December 14- 사랑하는여러분!

This week was freezing and it snowed a whole lot. I slipped on ice and fell flat on my back, twice, hah. Luckily, all the weight I've gained on my mission absorbed most of the blow so nothing was really hurt.

I can't believe how fast it's all going! I know I said that last week, but because it feels like I emailed you yesterday, I'm going to have to do my best to recall all that's happened this week. We did more exchanges this week. I feel like I write about these exchanges every email. But lately, we've had to do 2 a week, which usually takes 4 days out of the week. It always seems to be about what is worth writing about. This week I got to work with Elder Bryan from Las Vegas. We strangely had tons of things in common beginning with both of our names being Cole. So we called it the "Cole" exchange. Anyway, during the exchange we had the chance to meet with our less active I've previously talked about, Brother Kim. We got to his office and he said that he wanted to take us out to dinner and introduce us to his friend who had never met missionaries. He took us to a really cool restaurant that was mainly a meat butcher shop and had tables with gas grills where you could just cook the meat you bought right there, and that's exactly what we did! It was soo delicious! More importantly, it was so great to meet his friend. He had seen missionaries before, but never knew specifically what we do or how we live. It was great to share about our purpose and answer his questions. We were getting to know him when he mentioned that he liked soccer. I asked him if he liked Ji Song Park who is the most famous soccer player in Korea. He then told me that Ji Song Park was from Suwon and that he grew up going to the same school and playing on the same soccer team! I couldn't believe it. Anyway, it was a great experience getting to meet him and something I didn't not expect to happen that night. I don't know if I'll get to teach him, but I was just happy to get to know him and tell him about the missionaries. I sometimes forget that these less actives we meet with have testimonies and are ready to help us do our missionary work.

We also exchanged with the AP's later in the week and met up with Brother Jeong. We're focusing on the fundamentals lately, so this time we taught about receiving answers to our prayers through The Book of Mormon. He says that he feels like he has received answers to his prayers, but not specifically through The Book of Mormon. We decided to read the same chapter separately throughout the week and then when we meet, discuss how it helped us that week and resolve our concerns. Another missionary brought up this idea of keeping the commitment you give to your investigator that week. So, if you invite him to pray about Joseph Smith, you as well pray and study to strengthen your own belief and testimony. I loved this idea and wish I had done it more on my mission up until now. It seems a lot of investigators don't like turning in their homework to us and a lot more like walking the path together helping them come closer to God.

Christmas feels in full swing now! This Saturday is the ward Christmas party. The Bishopric decided that they wanted to make this a spiritual meeting, so we are doing the narration but a little less traditional style. We're going to show the new Bible videos involving the Savior's birth that have come out recently and have someone narrate while they play and sing hymns between videos. I think it will be a really good idea. It came from our bishopric member, who is Japanese. He said he still remembers a particular Christmas ward party they did this in California and that it was really spiritual. Then next week on Tuesday is our mission conference! It should be fun!

Thanks for everything peacenblessins! From 수원 with love. Elder Nixon