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Sunday, June 26, 2016

Dongdaemun Week 23


Dear Family and Friends,

We had a pretty interesting week with quite a few activities.  This past Saturday, we had a ward activity and a Zone activity that we have been planning with President and Sister Sonksen.  For our ward activity, we had a lot of English class members come and two of our investigators join us.  We played charades, threw water balloons, and ate some good Korean food.  Everyone seemed to enjoy it.  Afterwards, we traveled up to the mission home with Sang-Jae(our investigator) for hot dogs and ice-cream provided by President and Sister Sonksen.  We were trying to think of an idea to get all of our investigators involved and progressing towards baptism, so we agreed to have a Family Home Evening at President's house with all of the missionaries in the zone and their investigators.  We also watched a part of "Meet the Mormons" afterwards.  All of the investigators loved it and Sang-Jae committed to a baptismal date afterwards.

As for Brother Jo, one of our other main investigators, we met with him during the week and then at church on Sunday.  He also came to the ward party which he considerably enjoyed.  He still wants to get baptized, but it might take a bit more time than expected because of some of the commandments he has to keep to prepare himself fully for baptism.  We met him with a member who gave him some great advice, and then the Bishop also talked with him after church on Sunday which seemed to help.  The great thing is that he is developing great friendships with all of the ward members.

This week I also broke out my mom's cookie recipe and made cookies for a couple members and the missionaries.  Everyone was really surprised at how delicious they were.  We went to one of the members' houses on Wednesday and dropped some off for her birthday.  She was really thankful, especially for the card we wrote with it also.  As for other things that happened this week, we proselyted with a piano and a violin performance provided by some talented missionaries in the mission which was enjoyable.  I was also able to conduct another baptismal interview for an investigator who got baptized in Imun.  Its crazy to see how many prepared people there are here in Korea and how many miracles are happening in our Zone.

Thanks for all the love and support,

Your Favorite Missionary,

Elder Wheeler

Chase with people from the nursing home where the missionaries do service

Chase is now and expert at singing old Korean folk songs

Playing games at the ward party



Outdoor water balloon games at the ward party




Sang-Jae with Elder Kim, Elder Wheeler and two other missionaries
at the mission office


Sunday, June 19, 2016

Dongdaemun Week 22

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was enjoyable for a number of reasons but one of the most prominent reasons was the appearance of Elder Yamashita of the 70 for our mission tour.  He came with his wife and trained us on mainly 4 things: attitude, the gospel of Jesus Christ, working with church leaders, and teaching skills.  One of the most memorable moments was his explanation of the vision we should have for those who we work with or teach.  We need to picture the bigger goal of happy families sealed in the temple for eternity.  His wife also helped us make origami mouths to put in our scriptures to remind us that we need to open our mouths all the time.

As for the other weekdays, we spent quite a bit of time hitting the streets and talking to people.  Even when it poured rain and soaked my shoes through, we were still able to see lots of success contacting.  This Saturday was pretty busy between English Class, meeting with Jang-Choon, and then going to dinner with a member from our ward.  We did family history with Jang-Choon and got an account set up for him to use and research his own family.  The family history coordinator in our ward helped out a lot which was great.  

This Sunday, we had two of our Chinese investigators come to church for the 1st time.  It was a little hard for them to understand, but they really enjoyed the music and the spirit of the meeting.  We also taught them lessons after church which seemed to go really well. Brother Jo wasn't able to make it because of some other things that he has been dealing with, but he still looks like he will be able to be baptized in two weeks.  We finished up the night eating with the Bishop of our congregation and his wife at their house and talking about how we can do missionary work more effectively.  Plus, their kids are absolutely hilarious, so we had lots of fun.

As for random events that happened, we walked back to our house after visiting a less-active member when we saw Sister Evans and her entire family on vacation.  I came to Korea with Sister Evans, and she has long since finished missionary work, so it was pretty crazy to see her and her family.  We also hiked a mountain this morning for P-day which was really enjoyable.  Photos included.

Thanks for all the love and support! Oh and Happy Father's Day Dad! Love you! 

Your Favorite Missionary,

Elder Wheeler

Chase carrying a sleeping mat to another missionary's appartment


Elder Collins with Elder Wheeler, his trainer


Elder Wheeler and Sister Goo

Elder Ridge, Elder Wheeler and Elder Green

Elder Wheeler and Elder Seely
Elder Wheeler with the Seoul Temple President
and Matron, Hyae-Kee Min and Sung Sook Kim

Look who Chase ran into in Korea!  Sister Evans from his
MTC district who was visiting Korea with her family

Elders on a P-day hike





Elder Goo, Elder Ridge, Elder Kang and Elder Wheeler

Elder Green living on the edge!

Elder Kim and Elder Wheeler



Elder Goo, Elder Wheeler and Elder Ridge



Elder Wheeler and Elder Kang




Sunday, June 12, 2016

Dongdaemun Week 21

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was super fantastic and fun. I'll start off with Sunday because it was the most enjoyable.  So we've been working with Brother Jo, our investigator who was referred to us by one of the high councilmen in our stake.  Well, they had the high council speak during church and the member who referred Brother Jo came and spoke in our congregation.  It was really good and during his talk he talked about growing up with our investigator during the Korean war, and the ward (including our investigator) loved it.  After his talk, we also had a quick lesson where Brother Jo decided firmly on a baptismal date, the 3rd of July.  It was great having his member friend there to help during the lesson and his really strong testimony of the gospel.  That night we also saw a huge miracle as we were walking to go street boarding by Korea University.  We met a cool middle-aged couple that just loved us because they thought we were so mature at such a young age.  They currently attend a Christian church, but they were really interested in the Book of Mormon and learning more, and they wanted badly to invite us over for dinner!

This week, we also had the opportunity to meet with our recent convert at the temple.  While there, we met with the the Seoul Stake President who works at the temple and had a great lesson at the temple about the importance of family history.  Our recent convert loved the peaceful feeling at the temple.  Every time I go there, it just feels so different from Seoul.  Seoul is so noisy all the time, but as soon as one walks in the gates of the temple, it just becomes pretty quiet.  Before we went to the temple, we also met with a new investigator at Korea University who is Chinese.  For some reason, we seem to be meeting a lot of Chinese people which is really fun.  This guy was really interested in the identity of God and after we explained and taught him the gospel, he agreed to meet again.  When we first met him on the street a couple of weeks ago, he originally said he had no interest in learning about religion.

This week was super great and we went hard on the streets talking to lots of students.  It's test week this week though, so all of the students are pretty stressed! Although most of them were okay to talk for a bit!

Thanks for all the love and support! And Happy Birthday Mom!

Your Favorite Missionary,

Elder Wheeler

Elders Cable, Wheeler, Lewis, Kim, Kim and Barney bike riding
last P-day (June 6, 2016) along the Han River

Elder Cable

Elder Kim, Elder Lewis, Elder Cable, Elder Barney and Elder Kim

Elder Kim, Elder Lewis and Elder Wheeler

The Han River

Elder Barney

Elder Wheeler, Tae-Jin and Elder Kim getting ice cream

Elder Wheeler and Jang-choon at the temple

Elder Wheeler and Elder Kim at the Seoul Temple

Favorite child!!

Elders Green, Kim, Kang and Wheeler


Sunday, June 5, 2016

Dongdaemun Week 20

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was great and included an exchange with the Elders in Imun.  I went with Elder Lewis and we had a blast.  We even ate the biggest pork cutlet that I have ever seen for dinner which was fun.  Plus that Wednesday night, I had the opportunity to do the baptismal interview for a man named Jaihaun who is Chinese.  Communication during the interview was a little difficult, but with the help of a phone translator and the Spirit, it went really well.  He was very prepared and the actual service was held this Saturday at their branch building.  President Sonksen also came to the service and shared an interesting story.  While he was serving in the Stake Presidency in Ohio, he got a call from the Prophet, Howard W. Hunter, who told him to find a specific Chinese student attending Ohio University and set him up with the missionaries.  That story sort of blew my mind because the Prophet called about one specific person.  It really goes to show how the Lord loves each and everyone of us individually.  Jack, our Chinese investigator, came and really enjoyed the service.  He was able to talk with other Chinese people also loved President Sonksen's story.

This week we were able to meet with Brother Jo and also Jamie.  Brother Jo is doing well and seems to have a really strong testimony of Christ.  Right now he is slightly hesitant to make the step to baptism because of relations with his previous church.  Hopefully after a couple more lessons we can help resolve his concerns.  Jamie is an investigator that was orignally interested in English, but he is taking a real liking for the Book of Mormon.  He's and avid reader, so he likes reading out of the English Book of Mormon we gave him.  Although he feels like its too much pressure to come to church, he is willing to pray and read.

We had a lot more crazy and interesting experiences this week including a strange man coming to the church, asking to sit down and talk, and then requesting a knife.  My companion and I started to freak out a little bit until he explained that he brought bread and he wanted to cut it up. SIGH*

Sorry for the short e-mail.  Lots is happening right now and it's so fun to see the Lord's work progress! Thanks for the continuing support!

Your Favorite Missionary,

Elder Wheeler

Elder Coleman and Elder Wheeler

Elder Wheeler and Elder Han

Dongdaemun Zone

Elder Lewis and Elder Wheeler

The aforementioned pork cutlet

Elder Lewis

Mission accomplished!

Elder Lewis