30 Aug 11

So whats up!!  We had transfer calls last night and I'm still staying in my Greenie area with Elder Dooley. I thought for sure I was gone but I guess I lucked out!!! I'm glad i'm staying here. This week has been pretty good.  On monday we went to a place called 이태원 (Itaewon). It's an area in seoul where a ton of foreigners live. I saw more black and white people than I have my entire mission!!! Oh and I ate at Taco Bell!!! It was great. Actually, no. Tacobell was pretty gross and super greasy. So anyways, on tuesday we went and visited an "investigator" I'm not sure if i've talked about her before but her name is Jacy Boo... She lived in america for a long time and so she speaks english fluently. So anyways, this lady is pretty wack. when we visited her she showed us a book she had written, It's called "guess who i am" and it's basically a book to try and destroy christianity. She said that her book will "sell more than the Bible" She also told us that "sitting meditation and marijuana can solve the world's problems" hahaha Yah, she'strange, but it's always an adventure when we visit her so we still keep her on the radar. Oh man, it was soo hard not to bust out laughing when she spoke. So, wednesday we met a new investigator who wants us to teach him english so he can pass a test for his work. He wants to learn english in like 2 months, I'm not sure how he's going to do that... We also met another new investigator and we played ping pong with him. He is a super awesome guy but unfortunately I dont think he has much gospel interest. We met him again on saturday and we climbed a mountain and taught him the first lesson. It was soo much fun but like i said, I'm not sure how much interest he has in learning about hte gospel. He listens well but he's not really down for acting on our commitments. We'll keep teaching him for a while and see if his heart changes. So the other night we were walking back to our appartment when we saw a guy walking around with his shirt half-off... Well, he came up to us and started talking in english to us. He kept saying "I'm a cyborg!" or "My name is John Connor, I'm Super man" then he got up on a step and did this weird dance thing and pretended that he was a super hero. It was the funniest thing I have ever seen. Drunk people are great. I think this guy was probably from china.

So in our apartment we have some old pass-along cards that have our phone number on it and they have an old phone number on it from when there were two sets of missionaries in our area. Well my companion decided to call the old number and guess who answered!?!?! Sister Oaks!!!! It was the craziest thing ever!! 

Well, that's pretty much all that happened this week, It was a pretty good week. Well I gotta run, I love my savior and I am super happy to be a missionary. It's hard but it's worth it. Hope youall are doing well!

Elder Oaks

8 Aug 2011

Family what's up?!?!

 

So mom asked me how my korean is going... well, all i can say is that my new companion has been helping me a lot to get better at korean. I can understand quite a bit of what is going on (sometimes) but I have a hard time actually speaking and making sense... It's weird, in english if you say "dog ran my away" most people will be able to understand that you meant "my dog ran away" but in korean if you misplace one little thing, people freak out and have no idea what you are saying. It doesn't make any sense to me.

 

So this week, well it wansn't great Honestly, I dont think I worked as hard as I should have. At the time, it felt like we were working hard but as I look back I see goals that I didn't accomplish and time that I should have used more wisely. This next week we are going  to make sure we are teaching more lessons and visiting more members. It's hard to visit members because most people work until late at night. My companion and i have still been using basketball as a way  to find investigators and teach lessons. we have one investigator who we play with every saturday, his name is James and he's a really neat kid but unfortunately I don't see much potential in him however, he always brings new friends. On saturday he told us to skip going to church and come play basketball with him and his friends... (Don't worry, we didn't!)  This week we met with our investigator Jim and we tried to set a baptismal date with him but he needs more time to find out that this church is true. Next time we are going to follow up on his prayers and Book of Mormon reading. This week we had to refer one of our investigators to another area because the investigator was released out of the hospital and moved back to his home. It was kinda a bummer because I really liked meeting him and his son but at least they will still be hearing the gospel from the missionaries. So this week I bought peanut butter from costco and guess how much it was?!?!? 16 dollars!!! Peanut butter is soo expensive here but I really just love eating peanut butter sandwiches. Don't get me wrong, Korean food is good and all but I don't know how to cook it and I don't like eating out so Peanut Butter is the best choice. How much do the two jars of skippy peanut butter from costco cost in america?? Oh this week was my companion's birthday and his parents sent him a big box of straight american candy, I never realized how much I like salty/sour/sweet foods. Koreans hate all 3 of those. Oh on friday we had a mission conference at 서울 숲 (seoul forest) and it was a lot of fun, we did a lot of team building-like activities and had a testimony meeting at the end. The weather was really nice for us. Pretty much i just hung out with elder Dorrough (my mtc companion) the whole time. Um well yeshhh, I think that's all that really happened this week, it was kinda slow but this next week is going to be soooo much better!! Hope you all are doing well and Im soo happy being here doing missionary work!! Love you all!

 

Elder Oaks 

 

P.S. can you believe that tomorrow is my 6 month mark?? 1/4 done with my mission! Where has the time gone!?!?

15 May 2011

My dearest family

Well this week has been soo long, Im pretty sure every appointment we made cancelled on us!! It's really frustrating but life goes on. Wait, we did get to teach one lesson this week to one of our investigators. Every saturday we just show up at her house and teach her about the gospel. Each week we commit her to read from the book of mormon daily and pray about it but she never keeps the commitment, so this week we decided to read 1 Nephi with her, hoping that as we read and discussed together she would understand how important the scriptures are. We have been sending her a text each night reminding her to read and pray. Hopefully she has been doing it, I guess we'll find out this week!

 

So the other day I was walking on the street with my companion and a drunk man calls us over to him (this happens pretty regularly) and he started talking to us in english (the only words he really knew were "man" "every curse word in the english language" and ke kept calling me "handsome") Finally when we were about to walk away he gave me a hug and ke kissed me on the neck!!!! That was probably the grossest thing that has ever happened to me!! I don't ever want to experience that again!

 

Oh so good news! Our investigator 최승규 came to church this week and he stayed all 3 hours of church and then for lunch afterwards (the ward has a big lunch each week after church). It was the first time he's actually stayed for the whole thing! It's been funny, a couple of our ward members have talked with him about baptism and yesterday one of the ward members committed him to being baptized next month! We haven't even set a date or anything with him yet! Infact, we haven't really even talked too much about baptism with him, we just haven't had a chance to do that yet. The ward members are one step ahead of us!

 

Well that's pretty much all I have to say this week, It's been a long, slow, hard week but this next week hopefully we'll be able to meet with all the investigators who we wanted to last week! Well I love you all!

 

Elder Oaks

23 May 2011

사랑한 가족!!! 

Well this week was pretty fun! On  wednesday and Thursday I was on splits with an elder named Elder bacarro, he's from the philippines. I think he was in Sister Oaks' MTC class. So I was able to go around and contact people with him, it was a lot of fun because he's very energetic and he was always so  happy to talk to people. We've had a bunch of appointments cancelled this week but we were able to meet with one man and we talked to him about keeping the sabbath day Holy and coming to church. Unfortunately he wasn't able to come to church this week because he had a test to take but hopefully next week he'll be able to go! He's a really nice young man and he seems to understand everything we taught him. We brought a member along with us and the member pretty much talked the whole time but I feel like it went pretty well. Yesterday we were able to do a service project and so we went to a lady's new house to help her move in. At first the movers wouldn't let us come in because they were busy bringing stuff into the house but finally we were allowed to come in and start putting stuff away. It ended up taking about 8 hours all together but it was definitely worth it to get some physical labor in and she fed us Chinese food!! Chinese food in korea is much different than it is in the United states but it's very good!! So guess what we did today?!?! We went to the Temple!! It was soo good and I've forgotten how good it feels to walk into that building since we went every week in the MTC! I can't belive I've already been here for almost a whole month! Each day seems to last forever but the weeks seem to go by soo fast!! Well I think that's all that has really happened this week, nothing too exciting but it's been a good week. We spend most of our time trying to find new investigators because our old investigators don't  seem to want to meet with us anymore :( Oh well, I guess that's just a part of missionary work! Well I hope you all are doing well. I'm doing awesome out here serving in korea, It's soo hard work and I sometimes feel like quitting when I can't  understand what the people are saying to me, or when our investigators don't show up to our meeting, but it's the lord's work and he's definitely making it possible for me! I love you all and I am so grateful that you raised me in this wonderful church! Well yeh, that's about it for now bye!

사랑해

옥스 장로

Elder Ryan Oaks

29 May 2011

Family!!!
So this week something really cool happened, we made plans to visit a less active member yesterday and guess what!?!?! She was actualy home and her husband was home with the door wide open so we were able to get inside and talk with her about church. She said that she has been busy with work and when she moved to this area a couple years ago she didn't know anyone in the ward and so she just never came to church. Well we talked with her a little bit about a bunch of stuff (most of it i couldnt' understand) and we shared a message about god's love for all of his children. I bore my testimony about how I know god loves us and  because he loves us he has given us so many things. I think that our short message really kinda sparked an interest in her and I could see in her eyes that she knew what we were saying was true. She told us that she wants us to send some sister missionaries to her because she feels more comfortable with them rather than the elders but I really hope we can bring her back to church. It's so sad to see people who  have stopped coming to church just because they didn't know anyone in the ward and so they didn't feel comfortable going. As we were leaving she gave us each two oranges!!! It was pretty much the best day of my life because oranges (and all fruits) are soo expensive here. Infact, A regular sized watermelon here will cost anywhere between 10-25 dollars!!!!! So fruit is a treat to us. The other day I was on splits with our zone leader and He was such an amazing missionary, he speaks korean very well and he made sure that I talked to just as many people as he did so we both did a lot of contacting. While I was with him we met a man who was really interested in the book and so we gave him a copy along with our phone number. He told us he would meet when he had time so hopefully we will be able to meet with him soon!! We also met a student who said he had no religion because he doesn't understand why all the religions oppose and fight against each other. We explained a little bit about what our church believes and he was interested so we set up an appointment to meet with him next week!!! Hopefully he is one of the people who the lord has prepared for us to find and teach!!
Well that's pretty much all that went on this week, I love this gospel, I love missionary work and I'm so glad that I can be a missionary right now! It's hard when people don't really want to talk to you but I know that my message is true and the lord wouldn't send me all the way to korea to fail. I cannot fail with the Lord on my side. I love you all and I hope you are all doing well!!
Love,
Elder Oaks

6 Jun 2011

Hello Family!!!!

 

Oh boy, so i feel like so many different things have happened in this past week! First off I went on splits on wednesday with a really awesome elder. When we got to his area we had an appointment with one of his investigators (who two weeks before was about to be dropped) and we decided to talk to him about families. We talked a bit about how much families make us happy and that through this gospel we can live with our families forever. When we were done with families, out of nowhere he asked "what is our purpose on earth" This was coming from a guy who two weeks ago had no gospel interest and now he was asking us what our purpose on life was!!! It was soo awesome!!! We answered his question by talking about how our Heavenly father wants us to be happy just like he is and he wants us to return to live with him. It was a really awesome!!! The next day I got back with my companion and we had a lesson with a lady who goes to another church but she's still searching for the truth. She brought along her friend who is a missionary from another church and he was actually really interested in our church also. Normally the 전도사's (missionaries) just try to argue with us and tell us why our church is wrong but this man didn't, he was really interested in the book of mormon and he asked us a bunch of questions why we need the book of mormon and things like that. It was a really neat experience. We brought a member with us who speaks english and korean with us, i was really glad we did becasue even my companion coudln't understand many things the lady said to us. She studied theology in college and so many of the words she used were far out of our vocabulary. One thing the lady really liked about our church was that we dont smoke, drink alcohol, or drink tea/coffee!! She said that our bodies are precious and we need to take care of them, it was soo awesome!!! We are going to meet them again this thursday and hopefully we can start the restoration!!! Later thursday night We had another appointment with a lady who had received one of our english fliers and she decided to look up mormons she also found about how we dont drink/smoke and she said that she hates smoking and drinking! She was really interested in both learning english and about our gospel. We are going to be meeting her again tonight! It's going to be soo good!!! On Saturday we finally got an english class started and it was a lot of fun, It was the first time I have really had any interaction with the youth and they are soo nice and way funny. One of the young men is very outspoken and even though his english isn't great, he tries so hard and he's very amusing. I hope we can help the youth prepare for their english tests in school. So on sunday night we got permission to go "camping" with our ward.(camping in korean means that we stayed in a building right outside of Seoul). At first I felt really ackward because i wasn't used to being able to sit around and do nothing for hours at a time but on monday I just kinda hung out with two of the young men and it was really fun. I just wish I could talk in korean with them because their english isn't grreat, but it's a lot better than my korean!!! It ended up being a really fun/relaxing campout.Well that's about all that has happened this week. We had transfers on monday night and our companionship is staying the same. My companion thought for sure that he was leaving but I guess the lord had other plans for him. Well I love you all and I'm so happy here in korea where I have the chance to serve a mission. I love you all and Hope you are doing well.

 

Love you bye,

Elder Oaks

14 Jun 2011

Hmmm, It's kinda hard to remember what went down this week.

 

Well yesterday we had a lesson with one of our investigators (sister lee). She has been to a lot of different churches and she's still searching for truth, hopefully she will realize that it's sitting right in front of her face, in the book of mormon!! But anyways we brought a member with us (brother Park) and he pretty much taught the first lesson, the restoration to her. Brother Park is really loud and powerful when he speaks, unfortunately sister lee didnt' realy like him, but then randomly another ward member showed up (Brother kim) and switched places with brother park. Brother kim is much friendlier and related with sister lee much better than brother park did. Sister lee had brought a friend with her and her friend kept asking for proof of the book of mormon and she just wanted to argue the whole time so finally brother kim stood up and walked out. (this all happened in korean and I had no idea what was going on) So pretty much it was a  horrible lesson. Fortunately we were able to talk with sister lee and she still wants to meet with us next week. I hope that all made sense to you, because at the time it happened, it didn't make any sense to me!!! My korean is getting better though, I can sometimes understand what people are saying to me for example, when they tell me they are too busy to talk to me (when they are clearly standing there smoking a cigarette) Or when they tell me they're going home, Other than those couple phrases, I usually have no idea what they are talking about and so I just tell them about the gospel, whether or not they want to hear it, it's great!!!  Well that's all that really happened, Im not really sure where the time went this week, it flew by so fast!! I hope all is going well with you!!! Well I gotta go, Love you all and I love being in korea talking to the people here!! I just wish I could slap them awake so they would realize the truth in the book i'm trying to tell them about!!! Well okay, Loveyoubye!!

 

Elder Oaks