Seoul Chaser: Sokcho Week 26 - New Companion, Same Great Area!

Dear Family and Friends,

I'll start off this e-mail by saying that we had another really successful Branch Picnic. Since today is Buddha's birthday, a lot of people had time to come get together with us and just have a great time. We played various games including soccer and jump rope. Most importantly though, we had the great opportunity to spend some quality time with some less active members of the branch, some non-members, and our wonderful members while eating some delicious food . Today has just gone really well so far, regardless of the fact that I'll probably be sore for the next week....

My new companion is really chill but he works really hard, and is obedient. Since he's from Hawaii, he shows a lot of love and I'm just learning tons of new things from him everyday. As for some funny news, he has started to teach me Pigeon this week. For those of you who don't know what Pigeon is, it's basically a mix of bad English with a few Asian Languages. Sometimes it's harder to understand than Korean! Pigeon Word of the Day: Hemajang. Ask your Hawaiian friends for the definition.

This week was also awesome because we had the privilege to set two miracle baptismal dates. One was with our investigator Do-Yeong who is 16 and whose parents are pretty against him getting baptized. However, we both felt during the lesson that we could reach a baptismal goal with increased faith, commitment, and hopefully a few meetings with his parents. We are really excited to work with him to reach that goal this transfer.

The other miracle baptismal date came yesterday in our first meeting with a man by the name of Brother Beck. We originally met him on the street two days ago, and he told us of a nightmare he had where the grim reaper peeked his head out of the door and told him to come in. He said that he could not sleep for three days. He also said he went to his preacher, who told him that he need to have faith in Christ, but I think Brother Beck was still worried. When we met, the spirit was really strong as we talked about our purpose here on Earth and our quest to return back to our Father in Heaven though the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He was really open to try it and find more peace in his life.

One thing that I have learned a lot these past couple of weeks is the importance of trusting God and Jesus Christ. No matter the troubles or the uncertainty that seems to be there, a strong faith in Jesus Christ and obedience to the commandments will lead us through. It is just so important to rely on our Savior when no one else seems to be there or when all else fails. In the end, it really just comes down to trusting God, our leaders, and especially the Atonement of Jesus Christ to help us overcome anything that we may be struggling with. I feel like sometimes I have nothing left to trust other than my Savior and that's the time when I grow the most. There is nothing more sweet that the feeling of the spirit and that pure understanding.

Hope everyone had a great week and Happy Birthday Buddha!

Your favorite missionary,

Elder Wheeler