Missionary Quotes

This area became the “refiners fire” of my mission. I learned two important things: 1- we as missionaries determine how the area goes, if we talk bad about an area, it will be passed on as bad. If we talk good about it, it will be passed on in a good way. 2- If we think that we can do it, we can. These are sometimes obvious lessons but they became especially real to me as I experienced them. As we began to raise the level as to how the work was done in this area, I found myself constantly light and happy. We continued to be obedient, have positive attitudes, and work as hard as we could. This soon became my favorite, busiest, and most successful area. I am so thankful for the influence of the Spirit telling me to be positive and give it my best.

Ever since our new sister missionary stood up and introduced herself I couldn’t stop staring at her. I knew I knew her somehow. She told her story, and I started putting things together. When I was a greenie we taught her! Our transfer goal was to have her get baptized but she moved to a different area. We were really sad when she moved. Now she’s on a mission! I couldn’t believe it! That just goes to show that we can never know how far our influence will go and it’s impossible to measure success. The Lord has a plan for all of his children.

Planning! Wow, what a difference. For all of our jondo (proselyting) times scheduled, next to it we put a goal, and did our best to reach that goal in that allotted time. It all added up and before we knew it we were writing down 140+ on our contact column! The first time that’s happened on my mission, and it feels great. It’s like President Monson says in Preach My Gospel, “When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates.” Through measuring our stats at smaller increments, breaking them down, we’ve seen performance improvement! Therefore, our success rate should accelerate! What a concept!

I had a wonderful experience this week. At the end of one our lessons our investigator prayed for the first time and it was so wonderful to be there. I could feel the Spirit and I could feel God’s love for her so strongly. I knew Heavenly Father was happy and pleased. Here was His daughter praying to Him – communicating with him for the first time. I know He heard her prayer as simple as it was. Why wouldn’t a loving Heavenly Father listen with rapture to His daughter’s prayer? And then, why wouldn’t He answer one of his children’s prayers? Of course He will! It was wonderful to feel His love for her in that moment.

The work here is really picking up. I love this area! The ward is so good to us and to our investigators. The Lord is opening doors for us to do this work here. I love this work so much!

Meet the Parents

It is always such a joy to meet family members of some of our beloved missionaries. Sometimes they come to pick up their son or daughter at the end of their mission. Others return together (when the weather is nice) at a later time to share precious memories and to get acquainted with some of the people missionaries have come to love so much. For those inclined to see the culture and feel the atmosphere where their missionary has served, it is a rich and rewarding experience.
We discourage planning elaborate trips that would require a currently serving missionary to be distracted in their work to become "travel agents". We feel it is important that missionaries "sprint to the finish line" - for their personal satisfaction as well as to keep the ball rolling smoothly when they transition out of their last area. When family members choose to come we request that they make their own initial travel and accomodation arrangements. The mission office can help with some recommendations if needed.

Jeonju and Gwangju Zones

Jeonju Zone

East Gwangju Zone

West Gwangju Zoine

Happy Birthday to: Elders Bennett, Taysom, Murdoch, Cook and Sister Jo Hyun Ah

Today's zone conference combined 3 zones in Gwangju. During this week's conferences 11 missionaries attended their last zone conference and bore wonderful testimonies of the experiences they have had, the personal growth they have enjoyed, and the sweetness of the fruits of their labors.
We are so blessed to have great musical talent among our missionaries and every zone conference we are treated to a special musical number.
This week's training themes focused on "feasting" on the scriptures, achieving effective prayer, teaching with the Spirit, and developing the Christ-like attribute of Diligence.
The icing on the cake were the afternoon sessions presented by PJ Rogers to teach the missionaries things he wished he'd known about Korea when he was a missionary.

Cheongju and Daejeon Zone Conference

PJ Rogers, popularly known as Kim Mi Nam, visited our zone conferences this month. He is currently a counselor in the Seoul West mission presidency and a former Seoul West missionary, businessman, entertainer, as well as a Korean language and culture expert who has spent about 9 years living and working in Korea. His presentation teaches the missionaries the importance of creating an emotional attachment with the Korean people that will enable them to be more successful. The threefold key to understanding how to build jeong with people is to be sensitive to food, language and cultural bonding experiences.

Cheongju Zone

Daejeon Zone

The Cheongju and Daejeon zones combined for zone conference today. Click on pictures to enlarge for better viewing.

Happy Birthday this transfer! L to R:
Elders: Baek Seung Ik, Kim Hyun Woo, Sisters Mabray and Brown, Elders Handy, McWhorter, Messegee and Wilcox!

New District Leaders

New District leaders from the Cheongju and Daejeon zones met for training: L to R:
Elders Robinson, Kim Hyun Woo, Sealy and Quinton

Zone Leader Council

Today all the zone leaders, AP's and office elders met together to plan for next week's zone conferences. Above, row by row from front: Elders Cha Yo Na, Richter, Mulcahy, Brown, McWhorter, Byun, Kim Jeung Chul, Clegg, Adams, Lyman, Haycock, Hill and Taysom.

This is the only way cheeseballs or cheetos or such things should be eaten! No messy fingers!

Another One Bites the Dust

With the extraordinarily excellent AP Elder Capps returning home, his huge shoes of perfection are being filled by super enthusiastic Elder Lyman, and as I've said before, the beat goes on!

June Departures

L to R: Elders Stanfill, Hill, Allen, Capps, Barrett and Mayberry

It gets harder and harder to say goodbye to these fine, wonderful missionaries who have served so faithfully and well. We love them and wish them the very best, until we meet again!

Since we were on the way to the airport to pick up one more new missionary, we dropped off these elders instead of sending them to the temple by train! A first!

June's New Arrivals

Arrival lunch for Elder Carlson


Elders Park, Thorkelson, Sister An, and Elder Kang

Heading out to their new areas with their trainers

We welcomed 5 new missionaries this month! It is always such a thrill to meet them and see their faces full of enthusiasm and excitement. They arrived on different days because of a visa delay, but they are all here now safe and sound. We are so blessed to always receive the creme de la creme!The effects of jetlag!

Happy Days

I have a difficult time gathering all the baptism photos from missionaries, so this slideshow only captures a small portion of what has occurred over the past few months.