December 20, 2021 - Gimje

 Christmas is Coming!


Hello everyone! I hope you all have had a fantastic week! Mine was busy! I'll try to keep this brief.

I started off the week with getting my Covid booster shot. Because I was vaccinated in the US, it took some extra steps, but with a native companion it was relatively painless. The entire mission has been rushing to get this completed with varying degrees of success and confusion, but it is super important that we have the proper vaccination certification now. Korea brought out the big guns of Covid precautions this week: we are unable to meet in groups larger than 4, and everyone MUST be vaccinated in order to meet at all. Church meetings fall under different rules, but it is still tight, with a 30% capacity lock if anyone is unvaccinated and a 70% if everyone is. As missionaries, we have to be even more cautious when it comes to following the rules, because churches have been the biggest vector of transmission, and that has not been kind to the public image of religion in Korea (which already wasn't great). Because of this, Covid responsibility is very important to us in order to maintain any level of credibility. Infection rates are astronomical right now, and while I could use a fact checker on the numbers exactly, the number of new cases is more than 10 times what it was at this time last year.

Covid shenanigans aside, the work continues to progress.The new teaching friend I mentioned last week answered us once while very drunk and scheduled an appointment with us... and then blocked us later. That was very disappointing, BUT we were able to meet with a friend who had been taught by previous missionaries, and he still wants to meet! We have conflicting information on why he was dropped, but at the end of the day he wants to meet with us, and that makes me very happy.

Our youth activity program that we've been working on has been spun around a bit. The new covid rules means we can only meet 2 youth at a time, which makes it very hard for them to invite their friends, which is what we were hoping to get out of this adventure in the first place, but that's alright. Building a relationship with these members has been really beneficial for them, us, and the ward, so while we are going to have to take a covid sized rain check on the friends thing, the activities themselves are still a great way to bring the spirit into people's lives, and that is what I LIVE for.

My birthday was on Friday. Thanks to all of you who sent me kind messages, they made my day. It also snowed that day, and it actually stuck! The humidity and warmer temps right now means that it has already melted, but it really does feel like winter now. I didn't do much else special, but I couldn't think of a much better birthday gift than doing missionary work all day. I love being out here serving the Lord. Despite the difficulty of the work, I feel so blessed to work so closely with the elect of the Lord here in Korea. 

Also, while there aren't any scheduled for our area, our mission has 17 baptisms scheduled for this month! This is a HUGE number for the entire east asian zone, and blows away our previous KSSM record in June of 12. We really are seeing miracles in these hard times! 

Good luck to all you out there! Enjoy Christmas. This is the perfect time to not only avoid school and eat excessive amounts of chocolate, but also, and more importantly, focus on our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I pray as you put the focus where it counts that you can see miracles in your families and in your homes! And go have a blast!

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Elder Wardle

Pictures: Snow in Gimje, "Among Us" Chocolate Milk (ha ha)









Location: Gimje-si, Jeollabuk-do, South Korea

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