Dear Family,

I am out here on Jeju island and am having a wonderful time. The members are excellent, so is the food, and my companion is very fun to be around. I'm excited to see what happens here in the next couple of weeks. I don't know how to describe the sights and feelings of this island, but as we drove through a misty mountain path to get to a neighboring branch's church building, I felt like I was passing through a heaven on earth. I love being here.

The branch is full of very nice people, who are excited about missionary work. And they actually like the missionaries! They don't think we're just dumb foreigners! And my Korean is finally good enough to the point where I feel that I can develop fun relationships with the people I'm serving around. 

We also have investigators! That we meet with on a regular basis! It's incredible! The majority of investigators and less actives that we visit, we actually teach in English. I feel like the most entertaining way for me to let you know about my week is by listing the people we visited and a few of the things that stood out to me as we talked.

Visited Individuals:

James Bond: A mentally handicapped man who got baptized about fifteen years ago. He comes to out house weekly, knocks on the door, and tells us about all of the fun he had wandering around the city. During our nightly planning he usually sits at the window. Some of his favorite phrases include:

"I'm going inactve, bye-bye!"
"I see you, American Boy!"
"I'm going to attend the Catholic church, bye-bye!"
"Hey...hehehe...."
"I saw an African man today"
"I saw a Japanese man today"
"I saw a Chinese man today"
"I saw your investigator Ian today"

He's really quite a bit of fun to have around, but he sometimes wanders into the church while we're teaching a lesson or English Class, and scares our investigators away.

Ian Keller: A very tall Jewish man who teaches English at an academy on the island. Very kind and very curious about our Church. He's from Arizona and he's probs gonna get baptized.

Brother Hong Jae Kun: The world's kindest old man. He invited us to his house for a meal the other day. His house is quite humble, self made out of the side of a cave. For dinner he boiled an entire chicken and we ate it plane with a little bit of rice. He then let me ride in the back of his truck back in to town. 

Brother Regis Kim: A less active member of our ward who enjoys practicing English with the missionaries. His favorite movies feature Al Pacino, and you can tell by the way that he talks. He may look like a Korean Businessman, but he sounds like a Hard Italian Gangster when he speaks English. One of my favorite lines of his:

"I don't understand why Barry Bonds would inject himself with this...this illegal medicine. To do so would be to take his fame and throw it...right to the sky!"

Brother Ho Moon Kyung: An active member of our ward. We do service for him every week at his hotel that he's going to open at the end of this month. No particularly fun quotes from him, but he's super nice and buys us Chinese food after we help him.

I can't remember anything else particularly funny to tell you about anyone... But being here has brought out a lot of deep feelings of love from my heart. I'm on this beautiful island, surrounded by kind people, and I genuinely feel God's love all around me.

I've also become aware how incredibly privileged of an individual I am. We visited a small family who lives close to the ocean front the other day. There house was about the size of mine and spencer's room combined with half of the family room. There are six kids and a grandmother living there. They have so very little, but they get by. They're happy with one another. It broke my heart to see these little kids who are without parents or decent living conditions. I wish I could give them the world, but I just don't have those means. 

But seeing this situations has brought me to realize how precious the gift of the gospel is. I can give that. I can teach others how to put their lives back together, and find happiness. Missionary work is the one thing I can do to give back to the world.

I just wanna do good. I want to serve the Lord and lift the burdens of others, and I'm thankful for the opportunity to do so. 

I love you all, and I hope you have an excellent week.

From,
Sam

Yo, guys. Everything is going good, yet again! Don't worry! I pulled money out of my account, but didn't spend all of it. I just have it chilling in my apartment just in case I need it. This week definitely was an interesting one. It got kicked off with one of our district's missionaries going AWOL and leaving home to Seoul. His name is Elder Jang and he'd kinda clocked out mentally before he even got here. It was really a sad thing to see him turn away from this awesome opportunity. I've learned a ton and been blessed a lot in the short time I've been out. I wish he would've remembered his purpose. I feel that if a missionary truly understands the sacrifice that Christ has made, and the cleansing and edifying power of the atonement, they'd have no reason to go home. 

Beacause Elder Jang flew the coop, Elder Bingham, Elder Hansen and I wound up in a threesome for two days. It was fun, but it definitely didn't feel effective. It took a while, but Elder Hansen has his new companion and everything is going better than it ever has been.

Transfer week is this week. Unfortunately, Elder Bingham has to go home. His 2 years are up, so this week I'll be getting another companion and hopefully not leaving to a new area. I'd really love to stay here. We've been seeing a lot of success and having more people take interest into our English class and church lately. For example, we have a sister by the name of Yoon Yoo Jung whose father is a less active member in a neighboring city. After meeting with us for less then a month, she has decided she wants to get baptized. Hooray!

Also, this week Lee Ho Young's mother took him to a gypsy who told him that he was posessed. He really believed it strongly and said "It's either your church that's true, or that guy.". I was shook. That night, Elder Bingham talked to him for a long while, and we prayed upon returning home. The situation was particularly dire because he hadn't yet been confirmed a member. The next morning as we were texting him, he was telling us how he felt sad and might not make it to church. Immediately, Elder Bingham and I prayed. Moments after we had said amen, he texted back saying that he felt like he needed to come. 

After his confirmation, we could all feel the spirit strongly, and he said that he knew that the gypsy was lying to him. 

What a trip.

Things have been going really well. I really, really, hope that I don't end up getting transferred, but if that's what needs to happen, so be it. 

It sounds like things are pretty typical back home. Always busy. Hang tough, guys! I really get a lot of peace knowing that I have a supportive family back at home. 

Also, I find it necessary to mention that Korean is getting a lot easier to understand. I was sitting in MCM and it felt like my brain just opened up. Don't get me wrong, the progress has been gradual, but that meeting in particular I felt that I knew what was going on! Hooray!

I'm a little nervous, but I know that as I rely on the Lord and hustle hard errday that I'll be able to accomplish what needs to get done. I really love misisonary work and I can say with 100% confidence that this is God's work!

Anyway, I love you all tons.

From,
Sam