Thursday, May 29, 2008

The Last Hurrah


At the train station


Since the Seoul Temple is out of our mission boundaries, the only time our missionaries attend the temple is on their way home at the end of their missions. They take a train to Seoul and depart for home from there. Here are the missionaries who went home last transfer enjoying their last hours together.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Well Rounded




It's wonderful to see the missionaries pitch in to help with the domestic chores after a ward or branch shiksa (meal together)! I always tell them they are preparing to be wonderful husbands!
These photos were taken at a recent HongSeong District C0nference.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

He's Back!


How exciting it was to look out over the Gwangju Stake Conference congregation and see dear Brother Nathan Call, a recently returned missionary here visiting with his family. Still looking very much the missionary, it's hard to pick him out of this group! Members and missionaries were all so happy to see him again.
(The little yellow stickers everyone is wearing was the Stake theme for this conference - it has a cute smiley face and a scripture on it: "For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with
peace).... Isaiah 55:12)

The Call Family

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Dunsan District Birthday Lunch


Today's preparation day was also Elder Allen's birthday. Elder Baker also had a birthday this week, so we went to a nice local buffet to celebrate.

Monday, May 19, 2008

Great Missionary Quotes

*After a long hard day with no success I felt the Lord was trying my patience or punishing me for something! However, right after making a comment of such to my companion, we met an amazing man. He was waiting for someone, but allowed us to bear our testimonies of the Book of Mormon and gladly gave us his phone number. We called the next day and set up an appointment to teach. He soaked it up and accepted a return appointment. Then he told us the reason he was willing to meet with us – when he was in middle school one of his friends brought him to our church one time and the thing he remembered most was the missionaries and how clean and sharp they looked. From then on he wondered about our church and was deeply grateful to meet with us and learn. I wonder what other kids are impressed by our appearance and will one day want to learn about the church because of a small and simple thing!

*We have been working hard on reaching our 140 contacts a week and I feel like as we set these mini goals, our eye is really more single to the glory of God. The thought to find the next person to talk to puts aside any other thought or distraction there may possibly be. Every person I talk to all of a sudden becomes of great importance, not because that person represents a number, but because that number represents a person. Every number we write down and record represents one person. Adding the numbers up really helps me realize how many people we influence in a day/month/or transfer. As a result we have been blessed to have been able to find many new investigators this week.

*This week we had a lot of success “teaching when you find and finding when you teach”. As long as we kept our focus on finding people to teach instead of finding people to count as contacts, we were teaching more lessons. I firmly believe that if we as missionaries keep a focused mind on why we are proselyting, which is to find and teach, rather than just finding to find, we will experience much more success!

*My gospel study has been great! It is one of the best hours out of the other awesome hours we have. My plan for the upcoming week in order to boost the quality of my prayers is to focus more on praying for the Spirit to guide my prayers and to set aside stable time that I can use to sit and think and calm my mind down before prayer and listen afterwards. I think if there is scheduled time like that I won’t have the problem of rushing my communication with Heavenly Father.

*I feel like I finally have a missionary story like the ones I heard growing up. Stories where miracles happen and people are converted. It’s amazing how simple the process is. It’s nothing I did or said. She was converted by the words of ancient prophets contained in the Book of Mormon. I’m just grateful I could witness it!

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Special Zone Conferences


WEDNESDAY
Happy Birthday Elders Robinson, J. Brown, Mitton, McCort, Krall
and Soukup
West Gwangju


Jeonju Zone
East Gwangju - Missing are Sister Lee Da Rae and Kim Te Yeon who had transportation problems and arrived late :(


TUESDAY
Cheongju Zone
Daejeon Zone
Happy Birthday to Elders Doty, D. Hill, Sister Avery, Elders Baker, Stanfill, Allen, Lish and A. Brown

We had another blockbuster zone conference with Elder Choi Yoon Hwan and his lovely wife, Sister Koo Bon Kyung visiting from our Asia North area presidency for a mission tour. Our wells were filled!

Monday, May 12, 2008

Daejeon Stake Sports Day


Today (May 12) is a national holiday in Korea for Buddah's birthday, and with schools and pretty much everything else closed, the Daejeon Stake planned a wonderful sports day. About 300 people attended including quite a lot of friends and neighbors for the missionaries to get to know and teach. Participants enjoyed soccer, basketball, dodgeball, kickball, capture the flag, a little football tossing as well as hula hoop and jump rope competitions, and of course a magnificent picnic lunch! The weather was perfect and the setting beautiful on the grounds of the Daejeon waterworks company.

Friday, May 9, 2008

Parents' Day




May 8th is Parents' Day in Korea. Sister Kim, a member of our ward, owns a flower shop and she and the missionaries arranged and presented us with the traditional carnation corsage. We were also honored with pizza for lunch:)

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Leaving Comments on the Blog

In response to questions about how to leave comments on the blog:
1. Click on the word "comment" below the particular posting.
2. Type your message in the message box.
3. Type the word verification letters in the box provided. This is just below the message box. This is a security measure to make it more difficult for spam messages to appear.
4. Choose an identity. I have configured the settings to accept all identities.
4. Go to the bottom and click on the "Publish Your Comment" box. (Orange bar)

Your comments are appreciated!

Monday, May 5, 2008

Zone Leader Council


Next week Elder and Sister Choi from our Area Presidency will be in town for a mission tour, so today's meeting was in preparation for those special zone conferences, along with training to be focused on during this transfer.
Sorry this picture is missing Elders Barrett and Clegg. They left after the first picture I took, without a chip in the camera:(


Today was also our wedding anniversary and here is one of the gifts we received from thoughtful missionaries. It was so sweet that every zone brought a "little" something.

Saturday, May 3, 2008

The Beat Goes On





Elder McWhorter returned to the field as a model zone leader and Elder Hardesty finished his mission and returned home. Elder Bergeron and Elder Mulcahy step into their shoes in their new roles as AP and Office Recorder/Supply Manager, joining veteran AP Elder Capps, and our Administrative Assistant to the President, Elder Byun.

Friday, May 2, 2008

May Departures


We said a painful goodbye to a fine group of missionaries this morning. They will go to Seoul to attend the temple together before heading for home. L to R Elders Wakamatsu, Jun Seung Chul, Ryu Jong Ha, Varner, Hardesty; Sisters Kim Hae Sook and Ma Eui Jin.

May Arrivals


On their way to their new areas with their trainers.
L to R: Elders Huffaker, McCade Cox, Allen, Thiel, Freckleton, Randall Cox, Sisters Mabray, Healy and Koo.



A traditional Korean lunch with a traditional American treat for dessert!


We were so excited to greet an absolutely wonderful new group of missionaries this week: Sister Healey and Elders Cox, Huffaker and Freckleton.