Seoul Chaser

Sunday, July 3, 2016

Dongdaemun Week 24

Dear Family and Friends,

This was a great last week in the mission field to finish on! We were in a lesson with our investigator, Sang-Jae, this past Tuesday and got on the subject of baptism, when he randomly asked, "Is it okay if I get baptized this Sunday?" So, we had a baptism this Sunday after church which was absolutely awesome. Unfortunately I did overfill the baptismal font and flood the church for the second time on my mission.....I still have no idea how that happened. Luckily, the Bishop came in with the wet vac and it was gone within 5 minutes! The ward will definitely have a hard time forgetting that Elder that flooded the church on his last Sunday hahaha. Anyways, Sang-Jae was super prepared and shared a great testimony concerning his experiences attending all kinds of churches, to meeting us on the street, and finally making the decision to be baptized. We also invited two talented missionaries in our mission to provide music at the baptism. They did a violin and piano duet mixing quite a few songs from the hymn book. Everyone was blown away.

Outside of the baptism this week, we had quite a few dinner and lunch appointments which meant that I was full of food 24/7. We ate with some Chinese converts from Nokbeon on Monday and then we ended yesterday at a Mongolian family's house. The mother always makes absolutely delicious food for us! This week we also met with a super cool 15yr-old kid who we met on the street. He used to go to church with his friends, but he has stopped attending recently, so we set up an appointment to meet and he showed up at the church. He seemed to enjoy it, and he likes basketball, so we shot some hoops for a bit with him.

This week also included going on exchanges with the Elders in Imun. I went with Elder Barney who is a stud. We met some really cool people in his area and did music proselyting by setting up a piano and violin outside of a big university. That went well and so did the English class that we taught that night. Nothing much else to report, other than that my mission is finally coming to an end. It's definitely going to be hard to say goodbye to so many of the friends I've made here. People often refer to missionary service as "The Best Two Years," which feels absolutely correct. There are just no words to fully describe how fulfilling two years of service to God is. I just really love missionary work. It probably gives me the biggest headache in the world sometimes haha, but there's nothing more joyous to see than someone changing their life and coming closer to Christ. I'm just glad to be a part of it.

See you soon.

Your Favorite Missionary,

Elder Wheeler

Elder Kim and Elder Wheeler eating out with Chinese friends

Sang-Jae's baptism, July 3, 2016

Elder Kim, Sang-Jae, Elder Wheeler

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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