1st week of the transfer- all is well

The first week of the transfer went well. I'm really excited for our ward. We have 4 part-member families that we and the sister missionaries are really working with. Elder Rob has been really good. He is willing to help me out with the language whenever I need it. That happens to be often. He knows much about the language so I am going to try to learn from him. We have many goals this transfer and we're both excited.
This week we went and visited Elder Rob's convert from this area. He is a really solid guy. He is the only member in his family, we want to talk to his wife. She actually comes to church fairly often and he really wants her baptized. I love new members. This week we have been working with the sister missionaries. We talk to them about the ward and are trying to help them out.

Our investigator, "Luffy" as he likes to be called, is leaving for Busan University soon. We will hopefully be able to refer him to the missionaries in the area. He should be moving either this week or next. It will be sad to see him go. It's hard because we get really close to our investigators but life goes on.

The picture is from the massive fish market. I think it's the biggest in Busan. It's really nice, for a fish market. These are live sting rays. I think the coolest/weirdest thing is seeing people buy a few eels, skinned in a bucket still trying to get out. Ya... haha. I love Korea!

A Foreign companion

Pictures: Singing "Let it Be", Fish Head soup, Elders Rob, Anderson, Clarke.

Ha, I bet you all thought my new companion would be Korean, but no. He's Australian. His name is Elder Rob. He has been out about a year and a half. He actually served in this area about 6 months ago for a transfer, now he is back. I'm really excited. Elder Snyder served with him in this area and loved it and I trust Snyder so I'm excited.

We spent pretty much all Preparation-day at the mission home which is really fun because we can see people we haven't seen for a long time. This past week was pretty busy. We went around and said alot of "good bye's." Elder Clarke will be home Wednesday. We had a kind-of Valentines party at the church on Saturday. It was way fun. It was basically just a music festival.

The Elders and the sisters sang "I will follow him" from the movie "The Sister Act". It was really fun. At the end they busted out the Karaoke for anyone to sing. It was so funny and interesting to hear older Koreans get us and sing Korean songs out of the 70's. Not quite the oldies I remember, but it was fun. We as missionaries got up and sang "Let it Be" by the Beetles. It was awesome. Koreans seem to really like Karaoke. It's definitely an Asian thing. I look forward to this transfer. Thanks for all the prayers and support. Love you all. Elder A

This week was another good week. I think that the most exciting thing was that the sister missionaries asked me to baptize their investigator. Well... the investigator asked me. It was really good. It happened yesterday. She is a 14 year old girl, the hardest thing was the prayer. It was my fist baptism. Anyway.

Our investigator came to church again and watched the baptism. We were really excited about that. He still has a bit to go though. It's really exciting to see him progress and to change his life for the better. I love seeing the gospel work in peoples lives. This week I am kind of preparing for the "death of Clarke" (meaning his companion will complete his 2 years of service and go home). I will have to know the area pretty well, I am still working on it. We have had a few run-ins with some foreigners as of late. It's really strange. This one time we were walking down the road and crossed a small 4 way stop. While crossing we here to the left of us someone yelled "HEY MORMONS!" from a distance.

We both were a little stunned and we saw this white guy kind of jogging toward us. He apologized for the frank introduction and it even turns out his name was Frank. What a coincidence. He just wanted to tell us that he appreciated what we were doing even though he didn't have any interest in our church. It was pretty funny and surprising. Sometimes we get used to being the only ones that speak English. This next week should be interesting. Next time I write I may have my new companion or at least know who it will be. Exciting. Love you all.

Elder Anderson

Bump- My 1/4 mark of my mission

6 months gone away. It's pretty crazy to think that I have already gone through 1/4 of my mission. Ha, definitely cannot speak this language yet but it's coming. I still need a lot of help though. I didn't really do anything except go to Outback Stake House to celebrate. It was fun because Elder Singleton (My MTC companion) was there plus it was both of our senior's 2 year mark. It was all sorts of fun. A lot of missionaries burn a tie or something like that but I didn't. I'm glad to hear that you did things for it. You're so lucky to be able to go to the temple whenever you want. From here it is a solid 5 hours to get to the Seoul temple.

The biggest thing that happened this week was our investigator came to church finally! It was pretty exciting. We taught him on Saturday a lot about the sabbath day and what we do. The spirit was so strong that when we finally got around to asking him again if he would come to church I kind of just knew he would. It was really good. He is really shy though so he just tagged along with us the whole time. The ward was great to him and really made him feel welcome. Well.... except one member that kind of attacked him when he found out that was his first time. It was overall good and he said he liked it. Progression! Ever so slowly but that is the way to go. I am really excited for him. Life is good here in Korea. I love the work. Thanks so much for the support and prayers.Elder Anderson