Elder Daniel Jackson Picard : Week 17 November 3, 2014 "Missions are FUN!"

What a fun filled week!! Looking back to Monday of this week seems like it was forever ago! When you have a week full of appointments and fun it feels like it was forever ago but then you realize it flew by. You always have ups and downs on your mission but this week luckily was filled with a lot of ups!! I have some funny stories that I think you all will get a kick out of that I will share later. Here in Korea, man is it hard to get investigators and baptisms! It is really just a game of planting seeds in the people's lives and just testifying that you know what you teach is true and will make them happy. I think I will get really good at it before the end of my mission for sure with all the practice I get. It has been hard to get the fact that I probably won't have many baptisms through my head, but I am starting to slowly get it. Although lucky for me Korea has one of the highest less active rates so I can work hard to reactivate all the members I possibly can. When I start picking up on the language better I can also start working through members and do all the things that a lot of missionaries forget they need to do when they are focused so heavily on baptisms. There really is tons to do here so I think I will try my best and do a little bit of everything. I got mail this week so thanks to everyone that keep sending me mail! It is the best to receive a little encouragement through letters during the week.

My week started off with a really cool experience. There is this girl who is here modeling from California who called the Sisters on Monday and asked if she could get a blessing from the Elders, so of course the Sisters said yes the Elders can. They then called us and Elder Hastriter told me that I got it and I ended up with the wonderful opportunity of giving a blessing. We gave it to her at the church and it went really well. I felt really nervous before the blessing and wasn't sure I could do it. Little did I know that when I was giving it the spirit was working through me in ways I didn't even know! After the blessing the girl thanked me and said that everything I said was exactly what she needed to hear! My faith has been continuing to grow and it is really cool to see it grow. That night we had an appointment with a potential investigator who took us to Outback Steakhouse!! It was sooo delicious and of course like a Picard, I got lots of the free bread :) He wants to meet again so we are hoping to meet him again soon.

My companion came down with illness so we were in the house a few days this week because he didn't have the strength to go out. It was good because we both got lots of rest and were ready to go when he was feeling better! I also had the chance to study a lot this week and man is it crazy how much you can learn from studying the scriptures and church materials every day of the week!! I learned a lot of really cool things about the temple and came to an understanding on a lot of things I had questions on. Every single time I read on the Plan of Redemption and how God knew every little thing to make His plan work really reassures me how this Gospel is the only one that makes 100% complete sense! He loves us all so much, man aren't we lucky!?

We had a lunch appointment this week with another one of our potentials. Which was kind of weird because we ended up picking up the man's son as an investigator haha. So it went a little something like this. We show up at the man's office and he sits us down. We then talk for a bit and his son shows up. The man then gets up and leaves with his business partner and his son ends up taking us to lunch. His son was really cool and took us to this Chinese restaurant. When we got there they took us to our own little separate room. I was like what? But then turns out we were VIPs at the restaurant and were treated like Kings. It was way cool!! The owner of the restaurant loved us and had never taken a picture with two white guys so he took one with us. Later that night we had our Halloween party for English class that was really fun and went over well.

I got to go to the temple this week!! The temple is great and every time I go I learn more and more. I needed a little extra strength this time before I went so I fasted and man did it work. I felt more at peace and could focus a little better. I still have a ways to go and need to keep working on finding ways to have absolute focus in the temple and not think of anything else but every time I go it gets better and better. The adversary tries to get you so hard as a missionary. I have really been trying to figure out a way to overcome it and let it have NO part anywhere in me! The most important thing you need as a missionary is the Spirit and you can't have it if the adversary is working through you as well. I most definitely want the Spirit and will continue to work to have just that!

On Saturday we came across a man from Canada who called at us and said "you are LDS right?" we said yes and had a really good conversation with him on missions and how they work. It was a really cool experience and hopefully when he goes home some missionaries in Canada will find him.

Yesterday was my third fast Sunday in country! It was funny because I fell asleep during sacrament meeting and when I woke up one of the teachers who I passed the sacrament with, was sitting next to me and had fallen asleep on my shoulder haha. I looked back at my companion and he was laughing. That night we came across a man who asked if I was Mormon and I said yes. Then he started speaking Korean that I didn't know and my companion was in front of me walking so I was all alone and did my very best to communicate with him. I gave him my card and he said he would call later. It is really hard/ frustrating not being able to understand Korean but it will get there.

Love,

Elder Picard