[ IT'S ME AGAIN! ]

Hey everyone! Hope you guys all had a great week. Of course my week was great as always! Started out a little slow, but ended really great!

Mom, thank you so much for my little valentines day package. I didn't even know it was coming. Thank you for the nice surprise :) Speaking of valentines day presents, Kenzie i hope you were able to get yours ok!!

This last tuesday we had a pretty big snow storm. It snowed for a good 6 or 7 hours straight. It just kept coming and not just a little but a lot! I was on exchanges that day with our district leader in their area. I will be sending a picture of me and him in the snow. The weather has been pretty dang cold. I think one day this week it was 2 degress F. In fact it was so cold the pipes for our washer froze! haha (Washers are kind of in like an outside room in korea, similiar to our old sunroom type thing). Anyways, it was a pretty cold one! haha.

We were able to have to meals this week with some great members in our ward. I feel like it has a been a bit harder for me to bond with the ward this transfer than in my other areas so it was really good. Our first meal was with a nice family with 2 kids (18 and 15). The dad is from Busan area so he has an accent. Kind of like how people in texas and new york have accents. Anyways, he speaks superrr fast so its way hard to understand haha. That was some good listening practice! We ate some sweet and sour chicken, fried squid, and of course kim-chee and rice. Our other meal was with a guy in our ward who is very active. His wife was baptized but sort of hates the church. Not good. anyways he took us out to get a meal that is basically like a kim-chee soup. He is such a good member. In fact, he brought one of his friends to church. she loved it! she loved it so much she was crying during the sacrament hymn. Sadly i wasnt there to see it. I'll explain later in the email. The other missionaries in our area will be picking her up as an investigator this week.

This week I was able to see another HUGE miracle for me. Up until friday, i was feeling like our week of missionary work was sort of dry. Ya we were contacting but the lessons were limited and we hadn't found anyone with interest. Well on friday we went to the bus stop to head over to another part of our area. We were about to get on the bus when my companion realized he didn't have his wallet. He wanted to go back, but for some reason i just had a feeling that we HAD to be on that bus. I didn't know why so I told him i am paying for him. We got on the bus. We headed to sit down after passing two people, but i just had a feeling to go back and sit next to this kid on the bus. So i turned around and sat by him. We started talking. He has been going to church for 15 years. He is in college right now and just attends the christian church on campus. Well when i started to talk about the book of mormon he said he had never heard of it and got really interested. I was able to give him a copy of it and we should be meeting in two weeks. He went to his parents house for 2 weeks to visit, so when he comes back we will be meeting him. This was a direct blessing from the Lord to me. It was a testimony builder to me that His hand is in this work. I know that Christ is right here next to us in this work. He is leading us and guiding us so that we can help build up the kingdom of God.

Our baptismal dates. So Ju is doing well. She has been very busy with work. She works at an elementary school. As you know, koreans loveee to study haha. But ya she works 6 times a week so it's tough to meet. She is still progressing and working towards baptism, we jsut are not sure about the date right now. Lee-Say-Won has been hard to get going. She hasn't really been keeping her committments, but she will be meeting us again soon. Hopefully when we meet we can teach by the Spirit and be directed to how we can help her progress.

So Sunday. I did not end up going to my ward this week because my buddy Elder Frei wanted me to go with him to his last area to see his investigator get baptized. I couldn't let him miss that opportunity! The reason why I went instead of his companion was because both us and them had investigators coming to church so they needed to be there to fellowship them. Well his old area is the english branch. Let me tell you, i felt soo awkard there since it was all americans and in engllish! hahah! It was the first time hearing the sacrament prayer in english in 9 months! It really caused me to see the differences in culture too. P.S. dad i wore my suit and tie too don't worry :)

I have grown such a love for the people here. I am so grateful to be serving in Korea. There is no place I'd rather be. It is helping me grow and learn things that I never would have been able to do without this experience. I know that this is the work of the Lord. I have a testimony of this Gospel. I know that God has called a prophet again in these latter days. I am grateful for all of you guys and the support you always give to me. I love you guys. Have a greeat week!

Love,
Elder Messick

[ A huge street market in my area. Its about 10 rows of this! ]

[ Olympic Park ]

[ Funny statue in the middle of the street! ]