Meetings, Meetings, Meetings

I had a great week with Elder Bogner. The pictures I sent are from different meetings that we had the last few days. The one with all the Koreans is the stake presidency and the ward mission leaders from each ward in our stake and President Burton.

Stake presidency,Ward Mission Leaders from each ward in our stake, President Burton and Elder Lufkin
The other ones with the missionaries in them were from our last zone leader council with president Burton. It was a really good meeting and we all got some really good council from President Burton about missionary work and about life. We also got training from the Assistants that was really good.


The other pics are my companion Elder Bogner and our investigator, Yoon Byeong Sheek's, son.
He's a way cute kid and he and his dad both came to church on Sunday. Yoon Byeong Shik liked church and thought it was really calm and reverent. He's reading the Book of Mormon and says it’s been interesting. He's progressing really well and is planning to get baptized on the 13th.

Oh and thanks for everything you guys sent me for my b day! It was a good one. President Burton told the Stake President it was my b day on Sunday and so they all sang to me after the meeting! Ha! It was pretty fun.
Have a good week!
Love,
Elder Lufkin

Message from President Burton

Hey everybody!
My P-day is on Monday from now on. Sorry I forgot to tell you last week!
President Burton gave us more information to send to you about North Korea:
Dear KSWM missionaries,
With your P-Day on Monday, I wanted to share the following update received today from the US Embassy: The U.S. Embassy Seoul transmits the following information through the Embassy's warden system as a public service to all U.S. citizens in the Republic of Korea: "The North Korean sinking of a South Korean Naval vessel on March 26, 2010, has raised concerns and inquiries regarding security for residents and visitors to Korea. The Embassy's current assessment of the security environment for U.S. citizens in Korea is that recent events do not pose an imminent threat to the public safety of the American community at this time." We hope sharing this with your families will put their minds at ease concerning this matter. News media outside Korea is making this much more serious than it is in the eyes of those whose job is to monitor activities that may have an impact on our health and safety. Thank you for your faithful service.
Love, President Burton
Anyways, doesn't seem like there is much to worry about with that. Elder L

Mountain Conference- New Companion-Elder Bogner

Hey Family! I had an eventful week so far. We went on another hike with our zone (about 14 missionaries) on Monday, and then this morning I dropped off Elder Turley and got my new companion Elder Bogner.
He has been in country for 18 months and is from the San Fransisco area. He has 7 people in his family and he's the 2nd youngest.


Elder Bogner and Elder Lufkin

We had a good time on our hike on Monday. It rained the whole time and was pretty cold, but we had a good experience. When we got to the top Elder Turley shared some scriptures from Mosiah ch. 2 about King Benjamin handing the Kingdom over to his son Mosiah. It was pretty cool how much the whole chapter relates a lot to us getting a new Mission President. You should read it! After the hike we all met together under a shelter and had a group discussion with President Burton about the conference with Elder Christofferson. It was really cool.
Anyways, we have an awesome investigator right now named Yoon Byeong Sheek. He got our number off the internet and called us to learn English, but he has a lot of interests in the church too. He really loved the Plan of Salvation especially. He really liked learning about the spirit world where everyone who hasn't had a chance to hear the gospel during their earth life can choose to accept it. It was such a cool lesson! I felt like the spirit really helped him to understand and to feel that it was true. His wife is actually Presbyterian but he wants to come to church on Sunday even though she is kind of opposed to it. Hopefully we'll be able to meet with her too in the future.

Life goes on as usual in Seoul

President Burton sent a message today about North Korea and that ship that was sunk.
"As we discussed at the Mountain Conference, there are many reports circulating about the sinking of the South Korean warship last March. The South Korean President, Lee Myung-bak has charged North Korea with the torpedo bombing of the ship. There has been a lot of press analysis regarding the current state of play between the North and the South. We are in regular contact with reliable sources who have readily pointed out that the State Department has NOT issued any travel warnings to South Korea, and though the rhetoric is accusatory and threatening by both sides, we have been told that there is no perceived or actual threats that would affect daily life here in Seoul. It is expected that there will continue to be a lot of press and diplomatic activity in the upcoming couple of weeks, especially because elections are coming here in Seoul, after which it will diminish. Those we talked to say that they believe that the South Korean do not want an escalation; so there will be some continued public blustering but in the end, it is not expected to amount to much. We will keep you apprised of any new developments, and ask that you not concern yourselves with this matter, and continue to do the work that you were called to do here in this beautiful land."
President Burton

Elder Christofferson from the Seventy Visits

I've had an awesome week. I've been kinda sick lately with a sore throat and stuff so I couldn't talk very good for a couple days, but I'm good now. I just went on exchanges with the President's Assistant Elder Folsom and had an awesome two days. We were able to find some good new people in their area that want to learn about the gospel and we had a really good time. The other Assistant, Elder Yu, came to our area with my companion, Elder Turley and they saw a lot of success too. They met some people who want us to teach their kids English and about the gospel. Elder Turley goes home next week! I'm anxious to see who my new comp. will be.
Elder Christofferson came on Monday and we got to hear from him! He talked a lot about how important it is to use the B of M in conversion. He said it's the "sickle" that we're supposed thrust in with all our might in D+C 4 and that we need to "insist that our investigators read it." He also gave some time for questions at the end and as he was answering a question about obedience he said,"remember that it is Christ's perfect obedience that makes him one with Heavenly Father."
I got the new conference on my translator from a member and we listen to it a lot. Anyhew, have a good week!

These pictures are from a hike that we went on with all the leadership in the mission. It was way fun. We did a bunch of stuff as we hiked up the mountain like guiding our comp. while he is blind folded and other stuff and we related it all to missionary work and the Atonement and talked about what we can learn from it. When we got to the top we heard from President and Sister Burton and ate lunch together. We also had a little time alone for study or whatever we wanted. It reminded me of the scriptures where Nephi would "go to the mountain oft" or something like that to get revelation from the Lord. We went to learn what to do so that we can take all the other missionaries on the same hike next Monday.

We're getting pretty close to combining our mission with the Seoul mission now. It takes place on June 29th. Pretty exciting, but I'm sure going to miss our mission President.


The wall in the pictures is about 400 years old!

Elder Turley, Elder Lufkin - Temple Day


Family Home Evening Activity

Hey, It was good to talk to ya! I attached a couple pics. One is from our trip to the temple this morning and the other is an activity that we did at family home evening when I went on exchanges to the Seoul Mission on Monday. It was pretty cool to see how they do things over there. The Elder that I worked with was Elder Wade and he was a super good missionary. He was really good at teaching by the spirit. They are adopting some of the things to their mission that we have here so that the consolidation will go more smoothly like the street contacting guidelines, Standards of Excellence, and some other things. It was a really good day and we saw a lot of success.
Last Sunday Kim Suk Min couldn’t come to church cause they were out of town visiting their ancestors graves. He'll get confirmed this week though. Their family is doing really well.
We set a baptismal date with a 26 year old guy named Jason for the 23rd last week. We are only able to meet on Saturdays and Sundays, but he is progressing well.
I'm doing good. I've kinda got some allergies but not too bad. Have a good week!

Kim Suk Min's Baptism

Hey, I'm gonna call on 9 am Monday morning so it should be 6 pm (Sunday)in Idaho right? I had a member download conference for me and we've already listened to it all a second time. I really liked Elder Oaks talk on the Priesthood and of course Elder Holland’s talk was awesome.
We had a great week. Kim Suk Min got baptized on Sunday and he'll get confirmed this week. He was really scared to get into the water the first time I guess, but everything went really smooth on Sunday. We played baseball with him and his mom and brother and his dad last night. His dad also told his mom that its good they are going to church…. The dads name is Kim Jang ill which is really close to Kim Jung ill, who is the leader of North Korea, so I have to be careful! We’re going to ask her to invite him to church this week. They kept everything secret in the past because he doesn’t like religion, but I think he can see that its good for his family. Yesterday was zone conference and it was way good. We've also got a conference with Elder D. Todd Christofferson on the 17th. He is going to meet with both missions because of the consolidation.
Well, I'll talk to you on Monday!
Love you,
Elder Lufkin