110215 There is more than one bridge in Seoul

Hello Everybody!

This week was good. So a few highlights. First, the fun highlight. This kid who speaks pretty good English called. We didn't know who it was so we gave the phone to Elder Kim [a Korean] who did. He answered, but the kid assumed it was an American. So he was speaking English. Elder Kim responded in English. Then I think the caller just decided it would be easier to talk in Korean. So he said something like "I will... take another... Korean missionary" And then proceeded to just speak in Korean to the Kid. It was funny because the English wasn't   great, the kid didn't realize, and just the fact that elder Kim tried it was hilarious.

Having friends and feeling socially accepted is so important. Then after Church we met with a kid named No Da Bean. That is a Korean Name. Elder Grossgebauer met with him a year ago, and his girlfriend is on a mission and is about to get her visa and go the Temple Square mission. Basically he has always said he wants to join the church but that it is only for his girlfriend, so he has never done his "homework” and is just a funny kid. But we met with him and we wanted to talk about baptism. He basically started the conversation and said he really wants to be baptized and this time it is for himself. After talking [probably through emails] with his girlfriend on her mission and seeing how much she cares about her investigators made him realize and feel bad about the way he acted with the missionaries. So we decided he wants to get baptized before elder Grossgebauer goes home. He needs to stop smoking and drinking so he asked us to pray for him. So all things considered that was a solid lesson. We really didn't do anything; he just, I guess, has finally come around. So pray for him!

To answer some questions. We don't eat very often with members. I have done it about 4 times. But this last time was cool because it was with our bishop on the other side of the river in the other mission. That ended up being a little crazy. We decided to walk across the bridge since we were like the only missionaries that can do that so we did. The sisters, after hearing that we were doing,

that decided to do the same, however they went across the wrong bridge! So they had to grab a taxi. They gave him the bishop’s address and the taxi driver said he didn't know how to get there or couldn't get there or something. So they just got dropped off at the subway station where we were supposed to meet at. By this time we were outside the Bishop's apartment. So we told them to go into the subway station and look at the map. They did, but they went to the wrong samsung apartments. Then they followed some ladies’ directions. Finally 30 minutes after they were supposed to be at the bishop's house the bishop just figured out where they were told to go and he told them to stay there and we went to pick them up. So an hour after we were supposed to start we actually got to his house and had dinner. So that was exciting. Not many people have driven in a car in the other mission. Or gotten lost in the other mission. So that was exciting. But dinner was delicious. I guess my Bishop graduated from MIT. He is awesome. He wants to move to Utah but isn't sure if God will let him. Pretty awesome.

The ward seems to rely on missionaries for activities. We are kind of in charge of a lot of activities. So we do the basketball night, family home evening, and a friendship night thing once a month. But the ward members are also really involved. So the organization and everything goes on without us. The wards are just really small, and people are busy so missionaries are nice to have around. We had stake conference yesterday. There were about the same amount of people as there are in the English Branch. But the branch is bigger than most wards because of the military. There is just a lot of movement in and out so it is still a branch.

Korean is fine. I am understanding a little more. But we still speak mostly English. Most of our investigators are pretty fluent at English, so is our bishop and most members are pretty good. We have one investigator who speaks only Korean. So the learning process is slow. I hope I can get a native Korean as a companion, but there are only 8 or so native elders in the mission. And I don't read scriptures in Korean.

As far as personal study it is supposed to be in your native language, and language study I spend more time with grammar and vocab rather than reading scripture. It is just old grammar forms and stuff so it is pretty hard to understand, especially since I don't know a lot of the words. I have done some reading in PMG though. That is easier and I have a lot more of the vocab.   We met with Joshua again. He is just a super faithful guy. A lot would have to change for him to join our church. He would have to step down from his position at his church, which he feels a little weird doing even for work. But he likes us and feels like the BOM is the word of God. The mission president said basically what you would expect. He can't be doing both churches. He needs to just pray and get a better testimony of the Book of Mormon, D&C and Joseph Smith. So we will work with him, but we will see.

I love this Gospel. I don't know how God trusts me to try to preach this gospel to the people of Korea, but he does. It is crazy. I want to become a better servant of him. Love you all!

Hurrah for Israel!

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Elder Sabey