Another Week, Another Lesson

Elliott's nephew Noah arrived this past week, and so did his 2nd cousin Wesley!

September 2, 2013

Hey everyone!

So, I'm just so tired.  Yesterday was nuts.  Let me explain:

Fast Sunday, right?  And our church meetings go from 9am to 2:30pm... and I like to be a little early so we can help set up the sacrament in the American branch.  We're also expecting a few people to come to church (Remember Mark from a few weeks ago?  He came!).  Anyways, we have a super spiritual sacrament meeting, and a pretty legit second hour (we have a lesson we have to share in Priesthood).  We plan it, plan for our investigators, and then it's show time.  We share our lesson, run up to the Korean Sacrament meeting (we showed up with 30 minutes left in the meeting), and then it's gospel principles.  One of our investigators (김정하, with the baptism date... well, she had one.  We had to drop it because she doesn't have that strong of a commitment to it.  When our members ask about it, she sorta just shyed away from the topic) came and I sat next to her.  It was a wonderful lesson about the Fall of Adam and Eve (and I understand a good 80% of it.  The teacher also had me read a lot of the scriptures... after this class, I was mentally spent.  Couple that with sacrament meetings that I focused the entire time during, and well, yeah.  I'm still feeling the effects).  Then third hour, we were with the Young Men (who are starting to like us a little more.  It's amazing what learning a name or two can do).  Right after church, we jetted off to meet Sean at a location that took 30 minutes to get to by car (we asked an American member to help us).  We get there and have a super awesome lesson, and then we go up to Seoul (a special fireside that Sean thought would be fun to go to).  We show up to this meeting in time for the closing hymn and prayer, and we then are on our way back to 평택.  We get home at about 10 (the zone leader knew, don't worry), and I need to get the Sunday report into him.  Once everything was all said and done, it was about 10:20.  So, all in all, it was a 14 hour fest of just straight missionary work, and fasting for the entire time.  Yeah, I was exhausted.  So was Elder Pruner.  But, it was a good day.  Very productive.

Other exciting things include that one of our investigators invited us to his daughter's first birthday party.  It was quite an experience.  I walked away with a box of soy milk.  It was really fun.  I wish I was able to make it to Vera's first birthday, but hey, this was a close second.

I'm excited to hear about Noah!  And Mackenzie's son.  Keep pictures coming!  I've been announcing a new nephew for the last 6 weeks at district meeting, so like, it'll be good to finally say "He's here," and leave it at that.

Seems like we all have super short letters this week... the most insightful thing I've learned is that I'm nowhere near perfect.  And that I have a lot to learn about patience, charity, and well, humilty.  As I've read the scriptures, and as I've thought about the trials I've been facing as of recently, I've realized that a lot of it is amplified by my attitude and how I deal with them.  I've realized that I don't have enough energy to be angry about anything, nor do I have enough time.  I've only enough energy to work effectively, be sincere, and well, that's about it.  Being negative requires a ton of energy.  Being positive and engaged and productive takes just as much.  And there's simply not enough to be both.

Anyways, sorry about the brevity of this letter.  But I hope all hgave a good week.

Until then,

Elder Wedam