Good afternoon and happy December to all on a beautifully snowy and blustery day. Except for one week a couple weeks ago we have been blessed with weather much warmer than we could have hoped for with Korea's reputation, and it seems that we'll be dropping fast in the coming weeks.
It's been a miraculous week, and we are so grateful to be here. Miracles just pop out of nowhere, and we're just grateful. We're not perfect missionaries or people by any means, but when we do all we can to give all of us to Him- desires, will, all, things happen that couldn't happen if we were doing this on our own.
We had some fun meetings this week with investigators new and previous, and two new friends committed to be baptized for next February. We met two Chinese nationals, a taekwondo teacher from South Africa who came and sat down at the church with us as we met him on the street, and a previous investigator as we made our way to visit a less-active member.
It's been a busy week with transfers {missionaries moving to their new assignments}, but everyone is settled in for the most part and excited to work hard. It's shaping up to be a big month this month. It's crazy on this end how fast time flies- last December was yesterday, and it feels like I went to the MTC just last week.
We went up to the American base for Thanksgiving on Friday, and had a great meal. We had to get out of there pretty fast due to an appointment, which is probably a good thing, because there was a lot of very delicious pie and salted dark-chocolate dipped mandarin slices. We are very grateful to those who helped out and invited us, especially the military branch up there. It must be hard to be away from family, but they accepted us like their own, and we are grateful. We had fun getting to know them a bit, ate very well, and met a very fun family from the Congo, wherein the wife spoke only French.
That evening we met a family, which is the first time as a missionary that I have taught an entire family. This father recently returned from getting his Ph.D. in the states, and had heard a lot about the church from colleagues there. We're meeting them every Friday for English and to teach as best as we can with three young girls running around. They are wonderful, and have a very good feeling around them- I'm excited for them.
On Saturday we went to Brother Kim's home for a meal and a lesson, and it went very well. We also met him at church and later Sunday evening at another member's home, and he is just doing so well. He accepted the Word of Wisdom {the Mormon dietary code, most notable for no coffee, tea, or alcohol} without hesitation, which he had questioned before, and he is earnestly preparing to be baptized on Christmas Day. Other recent converts are doing very well and continue to come out every week to church. We had a combined meeting the third hour of church yesterday which went 25 minutes over time as a member from another ward {local congregation} explained the ins and outs of building maintenance and showed some frankly fairly boring videos. Twenty minutes after church was supposed to end and we were discussing soap dispensing techniques and the pros and cons of LED lighting; our investigators were getting a little bit bored, but they did very well.
We've been talking as a companionship about the connection between conscience and the Spirit, and how we need to trust our consciences more as we seek to educate them. Elder Klebingat in general Conference talked about keeping a constant remission of sins as we go about every day, and how we would feel if we had a personal interview with Christ right at this moment. It's easier to make the right choices when you think about the Creator of worlds and the cosmos under His hands.
We're small, but we're doing the best that we can. I love you and wish you happy holidays and all the best as school starts again. Always my prayers.
Elder South
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