[ HUGE WEEK! BIG CHANGES! ]

Hey everyone!!! Well this was a big and tough, but great week for me!! so many changes. So yes I have been transferred! I am outside of Seoul for the first time. Our area is reallyyyy big. it is the entire city of Bu-Cheon. And my companion's name is Elder Bacarro. He is from the Philippines. Cool huh!! He has been out for over a year and a half and will go home after next transfer. He has only been in this area for one transfer before me so he and I are kind of learning everything together.

Like I said lotsss has happened this week. First I'll talk about my old area and then this area. So in Song-Pa it was tough to say goodbye, I'll be honest. I was there for almost 6 months and I started to get really attached to everything, the area, the ward, the investigators, my companion, just everything. I reallyyyy loved it. It was soo much fun there. But saying goodbye was hard. My good ward member friend Sue was a toughy. We visited her house and when I was sharing my closing testimony with her she started to cry. She was a great ward member and helped out us missionaries so much. she was like our "missionary mom." I'll stay in contact with her.

Our area, Song-Pa 2, has dissappeared. President decided it needed to be closed down. We were the only 4 Elder missionay area in the whole mission and I guess the number of missionaries is a little low, so it was closed. It was kind of hard for me to accept the fact that it was just going to disappear after all that work, but I know that the other elders can handle it. In fact, I received GREAT news from them just earlier. Our investigator Kim-Soo-Hee showed up at church again yesterday and they met after and had a good lesson. Later that day, she called Elder Poulsen and asked about baptism and says she is really thinking about it. It made me SOO happy to hear that.

[ Dinner with the house. Love them!!! ]

[ Invesigator, oh say sung ]

[ Investigator lee hyung ]

[ Investigator woo eun bean ]

So my new area is cool. It's really big, and so is the ward! It's crazy we have like 150 members!!!!! Most I've had by far! And they are reallyyy nice. I had to give a little introduction of myself in sacrament and after everyone was coming up and talking to me. They all said my Korean was really good :) especially my pronunciation, so that made me feel good. and we have 3 meal appointments set up already!

[ Our map ]

[ The house ]

[ A view of part of the area ]  

[ Our church ] 

[ HUGE church | Downtown ] 

[ Buddist temple ]

We have 2 investigators here that I have met. One of them is SOO golden, but just can't get baptized yet. She has a fiance who was a less-active and was reactivated about 5 months ago, way cool story. Anyways, they are living together right now so we have to wait until they are married, which they don't want to do until october, which is a bummer. But really you look at her and she just acts like a member. Her name is Jeen-Meen-Jung.

The other investigator was a referral from a 16yr old in our ward. It's 3 of his friends and they really like soccer. Our ward plays every saturday morning so we went with them on saturday, well 2 of them, and it was really fun. WE only got to share a little message with them. So they will be a little slower, but still way cool.

I met a lady in our ward who they call the missionary mom. She is really nice and asked us to come help her with some work around her farm. So we went there one day for 3 hours and did some work over there. It was so great to serve, like do manual labor service. I don't get to do that as much as a thought I would have. I am grateful for that opportunity. I have some funny pictures of it for you too :) 

[ the countryside of my new area ] 

[ Our hike to the farm ]

[ Our missionary mom :) ]

[ Watering haha ]

So I had a really cool experience on saturday morning on our way to soccer. As we crossed though a little playground we walked by a lady from the Philippines and my comp just said hi to her and we kept going. We went to use the ATM and while there, my comp said, I want to go back. So we went back and found her and he started to talk to her, in his native tongue of course. They talked for about 10 minutes and it was really cool to see. I felt like a greenie though because I couldn't understand a word hahahah. It's similar to spanish so I caught a thing or two, but honestly not really. I guess she is just here for vacation for about a month then will go back to the Philippines. He got her home address and will refer her to the missionaries down there. It was a cool experience seeing my companion follow the prompting of the Spirit.

Last night we went with our investigator jeen meen jung and her fiance to go hear president's like farawell talk to the people living in Seoul Mission boundries. It was so powerful and when he asked all of "his" missionaries who were there to stand it was pretty awesome. I just love being a missionary. After the meeting I got to talk with some of my old ward members, especially from geum-cheon. My favorite family, the stake president's family was there. I got a picture with them for you guys. Also, Lee dong sun, one of my recent converts was there and I got to sit with him. He is doing sooo good.

[ My bud, lee dong sun ] 

[ My FAV family, the Jeun family from Geum Cheon ward, the stake pres. ]

Well I should wrap this up. Sorry it was soooo scattered there was just soo much. Anything that didn't make it in I will put in your letter.

Although i have been transferred, I know that I have come here with a purpose. I am not sure why I have been sent here yet, but I will find that purpose and I will accomplish it to its fullest. I love the Lord and His work. I am grateful to be in His service.

I love you all have a great week family! Have fun at the beach house, my all time favorite family tradition!!!!

Love,
Elder messick