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

Dongdaemun Week 2

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was about as interesting as it could be.  After an average P-day, we started an exchange with some of the elders in our zone.  I went with Elder Skinner who is a little quiet, but pretty funny.  The exchange started off pretty normal with a district street boarding activity outside one of the Top 3 universities in Korea, Korea University. Our actual ward boundaries are really pretty small, but we have two big colleges that attract lots of people.  The street boarding activity went well, and we met lots of foreigners.  After the activity, Elder Skinner and I traveled to an appointment with an older guy that we had met on the street a couple days earlier.  He was really cool and the lesson was going well until two Elders from another church who he invited showed up in the Cafe.  And of course, the investigator didn't tell either of us that it was happening...It was still a good conversation, except the actual investigator didn't say a word after the other people walked in.  Hopefully, we'll meet again later where we can actually explain.  

On Wednesday, we had district meeting which went well.  We learned a lot about preparing and planning.  I feel that as a missionary, we plan to be busy and effective, regardless of the number of scheduled lessons we actually have.  After the district meeting, we hurried back to a meal with a church member who took us out to a meat buffet that is about a two minute walk from our church.  To follow that up, the next day, we were treated to chicken unexpectedly at the nursing home that we volunteer at.  Too bad we had already agreed to go with an investigator to an American style buffet.  Basically I had no room in my stomach for the next two days. 

This week I also had the privilege to go on exchanges with Elder Yetter who is the new AP in our mission.  It was super fun because we have pretty much been in the same Zone or area since the MTC.  We both talked a lot about how far we have come and all the experiences we have had.  To start off the exchange, we headed to another area in our district that is just absolutely packed with people.  I've never seen that many people in my life before.  It felt like there were moving mobs of people walking past our board as we tried to get people to stop.  The next day was interesting  because we had the opportunity to pick up a new investigator named Eddy, who is 60 years-old.  He's really pretty good at English, hence the English name, but we teach him in Korean.  We a have met him twice and in between the meetings he was telling us about how he couldn't stop thinking about what we said and how he feels like it might be his time to accept Christ into his life.  We ended up talking about prayer to help him get that relationship with the Lord started.  We also visited a 80 year-old lady who hasn't been coming to church lately because she has been taking care of her husband.  We talked and prayed with her.  She showed us all of the awards she got from the President of Korea for being such a good citizen.  It was awesome.

The best day was probably Sunday.  We went to a special Young Single Adult (YSA) congregation's sacrament meeting with our investigator who is a YSA.  His name is Brother Byeon and he has continued to come a long way.  He's a little shy, but it looks like he will get baptized soon if he can find the courage to give up drinking.  The meeting with the young single adult's in our ward was just really spiritual.  I felt strongly during the meeting as they shared the new Asia North Area Plan with all of us.  After the meeting, we spent a while visiting quite a few members that we didn't end up getting home in time to eat dinner.  

Thanks for all the love and support!  I testify of the miracles of this Gospel and the happiness it brings.

Your Favorite Missionary,

Elder Wheeler

A stream

Church Building in Dongdaemun

The missionary apartment in Dongdaemun

Dongdaemun Week 1

Dear Family and Friends,

What a wonderful and very interesting week.  After being in one area for such a long time, you could say it was hard to move, but change and new experiences are always worth it.  Basically, I moved into a missionary house that has been there for over 50 years.  It was built on the same lot as the church building, which was the first church building in Korea (i.e. lots of history)  The house is pretty big and meant for about 6 Elders, but it's just the four of us.  I'm serving with a Korean named Elder Kang who is awesome.  He is a convert and has a sweet testimony, plus he's fluent in Korean.  I'll definitely be speaking quite a bit of Korean for the next 6 weeks, although he is also fluent at English.  The building is the stake center and the number of people in the ward used to be quite a few, but now we're down to about 40 or 50 members who come out weekly.  They're all pretty sweet.  Plus, the bishopric is a bunch of newly-called 30year-olds who are absolute rockstars.  We don't have a lot going on in our area right now, but we have big plans to change that.

The investigator that we are working with right now is 33 years old and is named Brother Byeon.  He comes to all three hours of church and seems to actually enjoy it!  I taught my first lesson with him this past Sunday, and he wants to get baptized and follow Christ.  He just is struggling to give up drinking beer.  We have a baptismal date scheduled with him for the 21st of February.  Right now, we are also planning on focusing on the young men's group.  Right now we have two young men and they both graduate this year.  Once they graduate, we will have no young men's group for about 6 years.  Most of our goals focus around helping this ward survive and have a future.  We actually visited one of the young men this week because he didn't end up coming to church, and we had a sweet lesson with the whole non-member family.  Even a friend was there who asked to be referred to the sisters in the area where she lives!

Transfers this week also worked a different way.  Usually we have a big meeting where we meet our new companion and stuff, but this time, we just took a taxi right to our new area.  Sort of weird, but I spent the taxi ride well by teaching the driver the entire first lesson!  We also watched the world-wide missionary broadcast which was like the greatest thing ever.  It was so awesome to hear from the apostles as they gave such great advice on how to "Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts."  I'm so excited to be a more effective servant.  In other news, the weather here is absolutely killer cold.  I'm still not sure how I am surviving on these streets.  Apparently its like the coldest its been in about 15years....The wind is the worst part of it.  

Other than that, Korea is the best and super fun.  It still amazes me how there are lots of people still out on the street, but nothing opposes us sharing the gospel like cold, icy weather.  I feel like people have a really good reason to run away from us now hahaha.

Thanks for all the love and support!

Your Favorite Missionary,

Elder Wheeler

Elder Kang and Elder Wheeler

Bundled up for P-day

Nokbeon Week 29

Dear Family and Friends,

This week I got a transfer call to the beloved area of Dongdaemun!  After living here in the Nokbeon ward for over 7 months, it is time to leave.  I want to say that the time has flown by, but since every missionary says that, I'll resist.  Nokbeon ward has just been way too much fun, and I have made so many friends in my time here.  It was hard to say goodbye on Sunday, especially to so many ward members that I have spent so much time with.  Dongdaemun is also in a different stake and is the oldest building in the mission.  Plus the missionary house is in the church parking lot!

This week was pretty busy and we had lots of cool success, but for some reason it was just super cold.  We got to meet with our 25 year-old investigator, Tae-Geun who also came to church.  We met with one of the members and the lesson didn't go super well.  He was a little argumentative, causing him and the member to talk most of the time.  On the bright side he did come to church.  He's okay with getting baptized which is awesome, but it might take some time before he's ready. Because I'm leaving, they are combining Elder Coleman's and our area into one.  So Elder Collins and Elder Coleman will do a good job with them.  We also went back to the Pool House where we found that sweet potential investigator, and he is doing really well.  We talked a ton about the restoration and he had some really good questions.  He is now officially our new investigator.  He opened up the Book of Mormon and was like, "These sound exactly like Paul's words" "Even if this was found on gold plates, these words would be amazing." Moral of the story: The Book of Mormon is awesome.

Speaking of the Book of Mormon, Elder Collins and I have been reading the Book of Mormon together daily, and I have been focusing a lot on it personally again, highlighting all the references to God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost.  It's so interesting to learn the role that they play and how much Christ has done.  What's even more fun is that Elder Collins and I are reading it backwards by chapter.  Never done that before, but its pretty sweet.  I know that book is true.

Things we also did this week include meeting with our recent convert and helping him get ready for temple proxy baptisms.  He should be ready to go next week.  Too bad I'm transferring and I'll miss the opportunity!  But I'm excited to be with my new Korean companion.  I'll definitely have the opportunity to speak Korean more often and hopefully I'll be able to forget English by the time I go home.

Thanks for all the love and support,

Elder Wheeler

Nokbeon District before transfers

Elder Wheeler and Elder Collins with Tae-Geun

Chase with the Nokbeon Ward Clerk

Chase with the bishop of Nokbeon Ward

Chase with the stake presidency

Last temple day with Nokbeon District

Last English Class in Nokbeon Ward

Chase with a Nokbeon Ward Member

Chase with a Nokbeon Ward Member

Chase with a Nokbeon Ward Member