My district

Hardest week of my life

January 22, 2009
Because of the Chinese New Year I have to email early and not on Monday as usual. well i dont really have an uplifting email to send this week so i am not sure if you want to send it out to everyone. this week was the hardest week of my life. my companion cracked and verbally abused me for about 20 minutes. it wasn't very fun. there has always been a little bit of tention between us because he sucks at english and i suck at korean. i try to talk to him but i can only ask random questions and mostly dont understand what he says back. anyways hes also been under a lot of pressure, i dont really know why.
we were planning one night for the next day and he told me to call a less active (the philipino lady) to meet with her. well we take a bus 20 minutes just to meet with her everyweek and cant even go in the door and he cant even speak english so i dont like going everyweek. i hesitated to call her and tried to figure out how i could explain how i feel in korean. he started commanding me to call her (in korean there are a ton of different levels of speach from king form all the way down to low form and the last one is yup, command form.which of course missionaries arent allowed to use, especially to other missionaries) so i did but she didnt answer. well thats when he pretty much exploded. he asked why i was questioning him and told me to obey him. i really couldnt tell if he was serious becuase it was such a little thing so i started to quietly laugh. he didnt like that much either and just went off. the two other missionaries came in to stop us from arguing but he just told them it was none of their business and to leave. so that lasted for about 20 minutes (i surprisingly understood everything he said) and then he kinda just stopped talking. thats when i went into the other bedroom and just started crying. i couldnt understand why he got so mad. luckily i just sat there and took it because if i would have argued back, things would have been really bad. the next day he slept through personal study and wouldnt let us have companion study. but then we had a companionship meeting and cleared everything up. he first asked if i had any problems with him and i said no, i dont. because i dont have any problems with him, he obviously has a problem with me. so he told me that the problem was that first hes under a lot of stress and the reason he got mad is because of me wanting to change the plans at the last second. he didnt care whether we go to the ladies house or not, the whole point was that we plan everything out a week in advance and because i wanted to change it the night before he got mad. i apologized and he appologized and everything has been fine since then. i am trying so hard to forgive him for what he did but it hurts. he really hurt me. i do forgive him and i am fine with him but i am still hurt. i dont know how to get over my pain.
Love,
Elder Wells

One more week

January 18, 2009

One more week…

This week nothing really special happened and i dont have much time so i will keep it short.
we met with our older investigator twice this week. he took us to a museum of Jeju on tuesday. that was kind of cool. then he came to church on Sunday. we have taught him the restoration but he always tells stories and stuff so its hard to focus on the lesson and teach him.
besides that we visited a few less active members and did a lot of proselyting.
umm...ya thats about it for missionary work. i have been studying a lot about faith this week though. another missionary pointed out that in Moroni 10 under all of the gifts of the spirit, faith is one of them. and in order to recieve these gifts, we have to ask for them. i have been trying to increase my faith through prayer and action. i have faith that i will learn this language and be able to find people who will accept the gospel.

Love,
Elder Wells

YO

January 11, 2009

yo
so to answer your questions, my new companion is great, his name is jung jean (not jing) sung and he is from a place called kong one dough or something. i dont really know where it is, just somewhere near seoul. he is not very good at english so it makes things interesting. outside the appartment we only speak korean..if we speak at all. its hard to make a good relationship because of the language barrier. but i am learning a lot from him and my language skills are improving. he is super nice and a really good missionary. for the most part i can say what i want to say but understanding what other people say back to me is a lot harder. it takes a lot of focusing. and even when i uderstand most of it, theres always words i dont understand so i have to guess what the person is trying to say. its fun. i will definately be on the island for the next 2 transfers if not the next 3.its expensive to fly people out here so the missionaries stay a while. it really is a priviledge to be here and especially with a korean companion. i have decided that its probably the most ideal situation a new missionary could be in. its the best place in the mission with a very experienced companion that obviously knows the language. i truly am blessed and being prepared to become an instrument in the lords hands.
i forgot to mention last week that i am the only american living in our 4 man house. there are 2 koreans and the other elder is from new zealand. hes not mauri though. hes pretty normal, just has a funny accent, especially when he speaks korean. its definately weird to be the only american though, i can't fully relate to anyone really. theres two more missionaries on the south side of the island and one of them is american so i have one lifeline.
this week wasn't very busy. we spent a lot of time street proselyting and knocking doors. it hasn't been too effective but we got a few contacts so hopefully we get something out of it. we did meet a dropped investigator family and talked to them for a while. the father is really nice and has a lot of good questions. he really likes how our church teaches. how there isnt a pastor or preacher that speaks the whole time but instead how the members all speak and teach each other. he also likes how important family is to the church. the only concern is that he has read a lot of bad things about the church on the internet. we havent gotten into any of those concerns but it could be a problem. about that old guy,named gong gyung oak, we met with him and showed him the restoration video. he had a lot of questions which was good but we kinda got distracted.
we also went out and visited the philipino lady named cher-anne. she has been having a hard time lately and said it was a blessing that we came to visit her. we couldnt go in but stood at the door and shared a message with her. my companion doesnt speak english so itwas only me talking to her. i dont have time to go into details but i bore testimony to her about Heavenly Father's love for all of His children. the spirit was definately there and it felt so good to be able to express myself in english.

love
Elder Wells

A New Year, A New Korean Companion

Jan 4, 2009

Another Korean Companion

so this week was transfer week. i thought that everything would stay pretty normal because i have only been with elder Boardman for 1 transfer but nope. im still in the same area but i got a new companion. he is flying here tonight at 6 so i havent met him yet. his name is Elder jung jing (like jingle bells without the le..or the bells) sung. 정징성. another korean elder next to me just said that the last part of his name (sung) "is means castle." so ya thats him. i have heard a lot of good things about him, he used to be a zone leader in busan and he is 'dying' in 2 transfers. so it looks like i will be with him for his last 2. its crazy, i have had 5 companions (including the mtc) and ive only been on a mish for 5 transfers.
anyways, what else. ah, ya i had a pretty interesting appointment this week. we got a phone call around 7:30 pm and this lady who we found wanted to take us out to dinner. so we met her at a restaraunt and started eating (the main dish was eel, not bad but a little chewy). well she says that she has to drink alcohol and asks us if its ok. my companion was like umm yeah...so anyway, long story short, she gets drunk and starts going off about night clubs and 'abominable things' according to our korean elder/translator and how she wants to go with us to one (i had no idea what she was saying and neither did my comp). we tried to get out of there as fast as we could and by the time we did it was about 9:45. it was probably the craziest night i have had so far. so ya that was the highlight of my week. not very spiritual but i learned never to let your investigator get drunk during an appointment, it just isnt good.
as far as real, sober investigators go, we have started working with this old guy, about 70, who served in the korean war; he showed us a crazy scar on his head to prove it. his main interest is english. our mission used to do this thing called the 30/30 program where missionaries would teach english 30 min and then the lessons for 30. we stopped it but if people ask, we can teach them. we also teach english classes at the church on wed and sat. so he started out wanting to learn english but his interest is slowly changing. he doesnt have any religion but thinks there could be a God and wants to learn more about him. we have committed him to pray but he hasn't yet, he said he would before we meet again. it is really exciting to watch first hand his spiritual knowledge and desire grow. he is a good investigator for me because he needs to hear simple truths explained simply. all i can say are the most basic, simple sentences but even though they are simple, they are so true. i know that i am teaching the truth and that Heavenly Father has put this man in my path to help both him and me grow.

Love,
Elder Wells