my first week with elder jin was longer than i thought it would be. all of the students here have finals next week so this week we couldnt meet with everyone we wanted to because everyone is studying. we spent a lot of time trying to find people and no one really seemed to want to listen to us. i meet a really weird old foreigner who has lived here for 22 years and is investigating the korean government. hes american but im pretty sure he is just here on his own. he said there is a lot of secret stuff going on in the government and he is determined to "bring them to justice." i dont really know what he was talking about. i think he was kind of crazy.
we got dropped this week by the lady that lives in the really nice apartments. she said that she doesnt have interest in religion and was only meeting with us because she likes foreigners.
the spiritual highlight this week came last night in an appointment with our investigator that we call denmark. he's the one that lived in denmark for 6 years and isnt exactly fluent in korean. so we met him and watched the restoration dvd in danish subtitles. it was the first time i have seen danish and it looked crazy. there were like slashes and accent marks and words like duethcnexz. he really liked the dvd and i think he really understands the need for a restoration. i shared with him one of my favorite scriptures about the restoration and had to explain it in english to him. it went well and i am pretty sure he felt the spirit while we were teaching him.
elder wells.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
New Comp! Octopus
this week flew by, just like all the others. it was the last week of the transfer and yup i got another companion. so this will be my 6th companion in 7 transfers. its a little rare to have this many companions and i would have liked to stay with a few of the companions i have had, including the last one, elder draper.but i guess i kind of like the change.
i havent met my new companion yet but hes korean and his name is jin meen yong or something. i have heard good things about him. another rare thing is that including this next transfer, i will have had more transfers with korean companions than with americans. oh and i dont think ive mentioned this but i have had the same elder from new zealand in my house for the past 5 transfers. we lived on jejudo together and both came here to chong won last transfer. its fun to live with him especially because he speaks a little different than americans. im trying to master all of the new zealand vocabulary he uses. i tell him to teach me new zealandish but he doesnt know what words we say differently, so i try to write down the funny ones when i hear them. i think the best word i've found so far is bisquiting. we were talking about going to the lake and how fun tubing is and he didnt know what we were talking about because they call it bisquiting.
anyway about my week. its getting a lot hotter and more humid here. i have started taking two showers a day because i sweat so much. i cant imagine what the middle of summer is going to be like. miserable probably. our investigators are doing good. we planned on giving our gay investigator to the other team here but since i'll have a korean companion we decided that our team could handle him. i'm not sure how it will all work out. we didnt get to meet with our kid from denmark because he was busy but he is still doing good. we are also meeting with that lady that lives in the richest appartment in the city. we met with her family saturday night and they took us up into the tallest building in the city. its part of the group of appartments that she lives in. it was cool to look out on the city and my companion really enjoyed seeing the whole city from above before he had to leave because this is his greenie area.
this week i accomplished one of my mission goals. in the mtc i heard about how some missionaries eat live octopus here in korea. apparently it is really dangerous because the suckers can stick to your throat and people have died from it. well i got to do it this week. the suckers felt really weird in my mouth and it tasted like rubber but im glad i did it. i tried to attach some pictures so hopefully you get them.
i studied about faith this week and learned about how powerful faith is. in the bible dictionary it talks about how we can heal people and move mountains if we have faith. but more powerful and more important than doing any of these physical miracles with faith is the power that comes from faith in bringing about remission of sins and in the end, salvation. it is through our faith that we choose to repent, through our faith that we accept Christ, and through our faith that we become cleansed from sin. it is a principle of power that is crucial for salvation. i am beginning to understand why it is the first principle of the gospel and why it is so important to help investigators gain faith.
Love,
Elder Wells
i havent met my new companion yet but hes korean and his name is jin meen yong or something. i have heard good things about him. another rare thing is that including this next transfer, i will have had more transfers with korean companions than with americans. oh and i dont think ive mentioned this but i have had the same elder from new zealand in my house for the past 5 transfers. we lived on jejudo together and both came here to chong won last transfer. its fun to live with him especially because he speaks a little different than americans. im trying to master all of the new zealand vocabulary he uses. i tell him to teach me new zealandish but he doesnt know what words we say differently, so i try to write down the funny ones when i hear them. i think the best word i've found so far is bisquiting. we were talking about going to the lake and how fun tubing is and he didnt know what we were talking about because they call it bisquiting.
anyway about my week. its getting a lot hotter and more humid here. i have started taking two showers a day because i sweat so much. i cant imagine what the middle of summer is going to be like. miserable probably. our investigators are doing good. we planned on giving our gay investigator to the other team here but since i'll have a korean companion we decided that our team could handle him. i'm not sure how it will all work out. we didnt get to meet with our kid from denmark because he was busy but he is still doing good. we are also meeting with that lady that lives in the richest appartment in the city. we met with her family saturday night and they took us up into the tallest building in the city. its part of the group of appartments that she lives in. it was cool to look out on the city and my companion really enjoyed seeing the whole city from above before he had to leave because this is his greenie area.
this week i accomplished one of my mission goals. in the mtc i heard about how some missionaries eat live octopus here in korea. apparently it is really dangerous because the suckers can stick to your throat and people have died from it. well i got to do it this week. the suckers felt really weird in my mouth and it tasted like rubber but im glad i did it. i tried to attach some pictures so hopefully you get them.
i studied about faith this week and learned about how powerful faith is. in the bible dictionary it talks about how we can heal people and move mountains if we have faith. but more powerful and more important than doing any of these physical miracles with faith is the power that comes from faith in bringing about remission of sins and in the end, salvation. it is through our faith that we choose to repent, through our faith that we accept Christ, and through our faith that we become cleansed from sin. it is a principle of power that is crucial for salvation. i am beginning to understand why it is the first principle of the gospel and why it is so important to help investigators gain faith.
Love,
Elder Wells
Monday, June 15, 2009
The Police and a polish woman
the police and a polish woman
June 14, 2009
ugh i just typed up a really good long email and i accidentally deleted it so this one will be a little short.
but yeah i met a polish lady this week. i talked to her about poland and told her that my friend is there. she is here because her husband is an engineer here. hes from croatia. i told her that i had a friend in croatia too.
about the police...well i have told you that we have a gay investigator. we didnt meet him this week but we called him on the phone throughout the week to see how he is doing. it is always awkward to call him because he asks weird questions and tries to make us say things that we dont mean. for example he asked me if i wanted to see him. to be honest i dont want to see him and i definately wasnt going to tell a gay person that i want to see them. but if he was a normal investigator i would have been like yeah i totally want to see you. i just told him that i want to meet and talk about the gospel. anyway he said he would come to church but he didnt and instead the police showed up during gospel principles class looking for him. they told us to call him and tell him to come to the church and to not say that the police were there. it was all really sketchy. well he doesnt have a cell phone (probably the only person in korea without one) and his grandma said he wasnt at the house. so the police left and we still dont know if they found our guy or not.
besides the police, this week was a really good week. we had the most lessons in one week that i have ever had on my mission. it was more lessons this last week than i have had in a transfer before. i love the area, work, and my companion.
Love,
Elder Wells
June 14, 2009
ugh i just typed up a really good long email and i accidentally deleted it so this one will be a little short.
but yeah i met a polish lady this week. i talked to her about poland and told her that my friend is there. she is here because her husband is an engineer here. hes from croatia. i told her that i had a friend in croatia too.
about the police...well i have told you that we have a gay investigator. we didnt meet him this week but we called him on the phone throughout the week to see how he is doing. it is always awkward to call him because he asks weird questions and tries to make us say things that we dont mean. for example he asked me if i wanted to see him. to be honest i dont want to see him and i definately wasnt going to tell a gay person that i want to see them. but if he was a normal investigator i would have been like yeah i totally want to see you. i just told him that i want to meet and talk about the gospel. anyway he said he would come to church but he didnt and instead the police showed up during gospel principles class looking for him. they told us to call him and tell him to come to the church and to not say that the police were there. it was all really sketchy. well he doesnt have a cell phone (probably the only person in korea without one) and his grandma said he wasnt at the house. so the police left and we still dont know if they found our guy or not.
besides the police, this week was a really good week. we had the most lessons in one week that i have ever had on my mission. it was more lessons this last week than i have had in a transfer before. i love the area, work, and my companion.
Love,
Elder Wells
Another Good Week
another good week
June 7, 2009
this week was exciting. we met with our potentially homosexual investigator (with some ward members) and taught the law of chastity. it went well and he said he didnt have any problems with what we taught him. he said it would be easy for him to live the law of chastity because he doesnt have interest in girls and doesnt want to get married. i was hoping for him to come out and say he was gay but he didnt and so we just moved on. he still says that we are attractive and acts way different when we arent with members. the weirdest thing he does is call me the word dongshin 당신. its a very complicated word in the korean language. it means 'you' but can either be very very friendly or very very offensive. people either say it to their spouse or a person they want to fight. as missionaries we only use it in prayers to talk to Heavenly Father. it makes things difficult because there really isnt a respectful word for the word you. we have to always address people by their names and titles. so anyway i told some members that he calls me dongshin and they think it is extremely weird. so i asked him straight up why he calls me it and he didnt really have a good answer. we are only going to meet with him with members from now on and hopefully it should change things. i have been trying to work on charity recently.
this week we did a lot of proselyting and met with some investigators. we have english class two nights a week and i have mixed feelings about it. i really dont like teaching english but it is fun because a lot of missionaries come and we get to hang out. i like being around other missionaries because i spent 6 months on jeju with the same 5 missionaries and its nice to see other people for a change. we also had an appointment in the richest appartment building in the city. it was the nicest appartment i have ever been in and was nothing like the rest of korea. the lady we met was really nice and we have a return appointment so hopefully everything will go well. there are also two korean boys from denmark that we are teaching. they were born in korea but lived in denmark for 6 years so they speak danish, english, and korean. its funny to talk to a korean in english that has a danish accent. i love it. they arent very good at korean and don't understand korean scriptures so we are in the process of ordering a danish book of mormon for them. next week we are going to watch the restoration in danish.
my companion elder draper and i are doing great. we get along well and are being blessed for our diligence. we are both very insufficient, especially in the language, but we know our inadequecies and try our best to rely on the Lord. i love this work and am truly finding happiness in it.
Love,
Elder Wells
ps happy birthday carl.
June 7, 2009
this week was exciting. we met with our potentially homosexual investigator (with some ward members) and taught the law of chastity. it went well and he said he didnt have any problems with what we taught him. he said it would be easy for him to live the law of chastity because he doesnt have interest in girls and doesnt want to get married. i was hoping for him to come out and say he was gay but he didnt and so we just moved on. he still says that we are attractive and acts way different when we arent with members. the weirdest thing he does is call me the word dongshin 당신. its a very complicated word in the korean language. it means 'you' but can either be very very friendly or very very offensive. people either say it to their spouse or a person they want to fight. as missionaries we only use it in prayers to talk to Heavenly Father. it makes things difficult because there really isnt a respectful word for the word you. we have to always address people by their names and titles. so anyway i told some members that he calls me dongshin and they think it is extremely weird. so i asked him straight up why he calls me it and he didnt really have a good answer. we are only going to meet with him with members from now on and hopefully it should change things. i have been trying to work on charity recently.
this week we did a lot of proselyting and met with some investigators. we have english class two nights a week and i have mixed feelings about it. i really dont like teaching english but it is fun because a lot of missionaries come and we get to hang out. i like being around other missionaries because i spent 6 months on jeju with the same 5 missionaries and its nice to see other people for a change. we also had an appointment in the richest appartment building in the city. it was the nicest appartment i have ever been in and was nothing like the rest of korea. the lady we met was really nice and we have a return appointment so hopefully everything will go well. there are also two korean boys from denmark that we are teaching. they were born in korea but lived in denmark for 6 years so they speak danish, english, and korean. its funny to talk to a korean in english that has a danish accent. i love it. they arent very good at korean and don't understand korean scriptures so we are in the process of ordering a danish book of mormon for them. next week we are going to watch the restoration in danish.
my companion elder draper and i are doing great. we get along well and are being blessed for our diligence. we are both very insufficient, especially in the language, but we know our inadequecies and try our best to rely on the Lord. i love this work and am truly finding happiness in it.
Love,
Elder Wells
ps happy birthday carl.
Interesting Investigator
May 31, 2009
i dont even know how to start this email so i will just say it. this week we found out that our investigator is gay. if you are wondering how we find out, here is the story.
we always had a suspicion that our 19 year old investigator is gay because he is really femmie and always comments on how attractive we are. so it has kind of become a joke between me and my companion that he is gay and stuff. well this week we got talking to him about our life dreams and i said how i want to graduate college, get married and support a family. since he has never had a family he told us that he doesnt want to get married or anything. so i asked him if he wanted a girlfrend or at least had interest in girls. he said no. thats when things started to get awkward and i knew i had to find out if this kid is gay or not. so very nonchalantly i said you dont have interest in guys...right? and it turns out that he does. well he thinks that guys and girls are the same and theres nothing wrong with liking guys. it kind of freaked me out so i changed the subject and we taught him the plan of salvation. i dont have anymore time but that was our expirience this week. we arent sure what to do with him becuase he still can change and become a member but we dont think we are the ones that could do it. we want to give him to the sister missionaries.
Love,
Elder Wells
ps happy birthday to
dad, grandpa, lace
happy anniversary mom and dad
and shaylee congratulations on getting baptized
i dont even know how to start this email so i will just say it. this week we found out that our investigator is gay. if you are wondering how we find out, here is the story.
we always had a suspicion that our 19 year old investigator is gay because he is really femmie and always comments on how attractive we are. so it has kind of become a joke between me and my companion that he is gay and stuff. well this week we got talking to him about our life dreams and i said how i want to graduate college, get married and support a family. since he has never had a family he told us that he doesnt want to get married or anything. so i asked him if he wanted a girlfrend or at least had interest in girls. he said no. thats when things started to get awkward and i knew i had to find out if this kid is gay or not. so very nonchalantly i said you dont have interest in guys...right? and it turns out that he does. well he thinks that guys and girls are the same and theres nothing wrong with liking guys. it kind of freaked me out so i changed the subject and we taught him the plan of salvation. i dont have anymore time but that was our expirience this week. we arent sure what to do with him becuase he still can change and become a member but we dont think we are the ones that could do it. we want to give him to the sister missionaries.
Love,
Elder Wells
ps happy birthday to
dad, grandpa, lace
happy anniversary mom and dad
and shaylee congratulations on getting baptized
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