doing well. I love you all so much and I can't wait to the 25th so I can kiss the computer screen as hard as I can :-).

 

I love you all so much,

Elder Fox