LETTER!

It's been an interesting week this week. My missionary work has really changed a lot of the last week. I feel like I'm starting to lose a lot of the fear that I've had in the past about talking to the people and stepping out of my bubble. It's been really weird and really hard. I'm not afraid of people at this point.

I hit the realization this week that what we're teaching IS the RESTORED message of Jesus Christ and his church. It's not just some feel good thing that we're going about and trying to tell people about to brighten their day up. It's something That WILL change your life, it's something that WILL bring you happiness, it's something that EVERYONE needs, and I've got to put aside my fears so that people can have the chance to change their lives. Those of the that haven't had the chance to hear it, go hear it. It's why I'm here serving and it's why I'm here trying to help people. I promise you that if you go into it with an open heart looking to know the truth, you WILL find happiness and it WILL change you life. You might already be attending church or believe in Jesus Christ or doing whatever it is that is making you happy. If you're happy now, you will be just that much happier. Please do it. Please. I promise you it's worth it. 

To those of you that I email who are members of this church and have been baptized, gain a testimony of this Gospel, the Church, and the Book of Mormon. I promise you that it's worth it. I'll be really honest with everyone here. I didn't have a strong testimony when I left to come to Korea. I mainly came out here cause it was expected of me. I didn't really know what I was doing, and I didn't know what I would be giving up to do this. When I left to come here I just wanted to get this over with to come home. Now I'm dying for more time. The last few months have changed my life, I've become someone that I'm proud of. I'm someone that I want to be. And I'm blessed to still have another 12 months of so to figure it out even more. I've come to realize that the things I was taught when I was young are true, and that the things I was taught are the things that bring happiness. Over the last year of so I've seen it not only in my life, but the lives of others too. So get your scripture out and read them. Get on your knees and pray for an answer. If you think that you're too lost to get back on the right path, you're not. Everyone can do it. Anyone can pray. You're never too lost. You can do it. Don't do it just because I said to do it either. Do it because it's worth it, it's worth knowing that Jesus Christ IS your Savior and that he is the path to happiness. So do it. It's hard, I've spent 11 months getting to this point, it wasn't easy, but it was worth it. 

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So this week not a ton of real stuff went on. My companion and I baked cookies which were AWESOME, except..... The chocolate that we used melted STRAIGHT into the dough. So now we just have a bunch of cookie dough that we con't really bake because the chocolate just starts burning in the over. So we're going to try again this week!

Then we also had a stake choir competition this week. We had to do a ton of practicing for it, but it was AWESOME. The missionaries in our ward sung "Love at Home" in Korean, and Elder Larsen in our ward is an AMAZING guitar player, so he played it on the guitar as everyone else sung to it. I wish I had video of it!

I also gave a 12 minute talk in sacrament meeting in Korean. It was rough! My reading skill are going to get worked on over the next few months now. Luckily there were some people that were able to understand me! Yay!

Missionary work was a little rough this week, we had one day where we went out for 6 hours and talked to only 45 people. Normally we would talk to over 100 people in that amount of time. It just means that I'm that much closer to finding the right person. I'm just that much closer to finding someone who has been waiting for this their whole life. It's so amazing, and I'm so happy to be here. 

I love you all. Be safe, and I can't wait to hear back from you! :)

Rob

If you send letters you'll get one back ASAP! Same with packages :) Send away!

For letters...

Elder Christian Woodall

Korea Seoul Mission

Gwanghwamun Po Box

210

Jongno-Gu

Seoul-si 110-602

South Korea

For packages....

Elder Christian Woodall

Korea Seoul Mission

Samcheong-ro 9 gil 45

Jongno-gu

Seoul-si 110-230

South Korea

Pictures this week!

1. I got my 2nd letter since I've been in Korea this week! (This is a hint to send me mail!) One of the best days EVER!  

English fast ...

Nothing too huge this week. I went on exchanges to another area this week. I was with Elder Weight for 24 hours on Halloween. It was pretty crazy. Koreans don't party too hard on Halloween, mainly because every night is a party in Korea. But... We went and heart-attacked some members doors for Halloween. I've been to a lot of really weird places in Korea, but one of the members houses was literally the scariest place I've ever been to. It was straight out of ... it was bleak. Definitely an awesome Halloween experience. 

The day after Halloween I went with Elder Weight and talked to people at like one of the biggest herbal medicine markets in the world. It's weird to see the kind of stuff that people eat to get healthier, cause it definitely wouldn't be on the top of my "healthy foods" list. 

This week I also started a 40-day english fast. I've been wanting to work more on my Korean, and now it's the only language I'll be speaking for about the next month and a half. It's been REALLY hard, but REALLY helpful so far. You learn a lot of stuff that you wouldn't learn normally. If it goes well then I'll probably just give up speaking english for the rest of my mission. When I heard that Korean was the 2nd hardest language in the world to learn, I definitely didn't believe it. But ... it is! 

I really wish there was more to talk about, but there isn't! Not really any pictures either! I'll have more next week! I promise!  Can't wait to talk to you all next week!

Rob!

If you send letters you'll get one back ASAP! Same with packages :) Send away!

For letters...

Elder Christian Woodall

Korea Seoul Mission

Gwanghwamun Po Box

210

Jongno-Gu

Seoul-si 110-602

South Korea

For packages....

Elder Christian Woodall

Korea Seoul Mission

Samcheong-ro 9 gil 45

Jongno-gu

Seoul-si 110-230

South Korea

Another just pics

Just photos this week! I was too busy replying to all of you guys to send out a big email! I love you guys so much! Can't wait to hear from you all next week! 

Rob

Elder Choi with his busted foot from last week! He had to keep it elevated for a few days because of it!

Octopii

What a week. 

So on Monday we went biking on the Han River with the rest of our zone and it was SUPER fun. But it was just biking so I won't take up too much time with that!

Tuesday was crazy. We met with all of our investigators before Elder McLeod left on Wednesday! 

We found out that our investigator that's been progressing a ton has to move for work next month, so we're going to try to get him baptized before he leaves! It's such a bummer! Our other investigators are doing really well, but not progressing like we would like them too. 

One of our investigators took us out to eat after we taught him and it was crazy. He took us to eat live octopus. It was crazy. I've never eaten food that literally fights back when you eat it. When you order it, you can hear the chef just killing the octopus with a huge knife and just mashing it out to death with it. Then this plate of purple and while stuff comes out and you realize that it's moving all over the plate. First you dip it in oil so that it can't stick to the inside of your throat, then you keep chewing it until it stops moving. It's SUPER tasty! After we ate through two plates of octopus, we got this fish that translates to "money fish". It was cooked, but you eat all of it. The bones and everything. It was really yummy! 

On Wednesday I got my new companion: Elder Choi! He is AMAZING. We've already been living together for the past couple of months, but now we're companions. I love it. We get along so well. Then we also have a new greenie living with us! He's straight out of the MTC and the best little missionary ever! His name is Elder Sederholm!

Last night was crazy, though. Elder Choi has had a really bad cold/flu the past few days. Last night he sneezed at 11:30pm and he went to go wash his hands and face.... Then we just hear this HUGE crash. We turn the lights on and the sink is literally in a million pieces all over the bathroom floor. He put his hand on it and it just fell off the wall. We were in shock and went to go get our cameras, then we realize that Elder Choi has a really bad cut on his foot... and he had walked all over our beds to get his camera. Our white sheets were covered in blood. We ended up having to call President Christensen and get medical advice about his foot. It was a crazy night. Our landlord is really mad about it. 

That's about my whole week! I love you guys! Please email back! :)

Rob!

If you send letters you'll get one back ASAP! Same with packages :) Send away!

For letters...

Elder Christian Woodall

Korea Seoul Mission

Gwanghwamun Po Box

210

Jongno-Gu

Seoul-si 110-602

South Korea

For packages....

Elder Christian Woodall

Korea Seoul Mission

Samcheong-ro 9 gil 45

Jongno-gu

Seoul-si 110-230

South Korea

Photos this week!

1. Live Octopus.... 

2. The aftermath of the bathroom sink... 

3. Elder Sederholm

Pics

I don't have a whole lot of time, so here are some photos!  ( This is Sister Woodall : photos ... which I can't post because my iPhoto needs an upgrade.  Photos to come ... )

Also, if you didn't get a reply this week, it's cause I didn't actually get your email! Everyone has been replied too!

Rob

1. Elder Lee Young. AKA the best missionary I know! This was right after a service project week did picking up trash around Seoul!

2. I totally failed at taking this photo, but these are the sisters in my zone that we picked up trash wish! Sister An and Sister Amituanai

3. I'm now writing all my notes in Korean! It's so hard, but SO much fun!

High on the Mountaintop!

First off, I could REALLY use more emails. Most of my email time was me just sitting around last week! Wake up and sent me something! Even if it's short!

This was a AWESOME and interesting week. Most of our weeks are spent out contacting people on the street everyday and trying to find people, but all of a sudden, we've been teaching people everyday of the week. 

So my crazy story from this week.... Last week we were out street contacting and we said hello to this guy, and he immediately starts speaking English to us; which is pretty normal cause there are a lot of fluent English speakers in Korea but.... This guy is from Korea, but grew up in Japan going to a English speaking school then moved to Georgia when he was 18 or 19 years old. He has the slightest Georgia accent to him and he's AMAZING. We talked with him for an hour on the street then met with him again later in the week. He accepted everything that we taught and was telling us how he could feel the Spirit when we taught him. IT WAS SO COOL! Then he read half of the Book of Mormon that night! We're going to meet with him later again this week. 

Elder McLeod and I taught an investigator everyday this week. It's been so great to see a sudden burst in people meeting with us. The blessings are just pouring out. Hopefully this will week be even better! I really hope that people realize that what we're sharing WILL change their lives. I wish everyone would realize that.

One of our investigators has almost quit smoking and came to the church the first time. He already has a HUGE testimony of the gospel, it's just the smoking that's holding him back. We now 3 investigators that could get baptized within the next month. It's awesome. 

We got permission this week to go up and pray on top of Achasan this week, which is the mountain that splits Seoul from the countryside. It's right behind our house, so we woke up at 5:30 am and hiked it at sun rise. It was AMAZING! Getting outside of the city is my favorite thing in the world. The moments where I can just get out in nature and see things other than concrete and more concrete are the best. I've seriously grown to have so much more of an appreciation for Idaho and living outside of the city since I got here, and it's not like I didn't already love it before!

Oh, and one of our investigators is taking us out to eat live octopus on Wednesday! I'm so excited!

Love all of you guys! 사랑해요! 다음 주에 많는 email를 주세요!

Rob 

Pictures!

1. Elder Lee and I went to Costco this week. Expensive!

2. Elder McLeod and I on top of Achasan.

3. Seoul from on top of the mountain! 

Slow weeks happen in the fast lane ...

Not a whole lot happened this week, but... Our investigator named Kyoung FINALLY came to church! it was literally my greatest moment ever. We've been trying to get him to come since I moved to the Hwayang area of Seoul. He's been progressing more and more, and it's be awesome to watch! Hopefully he'll get baptized pretty soon here!

 

A bunch of people from my old area were also at church this week because it was a big combined meeting, so I got to see all my old church members from Gyomun! 

 

We started teaching a guy from Santa Monica this week, he's from Korea but he worked as a mental health specialist in Santa Clarita. I just happened to run into him one day on the street! It was super crazy! He's supposed to be coming to church on Sunday!

 

Other than that, not a whole lot happened! 

 

I love all you guys and I can't wait to hear back from you! I should have more time to email next week with a bigger email for you all! If you email I'll write back next week!

 

Rob

 

Pictures!

 

1. Elder Lee and I enjoying some fine American food. 

 

That's it this week... I didn't take a ton of photos. 

 

If you send letters you'll get one back ASAP! Same with packages :) Send away!

For letters...

Elder Christian Woodall

Korea Seoul Mission

Gwanghwamun Po Box

210

Jongno-Gu

Seoul-si 110-602

South Korea

For packages....

Elder Christian Woodall

Korea Seoul Mission

Samcheong-ro 9 gil 45

Jongno-gu

Seoul-si 110-230

South Korea

Thanksgiving!

What a week! We had a mission conference this week and it was SO much fun. The food was amazing and words that were spoken were even better! It's so amazing to see how the Lord is hastening his work here in Korea. Being with all those missionaries is such a reminder that I'm around some of the biggest spiritual giants out there. 

It's currently Korean Thanksgiving right now, so there is NOBODY out on the streets right now. Everyone is inside celebrating, which means there are a LOT of drunk people around. We found out a couple of weeks ago that Korea beats Russia in consuming more alcohol than any other country. It doesn't really shock me! 

We had an amazing experience with one of our investigators this week. He's been struggling with giving up coffee for a couple of months now, and it's been a really struggle for him. So the other day we met with him and he told us that he hasn't had a cup of coffee for 6 days. He told us we didn't know what giving up our favorite food was like so I committed to no longer drinking chocolate milk. Which is no fun at all because I drink 6-8 cartons of it a day and I love it. But, it's been a super cool experience and it's letting me see what he's going through! 

My companion got called as district leader this week, and it's been stressing him out a ton. I've been trying to help him out as much as possible with it. Elder McLeod is seriously the best, I'm so blessed to be serving with him and having the chance to serve him too. 

Love,

Rob

Pictures!

1. Elder Thompson left our area this week and it was super sad! 

2.  We had a game night with the youth in our ward this week! They're such amazing kids!

3. Our Bishop got us all super cool socks for Thanksgiving! The big missionary in the middle is elder Choi! He's my new housemate and he's the coolest Hawaiian elder ever!

If you send letters you'll get one back ASAP! Same with packages :) Send away!

For letters...

Elder Christian Woodall

Korea Seoul Mission

Gwanghwamun Po Box

210

Jongno-Gu

Seoul-si 110-602

South Korea

For packages....

Elder Christian Woodall

Korea Seoul Mission

Samcheong-ro 9 gil 45

Jongno-gu

Seoul-si 110-230

South Korea