Week 17

hey everyone,

 

Not a ton of time today, but this past week was really good! This week we were actually able to meet with Vicky, Julie, and Mr. Yu! I was so happy! We haven't been able to meet with them for a few weeks now. We talked a little bit about there weeks and how it went. They are not doing too good right now. Vicky is just having a hard time keeping interested in her job, and Julie and Mr. Yu are just struggling with their daughter Jenny and her problems. It was really weird because that morning we planned to share a message about hope and being positive about the future! We shared a short section from "Our Search for Happiness" that related our trials on earth life to a rope and string. The rope extends both ways into the eternities while one strand is wrapped around the middle of it, being our earth life. the trials we have are just a small moment in the grand scheme of things. We were able to discuss a little bit about what they do to overcome trials like the ones they are having and I shared my testimony about having faith and hope in God. The spirit was so strong and I think they really felt it! This next week will be very important, because transfer calls are on thursday and I think I might leave my traning area! Nooo!!! I love this branch and area! haha but maybe ill have to leave. AND.... I'm pretty sure I forgot to tell everyone this but we are having a baptism next sunday!! haha sorry!! I think I talked about Ahn Yay Jin before, me and my old companion elder Jeong were able to teach her a few times before the sisters took over. I always forgot to mention this in my previous emails because we dont meet with her anymore, she meets with the sisters! sorry! haha but she is getting baptized next week and actually I think I will be baptizing her! I'm so excited for her! well that's all for this week!

 

-elder carter

                         Because of 95F with 90% humidity walking up & down the giant hills of
my area of South Korea, I lost a fist full of weight!

Week 16

Hey Everyone,

This week was really good! We were able to teach brother Yi once again! We talked to him about the 2000 stripling warriors and how they were just young men, wanting to do God's will. We shared our testimonies about how strong God is and how willing He is to help us if we just keep His commandments and live worthily. He had a question about God. He was all confused about why in the scriptures it sometimes says that God, Jesus Christ, and the Spirit are one. Oh Geez... So then we kinda talked about the trinity and how other churches believe in that, but we know that is not true. I asked him if he remembers Joseph Smith's experience when he pray, and saw the Father and Son. he just looked at me confused. I thought he didn't remember but then my companion said it again in REAL korean and he remembered! haha gosh... we talked a little more and then he had to go.

On Thursday, after district meeting we all ate gamjatang together. One of my favorite foods in Korea! After we ate together, we all got ice cream and then went home. I ate 2 ice cream cones, and then about 30 min later a less active that ive never heard of before called us and said that he wanted to meet with us. We met outside our apartment and talked for maybe 5 min. then he said, "hey let's go out and eat!" Oh man... he took us to this Tonkasu place where the tonkasu was huge! But really not that good...I ate about half of it and then he tells the waitress "hey! he needs more rice! bring more!" so i had two bowls of rice and a huge tonkasu. I almost threw up after! we just talked while we ate and then after for maybe about 5 min. Im still not really sure why he wanted to meet with us, but maybe we can meet with him again!

This weekend we had stake conference so we weren't able to meet with Vicky, Julie, and Mr. Yu. On Saturday, we went to Sujeong ward and listened to a few members of the stake speak. Our translator was one of the assistants and i think it was difficult for him. There were times when he just paused and listened to the speaker for maybe 30 seconds and didn't say anything so it was a little bit hard to follow haha but it was good! All the speakers talked about member missionary work and how important the members are in missionary work. And always remember to work together, every missionary and every member together. Also, it's not our work or the members work, its the Lord's work. This week we will visit more members homes and encourage them to share the gospel more with the people they come in contact with!

I heard from bishop Larsen that Kelli Wickerman got baptized recently in the Kensington Ward! That's awesome! I've known her for a long time but never even thought about sharing the gospel with her! Every member a missionary! Share the gospel with the people you know, maybe you can find the next Kelli. If you are reading this Kelli, congratulations! Love you all!

-elder carter

Week 15

Hello everyone,

not a ton of time today, a member is having some birthday party or something today so we have to hurry up today. but this week was pretty good! we werent able to meet with vicky and julie this week because mr yu was busy and we couldnt get a male to come to the lesson. we did meet with brother Yi though. we went with a couples missionaries elder yang and sister kim. they were the ones that gave him the homework to read in abraham. when we got there they just started talking about it again so me and elder kim just kinda sat there while they talked. I think most of his questions got answered though! I hope so! I couldnt really understand... haha also we couldnt meet with kim dae hun either. we tried to visit him 4 times but all times he was busy! he felt bad but said that we can meet tomorrow, so we will go visit him. on saturday we really focused on finding new, actual investigators or people to come to our english class and we got 10 contacts that day! which is amazing! i dont think ive ever gotten more than 3 in one day! so we will continue to call them and invite them to english class. at least 2 of them said they really want to learn english, so we will see where that goes! well... this week i thought that I accomplished a milestone in the korea busan mission! Im not really sure how ive lost 8 or 9kg but this past week, except for sunday, i ate chicken at least one meal for one week straight! haha  7 days I ate delicious fried chicken! SOmeone told me that some elders actually ate chicken for 3 weeks straight but i dont think i want to even try for that haha I have to eat better thsi week. mom I can make this delicous onion and gyoza soup. ill make it sometime! boil water, put in beef seasoning i think? about one spoon, leveled off. then half or whole onion sliced in strips. frozen gyoza. a little salt, and some garlic powder! super easy! just boil it until the onions are really soft. its kinda a light soup, but i think its delicious! k I gotta go now, love you all! bye!

 

-elder carter

Week 14

Hello everyone,

 

this week was much better than last week! Elder kim and I are doing much better and I think he is starting to get used to this area. This week was a crazy week! For some reason, our hot water started to come out orange!! so we couldnt shower or use the water from our sink. Im still not 100% sure why it wasn't clean, i think they said they were cleaning out some big water tank or something... I dont know, I couldnt understand them! So we got permission to go to a korean bath house! haha so funny. there were tons on korean men just sitting on 6 inch stools showering in front of a mirror. some were in a big round pool type thing in the middle of the room just resting. haha it was really refreshing actually! They had a scale there and I checked how much I weigh... I've lost about 8kg! Thats about 20lbs? haha so that was good! It wasn't too much of a culture shock to me, we kinda went in Japan before. Maybe for some people though, it would be a little weird haha and the other days we had to go to another area's elder's apartment to shower (nothing too exciting about that). But now our water is fine, it just needed a few days to filter out the bad water.

this week we met with brother Yi twice which was great! The first time we met with him this week, he had some questions about the homework elder yang gave him. Elder yang is a couple missionary with his wife, they usually meet with him once a week. the homework they gave him was in abraham and talked about the "gods". he asked why it always said gods if there is only one god. My companion went off and explained to him that it was just a name they used, just like when sometimes Jesus Christ is referred to as God. We showed him scriptures that had similar examples and he was ok after that. He seemed a little worried at first haha they fed us a delious meal after our lesson! Spam, kimchi, rice, tofu, and cucumbers in some garlic butter. Ive never had spam before my mission, but we eat it all the time now! Apparently spam is the best kind of ham in korea... haha but its good! The second time we met with him, he was a little bit busy but we shared a message about faith and how to strenghten it. He continues to come to church and from what I can see, is strengthening his faith everyday. He always is reading from the book of mormon and doing the homework we give him.

On Saturday we had our english class with Vicky, Julie, and her husband Mr. Yu. There daughter had a reading class and couldnt attend so that was a bummer. Also, the class didn't really go as planned, they had tons of questions about different english phrases and what situations to use what phrase, so we weren't able to discuss an article like we wanted to. And, we couldnt stay later because we had a halloween party that night! No one dressed up but we had a few youth come from different branches in our district. It was actually pretty fun haha we were in charge of bowling! we just had 2 liter bottles filled with water and a soccer ball haha all the kids loved it. I dont think they really celebrate halloween very much here, they just know what it is. No fun koreans haha yesterday we had two appointments with the branch president and also the 1st counselor. They invited us to eat lunch and then dinner at their houses. I think yesterday was the first time I actually couldnt finish my rice bowl! we ate at the 1st counselors house at around 3, and then the branch presidents at about 630! whoa... even my companion who loves to eat, couldnt really eat all that much because he was so full. The struggles of missionary work are real! haha

really good week last week. This week should be a good one! love yall

 

-elder carter2