Week 103: We Have a New Mission President

Thank goodness President and Sister Taylor (pictured front and center) shared photos of all the missionaries on Facebook this week, because Elder Newton didn't send any photos. Here's the Gangneung Zone. See if you can spot Elder Newton.

Discover Forest

Growth and Greenery

Individual trees but Connected Ecology

Stop the Problem

How?

Receive the letter

The Proof is Alphabetical

Forest

This week started off well. We actually had a lesson! *and the crowd went wild* It was really spiritual. I might have mentioned the man before. We met him in his house a few weeks ago while tracting, and he has a real desire to follow Jesus Christ. I like him a lot. 

When we first met him, he mentioned that he had received a Book of Mormon in Idaho when he saw a temple and got curious about what the building was. It reminded me that on my first birthday in Korea, there was a sister from Idaho I didn't know who sent me a letter and a picture of the Idaho Falls Temple. (I think? There are a lot of temples in Idaho.) In any case, for our first lesson, we thought it would be good to give Forrest (that's the name of the person we taught) the little picture of the temple to help him see the big picture of the Gospel. He really liked it, and it turned out that the temple was the very same temple he had gone to. #tendermercies

And then the week blazed by. We cleaned Brother Lee's house again almost all day on Tuesday. We made a little progress there. English classes have been going well still. It's basically become the time when we meet all of the sisters' old investigators and keep them spiritually nourished. They're both doing really well. We played Bananagrams for English class on Friday and then for the spiritual thought we made an analogy between prayers and burgers, and then gave everyone gummi burger candies. It was really cute. I'd better be called as a Primary teacher if I go to America. 

Oh yeah, the senior couple came and we fixed our door. It's all good now. It was like all the times I helped Dad with random house things, except instead of going to Home Depot we went to a few little local stores I know.

Ummmmmm we met President Taylor. He's really nice. Seems pretty funny. He was famous in Korea as a missionary because his district sang a funny song on television or something. We actually had a really good meeting with him. We talked about how we can be the light of the world and the Beatitudes and things. We all have to be the saltier salt. 

Sister Taylor is also a delight. I got a chance to talk with her while my companions had President Interviews. She served a mission in Italy and is just a darn nice person. I wish I could be a missionary longer. I hope they follow through on their joke they made. They said no one gets to go home until they do or the work is finished. I'm all on board. 

This weekend we had a few festivals around. One was a couples festival, so we made hearts for everyone that said, "Charity Never Faileth," and then passed them out with copies of the Book of Mormon. We also ended up on a railbike, but that's a story for another day I think. I will mention, though, that I'm glad I wore a sweater that day. 

Sunday was also good. We had bibimbap and had some vegetables from our garden with it. The branch president was gone, so I had to preside again. It'll definitely be weird not to have all these responsibilities in church when I get to America. But for now, it definitely keeps me awake during church even if I'm tired. I have to conduct and then give the lesson in Sunday school and everything. But yeah, that's about it. Taebaek is still my little bit of Promised Land. Hope you all had a good week too!

Best Wishes,

Elder Newton