December 9, 2013

My new area is very different from Masan.  We have a ward here but not really.  It used to be really big but a bunch moved away and a bunch more left the church with an apostate Bishop. We have a sacrament meeting attendance of about 20-30.  Many of the members travel a lot and some are insane.  This area seems a lot more exciting than most.  One of the members is aggressively insane, one of our less actives is waiting for a wife he ordered from Vietnam to arrive and there are a few prostitutes in the area that like to try to seduce Mormon Elders.  The Bishop is unemployed (but awesome) and his 1st councilor spends most of his time in Seoul. The members are really discouraged because they have seen their ward go from a hundred members to where it is now.  We have a lot of work to do.

The biggest bright spot is an older unmarried sister in the ward.  She runs a free study group out of the church.  Korean kids usually have an academy after school where they study together. This sister puts one together and feeds these kids dinner every weekday for free.  She always includes a spiritual message and has the missionaries come by as often as possible.  We sometimes help them with English and we say hi every time we pass by the church.  Because of her efforts this area actually has a lot of baptisms.  In her class right now there are a number of recent converts and one kid that is just waiting for parental permission to be baptized. Unfortunately, it probably won't happen anytime soon.

The church building here was the second built in Korea.  This week was the 50th anniversary of when it was built.  The Book of Mormon was translated into Korean in one of the classrooms.

The apartment is smaller and the faucet sprays all over the place when we turn it on.  The downstairs neighbor smokes a ridiculous amount that leaks up through the bathroom floor.  We have air conditioning, oh yeah, its winter.

I did get the package from Sister Weyland and the Halloween letters from the Waites.  Thanks!

Despite the success here in the past I got here at a very slow period for the Elders.  The students at the academy have all been converted or can't get permission so we need to find new investigators.  We do have one progressing investigator but we haven't been able to meet with him because he is in China.  He is actually Chinese and doesn't speak any Korean.  He was doing really well but it sounds like Satan was doing all he could to discourage him before he went to China.  I sure hope he has continued reading the scriptures and praying while he has been away.  We should be able to meet with him this week.  In the meantime we have been proselyting a whole lot.  I thought it would be easier here in the city but I think it is actually harder. When there are lots of people they are more hesitant to stop and speak with us.  This last week we only got one good solid contact.  He really is solid though.  We are meeting with him tonight.

How are you all doing with missionary work?  Do you have anything that I could share with the members here?

Love,

Elder Stapley