We called him back and he told us that he's shutting our area down. WHAT?!? Sister Northridge and I started bawling.

Get ready for this email! It's worth the read!

So this past transfer I have been really praying to have at least one baptism before I go home. I had never done this before because I thought praying to have baptisms was a bit selfish. Missionary work isn't all about how many baptisms you get. But then I really thought about it and realized that I was being selfish not to be asking for baptisms! I realized that our goal is to find those prepared to accept the restored gospel and asking for baptisms isn't a selfish thing. I reopened this area with pretty much nothing and it stayed that way for three transfers.  We have been working really hard here in Gang nam! Then this last week, all our hard work paid off! We were finally seeing these incredible results! This week we picked up THREE investigators and were actually able to have really good stats! These investigators have a lot of potential and I had such a good feeling about them. We felt sooo blessed this week and we knew that it was finally time to really harvest the field.

One of our investigators is a Jehovah's Witness we met on the street. He originally wanted to meet with one of our members to try and convert her to his church. She invited us to their meeting and we went prepared with everything -- our quads in English, PMG, every pamphlet we had, Korean bibles, BOM, etc. We were ready to do some bible bashing with this guy! We went to the appointment and he was actually really nice. He gave us his little introduction and told us how JW's don't go to the army.

 Now in Korea, every male has to spend two years in the army. If they don't, they go to jail. So he told us that in their church they don't believe in killing people so they'd rather go to jail than serve time in the army! (It's how they hook people to join the church) Anyway, after two hours of talking with each other we decided to meet once a week so we can learn more about each other's churches. We're planning on converting him for sure. Haha the thing is, we had to stay after the appointment and talk with the member that came, because she was totally buying what the JW guy had to say! She said that if his church was better, she was going to join his! Uhh NO. So we had to talk her out of it and remind her why she joined our church in the first place. Haha anyway, so he's not really a golden investigator, but he's willing to find out for himself!

Our next two investigators are in their mid 20's. One we found from a referral and the other found us through our English website. They are both AWESOME. They are willing to learn about the gospel and I have such a good feeling about them! We are so excited about them and I'm really glad I started praying for baptisms! haha why didn't I do this earlier?!?!

We even met with a former investigator and he's in his 70's. He reads the BOM a lot and he really likes it! He thinks it's just like the bible so he loves reading it! The thing is, he's very content with his church and he's a little old so he might not be all there.. But we'll continue to visit him and help him feel the Spirit when we visit. Letting him know that this really is the true church! We also tried to visit a less active that owns a laundromat. So Sister Northridge and I purposely went to her laundromat and dry-cleaned a dress. That made us have a reason to come back to pick it up and see her again! We were able to talk with her a bit and give her a conference talk(: ALSO I got to see Angel! She's the girl that got her mission call to my mission!!! She came to Korea with her mom to visit for a month and of course we had to meet! It was so good seeing her and when I go home, I'll continue to be able to help her as she prepares for the mission!

We got a new ward mission leader. I can already tell he's gonna be a great one! We gave him our progress record and saw all the work that we had going on! It hasn't looked like that in a long time.. Haha but he's very excited for us! I know he'll work hard to actually get members to participate in missionary work!

So all these amazing things are happening and we get home on Saturday night with two missed calls from President Morrise. It's usually never a good thing when he calls you. So we knew something was up. We called him back and he told us that he's shutting our area down. WHAT?!? Sister Northridge and I started bawling. 

We finally see some great investigators and now he's closing our area?! We couldn't understand. Especially when I only have one transfer left! There just aren't enough sister missionaries coming in to keep our area open. We are devastated. I thought I was going to die in this area, but that all changed! We've been busy with appointments saying goodbye to investigators and ward members. Our poor investigators we picked up. Hopefully the Elders will take good care of them. Our new ward mission leader is also really sad we're leaving haha.

My new area is 금천 Geum cheun. I don't know how to romanize it haha I will be in a threesome with two relatively new missionaries! I will have to greenie break one of them (transfer right after being trained--like second training) and the other one just got greenie broken! They're in their 3 and 4 transfer in country. Should be fun! One is Korean and the other one is from Australia! I don't know them very well since they're new, but I will get to know them! I'm just sad I'll have to say hello to this new ward and basically say goodbye soon after! Only 6 weeks in this last area.

 I'm just worried I won't get to know the members or investigators well enough before I go home.. But I'm okay! Missionary work is all about curve balls and doing whatever the Lord wants you to do. I'm ready! This was supposed to happen for a reason and I guess I'll soon find out! I'm also sad because I'm closing 2 out of the 3 areas that I've had :( Closing sucks. Saying goodbye forever to sister missionaries... At least they're not gonna close my new area for sure! I would cry if they did!

Have a great week! Ours was surely hectic, but I wouldn't change it for anything.

Sister April Johnson

GOODBYE GANGNAM.

Pics: We spent the day with our investigator at Olympic park! She's the one that's going to BYU soon (:

The Elders are taking all our food.