Sokcho Week 29 - 100 Hours

Dear Family and Friends,

So this week, all said and done, was really crazy.  I definitely experienced some of the hardest things on my mission and some of the sweetest moments this week.  It all started with a hectic Monday.  After Monday morning spent talking to people on the street and emailing home, we took a bus ride out to a smaller town in an area north of Sokcho.  Since we had quite a bit of time, we decided to explore a less visited part of our area.  We spent about 4 hours there talking to people trying to share this great message, and we were literally rejected by every single person we talked to.  At one point, as we were talking to this college student, a girl shouted out behind us, "Cult!" which basically ended any continued conversation.  We felt like Alma and Amulek in that city, talk about modern day application!  Elder Choi and I had received a training last week from our Zone leaders on being positive, so we were pretty much silent about the whole situation, just trying to be patient.  After we left, we headed over to an appointment at an apartment building in Sokcho, but she was not there, so we decided to start knocking on doors in that apartment complex.  On the second floor we got to, a lady came out from her apartment, interupted a great conversation we were having with a man, and personally escorted us out of the building.  I was not in the best mood after that, but luckily my companion was there to help me out.  As we left the apartment, I just turned to my companion, and said, "Elder, we need to pray." After pretty much pouring our hearts out to God (I haven't really felt that dejected in a long time) and moreover expressing our frustration, we decided to go visit an old investigator who was close by.  As soon as we walked out of that apartment complex, Elder Choi and I immediately turned to the smell of some amazing garlic bread from the bakery right across the street.  We were basically hypnotized by the smell as we realized how hungry we were.  Right then, a man walking by stopped after we asked to shake his hand and invited us to eat bread at this bakery.  Being conscious of our money situation, I expressed a shortage of money.  Without hesitation, this man took us into the Bakery and bought us about $15 dollars worth of delicious bread, while the baker continued to bring out more.  I have never been more humbled and grateful by the grace and love of God.  I was in awe by the miracle that came at a time when I needed it most. I really felt overwhelmed by the spirit, recognizing an immediate answer to our prayers.  It is such a sacred experience to me that cannot be fully expressed here, but I feel inspired to share it so that others can see how well God takes care of us.  That day we talked to over 120 people on the street and went right to bed as soon as we got home.

 

Our entire week was full of amazing experiences that I am so grateful for.  Our investigator, Do-Yeong, came to church, and we were able to have some really great discussions about the Gospel with him.  We are still planning on him being baptized in a week and a half, if we can get permission from his parents by then.  He's a fifteen year-old kid, but he has a great heart and a desire to be baptized.  We also had a weird experience with an investigator that we met for the first time.  He is quite the interesting man, who at one point expressed we should talk more at the nearby beach.  Since we were having a good gospel conversation, we followed him, only to find that he had the intention of buying fireworks.  We stood helpless as he bought a thing of roman candles and shot them off at the beach.  We weren't sure what to do, so we called President, and he said we could watch.  We took some pretty hilarious pictures afterwards.
 

Thanks for all of the love and support.  There's not a lot of time to express all of my thoughts this week, so hopefully this phrase will suffice: Missionary work is awesome!
 

Your Favorite Missionary,

 

Elder Wheeler

Elder Choi and Elder Wheeler eating street food

Elder Wheeler eating in Sokcho

Man Elder Choi and Elder Wheeler are teaching

Lighting Roman Candles at the Beach

Elder Choi and Sokcho investigator

Elder Wheeler caught red handed

Chase trying to re-enact a 4th of July in Idaho?

Sokcho Branch youth night

Elder Shin blind folded at youth night

 

 

Sokcho Week 28

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was another really interesting week.  This past Monday, for our weekly P-day, we rented poles and went fishing.  We caught a fish in like the first 20 minutes, so we decided to go grab our fish ice box at the church which Brother Jeon gave us.  However, we had no luck catching anything but starfish when we came back.  It was a super fun experience though, and this cool guy came over and showed us how to do it.  After P-day was over, I went on exchanges with Elder Lanford, and we went to visit a member.  She was busy at the moment, so we went around knocking doors at the apartment there and had some good success.  Almost every door opened on one whole floor and we set up a return appointment and gave out some copies of the Book of Mormon.

On Tuesday, Elder Lanford and I headed over to the church to fix a sink that had been leaking water all over the floor.  We called a less-active member of our branch who hasn't been to church in about ten years and he came over and helped us out.  That was a super cool miracle along with the fact that he fixed our sink in like 20 minutes.  This week we also went to Gangneung again and had a really instructive training on discipleship.  We discussed how we can be better disciples of Jesus Christ and follow his example. One of the things they brought up was the option to do a hundred hour proselyting week.  Everyday this week we are going to get up at 5:30 and be out of the door by 6:30 and return at 9:30 at night.  We will have about 30 minutes for studies and basically dinner will consist of stops at the local 7/11's. Should be fun!

This week we also cleaned out an old house in Sokcho that elders have lived in in the past.  It's been vacant for about two years and was a real mess.  More importantly, we met with all of our investigators!  We had a super great talk with Do-Yeong and Brother Lim and our new investigator, JongNam.  Do-Yeong didn't come to church, but he wants to get baptized and we all did a fast together with him this past Sunday to get permission from his parents.  We discussed the baptismal interview questions with Brother Lim, and he is already keeping the Word of Wisdom!  He seems to really like our church, but he just does not have a strong enough testimony of the Book of Mormon yet.

I don't have a long time to write, but I'm again so grateful for all the love and support!  Sokcho has it's ups and downs, but overall, we're making progress.

Your Favorite Missionary,

Elder Wheeler

 

Fishing on P-day (6/1/15)

The catch of the day!

Elder Choi

Star fish

Elder Wheeler, Elder Shin and Elder Lanford

Sky writing in Gangneung

Yin Yang symbol

A home cooked meal

The blueberry farm in Yang Yang

View of Sokcho

The house that needed to be cleaned

Branch Activity

Elder Choi on the sling shot

Elder Lanford with his Angry Bird

 

Sokcho Week 27 - Combined Mission Conference

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was really fun and fulfilling.  The main part of this week was an awesome combined mission conference in Yeongdeungpo, which is in the Seoul South mission.  It was held at one of the biggest church buildings in Korea, and Elder Maynes came to speak to us.  We not only had the privilege to hear from him, but also from our mission presidents, President Ringwood and of course all of their wonderful wives.  The conference was inspiring, and we learned about the potential we each have and especially how to set and reach goals.  They talked a lot about planning and exercising faith through prayer to accomplish those goals.  The night before the conference, we were able to do a temple session.  It was great to have a chance to feel peace within the house of the Lord.  Living farther away from the temple has made me appreciate the importance and need of it.

This week, we had the miracle of finding out that one of our new investigators is actually a less active member of the church.  Elder Choi and I were both really surprised when we found out that he had actually been baptized about two years ago in Incheon.  We had a great lesson with him, and we're pleased to find out that he wants to come back to church, but he just has a couple of fears. 

On Saturday, we basically had a farewell party with all the members for our wonderful mission president and his wife.  They have both meant so much to us and to the members here in Korea.  Actually, the missionaries here in Sokcho did a really fun and embarrassing dance to an old popular song here in Korea.  The members loved it. 

As for our investigators, the awesome man with the baptismal date dropped us along with the pastor we were teaching. But we did have a great time teaching a man on the beach right outside of Sokcho.  We  thought we were going to teach him at his house, but he took us to this little pavilion on the beach.  It was a great lesson and he committed to pray about and read the Book of Mormon this week. 

Basically, this week has been just another awesome opportunity to learn and grow.  I still don't know a lot but this place has continued to pull and stretch me to the breaking point.  Sometimes it's really frustrating, but overall lots of happiness. Thanks for all the love and support!

Your favorite missionary,

Elder Wheeler

Seoul Korea Temple (5/27/15)

Elder Choi, Elder Lanford, Elder Wheeler and Elder Shin
in front of the Seoul Temple

Elder Wheeler and fellow Arizonan Elder Smith from the Seoul South Mission
 at the combined Seoul/Seoul South Mission Conference

Chase reuniting with MTC friends, Elder Andersen and Elder Picard,
at the combined mission conference (5/28/15)
 

Beach outside of Sokcho (5/30/15)

Elder Shin and Elder Wheeler at a beach pavilion

An investigator with Elder Wheeler

Members saying goodbye to President and Sister Christensen