Elder Wardle's Mission Letter

  Its 시골 Time Wow, has it been a crazy week! First of all, I provided incorrect information in my last update. Part of that is because I can't spell, and the other part is that President Sargent pranked me and my companion. He said that me and my new companion would be reopening 정읍 (Jeongeup), (which I spelled wrong last week), but that is only partially true. We are actually covering both 정읍 (Jeongeup) and 김제 (Gimje), and will be living in 김제 (Gimje). We will be serving alongside a sister companionship that has been here for 2 transfers and who live in 정읍 (Jeongeup). This is the most countryside area in the mission according to the sisters (남원 (Namwon) is more south, but they say this is even more country). It feels a bit like moving from New York City to Vernal, Utah; it's a big change! There is no online information for the busses around here, so if you want to take a bus somewhere, you just walk to a bus stop, and pray. The two areas we are covering aren't close enough ...

  Winter is Coming Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well. This week was crazy! I have to keep it brief though because I am short on time, but I'll try to cover the main points. The weather got cold fast! Thursday was warm enough to make me uncomfortable,  and then on Friday it was suddenly 4 degrees Celsius! I still don't have a winter coat, but I can tell the winters here are gonna be freeeezing! This was my companion's last week. I couldn't have asked for a better trainer. Elder Young is literally a missionary legend! He was part of the first group of foreigners to return to Korea, and has worked hard to earn the respect that came along with being in the senior English speaking group. His Korean is amazing, and he is sharp and confident about inviting people to come to the gospel. I only knew him for 3 weeks, but I am going to miss him! Also, we had transfer calls last night! Rather than finish my training with Elder Ralphs like was planned originally, I'm...

  Conference for Real This Time Hello everybody! I hope you have had a fabulous week! Conference was amazing! I actually haven't had a chance to watch the Saturday Evening Session, so that's on the docket for tonight, but of the talks I have listened to, I am absolutely amazed! It is absolutely incredible that we have living prophets with power from God to share revelation intended for us in our unique situations. I wish I could give a play-by-play rundown of my thoughts on every talk so far, but it would take too long! I want to continue to study and restudy these talks for the next 6 months. Who knows, I might pull them out in Korean and use it as language practice! Things have been busy as usual over here in Korea. We have several great teaching friends, but there is one teaching friend I am particularly excited about! We met him for the second time this week, and the spirit was so strong! He is really proactive and self motivated to learn about the church, so sometimes we c...

  General Conference!!!! Kind of!!! Well I've been out in the big wide world for a full week now. That's crazy! I wish I could give a play by play of all that's gone down, but I'm gonna try to keep it brief for this one.  Things have been hectic in the finding department. Because of the surprise 4th member of the crew, our area that was supposed to have one companionship, is now split between two, and we are somewhat lacking in the number of people we have to teach. We don't have anyone progressing towards baptism right now, which kinda sucks. However, me and Elder Young have been keeping busy! We've been calling the members to build a relationship, get to know them, and do some practice lessons, and we have a couple people we found this week that I'm excited to teach! Korea itself is still a bundle of confusion for me. So much is new and different,  and the language is sometimes brutal! But an awesome companion, great study material, and the gift of tongues...