Sept. 15th Pics, letter at end (Sorry I "published" this late)

                                             Youth Activity

                                          Pic with Comp

                                          Try knocking on this door!

Hey everyone!!!! Wow this week flew by so fast! We were so busy but it was so awesome! So On monday Elder Lyons (the other senior comp in our house) got called to go to the Mission Home to be the new paperwork Elder which meant I got to take on both my schedule and his schedule and train his greenie and mine this week. It was so awesome!!!!! We saw so many miracles it was amazing. But I wanna share just one in particular! So we found a phone number off of a old english survey that had been done and contacted the guy. Turns out he was really excited to meet with us and wanted to meet that night! We were excited and I decided it would be best for the two Greenies to take the lead as the missionaries in teaching the lesson and I would be there more to just offer support if they were having a hard time explaining or understanding what was going on. The lesson went amazing! I definitely have been blessed to have two of the greatest Greenies ever! They worked super hard preparing and were definitely nervous. I told them that I wasn't going to do any teaching of any doctrine and that they would have to get it all taught so the investigator could understand. It was definitley a growing time for them, but they definitely rose to the task! They guy was not interested at the beginning but by the end was definitley engaged and prayed for us and committed to reading the scriptures and everything! It was awesome....but that is just the start...After we walked the guy out the door and said bye we return back into the church....maybe 4 minutes later some random guy off the street walked in and said he had met with the missionaries about two years ago and some how had lost contact but lived close by the church. He said he often came by the church but didn't realize that it was the same church that the missionaries he had met two years ago came from. Apparently when we walked the investigator out he saw us in our white shirts and ran over! He has read the whole book of mormon and believes it and is just amazing! We met with him again a few days later and he is just awesome! He is super busy cuz he owns his own shop but he wants to continue learning more! :) So that was a big miracle and definitley a cool experience! IT was a true testimony builder that there are many people out there that are merely kept from the truth because they know not where they can find it! Anyways aside from that things have been going absolutely great. The ward here is awesome and they have been helping us a ton! I definitely feel like I am learning a ton every day. I don't have a ton of time today. This week is kinda a weird week because there is a huge holdiay this week were like the whole country basically shuts down and takes a break for 3 days so it is going to be an interesting week but I am definitley looking forward to it! :) Anyways I love you all and hope you all have an amazing week!

Love

Elder Bigler

Wow!

thought I would just send the update I sent to President so I didn't have to type as much! :) Here ya go:

 

아이고! 회장님 지난주 저회가 많이 기적을 봤어요! 특별히는 제가 모든 경험 중에 한개 이야기하고 싶는 데요. 그래서 저회가 지난주 많이 광주에 여행했어 돈 많이 없고 음식 많이 먹을 수도 없어요. 또한 제가 금요일에 일어났을 때 하늘에서 계시를 받았어요. 이 계시무었냐 하면 저회가 그 때 우리 구도자이랑 약석을 위해 금식해야하는 계시였어요. 저회가 노무 배고프지만 성신한테서 확실히 왔어 저회가 같이 금식했어요.  저회가 우리 구도자 만았을 때 침례 날짜 정했어요!!!! 이분은 한년 동안 선교사와 만나고 있었고 그 침례 날짜 권유를 만히 받았어요. 하지만 그 때 가르칠 때 성신 아주 강하게 느꼈어요! 정말 기적!!!! 그것 밖에 또 기적 보았어요! 하지만 시간 앖어서 나중에 알려 드리겠어요 ^^ 그래서 회장님 이주 제가 Lyons장로님을 위해 구역지도자 책임나 시작하면 괜잖으세요?  아니면 제가 금요일 후에 그러게 하겠어요. 회장님 감사합니다! 항상 회장님을 위해 기도합니다! 열심히 보아사하겠어요!!! ^^ 대전 선교부 화이팅!!!!! ^^

 

haha just kidding Ill write it in English....well most of it!:) anyways this week has been absolutely amazing! And if you read above you can tell it was absolutely full of miracles! Well to start of the week we went to a really famous buddist temple in our area! it was a really cool experience! :) I took lots of pics but sadly I will have to send them next time cuz in all the craziness this morning I left my camera at home. Anyways the next day we had some super awesome lessons! :) And I was asked to translate a 45 minute presentation on Essential Oils from English to Korean for a recent convert of ours! Luckily thanks to Hannah I already knew a little about Essential Oils so that helped. But holy cow thanks for the gift of tongues! there is no way I could have done that on my own! Anyways the next day we got to go to a special mission tour and listen to Elder Whitting from the Quorum of the Seventy. It was awesome! I learned a ton and have already seen how applying words of our Church leaders bless us every day! So we went back and taught English Class and it was absolutely amazing. Pretty much the whole thing turned into a gospel discussion and we had two investigators explaining to another person in attendence how the Book of Mormon had to be the word of God! :) And how they new that we were sent to share this message! I felt truly blessed to be teaching such wonderful people who already had begun developing strong testimonies! :) Then on thursday I went back to 광주 for a special meeting with all the trainers and there greenies! It was awesome! I definitely learned a ton! And Elder Williams was so awesome! He has learned so much. When he got asked all of a sudden with out any prep he was able to get up and teach a 15min lesson about the Restoration in amazing Korean eveeryone was way impressed! He has come so far and is working so hard! He is awesome! Anyway because of all of the traveling and business, needless to say we were broke! And didn't have much food, but we made it home and were finally able to eat a little bit. However the next morning we felt prompted we needed to fast for our lesson that night. Eventhough we hadn't eaten much for a while we went forward with faith. Knowing that it was what God wanted us to do. We worked hard and taught our lesson around 3. By far, the best lesson I have ever been a part of! The spirit was so strong. I literally felt completely guided the whole time. And the investigator expressed that he felt the spirit and knew it was from God. Prior to this he was aethiest. Following, he believes in God, believes this is true, and set a baptismal date to prepare towards! He has been taking the lesson for over a year and said that he finally feels the faith growing inside him that other missionaries had talked about before! We are so excited for him! Anyways today transfer calls came...well actually yesterday for Elder Lyons in our house. He got moved to the mission home and had to leave this morning! He is going to be the new office elder. President then called me and asked me to train both Elder Williams and Elder Kidmann for the next week until transfer day when he will be sending another missionary down to finish training Elder Kidmann! So this week I am in a awesome trio with two awesome greenies who are just burning with the spirit! I can't wait! President also called me to be the District Leader here So looks like Ill be a little more busy from here on out. But I am definitley looking forward to getting to know everyone in the district better! Anyways I have so much more I want to tell you about! Like getting to go fishing in korea with some investigators, and some crazy experiences but I guess Ill just have to wait till I get home! :) One thing I also wanted to share that I have been studying this week....Satan has power, and as I have been out here on a mission I have realized that. He has power, a lot of it, and he is not afraid to use it. But there is something much more important. God has power and control! While satan has power he has no control over the plan or the future. God has absolute power and he is the creator of the plan. He knows all things and can do all things. I know Satan has power; but I know without a doubt that we need not fear. If we live worthily, with faith in Jesus Christ, and call upon the powers of heaven we can work by the Power of God. And though Satan may have the power to bruise our heel, we have the power to overcome all, to return to live forever in immortality with our heavenly father. In his glory we can do all things. By his power we forever have dominion over satan. I do not fear, for I know in whom I have trusted. The Lord is my light, he is my strength and I will forever glorify in him! My Savior! My Redeemer! My Lord!  Remember him, and always put your trust in him and you will quickly come to a knowledge of the divine power he holds. And the divine power we can excercise in him!

I love you all so much! Hope to hear from you all soon!

Love

Elder Bigler

Crazy busy and awesome ... Pics!!!

So this week is going to be a little shorter, I have so much i want to say but just not enough time to say it. haha I have so many stories I want to tell but ill have to just summarize the week. Basically things are going amazing over here! We are so crazy busy and it is awesome! We have been running around from appointment to appointment, on a couple days we literally were running in order to get to appointments on time! It was so great and the spirit was so strong in every single one of them! I wish I could say I had a favorite I could talk about but they were all so amazing I just dont even know how to begin to describe them. The peace and the love that filled every room was just amazing. One really touching moment came when a kid who is suffering from some mental handicapps came in quitely and respectfully sat down on his moms lap and quietly and intently listened as we talked about the savior and the importance of families. This was a huge witness to me of the Prince of Peace. I actually have been studying all week about the Prince of Peace and how  amidst our busy lives we are constantly in search for peace. The true source of all peace, The Savior, Jesus Christ. Only through him can one find true peace amidst a world of constant movement and change. The Savior is the same today, yesterday, and forever. And just as it says in Moroni Chapter 10 the power and gifts of the holy ghost shall never be done away with, unless we fail to excercise faith in the savior. One of the greatest gifts of the holy ghost we learn of in direct relation to one of his names, the comforter, is the comfort and peace the holy ghost brings to our lives. Through faith and more specifically excercising faith in Jesus Christ we allow for the comforter to come into our lives. Then we find true peace. This week I have been studying and trying to apply this as best as I can and i have grown so much! This week has been probably one of the busiest weeks of my missionary life, however I also feel as though it has been the most peaceful. I definitley have grown a ton and am looking forward to growing and learning more about my savior and the peace he brings into our lives.

I love you all so much and I hope everything is going well! Hope to hear from you soon!

Love

Elder Bigler

      Elder Bigler and Williams

Amazing! Plan, pray, act!

Wow the time keeps going by faster and faster! :) This week has been absolutely amazing! Im not even sure where to start! haha I feel like every week I have so much i want to tell about everything that has happened and i never quite am able to get it all out! Well that is probably going to happen again this week! :) haha Anyways this week me and Elder Williams have been super busy bouncing between our investigators and helping the members! :) we also came up with this new program to help get all the members in our ward active again! When i got to this ward there were about 85 people who showed up to sacrament, which is on the large side as far as ward sizes go here in our mission. However this last week as I was talking with our ward clerk I was able to get a ward list. I have to admit I was astonished. So me and Elder Williams sat down and decided that the thing this ward needs to become stronger is to strengthen all the less actives. I thought about how Jesus Christ would go out and rescue the one lamb who had gotten lost from the herd. I cant help but admit that I felt like instead the one lamb needed to go out and strengthen the whole herd. We sat down and prayerfully considered how we could strengthen this ward and get the less actives active again. We made a plan and acted. From this experience I definitley learned that by first gathering your resources, taking a plan to the lord, listening for inspiration and then acting upon the inspiration you receive the Lord will then be a part of every step along the way, and you WILL see miracles. Yesterday at  church we were blessed to see 5 less active  families come out who hadn't been to church in quite a while! I definitely pray and hope we can strengthen them and through them continue to go out and strengthen the rest of the herd. This last week we had an amazing zone conference that really tuned my focus, and what can i say....pumped me up! I was basically a dynamite heading out of there and nothing was going to stop me from preaching the gospel! :) Elder Williams leaned over to me on our way back home and said, i feel inspired that if we talk to everyone we see then the lord will lead us to a new investigator tonight. That night we literally talked to EVERYONE we saw, whether they were across the street, on the other side of a house, on a motorcycle whatever the circumstance we talked to them and did our best to share a message. We were yelled at, spit on, called a cult, liars, and demons; but in the end we saw so many miracles I have to admit I have never had such an amazing night before! :) that night we taught 18 other lessons on the street and we found our new investigator! :) She was on the other side of a fence, jogging, with her headphones plugged in, going the opposite direction. We literally waved our arms to flag her down. She came over to the fence, took out her headphones and asked if we needed help. Elder williams began trying to tell her who we were, she was confused and turned to me. I explained how my companion had just arrived to korea 4 weeks ago and that we were here in korea serving for two years because we had found a special message that had changed our lives and we wanted to share it with everyone. She became very interested, gave us her number and set up another appointment! She doesn't believe in god and has no religion right now but is very interested to here more! Truly a miracle! :) I feel as though every day here is a day in paradise! This gospel has brought me so much joy every day i can't even begin to describe it! :) I wish so bad I could just share it with everyone and that everyone would take a second to hear it. It truly breaks my heart when they ignore us or turn away from our message, because they truly dont understand the eternal joy and happiness they are missing out on. Anyways this week has been truly amazing! I have so many more stories I wish I could share but sadly just don't have the time! :) I hope everyone is doing super well! Look for every opportunity you have to share this gospel with others! Think about how happy it has made you; don't be greedy, share this joy with everyone! :) I know sometimes it is hard and sometimes it may not feel comfortable to share it but honestly you know how happy this gospel has made you, so go help someone else enjoy the same joy and happiness you have found! :)  I love you all and hope to hear from you soon!

Love

Elder Bigler

Faith and hope!

Ok so I am going to try to keep my weekly update a little shorter :) haha I keep writing super long ones sorry! I wish I could share everything that happens everyday but it just is never possible :) haha anyways this week has been absolutely amazing! We found another 6 new investigators and out of our new investigators from last week we have two of them progressing! :) They are so fantastic and we are doing everything we can to help them! The holy ghost has been so instrumental this last week. I completely feel as though all week me and Elder Williams have been led by the spirit and it has really helped us grow and learn a ton! We definitely had some interesting experiences but we also had some truly faith building experiences as well! I came to know in three particular experiences how powerful our calling is as missionaries and how powerful the priesthood is! It was absolutely amazing! I wish I could share all of them but I sadly just dont have enough time but I do want to share one. Yesterday we had the blessing to go with the bishop and a ward member to go visit this lady who was the ward members younger sister. She is sick and dying of cancer. It was a truly humbling experience to walk into that home. The sister is not a member but her brother asked her as we were there if she would be interested in a blessing. She didn't really understand so we sat down and explained the power of the priesthood. The brother then asked if she had faith that the lord could bless her through a priesthood blessing and she replied yes. we gathered around and gave the blessing. I have to admit I have never heard such beautiful korean coming out of someones house. It was so powerful and afterwards the sister rose right out of her bed with more strength then she felt she had ever had. She is now a new investigator and is so amazing! The power that i felt at that time could never be described. It was definitley God's Power. He loves his children, and he will always bless us according to our faith. He wants to bless us every day, I know it. But unless we excercise faith in him and go to him he cannot. I would urge everyone this week to look for an opportunity to excercise faith, trust in your father in heaven and ask for a blessing you really need. Then show you have faith by doing everything you can to accomplish it. And I promise you God will hear your prayer and he will bless you! I love you all so much and I hope you have an amazing week!

Love

Elder Bigler

New area, Greenie soup, and Pics!!!!

Wow another week has already flown by!!!!! I feel like the time just keeps going faster and faster! :) Well this has been a short, busy, and filled with miracles week! :) I have definitely enjoyed every moment! THe lord is definitely aware of each one of us and is helping us every day! :) So quick update! Me and Elder Williams {I am sure this was an oops and he means his new current companion Elder Andrews} have seen so many miracles this week! We made 7 new investigators this week, had some amazing lessons and met some amazing people! :) We have two investigators we are working with preparing for baptism and a family we are working with as well! :) I feel so blessed! This week I have definitely learned that if we wake up every morning with a determination to have a great day, to prepare through the spirit, pray often, and work with all our might the Lord will guide us and we can bring light into the lives of so many people we come in contact with! :) Anyways the bishop here is awesome and me and him have gotten super close! :) We have some awesome new plans for the area and I can't wait to put them all into action! The members are great and I absolutely love this opportunity to serve with them! There is a new convert name 강길규 {Kang Gil Gyew} who is about 65 and he is just amazing! He has been in several member lessons and yesterday he wrote me an essay about how the church came around and how it can be related to Korean history and how the church when it came in brought miracles to the whole world! It was so cool! He is awesome and he took us out to 순대 which elder williams wasn't prepared for :) haha it was an awesome experience :) For those who dont know 순대 (soondae) is pig intestine stuffed with pig blood and chopped up pig liver and noodles, and pig ear and foot soup! :) haha definitely an eye opener for a first week greenie but Elder WIlliams did awesome! :) he is the best! We have been working so hard and growing so much! :) I feel so blessed! :) Anyways I love you all :) I hope you all are doing amazing! 

Love

ELder Bigler

        Elder Bigler and Elder Williams

          Elder Bigler with a member before leaving his first area

      New Comp. Elder Andrews

          Welcome to Joong-ang!

New Comp, New area, new blessings!

Here it is, I tried to {phonetically, or fo-net-ic-al-ee} spell the Korean names for everyone... anyway, other than that here it is, unedited, enjoy! --Dad

Sorry it has been a crazy day so it has taken me a while to be able to sit down and write an email :) haha Anyways.......wow this week has been absolutely amazing! I feel like I have just been witnessing miracle after miracle! :) So I made it to my new area, 중앙 {Cheon-on} ward in 전주{Jeon-ju}. And I got my new companion, his name is Elder Williams and he is awesome! :) he is from Cedar City Utah and a burning ball of energy and spirit! :) So me and him got here to our new area on Thursday evening and the adventures began. Since arriving we have gotten lost about 3 times, found 3 new investigators, set one baptismal date, met an amazing ward and enjoyed every moment along the way!!! We have been working like crazy and the lord has led us to some amazing experiences! :) Not to mention apparently the rainy season hasn't stopped so basically almost all of my clothes and shoes are drenched and we dont have a dryer, and seeing how it is so humid here, leaving it out to dry takes a while :) But it is super fun and we are enjoying every moment of it! Our baptismal date is an old 71 year old guy, he has received all the lessons from previous elders and is basically all ready to get baptized  but he is concerned about the baptism itself because he is so old and doesn't know if he would be able to handle it. We promised him he would have the strength he needed and that one of the ward members, who is a recent convert, would be the one to do the service and everything would be ok. He seemed comfortable with it but we still have to wait a little while before everything is ready for him. Our goal is for him to get baptized before the end of the transfer! :) He is so sweet and it was so fun getting to know him! Anyways me and Elder Williams have been working like crazy, calling every number we can find and getting to know the members! It is fantastic....oh and on our first night we went and visited these members (장진규 형제님) {brother Jong-jin-guew} and had a wonderful time getting to know them. The next morning we got a call from the bishop and found out that the member whom we had visited the night before; her father passed away that morning. Because we had visited her the night before and gotten to know the family, they asked if we would come down to the funeral home and participate in the Korean funeral service. It was an amazing opportunity and quite different from that of an american style funeral. It was super cool and the members were super excited to see us! We got fed a huge meal and got to meet a lot of amazing people! Including one of the first people who was baptized in Korea! :) Anyways me and the bishop became like best friends right from the start! I am so excited! He is so pumped about missionary work and so are we. We are meeting in a seprate meeting with him on wednesday night to set up a new ward vision and ward plan to get the whole ward working on missionary work! It is going to be awesome! Anyways miracles are happening like crazy and I feel so blessed to be a part of it all! I am just trying to soak it all in! I feel like ever since getting here the lord has just been lighting the way to go and me and Elder Williams are just charging down it doing everything we can to grab everyone on the way! :) Anyways I don't have much time, hopefully I will have more time next week! I love you all and hope you have an amazing week! Oh by the way.....I got a call from Elder Paskett, another elder in the mission....he just got transfered to Gwangju and while he was proselyting on the street he ran into someone who was baptized by Elder Bigler 20 years ago!!!!!:) Yup it was Elder John Bigler and his companion Elder Johnson! :) I got to give him a call and introduce myself as the son of Elder Bigler :) It was so cool! He is such an awesome guy! Way to go Dad! He appreciates it so much! Right now he has been having a hard time coming out to Church cuz of his work but is still a strong believer! :) And we are taking good care of him! :) Anyways I love you all! Thanks for everything!!!:)

Love 
Elder Bigler