Baptismal goal: 50 people

The new area is awesome! I'm lovin it. Like really, I'm super sad that I had to leave everyone behind, but when we got here it felt like it was just an alive area. I don't really know how to describe it. Lets put it this way. The ward's baptismal goal is 50 people this year. Like what?! That is soo many. 평택's was only 12. It really makes me want to work hard. Plus our ward mission leader is awesome. He went to BYU Hawaii and is super good at english, although he won't let on to that. But like he's so cool. He really wants us to work hard and would do anything for us. We are going to do good things here. I have a feeling. It really isn't like either of us are senior because he is better at Korean than I am. Like Elder Warnick is super good. In his talk on sunday when he said he had only been here for like 4 months the people freaked out. It was super funny. Yeah we set goals each week! We have key indicators and set goals for things like baptismal dates, baptisms, investigators at sacrament meeting, lessons, less active lessons, referrals, yeah! It really helps to push us. We also set a goal for conversations and that really helps to push us as well. I can't believe you bought an 80 inch tv. Like what?! That's gonna be awesome. I'm so ready for the pics! Dang tell Jace nice work!! That's so awesome! I can't believe that! Haha gotta love church ball reffing. That's the bomb. I don't have any pictures to send you of the area, but I'll get some this week. It's a lot bigger and we are right on the river. It's probably a 45 minute walk from our house.

 

Alright so this week. Monday we went to lunch with 박희정. I miss her so much! Like honestly she rocks so much. Her and Julie were the hardest part about leaving 평택. But this mexican place we went to was called La Casa and it was super good. A mexican dude works there, super awesome. It was way good. Then we went home and I packed all day. That was not really too fun. It was so weird to see my desk just like completely empty. It made me realize what I did when I came to country. Just totally booted someone out and I came it. Super sad. Haha I really don't like moving. Our new house...definitely not Lotte Castle. It used to be the sister's apartment like...a few weeks ago but now it's the elders. Then we had FHE which was crazy but fun. :) 허건 came! He's the other elders investigator who is super cool. He really loves us. So we hung out with him and had FHE. We played a Korean traditional game...don't know what it's called haha but it was fun. YOu like toss 4 sticks up in the air and go around a board....not really sure haha. Then for the message I just shared my testimony. I've learned so much from 평택. It really is my home! I miss it man. Haha like I've grown and learned a lot. But I'm learning just as much here in Seoul. Tuesday was a good last day in 평택. We had our studies then we had lunch with Brother HOng. He's so awesome. He took us to a 부대찌개 place. If you guys come pick me up...we are totally going to eat it. So get ready. It's spicy so hope ya like that. :) We also got him to read 3 nephi about going to church. Then we went and mailed off all my packages. Who woulda known that you can send luggage through the mail?! Yeah so awesome. Makes transfers way easy. I sent literally everything I own except for stuff that I needed for a day. So all I took to transfers was my backpack. THen we had Korean class that night, but no one came...so Julie called and we were able to go to dinner with her. She's so awesome. She bought me a super awesome tie. Like it is pretty dang beautiful. Haha she rocks. I'm going to miss her so much!

 

Wednesday was the day! We transferred. So our mission is super cool. Everyone lives close enough to the subway system that we all meet at a stop right in the heart of Seoul. Then from there we go to our areas. Lucky for us our new area is like...8 subway stops from that station. so nice. So we went to transfers, I met elder Warnick and we went to 화곡! The area is huge man. Like everywhere you go there is people. It is what you think of when you think of Asia with power lines crossing over tight streets that are wide enough for one car. It's pretty hilly. So yeah. THat's kinda some info about 화곡. We met the other Elders at 화곡역 and went to our house! It is like a 10 minute walk from the subway station and only like 5 from our church. Way nice. We got to our house and had lunch, then they introduced us a little bit to our area. WE went and visitied our WML's wife just to say hi and then we went and met the bishop! Our bishop is super cool. He's kinda a quiet guy. But he drives a sweet Jeep and also puts in stereo systems for people. Super cool! Then me and elder Warnick went out and talked to people. We walked to the han river. Not as big in our area as it is over by the temple. THen we had dinner, tried to talk to more people and went to the church to meet the sisters because they had our phone. Usually they give it to the opening people at transfers...but they just gave it to our sisters because she was training so she had to go to the mission home. It's a grandma phone. Pretty awesome. OUr sisters here rock. THen we talked to our ward mission leader. His name is 변창기. That was cool. THen Thursday! Oh Happy BIrthday Janae! :) I hope it was a good one. :) You're super old! LIke what the! But thursday  in personal study i was reading the story about when Christ fed the 4000 people with just 7 loves of bread. and i just was thinking that, when we have faith in Christ, all things are possible. Even when they seem like they are impossible, we can do it. :) we had a zone training meeting which was good. We learned about how to give people commitments to get them to progress toward baptism. Pretty good. THen we started to walk around to talk to people and a 전도사, or a different churche's missionary who really just yells at you and tells you to believe and stuff came up to us and started talking to us. Didn't really understand a word he said other than him telling us to believe haha. Pretty intense. Then we talked to a guy who told us that we were a cult and so we were going to go to hell but he was funny about it. He's like come on man you need to just believe in the normal churches! like catholic. I'm tellin ya man don't go to hell. It was good. Then we did some more walking. THen we had dinner and English class! It is members only here which is kinda cool. All the kids who came are such bosses! Like honestly they rock. Like there's one who collects bugs and some other just funny kids. We played some games that actually helped us with Korean as well as them with English so that was super cool.

 

Friday was good! We had lunch with Brother Hong. He's still the same cool guy! He took us to this 김치찌개 place. I know that means nothing to you guys. But it was like a small restaraunt and he's super loud. So a lot of people were starin at us. Elder Warnick was all embarrassed. It was super funny. So we got him to commit to go to church this sunday which he did! He didn't stay for all of it but at least he went. Then we had weekly planning which didn't take too long because we don't have any investigators or appointments really. Then we went and talked to people again! That was fun. WE got a pamphlet from a Jehonvah's witness. THey're pretty dang strong member missionaries! like if our members were like them...well. People would probably hate our church, but we might have a ton mor members! Haha they're so upfront about it. But it might be just because we are missionaries. Then we went and taught a lesson with the sisters to a guy named 박원찬 (Pak Won Chan) he's a boss. We taught him why baptism is imporatant. Well sister Kang did. SHe's super awesome missionary. Like I saw how being able to speak korean can really improve your lesson teaching skills and that made me want to learn super bad. Man. I hope i can get this thing. THen we had our 선교협의 모임. Which i think is weekly coordination meeting? somethin like that. That was really good. All of the ward missionaries were there and it was just a good meeting. They really want to reach the 50 goal and it makes us want to work. It's awesome. Saturday was truly just a day of walking. Haha we got up and studied of course then we went and talked to people for like 4 hours. That was a party. WE talked to 2 cool kids that were really good at english! LIke I was suepr impressed! Then 허건 from 평택 came up and we hung out with him. he's seriously the coolest. Man i love him. We also hung out with a less active guy named 이혜영 (Lee Hey Young). They both rock. We talked and caught up for a while, then we went and got Pizza and Chicken. Yeah I know, we eat pretty healthy over here. No need to worry about us. :) Then we went and talked to more people! No one found yet, but i think this week we'll get it rollin.

 

Sunday was super good! The ward is awesome. They're all super nice. We got invited to a meal appointment for tuesday which was so nice. She's the relief society president. Like, I'm lovin it. The ward was so happy to have 6 missionaries now rather than just 4. It was so good. :) Everyone was so nice. We had a fun time in gospel principles class. We were talking about our talents/abilities that we all have and i was like oh i don't know mine. So then Elder Hakes and Wedam (the other two elders) said that I was a jokester or somethin like that. So then they had me tell a joke! Luckily I have one that Koreans can understand. :) So in the scriptures in Korean when God talks he always says 보라 (Po ra) And a word for purple i think is 보라색. So the joke as you can imagine goes like this. What is God's favorite color? 보라색!! Haha super funny. :) Oh also in sacrament meeting the bishop was like sustaining all the quroums and young women people so only the people in young womens i guess are supposed to raise their hand to support them or whatever it is haha. So when the bishop asked them to sustain the young women me and elder warnick raised our hand with a few other people and the bishop called us out on it. It was super funny. Then after church we had to give a blessing! THen we came home and tried to talk to people and then we had the Mini MTC! So like since they went to BYU Hawaii they got tons of good ideas and this is one of them. THey're doing a mini mtc for the youth and people getting ready to go. There was a pretty good turnout! We didn't have to do anything, but next week i think we will. 변창기 prepared super well for it. Then we came home! And that was our week! If there's any questions that you have about anything let me know and I'll answer them! Or anyhting you want me to take pictures of I'll do that! I love you guys but i better go! You rock!

 

Love,
Elder Breinholt