a new change

it was another good but crazy week here in pohang. we got transfer phone calls last friday and my korean companion that i've served with for 6 months got transfered to busan. it was sad to see him go. after he got the call i waited for about a half hour to find out who my new companion would be. i was really nervous about my new companion because life was good with elder jin and change isn't always easy. i expected my new companion to call me but instead i got a call from president jennings saying that im training. so yesterday i went down to busan and picked up my new greenie! oh and of course, like most of my companions, he's korean. his name is jo one tay and he's from seoul. its hard to explain but just looking at him makes me laugh. he has no idea whats going on most of the time and has to ask me questions about everything. training him will be really fun.
as for the rest of my week, it was really good. we had a lesson with the daughter of our part member family and it went well. she is reading the book of mormon and said she'd come to church. very exciting.
welp, i have to go. this work is amazing, i know its true and im grateful i can do it.

elder wells

the blessings begin

the new year blessings are already starting to come here in po hong. this week we found a new investigator! its actually the daughter of one of the member families in our branch. the daughters didnt get baptized when she was young because she heard bad things about the church from her flute teacher. she's now 22 and has had no desire to come to church or learn about the gospel even though the rest of the family is active. im not sure whats changed but she has accepted to take the lessons from the missionaries so we started teaching her on saturday. even though her parents are members, she knows little about the church and hasn't shown a lot of desire to learn. her parents said that the fact that she accepted to meet the missionaries is a success in itself. so we taught a lesson about the restoration and stressed the importance of our message. i have faith that this girl will grow as she accepts our commitments and continues to learn.

i also ate lobster this week. its not so good with kimchi..
elder wells

Receive many New Years Blessings

its been a while since i emailed last because my p day changed to thursday. i kind of liked the monday p day schedule but we'll see how thursday goes.
i hope everyone had a good and safe new year. i remember as a teenager going to dances and counting down the seconds until the new year. i thought about waiting up until midnight but i would have had to have done it alone because my companion is korean and they dont do that here. instead they wake up early in the morning and watch the sun rise (its called the welcoming of the sun). the area im in right now is the best place to do it in korea because its the eastern tip and the first to see the sun come up. so we woke up early on new years day and 'welcomed the sun' with the youth in our branch. it was a really cool expirience. koreans look forward to the new year and welcome it with the concept that it will bring blessings to their lives. instead of saying happy new year they say 'receive many new years blessings' to each other. in testimony meeting as well, many members expressed their excitement for the new year by saying that they wonder what kind of blessings heavenly Father will bless their family with this year. i really like the idea of welcoming the new year and seeing it as an opportunity to receive blessings and think positively about the future. it helped me think about my goals for 2010 and ask for Heavenly Fathers help in achieving them. as i reflect on 2009 i can see countless blessings and know that the gospel with bring even more blessings in the year 2010. it is my prayer that as we live the gospel, we'll receive all the blessings Heavenly Father has in store for us.

Elder Wells

a "white Christmas"

This last week was a week full of gratitude, love, and service. we were really busy helping people, especially members, during the christmas season. we also had the opportunity to spend christmas eve with an american family in our branch and thus the title white christmas. no it didnt snow...we ate dinner at their house and then acted out the birth of the Savior while reading Luke 2. it didnt compare with the follow the star performance that our ward does every year but it got me into the christmas spirit. the next day, christmas, i got to talk to the family which was great. we then spent the whole day setting up for a branch christmas party. the branch asked me weeks in advance to be santa claus and of course i accepted. the strange thing was that people continued to ask me and confirm that i would be santa for the party. i was a little confused because i didnt think it was a big deal but i soon figured out why they kept asking me and preventing me from backing out of it.
as santa i made my entrance into the party and was immediately trampled by a stampede of kids. they tried to take me down and steal my beard. luckily with the help of my companion we fought them off and i was able to call out the kids names and give them presents. the kids knew that i was one of the missionaries so it kind of ruined the fun. if i would have known all of this was going to happen i might have turned down the opportunity to be santa...

another highlight of the week was a referral we got from this same american family. they speak korean and actually have quite a few korean friends outside of the church. they invited a family they know over for dinner and had us come to. after introducing us as missionaries of the church we were able to talk to them while eating dinner and actually taught them most of the restoration. it was one of the most solid referrals i have ever gotten. i imagine that this is the most effective way to introduce neighbors and close friends to the church.
the father has a lot of interest in the church so we invited him to come to church next week and he said he would. we are praying that everything will work out and have faith that the Lord will prepare this family for baptism.