Elder Benny Yamagata: 갑자기 Exciting week!

Mom and Dad,

So Im going to skip the beginning of the week up until thursday, because nothing special really happened.

So thursday, I had 12 week training follow up which is where all the trainees go into the 신당 ward in seoul and receive training from the APs, President and Sister Christensen. It didnt start off well though. So we left the apartment 5 minutes late, prayed and then as we were going to the bus stop 3 minutes away, realized we left our broken and needing to be fixed phone back at the apartment. So we had to run back and grab it, and ran to the bus stop to realize I forgot my wallet! Ran again and finally made it on the bus. By the time we got off we had 7 minutes to run almost a half mile to the train station and get on the express train into seoul! We eventually made it and the train was 2 minutes late anyways so it worked out perfectly! After being cramped onto a train like sardines for almost an hour, we made it to the Shindong ward where I was happy to see all my MTC District and many of my dongi members who are way across the mission. Everyone is pretty much the same, and the training was great! Its always a great blessing to receive training from the President, he has soo many great insights into the work that we do, and the way we feel about certain things. He was able to inspire me yet again to work even harder this week and so thats what I did! We also finally got a working phone and were able to see church headquarters for all of Korea, pretty cool place! Smaller than you expect though!

Friday was also pretty exciting! We were supposed to do weekly planning but somehow planned a lesson right at the beginning of planning and so had to go to that. Long story short, hes 15 minutes late, we walked around with this guy trying to find a restaurant for 30 minutes, I paid 6,000 won for a soup that was the blandest thing ever (talk about weird food this week) and then we only taught him about faith. Luckily though he was very receptive and commited to reading Moronis promise and the pamphlet on The gospel of Jesus Christ. We see a big future with this guy, which made everything else worth it. Back to the house and we are barely starting weekly planning at 2:45, we are usually done by 3.... Had to rush through most of it, got almost done by 6:10 then had to leave for our Appointment with Brother 최 and Sister 오. They took us to this expensive restaurant down in 덕이동 where they served a bunch of expensive meats, and one of them was dog!!! I was so excited to finally try it! Surprisingly it was very good and I didnt know it was dog till the end of the meal! Afterwards, Brother 최 wanted more food so we went to this Chinese place down the street and had Jajamyon. Very good, but we had been with them for a long time and hadnt taught yet, so I really wanted to start teaching. We started there and after a very VERY rough start with them and jumping around three different lessons, we had to leave the restaurant. Outside we talked a little about the spirit that he felt when he first saw us and then we got in the car. In the car we explained more about faith, and then we got to our house. Heres where the miracles started. He pulled up slowly, then turned and said "Can we pull over for 10 minutes so you can teach me some more?" We were sooooo excited to hear that!!!! We pulled over next to our building, and started teaching about Repentance, he said he felt some of the feelings of guilt and sin that we mentioned. We then taught about baptism, and he asked "How long does it take to become a member of the church?" Oh I was so excited I almost couldnt contain it! Finally it came time for the important part: the commitment, and my first one in Korean! I extended the commitment to him and his wife to be baptized, and unfortunately he declined. BUT!!!! He said that he wanted to take more time to read the Book of Mormon, and that he would read the Gospel of Jesus Christ Pamphlet 2 before he went to bed that night!! What an amazing commitment! We had to run in the house before 9:30 or we would be in "trouble" by our district leader. Made it! Awesome night!

Saturday! Not much missionary work this day (unfortunately) but it was a good day nonetheless. Avoiding the Details we: Ate with a member at a tofu restaurant, I gave a spiritual thought. Elders Smith, Chisholm, Rhodes, and I bought a half gallon of ice cream at baskin robbins and finished it in less then 10 minutes! Went home, did language study, then had english class! Easy day and really fun! We also had transfer calls, Im not going anywhere, no surprise!

Sunday: Church was super long, but right afterwards Brother Ha Tae Won asked us to go with him to visit a member. We went with him to the hospital, and talked with a lady who was very sick. We gave her a blessing (Which I had prayed to help someone in need that morning! ), and then visited a less active right across the street while we waited for his wife to pick usup. Afterwards they took us all the way to Paju, where the only bad part of the day happened. They fed us what I can only describe as cold spaghetti noodles with kimchi in it. I had never fought my gag reflex so hard, or actually known what that felt like! It wasnt bad at first, but the kimchi was a little older and more potent and it just was not sitting right! I was glad to get out of there! We (Elders Chisholm, Elwood, Smith, and I) then had to meet with the Pakistani family from last week! They were super fun and as we ate and talked and found out what they needed, we had an awesome time! They cracked jokes with us and fed us some amazing Pakistani food! We found out they were baptized in Pakistan in what we figure to be an unauthorized branch out there. The men dont hold the priesthood, or really know what it is, and they dont have a book of mormon even, which worries us! But supposedly they have a baptism record, so we cant refute that they are a members. Its just crazy to think that they havent been to church in almost 12 years because of religious persecution! The Father's Dad was killed by terrorists, where they slit his throat in the shape of a cross. The son was taken and beaten till near death and then dropped on the front door of his dads house. Crazy! They left there and came here ASAP. They are really bad in Debt, but have such strong faith and belief that although they are super struggling, they are still happy and have faith that Christ will help them! What a testimony builder!

Anyways that was my week! I hope everyone at home is doing well and that nothing bad has happened! My Zone Leader Elder Chisholm's friend just had to be a pallbearer in his mission and that is no bueno! So please everyone be safe and realize that the tender mercies of the lord are everywhere! When we pray for things he hears us and will do everything he can to help us and give us what we ask for as long as we pray with a sincere heart, and real intent to act on anything that he tells us, no matter how strange it sounds! When we do this, he will be more willing and ready to give us things in the future because he knows that we will not hesitate to act on his words to us!

I love and miss all of you so much! Have a great week!

Elder Yamagata