Dongdaemun Week 9

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was really exciting and enjoyable.  For last week's P-Day, we started off with a big basketball game with a bunch of Elders from various Zones. It was pretty enjoyable meeting at the biggest church building in our mission and playing B-ball together.  We also spent quite a bit of time this week proselyting in another area in our Zone, trying to help them jump-start their area.  We  street boarded there on Tuesday and spent some time on Saturday teaching their English class with them.  

This Sunday we had a pretty cool miracle at church.  So believe it or not, there are quite a few Mongolian members at our church and at one point the missionaries were baptizing so many Mongolians, they had plans to open up a Mongolian branch, but it never got that far.  The missionaries haven't had Mongolian investigators for quite awhile, until one of the Mongolian sisters, attending college here, brought her boyfriend to church yesterday.  We actually had a lesson with him and he committed to come to church next week and take the next lesson.  It was a really cool miracle.  Along with that, Brother Khosobayer (another Mongolian member) was called as our new ward mission leader.  Luckily, he's really good at Korean so it's easy to communicate.  Unfortunately, I don't speak enough Mongolian to communicate fully with our investigator though.  Along with Mongolians, there are also lots of Chinese people in our area.  Elder Ashby and I are starting to study Chinese during our lunch times and we've actually started to get pretty good.  Since we meet so many Chinese people on the street, we've got down phrases to use such as "hello, I'm an American, We are missionaries, Are you a Chinese person?, Do you believe in the existence of God?, nice to meet you, I like church and Jesus Christ." Not bad for a week, but my pronunciation is terrible to say the least.  

This week we also met with one of our super awesome investigators, Dongwon.  He is the 31yr-old cryptography major college student I talked about.  Anyways, we're teaching English along with the gospel as part of the English Program that we offer to people on the street.  He is pretty good at English and is accepting the gospel part really well.  The only problem he has is waking up for church.  After our lesson with him on Saturday, we ate with the stake as part of the night held for the anniversary of the Relief Society, which was conducted at our building.  He definitely enjoyed the food and the atmosphere.

As for another sweet miracle, I went on exchanges with Elder Green, a missionary from Mesa and a district leader in our Zone.  Well, during our exchange, we met this 75yr-old guy who committed to come to church.  Well (here's the miracle part), he actually showed up to church and when the other Elders, along with the gospel principles teacher, told him about prophets, he exclaimed that "this has to be the true church because it has prophets!" He also committed to a baptismal date for next month.  Basically lots of unexpected things happened this week that were totally awesome.

Thanks for all the love and support.

Your Favorite Missionary,

Elder Wheeler

Eddy with Elder Ashby and Elder Wheeler

Dongdaemun Week 8

Dear Family and Friends,

This week started with a great training with President about the Easter initiative and how we're going to apply it.  We saw the wonderful new Easter video made by the church and learned a lot about the importance of the Resurrection.  (Here's a link if you want to watch it - it's 2 minutes long):  #Hallelujah Video—Find New Life 

				#Hallelujah Video—Find New Life Though Jesus Christ was crucified, He rose from the dead. This Easter, find out how, through Jesus Christ, we too can find new life. Watch this video to learn more.
				View on www.mormon.org	Preview by Yahoo

After our monthly Zone Training meeting on Wednesday, I started exchanges with a younger Korean missionary named Elder Ryu who is serving in Hwayang.  They just white-washed that area (both missionaries are new to and opening the area so there are no previous contacts)  so they currently don't have a lot going on right now, so we were able to spend a lot of time talking about finding new investigators!  During the exchange, we also helped the Relief Society President basically rearrange everything in her house.  That was super fun, but a lot more than we expected. We ended up bringing desks and big wardrobes down the staircase from the second story.  Also this week, we attended soccer with our investigators and youth in another area in our stake.  We had a blast again, and when we finished we headed right to the Elder's house in that area to shower before we left for a baptism in ShinChon.  Well we couldn't find the other Elder's house and they didn't pick up their phone, so we ended up changing in the subway station bathroom before we hopped on the subway for ShinChon. We searched for this place for ever and by the time we took the bus to the Subway station and hopped on the train, we were projected to arrive about 20 or 30 minutes late.  Two of Elder Ashby's investigators were getting baptized, so we had to be there, and we ended up arriving right before the actual performance of the baptism.  That was definitely one experience that I will never forget because we got there on time miraculously for the baptism.

This week for our investigators, unfortunately, no one showed up to church, but we found a super sweet new investigator.  He is about 30 years old and is a couple inches taller than me.  He asked some amazing questions about our church and right now is finishing graduate school in the field of cryptography.  Both of his parents were divorced when he was a kid, and he seems to really be looking for something more in his life.  As for our other investigators, most of them were too busy to meet this week with Korean school starting up and all.  However our investigator who is a senior in high school is doing well and we have an appointment with him tonight.  

This past P-Day was also probably one of the most fun P-days ever.  We went to the wax museum and back which was thoroughly enjoyable.  I'm so grateful for the opportunity to work with so many great members in this ward too.  This past Sunday we visited another less active member with the first counselor and he agreed to come out this next Sunday to church.  We ended Sunday night by eating dinner with the Bishop and his family who are amazing.  

Thanks so much for all the love and support.

Your Favorite Missionary,

Elder Wheeler

Chase ran into all sorts of famous people this week!

Bruce Lee

Al Pacino

Robert De Niro

Steven Spielberg and ET

Albert Einstein

Gandhi

President Obama who even let the missionaries climb aboard

Air Force One

Tom Cruise

Tiger Woods

Elder Ashby relaxing at his desk

A Korean woman playing a cool instrument

Dongdaemun Week 7

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was a very interesting week.  After Elder Kang left, I spent some time joining Elder Erickson and Elder Ridge's companionship.  It is actually quite difficult proselyting on the street with  three missionaries instead of just two.  Well, we met a potential investigator at this Cafe which went well.  He said the reason that he decided to meet with us again was because I said that we wouldn't force him to believe.  We taught him the entire first lesson and he committed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. I again realized how influential choice is in our Heavenly Father's plan.  We share this wonderful message with others and it is left up to them to act up the things we have shared.  We also spent a lot of time talking with students in that area.  One of the best things about the area I'm currently located in is the presence of one of the Top 3 universities in Korea, Korea University.  All of the students here are like ridiculously smart, so it makes talking with them really enjoyable.

On Wednesday, my new companion, Elder Ashby arrived.  We have been serving with each other since that time and it has been really enjoyable.  It's been pretty weird since we both knew each other from the MTC.  This week we got fed twice by an investigator that we are trying to help.  His name is Eddy, and he took us out for dinner on Thursday and Saturday.   He really needs our message, but at the same time, doesn't feel a need to hear it.  Luckily, he came this week to English class and enjoyed it so much that he committed to come to church the following day.  However, due to his back problems, he was unable to attend.  We did have one investigator show up though.  Brother Byeon came to church again and we watched the restoration with him.  He said he felt goosebumps and was super glad to be able to visualize what happened to Joseph Smith.

Other things we did this week included visiting a sweet member family in our ward.  The father is American and his wife is Korean, so it was an interesting dynamic of using both English and Korean for our message.  We also visited a less active member of our congregation with the former bishop of our ward. As for Saturday, we started out by handing out English flyers, only for the rain to start with a continuous downpour.  My shoes were soaked through.

As for a cool miracle this week, we were walking out of our house towards an appointment, when I  felt the prompting to turn down another way where a guy was standing.  We started to talk to him when this lady popped out her store telling us that she wanted to learn English with her daughter!  So, we set up a program to teach her the gospel and English every week and referred her to the sister missionaries in our ward. Missionary work is amazing and the gospel is the best.

Thanks for all the Love and Support!

Your Favorite Missionary,

Elder Wheeler

Elder Ashby making sure to knock on every door!

Elder Wheeler and Elder Ashby in front of the church

Dongdaemun Week 6

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was probably one of the craziest weeks I've had on my mission.  It started off with temple day on Tuesday which included our P-Day.  Well, we were deciding where to eat lunch after the temple visit, but a couple places were packed with customers, so we ended up at a meat buffet in ShinChon area.  But boy did I regret that decision. The next day, I woke up at about 6:15 and my stomach was killing me.  I asked Elder Ridge for some pills and as he was getting them for me, I followed him into his room where I threw up everywhere.  I felt bad for throwing up in their study room, but my body felt even worse.  Let's just say I got really bad food poisoning to the extent that my back was sore for the next day because my spine put so much effort into pushing the food out.  Well, I'm completely fine now, but surviving district meeting, an appointment with an investigator, and English class was probably one of the hardest things I've ever done on my mission.

On the next Thursday, I had a miracle filled experience with Elder Ridge on exchanges.  We went to visit a less-active who was referred to us by a missionary living in the area right next to ours.  So we headed over there only to find his older brother who wouldn't tell us anything about his brother who moved.  So after the short conversation, we decided to knock on the door right next to it, remembering that in Preach My Gospel (PMG) it says to knock on the neighbor's doors when visiting a referral (surely a prompting from the spirit).  Well, two young men our exact same age opened the door, let us in and we proceeded to teach a lesson and set up a return appointment.  The kid's English name is Brian and he originally came to believe in God through a dream he had a year ago.  I again realized how important it is to follow PMG and how much the Lord is in control of His work.  All we have to do is obey and the Lord will bless us bountifully.

On Friday, there was a baptism in the area next to ours.  The investigator read the entire Book of Mormon in a month before he was baptized.  Plus, when he went to visit the temple a couple days before his baptism, he met his high school friend who had gotten baptized weeks earlier.  They were both shocked to find out that the other was attending the same church.  Our investigator came for the baptism but had to leave 10 minutes before the service started because his house water pipes broke.... However, it was an amazing baptism, even if the water was a little cold.

In other news, stake conference was this week, and it went really well.  Our 19yr-old investigator came to the Saturday night session with his new friends in the stake who he met thru playing soccer on Saturday mornings.  We also went to soccer this past week, and it was pretty fun.  More importantly though, we got to hang out with 3 non-member friends who the young man in our ward brought.  Then on Sunday our mission President and his wife both gave great talks in Korean.  I was especially inspired by Sister Sonksen who did such a great job.  The day ended with proselyting while handing out Hot Chocolate in a randomly big snowstorm.

My companion Elder Kang went home this morning because his two years are up.  My new companion, Elder Ashby arrives on Wednesday and for the time being, I'm doing missionary work with Elder Erickson and Elder Ridge.  Elder Ashby has been on his mission for 6 weeks longer than I have and he goes home in two transfers, which means I have 3 left.  Elder Kang and I had a great last week together teaching investigators, especially the new couple that we are meeting with. 

Thanks for all of the love and support.

Your Favorite Missionary,

Elder Wheeler

Elder Wheeler and Elder Kang eating

at a conveyor belt sushi buffet with

an investigator

Chase with Elder Kim and Elder Yetter, APs

Elder Wheeler with Elder Lee from the MTC

Photos from a trip to the zoo on P-day

Enjoying a snow storm!

Elder Kang and Elder Wheeler's last photo

Chase with his new companion, Elder Ashby

Dongdaemun Week 5

Dear Family and Friends,

Talk about a week of miracles, specifically as we were walking to email today.  So we finish making calls to old investigators and outside on the sidewalk we see this guy on his phone just standing there.  We introduced ourselves and he just starts trying to talk to us in English.  After we convince him that I can speak Korean and that my companion is Korean, he finally starts to tell us this insanely crazy story.  Basically, he's been to a bunch of different churches, and his last church is forcing all of the saints to learn English and move to Africa because the Korean land has apparently been "cursed."  Not only that, but amongst his associations, his friends have been telling him that his brother who committed suicide and his mother who died from the shock of the entire event are both going to hell because they didn't attend church, and this poor guy is just suffering from all of the guilt for not converting his family before they passed away.  He is so distressed with all these things that he is in the middle of sending a text to his old church as we walk up the street and start talking with him.  Long story short, he accepted a baptismal date and agreed to come on Sunday all while just eating the Plan of Salvation right up.  I could just see the relief when we told him about the spirit world and the next opportunity his mom would have to believe in Christ.  The longer I'm here the better I understand how truly applicable this gospel is.  He lives in the area next to ours, so the missionaries in our zone will get a sweet referral.  

This week I also had the opportunity to go on exchanges twice with two amazing missionaries.  On Wednesday we went to 이문 for exchanges, and I spent the day with Elder Seely who is super successful as a district leader.  Its great to see how many investigators he is teaching and how many are progressing.  We also did a fun street-boarding activity where we had people write their dreams on this board.  I learned a lot from Elder Seely as a goal setter.  I was really impressed with how well he sets goals and achieves them.  We also went on exchanges with the Elders in 화양 who are struggling a bit.  I had the opportunity to serve with Elder Carmen from Michigan who surprised me with how well he listens.  He is just a really greater learner.

For other news with investigators, we are teaching this awesome couple who have one child as investigators.  They are just super nice and I'm so pumped about teaching a family.  Also one of the investigators that is our young man's friend is making great progress.  We met and he kept his commitment to pray.  He'll probably get baptized, but we'll need his parents permission first.  The mom told her son not to until he graduates high school, which is like a year away.  Since I've gotten here, we have seen so many miracles with a big increase in investigators and member involvement.  

This past Sunday, we went on splits with the bishopric after church and it was super fun.  We had agreed to visit a less-active and asked the bishopric to help us out.  I had the chance to tag along with the second Counselor as we took the sacrament to an awesome older lady and after we visited the non-member parents of the young man in our ward.  I was excited to finally use a car.  Way more effective...Plus, the bishopric seemed to enjoy it and recognize how much we are working with the less-actives in our ward.  

This work is so fulfilling and filled with miracles.  Thanks for all the love and support.

Your Favorite Missionary,

Elder Wheeler

Chase's Zone
Chase is in the back row, 5th from the left

Zone Conference Photo

Zone Conference Photo

A cold, snowy day in Korea

Elder Wheeler and Elder Kang

Elder Kang and Elder Wheeler with one of the districts in his zone.

Chase's desk (complete with family photo) with Elder Kang

in the background.

Dongdaemun Week 4

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was pretty special in Dongdaemun.  One of the biggest miracles that we were able to see was working with a friend of one of the young men in our ward.  One of the two young men in our ward is a recent convert, and he is super good at missionary work.  This Saturday morning, after joining the young men and the young men's leader in basketball and ping-pong, we sat down and watched the church made movie, "Meet the Mormons."  The non-member friend named Hyeon-seung said he felt something special while we were watching it.  He ended up telling us that he is interested and willing to learn about our church for three reasons: 1. Church Soccer Tournaments 2. Girls 3. Something to rely on.   Although it's only number 3, its definitely something to build on.  He was even willing to come to church until his mom told him "Don't go because that church is a cult."  That was pretty disappointing, but its sort of expected because that's the general opinion floating around currently because people have never been and don't really know much about our church.

This week we also met with a less-active member of our congregation who I called off church records.  He got baptized about 15 years ago and hasn't talked with missionaries since he left the church.  He originally joined because he played basketball with the missionaries and didn't mind church, but because of the intense pressures from work and his parents, he stopped coming.  We met him and he bought us some delicious food as we talked about his experiences with the church.  It looks like we'll be meeting more in the future.  He wasn't the only person to feed us this week.  We had a record setting 6 meals with members, investigators, and less-active members.  Two of them were buffets and the other ones sure felt like buffets.  I felt really fat this week to say the least.  It's hard to not eat a ton because its considered rude if you don't eat very much or leave food on your plate...

This week we enjoyed cleaning our house like crazy.  This missionary house has been around for about 50 years.  It is so old that our previous Mission President was trained in the very house. It was definitely a long, hard job.  Plus we had a long awaited conference with the AP's and President.  We talked more about preparing and Sister Sonksen gave a great training on forgiveness.

Brother Byeon is doing well, but this week when we met him at church he seemed pretty discouraged with keeping the word of wisdom and instead suggested just attending church without actually getting baptized.  He is such a good guy and the members really like him too which helps a lot.  It might take some time for him to be baptized, but he is definitely a really strong investigator. As for other things we did this week, we stopped by Costco with some other missionaries because they needed some supplies for an activity in their branch.  We also ended the week making Hot Chocolate out of a rice cooker for people on the street.  That was pretty fun.

Thanks for all the love and support.

Your Favorite Missionary,

Elder Wheeler

P.S. Korea is awesome

Making Dumplings with a Mongolian family

Sometimes, you heed the call to the mother ship!

Dongdaemun Week 3

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was pretty interesting and ended with quite the big holiday, The Chinese New Year. The most time consuming event this week, though, was our Zone Training meeting along with the whole day of preparation before.  We talked and learned a lot about studies and preparing for the day in the morning.  It definitely helped me to realize how important it is to prepare for the day and use our three hours of study time effectively.  After the meeting, I went on an exchange with the district leader in Dongdaemoon and talked a lot about our zone's focus on preparation.  My district leader's name is Elder Erickson, and we came to Korea at the same time.  The exchange went really well and we were able to meet with a less active member of our church whose father is opposing the church really hard.  It was a miracle that we met him as he was walking outside his house, otherwise his father wouldn't have let us talk with him.  

This week we weren't able to meet with Brother Byeon because of the huge holiday that is occurring.  Usually for three days, everyone leaves Seoul and goes to their hometown to do a ceremony for their ancestors, called 제사(Jesa).  We were, however, able to meet with Eddy who is doing well. He keeps telling us how he is starting to feel a need for religion, but he's fearful of all the changes that will come with it.  He talks a lot, and it seems like in the future he will make a change and start coming to church.  Right now its a little difficult because his back is hurting him, and he is pretty well rooted in his ways.  As for other investigators, we are working with friends of the young men in our congregation.  We played soccer this week with a bunch of the young men in our stake because one of the young men from our congregation brought two of his non-Mormon friends.  We then had a lesson with the friend afterwards.  It went well, but it sounds like his parents are not very fond of Christian churches.  Regardless, my legs are feeling it from the hour plus of soccer that we played. 

Yesterday, few members came to church because they are all out traveling, but it was still a great testimony meeting.  Not a lot of people were out on the street either because of the holiday, so we decided to knock on doors at an apartment complex by our house.  Well, it was going pretty well until the apartment administrator came up.  He just started screaming at us for knocking on doors and trying to share a message, like he was not happy.... Oh well.  We've also been trying a variety of things such as calling old investigators and walking around high schools as the kids are released.   We've had quite a bit of luck calling people who have met with the missionaries in the past.  Unfortunately, we have to spend more time on the phone.  Lastly, we had a great visit with a Mongolian family in our ward who is awesome.  They broke out all of these interesting bread creations and dried yogurt, some of the strangest things I have tasted in my life, but surprisingly good.

Thanks for all the love and support during these holiday seasons.

Your Favorite Missionary,

Elder Wheeler

Elder Wheeler and Elder Jeong

Elder Kang with the family from Mongolia