새 선교사들이 왔다 지금 살기는 진짜 좋다

(Translation courtesy of Google Translate: New missionaries came to live now is really good) Laurel here: So sometimes Google Translate does better than others. At least we have some semblance of an idea of what in the world the subject lines of his emails mean! Now, onto Spencer's letter:

Korean food. It's the best.

It's really warm here in beautiful Wonju. Not to the point of sweating profusely, but it'll get there in a month or two.

Transfer calls were a little over a week ago, so this week we got all our new missionaries! Elder Gardner, Sister Bevard, and Sister Jacobsen. No Koreans in our district, but that's okay. Elder Gardner is a couple transfers older than me, and Sister Bevard and I entered the MTC at the same time. Everyone else is younger than me missionary age wise. It's weird... I'm kind of an oldish missionary. Time is a weird thing. Elder Gardner is older than me mission wise, but I'm still district leader here in Wonju. Not sure why, but I think our zone is probably getting split soon and they're pumping him in here to be zone leader when Wonju becomes a zone leader area. Elder Gardner is a blessing here for sure. He brought a lot of knowledge... mostly knowledge of good foods that we can cook at home. We eat lunch every day at home and dinner usually at a restaurant. And for the past 4 months the only things we've eaten for lunch here are curry, ramen, or 볶음밥 (rice with potatoes and ham and kimchi and eggs.) In the 5 days that Elder Gardner has been here, we've eaten 5 different things for lunch. It's wonderful.  We've determined that the best medium in which to show love is through food. I really really love Elder Gardner.

Me, Elder Hansen, Elder Roskelley, and Elder Gardner. Elder Gardner made the great food.
These are the elders of Wonju, and we all live in the same house. :)

I realized this week how much I love Wonju and don't want to leave. I've been here for quite awhile, and I really love the friends I've made and the members here. Except I'm probably leaving next transfer, which is really sad. I've been here for a while, so I'll probably get shipped out soon.

We met with Brother Kim two or three times this week and he's doing good. Elder Hansen, me, and him all read Mosiah 27 together, each switching off and reading a verse, and then we talked about repentance and forgiveness and the atonement. It was a really cool lesson. We asked him about his reading in the Book of Mormon, and he says he really likes it and is starting to understand it better. We asked him when and how often he reads, and he said that he usually starts at 10pm and ends around 1am!!! 3 hours! He says he likes it and thinks the stories are fun and likes the feeling he has when he reads it. He's super great.

Elder Hansen and I and Brother Kim, our awesome investigator.

We had 3 investigators to church yesterday! That's a first for me. Brother Choi, Brother Kim, and a Brother Hwang. We met Brother Hwang on the street this week and invited him to church, and he came! His arm is in a cast due to a broken collar bone. He broke it because he got wasted drunk. He doesn't remember exactly how he broke it. But because he broke it, he vowed to stop drinking and start going to church! I guess a broken arm can humble people just like famines did in the Book of Mormon.

Elder Hansen and I proselyted A LOT this week.We don't have a whole lot of investigators, and we got an extra hour of proselyting every day because we have one less hour of studies (new missionaries get an extra hour of study for the first 12 weeks, which is basically for orientation and teaching practice.) So we talked to a lot of people on the street and got a lot of phone numbers, some of which we'll hopefully turn into investigators this week. I've found a new love for proselyting. It's hard and long, but I really like talking to people, and it's great language practice. There's a saying here that the best Korean speakers in the mission are the ones that proselyte the hardest. I'm taking that to heart and working on applying it right now.

I liked 2 Nephi 28:29 this week. No matter how much we learn, there is always more to be learned. We can't just sit back and be satisfied by what we know now. We have to continue to work to expand and increase our knowledge. That applies to the Book of Mormon, The Plan of Salvation, Korean, chemistry, math, english, soccer, and everything! We can be happy with the knowledge we've gained, but we must continually strive for more.

I love you all! Korea is pretty cool, I guess.

Love, Elder Edwards