Elder Woodall's Journey: What an Awesome Two Weeks!

Sorry that I wasn't able to send an email out last week! I was short on time and wasn't able to send one! So I'll cram two weeks into an email!

Week 1... May 26 - June 1

So the week started off really slow for us. On Monday we went to this huge clothing market in Seoul where there's pretty much every type of clothing imaginable. It's definitely one of my favorite places here in Korea! I wish I could wear more casual clothing … oh, well. Wednesday we had our district meeting and the zone leaders came to it, Elder Leavitt gave us an awesome training on setting goals and being accountable to them. After district meeting I went on companions exchanges with our zone leader Elder Ross, which meant heading into Seoul for 24 hours to go learn and get trained by him! I went to an area of Seoul called Jungnang which is just on the outer edge of Seoul. The cool thing about Seoul is that there are always a ton of people to talk to, they only problem is that they're all "really busy" and don't have time to talk; you'll finally start talking to them and then find out that they don't actually have a job and just chill out all day. The companionship exchange was really good and I learned a lot from Elder Ross. On Thursday I went back to my area in Guri City and went on companionship exchanges AGAIN, but it was in Guri this time with Elder Carpenter. Since my companion, Elder Leavitt, is the district leader I get to exchange with everyone once every 6 weeks while he's training with their companion. Elder Carpenter and I get along super well and it the exchange was a blast, the only problem is that since we get along so well, we have trouble focusing on missionary work sometimes. We actually ended up getting a lot done and it was a really sucessful exchange.

On Friday night we taught our investigator Yoon Jay and the lesson went AMAZING! We were teaching in the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity and were sort of worried about it cause those are big things for a 19 year-old guy to overcome. We ended up teaching with Yoo Jay, who's a 20 year old convert that was baptized on Christmas Eve last year. Long story short, Yoo Jay is a boss. Before he joined the church he used to drink and smoke all the time with friends; he gave it all up and is now a super strong member that teaches with the missionaries all the time. Yoo Jay was able to bear a super strong testimony to Yoon Jay about the commandments, he accepted everything we taught. The Spirit was soooo strong in that lesson!

On Saturday we went to the Seoul South Mission area for a joint mission conference with Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. It was such an amazing experience. He taught us about how we can love the people better and how we can come out of our missions better than we went in. He talked about all the blessings that we would receive because we're on a mission serving the Lord. He then went on and spoke about how we can develop ourselves on a mission and become the best people possible. It really made me excited to better myself and work hard! I don't want to come home as the same person as when I left! Hopefully, it'll still be me but with less of an attitude and more loving! At the end of the meeting he gave an amazing apostolic blessing on all the missionaries that their families, future spouses, and friends would be blessed and protected because we're here in Korea right now. He also talked about how he knows that each one of us is supposed to be here right now for specific reasons and that all of us are meant to be here. It was such an amazing meeting and I'm so blessed to have been apart of it.

Week 2... June 2 - June 8

On Monday we emailed really quickly, then went out and just did missionary work the rest of the day, but.... On Tueday we got to go to the Seoul Temple in the morning and then played around in Seoul for the rest of the day. It was a bunch of fun and Seoul is way different from Guri City, there's just sooo much always going on. The rest of the week was pretty boring up until Satuday night. We met with Yoon Jay again and taught him everything else that needed to be taught. At the end of it we went over the baptismal interview questions with him. After going through that he said, "How do I get baptized?" So we showed him the baptismal font and talked to him about how it's done, we asked what he thought, and he was said, "I want to get baptized." We were soooooo excited about it. So at 3pm on Saturday he's being baptized! On Wedneday he's getting interviewed for baptism by the zone leaders! It should all go through this time! We're sooooo excited. It's been a huge process getting him taught and ready, and he finally has a super solid baptismal date! We can't wait for it!

We also got transfer calls this week! Elder Leavitt is moving into an area in Seoul called Sinchon and I'm staying in Guri! My new companion is named Elder Kilpack; I have no idea who he is and I'll meet him for the first time when I go and pick him up on Wednesday morning! Wooooo! It'll be an adventure!

These past two weeks have been awesome and I feel like everything is just getting better and better. I'm so blessed to be on a mission right now and I'm so thankful for all you guys back home that shaped me into who I am now. I wouldn't be here without all of you. I can't wait to hear back from you all! I miss hearing from all of you all the time! Email back please! :P

Elder (Rob) Woodall

Photos!

1. Elder Leavitt and I went down to the Han River this week while visiting less active members …