Week 4

Hello Everyone,

This week was great! So last weekly planning session we decided that we were going to give out a book of mormon everyday and we did good! Since Thursday we have given out 5 copies of the book of mormon! But we want to give out more this next week. This week we saw tons of blessings! First of all, We went and tried to visit Brother Kim, a less active, at his cell phone store and he was there! The last couple of times we went he was on vacation so it was good that we got to meet with him. Miracle! We talked to him a little bit about the Book of Mormon and how important it is in our lives but he was really busy with customers so we had to leave to another appointment, but that was good that we still got to talk a little.

The members of our branch have taken us out to eat 3 times this week! haha they have tons of really nice buffets here in Korea that everyone likes to go to. They always laugh at me because I eat so much meat compared to other things haha on thursday we had our english class. The past 2 times no one has showed up and we would have to do our backup plan, this week 3 people came! The sisters from daeshin came to help and they were on companion exchanges for the day. So usually it is just me teaching the class because the sisters are korean and my companion is korean but since they were on exchanges we had sister taylor from utah help me teach! It was actually a lot more fun for me and also the class was more excited. There were two old ladies there that love class and they want to keep coming! So hopefully they will want to learn more about the gospel in the near future, but who knows! During weekly planning this week, we talked a lot about our investigator Doe Ji Hyon and how we can help her. We decided to teach here about eternal relationships and how we can have those for eternity. The lesson went really well and she took it very well. after we went back to the apartment i asked elder jeong what he thought of the lesson and he said that he could see her changing and maybe was considering baptism. We are really excited about her and we think that she will be baptized eventually! I hope so! Our next lesson with her will be very important! Later that night we had english conversation class with vicky and julie. We shared a short spiritual message from the book "Our search for happiness" about how a married couple didn't really get along because they didn't have anything in common and almost divorced, but then they started to go to church and found their commonality in Christ. They kept asking more and more questions and what was supposed to be a 10 min message turned into a 35 min discussion! Then we just talked about America and they asked a lot of questions about our culture. They said that next time they would like to hear more about Our Search for Happiness so we are slowly making progress with them! On Sunday I gave a very simple talk about Obedience in english while my companion translated it. There were a ton of white people in the congregation that day because some army member family came. I talked to them after and it was nice to hear english for once! haha They were way cool. After church we taught this younger girl about honesty and shared an article from the Liahona. She said she would be honest with everyone and will continue to read the book of mormon. I think she is an investigator from the daeshin area but she was in town or something. (I don't know, I still can't understand anything) after we taught her we taught a Buddhist lady the restoration because she just wanted to learn what is different between all the different churches. She seemed really interested and we will teach her the plan of salvation next time! So.. these were all the big miracles we saw this week! There were a ton! and I think this next week will also have a lot of miracles! Just gotta keep working! Love you all!

-Carter 장로

Week 3

hey everyone,

 

this week was a very good week! So we actually had an appointment with one of our recent converts. He was baptized in april so we talked to him about the sacrament. recently he recieved the priesthood so we want him to bless the sacrament sometime. I think he's about 65 years old haha but he didn't come to yesterday. We will try to contact him again and see if he'll come to church. We had companion exchanges on thursday so I exchanged with our district leader elder campbell. He is a great missionary and he wanted to see our area was doing and how he could help me with this work. We went around town and tried talking to people on the street but it was tough. For some reason, our area Geojeoung's people are very private, and cold people. they don't even say Hello back if you say hi to them. They just look at you and look away or not even acknowledge you at all. Elder Campbell noticed this and said that is was completely different from his area. He told me a really cool story about this kind of situation! His first area was kind of like htis where the people didn't really want to talk or anything, and he said that the whole 12 weeks he was there he probably taught a total of 6 lessons the whole time he was there. They didn't have any investigators but they just tried their hardest. He said that he just kept going and he tried to "change" the area. After he left, he said that the area started to see better progress with people and the work was moving forward! Now, that area is having tons of success and a lot of baptisms! he said that missionaries really have the power to change areas if they choose too. they just need to trust in the Lord and work even harder. When we unexchanged, my companion and I had weekly planning and we talked about this. We made a goal to make the Geojeoung area a baptizing area! We also made a goal to give out a Book of Mormon everyday! So far we have done that except for 1 day! We are trying to "change" the area. And so far we have been successful! last night we got 2 contacts and talked to this very old guy that seems very interested in our church and he said he will read the Book of Mormon! I can't wait to see what happens this week with that! This week, will be meeting with sister do ji hyun again and we can both feel like she is our closest potential investigator to baptism. She can feel the spirit but doesn't want to commit to anything; but we can feel a baptism coming in her future... hopefully! Also this past week, we met again with our english students Vickie and Julie. they were the ones that told me they only wanted to learn english and not about our gospel. We met with them again and I went over an article that they brought it. It went really well and i think they learned a lot. They seemed very happy with my teaching and at the end they told me that next time we could have a spiritual message if we wanted! So that was jsut one of the many miracles we have seen! Hopefully they will be able to feel the spirit this time and want to learn more about the gospel! My time here in Korea is getting better and better! I love being here and just walking the streets trying to talk to people! There are some very humble people here and I think there will be a baptism before I leave this area. me and my companion are continuing to increase our faith and our new motto is 9 weeks 3 baptisms! We want to try and have 3 baptisms by the end of 9 weeks but if we don't than thats ok, its just our goal. I remember something my 7th grade math teacher told us haha : Shoot for the moon, even if you don't make it, you will land among stars! So we are trying our hardest to shoot for the moon and our 3 baptisms! this next week will be a great week! Love y'all!

 

-elder carter

카터 장롬

Week 2

Hey everyone!

Another week in Korea! This week was very similar to last week. Me and
my companion traveled all over the city to try and find less actives
or lost members but a lot of them were not home or were busy. On
tuesday we tried to visit some other members that are less active or
lost. We tried to visit this man named kim tay hune so we took the
subway bus and walked for all about 40 min to his cell phone store
because we tried his house before but he didn't answer. once we got
there he wasnt there... another worker said that he is on vacation so
we will try next week to come back. after that, we went back to "the
Hill" and walked up the huge hill to the less actives house.
Apparently she never answers her door and my companion has tried so
many times to visit her house with other companions but she never is
home or doesn't answer. so we got to her house and she actually
answered the door! she said she was very busy and sick so we jsut gave
her a small bottle of orange juice and left. haha she answered! My
companion couldn't stop laughing because hes tried so many times
before! haha I think we will try to visit her again sometime. These
are the small miracles that we see each day! haha wednesday I
practiced teaching with my companion and he gave me some good tips on
how to say things better and helped me a lot. He knows so much about
the gospel! After practicing teaching we tried a new area of less
active members and this time the environment was worse than "the Hill"
haha it was just as steep but it was way longer and more hot outside.
So we made the climb up the massive hill and through neighborhoods to
find this one house. We found it but there was no answer when we
knocked... There was mail sticking out of her mailbox so we checked it
and there were 2 different people living there now. she moved! gah!
haha so we had to go back down and then we asked some people if they
knew where she lived. They told us a different house up the same hill
so we went back up the hill! and to a different house but she wasn't
there... that was tough haha we left that area and took a bus back to
our area. We went to visit a sort-of less active up a different hill.
There are a ton of hills in korea aren't there? yes, yes there are.
haha it was a long walk up the hill and we found his apartment
complex. We asked the front person which room he was staying in but he
checked the list and he didn't live there anymore! That was a rough
day. so much walking and didn't get to meet with anyone. My feet were
about to fall off after that day. thursday we tried to go to a
beach/water park area to prostelyte but all the families there didn't
want to listen while they were having fun. after that we had a branch
activity and ate cold noodles in some kind of fish soup. It was
actually really good! and we also had fresh salmon sashimi and
watermelons. One of the members wanted to arm wrestle so we did. He
won! haha he's so funny too. Later that day we called a former
investigator and she said she would meet with us!
So friday we had zone meeting and we talked about how to use english
class effectively and the balance of fun and business we need to have.
It was good, I saw a bunch of other elders from my MTC district and
got to talk to them. Later that day we met with the former
investigator sister Doe Ji Hyon ( sorry I dont know how to romanize
Korean haha) We taught her about hope faith and charity. I was able to
teach in english because she is studying english as her major. My
first official lesson! In english! haha It went really well she said
that she always loves meeting with the missionaries because she feels
a good feeling. We invited her to read the book of mormon everyday but
she said she doesn't make comittments that she probably wont keep so
she said no. She said she believes in God if you ask him for things
but nothing beyond that so she doesnt want to get baptized or be a
part of this religion. I dont have much more time but the rest of the
week went like usual!

-elder carter

Week 1

Hello everyone!

 

So I made it Korea safely and have been here about one week! It has been great so far and I am loving it. Missionary work is definetely different than what I thought it would be. We have 0 investigators and only 2 "Potential investigtors" even thought our potential investigators only come to english class and only want to learn english, not about our church. anyway more on that later... the First day with my companion! My companion's name is elder Jeoung! 정장로님. He is hilarious! haha just a stereotypical korean that tries to speak english with a very thick accent. He's the best! A very hard worker and always is trying to do his best to reach out to other people. He is from Pusan so it's nothing is foreign to him. Our first area is called GwayJeoung. When we left the mission home, we walked for about 30 minutes in the blistering heat and humidity to the subway. It was awesome! haha I literally had sweat just dripping down my face as I had my suitcases and packpack on. We rode the subway for about another 20 minutes and then go to our apartment. It jsut got redone so it was actually really nice. We have a room with 2 beds and another room with our clothes. Then the kitchen and another open room with our desks. Surprisingly big. But, it doesn't have air conditioning so our windows are open and we have one small fan that cools us off. haha We planned for a little bit and then we had english class. Everyone said they would be able to come and then last minute they all canceled so we didn't have anyone show up. We left and walked around town for a bit. The cell phone was in my pocket and apparently it went off a couple times but I couldn't feel it. we checked and then called some of them back. They changed their plans and were waiting at teh church for about 15 min! We ran back to the church for a solid 10 min haha my fault... but they were very nice and forgiving. I talked with them in english for a little while just getting to know them and then that was it for the day. The next day we went to visit less actives. we took a bus and train for about 40 min and then walked for another 20 min up this HUGE hill! It was so steep that we had to stop halfway up and rest. once we go to the house, he wasn't there... haha AAHH! We took the bus and train back to our city and tried more less actives. No one was home. Nothing seemed to go right. But it was all ok! The next day we had english class again and Vickie and Julie are our students. We talked in english for about 30 min and then I taught them about the plan of salvation and why I am serving a mission. after what I thought was a very good message, they told me "we can learn about your message, but we don't feel anything. we come here to learn english. it takes us a long time to get here and we don't want to just hear a lesson." ahh... shoot. That was a tough one. Especially because they said they can't feel anything form our message. I felt pretty bad about that, but we continued to talk with them in english and we will meet them again next week for english class. They are our only 2 "potential investigators" but they really have no interest in the church. Sunday was good, I met a lot of people from the ward and everytime I introduced myself to someone, they would say "Oh! President Carter! Are you related to president carter??" haha the 1st counselor calls me President Carter now haha I introduced myself in sacrament and shared my testimony. we stayed for priesthood and sunday school. It was weird because we ended church 15 minutes early to attend to the garden outside haha we watered the garden with everyone and picked weeds out in front of the church. We tried to visit more less actives and they live so far away and none of them are home! we walked, rode the bus, and tried to find them, but either they moved or no one was there.

      So that was my first week here! haha doesn't sound like a lot and it really feels like it hasn't been, but it's always fun! Really hard, but also very fun at times. All of the males say that I look very big and ask if I play football. All the old ladies ask me if I am korean and say that I am a very handsome boy haha I'll have more next week hopefully! Love you all!

 

-Elder Carter

Made it to Korea! on 7/30/2013

hello mom/dad,

 

Well... I made it to Korea! President Gilbert told us that we should send a short email to you letting you know we all got here safely. It has been crazy so far! We went to the bank today and yes... I don't know any Korean haha but it should be fun. We will be meeting our trainers and going to the fish market later today.

 

last night we got to the mission home around 1020 and just went to bed. It is super humid here and I just feel wet all day. I didn't get sick on the plane so that was good. I slept a lot of the way to Japan and the whole 2 hours to Korea. The food was terrible and I couldn't get my bag of mcdonalds because our flight to San Fransisco was delayed as soon as we boarded. But, we did get little obento boxes on Japan air to korea. So much better than the food on delta to japan. Just letting you know that I got here safely and President and Sister Gilbert are awesome! Talk to you on P day!

 

Elder Carter