10032016 New Companion from Highlands Ranch

My companion is indeed the one from Littleton Colorado! My prayers were answered! haha. Well actually more of Highlands Ranch/Rocksborough area. He went to Thunderridge High school. I feel like in a lot of ways we are similar. More relaxed but both have a drive to be obedient and diligent. So I am super excited for the next two transfers. His name is Zachary Burridge. 

This week we had transfers, then the next day district meeting. I talked about some experiences with people living beneath there "privileges" and then talked about how we as missionaries live beneath our privileges. I committed them to write what they do to live beneath their privileges and then what the missionary "cruze buffet" (from elder Uchdorf's talk) looks like. Baptisms, the holy ghost, etc. So I am excited to see what people say.

After we became companions we had several people call us: a less active, an old investigator, and one of our investigator. It was cool just to feel like God was blessing us.

We have been thinking a lot about effective finding. We have to focus a fair amount on that as a district right now, so I am interested in your thoughts on effective finding? How did you find?

Right now we are just doing a variety! I am enjoying changing things up a lot. There was a cool idea I learned from a girl who served in New York. They would do a word of wisdom challenge thing where they have them spin a wheel and get a challendge like not drink alcohol for a week, or coffee, etc. Then we get there phone number and follow up on there challenge. And of course give a word of wisdom pamphlet. I think it could be fun. Make what we are teaching more fun and challenging so they might want to do it. So I made that wheel thing and want to try it some time soon!

I am happy and life is good. I love the idea of the Character of Christ is turning outward. I more I think about my reasons for wanting power or accomplishments or whatever, the more I realized I am selfish. The more I force my self to turn outward, the happier and the more meaningful life becomes! Christ was perfect at this, and I see church members do the same!

Hurrah for Israel!

--

Elder Sabey

09262016 Normal Things as a Missionary in Korea

Well I am staying in Gimpo and I will be training (just like everybody else.) We have 18 new missionaries coming in and 18 next transfer so everybody has to train (maybe even zone leaders). There is once kid coming in from Littleton Colorado, so I am praying I will get him... haha. I decided to base this email on Mom's questions to me this week.

What do you eat- Normally we don't have a lot of money, so we eat cheap. There is 5 dollar pizza, rice burgers(rice patties with different Korean foods in the middle), 

a toast place, we make some stews and raman at home, then some other cheap korean foods, and whatever we get from members! 

How you catch a bus or train- there is a bus stop with a bunch of buses at the main street by our house so we go there and then you just wave at the bus that you want to ride and it will stop and you get on and swipe your card.

 The subway is normally really easy, but we don't have one in our area, so we take a bus for 30 minutes to the nearest station and then you just swipe your card and get on. It is pretty simple. And you transfer from bus to bus and train to train for free so it is nice.

Where do you go- When we met with people we almost always meet at the church. When we go out to proselyte we normally do it around our church/ home. But if we go to visit members or less actives and stuff we go all over the place by bus.

What do you do (tracking?  Street contacting?)- We mainly street contact. In Korea there almost every door has an electronic door bell with a camera. So you ring and then they look at a camera to see who it is and then can choose to talk to us through the camera or just ignore us.

 So basically it is way too easy to not even talk to us, so tracking is pretty ineffective.

How's your district?  My district is doing alright. There have definitely been some struggles. The sisters in my ward had a mid transfer transfer this week, so we have 2 Korean sisters now. The sister Training leaders are great, but have like no investigators, and one of the other elders goes home and is ready to go home. But things are looking up! 

What are your responsibilities as the DL? I just get stats, do district meeting most weeks, and that is about it. I just try to stay in touch with everybody and help in whatever small way I can.

 Is your mission changing much with the new mission president? Not really. Transfers have been crazy but that is mainly because the amount of people coming it. He pretty much said he hasn't changed anything rule wise. He has a different feel that the last president, but for most things it is all the same.

This week there wasn't too much exciting stuff to report. I am excited for transfers. I say this maybe pridefully, but I am excited to get a missionary untainted by other companions in an area with less contact with other missionaries. I want to mold an awesome missionary :) haha I will need your prayers (for my pride and my training...)

I love you all!

-- 

Elder Sabey

09192016 Choose to Endure or to Enjoy

This week was mission tour! It was different than last one for sure. Oh and awesome news, although Elder Holland didn't come to mission tour like I wanted, Elder Bednar is coming a month from today, and we are doing a combined mission conference with the Seoul mission. So that is super exciting! :) President Whiting talked a lot about companionships and seeking the spirit in our work. So some cool things that were said. President Whiting said we can choose to endure our mission or our companion, or we can choose to enjoy them. Sister Whiting said if we change our attitude from our missions being a sacrifice to them being our offering it can change our perspective. (I do think those words are very similar but do have different feelings.) One scripture I have been thinking about a lot this week is Mosiah 2:21-22 (I think). If we serve God with all of our souls we are still unprofitable servants. And all he asks us to do is to keep his commandments. So changing it to an offering of gratitude I think is a good change! :) I don't remember exactly how he said it, but he acknowledged how we can feel somewhat useless but said isn't at least a part of God's purpose of missions, you. I think knowing that is important. Even if we don't make much of a difference here, through obedience and submission to God I am fulfilling his purpose!

So it was a fun week. Because is is Korean Thanksgiving, we had a special p-day were we could not do studies and go to a cultural thing, so we went to a traditional Korean village museum thing. We then had Mission Tour the next day. So we slept at other some other elders house that night.

I really do love other missionaries. I think I am going to room with Elder Yates when he gets home from his mission. I talked with an awesome elder, Elder Andrew, and just really appreciated his attitude and personality. His companion is from the Philippines and didn't have an easy life and I think it is hard because he is getting better at English while learning another language. I just respect so many people here.

Not too much exciting things happened on the teaching front this week. We got a new investigator who is doing the English program, and it seems like he mainly has English interest.

I kind of already shared my spiritual thought. But we really are unprofitable servants. God is more than merciful to us. That is so good to know!

Hurrah for Israel!

--

Elder Sabey

09122016 This Week is the Korean Thanksgiving

This week was again fast. It was weird last night having to make calls again to get stats and stuff. Anyway, this week we had zone training meeting followed by exchanges with the zone leaders. It was really good for both me and my companion I think. It really had little to do with what they taught or anything, but I just thought again about obedience. So I made a list of things that I notice people often do that are not obedient. I read them to my companion and I want to read them to my district. We will hopefully become a more obedient companionship and district. It was a good day or two that I felt guided by the spirit.

In the zone leaders area there is an English branch, and we had a lesson with a family there. He teaches at the University of Utah Asia campus, and one of his students asked questions about his beliefs. Anyway, member missionary work is amazing. When members are willing to talk to friends and people about there belief, without feeling embarrassed it just opens so many opportunities. So keep doing member missionary work!

We also met with a man who is a new father so hasn't been able to meet for a while. His wife doesn't like him meeting with us but he says "I don't care, because I know you guys are all nice." haha. Anyway super nice guy with mainly English interest, but still I see potential there, so pray for him. His name is Song Young June.

And we are meeting with a new investigator today! Yay.

This week is Korean thanksgiving, so we have a special P-day where we are encouraged to do a cultural activity and then we also have our mission tour, where President Whiting will come talk to us again. (I wanted Elder Holland :( haha) 

My spiritual thought is just that I love the leaders of our church. I read Elder Bednars talk on why the church has old people guiding it and a while ago I heard a talk by elder Holland when he says that there are no people who he has met who are more in touch with the problems of todays society than the leadership of our church. Anyway, I guess I agreed with both of them so much and felt love for the apostles and prophets in our church. They are amazing men of faith and understanding. 

Hurrah for Israel!

--

Elder Sabey

09052016 Slow beginnings and new attitude (And Happy Birthday Danielle)

This week was again fast! And again I am not entirely sure why. This was perhaps one of the worst weeks in regards to stats. Everybody cancelled :( So that is annoying. I am used to being in Seoul and here in Gimpo there are still people but it just feels that there are a lot less. Everything is more spread out, and without bikes we can either walk and not go far at all or ride a bus. I feel like the past few weeks I have been trying to figure out how to proselyte effectively and was a little frustrated with not feeling effective. Actually this morning during my prayer after personal study my attitude changed a little bit. I just thanked God for the opportunity to learn a new style of missionary work in a new area. I don't expect my frustrations or even stats to change all that quickly but I think it was a good start to changing my attitude which is all too often prideful and selfish.

A rose was I think our sisters are doing a lot better! They both seem happier and that is awesome :)

Also I somehow misplaced or had 20$ get stolen.

Also Happy Birthday Danielle!!! I am so happy you are a part of my family :) Some memories of Danielle are as follows. First, I remember when she said I was her favorite brother in law... (I am pretty sure that one happened.) Second, I remember visiting them in Boston and just hanging out and talking while we waited for the graduation ceremony to start. I just felt like Danielle was so fun and easy to talk with. Next I remember just Danielle's laugh. It is so uplifting and contagious. Last but not least I just remember David saying some things he loves about you and his experience dating you. You are kind, easy to talk to, smart, confident, etc. So you are pretty awesome basically.

My spiritual thought comes from 2 conferences ago. I read two talks both of which were about commandments. The first told the story of the surfers wanting to go past the barrier, but came to find out that there were sharks feeding on the other side of the barrier. The other talked about a grandma trying to have her grandchild keep her seat belt on. In the end, explaining the "commandment" helped the child want to keep it. So my thought is that we must first show faith in keeping commandments. Normally then we come to know why we were asked to keep them. However, I also think trying to figure out why we were given commandments is really important. So to me faith is a combination of 2 things. Just trusting and then searching for answers. That combination will eventually bring answers.
Hurrah for Israel

Hurrah for commandments!

-- 

Elder Sabey

08292016 Companion, Stake conference and Joy

This week felt super fast. I don't know why. Thinking back, it didn't feel like we did very much. Most all of our potential investigators and people haven't been answering calls or texts and appointments have been canceled. We met with two older men who mainly just have English interest.

The sister missionaries in our ward are both having a bit of a hard time, so their relationship isn't great. One isn't super obedient I guess and one is a brand new missionary. So we made a transfer plan for our ward with some things I assigned them each to do and want to do some more proselyting together.  Our plan is in different areas, like getting a better relationship with the ward, so we are writing a note to each family, maybe starting a missionary activity once a month where they can invite their friends. Less actives, I asked for a list of ones they want to focus on. Then we will decide how to focus. English class, I asked the Americans to come up with homework we can give our students and stuff.   We play basketball once a week. That is where the others met the recent convert. So we play with him, his son, and their friends and whoever else comes.

We had stake conference. Elder Gang of the presidency of the seventy came. The most memorable part of his talk was the part focused on the children. He talked about penguins. And he said each time the sound the made when the walk. That was funny, but the funniest part was that the translator than had to try to make the sound each time he was translating. Everybody laughed. He maybe was a little embarrassed but kept focused and translated well. The moral of the story was that they all jump into the water together to avoid getting eaten by leopard seals. So we as members, if we are united as families, wards and stakes we can avoid the dangers of this world. Good message but also funny.

A little about my companion. He is a violin major, so he is super good. He has a crazy nice violin and case and everything. He is super fun. I am enjoying being with him. He is actually technically an American and a Korean, but doesn't speak English very well.  We usually speak Korean.

My spiritual thought this week is that losing yourself is really what is needed for joy. I think of different missionaries I know or people in life I know or have heard about, and when they feel like the church or missionary work or whatever it is doesn't fulfill their needs, they always become unhappy because they are focused on themselves. But when we just accept the need for obedience, for commandments and submit our will to God, doing what is good and right becomes joyous. I definitely am not great at that, but it is something I feel strongly about, and the type of person I am committed to become.

This gospel is true!

Hurrah for Israel!

-- 

Elder Sabey

08222016 Gimpo is Big

Hello!

This week has been interesting. We had to get my last area all ready for the new Elders and am adjusting to my new area. Gimpo is really big. We can still be in our area after taking a bus for a couple hours. So we have a book for a map, not just a map. haha. 

Anyway, it was good being able to say goodbye to some people before leaving my last area and sharing last thoughts with them. It was good. Thus far in Gimpo we haven't had too many meetings, they have been cancelling a lot. So not too much to report on my new investigators.

One miracle though. My first day here I complimented a guy’s shoes to start a conversation. Pretty quickly he just asked me why I came to Korea. I told him a little about our purpose. He said he had seen us walking around that area a lot and always wanted to talk to us. So he asked if we had time and we went to Paris Banquette and basically taught the first lesson. He said he would be interested in coming to church and English. He came to English and said next week he would come to church. 

 The area is considered really "country" but I am still living on the 18th floor of a building. Korea is like that though. No matter where you go there are basically only apartments and the like, no houses. There just isn't enough room for many homes with yards. And this next week we get to go help a brother with some farming I guess, which I am excited for—o See how things are done in Korea. 

My district has 4 elders 4 sisters. My companion speaks mostly Korean but wants to learn English.
I really am enjoying him. He is technically an American, because he was born in Oregon but he doesn't speak English very well, since he grew up in Korea. I like my new district as well. We have 3 Koreans, and the Coloradan from my last district moved with me up here. It is amazing how quickly you can adjust to a new life/house and everything. My house has no AC, which is sad. I had trouble sleeping the first night, since I was sweating all night, but now I am sleeping well!

Sorry not too much exciting stuff this week. My spiritual thought this week comes from this morning. A recent convert here JangGyoungSue has a 10 year old son. So the last commitment for him was to pray with his family. He texted this morning and said he finally prayed with his son last night. He just said he was happy and his heart was full. I loved that. I felt like that was the image of this gospel. People coming together in righteousness, specifically families. And the lord will always give those tender feelings of love when two or three gather in his name.
I love this gospel!

Hurrah for Israel!

-- 

Elder Sabey