August 26, 2009
Sunday we were planning for two baptisms but one fell through because of polygamy in her family so we will have to wait. But the other one went really well and now we are just looking forward to the confirmation. With the way people have been talking it sounds like they are going to split our area his next transfer so my comp and I will probably split and get new ones, who knows though. I have enjoyed being with my companion, he is a cool kid. Its funny because at home I'm sure we wouldn't hang out but coming here has helped me to learn to find common ground with others, so everything is good. He has just been out for 10 months. It is a bit weird with two white people but the work is moving forward. Yesterday was one of the best experiences on my mission. Right now I am in Nairobi and we came here on Monday and had a zone leaders conference on Tuesday and we go back tomorrow. So yesterday we had our conference and I learned a lot and we also had a guest come and speak to us, Elder Holland. He had a lay over here in Nairobi and so he made time to come and see us and speak with us, it was amazing. He is such an amazing speaker and he speaks with so much power. He is an awesome guy, also very funny. He only got to speak with us for about 40 minutes but it felt like only 5, I could have listened forever. I loved to hear his testimony about missionary work and the gospel, it definitely strengthened mine. It was a great opportunity and I don't think I will ever forget that. So that's what has been going on here in Kenya, the work is going great and I am loving it. Time is flying by, I think too fast. I'm scared to come home, maybe I'll stick around a bit longer, ha. Well, I love you all, thank you for your prayers, support, and love. I miss you and hope all is well, take care. Elder Hansen
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Elder Adam Walker:
August 9, 2009
This week was good one. As I said before, we had 4 missionaries in the ward that I am in. The work was going really slow in the other area so they took them out up there and we have now taken over their area. It was kind of funny because yesterday right after President came and picked them up to take them down to Roanoke, their new area, we got a member referral, a member here wanted us to go and teach her friend. We did that last night and we had an awesome lesson with her. She is a 20 year old girl, and is confused about a ton of stuff, and she really enjoyed the lesson. She is taking care of her aunt who is pretty much dying along with working at a raft guide shop here in West Virginia and she is starting school this month. She has a ton on her plate but she knows its what she has to do, pretty impressive to me. I believe she will get baptized pretty quick, I hope next time that we see her, we will be able to set a date with her.
We had interviews yesterday and they went really well. President wants to move me to a new area, but at the same time he doesn't know if Elder Rivera can handle taking Oak Hills area by himself with someone else right now, so we will just have to see what happens. He just puts me in a dead area every time, then me and my companion get it going again, then he takes me out. It's fun stuff. We will just have to see, in 2 weeks we will know what is going on for transfers, I have no clue what will happen. Yesterday we were tracting an apartment complex and we knocked on this family's door, and they are all from England, they have very thick accents, it was awesome and we talked to the husband for a while and he has been interested in learning what our church is about for the last few months since he and his family have been here in America and just didn't know how to. The spirit has been prompting me to go and tract out that apartment complex that we found them in but, of course, I hate apartments so I just put it to the side. Then finally yesterday I put away my pride and just went and did it and we found a whole bunch of people to teach. We knocked on 24 doors, taught 3 lessons, and got 5 follow ups. And it is a big apartment complex so we still have a lot to do there. We'll just have to see, I am definitely willing to go back now, haha. Over all it has been a great week. We have a busy week planned for this next week, so I think it will be a good one and it is going to go fast. Love you all, Elder Walker
August 16, 2009
The leaves are already starting to turn here, fall is right around the corner, we have to sweep our porch off every other day or so because of the leaves. So it will be no time and this place will be on fire.
This week we found a family of 7 (each of them over 8) and we even found them tracting! We had an awesome lesson with them this past Saturday, and we will be meeting with them again tonight. We are hoping to get some baptism dates set soon but will just have to see. We also have this other person named Willy Willis, he is an alcoholic and he has tapered himself down little by little and his goal is to be 100 percent sober by this next Sunday so that he can feel comfortable in church, he wants his son to come as well. We have so much going on right now its ridiculous. I just hope we can see some baptisms come from it all. We'll just have to hope and pray for the best. The work is going really, really well here. Transfers are next week so I will probably leave. It seems to always work that way, I get put in an area that is really slow and when we get it going again, I can just plan on saying goodbye. We'll see though, maybe I'll stay one more transfer. I like this area but at the same time I'm ready for a change. We'll just have to see. I will know next Tuesday. Over all things are great. Love you all, Elder Walker
This week was good one. As I said before, we had 4 missionaries in the ward that I am in. The work was going really slow in the other area so they took them out up there and we have now taken over their area. It was kind of funny because yesterday right after President came and picked them up to take them down to Roanoke, their new area, we got a member referral, a member here wanted us to go and teach her friend. We did that last night and we had an awesome lesson with her. She is a 20 year old girl, and is confused about a ton of stuff, and she really enjoyed the lesson. She is taking care of her aunt who is pretty much dying along with working at a raft guide shop here in West Virginia and she is starting school this month. She has a ton on her plate but she knows its what she has to do, pretty impressive to me. I believe she will get baptized pretty quick, I hope next time that we see her, we will be able to set a date with her.
We had interviews yesterday and they went really well. President wants to move me to a new area, but at the same time he doesn't know if Elder Rivera can handle taking Oak Hills area by himself with someone else right now, so we will just have to see what happens. He just puts me in a dead area every time, then me and my companion get it going again, then he takes me out. It's fun stuff. We will just have to see, in 2 weeks we will know what is going on for transfers, I have no clue what will happen. Yesterday we were tracting an apartment complex and we knocked on this family's door, and they are all from England, they have very thick accents, it was awesome and we talked to the husband for a while and he has been interested in learning what our church is about for the last few months since he and his family have been here in America and just didn't know how to. The spirit has been prompting me to go and tract out that apartment complex that we found them in but, of course, I hate apartments so I just put it to the side. Then finally yesterday I put away my pride and just went and did it and we found a whole bunch of people to teach. We knocked on 24 doors, taught 3 lessons, and got 5 follow ups. And it is a big apartment complex so we still have a lot to do there. We'll just have to see, I am definitely willing to go back now, haha. Over all it has been a great week. We have a busy week planned for this next week, so I think it will be a good one and it is going to go fast. Love you all, Elder Walker
August 16, 2009
The leaves are already starting to turn here, fall is right around the corner, we have to sweep our porch off every other day or so because of the leaves. So it will be no time and this place will be on fire.
This week we found a family of 7 (each of them over 8) and we even found them tracting! We had an awesome lesson with them this past Saturday, and we will be meeting with them again tonight. We are hoping to get some baptism dates set soon but will just have to see. We also have this other person named Willy Willis, he is an alcoholic and he has tapered himself down little by little and his goal is to be 100 percent sober by this next Sunday so that he can feel comfortable in church, he wants his son to come as well. We have so much going on right now its ridiculous. I just hope we can see some baptisms come from it all. We'll just have to hope and pray for the best. The work is going really, really well here. Transfers are next week so I will probably leave. It seems to always work that way, I get put in an area that is really slow and when we get it going again, I can just plan on saying goodbye. We'll see though, maybe I'll stay one more transfer. I like this area but at the same time I'm ready for a change. We'll just have to see. I will know next Tuesday. Over all things are great. Love you all, Elder Walker
Monday, August 17, 2009
Elder Andrew Peña:
August 3, 2009
To start off the week and how it was! I only remember yesterday which was the greatest day I have had in a long time! It meant everything to me. It seemed as if everything went perfect and the joy and peace that we felt all day was amazing! It was even a long day but it was great! Monday we had our zone activity in Oakdale and played basketball, ate lunch, made t shirts and played volleyball and threw water balloons! It was great! Probably one of the funnest activities I have done on my mission! Or I should say probably the first activity other than basketball haha! We are going to the family home evenings in our branch now every Monday and it was great. We meet with the high counselor over missionary work every Monday and he is awesome. Tuesday we had alot of appointments and we went on splits. Elder Beach went with brother Layne in Salida and I stayed in Modesto with our ward missionary in the 1st ward and we had a couple of appointments. Then we had a family home evening with a less active family that is coming back to church that we are trying to help direct family home evenings! I loved it! Wednesday we had district meetings. They were good. Thursday was ok and Friday we planned alot and we went on our exchange with the assistants and I guess this is where another week turned into something great! I went with my old companion Elder Simmon to Fresno on an exchange. We drove there Friday night and went all Saturday. We had appointments every hour and it was amazing. Most of them fell through but I learned so much more about how to be a missionary so it was great! I repented and had to change the way I do things and the Spirit was able to help me see where I can improve and how better to change my life and my mission! On our exchanges we always have interviews and set goals! The week went by really fast because we had to get all the information for our stake correlation meeting and it was a bummer because we received all the information and when I was in Fresno my companion had to make copies ( about 6 packets ) of all the papers and when I got back on Saturday night at about 10:15 I noticed only one side of the papers were copied so we were missing a bit of information. So we discussed about what we were going to do to still have an effective meeting. So we went to bed at 10:30 so we could be obedient because obedience brings the blessings that the Lord wants to give to us and if we aren't we don't receive them! We woke up at 4:30 got ready and at about 5:45 started highlighting and talking about the things we needed to go over in our meeting. Our meeting started at 7:30 and it took from 5:45 till 7 to prepare and highlight and finish all the stuff! But our meeting went great! We were able to have an effective meeting. We then went to sacrament and then after that we had to teach a class which was really good. Then we split to go to both our wards. I went to elders quorum and was able to see a less active member that came back get set apart to be in the elders quorum presidency and we ran into a member, brother Tautua who is less active and we visited him this week and he came to church and it was amazing to hear everyones testimonies. I learned in Doctrine in Covenants about the priesthood and how fulfilling our callings and responsibilities gives us a " renewing of our bodies " and that is exactly what is seemed like happened. We had church till 5:15 and had break the fast with the branch and went out with a ysa and had an appointment with this lady named Margy and it was the lesson that changed my life! It was amazing! The spirit that was felt and the lesson that was shared were amazing! I have a renewed testimony of the restoration of the gospel! I love it all! Yes there may be days that are harder than others but there is no reason to complain! The savior sacrificed his life and has felt more pains than imaginable and yet I may have a bad day in the hot weather! Or because no one wants to listen to me! Or the gospel! Well I'm being selfish and you can just call me Laman or Lemuel. All I know is that the savior went through all of that for me so I don't need to complain! I just need to be obedient and experience the blessings! I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!:) Elder Peña
August 12, 2009
This week was great again! Nothing was too exciting! We just worked a lot and were able to bike a lot in the hot weather and we went on an exchange with Elder Woods from Missouri and my companion went with Elder Fatu ( my trainer ) and now one of our district leaders! It was fun. We had a lot of fun biking and I was able to get to know Elder Woods a lot better! Other than that this week was great! We had a couple of good lessons and things. We finally had 2 investigators at church! One who finally came is moving to Missouri and she left right after sacrament, then another came and I was able to sit with him through all of church in all the classes. He is a great guy! In fact, Ace Merril knows a girl here named Sarah Whitmeyer. It is Sarah's uncle who we are teaching! So, its a small world! :) He is the nicest guy and has taken the lessons before. He has, I guess, a really bad word of wisdom problem but really has a desire to make changes in his life! Other than that I forgot to mention a while back that our ward mission leader in the Modesto 1st ward is an old stake president and is one of the most humble men I've ever met and am so blessed to serve with him! He is absolutely amazing. I really hope to see him again! You would think that he is a general authority. He is great! Other than that it was great to have two of our investigators at church! Well, transfer calls came and I will be going down to Turlock 4th ward still to be a zone leader. It is the biggest zone in the mission and the zone covers my second area " Hughson " and my old companion Elder Fifita is serving there so it will be good to see some old faces. I've never served in Turlock. The only times I have been there are for zone conferences! So I will be going to see new faces and a new area! I'm very excited! I will be covering one ward instead of three! My heart sank I was so relieved! It will be great because we have three district leaders instead of two! I'm super excited and can't wait! I will be leaving on Wednesday morning! So I will let you know how much I love my next area! It is a great honor and blessing to be able to serve and I'm glad I am blessed to be out here, it is good to hear the blessings that come from being obedient and the love that our Heavenly Father has for all of us! I love you all and hope everything is going well! This week we will also be heading down to Fresno for zone council which is always an amazing meeting! I love it! Before you know it I will be letting you know all about the next transfer and who I'm serving with and all the great people I am able to meet in Turlock! I hope you all miss me tons cause I know you do!:) Love you and miss you all too! Thank you all for the emails and the updates! Take care and have a wonderful week!
Elder Peña
To start off the week and how it was! I only remember yesterday which was the greatest day I have had in a long time! It meant everything to me. It seemed as if everything went perfect and the joy and peace that we felt all day was amazing! It was even a long day but it was great! Monday we had our zone activity in Oakdale and played basketball, ate lunch, made t shirts and played volleyball and threw water balloons! It was great! Probably one of the funnest activities I have done on my mission! Or I should say probably the first activity other than basketball haha! We are going to the family home evenings in our branch now every Monday and it was great. We meet with the high counselor over missionary work every Monday and he is awesome. Tuesday we had alot of appointments and we went on splits. Elder Beach went with brother Layne in Salida and I stayed in Modesto with our ward missionary in the 1st ward and we had a couple of appointments. Then we had a family home evening with a less active family that is coming back to church that we are trying to help direct family home evenings! I loved it! Wednesday we had district meetings. They were good. Thursday was ok and Friday we planned alot and we went on our exchange with the assistants and I guess this is where another week turned into something great! I went with my old companion Elder Simmon to Fresno on an exchange. We drove there Friday night and went all Saturday. We had appointments every hour and it was amazing. Most of them fell through but I learned so much more about how to be a missionary so it was great! I repented and had to change the way I do things and the Spirit was able to help me see where I can improve and how better to change my life and my mission! On our exchanges we always have interviews and set goals! The week went by really fast because we had to get all the information for our stake correlation meeting and it was a bummer because we received all the information and when I was in Fresno my companion had to make copies ( about 6 packets ) of all the papers and when I got back on Saturday night at about 10:15 I noticed only one side of the papers were copied so we were missing a bit of information. So we discussed about what we were going to do to still have an effective meeting. So we went to bed at 10:30 so we could be obedient because obedience brings the blessings that the Lord wants to give to us and if we aren't we don't receive them! We woke up at 4:30 got ready and at about 5:45 started highlighting and talking about the things we needed to go over in our meeting. Our meeting started at 7:30 and it took from 5:45 till 7 to prepare and highlight and finish all the stuff! But our meeting went great! We were able to have an effective meeting. We then went to sacrament and then after that we had to teach a class which was really good. Then we split to go to both our wards. I went to elders quorum and was able to see a less active member that came back get set apart to be in the elders quorum presidency and we ran into a member, brother Tautua who is less active and we visited him this week and he came to church and it was amazing to hear everyones testimonies. I learned in Doctrine in Covenants about the priesthood and how fulfilling our callings and responsibilities gives us a " renewing of our bodies " and that is exactly what is seemed like happened. We had church till 5:15 and had break the fast with the branch and went out with a ysa and had an appointment with this lady named Margy and it was the lesson that changed my life! It was amazing! The spirit that was felt and the lesson that was shared were amazing! I have a renewed testimony of the restoration of the gospel! I love it all! Yes there may be days that are harder than others but there is no reason to complain! The savior sacrificed his life and has felt more pains than imaginable and yet I may have a bad day in the hot weather! Or because no one wants to listen to me! Or the gospel! Well I'm being selfish and you can just call me Laman or Lemuel. All I know is that the savior went through all of that for me so I don't need to complain! I just need to be obedient and experience the blessings! I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!:) Elder Peña
August 12, 2009
This week was great again! Nothing was too exciting! We just worked a lot and were able to bike a lot in the hot weather and we went on an exchange with Elder Woods from Missouri and my companion went with Elder Fatu ( my trainer ) and now one of our district leaders! It was fun. We had a lot of fun biking and I was able to get to know Elder Woods a lot better! Other than that this week was great! We had a couple of good lessons and things. We finally had 2 investigators at church! One who finally came is moving to Missouri and she left right after sacrament, then another came and I was able to sit with him through all of church in all the classes. He is a great guy! In fact, Ace Merril knows a girl here named Sarah Whitmeyer. It is Sarah's uncle who we are teaching! So, its a small world! :) He is the nicest guy and has taken the lessons before. He has, I guess, a really bad word of wisdom problem but really has a desire to make changes in his life! Other than that I forgot to mention a while back that our ward mission leader in the Modesto 1st ward is an old stake president and is one of the most humble men I've ever met and am so blessed to serve with him! He is absolutely amazing. I really hope to see him again! You would think that he is a general authority. He is great! Other than that it was great to have two of our investigators at church! Well, transfer calls came and I will be going down to Turlock 4th ward still to be a zone leader. It is the biggest zone in the mission and the zone covers my second area " Hughson " and my old companion Elder Fifita is serving there so it will be good to see some old faces. I've never served in Turlock. The only times I have been there are for zone conferences! So I will be going to see new faces and a new area! I'm very excited! I will be covering one ward instead of three! My heart sank I was so relieved! It will be great because we have three district leaders instead of two! I'm super excited and can't wait! I will be leaving on Wednesday morning! So I will let you know how much I love my next area! It is a great honor and blessing to be able to serve and I'm glad I am blessed to be out here, it is good to hear the blessings that come from being obedient and the love that our Heavenly Father has for all of us! I love you all and hope everything is going well! This week we will also be heading down to Fresno for zone council which is always an amazing meeting! I love it! Before you know it I will be letting you know all about the next transfer and who I'm serving with and all the great people I am able to meet in Turlock! I hope you all miss me tons cause I know you do!:) Love you and miss you all too! Thank you all for the emails and the updates! Take care and have a wonderful week!
Elder Peña
Elder Brantley Shattuck:
Just to give you an update of what is happening on my mission. We have been teaching this member referral named Mark Lafebre, who is the national champion in tae-kwan-do, and have been meeting with him on and off for the past 2 months. Anyways, in our last appointment we had invited him to be baptised on the 5th of Sept and he just looked at me and said why that day, I was going to ask if I could be baptised this weekend, it blew me out of the water!!! It was super exciting, however he hasn't been following the word of wisdom which presented a problem, so we called up Pres. Albright and he came down and I was able to go and teach Mark again last night while Elder Bell went out with a member of the congregation to teach our other investigators, anyways, Pres. interviewed him for baptism and he got the go ahead, he is going to be baptised this weekend. It was a pretty amazing the way his conversion came about, the only doctrine he had a hard time accepting was the three kingdoms, and he had been praying about it for three days straight, constantly just thinking about it and asking God if it was true. Well, through that he fell asleep and continued to have dream after dream showing him many churches out there in the world and how they were not leading people on God's pathway.... he woke up and now knows that it is true.... so that was neat.
We also have another baptism coming up the week after with a woman named Gina Dickelman, who is a single mom with a little 4 year old daughter named Lucy. We tracted into her right after her fiancée had just left her and she was in the Gall of Bitterness as the scriptures would describe it... anyways, she has embraced the gospel with open arms and is doing very well. Elder Shattuck
We also have another baptism coming up the week after with a woman named Gina Dickelman, who is a single mom with a little 4 year old daughter named Lucy. We tracted into her right after her fiancée had just left her and she was in the Gall of Bitterness as the scriptures would describe it... anyways, she has embraced the gospel with open arms and is doing very well. Elder Shattuck
Elder Scott Snell:
July 20, 2009
This week after a flash flood here in Gimhae it is still cloudy and they are still sweeping up the dirt from all of the mud slides off of the hill. We woke up Thursday morning to the wind howling and the buckets pouring. It was the worst one I have seen since I came to Korea. Our investigator didn't drink coffee for a whole day. It was really cool. We weren't even planning to teach her the Word of Wisdom but she asked us why we don't drink coffee so we taught her and tried to commit her to a week but she said that it would be really hard so we started with a day. She made it and we are going to work on longer this week. It is really cool, our other investigator, we taught the Plan of Salvation to and she really liked the part about teaching people in the spirit world, so we brought up the part about doing family history in our church and it lit a fire underneath her. They are both doing really well, we have some other investigators and we are going to start meeting with a new family that I am really pumped for. I really don't want to transfer out of here.
Today we are headed up to an ancient ruins on a hill above our area and took some cool pictures. It is over cast so it is not too hot.
Elder Snell
July 26, 2009
Kim Teh Jaw (김태자)is a really cool investigator and she is really progressing. She sent her son to church yesterday. She would have come but she had to work on Sunday. Her son had a lot of fun and our young men were really nice to him. He had a little trouble enjoying sacrament but he is only 13 so that is understandable. I give the kid props for even coming. He is also going to a youth camp that they are having this weekend so that is awesome. We also had two other investigators out to church so yesterday was a really good day for all of us her in Gimhae. One is Mr Lee, he is a lot of fun, he is an older man who has a little trouble with the Word a Wisdom. The Branch President pulled him in to his office and talked to him about it. I think that it will really help him. That is the only thing keeping him from getting baptized. Also our other investigator, Pak ha na (박한나) came which almost blew me out of the water. She really loves God but doesn't always agree with her Pastor. She is also doing really well. We are meeting with a new family and the mom of a member who is waiting for his mission call. We have been teaching him out of Preach My Gospel. Its been like our own little mission prep thing. Anyway, after weeks of practicing we are going to teach his mom the Plan of Salvation. I really love the Plan of Salvation and the blessings it brings us in our lives. I thank God that we have a knowledge of this wonderful plan. I really hope that she likes it, pray for us. As you can see, the work is taking off here in Korea and I love it. I really don't want to leave Gimhae. This Friday I will find out if I am leaving or staying and whether I get a new companion or not. Elder Sprosty really has been a good comp and a lot of fun. We actually didn't have our first fight until this morning, it was over a Board Game called Settlers of Zarahemla. After the game we both realized that it was our first fight and we had a good laugh about it. It has been a lot of fun. Last week we had an interesting experience that I forgot to tell you about, we were street contacting and we ran into a pastor that was doing the same thing as us and we sat down and had a talk with him. It was really awesome. We talked for like an hour. He first started showing us pictures of the second coming (he even had a copy of ours) then he said that God is judging people right now and we were a little confused so we started talking about the tsunami that hit a couple years ago and killed thousands of people. He said that all of the people were horrible, horrible people that were smoking, drinking, fornicating, and just plain out sinning. The tsunami was God judging them just like when he sent the flood in the time of Noah or when he allowed Jerusalem to be destroyed. Then he got on the topic of the Jews and he said the Jews are the worst people in the world. We asked him why he says that, he showed us 1 John 2:22. He said that Christ said the Jews are the worst people in the world. We were a little confused because it doesn't say that in 1 John 2:22. Then he asked us what we have to do in order to obtain salvation. We told him the basics. Faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end which includes keeping the commandments. Then he asked us what the commandments are. We started naming a few and he stopped us and said, No there are only two commandments and he quoted when Christ said that you need to love God and love your neighbor. We said yes those are commandments but if you look closely Christ was asked which of the commandments are the most important and he answered with those two. He said yes you're right and then we started mentioning when Christ said other things like honor your parents and forgive others and he kept agreeing with us. Then he went on a rampage screaming FORGIVE, FORGIVE, FORGIVE, FORGIVE, FORGIVE. Then we asked him if calling the Jews the worst people in the world because the ones that were alive when Christ was killed denied Christ and took part in his crucifixion was forgiving others. He kinda stopped and looked at us and I think he was really thrown back by that statement and we were able to teach a little to him but we had to go cuz it was almost nine so I tried to get his phone number so we could meet him later and he was like just come to my church. So I asked him what church, now this was after I had already tried to ask him about three times during our conversation and he would just say it was a church and that it wasn't the Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterian, Catholic or any of those churches but wouldn't tell me the name. I was starting to wonder if this dude went to our Church, but he wouldn't ever tell me just kind of awkwardly changed the subject by banting on about something else. Well, we had to leave and I finally got his number and said we'd come to his church and we could meet. So I asked him where it was and what name and he said it didn't have a name yet, that he had just made it..... Uh yeah. I couldn't stop laughing after we left cause the whole thing was absolutely ridiculous. I thought it would be a lot harder to stump a Pastor but this guy was pretty easy. We are still trying to find a time where we can both meet.
Aug 9, 2009
I went to another religion church yesterday and it was a really cool experience. We have an investigator who is Presbyterian and she has come to church the last three weeks but she still goes to her church so just jokingly she invited us to her church. I don't think she really thought we would come. But I have always wanted to go to another church just to see. So we waited for her in front of her church and I thought she was going to fall off her bike. It was pretty funny. We walked in with her and one of the Elders of her church read my comps name tag and was like wait are these Mormons? We told him yes and he was like I am sorry they cant go in. Our investigator asked why it was a free entrance thing and apparently everyone was welcome why not us. He went off about what our real purpose was and how we come to steal there kids and take them to our church. Needless to say my comp and I didn't like the fact that this guy was bashing us right in front of our faces so Elder Sprosty started talking. I had to calm him down and our investigator explained how she just wanted to show us how they worshiped. He finally let us in and he told us we were not allowed to proselyte or talk to anyone. We smiled told him thank you and went in. While we were walking up the stairs we heard him say to someone, they understood what I was saying. I think he felt like an idiot. Man it was completely different. When we came the whole congregation was standing with there hands in the air sing. It was just like something out of a movie. They were clapping and singing shouting amen and hallelujah. It was really quite entertaining to watch it all. I quite interesting. Then the Pastor got up and talked about temptation and how if when we fast if we are hungry it is really not fasting. That when Jesus fasted for 40 days he wasn't hungry. It was a little off but not too bad of a sermon. When we ended all of the church elders got these bags and went around and picked up the Pastors pay check (tithing). As we were walking out one of the ladies asked our investigator where we were from and she gave her the hand and told her she would talk to her later, that she had to send us off well. It was really quite funny. She apologized for the way her church members acted and after we left she said she went and rip on them for ten minutes for how they acted. Then she came to our church. It was quite the experience.
Other then that and three investigators out to church it was just a lot of meetings this week. The first week in the transfer is always full of meetings for Zone Leaders. It is fun but it wears on you. I am really tired today. We decided to have a lazy Pday and stay home.
I love you all and miss you. Elder Snell
August 17, 2009
Today we climbed up the mountain and we ran around on a wall and came back down. It was a beautiful view of Gimhae. It is a lot of apartments and not much else but it is still beautiful. As we were hiking up the hill and we were able to get out of the city for a little bit I felt like I was back at home. The smell and the cool breeze. Minus the bamboo trees, humidity, and the Buddhist temple at the top it would have been home. I really have grown to love Korea and the scenery almost as much as the people. This week we had English class and met some really cool people. Nothing extremely exciting but just normal missionary work stuff. We got ready for the surprise party that we will be throwing for our mission President. He will be turning the big 60 (six o). He really doesn't look it or act it most of the time. He is a hoot. He has been a really great Mission President.
I am on splits now with Elder Tanner. He is a greeny from Eagle, Idaho. He is a fellow spud and this is his first split. I feel honored almost. Oh did I tell you that I got Acupuncture? Our investigator said she wanted to meet us some where and to bring our bikes. Well we did and she ended up taking us to an Asian style Doctor. It was a lot of fun and a good experience. It wasn't the back covered in needles thing you see on the TV but just a couple. The Doctor thinks I have kidney problems and now my investigator is worried about me. I think I am fine but she wants me to go in three times a week and get treated. Yeah like I have time for that. I told my mission president about it and he said not to worry about it. Our investigator was a little disappointed that I wouldn't do it.
This week after a flash flood here in Gimhae it is still cloudy and they are still sweeping up the dirt from all of the mud slides off of the hill. We woke up Thursday morning to the wind howling and the buckets pouring. It was the worst one I have seen since I came to Korea. Our investigator didn't drink coffee for a whole day. It was really cool. We weren't even planning to teach her the Word of Wisdom but she asked us why we don't drink coffee so we taught her and tried to commit her to a week but she said that it would be really hard so we started with a day. She made it and we are going to work on longer this week. It is really cool, our other investigator, we taught the Plan of Salvation to and she really liked the part about teaching people in the spirit world, so we brought up the part about doing family history in our church and it lit a fire underneath her. They are both doing really well, we have some other investigators and we are going to start meeting with a new family that I am really pumped for. I really don't want to transfer out of here.
Today we are headed up to an ancient ruins on a hill above our area and took some cool pictures. It is over cast so it is not too hot.
Elder Snell
July 26, 2009
Kim Teh Jaw (김태자)is a really cool investigator and she is really progressing. She sent her son to church yesterday. She would have come but she had to work on Sunday. Her son had a lot of fun and our young men were really nice to him. He had a little trouble enjoying sacrament but he is only 13 so that is understandable. I give the kid props for even coming. He is also going to a youth camp that they are having this weekend so that is awesome. We also had two other investigators out to church so yesterday was a really good day for all of us her in Gimhae. One is Mr Lee, he is a lot of fun, he is an older man who has a little trouble with the Word a Wisdom. The Branch President pulled him in to his office and talked to him about it. I think that it will really help him. That is the only thing keeping him from getting baptized. Also our other investigator, Pak ha na (박한나) came which almost blew me out of the water. She really loves God but doesn't always agree with her Pastor. She is also doing really well. We are meeting with a new family and the mom of a member who is waiting for his mission call. We have been teaching him out of Preach My Gospel. Its been like our own little mission prep thing. Anyway, after weeks of practicing we are going to teach his mom the Plan of Salvation. I really love the Plan of Salvation and the blessings it brings us in our lives. I thank God that we have a knowledge of this wonderful plan. I really hope that she likes it, pray for us. As you can see, the work is taking off here in Korea and I love it. I really don't want to leave Gimhae. This Friday I will find out if I am leaving or staying and whether I get a new companion or not. Elder Sprosty really has been a good comp and a lot of fun. We actually didn't have our first fight until this morning, it was over a Board Game called Settlers of Zarahemla. After the game we both realized that it was our first fight and we had a good laugh about it. It has been a lot of fun. Last week we had an interesting experience that I forgot to tell you about, we were street contacting and we ran into a pastor that was doing the same thing as us and we sat down and had a talk with him. It was really awesome. We talked for like an hour. He first started showing us pictures of the second coming (he even had a copy of ours) then he said that God is judging people right now and we were a little confused so we started talking about the tsunami that hit a couple years ago and killed thousands of people. He said that all of the people were horrible, horrible people that were smoking, drinking, fornicating, and just plain out sinning. The tsunami was God judging them just like when he sent the flood in the time of Noah or when he allowed Jerusalem to be destroyed. Then he got on the topic of the Jews and he said the Jews are the worst people in the world. We asked him why he says that, he showed us 1 John 2:22. He said that Christ said the Jews are the worst people in the world. We were a little confused because it doesn't say that in 1 John 2:22. Then he asked us what we have to do in order to obtain salvation. We told him the basics. Faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end which includes keeping the commandments. Then he asked us what the commandments are. We started naming a few and he stopped us and said, No there are only two commandments and he quoted when Christ said that you need to love God and love your neighbor. We said yes those are commandments but if you look closely Christ was asked which of the commandments are the most important and he answered with those two. He said yes you're right and then we started mentioning when Christ said other things like honor your parents and forgive others and he kept agreeing with us. Then he went on a rampage screaming FORGIVE, FORGIVE, FORGIVE, FORGIVE, FORGIVE. Then we asked him if calling the Jews the worst people in the world because the ones that were alive when Christ was killed denied Christ and took part in his crucifixion was forgiving others. He kinda stopped and looked at us and I think he was really thrown back by that statement and we were able to teach a little to him but we had to go cuz it was almost nine so I tried to get his phone number so we could meet him later and he was like just come to my church. So I asked him what church, now this was after I had already tried to ask him about three times during our conversation and he would just say it was a church and that it wasn't the Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterian, Catholic or any of those churches but wouldn't tell me the name. I was starting to wonder if this dude went to our Church, but he wouldn't ever tell me just kind of awkwardly changed the subject by banting on about something else. Well, we had to leave and I finally got his number and said we'd come to his church and we could meet. So I asked him where it was and what name and he said it didn't have a name yet, that he had just made it..... Uh yeah. I couldn't stop laughing after we left cause the whole thing was absolutely ridiculous. I thought it would be a lot harder to stump a Pastor but this guy was pretty easy. We are still trying to find a time where we can both meet.
Aug 9, 2009
I went to another religion church yesterday and it was a really cool experience. We have an investigator who is Presbyterian and she has come to church the last three weeks but she still goes to her church so just jokingly she invited us to her church. I don't think she really thought we would come. But I have always wanted to go to another church just to see. So we waited for her in front of her church and I thought she was going to fall off her bike. It was pretty funny. We walked in with her and one of the Elders of her church read my comps name tag and was like wait are these Mormons? We told him yes and he was like I am sorry they cant go in. Our investigator asked why it was a free entrance thing and apparently everyone was welcome why not us. He went off about what our real purpose was and how we come to steal there kids and take them to our church. Needless to say my comp and I didn't like the fact that this guy was bashing us right in front of our faces so Elder Sprosty started talking. I had to calm him down and our investigator explained how she just wanted to show us how they worshiped. He finally let us in and he told us we were not allowed to proselyte or talk to anyone. We smiled told him thank you and went in. While we were walking up the stairs we heard him say to someone, they understood what I was saying. I think he felt like an idiot. Man it was completely different. When we came the whole congregation was standing with there hands in the air sing. It was just like something out of a movie. They were clapping and singing shouting amen and hallelujah. It was really quite entertaining to watch it all. I quite interesting. Then the Pastor got up and talked about temptation and how if when we fast if we are hungry it is really not fasting. That when Jesus fasted for 40 days he wasn't hungry. It was a little off but not too bad of a sermon. When we ended all of the church elders got these bags and went around and picked up the Pastors pay check (tithing). As we were walking out one of the ladies asked our investigator where we were from and she gave her the hand and told her she would talk to her later, that she had to send us off well. It was really quite funny. She apologized for the way her church members acted and after we left she said she went and rip on them for ten minutes for how they acted. Then she came to our church. It was quite the experience.
Other then that and three investigators out to church it was just a lot of meetings this week. The first week in the transfer is always full of meetings for Zone Leaders. It is fun but it wears on you. I am really tired today. We decided to have a lazy Pday and stay home.
I love you all and miss you. Elder Snell
August 17, 2009
Today we climbed up the mountain and we ran around on a wall and came back down. It was a beautiful view of Gimhae. It is a lot of apartments and not much else but it is still beautiful. As we were hiking up the hill and we were able to get out of the city for a little bit I felt like I was back at home. The smell and the cool breeze. Minus the bamboo trees, humidity, and the Buddhist temple at the top it would have been home. I really have grown to love Korea and the scenery almost as much as the people. This week we had English class and met some really cool people. Nothing extremely exciting but just normal missionary work stuff. We got ready for the surprise party that we will be throwing for our mission President. He will be turning the big 60 (six o). He really doesn't look it or act it most of the time. He is a hoot. He has been a really great Mission President.
I am on splits now with Elder Tanner. He is a greeny from Eagle, Idaho. He is a fellow spud and this is his first split. I feel honored almost. Oh did I tell you that I got Acupuncture? Our investigator said she wanted to meet us some where and to bring our bikes. Well we did and she ended up taking us to an Asian style Doctor. It was a lot of fun and a good experience. It wasn't the back covered in needles thing you see on the TV but just a couple. The Doctor thinks I have kidney problems and now my investigator is worried about me. I think I am fine but she wants me to go in three times a week and get treated. Yeah like I have time for that. I told my mission president about it and he said not to worry about it. Our investigator was a little disappointed that I wouldn't do it.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Elder Matt Hansen:
So we just had transfers this past week and I am still here in Mombasa, and I am happy to be here. I am really loving the area and also the people here, they are awesome. The work is going really well. However, I did get a new companion and it is definitely a big change-he is a mzungu- a white man, ha. This is the first white companion I have had, the first one not from Africa and to be honest it has felt kind of weird. He is from Utah and he is a cool kid. We get a lot more stares though as we are proselyting. I cannot wait for the day when I can feel normal just walking down the street or in a store, we stick out way to much here. Another bad thing about two white people is that things start to become more expensive, especially the buses. They try to raise the prices on us but we just have to talk a bit and then we can get the regular price. Nothing makes me more mad than when people try to rip us off, even though its something small its so annoying, maybe I need to work on that. This last week was a bit hectic because we were in a threesome for a few days while the other Elders here in Mombasa and I were waiting for our new companions. So even now we are kind of settling down. Yesterday was a great day at church though as we were blessed with many investigators who came to church and we were also fortunate enough to have two baptisms, now just to keep them active. We are also planning for a few more this month so lets hope they come through. This week is going to be busy also as we are heading to Nairobi, about an 8 hour bus ride. We got a nice bus though so that's good. We are going for Mission Tour. A member of the area 70 is coming and all the missionaries in Kenya will be meeting in Nairobi for a conference. I am excited, I always learn a ton at these conferences so it will be a good time. So that's about all thats going on here in Mombasa. Time is going by way too fast and as I look at it I become scared. Home is still kind of far away but close at the same time and I am scared to go home. I don't know what to do. Home is kind of like a dream to me, it doesn't seem real. I guess it will hit me when I reach there. Well, hope all is well at home. I love you all, take care. Elder Hansen
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