Week 89: Mission tour with Elder Oaks and My Birthday!

This week has been super shiny and it felt like we had no time at all!

I wanted to talk about something that I learned as an apostle of the Lord, Elder Dallin H. Oaks, came and spake to us on Thursday. He talked about many things, but 2 things that stuck out were practicing repentance everyday and the question, "where does your testimony come from". 
A testimony is obtained through diligence and through action.
In order to know something is true or to even have faith in something, we must act in order to see results. Without action, most times there can be no results, but I know that as we repent and try to resemble Christ more and more everyday, and ponder where our testimonies come from, that we will be more happy inside and become better people!

On Monday, we got up in the morning and cleaned our apartment and then went shopping! After shopping, we went to the house and dropped our stuff off and then came to email for a bit and after that we met a potential investigator and had lunch with him! It was a great lesson and then we went to the church and met the missionaries that are on
Jeju island and then went to a black sand beach and chilled out there for a good while. Then we went back to the church and emailed and then we had family home evening at the church with a whole bunch of members and college students and that was our day!

Tuesday, we went outside in the morning and talked to people and then we went to the airport to give the sisters some of the documents they needed before they went off to Busan and then we came home and studied and planned and then went outside and talked to people and after
talking to people for a while, we went down to the beach to study Korean and met a member that we had spent Monday with, who was just walking around. So we talked with him and he had nothing to do, so we went and visited a couple members with him and then had a lesson with him because he is a recent convert and then we went home and went
outside to go talk to people and that at 8, we went to a members house to go eat and talked with them about the importance of family history!

On Wednesday we studied in the morning and then we went outside and studied some more and then we were outside talking to people and sharing the gospel and then we went to our service project! Our service project is so loud and fun, because we get to teach kids English!!! Then we went home and ate dinner and then we had to go to the airport to go back to Busan for our mission conference with Elder
Oaks! So we got into Busan kind of later than we were expecting, but we got to go back to Haeundai, and that was awesome!

Thursday was my birthday and it was such an awesome birthday!! In the morning we went from Haeundai to Geumjeong (my old area) and on our way there, we saw an investigator that I had taught, so we got off the bus and said hi and got to talk to him! Then we went back to Haeundai
and went into the house and they had bought birthday bread for me! so we had a fun little party there and then we went down to Haeundai beach and met with people and talked and took some good pictures with them and then we went to Gwangan and had a pizza buffet for lunch and then went to go meet Elder Oaks. We had a special missionary meeting
where we were able to meet him and talk to him and learn about the Savior and how to be better missionaries. Then we went out to dinner and then went back to Haeundai.

On Friday, we got our stuff and went to Yeongdo (my first area) and met some members and then we went to Seomyeon to go eat lunch and then went to the airport and we all thought our flight was at 1:35, but it was a earlier flight, so we missed our flight and had to reschedule it. So anyways, we took a later flight and got back to Jeju and we
went outside for a little bit and talked to others and then had to go to the church and watched a broadcast with Elder Oaks speaking!

Saturday was waking up in the morning and going and playing soccer in the morning and then going out to breakfast with an investigator. After that, we were walking to go play some basketball and a man stopped us and he was American needing some help finding a Samsung
service center. So we helped him find that and talked with him for a while and then we went to the basketball courts and met a person who had met the missionaries before and we ended up teaching him about the gospel and he said that he would come to church on Sunday (he did come to church). Then we went home and studied and then went to the church
and watched a broadcast with President Oaks again and then went home.

On Sunday, the person we met at the park came to church and had a great time.  
We had church meetings and after church we had to get a lot of office work done, so we spent some of our time outside
talking to others and then some of our time doing office work and that was our day!

It was a great week here on Jeju and I love being here and being with
the people!

Love Always,

Elder Joshua Wilson

Week 88: 제주도!!! JEJU ISLAND!!

This week was sick!! I love being on Jeju!!! It is awesome being here and the weather is fantastic and the people are great, and I love the ward members! My companions name is Elder Cronin and he has been out for 1 year and 9months! So it looks like he will be ending his mission in Jeju, and same here! So we are having a fun time out on the island working with each other and finding great people to teach!

Yesterday in church, during class, we talked about the people that we want to be, and as I sat there I thought that it would be wonderful to be a person that resembles Jesus Christ. He is really our Savior and loves us and how great he is and how much love and joy did he have
even when times were hard. I thought about this and thought it would be awesome to be like him!

This last week on Monday, we skyped our families! So I skyped my family after packing up all my stuff because I was getting transferred to Jeju Island and got to talk to them for an hour and some! It was great to talk with them and oh how I love talking to my family. It is
kind of weird thinking that this was the last time I skyped my family before I go back to the states! But that was a great time and my companion and I went to the mission home and emailed for a little bit and then his companion came and he went off and then I waited at the
mission home until 5 and then went to the airport and took a plane to the island! Then went to the church and met my new companion and some members!

On Tuesday, we studied in the morning and went outside and talked to people and then we had a meeting with all the missionaries in our area and then we met with an investigator. After meeting with him, we went to our branch president's house and had dinner and chatted and then we went outside and talked to people for the remainder of the day.

Wednesday, we went to go find a less active member but he had moved and then we got a call to go meet with an investigator, so we had lunch with him and then we had our service project. After our service project we went to the church and were planning on meeting a member, but he was unable to make it so we went outside and talked to other
people!

ON Thursday, we studied in the morning and then went to go meet another investigator and he had a lot of questions, so we talked a good amount and then we went outside for a bit and then we had our English class. After English we talked with the English class members
and that was a great time as well!

Friday, we had meeting so we skyped into it because they didn't fly us out to main lang. So anyways, we did that and then went outside and talked to some people and then we went out to new 신 jeju and talked to a bunch of people and met some great people over there.

On Saturday we were super busy. We had a couple missionary meeting and interviews with President and then we met with some investigators!

On Sunday, we had church and I got to translate again for a foreign family and then we got to have some meetings and then we went to have dinner with one of our members and then came home!

It was a great week and we had a lot of fun!

Love Always,

Elder Joshua Wilson

Week 86: BAPTISM!!!

This week has gotten very warm and it has been a really busy week!

This week I want to talk about baptism and how clean we can become from it!   Last Saturday I baptized Dat, and it was awesome to see how much people can change and come closer unto Christ. He willingly wanted to get baptized and loved every moment.  He said that he felt so clean after receiving it! It was wonderful and I love this gospel and know it is true!

So on Monday, we hung out. We went to Costco in the morning and shopped and then came back to the church and emailed and hung out and all that! Then afterwards we went outside and talked to other people and got to share the gospel with them!

On Tuesday, we went to our service project in the morning and then we served the elderly and did our soup kitchen service project and then went home and studied. After studied we went outside for a bit and then went to the church and cleaned the baptismal font for our baptism on Saturday. Then we did choir practice and had a great day!

On Wednesday, we had our zone conference and we went hiking and learned from other missionaries and it was such a great time! I loved zone conference and learned so much from it! Then we went home and my companion got hurt during the hike, so we went to the church, and practiced singing and then finished our day.

Thursday, my companion couldn't get out of bed because he was so hurt.  So, we went on multiple splits, and I stayed in the house and then went outside and then stayed in the house and then went to English class --- and things like that. Though, at least, on Thursday, I had an opportunity to interview someone to be baptized, and went home and contacted and then went to the church for English class.   During English class, Dat got interviewed and passed!

On Friday, my companion was still very hurt, so we went on more splits and met people and then contacted and then met some more people and new investigators and then finished the day by contacting.

Saturday, We had a baptism!

We had a meeting with a less active, and went to buy things and then had our baptism! It was wonderful! Dat is awesome, and he loved getting baptized! He said he felt so clean after he came out of the waters of baptism!

On Sunday, he received the Holy Ghost and we had a couple meeting and then we went outside and helped other come unto Christ! I loved this week!!  Although my time is short, I'm very thankful to be here!

Love Always,

Elder Joshua Wilson

With Brother Dat

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Week 85: Wow it's already May...

Where is the time going!?! The last time I checked it was April...  Time is going way to quickly. It will almost be mother's day too and I'm so excited for mother's day! I love being here on my mission and being able to meet with others! This week was a busy week and it was super interesting. It was super sunny and then there was a sudden rainstorm that only seemed to hit where I was, so that was great... We had to run some errands for other missionaries and I keep working on this English book for all Japanese and Korean missionaries to use in the future for their English classes. Missionary work is always busy and that is why it is great and you should never feel like you are wasting any time!

Today, I want to share something that I felt in sacrament meeting yesterday. As I was translating and actually throughout this week, I had felt like prayer has been a large theme. On Friday, in order to avoid getting punked and wasting time, the spirit prompted us to go home and we did according to that prompting. But not only that, but yesterday a 7 year old got up to talk about the power of prayer and I had the privilege to translate and he was talking about how prayer is not hard and sometimes he is tired so he doesn't always pray at night, but he wants to try his best. But, the thing that got me was when he was concluding his talk: he talked about his mom. His mom is currently fighting cancer and came from the hospital in Seoul to see her son speak in sacrament meeting. As I translated with streams coming down my face, he said with conviction  "I'm so thankful for the power of prayer. Because of the power of prayer and because God hears my prayers my mom can be here today and my mom can overcome cancer". It not only reminded me of where our family was 3 years ago, but also that prayer really does work. Prayer isn't switching God's will, it is acting according to his will and giving thanks and asking for help when we need it. I love prayer.

This last week on Monday, it was a very laid back P-day. We emailed for a little bit and then we went shopping and then emailed a little bit more and then went to Busan National University and ate some Japanese Ramen and then went outside and strolled around and then went bowling. After that we came back and emailed a little bit more. Our investigator appointment got cancelled, so we went outside for the rest of the night and talked to other people about thee gospel!

On Tuesday, one of the members of the church was sent from church headquarters up in Seoul to come clean the church, so he called us and we ended up cleaning up the church grounds and gardening and things like that. Then we had to go to an appointment to make the English book, so we went and worked on that for a bit and then we went to a dinner with a member and were able to meet a lot of good people along the way and people that are willing to meet! Then we went home!!

Wednesday, we went on exchanges with the Yeonsan Elders and I had the great opportunity to go on exchanges with Elder Matua! He is super awesome and from Utah! He is of Samoan descent and it was super fun to serve with him! We met in the morning and then studied and then went outside for a bit and talked to a whole bunch of people and then we were supposed to have an appointment, and that got cancelled because he didn't pick up his phone. But, we went to busan National university and met some great people and played some basketball with them! Then we ate dinner and then we got a call from the mission office saying a foreigner forgot his bag and they told us to go get it, so we ended up getting an elders bag!

On Thursday, we had district meeting in the morning and then we studied for a little bit and then we met with some people to keep making the English book and then we finished that and then we walked home and then had dinner and had English Class. After English class, we met with Daut and everything is looking good for his baptism on the 6th of May!! Super exciting!!

 Friday was an interesting day! We went outside for the first part and then had to go to a lunch appointment with a member and then he took us to go see a less-active that wasn't home, but it was alright! Then we ended up getting to our meeting spot for a potential investigator super early, and it wasn't in our area and for some reason I had a weird feeling, and prayed and had a feeling that we had to go home and we went home. And the investigator didn't answer any of our texts or phone calls and if we were there, we would've been punked. But anyways, we went home and then went outside and talked to people and then met another member and had dinner with them and then had a meeting with the bishopric!

Saturday, we studied in the morning and then went outside and talked to people and then we had English class and right after English class, we had to go to meet the people making the English Book and did that for the rest of the day.

Yesterday was awesome! I loved sacrament meeting!! We had sacrament meeting and I translated and then we had a whole bunch of meetings and we went home and ate and then went outside for a little bit and were able to talk to others and then we went to the mission home and met with some more people about the English book and that was my week!

It was a great week and this week is probably going to be filled with a lot of appointments and meetings!

Love Always,

Elder Joshua Wilson