Week 65

hi 

yes we were actually able to find a new investigator this week! his name is brother kwack. he runs a free class at the university in our area and said that we can come by to attend his class. so we went and it was some kind of culture class about other countries. this week he talked about japan but i couldnt understand anything he was saying! he used really hard words so i understood maybe 15%?? but after the class there is about 30 minutes of "free talking" where we are able to talk to all the members of the class about our church and the "mormon culture". there actually seems to be a lot of potential investigators that could come from this class but we will see! we were only able to stay for a little bit but next week we will be able to see if this will work out. also our investigator brother yang jae hong and his friend hong woo shik came to church this week! we were able to teach them the rest of the restoration and challenged him to read the book of mormon and pray! he is still uncertain that god exists, but i know if he reads and prays as we have asked him, then he will know! i read this in the liahona the other day from president eyring " The investigator who reads the Book of Mormon before being baptized and confirmed may receive both an assurance that the book is true and a witness that Joseph Smith translated it by the power of God. After being confirmed a member of the Church, we can have the Holy Ghost as our companion to confirm other truths. Then, whenever we pray in faith, we can expect that the Holy Ghost will testify to us that Jesus is the Christ, that God the Father lives, and that They love us and all of Heavenly Father’s children."

Just like president Eyring says, we can expect the holy ghost to testify to us about God, Jesus Christ, and the message that we are sharing if we pray in faith. Once brother yang is able to feel that, he will be able to feel gods love and have the spirit as his constant companion. i hope all of you as well will continue to pray in faith for the gift of the spirit! have a great week! <3

elder carter

Week 64

 not a ton of time today but this week was great! we met with yang jae hong and taught him more about the restoration. he couldnt attend our english class but when we called him, he told us that he will come to church instead! haha so he came and he said he really liked sacrament and the hymns especially. he also talked a little about baptism. he said that he really wants to believe in god before he gets baptized so we are trying to help him come to know. we read the introduction and how he can know. Heavenly father has made it very simple for us to know. read, ponder, and pray. God wants us to know these things and through this method we can know! isnt that a wonderful blessing for everyone? i know god lives and loves each of us! have a great week 

elder carter

Week 63

hello everyone,

this week was really great! so we were actually able to meet the guy that came to english class last week! his name is brother hong woo shik and his friends name is brother yang jae hong. we actually met them twice this week. they have a lot of interest in english and also about the gospel. in our mission we do a 30/30 program. we can meet with them one on one and teach them english for 30 minutes and the gospel for 30 minutes. so when we met with them, it turned out to be talking about the gospel for 1 hour, half in english and half in korean haha pretty nice. apparently brother hong woo shik lives in a different area so we might have to refer him to the other elders soon. but, his friend yang jae hong lives in our area and he has a lot of interest in the gospel. hes had a rough life and he just wants to know how this can help him. he doesnt believe in god  but he wants to. we were able to teach him part of the restoration and commit him to read the book of mormon. he doesnt say much so we asked him what he thought about the book of mormon and he just mumbled some stuff told us to keep teaching him haha once he believes in god i think that itll turn out well for him. then he will really be able to see how the gospel can change his life forever. when we met him the second time we also invited him to pray and he said he would! he will continue to meet with us and wants to learn more! 

also yesterday we were proselyting on the street and met a guy that is in a similar situation. he wants to learn english from us and also is a little curious about church. we will meet him tomorrow but hopefully it goes well! we finally are getting some investigators in daemyeong! 

we were able to watch general conference at the church the past weekend and it was awesome! i really like looking for patterns or a basic message that everyone focuses on. i think this general conference was, very simply, "be a good person". it seemed like a lot of the talks focused on helping others, be kind, be generous, do your part. i loved president uchtdorf's simple phrase "do your part and it will be glorious!" (something like that) i really thought about that as we do missionary work. a lot of people dont want to listen but if we "do our part" then we will eventually find someone and be able to help them. how glorious will that be??! super glorious! just remember that! itll all work out if we do our part! have a good week everyone, love you all! 

elder carter

Week 62

hello everyone,

good week in daemyeong! we had a pretty good experience that could turn out to be a miracle this week. so we have no investigators that are really progressing, just one guy that we teach english and the gospel to. my companion said that there is no specific method they have tried that has worked out in daemyeong to find investigators. before they've tried a lot of different things and they all seem to work out about the same. so we decided to try something new and post flyers everywhere for our english class. so as we walked the streets, we plastered daemyeong with free english flyers. on saturday morning we were a little bummed out because we spent a lot of time on the flyers and really put our faith in them, hoping we could find a new investigator, but no one had called. then, about 2 hours before our english class started, someone called! we told him where to come and he came with one of his friends. we all introduced ourselves and when he introduced himself he said he needed english for his job and liked learning. and then he also said he wanted to learn more about the bible and the "mormon bible", so this situation was perfect for him. we talked with him a little after and he will meet with us during the next couple of weeks to discuss things! a scripture came to my mind when this all happened. alma 37:34

 34 Teach them to never be weary of good works, but to be meek and lowly in heart; for such shall find rest to their souls.

:We put our faith and trust in the Lord and continued our good works. through this we found rest in our souls and we were able to be blessed with this opportunity to teach someone new. i know god lives and is in our lives more than we know. he is always willing to bless us in our good deeds and works. if we show our faith and continue to work hard, blessings will come. love you all and hope you have a wonderful week! im excited also to hear general conference this week! cant wait to hear the prophet!

elder carter

Week 61

hello mom and dad!

not a ton of time today but i will tell you a little bit about our area Daemyeong!

its a small area of Daegu city and there are a lot of people here. its kinda like busan, but since its smaller, it seems like there are more people here. our ward here has about 65 people come, pretty similar to Jinhae ward. the members here are awesome too! this ward is very small compared to wards back home but functions just like a normal ward. usually in all of my other areas, the missionaries had a big part of helping sunday meetings. but in daemyeong, the members here are all faithful to their calling and are willing to serve. also there are a ton of cute kids so its really funny watching them. as far as investigators... we dont have any. we meet with one guy 2 or 3 times a week and help him with english. we also teach him every time but my companion said he has no interest. theyve tried to teach him before and it didnt work out, but maybe something will happen! usually we find people on the street and teach them. referrals are a little hard to come by. it seems like everytime we ask, the members say theyve tried to but their friend or someone they know just doesnt have interest. especially the young men say like that haha

but thats awesome nora is back home and healthy! send me a picture of her sometime if you have time! ya i cant wait to hear general conference too. should be amazing! maybe can you send a pack of nike exercise socks? like the black ones that are maybe 15 cm above the ankle?  anyway i gotta go now! thank you mom and dad love you both!

elder carter

Week 60

hey not a ton of time today, but first of all happy birthday dad! the big 5 2 right? i will send you a new robe or something for your birthday... haha i dont have a lot of time because i got transferred! only 3 months in andong and out. dang. but it was a great last week there. brother kim jin hoon's father actually pasted away and he was really broken up about that. as we met with him he continued to say to us that he  was ready to be baptized and knew that was the right thing to do. he actually called us and felt really bad because at his dad's funeral he drank a little alcohol, but he quickly repented and wants to receive baptism! the only thing holding him back is his mom. his mom attends a different church very diligently and is against baptism in another church. we will have to wait and see what happens, but it really was a miracle to see him want to change like that. maybe he wont be baptized soon, but eventually! also our other investigator brother lee joong hui came to church this week! we met him on saturday for english class and had a really good lesson about the book of mormon and prayer. we invited him to church and he came and liked it. hopefully he will turn out good too! lots of miracles this last week!

my new area is daemyeong in daegu city. my new companion is elder Noh Young Joo, he is a few transfers ahead of me and cant speak english very well so i think i will learn a lot of korean this transfer. i need it! but overall it was a good week, thanks for sending pictures of hana, shes getting so big! just like a little boze... love you mom and dad, have a good week!

elder carter