August 15, 2022 - Chungju

 A new place and some new faces!


This week was a week full of news. I had been in Daejeon for a long long time, so this time, transfers felt strange. I am so excited to be here, though! Chungju (which is different from Cheongju and Jeonju) is a much smaller city than my last assignment, but also bigger than Gimjae. It's perhaps an hour and change across, which means we get to do a ton of walking. Almost everything important to us, such as the church, is all within 30 minutes, but the train station and bus terminal is 40 minutes by bus, which will make traveling to missionary activities much less convenient. 

Online finding is not a thing here, and that is almost exclusively how we found in Daejeon, so I am pumped to pick up the skill of street proselyting. If we have any free moment we are outside talking to people. People in a smaller city like this are also more talkative, and talking with the old Korean grandmas is such a pleasure.

The members here are fantastic! Our fridge is currently full of food, none of it bought by missionaries. We did have to go and buy some vegetables, as the members prefer to give fruits, but we have about 6 dozen eggs from various members. Gotta start eating some of that protein! There are some fantastic returned missionaries, a much stronger youth group than I am used to seeing, and the members care about missionary work.

Our teaching pool is quite dead right now. Last transfer this area was double covered by a trio, and the travel time plus the split time was not kind to it. That being said, we have a fantastic friend named Claire! She has been meeting with the missionaries for months. I met her for the first time over zoom, and we met with her aunt who lives in the Philippines. The second time we met was at church. I felt prompted to invite her to be baptized one month from then. I subsequently butchered the date, inviting her to be baptized almost 2 weeks off of the one-month mark, and not even on a Sunday! I invited her to prepare for September 24, and she said yes! We found out later that the date I said by pure accident was the aunt's birthday! The spirit works in mysterious ways. Her answer was a very soft one, which amounted to "I will pray to see if that is right", so please pray that she can receive a strong witness that baptism into this church is something God wants for her!

Every one of you, have a fantastic week!

Elder Wardle

Pictures: Snakes in the street, me and my new companion (Elder Smith), Me in Chungju, My new apartment is so big and nice!, Cool sites and views in Chungju, the view from my new apartment









Location: Chungju-si, Chungcheongbuk-do, South Korea

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