Friends and Family,
Well this week went a lot faster and we have been constantly busy, which is a good thing. Elder Julseth walks super fast everywhere and it is almost always a struggle to keep up. My legs/feet are slowly getting used to all the walking/running that we do everywhere. We live about a 40 min walk away from the church building which is more than slightly inconvenient. Sometimes we take buses and the subway, which is nice, but it costs money. The public transportation is honestly amazing here, but all the subway lines are confusing.
I'm getting along super great with my companion. He works really hard and is super obedient. He follows every rule with exactness and that's a great example to me. The other two Elders in our apartment are funny and hardworking. We all get along really well, except for when they don't clean up after meals sometimes. I never really realized how much I like everything to be clean. Thanks Mom for that one! We all sleep on these mats/pads calleds "yo's." No one sleeps on the big mattress against the wall (from last week's photo). Apparently one of the Elders awhile back found it on the street and decided to bring it in....
There are 8 Elders and 2 Sisters in our district. The other four Elders live right next to the church and don't realize how good they have it. Our schedule for a typical day consists of exercising, eating breakfast, and getting ready from 6:30 until 8. From 8 to 1, we study and eat lunch. Since I'm new, they have us do two hours of companionship study. One of the main things I'm working on is a language pass-off program. In this program, we have to teach a certain number of things, memorize vocab, along with other sorts of stuff. After that, we usually talk to people on the streets until dinner. After taking about an hour for dinner, we again talk to people until 9:00 and at that point we come back to plan for the next day. Lastly, depending on what lessons we have scheduled, we adjust our schedules accordingly. We schedule stuff on our planners, and no mom, we don't have I-pads. We do have a flip phone, though, that helps a lot when we are trying to contact investigators.
The food here is pretty much all over the board. We spend most of our meals at home where we cook. I can't really cook, but I'm still alive so that's a bonus, right? I've had Ramen quite a few times here. Korean Ramen is spicy, way better, and flavorful. Sometimes we eat out when we don't have time to go home. I've had some pretty good McDonald's and I've also been to some authentic Korean Places. We have had chicken casa or (치킨 가스) which was dynamite. Occasionally, we eat at a member's home, which is always interesting.
I love my Mission President and his wife. They care and are super committed to the work. We actually live in a place called Gongduk (공덕), but our area is Mapogu and Sodemoongu. Our area goes down to the Han river and is such a cool place. Stuff is always happening - it's just like one big party all the time.
Recently, we've been teaching a lot more people about the gospel. We have been teaching a 40 year old guy with a wife and a kid who we met on the street. His name is 오민석 (Ominsuk). He seems to be super interested and loves the temple. He always buys us drinks and food from the local gas-station marts. We are also teaching 이동원 (Idongwon). He is 21 years old and is curious about our beliefs. It actually amazes me that so many people are actually interested. I think that If I hadn't been born into the church, I probably would have never given this gospel a chance and met with the missionaries. I'm so glad I was raised as a member so that I could share this happiness with others.
Lastly, we taught this guy named T.G. He is 25 and thinks that a lot of the things about our church make perfect sense like God's plan for us. However, he doesn't believe that God exists. I was able to tell him that if he prayed to God, he could know He was there. As I said that, The Holy Ghost confirmed what I was saying. It was quite the feeling of joy and peace. I really hope he prays and comes to know for himself that God is there.
Last Sunday we actually had a guy come to church! Oh and at church, they had me speak in Korean. I've spoken in front of thousands of people but I was not as nervous then as I was in front of group of 150. I did alright though and a bunch of members came up to me and told me how good my Korean was. My Korean is slowly starting to improve. I can say some of what I want to say, it just goes really slow.
Here's a quick story: This week, we were walking along the road back to our apartment when we saw a trail of blood. After following it, we came to this big pool of blood on the ground. We then looked up and saw a smashed store glass window that was boarded and taped up. I'm not sure what happened, but I attached a picture of the window. I leave that up to you to figure out what happened.
Love your favorite Missionary,
Elder Wheeler
Well this week went a lot faster and we have been constantly busy, which is a good thing. Elder Julseth walks super fast everywhere and it is almost always a struggle to keep up. My legs/feet are slowly getting used to all the walking/running that we do everywhere. We live about a 40 min walk away from the church building which is more than slightly inconvenient. Sometimes we take buses and the subway, which is nice, but it costs money. The public transportation is honestly amazing here, but all the subway lines are confusing.
I'm getting along super great with my companion. He works really hard and is super obedient. He follows every rule with exactness and that's a great example to me. The other two Elders in our apartment are funny and hardworking. We all get along really well, except for when they don't clean up after meals sometimes. I never really realized how much I like everything to be clean. Thanks Mom for that one! We all sleep on these mats/pads calleds "yo's." No one sleeps on the big mattress against the wall (from last week's photo). Apparently one of the Elders awhile back found it on the street and decided to bring it in....
There are 8 Elders and 2 Sisters in our district. The other four Elders live right next to the church and don't realize how good they have it. Our schedule for a typical day consists of exercising, eating breakfast, and getting ready from 6:30 until 8. From 8 to 1, we study and eat lunch. Since I'm new, they have us do two hours of companionship study. One of the main things I'm working on is a language pass-off program. In this program, we have to teach a certain number of things, memorize vocab, along with other sorts of stuff. After that, we usually talk to people on the streets until dinner. After taking about an hour for dinner, we again talk to people until 9:00 and at that point we come back to plan for the next day. Lastly, depending on what lessons we have scheduled, we adjust our schedules accordingly. We schedule stuff on our planners, and no mom, we don't have I-pads. We do have a flip phone, though, that helps a lot when we are trying to contact investigators.
The food here is pretty much all over the board. We spend most of our meals at home where we cook. I can't really cook, but I'm still alive so that's a bonus, right? I've had Ramen quite a few times here. Korean Ramen is spicy, way better, and flavorful. Sometimes we eat out when we don't have time to go home. I've had some pretty good McDonald's and I've also been to some authentic Korean Places. We have had chicken casa or (치킨 가스) which was dynamite. Occasionally, we eat at a member's home, which is always interesting.
I love my Mission President and his wife. They care and are super committed to the work. We actually live in a place called Gongduk (공덕), but our area is Mapogu and Sodemoongu. Our area goes down to the Han river and is such a cool place. Stuff is always happening - it's just like one big party all the time.
Recently, we've been teaching a lot more people about the gospel. We have been teaching a 40 year old guy with a wife and a kid who we met on the street. His name is 오민석 (Ominsuk). He seems to be super interested and loves the temple. He always buys us drinks and food from the local gas-station marts. We are also teaching 이동원 (Idongwon). He is 21 years old and is curious about our beliefs. It actually amazes me that so many people are actually interested. I think that If I hadn't been born into the church, I probably would have never given this gospel a chance and met with the missionaries. I'm so glad I was raised as a member so that I could share this happiness with others.
Lastly, we taught this guy named T.G. He is 25 and thinks that a lot of the things about our church make perfect sense like God's plan for us. However, he doesn't believe that God exists. I was able to tell him that if he prayed to God, he could know He was there. As I said that, The Holy Ghost confirmed what I was saying. It was quite the feeling of joy and peace. I really hope he prays and comes to know for himself that God is there.
Last Sunday we actually had a guy come to church! Oh and at church, they had me speak in Korean. I've spoken in front of thousands of people but I was not as nervous then as I was in front of group of 150. I did alright though and a bunch of members came up to me and told me how good my Korean was. My Korean is slowly starting to improve. I can say some of what I want to say, it just goes really slow.
Here's a quick story: This week, we were walking along the road back to our apartment when we saw a trail of blood. After following it, we came to this big pool of blood on the ground. We then looked up and saw a smashed store glass window that was boarded and taped up. I'm not sure what happened, but I attached a picture of the window. I leave that up to you to figure out what happened.
Love your favorite Missionary,
Elder Wheeler
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| Seoul Korea Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints |
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