Week 28

I remember saying to myself during the summer... "I can't wait till it gets cold." Yesterday was negative 16 below Celsius. I can't wait till it's hot again. But at least there's no mosquitoes right now, right?

Yesterday (and pretty much the whole last week) I've had hand warmers shoved into my gloves, thermals, dress shirt, sweater, suit, fleece, jacket, earmuffs, and a scarf wrapped around my face... in other words, I look like a very overweight, non stealthy ninja. We were walking around and I thought, "this isn't so bad." And then my companion pointed to the scarf covering my mouth, it was completely covered in icicles!

Of course this doesn't compare to the type of cold James experienced in Russia, nor have I been bitten by a dog, or had my identity stolen... but it still felt pretty bad.

So this week was pretty amazing, we got a baptismal date, and we had another new person come to church yesterday! But the first part of the week was spent outside of my area again, so it was a little rough trying to catch up on everything.

I finally got to snag a picture with my trainer, me, and my trainee at the Temple. I feel bad cause I had two other chances to do it, but that was when I was on the brink of passing out when I was sick. So we were at the temple, and I finally met the Filipino Elder actually from the Philippines(he's the first to come to Korea!), who was supposed to come to Korea when we came, but they had tons of visa issues. He just got here 2 weeks ago!!! His mission is a 1/4 over and he just started. He started speaking to me in Tagalog (sp? sorry, bad Filipino) and I just said, "t'sup Elder. I don't speak Tagalog, sorry." Later on, outside the Temple, I hear Elder Mejia (the Filipino from Australia, my MTC buddy) yelling, "Elder Reyes, come here! We need a picture." I see him standing next to the other Filipino Elder. I yell back (not too loud cuz we're at the Temple but...) "I sense a theme here. Was I supposed to bring lumpia?"

We hung out around Seoul the rest of the day. And it snowed like crazy. We were running around, sliding in the powder. It felt amazing. Our Zone took a four hour bus ride to our ZL's area, and luckily I just got dad's package full of goodies that made the bus ride go so much faster. BTW, thanks for the ties as well, I'm wearing one right now.

When we go back to my area, I was on exchanges with my District Leader, Elder Rowe. It just so happened that most of the lessons were people were people I am teaching 30 min guitar 30 min gospel to. Elder Rowe doesn't play guitar, but by the end of the day, he was telling people what they were doing wrong too.

One of the lessons we talked all about baptism. At the end of the lesson we talked again about prayer. I felt our investigator think, "oh, here we go again." But it was a blessing though, I was prompted to explain that the reason we go over it in every lesson, is because it is absolutely vital in gaining a testimony of this gospel. I testified that God wants to hear from him. The Spirit filled the room, the whole atmosphere changed, I know he felt it too, we committed to be baptized next month. He said yes without hesitation.

If I don't pray in the morning, or before I go out, it's like going out into the freezing cold without clothes on. We need the protection that comes from prayer. We need to communicate with our Heavenly Father as often as we get the chance.

I will be praying for you as always.

-Elder Reyes