Baptism of Roshan

Elder McKenna, Roshan and Elder Anderson

Elder Anderson and Elder E. Tay Hee (Elder Lee) (current companion)

Highlight of the week: Roshan's Baptism! It was on Saturday and was my team's first baptism since the start (about 6 months ago) It was really exciting. It was a humble gathering of 6 missionaries along with the bishop and ward mission leader. It was really good though. We did it all in English. Elder McKenna was able to baptize him. Roshan talks a lot about God's plan for him and how he has no idea how he really came to Korea but that it was God's plan for him. So much faith.

The rest of the week was good. We have been doing a lot of member work because we are both so new in the ward now. We were going around and visiting people one time this week and we were trying to cross a 5 lane highway. There was a light so it was fine but the problem was that there was a drunk man staggering his way to the middle of the road yelling at cars as they went by and around him. He was backing up a lot of traffic and causing quite the problem so Elder 이 went ahead and called the police. We were just going to walk away but he thought the police would get there in under 2 minutes and frankly I didn't have that kind of trust in the Korean police force. They'd be at lest 10 minutes in the US. He proved me wrong, about 30 seconds later there was a police car with it's lights on. They popped out of the car and semi-aggressively put him into the car. That's us doing our part in the community.

Here is something interesting for all readers. Pretty much every Korean knows who MacGuyver is. Turns out that the thing that we call a Swiss army knife to them is a MacGuyver knife. Well it's more like "Mik-gai-bu" in Korean. Fun stuff. Korean is really fun. It was nice to see McKenna again for the baptism. Thanks for the support.

From Elder Josh Bocchino's blog about the baptism: Saturday, we went up to Taegu (I'd never been there before). It's a HUGE city up north of Pusan, and is a major concentration point for the US military presence in Korea. My companion needed to go up to baptize a man he was meeting with before he transfered down to me. The man is named Roshan and is from Sri Lanka. He is sooooooooooo cool! He's maybe 30s or 40, and had to leave Sri Lanka due to the ethnic war that has been raging for years. His religious background is Roman Catholic. He used to be in the Sri Lankan military. He has so much faith and is thankful that the Lord led him to Korea to meet with us. He's so thankful to have found the Lord's Church. My testimony was definitely strengthened from meeting with him. It was a very humble but very spiritual baptismal service. Man, it pretty much made my week. Elder B

Don't worry mom, life is good

It's really nice to have a Korean companion. Its pretty fun. I definitely wouldn't call him a hard companion by any means. I've been really blessed. Life is still going good, 이태희 is really fun. We both are teaching each other a lot with our languages. He only has 2 transfers after this so he is pretty good but not near to fluent in English so we struggle together.

(picture: Caleb with Elder McKenna)

I don't know if I told you this but I broke my glasses last transfer. Luckily it's way cheap to get new frames. I went to a store and they popped out my lenses had me choose new frames and put them in. All for under About $6. I was pretty excited and I like them. The BYU wind symphony is coming to Korea soon and so there are posters all over the churches. I was looking at one and I noticed Hanna Bates was on the picture! Ha, we wont be able to see them unless the whole ward goes together and we bring an investigator but that's OK. Is there anyone else I know in the group coming? The director does the tours to Europe (Don Peterson) so I know him as well. This week has involved a lot of Sri Lankans.

We meet with Roshan again and he will be getting baptized next week. We also set up an appointment to meet with him and some other Sri Lankans that other missionaries are teaching. That same day we were walking around and I saw an Indian-looking person so I went up and started talking. Sure enough he's from Sri Lanka as well! He even knows Roshan. He said he would be willing to meet us with Roshan. Roshan has a lot of respect in the small foreign community because of the type of person he is. Maybe that may be able to open some doors.

Yesterday we also had president interviews. I really like President Jennings. We talked a lot about my companion and the language. He always has amazing things to say. He is such an awesome person. Well, that's about it from me for this week. Hope everything is still going good. Thanks for the support. Love you all. Elder Anderson

pictures: 1)Elders Anderson, Clarke and Singleton (MTC comp)

2)Elders Robb, Anderson, Clarke

3)Elders Bocchino, Anderson, Clarke, ?

4) Our Orem Utah Korean Friend Julia and son Jaemin and husband make a special trip from Seoul to visit Caleb in Busan in February

6th companion- E. Tay Hee (Elder Lee)

So..... for the second time we received a random call from presidentJennings and for the second time a drastic change occurred quickly. We had a mid-transfer split with another team. I am now with a Korean companion named 이태히 (Ee Tae He). The call came on Saturday and I am now with my new companion. It's going to be good I think. Forever more Elder McKenna will by my 2 week companion. My new companion is an older Korean. I think its going to be a good rest of the transfer. It was sad to see Elder McKenna leave, we got along really well but this is the plan for me. This means that in 5 transfers I have had 6 companions and I was with 1 for 2. Ha. I am definitely going to learn a lot. Roshan is doing well. We had general conference this last weekend and he was able to come to one of the sessions. He is so strong and has so much faith. He firmly believes that it is God's plan that he is here meeting us in the random country of Korea. Wow. Because we have been in a kind-of rush these last couple of days this letter is going to be short. Hopefully I have more time next week to read all your emails and what not. Thanks for the support. Elder Anderson

A great week in Teagu

First of all I left my camera at the house because it is charging so no pictures this week, sorry. This week has been amazing. I really like Elder Mckenna. He is only 2 transfers older than me, he is still pretty good at the language and good at working. We get by most of the time. We are having a blast and working hard. We have done a lot of street contacting and are having a lot of success. The Lord blesses if you do your best. A couple of days ago we got 8 contacts, more than any other day on either of our missions. Not that stats matter, it's about how people progress.

We have one progressing investigator who got a baptismal date about a week before I came. He is incredibly prepared. He is from Sri Lanka and speaks very little Korean so we teach him in English. I Haven't done that since the MTC (Mission Training Center in Provo Utah). He has an amazing amount of faith and knows that God put him on this path for a purpose. He loves the Bible and I'm about 50 pages from finishing the whole things so it's fun to talk to him about that. Other than him we have one semi-progressing investigator. It's going to go really slow with him but everyone is different and that's OK.

Right now the weather is amazingly perfect. I'm enjoying it because from what I have heard this area is the hottest in Korea in the summers. Wahoo! Its going to be fun.

We are going to watch LDS General Conference this next weekend on the regular schedule because of translation time. I'm really really excited. Conference is amazing, hope you all enjoyed it! Life is good, language is still hard but coming, the Lord is really blessing us. We need it. ha. Thank you for all your prayers and support.