Seoul Chaser: Nokbeon Week 12

Dear Family and Friends,

Hello from wonderful Seoul Korea. This place just continues to amaze me. It contains so many different surprises and great things. This week was definitely one of them. Before Elder Song left, we spent time this week saying our goodbyes to different people and eating together. It was definitely sad to see Elder Song leave who is just so full of energy and excitement. On Wednesday night, we had a trainers' training meeting in which we learned about how to help the new missionaries who are coming in. President talked with us for a while and put the pressure on for us to do well.

On Thursday, we had our transfer meeting and I got a new missionary from Wyoming. He just graduated from High School as a state champion wrestler. His name is Elder Collins, and he came in with Elder Apigo who is also getting trained in our district. In other news, President also called me as the district leader, another thing to stress out about. There are currently 6 Elders and 2 Sisters in our district, and three of them are new missionaries. Basically, I haven't been able to get off the phone for the past three days between all the stuff that comes up....

Training has been going pretty darn well this week. Let's just say that I am in the learning process, but I really enjoy the mix of pace, especially how excited new missionaries get about everything. I am continuing to notice all the cool things that actually happen that I have gotten used to. I can't even begin to imagine all of the blessings that God gives us without us even noticing. This week we tried a basketball class for the first time and 3 of the youth from our congregation showed up. Two of them came late. Unfortunately, none of them brought their friends, but we are planning for an increase next time. Luckily, I got some tips from Elder Yetter before he left on how to run a basketball class, so it went well.

On Saturday, after basketball class, we had a pretty packed day. We were in the middle of lunch when we got a call from a Sister at the church saying that an 80 year-old man showed up at the church wanting to learn and meet with us. So we rushed out of the house and met him, only to find out that he came to us looking for money for his hospital bill. We can't give people money as missionaries, so it was a little awkward situation, plus my companion had no idea what was going on. We tried to explain our message, but he had no interest in what we were sharing. Then we taught the 26year-old, Jang-hyeon, that we have been working with for the last month. It was super good to actually meet him again, and my companion committed him to baptism for October 11th! Jee-hoon helped us out with a great testimony and Elder Collins did a great job. We then shared messages at English Class and Family Night.

To finish up the week on Sunday we had a 2 hour ward council meeting after church. I went with Elder Jeong to the meeting for my first time and it was really interesting. I also realized that I was the youngest and only foreigner in the room... The meeting went a little long, but it was nice to get a feel for the direction that the ward is moving in. The best part of the night was a visit to a member named Brother An who has a wife and two little kids. We shared a message about serving like our Savior and talked about why that is so important. He gave some really great advice that really struck me. He talked about how when I leave this area that what he wants to remember about me are not my talents, looks, or speaking ability, but just how much I acted like and resembled the Savior. It was a great reminder of the thing that matters most is how well we act in harmony with our Savior's teachings.

Thanks for all the love and support from back home! Missionary work is so great!

Your Favorite Missionary,

Elder Wheeler