My last transfer.....

Hello once again from Korea! Yes, I know that you are all wallowing in despair after Korea lost to Paraguay in the world cup but cheer up, there is always next time. Besides, I heard America is doing well. I really want to learn how to play soccer. I am fairly coordinated with my hands but my feet just aren't that good at kicking a ball. Hopefully I can fix that someday. So this is the last week of the transfer. Elder Kim with probably be transferring but we are not 100%. Who ever comes will be my last companion. Pretty crazy. Fight till the finish. Recently we have been meeting a man named 성기웅(song kee oong) He is a owner of a small academy for Jr High school students. He is a really religious man and we have meet him quite a few times. He has a wife and 3 daughters which is quite a big family for Koreans. We have talked a lot about the book of Mormon with him and the plan of salvation. He enjoys listening to us but has not yet accepted our invitation to read and pray about it. He really likes the book of Mormon because it is similar to the Bible and it teaches about Jesus. He has also been talking to his wife about it but because they both work all the time it is really hard to meet the family together. That is our goal right now. This gospel has blessed so many people's lives in so many different way. Everyone needs it. He is a pretty funny guy. He is thinking about moving his family to Canada to drive truck as it pays better than his job right now. We also have a different kid that we are currently working with who is progressing but then didn't show up to church like he promised and we haven't been able to get a hold of him since then. We are praying for him lots. The work is going along well. This is the true church and I am so glad that I have the opportunity to teach it to the people I can. Korea is amazing.

A baptism

Hello! I hope that everyone is still paying attention to the World Cup even though Korea lost. I know, it was fairly upsetting, but that is no reason to turn it off completely. I hear America is doing well. If Korea wins their next game they will be able to move on to the actual tournament. Korea is so into it not because they are that into soccer, in fact most of the people I have talked to do really watch soccer except for when Korea is warring against a different nation. It is amazing what sports do to a people. Anyway, soccer was hardly the highlight of this week. 이돟하(ee dong ha) got baptized this week! It was really good. Everything went so smoothly and it was a very spiritual experience. He is a good kid and will be very blessed as everyone is when they get baptized. It is quite the commitment. Saturday was a pretty crazy day for us. 2:00-4:00 was president interviews. 4:00-5:00 was a ward primary activity. 5:00-6:00 was the baptism. 6:00-7:00 was a meeting where president Jennings came and spoke to our ward about the "to the rescue" program. 7:00-9:00 was a ward dinner where the youth sold food and random items to raise money to go to a Korea wide EFY next month. They are pretty excited about it and I definitely think it is worth it for youth to go. It was a good week full of spiritual experiences.




Elder Anderson

Preparing for a baptism!

Surprise! Preparation-day has in fact changed back to Monday and so I will be sending e-mails at the old time again. Sorry for not letting you know last week, totally forgot to mention that minor detail. Anyway, I hope is all going well back home. This week was really good for us. There have been very few times on my mission that I have sat down and studied chapter 11 of Preach My Gospel (how to get people ready for baptism) but this week there is a need. 이동하(ee doeng ha) has a baptismal date for this Saturday! He is a 20 year old boy who has been coming to church for around 3 years now and moved to our area at the beginning of this year. We went though and taught him everything and he accepted a baptismal date after refusing a few times. He really feels like people care about him in our ward. He is not very socially mature which makes it easy for people to not get along with him but our ward has done a really good job of friend shipping him and helping him progress. Hopefully everything goes down as planned. We have a few other people that we are working with who we are also really excited for. I really like this area and my companion is pretty amazing. I hope to have more good reports for you all next week. We have been pretty busy which makes things really nice. I hope all is well back home!

America is just no fun.......

I like Korea in so many funny different ways. When I pass by a construction sight and have to dodge the back-hoe and jump over the rubble I can't help but think that America is just no fun. Always having to watch out for motorcycles while walking on the side walk makes you always have to be thinking which is a good thing. Sometimes thinking is not what you want to be doing, usually while eating. Usually the food is really good but sometimes not, the weird thing is that I kind of enjoy eating crazy foods just to say that I can.

If the Amazing Race is still going on I think that dad and I should try to sign up. I was thinking about that this week as we were rushing from one appointment to another and I kind of realized how funny I must look. A white guy running around with a backpack in the backstreets of Korea. I love Korea. I hope everyone is preparing properly for the World Cup. I tell a lot of people that I have a friend serving in South Africa and they just go off on how they want to go down and watch it. Korea is way into Soccer and Base Ball. I'm still not sure why Asians are so into baseball but more power to them.

This week was really good. Our stake has devised a plan to teach all the members all the lessons in a matter of about 5 months. We will be meeting with our ward to fully plan out how they want it is to be done. We are going to have to split to cover everyone and not have it take up all of our time. I am really excited. We have been teaching quite a bit lately and I feel like both Elder Kim and I are improving. We are working well. I am excited about the potential in this area and pray for the ability to help. I love this work. By the way I just took a body test at the city hall and am in the average area in everything. Basically i am really healthy right now and i am really grateful for it. Love you all!




Elder Anderson

Still making language blunders......

Hello! I am now settled into my new area of gu mi. It is a really nice area with lots to do. The ward is solid and is made up of mostly returned missionaries and so they kind of know how things are supposed to be done. It is good to have people expecting things of you. My companion, Kim gyeong soo, is a really good missionary and is naturally really good at Korean. I am continually learning and am never perfect at everything. Yesterday we had Zone Conference where so many people I know gave their mission farewell talks. Sad that we have to go. Yesterday we had our meeting with the ward mission leader and we were talking about the youth programs. I then meant to ask if they talked about spiritual things when they meet during the week but rather I asked if they talked about sexual things when they meet. oops, still make mistakes. You can usually tell you made a mistake by the surprised look on peoples faces when you get done talking.

 In this area there is a 20 year old  the missionaries have been meeting for a while and should be baptized soon although there still isn't a date. We also have met quite a few less actives and one member referral! The members hear are really willing to help out the work in the area. We had 65 people out to church this week which was quite a different feel from my last area of 20 on average. Lots of peoples names to memorize, whew. It is kind of funny because my companion is 28 but everyone still thinks I am older that he. Most people put me from 27-32 when they guess. Its OK because Korean 20 year olds still look like they are 15 to me. Strange how that works between countries.The gospel is still being spread. It is true and amazing. We are so blessed to live in a time when the fullness of the gospel is restored!