New February Missionaries

Our amazing new crop of missionaries. We are so blessed! Left to Right: Elders Stimpson, Alberro, Sisters Stehmeier, Lee Hye Jin, Elders Kang In Hee and Christiansen

With their new trainers: Elders Cha Yo Na, Alberro, McCort, Christiansen, Murdoch, Kang In Hee, Krall and Stimpson



Trainer, Sister Kim Te Yeon and Sister Chyanne Stehmeier

Trainer, Sister Kori Meservy and Lee Hye Jin

New Naju Building Dedication

This beautiful new building was dedicated last Saturday by Elder Choi Yoon Hwan of the Area Presidency. It is being received with great joy and gratitude by the Naju Ward of the Gwangju Stake. Previously 120 faithful members were meeting in a small and old office space above a store. This building sits on a large elevated lot and is the only meetinghouse in the country with a soccer field in the backyard!

Gone But Not Forgotten

Elder Gary and Sister Carol Avery, our loving, capable, and ever-cheerful office couple returned home this week after serving here so faithfully for 18 months. They endeared themselves to everyone they met and even experienced some wonderful fruits of their own missionarying labors. We love them dearly and will miss them. We enjoyed a last evening dinner together at the ever popular Outback Steakhouse, one of the many reminders of home that abound in Korea! We wish them the very best in establishing a new home in a new area and hope Elder Avery will achieve his new personal goal as he returns to his insurance business to increase it 2 bae plus alpha!

Arrival of Our New Office Couple!

We are so excited to welcome Elder Michael S. and Sister Laura D. Pierce who arrived in the Land of the Morning Calm one week ago! They arrived at the mission home at 6 AM in the morning, after a not so calm 12 hour car ride from the airport! We were a little worried that traffic might be pretty awful, as it traditionally is during Lunar New Year when most Koreans are on the road traveling to their ancestral homes. But on top of the holiday, the biggest snowstorm in 2 years arrived, causing many accidents on the freeways, in fact shutting down the usual route back home from the airport! The Averys were so excited to continue the tradition of picking up the new couple that would replace them, but had no idea what a war story they would end up having to tell!
Anyway, we are so thankful that they arrived back home safely, and we have enjoyed a wonderful week getting to know one another. The running of the mission office is quite a mountainous task, but we feel the transition of the passing of the batons is going very smoothly. We are so blessed to have willing and able hearts and hands to join in this great and marvelous work!

Visual Motivation!

We have several mottos and sayings in our mission that help missionaries to focus on their goals and experience continual success. In fact, President Perriton has been given the nickname by many of the Korean members of President 2Bae plus Alpha - 2Bae meaning "two times" or double, and "Alpha", meaning "plus at least one more". We had a mission goal to achieve 2Bae plus Alpha baptisms in the year 2008 over what we had in 2007, and the missionaries, wards and stakes became very familiar and excited about our goal. We came within a hair's breath of achieving the goal mission-wide, and in many areas of the mission the goal was surpassed. So we decided to repeat the goal for 2009 and created a visual reminder for missionaries and members to have and carry with them, engraved on their own little plate of brass! We distributed the medallion in either a coin or key fob style for a Lunar New Year gift. Most things on the medallion are printed in both Korean and English. The colored segments on the outside of the 2 bae plus alpha side contain the names of all of the Stakes and Districts of our mission. The scripture in the green circle is from Mark 9:23 - "All things are possible to him that believeth". The blue and red yin and yang design are typical of the unity and harmony symbol depicted on the Korean flag.(The small KDM in the center is for Korea Daejeon Mission) The Chinese character on the red half says"jung", a word that describes a perfect relationship of love and trust, the character on the blue is "il shim", meaning "of one heart and one mind". As we work together with members in these attitudes, our success grows exponentially!

January 2009 Zone Conferences

Daejeon Zone

Happy Birthday to Elders Greene, Boothe and Chamberlain!

Jeonju Zone

Happy Birthday to Elders Schrack, Jeong In Hwang, Saunders, Greene, Sisters Ahn Soon Young and Jung Eun Joo

West Gwangju Zone

East Gwanngju Zone

Happy Birthday to Elders Lyman, Choi Soo Hong, Bailey, Hansen, Ence

Cheongju Sisters

Cheongju Zone

Winter English Camp

The Daejeon Stake held their 3rd English Camp in conjunction with the Daejeon Zone missionaries. 130 campers (youth 12-18) enjoyed 3 days of English seminars, guest speakers and fun activities at a mountain resort. Missionaries work hard to plan and run activity booths all day, and get to know all the campers. About 60% of the attendees are friends of church members who we hope will want to continue attending weekly English classes and acquire gospel interest as they meet with missionaries regularly.

January Zone Leader Council

Zone leaders gathered in the Mission Home today to plan for the upcoming Zone Conferences to take place next week.
Left to Right: Elders Lish, Mitton, Byun, Brown, Burton, Greene, Freckleton, Lyman, Saunders, Bailey, Robinson and Taysom

New Arrivals in the New Year

We are so excited to welcome Elder Eric Brassfield and Sister Stephanie Thayn to the mission! They are gems!
Their first meal at a Korean restaurant, learning to manuever chopsticks!


After a day and a half of training, they head off to their new areas with their trainers, Elder Jonathan Ence and Sister Koo Ye Ryung

Most Recent Departures

We bid a fond farewell to Elder Soukup and Sisters Emily Allred, Kim Su Hyun and Choi Sang Mi
We wish the very best to dearly loved Elder Chezham Sealy
We were sorry to say goodbye to Elder Pak Hoon Min
It was wonderful to meet Elder Kim Hui Jae's family when they came to pick him up last week.

Because of the new semester of school starting soon, our departing missionaries of this transfer period went home a little early. We will receive our new arrivals on January 6th.