This week was a hard one. i found out last monday night that my companion elder kern is going home because he is sick. it wasnt too big of a shock for him because he has had bad stomach problems for a long time but i thought they would keep him here until the end of the transfer. he left yesterday and so now im in a three some with one of my old companions (elder boardman) and a korean elder. should be fun.
yesterday was an interesting day. we had a stake conference but it was a nationwide satellite broadcast straight from the presidency of the church. i got to hear elder Evans of the 70 (a lot of koreans think i look like him), elder holland, and president uchtdorf. Im not sure if they do broadcasts like this for every country but this one was specifically for Korea and focused on some problems members have to deal with here. the main topic was establishing zion in korea because many move to america for schooling and to live which really hurts the church here. my favorite part was elder holland's talk. he talked about the need for korean young men to serve missions. a lot of koreans dont go on missions because they have to serve two years in the military and schooling is really important to them. right now there are 114 korean missionaries around the world. he noted that he understands how hard it is for koreans but that the first presidency expects them to go and if they do they will be blessed. i dont have the exact quote but he said something like 'i promise that if you go on a mission the Lord will provide a way for you to be successful.' the power in his voice was inspirational. i know that what he said is true and that me and my family have been blessed from my service to the Lord.
thats all i have time to say. wish i could tell you more about the meeting though.
-Elder Wells
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Nope No Baptism
ok so this week was kind of a crazy one. the lady i was going to baptize called off her baptism so that was kind of a bummer. she is just having a hard time emotionally right now and needs some time to think. its alright though, im confident that she'll get baptized when she thinks she's ready.
that was the main focus of the week for me. we went to her house and gave her a blessing and stuff so everything should work out. besides that we spent some time with the youth this week on saturday. they had a stake activity with a mini mtc and a street prosyliting activing. it reminded me of when i was a junior in high school and we did the mini mtc in our stake. a little different though. i remember parker speaking in the mtc and saying that he would trade places with any of us high school students just so he could go on a mission again. i couldnt understand why he would ever do that. he was a cool college student on the byu raquet ball team living a fun life and preparing to get married. why would he want to give that up for something as hard as a mission? im still not sure if i fully understand and i might have to go home to realize how much i love this work but i can see what he is talking about. its the small miracles or the new investigator or the loving members that make this work amazing. i am grateful for the opportunity to see God's hand in this work, in my life, and in the lives of the Korean people. theres nothing like it.
Love,
Elder Wells
that was the main focus of the week for me. we went to her house and gave her a blessing and stuff so everything should work out. besides that we spent some time with the youth this week on saturday. they had a stake activity with a mini mtc and a street prosyliting activing. it reminded me of when i was a junior in high school and we did the mini mtc in our stake. a little different though. i remember parker speaking in the mtc and saying that he would trade places with any of us high school students just so he could go on a mission again. i couldnt understand why he would ever do that. he was a cool college student on the byu raquet ball team living a fun life and preparing to get married. why would he want to give that up for something as hard as a mission? im still not sure if i fully understand and i might have to go home to realize how much i love this work but i can see what he is talking about. its the small miracles or the new investigator or the loving members that make this work amazing. i am grateful for the opportunity to see God's hand in this work, in my life, and in the lives of the Korean people. theres nothing like it.
Love,
Elder Wells
Monday, November 9, 2009
Baptism?
I think i talked last week about some investigators that want to be baptized but havent gotten permission from their parents. well one of the kids (golden investigator) talked to his dad and his dad said that he cant get baptized or come to church at all. so that was bad. we're going to keep fasting and praying though. The next kid still hasnt talked to his mom and we havent met him because he has to study...so thats that.
i do have some good news though. the sisters have an american investigator that is getting baptized this next saturday and she asked me to baptize her. i've met her a few times and shes amazing. she has studied the gospel and is really ready to make a covenant with God. i called her on the phone to congratulate her on her decision to get baptized and she bore testimony to me on how amazing the church is. she then said that she would be honored if i baptized her. it was a cool experience to talk to her. i really feel like being able to baptize her has been an answer to my prayers. its hard to explain but this experience has strengthened my testimony of prayer and i know that Heavenly Father answers our prayers one way or another. it truly is amazing.
Love,
Elder Wells
i do have some good news though. the sisters have an american investigator that is getting baptized this next saturday and she asked me to baptize her. i've met her a few times and shes amazing. she has studied the gospel and is really ready to make a covenant with God. i called her on the phone to congratulate her on her decision to get baptized and she bore testimony to me on how amazing the church is. she then said that she would be honored if i baptized her. it was a cool experience to talk to her. i really feel like being able to baptize her has been an answer to my prayers. its hard to explain but this experience has strengthened my testimony of prayer and i know that Heavenly Father answers our prayers one way or another. it truly is amazing.
Love,
Elder Wells
Korean Basketball 2 baptisms?
i found out a few weeks ago that one of my old investigators from jejudo is studying at busan university so i called him up and he came to chong one yesterday to hang out. we got permission to go to a professional korean basketball game. it was way fun. right as we were about to buy tickets some guy came up and gave them to us for free. the game was pretty normal;half the players were korean and the other half were weird foreigners, probably people that didnt make it into the nba but refused to give up their dreams. so the best part was that during one of the time outs the cheerleaders grabbed huge bundles of bananas and started giving them to people in the crowd. i was expecting them to give out t shirts or something but nope, definitely bananas. one of the cheerleaders came to our section gave the bundle of like 20 bananas to my companion. it was hilarious. we also saw our faces on the big jumbo screen and stuff. good times.
This last week we saw a lot of miracles. we have two progressing investigators (miracle) and they both committed to be baptized in a week! (huge miracle). but the problem is that both of them dont think that their parents will let them get baptized. we will probably have to push the baptism date back but if everything goes well this ward will see the first baptism its seen since february. im really excited. one thing i've learned from the first week with my new companion is to not be discouraged. just as doubt is the opposer to faith, ive learned that discouragement is the opposition to hope. im trying to be positive and hope for the best in all things. it has worked so far. have a good week. be positive.
love,
Elder Wells
This last week we saw a lot of miracles. we have two progressing investigators (miracle) and they both committed to be baptized in a week! (huge miracle). but the problem is that both of them dont think that their parents will let them get baptized. we will probably have to push the baptism date back but if everything goes well this ward will see the first baptism its seen since february. im really excited. one thing i've learned from the first week with my new companion is to not be discouraged. just as doubt is the opposer to faith, ive learned that discouragement is the opposition to hope. im trying to be positive and hope for the best in all things. it has worked so far. have a good week. be positive.
love,
Elder Wells
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)