Thursday, June 26, 2014

Transfer 9, week 1 - 광안! (Gwangan) (June 23, 2014)



Hello!

I don't have a ton of time to write this week, but big news: transfers!

I know I wrote last week that I didn't think I was going to go anywhere, but suprise! I've been transfered to 광안 (Gwangan), which is in Busan. My new companion is Elder 홍의택 (Hong Witaek), who's in his like 5th transfer. I've also been assigned as district leader here. :/

My companion says that they're super busy here in 광안 (Gwangan- there used to be two teams here, but the B team was removed, since we've been losing missionaries for awhile. So the other team got all the investigators, which mean's we'll be teaching alot!

There's also a team of sisters here (actually, most areas have a set of sister missionaries or two teams of elders, but I've been kind of unlucky as far as that goes... Pohang has the senior couple I guess), so that'll be a big difference - planning and doing missionary work while coordinating with another team.

I'm kind of sad to leave Pohang though; the members there were super good, and Elder Boome and I thought that if we helped them just a little bit, we'd be able to get a lot of referalls and be able to help Pohang progress alot. I also wanted to serve with Elder Boome for another transfer - I think we got along well. Anyways, hopefully, we'll be able to do a lot here 광안 (Gwanganwith the members. My companion said that ward (not a branch!) attendance is 50-60 people, which is really good.

English class is crazy here, apparently. Attendance is like 30 people, which is waaaay more than anywhere else I've heard about.

I'll write a little more in detail next week - I've been in 광안 (Gwanganfor like 2 hours now, so I have no idea what's what, haha.

Back to 포항 (Pohang): things seemed like they were going well - the work was still kind of slow, but we found a few really good people, and we just needed a little more time to help them become investigators. I hope Elder Boome is about to do that and help Pohang out!
We were at the Pohang Intercity Bus Terminal (probably the best place to talk to people in Pohang), and we met this really, really golden not-investigator-yet person. We just said "hi" to him, said like three words, and then he asked if you could have a pamphlet. We gave it to him, and I was tried to explain about it. He told us that he would just read it and talk to us if he had any questions. He read the whole pamphlet, went onto Mormon.org, asked us for a Book of Mormon, our church location, and when we have church meetings. We're still keeping in touch with him, and he says he wants to attend a church meeting with us. We're really excited about him, but I kind of left at a weird time. Next time I see Elder Boome, I'll ask him how things are going up in Pohang.

Here's a few pictures: the first is a picture we took in 포항 (Pohang) - we had a combined district meeting with another district, and we had our zone leaders and some members visit us to boot. It was a lot of people. Recognize any of them?

The second is a picture of me with President and Sister Gilbert - they took pictures with everyone individually since they're leaving.

And the last is a picture of me and Elder Frampton from my MTC district. I really don't to see people from our district that much, which is too bad (actually, Sister Bussio from the MTC transfered into 광안 (Gwanganwith me, so it'll be fun to be able to serve with someone I know!)

Thank you for everything! Please pray for me that things will go well for as district leader, and in my new area. I guess you're all still in Japan (?), so stay safe and have fun with Obaachan! I love you all!

- Elder Luke


Notes:

Gwangan is part of Busan city. You can see it on the map here. I think this is the church building where he's based now. Gwangan is also the name of the bridge you can see on that map. At about four and a half miles long, it's the second longest bridge in Korea. You can see another map view here. This is a cool photo of it. Note that Andrew is now about five or six miles northeast of Yeongdo, his first area.

Also, I believe this is the first time since he's been there that he's been assigned to a ward rather than a branch. It should be nice for him to have a larger, more stable congregation of members to work with.



Missionaries gathered in Pohang. Besides Andrew and Elder Boome (and some people that were in his photo from last week), I recognize two people from his prior areas -- the guy on the far left was in Jeju when Andrew was in Seogwipo, and right in front of Andrew is his trainer, Elder Jo.



Andrew with Elder and Sister Gilbert.



Andrew with Elder Frampton from his MTC group.


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