Happy Birthday!

Don't have a lot of time and I've got a lot of emails (that Facebook email alert thing does a number on your email count).

Dongducheon is fun enough. I'm like a greenie again. No idea how to talk to Americans anymore. I've said, "Hi," in Korean, and asked them to shake my hand, and about a billion other really awkward little mistakes that show me that I've got some changing to do before I get back to the US. 

FHE with five new investigators

The area is about one third American soldiers stationed at Camp Casey, one third African (mostly Nigerian and Liberian) factory workers, and a third Koreans. The Koreans have been largely ignored by the other missionaries in the area because they have been fairly given up on and also don't speak English and so have to be sent to a different city if they want to attend church. Most of my success so far is with the Koreans because that's who I'm good at talking to. The Africans are as interesting as their names. They are all super into the Bible and are super quick to offer to meet with the missionaries. They really like us, but they have some tough work schedules and a tougher time keeping commitments. The area was split just before I got here and the soldiers from the pool went with Elder B___, who is a medic with the National Guard and served in Iraq. We got the Africans. There weren't really any Korean investigators. We are working on diversifying a bit more right now. Interesting area, but I need a few more weeks to get used to things and figure out how to do missionary work here.

New companion is cool too. Elder Ch____ is from Idaho and wants to go into real estate development. Went to BYU for a while. We get along well. 

Anyways, no Outback here that I know of, but I'm eating an American diet again (chili, tacos, cereal, omelets...heaven) and we're going on a big zone trip to the DMZ the day before my birthday, so that will probably be my celebration. I get to see Elder S____ and K____ again, which I'm excited about.

Love you all, and thanks for all the birthday wishes!
Elder Whitlock

Moving On

[What’s made a difference in the missionary work?] I don't know. A combination of things I guess. Getting better at Korean, jundoing to catch the right kind of people, being myself, but still changing the jundo every time, Elder Boyack...the tricky thing about missionary work is that there are way too many factors going to be able to experiment and see clear results. Makes it tricky to find what works and what doesn't.

This week it was tricky to meet people because we had a holiday and General Conference. Not too much to report. One guy read the first 15 pages of the  Book of Mormon  and had actual, real questions about it.  [The Chinese couple is] planning on going for [temple] baptisms soon and, of course, getting sealed and what not once their year is up.  

Conference was good! Wanted to cry when Elder Holland was speaking.... I'm now on the hunt for a huggable hobo. 

Things got a little interesting with transfers though.  I'll head into Seoul tomorrow night and then to Dongducheon the next morning. Dongducheon is an English branch at a huge US military base. It's all I could have wanted from an area, but I'm not going to be  in any sort of missionary leadership there. Upon learning of my transfer Sister Seo exclaimed, "Have they cast you aside already, Elder Whitlock?" which seems like a fairly valid question....

It's kind of frustrating how old I feel as a missionary but how young I am compared to all of my friends. They'll already be gone having lives when I get back there. 

Anyway, glad Dad is back in public and that you had such a great week! 

Love you!

Elder Whitlock

They Got Baptized!

They got baptized! The service went through, President and Elder J made it out, and it was all great! My participation: Talk on Enduring to the End (parabled the Jaredites and barges story from Ether 6. Entering water = baptism, shiny rocks = holy ghost, the journey = ETTE + expounding, focused on how even though the journey literally had it's ups and downs, the result of the Jaredites sticking it out was verse 12: 

"And they did land upon the shore of the promised land. And when they had set their feet upon the shores of the promised land they bowed themselves down upon the face of the land, and did humble themselves before the Lord, and did shed tears of joy before the Lord, because of the multitude of his tender mercies over them." 

Actually some of my better work), baptized, confirmed, and gave the Priesthood to Brother ______, and confirmed Sister _____. Also bought Outback (200$, cleared out most, but not all of my MSF money). 

They speak Mandarin plus a local language a piece.  Also, I forgot to answer this for Dad, but they are originally from... I'm not great with Chinese names. He's from the central part of China and She's from the South Eastern part, but they met in Shanghai, which is where they lived as a couple during school.

They loved the gift and note by the way. Said to say thanks.

Oh wait, I just checked my account and Outback only billed me about $18. There must have been some sort of bug, but now I'm still rich! Baptism miracle!!! 

o( ^o^)o

I eat good, but I eat smart. Try to stick to the house where I can, lots of spaghetti (Ramen was killing me), that sort of thing. Lately though my spending has gone up because we are teaching so much (We have like 14 actual investigators now and 5 of them are progressing, not including the Chinese couple. It's great!) that we rarely have time to make it back to the house.

I don't tell you this to brag, but just to give you something to celebrate, but we're consistantly leading the Zone in stats every week. Such a nice change of pace from jundo every day! Feels like actual missionary work.

Yeah, don't stress the package thing. I love getting packages, but there is a rather sizeable chunk of me that smarts almost as bad as your face when I see the price tag on the postage.

Love you tons, and make Tyler's birthday the best for me.

Elder Whitlock

Good Missionary Work Week

Sounds like a good service [Ogden Utah Temple Rededication].

I forgot to answer this question, but we had two transfers. Elder K (Elder S's companion and one of my good friends) got moved into the office and was replaced by Elder B who I also really like. Funny guy, has a way with words, enjoys Korra, that kind of thing. Also Sister L moved to Jangwi (the gotham of the mission, right next to and in the same Zone as Gireum) and was replaced by Sister M, an art major from Provo.

Last week we went on a hike on Monday with our ward mission leader....The next day was temple day, so I did that and then grabbed some "On the Border" Mexican food. I think the premise is "Outback from Tijuana," but it wasn't as good. I had been craving some Mexican food, but 40$ later it didn't measure up to either Outback or Cafe Rio. Right after we skipped P-day, viewing Monday as our play time, and came home to jundo. 

It was a good missionary work week. Picked up a couple new people, one of which is Chinese and might have some potential. Besides the Chinese investigators, we have one other investigator on date and we got to see him again on Saturday night. We agreed to meet at 7, came, waited, called, texted, waited, and then left to jundo again, but at 7:50 I get this text in English that says "yes sorry," and then another that says "fastly willgo" so we return and meet him at 8:15 or so. Good lesson, he reminds me a lot of Brevin. He commited to come to church the next day, but said that waking up could be hard, so we were supposed to give him a wake up call. Sunday morning at 9:00 I give him like 4 calls and he doesn't take any of them. Misses church. Turns out his phone battery died in the night, which I only believe because of how ridiculous Saturday night was.

Most valuable thing I learned from the Koreans...I've learned a lot by viewing both the weak and strong points of Korean society. The biggest thing though might be the importance of Family. Most of my life I've been surrounded by pretty good examples of pretty good families, but out here...a lot of families are torn apart by society. They are hardworking, but they work too hard. So hard that there isn't enough time for the things that matter most.

I'm going through the Pauline Epistles with the study guide lately. Fun stuff. The guide was written back in the seventies, so there are all kinds of references to the evils of communism and nuclear war and whatnot. But most of the time I end up training my district using the Old Testament. More stories that they aren't in, which gives me some room to find applications they haven't thought of before. Like this week will be something about finding pressure balances in teaching using the Esther story.

Today should be fun. We are going for a bike ride along the river.

Love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Whitlock

Here, But Not for Long

[To celebrate Chuseok, we] had a big conference and a zone training meeting and a district leader council.  The district isn't doing as hot as I would like, but we're still the top scorer in the zone (because the stats mean everything, right?).  _______ says he wants to be baptized in December, but we all know what that means. Chinese investigators are good. ... not baptized and still covenantless, but otherwise alright. We got another guy named _______ on date for October 18th. 

When we set up appointments with people and they don't come we say that "they punked us" or "we got punked". So, my district was completely unaware that transfers were the day they were and we didn't go. So [last week] we punked transfers. In [my area] there is sort of a five transfer rule, or so it would seem. This is my fifth, so I think I'm out after this last transfer.

Korean...I'm pretty comfortable. I can say what I want to say and understand most everything that pertains to missionary work. There's more to learn, but I've got what I need.

Sorry to disappoint, but we went on a one hour hike (not looking super fally yet, but I did spot some leaves falling on the hike today) with a member that turned into a six hour hike. 

.... So. I'm here, but have to catch a train in an hour, so I won't be here for long.  We've actually been in and out of Seoul for basically the last week straight and are heading back tonight for temple day.   Then I'm going in again to pick up my companion from an exchange with the ZLs this Thursday.

I'm starting to look down in the most prideful and hypocritical way on ambition.

By the way, check out what I got in the greatest birthday box ever!

I was positively giddy with joy by the way. Loved it all!  I guess you guys know what I like. Poured through the books, especially our trip book, threw on the pjs first chance I got, am wearing the Point shirt right now, scarfed the no bakes...all of it was the best. Thanks so much for everything guys. I really loved everything.  Thanks so much!

And I love you too. Best of weeks.

Elder Whitlock

Stuff is Happening

...Usually when I think about the Book of Mormon, I think about how I can put on the armor of God and everything that that means. Insights I like from that symbol: Faith, like a shield is cool to wear, but is useful when you use it. It takes action to apply faith. Also, charity is the clothing underneath the armor. You can do everything that the Book of Mormon tells you to do without faith and go through the motions, and that's good, but armor chaffes without clothes under it right? That's where charity comes in. It makes it a pleasure to wear the armor.

*******

We had two baptisms set up for this week, but neither of them were the Chinese investigators. ...they are on track for the 13th, though that's looking interesting now because they want us to go into Seoul on that day as well.

Of those two baptisms both were canceled. [#1] went on a trip with his friends ...so we reset his two week countdown. [#2] is only 13 years old and her mom revoked permission the night before the baptism. So Sunday roles around and the Sisters let us know that it is back on, so we throw everything together and get it done...and then the sisters let me know that they didn't ask for the mom's permission again. So....

Anyway, stuff is happening. Hopefully [#1] gets baptized this weekend, and the Chinese investigators the week after that.

We met with the family who is moving to Utah again this week to review the lessons and it hit me that, wait a minute, my family lives in Utah too. Can I give them your phone number and let you guys go meet them? Interesting, fun family. Plus they like me, so they can further inflate your view of me, which I like.

Just make sure that slip and slide's aren't a part of the [youth conference] curiculum and you'll do fine.

...Usually when I think about the Book of Mormon, I think about how I can put on the armor of God and everything that that means. Insights I like from that symbol: Faith, like a shield is cool to wear, but is useful when you use it. It takes action to apply faith. Also, charity is the clothing underneath the armor. You can do everything that the Book of Mormon tells you to do without faith and go through the motions, and that's good, but armor chaffes without clothes under it right? That's where charity comes in. It makes it a pleasure to wear the armor.

Love you loads, and have a great week. 

A Little Brazil

The Chinese investigators are on date for next Saturday! We were sort of worried that [she] wouldn't be able to do it because she is recovering from a surgery...[but] they're on track now, and it is looking like she's recovering faster than was expected. She was even able to come to church yesterday.

We actually are going to have a little Brazil in [our area] for the next couple of weeks. This Saturday we are baptizing three children of members who are reactivating. They kind of just go to [our] district. Technically the sisters’ investigators on paper, but we all teach together. ... The next week we have our Chinese investigators (who totally should come to Utah) and an investigator each for the other two teams. That's more than the mission was getting in a month when I first got here, and no district has hit that many while I've been here. It's fairly exciting.

Yeah...things are happening. It's nice. We also found three new investigators next week, including one that seems fairly golden. If we can get a second wave in our back pocket, we might be able to save [this] ward. If we don't, it only has a few years left. Most of them aren't long for the world and one member fulfils almost all of the needs of the ward, but he's planning to move in a couple of years. We need new blood.

I considered taking the next district meeting and having everybody tell the story of why they came on their missions, just so we could understand each other a little more.

Nice to hear that you and Dad are still working miracles. Someday. Hopefully. I tried praying to know again last night and again got nothing. Let's hope I can find God in the next nine months.

Love you...! Thanks for the update!

Elder Whitlock