this week was transfer week and i was expecting to just get a new companion because my korean companion is done with his mission and going home. however, i got a phone call on friday night saying that im getting transferred. it was really really unexpected. i am really happy about the transfer though for many reasons. first, im staying on the island. i am just moving to the south side of the island to the other branch in a city called so gee po 서귀포. it is a lot smaller branch and my companion is the second counselor in the branch presidency. im the branch clerk. ha i love it. there are about 20 members from what i have heard. i am really sad to leave jeju city but it will be a nice change and i will still be able to see the jeju city members every now and then. im also excited because my companion is a great guy. his name is elder rowley and he's from west jordan utah. he is only a few transfers ahead of me and he has been in korea for 8 months. i am excited to work with him. so that is how the transfers went down.
last week had a lot of ups and downs. we went to the mainland and had a mission conference with a member from the quorum of the 70. his name is elder Gary Stevenson. i got to shake his hand and found out that he knows president and sister Whitesides. he took there spot as mission president in japan. he talked to us about a lot of good things. the main topic of his talk was finding a vision for your mission. this includes setting goals and how we want to grow/where we want to be by the end of our missions. it was something i needed to hear because i am about a third done with my mission and i feel like it has gone by so fast that i havent had time to grow. i know i have but it is just flying by. i also saw elder bennett and my trainer. it was a great day. as for the rest of the week, my companion spent a lot of time packing and being trunky so theres not much to report there. but i was really sick yesterday with a headache/fever/really bad cold. i had a fever of 102. ya so i went to the hospital. but in korea, people go to the hospital all the time, it is kind of like going to the doctors office in america. you can go whenever you want even if you arent very sick at all. so dont worry mom. they gave me a shot and plugged me up to an IV for 2 hours to shoot me up with electrolytes and stuff. im doing a lot better today, still a little sick though.
i had the opportunity to talk yesterday in church because i am getting transferred. it is always scary because i am still not really confident with the language. but i was glad to do it. i talked about the things i learned while serving here; especially about Gods love for all of us. i have learned a lot about His love and the sacrifices He has done in order for us to progress and return to Him. im grateful for His love and have felt it in abundance here in my mission.
love,
elder wells
Monday, March 30, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
This week was a good week. a lot of exciting things have happened and they are still happening today. tonight all of the missionaries here on jeju are flying to the mainland to an area called tay-gu. theres a big zone conference tomorrow and we are going to here some important guy speak. i forgot his name though. im excited because it will be the first time i have seen other missionaries (besides the 5 here) in over 4 months. including my mtc companion elder Bennett. he is the one that went home in the mtc becuase he was throwing up. well he stopped throwing up and came to korea but now i heard that he started throwing up again. i havent heard much so i dont know what is going to happen to him. i will aslo get to see my trainer/father E. tay Hee. it'll be exciting.
also this week president and sister Jennings came down. there was a district conference and all the members on the island came (about 80 people). the 2 branch presidents and president jennings gave really good talks. then sister jennings gave a talk about love that i really liked. she gave it in english and someone translated for her. i think i liked it the most because i could actually understand it all. she talked about how we need to love our family, friends, and neighbors. i really thought about loving my companion and how i need to love him unconditionally. it's really a hard thing to do but i learned that charity is a gift that we cannot receive on our own. we can receive it by asking through prayer and actions. i know that if we do our best to love others and ask sincerely for help, Heavenly Father will make up the difference and bless us with charity.
this sounds weird and really missionaryish but i really want to challenge all of you to try to have more charity and love in your lives this week. after all, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing.
Love,
Elder Wells
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
yeah last week makes it 5 months in korea and in a week and a half i will have been on this island for 4 months. crazy huh.
well this week went by really fast. i cant believe its already pday. this week was actually a bit better. my companion kinda opened up to me and told me about some of the things that have been bothering him and why things are hard for him. a big part of the problem is that he has a lot of stress and other things he is trying to deal with and when he is frustrated and complaining i take a lot of it personally and think that its a problem with our companionship when it really isnt. so i have tried to understand his point of veiw and not take things personally and its been pretty good. he is still really trunky (lazy because he is going home in 2 weeks) but this week was pretty good.
we are still working with the 26 year old guy named gong dong uun,강동운 (i dont think it translates into english well.) we talked to him about baptism and asked him to think about it. he said he would but he still hasnt found out for himself that the book of Mormon is true so he isnt sure. we have been teaching him for about 2 months now and i understand how frustrating it is when investigators dont keep comittments. we testify of the spiritual witness that comes from reading the book of mormon and praying but he just hasnt faithfully tried it yet.
besides him, we dont have any other investigators yet. we have some potentials though.
Love,
Elder Wells
Monday, March 9, 2009
3 more weeks to go, kinda
3 more weeks to go, kinda
well this week was tough. my companion and i didnt get along very well but thats ok.
some fun things we did this week was have a bon fire for family home evening. the missionaries hold family home evening every monday night at the church for single adults and about 5 members show up. its normally a lot of fun. so we went down to the beach and roasted the closest thing to marshmallows we could find and put them on wheat chocolate crackers. one of the ladies brought potatoes, rolled them up in tin foil and just threw them in the fire. in about a half hour they were baked and tasted pretty good. so that was fun.
today for pday we hiked the big mountain here on jejudo. its called hallasan or mount halla. i heard its the biggest mountain in south korea. i dont know. at the top there is a lake but when we got up there it was frozen. anyway it was a lot of fun because there were a lot of steep snow covered trails that we slid down because they were too slippery to hike.
as far as missionary work goes, our investigator has stopped progressing. his dad threw away his book of mormon and he hasnt talked to us since his grandmother died last weekend. we've been meeting him since january and he hasn't come to church at all so it looks like we might have to drop him. hes 26.
but we did meet a potential investigator this week. hes a 53 year old guy thats really good at english. we met him on the street and when i said hello he was like 'o you are from utah' and i said no, im from california. anyways it was funny how he said it...he knows a little about our church and says that he is looking for happiness. im really excited to teach him and hopefully see his life change.
love
Elder Wells
well this week was tough. my companion and i didnt get along very well but thats ok.
some fun things we did this week was have a bon fire for family home evening. the missionaries hold family home evening every monday night at the church for single adults and about 5 members show up. its normally a lot of fun. so we went down to the beach and roasted the closest thing to marshmallows we could find and put them on wheat chocolate crackers. one of the ladies brought potatoes, rolled them up in tin foil and just threw them in the fire. in about a half hour they were baked and tasted pretty good. so that was fun.
today for pday we hiked the big mountain here on jejudo. its called hallasan or mount halla. i heard its the biggest mountain in south korea. i dont know. at the top there is a lake but when we got up there it was frozen. anyway it was a lot of fun because there were a lot of steep snow covered trails that we slid down because they were too slippery to hike.
as far as missionary work goes, our investigator has stopped progressing. his dad threw away his book of mormon and he hasnt talked to us since his grandmother died last weekend. we've been meeting him since january and he hasn't come to church at all so it looks like we might have to drop him. hes 26.
but we did meet a potential investigator this week. hes a 53 year old guy thats really good at english. we met him on the street and when i said hello he was like 'o you are from utah' and i said no, im from california. anyways it was funny how he said it...he knows a little about our church and says that he is looking for happiness. im really excited to teach him and hopefully see his life change.
love
Elder Wells
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Monday, March 2, 2009
Hello!
well this week was about the same as any other. nothing really amazing happened but things are moving on. one of the highlights of the week was going to a mexican restaraunt. ha i think its probably the only mexican restaraunt in Korea. the food was...interesting. my companion got a fajita (called it a fagoero) and the waiter had to explain to him what to do with the tortilla. it was a very eye opening experience. if you would have told me a year ago that one of my companions isnt going to know what to do with a tortilla i would have laughed. its definately a different world over here. it was also the cleanest mexican restaraunt bathroom i have ever been in, so that was a plus.
i also went to a sweet buffet with some members. i ate raw beef and jellyfish. pretty good.
we got 2 new missionaries on the island last week. they are both American. its great. the one that moved into my house was in the mtc with me. his name is elder Ballam. we have a lot to talk about and its really fun to think about mtc memories.
um as far as missionary work goes, we have one investigator. he is 25and a great guy. he is learning but hasnt read or prayed yet. he also tries to relate everything with science because that is his major in college and asks hard science questions. my companion gets frustrated a lot. i am hoping for the best but i know that it is his decision to accept the gospel or not. we have testified about the Book of Mormon and showed him how he can find out. now all he has to do is try it. i like what Aron (elder Procuniar) said in one of his emails about how Moroni's promise is golden. i know it works. i have done it. i think its one of the biggest things that helps me from not getting discouraged. i know that this gospel is true and that all i can do is invite others to come unto Christ. whether they accept the invitation or not is up to them.
i hope everyone is doing good over there. Jos and tanner, congrats on bringing in extensions to the fam.
Love,
Elder Wells
well this week was about the same as any other. nothing really amazing happened but things are moving on. one of the highlights of the week was going to a mexican restaraunt. ha i think its probably the only mexican restaraunt in Korea. the food was...interesting. my companion got a fajita (called it a fagoero) and the waiter had to explain to him what to do with the tortilla. it was a very eye opening experience. if you would have told me a year ago that one of my companions isnt going to know what to do with a tortilla i would have laughed. its definately a different world over here. it was also the cleanest mexican restaraunt bathroom i have ever been in, so that was a plus.
i also went to a sweet buffet with some members. i ate raw beef and jellyfish. pretty good.
we got 2 new missionaries on the island last week. they are both American. its great. the one that moved into my house was in the mtc with me. his name is elder Ballam. we have a lot to talk about and its really fun to think about mtc memories.
um as far as missionary work goes, we have one investigator. he is 25and a great guy. he is learning but hasnt read or prayed yet. he also tries to relate everything with science because that is his major in college and asks hard science questions. my companion gets frustrated a lot. i am hoping for the best but i know that it is his decision to accept the gospel or not. we have testified about the Book of Mormon and showed him how he can find out. now all he has to do is try it. i like what Aron (elder Procuniar) said in one of his emails about how Moroni's promise is golden. i know it works. i have done it. i think its one of the biggest things that helps me from not getting discouraged. i know that this gospel is true and that all i can do is invite others to come unto Christ. whether they accept the invitation or not is up to them.
i hope everyone is doing good over there. Jos and tanner, congrats on bringing in extensions to the fam.
Love,
Elder Wells
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